Some of the best television programming airs during the summer, including two of my favorite shows. I am very excited about the third season of Deadwood, which begins next weekend on HBO, although I am among the legions of outraged fans disappointed by the cancellation of this stellar series. Deadwood is a beautifully crafted Western with Shakespearean language and cadence. The entire cast is awe-inspiring, and there has not been a contemporary television villain in recent memory as visually menacing as Al Swearengen, played brilliantly by Ian McShane. And then there is Rescue Me, an intense and engrossing drama with just the right dose of comic relief, co-created by and staring the underrated Denis Leary. Thank goodness this show airs on cable channel FX, because without the realistic raw language and sexuality, Rescue Me would not pack as much of an emotional punch.

 

As for guilty pleasure summer viewing, I am always entertained by the boys of Entourage and have transitioned from casual to dedicated fan of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List. Although I tend to have strong opinions about certain stars (which I occasionally share in this blog), I aim to avoid the outright slander of famous people. That is why I enjoy watching Griffin toy with and agitate the very celebrities I read about and only quietly pass judgment on in my own head.

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Here are my long-winded observations and questions about last night’s epic season finale of LOST. You will notice that I tend to contradict myself on occasion, with theories all over the map; I have a LOST hangover due to lack of sleep, too much coffee, and too many hours contemplating a television show that has consumed my tightly-wound, conspiracy theory-loving, pop culture soul.

CHARLES WIDMORE

The name Widmore has appeared many times on LOST: on Sun’s pregnancy test and on the basket of the crashed air balloon, to name a few. We know that Michael worked for a construction company and rumor has is that it was Widmore Construction.

 

Was Widmore’s race around the world a set up for Desmond? Widmore did want him as far away from his daughter as possible and he had the funds to go to such lengths.

 

Did Mr. Widmore assign Kelvin to monitor Desmond?

CHARLIE

Charlie’s behavior was strange. He seemed to be amused by discovering Locke crying in the jungle, and didn’t seem very affected by the explosion in the hatch. Was he infected way back when Ethan kidnapped him and left him hanging for dead? Did the explosion somehow cause short term memory loss? Does he really know what happened to Locke, Eko and Desmond? He’s always had a fascination/obsession with baby Aaron and Claire, just as the Others did…

 

CLAIRE

After the electromagnetic anomaly that all parties on the island experienced (the violent bright light and noise), when Desmond supposedly turned that key, everyone resumed their day without mentioning or questioning it, as if it never happened. Only Claire seemed to remember it and asked Charlie questions about it. Why would she be the only one? Is she using the pneumatic injector that Charlie found for her? If so, do those Dharma drugs have anything to do with clarity and immunity to memory loss?

 

DESMOND

The Charles Dickens book that Desmond was carrying around, Our Mutual Friend, is about wealth and mistaken identity. Clearly a reference to the Widmore family, the Bad Twin script found on the beach, and a popular theory about twins/cloning on the island.

 

Was Desmond’s return to the island accidental or was he in cahoots with the Others? It does seem convenient that he reappeared just as Locke was having a crisis of faith about entering the numbers.

 

Do we know why Desmond was in prison before he embarked on his ill-fated race around the world? The obvious answer is that Mr. Widmore had something to do with it, to keep him away from his daughter Penny.

 

Desmond initials are DH. Any connection to DHarma?

 

Desmond’s full name is Desmond David Hume. There was a famous philosopher named David Hume, who was Scottish, like Desmond. Apparently Hume was influenced by another philosopher named John Locke. 

 

FOUR TOED STATUE

Does the statue of the four toed foot have anything to do with the fact that some of the Others walk around barefoot? Was that statue their idol/leader?

 

There is certainly a theme with missing limbs, so a missing toe isn’t that surprising: Dr. Candle’s left arm in the first Orientation film was prosthetic. The farmer that turned Kate in was missing an arm. The wife of Leonard’s (Hurley’s institution pal who originated the numbers) military friend is missing a leg. Do any or all of these have anything to do with the ‘incident’ referred to in the first Orientation film?

 

Is the foot statue a remnant from The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World? It was a giant statue of the god Helios. The word Helios is Greek for ‘the sun.’ We are familiar with a certain Sun on the island…

 

Or was it part of the Atlantis, commonly referred to as the LOST Continent? The existence and location of Atlantis has never been confirmed, and that fits with Henry Gale’s assertions that no one knows where they are and that Michael will never be able to find his way back to the island once he leaves.

 

Or perhaps it was part of an underwater city that receded long ago. That may explain why an old slave ship (The Black Rock) wound up in the middle of the island.

