Remember the Battlestar Galactica cake? For last night’s LOST finale, Katie made an authentic DHARMA Initiative chocolate cake, and pizzas with the Swan and Orchid logos.

The cake is chocolate, with homemade buttercream icing (vanilla for the background, chocolate for the design). The pizzas have an outer ring of sausage, with bell pepper strips for the I Ching. The Swan logo is cut from a bell pepper. The Orchid is cut from a tomato, and placed on the pizza after baking.

For more views, including in-progress pictures, close-ups, and making-of commentary, check out the LOST finale food photos on Flickr.

The only downside is that it looks like ABC has decided to throw Better Off Ted under the bus. I was really hoping that it was only preempted for the two-hour premiere, but there’s no sign of it next week. It would be nice if they’d at least let the show finish out the season.

Also: really angry at ABC News’s scare tactics of “OMG Al Qaeda intends to attack us!” Um, yeah. We knew that. We’ve known that for over a decade. We’ve known that since before 9/11. Trying to scare your viewers into a panic at every commercial break is not what I’d call responsible journalism.

Anyway, Lost spoilers below…

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I’ve never liked the “none of this ever happened!” approach to ending a story, since it always makes me wonder what the point was. Exceptions are those where there are clear consequences. Someone who experienced the erased timeline is changed by it, for instance, like in It’s A Wonderful Life or Groundhog Day. “LA X” managed to do this twice: First by clearly establishing that in the alternate timeline, the island had actually been destroyed, and second by picking up five minutes later in the original timeline, making it clear that everything the show has built over the last five years hasn’t been a waste of time.

Okay, it’s sort of an “eat your cake and have it too” approach, but it works for me. It even makes some amount of sense that they’ve changed the rules of time travel, because changing history — or rather creating an alternate timeline — takes a lot more energy (adding a nuclear bomb to the island discharge) than the fully self-consistent time travel we’ve seen before.

It seems clear that the point of divergence isn’t whether the 815 survivors were present in 1977, or whether they tried Faraday’s plan, but whether the bomb detonated or not. They were instrumental in making sure that young Miles and Charlotte and their families left the island, cementing Ben’s connection with the Others, and saving Dr. Chang after his arm was crushed in the “incident.”

So far it’s been fun to look at the way the crashless reality aligns with and differs from the original, and look back at how characters have grown and their relationships have changed during the show. (Jin is a much better person, and Sun much stronger, for their time on the island.) It remains to be seen whether it’ll ultimately be anything more than a “what if…?” and a way to illustrate character traits. I’m not sure I want to see the timelines actually merge or cross, but I’d like to see some sort of link between the two.

Some things I want to see this season:

• What’s up with the Others at the temple?
• Jin and Sun reunited in the main timeline.
• What’s up with Desmond and Penny? (both timelines)
• More focus on people who aren’t named Jack.
• How will destiny play out in the alternate timeline?
• What’s the cost of saving Flight 815?

We can assume everyone on the island in 1977 died. No Eloise Hawking, no Daniel Faraday, no Mittelos Bioscience, etc. The island itself was apparently destroyed, though it seems to have sunken relatively intact (suggesting something else was going on and not just the bomb). Clearly Desmond wasn’t shipwrecked there, but what about Rousseau’s expedition? Was it recovered, or simply lost at sea? Did Charles Widmore know the island was destroyed, or did he keep looking for it? Edit: I just remembered that Widmore was still on the island in 1977. Which might also mean no Penny, depending on when she was born.

As for the passengers on the uneventful Flight 815, Rose’s cancer won’t be healed, Locke won’t find his calling, and Jin and Sun may never reconcile.

And what about the island itself? What does it mean for the rest of the world that the mysterious island no longer exists?

I’ll probably wait a year or two for the inevitable full-series boxed set, but it’s tempting.

