LOST: He’s Our You

Benjamin Linus is such a great character. Even young Ben back in 1977 can steal the show, can’t he? Sending a burning Dharma van into a house just to get Sayid out of jail. Brilliant. Okay, we don’t know if it was Ben that did it but I really want to give that 12-year-old kid some credit. I mean the most evil, callus guy on the show has to get a start somewhere. It might as well be burning vans and breaking people out of jail.

So the real question is this: Is young Ben Linus dead? Faraday and other characters have already told us that the future can’t be changed. So bib Ben will be around in the future. But that doesn’t mean he’s not dead. Characters that die on the island have a strange way of coming back to life. I wouldn’t be surprised if young Ben is dead that the Others take his body and bring him back to life. And there’s always a chance that whatever the Others do to young Ben could cause to be more than human. Someone like, say, Richard Alpert. I say this because when Ben spoke to Charles Widmore in his home back in season 3(?) Widmore told Ben that he knew what he was – not who he was.

And would anyone really be surprised if Ben turned out to be a little more than human? He seems to have an uncanny way to get inside the heads of the other characters. I like how the flashbacks showed how Ben used, abused, and manipulated Sayid -- the master torturer and gainer of information in the real world -- into killing Widmore’s men for him then coming back to Los Angeles. Ben’s always been a puppet master but this episode really brought out how he convinced Sayid that he’s nothing more than a killer. Way to go Ben! LOST would be nothing without you!

Apparently It's not that Easy

On the front of the envelope my paycheck comes in there's a sentence that reads:

See Reverse Side For Easy Opening Instructions

If the envelope was easy to open, would it really need instructions?

LOST: Namaste

I really enjoy how much Sawyer’s character has evolved since the beginning of the show. Instead of being the self-centered jackass who gathers up the supplies and hides them for himself, he’s turned into someone who does everything he can to look out for and save his friends. Last week we saw him do what it takes to save Jin, Juliet, and the others who were left behind in the island. This week he saves those who came back. I liked the conversation Sawyer had with Jack on the porch where he stated that he thinks while Jack reacts. What that conversation highlighted was just how much Sawyer as changed while Jack is really the same guy he was when he first crashed on the island.

After the episode, Marathon Girl and I talked about what characters have changed the most since the beginning of the show. Aside from Sawyer we both thought Sun was the character that had evolved the most. She’s turned from a quiet, reserved person so someone who knows how to look out for herself. (We both cheered when she knocked out Ben.)

I also found it interesting that the women of the Dharma Initiative can have children on the island. Either that means they did something that made it impossible to have children later or it’s the Others that can’t have children. (That would make sense considering we’ve never seen any kids with them – even when we see them back in time.)

And what’s up with the monster? Has it lost its bite? Sadly, it seems to be a shell of its former self. Sneaking through bushes, opening up doors and misting in rooms but not attacking anyone. Come on! I liked the monster better when it was mean, fighting security device and killed people.

Admittedly, the only think I’m not looking forward to is the love square between Jack, Juliet, Sawyer, and Kate. Sawyer’s with Juliet now. Kate and Jack just need to accept it and move on. (Hint, hint, oh ye writers of LOST!)

Finally, I’m curious to see how they’re going to weave young Ben into this story. As far as I know, Ben’s never claimed or hinted that he knew the rest of them when he was part of the Dharma Initiative. I hope the writers do a good job weaving that part of the story together with what we already know.

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

I just did something most people don’t do anymore.

I wrote a letter.

A real, honest-to-goodness letter.

You know, the kind that involves putting down your thoughts on paper, putting said thoughts in an envelope, attaching a stamp and leaving it for the mailman.

It’s something I rarely do anymore.

And you know what, I miss it.

There’s something real about holding a piece of paper in your hand that someone has taken the time to pen to paper and compose their thoughts. I like it better than email.

Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t go back to just stamps and letters. I love being able to send photos of the kids to family members or chapters of my book to friends for their feedback at a click of a button. I like being able to access it wherever life takes me. And I like that friends and family to do the same to me.

But there’s just something special about seeing information written on the envelope, opening a the envelope, and seeing a page or two of handwritten content that just makes the experience so much more personal than seeing the same message from someone pop into your inbox. Anyone can type. Who actually takes the time to think about what they want to say then actually use a pen to compose their thoughts and put in the mailbox these days. That’s so much effort!

I don’t know what it is about letters I like.

Maybe it’s the personal touch.

Maybe it’s the fact that in the days before email I was a prolific letter writer.

Maybe it’s the handwritten letter I received from an old friend earlier this week that prompted me to respond in kind.

