"Exposé"

Who are Nikki and Paulo? Well now we know and I guess I feel a little bad about hating them up until now, although the writers/producers didn't really give us a reason to like them before.

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Nikki and Paulo are "dead" from the get go. Or so we thought. The camera zoomed in on one of their "dead" faces before every flashback which made me think that it was a little weird for dead people to be having flashbacks. Of course as we learned in the final moments of the episode, they were alive all along and probably terrified! In their island flashbacks I can honestly say that I liked the effort that was made to insert them into specific parts of the island stories from the first season. I really liked how seamless their inclusion was in the original plane crash aftermath scene as well as getting the bit with them talking to Ethan. It was of course nice to see Boone and Shannon again even if it was so briefly but it was even more of a surprise to see Dr. Arzt! I never expected to see him in any flashbacks.

There was not much overall story progression but I didn't really expect much considering that there was no "Previously On LOST" intro. The last time that happened was in "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead" and as fun as that episode was, there were no new answers. The one nugget that we did get about The Others came when Paulo was hiding his stolen diamonds in the Pearl Station. We saw Ben and Juliet (in tattered clothes and no shoes by the way!) using the Pearl monitors to see Jack in the Swan Station. It was a bit contrived, but it showed that Ben made the decision to get captured...leading me to continue my mistrust of Danielle and speculating on her involvement with Ben in the past and the present.

So Nikki and Paulo killed a TV producer in Australia for his diamonds but not before Nikki guest starred on his TV show, "Exposé," as a stripper/crimefighter. She definitely had that stripper part down pretty well! I really liked the line she told the producer about how she was a guest star on his show and people expected her to die. It's nice to see that everyone had a sense of humor about these characters. It was also wonderful to see Billy Dee Williams as the guy as The Cobra! Great guest star!

When Paulo was in the Pearl by himself, he found one of the walkie talkies The Others used leading Sawyer to mistakenly assume that Nikki and Paulo were working with The Others. Do you think that walkie talkie might be important later in the season? I do. Charlie confessed to Sun about his and Sawyer's involvement in her "kidnapping" in season two. It was nice to see Charlie and Sawyer come clean, but I'm afraid that this is what might lead to Charlie's inevitable death. Sun even suggested as much to Sawyer.

Nice use of the Medusa Spider on Paulo but the Black Smoke would have none of it! Smokey made sure to have plenty of the same spiders available to put Nikki in the same boat for eight hours. The eight hours were winding down just as Sawyer and Charlie were shoveling sand into the new graves. That was a pretty dark ending for a fairly light episode. Seeing Nikki's eyes open just as that shovel full of sand covered her face was very unsettling.

Alas poor Nikki and Paulo, we hardly knew ye. But island life goes on. Unfortunately we will have to wait a few more weeks before we get any sort of continuation of the Locke/Anthony Cooper storyline. Hopefully next week we'll get back to the overarching storyline that I am most interested in.

Next Week on LOST:

Just Not Enough This Time

The Aggies played hard tonight, but came up just two points short of beating Memphis. This team has come a helluva long way since Billy Gillispie took over coaching duties just three years ago. It was a great year, even better than the last. Things will keep improving. Gig 'Em!

"The Man From Tallahassee"

So we finally got the answer to one of LOST's oldest questions tonight. I've had a feeling for a while now about who was involved in the answer. And who is "the man from Tallahassee?" After finding out about the name of the episode last week, I had a feeling who that man might be and was happy to see that my theory was correct.

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So after a couple of excellent episodes, I was expecting another great one especially considering that the previews promised that we would learn how Locke ended up in a wheelchair. It was good, but I wouldn't classify it as great. Maybe it's because I found some of the major plot points to be predictable but I still liked it and I really enjoyed how it continued to progress the story.

After the shock of seeing Jack playing football with Tom last week, we learned that he hasn't been brainwashed, but rather is just playing along because Ben is keeping his promise of letting Jack and Juliette leave the island the very next day. By the way, someone on the Lost Blog pointed out that Jack had a new tattoo visible while playing football and sure enough it was clearly visible in tonight's episode. I guess that means we can expect another Jack's tattoo flashback again in the future. Yippee!

