With only a few episodes remaining before the series comes to an end, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on what’s going on, present some questions that I’m afraid they won’t answer and just generally discuss what has been the most entertaining series I have ever seen on Television.

All of us are wondering and hoping that we didn’t make a mistake by investing the time and energy into LOST that we have. As the series winds down, my doubts only increase. There are so many questions left to be answered and so little time to answer them. Here’s a quick list of questions I hope they don’t overlook:

1. Why can’t women on the Island give birth?
2. Does the Island have a name? Does Smokey have a name?
3. How does the Dharma initiative tie into all of this battle between gods stuff?
4. “Jacob has a thing for numbers.” I hope there’s more to “the numbers” than that
5. Will we ever see Walt again?

Theories!

I have a couple of theories on what’s going to happen in the next few episodes as the series concludes.

Theory #1: Reincarnation: Lost souls being found

“I’ll see you in another life, brotha.” – Desmond Hume

Here, the assumption is that everyone on the Island is indeed dead (they died as Oceanic 815 crashed) and the Island itself is a place full of souls & spirits, some of which can be seen. As Jacob mentioned, the Island is what is keeping these spirits from escaping and causing havoc in the real (sideways?) world. The only thing is, all of the characters we see on the Island are actually those spirits too. As Fake Locke’s plan advances to release the spirits into the real/sideways world, the castaways souls are traveling to their reincarnated bodies in the alt/sideways world. That’s how/why they are becoming enlightened with their memories from the Island. I’m very interested in seeing how the souls from the Island merge with the bodies from the sideways world. The only soul that won’t escape the Island is that of Jack. He’s going to take Jacob’s place. This may be why he hasn’t had any flashes of Island life at all in the sideways world.

Theory #2: You’re all going to die

Everyone on the Island will die at the hands of Widmore (who is in cahoots with Smokey – loophole, baby!) and the Island will sink (as we saw in LA X). As this happens, the alt/sideways characters will have become enlightened with their Island memories – which we already see happening. The castaways will live happily ever after in the sideways world and we’ll all be really upset that the Island never really meant anything.

Things I wish happened in “The Last Recruit”

1. If only Claire would have pulled the trigger on Kate. I would have loved that oh so much.

2. Jin & Sun’s reunion cut short by a sudden zap of sonic fence-ness. Yeah, I’m a sicko.

The real questions that we will all have to answer once the series ends on May 23 is: did we get what we wanted from LOST? I have a feeling that we won’t be disappointed. But then again, what do I know.

Season 4 of Dexter started off with a lot of yawning, a Trinity Serial killer, some more yawning, and a lot of romantic intrigue. Oh, and Dexter knocked off a dude also. Let’s take a look at what went down:

Hello Daddy!
Dexter’s baby boy, not surprisingly named Harrison (Harry was Dexter’s daddy), likes to cry a lot. This keeps Rita and Dexter up at night and, as a result of not getting all the sleep a serial killer Blood Spatter Analyst requires, Dexter messes up in court, thus letting a murderer walk. Do you think the show made it abundantly clear that fatherhood is messing with Dexter?

A Certain Romance
Where did all of this romance come from? It almost feels like an R rated version of The Office. LaGuerda and Sgt. Garcia hook up (gross!). Little Sis and Anton are living together, but wait – Old Man from Oregon, aka Lundy, shows up for a freelance gig (of boning or crime fighting?). Out of all that romance, the part that intrigued me the most was seeing Rita flirt with their neighbor. I have a feeling Rita’s not going to live past Season 4. How awesome would it be if Dexter killed her?!

Trinity
John Lithgow is this season’s serial killer. Special Agent Lundy is in town to help hunt him down. What Lundy knows is that Lithgow’s character, Arthur Mitchell, likes to kill in 3′s. We witness one of these three as the episode opens. Mitchell kills a woman while forcing her to bathe with him (yes, a bloodbath). Dexter and Masuka (he’s so awesome, that Masuka) discover that 30 years ago, the same crime occurred in the same house (possibly the same bathtub?). Looks like they might have a head start of the next two murders. Hopefully, they aren’t bathtub murders, because, really, I’m tired of seeing naked old men on Dexter.

