the beginning of the end

After eight months, tonight was finally the premiere of the fourth season of Lost. And what would this blog be if not a place for me to note my entirely random observations.

9:08pm - I'll buy polar bears and smoke monsters and the island's healing abilities and all that good stuff. But Hurley turning down the cop's offer of a donut? Really? Have you seen him?

9:10pm - Jack winks at Ben. I love it.

9:14pm - So much going on in this minute. First, did Hurley get fatter? I swear, every season he gets bigger. You'd think that Jorge Garcia would have lost some weight by now. I'm not looking for miracles, but how could he possibly keep getting bigger? Secondly - a cannonball? Really? Wouldn't the water have been like two feet deep at the point where he jumped in? Not buying it. Although I'm glad he had his little moment because I have a feeling that's the most carefree we'll see Hurley for the next three years. Thanks to the beauty of flash forwards, we know that unlike Libby (remember her? don't feel bad, the Losties don't either), he's not going to be soon to forget Charlie.

9:20pm - I swear, Hurley was totally dry by the next shot of him. I know that he has a lot of surface area for the sun to cover (I swear that's the last weight comment for the night), but that seemed a little unbelievable, even for Lost. He has friggin LONG hair - don't I wish that my hair dried that quickly!

9:22pm - I entirely loved that Rousseau was walking around with Ben on a leash. LOVE it.

9:24pm - The black guy claiming to be the attorney for Oceanic Airlines reminded me of an awesome joke I heard on The OC tonight. What do you call a black guy who flies a plane? . . . a pilot, you friggin racist.

9:25-9:26pm - First off - is who still alive? That guy totally freaked me out. And secondly, Sawyer asking Hurley if he wanted to talk about Charlie might have been the cutest thing ever.

9:31pm - Mary asks me the valid question "how does Ben know everything?" I don't know why I wrote it down.

9:33pm - Naomi had a knife thrown in her back. Yet somehow she managed to create a false trail AND then a real trail AND then climb a tree AND then jump on Kate? Freakishly strong. Especially for somebody who dropped dead within minutes of Kate finding her.

9:35pm - Okay. First - is this the same Jacob that we saw last season? Totally looked like a different guy. Whose eye was that? What exactly was going on in that scene? Was Hurley just that disoriented or was the shack in front of him and then on the other side of him and then gone altogether?

9:36pm - John Locke really scares the crap out of me. Maybe because I have bad memories of studying for my Real Estate final by looking up Lost Philosophy on Lostpedia.

9:42pm - Okay, granted Hurley wasn't with Jack and the group when Locke threw a knife at Naomi and pointed a gun at Jack and then made a getaway. But it's been three friggin seasons. Wouldn't Hurley have been smart enough to know by that point that Jack --and probably most of the other people on the island-- probably were not going to be all that keen on listening to and heeding Charlie's dying message if Locke accompanied Hurley in presenting it?

9:44pm - I love Lost reunion scenes and I appreciated Rose making another "Rambo" reference to Bernard. I got a little teary eyed when Hurley told Claire about Charlie. I swear, that "touching" Lost theme music, that cued up in that same minute, gets me every time.

9:45pm - Holy crap, Dominic Monaghan looks good. I mean really, really good. I would thoroughly support him showing up looking this good in every episode. Of course that would defeat the purpose of Dominic Monaghan's decision to leave the show. But whatever. Best two minutes of the episode.

9:47pm - Charlie's cryptic "they need you" - who does?

9:48pm - I laughed out loud at Jack pulling the trigger on Locke. Slightly disappointed that it wasn't loaded, even though I wouldn't have expected that it would be.

9:53pm - Jack asks Locke "are you insane?" I've been wondering the same thing for three years now.

9:55pm - A very convincing speech by Hurley - I probably would have gone with him. Although Pat did bring up the good point of the people with the boat, even though they weren't who they said they were, still having a boat. And as I've said several times already, Locke scares me.

9:56pm - "Jack, with your permission, I'd like to go with John." Aww, Ben's so polite!

9:58pm - Am I the only one confused about how downpours of rain wouldn't put out everyone's torches? Am I missing something? Doesn't water put out fire? Or is this just a basic elementary school concept that I've been screwing up all these years?

9:59pm - I kinda liked Jack's hair in this scene. I was so distracted by it that I almost forgot about the fact that he and Hurley (and the rest of the Oceanic Six?) have a secret that Jack doesn't want Hurley to tell.

10:00pm - And there's Jeremy Davies. I don't know why I had it in my head that he was in some obscure Vince Vaughn movie from the late 90s (back from when I used to collect obscure Vince Vaughn movies), because IMDB confirmed that I have never seen him in anything except for Saving Private Ryan. I swear I knew a girl in high school who was obsessed with him. Anyway.

And so ends episode one. 47 to go in the series and lots to think about.

On another note, the baby that played Aaron in tonight's episode was one of the cuter ones they've had yet. Trivia: 57 babies played Aaron in seasons 2 and 3. That number seems exceptionally high, but Lostpedia does not lie. Also, I observed that there was only one commercial for Cloverfield during the entire episode - I would have expected more.

And finally, a little Charlie tribute, courtesy of the Late Greats - an mp3 of DriveShaft's hit You All Everybody. Here's hoping Charlie doesn't become another random dead castaway that nobody even remembers existed two years later. (I read the name 'Shannon' earlier and for a brief moment had to ask myself 'who?')