Here are some thoughts & theories about this week’s epsiode of Lost.

• Sawyer had a pregnancy test among his hoarded supplies, which means that someone else on that flight thought they might be pregnant. The question is this – is it someone who survived the crash? Did Sun have one in her suitcase and was hoping that Sawyer found it? If so, that means she did sleep with her language tutor.

• Was Jin’s procreation power magically restored, like Locke’s legs? Did the crash or the island or the hatch or Dharma have anything to do with it?

• It can’t be coincidence that Sun started to feel the signs of pregnancy right after babysitting Aaron. And I’m not convinced she’s actually pregnant by normal means. Was she injected with something? Those Other scientists certainly have the meds and are seeking children. I also seem to recall that Locke’s mom told him he had no father, that he was an immaculate conception…

• Henry Gale is an Other. Someone did crash a balloon on the island, but not him. He and the Others saw the accident and killed or kidnapped the balloon passengers, and now Gale is using their story. That would explain how he knows the location of the balloon.

• Jack said he couldn’t hear Ana Lucia talking to Gale inside the holding cell  even when he was standing right next to the door, and yet Gale was able to hear Jack and Locke talk quietly further outside that same door? This reinforces my theory that Gale has super hearing powers, which is probably one of the characteristics of the Others.

• How could Gale have known that more than just Ana Lucia went looking for his balloon? He told Jack and Locke that the map he drew could lead to a set up, and then the Others would “trade them for me.”

Random Thought (not related to the latest episode):

• Did Locke know what was going to happen on the island before he boarded the plane? Was he told that the island would somehow cure him if he agreed to oversee a hatch? Was Locke the replacement sent for Desmond? When he first found the hatch in the jungle and couldn’t get it open, he yelled that “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” like he knew he had to get in there…

 

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Tomorrow night I am attending a sneak preview of Thank You For Smoking, which I am looking forward to because of the serious buzz it has already generated. I aim to post a review of it by Wednesday evening.

Also on the docket this week is V For Vendetta. Across the board, friends have given it high marks, and I will see anything written and produced by the Wachowski Brothers.

In case you missed it, Natalie Portman’s rap spoof on SNL was hilarious, an instant classic: http://www.nbc.com/Video/videos/snl_1439_natalieraps.shtml

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Holy moly. The Sopranos are back in a big way. You might as well hand the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series to Edie Falco right now. Her work is unparalleled, layered and inspiring. There are very few actors I enjoy watching more than her, in this role. Carmela is one of the best characters on television. Ever.

 

Even though I was among the peanut gallery lamenting about the long layoff between seasons of The Sopranos, it was worth the wait. Each episode is like a movie; a well-produced, well-written short film with a superb ensemble cast.

 

Do I believe that Adriana is dead? No. First of all, although we see Silvio shoot at her during last season’s finale, we are never shown the actual body. Of course a man of his experience wouldn’t miss, but my gut feeling was that she somehow escaped or Silvio just couldn’t bring himself to do the deed. Also, it’s no secret that Joey is failing miserably and is about to be cancelled, which would free up Drea de Matteo to reappear on The Sopranos as more than a ghost.  

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I am bummed that Darren Aronofsky isn’t going to be directing an episode of Lost after all (he and fiancé/Oscar winner Rachel Weisz are having a baby any moment now).

 

Because Lost has been a repeat for two weeks in a row, I’ve had plenty of time to ponder the lingering questions that go unanswered from episode to episode, as well as speculate about possible plot points. Here are the first of many, in no particular order:

• Why don’t the castaways ever seem to tell one another about what they discover in the jungle, in the hatches, etc.? There doesn’t seem to be much information sharing going on out there on the island, which seems odd, given that there isn’t much else to do when stranded.

• In the beginning of the first season, Hurley checked the survivors names against the flight manifest to account for all passengers. Why is it that he didn’t do so when they discovered the tail-end survivors weeks later?

• Why did flight attendant Cindy disappear and where did she go? She doesn’t seem like someone the ‘Others’ would be interested in.

• When Sayid first went exploring by himself in season one, he came across a thick black cord running buried in the sand. He tracked it into the jungle, where he first met Rousseau, but never questioned where the other end led. My theory is that there is an underwater hatch, and that cord is somehow providing electricity or power to it.

• Isn’t it a tad coincidental that Hurley would be attracted to a clinical psychologist when he used to be institutionalized? He even comments to Libby that she seems familiar. I’m sure we’ll find out that she worked where he was a patient. Libby is a mystery; perhaps an ‘Other,’ or perhaps just an odd bird.

• When Jack came across his father’s coffin, it was broken but empty. Is his dad still alive and on the island? Is he an ‘Other’ or somehow involved with the Dharma Initiative? Or did the airline send the coffin without the body, because Jack was told at the ticket counter that they couldn’t transport it?

