some LOST links, and the finale?

It's been a while since I shared some random LOSTiness with you so here are some things you might enjoy:

• This is your chance to own some of the props from the show.
• A list of the top 10 mysteries we want solved by the end of the series, and a guess at how mad fans will be if we don't get the answers.
• The top 15 moments in the entire series - do you agree with them?

What are your plans for Sunday's finale?  Are you watching on your own or with a group?  Planning a party or simply claiming the remote from the rest of the family?  

Episode Recap: What They Died For

Now THIS is the LOST that I love!

• The Sideverse is starting to make sense ... at least, things are starting to come together over there as more of the Oceanic people start to remember their island lives.
• On the island, things are wild and wacky: Richard gets taken out by the Locke Monster, Ben is back to his creepy, murderous self, and the 4 survivors of the sub want to kill the Locke Monster.
• Jacob explains some of the truth about the island and asks for a volunteer to take his place as protector; I think we all knew Jack was going to step up.

There was a lot more going on, but those are the quick highlights.

Here's what I want to know from you:

1. Did you think this was a good next-to-last episode, or were you hoping for something else? 
2. Was there anything in this episode that you really didn't expect? If so, what?
3. Do you have any guesses as to what will happen in the series finale on Sunday?
4. What are your plans for watching the finale?

LOST Live: A Final Celebration Recap

Last night I was lucky enough to attend the event at UCLA, LOST Live: A Final Celebration. This was an incredible treat for me, as it always is to gather with fans who share the same enthusiasm for something I love, but also because I love the music of LOST and it was a treat to see Michael Giacchino conduct live many of the gorgeous pieces from the show with 47 piece symphony orchestra and images of the show above on screen. Music always moves me, but music that also tells a story, like the music in LOST has particular significance.

Even though I ended up buying nothing, I hung out with fellow fans in the merch line for awhile before the show started. It's like coming home, to be able to spend time with LOST fans! People came from all over the country for this event which is pretty cool.

The evening opened with some guy from ABC reading a letter from George Lucas to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. It was pretty funny and probably pretty cool for them. Amusingly enough, Damon said he apologized for everything he'd said about the prequels to Star Wars. :) They proceeded to talk about LOST, thanks fans, explain the event, and then introduce SEVERAL members of the cast past and present which was fun. I can't remember everyone who was there, but there were quite a few ranging from young Ben to Boone to Desmond to Sawyer. I couldn't help but appreciate again the diversity of the cast. After the introduction of the cast, they let Michael come out, after explaining how at times they even wrote him into the script. (i.e. Michael does the heavy lifting here--love it!) Interspersed throughout the pieces of music, some of the actors read "Messages in a Bottle" These were imaginings of what the messages Charlie collected for the bottle would have been from the castaways we never really met on the show. I was very impressed with just how heartfelt and human these short letters were..once again LOST excels in the humanity of its storytelling.

The music was fantastic. They showed images from the show during the playing of the music and it was like taking a trip back through time. It was an excellent way to reflect on all that LOST has been--the beautiful, troubling, and complicated story that it is. The final theme played, Parting Words, the music that was played during the raft launch at the end of the first season, reduced me to tears as they again showed that scene...all the hope, triumph, sorrow, and uncertainty that it represented. One of the most beautiful themes of the show without doubt. The audience of course leaped to our feet afterwards, and Giacchino came back out decked out in a Dharma suit with "Conductor" stitched on the back. He then treated us to the main theme from his Oscar award winning "Up" which I love beyond all measure as well.

We then got to hear from some of the creative minds behind the show. Following that, they showed us the penultimate episode, What They Died For. Let me tell you, I have never had more fun watching an episode of LOST. It's a funny episode, it's a smart episode, and I think you are all really going to like it. I won't say more than that, but there is nothing like watching an episode of LOST with 1800 devoted fans. I really believe as well, that I will feel satisfied with the ending of LOST.

But as I sat there, it all felt so bittersweet. I am sorry to be saying good-bye to LOST. I am going to be so sad all week! Please tell me..am I alone in feeling this way?

Just for fun, watch Hurley say "dude" ... a lot

LOST Live Tonight

One of the advantages of living fairly close to Los Angeles is getting to go to incredible events like this one. Here's a description:

Oscar® winning composer Michael Giacchino will conduct a live orchestral performance, featuring the iconic music of “Lost,” at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Thursday, May 13, to celebrate the upcoming series finale. The concert will also feature appearances by LOST cast members, including Nestor Carbonell, Michael Emerson, and Jorge Garcia. In addition, a special preview of the penultimate episode will be screened immediately after the concert.

I have always loved the music of LOST as I've written about previously, so this is like the perfect send-off for me. I know I'm going to be struggling with a lot of feelings in the next week about LOST ending, and so having this sort of party tonight will help.

The good news is that you can see some of the rehearsal footage up now on the LA Times Show Tracker Blog.

I'll be back with as full a report as I can manage tomorrow.

Book Review: The Invention of Morel

This is my 5th - and final! - book for the LOST Books Challenge ... woohoo!  To read my complete review and see what I actually thought of this book, please visit me at this link.


- Heather J.


