Lost: What They Died For - Locke Will Cut A Bitch

Straight back into it then, as I continue a mental rinse and repeat to wash last week's horror-show from my memory. I don't think I'll ever be able to. Golden glowing caves? I didn't realize I was watching The Legend Of the Seeker. Anyways, What They Died For returns things to where they should be for the most part and a few mythological crossovers aside continues as if last week had never existed.

OFF ISLAND

- Desmond continues to do his Morpheus thing, freeing the minds of those stuck in a world where they don't belong.



- Great scene with Locke and Jack, in which Locke is rediscovering the man of faith within. That was awesome, and perhaps what has felt so lacking about season 6 is the lack of the real John Locke. As much as I enjoy seeing Evil Locke walking around being badass and killing people, actual Locke was such a crucial ingredient to the success of the show that his absence is felt.



- The scene in the police vehicle was kind of hilarious, as Desmond informs fellows prisoners Kate and Sayid that he's got a plan to free them. Sayid actually made a joke, and that hasn't happened in the longest time.



- I'm glad Sawyer didn't let Kate go just because she batted her eyes at him. That would have been lame and something this show is certainly capable of.



- Played again like the flash-sideways of The Last Recruit, just kind of shifting things into position. No standout moments per say but everything zipped along nicely.



ON ISLAND

- Same as the flash-sideways really, but with more intensity. What happened here really did happen to make next week's finale more awesome, but due to its sheer dynamism and lack of baggage it was one of the more enjoyable, shit gets done episodes of Lost.

- After being in the cooler for three episodes, Ben makes a vital return. Settling a long-held island grudge and refinding his evil ways after his temporary redemption in Dr Linus. I'm pleased they did this however, because frankly I didn't want to see Ben redeemed he's done too much evil stuff and as much as I have enjoyed these things, I look forward the the cathartic feeling his death will bring too, and I'm not going to enjoy it if he's all redeemed and shit. Speaking of which...

- Body Count

RIP Zoe - Yeaaah! That was awesome. I love when Lost realizes when character's are both reviled and pointless and kills them in awesomely self-referential ways. This week, Zoe gets her throat slit by evil Locke, culminating in the line.

" You told her not to talk to me and that made her pointless."

Well yes she was evil Locke, yes she was.

RIP Charles Widmore - Widmore was essentially a stand-in for the mythology. He had little identity of his own and was a fairly generic rich douchebag. Still at least he died in a way that meant something, getting repeatedly capped by Benjamin because ' he doesn't get the chance to save his daughter.' Ben the iceman is back, ladies and gentleman.

I'm not even going to pretend to write an obituary for Richard, because this is just Desmond falls down a well over again, this guy simply isn't dead. Watch. He may be dying, but there's more of Richard to come I'm sure.

- What's worth noting is that Miles is still around, long since he had anything resembling relevance. Part of me kind of hopes he makes it, just because I kind of the guy and if a glorified extra is going to surivive, I hope its Miles.

- Ben has officially subbed for Sayid as Evil Locke's sidekick.

- Meanwhile, over at the alpha-team. Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sawyer mourn Sayid, Jin and Sun in about thirty seconds, before running into ghost Jacob, whom after a forced Q&A session says that one of these guys has to be the new island guardian, because he's all dead and stuff. Anyone want to guess who volunteered? My man Jack.

- To quote Sawyer. ' I thought he already had a God complex.'

- So Jack drinks from the magical river stream, back in Xena territory, and is told that now the golden glowy cave of fuck you will be revealed to him.

- And of our heroes go to kill Evil Locke, whilst off Evil Locke goes to destroy the island. I think this will happen.

- Despite the sarcasm at the lame mystical stuff, I generally enjoyed this episode. Particularly the Ben and Locke stuff. Next week's the finale. What can I say?

Rating: 7/10

Lost: Across The Sea - Dead Man Smoking

In some ways, the bottom just fell of Lost forever. The show may still have awesome finale and end its characters stories all well and good, but Lost the enigma, Lost the chasm of mystery; well that turns out to be bullshit. Because if Across The Sea tells us anything, its that yes, after all this, these guys were essentially making it up as they went along. This 'mythology' episode, which exists solely to give us answers essentially, is so hackneyed, so labored and so dense, it just reeks of writerly frustration, forced by popular demand into giving answers they never really wanted to give and doing it pettily.

- And in doing so, an episode that is vitally important to the overall architecture of the show entirely misses the mark and ends up harming more then helping. So the mysteries of the island boils down to shitty CGI golden light? That you don't even explain? Fuck you.

- The explanation of the frozen donkey wheel was also a complete washout, 'me and my friends have built a device that channels the energy' er, how does it do that again?

- The writing for this episode was outright awful. The archaic dialogue was worthy of Shyamalan's The Village, and there was so many bad lines it was difficult to count. All in all it just felt like a trite, inconsiderate way to explain away the show's magical elements, something that post season 1, it has never been comfortable with. Everything is just a Macguffin in place of a Macguffin, and its just demoralizing.

- Then there's the whole Anakin Skywalker paradigm, in which the show takes two shrouded god-like characters, both kinda awesome and turns them into sulky teenagers. Epically flooring their legacy forever. Some things we don't want to see guys, seriously no back-story is better then half-assed shite back-story. Jacob in particular, the man who so many have died for and seemingly meant so much to everything, is in fact a bitch who does everything he does for love of his mommy. In spite of her murderous insanity.

