You win some; you lose some.
Lost’s recipe for success includes ever-changing allegiances, malleable definitions of “good” and “evil” and a never-quite-resolved list of mysteries.  And like the scales of the astrological sign Libra, the confusion and resolution sides always seem to balance each other out. What we gain in clarity we often lose in understanding.

True to this formula, last night’s episode — the seventh of the season — served up a lot of resolution, but it also delivered a quid pro quo of new unresolved perplexities.

Namely:

Why did Ben assassinate his lord and savior, John Locke?
Could Charles Widmore actually be the good guy in all of this?
Just who is this Eloise Hawking, and why does she seem to move Ben to murder?
Did the Island’s magical powers reincarnate John Locke?
Who is this “new guy” that joined our old favorites on the flight to Guam?
Egads, could there really be more Other Others on the Island?
What’s so wonderful about Tunisia?

We can’t answer all of the above, but let’s start with the  end of John Locke, to whom this episode was dedicated (it was titled “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”). Just as we’d come to accept the fact that Locke had committed suicide, we learn that he was actually murdered. By Ben.

WTF?

In the lead-up to Locke’s death, we’re subjected to what felt like an eternity of John standing on a desk, an orange, industrial-grade electrical cord wrapped around his neck, arguing with Ben, who pleads with John not go through with it.

What makes this development most perplexing is that we’d come to believe in John Locke as the Christ-hero of the show; a man willing to martyr himself in order to save others (and The Others, too). And it’s by way of Ben’s calm, cool insistence that we — and he, and pretty much everyone else (save the jealous, cranky Jack) — believe that John is The One. Even Jack eventually comes around. Why? It can all be traced back to Ben.

Along comes Eloise Hawking, whose existence is apparently enough to move Ben to kill his own, personal Jesus.

It’s at Locke’s mere mention of Eloise that Ben grabs the aforementioned orange cord, wraps it around John’s neck, and coolly waits for him to breathe his last gasp.

There is much speculation as to who this Eloise character is. Remember that hot, Rambo-outfitted blonde chick who threatens to kill Daniel Faraday back in episode three? Well, it seems her name is Elly (which could be short for Eloise, right?). Also, she seems to be allied with Charles Widmore.

Ah, Widmore. Clearly J.J. Abrams and the Gang want us to like him a little. He, too, makes a convincing case of why Locke is the redeemer of the Island. And, in what is almost always a surefire trick of TV to get the audience on the good side of a character, Widmore makes us laugh — if only briefly.

We learn it’s Widmore who’s responsible for the Jeremy Bentham alias. As he provides a new identity and passport to a confused Locke, explaining that this new name is a reference to an old English philosopher, he says: “Your parents had a sense of humor when they named you. Why can’t I?”

Oh, and Widmore’s the guy who sets John globetrotting around to convince the Oceanic Six to go back. Need a vacation? Don’t worry, Lost can take you around the world in under 18 minutes. We visit Sayid in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. We are whisked up to New York City to watch John have a brief conversation with Walt that essentially amounts to:

Locke: “Hey dude, what’s up?”
Walt: “Chillin’. How’s my dad?
Locke: (Pause) “I think he’s relaxing on a big boat somewhere.”
Walt: “Oh, cool.”
Locke: “Peace.”
Walt: “Peace.”

Um, OK. Then it’s off to LA, where a truly Lost-ian coincidence brings an almost-shot-and-car-accident-killed John to Jack’s hospital. Jack’s welcome was not a warm one. Ditto Kate, who disses John with a “gee, you’ve really evolved, huh?” comment. Asylum-dwelling, sphinx-doodling Hurley’s a no-go, too, first dismissing Locke as a hallucination, but then just plain dismissing him.

Locke, dejected and feeling like a failure, resigns himself to suicide. He pens that heart-wrenchingly concise suicide note addressed to Jack, grabs his self-immolating equipment and…we’re back where this recap began.

Of all the episodes this season, this one was the most satisfying from a storyline perspective. The pace was quick, it didn’t get too caught up in dropping arcane, red-herring numbers and figures, and it brought us a staggering climax to the Locke story that’s been slow-brewing all season. His death — and subsequent rebirth — brought a whole new batch of painfully unresolved questions. And it hurts so good.

