the world according to schmogel.

in the words of Wanya, Nathan, and  Shawn – now we’ve come to the end of the road. Still I can’t let you go. It’s unnatural…

my sister, in typical vogel fashion has added an extra mem and some runners-uppers based on the inability to cut one out.

bring on Sunday.

back story (and first and second scene) in part 1 and (third and fourth scene) part 2 and (fifth and sixth scene) part 3 and (seventh and eighth scene) part 4

—- close us out meghangster —-

(Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh)

Why do we love Lost so much?  That’s right, because it’s awesome.

I’m actually doing a 3 part moment for my last entry.  Because I couldn’t pick between them and they are all along the same lines.

The Others

Very early on, after hopes of an immediate rescue had been squashed, the survivors started building homes and forming a rag-tag community.  Although it was met with some hesitancy some sort of track record of who people were made sense.  So Hurley set out to do a sort of census of the island.  He got everyone’s names and basic descriptions.  Then he got his hands on the plane manifest, and then he noticed something odd… one of the survivors living with them wasn’t on the manifest.  He wasn’t on the plane.

1.    Ethan Rom/Other Man

This man was Ethan Rom.  This was the first sign of the others that we had.  It was a very big WTF moment for us.  Plus it was the first Lost anagram, which was awesome because it engaged the viewers in something that was never really discussed on the show.  I feel like the was definitely a tv show first, and very clever for a cult following.  Meanwhile, cut to Ethan out in the jungle with Charlie and a very pregnant Claire.  Ethan in my opinion was 10X scarier than the smoke monster.  He appeared to have super human strength.  He kidnapped Claire and nearly killed Charlie by hanging him from a tree and wiped the jungle floor with Jack. And we had no idea why.  None.  Claire was eventually released with amnesia.  And then Ethan wanted her back and began killing 1 survivor a day until Charlie brought her back.  And a few were killed before they ever even got an episode.  To get some answers they decided to set up a trap and try to capture Ethan and let the resident torturer do his worst to Ethan.  They use Charlie to trap him and it works.  Jack goes postal on him, and while he is on the ground, he does seem relatively unphased by the beatdown, prompting Sawyer to as who or what  this guy is.  Luckily guns still kill people.

2. “This ain’t over Zeke”

The survivors had Claire back, but Walt was still gone.  Michael grabbed a gun and went after him.  So Jack, Sawyer and Locke went out after Michael.  They ended up losing the trail in the middle of the night and they came face to face with another scary other, Tom.  They quickly learned they were surrounded and got a lesson in island etiquette.

Tom:
“Tell me, when you go over to man’s house for the first time, do you take off your shoes? Do you put your feet up on his coffee table? Do you walk to the kitchen and eat food that doesn’t belong to you? Open doors to rooms you got no business opening…. You know, somebody a whole lot smarter than anybody here once said, since the dawn of our species, man has been blessed with curiosity. You know the other one ’bout curiosity, don’t you Jack….. This is not your island. This is our island and the only reason that you’re livin’ on it, is because we let you live on it”

Part of us was like, you know, he’s got a point… but then they did kidnap Walt and Claire and it wasn’t like the survivors were vacationing there.  If they could have left, they would have. and they weren’t going out of their way to hurt the others, if anything it was the other way around.  So we stuck with our guys on this one

After they revealed they had Kate prisoner, the Jack, Locke and Sawyer had no choice but to turn in their guns and go back to their beach.  It was a huge blow to the momentum they had after catching Ethan and finding the hatch.  Things were starting to look like they might be okay, they might persevere.  Then this happened and you definitely get a sense that they are out of their league.

After returning to the beach defeated and without Michael or Walt they seemed helpless and victimized again.  Their heads were down as they walked across their campsite to the defeatist music.  Then Jack headed over to the beach and sat next to Ana Lucia and we were all like, ‘great, Jack’s mad at Kate for getting herself caught so he’s going to replace her with this new chick’.  and then something happened that made all the hairs on my arm stand on end….
Jack: Can I ask you something?
Ana Lucia: Shoot
Jack: How long do you think it would take to train an army?

and just like that, all my faith was restored.

