LOST Fan

There will be a new episode this week at 9:00 pm to 10:02 (an hour earlier in Central Time.) The title of the new episode is “Some Like it Hoth,” clearly a play on words on the Marilyn Monroe classic movie “Some Like it Hot” — but what is “Hoth”?

According to Wikipedia, which knows a lot more than I do:

In the fictional universe of Star Wars, Hoth is the sixth planet of a remote system of the same name. It is a world covered in snow and ice, with numerous moons, and pelted by meteorites from a nearby asteroid belt. Native creatures include the wampa and the tauntaun.

Is the reference to “Hoth” in the episode title actually a Star Wars reference, or could it be something else? The first Star Wars movie opened in May, 1977, and the last time we saw the Dharma Initiative Losties, they were living in 1977. But apparently “Hoth” was not mentioned in a Star Wars movie until the Empire Strikes Back which came out in 1980.

In LaFleur, the storyline of the Dharma Losties was moving forward and back in 3-year leaps. Will we see a leap forward in this episode to 1980?

Or will Hoth turn out to be something else entirely — a name of a character or perhaps even a mispronunciation of something else?

On the 4/9 Official Audio Podcast, Darlton say that they are particularly proud of this episode. The show needed a bit of fun, they say. After the seriousness of Ben almost being strangled by his dead daughter, and before we start heading into the intensity of the lead-up to the finale, they thought we could use a breather.

Schedule — April 15, 2009

9:00 pm - 10:02 pm — New episode “Some Like it Hoth”

(an hour earlier Central Time)

Note: On April 22, there won’t be a new episode. Instead, there will be a clip show. After that, though, it should be smooth sailing all the way to the finale.

A couple of things in here made me laugh out loud — the elephant in the room, and the smoke monster coughing.

And there was one thing that was pointed out that I had missed — that the “Beachies” (good name), Ilana and company, had some of kind of mysterious crate and we still don’t know what’s in it.

Hello, and welcome to the Special Passover Edition of “Almost-Live” blogging, full of puns and analogies stretched past the breaking point.

9:04 Alpert, with a fresh application of mascara, mentions Jacob. But where IS Jacob? Everyone always talks about him, but no one ever actually sees him…. um, just like Elijah?

The Island saved Little Ben, which explains how he survived a gunshot wound to the chest. It’s a miracle … like the parting of the Red Sea!

Charles is back!

Ben explains why he killed John. He says he came back to be judged by the “Monster.”

9:17 Ben, with teenage Ethan, grabs Danielle’s baby. Wow. There’s one long-standing question answered — how Alex ended up with Ben. But it still leaves the question of why.

Ben, to Locke: “Well I just didn’t have time to talk you back into hanging yourself.”
Locke: “I was just hoping for an apology.”

Ben shoots Cesar! Wow, that is COLD. Ben, to Locke: “There’s your apology.”

Ben is evil … like the Pharoah!

9:27 Flashback. Ben with Alex. Now we know why he took Alex. The answers are coming fast tonight. I count, ahem, Four Questions that have been answered so far in this episode.

Neither Charles nor Ben will kill baby Alex, so there are limits to their evil. Ben, with the baby, is actually quite the softie. So sweet …. like charoses!

Back to the present. Someone is in Alex’s room! Horror-film music. It’s Sun!

Um, there was a lot of sun in the desert that the Israelites wandered through for 40 years.

Undead John waves sweetly. More charoses!

9:38 Ben goes down secret passageway, sticks hand in yucky dirty water. You better, uh, wash your hands, Ben!

Flashback. Charles banished from the Island. Ben says, accusingly, that Charles had a daughter with an outsider. Penny!

Ben: “Dead is dead.” He’s tells Sun that John being undead scares him. Is he telling the truth?

John says he knows where Smokie is.

He will lead Ben to Smokie … like Moses led his people out of bondage!