I Kill, Therefore I Am
The sleep deprived Dexter still needed to get his kill on, so he did it, but was interrupted several times. First, he fell asleep in his car outside of a bar where he was awaiting his prey – got a cop in his face and was accused of being under the influence. Then, once captured, he was interrupted by Rita’s phone call to ask him to pick up baby medicine for Harrison’s ear infection. In a rush, he finished off the kill, but didn’t get to savor it. As he was driving home, he fell asleep at the wheel and flipped the car. Body parts in trunk. Yikes!

All in all, it was an entertaining premiere. A lot went down, and it setup a season that looks to be promising. I just hope that we don’t have to see Michael C. Hall yawn as often as we did in the premiere (he’s not very good at it). We get it, you’re tired, get past it. Or do something about it (like kill Rita!).

Once again, way too much happened last night for me to be able to write a decent recap, so I’ll just talk about some burning questions…

Hurley: We’re dead and in Heaven

OK, so he may be a little crazy, but he’s got a good point. From Kate looking “airbrushed” to things just being too good to be true – maybe they are in some sort of otherworld? Very 6th Sense.

Kate working for Sawyer?

I don’t know if I believe her. I have a feeling she lied to Jack about Sawyer. I was totally expecting her to say Ben when Jack forced her to admit what it was that she was doing. Could it be that Ben is manipulating her emotions for Jack and Sawyer and as such forcing her to lie. I find it interesting that we haven’t seen Ben in the Jack/Kate/Hurley flash forwards, but we have seen him with Sayid. Surely, he’s going to be manipulating all of the Losties in the future.

Jack’s Sickness

The only thing interesting I found about Jack’s sickness was what Rose said: This Island is supposed to heal. I haven’t yet figured out what the connection between healing and hurting is on the Island, but I want to say that it’s got something to do with what I saw in a Family Guy episode: Peter is on a golf course on the day of his anniversary and he gets knocked unconscious. Death shows up and won’t let him wake up until he comes to some sort of profound realization (that it’s his anniversary and he should do something for his wife). Maybe Jack needs to have this light switch moment before he can really be healed (emotionally and physically) by the Island? Oh, and what happened to Jack’s appendix surgery scar in the future? That leads me back to my first question: is Hurley right?

In other news: do you trust Faraday? What about Charlotte? Yes, Danielle and Karl are really dead…and what’s up with Myles? We know that Faraday and Lewis are here for scientific purposes, but Miles’ “this isn’t waht I signed up for.” was also intriguing. I love it when Juliette becomes bossy and manipulative. “I know you’re awake” – that was great. If more than one person is seeing Christian Shepherd, then there’s something more to him than we know. Maybe he is Jacob? Or maybe he’s a thrid part of the Ben vs. Widmore battle?

Can’t wait for the final few episodes!

I feel like I’ve said this so often with Lost: it came roaring back last night. Literally. We got to see smokey the monster (apparently manipulated by Ben…or is it Jacob?). There was time-traveling, flash-forwards into October of 2005, hints from Hurley (Australia is the key to this game, huh?), Sawyer’s sudden turnaround into a compassionate hero who risked his life to save Claire, and so much more that I will never get to because the episode was overwhelming. But the one standout performace was that of Michael Emerson: Benjamin Linus. I cannot say enough about how wonderful he is to watch on this show. Last night was a prime example. The Shape of THings to Come cahnged the rules.

So where do we begin? Time Travel! Again!

It seems as if Ben has the ability to travel time, at least that’s what we’re led to believe. He transports himself into October of 2005. Location: Sahara Desert. He lies to Sayid about how he got there, but we’ll get to that. My question is, what was Ben’s starting point? We saw him arrive in the desert, but we didn’t see where/when he departed. Relative to Island time, was it before, during or after the Island present? My guess is that we’ll find out it was before. Does anyone remember if Ben had a cut on his arm at some point in the past?

