Lost—Through the Looking Glass

I tuned in tonight hoping to see some answers to some of the questions posed through the course of this season. Instead, we got a whole passel of new questions. For once I'm not completely sure I'm disappointed by that.

I haven't reviewed Lost in a few weeks not only due to time constraints, but because I've discovered I enjoy it more if I don't try to write it up. Tonight was no exception--I took notes for about ten minutes, then stopped, and suddenly found the show much more entertaining.

So not so much with the recapping tonight--just some reactions to the major developments. The writers seriously messed with our heads here, mostly to good effect. Although I was about to tune out and never tune back in again for those fifteen minutes or so we thought Sayid and Jin were dead. Okay, Bernard, too, but I'm not so much invested in him. In fact, I thought it was a little weird that he and Rose just popped back out of the woodwork last week after such a long absence. I loved Hurley's last-minute charge to the rescue, and even though it's been telegraphed for the last several episodes, I disliked Charlie's death. It was a good, heroic death, but there were at least a couple of ways he could have gotten out of there before he drowned, and that bugged me. Also, how did Charlie know to play "Good Vibrations" with exactly those variations on the tune? And how did he know which numbers were which notes in the first place? I had some issues with that whole sequence. He could have remembered the numbers Bonnie gave him and worked it out that way, but I'm pretty sure she started out with 555, and Charlie didn't. (I also had issues with how emaciated Tracy Mittendorf (Angel) looked, but that's a very different sort of rant.)

Of course the biggest messing-of-heads was with Jack's supposed flashback, which turned out in the end to be a flash forward. This is either a move of pure genius on the part of the writers, or exactly the opposite. That'll depend on how they play it, naturally. I was frustrated that we never saw who had died that sent Jack off the deep end (almost), but this made sense as a story choice given that it wasn't a flashback. I'm also a bit unclear on some other elements of that section. Jack referenced his father--but we know his father's dead. Was he just that messed up, or was there something else going on there? And why is he so determined to get back to the island?

All this begs the question, too--is rescue really on its way? Will Naomi's boat show up and take them off the island and then the story will proceed from there to explain Jack's issues in the flash forward tonight? There are 48 episodes left to tell the story, which in current show-time is only about another month or so, give or take. Of course, that equation isn't set it stone, either.

Anyway, the twists and turns of this season still have me veering back and forth between sticking with the show and giving up. After tonight's episode, I think I'm leaning more toward the "sticking with" side again.

Good Vibrations--The Beach Boys

Some Good News

Lifetime has picked up 9 more episodes of Blood Ties. From the wording of the article, it's not clear if this is 9 additional episodes, or the back nine from the initial deal. In any case, the show will continue past the first run of 12 episodes.

Lost has been picked up by ABC for three more seasons--with a catch. The seasons will be 16 episodes each, for a total of 48--the equivalent of roughly 2 seasons at the traditional US 22-25 episodes per year. I've said before that I think this is a good idea--it gives the writers a goal to shoot for to tie up the increasingly convoluted storylines, rather than motivation to continue to string them out until the ratings fade.

Still waiting for news on Supernatural and Jericho, but rumor has both of them in good positions for renewal. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Lost—Catch-22

Some mixed feelings this week. I didn't think this episode was as strong as the last couple have been.

Charlie and Hurley debate the results of a smackdown between Superman and the Flash while they trudge through the woods with Jin and Desmond. Charlie is shot through the throat with an arrow when he triggers a trap. Of course, this is one of Desmond's forward flashy things, and none of it has happened. Yet.

Backstory:
Desmond is in a monastery. He takes his shirt off. Is it wrong to say he's hot when he's changing into his monk garb? Brother Desmond is peacefully putting labels on wine bottles when a stranger comes into the winery and slugs him in the face. That's not very monastery-appropriate. This guy turns out to be the brother of a woman Desmond left at the altar. A not-Penelope sort of woman, whom he left because he felt he was called to the monastery. The experience he relates here is a bit odd--I wonder if it was an early manifestation of the flash-forward phenomenon.

Later, Desmond gets toasted on expensive monastery wine. And gets thrown out of the monastery so he can go find out what he's really meant to do. He heads into the town with a shipment of wine. Turns out the person buying the wine is Penelope's father--and this is how they meet.

This backstory bit bothered me. It didn't seem to dovetail as well with the main story as they usually do, plus Desmond as a monk didn't seem to me to fit his character. The only thing that seemed to tie in was the name of the wine, Mariah, and its relationship to Desmond's statement later that maybe he's being tested. And that was a bit of an anvil and didn't work all that well for me. The interweaving between Desmond meeting Penelope and his rescuing the dangling body in the jungle was very nicely done, though, and set us up for the twist when the dangling body's face was revealed.

And Desmond took his shirt off, so it's all good.

Beach Story:
Sawyer walks in on Kate in her underwear. I mean Kate is wearing underwear and Sawyer walks in, not that Sawyer is wearing Kate's underwear when he walks in on her. She tells Sawyer that Jack saw them doing the deed on the cameras. He uses this as an excuse to come on to her. He asks if she wants a mix tape. He should chat with Dean Winchester about that. I bet Dean makes good mix tapes.

Later, Kate has oatmeal with Jack. They're eating oatmeal at night. I do that, but I still think it's kind of weird. Then Jack goes to have oatmeal with Juliet, and Kate is not happy about this. She goes to see Sawyer. Oh, wait. She goes to do Sawyer. Kind of an extreme reaction to oatmeal, if you ask me. In the morning, Sawyer challenges Jack to ping pong.

Sawyer begins to put the pieces together. Sawyer gives Kate a mix tape. It's the best of Phil Collins, and he lifted it from Bernard. He asks Kate if she jumped him because of Jack and Juliet. He seems to be not all that unhappy about this. After all, he got laid, so he's happy. But he didn't take his shirt off. He should take lessons from Desmond.

Front Story:
Desmond works to recreate the series of events he saw leading to Charlie's death. Apparently this also led to him hooking back up with Penelope. Desmond tries to trace back the series of events he saw that led to Charlie's death, but which also led to his reunion with Penny. He goes to gather Charlie for the trek, and Charlie realizes Desmond has had a vision. They all set out. Someone is coming to the island, Desmond says. On the beach that night, Charlie plays his guitar while Jin tels scary stories in Korean. They hear a helicopter, which doesn't sound at all well, and crashes into the ocean, but not before someone bails out of it.

