"The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" Thoughts and Theories

LOST fans were treated to another great episode on Wednesday! "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" began with Caesar, one of Ajira 316 passengers, searching an office on the Hydra island a couple of miles from the main island. He finds an old LIFE magazine from 1954 with a hydrogen bomb explosion on the cover (hinting back to the Jughead hydrogen bomb from episode 3?). Caesar also discovers a sawed-off shotgun and some documents and maps of Faraday's that look aged.



Faraday's Documents at the Hydra station

This seems to be further evidence that the left-behind-Losties including Faraday were stuck in the past when Locke turned the "frozen donkey wheel." Another 316 passenger named Ilana comes in and says that a man wearing a suit was found and nobody recognizes him from the plane. It's JOHN LOCKE! What the? Locke was resurrected? This show gets crazier every week! As long as the writers explain this in a reasonably realistic way, I'm more than happy to known that we won't be having a Locke-less LOST.



Locke Lives!

For the rest of the episode, we see what happened to Locke after he turned the Orchid's frozen donkey wheel. He wakes up in the Tunisian desert just like Ben did after he turned the wheel. Locke is picked up by Widmore's men and taken to a hospital to doctor his compound-fractured leg. Locke is woken up after his surgery by a man not so familiar to him, Charles Widmore. Widmore says that he met Locke when he was 17-years-old, but that Locke doesn't look any older to him. To Locke, they only met four days ago!



Widmore and Locke meet again... after 4 days for Locke, but 53 years for Widmore

Widmore gives Locke a fake passport with the new identity of Jeremy Bentham, along with an envelope full of cash, the folder filled with information on the locations of the Oceanic 6, and a chauffeur, Matthew Abbadon. Abbadon takes Locke to visit the Oceanic 6 and Walt in an attempt to get them to come back to the island.



WAAAAALLLLTTTTT!!!!

It was good to see Walt again, but I'm afraid that this was the writer's way of closing his story. I sure hope not, however, because there are many unanswered questions left regarding his abilities and his involvement in the show's overall storyline.

Don't get me wrong, this was my favorite episode so far this season, but if I had one big complaint about this episode, it's that Locke's next interactions with the O6 felt rushed, poorly fleshed-out, and high on continuity errors. For example, Kate, Jack, and Walt all later refer to Locke as Jeremy Bentham, but Locke never refers to himself as Bentham in his conversations with them. I did like Locke's conversation with Jack, however. Jack questions, ''Have you ever stopped to consider that these delusions that you're 'special' aren't real? That you're a lonely old man who crashed on an Island?" Locke responds with, "Your father says 'Hello'... Christian." Jack is visibly shaken, but not convinced.

In the next scene, Locke prepares to hang himself. Ben bursts in the door at the last second and stops him. As he helps Locke down, Ben tells Locke he has too much work to do to die. Locke states that he knows what he must do next - he must contact a woman who lives in Los Angeles named Eloise Hawking. At the mention of her name, Ben is visibly startled. Locke asks if Ben knows the woman, and Ben quietly confirms their acquaintance. Suddenly, Ben strangles Locke to death. He then stages Locke's body to appear that he hanged himself.



Ben begging Locke not to kill himself... right before he kills him.

The episode ends back on the Hydra island. Caesar takes Locke to see the people who were injured in the 316 crash, and guess who we see sleeping on a cot: Ben! Caesar asks, "You know him?" Locke responds, "Yeah. He's the man who killed me." Cut to LOST.



Ben rests, dreaming up his next evil plan


Great episode!

We got a couple of key answers from this episode:

We now know that Ben tricked Widmore into turning the "frozen donkey wheel" after Widmore spent 30 years as a leader and protector of the island.

It seems that super-pilot Frank Lapidus managed to land/crash Flight 316 relatively safely and apparently intact on the Hydra island, a couple of miles from the main island. Was it landed on the runaway Sawyer and Kate were forced to build early in season 3? I couldn't tell by the shots of the plane in this episode, but I believe that to be the case.


But as with every episode of LOST, we got more questions then answers:

A question I had at the end of the episode was whether or not seeing the 316ers meant that they were the people who attacked Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Faraday, and Charlotte on their way to The Orchid. One major hint was that the boats on the beach were the exact same as the ones they used, meaning that at in some point in the future, the 316ers will be coming to the Island!

Another question was how come Ben and Locke (and presumably Sun, Sayid, and Lapidus) haven't time skipped? We can assume they haven't because Caesar asks Locke why some of the passengers simply disappeared ("big curly haired dude was gone"). Maybe Ben hasn't travelled because he's supposed to be with The Others who haven't been time skipping - the same explanation could be applied to Locke who is, as far as we know, the current leader of the Others.

