In the meantime, Kale questions Spangler about loose ends surrounding David’s death. Spangler assures him things are under control and sheds a White Paper entitled “The Houston Problem.” Will returns to Bancroft do deliver the news, but finds that Ed has gone off on a tangent, spinning a wild yarn about Bloom, the CIA, etc.  Will lies to Ed telling him that the Donald Bloom he found is a kid, Ed breaks down over David’s death.

Connecting the Dots (Craig Blankenhorn/AMC)

Will attends Spangler’s wife’s charity bash. Here he has a chance meeting with Katherine Rhumor over vodka, only a fleeting encounter. Later at the party, Will overhears Spangler say “If we don’t do it, who will?” Spangler spies him spying and invites him in to meet James Wheeler and R.C. Gilbert. As Will leaves, another man enters and lets Spangler and co. know “The squalls have been shipped,” which Spangler celebrates with a cheers. Two enlightening encounters with Kale later, we see Will deep into the conspiracy at his house when he hears a noise, pops up from the floor, and we fade to black.

BOOZEHOUND (Craig Blankenhorn/AMC)

At API, Will and the gang are re-focused on George and Yuri, but they seem stuck…until Tanya makes the suggestion that they focus on George, instead of Yuri. Will agrees with her and wants her to present it to Spangler. She gives it a test-run against Grant and Miles who shred it to pieces. Tanya is incredulous about the attacking nature when she runs into Will later. Will gives her a speech about fear in order to get her PUMPED for her big Spangler showdown. Luckily, she kills it with Spangler and he greenlights her strategy. She then returns to her office and downs an airplane bottle in “celebration.” Despite Tanya’s performance, Will suggests to Kale that she be included in the next round of drug testing. We also find out that George has been meeting with some more unseemly characters and well, Tanya was RIGHT.

In Katherine’s world, we find her with a financial adviser who suggests she dump MRQ Alternatives because it was a losing investment. MRQ just happens to be the business Tom switched over to Katherine a few days before his death. She asks Wheeler what he knows and he suggests she just drop it like the adviser said. She decides to visit the company and finds a locked file cabinet which she opens by using their anniversary on the combo lock. In the files, she finds a newspaper clipping about a CCNY professor whose death was ruled a suicide. Incidentally, his death occurred the day before the Berlin Wall fell. Coincidence? Paranoid me thinks no!

Discussion
And so, finally, we have been given some answers–and some fairly definitive ones. Senator Clay Davis is reporting his surveillance of Will to Spangler. Very possibly, it was Spangler whom Davis spoke with at the end of the episode from a couple of weeks ago when saying that Will was in cahoots with Bancroft. A high-profile government assassination mission is almost surely afoot and picking up speed, and David may have had much more to do with it than we imagined earlier. And Kale…

Well, let’s stick with Kale. What, concretely, do we learn about him from this episode? A few crucially important expository biographical facts–ex-CIA, black ops, Recruited by Spangler sometime in the 80s to come to API, a longstanding  professional relationship with Donald Bloom, fellow CIA killer and mystery man of last week’s episode. All of which is helpful, especially the CIA part, though it doesn’t explain why Kale dresses like he’s going off to teach an acting class at NYU. Knowing now what we do, though, more questions arise, and halfway through the season I’m as in the dark now as I was in the beginning as to his motives, as well as where he falls in the API pecking order. Knowing–as Bancroft figured out for us–that the previous appearances of mysteriously coordinated crossword clues in 1983 (authored by Bancroft) signaled the go-codes for a series of covert assassinations, and that it was the appearance of a similar series of codes that touched of the series with David’s (and very possibly Tom’s) death, how much Kale knows is a mystery. Consider:

• When David shows the crosswords Will has deciphered to Kale in the Pilot, he is alarmed enough by them to take them upstairs to Spangler. When Spangler asks him if there has been any movement on them later on , he remarks that it is “all quiet.” Does he think it is? Does he know it isn’t?
• From this episode, it is strongly hinted at that both Kale and Bloom were involved in the prior campaign, given that both were stationed in Beirut in the 1980s, around the time when America’s covert reprisal campaign against Hezbollah. Kale may have recognized the codes back then, especially if he was involved in the campaign, but it doesn’t seem like he would now. It is Bloom after all, not Kale, who has been hopping between Nigeria, Houston, and the Middle East. How much would Kale likely know about the current camaign? Spangler certainly is in the loop, which leads me to my next point.
• Just when we think from this episode that Kale really has one up on everybody at API, we see that Spangler and Bloom have one up on him, meeting in a derelict high school gym, discussing the status of their surveillance of Will, in which they shift their attention to Katherine.
  

  More like Star Spangler Killer. AMIRIGHT? (Craig Blankenhorn/AMC)

Most fascinating is his cat-and-mouse game with Will, after Will has seen him with Bloom. At the charity event he tells Will that he doesn’t want to see him get involved in any “mayhem” (Will has already gotten the picture here, and has gone to Bancroft to try on throw him off the trail–more on that in a bit). This I read less as a threat than as a warning, and a specific one. Remember, as soon as Will spots him with Bloom, he goes to Spangler and asks point blank, flustered for the first time, if he is sure that David’s loose ends have been tied up. These “loose ends,” of course, are whatever has been left behind after David’s discovery of the go-codes got him killed. Is Kale protecting Will? Does he suspect that he is onto the scheme as well? And, in warning Will to stay away, is he more drawn into the scheme itself? Again, very possible. That glimpse of Kale we get as the rest are coming out of the meeting, on the outside looking in, unfamiliar, to say the least.

Kale says MEOW to Will (David M. Russell/AMC)

Before leaving off with my questions to chew on for next week, a few stray comments:

• Boy, Tanya is turning into a complicated character, isn’t she? The last couple episodes have given her special focus, which makes me wonder if the show has bigger things in store for her, or if it is just doing its due diligence making sure each of team members gets their moments in the sun (if so, Grant is up next). Even so, Maggie (and by association Kale) take great interest in how she’s doing–though perhaps it’s because she’s new to the squad. (It also makes me wonder how seriously they vetted her as a poorly concealed substance abuse problem would be pretty apparent. Substance issues aside, I cheered for her when she convinced Spangler to throw the weight of their investigation to Beck, and Will’s good fear/bad fear speech was the best writing of the week. Speaking of–
• I said last week that I didn’t think the Beck investigation was central to the season’s plot. With the way things came together this week, I’m willing to rethink that. The revelation at the end that Beck has been meeting with Iranian intelligence could wrap up very easily into the rest of the plot.
• Another of my questions from last week was answered–When will Katherine take a look at MRQ Alternatives? All we learn, however, is that MRQ used to make clothes, and wasn’t very successful at it. I had great fun pausing the episode to see what I could glean from the clipping she pulls out of Tom’s locked file.

Questions of the Week:

Why did Will purposely throw Bancroft off of Bloom’s trail?
Pete: To me the answer seems clear–Will new he was being followed, assumed he was being bugged, and needed to disabuse, even temporarily, the notion that he was honing in on the thing Spangler & Co. don’t want him finding out. It seems to have worked for now–Spangler tells Senator Clay Davis to concentrate on Katherine Rhumor. We’ll see how long this ruse holds up.

Seth: I have to ardently disagree. I think Will saw that Bancroft was falling off the deep end again, as he was earlier in his life and wanted to stop production on A Beautiful Mind 2: Bancroft’s Batty Brain. It was more related to personal feelings about wanting to protect Bancroft from himself than from anyone else.

Who wrote the go-code?

Pete: Perhaps surprisingly, I’ve only starting thinking about this now. When Ed Bancroft wrote the last one, he was (I believe) at API in his pre-psycho Jon Nash days. Is the new one from within API also? If so, from whom? Kale seems unlikely, unless he’s pulling one hell of a long con on us all by drawing everyone else out into the open so he can see who his potential enemies/obstacles are. Spangler is a possibility. A sexy possibility is David himself, though I really haven’t thought this through too much–and David may not have been quite high enough at API for have this kind of clout. Spangler, to me, seems the most likely culprit–or someone we have yet to meet.

Seth: Good question and I honestly have no good answer. Of the folks we’ve met at API, right now, Kale seems most likely to me. He is a smart guy with high clearance who knew what he saw immediately, but we found out this week, he’s still under Spangler’s thumb a bit. I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out especially considering Kale’s “threat” toward Will this week. He clearly knows Will is no commoner.

Did David knowingly–or unknowingly–play a role in his own death?

Pete: I’m fascinated by this–though a little too tired at this late hour to really dive more deeply into it. It was clear from the first episode, though, that David knew his time was up. I said in an earlier post that David left a series of seemingly frivolous messages for Will in an effort to weed out anyone besides Will that might try to decipher them. I still stand by this. Knowing now about David’s white paper and its disappearance convinces me more–I think David knew his work connected with this “Houston Problem” was going to be destroyed, and he must communicate its essential points to Will in other ways. WE will see if future weeks vindicate me on this count.

Seth: I think he certainly unwittingly did and he knew about it ahead of time. He had to have had some idea that he was going down to set up all of this clues and games for Will. David’s inclusion of Will in the conspiracy makes sense, but also confuses me. I thought he wanted to protect Will by showing Kale the crossword and claiming the work himself, but all of that is undone by all of the puzzles, clues, and games David left behind to then wrap Will up in it. David knew the proverbial poo was hitting the fan, but I don’t think he pushed himself into it voluntarily.

I think our stride is appearing here at The 5th Leaf! Tune in next week for some more heady discussion following Rubicon.