In the morning, they head into the jungle. Charlie finds a hula doll and Desmond finds a backpack in a tree. The backpack has a satellite phone in it, but it's dead. There's also a copy of Catch-22, in another language. Inside is the picture of Desmond and Penelope. Charlie works out what's going on--that Desmond thinks Penelope was in the helicopter. Charlie says they're perfectly happy to help get Penny back, and why would they want to change anything? This is, of course, fraught with dramatic irony. As they continue, the Flash/Superman conversation gets underway. When Charlie springs the trap, Desmond pushes him out of the way of the arrow. The group splits, Charlie and Desmond going one way, Hurley and Jin the other.

Charlie confronts Desmond, accusing him of being willing to sacrifice Charlie for Penelope. Obviously, Desmond wasn't, Charlie, or you'd be writhing on the ground hacking up blood. But Charlie doesn't know that. Desmond says maybe he's not supposed to keep rescuing Charlie, that maybe it's a test, thus creating that flimsy callback to the flashback bit. Jin finds the parachute and a person hanging from a tree. Desmond climbs up to bring her down. She's still alive. But it's not Penny. Not-Penny says Desmond's name and promptly expires. So if Desmond hadn't saved Charlie, would Penny have been in the tree? Given what show we're watching, possibly... However, Desmond's reunion with Penny wasn't shown explicitly, so maybe Desmond was taking disparate chunks of his vision and sticking them together incorrectly.

Overall, fairly entertaining but it didn't do much for me. Desmond's "gift" didn't seem to fit into the show very well when it was introduced, and it still doesn't. Unless there's some sort of logical explanation further down the road, it's going to continue to feel like an awkward digression to me.

Lost at iTunes:

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Lost—One of Us

Jungle Story: Juliet, Kate, Jack and Sayid head back to Camp Lostie from Other Town. Sayid confronts Juliet, demanding information about the Others. She says if she told him everything, he would kill her. Of course Sayid is all badass and implies he'd kill her anyway. (Please refer to the latest episodes of The Dresden Files and Bones for explanations of the difference between "infer" and "imply.")

Back Story: Juliet is with her sister Rachel, heading to her new job (see "Not in Portland"). There she's reunited with Ethan and Batmanuel Mr. Alpert. Rachel is cancer-free and pregnant. Juliet's taken into the company building, where Alpert gives her orange juice liberally dosed with tranquilizers, supposedly for the "trip," which he says will be intense. Alpert won't tell Juliet where she's going, but talks it up good. She drinks the orange juice and passes out. She wakes up strapped into a bunk on board the submarine, and is introduced to Ben as she disembarks onto the island. I don't think I've ever had a job where they made me take tranquilizers. I'm having a hard time understanding why Juliet would swallow all this. The company's story, not the tranquilizers. Well, okay, also the tranquilizers.

On the island, Juliet appears to be more of a hostage than an employee. Since she was able to help her sister get pregnant--Rachel was sterile from chemotherapy, as I suspected when she was introduced--they think she can help on the island. Apparently every woman on the island who's gotten pregnant has died, and Juliet was brought into the mix to try to fix this problem. But once she's there, she's not allowed to leave. After six months on the island, when she asks, Ben tells her Rachel's cancer has returned, and that she's dying, and hands over papers to prove it. But if Juliet stays on the island, he'll cure Rachel's cancer. Honestly, this job sucks.

After three years on the island, Juliet discovers Ben's tumor. No one on the island has ever had cancer. Juliet accuses him of lying to her about her sister, no longer believing that Ben cured her. Ben says he did, but again, Juliet isn't allowed to go home. We see the plane crash from the perspective of the Others--Ben sends Goodwin and Ethan to inflitrate the surivors even as the plane is going down. He tells them to go find out what they can, and to make lists. We still don't know what these lists are about. Maybe lists of people with super powers? Or of kids whose moms burned to death on their nursery ceilings? Have I made both those jokes before? I think I have. I apologize. Ben takes Juliet to see Mikhail. They show her a video feed of Rachel with her child, alive and well, cancer in remission. Juliet is deeply relieved, but she still can't go home.

Beach Story: Charlie hears Aaron crying. Claire is sleeping through it, so he goes to help out. Claire's not feeling well. Jack arrives as they're all hanging out having a meal, followed by Kate, Sayid and Juliet. There's a happy reunion with lots of hugging. Then they see Juliet and everybody gets a little tense. They leave Juliet sitting all by herself on the beach. Except Hurley, who comes to talk to her because he's been sent to keep an eye on her. He tells her about Charlie killing Ethan. Dude, Hurley's all scary here. In a really quiet, Hurley-like way.

Jack talks to the others about Juliet. Nobody wants to trust her. Jack thinks because he trusts her, everybody else should. Everybody else doesn't like this idea. I don't think Jack has half the power on this island that he thinks he has.

Claire starts bleeding from her mouth. Jack goes to try to tend to her. Juliet says she thinks she knows what's wrong with Claire, because she did it to her. It's a reaction to a medication given her to keep her alive through the end of her pregnancy. Juliet gave it to her to keep her alive. Previously, every pregnant woman on the island has died. The episode refers back to Season Two, where Ethan kidnapped Claire and gave her an injection at hte Others' camp. This impresses me, not only because they made an explicit reference to Weird Stuff that Happened a Long Time Ago, but because I actually remembered it.

Claire needs more of the serum to keep her immune system from killing her. Juliet wants to go to fetch more of the serum. Jack tells her to go. She goes, but is waylaid by Sayid and Sawyer. Juliet gets in their faces about their less-than-stellar pasts, since they're doing that to her. Same for Sawyer. Good on her. She heads back with the meds, and after receiving treatment, Claire recovers. The castaways begin to accept Juliet.

But then in a capper to our flashbacks, we find out Ben has coached Juliet on everything she's done. The Others didn't abandon her--they planted her. Claire's "sickness" was caused by an implant the Others put in her and activated deliberately so Juliet would have a ready-made way to get the castaways to trust her.

I like Juliet. I have a feeling, based on how Ben has played her, that she's got her own agenda, and she's not going to be nearly as reliable as Ben expects. But I suppose we'll see.


Downtown--Petula Clark


Lost on iTunes:

Lost—Left Behind

Beth Broderick, who plays Kate's mom, and Fredric Lehne (Lane), who plays the Federal Marshal, have both appeared on Supernatural.

