Awkward Polar Bears & Awesome Mancandy: 1.11 & 1.12

1.11 All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues - Hey, its another 'Jack's Dad is a douchecanoe' episode! Really, the episode dealt with the search for Claire and Charlie, who have been kidnapped by Tom Cruise's Creepy Brother (turns out William Mapother is Tom's cousin, but just go with it). Peppered throughout though, we get flashbacks to a situation where Jack intervened in a surgery because his father was drunk and the woman died. Now, the writers obviously tried to make these two plotlines fit together because the woman was pregnant and Jack couldn't save her. Claire is pregnant and in danger, so Jack makes with the crazy in order to find her. Instead, all he finds is a mostly dead Hobbit. Grade: B

• Michael's whining about being included is annoying. If I were him, I'd be thrilled to hang out at the caves and not go off to be fodder for The Thing in the Jungle.
• I laughed out loud when Boone explained the concept of a Red Shirt. How does Locke not know that?
• Walt had another dad named Brian, so I guess we'll be getting that flashback at some point.
• I was curious about how long Charlie had been dead when Kate and Jack found him. I know brain damage is present after a few scant minutes without oxygen, but I guess this is tv, people die and are brought back perfectly healthy all the time.
• Charlie hanging in the tree was creepy as hell, though, and I'm curious as to why he was blindfolded. I'm guessing there had to be someone other than Ethan around to prompt that.
• I've heard talk of the infamous hatch, so I'm guessing that's what Boone and Locke found. Time will tell.

1.12 Whatever the Case May Be - Boring Kate helped a bank robber, Sawyer took off his shirt, and I don't remember much after that. Except Kate wanted the case cause there was a toy in it she needed. I'm guessing so that at some point in the future, she can take her toys and go home. Grade: C

• Sawyer: I was protecting you! Kate: From what? Southern perverts? Hee.
• The dead bodies in the swimming hole were creeptastic! Still, it made no sense to me how the marshal checked his case and then it somehow wound up underneath these dead people's seat. Must have been because the script said so.
• I was annoyed by Kate telling Sawyer he was disgusting for scavenging the bodies. For one thing, it wasn't like she didn't know Sawyer's MO, and for another, I can't say I blame him. If I'm stranded on a frakking deserted island, I'm going to do what I have to to survive. The dead guy can't use what he's got on him, so its fair game, as far as I'm concerned. 
• I love Sawyer, and despite his asshole tendencies, he's too awesome for Boring Kate. I got the impression that his whole determination to get open the case was to impress her and figure out what she wanted out of there. 
• Witness my not surprise that Kate dated a bank robber. 
• Sun overheard Kate and Jack talking about the guns, so I wonder if that will come up later. 
• Kate trying to take the case from between sleeping Sawyer's knees was one of the most idiotic things she's done. No idea how she thought he'd sleep through that, but then again, I'm beginning to realize that I can't apply logic to anything Kate does. Boring and Badly Written Kate.

I decided to start grading the episodes too, so look for that. More next week!

Awkward Polar Bears & Awesome Mancandy: Solitary & Raised By Another

Solitary continues the line of 'lets give each character a background through flashbacks' episodes, this time focusing on Sayid.  Though I'm a little exhausted with every episode focusing on a different character, I was really drawn into the story of Sayid and Nadia. I'm pretty curious about what happened to Sayid after he freed Nadia, since he hasn't found her and somehow wound up in Australia.

• Tom Cruise's Creepy Brother (aka William Mapother, but who the hell actually calls him anything besides Tom Cruise's Creepy Brother?) is playing Ethan Rom, therefore I know Ethan is probably evil and creepy (see how being Tom Cruise's Creepy Brother works?).
• Favorite Exchange - Michael: Polar bears? Charlie: You didn't hear about the polar bear?
• I loved Hurley building the golf course. I'd heard via various interwebz things that Hurley is pretty much the Everyman character, the normal guy who represents the audience, needs explanations, etc and I thought this was a great moment for him.
• I liked Sawyer making an effort to be part of the group, even if it was a little bit at Jack's expense. Jack didn't seem to care until he wondered (as I did) whether Sawyer's effort was simply about Kate. I want to like Sawyer in spite of his behavior. Josh Holloway is so ridiculously good looking and charismatic that its hard work to remember his asshole behavior.
• I haven't mentioned the subplot with Sayid and the French woman, but that's cause it was just so vague that I didn't care about it much. So she's been there for years, and there are "Others" out there. 

Raised by Another is the Very Special Claire Flashback episode, but I found that it raised some interesting questions about what may actually happen on the island, unlike Sayid's or Sawyer's. The first few flashback scenes were predictable, but it really picked up when she went to the psychic.

• Creepy Locke eyes in Claire's nightmare! I couldn't help but think this was foreshadowing, sense I've always found Locke fairly creepy (though not as much so as Tom Cruise's Creepy Brother).
• Claire's Baby Daddy is a douchecanoe and I hope we never see him again. Unless its for Sawyer to beat him up. Or Jack can, I'm not really picky.
• So Psychic Wonder clearly wanted Claire to be on the flight that crashed. My question at the end was: did he want her on that flight because he knew it would crash and thought that it would kill the child or did he know that Claire and the baby would end up on the island? Which was his goal in putting her on that particular flight?
• My first inkling that something was up with Ethan was when Hurley failed to ask him as many questions as he did the others. Then when Charlie sent him to get Jack, my spidey sense was majorly tingling. The episode ended with Ethan there with Charlie and Claire and Hurley saying that one of the island's inhabitants was not on the manifest. I'm guessing we're supposed to wonder if that person is Ethan, but I think it could be more interesting if it weren't. 
• I totally wanted to keep going after this episode with the cliffhanger, but I thought it might be more interesting to get all my theories blogged about before the next episode answered any of my questions.