More information on this episode, including a full episode synopsis, transcript, trivia, and bloopers, can be found here at Lostpedia.com.

Next week's episode, "LaFleur," airs on Wednesday night at 8 pm. A promo for the episode can be seen here. Who is the chick in the hood?! I can't wait to find out!

Re-post of Interview with B-Roll - Josh VanOverbeke: Guitar Hero

I originally posted this video last Friday, but I am re-posting it because it kind of got buried by my subsequent posts.

This is my edit of the Inteview with B-Roll project. Kyle Halgerson and Josh Chilson were my group members for this project.

I want to thank Josh VanOverbeke for agreeing to be interviewed for this project and for his great ideas. He and I had a great time and shared many laughs while filming this video. Josh is a good friend of mine and really is the best Guitar Hero player I've ever seen, as well as one of the top players in the world. He is very humble, however, and his "character" in this video is just a personality parody.

I made the two fun pictures that pop up in the video using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0. I am not very good at Photoshop, but I had fun making them.

I shot over 15 minutes of footage for this project, so I may be including some fun "deleted scenes" in a future blog post!

The music used in this video is "Out Of My Way" from freeplaymusic.com.

YES! Arrested Development Movie in 2010!

Arrested Development is a comedy that ran on Fox for three seasons from 2003 to 2006. It is my opinion, and an opinion shared by millions of fans, that Arrested Development is the best series ever to be canceled. The series finale hinted at the possibility of a movie continuation of the story, and fans have been clamoring for one ever since.



Early last year, rumors of a movie gained some credibility when stars Jeffrey Tambor, Jason Bateman, and Will Arnett confirmed that they had spoken to the show's creator Mitchell Hurwitz and were in the planning stages for the film. Since then the entire cast has expressed their interest in reprising their roles, with one major exception: Michael Cera.

According to Wikipedia's Arrested Development entry, in a National Post article from August 29, 2008, Michael Cera was quoted as saying he hasn't heard anything about an Arrested Development movie and is not interested in making one, remarking, "I don't think I would want to see a movie of the series if I was a fan, anyway." "And I don't really see a need for it if you can get the three seasons on DVD."

A few weeks later in a SpoutBlog interview Cera elaborated, "We’re not in production and I haven’t read a script. I know Jason (Bateman) wants to, and I don’t know if Mitch (Hurwitz) wants to. But, I would only want to be a part of it if it was going to be good. Because, it's good to end on a high note, I think, and go out with a bang and leave the winning war. That’s just my instinct. I don’t think it would be worth doing unless it was going to live up to the expectation that might come with it."

Many fans were disappointed with Cera's apparent lack of enthusiasm with the film project. But now for the good news!: E! Online is reporting that Cera is now onboard for the project! What changed? Did pressure from the fans get to him? Was more money offered? Whatever the case, it is great to hear that everyone is now set to get this film made! Shooting is scheduled to start by the end of the year, with the film set to hit theaters sometime in 2010.

Crazy 16943 TV Concept

Are you ever annoyed by black bars on the sides of your TV when watching a 4:3 (or full-frame) DVD on a widescreen TV or when watching a widescreen 16:9 DVD on a 4:3 screen? Personally, it has never bothered me, but if it bothers you, a new "16943" may be just the solution you're looking for.



Studio FRST is the company designing the TV, but I found no word on a planned release date.

I found this story in an article on Gizmodo.com, which states that:
"This concept is obviously completely impractical due to the non-rectangular nature of the glass it would require, but you've got to admire the cleverness of the whole thing. If you're watching 16:9 video, it fills the entire screen horizontally, only leaving the little bottom nub black. 4:3 video fills the entire thing vertically, leaving the hanger on the side black."

Personally, I'd rather have two black bars occasionally rather than one constant black bar. It's a crazy concept, but I always enjoy discovering new technologies that venture to think outside the box, quite literally in this case.

Netflix Streaming: Watch Great Movies and Great TV Shows Instantly

Other than LOST, my favorite TV show would have to be The Office on NBC. I've seen every episode of this hilarious show more times than I can count! Best of all, every episode of The Office, seasons 1 - 4, can be viewed instantly on a computer or an Xbox 360 through the Netflix Watch Instantly feature.



Netflix Streaming is something that I use every day through my Xbox 360. With thousands of movies and hundreds of TV shows, I think that it is a great alternative to cable, especially for college students. I subscribe to the $8.99 monthly plan, which allows for unlimited streaming, as well as 1 DVD at a time unlimited through the mail.

