Thursday, February 26, 2009

My New Cover!!!... and Other Lost Stuff

So this morning I logged on and found 32 comments on my blog on last night's episode already (!) and was very happy, and among the comments was an email to me from someone telling me something I'd missed. So I went into the post and tried updating it, Blogger went kablooey, and removed my post completely. Now, I type up my posts in a separate Word document, so that wasn't the worry, but I suddenly envisioned all those lovely comments gone forever. Then I hit publish on the draft post, and boom, it was back up. With comments attached. Phew... Talk about a bad way to start my day.

I hope you've been heading over to Jorge Garcia's blog, like I mentioned last week. It is SO much fun; I've been reading it for months. In case you've missed some of his more entertaining Lost-related posts recently, here's one where he talks about the 100th episode cake they had made for the show, and another with a pic of him standing on Eloise Hawking's pendulum. Perhaps we'll be getting an ep with Hurley talking to Eloise?

So, as usual, you guys are the most perceptive group of people a gal could possibly dream of chatting about Lost with. Love the comments, good and bad, about this week's episode. And on that note, my column is up on DocArzt's site (along with a very alarming post about a certain character leaving the show, which made my jaw hit my desk until the update on the bottom said it turns out the report was completely false. I'd only opened the thing in the first place because it said it wasn't exactly a spoiler, and for a minute I thought I'd been horribly tricked, until the false part made me breathe a little more easily. But I'd suggest you avoid that one, just in case...) I discuss possible continuity errors with the end of season 3, and compare the Ben/Widmore scene in "Shape of Things" to the Locke/Widmore scene in this episode. (After I post my Lost blog on Wednesday nights I make a few quick notes about what I'll write my column about the next day, and it never fails to be touched on at some point by you guys before I even have it posted... you guys seriously rock.)

The Fine Brothers have posted their latest Lost parody. You can see it here. Unfortunately they've moved off YouTube and onto a streaming site, so there are some buffering issues. I also wish they'd just made the Joker the Joker, and not Heath... but it's still pretty funny.

And finally, I posted a note a couple of weeks ago asking anyone for cover ideas for my upcoming season 5 book, which will be out in November. SO many people emailed me their fantastic ideas, and I had visions of chalkboards and pendulums and city skylines and islands and compasses dancing in my head. But then one reader, Barry Johnson, emailed me his design (he wasn't the only one who did an actual mockup) and it was pretty much exactly what I wanted. While he had a version of the Frozen Donkey Wheel in the middle, the publisher has changed it to a compass (the wheel was looking too much like a ship's steering wheel) but otherwise, Barry was right on the money. I want to thank everyone for sending me your ideas; I'll give you all shout-outs in the book. And now, without any further ado, my new cover!:

11 comments:

Missing Georgia said...

I think the cover look fantastic. Even though the donkey wheel wasn't incorporated we all know that the compass (Alpert's/Locke's compass) has played a major role in this season so far. I look forward to reading your book, Nikki. When will the release date be set?

humanebean said...

Awesome ... a fantastic concept and a beautiful design. Just one MORE reason to look forward to the book!

Unknown said...

I just read the Doc Arntz blog, nice! I wanted to throw a idea in that we do not know how long it was until Locke/Bentham's body was found. He may have paid for the room in advance at such a seedy hotel, and no one would have checked the room for a long period of time, enough time in fact that after a rotting corpse would be found the undertaker had to "pretty" up the dead body as we also do not see the car accident scares on the casket body when it is opened after the funeral. Thus if it could have been a couple weeks until the body was found, yet the smell would be horrendous , then another week or two until the undertaker finished with the embalming, thus giving Jack enough "Friday Night Flights" (that was for you, Nikki) to say that he has been flying so much.
To back up the advance payment to the hotel theory, When Widmore give John/Jeremy the passport and money, John looks in the envelope and raises his eyebrows in awe of what I assume is a lot of money.

Blam said...

A lovely cover, Nik!

Benny said...

Neato! I like it... and it's definitely getting darker, as is the show.

Jonathan said...

I love the cover. Looks amazing. I forwarded some suggestions that weren't incorporated into the cover, but maybe for the Season 6 book?

:)

Roland said...

I wonder if Christian drinking himself to death qualifies as “Suicide”. If so, I wonder how his Resurrection experience will differ from Locke’s

J. Maggio said...

I am not sure about how much time passed, but Jack and John MUST have had another conversation after the short one they had in the hospital. Here is transcript of full Jack/John convo from L&DOJB:

[Inhales sharply]

LOCKE: Oh!

[Inhales sharply]

JACK: What are you doing here?

[Bathing deeply]

LOCKE: Jack, how did you find me?