Will traveled to Washington, D.C. with Spangler, but not before encountering a mysteriously sexy new neighbor. In DC, Spangler reveals himself to be a rather idiosyncratic, eccentric man. However, we also see that he is rather brilliant remarking on ties, the nature of intelligence, and proper handbag choice. Their mission on this trip is to secure unrestricted funding from the government. Spangler’s eloquence wins them the day as he gives the aforementioned tie speech (doesn’t sound exciting, but it was!). We also see that Spangler has taken a shine to Will as he purchases him a new briefcase coming full circle on his earlier diatribe regarding Will’s subpar handbag choice. Also in Washington, Will meets with a buddy from the CIA to get info on the 7 names he and Bancroft found last week. The pal seemed upset about helping Will, but did it nonetheless and we come away with a new name, Donald Bloom and an era and location where all 7 worked: Mid-80′s in the Mid-east. What we really get from this trip though is a window into Spangler’s psyche, the first real shot at him, and what we see is confusing: a melange of brilliance and potentially crippling eccentricity. He’s managed to reach near the top of his field. His 3 set pieces/monologues this week to me were the star of the episode, breaking from his quirky ways to show us how he got where he is and exactly how strong a manipulator he might be.

Back in NY, Will’s team is tasked by Kale to backburner their hunt for the money launder/terrorist to focus on an Indonesian terrorist named Kateb (Qateb? I have no idea). Kale tells them that there can be no split decisions on “irreversibles.” Tanya questions what that means and Grant all too plainly replies “people you can’t un-kill.” In a storyline reminiscent of the classic 12 Angry Men, we see Miles, Tanya, and Grant debate Kateb’s fate. They go back and forth, they switch sides, and mostly we get to see the group’s dynamic and what it’s like to be an intelligence analyst. More on this from Pete later as it bore some really interesting tidbits.

The third prong of the story we’re beginning to see emerge, is Katherine’s personal investigation of Thom’s death. The Rhumors may not have shared all of their secrets, but it’s clear that they loved each other. In a heartbreaking scene, Katherine receives a package containing all of the evidence from her husband’s investigation (is this really what they do? TERRIBLE IDEA!) and as she goes through his belongings: blood soaked fabrics, wedding ring, and finally his phone where she discovers two messages. One of them is from her, the other from Wheeler who says “Tom, if you keep this up, you know what’s going to happen.” Katherine replays the message several times and her recognition grows with each listen. She returns to the townhouse to look around and finds a take-out menu from a Chinese place. She heads there and converses with the cashier who eventually reveals that delivery was taken to the townhouse and was paid for by James Wheeler. So she finds out what we did last week: Wheeler is a scumbag.

The Widow Detective (Craig Blankenhorn/AMC)

When our hero returns to the office and his colleagues, we see that he tasked Miles to run a check on the aforementioned Donald Bloom, who as it turns out recently flew into New York…

Discussion by Pete

In this week’s episode, what do we learn about the possible conspiracy shadowing David’s death? Nothing! How much closer do we get to a sense of the conspiracy behind Rhumor’s suicide? Not much! Do these two parallel racks come any closer to crossing? No! And yet, this week’s was a very good episode, in some ways perhaps the best, in establishing both the capabilities of the show and revealing yet more about the place of work its characters have chosen.

With Will and Spangler in D.C., the rest of the team is left behind to do their best chasing an Indonesian terrorist and we see whole worlds revealed concerning API’s central function, and why the lives of everyone on Will’s team are in shambles.  And so, here we are. This is what they do. This is why–at least in part–Miles fights with his wife over custody of their children and feels nostalgia and guilt at the sight of suspected terrorists with their families. It is why Tanya is such a nervous, pill popping wreck. It is why Grant is such a huge dick. This is what they do–building the cases for the assassination of terrorists halfway around the world, on incomplete intelligence (all intelligence is incomplete, as Kale will remind them), bending and contorting their logic, looking for meaning and rationalization in abstract numbers and figures, and selectively blind themselves to pieces of information (usually having to do with children and the other necessary collateral damages of a clandestine bombing) that muddy up their best attempts to justify what they’ll be reading about in tomorrow’s paper.

What have we learned, aside from why these three are the walking dead (AMC CROSS PROMOTION!)? Well, for one, they can carry their part of the show and contribute meaningfully to it even when separated from the investigations of the mysteries surrounding the two deaths that have shadowed Rubicon from its beginning. This is important–without losing sense of the greater tasks facing its characters, the team shows that the show does just fine as well as a procedural, thank you very much. Their ultimate recommendation to kill Kateb may not be heard from next week, but its cumulative effects will be felt–they agonize over it before learning to live with it, before becoming numb to it, before they are so deadened to it that Will can walk in at the episode’s end, declare the strike a success, and not give it a second thought. There’s a kind of poetry in it, Will finding himself in this line of work, going on nine years after his family was killed by Islamic terrorists. It also may offer a clue to David’s death. Remember, from a couple of weeks past, Hal’s finding that the only time such a coordinated intelligence clue was spotted across several crosswords–as detected by Will–preceded a massive terrorist attack on a U.S. army base in Beirut, killing nearly 300 soldiers and personnel. What is on the way now, that is so threatening that David is killed even for having an inkling that it exists?

The Walking Dead (Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/AMC)

Now that the team has taken us for a spin and shown us what they can do, a couple questions for the gallery:

• When is Katherine going to look into the business her husband left her?
• Pete: Just saying, if I found out I was the new owner of a business with a completely non-descript front-sounding name, and a townhouse—even an Upper East Side mansion straight from the real estate porn section of the Sunday paper—I might first want to know what that business is in the business of doing. Especially if, you know, my spouse has died under suspicious circumstances, and his best friend is leaving ominous messages on his cell phone just before his death, not to mention ordering Chinese food from the house he denied knowing the existence of. Just saying.
• Seth: Couldn’t agree more. Although it seems like she is in a bit of a haze regarding her husband’s death and I can’t really get a grasp on how much time is passing on this show. I won’t contend to know how to react in a position like that because I’ve never been through losing my beloved and then finding out he had a whole other life. Might be a little jarring and investigating all of this new life would certainly be intriguing, but working through your grief might take precedence.
• Who is the woman across the way from Will?
• Pete: This, I feel, is the sister question to Where the hell was Senator Clay Davis this week? For certain, she is new to the picture, otherwise Will wouldn’t give her such a curious look when seeing her, he would just say “oh hey, mysterious painter chick is there again” to himself while brewing his Turkish coffee. All signs, to me, point to her being involved with his surveillance. Remember: last week Davis’s partner got made by Will. We won’t see him again, and they’re going to have to be a lot more sly this time around with him wise to the fact that he’s being followed. We will see her again. (otherwise I don’t know why Law & Order’s Annie Parisse would take a role with 30 seconds of screen time and no dialogue). Also, Will might want to start sweeping his place for bugs. Like, now. (Also, your suit looks like the one a senior wears to his first job interview. Maybe Spangler will treat you to a new one next week? You already got him to go in the briefcase, after all.)
• Seth: I think she’s obviously going to be part of the story, but how cool would it be if she wasn’t? Given that this show is supposed to tap into our collective paranoia, how great would it be to throw in red herrings like that to make the viewer really get squirmy. Again, I think she’ll be integral to this story, but I almost wish she wasn’t.
• What of the names?
• Pete: By this I mean the seven names Will wanted information on at the end of last week’s episode. We get a few tidbits, courtesy of Will’s friend, who—given that this is D.C.—does the whole Deep Throat thing by meeting him in a parking garage at night to give him information. What we get isn’t much, other than the unifying factor that they were all intelligence officers stationed in the Middle East in the 1980s. Only one stands out—a man named Donald Bloom, who may have just gotten to New York. We’ll see him again, though remember there was still one name on Will’s list that turns up nothing.
• Seth: I think the missing name is really interesting, OF COURSE. That’s what it’s supposed to do. But I think that might be a season 2 situation. I think we’ll get to know Donald Bloom over the course of this season and how he might play into the 4th Leaf and the old boys club. Or perhaps we’ll meet them both this year and end up knowing everything! That seems likely.
  

Another week down and another week for your thoughts folks, what do you have to discuss following “The Outsider”?

Round 1- Jim, Brad, Greg, Seth

1. Robyn- “Dancing on My Own”
I’m going to start things off with my indisputable #1 kick-ass track of 2010 so far.  That track is “Dancing on My Own” by Swedish teen-pop-sensation-turned-indie-pop-genius Robyn.  To like Robyn generally, you need to have somewhere deep down a 13-year old girl that just wants to rock the Tiger Beat style and kill it at the upcoming Middle School Dance.  Personally, Robyn has helped me discover this part of myself (a part I never knew existed…), but this song shouldn’t even require that.  “Dancing on My Own” is a pop-gem, a completely un-ironic, pure, soulful expression of what it means to lose yourself on the dance floor.  It has all the elements of a great song, a killer hook (I’ve opined at length about the resurgence of “Whoah” as the ultimate musical word elsewhere), unintrusive use of auto-tune, and a break down to end all break downs (the snare run at the end of the bridge is just jaw-droppingly perfect).  Ultimately, in a time when pop music is for the most part utter poo, Robyn is here to remind us that there is a reason we all (however secretly) dug Britney and *NSYNC and Backstreet back in the day.

2. LCD Soundsystem- “Dance Yrself Clean”
First why it rocks. Well, it emphasizes what LCD Soundsystem is like when they’re hitting on all cylinders–drawn out, unforced, beatastic, intrinsically danceable, weirdly nostalgic. Sometimes the lyrical approach James Murphy takes to his jams are a little on the sloppy side, but this is an example of a song where the beat and melody call for his simple, direct line reading.