According to an article I found on money.cnn.com, Netflix is considering offering a streaming-only service. I would be all for this plan, but according to this article, customers would be "spending $9.99 a month for an Internet streaming-only service." That doesn't seem to make much sense to me, considering that I am now paying $8.99 a month for unlimited steaming PLUS DVDs!

Nevertheless, whatever Netflix decides to do, the streaming service is a great innovation in the way we are able to watch movies and TV shows.

I have 488 movies and TV shows in my Watch Instantly Queue right now because I just add anything that looks interesting!

Some movies available to stream now that I would recommend include: Man on Wire, The King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters, The Illusionist, A Christmas Story, Superbad, Primer, Confessions of a Superhero, The Lookout, That Thing You Do, Cool Hand Luke, The Professional, Reign Over Me, Best in Show, Ratatouille, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, The Boondock Saints, The Pixar Story, The Orphanage, No Country for Old Men, The Fugitive, King of California, Back to the Future 1,2,3, Ghostbusters, Scarface, Grindhouse, Spaceballs, The Mask of Zorro, The Time Machine, An Evening with Kevin Smith 1 and 2, Frequency, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, and Casablanca.

Some of the great TV shows available include: The Office (US and UK versions), 30 Rock, Mythbusters, Heroes, CSI, Law and Order, The Twilight Zone, and Friday Night Lights.

Commentary Re-post with Basic Audio

This is my Australian Wildfire Commentary done with Josh Chilson re-posted with basic audio added. The song that I added is fittingly titled "Untameable Fire" from www.freeplaymusic.com. I had more trouble adjusting audio for this clip than I had anticipated, which is the reason why this is being posted on Tuesday, rather than Monday.

Fading the music was not a problem and my audio never approached 0 dB, but getting the audio to fall within the -6 to -12 dB range was difficult. I still feel that the dialogue volume is not high enough, but I think that I have learned from this and now have a better understanding of how to deal with these audio issues in my future videos. Thanks for reading!

"The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" Sneak Peeks and Promos

ABC has released three sneak for this Wednesday's highly-anticipated episode, "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham."

Sneak Peek 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwCAfwEUEOw&feature=channel_page

Sneak Peek 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7t7dm9l03A

Sneak Peek 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERTnf-DW8CA&feature=channel_page

Thanks to DarkUfo for a translation of the Arabic in Sneak Peek 2:
"This is the guy. Go, lift him up. Don't let him move. Take him to the right. Throw him in the car. Be careful. Close the Door."

Based on the title and these sneak peeks, episode seven of season five will be a John Locke (aka Jeremy Bentham)-centric episode. I have always loved Locke's episodes, beginning with the amazing fourth episode of season one, "Walkabout." The ending of that episode is classic LOST, and one of the best scenes in television history.

According to the press release for "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" viewable here, the episode was directed by fan-favorite Jack Bender and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (affectionately known as "Darlton" by the fans). Therefore, Wednesday's episode is season five's most highly anticipated episode thus far. Tune in at 8 pm and enjoy!

70-Year Old Man Shoots TV, Arrested over DTV Transition

40% of the nation's stations transitioned to DTV on the original transition date of February 17th anyway, despite Congress delaying it until June 12th. The DTV transition has frustrated many people across the nation, but an elderly Missouri man took his frustration to the extreme.

Walter Hoover apparently shot his television on Wednesday when he couldn't get his digital converter box to work. Hoover was taken into police custody and charged with unlawful use of a firearm.

Hoover's wife told police that her husband had been drinking before the incident occurred.

I like this quote from the Gizmodo.com article:
"Surprised? You shouldn't be. Violence like this was inevitable. All it takes is mixing one part old man with one part technology, one part handgun and two parts alcohol. Then shake vigorously with an absence of Wheel of Fortune." - haha!



Not Hoover or his wife, but nevertheless a fun picture that made me think of this story!

I first found this story on Gizmodo.com, which linked me to these articles on Kare11 and KSDK.

Atlantis Discovered by Google Earth?!

Is Google covering up the discovery of the lost sunken city of Atlantis? Apparently, a British aeronautical engineer was using the new Google Earth 5.0 software to scan the ocean 600 miles off the coast of Africa, west of the Canary Islands when he discovered what appears to be a street grid pattern.


Atlantis?

I first found this story published by Caroline McCarthy from Cnet News via Digg.com. Google is officially denying the rumors that Atlantis has been discovered, but are they just trying to hide something?

