Let’s make one thing perfectly clear right off the bat: I have nothing much to say really…I just need to get a lot of stuff off my chest and I figured this was the eaisest route to take. So, without further ado, let’s just start rambling on about everything that’s been going on in my life lately.

First off…I’m finally preparing to quit my job so that I can return to studying full-time. At least for a little while. Honestly this not only terrifies me to a great extent (mostly because I’m afraid that I won’t be able to handle studying again and I’ll actually miss the job!) but also makes me uneasy about life in general right now. It’s gotten to the point where I’m unsure of almost everything and second-guess even the most mundane decisions. Just imagine taking more than 5 minutes to decide what kind of shampoo to buy and you get a fair idea of my thought processes these days.

One of my most beloved cats — Icey — died of cancer two days ago. I actually took it a lot harder than I thought I would. No, that doesn’t mean weeping or whatnot…just an intense feeling of sadness and a need to be alone for a while. Of course the latter bit isn’t even THAT big a problem. Thanks to the insane timing of the job and my worrying need to sleep for longer and longer periods of time, I have little or no social life anymore anyway. And with said habits, I have very little to talk about as it is so I prefer to keep to myself as I hate to be a bore. (Yeah, yeah…I’m boring you with the violin music right now…deal with it! My blog, my rules!) Unfortunately that seems to lead to more troubles as the few people I did talk to seem to think I’m ignoring them on purpose and well…it’s a vicious cycle.

I just finished Mad Men Season 2. (I know…I’m jumping through topics faster than Palin trying to convince the world of her sincerity to Roe v Wade) Excellent series and I adore each and every single character. I mean, who saw the Pete-Peggy revelation coming? I thought that considering a whole season’s worth of storylines, that would just be swept under…but it really stood out. Very well done. Of course, that’s nothing compared to what happened an episode earlier with Joan. (I’m purposely being vague here…don’t wanna give away any spoilers) That scene was heart-breaking. Especially considering that it happened to someone with the strength and resolve of Joan. Scenes like that keep me coming back to this show…truly brilliant writing and cinematography. Kind of worried that Reiner will leave the show…I think he’s vital to the series brilliance…but we’ll see.

I have just gotten into Boyce Avenue. Now the band’s original stuff is bland, Lifehouse-lite crap. But their acoustic covers are excellent. Especially worth hearing are their covers of Rihanna’s Disturbia and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. Excellent stuff and don’t be turned off by the poppy origins. Very, very good. Available on both itunes and youtube, btw.

I am, as of today, exactly 2 months behind on my comics reading. Kind of sad, I know. But hopefully I will catch up in the coming weeks. I’ve just been so busy with books and old trades/singles that I’ve had no time to read the new stuff. Hell…I just finished Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #2 last night so you can well imagine how long it could take for me to catch up at this point. But I’m working on it. Although, honestly, I’m sorely tempted to go trade-only. I’ve dropped a large number of books I used to read so I think I can manage it now. (Cost was always the concern previously).

Btw…as much as the allusions to a divine power annoy me…I am loving the new season of Eli Stone. Very well-written, funny and keeps me on my toes. Good stuff…definitely recommended.

That’s it for now…expect more rambles shortly. This is the mode I have shifted to for now since its more comfortable. Oh…and fret not…Butt-Shots will return soon. Not in the same format…but they will. Instead of weekly books…now I shall focus on random comics I read and happen to find Butt-Shots in. I think that shall make it much more interesting, don’t you?

Ok…it’s been what…over a year now since I last updated this blog? My how time flies…

Yeah…not gonna cut it, is it? Ok, you want an explanation? How’s this:

I HAVE A LIFE!!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen…as hard as it may be to believe, I do still possess a modicum of a social existence and that coupled with my job and my numerous extraneous interests (Let’s see…at last count I was into collecting and reading comics and books, watching as many tv shows and movies as I possibly can, trying to figure out how I can fit watching Arsenal matches into my schedule now that I’m interested in the team again, and trying to stuff my ipod with as much stuff as my little heart desires – 160 GB is just as much a blessing as a curse.)

