MAN. I'm still wondering what the heck is wrong with Cindy, the two kids, and the other random tailies.

Weren't they planning on introducing some more redshirts this season? I was glad that one annoying guy was killed less than a minute after he was introduced.

So he wants to kill everyone on the island simply out of revenge? I'd be much more inclined to believe that there's a considerable amount of greed involved, exploiting the island and trying to use it's healing properties for their infinite monetary purposes. Or maybe a combination of both, where he was exiled because he wanted to capitalize on the island?

They had a really funny bit on Best Week Ever last night and Lost's watercooler moment of the week "the big reveal about Widmore."

Essentially if you were talking to co-workers who hadn't seen the show in a while, Charles Widmore, Penny, Desmond, would mean nothing to them.

I'm hard-pressed to think of another show that could have managed such a daring feat.

You mean who hasn't seen the show in years?

Desmond was recurring in season 2, bumped to regular since season 3. People know Desmond. He has been in like 40 episodes.

Penny is recurring since season 2, but it has been obvious for quite some time that she will have a vital role. Widmore too. He was, after all the main antagonist in season 4 (and even now). Both of them haven't had much screen time, but they were mentioned constantly and every time those were considerable mentions if not vital ones. Also their screen time is much more vivid than rather say Nikki and Paolo, even though they had an episode dedicated to them etc.

It wasn't a daring feat at all.

Sure it is.

Lost entered the lexicon of American pop culture based the core group (Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Sawyer, Kate, Charlie, John). What was exhibited on Wednesday is about as far removed from what watercooler conversations revolved around early on as humanly possible, hence the humour in what Best Week Ever did. It was insane, the post-episode discussions at the workplace during the first two seasons.

To even argue that more people know the names Desmond, Penny, Whitmore more than Hurley and Sayid is kinda silly. Silly silly silly.

24, Buffy, Angel were pulling the same thing later on in their seasons.

24 basically pulls that thing each season.

There are probably more shows I can't think of right now. But it's nothing unusual.

I never thought they would know them better over Hurley, Sayid, Jack, Sawyer, Kate. It's ridiculous to even think of that. But Nikki, Paolo, Libby (??? the fan favorite whose return everybody expects), the black kid whose name I totally forgot but was prominently featured during the whole first and the second season. Hell, even Charlie and the brother & sister would probably get smaller amount of mentions than Desmond, Penny & Whitmore if you polled random people who aren't regularly watching Lost anymore. If a person knows Desmond (really, I can't even believe you think people don't know who Desmond is), like 70% of them would know who Penny is, as hardly an episode goes by without him mentioning her. And if they know who Ben is, 80% of those would know about Whitmore as they're like the ultimate enemies or whatever.

For Penny & Whitmore maybe you could make a case, but Desmond??? You're totally off course there.

I have no idea what Best Week Ever did, but my impression is that they were wild over how Lost was putting (let's call them for the sake of the argument) second-tier characters into spotlight and making a great episode out of that. What's daring about that??? It's not like it hasn't been done before. Personally episodes not centered around the most exposed characters were always much better to me in Lost's case.

And again, most of the shows in the later run have big cast changes that would make them unrecognizable to a person that stopped watching after the first or second season.

The only show I can think of right know that has most of the original core cast untouched is Desperate Housewives.

24 isn't the best example to use, it's framework demands a revolving cast. And Buffy had pretty much the entire cast until it was spun-off to Angel and even then, by Season 7 the Scoobies were still the focus.

I don't know what point you're trying to argue. What BWE did was funny and pretty accurate.

Dawn. That should be enough. Tell me when a Lost pulls a complete 180 stunt like that. Tara & Anya. And if we're going from season 3 (Desmond was a promoted to regular in S3), then you can say the same about Faith. The Scoobies were the focus, but the only ones that survived from start to finish were Buffy, Xander & Willow. Even Giles was MIA for a large chunk of the last two seasons.

Obviously whatever they did on BWE they did with the notion that they will act as if Lost pulled an extraordinary thing and try to be funny about it and that people will buy it without even thinking about out. Or maybe you're just completely misrepresenting what they did. Any link on youtube or smth?

I don't think Loyal is trying to be critical, I think it's a strength of Lost that they've really latched on to characters people like (Juliet, Desmond, Daniel, etc.) and built a show out of the other one. Lost is completely about changing the paradigm of it's show every year, and whether or not you like where they've gone, it's a rare case when it has been extremely successful.

Any good show's cast grows after a time. Buffy began as a show about 4 people essentially and grew much wider. Battlestar had a main 7 cast members who have been outshined by the larger ensemble of about 15 people, etc. etc. etc. 24 is the same way.

But Lost is unique in the respect that it turns over characters, gets rid of dead ends (Claire, Nikki, Paulo, etc.) and changes course at random turns.

pretty much.

It was just a funny joke on VH1. If I had the clip, I would post it.

I must be living in a different universe, because every longer running show is doing exactly the same from my POV.

I would say Desmond is a well known character, he has been on the cover of TV guide and Entertainment Weekly. Also there was a poll by TV guide and Desmond is the most popular character on the show with Ben second. You could make the argument for Penny and Widmore since you don't see them as frequently.

I wonder if Sun ate the chocolate.

Sun is badass now

I wouldn't want to piss her off. She scares me.

I bet Juliet killed herself.

Where's the dharma shark?

What?

The person she shot on the other boat. You know that's gonna end tragically.

where's the smoke monster?

HOLYSHITJIN'SNOTDEAD

Rousseau!!!!!!!

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

"No, Jack, it was me." Ben is great.

Ben is a manipulative son of a bitch.
I knew Jin was still alive.

So:

Jin is still alive! And is meeting up with a 30-year old (?) Rousseau. Is it confirmed Rousseau is 100% dead? I don't even remember! Ahh.

How will Ben convince Sun that Jin is still alive? How does Ben know Jin is still alive? Ahhhh.

Ben is still just as manipulative off the island as he was on it. I love it. What's his motivation in trying to get Aaron away from Kate? To make her want to go back to the island?

What is the source of the crazy seizure/headache/nosebleed-fests going on on the island? Nothing bad better happen to Juliet!

I think I melted a little bit when Sawyer was all sad about Kate. And he cracked me up when they were getting shot at and then the time shift happened and he was all like "THANK YOU GOD" and then it's a monsoon and he goes "I take it back!" hahah

I'm really happy we're going to get backstory on Danielle but it's too bad Mira Furlan seems to not be playing the part. She was always great.

Does anyone else miss Emilie de Ravin and Claire? I mean, I know Claire is still technically "on the island" (or sitting with Jacob or whatever she was doing when we left her) but it's been confirmed she won't be appearing at all this season.

In conclusion: This show is still as much of an amazing mindfuck as it always was.

Two more theories/things that occurred to me:

Miles is totally the son of that Asian doctor who appears in all the Dharma Initative videos. Remember, he was shown having an infant son like two episodes ago?

This must mean that Danielle recognized Jin when the islanders first encountered her. Or am I not understanding how the time shifts work?