Front Story: Kate, still being held prisoner, is abandoned when the Others put on gas masks and skedaddle, after throwing a gas cartridge into Kate's house. She awakens in the jungle, handcuffed to Juliet. Juliet is surprised by Kate's news that the Others packed up and moved. Kate insists they need to go back to the Others' settlement and drags Juliet along with her. Literally. Fisticuffs ensue when Juliet throws Jack in Kate's face. Not literally. Kate inadvertently dislocates Juliet's shoulder because of the handcuffs. And then there's a big scary noise in the jungle. They run and hide as the noise continues--it's the black smoke monster. Juliet is assaulted with flashes of bright light, then the monster retreats. Juliet tells Kate the truth about Jack seeing her with Sawyer to get her mad enough to fix her shoulder. The monster pursues them again, maneuvering them into some gratuitous mud wrestling. They're near the pylons. Juliet unlocks the cuffs and turns the pylons on. The monster hits the field produced by the pylons and retreats. Kate confronts Juliet--obviously she knows more than she's telling. She says they know about the monster, but not what it is. She's bitter about being abandoned, and is afraid Kate will abandon her, too. They continue back to the Others' settlement to retrieve Sayid and Jack. The four of them prepare to return to the beach, but Sayid isn't happy about Juliet's coming with them.

Beach Story: Hurley has a chat with Sawyer. The Islanders are going to have a vote whether to banish Sawyer to another area of the beach. Hurley suggests he might want to make amends, but Sawyer's not keen on that idea. He sets about learning to procure his own food. Gutting a fish proves his undoing, and he goes to Hurley to find out how Hurley thinks he can make amends. Hurley coaches Sawyer on making nice and kissing babies. Literally. Sawyer discovers there was never going to be a vote, and that Hurley just tricked him into being nice because he's determined Sawyer is the de facto leader now. Actually I think refinnej was right in her comments to last week's review, and Hurley is now the de facto leader, just nobody realizes it. Not even Hurley.

Back Story: In Iowa looking for her mother, Kate crosses paths with Sawyer's ex-girlfriend Cassidy. They bond. Kate tells her about killing her stepfather, and Cassidy agrees to help Kate connect with her mom. Kate goes to see her mother and is immediately accosted by the Yellow Eyed Demon. I mean the Federal Marshal. But it's not really Kate--it's Cassidy in a Kate-wig, to throw him off the trail. Cassidy and Kate pull a quick scam so Kate can talk with her mother at the diner where she works. Wait, I figured this out. Kate's mom had a kid who had psychic powers (Max from "Nightmare"), and that's why the Yellow Eyed Demon is after Kate. Okay, never mind. These fandom collisions really confuse me. Anyway, Kate gives it her best shot, but is unable to connect with Mom. Kate offers to help Cassidy find the guy who ripped her off, who of course is Sawyer. Cassidy's pregnant with Sawyer's baby. Cassidy declines, and they separate.

An interesting episode. We didn't learn much, but the story had good momentum and was fairly involving. I liked the tangential connection between Kate and Sawyer. A direct connection would have been too much (like Jack's dad being Claire's dad--I'm still not sure that wasn't pushing my suspension of disbelief too hard), but having Kate and Cassidy team up worked well. I wonder when all these connections will start coming out on the island. And Hurley's maneuvering of Sawyer was masterful. Hurley's definitely falling into a place of strength among the castaways. I wonder if he'll ever figure that out?

Favorite quote:
Kate: "Welcome to the wonderful world of not knowing what the hell's going on." Was this a nod by the writers to complainy viewers? One must wonder.

Lost at iTunes:



Patsy Cline, Walkin' After Midnight

Lost—Exposé

Beach Story: Sawyer and Hurley are playing pingpong with Nikki appears out of the woods. I'm glad they showed her right away because I honestly don't know who the hell she is. She collapses and doesn't look too healthy. In fact, she's dead. Sawyer asks who the hell Nikki is, which makes me feel better about asking the exact same question a couple of sentences ago, there. Of course I know you all will tell me when she's been on the show, and then I'll go D'oh and smack my forehead and remember, so that's all good.

Charlie and the others play forensic pathologist trying to find out what killed Nikki. Hurley says Nikki's last words were "Paolo lies." Backtracking Nikki's path, they find Paolo dead in the jungle. There's no immediate indication how he died, either, but his pants are undone and his shoe is in a tree. Sawyer thinks they were poisoned, but Jin thinks it was the monster. Going through Nikki's things, Hurley finds a script for Expose, and also a walkie talkie indicating they had had contact with the Others. Tension rises at Sun mentions her near-kidnapping by the "Others." Charlie and Sawyer get all shifty-eyed.

Desmond tells Hurley Nikki was with Sawyer that morning, yelling at him, although Sawyer has claimed he didn't know her. Charlie confesses to Sun that he was the one who kidnapped her, in cahoots with Sawyer, when he stole the guns. Sun is not impressed. Hurley confronts Sawyer about his fight with Nikki. Nikki was trying to get a gun from him. They had both been digging, hiding the diamonds.

Sawyer digs a grave in the sand. Sun confronts him about the kidnapping. Of course she waits until he has his shirt off so the scenery will be more enjoyable. At the funeral, Hurley speculates that Nikki and Paolo killed each other over the diamonds. Sawyer buries the diamonds with them.

And what really happened was this:

Backstory: We open with Nikki "dying" on a TV show called Exposé. She's meant to leave Sydney afterwards, but she's in love with the director, Howie, who's old enough to be her grampa, and doesn't want to leave. 84 days ago, they were having dinner. Paolo is Nikki's boyfriend's chef. Now Paolo I remember. Howie has a heart attack at the table after giving Nikki a diamond bracelet. Maggie Grace and Ian Somerhalder show up in the credits, and yes, that was Billy Dee Williams. He only had one quick scene--kind of a bummer, that.

Anyway, Nikkie and Paolo are running a scam, and they poisoned the poor old dude to get into his safe, which holds only a Rusian nested doll. Waiting for the plane, they encounter Shannon and Boone, who are having a tiff in the middle of the airport. On another note, were half the people on this damn plane running cons?

Next we revisit the plane crash from Nikki's POV. She and Paolo are searching the wreckage for Nikki's bag. They run into Ethan and Artz, and they also apparently find the plane in the tree and the hatch before the rest of the castaways, but don't act on the discoveries, all in the course of looking for Nikki's bag, which apparently is worth $8 million.

Paolo finds the bag in the spring where the guns were hidden, but doesn't tell Nikki. He instead goes into the hatch and hides the doll in the toilet tank. He also has a near-encounter with Juliet and Ben, who are spying on Jack, trying to figure out how to coerce him into doing Ben's surgery. Their chat partially explains what's happened with Michael. I'm not completely sure of the timeframe here, but I'm guessing this was the motivation behind Walt's kidnapping. Now this is a good reveal.