9:49 Ben on the pier. So it WAS Penny he wanted to kill! That’s another question answered. That makes — uh oh — five questions.

In the present: Locke: “I just know.” Ben: “How does that work, exactly?” Hah.

They see the Temple wall. Uh, next year in Jerusalem!

Back at the pier. Ben is as bitter as a bitter herb. He shot Desmond!!! There’s Penny! Oh, Ben has a soft spot for children, which makes him (ahem) pass over Penny. Yay, Desmond’s not dead! That explains how Ben got beat up. Question number 6 now answered. Ewwww — blood in the water.

10:02 Ilana: “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” She knocks Lapidus down. This is seriously weird.

Ben and Locke wander through a structure underneath the temple. Ben falls through the floor. There’s an altar with Egyptian hieroglyphics. (Egypt! Hello, Passover tie-ins!) There’s a picture of a snake-like creature (Smokie?) facing what I think may be the animal-like head of the Statue.

And theeeeeere’s Smokie! Full of faces from the past, as it had been with Eko. Oh! Alex!! Undead!! Hah — she’s still mad at him. So much for Ben’s getting forgiveness for his sins. But that would be the wrong holiday, anyway.
———-

There was a lot of information in this episode, many questions answered. But I found it a bit inert. I didn’t find it really exciting until the scene on the pier, which was an adrenalin pumper. And I was intrigued by the bizarre scene with Ilana and Lapidus. And I loved the scene after that, where Ben and Locke were wandering around in the strange underground temple, a scene which felt like something straight out of a dream.

Photo of (ahem) Big Ben is by David Iliff, GNU FDL, via Wikipedia

The new episode will be at 9:00. It’s called Dead is Dead. Are you seeing a trend here with repeated-word titles? First, there was What Happened, Happened. Now, there’s Dead is Dead.

Of course we know that on LOST dead isn’t always dead. Dead is sometimes undead. Dead is also sometimes a few days in a coffin before rising again, good as new, albeit too formally dressed for a tropical island. If you’re an actor on LOST, then dead means never having to say that your contract is over, because you can always come back in a flashback.

This will be a Ben-centric episode. In honor of that, here’s a video of Michael Emerson answering viewer questions, in “Ask Lost,” which I think is the start of a new internet-extra series from ABC.

Schedule for April 7, 2009

9:00 pm to 10:02 pm — New episode, Dead is Dead

(An hour earlier in Central Time)

Next week there will be another new episode, but on April 22 there will be a clip show, called Lost: The Story of the Oceanic 6, instead of a new episode.

J.J. Abrams, the creative force behind LOST, is the director of a new Star Trek movie scheduled to be released next month. After a couple of recent pre-release screenings, the reviews are starting to come in, and they are overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

Here are the clips of the scenes from last night’s Whatever Happened, Happened where Hurley and Miles argue about time travel, in case you’d like to see them again.

There’s some wonderful dialogue here, as Hurley and Miles act out the thoughts of every LOST fan who has ever passionately defended a favorite theory about the show — or who has ever gotten a headache from trying to figure it all out and running into too many paradoxes:

Jorge Garcia and Ken Leung are such talented comic actors. We’re lucky to have them on the show!

I have to apologize for saying (or at least thinking) that “Lost Untangled” wasn’t particularly helpful in untangling anything. This week’s edition caught some things that I had missed — and they could be significant.

One is a line said by one of the Others: “What if Charles finds out?” Mr. Anonymous Narrator helpfully adds, “You mean THIS Charles?” while a photo of Charles Widmore appears on the screen. The line went by so fast when I was watching the show, that I hadn’t even thought of Widmore.

Mr. Lost-Untangled Narrator also mentions that the place Alpert was bringing Ben was the smoke monster’s lair (not, as I had thought while watching the show, Jacob’s cabin!) — though I had actually just found that out, a few minutes earlier, from reading Val’s blog.