With Google's recent announcement that they will begin extensively mapping the ocean floor, maybe we will get more detailed images of this "grid" soon.

The exact coordinates for this location (which can be seen here on Google Maps) is 31 15'15.53N, 24 15'30.53W.

This is very random, but McCarthy ends her article with fun LOST reference:
"In other news, that pendulum map on last week's Lost was totally awesome."

"316" Thoughts and Theories

Back in season three's final, "Through the Looking Glass," Jack exclaimed, "We have to go back!" and in this week's episode, we saw him do just that.

"316" begins with a shot for shot"eye-opening" sequence that parallels the series' pilot episode:



Jack's eye from the opening shot of the pilot.



Jack's eye from the opening shot of "316."

After the opening scene, we are taken back "36 hours earlier." Eloise Hawking takes Jack, Sun, Ben, and Desmond to The Lamp Post (a reference to the lamp post marking the passage between Narnia and the real world in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis). She explains how The Lamp Post, the first Dharma station we have seen off the island, is how the Dharma Initiative first found the island. She also confirms that the reason the survivors of Oceanic 815 were never rescued is because the island is always moving.

Hawking explains to Jack that there is a narrow window in which she knows the island will be located, but in order to get back there, Ajira flight 316 from L.A. to Guam must be taken. She also gives Jack the suicide note written by John Locke, which we find out later in the episode simply says "Jack, I wish you had believed me. JL."

LOST has always had the occasional religious reference, but this episode's references were more overt. The episode's title, in fact, refers to the John 3:16 verse in the Bible: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John Locke's suicide note stated that he wished Jack had "believed." Also, in the church, Ben tells Jack about Saint Thomas the Apostle from The Gospel of John, who is remembered for his doubt concerning the resurrection of Jesus. Is this perhaps forshadowing the resurrection of John Locke once he is returned to the island? This episode really set up John as a Christ-like figure. Ben leaves the church, telling Jack that he "made a promise to an old friend... just a loose end that needs tying up." Is this referring to the promise he made to kill Penelope Widmore, Charles Widmore's daughter and Desmond's wife? I hate to say it that is so, since her and Desmond are now so happy and have a son, but the next scene in which we see Ben all bruised and bloody suggests that this is probably the case.



Ben makes a call to Jack, mysteriously beaten to a pulp.

Jack, Sun, and Ben make it on board Ajira 316, but so do Kate, Hurley, and Sayid. Is it fate that brought them all back to together on the same flight again? Even Jack questions that, "You don't think this means something? That somehow... we're all back together?" In this episode, Jack seems to have become a believer, from a man of science to a man of faith.



Ajira Flight 316

The connections get even crazier when a clean-shaven Frank Lapidus is revealed to be the flight's pilot. When he exits the cockpit to speak with Jack, Frank sees the rest of the Losties on board and remarks, "We're not going to Guam, are we?" - The best line of the episode!



Lapidus without the Kenny Rogers beard.

The "fasten seatbelts" sign turns on and turbulence increases. The plane is absorbed into a flash of white light and the sound of a time travel flash. The episode then picks up back where it began. Jack runs out of the jungle, rescues Hurley from drowning and finds Kate. The sound of a vehicle with its radio blaring approaches them. A man gets out of a Dharma van and points his gun at the trio. "Dude," remarks a shocked Hurley, "Jin?" Jin in Dharma fatigues lowers his gun as a priceless grin spreads across his face. Cut to LOST.



Dharma Jin

What a great episode! So does this mean that the time flashes stopped when Locke turned the Orchid wheel and that Jin, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, and Faraday (and now apparently at least Kate, Hurley, and Jack and presumably Ben, Sun, and Sayid) are now stuck in the late 70s, in the prime of the Dharma Initiative?! Did Ben kill Penny? And where the heck is Aaron? So many questions!

Here is a link to Lostpedia.com's entry on "316."

There are now only 27 more episodes left in the amazing series that is LOST!

Next Wednesday's episode is titled "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham."

250 DVDs on a Quarter-Sized Device?

I found this article on NBCbayarea.com via Digg.com.

Scientists at UC Berkeley and University of Massachusetts Amherst may have found a way to greatly increase the storage capabilities of electronic devices.

According to John Boitnott's article, Cal officials called the technique "innovative and easily implemented."

"The density achievable with the technology we've developed could potentially enable the contents of 250 DVDs to fit onto the surface the size of a quarter," said co-lead investigator and UC Berkeley assistant professor Ting Xu.