Locke's destructive motives continued as he successfully tracks down the submarine and destroys it just before Jack and Juliette are about to leave the island. His reasons seem to be that he really doesn't want to leave the island, but also that he wants to level the playing field with the Others. Right now, he thinks that they are cheating because of their access to the comforts of home.

Ben has some interesting things to tell Locke before he goes on his destructive quest. He also asks a few of his own. He knows that Locke was paralyzed before the crash and that he was miraculously healed after the crash. Ben asks how it happened and wonders why he himself has not been healed. It seems, for now at least, that there are secrets of the island that even Ben does not know. Ben talks about how he was born on the island but most of the Others were not. They were recruited and although they love the island, some of them want to be able to leave. Ben knows that Locke doesn't want to leave the island for fear of a return to his wheelchair and bargains with him not to destroy the sub. He speaks of a large box on the island that can give you anything that you can imagine. Locke wins the best line of the episode with, "I hope that box is big enough to imagine yourself up a new submarine."

It came as no surprise to me that Locke's father caused the "accident" that paralyzed him. Locke confronted him to stop him from conning someone else and Locke's father pushed him out of a window eight stories up. It is amazing that Locke even survived at all let alone only ended up paralyzed. How is this important to island events? Well it turns out that Ben has Locke's father tied up on the island and reveals it to Locke at the end of the episode! So did Ben conjure up Locke's father from the mysterious magic box on the island or is this the real Anthony Cooper? Is the box some sort of transporter? Will killing Cooper make Locke less angry or better yet an Other? Is Locke's father the real Sawyer? So many new questions in addition to the old one of why Locke isn't paralyzed anymore. I look forward to how all this will be addressed.

Next Week on LOST:

Aggies Get Their Sweet Sixteen

The Texas A&M Men's Basketball team defeated the sixth-seeded Louisville Cardinals this afternoon to advance to the NCAA tournament Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1980!
The Aggies played hard and had to contend with the Louisville "home crowd" but were able to persevere and hold on for the win by a score of 72-69. Now the Aggies get "home court" as they move on to the third round of the South bracket in San Antonio, TX to face the winner of the Nevada vs. Memphis game. Congrats to the guys for this big day for Aggie Basketball. Gig Em' and BTHO whoever they play!

Aggies Move To Round Two

The Texas A&M Men's Basketball team defeated Penn today to move to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. The Aggies struggled a little while trying not to be upset by the lower seeded team but pulled together to claim the sixteen-point victory. The Aggies will next face the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday a mere seventy miles from their home court. The virtual home court advantage for the Cardinals will probably make the game tough for the Aggies, but they are a strong team who should put a good fight. Gig Em' Ags! BTHO Louisville!

"Par Avion"

Wow! Three great episodes of LOST in a row! This second part of the season started really strong with "Not In Portland" but then, for me, it kind of lagged with "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and "Stranger In A Strange Land," but since we've gotten back to the beach, this season has gotten very strong! And it doesn't appear to be stopping!! Next week looks to include yet another big reveal to a very old question.

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So first of all, there was really no surprise to me, or anyone watching with me, when Claire's father was revealed to be Christian Shephard. And the fact that she never asked his name ties up the loose end of why she didn't realize that she was Jack's half-sister when they first met on the island.

Desmond was back giving Charlie all those menacing looks and cryptic advice and that made me laugh; not so much at Charlie's imminent demise, but rather at the awkwardness of Desmond's attempts to help. Plus the line from Claire asking Charlie to get some knives was well timed. Charlie didn't need Desmond to tell him that was a bad idea.

