Sunday, May 30, 2010
more gooder with words.
Monday, May 24, 2010
the key was in the appendix.
the great debate has begun.
the lost finale: brilliant or terrible?
i choose the former. without a doubt. i've spent six years watching the stories of these characters unfold. six years of brilliant storytelling. six years of laughing, crying, time jumping, flashing backward, forward, sideways. six years of build up for the best payoff of any show/movie i've ever seen. far exceeding my expectations.
if you weren't exactly thrilled with the finale, check out jason funk's review and you guys can gang up on me for some serious etrashtalk.
if i would have made of list of things i wanted, nay, needed answered in the finale if you would have asked me prior to the finale starting, this is the list that would have been compiled...
1) walt. we spent two years of this show with, i believe, walt being the biggest mystery. what was with his powers? why did the others want him?
answered? no.
2) aaron. what was so significant about aaron? why did the psychic tell claire that she was the only one who could raise him?
dealt with? nope. aaron wasn't even seen this season.
3) names!? mr. pierre chang/mark wickmund/marvin candle/edgar halliwax has been an enigma to me since i saw the first orientation video in the swan hatch. if you hadn't caught it, his named changed in every video. in one video, he didn't have the use of one of his arms, but did in the all others. why the different name? what's with the arm? we actually see the arm get crushed during the incident at the end of season 5. what caused him to regain the ability to use his arm. different realities! or so i thought. i hoped for answers in the finale and....
got nothing.
4) the numbers. we got the answer to the numbers, right? absolutely not. seriously. just becaused we saw them used and featured heavily in season 6 didn't mean anything to me. wasn't expecting them to return in the finale and.....
they didn't.
5) no birthing for you! what in world caused women to not be able to have children on the island between the birth of ethan in 1974ish and claire in 2003?
forget about it!!
6) rub some ointment on it? the infection/sickness. apparently in real life terms we call them "zombies." i have no idea. i figured it should be important.
...and apparently not.
7) the hurley bird! if you aren't a die hard and absolutely nuts lost fan you may not know this one. it has bugged me for a long time and i actually read we would get an answer to it this season.
someone lied.
(in case you have no clue what i'm referring to, here's the clip. it's from the season 2 finale)
8) and the island is........
not important.
like i said, these were the answers i wanted, nay, demanded before the finale. how many of them were dealt with? ZERO. and, yes, i thought the episode was absolutely brilliant! why? because i realized i'm a man of resolution. not answers.
did i really want them to spend the whole episode unpacking all these little mysteries? saying, "ok, remember this. here's what it is." i thought i did until about 30 minutes in to the show.
i then did a complete 180 in my thinking. i realized i had been following these characters for six years. i'm invested in THEM. not the statue. not the hatches. not the hurley bird. well, i'm still a little invested in the hurley bird.
the story of these characters is why i began watching in the first place. i wanted a resolution to THEIR story. and i don't feel it could have ended more perfectly.
some people have expressed their frustration of the writers "pretending" they knew what they were doing from the beginning, but in reality threw together an ending because they couldn't wrap this expansive story they created. i disagree.
after the show was finished and i was driving home, i realized the writes have known all along...well, at least since season 3.
"the key was in the appendix." remember the episode when jack's appendix burst and juliet had to fix him? i honestly would put that episode in my five most hated of all time. it seemed like completely unnecessary drama. we were in the midst of the flash-forwards at the time and we all knew jack makes it off the island and is doing just fine. why the appendix thing?
well, in the season six premiere 'LAX' we get our first glimpse into the "sideways reality" which i think all of us that saw the finale last night now realize "sideways" is not the proper term. we see jack looking in a mirror slightly puzzled by the scar on the right side of his stomach. he calls his mother asking when he had his appendix removed as he has no recollection of it. kind of an odd plot point, but quickly forgotten by me. how naive i was.
before i hit my "big reveal" i want to throw a little teaser out there in typical lost fashion. as we see our characters essentially living double lives in season 6 thanks in part to the "island timeline" and the "LA timeline," i steer us to words that have double meanings. for example, i don't know, appendix!
as far as anatomy goes, we all know what the appendix is. wait. i have no idea what an appendix is. anyway, it's in us. moving on.
the other appendix is placed at the end of a book. the 'official' wikipedia definition: a text added to the end of a book containing information that is important to the main text.
i'm dragging this on way to long. sorry, i was really excited when i thought of this (pats self on back).
