Eric Kay

The Giants will likely be without linebacker Michael Boley for four weeks, who according to our team correspondent Alex Raskin had arthroscopic surgery this morning to repair a partially torn meniscus in his right knee.

Chase Blackburn, who is also dealing with some injury issues, will likely fill his void. 

The Giants were without Boley for the first game of the season as he was suspended for violating the league's personal conduct policy.

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The Ravens lost special teams ace and linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo for the season with a thigh injury. He was placed on injured reserve.

Baltimore signed linebacker Prescott Burgess off of New England's practice squad to fill the void. Burgess was traded to the Patriots September 22 by the Ravens for a conditional draft pick.

Ayanbadejo is a three-time Pro Bowl selection for his work on special teams.

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Green Bay's feeling the aftershocks of the Brett Favre Game, notably the loss of returner Will Blackmon for the season. He suffered and ACL injury according to our correspondent Gerrard Diaz .

His role will be replaced by wide receiver Jordy Nelson, who caught a touchdown pass in the Monday night game.

Running backs are dropping in Big D.

Speedster Felix Jones has a sprained PCL, according to Cowboys coach Wade Phillips. Our Dallas correspondent Bryan Broaddus reports there is no timetable for the second-year running back, but that he is "day to day"

The Cowboys played Monday night's 21-7 win against the Panthers without Marion Barber, who was nursing a quad injury. Third-string running back Tashard Choice filled in with 82 yards rushing on 18 carries.

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It appears the Patriots defense has taken another big hit. William Bendetson , our Patriots correspondent, is reporting that nose tackle Vince Wilfork likely has a sprained ankle and the the timetable for his return is questionable.

The Patriots lost middle linebacker Jerod Mayo in Week 1 to a sprained MCL and have jettisoned various key members of the defense throughout the offseason and season.

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Apparently there's some big storyline between the Vikings and Packers and their Monday night game.

In the meantime, Darius Reynaud, the league's second-best punt returner has a hamstring problem. Our Vikings correspondent, Darren Wolfson , says Reynaud told him he will be "ready to go."

The Miami RedHawks needed 10 quarters to put their first points on the board this season. The local paper was apparently caught a little off guard when Miami finally found paydirt.

So while Eugene Harris hauling in a 14-yard pass from Daniel Raudabaugh in the third quarter of a 48-26 pounding by the Western Michigan Broncos was big news for first-year head coaching disaster Mike Haywood, it led to incorrect news in the hometown paper.

The Oxford Press , the town paper (not the student paper), ran this photo for an extended period after the historical loss.

That's a fantastic fail, just like Miami's program.

It's a good time to buy real estate if you have capital. It's a good time to be a MAC school if you have a quarterback.

That's the situation at Western Michigan, where the Broncos have one of the best non-BCS quarterbacks in Tim Hiller. That, along with a veteran offensive line, and a standout running back are reason enough to speculate the Broncos are going to upset Michigan at Michigan Stadium Saturday.

The Wolverines? They have a three-headed monster trying to operate Rich Rodriguez's spread offense. Hiller, meanwhile, is already among notable MAC quarterback company. His 76 touchdown passes put him 24 behind Chad Pennington for the conference's all-time mark. Ben Roethlisberger had 84 before he left as a junior.

But it was the same song and dance last season. Could Western upset a rebuilding Nebraska in its opener? That went badly, with the Huskers ending things in a 47-24 rout. But Bo Pelini's Huskers weren't the tear-down job Rich Rod's playing with. Both sides of Michigan are still a mess, and the defense simply won't have a solution for Hiller, who has good footwork. 

It's not just about quarterbacks. Playing on the road in a Big Ten stadium requires some special special teams, and the Broncos have a standout punter in sophomore Ben Armer, who had 11 punts of 50 or more yards. And the kicking game is solid, if not spectacular, with sophomore John Potter, who was 11-14 inside 50 yards.

What this really comes down to is the Broncos are a 12.5 point dog in this gam e. There's just no way a team with a veteran quarterback at a stable mid-major program should be given that many points. Yes, it's on the road. Yes, Michigan still has more talent top to bottom, but this game is ripe for upset.

Thoughts?

They were MAC gods in the mid-200s. Now they're fighting for the No. 3 quarterback position in the NFL wasteland that is Oakland.

Charlie Frye and Bruce Gradkowski, according to the Contra-Costa Times , are in a "dead heat" to hold the clipboard behind JaMarcus Russell and Jeff Garcia.

"On one day it's one guy, on one day it's the next," Cable said. "The next two games might decide it." That was two-plus weeks ago.

The battle hasn't eased up since. Here's what our RapidReports correspondent Eric Gilmore posted Tuesday .

"Raiders QB Charlie Frye, who's in a tight battle with Bruce Gradkowski for the No. 3 job, said he learned a lesson two years ago when he was in a three-way camp fight at Cleveland with Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn. 'It taught me to keep my head down and just keep working. You can't worry about that stuff, because it takes your mind to places you don't want to go.'"