Achieving this technology requires crystals to be heated to between 2.372 and 2,732 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours! In doing so, the scientists were able to create defect-free arrays of nanoscopic elements with feature sizes as small as 3 nanometers, translating into densities of 10 terabits per square inch.

I don't even think that I own 250 DVDs, but this technology sounds amazing! An entire TV series could be saved onto something the size of a dime! But this technology will go far beyond DVDs and will factor into the way we store information on all types of electronic devices. I think that there will probably be, however, many more years of research before we see this technology become a part of our lives.

A joint patent on this technology has been filed by UC Berkeley and University of Massachusetts Amherst. The article also states that the U.S Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation helped support the research on this project.

A bit more about Digg.com:

Digg is a site that I visit about everyday. What's great about it is that everything featured on the site, whether it be news, images, or videos, is submitted by the site's users. The number of people "digging" what they like determines whether or not it will make it to the site's front page. Most of the material featured on the site is technology or media related.

Interview with B-Roll - Josh VanOverbeke: Guitar Hero

This is my edit of the Inteview with B-Roll project.  Kyle Halgerson and Josh Chilson were my group members for this project.

I want to thank Josh VanOverbeke for agreeing to be interviewed for this project and for his great ideas.  He and I had a great time and shared many laughs while filming this video.  Josh is a good friend of mine and really is the best Guitar Hero player I've ever seen, as well as one of the top players in the world.  He is very humble, however, and his "character" in this video is just a personality parody.

I made the two fun pictures that pop up in the video using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0.  I am not very good at Photoshop, but I had fun making them.  

I shot over 15 minutes of footage for this project, so I may be including some fun "deleted scenes" in a future blog post.  

The music used in this video is "Out Of My Way" from freeplaymusic.com.

"316" Sneak Peeks

ABC has released two sneak peeks for episode 6 "316" airing this Wednesday at 8 pm.

Sneak Peek #1: Jack and Zombie Kate

Sneak Peek #2: The Lamp Post

The first sneak peek has a creepy quality to it.  Kate has clearly done something with Aaron that has made her cry.  Did she kill him?  Did she give him to Claire's mother?  And why does she kiss Jack so passionately?  That's not exactly a romantic moment!

The second sneak peek features a lot of suspenseful walking!  It is great scene, however, because it reveals the first Dharma station that we have seen off the island.  The Lamp Post will clearly show our Losties how to get back to the island.

More information, transcripts, and screencaps from these scenes can be found on DarkUFO's website here and here.

Digital Delay? Not For All.

I jolted awake this morning at 7 am to the sound of my cell phone blaring in my ear.  My mom was calling me in a panic.  Today, ABC's local affiliate, KSFY, transitioned to their digital signal.  KSFY is one of the only two TV channels we receive at home (we have never had cable TV!), so she was understandably concerned.  

I walked her through how to set up the conversion box and navigate through the on-screen menus.  This was difficult over the phone, and she is not very good with technology (sorry mom!) so it took awhile!  I was confused and wondered why the transition had taken place.  I thought that President Obama and Congress had pushed back the transition date from February 17th to June 12th, so hopped onto gizmodo.com and consumerist.com to investigate.  Apparently, 641 stations nationwide are transitioning to digital today anyway, but mostly in small, rural markets.

Some urban areas are also transitioning, however.  From the AP, via consumerist.com, "The most populous markets where many or all major-network stations are cutting analog include San Diego and Santa Barbara, Calif.; Providence, R.I.; La Crosse and Madison, Wis.; Rockford, Ill.; Sioux City, Iowa; Waco, Texas; Macon, Ga.; Scranton, Pa.; and Burlington, Vt."

More information can be found at these links from Gizmodo and Consumerist.

IBM Takes The Red Pill

Ever wanted the ability to dodge bullets like Neo in The Matrix, but pesky science got in the way?  Well, IBM has some good news for you!  

According to an article on Gizmodo.com, "believe it or not, IBM has filed for a patent on tech that heightens our reflexes so that we could, theoretically, dodge bullets like Neo in The Matrix.  This "Bionic Body Armor" would continuously scan the area for incoming projectiles. If one is detected, the system would deliver a shock to the muscles causing a swift, reflexive action away from the bullet."



"The present invention relates generally to the protection of an individual against a projectile propelled from a firearm. More particularly, the present invention relates to a body armor system and its method of use that is capable of detecting a projectile propelled from a firearm, computing the trajectory of the projectile, and moving the individual out of the path of the projectile to avoid being hit."

