LOST
(episode 2.07 "The Other 48 Days")
(Original Air Date: November 16, 2005)

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Flying an hour and four minutes in the right direction!

J.C. Maçek III The World's Greatest Critic! The fact that I think that Lost is the coolest thing to grace the airwaves since “Iceberg dead ahead!” is about as well kept a secret as what Anna Nicole Smith is hiding under that blouse of hers. Each episode we watch as the incredible flips itself into the rational and afterwards everything feels as natural as beached kelp. Each and every piece falls together like a game of 52 card pickup that lands in the perfect stack by color, suit and counting order. In other words, it makes perfect sense… but it’s absolutely impossible. In other words, it’s the greatest thing since sliced dread. No other show can take you so far without ever moving you a second forward in the story; to scooter you from point C to point C to point C and still make you grateful for the journey; to answer every possible question you’ve yet thought of… only to force you to the realization that you haven’t been asking the right questions. There’s a Britannica worth of more interrogatives to catapult toward T.V. Screen and Chat Room Alike. The “special extended” seventh episode of Season Two takes us all the way back to day one… of Season One, telling us the story of our second group of castaways and giving L. Scott Caldwell’s Rose the great-grandmomma of all I-Told-You-Sos! “The Tailies” (so named because they survived the crash-down of the tail section of our favorite Oceanic Airplane) have had almost as much fun on Magnetic Island as Chief Jack and his lethargic commandoes have had since the crash. The aftermath kicks off much like our familiar pilot episode, as each character pops into his or her strongest role to save as many lives as possible, hang on to their hopes and maintain some sort of order as they wait for their inevitable rescue. Of course we know better because we’ve been watching Lost each week. Sadly, our new gang of landlubbers don’t get ABC this far out, so they’re as surprised as fried thighs that their unfortunate paradise quickly devolves into the beachhead of the living dead. Ana Lucia Cortez (the closest thing we’re given to Jack, as played by Michelle Rodriguez) quickly discovers that there just might be something different about this place… something… Other. She’s as right as Karl Rove’s wing. It isn’t long before people start disappearing and dying, kids are napped and our mysterious man of peace, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s silent giant, Mr. Eko, becomes a blood-coated killer. As the title suggests, “The Other 48 Days” brings us straight up to our exact point of pause from the last episode in a much more abbreviated version of last season’s events, with Bernard taking the place of Rose as the longing spouse, an old Radio taking place of the transceiver, the Dharma facility being replaced by… another Dharma facility, Ana Lucia channeling everyone from Kate to Shannon to Jack to Locke, and yes in lead, a bona-fide “Other” successfully infiltrating the camp of the survivors. It’s a blast to try to figure out who it is. We’re pretty horkin’ sure it’s not Sam Anderson’s Bernard, and the idea that we could get this close to either Ana or Eko and have them surprise us with an “Other” membership card and decoder ring is as strange to consider as the concept that David Caruso has a hit prime time series. But could it be Josh Randall’s Nathan? Kimberly Joseph’s Cindy? Brett Cullen’s Goodwin? Or could it even be Cynthia Watros’ Libby, still wearing the tan line from Drew Carey’s ring and the oil stain from Chris Titus’ garage? I’m not saying who, but it wasn’t me… and it wasn’t Kev’s Mom! (The first person to figure out THAT obscure reference gets a free autographed photo of me… but I get to pick the pose.) This is true Edge-Of-Your-Seat Television and worth every second of time it takes to wait for it with anticip… pation, though I have to say that each commercial interruption is tantamount to a kick in the taco from Fridge Perry. And as sure as Shannon’s bilking Boone out of his Golden Harp in Heaven right this moment, it’s not over until the fat critic sings. There’s more to come, and Sayid might soon be wearing a leather jacket that closely resembles Michelle Rodriguez, mes amis! Regardless of what the eff-you-see-kay is next on the menu, you can bet it’s going to be surprising, yet somehow also logical and incredibly satisfying. Next episode the tribes merge. If Jeff Probst comes out of nowhere and gives both groups their new tribal buffs and an immunity necklace I’m going to freak out and throw him into Ana Lucia’s hole (in the ground, you perverts, hole in the ground!). You have to see it to believe it, and it’s worth your weight in wait to sit still in stunned silence and just let the story unroll before your watering eyes. Five Stars for Lost’s episode 2.07: “The Other 48 Days” (a title that means at LEAST two things). Although the episode is credited to writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof and directors Jack Bender and Eric Laneuville, my disbelief is suspended like a high-school smoker! Lost is trying new things and new angles to keep itself fresh, and brother-of-mine, this is fresher than a vine-ripened ‘mater on a misty spring morning in South Italy. Dig in boychicks and dudettes… It’s down the hatch for Lost, and there are more than 815 reasons why you should follow it down. So until Desmond shows back up dressed as Wesley to Danielle’s Buttercup, and tells us that The Black Rock is actually the flagship of “The Dread Pirate Roberts” I’ll see you in the next reel-to-reel tape deck. And I’ll be singin’ that Mama Cass when I do it, buster! Plaaaaaaaay your own kind of mu-sic…