3x14 - "Expose" Flashbacks/Present

Yes, you're reading this title correctly, I'm only doing one blog for this week's episode. I'll attack Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse later, but for now let me TRY to talk about this episode.

Flashbacks: This whole flashback revolved around Paolo and Nikki's diamond heist, and their 80+ day search for the black bag that they stashed them in. It pisses me off to no end that they made what I precieved to be little jokes about the beechcraft and the Pearl hatch; that they could find with ease what took the better part of two seasons for John Locke aggraviated me to no end. Paolo had managed to steal a walkie talkie from one of the Others but that's really the only notable thing in this flashback.

Present: Paolo and Nikki are dead! Not because of a spider bite, but because they were buried alive? I really have to ask the question, WHY? What were they introduced for if they were going to be killed for no reason at all? Unless I'm missing something really subtle, this episode was nothing more then a throwaway. I shouldn't even be writing a blog about this episode at all!

The only worthwhile scene is Charlie confessing to Sun that he staged her fake kidnapping in "Fire+Water." Even so, I was expecting this to come in either a Charlie, Jin, or a Sun flashback.

One last thing, I may actually take delete this post when the season ends if it turns out that there's nothing really in this episode that contributes to the overall story.

3x13 - "The Man From Tallahassee" Present

1. My biggest thought about the present day events in this episode is that from the very first time we met him, Ben had all along been attempting to cut the area that the islands are in off from the outside world. He went to the survivors camp not to capture Jack as I suggested earlier, but to stop the button from getting pushed. The idea would be to force the survivors to turn the fail-safe key which would disable the underwater beacon. Then he manipulated Locke to blow up the submarine. The end result is that there is now no way to leave the island, and Ben is in no way responsible for any of it!

2. Alex was lead to believe that her mother, Rousseau, was dead. One can assume from this that she didn't know that Ben wasn't her biological father, or that she isn't one of the Others. What did they capture her for anyway?

3. Why was Locke wet after he planted the bomb? He shouldn't have had to go into the water in order to enter the submarine.

4. How were the Others able to capture Anthony Cooper and why did they even bother to do it in the first place? Are they really hoping to bribe John Locke into joining them by offering him a few minutes alone in a room with his father?

5. What exactly is this "box" that Ben was referring to? Could it really contain anything one desried? It that's true, could I use it to obtain a PS3 (JUST KIDDING!)?

3x13 - "The Man From Tallahassee" Flashbacks

Not all too much to make note of here. This was a typical Locke flashback; Anthony Cooper winds up on Locke's radar, Locke meets/confronts him, and Locke winds up losing something in the process. This time it was his legs, and I don't think I could have seen this coming. I figured it would be a car accident, or a different kind of murder attempt, but to be thrown out of a window by his own father still has me shocked. Then they followed that up with the scene in the hospital where Locke is being put into his wheelchair for the very first time, and I felt like it was the most powerful scene in a flashback. This revelation is on par with Walkabout, Locke's very first flashback in season one.

I've updated the "Enter 77" Present blog

I've included the information Mikhail told to Sayid and Kate while he was still pretending to be a member of DHARMA, as the writers confirmed that what he said during that period is true.

3x12 - "Par Avion" Present

Kate, Locke, Sayid, Rousseau, and Mikhail

1. Locke was lying about the C4! How could he have not equated the C4 with emergency command "77?" I really wanna know what he was thinking when he entered that command!

2. How did Mikhail know Locke and what did he know about him? If I remember correctly, he said "the John Locke I knew was practic-..." but Rousseau cut him off with another "insert shut up line here," that the writers keep throwing in (think the conversation between Jack and Tom in "Not In Portland.").

3. Why did John shove Mikhail through the security checkpoint? Is John trying to hide something? HEY WRITERS! DO A LOCKE FLASHBACK NEXT! Wait a sec, they're doing one next week. WHAT ARE YOU GUYS TRYING TO PULL HERE?

4. Why is Jack playing football with Mr. Friendly? I don't see him trusting the Others enough to play games with them, OR LETTING HIMSELF BE THAT HAPPY AROUND THEM FOR THAT MATTER! I CHANGED MY MIND! I WANT A JACK FLASHBACK! Look at me, I'm flip-flopping worse then John Kerry. THERE BETTER BE ANOTHER JACK FLASHBACK EXPLAINING THIS VERY SOON!

Claire, Desmond, and Charlie

1. What if Charlie is going to die because of his relationship with Claire? Every flash Desmond gets shows him dieing and it always has something to do with Claire.

2. Claire seems very quick to believe Desmond about the flashes he gets about Charlie. I wonder how long this will continue to go on for.

3x12 - "Par Avion" Flashbacks

1. Christian Shepherd is Claire's father? That explains part of why he was such a heavy drinker. I didn't think Claire was his daughter back in the "Two For the Road" flashback because I didn't think the lady he aruged with in that scene looked like Claire (I know other people did!). Thank god the writers don't have plans for a relationship between Jack and Claire. Lindelof? Cuse? You were telling the truth on that one, weren't you?

