METS MAY WRAP-UP

The month of May was not kind to the New York Mets. Coming off a 14-9 April in which the Mets got off to a good start against a tough schedule, they did a complete 180 and reverted back to disappointment with some smaller glimmers of hope, going 12-17 for the month. The Mets have morphed into a team that is nearly unbeatable at Citi Field, but completely hapless while on the road, taking their "We Believe in Home Field Advantage" slogan to heart.

After beating the Phillies to end April, Mets aces Pelfrey and Santana turned in their worst performances of the season, resulting in two brutal losses to the division rivals. They followed up by losing 2 out of 3 to the Reds, both on walk-offs, and returned home to split 6 games vs. the Giants and Nationals. The troubles came to a head when the Mets got swept away in South Florida against the scrappy Marlins before splitting 4 against the Braves and Nationals, ending a very disappointing 2-6 road trip.

The high point of the month came against two bitter rivals, the Yankees and Phillies, at Citi Field. The Yankees won game one of the Citi Field Subway Series behind the unlikely heroics of Kevin Russo, but the Mets responded by winning the next two games, 5-3 and 6-4. The Mets then turned around and swept away the Phillies, shutting them out all 3 games. This was only the second time the Mets swept a team and shut them out in all 3 (The Mets swept the Phillies in 3 in similar fashion in 1969). The shutout streak ended in the 9th inning of the next game when reliver Ryota Igarashi, who had limited work since returning from the DL, served up a walk-off HR to Corey Hart (The third walk-off Home Run the Mets allowed in May). The Mets ended May with road losses to the Brewers and Padres. They are 19-9 at home and 7-17 on the road.

The biggest issue of the month was starting pitching, specifically the injury to Jonathan Niese and the struggles of John Maine and, most notably, Oliver Perez. The Perez saga has become suitable for a television drama, as his refusal to accept a minor league assignment has led many Met fans who were already fed up with his pitching to want him off the team. It seems at this point that the bridge has been burned far too badly to be repaired. Ollie has been asked a second time and still refuses to go down and work on his pitching, while he just sits and plays mop-up man for the Mets bullpen.

At this point, the Mets have to seriously consider cutting all ties with Perez if they deem his a lost cause. He is doing no good in the Mets bullpen, to himself or the team. While he is owed nearly $20 million over the next two years, the Tigers recently cut ties with Dontrelle, who is owed $9 million, and the Angels payed $21.5 million over a two year span for the Mets to take Gary Matthews Jr. The Mets have to think about what's best for the team and if reports that Met players are fed up with Ollie are true, it's only a matter of time before he becomes an even bigger distraction in the clubhouse.

Another lingering problem is the inconsistency of the offense. Bay has heated up at times, but the power still hasn't been there for him, and Francoeur completely cooled off after his hot start. The Mets have to find a way to establish a consistent offense which at this point sits near the bottom of the National League. This includes David Wright, who has still not found a consistent stroke and has an uncharacteristically low batting average. The catching position has been a nice surprise as Blanco and Barajas had a good month, both offensively and defensively (Blanco has thrown out 7 of 8 batters). Scoring always comes down to Jose Reyes for the Mets, as when he scores, the Mets win. His batting average, which is hovering around .260, will not suffice for the Mets, and neither will his low OBP. He must find a way to be Jose, getting on base, stealing bases, and irritating the opposing pitcher, if the Mets want to shake off the .500 record and improve.

As the season wears on, the Mets have to figure out how to win on the road. It has become frustrating that they can't keep any hot streak going because as soon as they pull off a nice home streak, they head out and lose on the road. It cements them as a .500 team and a bigger problem is that at this rate, every time it looks like Jerry is on thin ice the team comes home, wins, and buys him extra time, while no real progress is made. The road losses are getting worse in nature, too, inclunding this loss in San Diego. Sadly, there is no clear cut remedy for curing road woes, and at the very least it's nice to see the Mets developing a home field advantage which makes trips to Citi Field more enjoyable.

Onto June for the Metsies, which includes part two of the Subway Series, trips to Baltimore and Cleveland and visits from Minnesota and Detroit for interleague play.