This edition of “Lost Untangled” also introduces a new kind of animation for some of its characters, with what appear to be real mouths moving in cardboard cutouts. It’s kind of cool and sort of disgusting and disturbing at the same time.

9:05 Jin’s ok. Little Ben is alive. I figured he would be (for the sake of not entangling the show in time-travel paradoxes), but how does someone survive being shot in the chest?

Flashback. Cassidy: “What are you doing here?” Kate: “Sawyer sent me.”

9:17 Cassidy, about Sawyer: “What a coward.”

Hurley checks to see if he’s disappearing! Which he would be if the show had become entangled in a time-travel paradox. I love this. Miles says, no. He’s a believer in the Faraday line of thinking that you can’t change the future.

And then, in the middle of the time-travel discussion, Hurley, standing in for us, the viewers, as he so often does, says “This is really confusing!” Ha ha ha!

Jack refuses to help Ben. Kate says Ben will die. Jacks says, “Then he dies.”

9:29 Jack is tired of being the guy who always fixes things. “Maybe the Island just wants to fix things itself.”

Kate: “I don’t like the new you. I liked the old you.”

Jack: “You didn’t like the old me, Kate.”

Interesting.

Roger is remorseful. Who would’ve thunk it?

Hurley and Miles continue their discussion of time travel. This is cracking me up. They’re pursuing threads that are becoming more and more convoluted and incomprehensible, just like two LOST fans arguing about their favorite theories.

Hurley, again standing in for us: “Say that again?”

Juliet says they have to go to the Others for Ben. I don’t really understand this. Do the others have more advanced medical skills than the Dharma folk?

9:37 Flashback to scene on pier. Kate loses Aaron in supermarket. Finds him with a woman who looks like Claire, from the back, but it isn’t Claire.

Meeting of Kate and Sawyer (and the cute blue VW vans) in the meadow.

9:49 Kate and Cassidy have become friends. Kate: “Aaron needed me.” Cassidy to Kate: “You needed Aaron.”

Sawyer: “I’m dong it for Juliet.”

Juliet to Jack (echoing Cassidy to Kate): “You came back here for you.”

New Jack (channeling Locke): “I came back because I was supposed to.”

Kate and Sawyer have The Talk, then are interrupted by armed Others.

10:02 Kate, confirming Cassidy’s point, tells Claire’s mother that she lied because she needed Aaron.

Back on the Island, Kate and Sawyer give Little Ben to Alpert, who says “If I take him, he’ll never be the same again.”

Hey, maybe Alpert really IS a vampire! Hah.

Alpert carries Little Ben through the jungle, towards a cabin. It’s Jacob’s cabin, I think. Is Christian Shephard inside? I bet that’s it. How many other surgeons are there hanging out in the jungle?

Big Ben wakes up and sees Locke. Big Ben looks shocked, and I don’t think he’s faking. Locke just smiles and says, “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

I’d say this was a good, though not a great episode. What kept it from being great, for me, was that Kate didn’t really engage me emotionally. When she was crying about giving Aaron up, I wasn’t feeling it. Same thing when she reunited with Sawyer. I’m not sure if it’s the character or the actress, but Kate usually seems remote to me.

On the plus side, we got answers to several questions: what Sawyer had whispered to Kate in the helicopter, what happened to Aaron, and how Ben ended up with the Others. The dialogue between New Jack and Kate was interesting. And I loved the scenes with Hurley and Miles, acting as stand-ins for all of us theory-spouting LOST fans.

Evangeline Lilly promo photo (c) ABC

I was looking in my stats, and I saw some searches for “damon lindelof quits lost.” What? I thought. What? I googled the phrase, and sure enough, a whole bunch of articles popped up.

I almost had a heart attack.

And then I realized (and I’m sure Dear Reader, that you came to this realization long before I did) that it must be an April Fool’s joke.

Whew.