• Clearly Jack’s wife was cheating on him with someone we know. Could it have been Desmond? She used to go running in the morning, just as Jack was returning from working all night at the hospital. And we know how Desmond liked to run…

• Is Claire’s dad involved with Dharma? This is convoluted but try to follow my logic…her dad used to sing “Catch a Falling Star” to her as a child, and she asked the potential adoptive parents to sing it to her baby after they adopt him. That very song played on the airplane mobile above the crib in the medical hatch during the last episode.

• Are Claire’s psychic and the adoptive parents in LA also involved with Dharma?

• Did you notice that the airplanes on the mobile above the crib had Oceanic Air logos on them? Dharma is obviously involved with Oceanic – do they own Oceanic Airlines?

• The guy talking to Ethan outside the baby’s room in the hatch was indeed the supposed leader of the ‘Others,’ Zeke… without the fake beard. But now we know that there is another “Him” in charge, thanks to what Zeke said to Ethan: ‘You were supposed to make the list and then bring her in… Well, what I am I supposed to tell HIM? Do you know what HE’s gonna do when HE finds out?’ Could the HIM they’re referring to be the stranger held captive in the survivor’s hatch, Henry Gale?  

• Was the medical hatch cleared out and abandoned as a result of Claire’s escape, Ethan’s failure to kidnap the right people from the ‘list,’ or an overall fear of ‘HIM?’

• While under Ethan’s care (and drugged at the time), Claire told him she was on her way to LA, as if the plane crash never happened. Perhaps it didn’t, and the whole thing is some kind of Dharma-controlled experiment. Did what occur in Claire’s memory actually happen on the island? Did it happen before she got on the plane? We never actually see how she escapes; we only see her lying in the jungle before the French woman discovers here there.

• Claire took a drink from Ethan’s canteen, much like Jack did from Desmond’s canteen in his flashback. She mentioned that it tasted sour. Is water one of the methods the Dharma folks use to poison and/or drug folks?

• Isn’t it strange that Desmond was injecting himself with the same looking stuff that Ethan was drugging Claire with? Is it medicine to ward off the infection everyone keeps talking about? And if so, why didn’t he seem hazy and discombobulated like her?

• Henry Gale, the captive in the survivors hatch, seems to have super hearing powers, able to overhear Jack and Locke talking through that door (which he said was thin but must be thick enough to keep a man from breaking it down and also support a deadbolt lock). Remember that Ethan also exhibited superhuman qualities when he lifted Charlie with one arm and held him in mid air…

• Henry Gale was the name of Dorothy’s uncle in The Wizard of Oz. And the Wizard himself arrived in Oz via hot air balloon, the very method of transport that this Gale is claiming to have crashed on the island.  Keep in mind that the Wizard also departed Oz in a hot air balloon, so we’ll see what happens with Lost’s Gale.

• Another Wizard of Oz detail relating to Lost…Zeke was the real name of the Cowardly Lion.   

• Is Sun really pregnant, or is she feeling the effects of the “sickness” or “infection?” She was holding the baby while Claire led Kate and Danielle into the jungle. Was Sun was exposed to the sickness/infection by babysitting Aaron? I doubt the producers would add another baby to the mix, although if they stick to their timeline, the baby wouldn’t be due for another few seasons. And why on earth would Sawyer have a pregnancy test among his hoarded supplies? And if a female passenger had packed one…does that mean that one of the other survivors thought they were pregnant or may be pregnant right now?

• Is Mr. Eko building a church? He borrowed a saw and is chopping down trees.

• Wasn’t that the same room where Claire met with her attorney to sign the adoption papers before leaving Australia and Michael met with his attorney to sign over Walt to his ex? That can’t be a coincidence – the same place where 2 survivors essentially gave up their children. And we do know that Dharma collects children…

• The survivors hatch has a magnetic field below – did it have something to do with bringing the plane down? Or why the Black Rock ship is in the middle of the jungle? Does it have something to do with Locke’s ability to walk?

• Locke’s biological father talked about how everyone gets conned. And who is our favorite con man? Sawyer. I hear that there is indeed connection between those two, but I have no idea what it is.

• When Jack confronted Zeke and the ‘Others’ in the torch circle in the jungle, Zeke quoted a line from the Dharma video: “Since the dawn of our species, man’s been blessed with curiosity.”

• Why have only Kate’s parents appeared in other survivors’ flashbacks? Her mom was the waitress at the diner who served Sawyer and his fellow con man, and her dad was an officer on the military truck transporting Sayid after he tortured his former friend to help the U.S.

• And what is it with Kate and car crashes? She caused the farmer’s truck to swerve off the road and saved him, even though he turned her in. She was in the car when her doctor ex boyfriend was killed trying to help her escape. And she was also in the car with the Marshall when he crashed into the tree. 

SPOILER ALERT

Here are some rumors I’ve read online about upcoming episodes.

 

The March 22^nd episode is about Jin and Sun. 

 

The March 29^th episode is about Locke.

 

The April 5^th episode is about Hurley. Evan Handler (Charlotte’s second husband on Sex & the City) guest stars.

