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There are not too many people who will argue that the first season of Lost contained some fairly exceptional stories. Even the second season was pretty good. The third season, however, really started to fall off. Until now. It is quite possible that because the last twenty or so episodes just haven’t been very good it made this episode stand out. It is also possible that this episode was just that good.

Whatever the case, this is some of the best that has come forth in quite a while from the Lost crew, and it is good to see them getting back on track.

The ambush is set on the beach, but because Bernard cannot pull the trigger, it does not go off as planned. The ever-amazing Kate figures this out, even when she is miles away from the beach, when she hears only two explosions and not three. Somehow Sawyer keeps her from heading back to the beach, and they keep on their trek to the radio tower.

Instead, it is the man who would be savior, Hurley, who pulls it out, as he drives the VW bus onto the beach, disrupting everyone just long enough to allow Sayid to take control. How does he do such a thing? By using Sayid-fu to snap one guys neck and then to shoot Tom in the chest for “taking the kid off the boat”. I know that child molesters are not looked upon favorably in prison, and I fully support that, but do not tick off Sayid. The guy can hold a grudge.

Meanwhile, down in the Looking Glass Station, we see Charlie has been tied up by a couple of women. Up above, Desmond wakes up to find that Charlie has jumped out of the boat and taken it upon himself to save everyone. Desmond swims down, only to find that Mikhail is also in the station. It’s like a party. Chaos ensues, and Charlie even belts out a few lines from some of his hits, and before you know it, Mikhail has a spear in his chest, and Desmond is convincing the women to give them the code (Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys).

As Desmond collects wetsuits for everyone, Charlie works on the code. As he does so, a transmission comes through from none other than Penny. Yes, Desmond’s Penny. When Charlie tells her about Naomi, Penny says that she knows nothing about Naomi (uh-oh). Then none other than Mikhail surfaces outside the window and he is getting ready to blow himself up with a grenade. Charlie closes the hatch to the control room, shuts down the signal jammer, writes down a message on his hand and prepares to meet his fate.

As the grenade explodes, it is contained because Charlie gets the door shut. The signal jammer is shut off. And Desmond is able to read the message so that he can pass it along to everyone else. The message on his hand? “Not Penny’s Boat”. An interesting development indeed.

Is it just me or is this show getting longer every year?  I really don’t mean the individual episodes, but the time from the start of the show until the finale.  Of course, the individual episodes seem to be getting longer as well, and though I know it will make me seem like Scrooge, I really don’t need Idol Gives Back either – way too much of my time is wasted by this show already.  If they want to give back, just give back and don’t make such a big production about it.  Who are you, Jerry Lewis?

Regardless, the finale was set last week after Melinda Doolittle was sent packing.  Now we are down to two.  After Blake and Jordin do their bits, and we have another few hours of performances, we can write off another season of Idol.

Blake Lewis:
You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi
She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5
This Is My Now (Video)

Jordin Sparks:
Fighter by Christina Aguilera
A Broken Wing by Martina McBride
This Is My Now (Video)

I am really glad that Blake redid the Bon Jovi song that he did so well a couple of weeks ago.  Unfortunately, like Katharine McPhee in last year’s finale, when he redid the song, it just wasn’t as good as the original.  I don’t know if it was the less-intimate setting (that is, having a larger venue), or me having seen it already, but it was good, just not as good.

When it came to the “American Idol Song”, this year both contestants sang the same song – unlike last year where they each sang different songs.  I would say that Jordin did better here, and overall I would say that she did better in general.  I have mentioned before that I didn’t think Blake had much of a chance in general – and I was really surprised that he made it this far in the first place – but Jordin probably cemented the win here.

Update: Sure enough, Jordin is your new American Idol.  If this should fall through, then she can always move on to the featured dance at your local adult dance club.  Have to love that name.  Congratulations Jordin.  On another note, I will probably not be covering weekly updates of AI in the future.  Just too much similarity from week to week.  Instead I will just stop in from time to time with tidbits here and there.  Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

At least partially because we have a son who enjoys creating his own movies, we tuned in to watch On the Lot, a new offering from Fox.  After seeing their numbers, it appears we might have been the only ones watching.

The premise of the show is relatively simple.  Like any other performance-based reality show, the contestants present their offerings and hope to be the last one standing.  The difference here is that the contestants are actually not the performers – they are directing them.  These contestants want to make movies.

During the audition round, we meet 50 semi-finalists, who themselves have been winnowed down from some 12,000 applicants.  In the audition, the contestants simply need to take their concept and formulate a pitch, which they will then present to the judges, but they do not need to film it during round one.  Just getting a concept allows the judges to eliminate 14 of the contestants.  Only the remaining 36 will proceed to filming their concepts.

