"Lost" Diary -- Not in Portland

Daniel from TMZ here, welcome back to the "Lost" Diary. Did you miss me? More importantly, did you miss "Lost?"

Flashback to Tuesday afternoon, 2:00 PM. My co-worker, Evan, asked me, "Do you know what happens in 24 hours?" "No," I said. "It'll be eight hours until 'Lost.'"

"Lost" is back, baby!

For all you "Lost" Diary newbies, here's how it goes. I gather with a group of friends watching "Lost," writing what happens on the show as it happens, and throwing in my two cents along the way.

I'm gathered tonight with Ari (our host), Lauren (the "Lost" Nazi), and Matt (no clever title). Let's roll:

10:00 -- We open with Juliet crying on the beach. Lauren immediately says, "I don't want to see a backstory on this bitch." Nice. Juliet then heads into one of the bunkers, passing Ethan in the hall, to check on a patient (played by Robin Weigert from "Deadwood"). I am guessing she has that strange island illness.



10:02 -- "Are you saying that because you don't think it's going to work, or because you're afraid he'll find out." -- Juliet's sister, Rachel. "He" is probably Henry Gale.

Note: a few "Lost" rules:

1. I always call Ben by his "real" name: Henry Gale. It just sounds cooler.
2. Juliet is evil. Evil, evil, evil.
3. The day after the episode where Charlie dies, party at my house.

10:03 -- Whoa, they're not on the island at all -- it's Miami. I already love this episode.

10:04 -- Back to the present, and Jack is yelling at Kate again. Run!!! Sawyer and Kate hand out a little ass-beating before they leave. Seems only fair.

10:05 -- It's Jack vs. Juliet in the operating room, and she is already acting like the evil woman I know she is. "If you have to, kill them!" she says.

10:07 -- The difference between past Juliet and present Juliet? Past Juliet has terrible hair. And somehow she looks older; like a cross between Bonnie Raitt and Kyra Sedgwick.

10:08 -- Her last name is Burke, she steals drugs, and she used to be married to the bad guy from season one of "24."

10:10 -- Jack just told Mr. Friendly about how Juliet asked him to kill Henry Gale. Nice play. I liked Mr. Friendly better when he had the fake beard.

10:12 -- A gunfight has broken out between the Others and Kate and Sawyer. "Lost" isn't really a gunfight kind of show.

10:13 -- Sawyer just ran out of bullets, which is good. I hate when movies and television shows have guys just firing shots and never having to reload -- that's not realistic. Of course, this show has a black smoke monster, and that's not realistic either. I digress.

10:14 -- Alex saves the day with her trusty slingshot, drawing laughs from the room. Dennis the Menace would be proud.

10:15 -- Henry Gale is awake, barely, and he spoke two very simple sentences, and yet completely freaked the hell out of me. Who's better than Henry Gale? Is it wrong that I am rooting for him?

10:18 -- Whatever Juliet is doing with her sister, her ex is on to it. What is she doing exactly? That is the question.

10:20 -- The fact that Ben is awake seems to have put the fear of God in Juliet. Worth noting.

10:22 -- OK, seriously, Henry Gale is strapped down to a table, in the middle of a spinal surgery and apparently 40 minutes from death, and I am still scared every time he comes on screen. "One gentleman to another," he tells Jack. Ahhhh!!!!! He scares the HELL out of me.

10:23 -- What are Henry and Juliet talking about? Watching them talk, without being able to hear what they are saying, is incredibly creepy. And it's really only this creepy because it's them.

10:24 -- "I'm Tom, by the way." -- Mr. Friendly. Great line. "They've got history," he says. I'd love to know what he means by that.

10:25 -- So Juliet is going to help Sawyer and Kate escape. Should be interesting.

10:28 -- Juliet is being wooed for some kind of job in Portland. And apparently she can impregnate male mice. We all have talents.

10:30 -- Juliet just discovered Alex is helping Sawyer and Kate escape. This might not end well for Alex.

10:31 -- Random celeb cameo alert!!! It's Rob McElhenney from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" as an Other.

10:32 -- Alex's dad is alive and it's Henry Gale. Wait, I am confused. Danielle was the one who caught Henry Gale in her trap last season. Shouldn't she have recognized him if he's the father of her child? Unless Alex only thinks Henry is her dad.

