Heroes: Excellent!
Veronica Mars: The rumors about Veronica and Piz just didn’t make sense. Then I saw the first 30 seconds of the episode, and it suddenly made perfect sense. Can you say rebound?
Lost: Locke did exactly what Ben wanted him to. The others are big on the concept of “good people.” If he’d killed his father himself, he wouldn’t have qualified to join. Getting Sawyer to do it proves that he’s resourceful and manipulative enough to get “bad people” to do the dirty work for him — just like Ben manipulated him into blowing up the sub.
So, how long did it take to pull the trigger on Locke’s dad, the con artist, being the original Sawyer? 1 year? 1½?
Also, I’m operating under the assumption that the wreckage was either planted or simulated. I never liked the “they’re all dead and in purgatory” explanation, and the show’s producers have denied it several times. If they’ve reversed course on this, I probably won’t be watching Season 4 (assuming there is one).
From listening every week to the Lost podcasts, I have complete faith in Damon Lindelof not to screw up the show… as for the other producers, I can’t really say, but it does seem highly probable that Mittleos / the Hanso Foundation / Widmore or some combination of the above would have faked the wreckage and bribed government officials to authenticate it in order to curtail investigations with the faintest chance of drawing mass public attention to the island.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised, either, if the Anthony Cooper we saw in this episode was merely a manifestation of the island, ala Yemi and Dave.
I’m still unclear on the details of the others’ code of ethics. They seemed willing to execute Juliet (although that was probably a show for Jack). I do believe Ben’s manipulating Locke, though. I’m anticipating a power struggle between Ben and Locke, in which Ben pulls out the “but you didn’t really kill your father, Locke. You had someone else do it for you,” card.
By the way, there will officially be a Season 4. And 5. And 6. And then it’s over. USAToday.com reports ABC has signed on for three more seasons. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse wanted two more seasons, to assure fans that they know exactly where the story’s going, and because they felt that there wasn’t more than 48 episodes’ worth of story left after season 3. The compromise is that after season 3, there will be 48 episodes, divided into three seasons of 16 episodes each, which will run without repeats in between. We’ll have to wait 8 months between seasons, but the seasons will move at a brisk pace without filler material. Carlton Cuse makes the good point in the USA Today article that Harry Potter fans wait longer than 8 months between books without losing interest, so hopefully this won’t damage the ratings too much. I imagine the big factors will be effective publicity and whatever direction they take the show in for the rest of this season.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Cooper were fake, either, but his story is consistent with a kidnapping — which is something we know the Others are quite content doing.
As far as killing goes, they do seem to be more comfortable with conspiracy than direct action. Get someone else to pull the trigger, if at all possible. They’re big on psy-ops and kidnapping. Injury seems fine. Killing? Not so much. We’ve only see Juliet and Goodwin definitely killing someone. Well, and Mikhail, but Bea literally asked him to kill her, so it’s not quite the same situation. Sure, we can infer that Ethan killed Steve (or was it Scott), and that he left Charlie to die… but could he have anticipated Charlie’s rescue? Like Spike’s chip allowed him to swing a punch at Buffy if he knew she could block it.
As for Juliet’s purported death sentence, even if it wasn’t a show, actions by the state are often treated differently than actions by an individual. Many people see murder as immoral, but execution of murderers as justified. They could look at it that way.
Re: the three-season renewal: I posted some thoughts about it over at K-Squared Ramblings yesterday, and how other shows are trying to balance arc storytelling with network scheduling.
Cooper raises many questions, fake or not. If he’s not fake, it’s highly unlikely they were able to kidnap and bring him to the island in the dozen or so minutes between Ben saying, “get me the man from Tallahassee” and Locke blowing up the submarine, especially if there’s any hint of truth in what Mikhail said about the effects of Locke and Desmond destroying the hatch. Which makes me wonder who else Ben is holding hostage and just how convoluted his plans are, and why.
Re: killing… I think Pickett’s intention to kill Sawyer is a particularly illustrative example, given his reasons but also because it demonstrates that the others are human in the sense that they’re not of one mind. It lends credence to the suggestion that Juliet and/or Richard and/or other others are actively working against Ben, and he may be desperately clinging to his authority…