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Post by Lola m on Jun 2, 2008 20:03:11 GMT -5
Well, on the island they're gonna use the story that they were on another island and this raft was blown to them, so I think that will jibe with their little fiction. One, get a really big box. Two, put the Locke in the box. Three, make Jack open the box. And that's the way you do it, put a Locke in a box! Something tells me you'll get a kick out of this avatar by mysticxf:
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Post by Lola m on Jun 2, 2008 20:14:22 GMT -5
Part I Back at the Orchid. Ah, Locke's trying to find a way in. Might have been nice if Ben had shared that piece of information. Locke wants to speak to Jack but not Sawyer and Hurley. Ugh. Jack feels similarly to me. Hurley reveals that Ben and the commandos are on their way to the helicopter. What makes Ben so important? Excellent question. I'm surprised that Keamy even cares enough to ask it. Good point about Keamy. Just how deep was he in the Widmore organization? He seemed to know a bit more about things than would be needed for just a hired gun. Then again, they were sending him to a Mystical Island of Wackiness, so I suppose he had to know some details. That was totally awesome fight between Keamy and Sayid, by the by. Now that I think about it, it was a good writing choice to have both the zodiac and the helicopter in the mix. We have maximum possibilities of where people might be located.
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Post by Lola m on Jun 2, 2008 20:24:21 GMT -5
Part II Hurley in the mental institution. Still with food issues, I see. Are you Hurley? Are you dangerous? Ah, this is Walt's grandma. And there's Taller Walt. But not a ghost this time. I like the way grandma did her hair. Jeremy Bentham visited Walt too. Lying to protect everyone who didn't come back. Michael "didn't come back" either. So Jack and Locke are having a powwow. Meanwhile, the real leaders of the island (Sawyer and Hurley) wait outside. Hurley shares crackers with Sawyer. Aw. Sawyer doesn't like 15 year old crackers. Hee. Hurley asks about Claire and the baby. Locke asks Jack not to leave the island. Is this a break up scene? Jack and Locke air their grievances. I'm almost completely on Jack's side on this one. Bygones. Jack's not supposed to go home. Why not? Without a compelling reason to stay, that argument doesn't hold any weight at all. The fate vs coincidence argument again. Again, your argument needs a lot more substance, Locke. Crashing on the island may have been a great experience for you, but it sure as hell wasn't for anyone else. You're like a missionary who goes around saying "believe in my god" without explaining the nature of your god or the principles of your faith or what benefit believing might bring to other people. **nods nods nods** It's like, he thinks if he just keeps saying the same one or two things over and over the'll become convincing. Repeating is not explaining, Locke! I think even now Locke doesn't want to tell anyone because that would be too revealing/make him feel too vulnerable. (And maybe a tiny part of him worries that if he says anything the Island will take it away again.)
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Post by Lola m on Jun 2, 2008 20:29:09 GMT -5
Part III Back on the freighter. Liquid nitrogen. So they're trying to dismantle the bomb. Sun tells Michael about her pregnancy. Why exactly did she tell him? That was kind of weird. Daniel back with the zodiac. Daniel's going to die, isn't he? Rose, regulating the pantry. Rose's going to keep an eye on Miles. Miles and Daniel and Charlotte powwow. Daniel wants to make sure that they're both with him when they leave. Because? Miles wants to stay. Because of the ghosts, I guess. Charlotte spent all this time trying to "get back here." What do I mean? Huh? Charlotte's been to the island before? The station is deep. OK, then. Like a mine or something. The Orchid is not the Magic Box. The same thing all the DHARMA stations are for. Silly experiments. Now Locke is asking all the questions. Ben is treating Locke like a small child. Hee! Oh, snap! Exactly!! And even giving him a video to keep him occupied while Ben did the "important" stuff. ;D
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Post by Lola m on Jun 2, 2008 20:38:22 GMT -5
Part II Hysterical Sun. So they try to go back to the island. Sun in London. Talking to Ji Yeon on the phone. So cute! Ah, Widmore. Of course. Managing Director. So Widmore and Paik know each other well. Widmore knows what really happened on the island an such. Common interests. Of finding the island? We're not the only ones who left the island. Hmm. Good command decisions get compromised by bad emotional responses. Oh, that's such bullshit, Ben. Indeed!! I think we can count the number of times he's changed his plans (I always have a plan!) due to "bad emotional responses" on the fingers of one hand. Changed because he's had to, to adapt to things changing, yes. Maybe even not always liked the change, yes. But Benry the guy being all wishy washy and derailed because he's such an emotional guy? Not so much. ;D Yes, and I also agree with Sara's avatar re: why not the pants too, damn them!