It’s too late for me to try and recap the whole episode, so let’s just talk about the best parts:
He Changed the Rules

Not only did Charles Widmore change the rules of whatever game it is that he was playing with Ben, Lost changed the rules of hollywood storytelling. They let a hostage be murdered in cold blood. And they let the hostage’s father witness it and take the responsibility for it! I think we were all shocked by that because that’s something you almost never see on TV or even in movies, but my twisted mind loved every bit of it.

…ok, I’ve spent all day trying to write this and this is as far as I’ve gotten. Sorry folks, you’ll just need to discuss amongst yourselves.

So much for my theory about the coffin. The theory still holds, the relativity to episode 8 obviously wasn’t accurate. Seeing as most of you have already either watched the episode or read thousands of other recaps, I’m not even going to bother recapping the episode. I’ll just pose some of the glaring questions and observations I made in watching “Meet Kevin Johnson.”

The Power of the Island
The Island has the power to alter the fate of people in the real world. That’s some crazy stuff. The Island wouldn’t let Michael kill himself. Now he’s hellbent on trying, or trying to redeem himself for having killed Ana Lucia and Libby. Does this answer the question of why future-bearded-drunken-Jack didn’t jump off the bridge? And what does it mean? When will you be allowed to die? When the Island concedes that you’ve fulfilled your duty? Dare I blaspheme that the Island has supernatural powers of the almighty? I won’t, but you can.

Also, if the Island won’t let Michael die, then is he really in that casket?

The Benipulator
There he goes again. Finding ways to manipulate people into doing what he wants them to do. Benjamin Linus. The conpirator of all things good and all things evil. I don’t undestand how he made those calls to Michale when he was being held captive? The call we say may have been before Jack beat him to a pulp in last season’s finale. Nonetheless, it’s a fine line of time. My favorite Ben twist in this episode: Having Danielle and Kyle killed after telling Michael that he would never kill innocent people. That is, if you believe Ben is behind those murders. Brilliant!

By now, I’m also convinced that Ben controls the visions that people see, the sounds that they hear and even the weather on the Island. That’s why Michael kept seeing Libby last night. Or maybe that’s the Island. Or maybe Ben’s controlling the Island as well. Could that be the secret that he’s protecting? What he doesn’t want Charles Widmore to get a hold of?

Tom is Gay
That’s all.

Frequent Flyer Miles?
How the heck do people get on and off the Island so freely? I still believe that the submarine is in tact (or that they had more than one). I’m not convinced that it’s some sort of time travel machine, though. On the other hand, I do believe that certain coordinates, when followed, do get you off of the Island at varying speeds. That said, maybe it is possible that following a particular set of coordinates will take you to a place like New York in a shorter amount of time? Maybe it’s the coordinates that Ben gave to Michael and Walt?

Ben’s Weakness
Isn’t it time that someone figured out what Ben’s weakness is and exploit it? Women. He’s very protective of the women that he thinks he loves. Namely Juliette and Alex. To date, he’s been responsible for at least three deaths in direct correlation to those two. Someone needs to hold a gun to Alex’s head and get Ben to talk. Or better yet, act. Alex. she looked very good in last night’s episode. Very good.

That’s all folks. Yet another countdown to more episodes of Lost begins now. We can make it if we try.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to watch tonight’s episode of Lost until the wee hours of the morning. There is good reason for this. A British rock band named The Cribs. I’ve quoted their songs in my recaps and I’m headed to hipster-nation to check them out. Whilst you await my sure to be hazy recap of what is sure to be a fantastic episode, here are some thoughts on “the big buzz” for tonight:

Someone Is Going to Die
The teasers have been telling us that someone is going to die in tonight’s episode. Even though that may be true, I think we’re going to find out something more profound than just the identity of the death. We’re going to find out that the person who is dead is actually the same person who was in the flash-forward coffin from “Through the Looking Glass!” We’ve all been speculating as to who that person might be, and I feel that I must give in to the theory that it is Michael (or Kevin Johnson). My gut had told me that it was Juliette, but I now believe that my gut was wrong. How all of this will tie together with Jack? We’ll find out tonight.