Whatever the reason, today I find myself wishing there were more letters in my mailbox and fewer emails in my inbox.

Even Lee Child Messes Up Occasionally

One of the more difficult things about writing fiction is making sure that the settings you write about seem real to those who’ve been to the places you’re writing about. For example, if your book takes place in Los Angeles and your character lives on the city, you need to make sure readers who are familiar with the city feel like your charter lives in L.A. too. That means he/she needs to know the best way to get around the city and what different places look like. This can be tricky to pull off if you’ve never been to the places you’re writing about.

Over the weekend I was reading Lee Child’s Without Fail. Near the end of the novel the protagonist, Jack Reacher and a colleague Frances Neagley, are on his way to the fictional town of Grace, Wyoming which is a couple hours north of Casper – a town I lived in for two years. Reacher and Neagley take a plane to Denver and decide to drive to Grace.

Child describes the drive as thus:

They entered Wyoming after dark, driving north on I-25. They turned left on Cheyenne and picked up I-80. They rolled west to Laramie and headed north. The town called Grace was still five hours away, well beyond Casper. The map showed it nestled in the middle of nowhere between towering mountains on one side and infinite grasslands on the other.

“We’ll stop in Medicine Bow,” Reacher said. “Sounds like a cool place. We’ll aim to get to Grace at dawn tomorrow.”

Here’s the problem with the above section. I’ve done the drive from Denver to Casper dozens of times. There is no logical reason to take that route. The fastest way to Casper and areas north is to stay on I-25. Any map as well as all freeway signs will bear that out. There are plenty of small towns along I-25 that Reacher could have stopped at if he was too tired to make it to Casper. And the next day Reacher and Neagley drive thought Casper and get back on I-25 anyway. And it wasn’t like the page or two of text about their stay in Medicine Bow was vital to the story. It could have just as easily taken place in Wheatland, Douglas, or any of the other small towns along I-25.

I don’t know what Child was trying to accomplish with this but that above section really ruined the last 60 or so pages what was a very exciting novel. All I could think about was that if he didn’t know the fastest way from Denver to Casper, what else in the book did he not adequately research?

Don't get me wrong. I love Child's books. This error just really bugged me.

LOST: LeFeur

Before I get into LeFeur, I have to tell Vickie, Ryan, Cassie, and Holli that they were right about last week’s episode and the reason’s Locke tried to hang himself. I watched that scene online yesterday afternoon several times and I reached the same conclusion: Locke hanging himself not because he was depressed but because he felt that it was the only way to bring people back to the island. The whole suicide subject still stirs up powerful emotions in me and I think the first time I saw it, I put too much of my own life history into the scene. I stand corrected.

Now to this week’s episode….

Wasn’t it great?

The most intriguing part of the episode for me took place in the first minute of the show when we saw the back of the giant four-toed statue. He (or she) appears to be holding an ankh – the same symbol that was on Paul’s – the guy who was shot by the Others – necklace. (There’s a decent shot of the statue here.) This has left some to speculate if the giant statue is an Egyptian god. I’m not going to take a position on what the statue is other than it does have characteristics make it seem only part human. I anyone else has insights on the statue, chime in.

The one think I’ve sorely missed from this season’s episodes is the lack of flashbacks. And this episode gave us flashbacks. OK, they’re not the traditional flashbacks where we learn specific background about a character, but it was more of a group flashback about how they made it from point A to Point B. But I loved the way the writers seamlessly weaved the parallel stories and the theme of love and loss together.

We saw how Amy lost her husband to the Others and eventually moved on and remarried Horace. But even then, Horace is insecure whether or not Amy really got over her dead husband. Sawyer, I thought, gave a great speech to Horace about three years being plenty of time to get over someone. (For the record, it is.) I also liked the tender scene on the dock between Juliet and Sawyer. I liked the way he convinced her to stay on the island at least two more weeks and, three years later gives her the encouragement she needs when putting on the doctors’ gloves for the first time in three years.

Yet we know Sawyer still has feelings for Kate which is most likely the reason he didn’t tell Juliet where he was going at the end of the episode. Three years may be enough time to get over someone – but once that person comes back a lot of old feelings come back. It’s going to be interesting to see how the writers handle the Sawyer-Kate-Juliet feelings in the upcoming episodes.

Sadly, we have to wait two weeks to find out.

I'm Cool

It's official. I'm cool. Which is much better than being uncool.

Thanks Emilie.

LOST: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

I was relieved to see that Locke didn’t kill himself. When he was getting ready to hang himself I was worried that LOST was going to turn into Dead Poets Society. Had Locke actually done himself in, it would have ruined the show for me forever.