Jumping forward to 12 hours before their deaths, Nikkie and Paolo are canoodling a bit, while Paolo reflects that losing the bag might have been a good thing. But he drops his Nicorette, cluing Nikki in that he's found the bag. She goes to demand a gun from Sawyer, who refuses. Nikki pulls a con on Paolo to get him to admit he has the diamonds. She flings a poisonous spider on him, that she got from Artz. The spider paralyzes rather than killing. So Paolo's probably not actually dead. And then the spider bites her, too. So, hey, she's not dead, either. This could be a problem.

And back on the beach Sawyer continues to bury them. Her last words were actually, "Paralyzed." Nikki's eyes open just as Sawyer dumps a pile of sand on her face. No last-minute reprieves here--Nikki and Paolo are buried alive.

I liked this episode quite a lot. The quick re-run of the past 84 days on the island from a slightly outside POV was very well-done, as well as revealing. I liked that they answered some questions without making a big deal about it. Also, even though the episode was from an outsider POV, it still included many of the major players that we haven't seen over the past few weeks while the story has concentrated on Jack, Kate and Sayid. And the ending was nicely creepy. I'm glad they didn't cop out there.

Lost—The Man from Tallahassee

Sporadic reports today have it that Lost has been picked up for next season.

Back story: Pre-wheelchair, but short a kidney, Locke fights bureaucracy and depression. A young man, Peter, arrives at his door asking him for help with his mother, who's apparently being conned by Locke's dad. Locke searches out his father and finds him in a flower shop with his new fiancee, preparing for the wedding. Locke confronts him, accusing him of conning the fiancee.

Later, a pair of detectives approach Locke about Peter. Apparently he's dead. Locke accuses his father of the murder. Dad shoves Locke out a window. While this was an interesting twist, nicely out of left field, and finally an explanation of how Locke ended up in the wheelchair, I found it pretty hard to believe he could survive an eight-story fall.

Jungle story: Kate, Sayid and Rousseau watch Jack playing football in the yard with Juliet. Attempting to make contact with Jack, Kate and Sayid are both nabbed by Others. Locke makes his way into Ben's quarters and holds him at gunpoint, demanding to know where the submarine is. Alex breaks in on them--Locke grabs her as a hostage, then sends her to fetch Sayid's bag. While she's gone, Ben plays head games with Locke. Locke returns the favor, commenting that Ben isn't healing very fast, even though Locke himself obviously has been fixed somehow. Ben theorizes that Locke wants to destroy the sub so he won't ever have to leave the island, and that Locke wants to stay on the island not only to stay out of the wheelchair, but because his father can't ever get to him there. He offers to show Locke the island's secrets. Locke isn't impressed--he seems to believe he has a mystical connection and understanding of the island that even Ben, who was born there, does not. He cites his able-bodiedness as evidence.

Jack is brought to talk to Kate. He tells her he made a deal with them, and they're going to let him go home. Juliet comes to get him. He tells Kate he'll come back for her.

Alex retrieves Sayid's pack. Sayid gets smacked around for talking to her about her mother. Locke has Alex take him to the sub.

Jack asks Ben to let Kate and Sayid go after he leaves. Ben agrees to do so. Locke is apprehended on the way back from the sub. As he and Jack run into each other on the pier, the sub explodes.

Locke is imprisoned by the Others. And look! There's Batmanuel Nestor Carbonell again. Ben thinks Locke was sent by the island to get rid of the sub so he wouldn't have to keep his promise to Jack and thus lose his status as the Others' leader. Ben feels Locke does have a special communion with the island, though his understanding is still flawed. He takes Locke to a locked room and reveals...Locke's dad, tied up in a chair. I make my wtf face. Apparently this is the titular Man from Tallahassee. So how the heck did they get him shipped in and why did they bother? Just to throw Locke off his game? Or did he appear in the big Make-A-Wish box?

So not much answered here, although we did finally find out how Locke ended up paralyzed. And someone other than Locke thinks the island has some kind of juju about it. If there really is a big box that will give you anything you wish, can I wish for Jensen Ackles on a plate? Can it do that? Cause that might be worth getting stranded on an island full of nutcases, polar bears and weird black clouds.

Next week, apparently somebody dies. I wonder who. There are a couple of characters whose deaths could very possibly cause me to stop watching this show. I hope it's not one of them.

Lost on iTunes:

Lost—Par Avion

Back story: Claire is involved in a car accident that severely injures her mother. She's left on life support, with her expenses being paid by an anonymous benefactor. The mysterious benefactor turns out to be none other than the elder Dr. Shephard. And he tells Claire he's her father. Wtf? Where did that come from? Wait a minute--I read about that in TV Guide or somewhere. Never mind. So Claire and Jack are half-siblings. Interesting. Claire doesn't appreciate Dr. Shephard's attempts to decide how her mother's condition should be dealt with. And he never tells her his name, so that would explain why she hasn't made the connection with Jack. Later, Claire visits her mother, who's still in a vegetative state in the hospital. Claire is now pregnant, so some time has passed. She breaks down at her mother's bedside, apologizing for everything she said to her mother right before the car accident.

Front story: Claire awakens from a dream to find Charlie and a fruit plate. Nobody makes me fruit plates. What's up with that? Oh, sorry, it's an aperitif not a fruit plate. Charlie has decided to quit being depressed. While they're heading out for a picnic, Desmond arrives and tells Charlie he might want to go hunting. Claire suddenly runs off, saying she knows how to get them off the island. This epiphany appears to have been precipitated by a flock of birds flying overhead. She thinks if they catch a bird that's been tagged, somebody will track them to the island and come to rescue them. Desmond scares away the birds, ostensibly by accident, but Claire things he did it on purpose. She confronts Charlie, thinking he had something to do with it. I'm not sure why. Maybe she's hormonal. Seeing Charlie and Desmond conversing, she follows Desmond. Desmond finds a bird and rescues it. Claire confronts him.Of course Desmond is trying again to keep Charlie from dying, and he tells Claire about it. Claire brings the bird, which is, indeed, tagged, back to Charlie. They attach a note to the bird and set it loose.