Why it comes next? Well it follows the theme (albeit a bit more closely) of the cleansing power of dance in forgetting yourself and your situation. You could even maybe argue that Robyn is singing to James and this is his rebuttal. He’s probably somewhat intoxicated during his rebuttal, which explains his inability to be as forward as Robyn is during her song.

3. The National- “Bloodbuzz, Ohio”
Whoa whoa whoa!  There’s too much carefree, upbeat happiness going on here.  Time to dial that back.

This band came really out of nowhere for me and I have been burning this album up since it came out, no track more than this orchestrated, washed out love story with it’s simmering slow build and swooning vocals. It’s all slow-rolling, quietly-building then heart-filling Brigade of Sound (Take that Phil Spector). And as far as content goes, what’s better than a love song about a relationship from start to finish and when I listen to it I hope I’m lucky enough to have something as sweet and complex as their relationship and this tune.

This took me awhile to think of, then I kicked myself for not thinking of it immediately. I personally love shouting aloud at this song. It just rocks. And despite the repetition of the chorus, this is what rock n’ roll can sound like when you just don’t know better than to lay on heavy reverb, shout into the microphone, and kick over amplifiers. It’s a sound I missed and it’s infectious on the whole album, but this song epitomizes the effervescence of a band that just doesn’t know better and still has the spring in their step to show us some muscle. They stay true to their surfer roots and explores what they can do when they just let it all hang out. We could use a little more derring-do in our lives and this song supplies it.

This guy is folksy metaphysics straight out of unplugged Bob Dylan only more reflective than protest/commentary.  Set to a gently twanging guitar this song exudes hope  in the face of hardship and frustration.  Stripped down to just a guitar and a voice, the melody repeats itself throughout but remains engaging.  You get this image of driving down the highway of life and a series of metaphors for the varying troubles a man can encounter.  A basic premise but it all comes together well.

Let’s keep this in the good ole USA WITH THEEEE SUMMAAAAA HIIIIIIT! Just cuz, we’re seven songs in–we gotta throw people a bone.

This one’s gonna be a little off the wall, but I’m pulling the theme of nostalgia from BoB and taking it farther back in time to the Civil War with Titus Andronicus’ Bruce Springsteen-meets-Iggy Pop uber anthem “A More Perfect Union”.  These guys are the shit.  Front man Patrick Stickles has this great knack for scuzzy but catchy riffs and profanity laden gutter poetry that is at once grouchy old man and tough young punk.  The tune also appropriates the Boss in such a way that borders on cheesy but somehow works.  “Tramps like us, baby we were born to die!”

I’m sticking with the mature nostalgia theme and going with the standout track from Acrade Fire’s just released album.  Almost every review I’ve read has picked “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” as the best track, and, well, they’re all right.  The track shows AF dropping the sort of over-the-top drama act for a pulsating disco number that reminds you of Blondie or Depeche Mode.  This album is overall a really good album, better I think than many even expected, and I for one was really surprised that the strongest track was one of Regine Chassagne’s (wife of head mopester Win Butler) tunes because I’ve always been of the opinion that her songs were the weaker ones.  This song, and the killer rendition of Funeral’s “Haiti” at the Mann     Center last Monday have converted me.

I’ma go with my main men so far this year–Frightened Rabbit with “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”. Mind you, I don’t think this is the best song on the album, but it really is the most representative of their anthemic abilities. Also, I may not think it’s the best cuz I played the CRAP out of it when the single came out last November. Frightened Rabbit, much like The National, are a perfect cold weather band. Anyways, this jam is really just taking the Arcade Fire song another step–going from needing to be out of the encompassing and suffocating framework of urban development and saying “YEAH? Well how about I just forget land altogether and disappear into the ocean? Suckers.” That’s probably exactly what the song is about.

3. Crystal Castles- “Celestica”

Not sure why I love this song so much but I do.  In the world of disco pop, these jokers slant more towards the disco end of the spectrum.   Its hard to describe this song without a little context.  This band shifts between dance inspired electronica with a great set of vocals and ear shattering noise with distorted scream/singing.  Strange, I know.  This is one of the pretty ones. It’s based on a solid beat that’s not too fast and well layered melodies and counters.  From the lyrics and music you get this feeling of the duplicitous nature of life toying with the desire for stability and insecurity.  The back and forth of one of the counter melodies as they play with the stereo function, changing the direction of sound nails this well. I can’t say I know many bands to compare them to so I won’t try.  Check it out.

An atypical VW song which works in their sound with a more beat-heavy, electronic sound. I think it might be a sign of things to come because it was one of the only songs Rostam really got pumped for when I saw them in April. It’s heavier on beats/electronics than guitars backing Ezra’s smooth vocals and it works to create a nice little dancey tune. I’m currently bobbing my head along with it. It also has one of the best videos released this year.

I mean I don’t really know what to say about this one other than it’s a love story involving a mummy. I love the sentiment of this song not because it’s sweet and dialed-in, but because it’s real. In essence (in my mind) it’s about a guy (the mummy), who’s been turned off love and then he meets a girl who wakes him up out of his love slumber (cheesiest term ever). Once she fixes him, they are together but grow apart. And then she dies! WTF! But seriously I love this song, it will DEFINITELY be in my top 5 come end of year countdown time.

I had some problems with this last pick but this song is money.  What can I say, I love the Lips and even though it wasn’t written entirely by them, it has their fingerprints all over it.  No surprise this song is all about revenge and its corrosive qualities.  A chill tune with several parts that compliment each other well.  A warbly electronic twitter in the background with direct and sincere lyrics, with a sparse chime for punctuation.  The outro lead by a marching snare drum gives a great ending statement.

This song is musically a nice companion to “Revenge.” This is probably the strongest song on the album (see: most likely to win her new fans). In it, she effortlessly moves between bouncy, melancholy, then back to bouncy. One of those seven minute songs that doesn’t feel like seven minutes.

I have mixed feelings about this album, it’s the first one they produced on their own, and I think they indulged their studio quirks a little too heavily, but this song has all the tightness of “The Way We Get By” or “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” and reminds you that there’s no better groove machine in music today than this lock-tight group.

My reasons are short and simple. This is one of the few albums I’ve dug this year, even though it’s not nearly as good as their last one. There’s a few stand out tracks but this one is the catchiest. Kinda of a sad sentiment, but peppy beyond belief. Also named after a funny character on Mighty Boosh.

Although I have no business identifying with a song about overcoming the rough streets of indifference, it’s a damn good song and I enjoy it.  This song is everything we’ve come to expect from The Roots combining old school R&B with modern hip-hop.  Great rhythm section at the core with a sweet organ melody and earnest lyrics.  Good.

This song is the song playing at the party that happens to be about that very party. I love the over-the-top, 70′s referencing gloss rock that these guys employ and this song combines those leanings with some pop sensibilities to create for me the strongest song on one of the best albums of the year. You’ll recognize all the riffs immediately and that’s part of the good feeling about this band. They lay it down like they’re from another era and all they want do is soak up every ounce of the evening. Can’t help but feel the same way when I hear this jam.

Fuzzy electronica. With a disconnected voice. Weirdly it sounds so much warmer than how I just described it. This song could easily have been released during the 90′s, but I love it. I’m ashamed I forgot it.

The chill closing statement to a solid electronica album.  This tune backs off some of the more unique turns they take in the album but it’s a fitting end.  Mellow sounds throughout with meandering guitars and sparse percussion this song is made for quiet reflection.

3. Gorillaz- “Superfast Jellyfish”

Well for my final one I have to go with really the only track I liked off the Gorillaz release–I mean “Stylo” is ok, and I’m sure if I gave the record a more dedicated listen then I might find others, but “Superfast Jellyfish” was really the first one to pop off the record. Just really stupid imagery but multiple hooks so I gave it the benefit of the doubt for my last pick.

4. Future Islands- “An Apology”

I’m gonna polish things off on a weirder note.  This band is from Baltimore.  The lead singer has one of the most awesomest voices.  It’s like a more melodic Tom Waits.  The way he delivers the line “We move in precarious ways” is just perfect.  The music is synthy, cinematic, but not overburdened in any way.  Definitely something to groove to.

24 Songs to map out a year. Well 2/3 of a year. Lots of electronica, some good dance jams, some audacious rock. I’d say that overall, the electronic-dancey music is winning so far. Listen to the 2/3 mixtape at the top of the page and tell us what you think!

Having seen the pilot so many times by now that by last night, I felt I had made my peace with what happened in the opening episode, I knew what there was to be gleaned from it and dammit, bring on the second hour. Well, I have now seen it all, as have you, Seth, and that peace has been undone. First though, before I go into the ups and downs and sideways of the show, my first impression:

I like the feel of the show. AMC does an impeccable job of creating a distinct aura around its original shows, and Rubicon is no different.Breaking Bad, whose most recently completed season I will elevate to the very upper reaches of any original show ever made, felt like living in the wide open yet inescapably claustrophobic world of the Coen Brothers’ realization of No Country For Old Men. I am not much for Mad Men, but can appreciate its Douglas Sirk-like melancholia, filtered through the technicolor lens of Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven, which itself took several pages from Mr. Sirk’s playbook.

It's lonely at the top.