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Post by Lola m on Jun 2, 2008 20:43:25 GMT -5
Part III Changing into a parka. Ah, so that's how it happens. He goes from here and now to the future in Tunisia. He's going somewhere cold. Well, not really, as it turns out. Jacob told Locke what to do, but he didn't tell him how. He wants Ben to do it because he wants Ben to suffer the consequences. How is Ben getting that? Whoever moves the island can never come back. The Others are ready, willing, and able to share what they know, and then they will follow your every word. So Locke becomes Peter Pan in Ben's place. And how do The Others decide who they want to follow and why don't they just lead themselves? Ben apologizes. I don't think that Locke is the one you should be apologizing to. He's probably the one person who's life you haven't ruined. Ben's got serious emotional problems. You'll find your way, John; you always do. OK, then. Locke meets The Others. Welcome home. So putting the metal in The Vault blew it up, thereby revealing a tunnel. Going down further and further. An ancient place. Oh, and I guess Ben did need the jacket. This place is very cold for the same reason they needed to keep putting liquid nitrogen on the bomb? And that's how Ben injures his arm. It's a cog wheel! I hope you're happy now, Jacob. Also, I imagine that the polar bears would have been quite happy in this place, And it totally took me until days later to realize that duh, this is maybe why they were training the polar bears to push a lever. ;D I can't decide if I hope that it was or wasn't taken along with the Island.
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Post by Lola m on Jun 2, 2008 20:45:24 GMT -5
Wow, genuine happy emotion on Michael's face, for once. Huh. He's freaking brilliant. Freeze the electronics. "Quick! let's all get on the 'sploding boat! Wonder what Daniel has to say to Charlotte and Miles... "Surprised you want to leave" She's a... she was the little girl who went to school with Ben. Maybe? "Same thing all the Dharma stations are for. Silly experiments" Oooh! New dharma video! Edgar Halliwax? "Kasimir effect"? oh. He's putting inorganic material in the chamber. "If you mean time-traveling bunnies, then yes" for some reason that makes me giggle like mad.
Benry's gonna cross the streams, packing all the metal in the bunny chamber.I'm beginning to wonder if the bunnies Ben had were all actually the same bunny. Oh, what a cool thought!!
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Post by Lola m on Jun 2, 2008 20:52:33 GMT -5
I'm trying to figure out if that qualifies on my Bingo card as "Locke can't walk"? And did we manage to get BINGO or not? I did not get BINGO. **pouts** I have, however, created a new BINGO card we can all use for regular eps when Lost returns or brings us reruns. I'm going to have to send it to a technopagen to post it somehow so that we can all play along, as I have no way of getting a word doc to post here, but I think we'll have fun with it. 'Cuz I put some rather unusual things on there but also some stuff that are rather likely to happen in any given ep. Like "something blows up" or "Sawyer gets wet and/or shirtless".
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Post by Lola m on Jun 2, 2008 20:54:28 GMT -5
Sara - once again you are the fabulous fact finder/bringer. So, anyone ready to speculate about the next season yet? We have 2 more seasons, yes? So, I'm thinking that next season we'll spit out time between the wacky machinations of the outside world, (Whidmore and Benry and Dharma and Paik and the Losties trying to either gather together or hide, trying to get to or run from the Island), and the IslandJumpers, (finding out what goes so very horribly wrong that sends Locke out to hunt them all down in the future). And then the end of the season the Losties all manage to return and the big dramatic season ender is that they find a giant four-toed Vincent running the Island with an Iron Paw. Then, for the last season, the Island and all the inhabitants leave Earth and have rollicking adventures as space pirates. I'm wondering whether we're going to pick up from what happened with the island moving or in the future which is actually the present. Flashbacks or flashforwards? Anything is possible at this point. I'm guessing that one season is going to focus on Widmore, and one is going to focus on The Others and the islands Ancient history. Flashsidewayses?