Jungle story: Sayid, Kate and Lock continue to explore with Mikhail and Rousseau, following the map. Kate interrogates Rousseau about her daughter, and Mikhail about his past. Mikhail tells Kate she's not on the list. Wait...does that mean Mohinder's going to show up looking for the people who are on the list? Mikhail seems to be trying to disconcert the others by revealing what he knows about them, which is rather a lot. Rousseau find a row of strange pylons. Mikhail says it was a security perimeter. John throws him through it and he dies a grisly, bloody, mouth-foamy death. Sayid confronts Locke about his motives and how much he knows, but doesn't get very far. Locke is being all closed-mouthed mysterious guy. They cut down a tree and use it to go over the top of one of the pylons. They find their way to what looks very much like a suburban neighborhood, where they see Jack playing backyard football.

I'm confused again, but that's pretty normal after an episode of this show. I thought the "book club" neighborhood was on a different island than the stowaways' island. Although that would put it on a third island, I guess, since the Others' island is definitely different from the stowaways' island. Locke's behavior in this episode--actually in several recent episodes--seems to be drifting more and more out of character from what we learned about him in earlier seasons. I find this bothersome. The thing about Claire's father seemed really out of left field. I have no idea where they're going with that and I have to wonder if they do, either. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out, and if the bird manages to accomplish anything. Birds, after all, are notoriously unreliable.

Lost—Enter 77

Beach Story: Sawyer wagers at ping pong to get "his" stuff back. Dude, between the ponytail and the ping pong you are severely undermining your own manliness. Plus we totally know about that Little House on the Prairie thing. Sun places the wager--if Sawyer loses, he can't nickname anybody for a week. He ends up facing Hurley one-on-one. Hurley turns out to be a bit of a ringer and Sawyer gets his ass kicked.

Back Story: Sayid is working in a restaurant. He's offered a job by a man who compliments his cooking. Sayid goes to see him. He's introduced to the man's wife and the situation proves to be not so much a job interview as a set-up. They think Sayid tortured the wife when he was in the Republican Guard. He's held prisoner and tortured, though he insists he didn't do it. The wife finally gets a confession out of Sayid by overemoting and sticking her chin up in the air a lot (seriously, this bugged me) and he weeps prettily. It's not entirely clear whether he actually did it or not--this one could go either way.

Jungle Story: Sayid and Locke continue to look for the Others. When Sayid hears a cowbell (more cowbell!!) in the jungle, they discover a ranch, complete with cow, satellite dish, and one-eyed proprietor who shoots Sayid first and asks questions later. His name is Mikhail Bakunin, and he claims to be the last living member of the Dharma Initiative. Sayid chats with him for a while, prying out some complicated but possibly somewhat accurate information regarding Dharma and the Hostiles. Apparently the Hostiles were there long before Dharma was. Here's where I'm a bit confused--are the Hostiles the same as the Others? Because I'm thinking maybe they aren't--or are they? Or are the Others part of Dharma? I wish they'd move this show back to 8 so I could be awake while it's on because my brain doesn't work after 9.

While Sayid chats, Locke finds a chess game on one of Mikhail's computers and can't resist the temptation. Eventually Mikhail gets hostile and Sayid takes him out. Searching for Mikhail's accomplice, Sayid and Kate discover the entire house is wired with explosives. Winning a chess game unlocks a Dharma video menu on the computer. (This seems awfully sophisticated given the obvious antiquity of the computer.) Mikhail's accomplice proves to be the African American Other featured in the Previously On so we'd recognize her when we saw her. She's not too talkative. There's a standoff--the woman tells Mikhail to kill her and he does. Sayid takes Mikhail prisoner instead of killing him as Mikhail requests. Sayid has found a map to the Barracks, a good-sized community somewhere on the island. Even though they now don't need a guide, he refuses to kill Mikhail. This seems to be because of his cat-triggered flashback, although this doesn't explain his lack of reluctance in earlier situations where he's tortured people. Maybe it was okay then because there was no cat to remind him it's bad to torture people. Unable to access communication options on the computer, John blows up the house by Enter(ing) 77 to indicate an incursion by the Hostiles.

There was an awful lot packed into this episode, and attempting to follow it was not helped by the fact that there was a commercial break every five minutes. Remember the good old days when you could expect at least fifteen minutes between commercials? Also, did they really have to have all those close-ups of Sayid's shoulder wound? I almost puked. Other than those quibbles, a good episode, although in many ways it was one of those installments that left you feeling like a lot of questions were answered, but when you go back and think about it, they really weren't. I liked the Sawyer-Hurley ping pong battle even though it happened mostly off-camera, and it was nice to see a Sayid-centric episode again.

Lost—Tricia Tanaka is Dead

Cheech Marin makes a guest appearance tonight as Hurley's dad.

Backstory: I missed the beginning of this because my satellite reception mysteriously disappeared for a few minutes (weirdly, my kids were still blissfully watching Spongebob in the other room--go fig), but apparently Hurley's dad ran off and left him when Hurley was a kid. The Tricia Tanaka of the title proves to be a TV reporter who interviews Hurley about his lottery win. He's bought a Chicken Shack, which is promptly struck by a meteor, killing Tricia Tanaka, who's inside, thus confirming Hurley's curse. Hurley decides he has to go to Australia to break the curse. His mom tells him he's not cursed, and produces his father to prove it--Dad's come back after 17 years. Hurley thinks Dad just wants the lottery money.

Hurley's dad takes him to a Tarot reader to settle his cursed numbers issues. But she's not for real--his dad put her up to it. Hurley continues with his plan to go to Australia. His dad admits to having come back because of the money, but that's not why he's here now. His efforts to bond are unsuccessful, and Hurley heads for Australia.

Front Story: Hurley talk to Libby, at her grave. *Weeps.* He thinks Charlie's going to die because of the curse. Vincent shows up with a corpsey arm with a rabbit's foot on it. Call Dr. Brennan, we've got body parts to identify. Vincent leads Hurley to a wrecked VW bug in the middle of the jungle with a dead body inside it.

Back at the camp, Sun is trying to teach Jin English via total immersion. He doesn't seem too keen on that idea. Hurley returns with news of the car. He wants to fix it up, but doesn't get a lot of support. Hurley volunteers Jin.

Kate and Sawyer continue to trudge back toward camp. Sawyer has far too much Little House on the Prairie knowledge for true manliness. Kate wants an apology, but Sawyer's not into apologizing. I guess that manly trait is meant to balance the Little House thing.

The dead guy has a Dharma Initiative uniform. He also has a lot of beer. Jin and Hurley accidentally decapitate him when they drag him out of the car.