 

There is a rumor that Locke will be on crutches for the rest of this season.

 

And Michael will be reappearing soon.

All of this information is exhausting just to ponder. I will continue to post random Lost theories from time to time.

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If you have HBO, you must watch Big Love. This new series is very original and thought-provoking, not to mention controversial. On a basic level, the show is about polygamy, but there is much more depth to it than that.  Bill Paxton is a man with several families and a tremendous amount of responsibility; you can literally feel his tension as he goes from house to house, and wife to wife. While some might fantasize about the idea of having three wives, the reality is unglamorous. Paxton is perfectly cast as the sole patriarch, running a successful business while balancing two covert marriages (his first marriage is the only public and legal one), and battling the politics of the polygamy sect he chose to distance himself from. The youngest wife, played by Ginnifer Goodwin, has a blog: http://www.hbo.com/biglove/. I have to say that I will never be able to see actress Daveigh Chase (who plays Rhonda on this show) as anything other than the evil girl in The Ring. And it’s nice to see Tina Majorino on screen again – after many years as a child actor (Waterworld, When a Man Loves a Woman), she only recently reemerged in Napoleon Dynamite and on Veronica Mars.

 

The third season of Arrested Development is coming out on DVD in June, but I haven’t heard if Showtime or another network has picked up the show. Take a glance at the current primetime sitcoms that rank consistently high in the ratings each week; there is nothing as remotely funny or clever as Arrested Development. Sad.

 

I heard a rumor that someone is coming out on Grey’s Anatomy. Something tells me it will be a woman, she won’t be a main character, and she’ll be bisexual (especially given that the sexual proclivities of the leads have been on display since day one). I don’t believe there has been a recurring bisexual male character on television since Homicide: Life on the Street boldly and briefly delved into that territory in the 90’s.

 

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ABC 

For the Grey’s Anatomy fans out there, here is a great site for afternoon procrastination: http://www.greyswriters.com/. Check every week for additional information and back story from the writers of each episode.

 

Alias has been off the air while Jennifer Garner was on maternity leave. But the final six episodes of the season and series will finally air next month (rumored to start on Wednesday nights, beginning April 19).

 

While I do not love Desperate Housewives these days, I have to admit I’m excited for Carol Burnett to guest star soon.

 

The last episode of Lost was fantastic. Bring on the rest of the new episodes already!

 

BRAVO


The finale of Project Runway was anticlimactic.

 

I’ll give Top Chef one episode to hook me in. It looks like Kitchen Confidential meets Iron Chef.  But will it succeed on this channel, or does it belong on the Food Network?

 

Season three of Blow Out begins soon. I can’t believe I watched the first two.

 

CBS


The Amazing Race and Survivor are the only two reasons my TiVo ever visits CBS.

 

FX


I love Rescue Me. The new season begins in early summer, and I hear that Susan Sarandon has a three episode guest arc!

 

I’m almost done watching the first two seasons of Nip/Tuck on DVD and look forward to the third.

 

FOX


Why did Bones move to Wednesdays at 9pm?!  FOX made the wrong decision, airing it opposite the juggernaut that is Lost.

 

HBO 

While I miss Six Feet Under more than any other series that has ended, I can’t wait for The Sopranos to start again on Sunday night. I’m also pretty enthusiastic about the debut of the new series airing right after it, Big Love. Anyone who knows and appreciates the quality and casting of HBO shows should tune in, just to watch Bill Paxton (Twister) as a polygamist with three wives and seven children. The wives are played by Ginnifer Goodwin (Johnny Cash’s first wife in Walk the Line), Chloë Sevigny (Boys Don’t Cry), and Jeanne Tripplehorn (The Firm).

 

In June, we will be treated to a new season of the brilliant Deadwood and the addictive Entourage should also be returning this summer as well. 

 

NBC


The Office continues to be fantastic. As much as I root for the Jim & Pam connection every week, their awkward tension just makes the show that much better.

 

Medium is a pretty compelling and intriguing show that more people should watch. The realistic family dynamic and interaction is what sets it apart from most other primetime dramas.

 

Scrubs now conflicts with The Amazing Race on Tuesday nights. I will never understand why NBC didn’t move it to Thursday nights, to a prime timeslot where it would be a natural fit and widen their dedicated fan base.

 

SHOWTIME


I continue to watch The L Word but it has lost its allure. Season one was fresh and fun, season two was average and this one induces more eye rolls than laughter or tears. The best thing about the show continues to be Leisha Hailey, who recently had a guest stint on Grey’s Anatomy. 

 

Weeds is pretty good, but I don’t watch it consistently. Mary Louise Parker is amazing, and I need to set my TiVo to catch up with the show.

 

It might seem like I watch an extraordinary amount of television, and that used to be the case. BT (before TiVo).  Now I ‘tape’ many shows and watch them when I please, not scheduling my life around their original air dates like the good old days.

 

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