I have been MIA lately in life, busy with work and travel, trying to keep up with entertainment and media as much as I can.  I know I have not been as vocal lately, but my anticipation for the LOST season finale could not be more intense.  I have obsessed over every detail, conversation, clip, question, “answer”, storyline, timeline, flash, and character for 6 years.  With the exception of Dr. David Bender B M.D., I can’t think of another person who spends more of their free time analyzing and trying to understand what we see and what it means.

LOST is not a television show.  It is not an element of pop culture.  It is not a fad, a fashion, a statement, or a political agenda.  It is part entertainment, part philosophy, part theology, part history, part ideology, and simply put … is the greatest human cultural phenomen I’ve enjoyed witnessing.  Along with you, I sit in anticipation for what will likely be the most talked about television finale of our generation (with apologies to Seinfeld, Cheers, and MASH).  I for one, can not wait.

Whether you already assume it will be a letdown (Hage), will leave too many open questions (Bender), or simply lead-in to a spin off about a new set of castaways (Will) … one thing is for sure.  You will all be there to watch it.  Enjoy the last few weeks, and if you are in Minnesota, join us for our LOST Season Finale Party.

Watch the video above.   A fan made this promo video and posted it to facebook, youtube, lostpedia, etc.  I think it captures the feelings and emotions fairly well for those of us still obsessed after 6 awesome seasons.

the LOST supper

Tonight is the beginning of the end.

to watch lost, is to be lost

Slate magazine has put together another fantastic article.  Somehow this website (www.slate.com) does a fantastic job of writing goofy yet interesting stories for a very specific audience.  My Facebook profile still links to the article Timothy Noah wrote on Camp Cultists.

This article is a nice lead in to the most anticipated day in Television history.  Yes, I am looking forward to this Tuesday more than the television premier of The Beach, more than the final episode of the Wonder Years, and certainly more than the stupid Vikings-less Superbowl next weekend.  Check out the article here to see their spiderweb of characters and how they all connect, its quite a nice teaser.  Enjoy!

4 8 15 16 23 42

I just downloaded a free app on my Palm Pre that counts down to the Season 6 premier.  The app doesn’t do anything more than show the days, hours, and minutes until it starts … but i think its $0 well spent.  Rest assured, Thursday mornings will be plentiful of LOST episode analysis at HelloNeiman.  Do your homework and catch up on Season’s 1-5 before hand, don’t be one of the many who are as “lost” as the title suggests.

Check out the new counter on my sidebar as well.  Let the countdown begin!

Spoiler Alert!  Do not watch unless caught up through Season 5 finale.

Whew.  Wow.  Well.  Season 5 has come to an end, and this guy has a few thoughts to share.  To put this season into perspective, it is only natural that we compare our emotions to that of the common stages of grief.  Before I share my dissected theories with you on Jacob, the bomb, and more … let’s reflect on what we all went through to get here.  It has been a grueling 4 months, and each of the past 16 episodes was definitely worth watching.  But much like grief, here are how the 5 phases broke down:

1. Shock:  Time Travel?  Really?!  That is soooooo cool!  This will explain everything.  The Black Rock ended up on the mountain top because when the island traveled back in time, it literally reappeared underneath it.
2. Pain:  1977, 2004, 2007 … I can’t keep track of it all.  Oh shit, now they killed Faraday?!  He was the only one that could make sense of what’s happening!  I’ve never read more quantum physics and space-time continuum theories than I am right now, my brain is killing me!
3. Anger:  What the hell!  They are wasting a perfectly good chance to explain the Dharma initiative’s history.  It’s been 12 weeks and they still haven’t told us why they are there, who they are, or what the purpose really is!!  This whole season has been a waste!  And now, after 3 years, when we finally get to see Jacob … you kill him?!  F you guys!!  Not to mention you just threw my Black Rock solution out the window in the first 2 minutes of the finale.  I hate you LOST, I really do.
4. Reflection:  Ok, it’s been a week since the finale, and I’ve had time to read up on LOSTpedia, discuss theories with friends, and put some of this into perspective.  I don’t like what they did with Jacob, but next season will focus on him explicitly, that should be good.  There is a purpose to this whole season, they just aren’t going to show us until the season premiere next January.  (sigh) ok.
5. Acceptance:  16 episodes left, whether I like it or not, this is all that’s left.  Let’s hope they know how to tie up the 934,134,879,430 loose ends.  Fingers crossed, this is going to work.

Hey friends, I know the season finale is tonight, but I won’t be able to watch until this weekend due to schedule conflicts.  I promise I’ll have a few very intriguing posts in the future discussing parts of the finale and second-to-last season wrap-up but I respectfully request that you don’t comment, text, call, or email any thoughts on it to me until I get a chance to watch on Friday.

On the bright side, these past few weeks have been painfully difficult to follow (though definitely worth it!), but USA Today had a very promising article about tonight’s episode.  Time travel can be hard to swallow, but early insight says it will be cleaned up and worth the wait.  Check the article out here.

SPOILER ALERT.  DO NOT READ IF NOT UP-TO-DATE.