Frye, a sixth-round pick in 2005 of the Browns and Gradkowski, a sixth-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2006 were the heir apparents to Ben Roethlisberger and Byron Leftwich. Now they're fighting for arguably the worst quarterbacking job in football.

Why this matters? Well, there was a time when Frye was actually deemed a potential NFL starting quarterback. And there was a time when Gradkowski was managing a few wins for the Bucs.

But now their fates are where most expected them to be, hanging on by a thread just a few years into their careers.

My guess is Frye gets the job, if only because he has started 20 games in his career.

Follow me on Twitter: @EKayCBSSports

I'm on the prowl for funny/interesting/witty/stupid sports attire.

What's smarter than a Raiders fan? This shirt explains . (Hint: Everything)

Thanks to MMA writer and admitted Raiders fan Denny Burkholder for the link.

Have a piece of clothing worth sharing? Shoot me an email or find me on Twitter here .

Earlier this month Gary Parrish dropped one of the biggest summer sports stories on the Interwebs: LeBron James got dunked on. By a freshman Xavier hoopster.

That's big news. But then big news became huge news when Nike confiscated the tape.

Sites like Deadspin and Hoopsdoctor circulated the news.

Sites like the Sporting News may have found the tape .

Good ol' Skip Bayless (video) chimed in on it , calling "LeBrique" a "Nike puppet."

And of course, the cameraman even got in on the story .

At some point in this madness, a college buddy of mine sent me a link to a New York Daily News article on the controversy and said, "check out the photo caption."

It was the company he works for, Zazzle.com , and the T-shirt we all knew was inevitably coming had finally arrived.

If the Internet has brought anything to the table outside of porn and ordering paper towels , it's the put-funny-things-on-T-shirt industry that's probably profited the most.

Just a few weeks before LeBronsficate, the headlines involved LeBron's "LBJ MVP" T-shirts .

This is what our forefathers fought for, after all. The right to express one's self via a T-shirt, no? So for the next day or so until I ship this out to Scoop Parrish, I can claim to have dunked on LeBron. If these things take off, we could have a serious authenticity problem on our hands. Or we could all storm Nike HQ V for Vendetta -style clad in these shirts and really scare the crap out of Phil Knight. I digress.

The small point of this is, if you see a funny/clever/witty/awful T-shirt involving sports, shoot me a link at the email above and we'll play it up. Because sports and T-shirts go together like lamb and tunafish.

Or spaghetti and meatballs.

Email Eric T-shirt links by clicking here

If one must have a favorite Cowboy, worse can be had than second-year player Martellus Bennett. He's a solid tight end, an often hilarious Twitterer , and now a stadium tour guide.

This week on Marty B TV is a tour of JerryWorld , the Cowboys' new still-under-construction facility set to make Yankee Stadium seem more like Ozzie Guillen's take on Wrigley Field .

While the ostrich-leather seats are impressive, it's the concession stand menu that screams nouveau-Texas bbq. 

There's the dry aged beef sandwich for $14, the Texas catfish po'boy is available for $10 and the steel cut fries for $5 (I thought "hand cut" was still the in-fry making slicing, but who knows). A draft beer will set you back $9. But it's the four Kobe items that either represent a culinary revolution in stadium food, or one helluva marketing push.

They are:

• Green chile Kobe burger for $13
• Kobe BBQ burger for $13
• Cowboys Kobe nacho dog for $7.50
• Kobe Texas dog for $7.50

Quite the Asian influence in the land of barbecue. There are also, as Marty B says, "sesame seed hot dog buns, which you don't see (elsewhere)." So that's a nice touch.

After eating all the Kobe goodness, it's important to have a nice throne to plant one's backend on. The restrooms are marble-encrusted and featuring stainless steel doors (not just for fridges anymore) on the stalls. Oh, and the latrines? They're made from "elephant tusk," according to Bennett, which would be highly unethical, and not to mention a wee bit illegal.

So yeah, it seems to be shaping up to be quite the dandy Dallas palace for Tony Romo and friends to play eight games each season.

The price of a car can often be determined by one thing -- it's eventual re-sale cost. In simplified terms it's a large part of what makes a Toyota worth more than a Ford and a BMW more valuable than a Cadillac.

We heard Sunday evening the rumors of Shaquille O'Neal potentially heading to Cleveland . We're going to hear alot more of this. That's because after 16 seasons where he was beaten up in the paint, and at the junkyard NBA age of 37, Shaq is still a hot commodity. Not too long ago he was still a missing piece to a title in Phoenix, possibly, and now in Cleveland, hopefully. He's been responsible, according to the media, for the titles of men under 6-6, whether it be Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade. Just last season, he averaged 17.8 ppg, 8.4 rpg while shooting nearly 61 percent from the field.

The big man still has it.

But some brilliant minds claim Kobe's four rings are a bigger deal than Shaq's four rings . This, until No. 5 comes around, is simply not true. When Kobe's 37 years old, if teams are still picking up the phone to inquire about his availability as that proverbial missing piece, then we'll talk. But Shaq still has the perception of the guy who can help lead a team to a title -- at 37. That's silly to think about. A 37-year-old center (talk about the annals of history being littered with wasted vertically gifted human beings) as the guy who can help propel a superb talent like LeBron James to a title.

