David Lynch is shooting new TWIN PEAKS material. For real.

"Diane, 11:30 AM, February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks. It's 5 miles south of the Canadian border, 12 miles west of the state line. Never seen so many trees in my life. As W.C. Fields would say, 'I'd rather be here than Philadelphia.'"

-- F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper

Looks like we may yet be going back to the Double R Diner for that cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee...

"Twenty-Five Years Later..."

".ria eht ni cisum syawla s’ereht dna gnos ytterp a gnis sdirb eht, morf er’ew erehW"

This is something I thought would be more unlikely to happen than new Star Wars movies.  Still trying to wrap my brain around the idea... not that I ever got my brain wrapped around it in the first place but anyway...

David Lynch is producing and directing new footage for Twin Peaks.

In retrospect it is very difficult to argue with the impact that this series had, however brief it lasted.  Had there been no Twin Peaks, there would have been no Lost.  There probably would have never been a revived Battlestar Galactica.  A lot of series would never have been conceived much less taken root had Twin Peaks not broken the ground first.

Premiering on ABC in April of 1990, Twin Peaks was something that television had never seen before and nearly a quarter century later is still trying to figure out.  Part murder mystery, part soap opera... and all surreal as only the mind of David Lynch could evoke.  The death of Laura Palmer was just the beginning, as Special Agent Dale Cooper - and the rest of us - descended into the logging town of Twin Peaks, Washington: a place where nothing was ordinary.  A place where everyone had a secret.  A place where... "the owls are not what they seem".

I used to own every bit of Twin Peaks merchandise there was.  I even still have the soundtrack CD here somewhere.  Angelo Badalamenti's score alone made this show haunting like nothing before or since.

The chronology of the series took place in 1989.  The Little Man from Another Place told Cooper that he would see him again "in twenty-five years".  That would be this year: 2014.  Maybe it will wrap up some of the lingering mysteries left from the show's final episode.

I wonder if we'll at last get to see Diane...

(Hat tip to friend of this blog Paul Elledge for coming across this great bit of news!)

Through the dark of future past the magician longs to see

One chants out between two worlds. Fire, walk with me.

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Bias in mainstream press? WHAT bias?! (anti-gun vs. pro-life)

The apparently big story right now is about the estimated fewer than 1,000 who marched in Washington D.C. today against the Second Amendment. I understand that this has made all of the major evening new broadcasts: CBS, NBC, CNN etc.

To the very best of my understanding, there was NO such coverage at all of yesterday's March for Life, which many have calculated drew more than 500,000 to the Mall to protest abortion -the premeditated murder of unborn children - on the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Now, applying some logic here, you would think that a story regarding half a million people would dwarf that of an event which drew, at most, several hundred.

But I suppose when it comes to stories and their coverage from big media, some of them just don't fit the expected narrative...

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Just watched the first episode of LAST RESORT

This blog's regular readers know that I do not keep up with television very well. The number of series that I've watched on a routine basis can be counted on one hand. And until last year there were never two that I watched concurrently during a season: those being Doctor Who and The Walking Dead.

But I might have to make a lot more room on my DVR, if last night's premiere of Last Resort was any indication.

ABC's new series follows the crew of a (fictional) United States Navy intercontinental ballistic missile submarine, the U.S.S. Colorado. Minutes into the pilot episode and amidst a ship-wide celebratory tradition for crossing the Equator, the Colorado receives orders to fire its nuclear warheads at Pakistan. The thing is, the orders did not come through official channels, but through a secondary channel. When Captain Chaplin (Andre Braugher) demands hardcore confirmation of the launch order, all hell breaks loose: the Colorado is fired upon by another U.S. Navy vessel and believed destroyed. The United States government blames Pakistan for attacking the Colorado and promptly launches its nukes. With World War III dawning, Captain Chaplin surfaces his ship off the beaches of Sainte Marina in the Indian Ocean and promptly takes over the island (which includes a handy-dandy NATO communications station). Chaplin then puts out an ultimatum to the world: Sainte Marina is an independent state under his command and anyone coming within 200 miles of the place will get fired upon.