Update: Apparently even the host (Chelsea Handler) does not believe in the concept, as she left the show after the audition rounds, paving the way for a new host (Adrianna Costa).

Update: After several rounds of elimination – which seemed oddly compressed, perhaps because of the show’s sagging ratings – the final director standing was Will Bigham, who wins a one million dollar development deal with Dreamworks.  To date, I am not sure if he has actually done anything, or if he was just able to pocket the money.

In the last episode, Dahlia covered for Wayne. Now Wayne gets to cover for Hugh, who is off on some bender.

The real revelation of the episode is not that Wayne can pull it off – we saw that early on – but that he and DiDi are adapting just fine to their lives as buffers as the rest of the families fade into suburban obscurity. So much so, in fact, that both Cael and Sam might as well have become this show’s version of Seven Bundy, who disappeared without much explanation, only to be mentioned briefly in a couple of episodes and with little explanation for what might have happened.

In this case, the kids are there – they just aren’t doing anything.

Perhaps that is the point, but ultimately it is just so boring that it really begs the question of why anyone would want to continue watching. At least with the Bundys, there was something else going on (and no one really cared about Seven in the first place). Cael brings his own insight, and Sam is definitely worth watching. It is a shame that they are being pushed aside.

Whatever the case, life goes on in Eden Falls, and Nina creates lighthouses with her newfound artistic ability, perhaps given to her through the copious amount of smoking she has undertaken. Her husband Jim is entertaining guests, so it is no wonder she has to find things to do with herself. That is truly the epitome of an understanding woman.

Hopefully something interesting will happen soon.

Noah points a gun at Molly, because as well a know, he has come to find the tracking system to save Claire, despite what he may say to the contrary about helping everyone.  Meanwhile, Mohinder points a gun at Noah.  This stalemate of sorts is only broken up when Parkman shows up and sees Molly.  Or she sees him.  Whatever the case, that seems to solve it for now.

Across town, Hiro continues to talk to his father, Kaito, and then Hiro leaves and teleports to Isaac Mendez’ loft in order to rescue Ando.  However, Sylar made it there first, and is painting the fight between himself and Peter.  Recognizing Hiro, Sylar challenges him to move faster than he can, and is surprised when Hiro teleports across the room and rescues Ando, quickly disappearing before Sylar can get them.  It’s a safe bet that this piques Sylar’s interest.

Hiro leaves Ando at their office in Japan, telling Ando that he has acted as a true hero, since he has no superpower, and that shows his bravery.  Hiro even gives Ando his Kensei sword, so that Ando knows Hiro will return.

Back in New York, Linderman is now dead – or seems to be, since you never know who will pop up again – DL and Niki continue on their search for Micah.  During their search, Niki actually sees the reflection of the real Jessica in a mirror, and discovers that the person with Micah in the room is actually Candice, who can alter her appearance to appear as someone else.  After rescuing Micah, Niki sees only herself in the mirror, but is not sure if this means she is complete again.

Nathan has accepted his role as congressman (and future president), and Peter is trying to recruit him to help fight Sylar.  With the newfound power from killing Ted, Sylar is more dangerous than ever.  During their conversation, however, Peter realizes that Nathan is not about to stop Sylar from exploding, and now Peter realizes that Claire may have been right to distrust Nathan.

When Matt learns about Molly’s ability, she adds that there is someone out there that she cannot keep tabs on – someone who is even worse than Sylar.  Moreover, it is even worse, because when she is able to see them, they can see her right back.  This entire group meets up with an injured DL, Niki and Micah and heads to the final confrontation.

In the plaza, we see a true battle royale, where Hiro impales Sylar with a blade before being thrown into a building (he then teleports himself to avoid injury).  Niki throws swings a parking meter at Sylar.  Peter simply punches Sylar repeatedly, and as he loses control over Ted’s power, Peter realizes that he is the one who will explode, not Sylar.  Then Claire grabs Noah’s gun and gets ready to kill Peter, but naturally she cannot.  At the last moment, Nathan swoops in and flies him high into the sky, where we see only a flash.  Disaster averted, but at what cost?

The final scene is a flashback, where Hiro lands in a grassy meadow as forces descend upon him.  The date is 1671,  and he notices the man wearing the emblem of his hero, Takezo Kensei.  Just then, the sky is darkened by an eclipse.

As the final season of The Sopranos is winding down, it is turning into less of the show that rocked television and more of something you would see on Lifetime, or daytime television like maybe Dr. Phil or Oprah.  At this point, I really just hope it ends soon.  Maybe one of the guys will come whack me and put me out of my misery.

