TPG's LOST COMPASS: What They Died For

Welcome to the final Tuesday edition of TPG's LOST COMPASS. It's been a real pleasure writing about LOST for you readers these past couple of months, and now I"m just working on finding my replacement.  You see I've been bringing all of you to the blog for a reason....wait...sorry....thought I was Jacob. Last night's episode titled "What They Died For" was in classic LOST fashion, a set up episode for the finale, but boy, was it good, chock full of answers and awesomeness. So what do you say, we burn some ashes and inhale the fumes of the episode.
1. In the great pantheon of fictional badasses, Desmond ranks somewhere just below James Bond, who carries a number one ranking. This dude bribes cops, sexes up chicks, beats up Linus for fun, is a serious romantic, and can travel between parallel universes. He's CONSTANTLY awesome and has really proven himself as one of, if not the best character on the show.
2. DOUBLE MIND MELT WITH CHIVES - Yeah bet you haven't thrown chives on a grilled cheese before. Tonight we got our first "remember" moment in a while, and how great was it that it came when Desmond was playing fight night with Linus's face. I noticed though the recollection was bathed in a gold hue, the exact same color that lives at the heart of the Island.
3. I loved Jacob's confirmation that he created the monster. The Lost writers have said that no one on LOST is 100% good or evil, and Jacob, white robes at all is not exempt to that. The theme of him killing his own brother and then seeking redemption through healing other wounded souls is a biblical one. Last week we had communion, and tonight had our baptism, with our shepherd of lost souls Jacob, crowning the new protector of the Island Jack Shepard, whoah, did I just sneak a mind melt slider in at ya.
4. When Kate was grilling Jacob about why our characters died, she didn't mention Frank Lapidus and that broke my heart. However some quick research turned up this photo from the LOST writer's office, so it's all good.

5. This concert that is so damn important that Desmond makes Kate change for it on a city block (hey, she wants to change in front of Desmond, see point #1) could potentially be one epic gathering of characters. We already know that Miles, Jack, Charlotte, Claire, Desmond, Kate, Hurley, Sayid are showing up. Assuming that Pierre Chang is Miles' father, he'll be there. Someone is going to track the fugitives, so Sawyer will arrive. Faraday might be playing. You know what I mean, check out the analogy below.

Lost: Seinfeld

Final Concert in Finale: Finale Courtroom Scene in Finale

6. Linus says "It's where I learned I could summon the monster, until I learned it was summoning me." Man, what a head spinning line that was. Is he trying to say that everyone time he used the monster, his soul was blackened? If so, great line. And now, where does Linus stand? The great anti-hero/villian/punching pag of LOST is at a crossroads. Is our little Napoleon working for Smoked out Locke now? Will his flash sideways self learn some tragic truths about his Island self? Will he like his power hungry Island self better?

7. Finally, I leave you friends with a prediction. After all the crazy shit goes down in the finale, and Jack is still the keeper of the Island, I wonder if we'll see a scene way in the future, like floating car future, where Jack is still the boss of the Island but begins the process to pass the cup to someone anew. Time for LOST: The New Generation.

BROTHA TO THE FUTURE!

TPG's Lost Compass: Happily Ever After

Welcome to the end of Lost my friends, I hope you are ready for this amazing story to come a close. Last night's episode titled "Happily Ever After" featured our main brotha Desmond and like all Desmond episodes it succeeded in being touching, romantic, thrilling, and full of information on how to interpret the show. It also set up how this is all going to conclude.  So let's grab a glass of MacCutcheon whiskey and savor the episode.

1. Before we take off into the heady theorizing, let's just put this out there, LOST=LOVE. Many of the character arcs, at least the good ones are all rooted in deep undying love. Tonight we had Charlie, Desmond, Faraday all talk about this powerful love that can shape space and time. Jin, Sawyer, Sun, Sayid, Claire, Ben, Kate, Jack, Richard and more all have love as the key to their storylines. Now if you believe that the Smoke Monster actually had a mother, as he told Kate in "Recon" (clip here) then perhaps his actions have been influenced by this cosmic love as well.

2. "The Island isn't done with you Desmond! "This line repeated last night, is ultra-important. We know that Desmond is looking for the flight manifest. What is he going to do with it? He's going to convince everyone about their other life, their "Island timeline" life. Example:

Desmond: Hey Brotha, do you remember getting ya appendix taken out brotha.

Jack: Actually no I don't

Desmond: That's because it happened on a Island in another timeline

Jack: Excuse me?

Desmond: Brotha brotha brotha brotha!