He isn't bluffing. And to prove it he launches one of the sub's missiles at the United States.

There are moments which stretched credulity: I mean, could a submarine surface with such surgical precision beneath a rubber raft? To say nothing of a sub sitting on ocean rock bottom. But even so, I found myself surprisingly immersed and captivated by the premise and execution of Last Resort's first episode. With the crew of the Colorado on their own and trying to prove their innocence while figuring out who sent the launch order, it's like The Fugitive as envisioned by Tom Clancy. The ensemble casting also reminds me somewhat of Lost (look for Robert Patrick as one of the Colorado's officers), along with the narrative split between the outside world and an island locality which threatens to bring out the worst (and best) of its inhabitants.

All in all, I found it a satisfying episode. One that will warrant me keeping an eye on Last Resort for at least the next few weeks to see if it merits regular watching.

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Nine hours after "The End" of LOST...

...and I am still stunned and numb by how powerful and poignant that was.

I don't mind sharing this at all: the closing minutes of the series finale of Lost, very beautifully articulated many of the hopes that I have come to have across my life.

If you want to know what Chris Knight's image of Heaven is like, that final scene inside the church is pretty darned close: reunions, reconciliations, rejoicings... and moving on together.

This finale hit me in places that I didn't realize needed hitting upon. Lost on the morning after, and somehow I'm feeling more appreciative. More thankful. More hopeful.

This was only the second television series that I've followed this intently in my life. The first was Babylon 5. And in the end both of these shows brought me to tears for all the right reasons. But I don't know if anything has been as emotionally jarring as Lost became. Maybe that's because I watched it through all the way to the end with more lifetime behind me to make me consider it more.

Honestly don't know what else to say about this folks. I am just plain overwhelmed by this story and its magnificent conclusion.

Anyone else feeling it too? :-)

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LOST series finale was one for the ages!!!

Dear Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and everyone who has been involved with Lost during the past six years:

That was time well spent. All of it.

And in "The End", you brought it to a perfect, astounding and beautiful conclusion.

The greatest praise that can ever be given a story is the sense that the reader or the viewer is coming away from it a better person than he or she was before picking up the book, or tuning in to the show. And that the story now belongs on the shelf with the others, to be brought out again and enjoyed many more times in years to come.

Lost made me think a little more, cry a little more, laugh a little more... and it's leaving me a better person. And I shall certainly enjoy rediscovering this story and these beloved characters many, many more times during the rest of my life.

Best. Series. Finale. Ever. And just as Lost should, it leaves one having to think things through, even now.

To all of you on the west coast: you have no idea what awaits you. Nothing in your wildest dreams can prepare you for how good "The End" is.

But I give you fair warning now: keep the tissues handy.

To everyone involved with Lost: Thank you. You have delivered the greatest mythology that the television medium has ever produced. Thank you for bringing us along for such a remarkable journey.

This is Chris Knight, Lost viewer and blogger since 2005, signing off on the last post-show reaction to a Lost episode that I'll ever write.

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"What They Died For": Post-episode review of the penultimate LOST

It was during Jacob's little campfire get-together that the image of a key came into mind. And that key went into the lock (or perhaps "Locke") in the door of six seasons' worth of mystery on Lost... and began to turn.

Can you see it? Could you feel it too, watching "What They Died For"? That all the threads are coming together in the tapestry that is Lost. The sense that this has been a well-orchestrated symphony of mythic storytelling, even during those times when some of us had doubt (witness the reaction many had to last week's "Across The Sea", which tonight's episode tremendously heightened appreciation for).

Everything has come full circle at last. Seeing our heroes on the beach, watching Jack crudely suture-up Kate just as she did in the very first episode, and then realizing that Jack is assuredly not that man of science any longer. He is now and forever a man of faith and the cup has been passed to him, both literally and figuratively.

Then there is Ben. He is going to keep us guessing right up until the very end. Even now, we don't know whose side is he on. But would we really want it to be any other way?