- She told him to his face that she murdered his real mum, and what does he do? Not care. Because he's a drone for his mummy.

- Speaking of which Allison Janney's mother character was surefire miscasting wasn't it? Feeling awkward and out of place, Janney seems uncomfortable with the Lost dialogue, to which there is an art in delivering without sounding like a total douche. Similarly the character is rushed and inconsistent, is she mother earth, or just an early 1st century version of Rousseau? They don't really decide, and I have no idea what story they were trying to tell with her.

- If anything, the slight saving grace of the episode would be the Man In Black bits, and I did like Titus Welliver's performance, in spite of the bad dialogue and scenarios. He at least brought something to his character, which I certainly appreciated in an episode as otherwise clunky as this.

" If I answer you're questions it will just lead to more questions." Fuck you show.

- And as for the intercut Adam and Eve sequence, words do not describe the patronization. Awful.

- This feels like a lot of whining, which it is. Because Lost's mystery baiting was only ever going to be worth it with a satisfying final chapter, a great fucking payoff. But after this, which for me would be one of the worst, most obnoxious episodes in its entire run, I'm far from convinced that this is something we're going to get.

- Golden light is the new midichlorians.

Rating: 5/10

Lost: The Candidate - Motherf***a's Be Dead

SPOILERS. LIKE SERIOUSLY

Wow, well that was some serious slate cleaning wasn't it? I count four series regulars biting it in a single episode, three of which were arund since the pilot. Well I asked for more deaths right?

OFF ISLAND

- This week it was confined to Jack and Locke, after the free for all of last week. Although more specifically, it was kind of Locke's story told from Jack's POV.

- Of course I would rather have had Locke's story from Locke's POV, but watevs. Besides season 6 Jack has been much more tolerable then say, season 2/3 Jack. Sure he's just John Locke mark 2# the slightly less engaging version, but its my favorite version of this character.

- Two weeks with no Ben or Richard, and also no Desmond this week. I find it hilarious that miles is still alive.

- So Jack wanted to operate on Locke, and allow him to walk in this universe. But Locke was like thanks but no thanks. But Jack couldn't handle this because he's Jack, obvs. So he goes about investigating Locke's past.

- It wasn't a total waste of time. I enjoyed the Jack and Claire scene, Emilie De Ravin has always been ill-served by this show, and also the final Locke Jack scene, mostly for TOQ awesomeness.

- But not one of the most coherent flash-sideways. But it was OK

ON ISLAND

- In many ways it was another table-setter of an episode, but to the max. In many ways it went for action scene to action scene, which might it exciting, but not particularly emotionally resonant or anything, even with all these fucking deaths. Still I hollowly enjoyed proceedings

- So shall we get to the Obituaries then :)

- RIP Sayid, who went down somewhat suddenly, and with a mini-redemption. It seems that his encounter with Desmond (Who he didn't kill) somewhat resuscitated him out of his psycho zombie stupor. But let's take a moment for a great character and a great performance, often over-looked but always awesome. His stand-alone will in all probability be the best of the year. Naveen Andrews rules.

- RIP Sun and Jin. I know, right? It seems Lost decided that its finale will just contain white people, thus killed all of its asians in one fell swoop. (Jokes Miles is still about) Having now seen the conclusion to their on-island storyline, I see no reason Jin didn't die in the boat explosion back in season 4. It was more poignant and powerful then anything that followed. And definately a stronger way to go then this. season 6 hasn't known what to do with either of them to be honest, particularly Sun. Who's just basically stood around and occasionally asked about Jin. Waste of a great actress. Anyways they be dead now, so.

- RIP Lapidus. Like anyone really cares in comparison right? Still, he stood around, made one-liners and had no real reason to be on this show apart from looking at Jeff Fahey is funny. Still he's a regular and he's dead so, I guess I should say something.

- The episode which begin with the 815ers in the season3 cages, held by Widmore who is still alive and kicking by the way, but pretty much fucked as far as his battle with Evil Locke goes, losing lots of his men this week, to the invincible evil mofo. Still I did enjoy him walking up to them, entirely impervious to gunfire and killing about 10 guys like some 80's action hero.

- Anyway, evil Locke freed them, and they run to Widmore's sub, with which Sawyer's plan was to shut evil Locke and escape with all his friends. If I had one complaint prior to this episode, its that Sawyer has been putting them over on Evil Locke a bit too easily, but that was met this week, but Evil Locke knowing that's exactly what he was going to do, and thus plant a bomb on Jack, which he accommodatingly took down to the submarine. What a nice guy.

- Oh, right, Kate was shot and Sawyer was pretty much incapacitated. So the only fully operational candidate's are Jack and Hurley.

- I should say the submarine sequence was fairly thrilling, but the flippant way it handled all these important characters deaths perhaps killed my buzz a little bit. Although Lapidus' death was kind of hilarious.

- Zoe watch: still going. not in this episode though, so that was good for everyone.

- So yeah, an exciting episode, but for what happened in it remarkably low key. Next week is supposedly the exposition episode flashback to the beginnings of the island. So lets respect our fallen comrades and look forward to that.

Rating: 7/10

Lost: The Last Recruit - Explosions Can't Kill A Semi-Corporeal Supernatural Being, Stupid!

As we close in on the finale, a couple of episodes like this are inevitable. I believe they are referred to as chess piece episodes, in which they're mean reason for being is to get everyone into place for a subsequent episode. I fully expect next week to quite like this too. But I don't mind, because it was exciting, stuff happened and ended with the promise that shit is about to go down.

