Tuesday, January 27, 2009

BLOOP!

Spoiler Alert: Please do not read this unless you have seen both "Because You Left" and "The Lie". Thanks.

Six days after the LOST Season 5 premiere event and my head is still spinning.

Wow. Just wow.

I love that the season opened with a shot of an old-school alarm clock - it's 8:15 AM! Then our favourite Dharma Initiative orientation film star, Dr Pierre Chang, the man with the many aliases went through his morning rituals - feeding his baby, showering, shaving, brushing his teeth, and playing some Willie Nelson on the old turntable. The fact that the record started skipping on the line, "can't make a record if you..." probably foreshadowed Daniel Faraday's analogy later in the episode.

We learnt that The Arrow is station #2 and was designed to develop "defensive strategies" and to "gather intelligence on the hostile indigenous population" - that is, the Hostiles. I wonder what exactly kind of work Horace Goodspeed was doing there before he was killed in the Purge? Hmmm...

And then the incident at the construction site of The Orchid set the tone for the episode, and probably for the rest of the season and series. Did y'all see the frozen donkey wheel on the sonar printout? And then my favourite physicist disguised as a construction worker walks in! Dan looked troubled and/or worried. I wonder why... And why did he seem to be hiding from Dr Chang?

Then we saw what happened to the LOSTies when Ben moved the Island: the Left Behinds were transported to the time before the beach camp was even built! Also, the burning freighter disappeared from Juliet and Sawyer's views; on the other hand, from the Oceanic 6, Desmond, and Frank's perspectives, the Island, the Hydra Island, and the freighter all disappeared. I wonder what happened to the burning freighter: was it transported to a different time, or did it sink?

Locke, on the other hand, was left alone - he was previously seen talking with Richard Alpert - in the middle of the jungle, where it was raining. As he walked through the jungle, he spotted a yellow plane - as in the Nigerian plane that was very important to our dearly departed fake priest Mr Eko - crashing and ending up where he and Boone found it in "Deus Ex Machina". Then Ethan fired at least a few shots at him, one of which hits his leg. He knew Ethan, but the Others' former surgeon did not know Locke. Then there was another flash several years into the future. Richard found Locke and treated his bullet wound even if Locke never told him about it! Then we learnt that Richard Alpert knew that the Oceanic 6, Desmond, and Frank were back home. He also gave Locke a compass - similar to the one he showed a young John in "Cabin Fever" - and told Locke to return it to him because the Ageless Wonder would not recognize Locke when he next sees him! Guess what? Richard Alpert also told Locke that, in order to save the Island, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun, Hurley, and Aaron need to go back to the Island. In order to do that, Locke's gonna have to die! Then a flash, and Locke was alone, holding the compass that Richard gave him.

At least, we have an idea what was happening to the Island. I think. Daniel Faraday told the Left Behinds that what was happening to the Island is similar to a record skipping - just like the Willie Nelson vinyl record at the beginning of the episode. According to him, whatever whoever (Ben, actually) did dislodged them from time. Either the Island or the people on it - the Left Behinds - are moving through time.

There it is: time travel. Damon Lindelof had said in an interview with The Star-Ledger that time travel has been in the DNA of the show from the very beginning. The first obvious occurrence of time travel in the series was in "Flashes Before Your Eyes," where Desmond travelled to the past after turning the fail-safe key. But is it really the first episode with obvious time-travel elements? Hmmm... Don't know yet. But if I were a betting woman, I'd say it's not.

Anyway, Sawyer, Juliet, and the rest of the survivors asked Daniel if they could do anything to change things. What did Dan say? That they cannot change anything in the past. "Even if you tried to, it wouldn't ever work," Faraday insisted. He used a street as another analogy: Time is like a street - we can move forward and in reverse, but we cannot make a new street. He also mentioned that he had been learning about the Dharma Initiative all his adult life. Why? Anyway, he said that they cannot stop it. Sawyer asked who can, but Daniel did not answer him.

Later, we learnt that Desmond is the only one who can help the Left Behinds, because he is "special - uniquely and mysteriously special". Daniel told him to go to Oxford and find his mother. He was going to tell him her name, but another flash interrupted Daniel.

Desmond woke up beside Penny, who was now presumably his wife. A normal person would call that a dream, but the uniquely and mysteriously special Desmond called it a memory!

Wait a minute. Who is Daniel's mother? Is it Ms Hawking, as some online theorists and bloggers have posed? Is it Annie? Is it someone we haven't seen before?

