LJones41

While going over old "LOST" articles and forums, I had come across a post that asked members how they would have ended the series. After reading several other sites and articles, I had my answer. There were two things I would have changed. I would have included two other original characters in that final scene inside the afterlife church. And I would have removed one line from the transcript for the series finale, (6.17-6.18) "The End". But I am here to discuss the second change. I wish that showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse had not allowed Kate Austen to promise Claire Littleton that she would help raise the latter’s three-year-old son Aaron after reaching civilization. I believe Lindelof and Cuse had made a big mistake with this scene. I realize that Kate was simply trying to assure an agitated Claire that everything would be all right, once the latter was reunited with Aaron. Especially since Claire had been stuck on the island for three years and had not seen her son. Yet, a part of me suspected there was more at play. Because as far as I am concerned, Kate’s promise to help raise Aaron struck me as the wrong one to make. Why? It was not possible for her to meet this promise. In the Season Four episode (4.04) "Eggtown", Kate's attorney had made a deal with prosecutors to allow her to take a probation deal, instead of face more trials over other crimes like insurance fraud and bank robbery. The probation would have forced Kate to remain in the United States and California for at least ten years. When she had left Los Angeles on the Ajira Flight 316 in Season Five, Kate had broken the terms of her ten-year probation after two years. According to the show’s canon, the period between "316" and "The End" spanned roughly two weeks. Chances are, Kate had left the country under an assumed name. And since Ajira 316 had been missing for two weeks, I suspect a great deal of publicity would have generated from the plane's return to civilization. I would not be surprised if not long after her return to civilization or U.S. territory - the plane was originally destined for Guam Island, Kate ended up in prison for breaking her probation. And once the authorities also learned she had lied about being Aaron's biological mother, there is a chance they would have prosecuted her for the New Mexico bank robbery and other crimes. Worse, Kate's mother - if she was still alive - might consider testifying against Kate over Wayne Jenssen's murder. After all, Kate had never been cleared or convicted for that crime. Even if Kate had simply decided to follow Claire to Australia, I do not see the chances of her playing a future role in Aaron's life. I have doubts the Australian government would have allowed Kate to re-enter the country. Before Oceanic 815 had departed Sydney, Australia; Kate had entered the country under a false name and as a fugitive from the law. Which means she had entered Australia illegally. I just cannot see the Australian immigration authorities allowing her to set foot on the country's soil again. Also, why would Claire need Kate’s help in raising Aaron? Kate had left the three year-old in custody of his biological grandmother, Carole Littleton, less than a day before leaving the United States. Ms. Littleton had custody of Aaron by the end of the series. And to be honest, I believe she would be the best person to serve as Aaron’s guardian, considering the tenuous nature of Claire’s mental state in the series finale. I certainly cannot see Ms. Littleton allowing Kate, a criminal who had deliberately kept her grandson away from her for nearly three years, anywhere near Aaron, while he remained a minor. In fact, I do not even see Claire allowing Kate to be anywhere near Aaron. Hell, I would never allow a child abductor with a series of crimes hovering around her, near my offspring again . . . even if that person had helped me get off the island. All I can say is . . . what were Cuse and Lindelof thinking when they had allowed Kate to make that promise to Claire in "The End"?

That would explain the toxic writing and reactions that surrounded the Michael Dawson character.

Interesting. Although Season Six is not my favorite, I still liked it more than late Season Two and early Season Three, which I personally dislike.

I guess I should have known better. Like Seasons One and Two, Season Three ended up disappointing me. I hate to say it, but this episode . . . and this season almost ended up feeling like a rehash of TNG's "Best of Both Worlds" and the 1996 movie, "First Contact" to me. Very unoriginal and a lot of contrived writing. Speaking of the latter, the idea that Seven-of-Nine ended up as a Starfleet captain some two years after the events of Season Two is just utterly ridiculous to me. It's bad enough that within a year after that particular season, she ended up as a Commander and First Officer. Even for fiction, I find that utterly contrived. By the way, the Borg should have remained gone after the "Star Trek Voyager" series finale.