Rubicon, to pay an unworthy movie a compliment, brings the world of A Beautiful Mind into the 21st century with the layers of suspicion and mistrust it lays on the most mundane tasks and circumstances of everyday life, augmented by the washed out grayscale color palette of Ron Howard’s Oscar winner with a looping, recapitulating Philip Glass-like score that is perfect for suggesting the paranoia the characters of the show live with as a necessary defense, which is only abetted by the insulating and alienating nature of their work. (Miles’ children thinks he writes “secret video games.” Grant’s children simply think he is unemployed.)

So who’s the “they”? What is the work they are doing? Part of the cleverness of the show’s pilot (hour 1) is that very little of it is known, even when punctuated by the deaths of two characters whose legacies will haunt the plot of the show for seasons to come. It only becomes clear (at least to me), what the roots of the mysterious agency–located off a stretch of New York city highway that has me thanking God I stuck around in Philadelphia–really are. It seems rather silly now, having finally seen the show’s second hour, to have thought any differently than that the money trail generating from the American Policy Institute–a turf-like name if there was one–go back to the Pentagon, or at least, an deep-pocketed uncle named Sam. I strongly suspect that if one were to look to where in the DOD budget the money to fund such an operation (not unlike the real-life RAND corporation, except that you won’t be killed for demonstrating knowledge of RAND’s existence) comes from, their curiosity may be best served by probing more deeply into that $200 million line item for “can openers.”

As for exactly what type of experience we are getting into with Rubicon, the second hour seems to confirm what the first hour gave me hope for: that Rubicon will unfold more as a novel in screen form than as a series to be taken in fun-sized portions, none having an effect on the next. While the week-to-week paths of the characters may take them down some dead-ends, there is the strong sense that there is a greater truth they are working towards, and hoping to solve. Which is good, because they have absolute shit-tons of truths to bring out in to the daylight.

RHUMOR has it the four leaf clover is a bad sign. COUNT IT! (Craig Blankenhorn/AMC )

Begin at the beginning, with the suicide (or was it? no, it probably was) death by gunshot of Tom Rhumor, whose self-induced downfall is brought on by the sighting of a four leaf clover in his newspaper. Flash over to New York, where the youngish, terminally preoccupied Will Travers (played by James Badge Dale who, Seth, was totally in The Departed–he’s the friend of Matt Damon’s, the one who Damon asks if he wants to come to work everyday dressed like he wants to invade Poland, Bostonese for “go on the take, you stupid Mick.”) arrives, oblivious to the fact that its his birthday, and resistant to the entreaties of his assistant Maggie, who wants to take him out to–and very likely eat–his lunch. Travers, fiddling with a crossword puzzle clue given by his team member Tanya–”what do lucky lepidoptera eat?” The answer: a four leaf clover. And off to the races we go. Travers, spotting a trend, compares the clue to that day’s puzzle across several other papers, where he quickly spots references to the three branches of government. Correctly thinking he’s onto something big, he takes his findings to his boss David (who we only find out in the second episode is his father in law–lending more tragedy to the death of Will’s wife and daughter on September 11), who brushes him off the way a high school math instructor blows off his too-smart-for-his-own-good student who thinks he’s just solved Fermat.

Except, in this case, that is what Will has done, and David knows it. He takes Will’s work to his boss Kale Ingram (a man who, at this point in the series, I would have to seriously think about trusting to park my car—more on that later). Importantly, when Kale asks if anyone else from within API knows about the crosswords, David says no. The next day, he’s dead in a tragic train collision whose timing is, at best, highly suspect.

Kale (left) is one of the more deceptive of the cabbages. (Craig Blankenhorn/AMC)

Why does he cover for Will, then, when it seems almost certain that David knew the stakes of what had been brought to him? One of the things that stands out to me, both about Rhumor’s death and David’s, is the almost peaceful resignation with which they seem to accept their fates once they have been delivered. Rhumor sees the four-leaf clover and, calmly, almost nobly, reaches into his desk for his pistol. David, upon being shown the parallel four-chambered clue (executive, legislative, judicial, then…what?), seems to know his time has come, too. He gives Travers the “road food” book, the keys to a neato motorcycle, and tells him that he’ll see him the next morning. It seems, from their final moments on the telephone, that David knows he will be dead the next day. Again, he seems to have accepted it. Why?

It seems plausible that if Kale had known the source of the cracked crossword clue came from Will and not David, that Will would not have lived through the pilot episode. (David might have been killed too, just for fun.) Was David protecting Will, his son-in-law, whom he had brought into API? Is there still work to be done, and he knows that his time has just run out to get it done in his own life? I will entertain both of these ideas, which to me strongly suggest both that a.) David wanted Will to take over his position and b.) Will stays because he thinks that there are more clues to David’s death to be discovered in the work he has left behind.

Who is Rhumor, then, returning to the show’s opening image? Answer: I don’t know. I had thought originally that he was a senator in the Kennedy-mold, but this has certainly been proven wrong by the show’s second hour, for the reason that had he been such an important public figure the API people would have been having a field day with it. So who was he? Someone very wealthy, obviously, given his Gatsby-esque mansion and his heretofore unknown-to-his-wife Upper East Side town home—only revealed to her when his will is opened and it is noted that he added a codicil to it to give her the home along with ownership of a mysterious business only days before he died. Just a wild guess—I feel that more explanation of this mysterious character will be required. This wild hunch would seem to be lent some credence by the sight at the end of the first hour of Truxton Spangler hopping the ferry to some Maryland shore-type home, where we see him and another man (James Wheeler—played by man about town character actor David Rasche) saying things are now “back on track” with Rhumor dead. We are then left to wonder whether a bunch of white men in suits behind closed doors in a stately room could possibly be up to any mischief. For me, the jury is out.

Given that even I get tired of listening to myself talk, I here will revert to bullet points to convey my final thoughts on the two-part premiere, given that my recollection has been scattered and nonlinear, and has left out a few key things. For one:

• Who the hell are the people following Will in the second part of the episode (aside from one of them being played by Isaiah Whitlock Jr. of Wire fame—oh, how badly I wanted to hear him say “sheeeeeeiit” at some point)? My suspicion so far is that they are connected in some way to API, and to either Kale or Spangler. Most likely, I would think Kale is connected somehow? Why? Who knows, but given his scene with Maggie in what must surely be one of the creepiest non-intercourse extra-office meetings, it is clear that he goes out of his way to keep tabs on his people.
• Is Kale bad? I sure as hell don’t trust him right now, but I’m disinclined to cast him in a villainous role. Going by the law of24, someone who seems this suspect this early in a series’ life a.) is not nearly as bad as they seem at first, and hide their benevolent motives exceedingly well to maintain a sense of control; b.) are not so bad themselves, they’re just acting on the orders of someone higher up, who could be even worse; or c.) are just assholes.
• Like any office filled with code-breaking conspiracy theorist types, the API office dress code is what its analysts make it to be. See t-shirt/jeans/Pumas-wearing Miles, compared to crisp shirt/tie combo-wearing Grant or all-black wearing Kale’s collarless look. The higher up/crazier the type, the less the dress code applies.
• I like Hal. Not for anything grand he’s contributed so far, but because he’s perhaps the first walking reference to both 2001and Tommy Boy.
• Tanya really didn’t want to take off her glasses to be ID’d. I may be making more of this than I should. When she vomits in the bathroom early in the second episode, my initial sense was that she cold be pregnant. Maggie later says to Kale that she suspects Tanya has a drinking problem. I could be wrong on the first count, and Maggie could be deliberately lying on the second count.
• Maggie seems the real wild card at this moment, and that whoever’s side she takes will have the upper hand. The line seems drawn right now between Kale and Travers. Does Maggie keep anything from him at their meeting? It seems likely. Why? That’s harder to say. Kale may have underestimated her emotional connection/unresolved issues with Travers, but he could just as easily have gotten to her precisely because of them. Either way, Kale and Maggie’s relationship is a partnership of far-less-than-equals in more ways than one—his ominously kind remark about her being able to take care of her daughter suggests a power he has over here that she wishes he didn’t. My sense is that a key struggle for her will be between her personal feelings for Travers and her feelings of powerlessness with Kale, who quite literally has control over her welfare. As for Maggie, so for the first season of Rubicon. Watch out for her, though—her motives will be devilishly tough to decipher.
  

  Wild Card Maggie. I know she doesn't look very wild cardish here, but it's difficult to be wild cardish in such a stylish coat, right!? (Craig Blankenhorn/AMC)

• How much does this Russian guy Spangler wants Travers’ team to find info on matter to the season? Is it crucially tied in with the four leaf clover motif, or a red herring? Time will tell.
• Leaving the coded message “They hide in plain sight” was kind of a dick move on David’s part. Travers is, to put it mildly, a standard deviation or two above the mean in the IQ department, and he didn’t have the easiest time figuring out the code left for him. You’d think David would throw him a bone and get more to the point.

Over the past 15 years, we’ve seen Pixar expand and challenge us in different ways and their hard work and creativity has paid off in beaucoup bucks for then and beaucoup enjoyment for us. The most recent achievement for the venerable animation wizards is their first trilogy. Fifteen years ago Toy Story graced our silver screens and this past weekend, they released Toy Story 3 to the largest animated film opening ever. In a lot of ways, it makes sense that Pixar’s first trilogy would come from this franchise. It’s their oldest franchise, it’s the film that changed the way we all think about animation and certainly changed the way we think about animated films. And that is where my point of contention lies. The Toy Story trilogy is easily the best animated trilogy of all time (Sorry, Shrek!). But the quality of their films leads me to wonder another question: Where does the Toy Story trilogy land in the pantheon of great trilogies?

