Not that much of a surprise but still a shock once it actually happened. She actually was starting to get better as you can see by the recent pics at the Daily Mail.

She leaves us two wonderful albums. You can watch my favourite song below.

икониПравославни икониикони на светцииконописikoniсвети георгиikoniхудожник на икониИкони на светци

Here are some screenshots and links to some excellent reviews:

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RobWillReview

BlogtorWho Audio Commentary

ikoniИкониПодаръциИдея за подаръкикониикони

Православни иконивик услуги

I do keep up with the What’s Alan Watching blog to see whether there is anything of interest coming up.

E.R. Season 1

Lately I have been buying seasons of E.R. on DVD though to get some sort of tv series fix ! I never really followed it when it was aired at the time, but it’s still very enjoyable now. Let’s hope the fall will bring something remotely as interesting as E.R., Lost or Battlestar Gallactica, but it’ll be hard to fill the void !

This lead to all sorts of confusing on internet forums and blogs. A lot of people thought that it meant that the whole thing was a purgatory, and everybody died when the plane crashed. But no, it was very clearly said by Christian Sheppard that everything really happened. And Hurley thanking Ben for being no. 2 was also an obvious hint.

And with that we also got just about the only / biggest explanation of the finale. Not a lot of questions (actually barely any) were addressed in the final two episodes. Why did infants die on the island ? What happened to Walt, and was he really special ? The numbers, were they just random numbers etc etc. And that was the downside of the finale I guess. The drama and action was excellent, the mythology, not so much.

Seeing Rose and Bernard certainly made me cheer at the TV screen. Although it was a bit short, it was a nice appearance nevertheless. Man in Locke showed his very bad side by threatening to kill them painfully. I am still not buying the whole ‘he is pure evil’ argument though. We all know why he eventually became the way he was in the end. Once the light went out the rules changed or the ‘spell’ or whatever it was, was broken and it was possible to kill him. A somewhat lackluster ending on the cliffs. It would have been nice if he could have gone off the island at least once in his lifetime, but I guess that wasn’t in the cards.

It seems I was wrong about Ben. He didn’t have any sort of plan. He just followed whoever happened to come along. The conversation with Hurley at the end, who asked him to become no. 2 was very touching. Finally Ben gets the position he wanted and will be appreciated for his experience and knowledge. Hurley becoming the new no. 1 was a great touch. Being the nicest and friendliest guy of the whole bunch. Ben still had some unfinished business and didn’t ‘step into the light’ like the rest. I guess he just wanted to hang out some more with his daughter and Rousseau ! I guess we’ll never know how he miraculously was rescued from under that log he was trapped under.

Whatever happened to the people (including Lapidus who of course wasn’t dead after all) that flew off is up to our imagination. I really liked that part of the story. Alpert was finally starting to age so he can rest eventually as well and live a normal life, was nice. You could see the relief on his face when he was looking at his first grey hair.

The final scene with Jack dieing on the very spot where he came to the island was very dramatic. Especially with Vincent by his side. And he also showed relief when he saw the plane fly by and knowing that his friends would finally make it off the island, and accepted his fate.

Possible spinoffs: Hurley and Ben protecting the island, or a Myles and Sawyer cop show ! Think they would both be very enjoyable.

I was very glad to see Ben return to form. It seems he still got a very tricks up his sleeve, but I think Man in black is on to him. He’ll play some sort of important role in the finale I am sure. I am very glad the writers didn’t forget about him. Killing off Widmore even before the finale was a bit unexpected. I am not sure his ‘Jakob visited me’ redemption story was true, or if that was just to get on Ben’s nerve. Was Desmond as failsafe the only thing he told Man in black or did he whisper something else of importance ? Seeing Ben with Danielle was a great touch. And seeing her sane was a nice bonus .

