Lost Rewatch: Week 11

Another week, another set of episodes in the Rewatch. This is a good group from season 2, especially the stellar Lockedown. Benry Gale is on top of his game, and they mysteries presented and resolved in this group start the payoff for long-term fans. Some of these early episodes present mysteries that fans still debate today.

Maternity Leave (Zap2It Recap)

• LongLiveLocke's original recap.
• Flashback is unique in that it focuses on on island events, when Claire was abducted by Ethan in season 1.
  
• A few questions remain from this one. Why did the Others quit using The Staff? What is Ethan injecting into Claire and why? Desmond was taking injections as well, in fear of the sickness, but the only sickness we've learned about is being brainwashed by Smokey.
• Sun tells Claire that a mother shouldn't leave her child. Guess season 4 Claire didn't get that message.
  
• Benry's character is starting to develop and his dry humor starts to show for the first time.
  
• I still don't buy that Rousseau hadn't discovered the DHARMA hatches before. She lived on the island 16 years and doesn't know more that she lets on?
• Great interactions between Benry and Eko and even better, one of the first great interactions between Benry and Locke. Benry started to plant a seed in Locke.
  

The Whole Truth (Zap2It Recap)

• LongLiveLocke's original recap.
• Flashback focuses on Sun and Jin having difficulty getting pregnant. We learn that Jin is infertile. But not on the island ...
• Because Sun finds out she is indeed pregnant. We don't find out all the issues facing Sun until later, so it's interesting to watch her expressions when she finds out and tells Jin.
  
• Kate said that she has taken a pregnancy test before too. This sets up a future flashback in "I Do."
• Benry nails it again. Talking about the secrecy among the survivors and toying with Jack and Locke about if he really is an Other what he would do. Classic Ben. Awesome to see this character develop so well this early in his Lost tenure.
  

Lockdown (Zap2It Recap)

• LongLiveLocke's original recap.
• Flashback focuses on Locke during the time when his father faked his death and he cons Locke into helping him again. Nadia also appears in Locke's flashback.
  
• When Helen finds out about Locke trying to help his dad again, she leaves him after turning down his proposal. Watch for Helen asking the familiar line, "Are you him?" to Anthony Cooper.
• Jack learned poker in Phuket. Yep, we got that flashback later and it led to the Lost producers asking for an end date for the show. You know the great episode about Jack's tattoos.
  
• This episode opened up a whole new can of mystery on Lost. The blastdoor map! Food drops! The real Henry Gale! Ben entering the numbers! Things that are still questioned and debated today. What is the purpose of the map? Why is it hidden? What caused the blastdoors to come down and retract later? Who's still bringing food drops if DHARMA is over? Who killed and buried Henry Gale? Where's his wife?
• What did Ben really know about the Swan station? It was constructed during his childhood, after he'd been healed by the Others. Does he know anything about it? Are his questions just to screw with Locke and Jack?
  

Dave (Zap2It Recap)

• LongLiveLocke's original recap.
• Focuses on Hurley's time in the mental institution, and it's reveled that his best friend Dave is a figment of his imagination with a Sixth Sense like reveal (that many people saw coming) near the end of the episode.
• It's also revealed that Hurley was placed in the institution after a deck collapsed that he had walked onto, killing a couple of people. Oh, and its also revealed that Libby was also in Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute, but don't look for much more info on that backstory.
• Why is the Polaroid of Hurley by himself so different than when the doctor took the photo of him and "Dave?"
  
• Hurley spends the entire episode chasing around Dave and almost kills himself before Libby intervenes. Was Dave still all in Hurley's mind or did the island or Smokey manifest him? With Hurley seeming to be one of the only genuine good people on the island, it's hard to believe the island would want him to kill himself. Many fans believe that Hurley is the key to they show, especially in light of Jacob and his enemy's talk in season 5's finale.
• Benry has some more great lines, but you never really know with him. Is he lying or telling the truth? Who is the Him he's refering to (himself as leader or Jacob)? Did he push the button? If the Swan's such a joke, why does it alter the dynamic of the show in both season 2 and season 5's finales? What does he mean when he says God can't even see the island?
  

Damon, Carlton and a Polar Bear

At Comic Con, there was a throw away bit where comedian Paul Scheer gave Damon and Carlton a velvet painting of them with a polar bear. It was funny and he said that he had a Web site, http://damoncarltonandapolarbear.com/. You can see the whole bit on You Tube of course.

Well it looks like there's more to this damoncarltonandapolarbear.com. Paul Scheer now has released a video where he breaks into the ABC studio lot and finds a bit of Lost info: the title of the season 6 premiere and a little bit about a set being designed for episode 6:01.

It's kind of spoilerish, so if you want to stay totally spoiler free heading into season 6, don't watch ... but your DVR channel guide will give away the episode name anyway, so I don't really worry too much about episode names, and there fun to speculate about once we know them anyway. The set design give away is one that many fans have been asking about and assumed would be showing up in season 6.

Here's the video if you want to find out the title. I'm sure they'll be more of these in the offseason. Damon and Carlton both make brief appearances, so they are obviously involved in this promotion. Damon is seen on cell phone having what could turn out to be an interesting conversation.

