Well, I’ve been hoping this would come.  After the really cool trading card game they did with Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, I was hoping there would be one for the next movie.  And WB/DC Animation did not disappoint.

JL Crisis Facebook App

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 I wish people who wrote virus programs used their time more productively.  I’ve been hit yet again on my older PC which is still running XP.  MacAfee, provided by my cable company, failed to stop it.  Last time, I went crazy, trying all kinds of things and ultimately reset it from the beginning.  I never got around to putting all my backed up data back on the PC this time.

Instead of the stress this time, I’d like to try to put a positive spin on this.  I’d like to ask the community what their favorite anitvirus tools are and their favorite web sites for advice on problems like this are.

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Did Faraday’s plan work? We look at the exciting two-part season opener! Or otherwise known as How Lost got it’s Groove Back! Tuesday night’s season premiere served up enough gasps, shrieks and heartbreaking moments to make it feel like a season finale—and it is only the beginning.

Please return your seats to their full upright position and fasten your seatbelts. LAX, here we come!

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WE HIT A POCKET
Initially I thought ABC was messing with our minds when the program started out with all hell breaking loose at the site of the magnetic anomaly. Then Juliet sets of the bomb and we return to the flight of Oceanic 815. I confess that I shouted, “I knew it!” startling my wife. Seeing the same airplane scene played out but re-filmed was one of those Yogi Berra moments: Deja vu all over again.. Of course, some things were different. Jack’s hair was longer. Cindy still gave him the booze, though it was one less bottle, wasn’t it? Jack and Rose had their conversation. The turbulence hit. And…

No crash! Seth Norris (Grunny lives! The “captain speaking” on the alt-Flight 815 was Capt. Norris, aka Greg Grunberg himself.) announces that they hit a pocket but everything’s okay. And now it’s clear (if it wasn’t before) that we are in an alternate timeline. Some nice juxtaposition there, as it was a drill hitting an electromagnetic energy pocket that launched this alternate in the first place. These pockets seem to trip up our Losties quite frequently.

Jack acts like something’s strange. Rose and Bernard seem to sense it, too. They give each other a knowing look. Of course, if they do know about the other reality on the island, they shouldn’t be too happy about being in this one. Life was good for Rose and Bernard on the island. In this world, Rose might (or might not) have cancer. Meanwhile, Jack goes to the restroom and observes a phantom cut that has appeared on the side of his neck.

Note: I checked photos from the original “Pilot” episode, but I didn’t see that exact same scratch anywhere (evidence of a THIRD reality! Just kidding). But it’s interesting that he isn’t just feeling mentally displaced – the cut is strong evidence of some physical manifestations of the other reality, too.

The key to this thread of the Lost narrative will be figuring out what’s already been changed, what can be changed, and what it means for the “real” story in the other timeline (yes, I’m making a big assumption that the events on the island are the real timeline and not the one where 815 arrives safely in Los Angeles). This should truly be a unique viewing experience – it’s almost like we get to watch a new show, except these characters aren’t new to us. They aren’t starting fresh, there’s no “Tabula Rasa”. We have ideas about them already. It’s like if they remade Lost intro a movie twenty years from now. We’d be wondering, “Oh, will they include Jack’s tattoos? Is Hurley still unlucky? What will they change about Sayid?” I think that’s how we’ll feel, now.

SEE YOU IN ANOTHER LIFE BRO… OH, THAT’S WHAT WE’RE DOING RIGHT NOW

Jack returns to his seat and finds he has a new seat partner. Desmond! How cool was that? It was really, I think, a perfect way to introduce us to all the weirdness of the alternative time line (by the way I don’t want to keep typing “alternative time line” for the whole damned season. Anyone have a suggestion for an alternative or abbreviation?). Desmond has always been bound to show up in the most interesting places, as if he were permanently unstuck in time like Billy Pilgrim in the novel that inspired “The Constant,” Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.” Speaking of books, what was that he was reading? It’s a book by Salman Rushdie, and after carefully studying the frame I believe it’s titled “Haroun and the Sea of Stories.”
I haven’t read it but a quick Wikipedia check reveals it’s about a city so old that it’s name has been forgotten (sounds like the island, huh?). There’s also an electromagnetic device intended to destroy the ocean, which sounds an awful lot like the island’s final resting place in this timeline. By now we’re trained to look for similarities in every book that appears on Lost, but this one appears to be an especially good fit.

Jack thinks he recognizes Desmond – the question is, does he recognize him from the running of the stadium steps (which may or may not have happened in the alternative time line) or from the mainstream time line? Because I’m not sure the stadium steps meeting would occur in the ATL at all. If the bomb went off in 1977, it certainly killed Charles Widmore, who was on the island at the time. No Widmore should mean no Penny. No Penny should mean no sailing race and no sailing race should mean no stadium steps run. This stuff would make you want to get into the sealed box with Schrödinger’s cat. I hope we see much more of Desmond this season. His iconic “See you in another life, brotha,” is more relevant than ever.

While Jack ponders the multiverse and why he didn’t keep reading comics while he was in medical school, we jump out the window of flight 815 and dive into the ocean below. And then we get our first look at the island in the alternative universe – buried on the ocean floor! The Barracks are there, Dharma sharks, and the remains of the Statue. The only thing missing was Aquaman or Namor. This is almost certainly the result of the detonation of the Jughead in 1977. This means that the timeline doesn’t deviate when Oceaniac 815 stays airborne during the turbulence. It deviates when the bomb goes off in 1977. Things – some things, at least – have been different ever since then. And we fade to black to ponder these things while ABC makes money and Disney tries to figure out where to put Lost Land in the happiest place on earth.