10:33 -- Sawyer called it the "Wookie Prisoner Trick." Ha!

10:34 -- Poor Karl is undergoing some weird torture. One of the screens read: "God loves you as He loved Jacob." The Others have mentioned a "Jacob" before. Coincidence?

10:40 -- Apparently Juliet got her sister pregnant through some kind of shot. She did tell Jack she was a fertility doctor, so I guess that makes sense.

10:41 -- I'm sorry, what just happened? Did Juliet's ex just get hit by a bus?

10:42 -- And now Jack is about to kill Henry, this time by accident. If Henry dies, so help me God...

10:43 -- Sawyer vs Pickett. Time for the main event.

10:44 -- Or not. Told you, Juliet is evil.

10:47 -- Juliet won't let Alex leave the island. "We both know your father," Juliet says. That line sounded like it could have been pulled straight from "According to Jim." Except on "Lost" it's much creepier.

10:49 -- Kate tells Jack "the fear story" just as Jack saves Henry. Fantastic scene.

10:52 -- The tone of the episode is slowing down so much, you know they are just going to hit you over the head with something crazy very shortly.

10:54 -- Jack is looking down at Henry Gale and tells Juliet that the tumor is gone. Jack wants to know what Henry said to her in that scene from before. Yeah, you and about 16 million people.

10:55 -- It's Ethan again. OH MY GOD!!!! How did I not see this coming??! Juliet said to the Portland guy, "Hey I wish my ex would get hit by a bus" and then HE GOT RUN OVER BY A BUS!!! How could I have missed that????!!!

10:56 -- Juliet just figured it out. And Mr. Alpert knows about Juliet's sister being pregnant.

10:57 -- "Actually, we're not quite in Portland." -- Best. Line. Ever. Welcome to the Hanso Foundation.

10:58 -- So, Ben told Juliet that if she helped him live, Ben would let her go home. Apparently, however bad ass Juliet is, she doesn't have the power to get off the island and doesn't want to be there either.

As always, I like to recap by asking, "What did we learn?" Here we go...

While Henry says he's been on the island his whole life, Juliet has not ... And apparently she wants out ... Alex thinks Henry is her father ... Juliet is afraid of Henry ... Juliet has changed a lot since she got to the island.

When Jack was asking about what Henry said to Juliet, he said, "After all I have been through, you owe me." Lauren quipped, "That's how I feel about the producers of the show." Sums up the opinion of most "Lost" viewers quite well I think.

I don't think tonight's episode was what a lot of people were looking for, but I loved it. I give the episode a solid B -- I enjoyed Juliet's flashbacks, I am glad at least Sawyer and Kate are off the island, and I am really looking forward to Juliet vs. Henry now that he's out of surgery. Plus, Charlie wasn't in it, so that's always good.

And now I leave the rest of the column to you and your comments. I always read them and usually use a few of them to kick off the next week's diary. So here's my question to you this week: If you could have next week's episode answer one "Lost" mystery, which would it be?

See you next week.

Filed under: TV, Lost

Reader Comments

(Page 4 of 7)Previous 15 Comments | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

46. I want to know when are Paulo and Nikki going to die? It won't be soon enought for me!

Posted at 4:28PM on Feb 8th 2007 by Lost was better the first season!

47. If the others are located on an island two miles off and you can see the island that the losties are on. Why haven't the losties seen that there was another island close by theirs? They have traveled around the island. And if you told a potential employer that you told that you couldn't work for them and that it was because your ex would not allow it. You wished they would get hit by a bus. The next the you know your ex is hit by the bus, you're in the morgue and the potential employer and his buddy show up trying to still get you to accept the job....um. RUN

Posted at 4:42PM on Feb 8th 2007 by Cheryl

48. i wanna know what the whole Hatch circuit is. with cameras watching all sorts of activites, each one saying the other is just a psycological experiment, where does the cycle end? i know people want to believe its a dead end, but i feel like there is more to that, otherwise how would people on the mainland (Mr. Alpert) be able to keep up with The Others (remember Ben has been there his whole life with "the project" while Juliet was recruited)?

also, what is the real reason for all the kids? its something easy to speculate, but from watching this show for so long, speculations usually are proven wrong.