OFF ISLAND

- A multi-flash episode, which is probably a good thing. Because there was no half-assed plotting, just cool moments between characters. As much as I hate the 'triangle' a.k.a any scenes that focus around Jack, Kate and Sawyer's desire to do each other. The Sawyer Kate scene was pretty cool. Lilly always tries a little hard, but as always, Josh Holloway was beyond awesome.

- Sun recognizes alter-Locke, and screams no! presumably mistaking him for the demon that wears his face back in our time line. Desmond is still pushing people to where they're 'supposed to be', this week connected Claire with her half brother Jack. Ilana looked hot in business lady mode. RIP Ilana.

- Sayid got arrested for the murder of about a thousand guys back at the kitchen. And by Sawyer no less. Dissed.

- Locke is into surgery with Jack, and destined, I would think, to have his legs all fixed and shit. I do hope he gets a happy ending in at least one reality.

- What's the betting on who Jack's sons mum is? his ex-wife from our reality? Juliet? Ana Lucia?

- So Sun turned out to be OK. great. Stupid irrelevant flash-sideways.

- I think that's about it, snappy segments kept this weeks flash-sideways from being too galling.

ON ISLAND

- So the gang's all back together. As Hurley's crew reunite with Locke's crew and the games begin. Any scene where Evil-Locke talks about the real John Locke seems to have a fair amount of poignancy.

" John Locke wasn't a believer, he was a sucker."

- Another awesome Evil Locke moment - Zoe, saunters up to the camp all cocky like demonstrating her mad technological explosive skills. After an airbourne bomb blows up about a click away, EL gives no semblance of shit, and not for one second breaking eyeline. Terry O Quinn rules.

- So Sawyer's plan went into full effect this week, as he gathered the remainder of our heroes and stole Evil Locke's boat, planning to hijack Widmore's submarine and get the fuck out of there.

" Sawyer stole my boat didn't he." Best line delivery ever. Evil Locke FTW.

- Emilie De Ravin served up some awesomeness tonight, showing glimpses of humanity behind the crazy of Claire 2.0. The scene with her and Kate was kind of sweet. Kate has never been my favorite character. In fact she has perhaps been consistently the weakest of the big players, but I liked that moment.

- Jack has remained a man of faith it seems, as he satys with EL rather then escape the island with Sawyer. Will the real man of faith please stand up?

- Widmore tried at episodes end to blow up Evil Locke with explosives. What a dumbass. Its about time this self-important jerk got killed I think.

- Is there some to salvage within zombie Sayid? as it appears he didn't go through with killing Desmond the way he was supposed to. Obviously Des was still alive by the way, those fools were tricking no-one last week. Naveen Andrews is as always fantastic.

- Zoe-Watch: Had a big face-off scene with Evil Locke, just came across a bad actress to be honest. I will take great pleasure in her inevitable death, particularly now that she and Widmore double-crossed our heroes, she cant be long for this world.

- No deaths in this one either, man are they going to blow their homicidal load all at once?

- A pleasant enough chess-piecer, and things are pretty much where they should be in regards to the on island stuff, although The flash-sideways are going to need a big, big ending. It's not the best season of Lost, but a killer last 5 hours would certainly not go a miss.

Rating: 7/10

Lost: Everybody Loves Hugo - Guys, The Dynamite Is Unstable. Seriously.

To be honest I was expecting this episode to suck much more then it did. Hurley episodes usually have little to nothing going on, focusing on a character I don't have too much time for. But, the show showed a forward motion missing from a few to many episodes of late and I even enjoyed the off-island stuff, mostly thanks to Jorge Garcia's excellent performance.

OFF - ISLAND

- This was mostly a sweet Hurley story, skew some Desmond driven mythology and a brutal twist ending.

- So better then most off-island stories then. The bulk of the Hurley off-island saw him revive his brief romance with Libby, only in another dimension. Because you can't stop love, guys. I enjoyed seeing Cynthia Watros again, and she and Garcia share a good presence together. So fair play to that one.

- And more importantly it broke the unfortunate flash-sideways pattern of episodes just being weak thrillers, that don't really matter. Which is good.

- Of course, Hurley was pushed into his Libby affair, by alter-Desmond, who seems to be driving the flash-sideways narrative now. Getting people where they are supposed to be, metaphysically speaking.

- But then he totally mowed down poor John Locke for like no reason. But then you say that there is a reason, and I'm sure that action will get alter-Locke where he is supposed to be. Hopefully not dead.

ON ISLAND

- So they finally did it. They killed Ilana. In a cheap self-referential joke too. Remember how Arzt totally blew himself up back in season 1 with unstable dynamite and it was like 100% hilarious, well I guess Ilana didn't see that episode and thus didn't learn the vital lesson that if your a minor character, don't touch the unstable dynamite. It seems I ended Ilana Watch just in time.

- RIP Ilana.

- Otherwise, the good guy group, now led by Richard it seems sets out to destroy the Ajira plane on which Evil Locke plans to escape. But given that this is a Hurley episode, Hurley has to be involved somehow. So he splits up the group, believing that diplomacy is the better tactic, and that they should approach Locke for peace talks. Richard rightly balks at this, and thus division happens, and Ben and Miles head of Richard, whilst Jack, Lapidus and Sun head off with Hurley.

- Meanwhile, over at camp evil. Kate continues her five-episode streak of sitting around and glowering and doing little else.

