Jake

Today I said goodbye to my dog, Jake. I got Jake eight years ago to help me cope with my mother's death from cancer, and today I let Jake go, cancer again being the culprit. If this is one of those "full circle moments" Oprah talks about, she can keep 'em. They're for the birds.

Jake was a wonderful dog. Whether it was his intention or not, when he opened his mouth to pant it felt like an unmistakable smile; and when he leaned on you, it always felt like the dog version of a hug. I'll always remember his head popping up in the window of the back door when it was time to eat, and the way he'd totally dominate his bigger, should-have-been much more fierce older brother when it was time for a treat.

Jake kept that smile until the end. Despite the heart-breaking amount of pain he must have been in at times, that smile would still come out. We could all learn lessons from these supposedly "dopey animals" we love. He stood strong for my wife and I, when all we wanted to do was break down. Hardly a whimper, rarely a sad face, Jake was a champion.

So Jake (yes, in my version of Dog Heaven, he can and is reading this), I thank you. You were a great brother, a crucial part of my personal healing process, and a much better pet than I ever was an owner. Your brother misses you, your parents miss you. I can only hope that one day you bless my dreams with that smile again. You will never be forgotten.

Family and Food in Atlanta - Part One

A drooling dog, a sinking ship, a rising star and 1600+ miles. If I were to sum up my Easter weekend in 12 words or less, that would be it. Luckily for me - and perhaps unlucky for those of you that read through my ramblings - I'm not restricted by word counts. So cancel your plans for the next...six minutes or so, give or take a couple depending on your reading speed. Away we go.

My wife and I decided a few months ago to spend Easter in Atlanta visiting my sister. We'd gone to visit her about a year and a half ago, but it was more on a whim and we weren't able to truly plan much. I should also add that we ended up in Atlanta the same weekend as the most devastating floods to hit that city since nineteen bumpety bum, so we didn't get to really enjoy our stay as much as we would have liked. This time around, however, we were welcomed with clear skies and dry pathways. Oh, and due to the timing of his retirement, my father was able to accompany us on the trip! This was great for a multitude of reasons. For one, my dad had not had the chance to see my sister since the previous June. Another nice perk to this situation was that my father recently purchased a gorgeous Lexus is250, which was infinitely more comfortable for all three passengers than my vehicle would have been. My wife is not very fond of driving, so it was nice for her to be able to relax (err sleep) in the back while my dad and I split the driving duties.

I suppose I should begin to get to the point of this post. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed our family time immensely, and the things upon which I am about to write are secondary in comparison to the real reason we made the trek to Georgia, but I don't expect strangers who read this blog to care much about the silliness that is my family. This post will focus mainly on the culinary experiences we had on our journey. Some were profound, some were laughable, but all encapsulated what I love so much about the dining experience.

For those of you who aren't familiar with me, I love food. I love the creation of it, I certainly adore the consumption of it, and all in all I just dig the dining experience. I am a culinary school graduate not currently working in the industry, but I like to think I have an appreciation for the passion and art that food can be. Some (my sister included) may say this makes me a "food snob." I'll wear the title, if you see fit. I simply think of food like this: whatever it is you do with your culinary niche, do it well. Yes, I love what some may call pretentious food. I think molecular gastronomy is incredible, I'm a sushi fiend, and I'll drop a hundred bucks on a meal for my wife and I way before I'll spend that same hundred in a mall. But I also enjoy a juicy, cheese smothered burger or a greasy pizza as much as the next guy. Like I said, whatever it is you do, just do it well. I've had five dollar burgers that tasted better than 30 dollar steaks. Having spouted all of that, here is a rundown of our food adventures in Atlanta.

Day One: Flip Burger

For those of you Top Chef fans, Flip Burger is Richard Blais' burger joint. He has a couple of locations open, and employs some of his scientific bells and whistles to put a twist on the American classic. My wife and I ate here on our first trip to Atlanta, and had a blast. The kid inside you just wants to chuckle when your liquid nitrogen concocted Nutella and Burnt Marshmallow Milkshake arrives at the table steaming from the cold technique which created it. We were excited to dine there again, and to give my sister (a fellow Top Chef watcher) and father the experience.

My father is a conservative eater and wanted to play it pretty safe, so he went with what they call The Butcher's Cut. It's a simple burger with caramelized onions and blue cheese, the only unique part of the burger being a red wine jam. My wife, being the mushroom enthusiast that she is, went for the Mushroom and Swiss, the twist being that the Swiss cheese was in foam form. My sister, who I am convinced thinks she is allergic to bread, opted for the tuna tartare burger encased in a lettuce wrap as opposed to a bun. Unfortunately, my sister devoured her burger too fast to even notice that what looked like an egg yolk on the burger was in fact a mango pureed sphere. I was torn on what to get, but after much insistence from my sister that I go for one of the "flipped" burgers, I chose the chorizo burger, which was a spiced pork patty with romesco ketchup, hash browns, a fried egg, manchego cheese and smoked mayo. I am normally tentative about order things with a runny yolk, but this was actually pretty delicious.

For any Atlantans that may read this, we went to the Flip Burger location in Buckhead. When my wife and I had gone to Flip Burger on our first Atlanta trip, we went to the other location. We definitely preferred the original restaurant. My sister informed us that the Buckhead location is in a much more trendy area, and you could definitely get that vibe as soon as you walked in. A very metro crowd, an inattentive waitress and slow service were sadly our biggest impressions of the experience. We each enjoyed our menu choices, but I don't think the fun and playful nature that is Richard Blais cuisine shined through. I'm sure part of this can be attributed to the fact that we went there directly after a 13 hour drive and were in various stages of exhaustion. I've heard he's opening a restaurant soon, and I look forward to someday getting the full Blais experience.

