I Voted Saxon!

The redemption of Benjamin Linus

You know, not since I think Gul Dukat in Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, have we had such a well depicted bad guy on a television series. This episode focuses mainly on Ben, and throughout the entire episode I was sitting there thinking that he WOULD actually take the bad route. Right up to the very end, this Machiavellian mastermind loves his control. Throughout the series however, he’s realised his one mistake – Alex. While not technically his daughter, he’s grown to raise her and chose the island over her. Because he thought his faith in the Island, faith in the Jacob will pull him through. In alterna-world, it’s a pretty mundane existence, but with the same Ben. He can have the principal’s job, however Alex’s (in this world, just a gifted student and no relation outside of school) application to college will be thrown in the bin. For a second I thought – “will he do it? he hasn’t had the experiences of the island since a child (the breaking point (so far) of the original timeline..), he hasn’t learnt life’s lessons?” Apparently, the good of the somewhat mundane yet good world has done him the world of good. Oh, and Artz is back as the science teacher. It seems even in this world, all these characters stick together.

We see similar aspects with Jack and Richard. The loss of faith. Jack because he thought the island would fix him. Richard now doesn’t have Jacob to look to. Yet fate is a cruel mistress in the Lost world. They can’t die – maybe they can still age unlike Richard, but the island has much more in store for them. So what do they do?? I almost feel in a way, like I said last time, that it’s a parallel to religion in someways. Jacob the good, yet not providing any answers. Being frank (yet cruel) to Ben when he tells him that he’s not important. When it’s more than an invisible man up in the sky and we truly believe in the island when we can see the mystic happening around, you WANT to know what’s going on. There’s probably a very good reason to why (like us) they’ve been kept out of the loop when it comes to answers. A point to all of this? I don’t want the end to say – “actually, Jacob was wrong. Flocke is fine to leave, end of show”. It would seem a bit of a cop out.

A few other notes -

When did the timeline split? The island is now underwater in Earth-A, yet Ben still went there as a child, and just left with his father. Maybe they evacuated the place when the bomb exploded? End of the island?? (although how could they survive something like that?? I’ll give them a little leeway there…)

Only last week I was saying “I wonder what happened to Charlie” and whether the character was coming back. If he is the person to be returning by Jacob’s hand? Or maybe Jacob had nothing to do with it, and just knew it was going to eventually happen?? He’s very anti-Ben at this point and I have a feeling that he won’t be cosying up to him, even for the good of the island. And also – Does that mean the eventual return of Penny/Des? I hope so. Even though I’d love a happily ever after for those two, you KNOW stuff like that is pretty impossible in the Lost world.

All round, a really good episode. Less WTF moments, but some really well done scenes with Ben and Ilana as she is ready to kill him.

The next port of call was Port Denarau. This was a quiet day, I didn’t go on any tours, I went by myself, so basically I just wandered around the little village, took footage, listened to the band and just relaxed. I’d love to go again and properly check the place out, or get drunk at the Planet Hollywood. Looked very nice

Other things I remember

1 – MOUNTAIN DEW!! – This may sound odd, but there’s some silly Australian rule that says only cola flavoured soft drinks can have caffeine in it. So our version of Mountain Dew over here is nice, yet tame. You don’t drink it to get buzzed. On my trips, when I had a moment, I’d stop in different stores and see if I could find a bottle. First stop was Noumea. While my uncle and crew paid through the nose for a couple of drinks at the deli right next to the port (suckers) I paid something like 1.50 or something for a 600 ml 7up (no MD was found yet). I spent half an hour just looking at all the French versions of different foods and drinks over there. Twisties were really popular over there. Don’t ask me why. I could be wrong, but I’m SURE I saw Arnott’s Shapes as well. Being an Australian food, this is pretty surprising for a French colony…

Anyways,

Yes, found some in Port Denarau, and had to take a photo of it as well I’m surprised how much caffeine they pack into those bottles, actually! I’m a pretty steady coke drinker, and I’m sure that had more of a kick than your standard bottle of Coke. Maybe it was the lack of soft drink on that trip (mainly cause I was drinking beer 95% of the time) but I could of sworn that was more of a Red Bull like pick me up. Anyways