- Also at camp evil, Locke has talks with Desmond, who if you'll remember was kidnapped by Sayid last week. After so terrific acting from both of them, Evil Locke asks why Desmond isnt afraid of him. Desmond says whats the point in being afraid Very zen.

- Of course it would have looked a lot less retarded if Evil Locke hadn't thrown him down an infinite abyss of a well about one minute later.

- The passive Lost viewer would write an RIP Desmond column around here, but I'm seasoned guys and know hes going to be fine and dandy next week. trust me.

- Zoe watch. No fucking Zoe. Thus a great episode.

- Good. The episode went somewhere, people died, and good acting was present and correct. All I want from an episode of Lost.

Rating: 8/10

Lost: Happily Ever After - To Whom The Rules Do Not Apply

Desmond episodes, in part to the nature of the character and part to the strength of Henry Ian Cusick's performance, are often the highlight of any given Lost season, and while I don't think that was quite the case here, it was one of the better season 6 hours. Was it the Constant though? Not really.

- Before I praise this show too much, I'll mention this is the second episode long diversion in three weeks, and while both were great episodes, it has broken the season's momentum that Sundown worked so hard to provide. Its good hours of TV at the expense of the season as a whole.

OFF-ISLAND

- So yeah, like 'Ab Aeterno', we had bookends of the present timeline whilst the bulk of the episode took place in an alternate timeline, in this case, an episode long Flash-Sideways.

- And while that sounds fairly horrific, it was just better then previous outings, too many of them being weak, thriller type plots and absent on character. This one was at least about Desmond, and in this case, one who had never known the love that drove him in our timeline, and he's much happier. An awesome corporate man, number two to Charles Widmore.

- So the first part of the episode was kind of a pre-emptive rip off of Get Him To The Greek, played straight, in which yuppie Desmond has to get junkie rock star Charlie to the gig on time. But Charlie has seen the light, as it were. In his near death experience, he had scene glimpses of what I can only assume was our time line. and how true and beautiful it is. So he basically wants to die, crashing his and Desmond's car into the lake to allow Desmond to see...

- Penny. It seems not even a dimensional reshuffle can keep these two apart. I'm not usually a fan of sci-show romance, as its usually executed so naffly, but I'll admit to Lost having nailed the Desmond Penny thing. Fair play guys. It doesn't come close to making up for the disaster of the love quadrangle in season 5, but whatever.

- I liked Monaghan's cameo. Charlie irritated the living piss out of me when he was a regular on this show, but in small doses he's a welcome presence.

- But that was my second favorite of the two cameos in this episode. Daniel Faraday! Welcome back Jeremy Davies, this show was retarded to kill you. What a great performance he gives.

- So the point of this episode, I think, was to essentially mission statement the rest of the season. To break free of The Matrix of the flash-sideways, and bust back into the regular reality. Happiness be damned.

- Am I sold on this? meh, we'll have to see how it plays out, but it sounds an awful lot like Jack having to convince everyone to come back to the island. Which would be yet another recycled plotline on this season of Lost.

ON ISLAND

- Lost's gone a bit Buffy The Vampire Slayer, in which the method to defeating the near unbeatable foe is a magical sci--fi gizmo that appears in the final act.

- Desmond is used as dry run for this machine, and I can only assume the intended effect occured.

- Is Widmore the hero of this show now?

- I hereby officially rename Ilana Watch to Zoe watch. As Zoe has become the most annoyingly irrelevant yet constant presence on Lost. No Ilana yet again btw.

- Why did Sayid not kill Zoe incidentally? Because she is a girl? don't be a homicidal sexist, Zombie Sayid.

- Desmond has been somehow enlightened by his time-bending adventures. I guess we'll find out how that goes

- A well-written, enjoyable episode of Lost, but it has me a little concerned as to the direction of the final episodes.

Rating: 8/10

Lost: The Package - That Sun And Jin Thing

So we're roughly half way in to this final season, maybe a bit more than halfway, and to be honest this is one of the weaker seasons of Lost. Everything seems a little too familiar with the writers recycling plots a bit too liberally, and most importantly week to week the quality just hasn't been that great. Its not been bad or anything, and I'm sure it will pick it up when it hits the home stretch. But still, it is a slight anti-climax.

- Why all this blurb for this episode, well like Recon, Lighthouse and most painfully What Kate Did before it, its a staller of an episode, in which I can feel the writers just killing time. And in the back half of the final season, there is no excuse for that.

OFF ISLAND

- The Sun and Jin episodes, traditionally, are not the strongest episodes of Lost, not really because I dislike the characters or the performances, but because they are too heavily defined by their relationship. There's been nothing doing for Sun for the last two seasons, except the writers telling us that she loves her husband. This depressingly continued tonight.

- This doesn't help the flash-sideways are not a pointless waste of time argument. It just feels like padding. Some more weak thrillerish stuff with loan shark Keamy.

- Even in ridiculous OTT mode, Keamy is still awesome.

- The funny thing is, Sun gets shot at the end of the flash-sideways, and it did absolutely NOTHING to me. A six year season regular might die and it doesn't matter a slightest. Because for some reason, this alternate reality stuff just doesn't matter, and I think its not just my problem. I think they've been to kitschy (Sawyer the cop being the most irritating example for me) with it, and its distancing.

- Still I like Yunjin Kim, I think this show has never known what to do with her beyond season 1 and she's been good regardless.

