A number of years ago, a character named Bev Vincent who was a crystal scientist from Houston, showed up as a murder victim in the Michael Slade novel Bed of Nails. I met Slade at the World Horror Convention in Seattle in 2001 and we became friends in the ensuing years. As a tribute, he killed me off in a gruesome fashion in the book. I had a good laugh at the release form for Penguin that stated I was pleased with my depiction in the novel: my decapitated head was found impaled on a fence outside Ted Bundy’s house, and my body was crucified upside down in a satanic graveyard. Pleased? I was tickled pink!
I am about to be Tuckerized again, this time in Stephen King’s new novelette, Blockade Billy, coming soon from CD Publications. A character whose name is almost exactly the same as mine (one letter is changed) makes a brief appearance on the page, in much the same way as my current GP appears in It. Pretty cool.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent returned with a bang. It looks like they are planning to clean house, with the murder of one long-time character and the impending implosion of another. I haven’t been reading up to see what their long-term plans are, but I suspect that Goran and Eames’s days are numbered. It’s just a matter of how they get written out. If you know, don’t tell me! Good to see Angel from Dexter show up and watch the characters jockey for position around him until they figure out who he is.
Speaking of cleaning house, I’m paring back on my TV series. I skipped V last night and I think it’s done for me. I’m especially annoyed at the V-bug that obscured a lot of valuable screen real estate during Lost. And unless next week’s Flashforward is awesome, it’s on the short list, too. Last week’s episode was half good and half boring. I’m waiting to hear the little girl’s story of what she saw in her vision. If it’s lame, I’m out of there. I simply don’t care about many of the characters. Can’t even remember their names.
Nice Walt meltdown on Breaking Bad. Of all the things to almost get done in for — a broken windshield. I’m very curious to find out what happened to the two killers in Walt’s bedroom. It looks like some sort of battle royale is in the offing, though.
Now, on to Lost —
Favorite line of the episode. Ben says, “Why don’t you believe me?” and Ilana retorts, “Because you’re speaking.” Ooh, burn! Also, Sawyer’s sarcastic comeback to Flocke’s claim that he can’t just turn to smoke and fly to Hydra island: “No, because THAT would be ridiculous.” Ben’s redemption continues as is the first to appear at Sun’s side after she head-banged the banyan tree, apparent concern on his face. So both Jin and Sun end up with accidental head injuries — and we now know that Jin didn’t get his from deliberate violence, as it appeared at first. Nice deke.
How things are different in the sideways world: Jin is a bodyguard rather than a flunkie, and he got the job through some other means than marrying the boss’s daughter. Sun apparently can’t speak English, though Jin can spit out the odd word under duress. The big kicker, though, was that he was delivering his own contract money to his putative killer. Paik is evil — it makes the murder take place out of the country and puts the money in Jin’s hands. Sun is the character who sees her reflection in a mirror this week. Jin has the chance to see his reflection in the polished metal cabinet doors, but I don’t think he noticed.
Mikhail is back, and he has both eyes — at least until Jin puts a bullet in one. Alas, another bullet goes astray and Sun’s child is once again in jeopardy. It was a nice touch to have Widmore show Jin photos of his child, too, but Widmore is a master manipulator. In both realities, Jin ends up in a cramped little room without any idea of what’s going on. Is he really wanted just for his map-making skills? Apparently his maps can’t be all that good if they need him to spell things out.
Mysterious line of the night: If Flocke gets off the island, everyone associated with the island will cease to exist. Not die, but stop existing. Does this mean a new timeline would be generated? Intriguing to the max.
Sayid can’t feel anything emotional — he’s like the zombie the show’s creators were always joking about. The zombie season. And, despite the fact that we have Flocke, I miss Locke. They clearly aren’t the same. However, I was surprised that Flocke was surprised by something — the raid on the camp. He didn’t see that coming at all, and he was not pleased.
The end is coming quickly now. The battle lines are being drawn. It’s hard to believe that after six years, it’s almost over. The final episode, the final The End, is on the horizon.