The writers knew that this episode might have to act like a season finale, so there should be a fantastic cliffhanger (as there always is). I hope ya’ll enjoy it as much as I’ll be missing it. We’ll chat tomorrow. If I can get a recap up

Yes, we all knew that Michael was the spy on the boat working for Ben. We were hoping aginst hope that there would be a twist. That it wouldn’t be him, but we were right. Or the credits were right. Thanks a lot IMDB! We were also wondering who the captain of the boat was. And we learned that it’s some guy named Captain Gunn? Or did he say Rudd? I need to watch this show with the subtitles on. He tells Sayid and Desmond that it’s Mr. Whitmore’s boat and he tells them about the Oceanic 815 conspiracy. He shows them the “black box” from the flight and alleges that Ben is the orchestrator of the cover-up. Can we believe him? “Someone” dropped a note for Sayid and Des telling them not to trust the captain. Sounds like we’ve got another Ben on our hands.

Back on the Island, Juliette totally blows up Sun’s spot (get it? Sun Spot – yeah, I’m a dork). In her effort to prevent Sun and Jin from going to Locke’s camp, Juliette tells Jin about the affair. Yes, the affair that Sun had with the bald Korean guy before they found themselves on the Island. BTW, Jin’s been picking up english quite fast. Enough so that he and Bernard (yes, Bernard’s back) have a heart to heart on a fishing boat (where did they get that boat?!). Jin comes to the realization that it’s ok that his wife cheated on him. Because he was a jerk before they got onto the Island and since then, things have changed. So her forgives her. This all seemed a bit rushed, but hey, when you’ve got so many storylines in one episode, there’s only so much development you can do.

And now the other storyline. The last of the Oceanic 6: Sun. Or was she the last? Because we’re led to believe that Jin was also rescued. Now here’s the part that pisses me off a bit. The only reason that the Jin flashback (yes, it was a flashback, he wasn’t rescued, or was he?) was put into the episode was to eff with us. It served no other purpose. To me, that’s a waste of time. A waste of storytelling time and a waste of my time (even though I am on vacation wasting time). I didn’t see the falshback/flashforward twist coming, but my buddy did, and so it wasn’t all that much of a surprise. Nice try, though.

So what’s Ji Yeon? That’s the name of their baby. Sun, being one of the Oceanic 6, is back in Korea and she gives birth to their child; a girl named Ji Yeon. Future Hurley comes to visit her and they both go to Jin’s grave to pay their respects. That means Jin dies. He must have died in the process of being rescued. That leaves the question of who else died in that process? And how did Hurley know about the birth? And still the question of what is the glue that holds the Oceanic 6 together?

Kevin Johnson. He’s the janitor on the boat that has been messing up the systems. He’s Ben’s spy. Michael. That just opens the door to all sorts of questions. Primarily, how does Michael communicate with Ben? Is he even Ben’s spy? What’s at stake here? Walt’s livelyhood? Is that how Ben is manipulating Michael? And finally, how many more times will we have to hear “I just want my son back.”?

Two and Two Together

If Ben orchestrated the conspiracy like the captain says he did, then how did he get the 300+ bodies? Was it the purge? Or is Ben collecting bodies in general? Does it have anything to do with him collecting children? Also, are the people that Sayid is killing for Ben in the future also bodies that are being collected? Here’s what I have to ask as a final thought: If Jacob = Christian Shephard = Ben’s boss, is he behind the conspiracy? Is it battle of the oldies? Whitmore vs. Shephard? There’s a lot of money there.

Happy chatting.

