confirmed dead

First, let me start by saying that Lost is a confusing enough show when watched sober; I highly discourage drunk viewing at 2:30am. I woke up this "morning" (is 11 still morning? It's not yet "afternoon") extremely stressed out that I couldn't remember how it ended. And then I realized that I couldn't remember much of anything that had happened period. So I watched it again this afternoon. It didn't make a whole lot more sense, but either way, I'm definitely impressed by this season so far.

Thoughts/observations, based on what I remember:

• Jeremy Davies looks way more like Dominic Monaghan than I ever realized and I think it's kind of a cruel joke because every week, we'll be reminded that Charlie's dead. Um, or at least I will.

• I love that Ben is still on a leash.
• The ghostbuster scene was a little weird. I think it would have been a little funnier if Miles made Mrs. Gardiner pay him $200 just to vacuum her murdered grandson's room. Because truth be told, I thought that's what he was doing for a minute. I don't quite understand how a vacuum cleaner communicates with the dead, nor do I really get why a ghost would be "at peace" after some stranger just stole a huge wad of cash from his room, but whatever.
• When Dan, Jack and Kate find Miles, and he's just lying there, why on earth would Jack be the first one to approach him? They already know that Daniel has a gun. They already know that Naomi died under "suspicious circumstances." Wouldn't it have made more sense to send Dan in first?
• Should I be calling him Dan? He seems like more of a Daniel.
• Miles is such an asshole, I think he's my new favorite character. I like how he felt a need to spell out "the code" Naomi used by holding a gun to Jack's head and saying "see right now, Jack would say 'Tell my sister I love her'". I do feel kind of relieved that Naomi doesn't have a sister who somehow worked into the whole crazy Lost world.
• This scene also illustrates why you should not watch drunk: last night, I remember being extremely distressed that Miles addressed Kate by name and wondering how he knew it. I think Pat was just humoring me when he was like "well there's only a couple of girls on the island" because as I realized today, just minutes earlier, Jack yelled "Kate!" and Miles commented, "You're Kate?"
• I loved the scene where Jack winked at Kate right before Sayid and Juliet came out shooting. I loved it even more he pointed it out to her a few minutes later when she was complaining that he didn't tell her Sayid and Juliet were hiding out in the jungle and he insists "But I gave you a wink!"
  
• Ben did not look amused that Hurley knew about the cabin. Locke on the other hand definitely did seem impressed.
• I'm glad that Locke's not having a kidney provided some sort of explanation for how he survived when Ben shot him last season. Still, the bullet went through his friggin body. Like two days ago. He's doing pretty well, considering. And also, the shots of the bullet holes were nasty.
• I also liked Locke's mention that Walt looked "taller". Maybe because he's a little kid who has aged THREE YEARS while you've been on this island.
  
• Speaking of kids on the island, what the hell happened to all of the other Others? Are they still floating around somewhere?
  
• Charlotte's eyes really creeped me out - obviously blue eyes are awesome, but hers were freakishly pale.
• We learn from Ben at the end that Charlotte was born in 1979 and that she got her PhD from Oxford. Since it's 2004 in Lost land, that would mean that she had her PhD by the time she was 25. Pretty impressive if you ask me.
  
• Charlotte's drop from the tree where she landed when she parachuted from the helicopter did not seem nearly as impressive when drunk last night - I remember having the thought "Why didn't she do that sooner and why is she so proud of herself?" Ha, oops.
• I didn't quite understand why Hurley got all bent out of shape when Charlotte asked how many survivors there were. It seemed like a pretty reasonable question to me.
  
• I don't know why, but both last night and today, I felt like Frank was a John Locke voice double. I swear if I closed my eyes, I could have believed it was Locke talking.
• Agent Sean alert! Lostpedia named this photo "Pilot's Sexy Moustache.jpg"
  

• Both last night and again today when I head the name "Frank Lapidus", I heard it as "Frank Penis."
  
• Abaddon's little discussion with Naomi in the final flashback made me laugh. I always laugh at stupid little ironic scenes like that, that aren't supposed to be funny. Even when the irony is really blatant and Naomi says that "sure" she can get the team in and out without anyone getting killed and then the next scene they cut to is her dead body on a stretcher.
• Couldn't anyone have closed Naomi's eyes after she died? I mean come on. Every shot of her she's just staring blankly into space.
• The scene where Miles calls to George and he can't come to the phone seemed a little unnecessary, but I'm sure they'll be some good reason why he couldn't come to the phone because hey, there always is.
• So somehow Miles has a photo of Ben near some giant computer monitor. Hooray! Another mystery! When was it taken? Where was it taken? Did someone take it on the island? Did Ben leave the island? As Juliet reminded us, Ben's a liar, so who knows! I can't wait to find out why the freighter people have come looking for him.
  
• My favorite part of the episode is when Ben is insisting that they should keep him alive because "I have answers!" and Locke asks him "What's the smoke monster?" I thought that was a clever little way for the writers to mess with us a little, by having him ask the question that's been on everybody's minds since the pilot episode, and then to have Ben reply "I don't know." Well what good are you then, Ben, to Locke or to all of us who've been watching this show for three years?
  
• Pat proposed the theory today (not his own, but a good one nonetheless) that Michael is Ben's "man on their boat". I'm not smart enough to come up with these things on my own, but I'll go on record saying I support it.

Until next week, live together, die alone.