Yet Kobe's fourth title is more impressive.

That's like saying a 12-year-old BMW is more impressive than a 16-year-old BMW. Well, yes, it usually is. There's less mileage and wear-n-tear. But what if we're downplaying that four/five-year window? Alot happens in a basketball player's 30s. A lot of cars make it to 150,000 miles. But between 150,000 and 200K a lot of things can happen. Seals, belts and hoses all need replacing and that costs money, lots of money depending on the job. Newer models come and draw one's eyes toward them. Keeping a car running and in good shape up until 200K isn't always that easy. The Shaq era has withstood those challenges. Yet, some don't want to reward that. It's because those don't realize the difficulty of those key years.

Take Hall of Famer David Robinson , for example. Between 33-37 his production dropped to an average of 13.7 ppg despite the infusion of Tim Dunca to help ease the load. Those years are tough on all basketball players, and in particular big men. Yet Shaq has maintained a high level of play. So high, in fact, the Cavs want to dust him off for one more time around the track. Yet it's Kobe, whose fourth ring is more impressive. Kobe, who's lost as many NBA Finals series as Shaq (two). Kobe who's won every title with the same coach. It's Kobe, who needed not just one big man to win a title, but two in Pau Gasol and a healthy Andrew Bynum. And it's Kobe, who had the pleasure of defeating the third-seeded Magic, a team whose best player (well, not according to Shaq) is just 23.

What Kobe's accomplished is greatness, no doubt. But his legacy, at this stage, is still not more impressive than Shaq's. If people are considering Kobe the key to a title run in 2015, then I'll hit the brakes on this debate.

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And for those who remember the good ol' days: Klick of the Day

A talent-show audition gone bad

It's Egyptian, like we suspected, but not the one we thought. After the season finale, I wrote about how the statue seemed to be Sobek , the Nile River god tied to the creation myth. I was even more confident with this since part of Sobek's lore involved this Jacob-ish like explanation:

"Sobek's ambiguous nature led some Egyptians to believe that he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a  force for good in itself, for example, going to Duat to restore damage done to the dead as a result of their form of death.  He was also said to call on suitable gods and goddesses required for protecting people in situation, effectively having a  more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part." Turns out its Taweret , the goddess of motherhood. That's uber-simple because in fact Taweret's nature changed mutiple times. She was also viewed as the mate to another deity that when paired, she became the demon wife of the original god of evil. Makes my head spin too, but the point seems to be -- the more the Egyptians got to know Tawaret, the less frightening and more revered the part hippo, lion and crocodile became.

What does this all mean? No real strong idea yet. But we've obviously been hit hard with lots of fertility issues throughout the show, and Tawaret (who's often depicted pregnant) would seem to be a lightpost indicating The Island was once a very fertile place. And maybe her destruction further symbolizes the 2003-'07 reproductive issues that have plagued The Island.

Also, the fact there are two interpretations of Tawaret (early = evil; late = good) seems to symbolize a duality we flirted with in the finale between Nameless Man and Jacob.

Sources: ABC | Doc Jensen

In the Twitter universe it's often not what you tweet, but who it is doing the tweeting. For example, Danny Glover is on Twitter. Since he joined around April 17th he's posted six updates. They're all about following something called "politicalrap."

Yet he has 236,159 followers.

Take Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams as another example. He has 847 followers despite recent tweets like:

"NBA draft lottery tonight. Not since 2004, when the Orlando Magic ended up with Howard, has the team with the worst record won the lottery."

That's what's on your mind, coach? How about something on Greivis Vasquez's status. Or who you're replacing him with? Not some cornball stat about the general NBA lottery.

As with most things in life, having a brand name also makes a huge difference in Twitterville. So the question today is, which sports-related brand names are worth following?

Please add on any suggestions you have (as well as any sports-related feeds you follow), but here's my primer for those looking to beef up their following index.

Drew Rosenhaus , agent (Terrell Owens, Santana Moss, Chad Ochocinco), 7,622 followers

Sample tweet:

"Going to the NFL Owners Meetings in Fort Lauderdale to make some money for my clients. I have several deals that I'm working on right now."

Or if you want something a wee bit more newsworthy, there was this gem earlier in the week that made noise due to it's sensitive playbook nature:

"The Dolphins are using wide receiver Ernest Wilford some at H-Back/Tight end. Wilford has the size & strength
to play both positions."

Lamar Odom , Lakers forward, 27,907 followers

Sample tweet:

"Lamar Odom: Anyone feel the earthquake? Whoa! I hope everyone is alright. Must have been the Rockets and their red glare shooting outta LA. Lol"

Ba-zing, Rockets fans.

Ron Zook , Illinois football coach, 1,745 followers

Sample tweet

"Can't believe my daughter gradulated from Illinois already.Go Illini"

Thrilling? Not at all. But there have been some odd updates at even odder hours coming from Zook so it's worth at least keeping an eye on.

