On Lost and Alias

A strange variety of topics I cover here, isn't it? Hey, if you don't like it you can start your own blog.

Lost and Alias are two of my favorite television shows and of course last night was the season finale for both. I have to say, I WAS not disappointed. Let's start with Lost, shall we?

Without a doubt, this finale raised more questions than it answered. Or rather, it just teased at most of the questions, making loyal viewers itchy with anticipation for next season. We've wondered about Hurley's numbers since mid-season when we learned that he was the winner of one of the biggest lottery jackpots in history. They were the serial numbers on the plane of the Oceanic flight that crashed in the first place. (right? I am remembering that correctly, aren't I?) And of course in the finale, they show up on the strange hatch that Locke has been digging up. Walt told Locke not to open it, and Hurley begged Locke not to detonate the dynamite when he saw the numbers on the hatch. The numbers, and thus whatever the hatch leads to are bad news. But where does that old decayed ladder lead?

And what about Walt? Kidnapped by men on an old fishing boat. Well at least now we know a little bit about those "others" that the French woman rants and raves about - I absolutely guarantee, that was them. So why do they snatch children? And what is their connection with the "monster"? I have to say I liked what I was seeing with respects to the monster - it's insubstantial manifestion, there, but not really there; winking in and out of existence. What is it? Some trans-astral-plane life form? It is the monster more than anything else that brings the real mystery of the show home. It is the answer to Charlie's question in episode 2 - "where the hell are we?" Of course Michael had a good observation in the finale, one that any astute viewer has got to have pondered at some time. While looking back at the island as they are sailing away, he notices its size. "You would think that an island this big would have been discovered by someone before." Yeah, we've noticed that too....so where the hell are they? I think that pretty clearly, this group of survivors is lost in more way than one. Ah!! So in fact, there is a real significance to the name of this show.

Any way, it didn't disappoint at all. I still think this is one of the best written and most finely crafted shows on television right now. I can't wait for season 2.

And there is Alias. To be honest, the finale wasn't that great....until the final 5 seconds! I hope that with the killing of Illena (not Irena, right? Irena is Sydney's mother - correct? And what is the other sister's name? I don't remember) the whole Rimbaldi story line comes to an end. It was great the first season - Rimbaldi was like DaVinci and Nostradamus rolled into one and it was fun to watch that story line unfold. But things got so convoluted in season 2 that I lost interest and it seemed like the writers didn't know where they were going. And let's be honest, the show works best an espionage/thriller show. When Sydney goes undercover to foil some terrorist plot to bring down the United States, that's when we love the show. So the finale was just so/so. But then the ending! Holy crap! That was a cliff hanger of enormous proportions. We didn't know Vaughn was keeping secrets....he couldn't be - he's too nice; he loves Sydney too much. But we were so excited that he decided to come clean. And just as he was about to tell all, so that he and Sydney could get married with no secrets between them....WHAM! Who is he? What is his secret? Is he dead? Accident, or intentional? Man, that ending is going to keep me wondering all summer long.

Well, now I've got lots to look forward to this fall.