The story, which I was able to read once I calmed down, is actually pretty funny. It claims that Lindelof went into a rage after the Conficker worm infected his laptop. The story quotes a “non-union seamstress” on the set, who said, “At first, I thought it was Carlton and Damon arguing about another continuity error, but then I realized there was none of Carlton’s usual high-pitched crying.”

And this:

Lindelof made a brief statement … “I just don’t need that kind of stress in my life. And, to be honest, we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. I mean, Charlotte’s on the island five years before she is born. The runway was built for the plane to land on, but they didn’t know to build it until someone from the plane went back in time and told them. It’s all chicken and egg. We were just making it up as we went along, and I have no clue how we were going to reach a logical, rational ending next year. I think this whole Conficker thing just helped me realize I don’t need all this. Someone else can figure it out. I really just need to simplify my life right now.” When asked if he would be returning to LOST, Lindelof replied, “Never. Never, never, never. I left the island, and I’m never going back!”

Funny stuff!

Damon Lindelof, still with us

(Photo via Lostpedia)

Once again, there will be only one hour of LOST on Wednesday.

The new episode is called Whatever Happened, Happened. According to Darlton on the March 26 official audio podcast, this will be a Kate-centric episode, complete with flashbacks! I know that some of you are cheering now at the thought of a Kate-centric episode, while others (you know who you are!) are groaning, throwing things, and tearing out your hair.

The episode title appears to refer to the question of time travel paradoxes. Was Faraday correct when he said that what happened in the past couldn’t alter the future — or was Sayid successful in his attempt to change the future by killing little Ben?

At first glance, the title — whatever happened, happened — seems to suggest that Faraday was correct. But perhaps the title was meant to be ironic! So I guess we’ll just have to watch to find out.

Schedule April 1, 2009

9:00 new episode Whatever Happened, Happened

(an hour earlier in Central time)

At the time I wrote this, last week’s episode, He’s Our You, was available on abc.com, but just in the regular version, not the pop-up hint enhanced one. Maybe they’ll post that one later??

ABC got the new “Lost Untangled” up quickly this week! And they even mentioned it on TV, at the end of the broadcast.

Here you go …

“Jack … he’s got nothing.”

Aw, poor Jack. I feel sorry for him.

No, not really.

I’m actually still miffed that he was voted the sexiest TV doctor, beating out (gasp!) George Clooney. Oh, the sacrilege! Oh, the horror! Ha.

Back to the video …

“Oh, no. Little Ben’s dead? What about the space-time continuum? Whoa! Cliffhanger!”

My reaction exactly.

Blogging during commercials …

9:05 Father tells boy to kill chicken, but he can’t. He’s too kind-hearted. His younger brother enters the pen, snaps the chicken’s neck. Which child is little Sayid? I’m thinking it’s the kind-hearted one. Oops! I was wrong about that!

Dharma guy: “Whatever.” Hey, writers, that seems anachronistic! People didn’t say “whatever” like that back then.

But they did read “A Separate Reality” by Carlos Castenada. Oooh! Nostalgia attack.

Little Ben was creepy and Ben-like, even back then. “I think I can help you.” Oh, I bet you can, Creepy Little Ben.

9:16 Long-haired Sayid. Russia. Bang bang! Now what does he do with himself?

Horace, opening and shutting pliers. Menacing. “Put out your hands.” What is this, “24″? No — ha — fake out!

“I’ll have to take this to the next level.” Hmm, maybe they are imitating “24″ after all. But why are the hippies into torture anyway?

Sawyer! And Juliet! In the cute house! Awww.

Sawyer and Sayid! Sayid: “Then I guess I’m on my own.”

9:28 Hurley, Kate, and Jack in the cafeteria. Kate didn’t know about Suliet? Really?

Wow, Ben’s father is a nasty piece of work. This is one for the bad fathers file.

Ben and Sayid in Santo Domingo. Great scene. Ben: “You’re a killer, Sayid. It’s in your nature.”