Day Two: Holy Taco and South City Kitchen

My wife and I researched Atlanta eateries prior to our trip so that we'd have a good choice in terms of price and variety from which to choose. I'd been campaigning for us to try this place called Holy Taco because the menu seemed eclectic and affordable. My sister, sarcastic bugger that she is, thought it sounded weird, but finally relented for a quick lunch prior to going to Coca-Cola World (which, by the way, is incredibly cheesy but an all right tourist-y thing to do if you're ever in Atlanta). As we drove to Holy Taco my sister realized it was in a "hippie" part of town, which was all right with me. You can get some good eats at places like that.

We arrived and were greeted by a nice enough fellow who claimed he would be our waiter. Read on to find out why I say he claimed to be a waiter. The menus (in true hippie fashion) were printed on what appeared to be recycled paper, which was fine, and the menus themselves seem to have been recycled throughout the restaurant, which would also be fine, but for one exception. I'm all for being green and all that jazz, but when there is dried food stuck to the paper menu, it's time to stop handing it to your patrons. As the rest of the meal unfolded, however, the dirty menu would become a minor detail.

We ordered our beverages plus a pitcher of sangria, then chose some house made chorizo and goat cheese stuffed paquillo peppers for starters. The waiter came back to the table with my sister's unsweet tea, and she asked for sweetener. That never came. Oh, and the sangria we ordered....yeah, that was nowhere in sight either. After I'd say 12-15 minutes we asked our waiter if we could get sweetener and the sangria we ordered. His response? "Oh shit, I forgot to put that in." Now, we are a laid back bunch and can definitely let the bad words fly on occasion, but a waiter in a restaurant certainly does not know that. You do not use profanity with customers! At this point the service had gotten so bad we had no choice but to laugh at it. All right, hippie part of town, quirky sort of waitstaff, I can deal with bad service to a certain extent, but this guy was writing the book on how not to wait tables though. Let's go back to the Idol posting days:

Long gaps without checking on your table...check!
Profanity in front of the customers...check!
Telling your customers it's your first week...check!
Forgetting part of their order...check!

The sad part is the food was actually pretty good. My sister got a fish dish that was solid, my dad's quesadilla was safe but effective and my wife's tacos, while unspectacular, were good lunch food. I got a house cured pork belly torta that was out of this world. You know what would have been a great accompaniment to it? The stewed black beans I ordered but never received. The service was so atrocious that I simply can't recommend this restaurant, which is sad because it did show promise.

Our dinner spot for the night was a place called South City Kitchen. They specialize in slightly upscale versions of traditional Southern foods. We're in the Deep South, right? Bring it on. My sister actually suggested this place, so the upcoming credit or blame goes to her.

Luckily for us, we'd made reservations because this place was pretty packed. We were seated quickly, and our waitress was friendly if a bit odd. My dad had an urge for chicken livers, an urge I don't ever feel I'll share with him, so we ordered an appetizer of those just for him. To be able to give a fair and honest critique, I did try them, and the texture is just too awkward for me, not to mention the awkward taste that I just can't get used to. For the rest of the table we ordered what they referred to as a Maryland crab cake and a wild mushroom rusk. Let's start with the crab cake. Having spent summer in Maryland as a child, this was no Maryland crab cake. Far, far too much breading. I'm a crab junkie. Food snob moniker aside, if I had to choose a last meal it'd be a big pile of steamed crabs on top of some newspaper. Give me a hammer and some Old Bay and leave me be for a couple hours. This crab cake, sadly, was decent but forgettable. The mushroom rusk was really nice though.  It was served atop bread with an over easy egg that served as the sauce. Am I becoming a yolk convert? Am I?

Much to my sister's dismay (she likes to eat off of everyone's plate), she and I both chose shrimp and grits for our entrees. My wife has become a much more adventurous eater since we met, but shellfish still isn't her cup of tea, so I never cook it at home. Eating out is my only opportunity to spend some time with my crustacean friends. That and, like I said, we were in the South. How can I not get the shrimp and grits?! They did not disappoint. My wife got one of the specials, which was a pork loin with butter beans and house cured bacon. I thought it was a well executed dish from what I tasted, but she wasn't enamored with it. My dad chose a pork chop dish that came with a spiced carrot puree and a really nice pesto. I thought it was a well balanced, surprising dish. All in all I really enjoyed the meal. It was what I would expect form a place that claims to be Upscale Southern.

A funny aside to the meal was, after we'd just finished retelling a story of my wife, my sister and I seeing Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt a few years ago at Mesa Grill in Las Vegas, none other than Charles Barkley walks into South City Kitchen. My wife found it amusing that he was incredibly under dressed, but when you're Charles Barkley, who cares?

Overall South City Kitchen is a very solid restaurant. It has built a good reputation, and our experience there lived up to it. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking to experience a refined take on simple Southern food.

This concluded the first two days of our trip. The next two days consisted of two completely different experiences, one of which being one of my five favorite dining experiences of all time. Due to the length of this post (not to mention my tiredness from a fully day driving back), the second half of our trip will be in a separate post. Check back soon for that.

American Idol Season Ten - Does Anyone Care?