So anyway, the first thing to go was the blog…obviously. As much as I love writing, I just didn’t have any more time for it. I mean to correct that over the next couple of weeks and months and hopefully set up an all-purpose blog. Which of course means that you should expect less topic-based posts like the previous Cassie or Flash ones and more all-encompassing posts like those currently filed under ramblings. I will try to limit myself to one topic each post from now on. But sometimes you just gotta ramble, y’know?

So, to pique your interest…here’s what I’m doing/reading/watching/listening to right now and will most likely be commenting on in the days to come: Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, Mohammed Hanif’s Case of Exploding Mangoes, The Wire, 30 Days, The Onion Movie,  Persepolis, the new R.E.M. and Reading Lolita in Tehran. So…lot’s to come in the pipeline.

Now…who wants to take bets on when the next update will be?

A lot has happened as far as the Flash is concerned. Some of it good, some…questionable at best. Either way, I’ve decided to compile all my thoughts on the matter in one place (been commenting on this on various blogs) and basically get all my thoughts online.

So, anyway, let’s begin with Flash #13, shall we?

Didio really hated Bart for failing to sell as a book didn’t he? I mean it’s practically like no one ever wants to to see him alive again. There is no visible out for this death. Bart was beaten to a pulp and died of injuries and blood loss – that isn’t something you can come back from…even for comics. Of course, that doesn’t mean there is no possibility of a return. It could be a Bart dupe (he had hundreds running around during the Impulse/Young Justice days and they were apparently all returned, but its easy to say that one just stayed in the speed force. This could even be used to return him to Kid Flash age if DC wants to go in that direction. Also, and I will say more on this later, the face in the lightning rod in JLA #10 could easily be Barry or Bart. Either way, Bart has a lot of outs waiting for him. Also, I really liked Jesse, Jay and Robin’s reactions. I’m not made of stone here. But what about the fakeout, you ask? Well…that was just stupid.

Steven Grant talks about this in far greater detail than I would like to and basically says it’s not the proper way to run a business. Withholding information is one thing…outright lying about it is another. This just continues a long line of lies and misleads that the Didio-led DCU has been employing since the days of at least Identity Crisis. And it’s very off-putting as a fan, I have to say. Makes me feel like I’m being used.

Anyway, I for one don’t for a second believe that DC had planned this from the beginning. People are citing this Dan Didio interview as an example of the forethought. But look at the first issue of Flash closely. The first Flash we see is Jay Garrick. He’s the only Flash in the first issue actually. Bart doesn’t officially accept the mantle until issue 2. That is what I believe Didio was referring to. Of course the fanboys will lap up the explanation and good for them. But its obvious that DC wanted this direction to work. It didn’t and they recanted…remarkably quickly I might add. If it hadn’t failed as horribly as it did, then I can guarantee that Bart would not be dead right now and Wally would be nothing more than a memory. Like a friend said (edited for size):

“I can kind of see some truth to DiDio saying there was a plan. What I mean is… if it was planned to make a Flagship title for a new character absolutely fail.. then yeah.. it seems planned. I can totally see the idea of a plan to create a book that, shoehorns a controversial character change, given to writers and artists that aren’t that experienced, fails. With all the changes and really bad story directions in it I can’t help but think they intended this relaunch to fail. So if they did so… why take out Bart in such a fashion… well.. from what I understand the only thing they didn’t do was to chop him up into tiny pieces and feed him to pigs to ensure he wasn’t going to come back. I can’t for the life of me understand why the hell someone would want to create a book that fails… and then replace it with a book that was cancelled over a year ago to make room for a relaunch. It might have been their plan sure… but it makes no goddamn sense and is an insane business idea for a company to make!”

And I think that covers that perfectly. No company would pull a stunt like this…none. Didio is talking out of his ass if he says this was all planned from the beginning.

