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SPOILER-FREE SUMMARY:


"Lost" is back on its game, people.  This is a must-see episode.  Great stuff.


WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!!!


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"Lost" just blew my fucking mind.  Again.  Even though it looked like just another "poor Hurley" episode, this week's "Lost" even managed to top last week's spectacular episode.  Hurley starts off the episode by asking Libby at her grave why she never comes to speak to him like the other dead people.  Not long after that, Ilana blows herself up with dynamite from the Black Rock and, at the behest of Michael, Hurley blows up the entire ship so no more dynamite can be used.  In the side-verse, successful entrepreneur Hurley meets up with side-verse Libby who somehow remembers him from the island.  Desmond shows up to prod Hurley into pursuing Libby and, in a weird parallel of their date on the island, Hurley suddenly has memories of the island, too, after Libby kisses him.  Meanwhile, back in the Lost-verse, Sayid delivers Desmond to the Locke-ness monster who promptly throws him down a well.  Back in the side-verse, Desmond runs his car over Locke in the school parking lot and drives away.


It's pretty clear now that the two universes are connected--but how and why are still big questions.  I'm loving the side-verse Desmond now, as he's becoming this all-knowing Jacob sort of figure, meddling with everyone's lives and apparently causing them to remember the island.  Why did he run over Locke, though?  I have a theory and we'll see how it pans out, but I'm guessing that whatever "loophole" the Man in Black used to change himself into Locke's doppelganger, it involves taking possession or switching forms with the Locke in the side-verse.  Therefore, Desmond's attack is an attempt to hurt and/or kill the Locke-ness monster in the Lost-verse.  I could be wrong--there are several holes in that theory--but I'm sticking with that for now.


I have one minor gripe with the episode and it's another example of the characters not acting like they have any common sense.  When Hurley tells the group that Jacob is standing among them and he has told Hurley they must speak with Locke, Richard challenges Hurley to prove it by telling him to ask Jacob what the island is.  Richard says something to the effect of, "A while back, Jacob told me what the island is.  If he's really here, ask him to tell you what it is."  Hurley's lying, of course, so he simply tells Richard that he doesn't have to prove anything to him.  Here's the thing, though--didn't anybody think to then say, "So, uh...Richard, now that that's settled, WHAT EXACTLY IS THE ISLAND ANYWAY?"  Holy Christ--these people's entire lives have been continually ruined by this fucking island for years now and they have a golden opportunity to find out what it is and THEY DON'T ASK?!  That's crazy!


Speaking of "what the fuck is the island", I found it interesting that Michael tells Hurley that the whispers in the forest are the voices of the spirits who are trapped on the island and aren't ready to move on.  What does that mean?  Is the island some kind of limbo between life and death?  This is getting all kinds of interesting...

I've had a couple of people ask me recently which shows I actually watch since I obviously don't preview or recap every genre show on TV.  So let me break it down for you:


Genre Shows That I DO Watch


"Caprica"
I loved "Battlestar Galactica" (up until the last half of the final season & the atrocious series finale) so I'm continuing to watch "Caprica" week after week.  The show is really hit-or-miss with me, though, and I'm constantly telling myself to stop watching.


"Fringe"
I love, love, love this show--it's one of my favorites.  Unfortunately, I ended up missing a few episodes earlier this season and, since it's not available on-demand, I still haven't caught up.  I'm gonna try and remedy that this summer with reruns and DVDs.


"The Vampire Diaries"
Technically, my Twilight-crazed wife watches this show but I happen to be in the room most of the time.  I don't really care for it but since I've actually seen more episodes than I've missed, I suppose it belongs on this list.


"Heroes"
I almost gave up on "Heroes" after season 3.  I think we can all agree that the show has gone downhill since the end of season 1; however, I kinda liked season 4.  Things were toned back a bit and some of the charm was back.  I'm interested to see what will happen in season 5 after Claire's big reveal.


"Legend of the Seeker"
I started to watch this show and ended up quitting on it because I thought it was just cheesy.  Lo and behold, my wife decided she loved it so she took the time to Netflix the remaining episodes.  We're still behind on most of season 2 and she's seen more of them than I have but I'd call myself a fan.  It's still cheesy but it's the kind of cheese that I like.  (Plus, Jolene Blalock is in the cast now!)


"Lost"
What can I say that hasn't already been said?  The cream of the crop, the best of the best--if it weren't for this show, then half of the other shows on this list wouldn't exist.