2 – Rich area. I mean RICH RICH. After visiting places like Suva, and even Noumea which was very commercial, still had its points of poverty (like most cities), this place was nothing but expense. Looking at the map a few minutes ago, I honestly thought (until now) that PD was actually a small island not connected to mainland Fiji, so no doubt a ten minute drive down the road would show you the rest of the place. Even so, If I had Bill Gates like wealth, I’d certainly pick up a place there for a holiday pad. WOW

there’s too much messing around with privacy settings etc for me to put my personal stuff on here. not often, but every now and again I may lock a post. If you’re interesting in reading them (if you know me, or are just curious), feel free to add me on livejournal. it’s been a long while since i properly used it, but my username is http://hacked2death.livejournal.com/

everything else, whether it be music, my rantings or sci fi geeky stuff will still go through here and filtered onto the LJ account anyways.

hope everyone is well

Terry

“i am a good man…”

We start off with a good old fashion comfrontation, as Sayid’s had enough of being stared at and goes to see Dogen. What we get is a kick ass fight scene that shows us Dogen’s no slouch, he’s just devious like that. How an accountant (as we find later) manages to kick so much ass living on the island for so long is another story. Bit unintentionally racist there?? Like the sisko, he loses his baseball and just stops. End of fight. And tells Sayid to “git”.
Meanwhile, Claire and her “friend”, Flocke are behind the ash wall that keeps him out of places (my guess is that the hut was not housing Jacob but keeping Flocke IN, but we’ll hopefully later see)

“Are you going to hurt them, Friend?” “Only the ones who won’t listen….” Great friend you’ve got there, Claire. I’d really think about getting out more. Either way, it’s Claire’s turn to do some work. It might keep Flocke out, but Claire’s happy to wander wherever she likes.

In Sayid’s words “Apparently, i’m evil” – he’s gone to pack up and leave being banished, talking to Medium-Miles. Looks like Hurls and emo-Jack aren’t back yet. And in walks Claire!! Even messy she’s still adorable.. don’t know if i’d pick her up if she were hitchhiking .. Miles makes a similar comment as well. We get a little you go see him, no he can come here, so Dogen decides to get sayid to kill him! Poor guy, wherever he goes he cant escape his past..

It’s coffee (or beer) time as Miles sings the praises of Claire and fills in Kate with what’s been going down since she got the talk from Sawyer.

Sayid’s looking aroundin the jungle, and we get the good old ca chunk ca chunk of Smokey’s true form,, forms into flocke and Sayid goes the stab. Mind you, Dogen instructed to stab before he spoke. Maybe thats why we get a “it’s just a flesh wound!” moment as Flocke pulls out the knight with a confused/annoyed look. “Why you go and do that? It’s quite a good moment. Made me giggle.

Flocke gives some answers here. Is he being trustful here ? “You had no chance. Dogen knew that and he was hoping i would kill you…” Sayid is offered his temptation – could have anything he wanted?? ahhh so i was wrong with that “Last Supper” photo they setup. Perhaps Sayid was meant to be the judas figure?? The betrayer??

Sayid returns and gives all the group a message “Jacob is dead. You no longer have to stay here anymore. You are free” … well, maybe.. we’ll see how well Flocke treats the redshirts… “Flocke wants to leave the island. Anyone who wants to go, join him… if you don’t, you die..” Dogen looks less than impressed…

Kate gets all up on hippy sol star’s face so she can go see Claire. Claire, however, is singing some ditty that i couldn’t recognise (well US Australian children certainly didn’t sing it) and Claire goes all OH HAI to I KILL U!!! once she figures out what happened to Aaron. the face change is amazing, Emilie is an amazing actress…