No Love Lost Here.

Now, that’s more like it.

You know how when you’re about to break up with someone, and though you haven’t yet said anything somehow they sense it and suddenly become everything you want them to be?  Or instead they pull away a bit, just to see if you’ll stick around to see what’s next? Lost has been testing our love so far this season, but it clearly wants us back.

After a pretty “meh” Episode Three, wherein the two Big Events of the show were finding out that (shock!) Charles Widmore had been on the Island as a young man (was this really all that surprising?) and that the redhead chick got another nose bleed, this week’s Lost roared out out of the doghouse with a thoroughly compelling — and thoroughly confusing — Episode Four.

The show sent many plotline valentines to its more romantic viewers. Kate told Jack “I have always been with you;” Jin (the love of Sun’s life) proved to be alive; Jack rescued a near-hysterical Kate from having to give up Aaron, and a teary-eyed Sawyer exhibited feelings of true love upon witnessing an island-rewind of Claire’s childbirth with Kate as de facto midwife.

It was jam-packed with bits of nearly every major Lost story: the combustible Kate-Jack-Sawyer love triangle; the clandestine Kate masquerading as mother to Claire’s son;  the vengeful “Kill Ben” version of Sun; Team Jack; Team Locke; Team Ben; Team Faraday and the time-warping Islanders; Others, French others and other Others. The one big missing piece was the Desmond-Widmore chronicles — and thank God for this small mercy. We got more than enough of that in Episode Three.

Each story in Episode Four had at least one reveal: Ben is trying to take Aaron away from Kate! Hurley really is in jail (orange jumpsuit and all)! Jin is Alive! Rousseau is back (and young)! Locke may turn out to be a martyr after all! The redhead isn’t the only one on the Island getting nosebleeds! The French settlers arrived via raft! Jack continues to fall for Ben’s ruse! And so on. (An aside: what is it about Ben that makes everyone fall prey to his charms? It certainly isn’t his deathly pallor or his creepy, Hannibal Lecteresque manner of speaking.)

And just when you thought you’d gotten as much new information as you could handle, yet more Other Others show up. And they speak French without subtitles. And they find a barely conscious Jin floating in the ocean, Titanic-survivor style. And it’s, like, 30 years ago. Even poor, shipwrecked Jin seems completely (and I guess appropriately) lost when he learns that one of his rescuers is a Frenchwoman named Rousseau.

It was almost too much to take. Even the most devoted of fans seemed paralytically perplexed: the internet chatter was eerily quiet following last night’s airing. Perhaps everyone needed a little time to process the massive slab of new information (this writer included) before making any comments. No wonder ABC kept flashing the “Lost Untangled” teasers in the bottom-right corner of the screen throughout.

An in-case-you-missed it tidbit for the DVR crowd: if you skipped over the ads you missed a promo for a new ABC show called The Unusuals. And guess who’s in it? Harold Perrineau, Jr, the guy who plays Michael in Lost. True, actors have been known to have more than one job at once, but this could be seen as a clue into the whereabouts of “Michael” .

Of course, it wouldn’t be an episode of Lost without some aggravatingly answered questions. The Oceanic Six is trying our patience: either get off your collective ass and decide to go back to the island, or don’t. We’re sick of waiting around. You have one week.

Who is this Hot Blonde Rambo Lady, and Why is She So Angry?

So much for humor, semi-linear storylines and familiar faces. Episode three of Lost Season Five boldly went where it has always gone (albeit convolutedly) before.

Many of Lost’s detractors blame these confusing plotlines, unclear timelines, and too darn many characters for their lack of interest in the show. Clearly J.J. Abrams, et al, aren’t concerned about losing any viewers or gaining any new ones: all three of these elements were back with a vengeance this week.

The perplexing elements of this episode included, but were not limited to:

—A new hot blonde Rambo chick.

—A vegetative-state blonde chick in a coma somewhere near Oxford, England.

—A young, bellicose Charles Widmore.