The End of LOST

The finale is here, and after months of debating what happens, we will finally get all (well, most) of the answers and the story will offically come to a close. “What They Died For” gave us some insight over how the show will end. We know it will involve Flocke trying to destroy the island using Desmond as a fail safe, much like Desmond using the fail safe key to implode the hatch and release all the electromagnetic energy. To make this an SAT type question: The key is to the hatch as Desmond is to the island. At the same time in the flash sideways timeline, Desmond is trying to collect all the Oceanic members (well, the important ones) to bring them to a concert, but we have yet to see how they will react and what effect this will have on the island timeline.

I think that Desmond being a fail safe applies to the light and the source. The way for M.I.B. to destroy the island is to throw Desmond in there, and because of his resistance to electromagnetism, it will cause a catastrophic event that will lead to the island sinking, much like we saw happen in the beginning of LA X. I don’t think he will be successful though, as that would create a cluttered ending to the show, although it would certainly be definitive. If that were the ultimate ending to the show, my guess is that we would actually be transported to the beginning of this season, with Jack on the plane looking confused and the island under water. Well, this actually makes more sense now that I think about it. With the island destroyed and the people in the flash sideways discovering the island timeline, one will have to win out, or the two will converge, but I still can’t see how the island timeline will then be transported back in time to the flash sideways timeline which we saw at the beginning of this season.

When I first heard the name of the finale as “The End”, I thought it was boring and incredly vague, but then I think back to the conversation between Jacob and his brother/Smokie on the beach. “It only ends once, anything that happens before that... is just progress”. That makes the finale title so much more meaningful. The title is “The End”, and I see the show ending with the end to a game that’s been going on for 2,000 years involving Jacob and his brother but who knows how much longer than that involving Fake Mother and other island protectors. This whole show has shown us a never ending game and in the finale, we’ll finally see the end of this game, the cycle broken, and the need for an island protector come to an end.

Jack is annointed the new Jacob, protector of the island and the source, and tasked to defend it against the Smoke Monster. I don’t think for a second though that we should take this as the conclusion and I also don’t think that Jack will have to defend the island, because that would be too obvious and would only keep this game going on longer. With Jack drinking Jacob’s magic water Flocke can no longer leave the island, so he will definitely try to kill Jack and the remaining candidates, that much I know. What I don’t even have a clue about is to how the cycle will be broken, but the game will come to an end, whether it’s the island being destroyed, much like the hatch was at the end of season 2, or the death and destruction of the Smoke Monster, meaning there is nothing left to protect.

We don’t know what M.I.B.’s intended end game has been this entire time. I feel like throughout the show he’s been changing his course of attack to follow what’s going on. Now that there is a new Jacob (Jack), Smokie doesn’t have time to kill him, but with the appearance of Desmond he can now use this as his new end game: Destroy the island and escape that way, which meets all his needs. I do feel that originally though, he has always intended to leave the island. I think if destroying the source meant he could leave, that seems likely to have always been his means for getting off the island.

LOST is over, and it will be very sad. This show has given us fans something to wrap our brains around and become invested in. I hope everyone enjoys the finale because we’ve earned it! There will never be another show like LOST ever again. NAMASTE!

LOST Episode 16 - What They Died For

LOST followed up one of the most polarizing episodes in the show’s history with one of its finest, setting us up for the big finale extraveganza. This episode even made “Across the Sea” make sense and gave us a very good idea about why they even bothered showing us that episode.

In LA, we see the culmination of all our favorite LOSTies meeting up in one place. Jack is back home, again noticing that scar on his neck and looking into the mirror. He eats breakfast with his son and Claire when Jack gets a call from an Oceanic Air official who notifies him they found his father’s coffin. It turns out the call comes from Desmond, but they never give us a clear cut reason why Desmond would fake this call. Desmond makes the call from outside Locke’s school as he scopes him out again. Before he can get to him, Ben intercepts, but Desmond tells him he merely wants Locke to “let go” before beating him up, leading Ben to remember Desmond beating him after after shooting him. This must be an inside joke for the LOST makers, as Ben has probably taken more beatings than Jack Bauer has at this point.