 

THE GUYS IN THE SNOW STATION

They were speaking Portuguese. Significance?

 

When the guys called Penny Widmore, they said they found ‘it,’ not ‘him.’ Was there a tracking device on Desmond’s boat that was somehow activated or reactivated when the electromagnetic anomaly occurred?

 

One of the guys in the station looks alarmingly like Jack. Are the producers just messing with us or does Jack have a twin? If so, which one is the ‘bad’ twin?

 

Their scene in that station, at the very end of the finale, was the first to occur off the island and in real-time.

 

‘HIM’

My top candidates for the leader of the Others:

Mr. Paik (Sun’s dad)

Christian Shepard (Jack’s dad)

Charles Widmore

 

I’m not convinced that Alvar Hanso exists, so I’m sticking with characters we’ve actually met.

 

HURLEY

We see Jack, Kate and Sawyer all get shot by paralyzing darts, but not Hurley. Was he spared, much like he was when he was released by the Others in the end?

 

JACK

Was Jack’s plan to get captured by the Others? Did the group agree to it after Michael’s confession? After Michael confessed to killing Ana Lucia and Libby, the group continued on without much ado. When Michael was taking off in the boat with Walt at the end, they all made very specific and lingering eye contact. Had Michael told the group about receiving a boat as part of his deal with the Others? Did he assure them he’d go find help and come back to rescue them? Did Jack inform Michael about Sayid out on the sailboat? Was Michael heading out to find Sayid? Perhaps this is why Hurley’s response to Michael’s confession did not result in the kind of rage we expected. Was he was placated for the time being by Michael’s willingness to help?

 

KATE

Was the blinking at the end between Jack and Kate an indication of a secret plan between them or just an acknowledgment of reassurance/affection? If the two of them do have a plan, it is clear that Sawyer is not in on it.

 

When Kate and Sawyer killed an Other who was following their group, why didn’t we get to see his face? I have a suspicion that he was Dr. Candle/Dr. Wickman.

 

Where did Kate’s binoculars come from? Why on earth did she have them at the funeral?

 

KELVIN

The man in the army who forced Sayid to interrogate his friend was Inman. Not Kelvin Inman, Joe Inman. Perhaps another twin? Either way, he provides a connection to both Sayid and Kate, because Kate’s dad was in Inman’s military unit.

 

Kelvin was ex-military and Goodwin had a military knife before Ana Lucia killed him. Is the island an abandoned military facility that Dharma took over for their experiment?

 

LIBBY

Is Elizabeth really Libby, or her crazy twin? Frankly, the Libby we see in the mental institution and the coffee shop with Desmond seems world apart in spirit and personality from the Libby we meet on the island and with Hurley.

 

Is David, Elizabeth’s
husband, Hurley’s invisible friend Dave from the institution, or a
figment of her imagination? Did she seem him with Hurley? Were they the
only two who could see him? If her husband was real, she said he died
after getting sick. We are certainly familiar with folks getting sick
and dying on a certain island. Was her husband part of Rousseau’s crew?
Maybe he bought Libby that boat so she could get her sea legs and want
to join him on his journey.

 

It’s looking more like Libby is in on this whole thing, and she works for Dharma or Hanso. She was a plant at the institution, monitoring Hurley. She was a plant at the airport, giving Desmond a boat. She told Hurley that he stepped on her foot on the plane, and yet he was in the main fuselage section while she was in the tail section. Do we know for sure that she was even on the plane? Only the front fuselage section had the flight manifest, and no one has checked it again since the arrival and merge of Libby & company.

 

MICHAEL

Michael admitted that shooting Libby was an accident, but he didn’t say anything about Ana Lucia. Was he asked to kill her? Gale knew that she killed Goodwin and told her she is a killer…but then again, Eko confessed to killing a few Others himself. Perhaps because he was a man of faith who apologized, Gale forgave him.

 

Michael’s forehead and hand look infected. Did the Others infect him when they injected him and told him they were taking his blood?

 

Are the Others letting Michael go because he’s not LOST anymore, because he found Walt? Before that plane crashed, he was an absent dad and didn’t fight very hard to keep Walt when his ex relocated across the continent with him. Perhaps the Others, who view themselves as the good guys, are somehow fulfilled by the sacrifices Michael made in order to retrieve Walt and deemed them both worthy of rescue/release.

 

MISC. THEORIES & THOUGHTS

There were several references to snow, including a snow globe. And we’ve already seen a polar bear on the island. Is the island inside of a dome, an experiment set in a frozen landscape? And if so, if Michael followed Gale’s coordinates to be rescued, does that mean he’d drive the boat to some kind of exit portal? By ‘rescued,’ did Gale mean released from the experiment?