CHAIN, CHAIN, CHAIN… COME ON, SING WITH ME NOW!

The show begins again and I think some dufus in the control room at ABC has accidently reset the tape as we’re seeing the construction site again and all hell is breaking loose. But, it quickly becomes apparent that this is different. This is from Kate’s perspective. After the boom, we get the eye of Kate. Nice that they remember that opening sequences with someone’s eye are a “thing” on the show.

There is a piercing tone in the background as we and Kate discover she way the hell up in a tree and just manages to save herself from falling out of it and it’s night. She climbs down and yells to see if anyone is around. She’s still having problems hearing and starts walking through the jungle only to have Miles surprise her. While they are talking about their hearing problems, Kate spots something and runs to the door of the Swan Hatch. With Miles trailing her, she’s off like a shot to the crater that is all that’s left of the hatch when Desmond turned the key and the sky turned purple.

They get to the remains of the Swan station and Miles asks if that is the construction site. Kate tells him it’s the Swan station. Miles is astounded that they built it. Kate finds Jack in the tall grass. She revives him and tells him they are at the hatch. Jack is confused that the plan didn’t appear to work according to Faraday’s plan – apparently, he doesn’t sense his other self landing safely in LAX. Sawyer appears and smacks the crap outta Jack, knocking down into the pit. “You were wrong!” Says Sawyer. The three of them climb down into the pit and Jack says he thought it would work. “Well, it didn’t!” Screams Sawyer. And he hear a jet engine noise.

Flash to the alternative time line with Jack walking to the restrooms again. That drink that Cindy gave him must have run it’s course, or maybe he just forgot to pee when he found the booboo on his next previously. Anyway, he reaches the restrooms only to find Marshal Ed Mars who he asks if he’s in line. Mars says he’s waiting for a friend. Just then Kate bounds out of the potty and bumps into Jack. The hands on each other linger just a moment longer than normal and Kate apologizes as Mars takes her back to her seat. Sawyer then walks by and bumps the arm of Mars as he’s heading back to his seat. Like Jack, Kate and Sawyer look at one another for just a moment longer than normal.

Arzt, the amazing exploding man, shows up for the first time since he played with spiders in Expose! Arzt is pestering Hurley about being the chicken man while Sawyer takes his seat. Arzt didn’t add much, but helped reveal the life of Bizarro Hurley, who is super lucky rather than super unlucky. It’s hard not to wonder if every thing is switched. The bad luck did in fact make Hurley richer – will good luck mean that he won the lottery but nothing much else happened? After Arzt goes back to his seat, Sawyer tells Hurley he shouldn’t mention he won the lotto, but he’s dismissed by the luckiest guy alive. Now, what exactly does that mean?

Further, we didn’t learn too much about what Sawyer is like in this reality. It’ll be interesting to see if his story’s changed, although I guess the major defining event of Sawyer’s life – his parents’ deaths – happened before the Jughead went off, so maybe he won’t turn out much differently. Gotta wonder whether he still killed Frank Duckett, though.

As Hurley slips on his earphones with a contented smile on his face, we cut to the main time line and Hurley is sitting on the ground outside the VW minibus with Sayid. Sayid quickly loses consciousness after reflecting on all the people he’s tortured. Again, just like last season, Sayid spends some serious amounts of time unconscious. Jin comes out of the vehicle with a flashlight. He tells a panicked Hurley that he thinks they traveled through time because of the white light, headache and loss of hearing. They hear Sawyer yelling in the distance and Jin takes off into the night.

At the Swan Jack and Sawyer are still debating the merits of using a hydrogen bomb to travel through time. Jin shows up and tells Jack that Sayid needs help. Kate hears a faint cry for help from the rubble pile and then so does Sawyer. It’s Juliette. She’s burried under all the crap where the energy pocket used to be.

Suddenly, we’re back with Hurley who hears a rustling in the jungle and does the funniest scene in the program, grabbing a gun and fumbling with it. He finds Jacob who asks if he, Hurley, has got a minute.

After a commercial break we are back on Oceaniac 815. Making our way among our favorite survivors, we come to Jin and Sun. Sun is smiling to herself as she watches Rose and Bernard. Jin is still a controlling jerk – he gives her the “button your shirt” just like right after the crash. I’m not totally buying Sun’s characterization anymore in the main time line (she’s been three drastically different people before the island, on the island, and after the island), so it’ll be interesting to see what they do with her here.

BOONE MADE IT FALL. THEN HE DIED.

I really like that bonding seems to be occurring among the same sets of people. It’s as if their fates are so intertwined they can’t help but have the same conversations, no matter what universe they’re in.
From Jin and Sun we move to a talk between Boone and John. John was cool, and full of irony. And Boone thinks he wants to go with Locke if the plane goes down… I’d say things are much better for Boone in the alternative time line. Maybe he’ll finally be able to give up Shannon. And he won’t die! Speaking of which, no Shannon, huh? Oh well. No beach = no bikini = no real purpose for Shannon.

John tells Boone that his trip was for pleasure and he weaves an elaborate tale of going on a walkabout. I will say is that John’s walkabout tale sounded almost as if he was talking about being on the island. He and Boone are channeling their crash-survivor selves, just like Jack.

Back to the temple. John picks up the knife covered in blood and wipes it clean. Ben is inshokc and asks why didn’t Jacob fight bab. Locke sends him out to get Richard. Richard is arguing with the “bodyguards.” Sun and Frank are confused. I’m confused. When Ben tells Richard that John wants to talk to him, he drags a scared and jabbering Ben, drags him to the box and throws him into the sand beside the body of John Lock. We fade to black.