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Jun 3, 2008 8:26:33 GMT -5
I'm wondering whether we're going to pick up from what happened with the island moving or in the future which is actually the present. Flashbacks or flashforwards? Anything is possible at this point. I'm guessing that one season is going to focus on Widmore, and one is going to focus on The Others and the islands Ancient history. Flashsidewayses? That's also a likely possibility.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Jun 3, 2008 10:13:55 GMT -5
RE: Aaron surviving the helicopter crash, babies have a dive reflex, and they can hold their breaths a lot longer than adults. So provided that Sun could protect him from the impact of the fall, I'm not surprised that he was perfectly OK after that.
I am still amazed that he was so quiet after hours and hours of not being fed, though.
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Post by Anne, Old S'cubie Cat on Jun 8, 2008 8:49:54 GMT -5
My thoughts on Lost, let me show you them. All here, because I really can't remember exactly what went to which episode, after last night's three-hour marathon. I liked Hurley dragging Sayid over to meet his family. The comedy team of Ben and Locke in The Orchid was rather wonderful - Locke watching the handy instructional video while Ben trotted back and forth in the background like a bird building a nest, piling up metal in the microwave. Also, Locke doesn't know what an anthurium looks like. Hee. I was happy about Desmond and Penelope. Now, can we just let them sail, or rather, putter off into the sunset together, never to be heard from again? Don't get me wrong - it's because I like them, and I just want to think of them going off together to live a happy, long, normal (or as normal as they can get) life together. Odysseus has returned to Penelope, and that should be the end of their story. But I did like Des introducing everybody properly to Penelope, as if they were having tea together. Sun is her father's daughter, isn't she? Totally ruthless. They keep the island-moving machinery in cold storage? Ben's going to move the island with a crowbar? Red Green would be proud, also of whatsis bunnyname (Lapidus?) patching the bullet hole in the fuel tank with duct tape. So Ben went all Archimedes on the island. "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." Or island. Whatever. I guess you can get away with a crowbar, if it's only an island. You've all probably covered this thoroughly, but I also got a Moses vibe from Ben - looking at the Promised Land, leading his people there but an exile himself. So what do they do now? Jack spends next season trying to get everybody back to the island? Oops, that was a horrible mistake, let's spend the following season trying to get off the island again? I think this is it, though. If Lost is on before 10PM next season, we may watch it live, but otherwise, I'm just going to read reviews and comments, and not bother taping it. It's become too much like work, and I don't have time for any more work. Anne, assume the IMO, YMMV, if you like it, that's great and I'm happy for you, etc etc etc P.S. Ben has plans. Ben has cunning plans. Yes, Blackadder Ben, you have cunning plans. Too bad they blow up on you, Ben. Or was that the plan all along?
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Post by fish1941 on Jun 13, 2008 11:43:55 GMT -5
ABC’s megahit series, ”LOST’ is considered among the best television series on the air during this past decade. The magazine, ”Entertainment Weekly” considers it to be the fifth best series in television history. I have to admit that it is one of the most original series I have ever seen. But after watching its Season Four finale – ”There’s No Place Like Home (Parts 2 and 3)”, I cannot help but wonder if the series’ reputation might be a little exaggerated.
To put it bluntly, ”There’s No Place Like Home (Parts 2 and 3)” left me with mixed feelings. Mind you, it had its virtues. One of the best moments during that two hour broadcast was watching Yunjin Kim’s performance as the complex Korean wife who may or may not have witnessed the death of her husband, portrayed by the equally talented Daniel Dae Kim. Her performance was fantastic, whether she was expressing Sun Kwon’s horror and grief over witnessing her husband being blown up, while trying to escape a freighter that had been set up to explode. Whether he is dead or not, will be revealed in Season Five. But she believes he is dead. Which would explain the cold, avenging angel she has become in the months following the birth of her fatherless infant daughter.