I agree. This was bringing back bad memories of "The Book of Boba Fett" and "Andor".

What's wrong with Commander Hansen? Annika Hansen is her name. She is serving in a military organization. Surely that was the name she had used to join Starfleet. Right? If not, I would find it odd for her to use her Borg designation as her official name after all these years. Seven clinging to her Borg designation during the few years after she had been disconnected from the Collective is one thing. It was a familiar name. And she had continued to cling to her use of Borg diction and beliefs. But clinging to a name that was forced upon her while being assimilated by the Borg after so many years just didn't make any sense to me. Why would anyone want to continue clinging to a name that had been forced upon him or her, after literally being kidnapped and raped from a technological/biological point of view, by an alien race? Which is what the Borg had done to her. Especially after she had learned to finally ditch that Borg mentality and diction. This story arc about Seven's name does not make any sense to me. I think the showrunner had used the wrong topic to push whatever political statement he was trying to make. I am a "Voyager" fan and I thought the series did a great job with her character, aside from her rushed romance with Chakotay. "Picard" is another kettle of fish. Granted, Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd have great chemistry. But . . . the manner in which their relationship was established had moved even faster than the Chakotay/Seven ship. It practically took me by surprise. Nor did I care how "Picard" dealt with Icheb and Seven's relationship with him. Really distasteful and she better hope and pray no one finds out what really happened following Icheb's death.

All this tells me is that Mon Mothma's character shouldn't have been so big in the first place and that it was unnecessary to focus so much attention on her family or career. Judging from what I have seen, Luthien seemed more qualified to be the series' main supporting character, not Mothma. The name of the series is "ANDOR", not "THE REBEL ALLIANCE" or "ANDOR AND MOTHMA". Mothma's character WAS NOT that interesting to me. I also believe she was a waste of time for this series. I think reducing her character and eliminating her arc would have benefited the season and tightened the writing.

The 2005 miniseries, "Into the West", had focused on this subject in one episode. Only that series had focused on Richard Henry Pratt's Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The school had lasted between 1879 and 1918. When this episode began, I thought I was watching James Badge Dale. It turns out, I was watching Brandon Sklenar, who portrays Badge Dale's younger brother. That was a confusing moment.

When I had complained about the series' pacing, I never made any demand for more action. I just thought 12 episodes were too much for the narrative that Tony Gilroy had presented. And I found most of the Mon Mothma scenes unnecessary, because she had no real connection to Cassian's character. Certainly not in Season One. I didn't need more action. I thought the series could have benefited from better editing.

Wow . . . talk about hype. I can think of a good number of shows I would have nominated over "Andor". Nominating Diego Luna is one thing, because I believe he deserves it. But the entire series? No.

This is why I would rate Season One with 7/10 or 7.5/10.

I agree with you about Diego Luna. I had enjoyed his performance in "Rogue One" and in "Andor". In fact, I enjoyed his arc a lot more than I did the Mon Mothma arc, which struck me as a waste of time. At least for this season. On the other hand, I disagree that "Andor" was the first Star Wars production that was an adult drama. The latter has always been prevalent in Star Wars, especially since "The Empire Strikes Back". Sure George Lucas and Disney had shoved a few characters for the sake of the kids. When I first saw "A New Hope" as a kid, I didn't like it. I had felt overwhelmed by it. I had felt the same about "The Empire Strikes Back". I found myself unable to appreciate the franchise until I was an adult. By the time I saw the Prequel Trilogy, which I had no trouble accepting, I finally came to my own conclusion that despite characters like the droids, Ewoks and Jar Jar Binks; at its heart, Star Wars is for adults.

I had expressed my issues with the series in an earlier post. And yes, the series had felt as if it came from the SYFY Channel, instead of being part of the Star Wars universe. Technically, it's supposed to be a part of the Star Wars universe, so it's not surprising that some would criticize the series for this near erasure of Star Wars elements. Even some of the franchise's most ambiguous productions still felt as if they were a part of the Star Wars Universe. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed "Andor". I would rate it 7 out of 10. But I believe this first season had its flaws, which I have stated in an earlier post. But what really bothers me is that so many seemed unwilling to accept that not everyone views it as a perfect addition to the Star Wars franchise. I don't. I don't believe the franchise has a perfect production to begin with.