Moving on to JLA #10 and Wally and Family. I won’t go into how bad this issue was in places (and I mean this was really, really bad in various bits) but I have to say…I had a huge smile on my face when Wally came back. I’m sorry, but I’ve been feeling victimised for being born after 1980 in the present DCU. All my characters are being shoved aside for characters that had been relegated to mentor status or whatever. And its annoying. I’m not sure I want to support a company that does it. I still will of course…I’m a comic fan…we don’t really abandon anything. But I do hate DC’s current “Everything is the 1970s Again” schtick and hope it ends sometime soon.

Anyway, a couple of things. First, the age of the twins. Based on the fact that female Flash-kid has boobs and they’re both reaching Wally’s shoulder in height, I would guess that they’re approximately 14-16 years in age. Thus they are now in Robin etc camp. Now if they have powers…and no reason to believe they don’t…we actually have both a readymade Impulse and Kid Flash. DC can literally have its cake and eat it too. You have Jay Garrick Flash, Wally West Flash, Iris West Kid Flash and Barry West Impulse. It works and well…I wouldn’t really mind. Flash has always been a heritage title and I would love to see a family deal with regards to everything crime-related. It could add the required tension to the Park-West marriage that everyone is so obsessed with these days. And it could definitely give us Flashes of all ages. It would be cool.

Finally, Waid on Flash. This could potentially be very good or very blah. I actually kind of liked his last return to the title, so I’m more inclined towards the good, but after all the horrible Flash material in the past year, I’m kind of cautious about the whole book. Also, I trust Waid with the West family far more than I trust anyone else. Wally and Linda are Waid’s babies. He knows them better than anyone else and will never do anything to potentially hurt them. And I love him for that. Also, he would use the legacy aspect really well. Really hope Iris and Barry are used effectively.

I think that covers everything Flash. Will  probably be doing another Butt-Shots soon (new issues of JLA almost always equals a new Butt-Shots )

It’s too hot to come up with new blog posts so I asked Kalinara to help me out! She (in cooperation with Ami Angelwings) has started a new interviewing meme with five questions…which I will now attempt to answer.

I haven’t done any meme except the lolcatz thing so cut me some slack here!

1. If you could be roommates with one superhero, who wouldn’t you choose and why?

Hmm…I would have to go with Spider-Man. I don’t think I could handle being around someone who is constantly crying and who is so bad with rent! (I don’t have a rich father like Harry Osborn

2. If you could pretend one comic book storyline never happened, which would you pick?

Ah…so many options…so hard to choose. But since I can pick anything…I would go with Crisis on Infinite Earths. I love that mini to death, but if it hadn’t happened there would be no Identity Crisis to lead into Infinite Crisis which would mean there would be no Countdown and (Thank God!) no potential really crappy upcoming crisis (Final Crisis I’ve heard its going to be called…yeah right) Basically I’m killing off everything that is killing off DC right now with one fell swoop. Yay me!

3. Could Ace the Batdog take Power Girl’s cat?

Never! From what I remember of Ace he was something of a pansy while Power Girl’s kitty (what was her name??!) was a little hellcat! From personal experience I always choose the hellcat over the pansy dog.

4. If you could assign any hero theme music, what would you choose?

Probably Revolution by Aimee Allen for Wonder Girl. Just in the hope that she’ll listen to the lyrics and realise how far she’s fallen.

5. Hammers or screwdrivers?

Hammers…easier to defend yourself with one of those than with a screwdriver

–

And here’s the meme! If you want in, just comment!
—

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”

2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions. (They probably won’t be the same ones you see above!)

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Well…that was fun. Hopefully the heat will die down enough for me to do an actual post soon. Damn it’s hot.

Another text-only post I’m afraid. Don’t worry, the Legion posts will be image-intensive enough to make all these rambles worthwhile.

Green Lantern #20 – I loved the last panel. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to have a character’s status quo be returned to ‘normal’ as I was when I read the word “divorce”. I thought it was a huge mistake when Johns decided to have Carol be married when Hal returned to life, but I accepted it because it seemed to make sense that Johns wanted to leave his own mark on the character. Of course, this was pre-OYL, since post-OYL has been nothing but a major reboot session brining Hal to almost exactly the same point he was at when Emerald Twilight hit. Of course, Carol’s freedom also adds a much-needed triangle element to the Cowgirl-Hal relationship and I can appreciate the soap-opera elements inherent in that. Btw, I commented on this here, but seriously…what’s with the “We must collect them all” schtick by the Zamarons? Are emotions truly the Pokemon of the DCU? And what emotion does the “green” represent anyway? I’m guessing courage and fearlessness…but I’m very rarely right on these things.

