Television

[barton]

Rumor has it the writers picked the name for that reason. 



BTW:  Good luck on your final mission, Jim Phelps. 

[Gintaras]

So far Miles hasn't been much of a tempest.  To this point he has seemed more a fool.  But, I wonder if there is anything that could be taken from Shakespeare's play?

[madupont]

MSNBC

http://www.slate.com/id/2247671/

Why Do We Tickle?
Rep. Eric Massa tickled his staff. Is that normal?

[barton]

It's hard not to think The Tempest is an influence on "Lost," as it has been on many sci-fi/fantasy pieces.

Flashforward will return on Thursday -- they are running one of those snippet shows after "Lost," if anyone wants to catch up with it.  I liked the supporting cast, including Kumar's old buddy, but was so disappointed in Joe Fiennes that I'm not sure if it's conceptual fascinations will bring me back.

[madupont]

Shonda Rhimes has decided to release Katherin Heigl from her Grey's Anatomy contract.  Free at last; free at last.

[barton]

Haven't seen her in her film outings, which I hope are better than her "Izzy" on G's A.   An implausible character.  As are about 75% of the characters on that nighttime soap.   It has its moments, and I looked in recently and noticed they had added Jack Bauer's love from "24."  Her, Sandra Oh, and a couple others rescue the show from the dungheap IMO.

[madupont]

I haven't watched it in  years but I take every opportunity that arrives to bad mouth K.Heigl for figuring out how to con Isaiah Washington into losing his job. 

Consequently, all of Sandra Oh's  episodes had to be rewritten to accomodate a change in casting since her character was due to marry  Washington's.  They gave her a new boyfriend who was suffering from that acute syndrome that veterans of Iraq and other Middle Eastern combat acquire and when she realized he might kill her, I thought that might be about enough.  It was pretty easy to come up with that plot line for the new beau who had been attached to a medical unit and knew exactly what to do when Oh had an emergency of her own physical well-being (which got that romance started); because in unreal tv life, he had previously played the Roman centurion on Rome(UK version) and lost it so bad he killed his Roman wife who like Caesar's is always above reproach.

[Earl]

I enjoyed last night's Lost more than any other this season so far. Sawyer's inner conflict and a naked-as-network-TV-will-allow Charlotte make for a fun episode.

So Sawyer is a cop in the flash sideways. Interesting. Which means that he was a cop earlier this season when he noticed the handcuffs on Kate at the airport and didn't turn her in. At first we were led to believe that he maybe liked the idea of helping a (hot) fellow outlaw.

And does Miles still have his "gift" in the flash sideways? His questions to Sawyer/Jim seemed knowing. "Why aren't you telling me the truth?", etc.

[harrie]

Yeah, I think we already know Sawyer's a baddish cop -- well, at least not a great cop -- so did he let Kate go because it wasn't his problem, or because there was a glimmer of recognition?  I really like the Miles/Sawyer chemistry, but sometimes I thought Miles was playing his spouse, not his partner.  It'll be interesting to see how the double-cross works out.  (Here, I'll do the other part, too:  Oh no, it won't. That's by far the least interesting thing going on.)

And how the hell did they get Tina Fey to guest star? (winky thing goes here)

[barton]

Ha ha!  Yeah, there was a resemblance.

Yeah, I loved that "hey, wait a sec..." moment when you realize Sawyer was a cop when he gave Kate's cuffs the blind eye.

Also, intrigued by Smoky's little therapy session with Kate and the whole "my mother was crazy" thing.  I suppose it was just more of his standard jive talking, but it made me wonder if there was some sliver of truth there, and what that would be all about.  Was Mom, like, a tornado?

[Cameo Appearance]

Which brings up a sort of contrast -- if NotLocke was being truthful with Kate -- most of this episode was about deception and cons (Det. Ford sneaking to Australia; catching Tina Fey -- okay, Sheila Kelley by playing a grifter [loved the safeword "LaFleur" by the way]; hiding all kinds of stuff from Det. Miles)...yet NotLocke is apparently playing it straight.  For his own benefit, of course, because that's what he does.  The hubby, a product of Catholic schools, noted that the biblical Jacob and Esau had a mother who might be considered less than all there, but I didn't press for details.

Though thinking about it, I guess NotLocke hasn't really lied outright to anyone; he just omits a few things, lets people draw the wrong conclusion without correcting them, etc. 

Charlotte going through Det. Ford's things -- why?  Just nosy?  Put up to it by Det. Miles?  Did I miss the reason for this ?

[Lhoffman]

Sawyer ignoring Kate's handcuffs....do we know that they share the same flash sideways?  Was the Sawyer who ignored the cuffs the Sawyer who is a cop, or is he just the Sawyer in Kate's flash?

When Sawyer chased down Kate at the end of the episode, there seemed to be a flash of recognition.   Is it because he recognized her from the episode where he ignored her cuffs, or because something in him remembered her from their time on the island? 

[barton]

My guess is that he remembers her from the airport elevator, and that the "flash-sideways" is all one timeline that resulted from the nuke and Flight 815 not crashing.   It looks to me like the flash-sideways characters stories are supposed to be consistent with each other, i.e. they are all in the same parallel universe.

Charlotte -- when I wasn't just being smitten (like Earl), it looked to me like she was just the nosy type.   But....ya never know.  If Miles was running his partner's credit card, then he could also be in cahoots with Charlotte.

[Earl]

Charlotte -- when I wasn't just being smitten (like Earl), it looked to me like she was just the nosy type.   But....ya never know.  If Miles was running his partner's credit card, then he could also be in cahoots with Charlotte.

I wondered about that, too. Charlotte and Miles were part of the team on Widmore's freighter. Who knows how that team was assembled? Maybe the two knew eachother before and one was referred by the other. Remember Miles' long ago comment to Charlotte about something like, "Yeah, because you'd have no reason to want to stay here."

Also, now that we know the details of Miles' particular gift, it seems as though he could be extremely useful to someone in the archaeology field. "Hey! Stop here! We just walked over some remains. Died 3,000 years ago by poison. From the bite of an asp. And he was afraid of snakes, too. Pity. Anyway, I'll take 50% of the cut from the museum. Have fun digging. Later." Flash-forward Miles mentioned something in passing about his dad working "at the museum." That could be how he met Charlotte.

Miles did "set up" Detective Sawyer on that blind date. There could have been an ulterior motive behind it.

I realize this is all a stretch and that it hasn't even been established whether flash-forward Miles has his gift or not, or whether he was even born on the island or not. His birth preceded the 1977 nuke blast, so it's possible.

By the way, I can't remember: Was Charlotte born on the island or did she come to it as a little girl?

[harrie]

I know Charlotte was on the island as a child, but I think she was born elsewhere.   Don't know why I think that, just a nagging thing in the back of my head. 

Speaking of nagging, I kind of think she was rifling through that drawer, looking for something, rather than just "ho-hum, does he keep anything interesting in here?"  But I do love those red herrings, and will try to (catch and) release this one.

Timothy Olyphant has a new show, based on an Elmore Leonard character, on FX - Justified.   We watched the opening scene Tuesday night (at 10); debated for a few minutes whether Olyphant's looks are fading or whether the character is supposed to be kind of washed up and bloaty; flipped over to catch the weather; and forgot to go back and check out the rest of the show.  The opening scene looked okay, he killed a guy right off the bat, I guess to establish character; but the writing seemed a little stilted (again, what I saw of it).   Will definitely try to catch the (entire) next ep and see  what it looks like.