Hmmm . . . I don't think so. I think "Andor" had too many writing issues to accept this view. But I did like it.

Now that I have watched the entire first season of "Andor", I might as well state how I feel about the series. I believe "Andor" is a pretty good. show. I really enjoyed the performances in this series, along with the corrupt and violent portrayal of the Empire (which was nothing new), the series’ ambiguous portrayal of the Rebel Alliance and certain sequences. I was especially impressed by those scenes that featured Cassian Andor’s escape from Ferrix, the Rebels’ heist at the Imperial garrison at Aldhani, Cassian’s rescue of Bix and the riot on Ferrix in the finale, his stint at the Narkina 5 prison and especially his escape. However, I had some issues. I don't see the point of having Mon Mothma as a major character - almost the co-lead - in this production. Her arc had no real connection in this season. In fact, showrunner Tony Gilroy could have placed most of her arc in Season 2. That is . . . if Cassian will play a major role in her escape from the Empire. But "Star Wars Rebels" had made it clear that Bail Organa, the Rebel Alliance's Y-squadron and the Lothar rebel cell helped her escape. Which leads me to wonder how Gilroy plans to shove Cassian into this situation. Or . . . will Cassian and Mothma connect in another way? Who knows. I could have accepted Mothma as a major character in this series if she had some kind of connection to Cassian's character arc in this season. But she didn't. And using the excuse that this series is supposed to be about the early period of the Rebel Alliance didn't work for me. The name of this series is “ANDOR”; not “The Rebel Alliance”, “Rebels II”, “Andor and Mothma” or anything like that. The Syril Karn character didn't seem to have much to do between the third episode, (1.03) “Reckoning”, and the season finale, (1.12) “Rix Road”; except brood and develop a fixation for ISB agent Dedra Meero. Aside from revealing his origin, how did the flashbacks showing Cassian's childhood relate to the season or the series' main narrative? I also had a problem with the series' pacing and believe it could have been whittled down to at least eight or nine episodes. One of my main problems with “Andor” is that the writing in several of the episodes felt like padding. As I have stated before, the first two episodes could have merged into one. And the fourth and fifth episodes could have merged into one. I also believe that the seventh episode could have merged into the eighth one. I found the abrupt endings for some of the episodes problematic as well, especially some of the early episodes. Butdespite my issues with the series, I still managed to enjoy "Andor" and look forward to its second season. Perhaps it might feature better writing.

“AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.” had worked harder to connect to the franchise’s films than the latter has done to connect to the series. Characters from the films like Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Lady Sif, Peggy Carter, Jim Morita, Dr. List and Gideon Malick have appeared on the series during Seasons One, Two and Three. After Season Three, I have not seen one character from any of the movies on the show. And Kevin Feige has never allowed any of the show’s major characters to appear in the movies. Never. The series managed to continue connecting to the films up to late Season Five. What happened? Well, during the events of “INFINITY WAR”, Glenn Talbot had become Graviton. And when he learned from the aliens who had allied themselves with HYDRA mole General Hale of Thanos’ impending threat to Earth, he decided to mine more gravitonium underneath Chicago in order to become more powerful. Now, the show’s sixth season did not bother to reference the Snap from “INFINITY WAR”. And because it didn’t, “AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.” suddenly developed this reputation as a failure for the franchise, because it had “failed” to connect to the movies. To make matters worse, Kevin Feige claimed that the series had “failed” to connect to the MCU franchise and its movies … and that the new shows from the Disney Plus streaming series will be among the first that will connect to the franchise. In fact, this whole campaign that "S.H.I.E.L.D." was never part of the MCU franchise began around this time - between "INFINITY WAR" and "ENDGAME". Even ABC and the Whedons' Mutant Enemy production company were forced to proclaim this. Many people . . . especially the media had swallowed Feige’s bullshit like it was candy. And I find myself thinking about actress Chloe Bennet, who has angrily expressed on numerous occasions about the tendency of the franchise's movies to ignore not only “AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.”, but other MCU shows on the ABC network and on the Netflix and HULU streaming television channels.