Mark Cuban , Dallas Mavericks owner, 47, 424 followers

Sample tweet:

"Mark Cuban: An Apology to Kenyon Martin’s Mom: It started as a smart ass comment that I know that no one heard. How do.. »
link to An Apology to Kenyon Martin’s Mom « blog maverick"

Cuban's interest in Twitter is higher than an adolescent on goofballs. He may end up cracking the monetization code to this social medium. Plus, he sometimes has to make nice to "thug's" moms.

Coco Crisp , Kansas City Royals outfielder, 3,585 followers

Sample tweet:

"OK i officially have a new (baseball) disease called PPA (Piss Poor Aim). Everytime i hit a ball hard PPA kicks in. There has to be a cure."

Have to love his self-deprecating style.

Jay Feely , New York Jets kicker, 1,031 followers

Sample tweet:

"Today was one of the most entertaining days of the year. First practice for the rookies, vets smell blood in the  water and go for the kill"

Former Cold Pizza host can put together coherent thoughts, which is a big win in Twitterville.

Let's get this out of the way: Nobody does season finales quite like "Lost." They always go out with a bang.

Let's also get this out of the way: "The Incident, Part 1&2" is the sister episode to "Live Together, Die Alone," the season two finale.

So let's start there. Whether it was Juliet's declaration to "live together, die alone," or the blinding light from the explosion at the Swan (again), TIP12 started off with cryptic dialogue before taking us on a two-hour journey to make the dynamite go boom.

About that dialogue between two strangers on a beach. It took place between Jacob, and a man (played by another "Deadwood" alum (Titus Welliver).

Jacob: "I take it you're here because of the ship?"
Man: "I am. How did they find the island?
Jacob: "You'll have to ask when they get here."
Man: "I don't have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren't you?"
Jacob: "You are wrong."
Man: "When they come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same."
Jacob: "It only ends once, anything before that is just progress."
Man: "Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?
Jacob: "Yes"
Man: "One of these days sooner or later, we're gonna find a loophole my friend"
Jacob: "When you do I'll be right here."
Man: "Always nice talking to you, Jacob."
Jacob: "Nice talking to you, too."

If there's one thing "Lost" is good at, it's making us think a conversation is about one thing when it's really about another.  But let's assume this conversation is between the Devil and God, with Jacob serving the role of the latter. I take this as the argument for human existence. The devil points out all that's bad with humans -- fighting, destroying, corrupting, death  -- while God returns the volley with, "those are the means to a universal end I call progress." And then the man says he wants  to kill god, which also happens to be the M.O. of John Locke.

Quickly backtracking, Jacob starts off the episode weaving a tapestry with the motto, "Ille qui nos omnes servabit" on it. That 
translates to, "He who will protect us all."

We then pan out to see the background, which includes our favorite statue of the crocodile god, Sobek. According to Wikipedia , Sobek was a crocodile, or man with a crocodile head who was a powerful and frightening deity. In some creation myths, it was Sobek who first came out of the waters of chaos to create the world.

That's fine and all, but consider this passage, also from Wikipedia:

"Sobek's ambiguous nature led some Egyptians to believe that he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a  force for good in itself, for example, going to Duat to restore damage done to the dead as a result of their form of death.  He was also said to call on suitable gods and goddesses required for protecting people in situation, effectively having a  more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part."

Nudging things along is exactly how we come to know Jacob. The episode is a Jacob episode. We flash back with him as he  nudges along our favorite Lostees and Llana.

Here's the Jacob tally:

• Covered for a young, thieving Kate (1)
• Handed young James Ford (2) a pen in order to finish his letter to Sawyer
• Asked Sayid (3) for directions moments before Nadia's death via car (did he save Sayid or cause Nadia's death?)
• Asked for Llana (4), in serious recovery mode, for help
• Apologized to Locke (5), who was just thrown out the window by his dad, and tells him "everything will be alright. Sorry this happened to you."
• Advised Sun (6) and Jin (7) not to take their love for granted (in Korean)
• Hand Jack (8) a candy bar, and tells him "I guess it just needed a little push."
• Shares a cab with Hurley (9), and tells him "I'm definitely not dead ... what if you weren't cursed? What if you were blessed? You get to talk to the people you lost. You are not crazy" before instructing him how to return to the Island.

Jacob is definitely nudging along our Lostees at some of their more crucial junctures in their respective backstory lives. He's also seen reading our episodes' guiding piece of literature, Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge." The book is a collection of nine short stories published after her death. According to Amazon, the flawed characters of each story are fully revealed in apocalyptic moments of conflict and violence that are presented with comic detachment. I count nine Lostees above. 

There's one more chunk of dialogue I think is crucial before we get into the 1977 storyline. It's between Locke and Ben, who  are palling around on the way to go kill Jacob.