Anyway, I'm worried about Charlotte. Her nose started bleeding, she was having a "bloody" headache, and she could not remember her mother's maiden name - symptoms of lack-of-constant syndrome. Minkowski and Desmond experienced the same symptoms (except the headache). The former died because he did not have an anchor, a constant - someone or something that exists in both past and the future, and that the traveller deeply cares about and could recognise; the latter did have one - Penny. Who is Charlotte's constant? Will she be able to contact or recognise her constant before anything happens to her? Is she in mortal trouble??? I hope not.

Later on, when they were all back at the beach (non) camp, the survivors were freaking out about the lack of supplies. The most notable of these are Rose, Bernard, and Neil Frogurt. The latter started to lose it, especially when nobody could even make fire! And then he was hit by a flaming arrow. Whatta way to die. More flaming arrows attack the Left Behinds, and several more redshirts die. When enough redshirts are dead, a few military men with British accent demands what Juliet, Sawyer, et cetera, were doing in their island! They threatened to cut off Juliet's hand, but Locke saved her life by throwing a knife into the back of one man. Then the tables were turned - Juliet and Sawyer grabbed the Brit blokes' guns and pointed the firearms at the Brits.

Well, that's it for what happened on the Island during the two-hour premiere - "Because You Left" and "The Lie". Next post would be about the off-Island events. Hopefully I'd get to finish everything by 20:00 tomorrow. Haha.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

More Unresolved Mysteries and Questions for Season 5

We all know that LOST is the kind of show that poses several questions for every mystery that it answers. I did not find a relevant article that posed the pre-Season 4 questions, so I did not do a recap like I did for Season 3.

I found this article from Yahoo! Canada, which posed five major questions that may be answered at the end of Season 5.

  1. What happened to the Island?
  2. How does Locke become Jeremy Bentham?
  3. What's going on with Widmore and Ben?
  4. Who the heck is Jacob?
  5. What happened to Claire, Jin, and Michael?

What happened to the Island?

In the season-4 finale, "Other" boss Ben (Michael Emerson) turned a frozen wheel and - poof! - made the island disappear, along with Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) and other "Lost"-aways; the Oceanic Six fled on a helicopter. Ben - landing in North Africa - aimed to protect the island from arch-nemesis Charles Widmore (Alan Dale), who seeks to control it. The show has been exploring the space-time continuum, and that theme will be heightened this season in the search for the island.

Based on filming reports, cast interviews, and hints, it is very probable that the Island moved both in time and in space. Where it went is still unclear even with spoilers, but it is possible that the Island moved to the DHARMA Initiative heydays. Team Darlton has mentioned that Season 5 is about the DHARMA Initiative, whose members were killed in The Purge. Any ideas on where the Island moved?


How does Locke become Jeremy Bentham?

The cliffhanger revealed that Locke was "Jeremy Bentham." Under that alias, he apparently died after visiting Jack and some others who left the island with troubling news: They need go back. While visiting Locke's casket, a cryptic Ben tells Jack they must rally his fellow crash survivors - and return with Locke's lifeless body. Lucky for Jack, Ben always has a secret plan. Emerson tells New York magazine his bug-eyed alter ego will "carry on what seems to be his calling or his life's work or his war, whatever it is - I'm not sure exactly what it is." But it includes orchestrating a survivors' reunion.

I have no idea! But speaking of Locke, EW's Doc Jeff Jensen has a theory that is plausible and makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't be surprised if his theory turned out to be correct.

What's going on with Widmore and Ben?

Widmore is the wealthy industrialist who staged the fake plane crash of Oceanic 815 and ordered a team of mercenaries on a mission to find the island and kill everyone on it. Widmore and Ben appear to have a deep-seeded rivalry, deepened further after Widmore's agents murdered Ben's daughter in cold blood. Off the island, Ben recruited Oceanic Six survivor Sayid (Naveen Andrews) as an assassin; he also dropped by Widmore's home in the wee hours, vowing to kill his daughter as revenge. Whatever game they're playing, it has rules - and Ben says Widmore has broken them. One possible rule: Widmore and Ben cannot kill each other. That would be a very Harry Potter/Voldemort-esque plot twist.

My theory is that Widmore is either a descendant of Magnus Hanso or one of the original Hostiles. Either way, he was forced to move the Island and is, therefore, banished from it. Of course, this theory is based on Widmore's declarations in the last scene of episode 4x09, "The Shape of Things to Come" ("I know who you are, boy. What you are. I know that everything you have you took from me," and "That island's mine, Benjamin. It always was. It will be again."). But I don't think Widmore would say those if they were baseless, would he?