Charlie confronts Desmond about when he's going to die. Desmond isn't very forthcoming. Sawyer breaks in on their conversation, demanding to know where his stuff is. Apparently the other folks have been rifling his belongings in his absence, including his porn. Dude, messing with a guy's porn--that's just wrong. He shows up at he car site and is enthusiastically greeted by Hurley, who offers him beer to help with the car. They're unable to start the car, but Hurley is determined.

Kate updates Sayid and Locke on the situation with the Others. Kate is determined to rescue Jack. She says she's going to get help and traipses off into the jungle.

Hurley goes to fetch Charlie to help with the car, saying he's moping. Sawyer's teaching Jin English phrases that women want to hear. ("I'm sorry," "You were right," and "Those pants don't make you look fat." What happened to, "Yes, Mistress," and "Please don't fasten the handcuffs so tight"?) Hurley plans to jump-start it by pushing it down a hill. Charlie's going to defy death by riding shotgun. It works--the car starts, and they head back to camp. Sawyer, of course, brings the beer.

In the meantime, Kate's off by herself in the jungle. Locke and Sayid emerge--they've followed her. They offer to help. They're fired upon. Rousseau emerges from the jungle. Even after all this time, Mira Furlan still looks weird to me with hair. Kate asks her for her help, and tells her about Alex.

While this episode didn't do much to advance the core plot, I found it very enjoyable. I like these character study episodes that focus on one character, and I particularly like Hurley, so there's a twofer for the win. And even though the episode was Hurley-centric, they managed to pull in all the familiar faces we've been missing while we've been following Kate, Jack and Sawyer's story with the Others. Moving back to the core characters makes it feel more like Lost to me.

Lost on iTunes
(You're lost on iTunes? Try the table of contents thingie...)

This Week's TV Guide

The new TV Guide (for March 5-11, with the cast of House on the cover), has several articles of interest.

First, the cover story with the cast of House is an interesting read with some great pictures.

A couple of small bits on Lost, with fans responding to Charlie's apparent impending death, and an article about the falling ratings, and another short article addressing some of the boys' apparent need for sugar mamas (I volunteer--wait, I don't have enough money. Pout).

A short Q&A with Zachary Quinto of Heroes (Sylar).

A review of The Black Donnellys by Matt Roush. (He didn't like it. I think he was unnecessarily harsh.)

An interview with Ali Larter of Heroes (Niki/Jessica).

An interview with Nicolas Cage (yes, that Nicolas Cage), regarding The Dresden Files, which he executive produces.

Lost—Stranger in a Strange Land

This episode seemed to serve as a sort of "bridge" between "Not in Portland" and whatever is in store for next week. Basically, in a lot of ways this felt like filler. And rather confusing filler, at that.

The Front Story largely had to do with Jack's position at the Others' camp. Because of his position as the only available surgeon (Ethan was the previous surgeon, so the Others are in a bad way on that front), he has a bit of bargaining power, and he uses it to prevent Juliet from being executed for shooting the man who pursued Kate and Sawyer when she helped them escape. In the end, though, the Others all go "home," wherever that is, and take Jack with them.

At this point, it looks like the Others work on their island, but live elsewhere. The glimpse we got of them hanging out having a book club meeting was, I assume, a glimpse at their "real" homes--but it's still all very paranoia-y and weird. Juliet said Ben calls it home, but I didn't get a sense that she felt that way about it at all. Then there's the question of the other crash survivors, some of whom showed up to "watch" Jack. Are they on the island on purpose, or by accident? The flight attendant who spoke to Jack seemed to be more in on what was going on than the rest of Jack's crew, or any of the Tailies, for that matter. In any case, I found it all fairly confusing, although I did get the sense that this particular piece of plot is leading to a larger reveal next week.

In the meantime, Kate and Sawyer have made it to the other island, though not back to the camp. Sawyer sees Karl as a danger because of his attachment to Alex, and basically cuts him loose by telling him to go after her. He's not getting along with Kate too well, either, convinced she feels guilty about their romantic interlude (aka cage-bound monkey sex).

In the Back Story we're with Jack again, during a jaunt to Phuket, Thailand. There he runs into Achara (guest star Bai Ling [Angel], flaunting her breasts as usual). They engage in an intermittent relationship, but she has a secret. Control freak that he is, Jack can't leave well enough alone and follows her, trying to find out what she's up to when she's not up to Jack nookie. He tracks her to a tattoo parlor and insists that she tattoo him, using her gift to see who people are and mark them with their true selves. In spite of her protests that she can't, because he's not of her people, he gets nasty about it, and she finally caves. The result--Jack is beaten up and ordered to leave the island. We're not told exactly what the consequences are for Achara, but they don't seem to be good. Tying the front and back stories together, Isabel translates the Chinese text on Jack's tattoos as, "He walks amongst us but he is not one of us." He says that's what they say but it's not what they mean.

I had zero sympathy for Jack in his flashback. He acted like a prick, and I'm not at all sure what we were supposed to take away from that little glimpse into his past. It might have helped if the timeframe had been clearer--exactly when was in in Thailand? Right after his wife left, maybe? That might explain his bitter edge, but still doesn't excuse the way he treated Achara. Overall, this flashback seemed like a rather strained attempt to incorporate Matthew Fox's actual tats into the context of Jack's character.

In any case, overall this episode didn't do a great deal for me, but I'm hoping it's leading into some bigger reveals next week.

Lost—Delayed Review

I'm under the weather still, so I'm going to delay reviewing Lost until tomorrow night so I can get some extra sleep. Hope you all enjoy it! I'll check back in tomorrow with thoughts on the episode.

Lost—Flashes Before Your Eyes

This episode was co-written by Damon Lindelof and Buffy alumnus Drew Goddard, aka the Ultimate Drew (I believe this moniker was invented to differentiate him from Drew Z. Greenberg, also on the Buffy staff and now working on Dexter). I met the Ultimate Drew once. He's really tall. And cute.

It was an interesting episode, too. I spent most of the hour trying to second-guess the writers, without much success, and by the end I still wasn't entirely sure where they're going with this little side trip. I've pretty much decided to just go with the flow on this show, rather than trying to figure things out. When they do explain things, it seems to make sense more or less, so might as well enjoy the ride. And since tonight the ride involved a lot of Desmond and his dead sexy Scottish accent, I'm okay with that...

