Lost – Sundown

This week’s episode focused on Sayid, and was full of action. We got to see Sayid on the mainland dealing with his past and seeing the love of his life being married to his brother. Claire and Smoke Monster John made their way to the Temple and eventually, all hell broke loose. Sayid was finally “claimed and Smoke Monster John gained quite a posse of followers.
This was another great episode. We learned a little more about Dogen, and picked up some more info about the Smoke Monster. I’m pretty disappointed that Sayid has been recruited. Yeah, it’s cool to see him rough people up and not give a damn, but it was comforting to know that he was on the good side. While he was in the jungle, Smoke Monster John tempted Sayid by offering him the chance to have anything in the world. The temptation was too great and Sayid agreed. As that scene was playing out, I couldn’t help but think that Sayid was making a deal with the devil. In some ways maybe he was. I don’t think Smoke Monster John can deliver on his promises though. Just look at Claire. Smoke Monster John told her that Aaron was in the Temple – we all know that he’s not, so that’s obviously a lie. I think he lied to Sayid as well, just to recruit him.
It was cool to see the similarities between Dogen and Sayid. Both have made deals with Jacob and the Smoke Monster respectively, and both serve their masters well. Wasn’t their fight intense? I kept waiting for Sayid to get the upper hand, but he never really did. It was sad to see Sayid kill Dogen near the end of the episode; it’s a shame Dogen didn’t put up more of a fight. Maybe he knew what was going to happen and was at peace with it?
Smoke Monster John was smart in having Sayid deliver the message to the Temple-dwellers. It dawned on me that Sayid noticed them looking at him; Miles gave us a little hint as well. “You were a dead man for a few hours. When you sat up, they were just as surprised as we were”. Hmm. Maybe the people kept looking at him because he came back from the dead without the help of the healing spring. They probably thought, ‘There must be something special about him’. He’s almost like a Jesus figure, rising up from the dead; I can see how the Temple-dwellers could be convinced to listen to him.
At the end of the episode Smoke Monster John had a smirk on his face when he realized that Kate was with his band of followers. She may not actually be one of his followers, only time will reveal her true alignment. However, Smoke Monster John led Claire to believe that Aaron was in the Temple, but he wasn’t. Come to think of it, I didn’t notice Claire searching the Temple for Aaron. For being fired up enough to kill someone, she could have just taken a quick look around for her son. Anyway, maybe Smoke Monster John’s smile was because he knows that a clash will be coming soon now that Claire knows Kate raised Aaron. Remember, Claire said that she’d kill Kate if it was true that she was raising him.
One final thought – When Claire told Dogen to meet with Smoke Monster John, he refused. He knew that Smoke Monster John would kill him. Claire then tells him to send someone he won’t kill; Dogen turned around and asked for Shephard and Reyes. Did you catch that? I wonder if that’s a hint. Maybe Smoke Monster John can’t kill potential candidates. That makes sense. He couldn’t kill Jacob, so he had Ben do it. Now he’s probably going to play everyone off of each other to get what he wants. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Survivor – Week 3

Alright, it’s week 3 and the Heroes need to recover from last week’s dismal performance. In this episode Tom called James a bully, Rob admitted that he doesn’t trust Russell, and Coach let us know that he thinks Parvati is the most dangerous player in the game.
The Immunity / Reward Challenge this week was very physical; it was exciting to watch! The match up between Coach and Rupert really stood out to me. When Rupert was knocked off the platform into the mud, Coach was really into his celebration. When he found out that it didn’t count, he gave Jeff Probst the finger. Hey man, the rules are the rules; don’t take it out on the host! It was awesome that Rupert came back and knocked Coach into the slop. Oh yeah!!
How ‘bout that Russell? Are you kidding me? He hid the machete? That’s so insane. I guess if you want to stir up your team, the best way to do it would be to hide something that the team really relies on. But, doesn’t he realize that he’s hurting himself too? If the team doesn’t have fire – YOU don’t have fire! Whatever. When he hinted that he might hide that Red Sox hat from Rob, I laughed out loud. I want to see that. I think that would really rile up Rob and get his head out of the game. Russell may not be the most trust worthy survivor, but I can’t wait to see what he does next.
It was interesting to hear Coach tell Parvati that flirting has never controlled him, hmmm. We’ll see about that now that he has a little thing for Jerri. When the Villains were at Tribal Council, the Jeff asked who some of the leaders on the team were. Coach smiled after the question was asked. The he got really defensive about what he contributes to the team. I think that he was upset that he wasn’t considered a leader. It really got to him. We saw some of his reaction to it in the previews for next week. It’s still early in the game man; let your actions speak for themselves.
Now that the Villains have gone to Tribal Council, we see their lack of cohesion. They aren’t as solid as their first 2 challenge wins would lead us to believe. Both teams have their problems and will need to set them aside to work together on the challenges. That’s the name of the game. Success at challenge can really boost you team’s morale. Until next week, “Randy, the tribe has spoken.”

