SPOILER WARNING

* I didn’t mention this, but it was refreshing to see Hurley’s not-so-brightness presented as a liability (in that hilarious “so you served in the Korean War?” exchange with Dr. Cheng) instead of as a method of audience identification for a change. Remember when Hurley was the common-sense character? The one who’d ask the questions the audience argued anyone would have the sense to ask in the castaways’ situation? That was back when the writers’ attitude vis a vis the character was “You guys in the audience are calling attention to some of the plot holes and dramatic lapses, so we’ll have Hurley try to address them.” Now that they’re doing all this time travel stuff, the attitude appears to have switched to “You guys in the audience aren’t quite bright enough to follow The Terminator, so we’ll have Hurley force people to spell it out over and over.” An audience identification character who used to be a compliment is now a veiled insult!

* Okay, I’m about to break my own rule and talk about some stuff Damon Lindelof recently said about what we can expect from the show in the home stretch. It’s nothing along the lines of what I was saying yesterday about not wanting to hear that, like, Matthew Fox is replacing Simon Cowell as a judge on American Idol–it’s nothing that’s going to spoil the season finale for you. But it does eliminate some options regarding a pair of long-standing mysteries that everyone expected to be tackled in the final season, so in that sense, BEHIND-THE-SCENES-TYPE SPOILER WARNING.

* After watching last night’s episode I realized just how much ground the show has to cover in its less-than-20 remaining hours. I listed some of the outstanding mysteries I hope to see addressed in this season’s finale, but there are plenty more that will hopefully pop up in the final season. One of the dangling plot threads I’ve been excited for them to get to is the story behind Libby, the ill-faited Tailie paramour of Hurley who was revealed to have been housed in the same insane asylum, and also gave Desmond the boat he ended up shipwrecking on the Island. My assumption ever since Matthew Abaddon described his gig for Charles Widmore as “I get people where they need to be” was that Libby had the same job. But it seems we may never find out, because at some kind of nerd-media panel last night, Damon Lindelof revealed that actress Cynthia Watros is apparently pointedly uninterested in reprising the role. Lindelof says this means they can’t address the question adequately, so they won’t do it all. I think that’s a bridge too far. For starters, she was okay with showing up for a 10-second cameo in last season’s finale to tell Michael it was time to die, but actually getting to act again is something up with which she will not put? Weird. Second of all, it seems easy enough to have the beans about her true motives spilled to Hurley by some relevant character, particularly if my Widmore theory pans out. I mean, I understand Lindelof’s point about telling-not-showing being kind of annoying, but leaving this hanging is much more annoying.

* Also frustrating are Lindelof’s conflicting statements regarding the Numbers and what, if anything, will be revealed about their provenance. On the one hand he says they’ll be revealing perhaps quite a bit more about them. On the other, he says that the origin of the Numbers as revealed in that dopey ARG from a few years back–they are the constants (!) in an equation devised by Dharma scientists to predict the end of the world, and that the Initiative’s goal on the Island was to conduct experiments that might help them alter the equation and thus save the world from its inevitable demise from war or ecological catastrophe–won’t come up on the show because too much of the audience isn’t hardcore enough to care. This is irritating as all get-out to hear, given that the entire first two seasons virtually centered on the Numbers; fans who are interested in hearing what’s up with them are not just the fans who cooked up elaborate theories based on the writings of real-world philosopher Jeremy Bentham. I guarantee you that if they close out the show without bringing this up, you’ll read sooooooooooo much bitching about it from fans not hardcore enough to have followed the ARG or gone to nerd-media panels featuring Damon Lindelof. In fact it’s the NON-hardcore fans who suffer from this decision the most! Now, I understand what Lindelof is saying about how there’s no real answer for “what the Numbers mean”–like most numerological phenomena, the Numbers themselves are arbitrary, and their meaning stems from their reoccurrence (be it coincidence or synchronicity). That is, it’s not like you’ll find out why it’s “42” instead of “43.” But it would be nice to trace them as far back as you can, and a misreading of the audience to expect them not to care.

* I disagree with Todd Van Der Werff’s contention that this episode was too plot-heavy to actually be good–one of the first times this season I’ve found myself at significant odds with his take–but as always his review/recap is worth your time and attention.

* Back to Libby/Watros for a second, I’m sure I’ve kvetched about this before, but I hate it when I find out that real-world actor issues forced changes in the plot of any movie or TV show. The most heartbreaking example of this, for me, involves a ’70s film classic that I’m not going to mention because I just found out a friend of mine hasn’t seen it and I don’t want to prematurely disappoint him about it, but in Lost‘s case I hate that Mr. Eko was written out of the show prematurely because Adewale Unspellablelastname didn’t want to live in Hawaii anymore. I don’t hold it against the actors or whoever was at fault, mind you–it just bothers me, as a fan, that stories rarely emerge in their platonic form.

* Anyway, it turns out that Watros is going to show up on Gossip Girl soon. Not since my hope that Bart Bass’s secret sex society was somehow linked to Charles Widmore has a Gossip Girl/Lost crossover flowered so fully in my mind. “Spotted in the Hatch: Golden Girl, grabbing supplies for a beach-blanket buffet with cute’n’cuddly Lotto Boy. Are these two really crazy…in love? Or will Michael go off half-cocked and shoot down their shot at love? Only time will tell–let’s just hope it takes less than 108 minutes. XOXO, Gossip Monster.”

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