I believe the title says it all. I fully intended not to post about last night's performances. Why? Because, much like the show, I felt I was simply repeating myself every week. After the results show, however, I felt compelled to at least say a few words about the overall health of the show. Here's a quick recap of last night's performances for you all.

Will.I.Am made his weekly appearance, Jacob was over the top, Haley growled, Casey can't really sing, Lauren was solid, Durbin's a much lesser Lambert, Scotty referred to himself in the third person and claimed he wasn't being country when he so clearly was, Pia is a great vocalist who won't have much of a career post-Idol, Stefano's voice is weak, Paul is pretty cool if you keep the guitar in his hands and the judges seem to think they're all bound for stardom. There, that sums that up.

My bottom three prediction was Jacob, Stefano and Haley with Stefano going home. Well, I got two out of three, with Pia thrown in for Haley. As you probably know by now, Pia was the "SHOCKING ELIMINATION!"

A) When there's really no clear favorite, is anyone being eliminated really that surprising?
B) If asked before tonight, would you have predicted Pia to win the show?

The answer to both of those questions is a resounding no. She's a nice singer, probably the best pure voice this season, but she was a balladeer on a show that's become increasingly more about personality over the past few seasons. Oh, and the judges and their outrage over Pia's ouster? You're the panel that chose to save a stand up comic with an upright bass a couple weeks ago. How's that decision looking now?

Nigel, I say again, what happened to your "we're done caring about having a balance between boys and girls, we just want the best finalist group we can get," statements a few months ago? You chose to make it an even five and five and add wild cards. Five contestants eliminated, all girls. There's what America thinks about your balance. And I might add that some of those eliminated contestants were two of the three judges' wild card picks (Stefano, who is the weakest overall contestant remaining on the show being their one remaining wild card). That's a pretty good indication of how your viewers feel about your judges.

This season's production tweaks and judging overhaul has not proven very successful. Love her or hate her, Kara Dioguardi usually gave real opinions at least. Steven Tyler is completely useless, J Lo comes across as fake far too often and Randy is the same throw away he's always been. Sorry to say it, but it's the truth. I did enjoy the opening auditions with this panel, but when it came time to give harsh but true criticisms, they've fallen beyond short.

All that being said, I'll probably finish out the season. I am, however, seriously contemplating making this one my last. My wife will be thrilled to read that last sentence. Baby lock them doors and change the channel....

American Idol Season Ten - Top 11 - AGAIN

Once again this is being posted later than I'd like for it to be, but life happens. Here goes nothing (shouldn't that be the slogan for Idol X?)

Scotty and his faces kicked off Elton John night. Now, I must confess I am an Elton fan, but I'm not a highly educated one. I'm an Elton hits fan. I probably couldn't name one deep cut. Scotty, on the other hand, found a very deep cut. Well, that or he got a word document list of every Elton John song and hit ctrl F and typed in "country." Yeah, let's go with that theory. Scotty chose a country song that even Elton himself probably forgot he'd ever recorded. Why did he choose this?? Because Scotty has less than one dimension, if that's possible. Did it sound all right? Sure, it sounded like Scotty doing a country song. No one would have ever known or cared that it was an Elton John tune. Sir Smirks A Lot will undoubtedly have a nice country career ahead of him, but he's so annoying on so many levels. On the bright side, at least we know he used his real accent.

See how nicely I segued into the next performer? Naima decided she was going to pretend to be Jamaican this week, after taking us to Namibia in the previous week. Thus "I'm Still Standing" because I'm still stonding, and all the world was worse for it. It was atrocious and, to steal a Simon word, indulgent. I highly doubt she won any fans with this performance, and is in serious danger of leaving.

Paul came next with my favorite Elton John song, "Rocket Man." The problem with doing this song in Idolverse is that the verse builds and builds until the grand pay off in the chorus. With less than two minutes to perform, you're not able to build up to the big payoff. I think this hurt Paul a bit. Don't get me wrong, it was a decent performance and he's not leaving based off of it, but it's a song that requires some marinating time. That being said, find a Jason Mraz cover of the song. Pure magic.

Pia came next and, sadly, did what Pia does. As Kate in Lost is to running, Pia is to slow, predictable song choices. Did she sing it well?  Yes. But in one of the rarest of occasions this season, the judges were right last week when they told her to speed it up and show us something different. She needs to do that soon or run the risk of being overlooked by the audience.

Stefano took "Tiny Dancer" and abused it with his tiny range. The boy just isn't that great of a singer. He's pretty much a waste of space at this point. Filler in an already filler dominated season. Please put us out of his misery soon, America.

Lauren Alaina was at her best last night, and for the first time I saw a glimpse of what the judges see in her "Underwood Possibilities." I'm not anointing her into that category in any way, but she's able to do with her country tone what Scotty isn't: take it other places. She can still sound like a country singer, but doesn't have to make everything sound like a country song. I thought her outfit was a bit ridiculous, and I wish they'd never show her stage mom, but kudos to Lauren.

James Durbin came out and did exactly what I had told my wife he would, which is sing a mediocre version of "Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting." I didn't predict the flaming piano, but I should have. This guy is such a watered down version of Adam Lambert, it's kind of fun to watch him overcompensate.

Thia came out and performed....oops, sorry, as soon as I started typing about her my computer went into sleep mode. This girl is one of the most forgettable performers in recent Idol big stage memory.