How cool is that?!  Sure the possibility of torn muscles and extreme whiplash seems very real, but still, how cool is that?! Very little specific details are now available, but I can't wait until more information on this is released!  

Click here for a link to the U.S. patent for the "Bionic body armor."

Numbers Transmission Voice: Hurley?

In this week's episode "This Place is Death" we heard the loop of a voice repeating the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42 over and over again picked up by the French science team on the island back in 1988.  While watching the episode, I thought that the voice sounded a bit familiar, so I went back, watched it again, recorded the audio of the transmission, and made this little video to demonstrate why I believe that it is Hurley's voice repeating the numbers:

My theory is that once Hurley gets back to the island with the rest of the Oceanic Six, he will eventually record the numbers at the radio tower in the past.  The rest will play out as normal: The numbers will be overheard by Leonard and Sam Toomey when they were in the Navy.  Hurley will then get the numbers from Leonard in the mental hospital and use them to win the lottery.  Thus, Hurley is the cause of his own time loop, similar to the Locke-Richard-Compass loop.  That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it!

Joaquin Phoenix on David Letterman, Kind of

Joaquin Phoenix, star of Walk the Line and two-time Academy Award nominee, announced a few months back that he was retiring from acting to focus on his music career.  Last night, Phoenix was on David Letterman to promote one of his final films, Two Lovers, that was made a few years ago, but is only now being released.  

Phoenix was unresponsive for part of the interview, while giving one word answers for other questions.  The audience's nervous laughter obviously anger's Phoenix at times, and some of Dave's responses are classic, including ending the interview with, "Joaquin, I'm sorry you couldn't be here tonight." - HAHA!

Was it a joke?  Was he on drugs?  Whatever the reason, it was awkward to say the least, but don't have to take my word for it, check out highlights (or lowlights?) of the interview here.

"This Place is Death" Thoughts and Theories

So much happened in this episode that it is hard to wrap my mind around it all, but I guess that is the case with every episode of LOST!  This episode just seemed to fly by very quickly!

The episode began with Sun speaking to her daughter, Ji Yeon, who we get to see for the first time (she's adorable!).  Sun mentions that she has a new friend for Ji Yeon in America as the camera pans over to Aaron in the back seat.  I think that this is hinting at something in the future of the show, and I have a crazy theory that I am going to throw out there now: Ji Yeon and Aaron are the skeletons ("Adam and Eve") found in the caves by Jack and Kate in season one!

Back on the island, Jin and the French crew get attacked by Smokie, which latches on to Montand and pulls him along the ground towards a vent in the ground, much like it did to Locke in the final episode of season one.  Jin and the rest of the crew grab on to Montand, but Smokie yanks him down, and we finally get to see how Montand lost his arm!

Jin then flashes ahead a couple of months through time.  Montand's severed arm ages, and Jin finds two bodies of the French crew on the beach.  He also witnesses the standoff between Danielle and Robert that she would later describe to our Losties sixteen years later.

The reunion of Sawyer and Jin in the next scene was fantastic because it was good to see these characters happy once again, at least for a moment.  The flashes through time become more severe for the Losties as they approach the Orchid station, and even Sawyer begins to be affected, evident by his bloody nose.  Charlotte becomes unresponsive and unable to walk and then appears to time traveling through her mind, much like Desmond and George did in season four's episode "The Constant."  As the rest of the Losties continue to Orchid, Faraday and Charlotte share what may have been the episode's most eerie scene:

Charlotte:  "I've been here before... I grew up here, on the island... and then I moved away with my mom, just my mom, and I never saw my dad again.  And then when I got back to England, I would ask my mom about this place, but she would say that it wasn't real and that I'd made it up.  That's why I became an anthropologist, to find this island again.  It's what I've been searching for my whole life."

Faraday:  "Charlotte, why are you telling me this?"

Charlotte:  "Because I remember something now.  When I was little, living here, there was this man, a crazy man, he really scared me, and he told me that I had to leave the island and never, ever come back.  He told me that if I came back, I would die."

Faraday:  "Charlotte, I don't understand..."

Charlotte:  "Daniel, I think that man was you!"

Shortly after this scene, Charlotte dies.  I think that the first scene we saw this season, the one of Faraday in the past on the island, was of him attempting to save Charlotte's life, even though the past apparently cannot be changed.  This would explain why Charlotte remembered him speaking to her when she was a little girl.

At the Orchid, Jin gives Locke his wedding ring, telling him to give it to Sun once he is off the island as proof that he is dead.  He does this so that Sun and Ji Yeon will not come back to the island he believes is dangerous.  As Locke is climbing down into the Orchid's well, a time flash occurs and causes him to fall.  He breaks his leg, and the bone punctures the skin.  This was another graphic scene in an already graphic episode (Montand's severed arm, Robert shot in the head, and now this!).  