Everyone is coming together whether they realize it or not. From across the Island. From across space and time. From across an entirely other universe. The pieces are in place for the final gambit of this game that we've watched unfold for the past six years.

And in true Lost fashion, we have no clue how it's going to come down.

A brilliant, brilliant episode. It gets my full 10 out of 10.

And fittingly, there are 108 hours between now and "The End".

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A STUNNING fan-made trailer for LOST series finale

One week from tonight, the story of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 will draw to a close as the final episode of Lost airs on ABC.

I do not know if there will ever be another television series that has so captivated me. That has compelled me to tune in as Lost has. I am not much of a television viewer at all: a show has to sincerely earn my attention and respect, for me to devote my time toward it. And that, Lost has done.

"What They Died For", the last regular episode, airs two nights from now. There'll be a two-hour recap next Sunday followed by the two and a half hour "The End".

And some dude/dudette in London has spliced together this spellbinding trailer for Lost's series finale. It's so entrancing that none other than Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof Twitter-ed about it earlier this morning! This bit o' video cuts right to the heart and soul of what has made Lost so good.

In case you're wondering, the music is "Shooting Star" from the Stardust soundtrack.

And there'll no doubt be plenty more Lost posts between now and next Sunday night (and probably beyond...)

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"Across The Sea": Post-episode reaction to the antepenultimate LOST

This is probably the most mythos-packed episode of Lost, ever. And I've no doubt that many might not care much for that aspect...

...but I thought that "Across The Sea" was a very strong entry that answered bunches of questions while simultaneously not answering some that I was expecting and in fact added at least one big new question (with three and a half hours left to wrap up the tale of Lost and its myriad of mysteries).

"Across The Sea" was also the longest flashback episode in Lost history: the entire chapter takes place an indeterminate amount of time in the past, and that's bugging me. Is this meant to be pre-ancient Egypt? The hieroglyphics we've seen at the Temple and that this is apparently before the Statue of Tawaret was built would suggest it. That potentially places "Across The Sea" more than four thousand years before the present time. To quote Tommy Lee Jones from what has become one of my favorite movies: "Who are these people?"

I suppose that one of the reasons I'm wondering about how far back "Across The Sea" takes place, is that a bigtime mystery from Season 1 got answered tonight and it doesn't quite jibe with Jack's expert opinion on the matter. And speaking of that: I'll wager an RC Cola and a Moon Pie that just as many people will be outraged by tonight's episode as they were by "The Candidate" last week, accusing the showrunners of "cheating" with "Across The Sea" and all those theories that had abounded.

And what's the Man in Black's real name? Producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have said he's got one and that it's important to the story. Well... considering how we now know what he wants and why he is the way he is (even though I don't understand why that happened, the "birth of the Smoke Monster" sequence was awesome) seems like his name would have been the cherry on top.

I'll give "Across The Sea" a 7 out of 10, and I'd love to give it an 8 but something... seemed lacking. Maybe I'll reconsider after watching it again (and again and again). And who knows: perhaps in retrospect this will prove to be a much-appreciated breather before "The End" a week and a half from tonight.

Only one more regular episode. Next Tuesday night: "What They Died For".

(And the teaser for next week's Lost was one of the best ever! Using "The End" by The Doors like that was a stroke of genius :-)

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ABC giving LOST finale 30 more minutes!

As if tonight's episode "The Candidate" wasn't enough Lost to blog about for one evening...

Now comes word that ABC will be expanding Lost's series finale by an extra thirty minutes. This gives "The End" a full two and a half hours to wind down what many already consider to be the defining mythology of dramatic television.

What prompted ABC to embiggen "The End"?

The producers of ABC's hit drama have shot so much crucial material for the show's hugely anticipated series finale that the network has agreed to extend the last episode by an extra half-hour.

When the "Lost" finale airs Sunday, May 23, the episode will run from 9 to 11:30 p.m. The overrun will air instead of the local news, with the "Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to Lost" post-finale special remaining at 11:30 p.m. ABC is expected to announce the plan on Tuesday night's episode of Kimmel.