Lost – The Lighthouse

Early on in this episode, Hurley came across Jacob sitting by the healing spring.  Jacob told Hurley that someone is coming to the island and that he needs his help.  He gives Hurley specific instructions to follow in order to help this person find the island.  Hurley convinces Jack to go with him to the lighthouse where Jack ends up destroying the mirrors there.  Meanwhile, in the jungle, Claire freed Jin from the bear trap, and helped to heal his wound.  She also killed the one of the Others that had tried to kill Jin.  At the end of the episode Jin tells Claire that Aaron is in the Temple – and he can help her get there.

I think this was a pretty good episode.  There were a lot of things going on, and there are a lot of things to speculate about.  Like who’s coming to the island?  And since when did Jack have a son?  A few things that happened made me laugh – thins that seem oddly missing.

To me it seemed like Claire was a little off as she interacted with Jin.  She didn’t really try to “catch up” with him, and she wasn’t surprised that she’d been living out in the jungle for 3 years.  That kinda makes sense though, if the darkness consumed her that would explain why she was a little removed from her surroundings.  She certainly was able to kill rather quickly, wasn’t she?  I think Jin was right to tell her that Aaron was at the Temple – anything to him himself alive!

Hurley leading Jack to the lighthouse was the main focus of the episode and there are so many things that happened on that journey to talk about.  First off, I think Hurley was hilarious when he tried to secretly tell Jack to follow him.  How about all of the writing on his arm?  That was funny.  I turned to my wife and said, “Couldn’t Jacob just make himself a little voice in his head like Obi Wan Kenobi?”  That be a lot cleaner the writing all over his arm.  Hey, wait a minute, where’d he get that pen from?

When Hurley and Jack were inside the lighthouse, once they realized that their names were all given a specific coordinate; wasn’t it weird that they didn’t bother looking to see what name was at 108 degrees?  Who did Jacob want to help find the island?  I actually talked to one of my friends about that.  Apparently, the name at 108 degrees was Wallace.  I’m not sure who this Wallace person is, but my friend thinks that Jacob used that number just to get Hurley to turn the wheel.  That would give Jack the opportunity to see what was in the mirrors.  We also speculated on who it might be coming to the island.  My first thought was Widmore, or possibly Aaron; he thinks that it may be Desmond.  Earlier it just hit me; I don’t think that anyone is coming to the island.  I think that the ‘person coming to the island’ is Jack.  Sure Jack is on the island physically, but he’s not really on the island.  Jacob didn’t seem to care that the mirrors were smashed.  He was kinda like, ‘Eh, they’re find another way’  Maybe it was Jack finding his way mentally.  I could be wrong and I probably am, but it’s really something to think about.  Who do you think it could be?

Here are a few things that I picked up on:

-When Jack met up with Kate on the side of a river, he told her that something happened to Claire.  That only inspired Kate to get back to her search.  If you were Kate, wouldn’t you ask, What happened to Claire?”  Not Kate!

-Hurley brought up the point that the skeletons they found could be one of them.  Based on what they’ve been through on the island, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he’s right.

-Did you see the size of the chip clip that David used to seal up the bag of pretzels he was holding?  It was WAY too big for that tiny bag of pretzels!

-Where did Smoke Monster John come from?  Last we knew he was stuck in a cave with Sawyer.  Does that mean that Sawyer is with him now?  And shouldn’t Claire at least remember his name from just 3 years ago?  That was the man who built your newborn son a cradle from a bunch of sticks!

Survivor – Week 2

This episode started out with the threat of thunderstorms on the island.  The Villains’ shelter did not keep them dry.  Boston Rob was the only Villain who seemed fired up about it.  He understands the importance of a solid shelter.  I’m surprised none of the other Villains do, they’ve played this game before.  It’s only Day 4 and the Villains have designed and re-designed their shelter 4 times!  While re-designing the shelter again, Boston Rob got fed up with everyone’s bad attitude that he came out and told them, “Never mind, I got this”.  What a team, huh?  On the other side of the island, the Heroes were again working well together.  Although there did seem to be some tension developing between Rupert and Stephanie.  Coming off a poor showing last week, the Heroes really need to band together this week to counter the Villains’ momentum.

There was a scary moment when Boston Rob was found unconscious in the jungle.  While he was being treated by the medical staff, he told Jeff that he didn’t want to be the dictator again.  Jerri admitted that there is life beyond the game, but also pointed out that without Rob around; things would get tough very quickly.  Now, is it just me or did you pick up on that comment too?  What started out as being a very genuine concern for Rob’s health, turned out to be a pretty selfish statement.  After the scare was over, Rob let us know that he decided to be the villain that everyone wants him to be.  Personally, I can’t wait to see him clash with Russell.  You know its coming!

The immunity challenge was also a reward challenge – the reward being tarp, rope, and nails.  Once again, the heroes built up a good lead only to let it slip away.  They just don’t seem like they can work together on the challenges.  The Villains really needed this reward, now they can really improve the quality of their shelter.

At Tribal Council, the division within the Heroes team became apparent.  James did some trash talking.  Colby and Tom both stuck up for Stephanie, but she was voted off the island.  I hope that Colby and Tom can forge new alliances, or break up existing ones so they can stay in the game.  From what we saw in the previews for next week, it looks like James gets a little out of control.  I can’t wait to see the rest of the Heroes team reacts to that.