Bail's second message to Obi-Wan . . . the one that Reva had stumbled across near the end of Episode 5. I really enjoyed this series. In fact, it is my favorite of the Star Wars DisneyPlus productions, so far. And it was interesting to watch Obi-Wan’s journey out of his PTSD over the Jedi and Anakin’s fall. But what I found even more interesting was Obi-Wan’s failure to learn a lesson from Reva’s redemption. Despite what he had witnessed with her, Obi-Wan is destined never to rise above his absolutism until sometime after his physical death. At this point, he is probably even more certain that Anakin is not the Chosen One and will never reject evil, as Reva had done. He won’t consider the possibility that Anakin could do the same in some unforeseen future. Great Jedi or not, it’s not surprising to me that he had proven to be a poor mentor.

I'm a major fan of the Prequel movies. And now, I'm a major fan of this series. Do I think "Obi-Wan Kenobi" was an improvement on the Prequel movies? No. No, I don't. More than any other Star Wars production, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" has extended my love for the Prequel movies.

Currently doing a Lost rewatch, and I'm up to season 5. 1) Who were your 5-7 favorite characters? Jack Shephard, Ana-Lucia Cortez, Mr. Eko, Miles Straume, Juliet Burke 2) Who were your 5-7 LEAST favorite characters? Charles Widmore, Kate Austen, Stuart Radzinsky, James "Sawyer" Ford, Martin Keamy and Boone Carlyle 3) How would you rank the seasons from favorite to least favorite? Seasons 1, 5, 4, 2, 6, and 3. 4) What were your 10(ish!) favorite episodes? "The Other 48 Days", "La Fleur", "There's No Place Like Home", "The Incident", "D.O.C.", "Exodus", "The Candidate", ". . . In Translation". "The Shape of Things to Come", and "The Hunting Party". 5) What were your favorite actual/would-be romantic relationships? Jin and Sun Kwon 6) What were your LEAST favorite romantic relationships? Hugo Reyes and Libby Smith 7) What were your favorite friendships/frenemyships/non-romantic relationships? Michael Dawson and Jin Kwon/Charlie Pace and Hugo Reyes Kate was very much a divisive character back in the day. I never felt that she got “defended” or “got away” with her actions the way other popular people did, like Ben, Sawyer and Locke. If her fans felt the need to defend her, I would argue it’s due to people more frequently criticizing her. To this day, Kate's lie about Aaron and her murder of Wayne Jensen are still being excused. Sawyer and Locke's crimes have also been excused a lot. However, I don't recall Ben's crimes ever being excused by fans. If they were, I have never encountered these excuses. I do think that Wanye was abuse and it shows this that night when he makes a gross pass at Kate. For all we know he sexually abused her. Kate had made it clear in "What Kate Did" that Wayne never touched her. He had never abused her. I am not referring to her conversation with the U.S. Marshal. I am referring to her soliloquy when she thought she was alone. Kate had accused Wayne of being a drunk, being physically abusive to Diane and leering at her. That's it. Kate had murdered her father in cold blood because she couldn't stand the idea of him being her father. The idea of being Wayne Jensen's daughter eroded Kate's self-worth, her sense of superiority over him and destroyed her illusions. Have you ever noticed that when Kate's illusions are destroyed, she does not react very well. I believe she was the real monster of the Jensen/Austen family.