(MAJOR SPOILER ALERT)
we now know that the sideways world is essentially purgatory. the reason jack didn't remember getting his appendix taken out as a child was because he DIDN'T. that scar, we now know, was from the knife wound he sustained from john locke in what i'm referring to as 'the duel on the cliffs.' the appendix problem is season 3 was slight of hand. a misdirection. a FARCE! the appendix was simply that. a short summary that contained important information about what was really going on.
so, there. lay your "they didn't know what they were doing" junk to rest.
back to the main point. i understand the ending came off as kind of cheesy. they all "enter heaven together. cute!" this was done very well without referencing any particular Creator or afterlife. i understand they simply couldn't do that. jack's dad couldn't say jack got saved by Jesus, buddha or tom cruise. they had to be religiously ambiguous to not offend anyone and for network televison, and i really am ok with that.
i came away with these characters were and always have been fated to be each other. sure, they had free will to do what they wanted with their lives, but in the end they needed each other. their journey into eternity now begins. how cool was it that we got to see how it all unfolded?
so, i'm really ok with not figuring out the mysteries. magic tricks are fascinating. finding out how to do them only leaves you with, "oh, that's all it is?" give me a good story and great characters any day. splash in a little time travel and i'm all in.
in closing....
...lost, keep your secrets. and thanks for memories.
Monday, May 3, 2010
dear son,
i'm writing this to you as i observe another beautiful iowa sunset. i'm hoping one day you and i will get to sit out on the back porch with our lab/basset hound hurley at our feet while your mother and two siblings (probably sisters) catch lighting bugs.
i wanted to pass on some knowledge to you as i have finally started growing wiser. you may not agree with this until your my age, but you will see things my way eventually. after reading this, you'll probably having a new found appreciation for how wise your old man is.
so, son, without further ado, i have some recommendations for you.
1. don't play sports. sure, the peewee stuff is cool. maybe a litte in junior high. i'll probably even allow football. perhaps some basketball/baseball would be in order the first few years of high school. basically, once you graduate, your body will start to deteriorate extremely fast. by the time your 27...wait, 28 (seriously, i wrote 27 first), you'll end up like me if you continue on the reckless path athletics have to offer.
i forgot to include in the intro paragraph that as i write this, i have a frozen bag of corn on my right ankle that is settled extremely precariously on the edge of my computer desk nursing a re-aggravated ankle sprain, a strained left knee, a gash on the upper section of my right calf, and a shredded left forearm from sliding on dirt, and a pulled groin (which is simply the icing on the arthritic/kidney stone producing cake). ah, yes, the first night of softball. yes, the first.
2. take advantage of remembering things. note two paragraphs up. you will forget your age. it's bound to happen. i expected that day to be after a good 93 years. try 27. wait, 28. my father has gotten to the point where he will try to tell me a story that he literally told me no more than a week prior...then he'll do it the following week...with the same story. i've started to tell people about how sad this is. i'm going to be there someday. then i realized i can't remember who i've told the story about my dad to, so i start repeating it to people. then i do it again the next i see them.
3. get good insurance. this probably should be section 1a.
4. there is evidence to support kidney stones being hereditary. i have no way to prepare you for this. so, i guess suck it up.
5. you can be an actor (in moderation). just don't be a weirdo about it. if you do plan on being in plays, i'm going to recommend an amendment to section 1. you will need to participate in some sort of manly activity to balance out the unmanliness of being in a play. once your out of school and doing movies, you are safe to now end said amendment.
6. treat women well. you will be destroyed if this is broken.
7. love Christ with all your heart. you'll be destroyed worse and forever if this is broken.
8. go outside. watch some sunsets. observe nature. go camping.
9. make sure you spend a lot of time on your short game. golf will be allowed. this is an exception to number 1. sure, you'll want to paste the ball of the tee. but 90% of the game is played from inside 100 yards.
10. remember to wear sunscreen.
that should do it. if you can do these 10 things, you'll honor me. i guess i'll probably just laugh when you get kidney stones.
i guess if you're really bummed out about the sports thing, you could always be a punter. you'll never get hurt beyond want an ice pack can't fix.
so, in closing, as this sun sets behind the horizon, you son, will set these things upon your heart and obey them. i want you to know i'm proud of you so far in your young life. just don't screw it up and make me look bad.
love,
dad
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