2. I've noticed a pattern in all the characters on this show: nearly every regular has "Daddy Issues," like, "All The Best Cowboys." Claire is another in a very long list of series regulars who seem to have some problem with their fathers. This list also includes, Jack, Charlie, Jin, Sun, Sawyer, Locke, Hurley, and Sayid. The only person who didn't have a problem with her father was Shannon. Where could the writers be going with this?

3x11 - "Enter 77" Present

I hate to say it but this was more of an X-Files episode then a Lost episode. We saw things but we have no idea as to what exactly we saw, and now it's all gone.

1. The compass bearing from Eko's stick is valid. Heading north introduced us to the Flame station.

2. Mikhail Bakunin is one of the others but I don't believe that he is from the Island. I believe the story he told about how he got to the Island is true. The Others clearly are not DHARMA, and given what we learned in "Not In Portland," I think they may truly be a different group altogether.

3. The Others are what DHARMA considered to be "hostiles." Apparently they were so hostile that they chose to conduct an all-out war, or "purge" as they called it against the Others. DHARMA clearly was all but wiped out (Kelvin was still alive), and it's possible that other surviving members of the DHARMA were assimilated into the Others.

4. The curious thing about Locke winning the chess game is that the game does not end in checkmate! According to Lostpedia, the final board is actually from "a match between Anatoli Karpov and Garry Kasparov from the 1985 World Championship. In that match, called the "Brisbane Bombshell" Kasparov, playing black, defeated Karpov in 40 moves. Incidentally, that game did not end in checkmate, but in a resignation by Karpov. The board, as shown on the show, had two valid moves for the computer." - lostpedia.com. Yet the computer says "Checkmate." Curious.

5. The lower level of the Flame was filled with information about the DHARMA Initiative! It was all there! Unlike the Swan which had a badly edited Orientation film, this one appeared to be the main base of operations.

6. JOHN LOCKE IS A FUCKING MORON! What did he think was going to happen when he entered 77? Sayid had to have told him about the C4! Think about it Johnny boy: a building wired with C4 + emergency computer command = BOOM! If I'm right, there won't be any more food drops as a result or any mainland communication after this incident! John Locke may have just destroyed the last hope for the survivors to leave the island.

7. What was Ms. Klugh doing there? Was she Mikhail's commanding officer? The translation for the dialogue between her and Mikhail clearly indicates that she was giving him orders to kill her. I have to wonder what she was doing there in the first place. Was she trying to fix the satellite dish?

3x11 - "Enter 77" Flashbacks

First let me apologize for taking so long to post this blog! To make the long story short, shit happened, my thoughts were directed elsewhere, AND I COMPLETELY FORGOT THAT I HAD A SPECIAL BLOG DEDICATED TO LOST! Again, I am so sorry for taking so long, and I'll get started right now!

1. Sayid can cook? And he was in France? Then why couldn't he translate the french writing on Rousseau's maps back in season one? Random thought: he could have been in France at the same time as Shannon!

2. Sayid, the master interrogator in the present day, questioned the wrong person. This would have to have been sometime not too long after the "One Of Them" flashback since it takes time to learn how to tell when people are lying and when people are telling the truth like Sayid can in the present day.

3. I loved the monlouge about the cat, and about knowing how it feels to never be safe. Sayid is getting a good dose of that feeling right now given his current situation.

4. It's curious as to how Sayid was able to leave Iraq. He clearly stayed after the "One Of Them" flashback. I wonder if that's why he is using the fake name Najaf.

3x10 - "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead" Present

1. What's this? Vincent lead Hurley to a car? What is a car doing on the Island? HAVE THE CREATORS OF LOST FINALLY JUMPED THE SHARK? Relax folks, it's a DHARMA car, it was manually shipped to the Island.

2. Jin's english has definately improved with this episode. Sawyer makes for a great teacher. "Those pants don't make you look fat."

3. Kate and Rousseau? I wouldn't want to mess with those two if they start working together. I don't think Rousseau knows the Island as well as Kate thinks she does (I don't think Rousseau's found Wysteria Lane yet).

4. The song playing when the car starts is "The Halls Of Shambala" by Three Dog Night.

Parting thoughts: A confrontation between the survivors and the Others is brewing (finally!), and now they can drive the Hurleymobile to get to Wysteria. I'll bet that the Others won't see that coming.

3x10 - "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead" Flashbacks

1. Who is Tricia Tanaka and why is she dead? Well she was a news reporter interviewing Hurley, when she and her cameraman entered the soon to be opened Mr. Clucks... WHEN THE RESTURANT WAS HIT BY A METEORITE! Dude...

2. Hurley saved the car? He really must have been holding out for his dad to come back someday.

3. The mystic arts are indeed subject to bribes. That psychic had me going for a while until she told Hurley to remove his clothes for an exorcism.

Parting thoughts: this flashbacks is kinda like "Numbers" part II. We got to learn more about Hurley's past, but it wasn't stuff we couldn't have inferred on our own.