Casey finally decided to sing in this singing competition. You'd think this was a wise move. Unfortunately for the furry jokester, his vocal limitations were on full display, making it clear why he's been shooting for personality over voice. If we'd never seen his personality, and just heard him sing "Your Song," he wouldn't have gotten this far. Good save there panel.

Oh Jacob Lusk, great job listening to Jimmy Iovine's plea for not being over dramatic. This year's gospel singer came out with shadowed silhouette and fog machine in full effect, and continued to overdo it.

Haley closed the show with an Elton song I actually can't stand. I know, I know, blasphemy, but Buh buh buh Bennie does nothing for me, nor did Haley's growly, sometimes screamy rendition of it. The judges of course thought she'd just reinvented the wheel, but I didn't love it. The girl has spunk, I'll give her that, but the vocals are just so-so for me. The growling has to go, as does the look on Jennifer Lopez's "someone just did an SBD near me" face when they cut away to her during Haley's performance. If you don't know what SBD is...I won't ruin the surprise.

I might add more later, but I'll end it now so I can watch the results. Prediction: Thia, Naima and Stefano in the bottom three, Naima and Stefano go home (I only say Stefano because I vowed never to pick Thia again).

American Idol Season Ten - Top 11 *ELIMINATION UPDATE*

Another warp speed update comin' at ya!

So, after the judges tell contestant they are trying to figure out "what type of artist" they are, the powers that be at American Idol decide there's no better way to figure that out than....Motown Night! Seriously, did we have to dedicate the first five minutes to kissing Barry Gordy's butt again??? How many times can Idol run the same fluff piece? And I may sound like a broken record, but for a show trying to find the next great pop star, you'd think they wouldn't bother making them sing songs from a genre that's been dead for 30 years. But enough of my complaining, let's get to the singers (hmm should I put a question mark next to the word singers...).

Was anyone surprised that Casey Abrams chose "I Heard It Through The Grapevine?" I mean, what other Motown hit would give him the opportunity to snarl and say miiiine and viiiiine? This guy is seriously turning into a bad joke. Simon must be thanking his lucky stars that he didn't have to sit through a season of Casey. He's like Jack Black in Zach Galfianakis' body. He gave his usual shticky performance and the judges gave their usual useless praise. The end.

America's favorite bathroom break Thia followed Casey with a completely campy group day performance of "Heatwave." It really is saying something that she hasn't been one of the first two contestants eliminated (in case you didn't get it, the something it's saying is not good).

Jacob didn't annoy me for once. I thought he was mostly on key and I did enjoy his restraint. I still wish he'd pull it back even more, but he's a gospel singer, this is about as much reining it in as one can reasonably ask for from him. He's going to be around for a few more weeks. It certainly wasn't a performance worthy of a Steven Tyler/family/audience storming the stage moment, but hey, Idol 10.0 is nothing if not a love fest.

Lauren came out and did a Supremes classic that wasn't half bad. It wasn't half great, but at least she showed that a country artist could take a song from a different genre and not completely hickify it (keep reading for further discussion on that).

Stefano was a train wreck this week. He did Lionel Richie's horrid song, "Hello," and I think managed to hit one or two notes. I've never been a fan of his as you know, but I thought he was by far the worst of the night. Man judges, your wild cards are as bad as your outfits.

Haley came out and growled at us for a bit. It wasn't as out of tune as Stefano's vocal, but it was still too runny for me. It irritates me when Christina Aguilera throws her diva runs all over songs, and Haley's no Christina. Can't we just sing a song sometimes? They're just going to put Haley's name on a bottom three stool if she lasts much longer.

Ah, and now we get to Scotty. I've been saying for weeks that he was going to be a disaster when we got to a week that he couldn't go country. I believe I even sited Motown Week as an example, and he didn't disappoint. Wait, he did disappoint. Oh, that's confusing, anyway; Scotty decided to do the classic Stevie Wonder song "For Once In My Life." The problem with this? It was arranged and performed as if it were being sung at a horseshoe pitching contest. It was so cheesy and sad. Poor Stevie. As if blindness weren't enough of an obstacle to overcome, now he has this assault on another of his senses.

Pia came out with her usual diva lighting and evening gown and did a ho hum rendition of "All In Love Is Fair." She really needs to speed it up next week. We all know you can sing ballads, but don't beat us over the head with them. She reminds me more of McPhee every week.

Paul McDonald came out and did the one song Adam Lambert had a restrained performance with, Smokey Robinson's "Tracks Of My Tears." Perhaps it was because my Dad loves Smokey and I used to hear those tunes when I was a kid, but I have an affinity for the song. I was very pleasantly surprised with the spin Paul put on it. He made it a folky James Blunt feel, and I thought it was well done. Definitely the best of the night for me and Paul's best performance over all. I was right in thinking he needs the guitar in his hands. It makes him an artist I'd listen to.

What can I say about Naima? She doesn't sing well, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes when Africa Boombata came out in a Vaudvillian clown's costume to rain dance with her. I have no use for her, and thus little words to say about her.

Adam Lambert's favorite impersonator closed the show with the song - oh who cares? He did his usual mediocre vocal performance followed by wailing business and then bathed in the attention he's so sorely needed. I did get a chuckle out of his Jamiroquai without the conveyor belt dance. It'll be a great day when he goes home.

This was a slightly better performance night than the previous two, but I still care little to none at all about half of the contestants. I'd say I want Paul to win it all, but I have a 50 dollar bet with my sister that he won't. So....go anyone else!