Locke: "It's the door (it reads "quarantine") to the hatch where you and I first met."
Locke: "Mind if I ask you a question?"
Ben: "I'm a Pisces"
Locke: "What happened that day in the cabin when you took me to Jacob?"
Ben: "You know I was talking to an empty chair. I was pretending."
Locke: "Why would you go through all the trouble to make things up?"
Ben: "I was embarrassed. I didn't want you to know I hadn't seen Jacob. So I lied. That's what I do.
Locke: "Alright then."
Ben: "Why do you want me to kill Jacob, John?"
Locke: "Because despite your loyal service to this Island you got cancer, you watched your own daughter gunned down in front  of you. You reward for those sacrifices? You were banished. And you did all this for a man you hadn't met. So the question is, Ben, why the hell wouldn't you want to kill Jacob?"

If Jacob is our proxy for God, or at least a god , this is the ultimate question of religion. How does the god-believing world  serve a being they've never seen? How, after millennia of doing so, and the suffering that's existed, aren't they ready to  kill it? This is heavy stuff, my friend. This is what makes the show so special, IMO. It's ability to usher us through two hours  of season-finale excitement in 1977, but have us ponder the meaning of faith in God in present day-time.

Moving on.

In 1977 Jack and Sayid remove the it-goes-boom element from Jughead and use the cover of camp to make their move. However,  Roger Linus, avenges his son by shooting Sayid in the gut. The two manage to escape with the help of C3PO, R2D2 and Chewbacca  Miles, Jin and Hurley. En route to the Swan they're stopped by Sawyer, Juliet and Kate. Sawyer, meanwhile, was convinced to  stop this event from happening by a flip-flopping Juliet (Guess what? She has parental issues. Get out!) and a money, Money, MONEY encounter with Rose and Bernard.

I went three moneys on you because so many people who don't watch the show always say stuff like "what's the big deal with some  people stuck on an island?" Or "guess I'll never know how to survive on and island, oh well." Well, Rose and Bernard showed  just what the Island is capable of if everybody wasn't so worried about blowing up bombs and killing each ther.

"We're retired," Rose says. Bernard follows here with a schpeal on the importance of each other and having isolated, beach-front property.

Rose, care to help us stop looney tunes Jack?

"Who cares!? It's always something with you people. Traveled back 30 years in time and you're still trying to shoot each other"

So I guess that mean you, Bernard and Vincent are out on stopping Doc?

The beauty of the scene was finally some people are using this Island for what we in the real world associate islands with: freedom, relaxation, detachment. Amen that the producers finally winked our way saying, "ya know, we've been lucky enough to shoot  in Hawaii for five seasons now. Life ain't too bad here."

After their goodbyes with R 'n' B, Sawyer, Juliet and Kate confront the Bomb Boys. Jack gives Sawyer five minutes to make his case. Sawyer tells him about his parents' tragic demise and how Sawyer could have hopped on a sub and stopped it. But he didn't. Because "what's done is done." Clearly that's the new, "whatever happened, happened."

He also dropped one of my all-time "Lost" favorite lines in this exchange:

"I don't speak destiny. What I do understand is a man does what he does because he wants something for himself. What do you  want, Jack?"

Jack does another whine job, dropping, "I had her and I lost her. It's too late. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

This leads to a slugfest between the two before Juliet steps in to stop the carnage. Speaking of Juliet, her intro backstory episode was "The Other Woman." If that label ever applied, it was this episode, her final one. Once ag ain she felt to be the other woman to Sawyer, whether that was the case or not. This leads her to do some wild things.

While Juliet breaks up with Sawyer post-fight, Jack convinces Kate that blowing things up will allow Claire to make a decision regarding Aaron. That's enough reason for Kate, but not me. You? But Jack says, "nothing in my life has ever felt so good." I'd imagine that's also the feeling suicide bombers get before their moments of "triumph." There must be something freeing about a kamikaze mission you believe has a purpose.

Sawyer meanwhile asks Juliet, "what do you think, Blondie?"

"Live together, die alone my former (weep) love muffin."

I wasn't a big fan of the Juliet logic of pushing away Sawyer, but it will free our favorite model-turned-TV star to mourn a bit quicker come season six, I imagine. But I get ahead of myself with talk of mourning.

There's a gunfight at the Swan Corral as the drill bores dangerously close to the no-no zone of magnetism. It eventually reaches its point of kablooey and unleashes the metal-sucking force that lives below the ground. This sucks in all things metal, which includes crippling the drill tower onto Doc Chang's hand and impaling good ol' Phil (should have taken that lunch break). It also coils a chain around Juliet, who's sucked into the hole. But not before professing her love to Sawyer. While I dug the last-seconds exchange between the two, I spoiled the scene for myself since I knew Juliet had her own show coming out and would need to be written off the Island.

Back in 2007, Llana and the Ajira Illuminati continue their march through the jungle, eventually torching Jacob's trespassed cabin before heading to the foot of the four-toed Sobek statue. There they rendezvous with Ricardos? Alpert, who solves the Latin riddle of "what lies in the shadow of the statue?"

Inside the shadow of the statue Locke and Ben confront Jacob. Ben goes Fredo on Jacob, "He (Locke) gets to march straight up here as if he was Moses. So, why him? What was it that was so wrong with me? What about me?"