Countdown #51-48

So I read the Countdown. What did I discover? Quite simply…it sucks. I don’t really have a problem with the art (it isn’t exactly special, but its perfectly servicable) but everything else? Oy! Where to begin…First off…how the hell does the entire world not know that Batman is Bruce Wayne? I mean if Jimmy knows Jason is the Red Hood (and so does..Perry?!?!) and he knows that Dick is Nightwing…anyone with half a brain could figure out the next logical step. I’m sure this will be explained, but therein lies the major problem of this book: the pacing. 52 managed to side-step this issue by using “real-time” instead of sticking with DC-continuity time. Countdown works more like Action Comics Weekly, in that it showcases some stories of some characters which seems to have no resolution or any sort of direction and it all magically comes together in the end (I’m guessing with the last bit). Either way, bah…I’ll probably continue reading this for a couple more issues, but I don’t expect to get through the whole series.

Justice Society of America #6

Damn my inner-Legion fanboy! While it was fun for a while being ahead of the actual storyline (I swear…I knew Triplicate Girl was going to become Duo Damsel at the hands of Computo two pages before it actually happened…and no I did not flip through it) and then I knew it was Princess Projectra (yeah, I failed to take into account that this was the Legion of the baxter-era series where she was Sensor Girl.) and don’t even get me started on my theories for the Legion of Three Worlds (the way to reconcile the various legions, natch – Pre-ZH Legion, Post-ZH Legion and of course the current Legion) Of course it was nice of them to acknowledge that Thom went to Earth-22 before coming here. Although…and I’m not 100% on this…since when has Thom been schizo? I remember something about hospitals in his origin story, but IIRC, that was because the doctors were trying to figure out what gave him his powers, not cure him of being crazy. It just strikes me as a horrendously stupid retcon because Johns wants a crazy Legionnaire around. Also, I’ll probably make a whole post about this, but what the hell was up with Liberty Belle playing matchmaker? I know marriage makes you go nuts, but c’mon! This is Jesse Quick! She would never be trying to set Wonder Woman (WONDER WOMAN!!) up with guys on blind dates. I was seriously disturbed by those two pages. Overall though…interesting storyline, but the ending is where everything will be decided for good or ill.

Action Comics #850

I liked this. It was nice, sweet without being sappy, and I like the Legion Supergirl a lot more than the whiny little biatch everywhere else (although this issue is the first time I’ve felt sorry for the bad side of her) Nice issue and definitely makes me think Busiek should be writing both books.

I was supposed to have a post done today but sleep got in the way (damn you sleep!!) and instead I shall just present a rough outline of what you can expect from this blog over the next couple of days.

First off, a lot less TV! I will probably have posts on seasons 1-3 of The Office (US edition!) and I do plan on doing a regular ’round-up’ for The 4400, and season 4 of Entourage (probably a moratorium for Studio 60 too once it finishes in 4 weeks) but apart from that there will be no more talk of TV. Instead, I shall be doing a bit more cat-blogging (you have been warned!!) and I shall most likely do something I’ve wanted to do since I started this blog: A Legion of Super-Heroes Week!! Basically that entire week will focus on my favourite LSH storylines, what I think about the current books, my favourite characters and probably a review of the new animated series and various other Legion junk I find around the web. This will probably be starting soon…and who knows…based on how much I have to say it could exceed a week.

I also plan on doing some more posts on Death (there’s a finally being made…squee!!) and various books I am currently in the process of reading. Now the bad news, unfortunately I just don’t have the time to regularly blog anymore. I have started studying again and the job and the broken pieces of my social life all need some time and blogging must take a back seat to all of them. I will probably continue in a semi-daily capacity (I’m thinking a post every 2-3 days would work) but I don’t see myself maintaining the daily grind for that much longer (despite how much fun it has been).