The list of great trilogies usually includes some or all of the following: Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, The Bourne Trilogy, The Man With No Name Trilogy, Star Wars (Episodes IV-VI), The Godfather Trilogy, and  The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Well, this weekend I say another trilogy entered the fray and has fought itself if not to the top, certainly very near it. Let’s take a look at what makes a good trilogy and see where Toy Story falls.

Cohesion/Variety
By cohesion I really mean, can you tell these movies are of the same trilogy? And of course you can with Toy Story, you know all of the characters, the style changes very little, and the tone of the films remains the same. Recreating the style here wasn’t difficult as they have complete control over the creation of the entire world in which the characters live.  But that’s not to say it’s not difficult to create 3 films starring regularly inanimate objects that often surpass achievements in live action films, which is precisely what makes their effort all the more impressive. The Toy Story films follow the Indiana Jones in that they are self-contained episodes of the overall Toy Story.

As opposed to the idea of one cohesive unit, there is also that of the variety that Toy Story brings. In one film you get a children’s film, an adult film, a drama, a thriller, an action-adventure, and of course, a comedy. The tone of the movies is always one that people of all ages can enjoy and Pixar never talks down to its audience, instead packing a film with all of the various genres that they do makes it a more demanding process in truth. But Pixar does such an incredible job of weaving these altogether it’s absolutely effortless to watch as a movie and you come out feeling as if you’ve experienced something epic in storytelling scope because of how daringly they’ve approached and how creatively they’ve paid off things. It’s a rare film, let alone trilogy, that can keep things sane (let alone make them AWESOME) while incorporating all of the above elements.

Development
Another thing that I look for in trilogies is character development, something that these movies have done really, really well both within films, but also in the trilogy as a whole. Woody starts as Andy’s Golden Toy and then Buzz shows up and we see Woody’s casual, easygoing leadership turn into grumpy spite. And then we see their friendship blossom as Woody and Buzz recognize the good in each other.  Then we see in the next film, a true friendship forms and you can sense a growth between them. It’s handled very subtly and the third film continues to show Woody’s arc as a leader, but pinpoints his still-a-little-selfish ways. And that’s where we see him grow, he puts his best interests aside for the good of the gang. But wait, that’s what he always does. Not really. Woody’s always got a selfish streak, but in the third film Woody grows up and is a full-time leader. It’s great the way we see him finally realize his full potential because it’s due to the actions of his former enemy-turned-best friend Buzz Lightyear.

Emotion
At the end of the day, the story is about toys, ya know those things you broke the arms off and threw across the room and boxed up and put away to make room for your shiny new boombox. So why do I care so much about them? The Toy Story movies play with emotion in very strong ways, the most obvious being nostalgia. Nostalgia is powerful and these films work it into every corner by isolating simple memories from childhood and isolating their poignance in your life. They also delve into general relationship emotions, there are love stories of all types from budding romances (Woody and Bo Peep) to old married couples (The Potato Heads), so one can identify themselves with these characters even more. For me the third film displayed what these films have almost always been about in the grand scheme and that’s the idea of friendship and the old adage that it’s now where you are, but who you’re with that really matters. The last 30 minutes of the film really display these two ideas very plainly. There is a scene where the toys think they are at the end of the road and they simply join hands in quiet solitude and it is GRIPPING and emotional and heavy. Maybe the best single scene in any of the three movies and one of Pixar’s best overall.  One thing’s for sure, they made me think twice about tossing Donatello into a box.

Scope
Often critics mention The Lord of the Rings Trilogy as the best trilogy of all time and it’s amazing. Part of what makes it so grand is the epic scale and scope of the films. Spanning lands, peoples, time, etc. that are seemingly incomprehensible in a pure quest to do the right thing is definitely GRAND. But I say Toy  Story‘s got it too. In 1 they travel to Pizza Planet, we can call that our Gondor. In 2, they travel to Big Al’s Toy Barn in the big city, let’s make that Rohan. And finally in 3, they travel all over the place, but let’s call it Mordor. The toys change locales and quest for each other like those hobbits did the precious. It’s funny to think of the word epic and use it in a relative term. Because for us, LOTR is epic. But for our action figures and dolls of the past, TS is epic. So we must take into consideration Epic Relativity (that sounds smart!), the idea that what is epic to one, may not be epic to all.

Conclusion
I have NO idea where these films will end up in the pantheon of cinema history, only that when considered as a trilogy, they are a force to be reckoned with. Films in 3s are an unlikely and difficult pursuit, but there have been some excellent sets (obviously) and this one, to me, is the best of the best. I am a Pixar fanboy through and through and I think with good reason. Their missteps (if you can call them that) have been bigger hits and better films than many other studios’ best efforts. It’s difficult for me to think of any set which has a fantastic film as #1, a better film as #2, and the best #3 of all time except for these three. Just do me a favor Pixar and don’t make a 4.

As you’re aware if you’ve been here before or if you’ve been here for two minutes, you know that I tend to offer a view into my life in pop culture. By that I mean I try to tell you what things I’m currently into whether it be a show, a song, or film. I also give you a look at why I like things and what these seemingly trivial things mean to me and I try, as scary as it is, to give you a view into my crazy brain and a heart as dark as a black hole. Ok, not really. Well, I mean I don’t have a black heart.

Anyways heart color aside, I’d like to tell you today about something that hits both of those tenets, in that I am lovin’ it and it has found a special place in my heart. First why I’m head over heels for AMC. I guess it starts and ends with quality. There was a time when FX had several top flight shows and that was a rarity as a basic cable channel. And now AMC has taken on that mantle as the basic cable channel to beat.  Let’s take a look at the shows they are currently airing:

1. Mad Men- Admittedly, I don’t watch this show. I am going to give it one final try this summer when it returns from hiatus. I’ll be doing my best to watch the seasons that are on demand. Despite my shortcomings on this show, its record speaks for itself: back-to-back Best Show Emmys kind of makes this a no-brainer.  Mad Men‘s hip style and slow brn drama have been the de facto best show on television for two years running. Here I come.

2. Breaking Bad- THIS show on the other hand I DO watch. And so I can personally tell you, it is just the BEST. The writing and acting are unlike anything else on television that I watch. I have thoroughly enjoyed first catching up and secondly staying right on top of each episode. This show features Bryan Cranston, who I’ve mentioned before as “President of Acting,” because he has yet to turn in a poor performance.  Sure he’s a meth cooker and generally has fallen off the wagon headed toward Normalville and has become the mayor of New JackedUp City, but it sure is enthralling. The third season just closed out and while I’ve heard criticism of it, I think they ended on a really strong run of episodes and tightened the screws nicely heading toward season 4. When the last thing you see from a season finale is an anonymous muzzle flash, things are getting good.

And now, to the forthcoming projects from AMC, which look to share the pedigree of their forefathers.

1. Rubicon- After viewing a sneak peek of this show on Monday on the AMC website (You can still catch it!), I can say that this show is different from the previous two in that the previous two are headed by some very bold male leads. This show on the other hand has a more reserved, introspective lead, but one that promises to be just as spellbinding. To be honest, I feel like this show hits me a little more squarely than some. It focuses on Will Travers who is a codebreaker basically and he uncovers what he thinks is a conspiracy involving the U.S. Government. We’re going to see how this turns out, but the mystery built beautifully through the first episode. Check this one out Sundays at 8pm starting 8/1. Here’s the trailer (via AMC):

2. The Walking Dead- Based on a series of graphic novels by Robert Kirkman, the title here gives it away: ZOMBIES! Zombies, as you’re probably aware, are some of my favorites. This show has a lot going for it: great source material, a solid cast, and the guiding hand of one Frank Darabont. The production values look to be very high as you can see in the first production photo of one of the zombies (via Slashfilm):

Get This Woman a Cheeseburger!

FREAKY. So production for this show is ongoing and we’ll probably see a late autumn premiere. Which will rock, I guarantee.  PR Guarantee of Rockitude GRANTED.

So as you can see, AMC has BEEN killing it and shows NO signs of letting up. But it’s for another reason that they mean something to me really. They were the first legitimate media outlet to recognize PR and give me some access to their materials. Which is just great! I’ve never felt so much like a real person, so thanks AMC! I haven’t been that excited since the release of the Bratz movie.

Please give these AMC shows a try, the thing that television has going really well right now and what makes it currently a more fertile creative ground than movies, is originality. But that’s a rant for another day. Shows likes these deserve your attention because they are excellently made and beacons of entertainment. Do yourself a favor and click over to AMC.

Synopsis
A young boy is pleasantly haunted by the specter of his grandfather who tells him a story about goblins on the eve of a family trip. The next morning the young boy, his sister, and their parents set out for a rustic town called Nilbog. Once they arrive there things are not as they seem and the young boy’s grandfather continually warns them they should leave town as the residents of the town were planning on eating them because they were shape-shifting goblins. No one in the family believes him until one of the townsfolk is revealed to be a goblin and now the family must fight to not become the goblin’s next meal.