Back off the island, Ben gives Sun Jin's ring to prove that he is alive (which gave us the above screenshot, reminisent of a shot from The Lord of the Rings).  Desmond shows up and asks Jack, Sun, and Ben what they are doing there.  It was cool to see him and Ben speak to one another for the first time.  Ben seemed to be surprised to find out that Eloise Hawking is Faraday's mother, which is odd because he is usually aware of every little detail.

I will discuss other parts of this episode further in my next post.

"This Place is Death" Sneak Peeks

ABC has released two sneak peeks to the press for this week's episode "This Place is Death."

Sneak Peek #1: Sun vs. Ben

Sneak Peek #2: Jin vs. Smokie

I have a theory on the second sneak peak:

At the end of the scene, all of the Frenchies are in contact with Jin as they are trying to save Montand.  I think that a flash will occur and because they are in contact with Jin, the Frenchies will also travel through time, similar to what happens to the outrigger when it is contact with Locke, Sawyer, and the others.  

I bet that think this will be what causes the sickness to "infect" the crew.  They will probably start to get nosebleeds like the others and appear to be sick and crazy.  There is just one big flaw with this theory: I still don't know how Danielle avoids the symptoms.

Thanks to Doc Arzt's Lost Blog at www.docarzt.com and campetin on youtube for links to the sneak peeks.

Sawyer's Top Nicknames from TV Guide

TV Guide has published a fun article featuring the best nicknames dished out by our favorite castaway con-man, Sawyer.  My favorite is "Mr. Clean" for Locke.  Check it out:

Lost is back, and with it an exciting new season of Sawyer nicknames. The former con man kicked things off right, dropping a few gems in the first two hours of the season: "Dr. Wizard" for Faraday, "Ginger" for Charlotte, "Frogurt" for Neil and even "The Ghost of Christmas Future" for himself. As we eagerly await Ol' Scruffy's next instant classic, here's a look our favorites to date.



11. "Freckles"
For: Kate
Explanation: This one gets a nod simply because of the sheer volume of its usage. Plus, this pet name is endearing, which we can't say for most of the others.
Honorable Mentions: "Sassafrass," "Shortcake"

10. "Genghis"
For: Miles Straume
Explanation: Sawyer doesn't shy away from the easy references, and ethnicity is usually his first line of attack. Case in point: this reference to Mongolian ruler Genghis Khan. Sawyer's also referred to Miles as "Bruce Lee from the Freighter" and "Donger," a play off of Sixteen Candles' Long Duk Dong.

9. "Kenny Rogers"
For: Frank Lapidus, the Freighter Folk's chopper pilot
Explanation: A simple look-alike gag, but it had us rolling.
Honorable Mention: Shaggy

8. "Jackass"
For: Jack
Explanation: Get it? His name is Jack, and Sawyer's calling him an ass. The clever devil.
Honorable Mentions: "Cool Hand", "Dr. Do-Right," "Dr. Giggles," "Amarillo Slim"

7. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
For: Jin and Sun Kwon
Explanation: While again ethnically based, this nickname is also indicative of Sawyer's extensive knowledge of high and low culture. He frequently references Star Wars and classic literature. In this case, we think he was just hoping for subtitles to Jin and Sun's conversation.
Honorable Mentions: "Papa-San" (Jin); "Tokyo Rose" (Sun)

6. "Rambina"
For: Ana Lucia
Explanation: Tough as nails, she was one of the few women on the island to match Sawyer's surliness. Her fearless, cavalier approach earned her the name.
Honorable Mentions: "Hot Lips," "Ana LuLu," "Cupcake"

5. "Skeletor"
For: Roger Linus's skeleton
Explanation: Okay, totally obvious. But Sawyer was drunk. On who-knows-how-old Dharma Initiative beer. Still, funny.