More later in the week!

Take Another Shot of Courage...

I finally finished my first pair of toe up socks!

Ravelry project here. The pattern is a combination of Gusset Heel Basic Sock and Dead Simple Lace Socks from Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up. Yarn is Red Heart Ltd. Heart & Sole in Tequila Sunrise. Needles: KP Harmony fixed 0 circs.

I cast these socks on back in December in the LR airport as I was heading to Indianapolis for the annual SKT Extravaganza, but they kept getting put on the back-burner in favor of other, more exciting projects. However, when the circular for my Gabriel's Wings shawl got confiscated in the Cancun airport recently, I decided to try to finish up some WIPs while I waited on a new needle to come in from KnitPicks. These socks were all done except a couple lace rounds and the 1x1 ribbing cuff.

Now I really suck at photographing my knitting, so imagine that these socks are really pretty.  My circ has come in from KP (along with the kit for the Fall/Winter Seasons shawl), so I'm back to working on Gabriel's Wings.

Tomorrow: More Awkward Polar Bears & Awesome Mancandy!

Awkward Polar Bears & Awesome Mancandy: 1.5 - 1.8

I didn't take detailed notes for these episodes of Lost like I did for the first four, so this entry might be shorter than expected. I intend to return to the geeky note-taking for subsequent eps.

Episode 5, "White Rabbit," focuses on our intrepidly bland hero, Jack, and the circumstances that led to him being on the doomed plane. We learn about his asshole father who died in Australia and whose body Jack was transporting back to the US.

• The first scene with his father, when Little Jack is telling his father about the fight he got into made pretty much no sense to me, and I'm not sure if that was intentional or not.
• Please, please give Ian Somerhalder something to do besides be the guy who tries to save everything and constantly fails.
• We again harp on the concept of leadership and how Jack may or may not be one and people may or may not see him as one. Enough already, Abrams.
• Locke: "This place is different...special." Really, dude? I couldn't have guessed. He also says he looked into the "eye of this island and what I saw was beautiful." I'm guessing at some point we'll be revisiting the fact that Locke probably saw The Thing in the Jungle.
• Charlie's tattoo says "Living is easy with eyes closed." Wonder if that is some sort of portent?
• The dolls at the waterfall were damn creepy. Also creepy: the empty coffin. Since the coffin lid was not dislodged, I have to theorize that either Jack's Dead Dad got up and walked away or someone removed the body and put the lid back.

Episode 6, "House of the Rising Sun," focuses on our cute Asian couple, Sun and Jin. They're angsty and in love and from two different social spheres. He was abusive and might have killed someone. She's secretly known how to speak English this whole time.

•  Sawyer had the handcuffs in his pocket? I'm for it.
• When Kate found the corpse in the cave, I thought for a split second that we'd discovered where Jack's Dead Dad went before I realized he wouldn't be that decomposed yet. Well, not unless the writers of Bones had somehow been on the island.
• Kate: Where'd they come from? Jack: Didn't you guys shoot a polar bear last week? Where'd that come from? Heh.
• How long are the batteries on Hurley's Walkman going to last? Who still uses a Walkman with CDs?
• I wonder if the 2 camps will continue to be a thing? Could make for some interesting drama.

Episode 7, "The Moth," is about Charlie and his sad rock star life and his silly little heroine addiction. I found it to be fairly boring, despite my epic love for Dominic Monaghan.

• I couldn't help but wonder what the castaways would have done if Jack had actually died in the cave-in. Would they have turned to Locke for leadership? Or Kate, Sawyer or Sayid? My money is on Locke, but he's just creepy enough that they may have turned to one of the others instead.
• Really, Boone, asking Shannon to do something important? Though she actually did what she was supposed to, it seemed a silly move.
• First shots of Shirtless Sawyer. Yes, please, and thank you. But his not telling Kate about Jack was a big ol' douche-canoe moment. Bad Sawyer! I'll be happy to properly punish you for your behavior.
• I don't know if I ship Kate/Jack. I know that Kate/Sawyer is gonna be a thing, and I'm cool with that, at least temporarily. Still firming up my romantic allegiances.

Episode 8, "Confidence Man," in which we learn more about Pretty Pretty Sawyer. He's a con-man, but he secretly has a heart buried in that sculpted chest, refusing to steal from a family with a young son. Also, he must have a metric fuck-ton of guilt, cause he's masochistic enough to let himself get tortured as punishment for something he didn't do.

• I now need to read Watership Down. Thanks, Sawyer.
• I'm incapable of taking Michael Deluise seriously in a dramatic show. He'll always be Idiot TJ from Gilmore Girls to me.
• I really and truly almost had an asthma attack watching Shannon struggle to breath. That's good acting, yo.
• There's no way it was Sawyer who attacked Sayid last ep, and this episode made me think it was Locke. Or one of the many, many cast members we haven't met yet. My money is on Michelle Rodriguez.
• Sayid on mapping the shore: "I can't think of a better person to do it than the only one I trust." I really liked this line, and I identify with it immensely, as someone who generally will just do something myself before trusting someone else to do it right. You've got my attention, Sayid!

More next week!