Meadow lets the family know that she is no longer going to medical school, but instead is going to law school.  All-in-all, that is not a bad thing.  I mean having a doctor around is good, because they can patch you up.  But generally when someone is whacked, there is no coming back.  On the other hand, having a lawyer in the family is going to be a bigger help.

Meanwhile, Meadow is trying to convince AJ to pick things up at school – which AJ has actually quit – instead of being the delinquent know-it-all that he is.  Not working too well, and AJ decides to take a swim with the fishes in the family pool – only he changes his mind partway through.  And to illustrate the point that he isn’t very good at what he does, the line he ties to the concrete block is long enough that it would not have held him down anyway, so he now has to tread water until someone comes home.  Moron.

After all of the family issues, Tony still has to deal with “work”, namely Phil.  Phil reminisces about the problems he went through in prison – and I’m sure that was tough and all, but get over it already – and rejects Tony’s offer at making peace.  So Tony takes Phil’s guys off the payroll on the job, and that leads to them beating up the foreman.  Looks like there will be more trouble before this is finally settled.  At least something is finally happening.

Jim is celebrating a milestone.  Rather, everyone else is celebrating Jim’s milestone.  He is turning fifty.  Yet for some reason, he is not a celebratory mood, and though Jim definitely has his moments where he is a bit of a sourpuss (to put it mildly), and it can be understood that he may not want to admit he is getting old – or at least older – no one really gets why he is so grumpy about it all.

Finally Cheryl gets the story out of him, and there was apparently an incident at a surprise party when he was just 13 that turned him against surprise parties.  Once that comes out, things can move along, and the rest of the episode is mostly a reunion more of the capers that normally happen during the show.

Though the show had the feel of a wrap party, being that it was supposed to be a series finale (in the end, the series went on for another two seasons), it was a bit odd that the kids were not featured much.  Maybe they were there and just not shown on the televised portion.  Or maybe it was the adults hanging out and having an actual party, so the kids were not invited.  It is really difficult to say what happened, but being that the kids had been phased out a bit recently – as they aged more – perhaps it is appropriate.  It would have also been nice to have seen Ryan.

The final couple of minutes were a montage of sorts, just showing pictures of the family.  Though the episode was a recap more than anything, and finales are not always the best of the series, this was not really much to remember.  More like a walk down memory lane, with selected memories at that.

Groundskeeper.  Mike joins the groundskeeping crew for the Bowie Baysox, a AA minor league team at Prince Georges Stadium in Maryland.  The normal crew consists of one guy, so normally another person would have doubled the crew.  But Mike is not a normal guy.  It might have cut it in half (or more).

First up is cutting the grass.  This daily two-hour chore involves keeping the grass at an even 7/8 of an inch.  Mike hops on to take care of the task, and quickly learns that the first thing that needs to happen is to lower the blades.  After cutting the grass, he learns how to slide into the bases from team manager Jason, and then he gets to rake the dirt so that it is ready for the game.

Since Mike has a background in singing, he gets to perform the national anthem prior to the game.  I’m not sure if this is part of his duties, or if he is just using this as an excuse to take a break.  Regardless, before long he gets back to work, dragging a mat over the dirt to fix the scuffs that the players leave while running the bases.  He wants his tractor back.

Boat Mooring Placer.  Next up, Mike meets Dave, a former Navy SEAL, who has one of those businesses that you never think about existing.  Dave replaces moorings in Lake Winnipesaukee, near Gilford, New Hampshire.  You heard that right – in the lake!  Naturally, so that a boat is able to connect to it, these things need to be big.  We’re talking thousand-pound blocks of concrete.

The first task is to get the blocks on the barge, then cut some chain to attach to the blocks, and finally dump the blocks into the water.  As interesting as the first part is, it is only once they get into the water that the real fun begins.  You see, when you dump a big block of concrete into the water, it of course lands upside-down and you have to flip it over.  Luckily, you can use air and the fact that the water helps you maneuver it to move things around.

Mike gets some help hooking things up, but they use compressed air to float a “balloon” above this flipped-over block, and move it into place.  Once this is done, they pick up pieces of the old mooring (why they are replacing it – you don’t want to hook up to something that is falling apart!).  Mike has some issues, and finally gets his worn-out self back to the boat.

Well Digger.  Finally Mike gets back on dry land to help the crew of Watson Well Drilling.  They are working on a retirement home near Tennessee, and their job is to install a geothermal heat system.  Unlike more conventional systems, the geothermal system uses a bunch (around 90) deep shafts drilled deep into the earth (two hundred to three hundred feet!).  This allows the system to use the constant ground temperature, rather than the air temperatures which can change drastically from one season to the next.