There were other virtues in this episode:
*Evangeline Lily’s performance in a scene in which Sawyer (Josh Holloway) says good-bye to Kate. Yes, I am actually complimenting Lily’s performance. She is no Yunjin Kim, but I think that she managed to rise up to the occasion in that scene and in the episode’s opening scene that featured a continuation of Jack (Matthew Fox) and Kate’s meeting at the L.A. airport in the flash forward, carried over from Season Three’s “Through the Looking Glass”. However, I still dislike the Kate Austen character.
*The Two Kisses – For me, I was impressed not only by Sawyer’s good-bye kiss to Kate, but Desmond and Penny’s reunion kiss. Actually, I would say that the last one was more spectacular.
*The fight scene between Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Keamy (Kevin Durand). It seemed fitting for two men-of-action characters, such as themselves.
*I also liked the moment when Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Sayid joined Frank Lapidus for the first time, aboard his helicopter. There was nothing particularly special about it, but it seemed to have its own sense of magic.
*And there was Sawyer’s return to the island, where he meets Juliet on the beach. The scene started out light-hearted, until Juliet points out to the former con man of the freighter’s (and possibly the passengers on Lapidus’ helicopter) fate.
Unfortunately for ”There’s No Place Like Home (II & III)”, the flaws seemed to outweigh the virtues. Flaws that had a lot to do with contrived writing. First example? The bomb on the freighter. What was the purpose of that bomb? Why did Keamy even bothered to plant C4 explosions on that freighter, ‘The Kahana’? Even worse, why bother to wear a remote trigger linked to a heart-rate monitor in order to blow up the boat? What was the point of this plot twist . . . other than to kill Michael Dawson and place anyone aboard the freighter in danger? Did Keamy assume that the castaways would start making their way to the Kahana? What? It all seemed so contrived.
Speaking of contrivance, there is the object dubbed by ”LOST” viewers as ’The Frozen Donkey Wheel’. Apparently, this is the wheel that Ben (Michael Emerson) had turned to move the island or make it invisible. According to a ”Popular Mechanics” article, the wheel changed the island’s space-time connection to the rest of the Earth. Yeah. Whatever. Let’s just say that it did not impress me.
Another problem I had with this episode was the fate of Claire’s infant son, Aaron. Yes, I know that the fourth episode of this season - ”Eggtown” - made it clear that Kate ends up as Aaron’s guardian back in the States. Even after seeing how Aaron ended up in her custody . . . it still does not make any sense to me. I keep thinking of that scene near the end of the episode, when Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun and Hurley part from Desmond and Penny, so that they could complete their rescue with a nine hour voyage to some nearby island. Why would Penny hand Aaron over to Kate? Why would Kate take custody of Aaron? Surely, she should have considered the possibility that her chances of keeping Aaron was not that hot, considering her fugitive status. Or why did Kate fail to ask Penny for cash and place where she and Aaron could hide out? The moment when Penny handed Aaron over to Kate seemed so contrived and stupid.
*And can someone please explain how a two-month old child was able to survive so many hours without his mother’s milk or food, along with a helicopter crash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and nine hours of exposure to the sun, while in lifeboat with other castaways? I suppose one could say that ”the island” protected him. Yeah. Whatever. God, who wrote this shit?
Returning back to the Kahana, I have this question to ask - why didn’t Michael, Desmond and Jin warned the other Losties and crew members on the freighter to abandon ship, when they first discovered the C4? Why in the hell did they keep the matter a secret from the others? Why? What was the point? Drama? Another contrived reason to bump off Michael? This has to be one of the most stupid moments I have ever seen on television. To make matters even more idiotic, Jin hesitated to jump ship at the end, so that he could drag Michael along. ”Jin . . . darling, you have a wife and unborn child waiting for you. Why didn’t you get your ass up to the deck when Michael first told you?” Dammit, I hate such stupidity! I especially hate it when writers drum up this mess.