A nurse at the school is tending to Ben when Locke rolls in and they discuss the incident. While Locke calls the cops, Ben says that’s not a good idea, as the man says he was trying to get Locke to let go and Ben believed him. The term clearly has an effect on Locke, as Jack just told that to him, and as LAPD is on the other line, we see Desmond stroll into the Police Department. He specifically asks to talk to Sawyer, and ends up turning himself in as the suspect. He is thrown into a cell with... surprise surprise, Sayid and Kate, both of whim have been arrested. The next day Detective Sawyer alerts the prisoners that they’re being taken to another holding place, which doesn’t phase Desmond. Turns out he has this big plan, that he needs them to agree to do whatever he says, and thinking that he’s just some crazy criminal, they agree. The truck stops and Ana Lucia opens the door. She is only concerned with her money, which is delivered by Hurley. He remarks to Desmond that he didn’t know Ana Lucia would be there, showing a clear awareness to the island timeline, but when she asks who he is, he remembers he’s not supposed to know her. She leaves after receiving her 125G’s, before Desmond gives Kate a dress and tells her they’re going to a concert (probably Jack’s son’s concert, where Claire, Jack, Miles, maybe Sawyer, Pierre Chang, Charlotte, and presumably others from the OT will be).

On the island, we finally see Miles, Richard, and Ben again, as they find their way to the Barracks. They make their way to Ben’s house, where he grabs enough C4 to “blow the island to hell). They hear ruffling in the house, and find Zoe, and later Widmore, who have let themselves in and told Ben they are his best chance at surviving. As Zoe goes to take care of some equipment she left in the outrigger, she sees Flocke approaching the island. Widmore demands that she return at once, and informs the others they should hide. Ben and Richard have other ideas, deciding to confront Richard. Bad move for Richard, as Smokie comes and hurls him into the air before coming to Ben as Flocke. He tells Ben there are some people he wants him to kill, and once he does the island will be his. He agrees and rats out Widmore and Zoe. Flocke finds them, slitting Zoe’s throat before demanding that Widmore tell him what he’s doing on the island. He tells her after he threatens to kill Penny, and as he whispers in Flocke’s ear the reason, Ben shoots him dead, saying “he doesn’t get to save his daughter.”

Elsewhere, Sawyer, Hurley, Kate, and Jack have little time to mourn their fallen friends before Jack tells them they must find Desmond. Sawyer laments the deaths, saying they were his fault, before Jack assures him that “he” killed him, taking the high road as opposed to Sawyer, who accused Jack of killing Juliet earlier this season. Hurley sees young Jacob, who steals his own ashes from Hurley and runs off. Hurley finds a fire and adult Jacob, who says when the ashes burn up, he’ll never see him again and also says they’re very close to the end.

Hurley gathers the others, who can now see Jacob, and they have an old fashioned heart-to-heart. Kate wants to know what they died for, and Jacob merely says he made a mistake many years ago, and they must do what he couldn’t (protect the light). Sawyer questions Jacob, asking why they have to pay for his mistake and he was doing just fine, but Jacob rebutes this and says that he didn’t pull any of them from a happy existence. He says they were all miserable and need the island as much as the island needs them. He also tells Kate he crossed her name off because she became a mother, thus having something to live for, but it’s just a chalk drawing on a cage and she can have the job if she wants it. Jack, realizing this was his destiny, takes the job as island protector. He says his prayer and gets some island water in a cup. Before drinking it, Jack asks how long he’ll have to do the job, to which Jacob replies “As long as you can”.

Flocke and Ben approach the well, where they find Desmond was helped out, but says this person actually did him a favor. Widmore told Flocke that Desmond was a “fail-safe” and he’s going to use Desmond to destroy the island, which sucks for Ben. But in the end, we know Flocke’s ultimate end game and have many possible paths for this show to end. Namaste!

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LOST Episode 15 - Across the Sea

"Across the Sea”, the 15^th installment of LOST’s final season, is one of the most polarizing in the show’s history. It’s hard to get a firm read on this episode, because there are so many things I loved as well as hated, both of which are equal. I won’t recap it, but instead I will just talk about these things.