ON ISLAND

- The wheels are edging forward, but slowly. I'm not sure I'm down with this whole Widmore back on the island thing, he's a boring archetype of a character and I'm not sure he's worth 5 episodes of the final season being about him.

- That being said, I dug his face off with Evil Locke. That was fairly awesome. You can never have enough Terry O Quinn.

- I think Daniel Dae Kim's performance as Jin is what you'd call workmanlike. His no frills, no fuss attitude can be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on the scene.

- For fuck's sake Lost, not content with one fairly boring randomer like Ilana, they seem to be shoving 'Zoe' down our throat too. Seriously I don't care that you're a geologist bitch, why am I with you and not the show regulars. Why?

- I think Naveen Andrews is killing as zombie Sayid. I've said before he's the secret weapon of this show, and has been since its inception.

- " Because that would be ridiculous."

- Seriously, 10 episodes in and no-one is dying. No-one. not even the fillers like Ilana or Miles. They've got a lot of people to kill in six episodes.

- Desmond! Yeah. And I'll bet he gets next week's episode too. Maybe Widmore will finally bite it.

- Not bad, but certainly not great. Needing a strong finish now.

Rating: 6/10

Lost: Ab Aeterno - The World's Forgotten Boy

Back in the early days of Lost, you know the really early days when the show was about a group of people surviving on an island. The first time a character got a flashback episode was a big deal. And given the amount of time left to go, this may will be the last origin story we ever see on Lost, and since this format is what brought us to the show in the first place, lets take a moment to savour that. Done? Let's do this.

- For the first time in season 6 thus far, we broke the flash-sideways pattern. And it was awesome. That tac has worn more then thin over the last couple of weeks, so I'm glad for the rest bite. As an exposition-fest slash character piece it was classic Lost. Not the best episode ever, but a very good one, and give the unsung well of talent that is Nestor Carbonell a chance to act the stuff.

- It was an episode long flashback, like Flashes before you're eyes or The Life and Death Of Jeremy Bentham, and nigh on every frame was Alpert-centric.

- Of course if You ignore the episode's opening 5 minutes or so, which made you think it was going to be Ilana. But no. We just went back for one scene of Ilana, which felt a cheat. Which it was, but the rest of the episode was too good for me too care.

- Black Rock! We finally got the origin story for everyone's favorite shipwrecked hunk of junk. And Alpert was on it. Back in the 1800's, when this dude was a slave for us friendly Brits...

- ...because he accidentally killed his village doctor when stealing some medicine.

-...to save his wife, who has some kind of plague like illness. But it was in vain, because the bitch died anyway.

- So yeah, black rock shipwrecks, and the soldiers rinse all the slaves, then the black smoke rinses the soldiers. Leaving only Alpert behind. Lost does scenes of slaughter fairly awesomely.

- The scene of Alpert chained inside the black rock hull was awesome. Classic horror movie shit.

- The episode was basically what every episode of season 6 has been about, which is the focus character choosing between evil Locke or Jacob. Here evil Locke was seen as his original self, played with a nice controlled malice by Titus Welliver.

- I enjoyed Carbonell's performance quite a bit, and is one of the most intelligent actors on Lost and thus I enjoyed the episode quite a bit too, and if this is to be the Last Lost origin story, its a decent way to go out.

- The hurley/Alpert's wife/alpert scene at the end was pretty sweet. Could have been naff as fuck, but Carbonell's sincerity saved it.

- This was an episode more about filling in the blanks then going forward, but I feel next week shit needs to get going, as good as this was.

Rating: 8/10

Lost: Recon - In Which The Conning Will Go On Forever

A letdown was on its way after the last couple of weeks, but for me, Dr Linus slowed the pace down enough, this one really needed to pick it back up again. People seemed to have pretty much liked this episode, so I guess I'm a minority voice, but whatever I say what I feel bitches. While I like Sawyer the character, I never liked Sawyer centric episodes past season 1, because they seem to focus on meaningless cons which by the end of the episode don't mean a damn thing. Much like the Flash-Sideways this season I suppose. Josh Holloway was good enough, but I had a sizable meh reaction to Recon.

Off- Island

- Given the nature of the last couple of Flash-Sideways, it feels like we seem to be getting fan-fic Lost spin-offs. Handled with about the same amount of skill to be honest. Sawyer the cop, was OK enough, but since the story wasn't even about his copness, it was again about finding the real Sawyer. It felt a bit unnecessary.

- It all seemed a little rushed and pointless, and I don't know what I was exactly supposed to take away from this story. Although it was nice to see Charlotte again, Rebecca Mader ended up doing quite a lot with that character.

- More cameos, Miles was Sawyers' partner, and while the show hasn't quite known what to do with Ken Leung, giving him screen-time is a good way to find out.

- Sawyer arrests Kate. I was meant to be blown away by that I can tell.

ON ISLAND

- Another chill out episode, in which Locke's gang basically sit on the beach, whilst Evil Locke sends Sawyer to check up on the recently island arrived Charles Widmore. Some needless conning by a nobody later, the two meet. Sawyer sets to, yet again con the fuck out of everyone. Pitting Widmore and Locke against each other.

- Kate's face when Sawyer told her his plan was fairly hilarious. There's the dishonest douchebag I fell in love with. It was sweet.

- Widmore's gang has come with guns, so they mean to wage war against smokey. Don't know about you but my money is on Evil Locke. Like fuck he's getting killed by a guest star.

- Sayid seems to have stuck with his psycho vibe, clearly not giving a crap as Claire tried to kill Kate for taking her baby. That was fairly awesome.