Well, Jacob, care to answer?

"What about you?

Ba-zing!

Knife, meet Jacob's chest. But not before Evil Locke reveals that he, indeed, found his "loophole." At the same time we learn Llana and her Ajira Illuminati were lugging around The Real John Locke's corpse. Ruh-roh. Who is this masked Locke? Why it's old man must kill Jacob!

Jacob rolls to his fiery death. I imagine we'll learn more about Jacob come season six. But back to Juliet. She manages to survive her plummet down the Swan shaft (rrrrright), which allows her to bludgeon ol' Jughead (ala Desmond turning the key in "Live together, die alone") to explosion. Off goes white light, up comes inverted! "Lost" closing text and that's a season finale, my friends. The other woman made the ultimate sacrifice.

Let's talk TIP12 and what to expect come season six!

Like Sawyer, Juliet and Kate, i'm leaving town shortly so I'll keep this short so I don't miss my sub. And by sub, I mean American Airlines flight.

Speaking of the sub, anybody conjure images of Sawyer's last boat trip off The Island? That one didn't end too well, and I'm guessing this one won't either. However, I loved his Back to the Future Part II quibs.

It turns out Daniel is, in fact, dead. D.E.D, dead. Eloise, his killer/mom, feels a touch of remorse (agree or disagree?) and listens to destiny-driven Jack's take on Faraday's legacy.

This leads to ...

With the help of Alpert (the episode's star, IMO), Eloise, Jack, and Sayid head to Jughead. Sayid, it appears, has been lurking around the forest since his attempted assisination of young Ben.

"I already took care of that (the timeline). I killed Benjamin Linus."

"Oh, no you did-ent!," Kate told him. "Oh, and when did it become OK to kill kids and set off atomic bombs?!"

It became OK when the show realized it needed to start wrapping things up. And what better way to head into season six with a bang, and the subsequent fallout.

(Who thinks the bomb goes off? Who thinks we're in store for a Cold War-like season six in which the threat of Jughead stars? Who thinks the bomb is a red herring?)

And what about where the bomb is located? That would appear to be the guts of the same temple young Ben was taken to and old Ben met the Smoke Monster.

As for John Locke, he's "looking different" according to Richard. Can Richard see something we can't? Is Locke still human?

Locke, meanwhile, orders Alpert to go help a mysterious man in the woods. That man turns out to be none other than Locke circa late 2003 and sporting a gunshot wound courtesy of Ethan. We've seen this scence before, but from this angle it takes on a whole new meaning. Or as Ben puts it, "this must be quite the out-of-body experience for you, John."

How did Locke know this was going to happen? Is The Island still skipping? Can he summon on-demand Island events? Is he able to revisit his own Island timeline? By this last point I mean: So far we've seen Locke staring off into the ocean, just like he did after the plane crash. We've seen him hunt down a boar, just like he did when he helped initially feed the camp. Now he's back pulling the strings at arguably the most important moment of his existence. The one that guided him to take the leap of faith by bringing the Oceanic Six back and ultimately dying. That one that transformed him into Jeremy Bentham. The one that led him to this exact moment where he could pull these strings. Did Locke essentially reboot on The Island, knock out a few simple tasks, say like killing a boar, in order to get his bearings, and is now mastering a game (like Mouse Trap) he's already played?

I want to think Locke is this transcendent being as much as the next, but there's nothing in his life that screams he's going to have a happy Island ending. His life is marred with tragic events. Maybe this is his shot at redemption, but I think it's he who is leading sheep to slaughter, not the actual Shepard. Why else would Ben support Locke? He knows this run-in with Jacob will leave Locke, I'm guessing, dead. Why else would Richard, the loyal, never aging, Banana Republic-draped consigliore he seems to be, express his concern? Locke may have a connection with The Island, but I still can't get Charlotte's "this place is death" out of my mind.

This episode was another great one. We're set up for a wow-ish finale. I didn't catch too many Easter Eggs (Back to the Future Part II aside) in this episode, but I was still a little distraught after the Caps loss. Share 'em if you got 'em.

Last couple of observations:

-- Radzinsky has basically usurped Horace as the war-time Dharma commander-in-chief. He seems to be under a different set of orders than Horace, and probably Dr. Chang. I expect a Chang-Radzinsky clash in the finale. Say, with Chang losing an arm. Most likely in defense of his son.

-- Does anybody else just want to see Juliet and Sawyer live happily ever after. Enough with the love triangles!

-- Nice line readings from Kevin Chapman (Brotherhood), playing a security guard taking Sawyer and Juliet on the sub

-- What will happen if the nuke goes off? Can the timeline really be reset to the point where Oceanic 815 never crashes onto The Island?

-- And why does Locke want to kill Jacob? Sayid tried to kill Ben in the hopes of tweaking the timeline. Faraday warned Doc Chang to tweak the timeline. Widmore and Hawking have both played roles. But does it all come down to Jacob? And what the hell are we going to get with Jacob?