Bottom three prediction: Thia, Stefano and Haley. Thia goes home. Thia, I promise if you survive this week I'll never say you're going home again! Mostly because I'm tired of being wrong.

Elimination Update:

The sideshow continues! Yes, apparently there is nothing like a snarling furball, or saving an 11th place contestant, as the judges decided to use their 'save' (a stupid idea when it was first introduced a few seasons ago that now takes on an even bigger from of ridiculous) on Casey Abrams. In a profanity laced, Hulk Hogan infused results show, the judges supposedly spontaneously stopped Casey 20 seconds into his SINGING FOR HIS LIFE performance to tell him they needed to hear no more, he was saved. Never again can the show claim that its judges do not know the results until Seacrest reads them. There's no way they would magically stop a performance like that unless it was, like most things seem this season on Idol this season, preplanned. So now we get another however many weeks of Mr. Gimmick. Oh, and Thia, you win. I shall never again choose you for elimination. You've got more lives than Jason from Friday the 13th. Tune in next week, when we find out that Lauren Alaina liked Barney as a child, and the purple one himself shows up on the results show while the contestants start up a spur of the moment rendition of "I Love You, You Love Me."

Random Thoughts - Just Go With It

I was having a fairly pleasant, mundane day when I received some unwanted work related news. After letting the news fester and eat away at me for what I now view as far too long, I decided to no longer let it bother me. In the grand scheme of things, it really is a minor annoyance. I exerted way too much energy letting it dominate my mood. So I'm challenging myself, and I suppose any readers that would like to take up this challenge should attack it head on as well. The next time you receive bad news, allow yourself as little time as possible to let it control your emotions, and then find a small piece of happiness that has happened in your life recently and replace the minor annoyance with thoughts of that. Example: I've replaced my work news with the memory of the small nerd worthy smile I got from checking the mail yesterday and finding out my new debit card had arrived. Why would I smile about a debit card? Umm, because it has this picture on it!

That's right, a nice wide shot of the Lost island, this picture being a screen shot from Season Four, Episode Three, The Economist. Yes I am perfectly content being a geek. Sure I could have pulled from a long list of things to be happy about. My wife, our insane cat, my neurotic but lovable father, but those are in my opinion big things, and I'll reserve those for when the news is truly bad. Today was just a slight hiccup. If you choose to take up this challenge, I salute you. Perspective is everything, yet is so easy to forget. Enjoy your evening blog world, and I hope tomorrow's is an even better one for ya.

LOST - Season Two

When we last saw our castaways, they were split into two main groups. We had the raft crew of Michael, Walt, Sawyer and Jin. They had been attacked by The Others, their raft was destroyed, Sawyer had been shot and Walt had been kidnapped. On the island we had the rest of the Oceanic survivors. They'd fled to the caves in fear of The Others and Jack, Locke, Kate and Sawyer had successfully blown the hatch door off. This is the part where you should stop reading if you have yet to watch season two.

Season two's first episode, "Man of Science, Man of Faith", begins with a unique teaser that is a Lost trademark. The episode opens with a series of audible beeps. A man's eye opens, he springs out of bed and goes quickly to an antiquated computer where he types something and presses an execute button. He then starts his day by listening to music, exercising and making some form of protein shake; all seems normal (save for some strange injection the man gives himself). Then something happens. You hear an explosion and the man runs to a closet to grab a rifle. He checks a periscope and sees Jack and Locke peering down the shaft of the hatch.

The season two premiere picks up right where the season one finale left off. Undeterred by the broken ladder that would have taken them down the shaft, Locke wants to be lowered down into the hatch. Despite Jack's objections, and Hurley's pleas (in case you forgot a certain sequence of numbers was on the hatch door), Kate and Locke decide to descend into the hatch. Locke begins to lower Kate down using a cable tethered to a tree. Part of the way down Kate yells "Stop! I think there's something down here." Suddenly the same bright beam of light Locke saw when he pounded on the hatch door during season one is turned on. Locke calls out for Kate, but she's gone.

Jack's flashback in this episode is centered on a patient he's trying to "fix." The patient, Sarah, was involved in a head on collision (with the father of Jack's fellow Oceanic survivor Shannon). Seeing Jack's usual realist approach to things when he tells Sarah about her prognosis, Jack's father suggests to his son that it might not be a bad idea to offer hope once in a while. Jack is reluctant towards taking that approach, but when Sarah is about to undergo surgery, she tells Jack "I know I'm not going to be dancing anymore. I can still roll around at my wedding." This strikes a nerve in our hero doc, and he declares to Sarah that he will fix her.

Jack is not happy with how the surgery went, and is releasing some stress by running steps in a stadium. He notices another man in the stadium also running. Jack twists his ankle and stops. The man approaches Jack, and they talk for a few minutes. Jack tells the man about what he thinks of as his failure to fix Sarah, and the man tells Jack about how he is training for a race around the world. As they part ways, the man tells Jack, "I'll see you in another life." This line would be repeated often in Lost, both literally and in theme. Jack returns to the hospital to break the news to Sarah that she will be paralyzed from the waist down from the rest of her life. Upon hearing this, Sarah asks him, "Then how come I can wiggle my toes?"