- Kate seemed a might ungrateful after Evil Locke saved her from Psycho Claire. But she did zinger him pretty good later, after all it was rather insightful for a dead man.

- I think the biggest flunk in the episode was the needless connage from that random Widmore chick, what was the need guys. srsly.

- Despite having no Loyalty to Evil Locke, Sawyer seems to have put him in good stead against Widmore, sure he could give a shit, but the dude knows Widmore is there and that he wishes to kill him.

- Maybe its just me, but the con artistry has always been my least favorite thing about Lost, so Recon wasn't meant for me. But even putting that aside, it did seem to be holding up traffic a little.

Rating: 6/10

Lost: Dr Linus - Where The Tiny Sociopath Shows Some Man Candor

I could have predicted a slightly slower episode after last week, and sure enough I was right. This was a small, contained character episode. The kind that has the hardcore Lost retort their way to the seventh circle of hell. But me, I don't mind them all so much. Particularly when they focus on the stronger characters. And Benjamin Linus is certainly one of those. So yeah, onward to the blogging.

OFF ISLAND

- In which we see a softer, kindlier Benjamin Linus. The games remain, but this guy is capable of compassion and caring about other human beings. And Emerson brought the necessary variety and subtelty so we can see the differences between this Ben and the one we know and love.

- I have to say I was slightly annoyed by the lack of alter-John Locke in these Ben flashbacks, after the implications that these two would be friends. Lost should always be the Ben and Locke show when it can be.

- Having said that, Arzt. Again. I like the character, but these small world character reappearances are losing their impact.

- But having said that, William Atherton as the skeevy principal that nice Ben tries to blackmail. Fuck yeah. Fans of seminal 80's movies rejoice.

- Another thriller-ish B movie plot, but I enjoyed it a bit more then last week's. Mostly thanks to Emerson.

ON ISLAND

- Relatively quiet, we spend most of the episode on the beach with the Jacob crew, lead by Ilana, after Miles rumbles Ben for killing Jacob. Because he can speak to dead people. I keep forgetting that. Anyway, Ben got dissed.

- Then Ilana tied him to a tree and made him dig his own grave. Nice. Speaking of which

- Ilana watch - She got quite a lot to do tonight. Exciting times for the world's most pointless regular. In all seriousness, I thought Zulheika Robinson was quite good in this episode.

- But it was all about Ben, and the inevitable redemption of him. It seemed to easy for this guy to the dark side straight away, and I wouldn't count on this allegiance lasting for long, but I bought much better then I thought would. Any attempt to make this life long monster any less then such would just be crass. But Emerson pimped his sympathy for Mr Psycho scene and I am now fine with it.

- The evil Locke recruiting sessions continue, although this time he struck out. He averaging quite well though, striking out only with Richard and Ben and scoring Sawyer, Claire, Sayid, Jin and possibly Kate. Although I doubt the Kate or Sawyer stance will last for long.

- speaking of which, Sawyer is now a no show for three episodes. dissage.

- Enjoyed Jack's badass dynamite bit in this episode. That was cool.

- Richard Alpert actually gets some layers to his character, rather then just being well acted mysteriousness. Nestor Carbonell owned.

- Body Count - No-one. How sweet.

A slow, but rewarding Lost episode. Good if not great, but I enjoyed it as a way to a breather. Expect faster pace next week though. And hopefully some Sawyer.

Rating: 7/10

Lost: Sundown - The Fun Always Starts When The Sun Goes Down

The last twenty minutes of this episode was Lost at its dark, character lead best. Sure you can shoot out theories about how the flash-sideways was yet again useless, but whatever. I would say this is the best of the season, perhaps premiere aside, by a long shot. And Naveen Andrews has never got quite the credit he deserved what he did with Sayid, who could have well been an extraneous character in this show. Anyways to point-making.

SPOILERS SURE TO FOLLOW

OFF-ISLAND

- Pretty disposable really, had its moments but not really all thought out and was more concerned with being synergistic with the island plot rather then do justice with Sayid the 2004 version.

- Having said that, Keamy. Keamy rules. Or at least he did once, when he wasn't transformed from uncompromising mercenary badass into a rent-a-villain loan shark. I still enjoyed Kevin Durand's performance though, and found something to explore even within this sanitized version of the character.

- After 6 years THAT was our Sayid/Nadia payoff. Again, kind of irritating. These flash-sideways are consistently the weaker half of the episode.

- Erm, it was kind of a B-movie thriller plot really, with no real payoff and kind of got sidelined in favor of on island action.

- Didn't really give Andrews too much to do in this half, but him and Andrea Gabriel still had a couple of moments.

ON ISLAND

- And this is where the magic happens. The darkest episode of the season, unquestionably and all the more awesome for it.

- Awesome opening fight scene between Sayid and Dogen.

- Smokey got to some clearing of the books. And most of the set-filling others from the Temple got taken to the cleaners.

- I liked that Sayid went to the dark side and Joined evil Locke's crew, and did it from his own self. Too many Sayid is Jacob theories spouted up too quickly and the Lost mantra seems to be don't pick the obvious route, pick the second most obvious one. And it kind of fits the arc of the character.

- I loved how Andrews played Sayid once he'd made his choice. It was perfectly done. Loved that shit.

- Speaking of great acting. Yet another great one scene showing from O' Quinn as Evil Locke, who gave so much gravitas to the episode's crucial scene, the temptation of Sayid if you will, even in the face of slightly hackish writing.