"Sanctuary"
This is one of my absolute favorite shows.  I was never that impressed by the commercials but I happened to be home from work on the day of the season 2 premiere and SyFy was running an all-day marathon of season 1.  I got completely caught up and was hooked.  If you aren't watching "Sanctuary", trust me, you don't know what you're missing. (Oddly enough, the only episode SyFy didn't show during the marathon was the series premiere so that's the ONLY episode I haven't seen).


"Stargate Universe"
"Stargate" was one franchise that I never got into, mainly because of my weird obsessive-compulsive need to watch episodes in order.  Occasionally, I would catch an "SG-1" rerun in syndication and I always liked it but I refused to start watching week-after-week until I was able to catch up from the beginning.  Then, before I knew it, there were 10 seasons of "SG-1", two direct-to-DVD movies, five seasons of "Atlantis", and "Universe" was in pre-production!  I quickly realized that "Universe" would have no firm ties to existing mythology so I took that as a starting point, and I'm glad I did.  This is one of the most underrated shows on TV right now--yes, it owes a lot of credit to "Battlestar Galactica" but it's far from being the same show.  (Oh, and for the record, I'm halfway through season 3 of "SG-1" now).


"V"
When I was a kid, the original "V" scared the shit out of me.  The only thing I remember about it was the bloody "V" on the wall and something about lizard people.  That was enough for me to give the remake a try. It's only been on for a few episodes and it's really not bad.  It's not phenomenal either but I'm continuing to stick with it.


"Flashforward"
I really can't stand this show anymore but I'm convinced it's going to be cancelled and I'm still watching because I want to see what's going on before it ends.  The pilot episode was phenomenal but it was filmed with an entirely different writing staff and show-runner.  So starting with episode 2, the show had an entirely different tone and direction.  Ugh...could've been a great show.  Oh well.


Genre Shows That I DON'T Watch


"Doctor Who"
I'm actually a big fan of the old "Doctor Who", thanks to my buddy Joel.  I've seen quite a few episodes from all 7 original doctors, I have bootlegs of the FOX "Doctor Who" TV movie on both VHS and DVD, and I've read several of the 8th Doctor novels.  I just never took the time to get into the new show.  I've seen about half of the first season with Christopher Eccleston but, again, due to my obsessive need to watch things in order, I never watched any of the David Tennant episodes.  Catching up is on my to-do list (all of the seasons are available for instant viewing on Netflix) but in the meantime, I think I'll go ahead and watch the new series with Matt Smith.  Seems like it should be a good jumping-on point.


"Eureka"
This one just never looked that great to me until recently but I feel like it's too late to jump in now.  I may play catch-up at some point.


"The Ghost Whisperer"
The only reason I would even consider watching this show would be to see J-Love's massive boobs jiggle around but I have the internet for that.  And now that Jamie Kennedy is in the cast, you won't see me going anywhere near this nightmare.


"Medium"
No.  Just...no.


"Supernatural"
This show just looked stupid to me but I've heard some good things about it.  The whole Friday the 13th episode they tried to do a few seasons ago sounded like a cool idea but unfortunately it never came to fruition.  Unless someone convinces me otherwise, I'm gonna continue to pass on this one.


"Smallville"
As I've said before, I was always more into Marvel, not DC, but Superman is one character that I do know a little about.  Still, when this show premiered, it just looked like a massive raping of the Superman mythos and I couldn't be privy to that.  Ten seasons later and I gather that it actually turned out pretty well.  I'll never know--that's way too much to catch up on.


"Being Human"
"Doctor Who" is about all the cheesy British CGI I can handle but I've heard good things about this one.  SyFy is developing an American version so maybe I'll watch if it translates well.


"Merlin"
Another iconic character having his mythos raped week after week--just doesn't appeal to me.


"Warehouse 13"
I watched the series premiere of this show and didn't like it at all.  I know people who swear by it now so maybe I gave up too early.


"True Blood"
I don't have HBO or Showtime so it's hard to keep up with their shows.  With that said, "True Blood" is a show that I desperately want to see so I'm planning to get caught up very soon.


That's all of the current shows that I could think of.  Did I miss any?

SPOILER-FREE SUMMARY:


More questions and no answers but still one the series' best episodes.


WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!!!


