The Final Score

If you haven't seen the episode yet, what are you waiting for?!?!? I repeat, best show on television, perhaps ever. I'm that enthralled by it. Anyway...

One of the best aspects of the show is trying to decipher the clues to determine what month and year the flash-forwards are taking place. Early in last night's episode Jack looked at his newspaper, saw a headline that said Yankees sweep Red Sox and said disgustedly, "A-Rod."

Immediately I thought about how the Yankees didn't sweep the Red Sox in 2005, but of course they had that five-game sweep in August of 2006. Could the flash forward really be taking place in August of 2006 when the plane crashed in September of 2004 and on the island right now it's supposedly winter of 2004-05?

In last week's flash forward Ben asked for the year when he checked into a hotel, and he was told it's October of 2005. That would make more sense than another year later. Yet, then again, the writers of this show never, ever include anything that's not meant as a clue (or so it seems) but in that five-game series sweep A-Rod didn't do much in that series - that was supposedly the moment when Jason Giambi ripped into him, according to that great SI article. Or maybe I'm just reading into it too much, as Jack may have just said 'Damn A-Rod' as most Red Sox fans say when the Yankees win.

Or perhaps I'm one year too early. The this EW.com Lost reviewer paused his TV and saw the score 5-0, which was the score of the last game of a sweep in 2007. So he believes the Jack-Kate flash forward went all the way to last summer. Wow.

Okay, back to my day job.

Anthony already had his say on the return of "Lost." Here's his thoughts. I watched the episode last night and thought it was better than a C. Yes, it's frustrating that every time they give an answer, they present three more questions. However, I still think it's the best show on television going, by a longshot.

I agree with Anthony that the back story to Sayid now working for Ben was forced. Here's what bothered me most: the plane crashed in September 2004, right? And they presumably got off the island, let's say, January 2005. Ben, in this latest episode, finds out that it is October 2005. So in the 10 months Sayid is off the island he finds the love of his life and marries her? Hmmmm. That's forced. Maybe there's another story behind that.

Ben is my favorite character. Always up to something. My cousin is an actor. His IMDB page says he once was roommates with Ben. I have to e-mail him about that...

There are no sports tie-ins for the ABC show "Lost" like there were for the FHM.com list of the 100 sexiest women alive that we featured below yesterday. But it's our blog and we'll do what we want.

Jim and I are both big fans of the show. Before we shared a blog, we would discuss the episodes the day after. Jim, if you haven't watched it yet, DON'T READ THIS! Now that we have the blog we don't really have to talk at all.

I thought the episode was OK. Not great. It was a shocker to me -- as it obviously was to Ben -- that his daughter was killed.

The explanation of why Sayid decided to become a killer for Ben...I dunno, kinda forced. So Sayid is just going to take Ben's word for it that that guy killed Nadia? Without reservation? Seems unlikely.

I thought it was cool that Ben called for Smokey the Monster. But does that mean Ben can always call for Smokey the Monster? Did Ben call for Smokey when he killed Mr. Eko? Mr. Eko was a terrific character. My understanding is he was killed off because the actor didn't want to be on the show anymore. Notice he hasn't been back in any flashback/forwards.

Overall, I give the episode a C. It might be my least favorite of the season. Hopefully next week's will be better.

Jim, your thoughts?

UPDATE FROM JIM: I did not watch the episode last night. I will tonight. Then I will comment. In the meantime I am trying hard not to read this post of the Entertainment Weekly summary that always explains everything I didn't understand.