I think that’s it for now. Hopefully the new fall pilots will get leaked soon and I can finally decide what I will be definitely watching…but otherwise, meh.

Anyway…hopefully tomorrow I’ll return with something more substantial.

 Damn…this is why I hate pictures that don’t take up the whole width of the page…now I have to come up some form of an intro before I start the spoiler-heavy actual review. Very annoying. So, uh…interesting how this blog started out as a place for me to vent on, evolved into a comic blog, became a music/personal angst thing, then back to comics, and now apparently we’re going through a TV phase. I don’t expect to completely leave comics behind (as is obvious from yesterday’s Cassie Sandsmark post) but I think this is more in keeping with my current free-time. I am probably going to start more books soon though (the best thing about summer? Very little TV to watch) and then I wouldn’t be surprised if this blog starts to evolve into a book review place…not to mention I’m reading Chariot of the Gods? right now and it has really made me renew my deeply buried belief in aliens manipulating humanity during its infancy. So…maybe something on that soon? Anyway, yay…on to the review…

Frak, Frak, FRAK!!! I HATE how this show ended. That was not a series finale…it was a season finale and it stinks that we’ll probably never get to see a resolution of all the plots introduced in this episode. Sure there are rumours of a movie, but meh…they said that about both Buffy and Angel but we all know where that went. And I don’t see VMars ever working as a comic…the show is all Kristen Bell, and without her it cannot work.

Anyway, moving on to the actual episode. If the show weren’t ending I would probably have loved this. It had all the classic trademarks of past finales while sticking with the self-contained mysteries format. It was nice and I adored seeing Nish, Chip, Jake Kane and (after a pretty long time) Wallace again. It was a fitting end…to a season…but a crappy end for a show.

Let’s start with the good stuff: Excellent mystery that not only restored Veronica to her season 1 toughness (she had become somewhat soft this season, what with no real involvement in the mysteries-du-jour) but also managed to be really fun for once. The episode also managed to show us exactly why Veronica will always return to Logan regardless of how happy she might be in another boy’s arms (I loved that Piz just walked away when a guy teased Veronica, while Logan punched the crap out of a guy for doing much less) Also nicely handled: Logan and Parker’s breakup, Dick’s questioning of why his brother killed himself (although, seriously…this storyline just started and now we’ll never get to see how it could have changed Dick…maybe for the better), the whole secret society thing and the horrendous bastard Jake Kane really is (although…seriously…how many pies does the guy have his fingers in anyway? He was in the Tridents and he’s in the Castle…how many other secret societies does he have frittered away?)

Now let’s get to the bad: as far as the individual episode goes, there was nothing bad about this episode. It affectively and nicely gave Veronica a mystery to solve and managed to pull together many of the disparate threads from the entire season. However, and this is the real problem here, since the show is ending (and even if it was being retooled into the 4-years later FBI show) the many, many subplots left over will never have a resolution. I’m just going to count off the ones I can remember: Logan facing possible death at the hands of the son of a mass murderer (hitman…assassin?), Dick and his path to redemption following his brother’s suicide, Keith and his betrayal of his office, Keith and the sheriff election, Mac and her slacker boyfriend, Logan’s unrequited love for Veronica, Veronica and her knowledge of the Castle’s members, Veronica being ridiculed by the entire Hearst college, and I’m sure there were one or two others that I may be missing. So, Thomas jus decided to leave us hanging.

I know that they had barely any time to wrap up the storylines with only 20 episodes, but c’mon!! He could at least have had the decency to try to write for a conclusion (Veronica always teeters on cancellation…you’d think he’d give the cliffhangers a rest) Instead, he just wrote what he wanted…fans be damned. Very bad ending for a very good show. I will miss it even more now knowing the potential of what could have been.