Sawyer tasers Sayid. Oh, Sawyer, shame on you!

“He’s our you.” There’s the title!

Creepy guy puts Sayid in restraints — his arms out, as if crucified.

9:42 Sayid in bar. Is that the woman from the plane? Not sure.

Sayid talks. The drug wasn’t painful after all! Whew! One “24″ is more than enough.

“I’m from the future.” “Maybe I should have used half a dose.” Ha ha ha!

Kate has engine duty with Juliet! I like the idea of them becoming friends but, hey writers, giving them both mechanics jobs seems like another anachronism. Few women worked on cars in the 70s. Could this be a Dharma experiment in redefining gender roles? I doubt it — they don’t seem that progressive in general.

But thank you, writers, for not staging a cat fight between Kate and Juliet. I was half expecting it, and I’m glad you took the high road here, and steered clear of the looming cliche.

Voting to kill Sayid. Sawyer raises his hand. Shame on you, Sawyer!

9:52 The woman kicks Sayid! “I am a professional.”

Sawyer didn’t betray Sayid after all! Whew! I really didn’t want to have to hate Sawyer!

Van rolling through Dharmaville, like it did in last week’s “Lost Untangled”! Except this time, it’s on fire.

Cloaked figure. It’s not Ms. Hawking again, is it? Ha. Nope, it’s Little Ben.

Little Ben: Will you take me to your people? Sayid: That’s why I’m here.

10:02 Sayid, at gate of Flight 315: “Can we get the next plane?” Ha ha. Sorry, Sayid. This is your destiny!

Sayid shoots Little Ben! OMG! It’s a time travel paradox!!! I was sure they weren’t going to have any of those!! Very, very interesting. Could it be that Little Ben is not really dead? And if he is dead … then what? What does that mean, if the Losties are able to alter the past?

Wow. Cue the Twilight Zone music.

I liked the episode. Lots of action, good set-up of the tension between Sayid and Ben, and a kicker of an ending.

Graphic by Ms Terri, using a smoldering hot picture of Naveen Andrews from the abc.com website (c) ABC

ABC is changing the schedule around again, which is always confusing.

This week, there will be a new episode at 9:00 to 10:02 pm, as usual, but instead of showing a pop-up enhanced rerun at 8:00 the way they’ve been doing all season (except for last week), ABC will be showing non-LOST material in that hour instead. At 8:00 they’ll be showing Scrubs, and at 8:30, the new show Better Off Ted.

Last week, I turned on the TV a few minutes before LOST was about to start and saw the very end of Better Off Ted. From the little I saw, it looked good! The one person I recognized was Portia de Rossi, who was in the late great Arrested Development. Better Off Ted seemed to have some of Arrested Development’s sense of off-beat humor as well, although maybe not as quickly paced. It looked promising enough that I’m to going to try to catch it tomorrow.

LOST’s new episode is called “He’s Our You,” which is a strange title. When I first saw it, I couldn’t parse the phrase at all no matter how I tried, and thought that “You” might be some kind of acronym — something like “He’s Our Yucky Onepiece Underwear.” Well, not that exactly. But I was saved from coming up with even worse acronyms when I listened to the March 19 Official Audio Podcast.

On the podcast, our friends Darlton (Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof) reveal that the episode will be about Sayid (yay!). Where the title comes in is that Sayid will be introduced to someone in the Dharma Initiative with the line “He’s our you” — presumably meaning that this other character is the Dharma Initiative’s torturer (or else the Dharma Initiative’s lover, Darlton joke — at least I think they are joking).

Schedule — March 25, 2009

9:00 to 10:02 pm — new episode He’s Our You

(an hour earlier in Central Time)

If you want to see the pop-up enhanced rerun of “Namaste,” which will not be shown on TV this week, you can watch it on the abc.com website.

I just rewrote my Grand Theory of Everything over on my other blog (if this blog is the living room, that blog might be the basement — or maybe the attic where the crazy aunt lives).