 

The prehistoric-looking bird that swooped down over Hurley and the group is the first bird we’ve seen on the island. Kind of odd, considering that they’re supposedly in a jungle and in the South Pacific.

 

Does anyone else think that it was strange or question why Jin and Sun know how to sail?

 

Why is it that when the electromagnetic anomaly occurred, all metallic items (like the Dharma food cans on the beach) were affected but the Others’ guns were perfectly fine? Were they plastic/fake?

 

Is there anything to the fact that there are three very specific groups of survivors? The first is Sayid, Sun and Jin. The second is Eko, Locke and Desmond. The third is Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Will these trios play significant roles together next season? 

 

THE OTHERS

Henry Gale said he was taking Jack, Kate and Sawyer home with him. Is ‘home’ headquarters, the Question Mark area in the center of all of the hatches? Is that where the other kidnapped kids are?

 

Kelvin referred to the Others as the Hostiles. He worked for Dharma, so there must be two separate groups of Others. But which group are the scientists and doctors, and which group includes the children with dirty bare feet that don’t leave any tracks?

 

The Others are openly disdainful of Tom/Zeke. Henry Gale told the Losties that he was a nobody, and Ms. Klugh ripped on him in front of the Losties for removing his beard. Perhaps in season three we’ll learn more about the politics and relationships of the Others. I wouldn’t be surprised to find Others with very similar Lostie counterparts, personality and otherwise.

 

Do the Others wear disguises to distinguish themselves from their identical twins that are also on the island?

 

PENNY WIDMORE

How did Penny know to look for an electromagnetic anomaly?

 

Does her father know she’s funding a search for Desmond?

 

Was the real Henry Gale employed by Penny Widmore to fly his hot air balloon in search of Desmond? There was a Widmore logo on the side of the balloon.

 

We learn that Penny had a fiancé. Perhaps she’s not looking for Desmond at all. Perhaps her fiancé was on Flight 815.

 

ROUSSEAU

Crazy French lady Danielle Rousseau must be associated with the Others. There is no way that their leader, Gale, would be captured by one of her nets unless he was trying to get caught. Her net looked just like the ones that the Others had in their fake camp. If she really has been on the island that long, she has to know that her daughter Alex is alive and among them. Is it possible that her supposedly dead team/crew is actually the Others?

 

SWAN HATCH

If the hatch did blow up, was the electromagnetic field destroyed? If so, will Locke become paralyzed and will Rose get sick again?

 

Did Desmond actually turn the key? Did turning the key just shut down the computer and electromagnetic system rather than blow up the entire hatch?

 

Charlie was still in the hatch when it supposedly blew up, and he survived. So Eko and Locke must have also lived.

 

When Desmond and Locke deliberately locked down the hatch to keep Eko out, why didn’t the fluorescent light that illuminated the map come on as it did when Locke was trapped beneath? It also failed to light up when Inman was making additions to the map.

 

After Locke destroyed the computer monitor, Desmond could have entered the numbers using only the keyboard.

 

WALT

So you’ve been torn from your father’s arms, kidnapped and put through seemingly traumatic testing. You’re told to hide in an open compartment on a small boat, which is docked right next to where a group of people are talking. You don’t hear/recognize your own father’s voice and take a peek? No. Even when your dad starts yelling out your name and jumps on board, it takes you a second to realize who it is. Why? Because you’re not you. You’re a projection of your true self or a clone/twin.

 

Skeptical? Consider that the Others dedicated a good deal of time and resources toward the capture and testing of Walt. They recognized his special abilities and Gale said they’d never let Walt go. And yet they did. Why? Because he’s been cloned or has a twin that Michael never knew about. Was Michael present at Walt’s birth? How do we know Walt’s mom didn’t have twins?

 

* FAR FETCHED THEORY OF THE SEASON

Jack and Kate work for Dharma and were never on the plane. Yes, we’ve seen them on the plane. But I don’t believe the plane ever crashed, so this fits (at least in my head). In the very first scene of the pilot episode, we see Jack in the middle of the jungle by himself. When he looks up, there do not appear to be any broken tree branches or anything else indicating that a body fell from the sky. He could have been placed in that spot (just as I feel everyone else was placed in crash mode after the ‘experiment’ started). We then meet Kate as she is walking by Jack in the jungle, and again they are all by themselves. Perhaps that last look they exchanged before the burlap sacks were placed over their heads was a wink-wink, nudge-nudge acknowledgment that they are in indeed going ‘home.’ Believe me, I know the clues indicating otherwise far outweigh this possibility, but it’s an interesting theory to absorb as we await the third season.