Who the heck is Jacob?

We've never seen Jacob, though he seems to be the all-knowing island messiah. The shadowy character lives in a creaky cabin that moves around a lot, hates technology and has communicated to the Others through Ben. Last season, Ben brought Locke to the cabin; Locke could not see Jacob but heard him say, "Help me." After Widmore's men stormed the barracks, Ben and Locke visited Jacob again - this time, Jacob spoke to Locke through a representative, Jack's ghost-daddy Christian (John Terry), who said to move the island. Ben, sensing that he'd been replaced by Locke, did the deed and peaced out. As far as we can tell, Jacob has unknown powers, dead people for friends and a cabin fever that keeps him locked in. Online theories abound: Is Jacob an ancient supercomputer, a divine entity, a superhuman being? Expect the unexpected, and expect to see more of him this season.

All I know is that we would see Jacob's likeness in some way. We may probably see more of him in Season 5. It is actually hard to tell because we've seen very little of him. Right now, I don't subscribe to any theory regarding Jacob. Let's wait and see.


What happened to Claire, Jin, and Michael?

Claire (Emilie de Ravin), who we recently learned is Jack's half-sister, seemed to survive a house fire - but then things got weird. She walked off in the jungle with her (un)dead father Christian. The next time we see them, she's in the shack with Jacob, acting creepy. As for Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Michael (Harold Perrineau), they presumably died on the freighter when it exploded. In an earlier flash-forward, Jin's wife, Sun, was shown at his memorial in Korea. Some bloggers speculate he'll turn up in early episodes, dead or alive, this season. If he perished in the blast, maybe we'll see him cavorting with Jacob, Christian and other ghost people.

Michael is definitely dead. In Season 4, he told Sayid that he was on the freighter to die. Before the freighter exploded, our favourite Undead Daddy Christian Shephard told him, "You can go now," which presumably meant that the Island is letting him die (he has attempted to kill himself several times after he returned to Manhattan). However, being dead on LOST doesn't mean that the character will never be seen again, right?

Claire and Jin's fates, on the other hand, are not so definite. Claire may or may not have died when an RPG destroyed her house in the Barracks. Mistaking Sawyer for Charlie when she came to and ghostbuster Miles's behaviour toward her make it difficult for the audience to tell what really happened to her. It is also baffling that Claire left her son Aaron in the middle of the jungle and her demeanour in Jacob's cabin is not helping either. I think I'll have to wait and see.

Jin seemed to die when the freighter exploded. He may have jumped into the ocean just before the freighter blew up; he may not have. But as I mentioned before, I think Sun would have a stronger motivation to go back to the Island if Jin is indeed alive. I did see something on one of the Dharma Special Access videos that may validate my theory (i.e. that Jin is alive). Either way, he will appear on Season 5 - based on rumours and filming reports anyway. But I still maintain the belief that Jin is alive!

Well, there you go. Hopefully, at least one of these questions will be answered by the end of Season 5. After the season finale, I will go back and recap any answers that the show gave for these questions.

Incidentally, LOST blogger Jopinionated just posted an extensive list of theories and questions for each character. Check it out, y'all! Apparently, "extensive" is an understatement. Hehehe...

LOST Season 5 begins in two days! Remember, it starts with a recap show at 8/7 central on ABC. The season premiere, "Because You Left," begins at 9, followed by episode 5x02, "The Lie".

I can't wait!!!

Friday, January 16, 2009

My Life Would Suck Without... The Official Release Date!

The official iTunes release date for Kelly Clarkson's new single, "My Life Would Suck Without You," has finally been released!

I previously reported it as 13th of January, but it turned out to be the add date for radio. Then, yesterday, I received the official newsletter, which said that the single will be available on iTunes on 20 January 2009. So, I was off by a week. Hehe... Here are the actual words on the newsletter if y'all don't believe me:

"My Life Would Suck Without You"
Available on iTunes starting Tuesday 1/20!

For some weird reason, the single release date is not found on the official website. But at least, there's now an official release date for the song on iTunes.

Thank God!

That means, next Tuesday would be very busy and eventful for me. Aside from the craziness at work, these will happen on that day:

  1. US President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration;
  2. The return of Fringe; and
  3. The iTunes release date of "My Life Would Suck Without You"!

