LOST's Terry O'Quinn wins an Emmy!

Congratulations to Terry O'Quinn, who last night won his first-ever Emmy - that for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama - for his portrayal of John Locke on Lost!

Lost actually had two entries in the Best Supporting Actor/Drama category tonight: the other was Michael Emerson, who plays Benjamin Linus.

If you ask me, all the Best Actor/Actress categories should have been filled with Lost people. That's the thing about an ensemble show with a cast that strong: practically everyone deserves to be there.

But O'Quinn richly deserves this win. Locke is one of the most fascinating characters in television history and there's not possibly anyone who could have done the the role better than Terry O'Quinn. The more Locke-centric episodes this past season - especially "The Man from Tallahassee" and "The Brig" - were some of the most intense in the show's history (heck, "The Man from Tallahassee" had this whole house screaming). And not just Lost either: O'Quinn has done some amazing work over the past decade and it's great to see him get acknowledged for his efforts.

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Unintended Christian imagery in this week's LOST?

Maybe I'm seeing too much in this, but when I first looked at this photo from this week's Lost episode "The Man Behind the Curtain", something immediately jumped out at me. It's the scene where Locke and Ben are on the creek bank before setting out to see Jacob.

Do you see it too?

Look at the reflection in the water. I don't know if this was intended or not (I'm guessing probably not) but the branch that's seen behind Locke's reflected head... it looks just like the horizontal beam of a Roman cross. Here's that portion of the image flipped upside-down...

Taking the straight branch into account, Locke's head is in much the same position as you see Christ's head in quite a few depictions of the crucifiction.

Now think about that very last scene from last week's episode "The Brig" and what Locke was carrying on his back.

And also think of that very last shot of this week's episode, and where Locke was.

And then think about what Locke seems to be becoming in the eyes of many of the Others.

Like I said, I don't know if this was intended or not, but in light of all the Judeo-Christian references in this show, I thought this was still pretty cool.

And the thought just came to me: Ben's final words in this week's episode sound a LOT like those of a certain thief who was also being executed next to Jesus.

What astounding parallels! No wonder I love this show so much...

(Found this pic at The Tail Section by the way :-)

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Tonight's LOST: musings about "The Brig"

Lisa usually turns in before Lost starts at 10 p.m., meaning that I watch it and then we see it together the following afternoon from the DVR. But tonight she got drawn in by the first few minutes of "The Brig" and couldn't let go. So we got to see it first-run together. It just finished a short while ago...

John Locke may be the greatest tragic figure to come out of television of the past twenty years. You know what I keep thinking about, after watching this episode? It's that as much as Locke has wanted to be unlike his father, he has now become too much like his father.

Sawyer has lately been turning into one of my favorite characters, because of how he has been changing and growing. We've been seeing a real seeking of redemption and want of a new life out of Sawyer. He's had that new life. And then Locke has to destroy that life, just as the original Sawyer (I'm trying hard not to spoil anything here) ruined young James Ford's life.

That scene where it all comes crashing down together... you know what I mean if you watched it... that was genuinely painful to watch. I sure didn't feel any satisfaction out of that scene. I felt like a very horrible thing had been made to happen and I really can't say that I blame either Locke or Sawyer for it.

If nobody had a good enough reason to hate Ben before tonight, there sure is now.

Lots of answers in this one. In true Lost style, almost as many new mysteries in "The Brig". And there's a real sense that everything is converging hard and fast and when they meet... it's not going to be pretty.

Three more episodes left in Season 3. Next week: Ben's flashback episode. The early days of the DHARMA Initiative. And at long last... Jacob. "The Man Behind the Curtain" airs in exactly 166.5 hours!

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Tonight's LOST goes out of "the box" and into "The Brig"

A few weeks ago in the episode "The Man from Tallahassee", Ben told Locke (Terry O'Quinn) that on the island there was "a box" that would produce anything you wanted. Locke laughed at the idea. And then at the end of the episode Ben told Locke that "I'm going to show you what came out of it."

What Locke saw when he opened the door and looked inside the room was probably the biggest shocker of the show's entire run.

We've only seen Locke very briefly after that, when he told Kate that he was leaving with the Others for... wherever it was that they were headed for. On tonight's Lost - titled "The Brig" - Locke returns and based on what little I'm hearing, this is going to be an episode as fine as any that we've seen lately... and those have been some of the best television ever produced in the past decade. Word on the street is that tonight's flashbacks show what Locke has been doing with the Others for the past several days. More intriguing still, "The Brig" might finally resolve a longstanding mystery from the first season involving Sawyer (if you watch the show then you know what I'm talking about).

Enjoy every minute of this while you can. After tonight there are only three more episodes and then Lost goes away until next January :-(

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I haven't seen tonight's LOST yet

Through a series of circumstances that were completely unforseen and totally unexpected to happen at all, for the first time ever my lovely wife Lisa has seen a new episode of Lost... and I haven't!

I'm about to go watch it from the DVR. She said it was really good.

EDIT 12:50 AM 4-5-2007: Just wrapped up watching it. Another great ep. Maybe it didn't have all the "wham!" of the past several episodes but this was a fun one that brought closure to some things while opening up a whole bunch of others.

Personally, the most enjoyable part of this episode was what Hurley did with Sawyer. And I've realized something tonight: for all the talk of leadership that Hurley spoke about, it's Hurley who is the real leader of the castaways. From the very beginning, Hurley has gone out of his way to be a servant to his fellow survivors, whether it be making the golf course or creating the diversion of getting the minibus to work again. And tonight we saw Hurley's real wisdom shine: instead of taking the obvious leadership role for himself, he helped Sawyer become that leader instead, in a way that Sawyer probably would never do on his own.

So... what the heck is up with Locke now?

Very good show, this one was.

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Speed-drawing John Locke from LOST

Here's a video that's sparked quite a fad on YouTube: time-lapse video of people drawing John Locke from Lost. This one is amazing:By the way, tonight's episode of Lost is supposed to center on Nikki and Paulo (or as I call them "the Coy and Vance Duke of Lost"). I've heard this one could be either incredibly cool or "bait for the shark". But it's got Billy Dee Williams appearing in some of the flashback scenes so it's worth checking out because of that anyway. Dunno how they're gonna try to top last week's ep though...

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