After commercial While Sawyer, Kate and Jack set to work trying to dig Juliet out, Hurley and Jacob talk. Jacob admits to being dead and pretty much confirms that the Losties are now in 2007 – the same time period as Locke and Co. This is good, because it would just be too much to keep track of if there was another alternate reality and two different timelines in a main reality. Anyway, Jacob tells Hurley that he’s been dead about an hour, which makes sense, since Hurley can talk to dead people. I’m glad that Jacob didn’t just come back to life – that would be a little unfair, you know? Dead is Dead, after all. But there’s a greater sense of urgency and mortality when we know the characters can fail and die.
This also confirms that Hurley truly does have the power to talk to dead people, as this is the first dead person that we can unequivocally say is NOT the Man in Black. Jacob tells Hurley he has to save Sayid by taking him to the temple. He tells Hurley that Jin knows where it’s at – a hole in the wall with the French team. Oh, and bring the guitar case. Jin appears and they load Sayid into the VW. Hurley asks him if he knows where the hole in the wall is and Jin says yes as the drive through the jungle to the Swan hatch. Chains are attached to the I-beam and Sawyer tells Kate that if Juliette dies he’ll kill Jack.

Back on Oceaniac 815, Cindy gets on the intercom and asks if there is a doctor on the plane. Jack pushes his call button and they got to the restroom. Sayid appears and offers to help. Again, one of Sayid’s first scenes in “Pilot, Part 1″ was offering to help fix the transceiver. Apparently that’s how Sayid makes new friends. Sayid kicks in the door and out tumbles Charlie. He isn’t breathing. Charlie is choking on his drugs. I’m fairly certain it’s not too important, but it’s cool how even this scene – Jack asking for a pen to save Charlie – mirrors what would have happened had the plane gone down, when Jack asked for a pen to save Rose. Jack saves Charlie (Was it attempted suicide? An accident? I’m confused.)

Back at the Swan station, the I-Beam is moved and Sawyer climbs down into the hole. He finds Juliette who’s in a bad way.

Back on the beach, Ben tells Richard to go inside the temple, but the Bodyguards grab Ben and take him inside the temple. John and the Bodyguards have a confrontation and one of them shoots John who runs up the stairs. Smokey comes down the stairs and all hell breaks loose inside the temple. The guy who shot John finds the bullet and it looks like it hit the side of a battleship. WTF? The first Bodyguard pours a ring of ash around himself and when Smokey comes after him it slams into an invisible barrier and there is a beam of light that shines on the guy who looks real pleased with himself. Smokey is obviously pissed off and crashes into a pillar making all sorts of turmoil, including a large chunk of stone hit the guy and knock him out of his circle. Smokey proceeds to impale the poor slob on Jacob’s loom. Ouch!

Ben is watching all this with eyes as big as silver dollars when John appears again and says, “Sorry you had to see me like that.”

WE SHOULD GET COFFEE

Sawyer gets his final moments with a dying Juliet. Up until her last breath, I thought she might yet live, somehow. It was almost more heartbreaking watching Sawyer get that chance to say goodbye.

But even at death’s door, Juliet delivers some very important info. “We should get coffee,” she says. This immediately reminded me of Charlotte’s final words to Daniel, “I’m not allowed to have chocolate before supper.” I’m betting that was deliberate, and that it was done in order to suggest that maybe Juliet’s consciousness was, on some level, in another place. Could that place have been the alternative time line? Probably. Juliet was the one who actually set off the bomb, so I imagine she might have some of her own “The rules don’t apply” status, much like Desmond did for turning the failsafe key. Both these events took place very near the electromagnetic anomaly, so I’d be willing to buy it.

Maybe this isn’t a good time to ask, but why did the Jughead detonation launch them all into 2004 without harming them? And why just them? I was a little disappointed not to see what happened next between Miles and Pierre Chang, but Chang was gone. Shame, I hope Miles gets a chance to talk to his father sometime. I also really hope Miles doesn’t die, but he’s somewhat on the periphery, I feel, because he doesn’t yet have a place in the alternative timeline.

I’d really like to see Juliet and Sawyer get together in the alternative timeline. It won’t completely make up for their unhappy ending in the main timeline, but it would still be nice. Plus, if the island is destroyed in 1977, Juliet will never have to part with her sister and go there. So, even though Juliet’s death was very sad, we’re pretty much guaranteed to see her and Sawyer “get coffee” in another universe.

But Juliet had more to say before she died. But what was it? After kissing Sawyer, she dies in his arms. He carries her out of the hole and stares down Jack. “You did this.” He snarls and Jack looks like he would gladly change places with Juliette right now.

Flashback to the plane where Charlie is zip-tied. He tells Jack he should have let it happen. He was supposed to die. Cindy tells Jack some people don’ know how to say thank you. I think Cindy is hitting on Jack.

Jack returns to his seat to find Desmond gone. He asks Rose if she saw him, but she says she and Bernard were asleep. Jack sits down as Captain Norris announces final approach to LAX. The remainder of the hour is a sad music overlay as we see Cindy, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Jin & Sun, Boone, Frogurt (who was sitting between Boone & Locke the whole time with a sleeping mask on), John, Kate & Mars and Jack.

The plane lands and LAPD collects Charlie and his guitar case and everyone gets off the plane. Jack and John are the last two on board and Jack sees them bring the wheelchair for John.

Speaking of Sayid, who’s carrying his famous Nadia photo, does this guy have it better in the ATL or what? He’s on his way, presumably, to meet up with Nadia, instead of dying in the jungle from a gunshot wound. Talk about an upgrade.