I just discovered that eleven years after ABC’s "LOST" left the air, many fans are still harboring illusions about the Kate Austen character. I came to this conclusion after watching the "LOST Explained" series on YouTube. Why do these certain fans continue to harbor illusions about her? Because she was portrayed by Evangeline Lilly, the show’s leading lady? Did Kate being the leading female character was a reason why so many made excuses for her mistakes and crimes? What exactly did Kate do? Well . . . let’s see: *Murdered her stepfather Wayne Jensen, when she discovered that he was her real father. Apparently, she could not deal with the reality that she shared blood with him. *In order to murder Wayne, she blew up his house, which also belonged to her mother, Diane Jensen. *Kate dragged her mother into a false insurance claim over the destroyed house, so that Diane could profit from it and she could pretend to herself that she had murdered Wayne to protect her mother from his drunken abuse. *Recruited former boyfriend Tom Brennan to help her gain access to Diane, while the latter was in the hospital and she was a fugitive. This led him to be shot and killed by the police, while Kate was trying to make her escape from the hospital. *Planned a bank robbery in New Mexico that endangered the lives of innocent employees and customers, so that she could gain access to the suitcase left behind by U.S. Marshal Edward Mars, which contained a toy airplane that Tom had given to her when they were kids. *Married a cop named Kevin Callis, using a false identity. When she thought she might be pregnant, she panicked, drugged Kevin and went on the run again. *While on the island, she tried to manipulate and trick both Jack Shephard and James “Sawyer” Ford into giving her Marshal Mars’ suitcase, which she and Sawyer found, while swimming in a lagoon. *She gave Sun Kwon the idea to poison the latter’s husband, Jin Kwon, so that he would remain on the island and not join Michael Dawson’s attempt to leave. Kate did this, because she wanted a spot on Michael’s raft in order to leave herself. *Convinced Jack to create a story that she was Aaron Littleton’s mother, so that she could use the infant as an emotional comforter, following the trauma they had faced leaving the island . . .and not bother making any effort to find any of Aaron’s living relatives. *Met Carole Littleton (Aaron’s grandmother) at the funeral of Christian Shephard, six months after returning to the States and never told the latter than she was a grandmother. Kate kept Aaron away from his grandmother for another two-and-a-half years, before she finally had the decency to finally hand the toddler over to his true guardian. I noticed during the series’ run that Kate had a habit of resorting to violence (physical or verbal) whenever someone shatters her illusions. She had resorted to anger when both Jack and fellow castaway John Locke tried to tell her that they all needed to return to the island. She had resorted to physical abuse when former member of the Others, Juliet Burke, revealed that Jack had seen her have sex with Sawyer. And she did the same to Sawyer, when he accused her of using him for sex, whenever she had relationship problems with Jack. Many fans have accused Kate’s parents of being monsters. Wayne Jensen was a drunk and wife abuser. Whether he only abused Diane when he was drunk, I don't know. These same fans also accused Diane Jensen of being a terrible mother by preferring Wayne over her daughter. Diane was merely guilty of having bad taste in men, preferring the alcoholic Wayne over her upstanding Army sergeant ex-husband, Sam Austen. Otherwise, she was a pretty decent mother. Yes, she did expose Kate’s murder of Wayne to the police. But Kate had murdered him . . . her husband. In cold blood. When Kate tried to claim that she was trying to save Diane from Wayne’s abuse in a flashback scene from (3.15) "Left Behind", the latter made it clear that she knew Kate was lying. Kate’s soliloquy in (2.09) "What Kate Did" confirmed that she was not even thinking of her mother when she murdered Wayne. And Sergeant Austen was not that surprised that Kate had murdered Wayne. He had figured she would do it once she learned that Wayne was her real father, she would kill the latter. Unlike Diane, he was willing to give Kate an hour to get away before calling the police. Yes, Kate was not perfect. Yes, Kate made mistakes and committed crimes. Yes, many other "LOST" characters were guilty of mistakes and crimes. But why did so many fans make excuses for her lapses in morality? Not only did they make excuses for her murder of Wayne Jensen, they also made excuses for her kidnapping of Aaron Littleton, upon leaving the island for the first time in the Season Four finale, (4.13-4.14) "There's No Place Like Home (Part II)". That is correct. Kate had kidnapped Aaron. And Jack Shephard, along with Sun Kwon, Sayid Jarrah and Hugo "Hurley: Reyes were accessories to her crime. Episodes like (5.04) "The Little Prince", (5.11) "Whatever Happened, Happened" and (6.13) "The Last Recruit" made it clear that Kate had pretended to be Aaron’s blood mother for selfish reasons. Yet, some people are still claiming that she had merely "adopted" Aaron. As I had earlier stated, it has been eleven years since "LOST" went off the air. And although there are a good number of fans who are willing to openly admit that Kate had made mistakes and committed crimes, I have noticed that other fans – many of them, as a matter of fact – still continue to make excuses for her. Only one other "LOST" character has received such a large amount of excuses for past crimes and mistakes and that is James "Sawyer" Ford. And I do not know whether to find this pathetic, funny or both.