3. Redemption/Hurley saves the day

They learn the Others plan to hit their campsite and target specific survivors to kidnap.  Juliet’s loyalty was up in the air, because she told them about the attack, but also was the one who scouted the tents to be hit.  The survivors decide to fight back and the trap is set.  Most of them head out into the jungle to avoid the Others’ attack and leave a few behind (Jin, Bernard, Sayid, Sawyer and Juliet) to blow up the 3 tents the others plan to hit first.  Two of the three explosions go off without a hitch as we cheer them on.  Then the tables quickly turn and Jin, Bernard and Sayid are captured and tied up with 3 surviving Others guarding them with guns.  They contact the rest of the survivors via walkie talkie to relay the news and threaten to kill their 3 captives if the survivors don’t head back and turn themselves in.  Sawyer and Juliet are left to watch from behind some trees with no guns an no way to help.  Then the best thing happens from the most unexpected hero of the day.  In one moment, Hurley gets to be the hero and save the day, Sayid reminds us how badass he is by snapping a man’s neck with his legs, Juliet officially turns her back on the others, and Sawyer finally gets to finish things with “Zeke”.

Had to end on a high note for our heroes.  Hope you have enjoyed the progress and now remember all there is to love about Lost.

See you Sunday when it ends.  once.

Runner-uppers

Reveal Locke was in a wheelchair before the plane crash

and this, which I came across and made me laugh out loud at work today.

followed by this

We are closing in on sunday. my sister is reminding me why I love lost, even if i hate(d) the smoke monster…

back story (and first and second scene) in part 1 and (third and fourth scene) part 2 and (fifth and sixth scene) part 3

—- meghan’s up —–

SEVENTH

Thanks to Desmonds crazy preminitions we all knew it was going to happen, but that did not make the death of Charlie Pace any less shocking (or heartbreaking).
So that comes in as our 7th installment of this 10 part series….

Not Penny’s Boat/RIP Charlie

At first Charlie thought Desmond was trying to move in on his woman, trying to one-up him in Claire’s eyes.  When Charlie eventually called Dez on his behavior he found out the tragic truth.  Dez had developed some sort of premonition power where he could see things before they happened, and in every situation he saw Charlie dying so he tried to stop that from happening by putting himself in Charlie’s place in dangerous situations.  And it had worked so far, but as Desmond explained, “no matter what I do, you’re going to die Charlie”

Eventually Charlie came to terms with his early demise.  Not wanting his death to be a waste and wanting to help those he was closest to (Claire, Aaron & Hurley), Charlie decided to set out on a dangerous mission with Desmond to infiltrate an underwater “others” workstation.  They were trying to open lines of communication being blocked between the islanders and the boat miles off shore that was sent to rescue them by Penny, Desmond’s love.

Once he makes it to the workstation (the Looking Glass) Charlie is almost immediately captured by two women running the station.  He’s very cute and kind of fearless at this point.  Very brazen.  He tells them exactly what he is going to do and that he will die because of it, but he will save his friends.  Desmond ends up going in after one of Ben’s minions shoots at him. Dez finds Charlie tied up and ends up freeing him and they kill the 3 others.  They split up so that Charlie will unjam the frequency communicator device and Desmond will get them some diving equipment from the Looking Glass, for their swim back to the island.  Desmond lies and tells Charlie he has not had any more premonitions of Charlie dying.  Charlie enters the code and the lines of communication are opened, as he goes to leave the room there’s a beep and flashing light near one of the screens that says Incoming Transmission.  Charlie pushed the button and a very fuzzy Penny comes in on the screen.  Charlie excitedly explains to her who he is, that he is with Desmond and that they are going to get to the boat she sent them soon.  But Penny has no idea what he is talking about.  Then it all happens so fast…..

Charlie saves Desmond’s life and sacrifices his own.  As Charlie realizes he is about to die, he also realizes that his friends are still in trouble and that this mission won’t save them the way he thought when he went out.  He is devastated.  Then something comes over him and he decides to make sure his death isn’t a waste.  He may not be able to make sure they get off the island, but he can still make sure they are safe, that they know the truth.  He grabs a marker and conveys his final message to Desmond… NOT PENNYS BOAT  he holds eye contact with Dez long enough to make sure he gets what Charlie’s telling him, and then his lifeless body floats away.