- "Don't stab a man in the heart before saying hello."

- Ditto to Emilie De Ravin, who gets more interesting by the minute. But this episode was all about Andrews, and in particular his scenes with Hiroyuki Sanada as Dogen. Sanada struggles with the English a little but did good work. Until he got shockingly murdered by Sayid anyway.

- Episode Body Count:

Dogen - The Japanese warrior monk was drowned in ' the spring' by badass evil Sayid in a way nobody could have been expecting. He felt like an all seasoner and that shit caught me off guard. So long Hiroyuki.

Lennon - The translator went down with the ship. getting his throat slit shortly after the death of his boss. Again at the ends of our resident Iraqi. So long John Hawkes.

A bunch of others - This was an important thing to do I think, with the season having a vaguely familiar captured by the others quality to it. Now that stuff be done with and we're headed to new places. Sweet.

- Ilana Watch: The world's most pointless regular had a couple of lines in this one and rescued Miles. Good for her.

- Team Locke = Sawyer, Claire and now Sayid.

- Awesome use of an ultra creepy 'catch a falling star' cover amidst the final surveying of the carnage, that hit home.

- Its amazing how Lost episodes that basically tie up loose ends, as this did with the stagnating temple arc, end up being the most awesome. Perhaps because by necessity things can't meander.

- Terrific stuff. Lost at its most vital. Even if it hasn't quite yet figured out how to blend its new structure yet, this episode at least promises that the on island stuff is headed in the right direction.

- One last plug for Andrews, the forgotten great performance of Lost.

Rating: 8/10

Lost: Lighthouse - Where We Reference Virginia Woolf In A Less Subtle Way Then The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Season 6 seems to have followed season 1 in its episode order. We've gone from Kate to Locke and now to Jack. Of Course this has to break because next in line would be Charlie and that dude be dead. But yeah the Jack episode. There's been some clunkers and some successes, but this one was enjoyably relaxed and nostalgic, Slow in a good way, if you will.

OFF ISLAND

- Jack has a kid. That was the plot of this one. These flash-sideways are low in mythology, which is perhaps why they've gotten on some people's nerves. Including mine. But with the Locke stuff last week and Jack this week, they represent a return to the character driven flashbacks of the first season. And I have to say this tact is growing on me, as it seems what began as a character driven show is going to end as one.

- Sideways Jack I enjoyed a lot. Matthew Fox played him a lot less intense and controlling then his island namesake.

- As to the quality of it, its OK. Not as good as last week, but a hell of a lot better then Kate's, which wasn't about her character at all. She just ran, because Lost doesn't know how to write women that aren't played by Elizabeth Mitchell.

- Not much else to say about this time line really. Solid but not spectacular Lost drama.

- Our timeline cameo this week came from Dogen, who was at Jack's Kid Piano Recital.

ON ISLAND

- The calm before the storm it seems. Given Jacob's immense ' something is coming to the temple (clearly Evil Locke BTW) to fuck dudes up. Next week to be awesome

- Like I said, this was a slow episode, but in a good way. It reminisced about the caves, Adam and Eve and all sorts of memorable Lost moments. I enjoyed that, because its nice to see them acknowledge the complete journey.

- Mark Pellegrino, A.K.A Jacob has massive ears. A thought for y'all.

- Hurley is almost the island alpha-dog these days. He's Jacob's go to guy.

- So, To The Lighthouse. Is it just me or did the whole journey feel almost pointless. He went there accomplished nothing and fucked up Jacob's neat gizmo. I'm loving the ride though.

- Jack's gearing up to go all heroic again. Its happening.

- Subplot time: Psycho Claire. Emilie De Ravin is really finding something to play in that role and promises to really contribute something to this year. She got to exhibit some long overdue range.

- Claire be crazy now, and possibly evil too. Her axing of Justin was pretty cold.

- Episode body Count:

- Justin, who amazingly pulled through Psycho Claire's first attack. Went down in the second wave, with an axe to the stomach. RIP

- Evi Locke was the 'friend' Claire kept going on about. Least surprising twist ever. But still, love some Evil Locke. Who almost stole the episode with no lines, but in the interest of fairness I'll give it to De Ravin.

- Incidentally the most pointless regular ever = Ilana. She's had about four lines and we're 5 episodes in. Well worth it guys.

- But yeah Locke's coming to fuck up the temple. Goings to be legen..wait for it.

Rating: 7/10

Lost: The Substitute - Will The Real John Locke Please Stand Up.

Yes. The Locke episode, who probably has the best track record for episodes including goodness. Even his misfires are pretty good. So much, much more excited for this one. Incidentally there were three different versions of John Locke in all realities here. Hence the hilarious title.

OFF ISLAND

- Although this stuff was considerably better than last week's Kate centered outing, I think that was mostly down to John Locke being a more interesting character then it suddenly being a better idea. There's still an ominous sense of the 'so what's' about the flash-sideways. Do they matter at the end of the day? I hope so, but what worked in a single 2 hour episode so well is going to be a bit less impressive over the course of a season.

- Having said that, I did enjoy seeing the real John Locke again. He deserves a happy ending in some reality, so let's hope its this one. And this was a step in the right direction.

- Michael Emerson as a mild-mannered european history teacher. Best thing ever.

" When you finish the coffee. Please throw. The filter. Away." Awesome.

- Helen! We've not seen her since season 2, since which Katey Sagal has earned some proper respect over on Sons of Anarchy.