Selected Scenes (Selected for awesomeness and availability on YouTube):

And here is a larger clip selection, which honestly, you SHOULD watch if you have time:

A Litany of the Issues With Troll 2 (SPOILERS ENSUE, but you won’t be able to understand them anyway):
- The acting
- The writing
- The directing
- The production values
- Total number of trolls in the film: 0
- Relation to Troll: 0
- Unnecessary characters: 6-10
- Unnecessary Plot Devices/Points: Seemingly all of them
- Communication between cast and crew: 0 (Crew mostly Italian, cast entirely American)
- The music score is from a pet commercial, not a suspenseful horror film.
- Bologna is a weapon of choice
- Vegetables are evil
- Cool ideas: 4-5, cool ideas executed well: 0
- Clever town names: 0
- Inexplicable Dance Sequences: 1
- Number of times a corn cob is used for seductive purposes: 1

Dissection of the Plot
The Plot is bizarre, but not outside the realm of things we’ve seen in horror movies. In fact the isolation/townsfolk turn on newcomers is almost cliche. What’s really WRONG with the plot is that they overload it with devices. Like where the goblins come from has something to do with a magical Stonehenge rock which is located in some with-like goblin’s house. And it’s never explained why the Goblins can’t just grow veggies instead they have to turn humans into vegetables. It just seems mean. There are some cool ideas, but there is so much nonsense, that those ideas get lost in the shuffle, QUITE easily.

Dissection of the Acting
The movie had a small budget and to cut costs they used unknowns as actors. This is a method which has worked really well in some cases, like the recent Paranormal Activity, which by all accounts was scary and well-made on the cheap with unknowns starring. But then there are movies like Troll 2 which remind movie fans why actors get (over)paid.  Rail on Nic Cage as much as you want, against these characters, he is the pudding on the pie. Sometimes you should save money on other things so that your movie isn’t completely lost in the ridiculous shuffle of overacting and confusion. Adding inexperience to communication issues with your Italian director and you have an epic calamity in the making. It’s not so much that everyone involved was a terrible actor, it’s that, no wait that is part of it. They all only have one speed.

Dissection of Themes
Themes, themes, themes. So we know it’ s bad, very bad, in fact. But what can we take away from this film? Well besides tons of belly laughs and more quotes that were never supposed to be quotable, vegetables are evil? I think. I don’t know but when our hero uses a Bologna sandwich as the weapon of necessity to defeat the goblins who are vegetarians.  So they turn humans into veggies to eat and are defeated by the foulest of deli meats. I think that says it all Meat=Good, Veg=Bad. Now while I can’t completely disagree with this message because I do love a steak, I have to think it’s the only move of its kind and in that way it’s kind of twistedly genius. Like the Talking Heads’ almost anti-environmental song “(Nothing But) Flowers”, there’s something to value in a dissenting opinion. Or am I full of it because for me food math goes like this Steak>Lettuce.
Conclusion
A thorough dissection my biology teacher would be proud of. The hard thing about attacking a movie like this is that it’s all too easy. But I promise you if you watch it, you will be enriched. At the very least you will be well aware that ANYONE can make a movie that makes it to a DVD release. Between The Room and Troll 2, I’ve become inspired! I think I heard a script for Troll 3 is out there, I might just take a stab at it. Seriously though, this film is currently up for FREE on Hulu. I encourage everyone to watch it for some strange sense of fascination. I mean let’s be honest, if you sat through Four Christmases or Surfer, Dude, you’ve pretty much reached the dregs, so why not go full force and scrape the bottom of the barrel? And when you’re done, be sure to check out the documentary that came out of the catastrophe, Best Worst Movie.

Have you seen Troll 2? Are you intrigued? For 90 minutes you will be as confused as humanly possible, and unlike in Memento, you’ll never know why.

Making Sweat sexy: Me and this guy!

What’s not gross is what Hollywood/New York/Parts Unknown have cooked up for you in the coming month! NAILED IT.

Review Snippets from April’s Entries:

Movies

Iron Man 2- Haven’t seen it. Fire me now.

Music

Forgiveness Rock Record by Broken Social Scene- Really good, not great. Probably listened to the least of all the music this month, but that is in no way a marker on its quality! Check it out for yourself, what do I know? 7/10

Together by The New Pornographers- If you like this band, you’ll like this record. Things haven’t changed much, which is actually a good thing with this crew. 7/10

Heaven Is Whenever by The Hold Steady- I like this record! It’s good, they have yet to live up to Boys and Girls in America but when you set the bar THAT high it’s easy to miss. Definitely grab “Hurricane J” and “The Weekenders,” both of which have made it into my like top 6-7 fave THS songs. 7.5/10

High Violet by The National- GOOD GOOD album. Just not right for this time of the year, if this had been released 5 months ago I would be gushing about it. I still am kinda gushing about it because it’s real good, but it’s just a really broody album it’s like the Ryan Atwood of indie rock albums.8.5/10

The High Violet of Teen Heartthrobs

Infinite Arms by Band of Horses- K, I love this band, but I think this is their worst record, the more I listen to it, the less it sticks with me. Don’t get me wrong, some good tracks, but it lacks the punch of the first two albums, that being said “Blue Beard” is one of their best songs. 6/10

This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem- Destined for the upper reaches of many end-of-the-year lists, this is a good album, one that I’m sure will be pumping in my backyard all summer. Fun dancy jams. 8/10

So Runs The World Away by Josh Ritter- My fave of the month actually. Something old and familiar and new and expansive about this album, it has grown on me from day one and “The Curse” is my favorite song released this month. Really pretty stuff. Highly recommended to those of you who like their troubadours clever, soulful, and cocky. 8.5/10

TV

The end of LOST- While I let my younger, smarter sister do the legwork for LOST on the site, I love it almost as much. Here’s my thoughts on the finale, it ended the way it had to. Personally I was satisfied, in fact about 3/4 or more of the way through I thought I was watching what was potentially one of the best finales ever filmed. The END didn’t really tickle me but then again I am notoriously difficult to tickle. I will ardently disagree with anyone who says the show was a waste of time and that it’s legacy is tainted by not answering questions. Actually I will simply say “DID YOU ACTUALLY watch!?  They never answered questions. What exactly would have been a fitting end to the show for you!?” They made a habit of not answering anything, so why expect answers to come marching out two by two Noah’s Ark-style in the final 2.5 hours? I was satisfied. I found the end to the people I was wrapped up in and for me that was enough. I respect your opinion if you feel differently, but I was happy.

On to JUNESIES!

Movies
Toy Story 3- HANDS DOWN. I’m not going to rave about Pixar again. Just read someone else’s take on how great they are. I literally just had several to choose from by googling “why pixar rules.” That says it all. Our favorite characters are back and here Pixar tries something new in going for their first trilogy. I, for one, will be there with 3D glasses on.

I miss these. They made me feel like I was in Back to the Future.

Music
American Slang by The Gaslight Anthem- If they’re good enough for The Boss, they’re good enough for me. For some reason I’m avoiding listening spoilers for this album. I have high hopes that they will blow me away as they did with  The ’59 Sound. And if they don’t then I won’t have to go to another concert where I’m the oldest person there by a solid 5 or 6 years.

Destroyer of the Void By Blitzen Trapper- One of my favorite albums of the last few years was this group’s effort, Furr. A nonstop wild ride of neo southern rock/folk/electronics (?), yeah I think I’ll take another dose of that. Also isn’t the title suppppppppppper cool. That was pronounced like SUPER not SUPPER. That title is Dinner Cool, RIGHT?

TV
Season finale of Breaking Bad- Well, if you haven’t started watching this show yet, you have now missed out on three season’s worth of EPIC TV-making. The beginning of this third season started with a slow, creeping burn and has accelerated into a full-on conflagration. The writing and acting on this show are probably the best on basic cable and while the show is crazy, it never seems too far out there. Bryan Cranston has again given an impeccable performance, but I’ve been really floored by his TV wife, Anna Gunn’s performance and his partner in crime, Aaron Paul. Paul has really come into his own this year and has been on a tough road of his own warped brand of redemption turned revenge. I honestly think that Breaking Bad is the best show on television right now and the end of the season will surely be a doozie. It’s so good it ALMOST makes me want to take up meth. Or drive around in an RV. Or open up a chicken joint. You would understand all of these references if you watched!

Potential Future Employer

Guilty Pleasure
Entourage- (returns 6/27 to HBO)- I don’t know what bugs me more, how good this show used to be or that I still watch it. I’m married to these clowns for no discernible reason. I honestly can’t give you a solid why. But I’m okay with that if they turn it around. The show has been less funny and more aggressive every season for the last 3 seasons. Yet I’ve continued to watch in hopes that they would turn it around. I’m not delusional about what this show offers it is like GUY porn. 4 dudes living the “dream.” I get it, but it also used to be funny and insightful, where now it just seems like they are lazy and really went with the guy porn idea completely. Here’s to hoping that my once beloved can turn it around.

Unlike Jon Moxon, I DO WANT. YOUR LIFE.

Anything special you’re looking forward to in June? I know there is a lot coming down the pipe, so share with Rambling nation what’s on your agenda!

There can be only one! HIGHLANDER!!!

Episode recap in 200 words (give me a break, it was movie-length!): Flash-sideways: Jack fixed Locke causing him to remember. Claire had Aaron, causing her and Kate to remember. Charlie sees Claire again causing him to remember more. Sawyer and Juliet meeting help them both remember. They all go to a church. Jack joins, finds his dad’s casket, and remembers. They all reunite and then pass on together. Island: Smocke finds Desmond, forces him to follow to the Light cave, where they meet up with Jack and co. Jack and Smocke lower Desmond into the cave, he unplugs the golden bath, causing the island to shake. Smocke goes off to his boat, Jack follows, they fight. Kate shoots Smocke after he stabs Jack. Jack pushes him off cliff into rocks and returns to cave. Sawyer and Kate take boat to Hydra where they hop aboard ascending plane with Lapidus, Miles, and Richard. Hurley and Ben return with Jack to cave and lower him in. He helps Desmond and plugs the pool again, saving the island. Hurley and Ben pull Des up and Jack gets spit up on the other side. Hurley is the new Jacob and asks Ben to be his #2. Jack stumbles into jungle and closes his eye to die.