EIGHTH

Quantum physics. Time travel.  Worm holes.  Theories too complex for the average viewer to fully comprehend.  Maybe after 10+ years of extensive study on the subjects I’d have some idea, but barring that it’s like a foreign language to me.  I know it has something to do with math and equations, but even that doesn’t make sense to me.  Or it didn’t before the fourth season of Lost in an episode called The Constant.  This whole episode was amazing and  made me feel like the aforementioned theories and phrases were not only possible, but understandable.  And it made me feel smart for kind of understanding and getting the whole math aspect of it.  So the 8th Lost moment worth reliving is

The Constant

Desmond is on a helicopter going from the island to the ship.  In order to leave the island’s gravitational pull or whatever, they have to stay on a very direct course with no veering off at all.  The helicopter hits some turbulence during this ride and sends Desmond’s mind on a ride of its own.  Desmond’s consciousness begins jumping back and forth between the present and the past.  As we learn from another boat passenger this isn’t the first time this has happened and the end result doesn’t look good.

In real time Desmond communicates with resident quantum physicist Daniel Faraday who is still on the island.  Not being able to predict when he will jump back in time in his mind and not having a lot of time, Farady tells Dez next time he jumps back he has to get on a train and find Faraday in the past so that he can help him.  It’s a little Quantum Leapy at this point and we still don’t really get what is happening, just that it is happening.  Then Dez finds Daniel experimenting at Oxford University.  It takes some time and convincing but eventually Daniel believes the Dez is from the future and his mind keeps jumping back and forth.  Daniel actually caused this same thing to happen in a rat and while Dez is jumping back and forth, when he gets back to the lab with Daniel the rat is dead.  Faraday explains how the rat died, a brain aneurysm caused because the rat’s mind short circuited after jumping back and forth through time and not being able to tell what was real because it did not have an anchor.  This is where we get the whole concept of the constant explained to us.  It’s something that is familiar and important in both the past and the present that the jumper can use as an anchor to ground themselves to the present.  And for Desmond that could only be Penny.  Her phone number is diconnected in the past so he has to track her down and beg her to give it to him, after promising he will not use it for 8 years.  Then he’s back in the present, 8 years later and he’s able to track down a phone on the ship and knowing the phone number she gave him in the past, he calls her:

episode highlights and Faraday explaining the constant:

alright, i think they are getting better. #5 is a nice reminder of the fun we once had.

back story (and first and second scene) in part 1 and (third and fourth scene) part 2

—– and go ——-

FIFTH

Okay guys, this is the final stretch.  One new episode left, The End.  While watching last nights episode I started thinking about the good ol days.  Don’t get me wrong, it was some awesome television viewing, but I can remember a time when the island was different.  I mean Lost has always been about life or death situations, and the writers never let us forget that (RIP Boone, Shannon, Paulo, Nicki, Arntz, Charlie, obnoxious whiny guy, Alex, Rousseau, Sayid, Juliette, Jin, Sun, Widmore, Smurfette, Locke, etc, TBD).  Even without people trying to kill them or the smoke monster, there were still the natural elements and trying to survive on an island after a plane crash.  There were wild animals, cliffs with jagged rocks, the threats of starvation and illness.  It was always life or death.  But right now Lost is very urgently about life or death and has been so serious (particularly the last few episodes) you may be forgetting the good times we had.  So for the 5th reason we love Lost so much I am just going to remind us of  the cute and funny human aspect of the show. These weren’t competitors trying to win $500,000 who signed on to live on an island without electricity.  For the most part, these weren’t people who had any survival training at all. These were just people.  So here’s a little section I like to call

(Oceanic 815 Survivors) They’re just like us….

They have food cravings
remember when pregnant Claire just wanted peanut butter and Charlie promised her that if she moved from the beach to the caves he would get her some.  But there wasn’t any so he brought her an empty jar.  How cute was this?

They play games
thinking they would go crazy without some relief of some sort, Hurley found a few golf clubs in the wreckage and made a two hole golf course on the island…

“A doctor playing golf, woo, boy howdy, now i’ve heard everything, whats next? a cop eatin’ a doughnut”
~Sawyer

On another night, with some shots of alcohol Sawyer stole from the plane, he and Kate play a friendly yet revealing game of “I Never”

Where we learn Sawyer wore a lot of pink in the 80’s. Bottoms up.