*** About the Book ***

In this short story, the main character is a fugitive from Venezuela who has somehow escaped to a tropical island. The island has several buildings on it but no people. After a long time alone on the island, the fugitive suddenly sees people in the buildings! He is terrified that he’ll be captured so he runs off to the forest and hides. From there he observes these new people and he falls in love with a beautiful woman named Faustine. When he finally gets up the nerve to approach her, she doesn’t even acknowledge his existence. Things become steadily more mysterious and the fugitive becomes more and more confused. Finally he decides to sneak in to the building to see if he can figure out what it going on. What he finds out is strange, unexpected, and life-changing …



*** Connection to LOST ***

For the fugitive, life on this island is not what it appears to be. The same could be said of the LOST island, that’s for sure. In the story Morel has created his own version of the world just the way he wants it to me (or, at least, mostly the way he wants it to be). Again, the same could be said of LOST; Ben ran Othertown the way he wanted it to go, at least for a while. And neither Morel nor Ben – nor many other characters on LOST – are averse to manipulating people to get what they want with little regard for the feelings of those people.

That’s MY opinion … let’s see what Lostpedia has to say:

[In the episode Eggtown] Sawyer is seen reading this book at the barracks.

Seriously?! That’s all you’ve got?! Even I did better than that …


NOTE: My challenge co-host Amy also read this book and you can check out her (much more thorough) review here.

Episode Recap: Across the Sea

I'm watching live tonight so I'll be blogging on commercial  breaks ... here goes!

OH.MY.GOSH. The first few minutes of LOST have knocked me for a loop!  Here's what happened before the first commercial break:

• a pregnant woman washes up on the beach and is discovered by another woman - is that Greek they are speaking? I think we're going to get Jacob's backstory tonight!
• Jacob is born and wrapped in a white blanket.  His unnamed male twin is born and wrapped in a black blanket.  The dichotomy begins early ....
• Momma wants to see her boys but the other lady KILLS HER?! Say WHAT?! I didn't see that one coming.

 Ok, here's what happened between the next two commercials:

• The boys are growing up.  Jacob is honest and open while his brother is secretive and can lie.  Meanwhile Mama manipulates them and has somehow made it so that the boys cannot die nor can they hurt each other.
• They boys are playing the black/white game.
• Men come to the island and Mama takes the boys and shows them "the light of the world" - or something like it.  Mama says that is the reason they are on the island.  She is the protector and one day, one of the boys will take over that job.  The unnamed twin is excited by this.
• Mama also says that if this light goes out here, it's counterparts (which are inside of people everywhere) will also go out.  It sounds as though this would be a serious problem.

 After the next commercial break,

• The black twin tells Jacob that one day he'll be able to make up his own rules that everyone will have to follow.
• The black twin also sees the ghost of his mother, but Jacob can't see her.  Ghost-Momma tells him the truth about where he came from.
• Black twin tries to get Jacob to run away with him but it doesn't work.  They get in a fight and Mama breaks it up.  She tells the black twin that no matter what he's been told, he'll never be able to leave the island.  This doesn't stop him from running away.
• Mama confesses to Jacob that she killed his mother to help him "stay good" ... ?!?!?! Jacob decides to stay with Mama for a while.

Back from commercial again,

• Jacob learned to weave from his Mama.  And he spends a lot of time watching his brother and the other people.
• Jacob and the black twin get together to play the black/white game.  The black twin is still mad at Mama.
• Is it just me or does Jacob come across as rather simple-minded?
• The black twin has been digging and found a way to get to the "light of the world" under the island.  He's going to try to leave the island by harnessing the power of the light.  Enter "the donkey wheel".
• Mama tried to kill the black twin.  Hey Mama, can I tell you a secret? Your plan doesn't work out ...

It just occurred to me that we likely won't get any info on the rest of the main characters this week.  I'm kind of sad about that.  But back to Jacob!

• Mama says Jacob has to be the one to protect the island but he doesn't want to.  She makes him drink something and says that now "we are the same" - what is this magical drink and what has it done?
• The black twin wakes up to find that his hole has been filled in, his village burned, and all his people killed.  It looks like the work of the smoke monster ... is that who Mama really is?

Final commercial break is over, back to the show:

• The black twin just killed Mama, and she thanked him for it?! She also said that she couldn't let him leave because she loved him.
• The black twin is trying to convince Jacob not to hurt/kill him.  Jacob forces the black twin to go into the "light of the world" tunnel.  And here comes SMOKEY!
• Jacob found the black twin washed up in the river, dead. Jacob was quite sad about this, despite the fact that he basically tried to kill him earlier.
• Mama and the black twin are the Adam and Eve skeletons from the start of the show!!!

Ok, so, wait, I'm confused.  Is Smokey the ghost of the black twin now?  Because I didn't really expect him to be REALLY TRULY dead, as in, he's a skeleton.  But maybe that explains why Smokey is always using dead bodies, because he doesn't have one of his own?  But then what's the deal with Ghost-Momma?

There were a lot of biblical references tonight but I didn't include them because I can't remember them now.  I noticed them as the show went on, but when I was writing on the commercial breaks they slipped my mind.


Kiddo was happy that I let him stay up until 10pm on a school night to watch this with me, but the episode was so good (and relatively tame in adult content department) that I couldn't bear to send him to bed in the middle of it like I usually do.

So, what did you all think of this week's episode?  Do you think they'll be able to cram enough into next week and the series finale to give us the ending that we're hoping for?