Mike is here because the process of digging that many shafts that deep into the ground is going to produce a lot of mud.  Generally Watson can drill up to 15 of these systems per day.  Or perhaps they can do 15 wells per day, and a well is not quite the same, since a well is a single hole, not 90 or more holes.  Regardless, they can typically do 15 per day.  On this day, with Mike’s help?  They did one.

As the beach-dwelling survivors continue to plan their ambush of The Others, another plan is in the works to try and get them off the island.  It seems that Sayid, who I think I will start calling The Onion as he has so many layers to him, has managed to retrieve a set of blueprints for another Dharma station, this one called The Looking Glass.

It seems that The Looking Glass is an underwater station that is underwater somewhere off the beach, but perhaps more importantly, it broadcasts a signal that keeps the island from being found.  That means if they can turn off the signal, the island might be able to be found, and they can be rescued.  Now to figure out how to find the station, swim down to it, turn off the signal, get back, initiate the ambush…

So there are a few things that need to happen.  Luckily Hurley has found a cable running from the jungle into the water, and it seems that The Onion – that’s Sayid, remember – has deduced that the cable is what powers The Looking Glass.  Problem #1 solved.

Now if only they had someone to swim down to the station.  Luckily little Charlie Pace was pushed into swimming as a wee lad by his father, so he insists that he can make the swim.  Unfortunately, future-see-er Desmond has already seen Charlie die.  Again.  This time it might stick.  But that’s a minor issue for now.

As the rest of the group on the beach encounters none other than Bernard and Rose, who seem to be alive and well, and Bernard entertains everyone with his fine shootin’ skills, Charlie, Desmond and Hurley head off to the beach, where they plan to put in a little swimming.  At least someone does.

When they arrive, Charlie knocks Desmond out and dives into the water.  Guess Desmond didn’t think the little guy had that in him.  The last shot is Charlie, looking a lot like the baby from the Nevermind album cover, hanging almost motionless in the water, above The Looking Glass station – which looks like it was brought over directly from The Abyss set.

Am I the only one who thinks that Heroes is getting really strange?  Besides my wife, I mean.  The whole idea is interesting and all, but they really have to cut down on the cast of characters or I think I’m going to need to hire an assistant to keep up.  Or maybe I’ll just have to not keep up.  That might be easier.  And cheaper.

In any case, Hiro and Ando are back.  Which is to say that they are now in the present, because they were in the future.  Since they have no idea what they are doing, they turn to The Comic, which tells them… nothing.  So we get to see what everyone else is doing instead.

As some of the cast crosses the country for their date with destiny – and someone or another exploding or not exploding – while Peter tries to convince Claire not to go on a shopping trip to Paris, that guy we love to hate, Sylar is actually doing something.

He’s using his newly-acquired power to paint possibly related events that might or might not happen (how is that for being specific?) and before you know it, he has a lovely picture of none other than himself stealing the power of Ted Sprague.  This makes Sylar a possible candidate to explode!  That actually makes Sylar seem like he cares.  Not about stealing Ted’s power, mind you, but about exploding, so he calls his mom for comfort.

Little does he realize that he’s being stalked followed by Hiro and Ando.

On the juvenile front, uber-boss Thompson introduces Mohinder to little Molly Walker, a little girl that doesn’t have a cool ability that allows her to really do anything.  She is only able to find anyone in the world at any time.  That’s neat and all, but come on – it just might allow you to beat curfew by knowing where your parents are.  All the cool mutants are going to laugh at you behind your back.  Since Molly has the same disease that Mohinder’s sister had, he is able to cure Molly, and they become BFFs for life.

The other crazy kid, Micah, is still missing in action, but D.L. and Jessica decide that poking their nose in to see what Linderman is up to – or at least what they can find in his office is a good idea.  They find out that their lives are just one big experiment, and that Micah is the result.  I wonder if Linderman failed high school biology.

About now is when Sylar and the boys get to Sylar’s mom’s place, and some of the pieces are starting to make sense.  She’s just as nutty as he is.  Maybe more.  After she finds out what he can do, she actually tries to stab him, but in the confusion she stabs herself.  Or maybe Sylar turned it around so it would just look that way.  You can never tell with that guy.

That’s when Hiro shows up, and he tries to stop time, but Sylar evades him.  Hiro has been able to bring people along with him, but someone has been able to go outside his stopping ability?  That’s an interesting development.