After the fade to white that concluded season five the general feeling from the fanbase was that the story could go in one of two directions. Either Faraday’s plan worked and the season six premiere would be feature a reset with the former survivors on the plane or the plan didn’t work and the premiere would deal with the fallout. There were those wild cards who suggested the potential of an alternate universe but I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect the story to go in that direction. Well, it appears as if I was wrong and that, at least for the next short little while, Lost will be told from two separate realities. It’s an interesting gamble for Lindelof, Cuse and the rest of the writing staff. On the heels of a season that dealt with time travel, they now tackle an entirely different sci-fi concept – alternative realities – and make it faithful to the story thus far, understandable and entertaining. After the first two hours I can safely say they’ve succeeded.

It was a rocky start though. The first hour threw a lot of punches right out of the gate. Taking copious notes as I try to do with every review seemed like a ridiculous endeavor after the first twenty-minutes or so. Simply put, there were plenty of “WTF” moments in that first hour and it was fairly difficult to keep up with the pace at which information was being delivered. Not only are we asked to accept the concept of these characters now coexisting in two different realities but we’re given a ton of different pieces of information over the course of an hour. Little things like the strange scar on Jack’s neck may be completely lost to some viewers who don’t partake in re-watching the episode like many die-hard fans (like me – I gotta get a life). Especially when juxtaposed against big reveals like the entire island being submerged underwater in a glorious display of terrible computer graphics.

Throw in plenty of appearances by various Lost alum and a couple of inconsistencies with what we originally know about Oceanic Flight 815 and you have an episode that demands rewatching once more and maybe even a third time. It’s a simple issue of pacing and that first hour is paced poorly in relation to all the information that needs to be imparted to the audience. The second hour more than makes up for it, however.

Jack checks out his reflection. First, I want to jump into a couple of those inconsistencies with the original Oceanic Flight 815 that I noticed. There may be more but these are the ones that I thought stood out. First, we have the appearance of Desmond on the plane. It’s great to see Desmond back and it is starting to become more and more apparent that his story may be the key to understanding how both of these realities are intertwined. Last season I felt that they had really pulled the focus from Desmond in the last few episodes for a very specific reason and I still feel that way. He may very well be the constant in these two realities.

 HeroClix have been back for a while.  And I feel remiss for not blogging their return.  Then again, most stores in my area have not carried the product since the return and there are no nearby places to play anymore.  So they only kind of came back.

Brief history.  HeroClix were created by WizKidsGames.  The owner sold the line to Topps.  Topps decided to stop producing.  NECA is the new producer.  The first set from NECA is Hammer of Thor, which came out in November of 2009.  To be honest, unless you are a huge Thor or Norse god fan, the set is kind of limited in appeal.  Added to the recent sets Avengers, XMen & Hulk, and Invasion it does a nice job of rounding out some aspects of the Marvel Universe.

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Goofy in-house characters for the win!  Yup, I’m of the minority, I know…I actually *like* these guys.  While news of their upcoming release in the DC Universe Classics line has caused tremendous uproar and their original inclusion in Super Powers (instead of some of the 3,000 characters already inhabiting the DC Universe) has never been explained…I still like ‘em.  On the surface, they’re goofy…they’re neat…and they’re a couple of the more difficult figures to find carded in the line.  Due to the quality of plastic Kenner started using during those years (and also on the Return of the Jedi and Power of the Force Star Wars waves) yellow bubbles are very very common.  I believe I’ve only seen one Golden Pharaoh with a clear bubble, and the price nearly hit $200 on eBay last year.

Proof cards, on the other hand, are an entirely different beast.  Most Super Powers pre-production items are very difficult to come by.  First shots and proof cards are very rare with most items having 2-3 examples out there.  In most cases hardcopies and presentation boards are one-of-a-kind pieces.  I’m certainly fortunate to acquire what I’ve come across, and in the case of these two proof cards there are only two or three of each known to exist.  Since this blog will be primarily visual (there’s only so much you can say about these guys), I’ll get right to the pics.

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From the first few minutes of the premier, it seems like Lost has raised hundreds, if not thousands of questions that need answering. However, as I sit down to think about what questions truly NEED to be answered in the final season that is about to begin, I am shocked to find it really boils down to just ten questions – some simple, some complex.

If you look at the "Unanswered Questions" page on Lostpedia, you have to laugh out loud at some of the questions people have put up there. Will my enjoyment of Lost be increased if we find out why Desmond was dishonorably discharged from the military? Heck no. If anything, I would be upset if the writers wasted time in going back and answering such trivial matters. Every minute is precious in the final season.

This isn’t a post about predicting what’s going to happen – it’s a post about identifying the big questions for the season. We’ll worry about addressing them each as they come up over the course of the season through the traditional episode previews and analyses – which will include my usual smart-ass sidebars. But these are the things that should be in the back of your head as you watch Lost’s final season. So without further ado, I give you my "Top 10 Unanswered Questions on Lost That Need To Be Answered", along with the likelihood of each happening:

10. Juliet and the Jughead (100% Chance of Being Answered). The final moment of Season Five sneaks onto the list at the last moment, narrowly bumping off "What happened to Kate’s black horse" as the tenth biggest question we need answered this season. Exactly what happened when Juliet detonated the Jughead will be one of main driving forces of the Season Six storyline. It seems that we got a sneak peak in the trailer where our Survivors suddenly find themselves back on Oceanic 815. Is this a new reality? If so, will they have memories of their time on the Island, or will they all be strangers? Or did the Jughead just magically blast our Time Traveling Survivors back to the "present" in the current timeline, neatly tying up all the time traveling antics from last season? After the bumping around on the flight and then nothing happening, does Jack know what they missed?