Oh, yeah!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

My New Favourite YouTube Video Is...

... The audio for "My Life Would Suck Without You"!!!



Hahahaha!!!

Since the song was only released to radio today and not to iTunes (neither US nor Canadian store - I checked!), I gotta find another way to hear the entire song. So I went to Kelly Clarkson's official website to get info on when the single will be available. And I found the aforementioned video. Hah!

I think I'm gonna have to re-install iMesh to get an mp3 of this song, just so I can listen to it on a loop. Hahahahahahahaha!!!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Update on "My Life Would Suck Without You" Release Date

Kelly Clarkson herself revealed when her single "My Life Would Suck Without You" will be released to radio: 13 January 2009.

Her Friday blog post title alone told the tale. And then she went on to say this:


"i think it’s 4 more days and my first single drops at radio and i’m super super pumped!!"


Yay!!! I can't wait!!!

"My Life Would Suck Without You" Lyrics Released!!!

The song has not even been released to radio, but Kelly Clarkson has already shared the lyrics of her new single, "My Life Would Suck Without You" to AOL's PopEater.

Here it is:


"My Life Would Suck Without You"
Written by Max Martin, Dr Luke, Claude Kelly
From the album All I Ever Wanted (2009)


Guess this means you're sorry
You're standing at my door
Guess this means you take back
What you said before
Like how much you wanted
Anyone but me
Said you'd never come back
But here you are again

Cuz we belong together now
Forever united here somehow
You got a piece of me
And honestly
My life would suck without you

Maybe I was stupid for telling you goodbye
Maybe I was wrong for tryin' to pick a fight
I know that I've got issues
But you're pretty messed up too
Anyway, I found out I'm nothing without you

Cuz we belong together now
Forever united here somehow
You got a piece of me
And honestly
My life would suck without you

Being with you is so dysfunctional
I really shouldn't miss you, but I can't let go
Oh yeah


Oohhhhhh! Interesting lyrics...! I'm feeling the words!

Anyway, you can also listen to a snippet of the song on PopEater. Enjoy!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

One More Kell Bell For Y'all...

In other Kelly Clarkson news, Kara DioGuardi praised my favourite American Idol:

DioGuardi says she loved working with inaugural "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson, calling her "feisty" and a singer who can handle any song.

Oh, yeah.

Kara DioGuardi has written several songs with Kell Bell: "Gone," "Where Is Your Heart," "Walk Away," "You Found Me," "I Hate Myself for Losing You," "Hear Me," (from 2004's Breakaway) and "One Minute" (from 2007's My December).

She's now my favourite American Idol judge. That is, if I still watched AI. Haha.

New Kelly Clarkson Album Details Released!!!

Finally! The official title and cover of Kelly Clarkson's new album has been revealed on her official website, KellyOfficial.com. The site sent out the official newsletter with the title, cover, and release date of the album.



Hmmm... Not really feeling the cover background, but the title is interesting. Wonder if All I Ever Wanted is also the title of one of the tracks?

However, there is still no official release date for the first single with the fantabulous title - "My Life Would Suck Without You" - and cover though. RCA is saying it's January, but there are only three New Music Tuesdays left this month. I guess I'll have to check iTunes every Tuesday then?



Remember y'all: Kelly Clarkson's new album, All I Ever Wanted, is coming out on 17 March 2009 - as in, St. Patrick's Day! Y'all can pre-order the album from Amazon.com for now. Unfortunately, it is not available for pre-order on Amazon.ca yet. I'll let y'all know when it is.

Can't wait!!!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Thank God for House and The Dark Knight!

I gotta say this now:

FRINGE WAS ROBBED!!!

But, of course, I am biased. It is my favourite new show, and I cannot get enough of it! Personally, The Mentalist has nothing on Fringe.

Anyway, as much as I loathe popularity-contest type of awards or shows, I was so glad Hugh Laurie (as Male TV Star), House (TV Drama), Carrie Underwood (Female Singer, Country Song for "Last Name," and Star Under 35), Robin Williams (Scene-Stealing Guest Star), Tina Fey (Funny Female Star), Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Online Sensation), and Gary Unmarried (New TV Comedy) won!

I was also glad for The Dark Knight, which won all the categories for which it was nominated. Duh. Although I am torn between The Dark Knight and Iron Man as the best movie of 2008, I think The Dark Knight is very deserving of all the awards and recognition it is getting.

But still...

FRINGE WAS ROBBED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!