Hopefully I shall return to more comic-related posts starting tomorrow, but no guarantess since my comic reading has really dropped. I do have a lot to say about tv shows I am catching up on in DVDs/torrents (yes…I am evil!!!) Joan of Arcadia, The Office, and Bones.

Now that I’m actually writing this down, I actually feel kind of scared, because I’ve been talking about this post for so long that at this point anything less than excellent would be a letdown, right? Unfortunately, I don’t do excellent…I do passable and so you will have to settle for that and hope that it works.

Now, I personally believe two people really did the most work to develop Cassie into a 3-dimensional, viable and interesting character; Phil Jimenez and Peter David. Unfortunately, I don’t have all my issues of Jimenez’s Wonder Woman and PAD’s Young Justice with me, so I will be using Cassie in Young Justice #50 as the pinnacle of her character development while I’ll be using many, many issues of Johns’ Teen Titans to show how he devolved her into a sad little girl instead of the powerhouse leader she had been before.

Now, to clear the air beforehand, I think Johns is obsessed with Wolfman’s Titans. From the first issue of his run-onwards, he has tried to make the new Titans into a mirror copy of the original, right down to bringing back Raven, using Starfire and Cyborg and having all the characters become junior versions of the old Titans (Wonder Girl adopted the Donna Troy costume, Impulse became Kid Flash, Speedy was added to the cast…) I have no problem with this if it is handled organically…unfortunately, and most blatantly in Cassie’s case, he wrote the book (or at least it seemed that way to me) and changed the characters to fit into the roles he had written. But I digress, let’s return to Cassie.

First up is an image of Cassie, the leader. What many forget is that Cassie has learned under Artemis and Diana and has benefited from both. She not only possesses a keen, analytical mind, she also is quick to learn and memorised many Amazon war manuevers during her training exercises. She understands her role as an Amazon protege and in this panel from Young Justice #50, she shows that she can take charge when required and let’s not forget, the Young Justice kids voted her into office after she proved time and again that she was more than suited for the role. Hell, she took over from Robin…she was deemed better than Robin…imagine that! Anyway, that continues with the second panel, also from Young Justice #50, which shows Cassie the tactician. She knows exactly where to send which teams, and handles the whole matter very professionally. Later on, she also shows that she is capable of quick thinking when the odds turn against the young heroes and she has to abandon her plans and just tell everyone to fight. Never, at any time, does she look to Robin or Superboy to validate her. She talks to Robin, sure, but only to make sure that there is no enmity because she has taken over as leader. That is how she ensures that Robin is onboard and marks the true strength of the character. Also, she is facing off against Devastation, a minor-goddess who practically beat her senseless in Wonder Woman, but she doesn’t show any fear. She is ready and willing to fight and wants this done right.

Which brings us to Johns and his incredible “Angst-character-ruination writing device”. In the first panel, we see an image from Young Justice/Titans: Graduation Day. I know this was written by Judd Winick, but c’mon, we all know Johns corroborated on it. Anyway, suddenly, Cassie is terrified. She confesses her fears to Donna and a vital part of the character disappears. But that could easily be redeemed…I mean she could genuinely be scared for once…but then comes Johns and his homemaker attitude. First off, he pushes aside everything else and decides that the most important thing to Cassie must become her friends and Conner…like a normal girl…only Cassie isn’t a normal girl. Even in the worst circumstances, Cassie always revelled in her powers…she never denied them…never felt they were constricting. She demanded she recieve powers!! And suddenly they’re overwhelming her and she wants to be normal again. C’mon!!

Look at Cassie here…instead of going into battle like she had been just a few short months ago (DC Time) she is looking to Connor and is asking for his permission almost. That is so insulting to the character that I almost gagged when I first read this issue. Not only is Cassie suddenly fearful and passive…now she is subservient to her boyfriend. Which was hinted at earlier, when a girl who stopped caring about what Connor thought of her ages ago, had to spend hours picking out an outfit he would like. Seriously…Cassie became Betty/Veronica from Archie instead of the strong character she is. Of course then we move to the final nail in the character’s coffin…the “best friend” role. I won’t even talk about her becoming Supergirl’s best friend (please…) but rather, Raven’s best friend. I can understand a girl wanting girls her own age around…what I can’t understand is why all they can do when they’re together is discuss clothes. Cissie and Cassie discussed parents, boyfriends, life in general and so much more…but all Cassie and Raven discuss are clothes? How does that seem like a fair trade-off?