The answer to this question will have a huge effect on what the overall "point" of Lost really ends up being… is it fundamentally a show about traveling through time and changing the past, or a show that proves that’s impossible even with all the Island’s magical "unique properties"? Is it a show about accepting fate or changing it to save the world? They’re really big questions that we might not understand fully until Lost is over.

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/dmbeternal/?action=view&current=Elizabeth-Mitchell.jpghttp://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/dmbeternal/?action=view&current=Elizabeth-Mitchell.jpgAs for Juliet and the Jughead, it’s an answer we should receive fairly early on in Season Six (after the writers probably totally confuse and mess with our minds for the first episode or two).

9. Adam and Eve (90% Chance of Being Answered). The identity of Adam and Eve seem like a fairly minor outstanding question on Lost. In fact, I’d be willing to wager that 50% of people who watch Lost have totally forgotten about the brief scene in Season One where Jack comes upon two skeletons with white and black stones laid to rest in the caves. However, early on, Damon and Carlton pointed to this scene as "proof" that they’ve known what they were doing all along, and had a master plan – as opposed to me, who makes stuff up as I go along akin to Saturday night at the Improv… like this post – who knows if I’ll be able to come up with 10 Unanswered Questions or not? Stay tuned!

So, back to the issue. This makes Adam and Eve extremely important characters to the obsessive fans of Lost. It also makes you wonder how important these characters will be to the storyline of Lost itself. http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/dmbeternal/?action=view&current=AdamandEve.jpghttp://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/dmbeternal/?action=view&current=AdamandEve.jpgI have a hard time believing the writers (in 2003) sat down and said "Hey, we need to include a scene where Jack comes across two skeletons because in Season Six we’re going to reveal that they are two non-important background characters. The audience is going to go crazy when they find out we knew this all along!" No – something tells me that these characters are going to be fairly major – like, Jack and Kate, Desmond and Penny, Jacob and Anti-Jacob, etc… and I do think we’re going to go crazy when we find out.

8. The Island History (75% Chance of Being Answered). There’s a lot you could group into this category – everything from the creation of the Island itself, to who installed the Frozen Donkey Wheel, to who built the Four Toed Statue, to the fate of the crew of the Black Rock (and maybe the S.S. Minow).

The Lost creators have always said that the Island is a character on the show, yet it’s the character that we know the least about (save for a few newer characters). A true "Island flashback" could quickly and effectively answer a lot of these questions about the history of the Island, yet I almost feel like the opportunity to tell that story was during last year’s time-traveling shenanigans. Or maybe we’ll find out all these answers through flashbacks of the life of the eternal Richard Alpert? I know some fans are going to want all the nitty-gritty details about every era of life on the Island. I don’t need that, but it would be nice to get some explanation for some of the more major events in the history of the Island.

Getting this information isn’t a given, and I can appreciate leaving some of the "mystery" of the Island left unexplained to allow the Island to be different things to different people – but I think we’re due for at least a healthy chunk of information about Island History this season.

7. Good and Evil (10% Chance of Being Answered). From the getgo, Lost has always been pretty ambiguous about who is "good" and who is "evil", preferring to color most characters a number of shades of grey. It’s a realistic way to approach things, and allows the audience to draw their own conclusions about the moral justifications of each characters’ actions. I like it. But in the end, don’t we need some answers about the true motivations of characters like Ben? Has he really been doing semi-evil deeds all for the benefit of the Island? Or is he just a pawn in a bigger game between Jacob and Anti-Jacob? And with the introduction of Jacob and Anti-Jacob, don’t we need to know which one to be rooting for in the final season? Or is the whole point that both make good arguments, and it’s up to the viewer to decide whose side they agree with more?

My biggest fear is that the"series ending" for the show involves our Survivors triumphing over the Others in some fashion, only to discover that by doing so they accidentally ruined any chance for saving the world / world peace / etc. This would be the ultimate "twist" at the end which would make you go back and re-watch the series from a totally different perspective. Over the years, I’ve realized this probably isn’t going to happen – but fundamentally, I think the audience still deserves to know if the actions of our Survivors on (and off) the Island made the world a better / worse / or the same place.

6. Jacob and Anti-Jacob (85% Chance of Being Answered). As referenced under "Good and Evil", one of the biggest questions to come out of Season Five is "who – or what – are Jacob and Anti-Jacob?" Are they gods? Non-aging folks like Alpert? Time traveling buddies like Bill and Ted? People from an alternate reality trapped in ours? You can come up with countless semi-plausible explanation, and the answer has huge ramifications to the entire series. Are Jacob and Anti-Jacob two more intriguing side characters in the Lost universe, or are they the two most important characters in the Lost universe that we were only introduced to during hour 103/121? (Note: if this is true, man, no wonder they weren’t worried about fans "figuring out" the show way back in Season One!)

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/dmbeternal/?action=view&current=Jacobs.jpghttp://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/dmbeternal/?action=view&current=Jacobs.jpgMuch like finding out what happened when Juliet detonated the Jughead, the answer to this question has the power to fundamentally shift what Lost is actually about, and what the point of the show ends up being. Are our characters merely puppets in the game of two eternal entities, or are they critical players in a scheme to save / destroy the world? I think it’s less likely that we get an explanation of precisely WHAT Jacob and Anti-Jacob are, but I expect we’ll find out their intentions and how are Survivors come into play early on in the season – and it’ll be a driving force for the remainder of the series.