—An old, evil Charles Widmore (seated next to a “Namaste” painting in his office, just to confuse the love-loving yogis in the fanbase).

—Latin-speaking Others.

—50-year flashbacks.

—50-year flashforwards.

—A newborn baby for Penny and Desmond (named Charlie! After late great boyfriend of Claire or Penny’s dad?).

—A toddler-age baby for Penny and Desmond (named Charlie! After late great boyfriend of Claire or Penny’s dad?).

Like any longterm relationship worth its salt, Lost asks a lot of its fans, and usually gives a lot in return. Our commitment to the series is bolstered by its complexity: we feel rewarded by our dedication to figuring out the enticingly complex stories and players. But this was just a little too much—especially without the comforting comic relief of Hurley and Sawyer (Hurley didn’t make an appearance in this episode at all, neither did Kate, Jack, Sun, or any of the Oceanic Six). The one, teensy tiny light moment came in the form of Sawyer’s recycled nickname for last week’s character-casualty: “Frogurt”. Otherwise, the story was all serious serious faces, frowns, and furrowed brows. No fun. The signature whooshing and climaxing Lost sound-effects didn’t even come with the payoff they usually bring.

A confession that will appall many a Lost fanatic: I even started to drift off to sleep halfway into the episode as Desmond made his way to Oxford. Yawn. I love the nerdy, academic stuff ‘n all, but all they gave us at the academic pillar was a dusty, abandoned, blocked off research room. Borrrring!

I will grant the episode this: Daniel Farraday, a character about whom I’d been on the fence, became a lot more interesting this week. Previously on Lost (heh heh), he’d been a one-dimensional, close-talking, bumbling science geek. I sensed there was something more to him, but what? Aha! He “did” something terrible to “that girl” (the aforementioned bed-ridden blonde woman).

The meager episode-ending kicker: a bloody nose of Daniel Farraday’s redheaded girlfriend. That’s what you give us as reason to tune in next week? Well, lucky for Lost, most of us probably will be tuning in again. But if they keep this up? Who knows. I can only hope that the writers were saving all their good jokes and plot twists for an amazing episode four.

Will Jack Go Back?

Even if the most popular TV show about a plane crash didn’t have its season premiere last night, plane crashes (or almost-crashes) would still be at the front of the collective conscious right now, thanks to last week’s miraculous crash landing of Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. The American public is always drawn to the complex stories borne of a bumpy landing—real or imagined.

Millions of viewers tuned in last night to see the fate of the Oceanic Six, those left behind on the island, and those new kids who arrived via helicopter last season. The Season Five premiere wasted no time doling out a treat for the numbers-freaks in the Lost fanbase: an alarm clock goes off at 8:15—the same number of the flight that went down, Oceanic flight number 815. (And, according to the “Lostpedia,” 8:15 is also the time that Sayid kills someone in the Season Four finale.) Aha.

The hand that slaps the alarm clock’s off button belongs to Dr. Marvin Chang —the stoic, knowing host of those fuzzy, black-and-white, supposedly helpful Dharma Initiative instruction videos. Oh, and who is that among the Dharma station-construction-site hard-hat-wearing crew? It’s Daniel Faraday, the awkward Oxford physicist who seems to have the answer to all the crazy stuff happening with the time-shifts on the island “right now.”

As for more familiar faces, Jack, who once was the Captain Sully of Lost characters (the show’s hero, savior, picture of calm in a swirl of confusion) has long since had his denouement. And, paradoxically, it’s this downfall that has made him more of a hero in fans’ minds: something about his excessive, unflagging virtuosity made him less a fan favorite than, say, Locke  (whose morals sometimes were controversial) and Sawyer  (whose morals are only sometimes not controversial). But if this first episode is any indication, we’re rooting for Jack again, if only because in Season Four, we finally began to believe that Jack is human: even Jack can fall prey to the frailty of addiction, even Jack can make an embarrassment of himself in front of the woman he loves, even Jack can betray the better interests of those he cares about. Now that we’ve truly seen Jack’s lesser self, we are rooting for him to return to his better self.