Meanwhile, back on the island, Jack decides to go back to the hatch. When he arrives, Locke is nowhere to be found. Jack lowers himself into the hatch and gives us our first glimpse of what's inside. There's a strange mural that included Hurley's numbers and the number 108 (the sum total of 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42). He gets near a wall and notices that the key around his neck is being drawn to the wall as if there's some sort of magnetic pull. Jack notices a surveillance camera mounted in the corridor and suddenly the Mama Cass song that opened this episode once again blares. Jack ducks into the control room where he notices computer and electronic equipment that looks as if it were made circa 1980. He walks to the computer and looks as if he's about to type something when Locke appears behind him and says, "I wouldn't do that." Jack whirls around and says "Where's Kate? What the hell did you-," before he notices there's someone behind Locke, pointing a gun at him. Jack draws his own gun, but the man orders he put it down. As the man comes into view, Jack looks stunned. It is the man he met at the stadium. Thus began our introduction to someone who would become one of the most beloved characters Lost ever produced, the much adored Scotsman Desmond Hume.

You might be wondering why, if this is supposed to be a recap of the entire second season, am I spending so much time on the premiere? The answer is an easy one. Not only was this the highest rated episode in Lost's history, but it was also by far my favorite of the six season premieres. Man of Science, Man of Faith also was a great set up episode for many of the show's prevailing themes.

Season two pushed us farther down the road of Science Vs. Faith as was beautifully displayed in one of my favorite Locke Vs. Jack scenes during season two's third episode, Orientation.

Locke: Why do you find it so hard to believe?

Jack: Why do you find it so easy?

Locke: It's never been easy!

Season two started Lost on a path of divided factions as well. It's sometimes overlooked but important to point out that once the raft crew set sail, it would become rare that the survivor camp would ever be one cohesive unit. This frequently resulted in faction-centric episodes like we saw in the beginning of season two. While the first episode gave us the "what happened next" for the hatch group, it gave us no insight on the fate of the rafties. We would have to wait until the second episode, Adrift, to see Michael, Sawyer and Jin.

Jin, having dove off the raft when the Others came for Walt, is nowhere to be found. Sawyer and Michael, after bickering over who's to blame for their predicament and having a run in with a shark (who, in case you hadn't noticed, had a Dharma Logo on its body), drift back onto the island. Upon washing ashore they are confronted by Jin who, after running out of the jungle with his hands tied behind his back, speaks one of the few English words he knows: Others. The episode closes with what appears to be natives coming out of the jungle towards our raft guys.

Now that we've gone over where season one left off, let's talk about where season two took us. We found out early on in season two that the tail section of the plane had crashed on a different part of the island, and we met some new survivors that would be referred to in Lost Fandom as the tailies. One of the most universally loathed characters to appear on the show, Ana Lucia, was the leader of this group. Played by the always scowling Michelle Rodriguez, Ana Lucia was a "me against the world" type of leader. A former cop turned murderer in her pre-island story, Ana did little to make herself likable after the crash. One neat "lives intersecting" tidbit we got from Ana's flashback was how she came to be on Oceanic 815. A bit lost after having quit the police force, she had a random encounter in an airport with none other than Christian Shephard. Them both being lost souls, Christian convinced Ana to accompany him to Sydney. We also learn during this flashback that Christian drunkenly knocked on someone's door demanding to his daughter. Hmm, who could that be? Ultimately though, Anna Lucia's run on the show was short, and I'm thankful for that. She and another survivor, Libby, were killed by Michael in one of the best twists the show ever gave us. More on that in a bit.

The aforementioned Libby provided us with one of the saddest but wonderfully acted moments on Lost. Hurley had taken a liking to Libby, and they were preparing for their first date when she was murdered by Michael. Hurley's pain was beautifully portrayed by Jorge Garcia. The scene where Ana and Libby were buried reaffirmed Hurley's place as the heart of the show.


Mr. Eko was an interesting taily. A giant of a man, Eko was extremely spiritual. We learned that violence was no stranger to this man, and he was fearless. This was no more apparent than when he stared down the smoke monster, giving us our best glimpse to date of this mystery. It stared back at Eko and appeared to flash glimpses of his life. We also learned that Eko had ties to the island, his brother having been on the ill fated Nigerian drug running plane that Locke and Boone discovered. However, as with most things on Lost, that would not be what it seemed. Indeed it was Eko that was the drug runner, but in a cruel twist of fate, his brother Yemi, a priest, ended up on the plane.


Fans got a happy ending with one tail survivor being Rose's husband Bernard. Her resolve paid off as they reunited. We were even treated to a Rose and Bernard-centric flashback this season, where we see their first encounter, their courtship, and the sad news that Rose has terminal cancer. Well, I suppose I should say had terminal cancer, as the island seems to have cured her.


We said goodbye to another original survivor this season as well, with Shannon being accidentally shot by Ana Lucia. This happened early in the season while Shannon kept seeing a water logged Walt pop up randomly on the island. This probably seems like a key piece of information I'm glossing over, but I have my reasons that I will talk about in my overall show recap. I don't want to spoil anyone that hasn't gone beyond season two yet.



The flashbacks this season gave us more insight on our heroes' pre-island lives. As mentioned before we learned how Jack met his wife and saw the deterioration of their marriage. We learned what Kate's original crime was, murdering the man she believed was her step father, only to learn later that he was her real father. Locke, sadly, continued to be the easily conned man, ruining his relationship with (Peg Bundy?!) Helen because he was unable to let go of his need for his father's acceptance. In a rare bit of political statement from the show, we discover that it was the American forces in Iraq that helped shape Sayid into the torturer he became. For those of you interested in the Jin/Sun love story, you were undoubtedly satisfied with the story of how they met, and later troubled by Sun's infidelity.  Charlie remained one of my personal favorites, but he and Claire took a bit of a back seat at times this season. They had strife between each other when Claire found out about Charlie's heroin statue, but overall their characters didn't serve much to the season's central story.