It’s clear from the beginning that Fake Mother’s entire goal is to keep the purity of these children. She doesn’t tell them about death and protects that from ever happening to them. She is trying to spawn the perfect children. She brought a pregnant woman to the island (much like Jacob brings people) so that she can have a child that she would raise away from humanity to be her successor. She didn’t plan on there being two children, which complicated the matter, but like she tells Jacob later she killed their mother to make sure they are never corrupted by other men. She tells us what M.I.B reiterates later: That all men come, corrupt, destroy, and it only ends once. It’s odd that she shares a lot more similarities with Jacob’s brother but Jacob ends up becoming the successor.

It’s also clear that once M.I.B. joins the others on the island, his candidacy is officially revoked. Fake Mother later tells Jacob that it was always him and she should have seen that, which to me means that Jacob is more naive and easily manipulated, and as a result she was able to get him to believe everything she told him. M.I.B. had more curiosity to him and wanted answers, so it was harder for him to accept what the mother was telling him and he decided to bolt for the other island inhabitants.

What really irked me about his episode was “the light”. To me, it was beyond cheesy and almost tried to give a simplistic answer to a far complex idea. The light possesses “life, death, rebirth” and everything else, according to Fake Mother, and furthermore all people have a little inside them but want more. If the light goes out, it goes out in all men, so it appears light is what keeps us going. The idea itself though seems to be that it’s the electromagnetism, and it somehow connects to the frozen donkey wheel (which isn’t frozen in this episode). It begs the question of if they’re the same thing or similar, and if so how.

We finally discover M.I.B.’s ultimate motive for leaving the island, but I’m not sure why it carries so much wait after almost 2,000 years. Is his ultimate goal still to leave the island to see what’s “across the sea”? He knows he didn’t come from the island but he’s trapped and wants to leave, but where does he go from there. I’m sure him leaving is equivalent to the light going out, which is why Jacob must keep him on the island, but it still raises some doubt over why he himself wants to leave.

Which raises the next question: Was the Smoke Monster always there in the cave with the light? I don’t think so. I think that is Jacob’s brother’s soul, but the evil of it, being released. Everytime we’ve seen the M.I.B., either as himself, Smokie, or Flocke, he always echoes the brother’s sentiments of leaving the island and having a crazy mother. I think that is always him, but his form was just released as the Smoke Monster after he went into the light. I don’t think that creature had always been there. Furthermore, I did love the scene where he was released into the world.

I loved the conversation between Jacob and his brother about leaving the island. Man in Black uses the term “means to an end” to describe the people he’s with, which is something that Widmore could use to describe Desmond or the Man in Black using Sayid or Claire and further reiterates people using others to get to their desired goal. I also liked the idea of Jacob “looking down on” M.I.B’s people from above, almost as a god like figure which he eventually becomes. Jacob is shown once again to be ignorant, as he has no idea about the pockets of electromagnetism around the island. We saw Flocke talking to Desmond about the smart people that were curious and dug those holes, and we finally meet them in this episode.

Jacob eventually accepts Fake Mother’s offer and becomes the new protector before M.I.B. kills her. Jacob, following what his brother told him 30 years earlier, creates his own game with his own rules but we never find out what that is. He never wanted to be the successor, realizing that his Fake Mother wanted his brother to be the one, so he goes on trying to find a replacement. We never find out the nature of this search though, and when it began. We know from past episodes he wants to prove his brother (and Fake Mother) wrong that all people are always evil and “it always ends the same”.

In the end this episode left a lot to be desired. We found out that M.I.B. and Fake Mother are the Adam and Even skeletons, which was great, but we still aren’t clear on a lot and with only two episodes to go we’ll have to accept that some things will be explained once the show ends.

"You're right, brother, this really doesn't make any sense..."

