Lost: The Final Boner

[Slaky]

Lost was not awesome tonight.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

This week's new episode is titled "The Candidate" and it doesn't seem like it's totally out of bounds to hope for the final candidate's identity to be revealed tonight.

So, who's your horse?

Jack is far and away the most logical. No one else makes even remotely as much sense as he does: the leader, the shepherd, the skeptic who finally found his faith. It has to be him... so obviously it can't be him, right?

Right? Right.

And, while I still get darkhorse vibes off of Hurley, I feel that somehow seems too easy, too, at this point (what, with him being Jacob's go-to guy of late.) Sawyer? Maybe. He's probably the third most logical, but I'm not really feeling it at this point.

Frankly, I'm still hoping it's Locke. Real Locke. Back-from-the-dead Locke, or jumping-over-from-the-alt-timeline Locke, whatever. Whatever it takes to kick off some extreme Locke-on-Locke violence.

How likely do I think this is? I don't know. Probably not very.

But, fuck it all... I'm going on hope. I'm picking Locke for the win and setting the over/under at 6.5.

Who you got?

[Yeti]

This week's new episode is titled "The Candidate" and it doesn't seem like it's totally out of bounds to hope for the final candidate's identity to be revealed tonight.

So, who's your horse?

Jack is far and away the most logical. No one else makes even remotely as much sense as he does: the leader, the shepherd, the skeptic who finally found his faith. It has to be him... so obviously it can't be him, right?

Right? Right.

And, while I still get darkhorse vibes off of Hurley, I feel that somehow seems too easy, too, at this point (what, with him being Jacob's go-to guy of late.) Sawyer? Maybe. He's probably the third most logical, but I'm not really feeling it at this point.

Frankly, I'm still hoping it's Locke. Real Locke. Back-from-the-dead Locke, or jumping-over-from-the-alt-timeline Locke, whatever. Whatever it takes to kick off some extreme Locke-on-Locke violence.

How likely do I think this is? I don't know. Probably not very.

But, fuck it all... I'm going on hope. I'm picking Locke for the win and setting the over/under at 6.5.

Who you got?

I can get behind this.

[Kermit IV]

I'm guessing it's Raylan Givens.  I'm setting the over/under on his quick draw at 0.26 seconds, and I'm taking the under.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Via Chuck, Doc Jensen thinks it could be Ben...

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/05/04/lost-countdown-candidates/

More importantly, he's pretty sure tonight's episode is gonna be FUCKING AWESOME.

[CT III]

I'm guessing it's Raylan Givens.  I'm setting the over/under on his quick draw at 0.26 seconds, and I'm taking the under.

Raylan Givens wouldn't be caught dead on Lost.  What, do you think he's a fag?

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Did we hear Sayid tell Jack "it's going to be you" when telling him to go find Desmond or did I mishear that?

[Chuck to Chuck]

Did we hear Sayid tell Jack "it's going to be you" when telling him to go find Desmond or did I mishear that?

Yes, you heard that.

Now, no cheating via sideways reincarnations or tonight was one big con.

[Slaky]

OK, holy shit.

Also, where is Ben?

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Now, no cheating via sideways reincarnations or tonight was one big con.

Cheating? How would anything suggested be "cheating"? You're the worst.

Also, where is Ben?

With Alpert and Miles.

While Jack, Sun and Lapidus followed Hurley's plan to have a chat with EvilLocke, they went off to fetch explosives from the barracks to try to blow up the plane.

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Everybody_Loves_Hugo

Hmmm...

[Slaky]

Now, no cheating via sideways reincarnations or tonight was one big con.

Cheating? How would anything suggested be "cheating"? You're the worst.

Also, where is Ben?

With Alpert and Miles.

While Jack, Sun and Lapidus followed Hurley's plan to have a chat with EvilLocke, they went off to fetch explosives from the barracks to try to blow up the plane.

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Everybody_Loves_Hugo

Hmmm...

Ho boy. So is it too simple to say that it's now a race to Desmond?

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

FWIW, I liked the episode but am kind of with Sepinwall on the deaths...

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/lost-the-candidate-watership-down

No, what's still concerning me is the storytelling with each of these characters leading up to their deaths.

We spent the early portions of the season in the Temple watching Sayid come back from the dead, changed into something that terrified Dogen, and that seemed in personality to bare little resemblance to the Sayid Jarrah we knew. He was "infected" with something, just as Claire apparently was, and as Rousseau's team was, but nothing was ever explained beyond that, nor did we find out how/why the island resurrected him when it had never done so before. He was an empty killing machine, and then Desmond's soulful Scottish burr brought him back from the dark side, and then he took one for the team and carried the bomb as far away from the others as he could, and then... well, the mysteries of his resurrection (and his more pronounced English accent) will lie at the bottom of the ocean with the sub, I suppose.

I've talked before about how the writers kind of lost the thread of Jin and Sun by keeping them apart for as long as they did. But beyond them as a couple, I feel like the show lost sight of the two as individual characters. Jin was the guy off on his own during the time-jumps until they could land in a place where he could stop long enough to learn English, but his only real agenda was finding Sun. And I'm not sure what the point was of Sun's various twists and turns with Widmore and Ben and whatnot during the Oceanic Six period, nor was I ever entirely comfortable with the idea of her going back to the island for Jin while leaving Ji Yeon behind - at least not without us getting to see her agonize over that decision even a little. Ji Yeon began as a plot device during the period when the show was obsessed with the infertility storyline, then became an inconvenience when Sun had to go looking for her husband. (When Kate left Aaron to go find Claire, we got a chance to see how much it hurt her to do so.) As the sub was flooding and it became clear that Jin wasn't going to be able to get Sun out, I know I was supposed to be incredibly moved by Jin choosing to die with his wife - and Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim certainly played the hell out of that sequence - but all I could do was yell, "Tell him to get out of there for your daughter, Sun!"