Front story: Of which there was surprisingly little. This was a flashback story in more ways than one. After the discovery of Eko's body, Locke states that the island killed him. Fair enough--that fits with what I remember happening before the century-long hiatus. But our focus today is on Desmond, who seems to know Claire is drowning without being anywhere near enough to see it happening. In any case, he rescues her, leading Charlie and Hurley to interrogate him about how he knew she needed rescuing. This eventually leads to drunken fisticuffs and Desmond saying they don't want to know. Which takes us to--

Back story: First we drop back to Desmond using the key in the hatch after they didn't reset the timer at the end of last season. Then, in a nice visual cut, we transition to Desmond's flat where he lived with Penelope. He's been painting the walls red, and has fallen and gotten a concussion.

The flashbacks get weird right away, with even this first scene overlaid with sounds and elements that tie it back to the hatch and the island. Here's where I start speculating: Did the explosion at the hatch actually send Desmond back in time? As the flashback continues, Desmond relives his futile attempts to gain Penelope's father's respect so he can marry her. Penny's father humiliates Desmond with a bottle of very expensive whiskey--the exact same whiskey that, to Charlie on the island, was not a status symbol but just an expedient way to get Desmond pickled. Afterward, Desmond makes with the crazy. He sees Charlie singing on the street and says he knows him, though Charlie doesn't recognize him. Desmond starts to recount events from the island, even though we're in a flashback. Next speculation: Did the hatch explosion knock him unconscious, and now he's experiencing his backstory as a dream/hallucination?

Convinced he's been thrown back in time to relive his life, Desmond approaches a friend, Donovan, a physicist, with questions about time travel. But his attempts to prove he can "remember" the future don't work out--he miscalls the result of the footie game on the telly in the pub. (Why is it always a come from behind victory in sports that people use to prove they're time traveling? What if you time travel and you don't like sports? Or the games are boring that day? Are you SOL?)

Desmond decides to soldier on in his plans to marry Penny, and goes to buy her an engagement ring. But the woman in the jewelry store says he's not doing it right--he's not supposed to buy the ring. He's supposed to have second thoughts and go on to the boat race and get stranded on the island, or things won't proceed as they ought and everyone will die. She seems to actually have some kind of precognitive ability. Desmond's fate is spelled out and thrown in his face--pushing that button is the only truly great thing he will ever do. Desmond refuses to accept this and buys the ring, anyway, determined to change his destiny and marry Penny. At this point I'm still sticking with my unconscious/having a dream/hallucination theory.

Of course that doesn't work out, and a few scenes later, after we're shown the origins of the picture Des showed Claire at the beginning of the episode, he decides he can't go through with marriage because he can't look after Penny properly. They have a confrontation in the street, and he throws away the ring. Seems like he should have at least gotten his money back.

Back to the pub, Des has a pint and commiserates about making the biggest mistake of his life--again. He realizes he did remember the footie game right--it was just the wrong night. A man comes in with a cricket bat, angry, demanding his money. Knowing he's about to clock the bartender in the head, Desmond interferes with him and takes the bat in his own face instead. He wakes up back on the island, lying naked on the palm leaves, and we're back to his return after the hatch explosion. The hatch has been blown to hell. He wants to go back and try again, but of course he can't.

This returns us to the episode frame, as we cut back to the confrontation with Charlie. Hurley drags Desmond off Charlie. Desmond is ranting about how you can't change it, no matter what you do, saying they don't want to know what happened to him. But finally he relents with an explanation. When he turned the key, his life flashed before his eyes, and then he was back in the jungle. But the flashes didn't stop. He wasn't saving Claire, he was saving Charlie. Because the first time, Charlie went in and tried to save Claire, but drowned. When the lightning hit the roof before, he was electrocuted--Desmond saved him from that, as well. He's tried twice to save Charlie, but the universe has a way of course correcting (per the woman in the jewelry shop from the flashback), and he can't stop it forever. No matter what Desmond does, Charlie is fated to die.

So all my theories were wrong. Sort of. And sort of not. I do hope they find a way to have Charlie not die. This would make sense, actually, since they threw it out there so blatantly. Most of the deaths on this show seem to come out of left field, so to have one predicted and then play out would be against pattern. I'm guessing this will serve as a setup for another subplot, that'll have something to do with... well, something. It's a little early to tell which of the major arcs this could play into. But I suppose we'll find out.

Lost—Not in Portland

This episode was preceded by an hour-long recap of the entire series. And I'm only now noticing that the guy who arrested Kate and was with her on the plane is the demon guy who took John Winchester's deal in "In My Time of Dying" (Supernatural). I'm pretty sure I'm way behind the curve on that one, but no wonder that damn plane crashed.

Front Story: We start where we left off, with Jack trying to help Kate and Sawyer escape. His attempts are, of course, hampered by the fact that he doesn't know they're on a different island from the rest of the original group. Kate and Sawyer run into Alex, who helps them escape, but she wants them to help her rescue her boyfriend. Ben wakes up on the operating table, which is really creepy. He asks to see Juliet. He's heard that she told Jack to kill him on the operating table. Juliet says she'll help Kate and Sawyer escape if Jack finishes the surgery.

Kate, Sawyer and Alex get ahold of Alex's boyfriend Karl using the "Wookiee prisoner gag." Nice work, Sawyer--Star Wars jokes are always funny. Karl's being tortured--or experimented on--with a slide show with a really loud soundtrack--some kind of sense overload thing. Jack accidentally nicks an artery while he's working on Ben. Oops. The trio make their way to the boat, but are pursued. Juliet shoots their pursuer, and I finally remember where I've seen Alex before--she was on Malcolm in the Middle. Juliet tells Alex she has to stay; otherwise Alex's father will kill Karl. Ben's her father? I don't think we knew this before. That bit confused me. The only way he'll let Karl live is if Alex stays...but Karl goes with Kate and Sawyer... so if she'd gone with him, Ben would hunt them down? Or kill Ben long-distance? Or shake him to death like a bunny? Just not entirely clear on that statement from Juliet.

Jack tries to operate and talk to Kate on the walkie talkie at the same time, to make sure Kate and Sawyer have really been able to escape. Doesn't he know multi-tasking in the operating room is a bad idea? Jack makes Kate promise she won't come back for him. Sawyer seems none too happy about Kate's emotional reaction to talking to Jack. Kate, Sawyer, and Karl leave in the boat.

Jack has finished up with Ben's surgery, having removed the tumor. Jack asks Juliet what Ben said to her to change her mind about killing him. Apparently he told her that if she saved him, and helped Jack, she would be allowed to go home. She's been on the island for three years.