I’ve been trying to make it more coherent, and I don’t think it’s totally there yet. But at least it’s not as incoherent as it was before.

A few warnings:

1. It’s long.

2. It might contain spoilers. If the theory is true, then it could be giving away a lot. It’s very unlikely that the theory is actually true, but unlikely things do happen once in a while.

If you’re still with me: My Grand Theory of Everything

I can’t believe we’re more than half-way through Season 5 already. That went fast!

We started the season with several episodes of vertigo-inducing time jumps which, mercifully, stopped after Locke put the donkey wheel back on its tracks, per Christian Shephard’s directions. Christian Shephard has popped up twice so far, an interesting feat for someone who is, supposedly, dead. Both times, he seemed to have the role of a guide — first to shepherd (pun definitely intended!) Locke back to the mainland, and later to guide Sun, perhaps back to the past.

Sawyer blossomed this season. After four years of watching Jack and Locke bicker about who was the real leader of the Losties, we saw Sawyer effortlessly assume the role, showing leadership skills that far surpassed those of either of the former contenders for the throne. Sawyer made good use of his extensive experience as a con man to create a story to protect the Losties, and his romance with Juliet gave them both moments when they were happy for the first time ever on the show.

Most of the Losties are now back on the Island (with the notable exception of Walt). They are scattered across at least two different time zones, so it’s as if they are walking along parallel tracks. I expect them to reunite, but where and when remains to be seen.

The show seems to have settled in, for a while, into 1970s Dharmaville, a place filled with cheery, cozy homes and love-bead clad workers, but with plenty of sinister undertones. We know Dr. Candle/Chang is not what he seems, and we know that the “Purge” is looming in the future. Will the Losties be gone before then or will they become involved in some way?

We’ve had some questions answered this season, along with some new questions posed. It was a good balance, and I think (knock on wood) that the writers really do know where they are going, and will shepherd us (pun again intended) to a satisfying conclusion next year.

Once again, we have an episode of “Lost Untangled,” the weekly recap video produced by the mysterious “ABC Fred Lab,” narrated by a mysterious narrator, and featuring comic-book style graphics, shaking action figures, and cardboard cutouts.

This week’s edition is a surprisingly straightforward retelling of the episode. The miniature VW bus that rolls through a miniature Dharmaville is adorable. Action-figure Sawyer gets a little snider with his nicknames than his on-the-air equivalent, calling Hurley “Double Chunk” and “King Kong,” and calling Jack “Bed Pan.”

Mostly, though, what we’ve got here is a plot summary:

I’m curious about what people think of these “Lost Untangled” videos. I can see from my stats that these videos are more eagerly searched for than almost anything else. Are you a fan who looks forward to watching them every week? Or do you think they are stupid? Or something in-between?

What do you think of the “Lost Untangled’ videos?” (Pick one or more)
( Online surveys)

If you’re looking for the latest “Lost Untangled” video, ABC hasn’t posted it yet. Last week, they didn’t post it until the day after the show, around late afternoon/early evening East Coast time. So if they follow the same pattern, it should be available later today — and I’ll post a copy here when it is.

Hi there. LOST is back! Yay!

I am blogging during commercials, as usual…

9:07 Wow! Great beginning! We get to see Flight 316 after the flash. Frank lands the plane! But his co-pilot is dead.

Inside the cabin, many of the seats are now empty, which reminds me of the rapture in “Left Behind” — a book I haven’t actually read, but know about from reading some of the deconstructing posts on Slacktivist.

“30 Years Earlier.” I’m liking these title screens. Reminds me of something Darlton said, on one of the Season 4 DVD features, about how we’ve seen the present, the flashbacks, and the flashforwards, which created the framework of a mosaic, and that the show from this season on would be about placing the tiles into place in the mosaic.

Sawyer: “It’s 1977!” Hurley: “Oh … what?”