They read & write

Claire kept a diary in the first season
“Dear Diary, Still on the bloody island. Today I swallowed a bug, love Claire”
~Charlie

Sawyer had to be fit for glasses so he could read,
“Dude- looks like someone steamrolled Harry Potter”
~Hurley
And also kept an extensive collection of porn in his shack

Hurley, stuck in the 70’s decides to rewrite the Empire Strikes back, from memory, with a few improvements, for George Lucas…
“A little spy robot thingy zips through the atmosphere and crashes into the snowy planet below. That’s when Chewbacca shows up and blasts it away with his crossbow laser. He shakes his fury fist in the sky in triumph. Chewbacca–Raaar.”

They date each other/fall in love

Whether it was the unlikely pairings of Sayid/Shannon and Hurley/Libby, or the more obvious ones like Claire/Charlie, or the triangles like Jack/Kate/Sawyer, we fell in love with the survivors as they were falling in love with each other.

I just thought we could all use a reminder of the cute and funny of Lost.  It wasn’t always about being on the edge of your seat in disbelief, sometimes it was just about smiling, and those times were just as good.

Will be back with another on the edge of your seat moment this afternoon…

———-

SIXTH

I hope no one considered my last pick to be a cop out.  I just came across so many cute things when doing research I wanted you to remember them too.
If you hated it, just remember I didn’t ask, I just said I hope you liked it. So keep it to yourself.  I also forgot to include when Locke built Claire a cradle for her birthday.  I meant to, just forgot.

Anyway, next on the Best Lost Moment List…

The worst helicopter ride EVER.

Here’s another example of just when things are starting to look up, just when you think they are about to be saved… another twist.  This time was legit.  Contact had been made with the outside world.  They were transporting people from the island to a freighter off shore via helicopter.  This time around it was Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sun, Sayid and Aaron in the helicopter.  After the helicopter is shot and loses gas, the pilot informs them they have to drop some weight from the helicopter or they will crash into the island.  In a heroic turn, Sawyer jumps out and swims back to the island.  The helicopter conitues to make it’s way to the freighter.  As they are about to land Desmond starts waving his hands- “go back, it’s about to blow!” but they have no choice- they have no gas left.  They all rush to get gas in the helicopter as fast as they can and with Desmond in towe are able to get back off the freighter before the explosion goes off.  As they are maybe 500 feet away, Jin comes running out to get on the helicopter.  Sun demands they go back for him but Jack says no- they can’t, they have to get away or they will all die.  As sun watches her husband watching them fly away, the freighter explodes with Jin on it.  There’s fire everywhere as remaining parts of the ship start to sink and Sun screams (best tv scream ever).  Devastated as to what just happened Jack tells the pilot to head back to the island.

What other choice do they have?  So they start to head back to the island, then the darnedest thing happens

So in this brief moment, they’ve lost Sawyer and Jin, the freighter they thought would save them blew up and the one piece of land that they had to fly back to just flat out disappeared.  So they are flying over the ocean, in a damaged helicopter, with 8 passengers, and there is no place for them to land.  Awesome.

alright, i am not happy that my sister is getting more views than my own posts. but i like the mems, so i will fulfill the 5 posts.

back story (and first and second scene) in part 1

—- and action —–

Third

The countdown reaches zero

John Locke was always a man of fatih.  And for a long time could do no wrong in my eyes.  Even after Boone died, I was still diehard Locke.  He always believed in the higher purpose… in the island.  Until one day at the end of the second season when he lost his faith in the island and decided it was all fake.