5. The Others (50% Chance of Being Answered). Every year since Season One, I’ve been super confident that we’re FINALLY going to get the answers in the upcoming season on the Others. Every year I’ve been as correct about this as I was about Gore really winning Flordia. Will this year be any different? Will Season Six be the year we FINALLY learn who the Others are, where they came from, what their purpose is, and what their "rules" and "laws" are? Or will we once again be teased with fleeting glances of their society and lives while being kept at a distance to never fully understand these mysterious Islanders? In a perfect world, we would FINALLY get to see some of the events from the first five seasons from their perspective, or at least learn what their intentions were for all the stuff they did for the first five seasons of Lost (I’m looking at you, kidnapping Claire, injecting our Survivors, stealing people based on Jacob’s list, sending Ben to the Swan Hatch, etc.)

Maybe Season Six will start with Alpert (and Ilana) explaining the culture of the Others, who Jacob and Anti-Jacob are, and what they all need to do to (which will drive the action for Season Six). Or maybe they’ll be all mysterious and only give partial answers, like they have for the past five seasons. It seems like the writers have had ample opportunities to explain The Others during the first five seasons and passed them up, which means either the answers are so revealing they had to be held back for the final season – or they have no intention of ever giving us this much detail. Here’s hoping for the former, but I put this one at a 50/50 chance at best. I think these guys just like tormenting us.

4. Fate vs. Destiny (50% Chance of Being Answered). This is one of the "headier" outstanding questions on Lost, and probably not the first one that people think of in the grand scheme of things – but I think it’s extremely important to the audience understanding the fundamental question of "What is Lost about?"

Was it dumb luck that brought all our Survivors to the Island in the first place, or was it a greater power (Jacob / God / Vincent) acting upon them to ensure they ended up there? Are they all part of a massive plan, or was it all luck and coincidence that brought them all together? Is there some unifying trait that ties all the Survivors of Oceanic 815 together and makes them "special", or are they just a group of strangers who survived a plane crash in the middle of the ocean on a funky island? Is the story of Lost about how those strangers dealt with an extraordinary experience, or the story of some very specific people being called to the Island for a very specific purpose?

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/dmbeternal/?action=view&current=Fate-1.jpghttp://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/dmbeternal/?action=view&current=Fate-1.jpg

Then there is the big outstanding destiny question from last season, whose outcome is still unknown. Is it possible to change the river of the future if you throw a big enough rock? Or are we predestined to travel down that path no matter what we do? Did "whatever happened, happened", or "whatever happened, happened unless you’ve got a Jughead"? I could very easily see the writers leaving this one up to the more philosophical viewers in the audience, but personally would like some hints at the answer.

Which leaves us with "The Big Three"…

3. Smokey (95% Chance of Being Answered). The first WTF moment of Lost is probably the longest running mystery on the show. Smokey’s presence was felt in the pilot episode, and over the past six years we’ve gotten better views of him… and even some hints at his motivation and purpose – yet we still have no idea what he is and what drives him. Is he Nanobots? Is he the physical manifestation of the Island Spirit? Is he an extension of Jacob or Anti-Jacob? Does he simply act as the judge, jury, and executioner for the Island? Has he always been there? Was he created or born? Why does he sometimes attack people vs. scanning them vs. morphing into people to talk to them (or so it seems)? And why do the pylons deflect him?

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/dmbeternal/?action=view&current=Smokey.jpghttp://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/dmbeternal/?action=view&current=Smokey.jpg

So many questions.

I’m confident we’re going to find out some answers about Smokey. We may not get the "nuts and bolts" explanation of how he works (since the Lost writers are on record as saying they wouldn’t go into as much detail as explaining what "The Force" is, since that ruined Star Wars – or so I’ve heard), or what he is made of (probably because there is no good "scientific" explanation since the writers ruled out Nanobots years ago), but I think we’ll get a solid explanation of his purpose. The fact that the writers have waited so long to give us that answer means one of two things – either he is directly related to Jacob / Anti-Jacob, characters that we didn’t meet until the fifth season finale (thus, they couldn’t explain Smokey before then), or, it’s something so big and critically tied to the mythology of the show as a whole that when it’s revealed, the show will lose all mystery and we’ll grow bored with it. If it’s the former, expect answers early on in Season Six. If it’s the latter, probably not until the Series Finale.

2. The Funky Island Stuff (50% Chance of Being Answered). This is a general "catch-all" for all the other funky stuff that has happened on Lost Island over the years: The whispers. Characters seemingly disappearing and reappearing. The Others being freakishly strong. The "unique magnetic properties" of the Island. The Frozen Donkey Wheel. Time Travel. Richard Alpert never aging. Walt being special. Aaron being so important the first season, then forgotten about for the next four. The Sickness. The Numbers.

I could go on.

The point is, there’s a lot of really weird stuff that has happened on the Island over the years, and we haven’t gotten a good answer for 95% of it. The odds are that these strange occurrences are not all connected – and there’s just as likely a chance that the writers play the same "We Don’t Want to Ruin the Force" card with explaining some of the more esoteric items on the list (like time travel). But I think we’re owed a decent explanation about all the funky Island stuff that touched on our characters – like the Walt and Aaron questions, along with the things that we’ve seen numerous times over the course of the series (like the whispers and the Numbers).

I put it at 50/50, but really think that sidestepping the major funky Island stuff is a major cop-out that would mean these things were used for convenient plot points but without having any real explanation – knowing full well the audience would spend hours upon hours trying to come up with one. Don’t disappoint me, Lost writers.