Sayid drops the knife off to Dogen, where Sayid asks him why he gets others to do his dirty work. The sad strings start and we here Dogen once lived in Osaka, he made a silly mistake and lost his son to a drink driving accident. He was also given the option for his son to live, but he had to come to the island and he would never be able to see his son again. Sayid, without blinking, decides to drown Dogen. Umm, dude, remember that water brought you back to life?? Well, regardless to whether Dogen comes back, it’s too late. Hippy sol star lets us know that Dogen was the only one keeping Flocke out, he gets a slash to the throat for his troubles and yes, the wail and ca chink sounds of good ol’ smokey…. have a guess what happens?? miles and take split up, and while take goes for Claire (stupidstupidstupid), Miles bumps into the rest of the Ajira crew, just in time Kate hides in the hole with Claire while smokey runs through the room, and Ben and Sayid have their confrontation.. Ben for the first time in his life is actually nice and caring, but the evil smile on the face of Sayid says it all.. Ben slowly backs out the room off to the rest of them where they hide in Hurley’s tunnel from the other week. Kate follows Sayid and Claire outside through all the destruction where we see Flocke did do good on his promise, the rest are behind him, a little scared, but alive nonetheless.

On Earth-A, however. Still it’s Sayid’s turn. Nadia is alive, and yet married to his brother. You can tell there’s some tension there, some tense looks which disappear when the Brother’s kids come in and Sayid gets them their presents – the fakest, dodgiest tourist boomerangs I have ever seen. I hate to be mean, but seriously, it looks like they were probably made in Hawaii.

Omar, the brother turns to Sayid in the middle of the night. Even in this world, Sayid still seems to be the go-to man when things get rough. Bro owes cash to bad men. You can guess what he’s been asked to do. I really feel for Sayid at this point. No matter what he does in his life, the memories of the past always come back to haunt him.
It’s really only the next day when Sayid’s bro is “mugged”, but wife and Sayid know better. Nadia pleads for him to go home and wait for the kids to come home from school. He actually agrees!! She gives him “why didn’t you want me” actually, that’s a DAMN good question. Who’d say no to her??? Looks like he still feels guilt over his past actions. YET – an extended stay on a weird island makes a different opinion later on. Go figure…

Later, Sayid bumps into some hired goons who offer him “a ride he cannot refuse”, and not in the dirty way (ew). In some kitchen restaurant, we find the head honcho is Keamy, that bastardo from the freighter a couple of years ago. Good to know a bastard is a bastard, no matter the time line. Sayid sorts the business out as he knows how, and on the way out bumps into Jin in a freezer… obviously that money he stashed in ep 2 was meant from them. And we’re left wondering WTF is going on there for another week. why Jin seems to be in a poorer position in this universe is beyond me. isn’t sun’s dad Mr. powerful and all of that?? *shrugs*

So far into this season and I’m already thinking of some ideas. Is that the gist?? Have we got two sets of people living on earth?? Maybe the time line WAS changed, just that the old paradox keeps the original time line going. So YES, technically Sayid would be able to see Nadia again, well as long with Sayid-B? maybe Flocke IS evil, but is the island really THAT important?? Now that the button is no longer an issue, does anyone really need to stay?? is it to protect it from outsiders? and speaking of which, hows widmore going? havent heard much about him lately… hmm

One thing I’ve noticed is the heavy handed religious theme they’re playing with Jacob/Flocke. Jacob with the God/Faith angle, and Flocke, the devil side actually offering power and answers. I’m not the most religious man in the world, but in my head it really feels like this is what they’re aiming for. i might have to look up some stuff online. It’s no confusion compared to say, Neon Genesis when it comes to religion, but I’ll say I’m still enjoying all of this and it’s keeping me watching, that’s for sure!

“No Stig For You!!”

I know it’s not the geekiest show in the world, but I do enjoy Top Gear. (The UK version, mind you. The Australian version was too try hard for my tastes). I suppose in a way it IS geekery, well in a car geek kind of way. Although being raised in a car family, it kind of passed over me. No, the reason I watch this show it is because it is so damned funny. For a long time in Australia, the SBS has been airing the series a little while after the UK shows them, usually a year behind. Late last year, one of our commercial stations Channel 9, bought the rights off of the SBS in what has been said for quite a lot of money. It’s kinda sad for SBS, a part government/part commerical station getting the show taken off of them mainly because it was one of their highest rating shows. That’s the harsh reality of television these days though, and a couple of weeks ago they started showing Season 14 on Prime Time on 9.

