The good, the bad and the “Lost”

In a season where less people are watching and those that are watching complain, “Lost” hit a season (dare I say series) high with the Locke flashback episode only to fall flat on its face one week later with the Nikki and Paulo flashback.

Every week I sit down in front of the television Wednesdays at 10 p.m. and say to myself “If they don’t start answering questions, I am going to stop watching.”

And each time more questions are asked instead and I am proven to be a liar.

The Locke flashback provided the answer to the question of “Why was he in a wheelchair?” even though I could care less about that question. Just like with the revelation of Jack’s tattoos, I don’t really care. Although I must say when we did find out why, it was for sure an “Oh crap!” moment, I almost spilled my chocolate milk. I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say that many people on this show have daddy issues. Which brings us to the only downside to this episode… “The magic box.” Ben told Locke that on the island there is a magic box that could make anything you want appear in it. To “prove” it Ben showed Locke that he made Locke’s father appear.

Either Ben is lying (which is HIGHLY likely) or this is some B.S. If he really had a magic box, why did he have to kidnap Jack to help with his surgery? If I had a magic box that could make anything appear, I would make a world class neurosurgeon appear. Not go to all the trouble that he did to get Jack.

The best part of the episode was the acting lesson provided by Terry Quinn (Locke) and Michael Emmerson (Ben). The words “tour de force” are often overused, but are very appropriate for this episode. If these performances don’t garner some awards, then something is wrong.

Two characters that won’t be garnering any awards or goodwill for that matter are Nikki and Paulo. At the start of the season, these two characters were introduced (but had been on the island the entire time with everyone else.) and there was some backlash. People didn’t like that they were taking up camera time that could have went to someone else. They were not on screen much so I didn’t care.

Well, on different occasions the creators and producers of “Lost” kept insisting that the two would play a big part in the show and that they would “be iconic characters.”

Seems like I am not the only liar now.

This week we were treated to Nikki and Paulo’s flashback. Let’s just say they were not nice people, they killed someone, stole diamonds and played a game of cat and mouse with each other on the island for the diamonds. The show then flashbacked to important times on the show and inserted the characters into them. Think Locke and Boone found the drug plane first? Nope.

In the end, they were both killed and a few people were happy. I was more puzzled as to why they even introduced these characters to begin with.

Following such a strong episode with garbage like this was a bad move, but I’ll still find myself with nothing else to do at 10 p.m.

RCC's scary "Zodiac" connection

About halfway into the film "Zodiac" the 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates at Riverside City College is brought into the story.

It's not everyday that the city you live in is talked about along with one of the most high profile serial killers of all time, let alone the college that you attend. Many people don't know about the connection... or even the murder for that matter.

Seeing "Zodiac" on the day it opened in theaters that fact was made clear by the giggling and outbursts whenever Riverside was mentioned on screen (The Riverside murder makes up roughly 10-15 minutes of this almost three hour long film.)

In the film Paul Avery, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and played by Robert Downey Jr., drives down to Riverside to meet with a source about another possible Zodiac murder. In Riverside he also meets with the San Francisco police who have come down to find out about the case after Avery leaks the info to the press.

Avery is convinced that the murder of Bates was infact a Zodiac killing, but the police think otherwise and move on.

I knew about the case and RCC's connection because we did a story last semester about the 40th anniversary of Bates' death and watching the film I did smile a bit.

Grusome?

No, I just got a kick about the city I live in and the college that I attend being apart of something like this.

Plus, I was sort of proud of Anthony Whitacre (who wrote the story last semester) and that our newspaper is a part of history, even if it is a bloody history.