(via DVDs Worth Watching)

I arrived on the Plaza Park lawn as soon as the 8 a.m. shuttle could get me there. No one noticed I was dressed to resemble Kate, and Hurley Guy was nowhere in sight to beg for a photo. The doors opened at about 10:30 for the 11:00 panel, and on the way in we were handed pencils and fliers for “Lost University” (and I also got the “9″ card being handed out as a promo for 9). We found out what that was all about at the beginning of the panel, when a clip advertising the website (lostuniversity.org) was played. I haven’t looked at the site, so I don’t know if it’s another ARG or another fan-gathering site. But with “test” questions and “schedules” involving polar bears and hunting boars, it’s bound to be at least slightly funny.

I believe this was also where there were some clips played of “things that might happen” in an altered world of Lost. I can’t remember precisely where this bit was, because I was a good fan and didn’t take pictures of any of the videos. The lineup included a commercial for Mr. Cluck’s featuring Hurley, who had apparently bought the company and had nothing but GOOD luck since winning the lottery. The restaurant was featuring “Australian” combos to commemorate his return from his walkabout trip. Then there was a segment from a “Most Wanted Fugitives” show, letting us know that Kate was still on the run. Apparently, instead of killing her stepdad in the explosion, she’d actually killed the underling he’d sent back to the house to collect his tools.

The panel itself started with Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof saying that they planned to make this mostly Q&A, to give back to the fans. And although they wanted to give out gifts to everyone who asked questions, like they had last year, the network hadn’t given them the budget, so they’d just brought one gift that would go to whoever said the secret word. But everyone was to follow the standard rules and keep it to one question. This was followed by a montage of the best fan videos found on the web, including the infamous “Brokeback Island” and some Robot Chicken-style stuff with action figures. I’d have liked to have a list of those, to look up later and watch in full.

The first question was about how a fan had heard season 6 would be reminiscent of season 1, and how was that going to work? Apparently they’re bringing back the unpredictability that ran rampant at the beginning. To that end, they said that they’re often asked if they’re making it up as they go along, and insisted that they’re not. Just to prove it to us, each took from a “secret hiding place” one sheet of paper, and proclaimed them to be the last two pages of the series-finale script. They located a stapler somewhere, stapled the sheets together, and put them into a double-locked box, each taking a key. The box, they explained, would be taken by someone else to an undisclosed location after the panel, and on the night of the finale it would be brought to the Jimmy Kimmel set, where they’d open it and read the script, to prove that the pages did indeed contain what had just been shown. Gimmicky, but all is well and good.

Next, a guy comes up who’s apparently well-known for doing wacky stuff (not Bob Stencil, some other dude) and presents the producers with a wrapped gift. He opens it for them: a black velvet painting of the two of them with a polar bear. The guy also plugged his website: damoncarltonandapolarbear.com. (They repeated it back to him as “damonANDcarltonandapolarbear,” and he and the rest of us took great glee in correcting it.) Again…haven’t dared to look. They did accept the painting.

I believe that a bit after this is where the winner of the theme-song contest was announced. I hadn’t even known there was a contest…made me feel like a very bad fan. The crew had mocked up a credits sequence to the winning composition, which, sadly, wasn’t very clearly audible from where I was sitting. But the sequence was cool.

So then, Hurley Guy took the mike.

Only, it wasn’t Hurley Guy. It was Jorge Garcia.

Wanting to know, apparently, if having the bomb plan succeed meant the previous five seasons would have all been for nothing, because that would seem like a huge cheat. The producers explained that he’d just have to trust them. “Yeah,” he said, “but the last time I trusted you guys you said Nikki and Paolo were gonna be awesome.” Then he asked whether it being the final season meant everything was going to be answered. Like, when Jack and Sayid were torturing Sawyer over Shannon’s inhaler, but he didn’t have it…where exactly was the inhaler? Oh JEEZ, Jorge…”What happened to one question per person???”