You’re going to need to sit down for this. John Locke knows who Ben’s spy on the boat is, but we don’t. Booo on Lost for leaving us hanging in an episode that may have been the weakest of the season. OK, so we found out that the freighter belongs to Mr. Whitmore (Penny’s father). We learned about a new station (how many frickin stations are there?), The Tempest. We are even further confused as to who is on what side, but we’ll try and sort some of that out here. And a “love polygon.” Yeah, that. Ugh. So let’s begin, shall we?

Un-Locked
Poor John Locke. He has no idea what he’s up against. Ben, locked up in a basement, was able to manipulate his way into freedom. I think there is a part of all of us that wants to have that faith in Ben, we want to believe that he is a good guy, that he’s telling the truth, but we just can’t get ourselves to trust him. There’s just something about people who lie to manipulate others. Or liars in general.

What we do see from Ben is proof, supposedly. He shows Locke a video (VHS labeled Red Sox, ha) of Mr. Whitmore getting out of a limo and beating some guy up. Somehow, that proves to Locke and to us that Whitmore owns the boat. Considering what we saw last week about the Black Rock and the auction, it makes sense that Whitmore is looking for the Island. But maybe that’s just that part of me that wants to believe Ben.

The Love Chart
OK, so let me see if I can get this straight (and this is going to sound elementary school-ish, be warned): Jack likes Juliette and sometimes Kate. Juliette liked Goodwin (who was married, but killed by the tail section castaways), who was married to the therapist (AKA Ben’s ghost). Ben likes Juliette, in fact he thinks he owns her (because she looks like “her.” Annie?). Kate likes Jack sometimes, and Sawyer other times. Charlotte seems to like Faraday. And no one likes Miles. I think I need MS Visio to draw a flowchart here and see if there’s a pattern. Any volunteers?

The Tempest
Faraday and Lewis are on a mission to find their way to the Tempest (yeah, another Dharma station), and disable the toxic gas machine. They are in some cool jumpsuits and Daniel is trying his best to go from Physicist to computer hacker. What I thought was noteworthy was that they had a map of sorts. He knew almost exactly where to go. It seems as if he’s definitely been on the before. Maybe he was one of the original inhabitants of the Island? I’ll save the theorizing for another time, though.

They make it to the hatch, but Juliette had been told by Ben through Harper Stanhope (her ex-therapist and also her ex-lover, Goodwin’s, wife) that she must kill them before they kill the hatch. She makes it there, has the gun pointed at Charlottes head, but is talked out of it by C.S. lewis. Faraday figures out how to hack the computer and they are all saved. Kinda boring.

Playing Sides
Freighter Folk. Now I’m leaning towards Charlotte and Faraday being ok. They are on a mission to find out something about the Island – scientific research, if you may. Maybe they are the children of Dharma. Miles is just a hired gun. The owner of the freighter has hired him to kill Ben, period.

Ben. Oh Ben. Is he really trying to protect the Island? Yes. What he says makes sense. The Island has lost of potential and a businessman is trying to exploit it. But, like I said, I really want to believe that Ben is ultimately going to be a good guy, but I just can’t trust a liar.

Juliette. I’m not sure I completely trust her yet either. It seems as if she’s truly afraid of Ben and through this fear, he can manipulate her. Why hasn’t she killed him yet, I don’t understand. In fact, after she found out about Goodwin’s death, she helped Ben get Jack into the operating room. Supposedly to be taken off this Island, but we all know what happened there. Note the play on words in the episode title. Is Juliette an Other at heart?

Other than the obvious “who’s the spy on the boat?” question, I have another important one: Who is Ben? And how is he able to get Harper to show up in the middle of the forest, find Juliette, and tell her to kill the freighter folk? Is it Ben that’s even the one doing this? Or is it another force/power? Jacob again?

Claire wants to see if she can get some more info out of Miles by being nice to him. I wonder how that all works out?

So was I the only one that felt blah about this episode? I know the bar is set high, so all things considered, it was good – I just hope next week isn’t as disappointing.

Who’s it going to be on the boat? Michael? I almost hope it’s not – just because that’s who I expect it to be and I’ll be disappointed if I’m right (see the whole thing about the bar being set high). Thoughts?