1. The Fate of the Survivors of Oceanic 815 (100% Chance of Being Answered). Finally, we get down to the whole point of Lost in the first place. Lucky for us, it sounds like the writers are 100% committed to answering this outstanding question – "What happens to our Survivors after the crash of Oceanic 815"? From the start, this series has been about the characters. While we’ve been tempted by all the Hanso and Dharma Mythology and Funky Island Powers, in the end, it’s really the characters that matter – and that’s why they’ve been the focus from the start. There are a lot of big questions to be answered in the last season. Who will live? Who will die? Which characters will reunite? How will the various "love rhombi" shake down? How has the experience with the Island changed each character? Is it for the better, or for the worse?

These are the big questions.

In addition, there are definitely some much more minor character questions that would be nice to see answered. But if we get the big answers, then these are just the cherry on top. As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of unimportant "Unanswered Questions" on Lostpedia. But I’ve gone through and whittled their list down to the "more important" unanswered questions for each character, to keep in mind as the final season progresses:

Charlie

No unanswered questions.

Cindy

Why was Cindy taken by the Others so much later than the other Tailies? Was Cindy on the list? If so, why wasn’t she taken sooner? If not, what changed?

How and why has Cindy been "converted" by the Others ?

Claire

What was the original purpose of the implant?

Why did she abandon Aaron?

Why did Christian bring Claire to Jacob’s cabin?

Where is Claire now?

Hurley

What caused the bad luck surrounding Hurley and Sam Toomey? Is there really a curse with the Numbers?

Jack

Why was Jack so far from the crash site when he woke up, in a bamboo forest which is impossible to just fall through in?

Jin

Will he ever reunite with Sun?

Kate

What is the deal with that black horse?

Libby

Why was Libby in the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute?

Did Libby remember Hurley from the hospital? If so, why did she pretend not to know him?

Locke

How did Locke acquire his knife throwing and tracking skills?

How and why was Locke cured of his paralysis?

Why did the Monster not attack Locke at first, then later drag him into a hole?

Why do Locke’s legs sometimes fail him, such as when he and Boone were on their way to find the Beechcraft?

Why does Locke have a special connection to the Island?

What is the connection between Locke and Anti-Jacob?

Mr. Eko

Why did Smokey kill Eko?

Rose

Why did Rose seem to know that Bernard was alive? Was she in denial, or did she somehow know?

Is Rose’s (presumed) cancer in remission? If so, why?

Sawyer

No unanswered questions.

Sayid

If the government officials told Sayid that Nadia was alive before he boarded Flight 815, why did he then tell Danielle Rousseau that Nadia was dead?

Walt

Does Walt have "special powers"? If so, how and why?

What did Walt see that frightened him enough to want to leave the Island?

Why did the Others want Walt?

Why do Shannon, Sayid, and Locke see Walt in places he shouldn’t be?

Why did the Others make Walt take "tests"? What were the tests for?

Charlotte

Why did Matthew Abaddon send a cultural anthropologist on the mission to find the Island?

Daniel

Why was he crying about Flight 815?

What was the purpose of his experiment on the Island?

Miles

Where did he get the photo of Ben that he showed to Jack and Juliet?

Why did he choose to stay on the Island?

The Others

How many Others are there?

Why were the Others at war with the DHARMA Initiative?

Why do the Others want the survivors to stay away from parts of the Island?

Why did the Others kidnap members of the Tailies and various children?

Why do they believe they are "the good guys"?

Why do the Others take blood samples from the people in their custody?

Alex

Why did Alex disagree with what the Others are doing? Why was she different from the Others if she’d been raised by them her entire life?

How did Alex’s relationship with Karl form? Who are Karl’s parents?

How was Alex aware that Ben might not be her father?

Ben

Why did Ben see his dead mother twice?

How did Ben become the leader of the Others?

If Ben wanted to capture Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, why did Tom not do so during their first encounter?

How did Ben get caught in one of Danielle’s traps? What was he doing alone in the jungle? If he wanted to infiltrate the Losties’ camp, why didn’t he send someone else?

Why did Ben tell Locke that nothing would happen if he did not push the button?

Why did Ben order Richard Alpert to take all the remaining Others to the Temple?

Jacob

What is the ash-like substance around Jacob’s cabin?

Why did Jacob make a list?

Why do the Others have such faith in him as their leader when they have not even seen him? How do they know that he is a "great man" or a "magnificent man", just from Ben’s reports?

Was it Jacob who said "Help me" to Locke, and why did he say it? Why didn’t Ben hear it?

Why does Jacob’s cabin appear to Hurley, and seem to shift around?

Richard Alpert

Why does Richard appear not to be aging? Is Jacob really the cause of this?

How and when did Richard arrive on the Island?

Juliet

What does Juliet’s mark mean?

Does Juliet know more about Smokey than she says?

Did Jacob really cure Rachel’s cancer?

Is Juliet dead or alive?

Patchy

Does the glass eye found at the Arrow belong to Patchy?

Tom

How was Tom able to both leave and return to the island?

Aaron

Why did the Others want Aaron?

Why have the Others seemingly stopped trying to get Aaron since his birth?

Christian Shephard

Why did Christian want a bodyguard while in Australia?

Why did Jack see Christian in the jungle?

Since Christian’s coffin is empty, where is his body?

Will Claire learn that she and Jack have the same father? Does anyone know?

Why did Hurley see him in Jacob’s cabin?

Desmond

What happened to Desmond during the discharge? Why was he naked but uninjured?

What is the nature of Desmond’s flashes?

Radzinsky

How did Radzinsky come to the Island?

When and how was Kelvin Joe Inman recruited to assist Radzinsky?

How and why did Radzinsky have the map of the Island memorized?

Why did Radzinsky go to such great pains to conceal the map on the blast door?