This season has been a welcomed change to the LOST storyline.  Season’s 1 and 2 were amazing, we pretend 3 never happened, and 4 started us back in the right direction.  But this season is so far and beyond anything we’ve previously expected that it literally hurts to keep up.  Especially these last couple weeks since Faraday returned.  He was the glue of season 5, keeping our sanity in check with his physics theories and journal computations.  There are so many questions and issues with time travel, that Faraday’s concept of “we can’t change the future” has held all 5 seasons in check.  And the show has done a good job of using that to explain some of the past 100 episodes.

However, with the killing of Faraday, the exposure of the temple, and the eminent bomb detonation, and 3 timelines to keep in consideration … my head literally hurts trying to keep this show in perspective.  I had to stop this last week’s episode 5 times just to do a reality check on why someone popped up where they did.  Wait, what?  Sayid is in 1977?  Oh yeah.   With Richard being in both story-lines at once (and a 3rd, if you count him helping John’s bullet wound) … he’s no longer the constant anymore, but a pawn of everyone else.

Lastly, I am NOT happy with the way they appear to be deciding to end this season.  The only reason I’ve accepted the time-travel plot is because of Faraday’s explanation that “”you can’t change the future””.  But now?  Now you can all of a sudden?  They had better not end the show for good with a detonated H-bomb and everyone wakes up again on Oceanic flight 815 in 2004 as if nothing happened.  This is not a dream sequence that can go poof and disappear.  This is 6 years of my obsessive life, and it had better blow my fucking brains out when it finally finishes.  I want every loose end, every question, ever connection tied up and completed by this time next year.  And honestly, if they don’t, we may have the biggest riot in TV viewer history.  I know you are all in agreement with me.  Get cracking ABC, we want answers, and we want them done right.  To name just a few…

• What does “”What lies in the shadow of the statue”” mean?
• Who is Jacob really?
• Why doesn’t Richard age?  And who the F* is he really??
• What is the temple?  And its Egyptian connection?
• Who built the statue?  And what does it mean?
• What is the black smoke really?
• Why did the others originally come to the island?
• What is the point of the Dharma Initiative really?
• 4 8 15 16 23 42 … why are they so bad??
• Why does Juliet never care about anything that ever happens?
• Why is Locke alive again, how is the island able to heal people?
• What is the wheel and why does it move time and change the island
• And last but not least … whatever happened to the dog?

“what lies in the shadow of the statue?”

I have been very intrigued with this quote since last week’s episode of LOST.  Although it did not resurface in this week’s episode, it clearly has much to do with the few remaining episodes and season finale.  Since it was introduced in the finale of season 2 (Episode 2.23, “”Live Together Die Alone””), the giant 4-toed statue the LOSTies discover en route to the Others is one of the biggest mysteries that perplexes me.  The Black Rock was another un-explainable mystery from season 1 (Episode 1.23, “Exodus, Part 1”, but has since been explained enough to ease my curiosity from season 4 (Episode 4.5, “The Constant”)

But the statue now has new meaning, and more importantly, purpose!   This season, the statue is finally seen in its full form for a split second and from the rear (Episode 5.8, “LaFleur”) .  Then, last week the mystery truly started to unveil itself as Ben stands before a hieroglyph of the Egyptian deity Anubis and the black smoke (Episode 5.12, “Dead is Dead”).  If you go back and look at the statue from “LaFleur” and compare it to the hieroglyphics from “Dead is Dead”, it is almost certainly the same thing.  Of course there are still countless theories saying otherwise, but I think it is finally safe to say that the 4-Toed Statue that has escaped the story for 3 years has finally resurfaced as Anubis, and with great power connected to the islands pre-Dharma history.

Even more exciting though, was Ilana’s coded question to Frank Lapidus at the episode’s conclusion, “do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?”  If these three things are all connected … not to mention the other Egyptian references such as the hieroglyphs in the hatch after the timer runs out … we have a season finale that will definitely bring some excited answers.  For some fun and extremely deep reading, check out the links for more.

Walt “Matthew Abaddon” Lloyd

Ok, this will be a long one… Many of you know I am a die-hard LOST fanatic.  Thanks to the wonders of LOSTpedia.com and losttvfans.com and multiple other fan sites … I actually enjoy reading up on the theories more than the show.  Yesterday’s episode featured Matthew Abaddon’s final demise (since that actor annoys me, I’m cool with that).  But in reading up later that night many theories point to Matthew actually being Walt as an adult.  Since Walt has played a pivotal role in every season finale, and Matthew clearly had a large stake in every character’s future, this seems too incredible to be true.  However, the guys at LOST have been throwing us curveballs for years, so who knows what they have up their sleeve.

Want another?  Try this on for size.  In 2007, Desmond and Pennie have a baby named Charlie.  If they make their way back to the island, I believe they die there (becoming Adam and Eve), and “Charlie” grows up during the 50’s on the island to become Charles Widmore.  Then, when he leaves the island he has a baby girl named Penelope … thus making Pennie not only his daughter but mother as well.  Whoa.  That’s deep.