Lost (spoilers)

[Kal]

i think i'm gonna quit lost. sorry guys.

you should be sorry. not for us but for you. stop reading what we post and what happens and just enjoy it. its one of the most fun and entertaining tv shows ever and worth the experience.

[©brad]

Enough with these goddamn "THE TIME FOR QUESTIONS IS OVER" promos. This fucking show has always answered questions with questions and this season has proven to be no different. It's like a ponzi scheme of questions.

Anyway, save Hurley's grating meta-commentary on the show and all its aggravating cliches, this episode was pretty solid. I like episodes that include a lot of people. I still stand by my conviction that Jack is a meddling pussy and I find his daddy issue subplot boooring, but I liked the other stuff, namely Claire-as-new-Rousseau and the set-up to this impending war between Smokey and Jacob.   

[Derek]

For the first time, I'm concerned I may have higher expectations than the show is going to deliver for a wrap-up. It kind of seems to be idling, and a touch boring. This may be a cause of watching the box sets quickly and taking this new season as it comes though.

What are the thoughts so far?

[Pedro]

Still enjoying the show.  There are lots of ups and downs and I can understand each criticism thrown at it, but I have too much fun with it to take it 100 percent seriously.  One criticism I do have however, is how the music is (over)used.  The score isn't bad, in fact, I think that some of the themes are quite beautiful, but it's mixed so loudly and used so frequently it can't help but hit us over the head every time it comes around.  For example, I had a huge wtf this week when David was shredding at his audition and they faded out his BEAUTIFUL performance to play a really BORING bit of the show's score.  It looked like Jack was moved by the score, not the performance.  Anyway, great show.

[picolas]

i thought that was a terrible decision too. the score needed to shut up for that part. the cue blunted any goodness from that moment. i love giacchino though.

not a good ep overall. i like the idea of crazy claire but raven isn't quite pulling it off.

[MacGuffin]

Best Last Line.

[MacGuffin]

D'Oh! Lost + The Simpsons = Killer fan art
Source: SciFi Wire

How cool is this Simpson-inspired Lost fan art?

So cool that executive producer Carlton Cuse tweeted: "Love this."

The fan art is one of several images on the Springfield Punx blog, to which we were pointed by The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed blog.

[©brad]

Okay it's getting good.

[diggler]

Jin in the kitchen was a great wtf moment i wasn't prepared for, then i realized this was likely the same kitchen Naomi brough Miles to in season 5, so you can assume Keamy is still working for Widmore.  interesting how in the same episode in season one, Sayid puts Jin in handcuffs over the watch incident, and in this episode he sets him free. yay parallels.

agreed that it finally feels like the ball is rolling.

[JG]

first great episode of the season, and the picture's becoming clearer now, isn't it? It just felt like a good genre piece; both with the alternate reality (as, like, a really great self-contained revenge story) and the main storyline itself (just as a solid action-adventure fantasy story). the show can now officially get away with lines that go something like, "leave. and get as far away from here as you possibly can!". every episode can't be satisfying as ones like tonight, but the best thing lost can do is provide proper context so episodes like this and "the constant" and the season 3 finale can happen.

its also the first episode this season that has compelled me to theorize about where the show is heading. so here's that: the alternate reality, aside from being a slow, slow burn, basically exists to show that these characters lives are fated to intertwine, that they are meant to be together. right? so i basically see this alternate reality taking a different, more compressed, route that will, if you'll allow me quickly pen a piece of fan fiction, result in the two realities ultimately synching up. this will also allow for a really cool episode in which the two realities are only a little bit off and they cut back and forth between the two realities until they synthesize!

see, when the show works, it can make me geek out and write paragraphs like the one above. also, is it smokey or jacob that's the bad one? either way, lost is still good.

[Kal]

great episode... its getting crazy. i just want to see desmond, widmore, and the other ones that are around there somewhere.

loved the look on kate's face towards the end. she had the same look we all had.

the whole jacob vs. evil/locke is good, but the classic widmore vs. linus was also very important and great and it never really got to a climax.

and according to the fucking ABC spoiler bullshit of next week commercial, they said ben is facing his own demise next week? what the fuck.

[mogwai]

The last scene felt very Apocalypse Nowesque.

[RegularKarate]

Here's what I'm thinking/hoping: The temple wasn't really for the characters as much as it was for the audience. It was so we could take some time to rest up and take things slow for a few episodes right before everything gets pulled out from under us.

If this is the case, everything is about to get nuts.

Also, I guess I assumed everybody felt the same way about the alternate realities so I hadn't really mentioned it here, but I guess since other people seem to think otherwise: I think the alternate realities are REALLY what's going to happen once everything on the island is finalized.  We are getting to see the ending or epilogue during the last chapter.

[Gamblour.]

I think the alternate realities are REALLY what's going to happen once everything on the island is finalized.  We are getting to see the ending or epilogue during the last chapter.

That's interesting. And as I'm sitting here, I think you might be right. BUT part of me thinks that this choice Evil Locke offered Sayid, to which Sayid agreed but in doing so killed Dogan and Lennon, is what we're seeing, this alternate reality. But it's too Satan-like in its temptation. There's no catch, that's what bugs me. So yeah, your answer tackles the question that's staring us in the face, but I haven't been thinking about too much: what is the flash-sideways time line really all about? And the more I think about it, the more I think you're right.

[RegularKarate]

How convinced are you that fake Locke is evil?  Neither he nor Jacob have shown much proof that either of them are good.  We are just assuming the evilness of Locke because we have seen the smoke monster kill so many people.
How do we know that Jacob can't turn into a smoke monster too?