On the island, Jack is now finally officially Jakob’s successor. The scene at the campfire where Jakob explains things (sort of), was a bit over the top. We already knew most of it. “You were all flawed” was kind of new though. The protector job isn’t for happy people. The ‘I made him this way’ was weird. Did he refer to throwing his brother into the light ?

As for Kate and Sawyer ? I have no clue what kind of role there is still for them during the finale. And what their fate will be. I hope Hurley won’t get killed or something terrible. “Thank God it’s not me” was a great line ! Desmond will probably have to go ‘into the light’, as he seems to be the only one who can handle it.

It’s very odd that the series will come to an end tonight. I am sure the finale will still leave a lot open for debate. It sure has been one helluva ride .

This episode tried to answer questions, I guess, but it’s still all very vague. We’re supposed to believe that for some reason this island is very special. The light is somehow crucial to the world, at least that’s what I get from the quote below.

And if the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere.

- Mother

But what is this light and where did it come from ? And why is it being protected by a weird violent lady who obviously doesn’t like people much ? And the smoke monster, is it the man in black (who supposedly couldn’t die by Jacob’s hand) or did he help Mother kill the ‘others’ village ?

Another odd thing is that Lindelof said last week the reason they killed Sun and Jin was to make obviously clear that Man in black was pure evil. That he was the "Big Bad". But what I feel after this episode is that Jacob is a bit of a looser, MIB is much more sympathetic. More a ‘real person’. Of course it wasn’t very nice (ahem) to try and kill our losties, but it’s all very understandable. Besides, Jacob has been bringing people to the island who eventually all get killed anyway. Not much more sympathetic either.

One other point is that in the light of this episode, the stuff we were concerned with, like Ben in season 3 and 4, Locke in season 5 etc, seem to be in vain in hindsight. Ben was being tricked by the man in black, Locke is now supposed to be some sort of looser etc. Not a nice thing to do.

So how will we go from here ? It’s going to be weird that we’re supposed to be rooting for Jack and the losties while I am actually rooting for the man in black now. Will Jack be the new protector ? Hurley does have the same ability as man in black, they can see dead people.

I think the overall ending will be somewhat unsatisfying. And I rather not get any answers to the mysteries anymore if they’re either so obvious or not real answers anyway. And where does Widmore and Desmond fit in in all of this ? We also still have to see how the sideways stories will merge with the main storyline. I guess we’ll know in a few weeks time !

Interview with Lindeloff and Cuse on this episode.

The flash sideways still don’t really do it for me, besides a few episodes. But this time I really liked the last scene where Jack finds out why Locke doesn’t want his legs to be ‘fixed’. He is still punishing himself over what happened to his dad in a plane crash.

We now found out that MIL planned to kill the candidates (and Kate) all along. That’s why he wanted to get them together. Apparently he can’t leave until they are all dead. And he can’t kill them directly, as Jack finally figured out as the bomb ticked away on board the sub. Sawyer didn’t believe him, or failed to trust Jack’s judgment, after what happened to Juliet. And he set off the bomb. This is an exception to the rule I guess, because MIL has no problems killing off the ‘red shirts’ like the ones guarding the plane.

I guess Sayid got his moment of redemption. The Sun and Yin moment was touching, dieing together after just having found each other again. It didn’t move me as much as a lot of people did apparently, judging by the comments on the Transmission blog and on the lost forum. The whole ‘sub slowly filling up with water’ felt a bit cliché, although it was very well done.

I am glad Yin didn’t pull some sort of stunt and rescued himself and Sun at the least moment, that would have been very cliché. It is interesting though that some of the main characters (and Lapidus ?) got killed already before the finale. This also sends the message that Lost is probably not really going to end on a happy note. There is a nice interview with the producers over at Popwatch where they explained some of the events of this episode.

How did Hurley manage to swim all the way to the beach with Kate ? I guess that’s some of the island’s mysteries . MIL is now on his way to ‘finish what he started’. I am sure Desmond and Jack are somehow key in the ending, and maybe a secret role for Kate ? We’ll see soon enough !