Desmond entered a code every 108 minutes for 3 years into a computer otherwise the world would end, or so he thought.  Some guy did it before him, and before him and before him.  When the Losties made their way into this hatch, John Locke took on the shared responsibility with Desmond and other 815 survivors.  Absolutely convinced that if they did not enter this code every 108 minutes the world would end.  After another Dharma station is uncovered on the island, Locke watches an orientation tape that says the countdown and code are all a social experiment to see what a person will do if they believe they are responsible for the worlds safety.  After seeing this, Locke loses his faith in the island and convinces Desmond to do the same.  Ecko and Charlie try to convince him he is wrong, while Locke wonders what would happen if they didn’t enter the code (let’s face it, we all did at this point).  You know what curiosity did the cat…..  Anyway, Locke decides to test this out.  He locks himself and Desmond in the room with the computer, so that believers Ecko & Charlie are not able to stop him from letting the countdown reach zero.  After talking with Locke Desmond realizes that missing the code less than a minute a month or two prior actually caused the plane crash that brought the survivors to this island.  He has a change of heart, but is it too late?

FOURTH

Day 2, Part 2….  my second favorite Lost moment (dun dun dun)

HENRY GALE

At this point we did not trust anyone that we didn’t already know to be from the plane crash.  The others were dangerous.  That was all we knew.  So when a seemingly helpless little man was captured in one of Rousseau’s traps, we didn’t know what to think.  The survivors were with us and trusted no one, so they kept him locked up.  But his story seemed plausible.  His name was Henry Gale. He and his wife crashed on the island in a hot air balloon while racing around the world and he was just lost as anyone we had come to love on the island.  His wife hadn’t survived their time on the island.  He buried her where the balloon crashed.  And like I said, he was a skinny little man, so he couldn’t have the super human strength the others that had been encountered had and he just didn’t seem like much of a threat.  At the same time, he was creepy.  We just didn’t know.  Was he telling the truth?  Did our heroes imprison and torture someone who was innocent?  We had our doubts, but it was looking like that.  He answered all their questions as honestly as he could.  He seemed scared.  Eventually he was asked to draw a map that would lead the survivors to the hot air balloon crash site, proving his story was true, and he obliged.  Sayid, Charlie and Ana Lucia ventured out in search of the balloon and Henry’s wife’s grave, and after hours of wandering around the jungle Charlie found the grave.  It looked like he was telling the truth afterall.  The smiley faced balloon was still stuck in the tree. So when the three returned from their mission, we expected Henry would be set free and join our merry band of survivors.  and then, wow.

In this moment 3 things became clear.  1. the mealy little man was not neither harmless nor Henry Gale, 2. Sayid is NEVER to be underestimated.  And 3. homeboy is batshit crazy.  Who saw Sayid actually digging up a grave to verify it’s contents?  Clearly not Ben, but not us either, and that’s what made this moment so awesome.

Plus who could forget our first look at Benjamin Linus

it is no secret that i was not a fan of the last episode of lost. yes, it kinda addressed a few things. however, four things i couldn’t get past:

1. they used actors from an after school theater group

2. wasted 62 min on a 20 min story.

3. showed us the inside of the briefcase from pulp fiction – which, now i can admit, was the wrong thing

4. they used, the single most prolific, passive aggressive, cop-out via a character we have never seen – ‘Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.’

i digress, in an effort to remind us all why we fell in love with lost, my sister has started sending me emails. Over the course of the week, she will send her top 10 moments of lost in no particular order.  So, without her permission, I am posting them here.

————– enter meghan —————

So I know there has been some let downs, some waning in interest, some forgotten greatness in regards to the enigma that is Lost.  So, as the finale hours approach I thought we should reminace about what makes this show so great with a recap of the best Lost moments of the past 6 years.  Obvioulsy these are subjective, but I hope they will remind you of the glory that is coming to an end this Sunday.  Every day (Mon-Fri) this week I will reveal 2 of the top 10 moments (random order, not a countdown).  Relive the magic with me…..

First…..    the hike up the mountain in the pilot episode

Okay, so I thought I would start with my favorite Lost moment.  The pilot episode where we first find out that this is not just a how about survivors of a plane crash on a deserted island.  Sayid, so they can call someone for help.  They are halfway up the hill/mountain when Sayid checks the frequency on the transmitter and gets a voice- a french woman talking.  No one speaks french- but Shannon kind of does.  The type of french a spoiled little rich girl who spent a year in Paris might speak.  But it will have to do, because no one else speaks any french.  Shannon holds the transmitter up to her ear and listens…. “please, help me…. please come get me… the others, they’re dead, it killed them… it killed them all”  Sayid then figures out from the interval numbers between repeats of the message that it has been running for 16 years.  Had the woman been rescued they assume the message would have been stopped. They figure no one ever heard the message.  In 16 years.  The deadpan looks across the six faces as the grasp the situation is more than anyone of them understand and then Charlie looks off into the island and asks the question we are all starting to wonder… “guys, where are we?”