When we first see Jack on the Season Five premiere, he’s the same bearded, beat-up, drugged-up wreck that he was in the Season Four finale. But it’s not long before he’s shaving the beard, becoming lucid, and seemingly heading in the direction of “doing the right thing”—albeit with his former nemesis, Benjamin Linus.

And, as has been happening with increasing frequency on Lost, the show is again veering into soap-operatic territory: John Locke (a.k.a. Jeremy Bentham) is dead—or is he? Ben Linus is the evil anti-hero—or is he? There are even hints that Jin might have survived the explosion on the freighter.

While Ben, Jack and Locke unsmilingly navigate these twists and turns, it sure is nice to get a reality check and some comic relief in the form of our favorite wisecracker, Sawyer, and the not-actually-a-stoner-but-sure-seems-like-one, Hurley—whose mere presence on the screen seems to summon laughter. Hats off to J.J. Abrams and crew for conjuring laughs in the moments that lead up to, include, and follow a pretty gross dishwasher-murder scene.

And no episode of Lost would be complete without the requisite science-geek, space-time-continuum metaphysical plot points that would have lost millions of Lost viewers long ago if it weren’t for some Lost characters themselves laughing at their utter implausibility. We can always count on Sawyer to be the voice of “you gotta be kidding me” reason on points such as the movement of the island and its “record-skipping” time disturbances. Without Sawyer to call B.S. on—and subsequently become convinced of —these seemingly preposterous notions, viewers like you and me would’ve changed the channel well before the finale of Season One.

If I was a betting woman (and believe me I am), I would bet a large sum that we’ll soon be seeing a reunion—if not an entirely happy one‚on the island. It’s simple math, really: at least half of the characters show signs of heading that way—Kate, Hurley, Ben, Jack—and over half of the episode’s screen time was devoted the island itself.

You wanna go double or nothing? I’ll see you next week.

"We Gotta Go Back, Kate!"

The time has come. January 2009 has loomed large for months; people all across the land have been looking forward to this moment with anticipation and hope for a new direction. Americans of varied races, creeds, ages, and beliefs are glued to their TV sets, rushing to Twitter, Tumblr and blog sites to spew their speculations, questions, and reactions.

Yes, my friends, the time has come: Lost is back.

Probably more than any other television show, Lost attracts a uniquely curious, insatiably voracious, unwaveringly devoted, and most of all, spoiler-wary viewer. (To wit, even Pop + Politics’ Managing editor, Tricia Romano, an avowed Lost devotee herself, wouldn’t allow me to send her this text till the very last minute.)

With that in mind, here’s a no-spoiler alert: you may safely read on. We’re merely here to apprise you of information that’s already out there — plus a little tease of what’s to come — without ruining all the fun.

As with all Lost content, many video clips have already gone viral: there are the two Season Five ”sneak peeks” as well as the trailer with the now-ubiquitous song by The Fray. And, there’s also something to be learned from the text at the Lost page at ABC.com.  So. Here’s what we (and by “we” I mean anyone with internet access) know:

• “They” are onto Kate and Aaron’s mother-son ruse. Some shadowy lawyers showed up at Kate’s door, demanding a blood test. She refused and abruptly took Aaron “on vacation.”
• The unlikely pairing of Jack Shephard and Benjamin Linus are desperate to recruit members of “the Oceanic 6″ to head back to “the island” with them.
• The “remaining survivors” are feeling the effects of the island’s space-time-continuum upheaval.

Without revealing too much more, I can confirm that the following elements are all present in the premiere:

• Plenty of bare-chested Sawyer sequences.
• Calm-voiced reasoning from Juliet.
  
• Numbers and figures that will have you rewinding your DVRs repeatedly.
• Flash-forwards.
• Flashbacks.
• Answered questions.
• Unanswered questions.
• A few new nicknames from Sawyer.
• At least one holy-sh**-no-way-that-can’t-be-possible revelation.
• Science-wonky explication that inspires much head-scratching.

As for whether Kate will respond to Jack’s now-famous plea: “We have to go back, Kate! We have to go back!” Well, that’s for me to know, and for you to find out.  Feel free to speculate in the comments section below. See you again the morning after the premiere.