It won't play out like that, I'm not a LOST writer but you get the picture. This action will effectively put "the cork back on the bottle" and reset everything to the way it was meant  to be, a.k.a., the Island timeline.

3. Now as for his purpose on the Island? I think it has something to do with the pockets of electro-magnetic energy on the Island. I think the Large Hadron Collider magnetic machine they put him in last night was just a mere warmup to the insane amount of energy they are going to expose him to. Now, I think that both The Man In Black and Widmore/Jacob both want him to get into their energy, but their motivations are different. Widmore wants him to destroy the flash sideways and keep MIB in place. MIB wants Desmond to destroy Island timeline which will somehow free him from the Island.

4. Let's talk about art here, folks. Widmore, besides being the BOSS, has a long history of surrounding himself with important paintings. Check out the link to see what I'm talking about. Last night we saw a new painting: the scale. The important thing to note is that the scale is balanced. Is everything in that timeline how it is supposed to be? Ben and Hurley might agree. Sun and Sayid, I'm not so sure.
5. MIND MELT: Think back to Season 2. Shannon sees Walt in the jungle soaking wet speaking backwards. Later in season 2 finale, Miss Klugh asks if Walt ever appears places where he shouldn't be. Is it possible that Walt was speaking backwards and soaking wet because he came from the flash sideways. One where the Island is underwater? (Note, I have a hunch this Walt storyline won't be resolved)
6. FUN FACT: Last night's episode featured the first Academy Award winner ever to be featured on LOST. Who? Fisher Stevens, aka George Minkowski, Desmond's driver. He won an Academy Award this past year for producing "The Cove."
7. Call me a hapless romantic, but I was loving the end of the episode where Desmond and Penny begin their romance again. Of course, I don't know what coffee shops in LA are open at midnight, but who cares. Kudos to the writers for coming up a fresh twist on the greatest romantic saga on TV.
8. I'm sorry if this COMPASS is not on par with the others, this episode was a real head spinner. Last night on twitter, head writer Carlton Cuse tweeted that the episode was a new chapter for LOST. Yes it was indeed. My head is spinning and I can't wait to see where these final episodes take us. It's going to be a wild ride....brotha.

BROTHAAAAAAAAA

TPG's LOST Compass: Ab Aeterno

We've been waiting a very long time for some Richard Alpert answers and now we finally got them. But that wasn't the only thing that this episode gave us,  it was just as much a history lesson on the Island itself.  It provided some key details on the Island and what has/is/will continue to be going on there. So what do you say, we grab our old school wine decanter, take that metaphorical cork off and get drizzed on some deep Lost theorizing.


1. These days everyone is talking about answers and how they crave them like their some shipwrecked slave salivating for water. Well, we got them now and guess what, since the Lost creators are telling a story they didn't exactly write them on the chalkboard in simple terms. Hidden in this episode were some real quality respuestas. How did the statue crumble? It got hit by a tidal wave. How did the Black Rock end up in the jungle? Jacob brought it there in a big ass storm. Why doesn't Richard age? Because he requested it as a way to deal with his soul crushing anguish. What is the Island? It's a cork? Why should we care about the characters and the show if it looks like they are just some puzzle pieces in some cosmic scheme? Because they still have free will, focus on the variables not the constants here people.
2. So apparently the Island a cork that keeps all the evil in the world in check. The Island rests on top of the evil, so that would make the evil "Hell," now above Hell lies the earth, and above that Heaven. That would be put earth smack in the middle, and in the middle of heaven and hell lies, wait for it, purgatory. It's not the Island that's purgatory, it's the entire world that's purgatory. This is why the Island is so important, it's some type of ultimate testing ground for the human race in the great cosmic battle of good and evil.
3. MIND MELT: Richard learned the Island is a cork way back in the 1800's, but, things have changed since then. Did the bomb destroy the cork? Did the bomb shatter the bottle like the Man In Black did at the end of the episode? Was using the bomb the loophole?