Sorry for lots of questions and little else, but let's take it to the board.

Sometimes an iPhone app from a reputable organization comes along and you ask yourself: Why?

Why take the time to make this?

That's the question I ask myself after using NBA.com's (via Turner) Game Time app for the first round of the playoffs. The Game Time app promises: "No frills. Just scores, schedules and stats."

It does all those things (sort of). End of story, right?

Not really, because it doesn't make sense to make an app to do just that. Not when sites like ESPN, CBSSports.com, FoxSports all offer pretty robust NBA playoff coverage.

Now I like the way NBA Game Time does what it says it will. It's clean, easy and didn't crash after an update was installed (it crashed a lot prior to that). And that's why I'm disappointed. I want more from the NBA's (or even TBS') official vault. Give me highlights, analysis, heck, how about at least a preview story?

But again, that's asking things of which it didn't promise. I will nitpick about it's "real-time scoring during live games."

The app offers a line score and player stats. That's all. And that's simply not enough.

It doesn't offer Recent Plays, or a way to look at any of the game's plays. That's a big deal when you're wondering why the app's gamecenter line score hasn't updated in a few minutes. Is it because the game is at commercial? Is it because both teams have gone cold? Is there a hawk flying through the arena?

There's a playoff bracket, which is attractive, but not really user friendly. Instead of say, starting on the current round, it starts with a close-up of the final matchup. Of course, there is no final yet, so it's just a big, "The Finals on ABC Beginning in June" promo.

There are also Schedule and Standings tabs, which make as much sense in a playoff-only app as the Chewbacca Defense . Use that real estate for news stories, user comments, photo galleries. Anything that I could play with while I wonder what's happening in a game I'm interested in.

Vitals

Who makes it: Turner Broadcasting System in partnership with NBA.com
Selection process: Scroll wheels for changing dates (which is useless since there are never any available upcoming dates on the Schedule wheel)
How to locate it: It's the top free app under sports
Cost: Free
Website: NBA.com

Kay's Kritiques

Usefulness: 2/10
Functionality: 2/10
Has potential: 4/10
Recommendable: 1/10

She that is Queen of Tunis; she that dwells
Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from Naples
Can have no note, unless the sun were post—
The Man i' th' Moon's too slow—till new-born chins
Be rough and razorable; she that from whom
We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again
(And by that destiny) to perform an act
Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come,
In yours and my discharge.

The Tempest Act 2, scene 1, 245–254 For nearly six seasons, Lost has been a show so drenched in irony and juxtaposition that it was tough for John Locke to stand up at times. So it's no surprise that an episode about destiny would be called "The Variable." That a man of science would be reared by a woman of faith. That all young Faraday wanted was "to make time."

"If only you could," said his mother, Eloise Hawking.

For if he could, he would answer the plea of "God help us all." It's a plea Eloise made to Ben if he couldn't round up the Oceanic Six and a declaration Dr. Pierre Chang made last night if his construction workers drilled one centimeter further and released the energy under The Orchid Station. For only God can make time ... or Dr. Manhattan.

But Faraday wasn't allowed to make time for his piano playing, rather, he was helicopter parented by Eloise to become the youngest doctoral recipient in Oxford history. He was so good there that he earned a grant for a rich industrialist named Charles Widmore.

He used that grant to work on time traveling with a mouse named Eloise and a research assistant named Theresa. Both would suffer unfortunate fates. Eloise, we remember died. Theresa, we remember, was living her remaining life in a coma. Widmore took care of her medical expenses. Why?

Because her coma was a result of Faraday's time traveling. The same time traveling experiments that left him sans memory and an emotional wreck. Why wasn't he in a coma as well? Faraday, in large part, was set on this path by his mother because of his "Rainman"-like gift of memory. It's that strong memory that kept him alive in his early time-traveling experiments. But why did he get so emotional over the sunken fake Oceanic flight 816? At the time, 2003, he didn't know the survivors. He had yet to board the freighter and land on the Island and run into Jack and Kate on a rainy Island night. Could he have been conditioned to respond so? After all, brain washing was the M.O. of Room 23 on the Island. Could Faraday have been Ludovico'd at some point of his life? (Quick, what movie?)

Whatever the reason, it opened the door for Widmore to come marching into Faraday's life. Widmore explained to Daniel that it was him, the rich industrialist, who sunk the airplane in order to keep the Island's location hush-hush. And it's him now asking Daniel to go to the Island to recover his memory. Because on the Island, like on the August 2003 issue of "Wired" sitting on the chair at Faraday's home, "The Impossible Gets Real." And that, my friends, is our guiding piece of literature for this episode. It used to be that whatever happened, happened.

It used to be the famous line from Chinatown : "What did you do in Chinatown? As little as possible."  It was "as little as possible," because the police never knew if their actions were helping or hurting the diverse collection of ethnic groups inhabiting L.A's Chinatown. That's how Lost comes off. We don't know if Dharma, the Hostiles, Widmore, Eloise, Daniel, Dr. Chang are helping or hurting things.
 