Finally, we come to the biggest pile of horseshit of the episode . . . namely, Michael Dawson’s death. After watching this episode, I can only say that Harold Perrineau’s return to ”LOST” was the biggest waste of his time and the time of his fans. What in the fuck were Cuse and Lindehof thinking? In a TV Guide interview, Perrineau had accused the two producers of bringing him back so that they could appease the bloodlust of the fans who hated Michael for his Season Two actions. I am beginning to believe that he might be right. Cuse and Lindehof could have kept Michael on the show for a while and allow him to deal with the consequences of his actions by facing the Losties. The only castaways who saw him were Sayid, the Kwons and Desmond, who did not even know him. And nothing much really came from his reunion with him. Sayid did expose him to the captain of the Kahana as Ben’s spy. But Michael did not really suffer from the betrayal, aside from one or two beatings. Sun seemed more upset about him being Ben’s spy on the Kahana than over what he had done in Season 2. And with the immediate discovery of the bomb, Jin and Michael immediately resumed their old friendship. After Cuse and Lindehof’s big announcement of Perrineau’s return, the actor managed to appear in at least five or six episodes out of fourteen, before his character was blown sky high in the Kahana’s destruction. All I can say is - ”What in the fuck?”
But the mixed quality of ”There’s No Place Like Home (II &III)” seemed a reflection of the entire Season Four. Some are claiming that this was the show’s best season. I wish I could agree. Season Four had started out as very promising. But in the end, it has not usurped my belief that Season One remains the best. Like its finale, Season Four turned out to be a curious mixture of the good and the bad.
There were plenty of good episodes during this season. Episodes like ”The Beginning of the End” and ”Confirmed Dead” not only led to the Losties being split into two camps, but it also introduced four new characters to the show – Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume, Charlotte Lewis and Frank Lapidus. Then came ”The Economist”, which turned out to be my favorite Sayid-centric episode. Its flash forward eventually revealed Sayid as Ben’s troubleshooter – or hitman – who was killing colleagues of Ben’s enemy, Charles Widmore. Another standout episode turned out to be ”The Constant”, a Desmond-centric episode. In it, the Scotsman encounters time traveling side effects from his exposure to an EMP discharge. Mind you, I found it a little confusing at times, but the emotional payoff was worth the confusion. Two other outstanding episodes – at least for me – were ”Meet Kevin Johnson”, which revealed what happened to Michael Dawson and his son Walt, following their departure at the end of Season Two; and ”The Shape of Things to Come”, in which the group of Losties under Locke, encountered Charles Widmore’s murderous henchman, Martin Keamy, and his band of killers.
There were also episodes that I found . . . decent, but not exactly mind blowing. There were Ji Yeon”, ”Cabin Fever” and ”There’s No Place Like Home (Part I)”. I take it back. The revelation that Jin did not make it off the island with Sun had taken me by surprise. And so did the appearance of Claire inside Jacob’s cabin with Christian also shocked me. Like the finale that aired on May 29, I have mixed feelings about ”Something Nice Back Home”. I found the circumstances surrounding Jack’s appendectomy rather pointless. In fact, I am still a little confused over how it was supposed to add to the story. But I must admit that the events that led to Jack and Kate’s breakup in that episode’s flash forward was fascinating. This episode also provided another glimpse at Matthew Fox’s superb acting skills.
There were three episodes – out of fourteen – that I found troubling. One was ”The Other Woman”, a Juliet-centric episode. In this, we learned that Juliet had an affair with Goodwin – the Other who had been killed by Ana-Lucia Cortez in Season Two. We also learned that Goodwin had been married. The episode also revealed that Ben harbored an obsession of Juliet. And it also featured a knock-out, dragged out fight between Juliet and one of the Freighter passengers – Charlotte. But this is an episode that belonged to Season Three. Even worse, there was no real follow-up over Daniel and Charlotte’s presence at the Tempest Station and their actions with the gas. Frankly, I found the ending to be rather vague. Still . . . it provided another outstanding performance by Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet.