4. DOUBLE MIND MELT WITH BACON: With all this talk about Heaven and Hell, and God's and Devils who is our man who is going to come back like a boss and regulate on this faith based matters? HEY BROTHAAAAAAAAA. That's right Desmond! Don't forget he was trained by monks, monks who had ties to THE OTHERS!!! The Island isn't done with him. Him being on the Island was "saving the world" aka keeping the evil at bay, the cork in place. He'll be back and then he'll shoot all the haters (yes that's you DJ STEVE) with a spear gun in the chest.
5. Sorry about that last post there folks, looks like I was getting a little drizzed myself on sweet Jacob's wine. But I must say, I really enjoyed last night's episode. Nestor Carbonell, who plays Richard really brought it hard on the acting front and fit was great to see Titus Welliver, who plays the Man In Black return to Lost. I know many people are jumping ship on LOST right now, but to all you folks out there, be like Richard and have a little faith*

**And if any of you wanna challenge that, post something in the comments.

SMP's LOST Compass: Recon

Alright folks, here we are mid-week of TPG's vacation and guest blogging adventure. Today, I'm here to deliver my own version of the now legendary (and weekly) LOST Compass. I'm going to try my best to follow format but as a warning, I'm going to be more negative about the show than this blog has ever allowed. Let's get after it:

1. For me this season of LOST has been a pretty large disappointment and last night's ep was nothing new. I've grown tired of the writer's failed attempts to keep the viewers riveted. I remember how many times I rolled my eyes during the classic S05E06 "316" where The Lamp Post station is introduced and Eloise Hawking mills around science experiments and acts like she knows what she's talking about. Now I'd give anything for that kind of mystery, and this, friends is a very depressing statement.

2. What is with these new characters being introduced with 9 episodes left of one of the most enthralling character dramas television has ever had? Most of the time the show has been successful because of the interesting storylines and backstories of the core members of the original flight (Losties) and their entanglements on the island with The Others. It's clear now that while the writers claim to have "mapped out" everything from the start, they inadvertently or foolishly, used up all their best storylines by about halfway through season 3 or maybe 4. The result? Introducing characters in the final season of a show that begs to be wrapped up nicely. Let's cut the bull on this one: I'd trade 1,000,000 Dogen episodes for 10 seconds of screen time for Juliet again.

3. Where is Desmond?

4. Claire is out of control. We've seen her on a roller coaster ride of emotions before: "I love you Charlie..." [5 mins later] "I hate you Charlie!", but at least before we could blame it on the pregnancy. Now it seems she's gotten even crazier. Nice how Flocke/Smokey/Samuel (presumed to be the cause of her current paranoia) made a point of mentioning this to Kate as if it were some great reveal: "I had mommy issues, and now Aaron has a crazy mom too."

5. What a TERRIBLE final line of the episode. It seemed to sum up how I feel about the season and where the show is at right now in general. Kate asks, but how can we get off the island if we don't have someone to fly the plane? Sawyer responds, easy freckles, we take the nuclear sub instead. WHAT? Translation: But Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, how can we make sense of the complex, all-encompassing philosophical exercise that is LOST? Easy, viewers, we create an entirely different complex and all encompassing philosophical mindf*** to distract you from the fact that neither makes any sense. TITLE CARD. Don't be surprised when the final scene of the series is something that completely distracts you from all the hard work and thought process you've put into something that doesn't, and will never, add up.

6. Charles Widmore so easily led on by Sawyer? I DON'T THINK SO. When Flocke/Smokey/Samuel arrives on the Hydra, expect things to get violent with newly introduced characters from this season biting the dust left and right 24-style.

7. Where is DESMOND?

8. How will Jack and Hurley tie into all of this? Are they still off wandering around the island looking for impossibly large landmarks that were never evident at any other point during the series despite how large they are? Jack and Hurley are an odd combo. Jack doesn't have a sense of humor and Hurley's only purpose in life is to make light of a given situation. The sooner they get back to some sort of group dynamic, the less awkward the writing will have to be for them.

9. WHERE. IS. DESMOND????

10. The last point I want to make is about the scenes from the next LOST trailer. Even before this season began, I was made aware of the episode that is coming next week. Rumor spread about a Richard Alpert centric episode and I won't lie that the promise of receiving so many answers is intoxicating. We all agreed upon seeing the trailer: next week is a make or break for LOST. If a Richard Alpert centric episode isn't the headiest, most mind-numbing, geek-out, LOST fan-boy FREAKFEST of all time, there's no hope for the show. Many believe Alpert to be the key to numerous theories and explanations on and off the island... the question is, whether the writers decide to give us LOST-dogs a bone, or continue to spoil the gourmet feast that LOST once was by dicking us around yet again. I'll be praying every night to the egyptian Gods of Jacob's past that they decide to deliver on a promise they made years ago by introducing such a mysterious and AWESOME character like Alpert.

**** PLEASE NOTE ****

All opinions and aforementioned theories are spun from the mind of DJ Steve, co-author of the wildly successful, world-famous Lifting Fog Blog. Please do not send TPG any hate mail, at least none regarding LOST. Thank you!