The night before "The End" airs, ABC will also broadcast the pilot episode that first aired on September 22nd, 2004, as one of those "enhanced" editions that pops up factoids about the story on the bottom of the screen.

I don't know if there's going to be anything like Lost that I'll be watching again anytime soon, seeing as how I'm so extremely finicky about how I choose to devote my precious time on television. The last time a show captivated me this much, it was Babylon 5 more than ten years ago. If there's nothing else on the horizon, this might be the most zeroed-in on the boob tube that I'll be for a long time to come...

...so at least for the weekend of May 22-23, I'll get to go out with a bang :-)

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"The Candidate": Post-episode reaction to tonight's LOST

I'm going to be as un-spoilerish as I possibly can be after seeing this episode...

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGHHH!!!

Goin' be LOTS of people all kinds of angry and crying tonight after watching "The Candidate". The Intertubes might just burst from the wrath being poured into keyboards between now and the next several hours.

At least with Blake's 7, Terry Nation waited until the absolutely final episode of that show to force viewers to watch the main characters gets killed off one by one. Lost still has four hours left before its final moments: what the $&@# could showrunners Cuse and Lindelof possibly have left to hurt us with?

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Whether alive or dead or undead, John Locke just can't stop playing with C-4. Jack has finally and firmly emerged as the man of faith: exactly the mirror opposite of what he started out as. And it was great to see Anthony Cooper again...

...but it was Hurley's breakdown in the final moments which is still resonating mightily in my gray matter. That... and one very particular tragic moment that we saw before the final commercial break... said it all.

Has any other show done so magnificent a performance at building up characters that we've come to care for, only to force us to... to watch as that happened to them?

Well played, Cuse and Lindelof. Well played.

But it's not "The End" yet.

And we shall see what lies "Across the Sea" next week.

Until then, "The Candidate" would get a 10 out of 10 from this viewer... except that it broke clean off after pegging the needle so hard.

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Final five hours of LOST begins tonight

It's been two weeks since the last fresh installment. Last Tuesday night was a repeat of "Ab Aeterno", the long-awaited and wildly acclaimed Richard Alpert backstory episode that aired a few weeks ago.

Tonight's episode, "The Candidate", is being said by those who have seen it already to be exceptionally good. And I'm hearing even better things about next week's "Across the Sea", which is said to answer a wazoo of questions (including the origin of the frozen donkey wheel, and how Jacob and his "friend" came to the Island). No, I don't know what those are: I'm discovering 'em along with everyone else. And don't e-mail me with answers either: I know when real Evil Incarnate is reading my blog, so it would be too easy to track you down too if I had to :-P

"The Candidate" airs at 9 p.m. EST, and is gonna be one of those episodes of Lost that is extra-long by two minutes. Plan your DVRs accordingly!

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"The Last Recruit": Post-episode reaction to this week's LOST

Depending on who you are, tonight's Lost either confirmed or imploded a whole lotta theories that have been building up over the past six years. While at the same time going off the tracks with all kinds of crazy goodness!

"The Last Recruit" felt like an episode and a half, if not more even. The answers keep coming hard, even if they aren't explicitly "spelled out". That dialogue between Jack and the Man in Black toward the beginning of the episode? And a bit of what Claire said? When you think about it all that's maybe two or three longstanding mysteries that were laid bare. I love how this show makes the viewers work things out on their own. And in that respect Lost stands tall as some of the most intelligent storytelling for the television medium in history.

I am soooo not spilling the beans on what was the best moment of an episode abundantly blessed with excellent moments, for sake of those on the west coast who won't be seeing it for another two and a half hours.

The flashsideways timeline: whatever the heck this is headed to, I am totally digging it now. And I think that there might have been a clue here as to the identities of "Adam and Eve". Hint: apple. 'Course I might just have been seeing too much there.

