Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

 "Every question I answer will simply lead to another question." -Mother "Across the Sea" is entirely a flashback episode.  It begins several thousand years before the crash of Oceanic 815.  The heavily pregnant Claudia (Lela Loren) survives a shipwreck and washes up on the Island.  She is found by a woman, who is only known as Mother (Allison Janney), who helps her give birth to twin boys.  Claudia only had one named picked out, Jacob (Mark Pellegrino), while the other is not given a name, but is the Man in Black (Titus Welliver).  Mother than murders Claudia. Mother raises the boys as her own.  She tells them there is nothing else besides the Island and when the boys discover other people on the Island, she warns them that they are evil and should be avoided.  She blindfolds them and takes them to the Heart of the Island, a cave of light and water.  She explains she is the protector of the Island and that, one day, one of the brothers will need to take her place. 

 "My leg's sweating off." -Noelle Lambert Normally I don't really give a crap at all about the Reward Challenges on Survivor , but this episode was certainly an exception.  Noelle's win was exciting and badass.  Unfortunately, it helped lose her the game.  You don't want to be too inspiring on Survivor  or you're going to get voted out.  Anyway, let's take a look at who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Let's start with Gabler.  I actually like the Noelle vote for him.  She is someone who needed to be out of the game for him to have a chance and we got to see him plotting with multiple people throughout the episode.  It's good to see him considering multiple plans of attack and keeping strategic channels open. Cassidy winning Immunity really saved her and Karla.  I think one of them would have gone home otherwise.  They seized the opportunity and helped get the vote onto Noelle instead of them. Who Sucked: Owen and Sami ended up on t

 "What if he's trying to get us to kill each other?" -Jack Shephard "The Candidate" starts off in the flash-sideways, with Jack (Matthew Fox) greeting Locke (Terry O'Quinn) after waking up from surgery.  After addressing that they have met before, Jack tells Locke he thinks he can perform another surgery on him to possibly help Locke to walk again, but Locke declines as Helen (Katey Sagal) arrives and thanks Jack. Jack is unable to let this go, so he goes to see a dentist who did surgery on Locke after his accident, who turns out to be Bernard (Sam Anderson).  They discuss having both been on Oceanic 816 before Bernard directs Jack to another man who was in the same accident, Anthony Cooper (Kevin Tighe), who lives in a nursing home.  Jack runs into Helen there, who reveals Anthony Cooper is Locke's father and that he is in vegetative state. At the hospital, Claire (Emilie de Ravin) meets with Jack and they discuss their father and discover they were bot

"John Locke was not a believer, Jack.  He was a sucker." -The Man in Black "The Last Recruit" picks up with Jack (Matthew Fox) and the Man in Black (Terry O'Quinn) having a chat about his plan to leave the Island.  He also reveals that he took the form of Christian (John Terry) and claims he was trying to lead Jack to water. Sawyer (Josh Holloway) fills Jack in on his plan to escape the Island on Widmore's (Alan Dale) submarine, but tells him he doesn't want Sayid (Naveen Andrews) or Claire (Emilie de Ravin) to come with because they've both gone off the deep end.  The Man in Black sends Sawyer and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) to retrieve a sailboat and meet back up with the group.  Sawyer tells Jack to sneak away from the Man in Black along with Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Frank (Jeff Fahey) and meet him at a different location. Zoe (Sheila Kelley) arrives and demands the Man in Black return Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) by sundown or she w

 "Peanut butter jelly time!" -Cody Assenmacher I really enjoy these episodes of  Survivor where they split the group up and two people get sent home.  It's a fun way to shake up the game that feels more authentic than just advantages.  This was a fun episode, and best of all; the Knowledge is Power is out of the game!  What more could you ask for?  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Let's start with Owen, who I'm making my new winner pick with my original pick, Ryan, being gone.  I don't like that he got so heated with James, but he was part of the group that took out James.  I think that frees Owen up to play has game and makes him less of a target. I can't believe I'm doing this, but I'm also going to put Sami into this category.  I hated that he told Karla about the plan to take out James.  I thought for sure that Karla would flip things around and Owen would go home.  But somehow, Sami managed to pull th

 "You bald-headed demon." -M'Baku  After the death of King T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), the kingdom of Wakanda struggles through the grieving process and with their international relations.  To make things more complicated, another hidden nation makes itself known, and they also have a seemingly unlimited source of vibranium.  And to them, everyone is either an ally, or an enemy. I'll be getting into spoilers below, just a heads up. What Sucks: I'll start with what sucks because there is a major reason I wasn't able to fully get into this movie.  I have zero patience for anti-vaxxers.  I was incredibly disappointed when I found out Letitia Wright was one, as I loved her in the first Black Panthers.   I though Shuri would be the perfect character to become the new Black Panther after the death of Chadwick Boseman.  When I found about her stance on vaccines, I changed my mind.  I don't want anti-vaxxers getting rewarded.  So while watching this movie, I

 "Sometimes you have to rock the boat." -Cassidy Clark This was a pretty straightforward episode of Survivor without any big moves, and you know what, it was nice.  It's refreshing to have an episode like this sometimes.  I'm sure Jeff didn't love it and it certainly felt like he was trying to build this Tribal Council up into something that it wasn't, but for me, average Survivor is above average television.  No advantages, just two targets with valid reasons to be voted out and the anticipation of seeing which one would be going.  Even if this was straightforward, we still have to figure out who played well and who sucked.  Let's take a look!   Who Played Well:  Let's start with the majority 7, specifically Cody, Jesse, James, and Karla.  I think it was the right move for them to stick together, have a simple vote, and just take out a member of the minority group.  Since Owen had Immunity, Jeanine was a fair enough pick and a good move for these 4. 

 "That sucked!" -Noelle Lambert I didn't love this episode of Survivor .  While I liked the format for the Immunity challenge, we spent too much of the episode there and Jeff trying to make a big moment out of the castaways helping Noelle and Jeanine out of the net rang hollow.  Plus it gave us the return of the Knowledge is Power Advantage, which always takes the wind out of my sails when I'm watching this show.  Anyway, let's take a look at who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Let's start with the Baka boys.  I have some questions about Gabler and Owen.  Were they in on the Dwight vote and just throwing votes on Ryan in case of Shot in the Dark?  Or were they out of the loop?  I don't know.  I'm not going to factor the vote in for them either way at this point and I could change my mind if I get more information.  Sami at least was for sure in on the vote and it was a good move for him.  Gabler at least won Immunity and Owen had a good en

 "If I didn't know better, I'd say the Island has it in for all of us." -Desmond Hume "Everybody Loves Hugo" begins in the flash-sideways, where Hurley (Jorge Garcia) is a very successful businessman, but hasn't had much luck with dating.  His mom (Lillian Hurst) sets Hurley up on a blind date, but at the restaurant, he meets Libby (Cynthia Watros) instead.  Libby is convinced that they are soul mates, but Hurley discovers she is a patient at a mental hospital. Hurley runs into Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), who encourages Hurley to go after Libby anyway.  She claims to remember him from another life, but Hurley has no recollection of her, but asks her on a date anyway.  They go on a picnic at the beach and kiss, which causes Hurley to be flooded with memories of his time on the Island. Later, Desmond goes to the school where Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is teaching and runs him over with his car. On the Island, Hurley is visited by the spirit of Michael (Haro