Well, kinda.

Being the week before the Winter Olympics, they had a double bumper – Episode 1 and The older Winter Olympics special. Fair enough. Because of advertising and the two episodes, they chopped quite a bit from the first episode. No news, no Power Lap, mainly the Star in the reasonably priced car and the challenge. I grumbled, but shrugged. Thems the breaks. Luckily shortly after the show aired, Itunes had the original episode as broadcast from the UK available. Now the Olympics are over, and I go to check what we have airing tonight? Part of episode 4, and the other half from the American Road trip, back from Series 9 in 2007.

How can commercial stations screw up television so much? We’ve all seen the American Road trip before. Hell, it’s even available on DVD in Australia! I understand that they have the rights to show all the old stuff now that they own everything but series 1, but why don’t they wait a couple of weeks after airing the ORIGINAL NEW episodes they have now? Due to BBC budget cuts, they’re only running 7 episodes a season anyways! They have plenty of time to show best of episodes in the weeks to come. I just hope itunes are sensible enough to release the proper episodes as they’re meant to online. I’ll find out in a few days as the tv shows update..

It’s silly things like this, and other commercial stations dropping cult TV shows half way through original airings (Torchwood, Veronica Mars are two examples that spring to mind) that Australia is the second largest country in the world for downloading/bittorrenting our television.

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  Faith No More has surprised nerds the world over by broadcasting live from the stage at Melbourne’s Soundwave show through chatroulette.
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Welcome to the latest review of Lost, where Jack certainly does NOT want to be a lighthouse keeper and we get a whole new generation of Daddy issues for him!

If someone with a knife to your leg asks if you are still friends, YOU SAY YES!!

This week there’s a lot of things happening in real 2007. Hurley’s on his (what seems) to be twentieth game of Plant naughts and crosses with (whatever happened to scribbling in the dirt?) where Jacob comes back and tells him to get a pen – He’s got work to do. Looks like now that Jacob’s dead Hugo’s the little errand boy, seeming that he’s the only guy who can see dead people. He doesn’t manage to find a Dharma notepad, so he’s arms all blue with instructions. Apparently he’s got to take Jack to some lighthouse where they can light it and summon someone who will help. After a brief encounter with Dogen, Jacob teaches Hurley the magic words he wishes he knew all the way back in Season 1 – “I’m a candidate”. Firefly fans try and decipher the harsh language Dogen spits out and from then on it’s a mainly a few character moments with Jack and Hurley. There’s one point when Hurley says “This is like the good ol’ days!” which is replied by a foul look by Jack. Mind you, foul looks is pretty much all you get from Jack in this episode. He’s had a gutful again. He thought that the island would “fix” him, never mind looking within himself to find out why he feels like this. We stumble across the old cave and Adam & Eve, where Hurley gives a few ideas (maybe they’re time travelers from the dinosaur age? My guess at the moment is Rose and Bernard) and Jack and Hurley are both amazed that they have never seen a lighthouse on the island before. I’m surprised the “Somebody else’s problem field” has worked for this long. Douglas Adams would be proud.

In the lighthouse, we see those silly old numbers again. Matched up to names. When Jack lines it up to his number (despite the instructions by Jacob) we see Jack’s childhood house. Before we get to see what’s behind Hurley’s window, Jack smashes up the glass. He’s realised that Jacob’s been manipulating them all for a very long time. Outside Hurley’s one to add to this list as well – this was all to get Hurley and Jack out of the Temple, and to show Jack that’s he’s important. They’re certainly playing Jack up as the reluctant hero. I just wish he was less emo about it all. It gets a little annoying from Jack after a while..

Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, we return to Jin and Claire’s last encounter. In the three years since we last saw Claire, she really has turned batshit insane. We have Rousseau 2.0. She’s got her little camp setup packed with traps, dynamite, the works. One of the fellows from last week wasn’t exactly dead. Jin wakes up next to this tied up guy, Justin (for the 80s kids, it’s in fact BLT from Degrassi Jnr High. Remember him?) who pleads Jin to let him go, Claire is batshit crazy. Well, Jin soon discovers this fact himself. Claire thinks they’re hiding Aaron in the Temple. Jin lets slip what really happens, but covers it up quickly. Claire’s relieved, if Kate DID look after Aaron, she’d have to kill her too. And Claire REALLY doesn’t want that. Just before she starts hearing voices, or a three headed monkey, Jin is saved by Claire’s new friend. Well, she says “friend”, I say Flocke. Jin, be scared Does that mean Christian WAS Smokey? Or is he a completely different character in the jungle? Be interesting to see how that one goes and whether we see Christian in the normal timeline again…

As for Earth-A, or alternate timeline, WE HAVE MORE DADDY ISSUES!! This time around though, it’s with Jack’s son. Yeah, even I went “WTF” there. Starting off he seems like most teenagers – Emo, Sulky, resentful… But we find he’s an akward kid whose father/son relationship is very much like how Jack and Christian were. Jack and his (less bitchy) mother go rummaging around Christians things looking for his will, and, of course, we find out about Claire, but that story is cut short and we return to Jack looking for his son David. He’s run out. Not back to his mother’s house, or to some club on a drug bender, but TO PIANO PRACTICE?? Looks like David’s issue is he’s afraid he can never live up to his fathers expectations. We have a sweet moment and it’s also kind of sad – back in the original Earth during Hugo and Jack’s walk, Jack scoffs at one point announcing “I’d be a terrible father. I could never have kids”.. At least we know in this timeline he doesn’t have one…

Wasn’t a bad episode at all. Jack is never my favourite character to explore. It does seem that’s he’s having a better attempt at life on Earth-A, though. He gets along with Mother, even though he’s broken up with his wife (that’s an interesting question to see) he still has a pretty good kid and has given up the booze… As for the rest? it just seems that these characters we’re watching week after week have been manipulated into this final showdown that is coming soon. More of a build up, but still interesting TV

I think the post says it all, really. What do you think?? The visual style is different, but cool. it’s got a much more modern feel – even more so than the RTD work. Hard to explain, but there’s a much more younger feel. I just really hope that with Steven’s influence he doesn’t make it too kiddy. I have faith, though. He wrote Coupling, and that’s not the most family suitable show in the world…

Is that going to be the new vortex look?? If it is, cue fanboi hatred in 5, 4, 3, … Don’t get me wrong, I like it, but such a massive change to the style will have people talking.

As for the music, I really really like it. I could feel a more modern rock/indie influence in the background there. I was worried Murray Gold was running out of ideas by the end of Tennant’s run. We had so many memorable tracks in the early days which kind of faded to “okay, but nothing you’d write home about” come season 4/specials time. And to tease us with the old theme! It’s been reported that he’s redoing the theme song for the new series as well. Guess we’ll have to wait for that.

So we have an Easter release! It’s a shame it’s not a late March release again, but hey, I’d be happy to give them another month if it means a better overall bunch of episodes.

A few notes – Has anyone else noticed that the Daleks are the old-school style Daleks? Are we seeing a bunch of the Daleks from before the whole Time War? They also had Time Travel tech, and it would be interesting at the end having the let the Daleks go, knowing full well that to kill them off now would be bad…

Weeping Angels – This one is a given. Let’s hope they’re as frightening as they were before…

Let the countdown begin

So I’m back for the week and we get to see John’s side story, and his New story, as The new Man in Black (apologies to Johnny Cash). Oh, yeah, SPOILERS as usual.

Locke was really getting sick of receiving all that Dharma spam in his inbox.

This week is John Locke’s turn at the sideways swipe. This time, however, things are different AND the same. John obviously had a healthier relationship with his father (yet STILL ended up in a wheelchair, how does that happen??) and is happily engaged to Leela, err, I mean Helen. No sex lines for THIS Locke He still tries to go on his walkabout, however, and is denied. What we get this time is more of the asshole boss, who ends up firing him and Locke bumps into the owner of the paper company, one Hugo Reyes (who never twigs seeing a bald wheelchair guy on the plane earlier, or vice versa) who still basks in luck in the alt-universe, and offers to help John with a new job.