Enough teases, here ya go:

Saints Sign 1st Round Pick Jenkins

The Saints have finally agreed to a deal with 1st round pick Malcolm Jenkins. I'm not sure what took so long since the player picked just before and after Jenkins agreed to deal before camp, but at least it's done now. With five days before the Saints first preseason game, fans will likely get to see him in action on Friday.

LSU Ranked 9th in USA Today Poll

LSU comes in ranked #9 in the preseason USA Today Coaches Poll. LSU joins Virginia Tech and Ole Miss as new teams in the top 10 since the last poll. Here's a look at the top 25:

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. USC
5. Alabama
6. Ohio State
7. Virginia Tech
8. Penn State
9. LSU
10. Ole Miss
11. Oklahoma State
12. Cal
13. Georgia
14. Oregon
15. Georgia Tech
16. Boise State
17. TCU
18. Utah
19. Florida State
20. North Carolina
21. Iowa
22. Nebraska
    
23. Notre Dame
24. BYU
25. Oregon State
    

Lost Rewatch: Week 10

I have to admit. The real world has caught up to me, and I'm way behind on the Rewatch. But have no fear, I'll still preview the next batch of episodes each week (maybe not with as much depth and detail as in the past posts), but I still enjoy going back and looking at these old episodes. I do plan to watch all 5 seasons before the final season too, but I just haven't been able to keep up with the Rewatch schedule.

The Hunting Party (Zap2It Recap)

• LongLiveLocke's orignial recap.
• Flashback focuses on Jack and his need to always fix things. This is when his marriage to Sarah comes to an end.
• The "hunting party" of Jack, Sawyer and Locke go out to find Michael, who left again to find Walt and they are instead confronted by The Others. We are reintroduced to Zeke, aka Tom/Mr. Friendly.
  
• The Others give the survivors a line that they can't cross. This is similar to the arrangement DHARMA had with the Others in the 1970s (season 5).
• We also get our first Geronimo Jackson sighting, setting up future Easter Eggs.
  

Fire + Water (Zap2It Recap)

• LongLiveLocke's orignial recap.
• Flashback focuses on Charlie and the falling apart of Driveshaft due to his brother's drug use.
  
• Charlie has some weird dreams about saving Aaron. Religious overtones and the crashing beachcraft gave fans lots to discuss.
  
• Hurley thinks he knows Libby from somewhere. Yes, Hurley you do, but fans will continue to grumble even though showing Libby's full-backstory now doesn't really fit in with where the show has gone.
• Charlie tries to baptize Aaron himself, but setting a fire as distraction and stealing him is not the way to go. That earns him a few punches to the face by Locke.
  

The Long Con (Zap2It Recap)

• LongLiveLocke's orignial recap.
• Flashback focuses on Sawyer, the former con man, and a long con he played on Cassidy. Yep, the same Cassidy who later became friends with Kate.
• In the diner, Sawyer's waitress is Kate's mom.
• Sawyer, along with Charlie's help, pulls a long con on the camp. They fake attack Sun and force Locke to hide the guns. Sawyer ends up with them and gives his "new sheriff in town" speech.
• Hurley and Sayid pick up a transmission of Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade." Sayid says the transmission could be coming from anywhere and Hurley replies, "or anytime...just kidding dude." A subtle way for the writers to hint at time travel?
  

One of Them (Zap2It Recap)

• LongLiveLocke's orignial recap.
• Flashback focuses on Sayid's time in the Republican Guard and when he was trained to be a torturer by the Americans, mainly Kelvin Joe Inman. Who's Kelvin Inman? Maybe you should ask Desmond or Radzinsky.
  
• One of the American soldiers in Iraq was Kate's father, Sgt. Austen.
• Rousseau has captured "one of them." Turns out its only Henry Gale. Not that Henry Gale, this one will become known as Benry and later just Ben ... and Lost was changed forever for the better. We get Benry and Locke meeting for the first time and seeing it again now will give you goose bumps knowing everything that's going to take place between those two.
  
• The question still remains, why did Ben let them catch him? What was he doing at the time? Was this all part of his plan to get Jack to operate on him?
• Also, now that we know that it was Ben who stole Alex, did Rousseau recognize him? It's been 16 years, but still, she should remember the man who stole her baby.
  
• This episode gives the first big tease about what will happen if the button isn't pushed. Hieroglyphics appear on the countdown clock just before it resets. I remember at the time how frustrating it was wanting to see what would happen.
  

Hornets Schedule Released

The NBA released their schedule today and the Hornets open up at the Spurs on national television on October 28. The Hornets home opener will be against the Sacramento Kings on October 30. In total, the Hornets play nine times on ESPN and TNT. They'll wrap up the season on the road against the Houston Rockets on April 14. Here's the full schedule.

Here are some tidbits from Hornets.com:
The Big Easy Blog breaks down the schedule and here are 20 games to watch this year.

Nola.com also looks at the schedule:
Here are 10 games to not miss and they point out that the Hornets won't be playing during the holidays this year.