4. "Mr. Clean"
For: Locke
Explanation: We're big fans of this one, and wouldn't you know it, executive producer Damon Lindelof says it's his overall favorite. "It felt particularly witty, considering Sawyer had used up most of his 'bald' jokes at that point," Lindelof said. "He proved ever-resourceful."
Honorable Mentions: "Cue Ball," "Brutus," "Colonel Kurtz"

3. "Captain Bunny Killer"
For: Ben
Explanation: One of Sawyer's most literal nicknames: Only days earlier, Ben had "killed" a rabbit to scare Sawyer into submission.
Honorable Mentions: "Yoda," "Gizmo," "Bug-eyed Bastard"

2. "Stay Puft"
For: Hurley
Explanation: Hugo has been on the receiving end of Sawyer's quick wit more than any other survivor, and once revoked Sawyer's nicknaming privileges by beating him at ping pong. Unfortunately for Hurley, Sawyer falls back on physical appearances even more often than ethnicity.
Honorable Mentions: "Three Men and a Baby" (with Charlie and Aaron, counting Hurley twice), "Deep Dish," "Jabba," "Snuffy," "Jumbotron," "International House of Pancakes"

1. "Captain Falafel"
For: Sayid
Explanation: Just as Hurley is the main recipient of fat jokes, Sayid gets the most racist comments. The once-and-future assassin did torture Sawyer only a few days after they met, but still, not cool. Of course, Sayid seems to take a sticks-and-stones attitude to the whole thing.
Honorable Mentions: "Red Beret," "Al Jazeera," "Captain A-rab"

Source: TV Guide

Video Blog 2: Commentary

This is my second video blog for MCOM Intro to Digital Production 225.  It is brief commentary on the recent Australian wildfires.  My partner for this assignment was Josh Chilson.  It was fun to work with him on this project because he had many great ideas, including the topic itself.  I was surprised at how quickly we were able to write the "script" and get it filmed.  

I had a great time filming the scenes and coming up with fun ideas, such as filming near fire related objects.  The editing took a bit longer to complete than I had anticipated, but now I feel that I have a much better understanding of how to add transitions, titles, and lower-third text IDs.

Entertainment Weekly LOST Cover, Article, and Videos

Entertainment Weekly writer and fellow LOST fan Jeff Jensen has written a great and extensive 6-page article on the show that can be found here and in the magazine's February 13th issue.

Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly

In the article, Jensen dicusses the risks LOST is taking by introducing sci-fi elements into its storylines.  He also explains how the show's producers believe these risks will ultimately pay off and reward long-time fans of the series with the answers that they have been eagerly anticipating.

Three videos of the magazine's photoshoot were also released.  They are fun and reveal how Fox and Lilly feel about the show.  Check them out at the links below:

Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly on nearing the end of "LOST"

Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly on Sci-Fi in "LOST"

Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly on Jack & Kate vs. Sawyer & Kate

"The Little Prince" Thoughts and Theories

Wednesday's episode of LOST, "The Little Prince" was very good.  The first half of the episode was slow, but the rest of the show more than made up for it.

The characters on the island are flashed to November 1, 2004.  They see the hatch light on the night that Boone died, and Sawyer witnesses Kate helping Claire give birth to Aaron.  These scenes were cool for long time fans of the show, and emotionally important to Sawyer's character, but they didn't really seem to further the story.

They then flash to sometime in 2005 or beyond, which is the future for them.  The survivor's camp is back, but it is deserted, and two canoes are located on the beach.  A water bottle for Ajira Airlines is found in one of them.  Is this the airline that the Oceanic 6 use to get back to the island?  

Sawyer, Locke, Juliet, Dan, Miles, and Charlotte take one of the canoes and, while heading around the island to the Orchid station, are attacked by pursuers in the other canoe.  We do not see who these people are, but we do see that Juliet shoots one of them.  So who are these people?  Are they the Oceanic 6, and if so, why are they shooting at the time travelers and who did Juliet shoot?  Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, off the island, Kate faces the possiblity of loosing Aaron.  Most of the Oceanic 6 and Ben, with the exception of Hurley, are reunited by the end of the episode.  Throughout the episode, Sun and her gun seem dead set on confronting Ben.  I have a theory on this: in a scene that we will see in a future episode, off-island Locke tells Sun that Ben is the reason why the freighter exploded, apparently killing Jin.  That is why she is so set on killing Ben.

And speaking of Jin, he is not dead!  The episode's big ending reveal featured a young 1988 Danielle Rousseau and her French science expedition team finding Jin adrift in the ocean and landing on the island.  Poor Jin must be so confused!  He doesn't speak French, barely speaks English, and now he appears to be in the past!  It looks like fans will finally get Rousseau's long awaited backstory in next week's episode!



And something else I noticed:

- "Canton Rainer," the name on the side of Ben's van, is an anagram for "reincarnation."  -- I think this is probably forshadowing what will happen to Locke once his body is returned to the island, much in the same way that the body of Jack's dad was apparently reincarnated, or at the very least, resurrected.  

A promo for next week's episode "This Place is Death" can be found here.