The on island story this season focused largely on the hatch and the history behind it. Through an orientation video we learn that the hatch is one of a series of stations on the island built by a group called the Dharma Initiative. The station our survivors first found, The Swan Station, has a series of numbers (yep, those numbers) that must be entered into a computer every 108 minutes. Desmond explains to them that they're "saving the world." We find out in the season two finale that this was how it was explained to him. Locke immediately takes to the task of pushing the button, but Jack of course is hesitant.


The hatch presented a different sort of life for our survivors, and created yet another splinter in the group. Some of them decided to remain on the beach while other stayed in the hatch. After having made the trek from one side of the island to the other, the tailies unite with the middle section, and Jin, Sawyer and Michael are reunited with their friends. Michael's stay would be short lived, however, when he steals a gun from the hatch and takes off looking for Walt. Jack, Sawyer and Locke go to find him, only to run into the bearded grungy man that took Walt in last season's finale. He tells them that they can turn around and go back to their camp, and as long as they don't cross a proverbial line drawn in the sand, the Others will leave them alone. When Jack challenges him, claiming his group outnumbers grungy man's, the bearded one yells for his people to light their torches, revealing a much larger group than Jack had anticipated. Jack is then shown just how much of an upper hand they have when they bring a bound and gagged Kate out of the jungle. Against Jack's wishes, she'd followed them to look for Michael and had been captured by the Others. They agree to release her in exchange for the weapons Jack, Locke and Sawyer had.


The feeling of dejection after being bested by the Others was short lived however when, in the episode titled "One Of Them," we meet Henry Gale. Rousseau tells Sayid she had trapped one of the Others in one of her nets. The man claims to be a man named Henry Gale, from Minnesota who, while flying in a hot air balloon, had crashed with his wife on the island. They bring him back to the hatch and he is locked in the armory. Sayid interrogates him and the man, seemingly terrified, tells him that he and his wife crashed on the island, she got sick and he buried her. Sayid doesn't believe him, and Henry stays locked in the armory while they decide what to do next. Eventually Ana Lucia makes Henry draw a map to where he buried his wife's body. Ana, Sayid and Charlie follow the map and do in fact find a grave site and a crashed balloon.


While Ana and company are off finding the grave, Locke is alone in the hatch with Henry. Strange static starts to emit from the speakers in the hatch and a large blast door comes down, confining Locke and Henry to just a part of the hatch. Locke lets Henry out to help him with the door, but Locke's leg gets pinned under it. The timer starts beeping and Locke tells Henry that he has to climb through the air ducts and input the numbers. Henry does this, the door comes up and Henry tends to Locke. Just as this happens, however, the group that went to the grave site returns. Sayid informs Henry that yes, he found his balloon, and he dug up the grave and found two people in the ground. One was the real Henry Gale.


Michael Emerson was so brilliant in this role. He played the mind games of Henry Gale (or whatever his real name is) perfectly. Emerson single handedly transformed the view of our survivors' nemesis from backwoods hillbillies to cunning manipulators. Henry would later inform Locke that he never input the numbers, he simply let it countdown to zero and it reset by itself. Was this true? Perhaps not, but it planted a seed of doubt in Locke's head that would lead to the events of season two's finale. Oh, John Locke. You poor, gullible bastard.


Following the confirmation that Henry Gale is in fact an Other, Jack and Kate go once more to the spot where they'd met beardy in hopes of trading Henry for Michael and Walt. The Others don't come, but Michael, dazed and dehydrated, appears out of the jungle. They bring him back to camp, and he informs them that he found the Others' camp, that they're not well armed and can be taken. This all ends up being a ruse when, at the end of "Two For The Road," Michael kills Ana Lucia and Libby, unlocks Henry from the armory, and shoots himself in the arm. He does this all based on a promise by the Others that if he frees Henry and brings them certain survivors they requested, they will let him and Walt leave the island.


Sayid becomes suspicious of Michael after he insists that it must only be himself, Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley (the people the Others demanded he bring with him) that goes after the Others. He tells Jack and together they devise a plan that would allow for Michael to continue thinking he has the upper hand. This plan got an even bigger advantage when a boat washed up near our survivors' beach.



This brought us to the season two finale, "Live Together, Die Alone." Desmond, who disappeared into the jungle earlier in the season, washed ashore in the sail boat. He said he'd been sailing for weeks and still ended up right back where he started. In the finale we find out about Desmond's pre-island life. We see him dishonorably discharged from the British Army, and confronted by his estranged girlfriend Penny's father who tells Desmond that he intercepted all of his letters to Penny. He offers Desmond a large sum of money to stay away from Penny. In flashbacks we see Desmond some time later in the U.S., where he meets Libby in a chance encounter at a coffee shop. He tells her that he wants to enter an around the world sailing race sponsored by Charles Widmore (Penny's father). Libby offers her late husband's sail boat to Desmond to run the race in. In a recall back to Jack and Desmond's meeting in the stadium, we find out that Penny found him there and confronted him, asking why he was running away. He told her he was going to win the race to regain his honor.