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LOST - The Candidate (Thoughts and Feelings)

The last few scenes of this episode are exactly what I love about LOST. They were emotionally potent, well written, fantastically acted and above all else they were well executed and fit the show’s purpose. It’s been clear all season that Sayid’s character was being written off and his demise has seemed almost certain. He already died once this season and arose to be “claimed”, and in this time allowed Smokie to kill many people and acted as his right hand man. Sayid’s character has always been about redemption, about weighing the good he’s done with the bad, which makes him as big a part of this show as anyone. His death showed him choosing a good deed, giving himself the ultimate redemption, as Desmond’s words at the well snapped him out of his evil state. We got the old Sayid back, even if it was just for a little bit. While I’m sad at the plight of this once great LOST character and disheartened to see how much the writers had written him off, I couldn’t think of a better last image for the fans to have of him.

Jin and Sun have always been fighters. Since Season 5, these two have been working tirelessly to find each the one they love, and finally in “The Last Recruit”, they were reunited, albeit briefly. Many fans have shown anger at their deaths, but for the show’s purpose the death was powerful and fit well without feeling forced at all. It was meant to show us that Smokie is truly evil and capable of killing anyone, according to Damon and Carlton, and in that case they succeeded. Above all else, them dying in each other’s arms is the testament to the battle they’ve put up to be together. Even with death staring them in the face, Jin wouldn’t flinch and showed no fear. The acting was brilliant, and what I personally loved was his use of Korean, their native tongue, to deliver the most emotional line of the episode. The death made their fight to be together all the more worth it.

The John vs. Jack scene in the hospital was so well scripted and really lends itself to die hard LOST fans who hang on every word the show writes. One of the most underrated aspects of season 6 are just how many conversations and moments take place that direcly mirror an older moment of the show, but in an opposite way, this being one of the long list of these moments. Jack telling John “I wish you had believed me” seems to trigger a flashback to the island life, which makes sense since we hear John saying that phrase earlier as he was sleeping. The question is how much does Locke remember and is he conscious that on this island, he is an evil smoke monster. Does he recognize Jack from this timeline? This scene portrays Terry O’Quinn’s always phenomenal acting, as you truly get a sense of how broken and defeated he is at his father’s death and how much of a burden it has put on his life.

One thing I wondered all episode was: “Where is Widmore?” Obviously we see him locking them up early on, but after Smokie’s attack he is no where to be seen. The question is how much of a hand did he have in the day’s events. He moved the pylons, for no good reason since they were blocking Smokie from getting past the beach, and left only two men to guard the plane he presumably rigged. Was Flocke being truthful when he said he wanted those men to die and put them there for show? Obviously Widmore must have known all his men would die, as he seemingly didn’t really give them much protection. It’s clear, I think, that Widmore is neither good nor evil. He wants to stop Smokie but clearly doesn’t value the lives of anyone, as he proved by threatening to kill Kate. Much like many of the larger forces of the show, he will manipulate and lie to anyone about anything to get them to follow him. The question is also why he wasn’t on his sub, and if he knew anything about the attack or the LOSTies trying to escape on it. Without a sub, what will become of Widmore and how will he leave the island (if he survives)?

You have to wonder what Flocke means when he says he’s going to finish what he started. Obviously he wants to kill the remaining candidates to get off the island, but he can’t directly kill them. He has two options he could go: attacking Kate/using her as leverage against Jack and Sawyer, or going straight for Desmond. I think he’s heading for the well, as he probably recognized that Sayid did not kill Desmond but couldn’t stall in his plan and needed Sayid to still think he trusted him. Also, Jack is presumably heading straight for the well as per Sayid’s direction. Will Locke kill Desmond and if he tries, what can the surviving 815-ers truly do to stop him? It’ll be interesting to find out, as right now Smokie seems unbeatable.

The episode on Tuesday, May 11^th is entitled “Across the Sea” and will center around Jacob and the Man in Black. I feel like most of the remaining “burning” questions will be answered in this episode. Among them, I think we’ll find out who the young boy is, when Jacob and MIB got to the island, why they are there, what relation they have to one another, who MIB’s “crazy” mother is, why Jacob was tasked with keeping MIB guarded on the island, and various other historical moments between the two enemies. We’ll probably find out when the statue of Taweret was built, seeing as how we’ll probably get a historical time-line of the island through the eyes of the two oldest inhabitants of the island. Should be a great episode. Namaste.

LOST Episode 14 - The Candidate

The 14^th episode of the final season of LOST is arguably the most tragic in the show’s history. There’s almost no way I can even write about this episode, so I’m going to skim through what happens on the show and get to the episode’s biggest scene.