At that point, the cheering from the front got waaaay too loud to just be about the witty banter…and soon, Michael Emerson appeared on the screen, needling Jorge about the question, his character, and everything in general. He was very much in character as Ben, and when Jorge brought this up, saying he himself was acting when playing Hurley, he responded with, “Acting. Is that what you do.” It went on for what seemed like quite a while, but I can’t remember much, except how a comment about how Hurley was played “broadly” got a general condemnatory “oooooooouw” from the audience. Jorge accused him of being jealous over not having won the role of Hurley, and he protested that he’d never tried out. And then, of course, an “audition tape” was played, during which both actors migrated to the stage.

Bob Stencil made his appearance after this, with a variation on the time-loop question, and pretended to get very confused about it and get a nosebleed. “Oh…gotta find my constant!” The producers had been expecting him and had a custom T-shirt ready for him. He was thrilled.

A fan asked the eternal question: “Does Nestor Carbonell wear eyeliner?” Cuse and Lindelof said they get this all the time (and they do; I was headdesking as best I could with a program booklet), and that Nestor was in the back right now getting ready so they’d just go to the video feed so he could answer it. The video was of him at a makeup mirror talking to himself and applying eyeliner. After ample laughter time, he looked at the pencil and said, “This is Charcoal. I never use Charcoal.” And went into what I presume is a Christian-Bale-style rant at one of the (probably imaginary) staff. When the lights came up, he was at the front table with the others.

The real Hurley Guy came to the mike after this, both to ask a question and to thank Jorge and the show for giving him a character he could identify with. At that point, Cuse and Lindelof decided it was time to give us clues about the secret word, which no one had yet said. “Think…blonde. Pregnant.” The audience of course started yelling “Claire” but we were reminded that it could only get you a prize at the mike. Surprisingly, the next question asker didn’t work it in; I guess he really wanted to ask the question he wanted to ask. But the next guy did it, and cleverly. His prize was a seagull statue, to commemorate the bird that Claire had been interacting with in one episode.

There was one final guest to bring out, and we would get a clip intro for a clue. Jack? Kate? Nope, Sawyer. Audience just about melted. (And with good reason, if you fancy him; the clips were calculated for their hotness factor.) Josh Holloway came out and sat next to Lindelof, and started up what sounded like an innocuous conversation about their “making it up” bit with the box. Then he pulled out a small object and said, “You know what this is?”

“Looks like a taser,” says Lindelof.

“Yeah! Wanna see if it works?”
He shoves the thing into Lindelof’s shoulder, and the sound system plays a buzzing noise…about two seconds after the spasming act is over. So then, after grabbing the key, he threatens Cuse with the taser, saying he’ll meet the same fate as his friend JJ Abrams. “That’s not JJ Abrams. That’s Damon Lindelof.” “Lindel…Linda who?”
And he stuck Lindelof’s hand in the pitcher of ice water.

Of course, Josh gets both keys and extracts the script pages from the box, with plenty of Sawyer-style nicknames and snark, then stands there and looks at the pages in confusion. “You can’t read!” crows Cuse, and Emerson grabs the pages and puts on Ben-like glasses.
“Sylar and Parkman stand beneath the big top…” Half the audience is confused; the other half, including me, is laughing too hard to hear much.

“You have to go on, Parkman…you’re the last Petrelli.”

“What the f**k is this?”

Finally, they played an “In Memoriam” montage of a bunch of characters who’d died over the course of the show, starting with the guy who got sucked into the engine (forgot his name) and ending with a rather long bit about Charlie. Having heard what had happened at the Flash Forward panel on Thursday, I began to get suspicious and got my camera ready. Sure enough, surprise!Dominic Monaghan came out onstage. He was there for all of 30 seconds and didn’t get to say anything; and of three pictures I managed to take, one’s blurry, one doesn’t let you see who he is, and in the third he’s behind Josh. Figures. (I picked the blurry one.) But I’m not complaining. If they wanted to give a gift to the fans, this panel was a good one. Thanks, guys.

Lost – Good season, learned a lot more than I expected about DHARMA, major cliffhanger. Renewed for a final season…in 2010. (Hard to believe that’s less than a year away)

Pushing Daisies – managed to maintain the tone & quality, but canceled halfway through the year. Supposed to get the last 3 episodes starting at the end of the month. A 12-issue comic book miniseries has already been announced.