Must. Watch. Again. And I hope y'all DVR'ed it anyway 'cuz there's no new Lost next week: instead we get a repeat airing of "Ab Aeterno", which was the episode that gave us Richard's backstory, so it's all good. The next week though will bring us "The Candidate". And after that "Across the Sea", which I know nothing about other than word is rampant that this is going to be a massively major episode (one rumor is that it will give us the story of Jacob and the Man in Black).

Five more hours of Lost left. And I'll give "The Last Recruit" a full 10 out of 10!

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"Everybody Loves Hugo": Post-episode reaction to this week's LOST

I am officially saving up all hyperbole for whatever Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have schemed up for the final six hours of Lost. Good thing too 'cuz I would have shot the whole wad on "Everybody Loves Hugo" tonight.

WOW!!! Okay, along with "Numbers" from Season 1 this has to rank as the all-time greatest episode focusing on Hurley. This felt like an episode and a half and all those 'splosions didn't hurt at all (bye-bye Ilana, but I saw that caked-on nitro on the dynamite sticks and knew then this was gonna end badly). Hurley's destroying the Black Rock: is it just me or did y'all also think that signified this series' finality? The Black Rock had been one of the most long-standing mysteries of the show, and now that we know everything about it and to see it go "boom" like that...

It was one of the best visual effects I've seen in television history. A foreshadowing, no doubt, of things still to come before "The End".

I thoroughly approve of how Michael was brought back to the story... and bringing the long-sought answer about the whispers with him. But it was Libby's return that I most appreciated of "Everybody Loves Hugo". I'm almost sorry for saying this but Libby never really "clicked" for me during her appearances during Season 2. But now after seeing this episode, and thinking back to how she was in Santa Rosa with Hurley in the "main" timeline well, can't help but wonder if there was "method to the madness" all this time and we're just now realizing the extent of it.

Speaking of timelines, I am now totally digging what is going on in the alternate universe and how the two realities are interacting. That revelation has come pretty late, and I was worried for awhile that it was going to be delved into at all. But now the answers are coming as hard and fast as alt-Desmond's leadfoot on the pedal (you'll understand when you see the episode, y'all on the west coast :-)

"Everybody Loves Hugo" gets a 15 out of 10 from this fan.

Six more hours of Lost remaining. "The Last Recruit" is found next week.

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"Happily Ever After": Post-episode reaction to this week's LOST

Before uttering a word about Lost, I just wanna say that Buzz Aldrin was all kinds of kewlness on Dancing With The Stars and even though he's gone from competition, his was a presence that truly moonwalked on the dance floor. Looked like he had a heck of a fun time!

Now, on to "Happily Ever After"...

The episodes of Lost that center on Desmond Hume have been some of the very best of the show's entire run: witness "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and "The Constant". "Happily Ever After" is likely the last time we'll see an entire episode devoted to Desmond and the Lost showrunners went all out to make this an electrifying episode (yes I'm being quite punny tonight :-).

(Part of me wants to say that maybe this episodes should have been titled "Flashes Between Your Eyes", in keeping with the names of some of this season's episodes and how they're a play on words of past seasons' episodes. 'Twould make heaps o' sense, but at this late in the game I can understand it.)

So apart from the prologue (featuring Desmond breaking bad on Charles Widmore's ass and didn't EVERYONE holler "GO DESMOND!!" when we saw that?) and the extreme beginning and end of the episode, "Flashes Before Your Eyes" was all about Desmond in the flashsideways timeline: a universe where he's seemingly a happy globetrotter who gets treated at last to Charles Widmore's 'spensive bottle of booze. As such the more longstanding mysteries of Lost were barely addressed at all, which with seven hours left for this show to wrap up everything is ordinarily a bit troubling. But "Happily Ever After" did give us hard answers at last to this season's biggest quirk: the flashsideways-es showing us what the world would have been like had Oceanic 815 landed in Los Angeles.