So even as Sayid was sacrificing himself to give Jack a chance to stop Locke, and even as Jin was choosing to go to a watery grave with the woman he loved(**), I was largely thinking about missed opportunities and narrative dead ends...

Not that I necessarily think these things will be left totally unresolved. They may yet be dealt with in some way. It just feels like the writers expeditiously dispatching a few more loose ends, the better to focus on the big stuff they're building to.

It just felt like an abrupt end for a character as thoroughly sweet as Sayid.

Also: lest we forget...

For that matter, RIP, Lapidus. Alas, Lapidus, we knew him - vaguely. He dies as one of a handful of regular cast characters (I think Libby and Ilana are the only others) to die without getting a solo spotlight episode, and it was clear he stuck around as long as he did mainly because Darlton got a kick out of Jeff Fahey's exasperated delivery, even if he only got to do it once every three or four episodes.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

DPD...

http://news-briefs.ew.com/2010/05/04/lost-series-finale-will-expand-to-two-and-a-half-hours/

Get ready for a lot of Lost on May 23: The series finale will expand to two-and-a-half hours from the originally scheduled two hours. The news, which was first posted on the website of the Hollywood Reporter, was confirmed to EW.com by a source close to the show. The official announcement is expected to be made on tonight's Jimmy Kimmel Live! The Lost finale, which was to have aired from 9 to 11 p.m., will now extend until 11:30 p.m. A total of five-and-a-half hours of Lost programming will be broadcast on that Sunday night: A two-hour retrospective special/clip show, Lost: The Final Journey, will precede the finale, from 7 to 9 p.m.; Jimmy Kimmel Live!: Aloha to Lost will run after the finale and local news, starting at 12:05 a.m.

[Weebs]

FWIW, I liked the episode but am kind of with Sepinwall on the deaths...

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/lost-the-candidate-watership-down

No, what's still concerning me is the storytelling with each of these characters leading up to their deaths.

We spent the early portions of the season in the Temple watching Sayid come back from the dead, changed into something that terrified Dogen, and that seemed in personality to bare little resemblance to the Sayid Jarrah we knew. He was "infected" with something, just as Claire apparently was, and as Rousseau's team was, but nothing was ever explained beyond that, nor did we find out how/why the island resurrected him when it had never done so before. He was an empty killing machine, and then Desmond's soulful Scottish burr brought him back from the dark side, and then he took one for the team and carried the bomb as far away from the others as he could, and then... well, the mysteries of his resurrection (and his more pronounced English accent) will lie at the bottom of the ocean with the sub, I suppose.

I've talked before about how the writers kind of lost the thread of Jin and Sun by keeping them apart for as long as they did. But beyond them as a couple, I feel like the show lost sight of the two as individual characters. Jin was the guy off on his own during the time-jumps until they could land in a place where he could stop long enough to learn English, but his only real agenda was finding Sun. And I'm not sure what the point was of Sun's various twists and turns with Widmore and Ben and whatnot during the Oceanic Six period, nor was I ever entirely comfortable with the idea of her going back to the island for Jin while leaving Ji Yeon behind - at least not without us getting to see her agonize over that decision even a little. Ji Yeon began as a plot device during the period when the show was obsessed with the infertility storyline, then became an inconvenience when Sun had to go looking for her husband. (When Kate left Aaron to go find Claire, we got a chance to see how much it hurt her to do so.) As the sub was flooding and it became clear that Jin wasn't going to be able to get Sun out, I know I was supposed to be incredibly moved by Jin choosing to die with his wife - and Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim certainly played the hell out of that sequence - but all I could do was yell, "Tell him to get out of there for your daughter, Sun!"

So even as Sayid was sacrificing himself to give Jack a chance to stop Locke, and even as Jin was choosing to go to a watery grave with the woman he loved(**), I was largely thinking about missed opportunities and narrative dead ends...

Not that I necessarily think these things will be left totally unresolved. They may yet be dealt with in some way. It just feels like the writers expeditiously dispatching a few more loose ends, the better to focus on the big stuff they're building to.

It just felt like an abrupt end for a character as thoroughly sweet as Sayid.

Also: lest we forget...

For that matter, RIP, Lapidus. Alas, Lapidus, we knew him - vaguely. He dies as one of a handful of regular cast characters (I think Libby and Ilana are the only others) to die without getting a solo spotlight episode, and it was clear he stuck around as long as he did mainly because Darlton got a kick out of Jeff Fahey's exasperated delivery, even if he only got to do it once every three or four episodes.

I was thinking the same thing about Jin/Sun.  Sure, they will love each other forever, but now that kid is going to grow up without parents.  What the hell was Sun thinking as she was sitting there trying to give Jin a reason to leave?  I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see some kind of resurrection of all of these characters, or at least something that happens with the alt-timelines.  If you figure all of the characters are going to remember everything that happened in the real timeline, they'll have to be aware of the fact that they're dead.  There's a whole lot more splainin' to do in the next 3.5 hours.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

There's a whole lot more splainin' to do in the next 3.5 4.5 hours.

Still doesn't seem like all that much, though'd