This series was such a disappointment to me. I had such high hopes, because someone had compared it to "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". Instead, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" spiraled into the bad writing of movies like "Captain America: Civil War" and "The Avengers: Endgame". I just realized that aside from "Black Panther", which had a questionable finale, most of the MCU productions in the past six years have either been likable, yet mediocre; or just terrible. And most of them - including this series - have been badly overrated. Disney/Marvel has really managed to brainwash a lot of movie and television fans, using the media. At least it seems that way to me.

The problem is not that Emily Van Camp lacks the charisma to play the villain. She had spent four years on "Revenge" portraying a character that was on the edge of villainy for the sake of revenge. What I dislike is how the MCU pretty much destroyed the Sharon Carter character. I hate the MCU for what they have done to her character. The franchise has been screwing her over since "Captain America: Civil War". This show was the last straw. I hate this show. I hate it for its convoluted writing. I hate it for its pretense at progressive politics, when it was nothing more than an ode to centrist politics. Because of this show, I now detest Bucky Barnes and his arrogant bullheadedness. I hate this show for forgetting that Sam Wilson was the first Avenger to refuse to sign the Sokovia Accords. I hate this show for so many reasons. But I hate what it did to Sharon. Screw the MCU. I had hoped it recover from the bad writing that permeated Phase 3. I see I was wrong.

Where is this series going? Where is it going? It's like watching the manifestation of too many cooks in the soup. It's so messy. Questions: *Why wasn't Bucky arrested for arranging Zemo's escape from prison? The idea that Dora Milaje kept his involvement a secret is a joke. The moment Zemo had escaped, the U.N. authorities or any national intelligence service could have quickly surmised that Bucky was involved, due to his visit at the latter's prison. *Why did the writers drag Zemo into this story in the first place? He makes his escape at the end of one episode and is quickly arrested in the following one? What was the purpose of his presence? *Was Zemo merely brought into this series so the Dora Milaje could make their appearance . . . allowing Wakanda to provide funds for the Wilsons' business? Was that it? *Why haven't the U.S. authorities gone after Bucky for breaking his parole . . . again? Why would John Walker appear at his court-martial with a day's growth beard? I've never heard of that in military circles. *Why is it necessary for Sam Wilson to become the new Captain America? What was wrong with him being the Falcon? *Why did Bucky state that Sam had supported Steve's decision to reject the Sokovia Accords? Does this mean he saw Sam as nothing more than a mere sidekick? Why didn't Sam correct him and reveal that he was the first Avenger to reject the Accords? *Why didn't the Flag Smashers go after Zemo for his attempt to murder Karli? *Who is the main villain in this story? The Flag Smashers? The Power Broker? Who? We're down to one last episode and I still don't know who the main villain will be.

I'm afraid that this series has jumped the shark, as far as the narrative is concerned. No amount of good action or acting can really save it. And why isn't Bucky in prison for helping Zemo escape?

The Dora Mijae should have Bucky arrested for helping Zemo escape prison. He should feel betrayed? He is the one responsible for allowing Zemo, the man who had murdered their king, out of prison. Screw him. I'm tired of being told that I have to think of Bucky's well being; when his stupidity and aggressive behavior has made it obvious that he rarely cares about the well being of others.