Posted at 4:44PM on Feb 8th 2007 by sarah

49. But Danielle DID recognize Henry Gale/Ben! Don't you remember? After she shot Ben in the back after she caught him in her trap, she told Jack "He is an other. Whatever he says he is lying. He IS an other." I remember being creeped out about it.

Posted at 4:46PM on Feb 8th 2007 by Larissa

50. During the lost survivor guide the producers stressed how EXTRAordinary the island is.... like extra sensory perception perhaps?

Juliet says 'unless he is hit by a bus' for the ex husband - lo and behold he is hit by a bus! Watching the scene - it is very improbable that the hanso foundation was able to set that up.

Juliet tells Jack that he can "nick an artery or something" when operating on Ben and it again it happened! I think Juliet has certain powers of mental persuasion, which is the REAL reason the Hanso foundation was after her.

I can't wait to see what special 'talents' the others have.

Very happy with the episode!!!

Posted at 4:55PM on Feb 8th 2007 by glee

51. "And the day Sawyer dies, party at my place. I hate people who can't call other people by name but instead are always calling them by snide little nicknames. People like that hang out on message boards under obscure handles they choose to show everybody else how clever they are.

Posted at 2:50PM on Feb 8th 2007 by No Longer A Lost Fan"

you mean like no longer a lost fan ;)

Why on earth would anyone bother posting such a lengthy message for as show they don't like? Seems odd to me but I guess you like being unhappy?

Posted at 5:02PM on Feb 8th 2007 by glee

52. I had heard on the radio today-that if you count backwards the number of days Juliet said she had been on the island-it takes you to Spetember 11, 2001. Can someone else please confirm...

Aloha,
Nalani

Posted at 5:15PM on Feb 8th 2007 by Nalani

53. I'd like to know about Juliet's wishing that her ex-husband was dead and then it being so. It's like she read about "The Secret." I'd like to know if it was just a coincidence or if the Hanso group are all powerful, messengers sent from heaven (or hell.) I don't think the resolution will be at all satisfying, but still curious.

Posted at 5:34PM on Feb 8th 2007 by Luc

54. "My name is Tom by the way" - best line of the night! haha!

next week the mystery i would want solved most is what the f that balck smoke monster is! but the chances of that are about the as finding out why lock isn't paralyzed when he's on the island, when will we ever get these answers!!!!??!!

Posted at 5:38PM on Feb 8th 2007 by svetlana

55. In reply to "just sayin is all" .......

Yeah, thanks for reminding us about the "yeah, but now ever since the sky turned purple..." and then didn't finish ....

this was said by Mr. Friendly to Jack right before the real artery cut - but I too can't remember how this came about or where it was possibly leading

Posted at 5:47PM on Feb 8th 2007 by Manic Mim

56. First time reading the diary--I love it! Word on Charlie. Bleah.

Henry Gale sounds better than Ben because it's a clever Wizard of Oz reference.

I think Sawyer has been previously written as a caring, and more importantly FOCUSED, enough person not to call a dying teenager by a smart alecky nickname. Felt a little off.

I want to know more about the brainwashing. My little brain cannot handle all the big stories, so it has seized on only the most recent mystery; for the love of god, I demand an explanation for at least one thing.

Posted at 5:51PM on Feb 8th 2007 by i AM in portland

57. what the hell happened to the hatch. is it still operational? will the island have another meltdown? AND WHY THE HELL DID THAT GUY GET HIT BY A BUS?!?!?!?!

Posted at 6:03PM on Feb 8th 2007 by The Dharma Initiative

58. You didn't mention much about Alex's boyfriend going to the other island with Kate and Sawyer. The thought that he might be a total loon after his torture creeps me out. Will he do something to the rest of the group?

Also, I thougth the episode was a B as well but not worth waiting SOOO LOOOONG for! I'll still watch is cuz I love the characters. The long wait was a total rip off though.

Posted at 6:17PM on Feb 8th 2007 by apl

59. You didn't recognize Mr. Alpert being played by Nestor Carbonell...of sitcom 'Suddely Susan' fame...? I think Brooke Shields will be the next Other....

Posted at 6:39PM on Feb 8th 2007 by scott

60. Okay, I don't think anyone mentioned this but why did Alex's boyfriend call Sawyer "Danny"? And did you notice the look on Sawyer's face when he said it? There's more to that than meets the eye....

Posted at 6:53PM on Feb 8th 2007 by Cass

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