Mikhail didn't last long in this episode but we did get a little more information before he was needlessly pushed to his death by Locke. He confirmed that The Others know a hell of a lot about the Losties and that most of the Losties aren't worthy of knowing or understanding the big secret of the island because they are all flawed...they weren't on The List. He knew everything about Sayid, Kate and Locke, but he almost revealed too much. Just before being cut off by Rousseau's discovery of the security fence, he said "I must be confused because the John Locke I know is para..." Was he about to say paralyzed? Roxi thinks so and after watching a second time, I have to agree. He also revealed that Ben is not the man that brought him and all of "his people" to the island. I tend to think that it was Jacob...whoever that is. Sadly that is all the information we got out of Mikhail before Locke pushed him into the sonic security fence that killed him.

I used to think Locke was a bad ass but I'm really starting to think he is just a normal guy who got screwed over one too many times in his past and he just snapped. I guess we can look forward to getting some of that story next week. But I digress. The point is that Locke has no intention of leaving the island and he seems motivated to do everything he can to prevent the Losties' rescue. I think he still has Henry Gale in his head from the time in the Swan Station that Gale told him he was caught trying to bring Locke back to be with The Others. I don't know if we should expect to see Locke becoming an Other or if he is just sick of getting jerked around by people he thinks he can trust. Only time will tell, but it looks like we may get a little of the story next week.

Claire's idea of getting rescued is not bad. It still won't work because most of the Losties don't realize that the island is still hidden from the real world. But it made for a good story, bringing her back into the mix. But the crowning moment of this episode was the final scene before the credits. The image of Jack appearing to be running from The Others barracks only to turn around at the last second and catch a football. FREAKIN' BRILLIANT!!!! To see him laughing and throw it back to Tom was just icing on the cake! This is why LOST rocks! I have no idea where is this is all going, but I am really excited about the ride!

Next Week on LOST:

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Texas A&M Keeps Getting Better At Basketball

The Texas Aggie basketball team earned the number 3 seed in the South bracket of the NCAA tournament. I've never been much of a basketball fan, but as an Aggie, I like to see teams succeed in their respective sports. The Aggies will face 14 seed Penn in the first round of play. Gig 'Em Ags! BTHO Penn!

"Enter 77"

What really was the DHARMA Initiative? Are The Others what's left since it ended? How did/do they communicate with the outside world? In true LOST fashion, we may have learned the answers to some of these questions.

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Last week's preview promised that we would see Mr. Eyepatch and sure enough the episode delivered from the get go. His name is Mikhail and he first claimed to be the last living member of the DHARMA Initiative. He said he had been on the island for eleven years and joined by answering a newspaper ad about"saving the world." Apparently, the island was inhabited by "the hostiles," presumably The Others, before DHARMA ever arrived. DHARMA attempted to purge the island of "the hostiles" but was destroyed in the process. Mikhail claims to have survived by not taking part in the war. Now he lives in the Flame, the inoperable communications station. Of course we found out not long after that Mikhail is one of The Others and that everything he said could very well be lies. He claimed that his only lie was that he was never a member of DHARMA. I think that Ryan at The Transmission has the best summary/theory of the history between DHARMA and The Others.

As Roxi always tells me, we'll find out about character/story "x" when we don't care to know any more. Sure enough, I had pretty much written Ms. Klugh off and wouldn't you know she showed up!?! Of course she didn't last long and certainly didn't give any clue as to her purpose. But I guess I should expect that by now.

The other big revelation was that the communications satellite was inoperable, but Locke was able to access other options in the computer, namely the self-destruct command. Lucky for them (and us) Sayid found a map to the Barracks (most likely the little village from the third season premiere). Does Locke want to be rescued? Roxi and I were talking about this over dinner and I don't think he does. I was reminded by the Jay & Jack Podcast that Locke was the one that sabotaged Sayid's attempt to use the radio from the plane in Season One and of course there is that little issue of his handicap back in the outside world. Maybe his execution of 77 was not as accidental or bumbling as it seems...

All in all, this was a good episode. I only hope that this doesn't make the writers get stingy with mythology.

Next Week on LOST:

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What is the connection between two of the Losties? My guess is that Jack and Claire are half-brother and -sister...but that seems too obvious doesn't it?