Basically we see John agonize over the card given to him by Jack in the second episode during their past encounter. He decides to stop believing in Miracles and hopes that Helen can accept him for who he is and not keep holding onto a hope that one day he’ll walk again. It’s a sweet moment.

Back in Timeline A,  Fake Locke (or Flocke as he is known around the Lost forums) is running and ca-chinking around the island in hope to recruiting some people to his cause. His kidnap of everlasting Richard last week doesn’t help a bit – he refuses and ca-chinks back over to ex-Otherstown where Kate has tearfully left and somehow there’s still enough power for Sawyer to crank some Iggy and the Stooges on the turntable, and I crank the speakers for a few minutes .

Back on the beach, not too much happens. IIlana sooks a little about her dead crew. I don’t know why. Maybe they’re some sort of “off-island Jacob cult” and very close, but until these last couple of weeks, she’s seemed not much more than a muscle group here to help Jacob. However she scoops up some of Jacob’s ashes, buries Locke, and decide to all go to the temple, but before (of course) will have all sorts of zany adventures and stay out of the way until needed just before mid-break finale, where they will most definitely tease us with the Sun/Jin meetup as a cliffhanger…

Back in ex-Otherstown, James in his drunken state has gotten to the point where he just doesn’t CARE anymore about the weirdness of the island. I want to say he takes it all in his stride, but it’s more than that. More of a resignation in some ways. It’s very sad. Still, Flocke offers him answers and after a run around in the jungle with a warning by Richard and some creepy little kid, we fall down a rickety old ladder (good question – how in the hell are they getting back UP that cliff-face for next week?) and Flocke throws a white stone out in the ocean. I was right about the ying/yang thing. There are two sides to this show. Whoever Jacob WAS and Flocke IS, they are the ying/yang to all of this. Stands to reason whether black is evil and white is good… We see a large list of crossed out people, the list of the dead. The remaining on the list are the main characters. Jack, either Sun or Jin, Sawyer, Hurley and Sayid, all accompanied by those good ol’ numbers (according to the show, Jacob was a bit of a maths nerd). For once, we GET SOME ANSWERS! Jacob/Flocke were once men like them, Jacob is there to protect the island. Flocke, most probably, is chaos. Chaos/Order, anyone? Someone needs to replace Jacob, and “the list”, are the candidates. The remaining main cast of this show. Flocke gives him the options 1. Do nothing, and get struck off of the list (does that mean die, though, or be removed as a candidate?), 2. Become Jacob’s successor, or 3. Get off the island with Flocke, which is all that Flocke has ever wanted to do. And just as Sawyer decides, “stuff it, let’s leave”, it’s credits time.

i liked this episode. Out of all of the characters in this show, it seems that they let John Locke suffer the most. Nothing in this guys life ever seems to work out. Here though, despite his disability, he’s doing alright. He learns to deal with his drawbacks, and becomes a better person, something he couldn’t really do on the island as he was chasing faith every week. Locke’s a believer, and all this mystical shit is like Heroin to Charlie… In the real word of Timeline B, he’s decided – “enough dreaming, time to grow up a little”. It’s sad that I feel like all of this “what if” is going to be swept under the rug somehow, and we’re going to be left with the John Locke we buried this week.

The secrets? It’s good to finally, (if slowly) see some answers. My big question is do they ALL need to be part of what is to come? Is it destined? Something they can’t escape? The way Flocke was talking to Sawyer, it sounded like Death will be certain if he chooses not to take this path. We’ll see. And what about Jacob/Flocke? Did they come in the times of the Black Rock? Did these two replace some other people? Is it a never ending battle that started at the beginning, like the Egyptian times? I’m happy to see the black/white side though. And I like the little moment with Timeline B’s Locke’s alarm clock sounding very much like the alarm that the hatch used to make. Great episode and well done enough to keep us fans guessing and thinking for the week to come.

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