JACK: You were in a car accident and you were brought into my hospital. What are you doing here?

LOCKE: [Grunts] We have to go back.

JACK: [Laughing] Of course. Of course we do.

LOCKE: Jack, the people I left behind need our help. We're supposed to go back--

JACK: --because it's our destiny? How many times are you gonna say that to me, John?

LOCKE: How can you not see it? Of all the hospitals they could've brought me to, I end up here. You don't think that's fate?

JACK: Your car accident was on the west side of Los Angeles. You being brought into my hospital isn't fate, John. It's probability.

LOCKE: You don't understand. It wasn't an accident. Someone is trying to kill me.

JACK: Why? Why would someone try to kill you?

LOCKE: Because they don't want me to succeed. They wanna stop me. They don't want me to get back because I'm important.

JACK: Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions that you're special aren't real? That maybe there's nothing important about you at all? Maybe you are just a lonely old man that crashed on an Island. That's it. Good-bye, John.

LOCKE: Your father says hello.

JACK: What?

LOCKE: A man--the man who told me to move the Island--the man who told me how to bring you all back--he said to tell his son hello. It couldn't have been Sayid's father, and it wasn't Hurley's, so that leaves you. He said his name was Christian.

JACK: My... my father is dead.

LOCKE: Well, he didn't look dead to me.

JACK: [Voice breaking] He died in Australia three years ago. I put him in the coffin! He's dead.

LOCKE: Jack, please, you have to come back! You're the only one who can convince the rest of 'em. You have to help me! You're supposed to help me!

LOCKE: John, it's over! It's done. We left, and we were never important. So you... you leave me alone. And you leave the rest of 'em alone!

---

Now, this does not account for these aspects of dialogue in previous episodes:

From Season 4 finale:

KATE: Who do you think you are?! You call me over and over again for two days straight, stoned on your pills! And then you show up here with an obituary for Jeremy Bentham. (Sighs) When he came to me and I heard what he had to say, I knew he was crazy. But you... you believed him.

JACK: Yes.

KATE: Him, of all people.

JACK: Yes, Kate, I did, because he said that that was the only way that I could keep you safe--you and Aaron.

... more from same episode:

BEN: Hello, Jack.

[Jack is startled almost off his balance by the voice. The sound of vehicles passing by can be heard from outside.]

BEN: Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. Did he tell you that I was off the island?

JACK: (Exhales deeply) Yes, he did.

BEN: When did you speak to him?

JACK: (Inhales deeply) About a month ago.

BEN: And Kate?

JACK: Yeah. Yeah, he came to see her, too.

BEN: And what did he say to you?

JACK: He told me... that after I left the island, some very bad things happened. And he told me that it was my fault for leaving. And he said that I had to come back.

---- From "Because You Left":

BEN: [Sighs] On the Island... in the Orchid station, below the greenhouse. I told him I was sorry for making his life so miserable, and then he left. So obviously John's visit to you made an impression. What did he say to make you such a believer?

JACK: Sawyer, Juliet, everyone from the boat... and everyone we left behind--John said that they'd die, too, if I didn't come back.

BEN: Did he tell you what happened to them after the Island moved?

JACK: No. No, he didn't.

---

Add to that the following observations about time passing:

- Sayid's drastic change (something happened and time passed enough for him to relocate to US, etc)

- Walt calling Locke Bentham, and feeling the need to go see Hurley about it.

- Jack's beard. :-)

- The character arch of Jack: His still being allowed normal rotations in the hospital, him not seeming too messed up on pisses or booze, etc.

- The scars from car crash and the fresh leg-cast do imply that Locke attempts suicide right after the Jack/John conversation. But, I prefer to think the make-up continuity guys got it wrong (with bruises) then the whole script pattern built over three years is messed up. (And, as per the leg cast, when I broke my arm I had *several* casts placed on it over a few months, so a new one can be put on it.)

Anyway, I just don't see how Lock could not have had another conversation with jack (keep aaron safe, keep jack safe, bad stuff happened because jack left, Ben is off the island, sawyer/juliet dying--all were NOT mentioned in the brief conversation we saw in the hospital.)

Just to restate. I am not sure about exact timing, but there is no way that is the only conversation that Jack and John had off island. John said almost NONE of the things that Jack told Kate/Ben he said in that meeting. There MUST be another conversation of Gregg Nations should lose his job.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and the cover is awesome. Is Season 4 guide out yet?

Anonymous said...

This new cover is definitely amazing, I mean it just rocks.
I'm looking forward to buying it, even though the wait is gonna be excuciating!
Keep up the good work.

Miss Scarlett said...

Awesome new cover!