The sailing race ended for Desmond when he was marooned on the island. He's brought into the hatch by a man named Kelvin, whom you might remember as one of the American soldiers in Sayid's flashback. Kelvin convinces Desmond that he must stay in the hatch to avoid getting infected by some mysterious disease he claims is on the island. We also learn that, according to Kelvin, the purpose for pushing the button is an electromagnetic anomaly on the island that builds up, and the pressure has to be released every 108 minutes. There's a failsafe key that can be turned, but he claims this would be like blowing up the dam.

One day Desmond sees a tear in Kelvin's HAZMAT suit as he goes outside. Desmond follows him out to find that Kelvin has fixed Desmond's sailboat. Infuriated, Desmond tackles Kelvin and during their struggle, accidentally kills him. Desmond races back to the hatch to discover he's neglected the button for too long and the speakers are blaring "System Failure." Everything starts to shake but he is able to input the numbers eventually and stop the chaos.


The final flashback shows a drunk, depressed Desmond in the hatch with a gun. He is holding the Charles Dickens book Our Mutual Friend, a novel he earlier claimed he was saving to be the last book he ever read. He opens it and a letter from Penny falls out. In it she explains that she hid the letter there knowing he would find it in a moment of great desperation. The letter ends with Penny saying, "All we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for you. Always."That letter broke every fan girl's little heart, I'm sure. It sent Desmond into a rage knowing he was stuck in the hatch seemingly forever. That is the moment that Locke began to beat on the hatch door in season one. In a spectacular twist of fate only Lost could provide, Locke's persistent banging provided Desmond the same sort of hope that Desmond's turning the light on for Locke provided him.


The on island portion of the finale deals with another division of two camps. We have Locke who, at his spiritual weakest, is convinced that the button means nothing. Eko, on the other hand, now believes the button is of the utmost importance and refuses to let Locke destroy it. Locke tells Desmond that the button is all a mind game and that they're going to find out for sure. Together they stage another lock down and Eko is forced out of the control room. Despite his attempts to get back in, which included using some of the left over Black Rock dynamite, Eko could not penetrate the blast door.


Desmond, meanwhile, began to have second thoughts. When Locke told him about the computer printout he and Eko had found at the other Dharma station, Desmond began feverishly reading it. He asked Locke what day his flight had crashed and when Locke told him it was September 22, 2004, Desmond told him, "I think I crashed your plane." Indeed he had, as that was the same date that he'd killed Kelvin and returned to the hatch with the time having run out to push the button. This convinced Desmond that the button was necessary, but Locke was still stubbornly refusing to accept it. When Desmond tried to enter the numbers, Locke smashed the computer.


As the time ticked to zero, Desmond once again said "I'll see you in another life, brother," and raced to turn the failsafe key. At that time Eko, who'd found a way back into the room, saw John. Every metal object began flying towards the wall and John told Eko, "I was wrong." Desmond inserts the key, says "I love you Penny," and turns it. The sky turns a brilliant shade of purple and there is a loud humming. In regards to the fate of the people inside the hatch? Well, you'll have to wait until season three to find that out.

The other group, which consisted of Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer and Michael, headed to where Michael claimed the Others camp was. Sayid, Jin and Sun left in Desmond's boat to find the camp faster and warn Jack. One of the more creepy images from the show was first seen in the finale. The boat crew sailed by a strange statue that Sayid accurately said "I don't know what is more disquieting, the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it has four toes."They eventually found the camp Michael had described, but it was deserted. Sayid knew that Jack was being lead into a trap.

Sayid's discovery was too late, as the island trekking crew were lead into a large clearing by Michael where they began to be hit with tranquilizer darts. They are brought to a dock where they once again see the man previously known as Henry Gale. He tells Michael that they got more than they bargained for with Walt, and that the two of them were free to go. They then told Hurley that he was to return to his side of the island and inform his camp that they were never to come back there. The Others said that Jack, Kate and Sawyer were coming with them, and hoods were placed over their heads. Their fate would also remain unknown until season three.

The last scene of season two was a strange one for many reasons, some yet unknown to those of you who have not gone beyond season two. Our last Lost images were of two men, seemingly in the arctic, playing chess. One of the men notices a computer's red light blinking and saying that an electromagnetic anomaly was detected. They scramble to make a phone call. Penelope Widmore answers and the men tell her, "We found it."

All in all I thought season two was a successful one. More mysteries were created, and the show clicked mostly on all cylinders. I thought the introduction of the tailies was a somewhat unnecessary one. I enjoyed the Rose and Bernard reunification and I thought Eko was an interesting character to play off of Locke, but some of it seemed to distract from some of the survivors we had already come to know and love. Charlie became too much of a sidekick for my taste, and Claire was mostly an afterthought. Sawyer, as always, had his moments, but I don't think he shined as much in season two. Michael Emerson was a wonderful piece of casting that would come to pay dividends for the future of the show. I don't think it quite lived up to the standard set in season one, but it was close and still provided a great bit of entertainment to a wide spectrum of viewers.

For those of you groaning at the length of this post, with a smile on my face I say deal with it. The remaining season posts will undoubtedly be shorter (I'm contemplating posting about the series finale in a separate post entirely). Season two put Lost on a path that I felt required more detail. Science against religion, good against evil, man against nature, all of these things were displayed in season two. The writers gave us more themes of manipulation, redemption and betrayal that would become critical in the future telling of the story. Season three's post will be an interesting one to write, as the show was a very conflicted show for me in that season. But that's for another day. For now, I thank you if you made it to the end of this post. Your time and your attention are much appreciated. Until then, I hope all of you Desmonds find your Pennies, and all of you Pennies find your Desmonds.