9:19 Sawyer and Juliet, in their bedroom. Is she jealous of Kate’s being back, or is she thinking of the larger picture? The latter, I think. Jin hits guy with glasses (Radzinsky?).

Ben takes off. Sun, who seems unafraid of anything these days, follows. Sun: “Where are you going?” Ben: “Back to our Island. Do you want to come?”

9:27. The baby is Ethan! Sawyer: “Trust me.” Jack, the new, calmer 2.0 version, nods ok. Sayid!

9:36 The music and Kate’s peasant blouse are giving me a nostalgia attack. The beads are a bit much, though.

Sun: “I have to trust him.” Sun hits Ben in the head. Frank: “I thought you trusted that guy.” Sun: “I lied.” Sun is so badass these days!

Dr. Candle/Cheng: “Namaste.” Juliet: “Hi, Kate. Welcome to the Island.”

9:48: Sun and Frank, in long-deserted Dharmaville. A light comes on! The door creeks! Oooh, this is like a horror film! A figure is in the doorway, in silhouette. It’s Christian Shephard!!! “Follow me,” he says. Uh oh!

10:01 Sun: “Where is my husband?” Christian gives her picture taken in 1977. “I’m sorry, but you have a bit of a journey ahead of you.” Does that mean what I think it means?

Sawyer sends a signal to Sayid with his eyes.

Jack hugs Juliet on her doorstep! That’s weird — aren’t they afraid that the Dharma folks will see them? Why don’t they go inside?

Jack and Sawyer have a showdown. Sawyer says that he thinks, but Jack only reacts, and that’s why a whole bunch of people got killed on Jack’s watch. That’s pretty offensive, but Jack doesn’t seem to mind — seems like Jack is so glad to hand over the reins that he doesn’t care about anything else, even about being insulted to his face.

Kate and Sawyer wave to each other from their porches. Aww.

Kid brings a sandwich to Sayid — it’s little Ben! Ha. Fun with time travel!

Good episode! I like the way everyone seems to be converging (slowly) on the same place and time.

Previous “almost-live” blogging posts:

5×01 Because You Left

5×02 The Lie

5×03 Jughead

5×04 The Little Prince

5×05 This Place is Death

5×06 316

5×07 The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

5×08 LaFleur

The wonderful picture at the top of this post shows the Thailand version of Ronald McDonald performing the Thai “Wai” greeting (very similar to the Indian “Namaste”). The picture was taken by ChrisO in Patong Beach, Phuket.

After waiting two weeks, we finally have a new episode tonight. From what I’ve heard about this episode, it sounds great, so I think our patience will be amply rewarded.

Namaste will run from 9:00 pm to 10:02 pm (an hour earlier in Central time).

They’re not showing a rerun first, the way they usually do — I guess because they already reran LaFleur last week.

I’ll be doing “almost live” blogging here tonight, which I’ll post by 10:30 pm West Coast time.

I like to pick a picture for the “almost live” blogging post in advance, so that when the show comes on, I’ll be all ready to go. I usually look for a picture that is related in some way to the episode title or to the show in general, but that is not from the show itself. I lucked out and found a really good picture this time, and I’m looking forward to posting it tonight! Hope to “see” you then!

Here’s Josh Holloway, before he was Sawyer, singing a country song in the 2002 movie, Mi Amigo.

The movie was rated only one star on Amazon. It must have been REALLY bad — I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything with an average rating of only one star on Amazon before.

One reviewer called it “the worst movie ever.” Ouch! Poor Josh!

But this song, which apparently was only in the DVD extras, not in the movie itself, is quite nice. I say that even though I’m not usually a fan of country music. I am, though, a fan of anything that Josh Holloway does.

The video can’t be embedded, apparently by request of the copyright holder. But you can watch it on YouTube here: Josh Holloway sings

Picture cropped from video (c) 2005 Azalea Film Corporation