Thursday Lostblogging

I think this is the final Lostblogging of 2007, since they have announced they are going to a 16-consecutive-weeks schedule starting next year. Assuming they still want to finish in late May, that means a late January-to-early February start next season/year. On the downside, this means 8 months until Lost starts again, which is an awful long time to keep momentum going. On the upside, it means that we can from here on refer to seasons both by their numerical order (4th, 5th, 6th season) or as the '2008', '2009', '2010' season.

As always, spoilers below.

I liked it. Really, really liked it. After limping through the early second part of this season, it *really* improved, giving a good reminder of the reasons that I watched the show in the first place.

I like Jack finally discovering that, as a male character, he actually does possess a pair of testicles. It only took 3 years for them to give him some actual, you know, character development, but there is simply something much more inspiring about Jack, the potential addict/raving lunatic than Jack, the over-emoting ball-less wonder he has been for about the past 1.5 years.

Lots of good plots reraised. Glad that we finally saw Walt again; you know that he and Michael are going to enter back into the equation at some point. "The island" seems to give him some pretty serious powers, with which so far all he did is get Shannon killed. And I like the flashforward, which I assume will continue next year as we see Jack W. Bush's epic mistake unfolding. Somehow, his father is alive again? I did hear Jack refer to him in the present tense, right? And this could have been the ravings of an oxycontin addict, but the other doc didn't respond by saying something like 'ummm, Jack, your father is dead.' I assume this was a parting gift from the island, or possibly the 'bad guys' for futureJack.

Likewise, I'm glad that presentJack had, once again, the onions to both kiss Juliette and declare his love for Kate. It's obvious that Jack is not very good at actually making decisions when not in an emergency situation (not that his decisions there tend to be very good, but at least he makes them), so it seems quite natural that he is going to vascillate between the two until some crisis forces him into making a decision.

And finally, it's about time that Sawyer descends into his inner demons for a while. He played the 'scampish, slightly malevolent' rogue for far too long. Then this year, he swung all good and happy, at least for Sawyer. Facing off with the actual Sawyer, while he always thought it would be a cathartic moment, was bound to unleash those demons that led to him killing Tom. It will be fun to see evil Sawyer save them from Naomi's people next year. I can only assume it will involve him convincing Sayeed to get medevial on someone's ass.

Of course, as with any good Lost episode, we're left with about as many questions as answers. We still have no real idea what they're doing with the kids they kidnapped, or the woman who Jack saw briefly from his cage, the one who was with Ana-Lucia's tribe on the other side but was snatched as they got close to the main tribe. We don't yet know how the Widmer Foundation is related to the Dharma Initiative, or The Hostiles/Others. Is Walt really back on the island, or just exhibiting his magical teleportation powers that the black woman hinted at to Michael? Is Mikhail some sort of cybernetic organism? Surely after having his brain exploded and taking a harpoon through the heart, a little 'underwater grenade explosion' isn't going to be enough to finish him off.

Good stuff. I'm already pissed that I have to wait 8 months to see more, which is a sign of a well-done show.