Backstory: Juliet gets the spotlight this time. Her backstory involves using an experimental treatment on her sister, on the sly, and getting busted by her ex-husband, a hospital administrator. Batmanuel Nestor Carbonell shows up in Juliet's flashback as Mr. Alpert. If I were having a flashback, I think he'd be a good addition. Juliet's got some interesting backstory. Aside from meeting Batmanuel, she's also managed to impregnate a male mouse. Her ex, though, has control over her career. In a minor breakdown during the interview, she says the only way she could take the job is if her ex were it by a bus.However, her work is successful, and she's able to help her sister get pregnant. (Another bit I wasn't clear on. Her sister was costumed to make us think she had cancer. Then the treatments turned out to be fertility treatments. But she did say that she needed to "get healthy." However, pregnancy and cancer treatment are generally mutually exclusive things, so again, not quite clear on what was going on here.)

Then Juliet's ex gets hit by a bus. Mr. Alpert comes back to talk to Juliet, and he brings Ethan with him. Juliet points out that she offhandedly said her ex should get hit by a bus during their interview, and gets a little freaked out by the coincidence. Mr. Alpert wants her to work with them. He knows way too much about her. The job is somewhere that's "not quite in Portland." The island, perhaps? Because it's not in Portland. And that must be important because it's, you know, the title of the episode...

Overall, not a bad return episode of this series. It'll be interesting to see how the ratings are affected by the long hiatus.

ADDITIONAL CASTING TRIVIA:
Zeljko Ivanek, who plays Juliet's ex-husband in the flashbacks, was in "The Woman in the Car," a first season episode of Bones.

To Arc or Not to Arc?

The TV series of today seems to constantly have to struggle between the concept of standalone episodes and the serial arc. The serial arc seems to be in vogue at the moment, even though several shows with very strong serial structures have bombed heartily this season (Day Break, The Nine, Vanished). How does a show find the balance here? Is one approach truly better storytelling than the other? Or does it just depend on the show?

There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to each approach. With a show that depends largely on standalone episodes, a new viewer can drop in at any time and still be able to get the gist of the show. However, that show loses an opportunity for deeper, more complex storylines and longer character development arcs. On the other hand, a show that depends on serial arcs can easily lose a new viewer, thus reducing its chances of building its audience in later seasons. Several of my favorite shows have fallen into this conundrum, including Farscapeand Angel, both of which had developed very complex arcs by the third and fourth seasons. Angel addressed this by retooling the show in Season Five to be a bit more standalone; Farscape just got cancelled.

Some shows manage to find a good balance between these two approaches. The X-Files used standalone stories through most of the season, with an underlying story arc that they revisited during sweeps. (If it's February, there must be black oil.) Supernatural seems to be following a similar pattern—not unexpected given the preponderance of X-Files alumni on their writing/production staff, though they seem to also be focusing more on their story arc during the second half of the season. This gives the audience a chance to orient themselves to the general premise of the show before plunging into the full-on arc. It seems to work—I came into the show three episodes from the end of last season and had no trouble figuring out what was going on. Bones presents the case of the week as a standalone story, but there are other subplots playing out in the background which are strongly character oriented, such as the Jack/Angela romance and the mystery of Brennan's parents. Just about any episode of House can be viewed as a standalone, but they also throw in an occasional arc, such as the Tritter storyline from this season.

Other shows seem to be pulling in strong audience numbers in spite of—or perhaps because of—their complex arcs. Lost is still doing well in its third season, and Heroes has taken off with a bang. Both these shows are strongly driven by a complex and layered story structure. In the case of Lost, though, some of the audience seems to be tiring of a storyline that seems to become more and more convoluted as it develops, with few answers to be had (see my post here for news on how Abrams and Lindelof, et al may be planning to handle that). Heroes has yet to prove if its complicated storyline will sustain a long-term audience, but so far so good.

I think some shows are simply better suited to story arcs than others. Angel's first season, when they used a more standalone structure, wasn't nearly as strong as the later seasons, when they headed into serialized plotlines. And in Season Five, they tried to do more standalone episodes, but quickly moved back into the serial structure, completely giving up on the standalone concept the minute they found out they'd been canceled, much to the show's benefit. Superatural's arc/standalone alternation seems to be working out quite well, as does Bones' mostly standalone structure. On the other hand, House seems to me to be more enjoyable when they're concentrating on the case of the week, rather than on a background story, especially when that storyline goes on for several episodes.

I have to admit to a preference for shows with a strong story arc. In spite of that, they tend to make me nervous. First, because the new ones so often don't last. Second, because when they do work, pressure to keep the story going becomes such that the storylines tend to get bloated and out of control just to sustain the storyline so the show can continue. This seems to be happening with Lost—it'll be interesting to see if the growing complexity of the storyline, intended to keep the show going, instead leads to ratings loss and eventual cancellation. It seems to me that a better approach is the one taken by shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel—a strong story arc, but with major storylines that are wrapped up within the course of a single season. And with shows like Bones or House, strong standalone stories seasoned with less involved story arcs that play out more or less in the background.

Lost Finds a Conclusion?

Some interesting news on the Lost front today. According to the Ausiello Report, the show’s creators are negotiating with ABC to choose a time to end the show. The purpose here being to fix an end date so they can work toward giving closure to the storylines, rather than stringing the show out season after season without really answering anything.

Is this a good idea? I think it probably is. More than one show has gone on and on and on and, well, on, becoming by its series finale a mere shadow of its former self. In its third season, Lost is already starting to fray around the edges. Its complicated arcs are far from being resolved, and in this case that seems to be to the show’s detriment. You can only string the viewers along for so long without giving up the goods about the damn polar bears, after all.

It seems to me that a show like this, with serialized, complex storylines, actually could benefit from having a finite, predetermined end date. Lost might have developed differently if from episode one the creators and the network had known they had 100 episodes in which to tell their story. Of course, it’s not exactly easy to get that kind of commitment out of a network. Babylon 5 started out with a very clear idea of its five season story arc, only to get shafted right after Season Four. Season Five eventually was produced, but the show suffered from the turbulence. Farscape had been promised a fourth and fifth season, so the creators planned a story arc to cross those two seasons, complete with Horribly Devastating Cliffhanger for the end of Season Four. After all that was filmed, Sci Fi pulled the plug on Season Five, leaving fans hanging. Fan outcry finally led to the production of The Peacekeeper Wars, but the complex conclusion had to be compressed into a four-hour miniseries instead of the full season arc originally planned.

Would ABC be less willing to negotiate an end date for Lost if its ratings hadn’t dropped significantly this season? It’s hard to say. In any case, all the maneuvering and politicking make for a tough balancing act, and nothing about it is conducive to good storytelling. So when the good stories come out in spite of that, it’s just that much more impressive.