Bones – I only saw a few episodes, but liked them, and Katie’s been watching it regularly. Fun off-format season finale w/ a nasty cliffhanger. Returning, according to the voiceover during the credits.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – turned our to be a surprisingly solid, complex show. No word on renewal yet, but I’d like to see more. Update 6: canceled.

Dollhouse: Started off weak, but got really interesting as the season progressed. It’s not a comfortable show by any means. No word on renewal, but if I had to choose between this and T:SCC, I’d take SCC. Update 2: Unofficial sources say it’s renewed, but I wouldn’t count my actives until they’re all back for their treatments.

Heroes: I gave up 2 episodes into the “Fugitives” arc, but Katie kept watching. Deeply problematic show but its high points were very good. Renewed, and I hope it’ll improve next year.

Better Off Ted – fun, painful, quirky all rolled into one. Sort of like a less-nerdy Dilbert or Office Space. I’d like to see more, but it doesn’t seem likely. Update 3: Holy crap, it’s been renewed! That’s a bigger surprise than Dollhouse!

Castle – favorite of this year’s mid-season replacements. Would definitely like to see more, but would be okay if this turned out to be all. Unlike, say, Drive. Update 1: Cool! It’s been renewed!

Battlestar Galactica – finished off with a very good final season. Caprica, on the other hand, was tedious. May take another look at it when the series launches.

Update 4: Forgot to mention The Unusuals, which we checked out, but neither of us found interesting enough to stick with. The ads built it up to be…well…unusual, and it wasn’t. Castle and Bones both routinely dealt with more unusual cases. For anyone who did like it, prospects look dim. Update 7: canceled.

Update 5: EW has a running tally of all the network shows.

Update 8 (May 18): The decisions are in for all of them now. I’m sad to see Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles canceled (especially in the same week that Terminator: Salvation opens), and I’m still annoyed at losing Pushing Daisies halfway through the season, but the other shows we watch have had a remarkably good survival rate this year.

This is going to contain spoilers for the April 8, 2009 episode of LOST, “Dead is Dead.”

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SPOILERS!

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Now that we’ve got that out of the way.

I’ve been thinking about Ben’s line to Sun, about how if she ever meets Desmond again, he wants her to tell him he’s sorry, and that he’ll know what for.

Wouldn’t it also make sense for him to apologize to Penny, the person he actually tried to kill?

Obviously the storytelling reason is that if he’d said, “Desmond and Penny” instead of Desmond, we’d have known for sure that he failed before we saw the flashback to the actual event. (We still don’t know for sure; he could have gone back later to finish the job. I really hope he didn’t, because I’ve been hoping since we saw him make that phone call four or five episodes back that the reason would be exactly what we saw tonight: he shows up to kill Penny, but Desmond stops him and beats the hell out of him.)

But what about the reason in-story?

I figure there are three possibilities:

• Ben did go back later and kill her.
• Ben’s enough of a sociopath that he figures his preemptive “Sorry you got caught up in this, but I’m going to have to kill you now” already has him covered as far as Penny is concerned.
• Ben’s a complete f—ing a—hole and still doesn’t consider her as any more significant than he did before: a pawn in the game between himself and Charles Widmore, and therefore not worth an apology.

Of course, Ben is both a sociopath and complete f—ing a—hole, so at this point it’s anyone’s guess.

Bones
I’m not the one watching this, but Katie’s still hooked, so I guess it’s still good.
– Returns Thursday, Jan. 29 @ Fox 8 pm

Fringe
We both gave up after something like 4 episodes. It seemed like they were trying too hard to be The X-Files, too focused on the conspiracy and everything fitting “the pattern” and being tied to work in this one lab…and then there’s the problem with not bothering to research the regular science or think through the consequences of the totally-made-up “fringe” stuff that gave the show its title. The only thing worth watching for was John Noble’s mad scientist, Walter Bishop.