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It's weird how last week's episode provided no answers whatsoever and was absolutely terrible yet this week's episode also delivers no answers and manages to be one of the series' best.  Desmond is back, brought to the island by Charles Widmore after being shot by Ben.  Widmore subjects Desmond to a huge electromagnetic shock to see if he can survive a second time.  In the Sideverse, Desmond works for Widmore, has no idea who Penny is, and is tasked with delivering one Charlie Pace to a concert with Widmore's son, Daniel.


Charlie tells Desmond how his life changed when he suddenly fell in love with a mysterious blonde woman while choking on a bag of heroin and now wants to die.  When he yanks the steering wheel and drives the car into the water, the scene bears an uncanny resemblance to Charlie's drowning death in the Lostverse.  So much so that Desmond actually starts to see flashes from the Lostverse, including Charlie's hand with the words "Not Penny's Boat" written on it.  Widmore is married to Eloise Hawking in the Sideverse and when Desmond meets her in person to apologize for not delivering Charlie to the concert, she tells him, "Someone has affected the way you see things," says it's a "violation" and, "You're not ready yet, Desmond."


As he leaves, he is met by Daniel Farraday (known as Daniel Widmore in the Sideverse) who talks to him about true love, shows him a notebook with advanced equations that Daniel shouldn't have known how to write, and tells him where to find Penny.  Back in the Lostverse, Desmond is awakened after the experiment and is suddenly eager to help Widmore.  Sayid shows up, though, and takes out all of Widmore's crew.  Desmond leaves with Sayid.


Finally, back in the Sideverse, Desmond does meet Penny and they make plans for an informal date.  Desmond then makes arrangements to have the flight manifest from Oceanic 815 delivered to him.  Why?  Because he has wants "to show them something".


Damn, what a good episode!  Like I said, no real answers but the questions are becoming more intriguing.  It seems this Sideverse may have a purpose after all.  I was beginning to suspect it was just a filler device by the writers but it seems this alternate reality does exist and it may be of significance to the Lostverse.  I still want to know what the hell Widmore wants with Jin and why he suddenly seems to be a good guy but with only a handful of episodes left, for once I know those answers are coming.

SPOILER-FREE SUMMARY:


Nothing happened.


WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!


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No, seriously--nothing happened.  You could've missed this episode, picked up next week, and not have batted an eye.  It's almost like the producers/writers plotted out how to end the series, figured out they had one extra hour, and said, "Here, let's just fill it with a Sun/Jin episode".  You find out in the side-verse how Jin ended up locked up in that restaurant (and no, it's not compelling at all) and you find out absolutely nothing on the island.


Okay, we did find out that Desmond was who Widmore had hiding in that submarine room but that was literally the very end of the episode so, like I said before, you could've missed this one completely and not have to worry about catching up.


By the way, while we're on the topic of ABC shows, I'm gonna shoot for a "Flashforward" and a "V" recap this week, too...just didn't around to it last week.

At long last, the untold story of Richard Alpert is, well...told.  But what the hell does it all mean?  Let's break it down.


WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD


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It turns out that "Richard" Alpert is actually Ricardo Alpert, a slave from the Canary Islands whose ship, the Black Rock (!), crashed on the island in the 1800's, destroying the three-toed statue in the process.  This was, by far, the best episode of "Lost" this season and maybe even last season, as well.  I agree with some reviewers who say it was predictable; I mean, we had pieced together most of these clues before this episode but the execution of the episode was great and Nestor Carbonell did a bang-up job with the lovelorn Ricardo/Richard.


A lot more was revealed between Jacob and his adversary but at the same time, it really wasn't.  I'm getting the impression that the island itself is a type of prison for the Man in Black and that may be its sole (or primary) purpose.  But what or WHO is the Man in Black?  What happened to his body?  I'm sure we'll find out soon but I'm awfully anxious to find out now.


The LA Times has a great article up talking about the episode and several of their readers from the Canary Islands point out that Tenerife is home to the deadliest plane crash in aviation history and a long-standing legend about the mysterious 8th island of San Borondon, which vanishes and can move position in the ocean. Were the "Lost" producers trying to steer us toward this legend or is it just coincidence?  I don't know yet but you can read more about San Borondon here, if you're interested.


Next Week: "The Package"


P.S. Just as I was finishing up this post, Ain't Cool News posted a story indicating that there will be a live "Lost" event in theaters on May 20th, 3 days before the series finale.  Sounds cool.  Also, the finale now has a name: "The End".