I thought this was a brilliant episode. And it would be destined to be a fan favorite even if it hadn't seen the return of so many familiar faces, like Charlie Pace and Daniel and Eloise (who just as in the regular timeline apparently knows more than most) and even George Minkowski. And then there's Penny: anyone else catch how without stating as much, that she is Desmond's constant even here in the alternate reality? Is that related in some way to why Widmore had Desmond brought back to the Island?

Can you tell I've watched this episode a few more times since it aired yesterday evening? :-)

I'm gonna say that "Happily Ever After", when all is said and done, is going to prove to be one of the most pivotal episodes of Lost's entire run. And for that alone, it gets the full 10 out of 10 from this viewer.

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"The Package": Post-episode reaction to this week's LOST

First things first: Whoever it was at ABC that thought it would be a "brilliant" idea to put that blood-red V countdown bug in the lower right-hand corner of the screen needs to be dragged out into the street and shot. I've never seen such a nuisance more distracting from what should have been a completely enjoyable experience of watching an episode of Lost.

(It was enough to make me not want to stick around long enough to watch V tonight, if that says anything.)

But as for "The Package" itself...

EXCELLENT episode! Maybe even as good as last week's that gave us Richard's backstory. And so far as the Sun/Jin-centric installments are - which have become some of my favorite - "The Package" may have been one of the best. Good thing too, since this is probably the last Lost episode ever that will focus on our Korean lovebirds.

I'm starting to wonder if the "flashsideways"-es have something to do with what Hurley told Richard last week: that if the Man in Black isn't stopped then "we all go to hell". Last month I posted my theory that the Man in Black could be trying to escape not just into the world but in another world (like Mephisto in the Earth X Marvel Comics trilogy). Perhaps the flashsidewaysies are showing us the universe where the Man in Black is running rampant. How this is going to figure into a storyline with only seven episodes left to wrap up its mythology, I haven't a clue... but the Lost showrunners had better get hopping. After the past three or four episodes though, I'm still confident that they'll deliver.

There were two people that I thought over the past couple of weeks would be behind the door on the submarine. And who we saw being taken off of it was one of them. I wonder if we'll see the other one. Which also reminds me that it was nice to see Room 23 again... and that does make me think that we shall see that other character again soon.

A very, very solid episode. I'll give it a 10 out of 10.

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Wanna know the title of the final episode of LOST?

According to showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, the final episode of Lost, set to air two months from now, is...

"The End"

They chose this as the title because they want to make it stark clear that there will be no spinoff series, no movie, no anything. There's supposed to be an official Lost encyclopedia book coming out at some point but so far as the story of Lost goes, this will indeed be THE end.

I like it :-)

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"Ab Aeterno": Chris has to watch tonight's LOST three times to take it all in!!!

This is what storytelling on television should always strive to be like. Not since Babylon 5 has there perhaps been so much good payoff for all the long hours invested in watching a dramatic series.

We finally, finally got Richard Alpert's backstory in "Ab Aeterno", this week's episode of Lost. And it did not disappoint! I would even say that this was the best character-centric origin story since Ben's episode "The Man Behind the Curtain" in Season 3. Maybe even since "Numbers" all the way back in the first season.

Something I couldn't help but catch: Tenerife was the location of one of the worst airline disasters in history. Was that something intentional on the part of the producers, to have Richard start out his life there? Anyways, what we have is a good man who was caught up in a tragedy composed of complete assholes: first that despicable doctor, then the even more despicable priest, followed by the officers of the Black Rock and then Jacob's adversary. Richard in some ways is the most tragic character we have seen on Lost: a person who longs for absolution from God more than anything else. I like to think that in the final scenes, he knew that he had that at last.

We also now know how the Black Rock came so far inland, and how the statue of Tawaret got demolished... all in one fell swoop! And most of all, we're starting to finally understand what the Island is: nothing less than a prison for the Man in Black and a material battleground between the cosmic battle between good and evil.

I've watched this episode three times so far, and it's still blowing my mind. I have unquestioning faith now in this show: that we are going to get solid answers to all of the big mysteries before the end two months from now.