The reasons that people kill themselves are extremely complex and rarely understood. So trying to make a suicide of a major character credible in a book or on TV or the movies is extremely hard to pull off. When Locke was getting ready to hang himself I didn’t buy it. Sure, I think the writers did a good job of showing Locke’s lack of influence with all the survivors (except Sun). And I could see why he was depressed that no one could come back to the island with him? But depressed enough to be suicidal? Not by a long shot. It was completely unbelievable.

At least they somewhat saved the scene but having Ben kill him. Still, why couldn’t they just have Ben take him out in the first place? Why go through the whole suicidal thing in the first place? Why have Ben talk him down only to end up killing him? But I think everyone is going to cheer when Ben finally gets what’s coming to him.

But the episode wasn’t a complete waste. We learned a lot more about Charles Widmore, Matthew Abbadon, and the woman Locke loved. We also opened an interesting story line with the new plane crash and survivors. Apparently Lapidus didn’t disappear with Jack, Kate and the others (why?) and was able to put the plane down in one piece. And seeing Abbadon get killed through the back windshield of the car was a very cool shot.

The big two questions, of course, is why did Locke came back from the dead? And where in time are the new survivors? Back in the 1970s with Jack and the gang or are they somewhere else in time? I don’t see how the Dharma Initiative could have not sent some people over to check out the crash.

Houston: WTF?

I’ve made no secret of the fact that Marathon Girl and I would like to relocate our family to the Houston area in the next couple of years. And since the town’s always on our mind, I take the time to occasionally read about the goings on in that fair city. After the hurricane ripped through the area in September, I was proud to see that Houstonians got together, cleaned up the city and got on with their lives. And when they got a dusting of snow in December, I figured we could live with the occasional cold weather – even if the snow was one of the three things we wanted to get away from.

But then I see a story in the Houston Chronicle like this and it makes me want to reconsider all of my plans about moving out there:

Public funds to pay for private debt

Houston taxpayers could start footing the bill to help first-time homebuyers pay off debts and improve their credit scores, under a proposal before City Council this week.

The “Credit Score Enhancement Program” will give up to $3,000 in grants to individuals who are trying to qualify for mortgages through the city’s homebuyers assistance program. City officials say some applicants fall short of eligibility by only 10 or 20 points on their credit scores, and paying off some debt balances can quickly improve their numbers.

The proposal has aroused critics who say the city should not use public funds to help people pay down car loans, credit card balances, or other debts — even if the slight credit bump would help them realize the dream of home- ownership.

Read the rest of the article here.

I don’t go around asking my neighbors for money to pay off any debts I may have incurred. The last thing I want to do is to be forced to pay off the debts of someone else. Does it even occur to these politicians that maybe if people learned to pay off debts and improve their credit score on their own they just might do a better job of paying off their mortgage once they’re able to obtain one?

Idiotic programs like this are something I’d expect from cities like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Eagle Mountain (Utah). You know, cities with politicians that don’t mind using tax payers as ATMs for just about everything.

But Houston?

Does that independent, Texas sprit not exist in the state’s largest city?

Someone please tell me this is a joke.

If not, I’ll have to consider relocating San Antonio, Dallas, or some other place in the Lone Star state that actually is run by politicians that believe in freedom and personal liberty.

LOST: 316

Kudos to the writers for providing the audience with lots of concrete answers to questions that have been hanging around the show for years. Eloise Hawking’s did a great job of explaining about the electromagnetic energy, the island time shifting, and how the island could be found from the Lamp-Post. It’s nice to know the Dharma Initiative (and the U.S. Government, apparently) didn’t happen upon the island by chance.

And speaking of the Dharma Initiative, wasn’t it great to see Jin driving those blue Dharma van? I take back what I said a few weeks ago about Jin being alive. What a perfect way for Kate, Jack, and Hurley to be greeted on their return to the island.

One thing I hadn’t thought about when Locke “fixed” the wheel inside the island was that what time he jumped everyone to when he did it. Now it looks like we’re back to the 1970s in the heyday of the Dharma Initiative. And I thought we had learned everything we could about those mysterious Dharma guys. I’m so glad I’m wrong. There’s no better way to learn about them then to have Jack, Kate, and the rest of the crew become part of it.

And I loved the way everyone – even Charlie – ended up on the plane. When the Island wants you, I guess fate finds a way of bringing everyone together. Do you hear that Desmond? Even though you’re “done with the island” I bet you end up crashing again on its shores with Penny and your kid. Sayid, Hurley, and Lapidus ended up on Ajira Airlines flight 316 even though going to the Island was the last thing they were trying to do. I bet we see you on the Island again before the season is over.