The second episode I had trouble with was the season’s last one - ”There’s No Place Like Home” (Part III)”. Since I have said all that I could about that episode and its predecessor, I might as well focus on what I consider to be THE WORST episode of Season Four – the Kate-centric ”Eggtown”. In this episode, Kate joins Locke’s group at the abandoned Otherville quarters, so she could find out if the quartet from the Kahana and the outside world knew about her status as a fugitive. The episode’s flash forwards revealed her trial, how she avoided jail time and ended up serving ten years’ probation. It also revealed that she became the guardian of Claire’s son, Aaron. Frankly, that last reveal proved to be the only interesting thing about this episode. Everything else struck me as a joke. One that left a bad taste in my mouth. And although I had praised Evangeline Lily’s performance in the finale, ”Eggtown” proved that on the whole, she has remained, at best, a mediocre actress during the show’s four seasons. The biggest travesty proved to be the trial, in which the defense called its witness – namely a lying Jack – first; the prosecution’s only witness was allowed to see the defendant in private; and because of this, the prosecution gave Kate a plea deal, because the witness (Kate’s mom) refused to testify against . . . conveniently forgetting the former castaway’s other crimes. One that includes attempted bank robbery. And what really annoyed me about ”Eggtown” is that it served as the beginning of a series of contrived events that led to Kate’s possession of Aaron. For me, Kate’s story arc proved to be the season’s biggest weakness.
Watching the finale made me realize something about ”LOST” that has made me reluctant to dub it as one of the finest shows in television history. Even some of the best shows I have seen - ”BABYLON FIVE” and ”BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER” had its share of weak episodes or storylines that were dumped at the wayside. But those two shows and a few others have been consistently top-notch. I wish I could say the same about ”LOST”, but I cannot. I will admit that it is one of the most original television series I have ever watched. But that originality has been sabotaged every now and then by contrived writing and some pretty bad characterization. This has especially been obvious to me during the last half of Season Two – including the badly written ”Two For the Road”. Like ”Eggtown”, it was partially saved by a surprise ending. At least two-thirds of Season Three had left a bad taste in my mouth, including the contrived departure of Mr. Eko in ”The Cost of Living” and the atrocious ”I Do” and ”Stranger in a Strange Land’.
Aside from Season One, the series’ quality for each season always seemed to flip-flop. This show has yet to maintain a consistently top-notch season since the first one. Hopefully . . . that will change with the last two seasons.
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Post by Lola m on Jun 13, 2008 16:32:40 GMT -5
RE: Aaron surviving the helicopter crash, babies have a dive reflex, and they can hold their breaths a lot longer than adults. So provided that Sun could protect him from the impact of the fall, I'm not surprised that he was perfectly OK after that. I am still amazed that he was so quiet after hours and hours of not being fed, though. I supposed they could be doing that thing where you chew up the baby's food for them and then feed it to them and just not be showing it on screen. Or more likely, just not really bothering to deal with it in the story and letting us fill in our own solution.
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Post by Lola m on Jun 13, 2008 16:44:14 GMT -5
My thoughts on Lost, let me show you them. All here, because I really can't remember exactly what went to which episode, after last night's three-hour marathon. I liked Hurley dragging Sayid over to meet his family. Wasn't that excellent? Ben's wonderful scramble to find every metal thing he could as Locke confusedly watche a video saying not to do that very thing was positively hysterical! But I wouldn't know what an anthurium looks like either. I never know plant names. ;D I kind of hope they can be free to escape all the wacky Island antics too. But I'm thinking that might be difficult, considering who her daddy is and the fact that now Benry seems to be planning a "daughter for a daughter" kind of revenge. Duct tape. Is there anything it can't solve? Heh! ;D I, for one, totally loved the big Island-moving-gear thingee. It's just such perfect Island-style crack. I only wish that Sayid or Hurley had been there to make a nicely ironic comment. 'Cuz the giant statue foot was wonderful, but it's Sayid's deadpan delivery of "I do not know what is more disquieting; the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it has four toes" that made me totally fall in love with that plot point. I think it's gonna be dueling stories. About trying to return, about trying not to or to stop others from returning, about the various people still on the Island, and all the Widmore/Benry/Dharma/Paik/etc. shenanigans. Well, gosh, it's just TV, so yeah - of course you should just watch it if you want and don't if you don't. Seems logical to me. ;D
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