"Ab Aeterno" gets 10 out of 10 from this viewer!

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For everyone who's watching LOST (about tonight's episode)...

"Ab Aeterno", this week's episode of Lost, will presumably - at long last - give us the story of Richard Alpert: the man who doesn't age.

And this installment is apparently so important that it will broadcast six minutes longer than most regular episodes.

Bear that in mind and set your DVRs accordingly!

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"Recon": Post-episode reaction to tonight's LOST

Last week's episode of Lost, "Dr. Linus", I've watched again five or six times from the DVR and it keeps getting better and better.

So maybe that's affecting me somewhat, but I thought that "Recon", tonight's installment, was a bit of a step down. That's bothersome because there are only about ten hours or so left of this show's run to tie up all the loose ends. But I'll maintain faith in showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof: Lost has surprised the bejeebers out of us before. It's only fitting that it keeps doing it up 'til the grand finale.

Anyhoo, "Recon" wasn't the best of the Sawyer-centric episodes, but I found it fascinating all the same, and the flashsideways-es have finally begun to grow on me. We've seen Sawyer the con-man who was on Oceanic 815 when it crashed. "Recon" gave us Detective James Ford: the "Sawyer" that would have come about from the road not taken. I've long been intrigued by the notion of Schrodinger's cat. Well, that's the same kind of thing that I got out of "Recon" tonight: James "Sawyer" Ford is like a particle that you can't predict. He told Charlotte that he could have been a crook or a cop and he chose cop... but what made him be one in the "main" universe and be another in the alternate timeline?

What indeed? The thing that most comes to mind is choice: that most capricious of qualities.

And the more I think about it, "Recon" was an episode about choices and whether we have them. Does Sayid believe he has a choice? Does Claire, who seems to have chosen to put aside her hatred of Kate?

I couldn't help but notice that Kate didn't touch the fake Locke's hand when he extended it. Last week Richard told Jack and Hurley that his immortality was because Jacob had touched him long ago. Does the "Man in Black" possess a similar characteristic? Did Kate avoid something by not making physical contact with him?

Gonna have to watch this one again. In the meantime, I'll give "Recon" a 7.5 out of 10.

And in seven days apparently comes the episode that I thought we'd never see: Richard Alpert and his story. Dare we hope for a flashback to the Black Rock?!

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"Dr. Linus": Post-episode reaction to tonight's LOST

So all this past week I've been inwardly bemoaning how this show needs to ratchet things up with ten regular episodes left before the series finale.

And then showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse bring us "Dr. Linus" (an episode directed by Mario Van Peebles, by the way), which was totally off the chain already for 59 minutes and then in the last 30 seconds...

Charles Widmore has returned.

That can't possibly be a good thing. Looks like that hella war for the Island is about to kick off bigtime.

Best. Season Six. Episode. Yet.

Which is what I had expected, since it was pretty obvious from the title that this was going to be a Ben-centric installment of Lost. The episodes focusing on Michael Emerson's character Benjamin Linus have been some of the strongest of the show's entire run. I wasn't disappointed at all. And in fact, this might have been the best of the Ben-intensive episodes. Certainly one of the best overall.

Other highlights: possibly the revelation of why Richard can't age (which we got before watching the most explosive game of chicken ever). The reason why Frank wasn't flying Oceanic 815. And even a hilarious wink toward the Nikki and Paulo fiasco.

But the highlight of this episode was the continuing evolution of Benjamin Linus from a cold-blooded schemer toward becoming a repentant human being longing for redemption. And on that note I thought that the "flashsideways" for this episode was the best of the season by far.

If the rest of the season can measure up to this one, then we are in for some of the greatest television ever.

I'll give "Dr. Linus" a 9.3 out of 10.

EDIT 10:31 p.m. EST: Am re-watching this episode and totally forgot about Ben's history lesson in the "X" timeline about Napoleon's exile on Elba. That's gotta be a big hint about the Man in Black's own nature and history. And the exchange between Ben and Locke in the teachers lounge? Pure Lost subtlety.

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