Why did Radzinsky edit the orientation film?

Why did Radzinsky shoot himself?

Phew. Like I said, most of these are pretty "minor" questions in my book (except the ones that cross-over with the Top 10 List I posted above) – so as long as we get the big answers, I’m okay with some of these smaller answers being left to our imagination / lame fan fiction that will surely follow Lost’s conclusion this spring.

So there you have it – then ten things I’ll be looking (and hoping) for during Lost’s final 18 hours. Most TV shows live and die on a season-to-season basis. They have their good seasons and their bad seasons. Even if there are some underlying storylines, they’re still judged on an individual per season basis. But with Lost, it’s all come down to this. It’s kinda crazy to think about, but most of us have invested an insane amount of time getting to this point with the assumption that it’s all going to be worth it. Don’t worry, I give us a 90% Chance of Being Correct.

I’m Back.

More very soon.

-JJJ 

Howdy all!  Welcome to yet another CAPtivating edition (hee hee) of the Super Powers Highlight.  This go-around we’re looking at one of the oddest things ever to come out of the Super Powers line in any country…El Capitan Rayo from Gulliver Juguetes in Brazil.  Covered in this blog, and I believe for the first time in-depth anywhere with detailed pictures will not only be the regular version of Rayo but also the rarer release with the correct chest emblem.

As most people somewhat familiar with the Kenner US line know, there were 33 characters released at retail, with a 34th offered as a mail-in premium (Clark Kent).  Those that are a little more advanced in their obsession in collecting the line know of the Super Amigos Riddler released by Pacipa in Argentina.  However, once one delves a little deeper into the madness of acquiring everything toy-related released under that awesome logo, worldwide…you will learn about the good Captain, and wonder WHAT THE FLUFF were they smoking down there to come up with such ridiculousness?!

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||  dΣ ~ S² ||  Ω ~ R x Σ  ||
This past weekend I was confounded by a rift I discovered in my personal spacetime continuum. My learned AFi colleague, xrmc20, helped me to define the law of physics that has been responsible for diverting countless hours from the lives of geek-populi. Its definition can be explained best by recounting the circumstances responsible for its unique appellation . . .

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Hellay hellay! (Bonus points for anyone who knows what that’s from!)  Welcome to another edition of the Super Powers Highlight! 

In this installment we take a look at a piece that, as of this writing, is the only one yet to be seen in the collecting community : the Estrela Joker.  Estrela is actually a pretty odd entity in the Super Powers world.  A Brazilian company that had the license for all the Kenner characters, they released an odd mix of Waves 2 and 3 after producing Wave 1 in it’s entirety.  The only characters released from Wave 2 were Darkseid and Green Arrow, and the only characters released from Wave 3 were Plastic Man, Shazam, and Cyborg.  A further odd occurrence is that the Wave 3 characters all were released with corresponding comics!  The comics are exclusive to Estrela’s line only and were not released anywhere else world-wide.  One wonders if there were comics for all the 3rd series characters before that plan was scrapped to get what were eventually did from Kenner.

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 From a recent Mattel Q & A:

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Will Mattel be producing action figures based on the new Justice League Crisis on Two Earths animated film?

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No. This DVD release was too soon after Public Enemies for us to make a move based on current DVD figure sales.

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Unfortunately, Mattel missed the obvious way to tie into Public Enemies AND Crisis.  Just put the related characters into their existing lines.

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Howdy folks…welcome to another highlight of the best vintage line around…Super Powers!  I can’t really call it Kenner Super Powers anymore, simply because of the vast differences that make the foreign variations so wonderful to pursue.  Obviously, if you’ve followed my previous blogs you’ll know one of those lines is Gulliver.  Here’s a prime example of how wonderfully goofy a release from a foreign company can be : the Man of Steel, Superman

As one of the rarer characters to find MOC, I don’t think it’s been brought to light just how pencil-necked this geek really is.  Until I was finally able to acquire one I had no idea…going off the grainy figure line up on the back of the card it’s not as prominent.  Hopefully my pictures will bring a tear to your eye and a knot in your stomach as to how badly ol’ Clark has been mistreated here.

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A couple years ago the graphic design studio where I work, Esser Design, launched a self-marketing campaign that conceptually conveyed the message: Stand out from the crowd. We aimed to illustrate the theme through a series of images that portrayed a grouping of items wherein one from the group stood out. The images are simple and are only accompanied by our tag line: “Make your mark.” We liked the first series of images so last year we did a second series. A couple months ago we needed to design an ad for the Phoenix Business Journal’s Book of Lists and we decided to do one more.

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As promised…another blog! Yes, I know…so soon after the first one of the year, too! Well, let me tell you, it’s exhausting work bragging…errr, BLOGGING about the cool stuff I’ve acquired for my collection. It really satisfies my huge ego…errr, makes me humbled to share with my fellow like-minded brethren.

Up for showcasing today are both the Pacipa Brainiac & Playful Hawkman…"The Bubble Boys."  I decided to feature them together because they both share a trait unique from all the other Super Powers figures released worldwide over the years…contoured bubbles based on the shape of the figure.  Visuals work far better than words, so I’ll just show ya what I’m talking about as I blather on…

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…and we’re back! Boy, that commercial seemed like an eternity, eh? Wait, what? It really HAS been over 5 months since the last highlight? Wow…I’ve been a supreme slack-ass, for sure. Well, rest assured loyal readers (reader?) that one of my (few) New Year’s resolutions is to blog more…to the tune of once a week at least, and to start things off I’m "debuting" a vintage piece that has previously not shown up on the collector’s market…the Playful Super Amigos Shazam!

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