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Why, why, why?! I will never understand why networks move hit shows from their beloved and comfortable time slots. ABC is taking a huge risk by moving Grey’s Anatomy to Thursdays at 9pm next season. Grey’s is an experience; that rare television program that defines Sunday evening, the kind of program that we all need before facing the week ahead. Although I’m happy to see that the new date and time won’t conflict with my Survivor addiction, I doubt that this new timeslot will increase viewership and/or ratings. Frankly, I just can’t imagine rooting for George, hissing at Meredith, loving Cristina and looking forward to a Dr. Bailey diatribe that late in the week.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the emotional depth of the Grey’s season finale. All season long, the show has been consistent and the writing fantastic, but last night the producers and writers really stepped up and delivered exactly the right ingredients to keep us obsessing during the long summer hiatus; it was poignant, compelling, revealing and frustrating.

 

If it were up to me, the show would be called Yang’s Anatomy, as Meredith Grey is my least favorite character. I’ve never been able to shake my initial impression of Ellen Pompeo as a Renée Zellweger doppelganger with an equally irritating voice. But Sandra Oh as Cristina Yang simply steals the show and every scene she’s in. I used to watch a very average HBO show, Arliss, just because of her. On Grey’s, Oh’s Dr. Yang is complicated, infuriating and very human; hers is the only story line that holds my interest without fail, and the only personality I find remotely realistic. 

 

If you need to reach me before fall, I’ll be the one on the couch with the Team Addison t-shirt.

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Two words to describe last night’s episode. Holy. Crap. What a tremendous show. The season could have ended last night. That would have been quite the cliffhanger. I, for one, am thrilled that there is more to come.

By the way, I love the irony of the title of this episode featuring the demise of Ana Lucia & Libby…‘Two for the Road.’  Clearly Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros had a few too many for the road in Hawaii last year.

 

ANA LUCIA

It can’t be a coincidence that Ana Lucia is shot right after sleeping with Sawyer, just as Shannon was shot right after sleeping with Sayid. I’m not implying that the Others or Dharma are religious and/or uptight, but it does strike me as odd.  

 

Was Michael sent to kill Ana Lucia specifically? To the Others, she certainly wouldn’t qualify as a ‘good’ person. Michael could have just tied her up at gunpoint if he had wanted to kipnap her or take something from the Hatch, but he deliberately killed her with an alarmingly accurate single shot to the chest.

 

BLACK SMOKE

Is the black smoke somehow responsible for or related to the reason that the plane crashed on the island? It emanates from underground, where we know most of the Hatches are. Locke had been pulled down by the black smoke monster thing at the end of last season (although he seemed to be fascinated by it rather fear it), which could perhaps explain his obsession with opening the main Hatch.  The black smoke also made a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance in the pilot episode last season when one of the plane’s engines blew up on the beach. Eko, a man of faith like Locke, also had a “moment” with the black smoke, so that might explain their shared sense of calm and almost complacent attitude about being on the island.

 

CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD (JACK’S DAD)

We know that Jack is a man of science, but it is interesting that his Dad is a man of faith, like Locke. Christian Shepherd mentioned ‘fate’ several times in Ana Lucia’s flashbacks.

 

Now we know that Jack has a sister, or a half-sister. Something tells me that she’s on the island. My theory is that the blonde woman at the door was…Claire’s sister! She had an Australian accent (as does Claire, the only Lostie with one), and we know Jack’s dad went there specifically looking for his daughter, but we can’t assume the blonde at the door was the mother. So is Claire his pregnant mistress or daughter? 

 

Was the blonde woman that Jack’s dad went to see in Australia the same blonde woman from the boat that captured Walt?

 

Jack’s dad gives Ana Lucia the name ‘Sarah,’ which was Jack’s wife’s name. Did Jack’s wife leave him because she was having an affair with his father?

 

HATCHES

Are the kidnapped kids all in the ‘?’ Hatch? That appears to be the main Hatch on that map Locke saw.

 

Perhaps the central Hatch is underwater. This would explain both the long black cord Sayid found on the beach last season and the fact that Walt appeared soaking wet in the jungle when Shannon & Sayid saw him.

 

KATE

When Michael was telling them that the Others were dirty, barefoot, and lived in tents, why didn’t Kate interrupt with information about the disguises she found? She had already told Jack about the dirty clothes costumes. Do Jack and Kate secretly have suspicions about Michael and his story because of this knowledge? Will this come into play in next week’s episode, when they discover the shootings in the Hatch?

 

RANDOM THOUGHT: The Lost producers are sci-fi geeks, and probably Star Wars fans. Would they dare make Jack and Kate brother and sister, a la Luke and Leia? There was that one kiss between them, which could prove to be awesomely awkward should this theory prove to be true.

