Link Dump 3/10/2010

This is more of a random thought post than a true link dump, but eh, what can you do. :)

- I'm sure y'all have heard about the Lost Promo Contest ABC is running for the finale. I might try fiddling around with it if I have the time. Anyone tried ABC's editing tool yet?

- We'll probably get an answer to this once Jin gets a sideways flash, but Dark UFO noticed Keamy was wearing a watch when Sayid shot him. Was Jin supposed to be delivering it to Keamy himself?

- An interesting point from Doc Jensen:

THE BEN/WIDMORE CONFLICT OVER ALEX
Shortly after Rousseau had finished off the rest of her fellow French scientists and given birth to Baby Alex, Chief Executive Other Widmore ordered Ben to ''exterminate'' both of them from the Island. He coldly dismissed baby Alex as an ''it,'' as if she were an animal that would just be a drain on Island resources that needed to be devoted elsewhere. Yep: definitely sounds like a guy that ain't about ''taking care of the kids.'' So Ben balked. He couldn't bring himself to murder. Ben clearly had developed a different vision for how the Others should be managing the Island and living their lives. Widmore dismissed Ben's ''idealism'' as sentimental and self-serving — about him needing to feel needed. But he didn't stop Ben from taking on the project of raising Alex alone. Ben's victory inspired him to dream bigger. And when he uncovered the truth about Widmore's off-Island slick willying, he staged his coup and forced him into exile. He also moved the nomadic Others out of the wild and into Dharmaville. But Ben's dream of settling down and playing house — modifying Others culture in such a way to service and fulfill his own desires and needs — was surely antithetical to the Others' true purpose, and was most likely what earned the Others' their baby-making curse from the Island/Jacob. Richard Alpert said as much when he encouraged Locke to make a play for Ben's job. ''Ben has been wasting our time with novelties like fertility problems,'' Richard said. ''We're looking for someone to remind us that we're here for more important reasons.''

Emphasis mine. Really interesting idea behind the Island baby issues and kind of ironic that Ben spent so much time looking for answer to them when he might have been the cause all along. I also forgot to comment in my review on how weird it is how Ben refused to kill Alex because he didn't want to murder, but then turned around and Purged DHARMA just a few years later. Yeah, you can talk about the Island and the greater good there, but Ben's character (at least his on Island character) has always been murderous except in Alex's case.

- And one more thought on Ben and Richard - how much of Jacob's plan do you think they knew? Ilana seems to be the only one who knows about the candidates (I guess Dogen and Lennon did to before Sayid got to them), but Ben and Richard to me seem completely in the dark about all this. Doesn't that seem weird? Seems they'd have to know something about random people becoming the new Jacob, right?

- So we have nine episodes left before the big finale and the question is what centricity will they be? First off, of the "normal" main characters left we still haven't gotten episodes on Sawyer, Jin/Sun and Hurley, so you have to imagine each of them will get one, plus Desmond, who we've only seen a glimpse of this season (but I can't imagine him not getting an episode and the longer we go without seeing him, the more I think he's really, really important. That's four, and I imagine they'll all have Alt flashes (though Desmond's might be weird ala Flashes Before Your Eyes or The Constant).

But then we have Ilana and Richard, both of whom it would probably be more interesting to get a full flashback from rather than an Alt Flash, but let's say they both get an episode to themselves. That brings us to six. We could also conceivably get a Claire episode, though we did get quite a bit of her Alt story with Kate. Her Island story would probably be more interesting anyway though. Frank and Miles are also candidates (HA!) for episodes, as well as (I hope) Charles Widmore.

There's also the possibility that someone, like Jack and Locke, could get a second episode, but let's discount that for now given all our options. Here's my best guess (and I know I could probably look this up somewhere online, but no spoilers here, please):

6.08: Sawyer
6.09: Jin/Sun
6.10: Ilana
6.11: Claire
6.12: Frank
6.13: Charles Widmore
6.14: Hurley
6.15: Richard
6.16: Desmond

What then for the finale? How about Jacob and Smokey flashbacks where we learn 1) How Smokey orchestrated the loophole and 2) the history between these two on the Island. Now that would be cool. Guess we'll know in a little under three months! :)