Honestly I could go on, but as is obvious to me, I blathered on a lot more than I wanted to. I doubt I’ve changed anyone’s mind on the matter, but I just needed to get this out and it’s done. The rest of course, is for you people to read through and decide. Let me know what you think.

Uh…wow?

That was more than unbelievable…I mean…wha–? I watched this last night and I’m still having trouble completely processing everything that happened. Ok, let’s try to go through this step by step…

First the good: I LOVED the showdown between the Losties and the Others. Hurley saving the day was the most awesome thing ever! I was also somewhat surprised by Sawyer’s cold-blooded murder of Tom, but on thinking it over, it made total sense. I mean, the guy was electrocuted, shot, and even forced to confront his parents’ proxy killer because of these Others. In his eyes, he has just gained closure. It was a nice bit of character arc completion.

I also loved Jack vs. Ben. C’mon, who hasn’t been wanting to see that since they revealed that Ben was the leader of the Others. I know I wanted to see Ben beaten senseless and I actually like the character. The initiative Jack showed by grabbing the walkie-talkie was also cool. I really liked that little bit.

And how damned sweet was it that Jack told Kate he loved her. I (being a Jate fan) was ecstatic. We all know that Kate has certain feelings for Jack, but to have him come right out and admit his own for her was nice…and kind of bittersweet considering what happened at the end.

What the hell was up with that flash-forward?!? I had heard rumours, but I expected it to be very far-flung or something. But based on the show’s progression and the way the flash-forwards were interspersed…I get the feeling that in this episode, the Island was the flashback while Jack’s incredibly depressing future-life was the present. And now I’m damned curious about who the hell John Latham was (the guy who got killed and who is survived by a son according to a screenshot I found of the clipping) It’s neither friend or family so it could literally be anyone, but he expected Kate to be there although she didn’t understand why so that makes things even more confusing. The initials lead me to believe it could be Locke, but where the hell did he get a 14-yr old son? Another theory that I’ve heard, it could be Walt and Michael under assumed names for reasons that escape me. Hey, it’s Lost and at this point we’re all grasping at straws to make sense of this. Then of course, there’s the fact that he was yelling about his father…did the Island bring his father back to life then? Was he just being a really out-there drunk?!? What the hell?!?

Also, while this will also show up in the ‘BAD’ category for a different reason, I thought Charlie’s sacrifice was really well-handled. I’ve had problems with Charlie’s character throughout the first two seasons, but the character was truly redeemed this season and it was actually kind of sad to see him go. And the final scene where he realizes he’s dying and crosses himself was incredibly heart-breaking.

Also fun moments: Juliet’s snarkiness, Ben-Rousseau-Alex reunion, and the fact the Others don’t trust Ben anymore.

And now the bad: well, firstly, I was pretty disappointed by Walt’s appearance. The kid looks MUCH older than he should be if the Island timeline is to be believed and I don’t even want to go into how incredibly strange it is and he is not seen or referred to in the remaining episode. You’d think Locke would have made some reference to the kid when he was trying to convince Jack to give up the phone, but whatever.

I did not appreciate the fact that they killed Charlie in such a stupid manner. He could have gone out the hatch and closed it behind him and considering how massive the outside room was, he could easily have escaped with the scuba gear on. I know the whole destiny thing HAD to come into play, but it was still kind of stupid to see that happen.

The stupidest thing in the entire 2 hours though, was that Mikhail lived after being shot through the heart by a harpoon..WTF??! If he survives the bomb, I will consider him Jacob because dude will be a friggin’ Highlander. Somebody cut his head off next season, please! It was incredibly unbelievable in an otherwise excellent episode and I am kind of disappointed in the writers for doing that.