Here’s the thing about the last episode. It does not matter whether you liked it, hated it, understood it, watched it. It’s over. The creators are no longer listening to audience thinks (although I am not sure they ever really did). The end is the end. “What happened, happened.” So we just have to take it as it was and figure out what it all means to you.

This is what LOST means to me.

LOVE. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. LOVE cemented these people together in life and in death. LOVE made them better people. LOVE reminded them of their past lives (that’s right, my theory was spot on! Sorry, it’s just that rarely do my LOST theories come to fruition so I like to relish it when they do.). Let’s recap this episode’s remembrances alone.

• Ji-Yeon -> Sun and Jin
• Regaining ability to walk -> Locke
• Shannon -> Sayid
• Sayid -> Shannon
• Aaron -> Kate and Claire
• Claire -> Charlie
• Juliet -> Sawyer
• Sawyer -> Juliet
• Kate + Christian -> Jack

This is my Kissy Face.

The love-birds ones make sense. Sayid loves Shannon, Charlie loves Claire, Jack loves Kate, etcetera, so the (intimate) touches between them spurred their memories. Similarly, Jin and Sun love their daughter Ji-Yeon and Kate and Claire both love Aaron, causing them to remember. As explained before, Jack finally came to love his father, inciting his memories. And the weirdest one, but also a really important one, Locke loved his ability to walk, so being able to do so again allowed him to remember his island life. Everything every character loves was on the island. As Christian said, “The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people.” Also, it was their love for each other that allowed the creation of the flash-sideways world. “This is a place that you all made together so you could find one another,” Christian tells Jack, but more importantly, the audience as well. So it is about LOVE and telling a love story, but it’s also about the power of love (cue Huey Lewis and the News song).

But LOST is also about interconnectedness and collective consciousness. The group needed each other (the ones they LOVED) to remember, and then when they remembered, they realized where they were (this in-between world they had created), and so they gathered at the church to collectively let go (because nothing else matters when you are surrounded by the ones you LOVE). It is important to realize how their lives would overlap no matter what. Some website has a character web that shows all the link between the characters. It is astounding how all of their lives intersected. Remember how exciting that was, first season, to learn about how the characters were connected? Well in the final episode we got to learn what such connections can do. I think connections like those exist in real life as well. Not to such a degree, but, for example, do you ever think of how many people you pass on the highway that you know? I passed my best friend Alexis on I-95 in D.C. last year when neither of us knew the other was in the area. Random overlaps and connections occur like that everyday. Think of those random people you friend on facebook and realize you have a completely obscure mutual friend. We are all connected. And because we are all connected, we can do powerful things together – like form a post-death, pre-afterlife world to reunite.

"This is my punchy face!"

The show is also about letting go. Just like Rose told Jack in this season’s premiere. Maybe the flash-sideways world was just a test for the characters to go through to let go before moving on. Maybe the island was. Either way, letting go is an important part of death in the cannon of LOST, but the show also showed us how important it is in life as well. Holding on can keep us from many great things in life and trap us in unhappiness. Letting go frees us. A lesson I myself am trying to deal with in the wake of graduating from the most magical place on earth.

And, of course, it’s about fate. What we are meant to do. What we can control and what we can’t (and letting go of that which we can’t). Life is made up of what happens to us and what we make happen.

Finally, LOST is about faith. It has been since the beginning. Locke was all about faith when he was on the island. And in the end, Jack’s faith in the island, in fate, in his purpose, led him to sacrifice his life for his friends and the island. And the viewers’ faith in the show and its creators kept us watching for six crazy seasons.

What a bold wardrobe choice for a statue of Jack

Speaking of faith and sacrifice, though, could the Christian imagery be more present? How many times did they focus on that Jesus statue? And Kate’s comment about Christian’s name! For those not as well-versed in the Bible (I am not claiming to be an expert, but my dad is a pastor and I do always rock the Bible category on Super Nintendo Jeopardy), let’s consider the biblical imagery in the episode. For one, Jack was clearly playing a Jesus part in this episode in particular. He was stabbed in the side, just as Jesus was as he hung on the cross. He also went into a cave (tomb) and rose again later. And the reason he descended into the cave was to save his friends. Sounds a lot like a certain Savior I know!

The Richmond Times-Dispatch ran an article in which writer Melissa Ruggieri said the show is about good versus evil. I thoroughly disagree, mostly as a result to my conversation with William Mapother, the actor who played Ethan Rom. It is not a battle of good versus evil. Was MIB really evil? He just wanted to get off the island. He did not really kill many more people than, say, Sayid. Yet we don’t call Sayid evil, he’s the tortured torturer. Everyone on the show has a little bit of good and evil in them. So it becomes more about what actions are good and what actions are evil. Hurley was portrayed as good. He killed some Others, but it was to save his friends. Writers depicted Michael as evil because he killed his friends, but it was to save his son. Do the ends justify the means? To Rose, Hurley is a great hero for saving Bernard’s life, but to Ryan Pryce’s significant other, Hurley is evil for killing his/her loved one. Good and evil are subjective, and therefore, in the end, relative. It’s about good and evil and exploring both possibilities within our own souls.

That is what LOST is to me. Here’s what the finale episode in particular meant to me.

The flash-sideways are, to me, like a dream. They can last as short as five seconds yet feel like an eternity. Juliet experienced her flash-sideways in an instant when she was dying in the hole with Sawyer. Sawyer caught up to her later when he died. But it happened at the same moment because time after death is not as we understand it in life. As Christian said, “There is no now, here.” Time is relative. Time can pass differently after death. I think they are also a way for the audience to understand what the characters’ lives could have been like without the island or the interference from Jacob. A life with free will (as Hurley told Sayid, “That’s your choice.”). The castaways felt trapped by fate and Jacob on the island and before getting there, but in the flash-sideways, they are freed from not only time but also determinism, so they can make their own choices and write their own lives.

Pulled from the Temple of Doom set.

Let’s revisit for a moment Jacob’s wine bottle explanation of the island to Richard: “Think of this wine as what you keep calling hell. There’s many other names for it too: malevolence, evil, darkness. And here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out because if it did, it would spread. The cork is this island and it’s the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs.” I found it interesting that the thing keeping the LIGHT in the cave was a cork-like plug. We never got to see what would happen if the light fully escaped, besides sink the island presumably. I am not sure what it all means but I find it very interesting. Could the light be the darkness/malevolence/evil Jacob refers to?

I think I figured out why Ben did not enter the church. Christian said they were in the flash-sideways world to let go and move on. Because of Ben’s past misdeeds, he was not ready to let go and move on. He himself said, “I have some things I still need to work out. I think I’ll stay here a while.” He still felt the guilt of his actions and the blood on his hands – he only got an absolution from one of his victims, not the rest). He actually never remembered being on the island, he just remembered being beat up by Des after frozen-donkey-wheeling off the island. I think he might join the others when he is ready to let go. He might even pass with Alex or someone of equal importance in his life. He probably also did not go with the group because he was always on the outside (actually not fully accepted by the people but also, cinematically, set apart from the group in many shots). Either way, now was not the time for Ben.

CANDY BARS!!!

How awesome was the Sawyer and Juliet scene? “It worked” was referring to a snack machine, not the bomb! (Sometimes it’s not all about the bomb, Julia – sorry, inside joke!). It just reinforces how everyone dissects the meanings behind every little thing on LOST – sometimes too far. I took her statement to mean that the bomb did reset time, but not immediately. I was wrong. It just meant that they got Sawyer’s candy bar out. How completely different.

Along those lines, I think an important part of the show is reflected in Jacob’s line from the penultimate episode: “It’s just a line of chalk in a cave.” I think a lot of the things we viewers scrutinize are important, but a lot of other things are just arbitrary. The characters themselves give some of the things in the show undue importance. For example, I personally think the island drinking ritual is bullshit. Jack and Hurley did not have to drink island water to become like Jacob and guard the island. But in drinking the water, they felt that some profound power had washed over them so they were now prepared to guard the Island Light. I came to this conclusion based on the fact that Jack failed to bless the water for Hurley like Jacob had for him and fake mom Allison Janney had done for Jacob. I think the blessing made them all think it was a legit ceremony but in actuality, it was just a heart-shaped watch (Wizard of Oz). It’s all about mind over matter (a theme explored in season 4 when Hurley was able to make Jacob’s shack disappear).

I'll have a Smocke on the Rocks, please.

I had a hard time deciding what would trigger Jack’s memory. Obviously Kate came to mind, especially after their cliff-side kiss. And she did, but not completely. My friend Pete and I were throwing around all sort of ideas via text about what Jack LOVES (leading people, fixing people, the island now, his dad’s approval, everyone he was always trying to save). We both kind of envisioned him remembering just as he saw everyone gathered together. But I think it is important that it was Christian who triggered his memory. It showed Jack’s growth. He hated his father, resented him for so long. But after everything on and off and then back on the island, Jack came to understand and love his father, as evidenced by his father’s ability to help him remember.