Kate is on the run again! Oh happy day. (Of course, she didn’t pack a suitcase for Aaron, but he doesn’t need his own change of clothes, right?)

There are so many questions that need answering this season: How will the Oceanic Six transport Locke’s body back to the Island? Where did the Island go? Who knows Kate isn’t Aaron’s real mother? And what’s up with that smoke monster? (OK, so maybe we won’t learn the answer to that last one.)

Kate starts running again on Jan. 21.

September is season-premier month in TV-land, but the obsessive fans of ABC’s supernatural survival show Lost will have to wait until 2009 before more secrets of the Island are revealed. Fortunately, even during the doldrums of the show’s current hiatus, there’s plenty of information to seek and conspiracies to follow online, at sites like DarkUFO and DocArzt (my personal favorites). But while some viewers appreciate the nuances – and even humor – of the show, others have gone off the deep end with their devotion.

Fans with a healthy level of interest include those who weave an online web of episode recaps. You’ll find plenty of written summaries and podcast synopses, but as far as I know, there’s only one group doing musical recaps of Lost.

Jeff Curtin and Adam Schatz make up the band Previously On Lost. Each week during the season, they release a song to their MySpace page that riffs on themes from the episode. Past songs include “The Island Won’t Let You Die” and “Be My Constant.”

Curtin and Schatz sing high above their speaking range, and sunny keyboards and organs back up the duo. Schatz sees the band in a similar vein to Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

The music of Previously On Lost is strange to be sure, but that’s part of its appeal. The lyrics Curtin and Schatz write together are hilarious, and they also highlight the silliest elements of the show.

“There is no denying parts of the show are meant to be funny,” Schatz said in a phone interview with me. “Parts of the show are utterly ridiculous. Lost fans aren’t like people who obsess over Star Trek – everybody has a sense of humor.”

That sense of humor leads the band’s fans to appreciate lyrics in the song “Ballad of Sayid Jarrah,” which describe Sayid, a main character and hitman, carrying out a kill on the golf course:

He’s armed to the teeth, with a gun and effective hair spray
You may have picked the right club, But you still strolled into murder
on the fairway

Curtin and Schatz watch the episodes independently, taking detailed notes about possible topics to include for the upcoming week’s song.

“We ask, ‘Is this funny?’” Schatz said. “We try and take a theme from the episode and warp it.”

Previously On Lost is hoping to expand the band’s reach by touring in advance of the show’s fourth season’s DVD release in December. But even these two Lost recappers have a limit to their fandom.

“We are by no means super Lost fans,” Schatz said. “While we do love the show and love talking about the show, we don’t listen to the Lost official podcast. People [from other fansites] are contacting us now, and asking us to do stuff with them. We don’t know who all these people are.”

The fact that two guys who write their own Lost homage songs don’t even count themselves among the uber-faithful highlights the depth of fandom associated with the show. And not all of these die-hards know when to stop. There’s a difference between riffing off the show or exploring its influences and using Lost as an excuse to procrastinate on something only tangentially related to the show.

Between each season of Lost, ABC sponsors an interactive online game built on the fringes of the Lost universe. In this year’s game, which recently began, players can become new recruits for the Dharma Initiative, the slightly sinister, possible mastermind behind the crash survivors’ current fate. Pass eight tests and you may be invited to become a member.

These games help die-hards maintain their Lost buzz, but they serve no greater purpose. They aren’t canon, so secrets the games reveal won’t help players understand the mysteries of the show.

For this year’s class of online Dharma recruits, playing along is lots of work with very little payoff. But ABC wouldn’t keep supporting these games if some fans didn’t ask for them, which suggests that there are fans who are enthusiastic about consuming anything even tangentially related to the show. These are the same die-hards who rush out to buy the Portuguese version of Catch-22 when it appears in an episode to hunt for extra clues.

True, Lost is epic, full of mystery and the best show on network TV. But it’s also ridiculous – time-traveling polar bears, anyone? I suggest these die-hards laugh a little and listen to the music of Previously On Lost, which perfectly captures the show’s absurdity. Bonus: they’re guaranteed to get all the jokes.