Lost
After a couple of seasons of floundering, Lost came back very strongly last year. Having an end point to work toward certainly helped, as did opening up the format from present with flashbacks to present with both flashbacks and flashforwards. At first the flashbacks were great for showing what motivated the various characters, what brought them to the island, what issues they were still working through, etc. But after a while they started answering questions no one asked (“The secret of Jack’s tattoo!”) or re-treading old ground. Adding flashforwards to post-Island events really added to story possibilities, and they made thorough use of it.
– Returns Wednesday, Jan. 21 @ ABC 9pm

Heroes
Alternately fantastic and infuriating. I’ve gone into this recently, so I won’t repeat it here. That’s what links are for. With luck, Volume 4 will fall more on the fantastic side.
– Returns Monday, Feb. 2 @ NBC 9pm

Pushing Daisies
As good as ever. They managed to somehow maintain the tone while moving forward with character development and further exploring the consequences of Chuck’s resurrection.
– Sadly, canceled. Word is that ABC may show the last three episodes next summer. SUMMER. *grrr* Just show ‘em in a 5am marathon so they can be released to iTunes, Amazon Video and DVD, willya?

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
This still hasn’t totally grabbed me the way Heroes or Pushing Daisies has, but it’s been an interesting, intricate take on the Terminator mythos. And oddly enough, I’m far more interested in the second half of this season than I am in the upcoming Terminator: Salvation movie. Sadly, Fox has moved it to the Timeslot of Death.
– Returns Friday, Feb. 13 @ Fox 8pm

Dollhouse
Not much to say about this one, since it hasn’t aired yet, but I’ll at least take a look at just about anything developed by Joss Whedon. Eliza Dushku and Amy Acker won’t hurt, either. Unfortunately, Fox has placed it in the Second Timeslot of Death, right after SCC
– Starts Friday, Feb. 13 @ Fox 9pm

(TV Guide via Blog@Newsarama)

So, what’s happening to the shows we watch?

Battlestar Galactica

Returns April 4 with first half of 20-episode final season. Production on second half could start as early as March. Airdate for those TBD.

Seeing as how we don’t currently get the Sci-Fi Channel (we discovered BSG through DVDs), this means it’s time to figure out whether to mess with cable/satellite, watch it at someone else’s place, or hope that they’ll continue offering episodes online through iTunes or something.

Heroes

No new episodes expected until fall.

Pretty much expected that, given the way they were talking at the end of the “fall season.”

Journeyman

No new episodes expected. Ever.

And I continue my history of discovering interesting TV shows after they’ve already been canceled. (Actually, I have an even longer history of this with comic books. The first comic I ever bought, back in 1984, was issue #19 of Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew, which lasted 20 issues.)

Lost

Six pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot five additional episodes to air in April/May.

TV Guide interviewed Carlton Cuse on this recently (via aeryncrichton). They’d already shot 8 episodes of the 16-episode season, and plan to condense the second half of the season into 5—presumably because that’s how many they can actually finish during this production season.

This could actually work out well for them. One of the reasons season 4 of Babylon 5 was so good (aside from paying off on 4 years of setup) was that JMS shifted up his timetable so that he could wrap up the foreground plotlines by the end of the season he knew he had, instead of ending with a cliffhanger and hoping he could wrap them up in the first third of a season 5 that looked increasingly unlikely. The result was an extremely intense season that is widely regarded as the best year of the show.

And let’s be honest, Lost hasn’t exactly been known for compressed storytelling.

On the other hand, there’s the last few episodes of Angel to consider as a counter-example.

Pushing Daisies

No new episodes until fall.

On the plus side, this means it’s actually been renewed! This had “Too good to last” written all over it!

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Four pre-strike episodes remain. Future beyond that TBD.

I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this one. I enjoy it while I’m watching it, and it’s much, much better than Terminator 3, but I don’t find myself looking forward to it between episodes. Even if it does have Summer Glau beating people up.