 

LIBBY

Once again, Hurley’s bad luck reared its ugly head. Libby was shot in the Hatch because she was down there getting blankets for their picnic.

 

But is Libby dead? Was she carrying just blankets, or could she have been carrying something that prevented the bullets from killing her? First of all, in the deleted scene shown on ABC this morning, Hurley and Libby are seen on the beach discussing music. The producers want us to believe that Libby was carrying records as well as blankets when she was shot, adding layers that may have protected her from mortal wounds. Second, in the preview for next week’s episode, Hurley didn’t look like a man who had just lost a potential love interest. Then again, we all know how deceptive and cleverly edited those previews can be…

 

Another reason to believe that Libby hasn’t been killed off: they haven’t aired her flashback yet. She appeared in Hurley’s, but hasn’t had her own. Boone, Shannon and Ana Lucia all did, however.

 

LOCKE

Henry was messing with Locke’s head when he told him that his mission was to come get him.

 

However, of all the Losties, Locke seems like a logical choice for the Others to seek. In their minds, he’s a ‘good’ person; he has not contributed to the death of another person, inadvertent or otherwise, as most of the other Losties have. Also, Walt was a fan and friend of Locke’s, and could have asked and/or instructed the Others to take him.

 

MICHAEL

Did Michael get infected with the ‘sickness?’ Is that why he shot the Losties?

 

Or, did Michael kill Libby & Ana Lucia because the Others told him he’d get Walt back if he released Henry Gale by any means necessary? When Ana Lucia told Michael that Gale was captured in the hatch, Michael did not seem very surprised at all. Is Michael an Other? He did work for Widmore Construction before the crash, and there is a definite link between Widmore Corporation and Dharma. But if Michael made a deal with the Others, what else did it involve? Luring the Losties into a trap?

 

Or, did Michael shoot them just to stir the Losties into action, to engage in war with the Others to help him get Walt back?

 

If I were the Losties, after discovering the bodies in the Hatch, I’d ask why Henry didn’t kill Michael too. Michael is going to stage it to look like Henry got Ana Lucia’s gun, and then shot & killed the women but only shot him in the arm. But what would be Henry’s reason for sparing just him?

 

‘THE’ NUMBERS

Michael told Jack and the group that there are 22 Others. Since 23 is one of the numbers, does that make him Other #23?

 

THE OTHERS

Assuming that Libby is indeed dead, none of the four of the Losties were killed by the Others. Boone died in the small yellow plane, Shannon was accidentally shot by Ana Lucia, and Ana Lucia & Libby were shot by Michael.

 

Here is a reason why there may be two sets of Others. One group, seemingly the scientists with fake Other clothing, don’t actually seem to want to kill anyone. They’re just collecting children. But another group, with people like Ethan and Goodwin, have killed or tried to kill Losties. Based on Michael’s actions last night, it’s not hard to tell which Other team he could be on.

 

But here is the confusing part.  Last night Henry Gale questioned Ana Lucia’s assertion that Goodwin was going to kill her. Gale must have known that Goodwin killed Nathan, the tail section guy…

 

So who is controlling the black smoke monster? Who is controlling the number entry and old-school instant messaging between Hatches? And are either of the teams working with crazy French lady Danielle Rousseau?

 

SAYID

What was Sayid digging a hole for? Seems kind of odd timing since there will be at least one funeral in the next episode…

 

SUN

When you call The Hanso Foundation number (which appeared on that commercial during last night’s episode), there is a reference to a Korean offshore company called Paik Heavy Industries. Sun’s dad is Mr. Paik. 

 

TWIN THEORY

Sawyer was reading a manuscript called The Bad Twin. We’re led to believe that it was found in the plane wreckage, and ABC made a genius move because there is now a book of the same name available in bookstores (I already ordered it). The author, Gary Troup, is an anagram for Purgatory. The producers spend so much time denying that the entire show is based in purgatory, and yet their marketing team fuels the fire with little tricks like this.

 

We know that were twin brothers on the boat that captured Walt, but maybe there is a Lostie with an Other twin (not necessarily identical). I believe that Henry is Libby’s brother. Supposedly she was in the hatch to get blankets, but what if she was going there to speak to or free her brother? She was shot because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It will be interesting to see Henry’s reaction to Michael if this is true.

 

WALT

Perhaps Walt is HIM. Who else would have enough influence to convince his own father to do what he did? We know that Walt has creepy talents and powers, but to what extent?

 

Other possible HIM candidates: Henry Gale, Christian Shepherd, and Alvar Hanso.

 

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