What we thought was a show about how random people would survive on a deserted island became a show about the island itself.  and six years later we are still wondering the answer to that question

Then this happens, and all we really know is that we know nothing:

Second – Saved?

It always seems like the survivors will finally be rescued, then we get socked in the gut with some sort of twist.  I think the best time this happened was the first season finale, when after a season of building a raft from scratch with bamboo and other materials from the island and plane scraps and with 1 flare to their name, Michael sets out to sea to find rescue. Sawyer, Jin and Walt accompany him since Michael will not leave his son behind and Jin & Sawyer negotiate the other 2 open spots on the raft.  They islanders send them off with optimism, Sayid even fastens them together a rader scanning device.  And after only one full day of sailing it seemed like the day of rescuing was finally upon them.  Something blips on the radar screen.  Do they use their flare?  is it just debris? After fighting until the blip is almost off screen they decide to use it.  Then miraculously the blip turns around and starts heading toward them.  the music builds up, a light flashes on them from a ship.  They yell to the boat, waving their hands laughing and hugging each other- so happy and excited to finally reach the outside world. The boat pulls up and they happily start explaining themselves and how they survived a plane crash and how there are others back on the island and how they never thought they would be saved and the boat passengers seem astounded by all this information and then it happens, “Well ain’t that something… only the thing is…… we’re gonna have to take the boy”

line drive- right in the gut.
After refusing to hand his son over to a boatful of total strangers the fishing boat turns off it’s headlight- shoots Sawyer off the raft, Jin dives in after to save him, in the midst of all this Michael loses sight of Walt and he is grabbed by one of the others.  He yells for his dad to help- a fight ensues…. Michael is knocked off the raft into the water.  An explosive devise is tossed on the raft as the fishing boat speeds away with Walt inside still yelling for his dad.  The raft is blown to smitherines.  What just happened?  Why?  and what will become of Jin, Sawyer and Michael without their raft in the middle of the ocean?  Collective jaws drop across the world after watching this scene.  And unless you are Amanda and Erin and watched the entire first season in a day, you had a whole summer and probably fall to think about it.

Casting is important. When actors are chosen to represent a brand in short stories, it is important to chose wisely. It’s easier to ensure the chosen few resonate with a specific target. What is harder is making sure that those who fall outside the core sweet spot don’t have a violent reaction to a brand because of choices.

Sure, one could make an argument that the messaging wasn’t created for those outside the target. I issue a challenge. Until brands can guarantee that only that sweet spot sees the message AND they are the only ones that buy said product or service it will remain important to please the core target, while not upsetting the rest. And really, other than perhaps Girls Gone Wild, I can’t think of brand who could care less about those outside the target.

Which leaves me to believe not only am I not the target [which I actually think I am in a few], these ads didn’t have the best casting…

Here is my list of ‘5 Ads That Make Me Want To Punch The Actor- And I’m Not a Violent Person’ *I’m not focusing on local ads, just those from folks who should know better.

1. Starting easy. I have already written my disdain for this one, but again… The Staples ads are terrible and makes me not want to shop there. And I could use a few things Staples sells.

2. McDonald’s Coffee Guy. I don’t know why I hate him, but I want to buy a coffee and pour it on him.

3. White Castle Kid – I don’t understand this ad and I hate this kid. Maybe ‘My Sweet Sixteen’ ruined spoiled teens for me, but this kid does not help White Castle.

4. 1-800 Contacts Guy with ‘special eyes’ especially when he says ‘my brand’- first, he is ripping off zoidberg of futurama… secondly, he annoys me. I will continue to overpay at my trendy eye doctor and avoid 1800 Contacts.

Zoidberg:

5. I am going to save my 5th spot for something special. I am sure there are more out there. I almost put the Windows 7 ad with the French woman or the Midas guaranteed brakes or the Bud Light hospital ad… but I’ll leave it open for now.