Finally, the only other problem I had with the ep was that more of the Others didn’t push to go with Ben when he left to intercept the Losties. It just seemed strange that they wouldn’t atleast try to find out why he’s going alone, especially considering the lack of trust right now.

Now, for the theories: The way I see, it considering the flash-forward, there are two places the next season can go: We pick up right where we left off with the Losties being rescued and heading off to their respective homes or we pick up with Jack in the present and have him manipulate the plane situation so that the plane crashes again and they return to the Island. This could serve as a clearing-house for the cast if they wish, and could really up the ante when Jack returns to a (possibly) Dharma controlled island where the war between the Others and Dharma will probably be in full-swing again.

I’m kind of hoping for the latter, because with three seasons left I want to get to the good stuff (fights, island secrets, everything) ASAP! I don’t want to wait a season for them to get off the island and then have a season dealing with the return and then have yet another season dealing with the final secrets. I want the good stuff and I want it NOW!! Unfortunately, no more new Lost until February (damn them…) and we won’t be getting any hints at all until at earliest, SD Comic-Con…and even that isn’t guaranteed this year.

All in all, definitely the best season finale I’ve seen thus far this year. Only have a couple left and I don’t expect the title to be taken away from Lost, but we shall see, eh?

Awful. Awful finale. Conclusive ending my $#!@. I would say the worst one this year…but well…no one can beat out Grey’s on that one.

Let’s start with the ridiculous lack of death. I demand bodies from this show…lots of them…regularly and rapidly. The fact that they let D.L live is stupid to say the least, but what really burns me is that Sylar still lives. I know that every character must have his counterpart and Sylar is Peter’s (yeah…like anyone believes he’s dead) but couldn’t they have bothered to make the new “BIG BAD” that Molly cannot find into a better character rather than…probably…either a) making Sylar join the good guys (in a Magneto joins the X-men against a greater evil kind of way) or b) making Sylar join forces with the new baddie before eventually killing him near or in the second season finale and then taking his powers thereby making him the strongest there is…but not before Peter’s been around so he can absorb the damned abilities too…

Damn…that was long-winded. Didn’t really mean to do that, but well…the constant X-men riffs are getting to me and what I’ve just described are variations on two Chris Claremont standards. Do I hope these people will stay away from them? You bet (which is why I’m writing them down…maybe someone will filter this info down to them and they’ll…you know…actually bother coming up with something themselves.

Anyway, this is a review and I should explain why I didn’t like this episode at all. Firstly, Claire not just shooting Peter right off the bat despite repeated attempts was just stupid. She knows she can bring him back to life by just removing the bullet…so what’s the major worry? Then there was Peter…sigh…why the hell couldn’t the idiot fly himself away? He has the time to stand there and stew in his own radioactive fires, but he can’t muster up the energy to fly away? Bah!

Then we come to Mama Petrelli…I have never seen a character go down the ultra-mega bitch route quite this quickly. I mean, sure we knew she wanted the bomb to go off, but she not only basically decided to sacrifice her so, but she also called him a good-for-nothing in that weird flashback dream…which wasn’t explained by the way…stupid writers. This was worse than the traditional Lost finales…even if Lost doesn’t give you all the answers…it leaves you begging for more. All this left me wanting to do was shoot Peter myself and put everyone out of their misery.

Then let’s shift focus to Sylar again. Why the hell would he skulk into the sewer…and what the hell was up with the roach? Is Sylar a roach? like a roach? can he never be killed? How do you survive from an impaling anyway? This was worse than a mid-90s X-men comic. Atleast with those you knew what you were getting into.

Now, the good…what little there was of it. Thank God they combined Nikki and Jessica. That’s a load off. And…that’s basically it. Although I do hope to see more of Rena Sofer next season…

So…where does that leave us? Do I want to see anymore of this show next season? Yeah, I guess…I still like Hiro and next season should have an interesting character arc for him before he comes back to the present. I also want to see more of HRG (sorry, but Noah is too…geeky) so that should be interesting. But unless this show bats a 1000 right out the gate, I may not be sticking around for a lot of season 2. I don’t need the grief.