- I think these Flash-sideways are only gonna be worth it with the stronger actors on the show. Terry O Quinn and Michael Emerson make it work, but trust me this isn't going to be the case for everyone

ON ISLAND

- Much better then last week. I think there is no real way to prevent Evil Locke from owning this season. Not only is he stock full of mythology and those long lusted after answers, but O Quinn is having such a riot in playing him.

- Some more prime actorly moments from O quinn here, from the smoke monster AKA evil Locke lamenting his long lost humanity to the speech where Locke sells Sawyer on joining the side of evil. Well-written and well sold.

- Josh Holloway is finding a cynical groove as the dead in every way but literally Sawyer.

- The explanation for the numbers seems to be imminent. Something to do with Jacob it seems.

- Another trek across the jungle though. at least it was to the point.

- Evil Locke put Richard in a sack and hung him from a tree. You don't see that on Grey's Anatomy.

- Nobody died in this episode. Crazy.

- Not a spellbinding episode really, but pleasingly to the point. The time for tantalizing is over Lost. You have to start paying up. And it did so in this episode, largely thanks to a hefty does of answers and plenty of evil Locke. But watch next week be pure filler.

Episode Rating: 8/10

Lost: What Kate Does

Ah, the Kate episode. From Born To Run to Left Behind to Eggtown they all suck, traditionally shitty, boring place-fillers even when they are supposed to be important. And while this episode did have some interesting stuff, none of it involved the main storyline which was as dry as hell.

SPOILERS. BE WARNED ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE

OFF-ISLAND

- Continuing the super-exciting (sarcasm, all droll like) adventures of fugitive Kate. She does a bit of running and then runs into Claire who has a birthing fake out.

- Ethan! Now a domesticated, super-friendly doctor. That was a nice touch I'll give them that.

- See, Kate is a good person really, because she gave the pregnant woman she hijacked her toy dolphin back.

- Guys don't just tell the same old story in a different reality, there a more exciting things to be done here. Disappointing.

- Jeff Kober! AKA Krilik from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, gave a solid two minute performance.

- I'll write it down to the Kate episode curse, but this has killed some of my buzz from the premiere. This off island stuff was so useless and if it stays like that this neat new trick is going to grow old quickly

ON ISLAND

- No Evil Locke, no Ben, no Alpert and no Desmond. Daring guys. Daring.

- The episodes best stuff involved our mysterious new others, Hiroyuki Sanada and John Hawkes and their interactions with Sayid and Jack. That torture scene was strong, even for this show.

- Again, liking season 6 Jack, totally rumbling the machinations of the Japanese medicine man.

- Josh Holloway has redeemed himself, and he sold his farewell Juliet speech, even with some trite writing.

- Evangeline Lilly was a particularly close book in this episode, making her character ever more unknowable. Subtlety is one thing, but not communicating what you are supposed to communicate is another. One of the weaker leading performances of the show I think.

- Aldo! AKA Mac from Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia. What a whiny bitch. Despite me liking this guy a lot in his show, I felt good when he got wasted.

- Episode body Count:
Aldo (Shot by psycho Claire)
random other (same fate)

- So they are finally getting to the sickness. Sayid has it, and its already got Claire who made quite the dramatic re-entrance into island goings on.

- A filler episode really. A modest step-back after the premiere. I hope its my most hated of the season

Rating: 6/10

Lost: LA X

I'm not going to write a full review of each Lost episode, otherwise this place will be consumed by all things Lost. So I'll just bullet-point some reactionary thoughts to what I made of it all.

MANY SPOILERS SO READER BEWARE:

- Flash-sideways seems to be the name of the game, and we've got two realities progressing simultaneously. On island (where they didnt change anything) and off island (where the plane never crashed)

- A pretty awesome season opener. Plenty of twisty shit and a lot happened, but they kept the focus mostly on the long-term characters. Jack, Locke, Sawyer and Kate are who its been about since the beginning and each had a major part in this episode.

- Still think the black smoke is crappy CGI, but liked the scene anyway. Kind of guessed it, but New Locke being smoke monster is quite cool.

- Speaking of which, am loving evil Locke and Terry O Quinn brought his game to this episode. The scene he shared with Jack at the airport and even more his Evil-Locke giving dead Locke a eulogy to the humbled Ben were some of the best pieces of acting this show has ever seen. Plus the dropping of Richard via ethereal kung-fu. I mean come on.

- I liked Jack in these episodes a bit more then I used to, particularly in the off island time line. I haven't been Matthew Fox's biggest fan through the years but he's maturing in the role.

- The 'You got it blondie' line totally ruined Juliet's death. What a shocking clunker. And as much as I like Josh Holloway, that was fucking awful man.

- Speaking of which, notable deaths in this episode:
Juliet
Sayid (for about ten minutes)
Bram ( That dude got fucked up. Impaled by bad CGI is a hell of a way to go)

- Loved the scenes on the plane. Nostalgic heaven. Boone! Arzt! Charlie etc.

- The new others are quite cool too, although a little one dimensional. But that's necessary with so little time left. Hiroyuki Sanada and John Hawkes are both actors I enjoy and are good additions to the show.

- I like that this season is setting up to be a straight up good vs evil thing. I think the final year should and has to be simpler then previous in order to cram everything in.

- Glad Sayid got resurrected. Dude is awesome.

- Very good set-up episode, well written, set out the structure of this new year clearly and promises to take this show to some interesting places.