The LA timeline focuses on Jack trying to fix Locke, who repeatedly denies his requests (Locke is a candidate for surgery). Jack tracks down Locke’s dentist, Bernard Nadler, who won’t disclose how Locke was injured but tells him he was in the accident with Anthony Cooper. Jack runs into Helen at the home where Anthony Cooper is staying at and tells him to leave this alone, something Jack cannot do because he needs to fix everything. She eventually shows him Anthony Cooper, John’s father, who is in a vegitative state, hardly the man we are were familiar with. Claire meets Jack at the hospital and Jack finds out she was also on the flight, much like Bernard and Locke, which strikes Jack as odd. She then reveals a music box that Christian was very adament about her having. The box plays “Catch a Falling Star” and Jack and Claire both have a mirror moment, much like every other person has in the flash sideways.

The flash sideways ends with the most underrated scene of the episode. Jack catches Locke before he leaves and tells him about his encounter with his Cooper. John emotionally reveals that he got his pilot’s license and wanted his father, who was afraid of flying, to be his first passenger. They barely got off the runway before the plane crashed. It’s reasonable to believe that this accident prevented Anthony Cooper, who still conned Sawyer’s parents in the 70’s, from betraying Locke, and that is why they have a “good” relationship. Jack reminds John of what he told him at the airport: That his father was gone and he could never get him back, and tells John that it’s too late to change things. What happened happened and Jack encourages John to let go. Locke laughs and leaves, before Jack says “I wish you believed me”, the exact words Locke wrote in his suicide letter to Jack.

Back on the island, Jack wakes up on Hydra. Flocke tells him his friends were captured by Widmore’s crew. He wants Jack to help convince them by saying he could kill any of them at any moment, an obvious lie as we know it’s against the rules and he hasn’t already done it. We see Widmore locking everyone up in the polar bear cages “for their own good”. As Kate and Sawyer discuss her name being crossed off on the cage, the power goes out, and while Seamus and Widmore’s crew frantically try to find the source of the problem, Smokie comes around and goes Midieval on their asses. Quick question: Why does everyone try to shoot the Smoke Monster?? SO STUPID. Anyway, Jack helps them escape. John kills two men guarding the plane but discovers that it’s rigged with 4 bricks of C4 set to go off if they start it up. He alerts the crew they need to take the sub, but Sawyer tells Jack he still doesn’t trust that thing “one bit”. He devises a plan for all of them to get on the sub while Jack pushes Flocke into the water. The plan unfolds, as Sawyer and a few more people storm the sub and take it. When the rest of the crew runs to the sub, Jack tells Flocke that “John Locke” told him to stay before pushing him into the water. Kate is shot by Widmore’s crew, but unfortunately does not die, as a firefight ensues. The remainding people get on the sub, minus Flocke and Claire, but Flocke ominously tells Claire that “you don’t want to be on that sub.”

Jack discovers that Locke packed the C4 into his backpack with a timer. Sawyer is adament about diffusing the bomb, but Jack clearly thinks they won’t die. He questions why Locke hasn’t already killed him and thinks it’s because he’s not allowed to. Sawyer tells him he doesn’t trust him before pulling two wires out, stopping the timer momentarily before it restarts again at a faster speed. Sayid quickly tells Jack about Desmond being alive in the well and that because Flocke wants him dead, Jack’s going to need him. His last words are, “It’s going to be you, Jack!” before running off with the bomb and exploding. The bomb tears apart the sub. Lapidus is hit by a door while the others try to get Sun out of a trap. Hurley takes Kate out of the sub and Sawyer is hit on the head and knocked out. Jin encourages Jack to save Sawyer, and while Sun cries for Jin to save himself, he refuses, saying in Korean that he’ll never leave Sun again. Shots of the sinking sub are shown before we see Jin and Sun’s grasp of each other’s hand loosen, signaling their demise. Back on the beach, the four remaining survivors cry at the realization of their fallen friends, while Flocke realizes the sub sunk but not everyone died. He tells Claire that he’s going to finish what he started.