Let’s also consider for a moment Desmond. He’s special, that is undeniable. He was special from the beginning (hello flashes of the future) and remained uniquely special (electromagnetic warrior). His weird actions after being placed in Widmore’s box resulted from his capacity to see the flash-sideways world. He might have misinterpreted the place and his ability to get there, as evidenced in his discussion with Jack, but he still caught a glimpse of it (perhaps he returned from the brink of death in that box?). Widmore called Desmond a “failsafe,” which MIB took to understand that Des would be able to save the island should Jacob’s plans fall through. I see him more as the ultimate facilitator though. He facilitated the island’s survival by pushing the button, he facilitated the crew in reaching the freighter by assisting Charlie in his suicide mission, he facilitated the death of MIB by unplugging the light in the cave, and he facilitated everyone’s remembrances and collective moving on in the flash-sideways. He is special, indeed.

Eye wide closed.

I loved the eye closing ending. I also called it. My friend and fellow watcher Travis claimed that it was going to end with Jack’s eye opening in his next life, but I contended that they would end differently than they began. My brother Seth called the ending cheesy, but I think it was important to have the series come full circle. Vincent’s presence was superfluous, but I know people love dogs.

Did anyone catch the question Jack asked Christian? “Where are we, Dad?” It sounds pretty similar to Charlie’s question in the pilot, “Guys, where are we?” Some people choose to believe that everyone died when Oceanic 815 crashed – especially based on the plane wreckage shots that were paired with the credits. I disagree. Like Jack said, “All of this matters.” And if they had all died on the island, they would not have all interacted and cared about meeting up again in the flash-sideways world. But his question also raises questions about what happens when we die. I am a Christian so I believe that we will all go to heaven or hell after we die. But who is there to say there is not a pit stop on the way? I think it would be pretty cool to land in William and Mary with my family, my sorority sisters, my D2E boys, and everyone at the Leafe (because that has been the most important part of my life thus far) after death in my own flash-sideways before moving on. Maybe when I die I’ll be echoing Christian and Charlie’s questions as well.

In fact, the more I think about the ending, the more I like it. I originally was disappointed with Christian’s explicit explanation of everything but as I discuss the finale with friends and continue to contemplate it myself, I find that I wrapped things up very nicely in my head based on my viewing, but everyone else has interpreted the ending their own way(s). And that is what a show like LOST should do. I was convinced they would end the show with something big happening that would be considered good or bad depending on the viewers’ personal beliefs. But instead they ended the show with all of this stuff going on that can be interpreted in a multitude of different ways. And the meanings behind the show and purposes of the characters change depending on the interpretation. Christian may have spelled out an explanation of a PassingOverLand created by friends to reunite, but his description does not tell the audience anything about what was “real life” and what happened in death or when everyone REALLY died or what the purpose of the island was. That’s for each viewer to figure it out themselves.

TLC warned us about these waterfalls

I know a lot of people are unhappy with a “choose your own adventure” conclusion, but soooo many more would have had a fit if they had closed everything up neatly with an explanation behind every (or not even every, but a lot of) mysteries. I’m going to understand LOST how I want to and I will be able to continue the debate with friends about the ending and the meanings forever.

A lot of fans wanted more answers to the mysteries that kept us watching for six years. But in the end, what does it matter? The show can not answer ALL of those mysteries! And really, who cares why Libby was in the mental hospital or what the Hanso Foundation was up to? It’s not about polar bears or hieroglyphics. It’s about Jack, Kate, Desmond, Ben, Sayid, Sun, Juliet. It’s about love, fate, faith, connectedness. It’s not about answering the mysteries. Those were just to get you to keep watching so they could show you so much more. My brother and his friends have likened the debate over who liked the ending and who did not to the Man of Science and Man of Faith opposition LOST formerly focused on. The Men of Faith loved the ending while the Men of Science are unfulfilled. I consider myself both though. I researched time travel and calculated those numbers every which way to find meaning in them, but I also was attached to the characters. And when I see what the characters did, it didn’t matter to me what the island did. In the long run, LOST challenged my ideas about what the world is capable of, but I still do not think a cave can turn a man into Smoke. I do, however, believe a group of people can impact each other so profoundly that they can change the rules of nature. For the record, however, I will always wonder about whose eye was in Jacob’s shack.

Beyond what the actual plot of the show represents, LOST means so much more. It has been my passion, as nerdy and pathetic as that might sound. It has taught me about quantum physics and doomsday equations and has inspired me to research Egyptian mythology and philosophers. But most importantly, and part of why I think it is such a great show, it has challenged my views on the world and what is possible. Both in nature and of people. What will one do in extenuating circumstances? What might I personally do in such an event? What am I capable of? Along with that, what is the world capable of? What are a group of people capable of together? How much power does LOVE have? In the end (and that’s exactly where we are), it is just a show. But for me it has also been a passion, an inspiration, a devotion, and, perhaps most importantly, a topic on conversation. I have made the most random friends because of LOST and have formed closer bonds with friends and family during weekly viewing sessions or over long post-episode G-Chat recaps. So, to the creators, writers, producers, directors, actors, fellow enthusiasts, etcetera, thank you.

And Behind Door Number One... A NEW BRIGHT LIGHT!

Well, folks, it’s been confusing, it’s been sad, it’s been funny, it’s been heart-wrenching, it’s been crazy, it’s been real, it’s been unbelievable, it’s been hard, it’s been great, it’s been inspiring, it’s been kick-ass, it’s been exciting, it’s been boring, it’s been confusing (did I already say that?), and for me, it’s been totally worth it. And so has this blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Almost as much as I will miss the show, I will miss hearing all of your theories and having devoted readers run up to me at the Leafe telling me they read my latest post.  So, to my readers and my friends, thank YOU.

See ya in another life, brotha! (Like maybe in my W&M flash-sideways world).

Namaste!

Cliffside kiss.

The penultimate episode of our favorite show has come and gone and I am having trouble focusing on this week’s episode because all I can think about is Lost’s SERIES FINALE!

"Think it's time to leave."

Episode recap in 150 words: In the flashsideways, Ben recalls his past during a Des beatdown after confronting him for running over Locke, Locke decides to undergo Jack’s surgery, and Des springs Kate and Sayid from the police with help from Hurley and Ana Lucia. On the island, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley meet Jacob, Jack steps up to take his place, and Jacob makes Jack like him through a ceremonial drink. Miles, Ben, and Richard go to Dharmaville to get dynamite to blow up the plane and happen upon Widmore and Zoe. Smokey approaches so Widmore and Zoe hide, Ben and Richard wait, and Miles flees. Smokey wrecks Richard then comes to Ben, who promptly reveals Widmore’s location. Smocke kills Zoe then asks Widmore why he returned. Ben subsequently shoots Widmore for killing Alex. Ben agrees to kill people for Smocke and they search for “fail-safe” Desmond. Smocke announces plans to destroy the island.

Where is Lapidus? I am guessing he will wash ashore somewhere down the beach just in time to kick some ass and save someone. He and Miles must still be around for some reason. Speaking of questionable characters, is Richard dead? Only if he fulfilled his purpose for the island, which I think he has. We know his backstory and why he is timeless, he helped guide some of the characters, and now he is done.

Remember how Ben used to have every move calculated forever in advance? I wonder now if he still does. This week he appeared to be living in the moment, acting however he felt. I am surprised he killed Widmore because I do not understand why he did not do the deed when he crept into Widmore’s room a few seasons back, but the fact that he was able to means that they are not related to MIB and Jacob (and therefore not bound by the rules) like I originally suspected. Which actually makes my Rules theory more plausible because I could not account for MIB and Jacob having offspring.

Smoking kills.

I absolutely love Jacob’s line, “It’s just a line of chalk in a cave.” My motto regarding Lost has always been that EVERYTHING has a purpose. Indeed, everything does. But maybe not as much importance as I/we assign it. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.

For the record, I am not ready to accept defeat on my LOVE theory since Ben did not flash back to the island as a result of the thrashing, he flashed back to a real world past. LOVE can still connect the characters to the island.

I think I saw a glimmer of jealousy in Sawyer’s eyes when Jacob made Jack like him (in a ceremony eerily similar to communion…drinking the blood of the island, perhaps?). Despite their buddy-buddy talk this week, I think Sawyer and the doc might be on opposing teams again soon. I would love the finale to end with Sawyer representing one side and Jack representing another, both sides equally good and bad, leaving the audience to decide if the ending is positive or negative, depending on their personal preferences. Similar to the end of Life of Pi (great book, by the way).

Cheers!

Now it is time for my HUMONGOUS, IMPRESSIVE, TOTALLY RIGHT SERIES FINALE THEORY. No spoilers here, just my prediction for how the last 5-10 minutes of the last episode ever will play out. Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, and Kate will go to the Island Light. Kate will profess her feelings for Jack and Sawyer will get jealous. They will find Desmond and he will help them reach the Light. Meanwhile, Ben and Smocke will head towards the Light as well. Jack and Smocke will meet face-to-face and battle it out. Jack will require help from his friends and they try but Smocke takes them out. All that is left is Sawyer, but he will switch sides to help Smocke because he is pissed about Jack being the new Jacob and the object of Kate’s affections. With all of his friends gone, and the existence of the island in peril, Jack weighs his options and decides to release the Light into the world (because Jack realizes that noone was very happy before crashing on the island, so maybe a little more Light will help everyone out) while Smocke simultaneously tries to destroy it, resulting in a sunk island and a time reboot (hence, the flash-sideways). In the flash-sideways, the crew will get together at the museum party and piece together their island past, but decide that they are all happier now than before so they make a pact to stay in touch but not ever search for the island. Cue floating “Lost” letters and Michael Giacchino music and it’s over!

Last chance to share your own theories about the imminent series finale of Lost! After the episode airs and you say “I knew that was going to happen,” no one is going to believe you if you do not share with me first!

See ya in another week, brotha!