And that's the ironic fate of the variables, or as Faraday says, "people." The Lostees' trajectory, the ones we always associated with being affected by the Island, have in fact been affecting the Island's dynamic. A dynamic involving Widmore, Eloise and Alpert. Involving Horace, Dr. Chang and Dharma. Involving smoke monsters, Ben Linus, and an energy-dense Island. These variables, which we've come to know and probably care about, are the elements changing the flow of time.

So it's no surprise that by the end of the episode the once-splintered gang was now back together and heading back to where it all started -- the beach. They have to, as "A User's Guide to Time Travel," one of the main articles from that issue of "Wired" explains.

"Having examined Einstein's equations more closely, physicists now realize that the river of time may be diverted into a whirlpool - called a closed timelike curve - or even a fork leading to a parallel universe. In particular, the more mass you can concentrate at a single point, the more you can bend the flow."

After all, variables die alone or live together. Season five is taking us back to the show's original premise -- survival. Having a mass of Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Hurley, Jack, Kate, Jin, Faraday ... well, that could change time.

Back to 2003. Widmore tells Faraday, just like he once told Locke, that he's special and has a gift. Do Faraday and Locke really have gifts? Is this smoke up the ol' keester? Locke, we remember, was drawing pictures of smoke monsters at an early age. Faraday, we find out, had quite the metronomic memory at an early age. But it's Faraday driving this episode, in full Jedi style. He returns to 1977 aboard the sub, in black Dharma gear and immediately infiltrates the Deathstar, er, Dharma. He's there to prevent Dr. Chang's group from drilling into the earth below the Swan Station. For if they do, it will unleash a monster energy packet that will require Dharmans to push a button, which will eventually lead to Desmond pushing a button, which will eventually lead to Desmond not pushing the button when he accidentally killed Kelvin, which released the packet of energy that knocked Oceanic flight 815 out of the sky, which lead to the season-one storyline, which lead to just about everything we've come to know ... including why Faraday is on The Island in 1977. Simple, right?

While past in Lost is prologue, Faraday now believes he can debunk that idea. The past doesn't always precede the same story -- whatever happened, happened, but by him being there he can alter the next happening. Make sense? Probably not. That's because Eloise has really worked over Faraday. She sold him on his gift early on and coupled it with the notion of destiny. That's a combustible recipe. It makes someone believe they have a higher purpose. However, we cap the episode with that same mom putting a bullet in her child's abdomen. Was that always the endgame?

Back to Chinatown let's go. The movie focuses on resource management (water in this instance) and the ensuing corruption of it. Say, like a monster power source under the Swan Station. It also focuses on a powerful family, the Crosses, with a dirty secret. The rich industrialist, er, patriarch of this family controls the city, but lives on an orange grove in seeming banishment. He has a fractured relationship with his daughter, one that eventually leads to her pointing a gun at him before she's eventually shot by a corrupt policeman. The dirty little secret is incest, which I'm going out on a limb and speculating Faraday is the result of. I think the dirty little secret of the Hawking-Faraday-Widmore triangle isn't that Hawking and Widmore had a lover's quarrel of epic proportions, it's that they're brother and sister. Could that be why she done slapped him across the face outside the hospital when he said "he's my son too"? Could that be why Faraday never knew his father? Could that be, and here's what I'm hanging my hat on, why Widmore was banished from the Island? There has to be some reason, so wild, that gave Benjamin reason to banish Widmore. Could that be why Eloise doesn't endorse Faraday having a normal relationship with Theresa? Could it be why, in fact, she did want to send him back in time: to write this epic wrong?

I'll leave that tangent alone, for now.

Let's talk about Sawyer and Juliet for a minute for a nice rom-com diversion. So, who thinks they'll make it?! Juliet's clearly seen the writing on the wall, while Sawyer asks, "still got my back?" She replies, "still got mine?" Sawyer, turns out, is going to lead the Lostees back to the beach. Remember, it was Juliet who backed Sawyer when he was ridiculously trying to return there once the Island stopped skipping.

And what about Faraday's reveal to Dr. Chang about the Doc's relationship with Miles? The whole episode was Faraday debunking his own whatever happened, happened theory and this was one of the fun little balls of time-traveling yarn we got to watch unravel. However, in the end, Faraday re-subscribed to his notion that he's just a pawn in time's game, as evident by him saying his mother had "known the whole time" it would come to this.

This was a great episode, maybe even my favorite of the season. Maybe it's because Faraday has become such a great addition to the cast and his back story offered so many reveals. But how about the juxtaposition of the constant, Desmond, being in grave danger? How about Faraday wrestling with free will vs. destiny? How about the refinement of the whatever happened, happened mentality? Turns out that yes, whatever happened, did in fact happen, but that was all prologue to this moment. And in this moment you're stuck obeying the laws of life, which means you can, in fact get a gunshot scar on the neck. I think this episode officially marks the beginning of the end. The Lostees are back together on a mission of survival, just like they were in season one. However, they now know the Island and I think that's going to make this hit of the reset button all the more fun.