Frank's New Girlfriend

[jakebe]

The Realist You scored 19 constructivenes, -1 selflessness, 11 loyalty, and -6 supportiveness!

Constructive, selfish, and loyal, with a heap of tough love -- you are The Realist. Your first priority is exactly what it should be -- you. You're concerned about others but are unlikely to throw your life away on some foolhardy crusade to save someone else. Still, beyond those constraints, you're a loyal friend who tells it like it is, and you're probably quite funny. You'll help your friends solve their problems, even though they might not always like your advice, and you'll try to make the best of tough situations. That said, you'll try even harder to avoid or minimize those tough situations in the first place. There's a word for that. It's called "smart." You're fine just the way you are. Some people might call you selfish, and they'd be right, but you're still a good person, and you're unlikely to change, so it's not even worth suggesting it. View all the categories: The Death Star All Talk The Wolverine Fireworks The Time Bomb The Backstabber The Force of Nature Blind Faith Great Expectations The False Friend The Realist The Blowhard WTF? The Politician The Rock Diplomat/Doormat

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 80% on constructivenes You scored higher than 21% on selflessness You scored higher than 56% on loyalty You scored higher than 62% on supportiveness

Link: The 4-Variable Friendship Test written by sundust8 on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

I wouldn't normally post something like this, quite, but in light of recent events I find it pretty amusing.

Anyway, arlekin was kind enough to bring over last night's episode of LOST for me to watch this morning. And watch it I did.



Two of my favorite characters, Bernard and Rose, finally get center stage! L. Scott Caldwell (Rose) and Sam Anderson (Bernard) still have guest star status, so they aren't truly part of the Losties yet, but it's nice to know that the writers still fully intend to pull out Rose whenever they need a wise black woman staring into the sunset.

In the episode, a few very interesting bits of information are thrown out. We find out that Rose was suffering from a terminal illness that eventually lead her and Bernard to a faith healer, and that Rose was told there was nothing to be done for her condition. We also find out that she believes she *has* been healed anyway...not by the faith healer, but by the island. And, well, we find out that Rose knows about Locke's miraculous recovery. Rose's revealing this to Bernard tells *us* why she's been able to take everything so mellow, how she could believe so strongly that Bernard was still alive when they were seperated, and eventually leads Bernard to accept his fate on the island with Rose.

This was a very strong episode, one of the best of the season in fact. I admit it might be biased because Rose is one of my favorite characters (make her a regular already!); as cliched as they are, I just have a *thing* for strong, old black women. I think they carry a dignity and poise that lets the best of their ancestry shine in ways most of us only hope to achieve. There's just something tremendously appealing in someone who's strongly connected to their roots, who lets that show by just being who they are instead of preaching about it. My grandmother has that going on, and so does my mother in her own way. She's very fragile (ailing health being what it is and all) but dealing with that fragility *and* doing everything she can for her grandchildren gives her a definitive, unique strength. It's one of the reasons I love her so much, despite our history. She's hurt me bad, but she's also done everything she could to see that I was raised right. And now, despite the fact that she's way too old to be doing so, she's doing her best to make sure my nephews are raised right. How could you not respect that?

So, when I see someone like Rose, or Don Cheadle's mother in "Crash," or even Katherine Jackson (mother to Michael and the rest of the Jackson clan), I see my mother reflected in their faces. Instant connection, every time.

But I digress!

What makes LOST unique, sets it apart from all those other shows with complex, conspiracy-oriented storylines and deep, involved mythologies, is the way the story is told. The genius of the flashback framework allows the audience to always see the revelations of the island (the hatch, the numbers, the Others) in the context of the emotional impact on the survivors. What happens on the island isn't as important as how those events affect the people that have come to be there. So, when you get a really great marriage of mythology revelation and character development, the desire for strong characterization *and* Spooky Island of Mystery(tm) brand goosebumps is appeased in a fully singular and satisfying way.

What made the Hatch storyline so amazing in season 1 wasn't just the burning need for the audience to know what was in the Hatch, it was watching how the struggle to open it changed Locke, really gave him a singular focus. The Beast/Security System, yeah, is kind of scary, but what makes it really totally awesome isn't that it's a mass of black smoke, it's that the two overtly spiritual people on the island (Locke and Mr. Eko and, arguably, Charlie) have seen it. That...means something. It reveals a whole lot more than just what's on the island; it reveals something about the character of these men.

This is why, I think, season 2 has been largely weaker than season 1. They've been dealing a lot more with the mythology of the island than with the emotional state of its inhabitants. The first third of the season (the Losties and the Tailies don't meet until ep. 9) is devoted to revealing and re-revealing the contents of the Hatch and following Michael, Jin and Sawyer as they trek across the island with the Tailies. The flashbacks don't really connect with the situations the characters find themselves in quite so meaningfully, so the full potential of LOST's central theme isn't realized very well. In fact, I think the first episode that really captures the present-past connection is ep. 6 of season 2. There, we *finally* gain some perspective on Shannon's deal, and she actually becomes something of a sympathetic character. Unfortunately, that's also her last episode (a HUGE mistake, I think, on the part of the writers).

Slowly, though, now that the big train wreck of the Raft and Tailies story has been resolved and everyone's been more-or-less integrated, they're getting back to doing what they do best; exploring themes of redemption and intrapersonal struggle with all these people we've come to know. But, with only 5 episodes left in the season, we're going to have to delve pretty heavily into island mythology for what will most likely be the required explosive cliffhanger finale.

I think what gets me about LOST the most *is* the characterization, and the way the story is told with everything so intricately woven. There are some beautiful moments of serendipity and epiphany, where the character's sudden freedom from a demon is tied in one sublime sequence with the moment the demon was first created. These people are tested by extreme circumstances that force them to deal with whatever problems they're facing to become functioning members of a crudely-forming society, and those tests help them to do just that. Sure, there's lots of cheese and one or two things that fall flat (as all shows such as LOST have...remember the bad episodes of "The X-Files", or the ending of "Twin Peaks"?), but largely, the stories and truths they're telling through all of these characters are worth the stumbling narrative. :)

Of course, I check up on the new mysteries that are revealed almost zealously; the theories about the meaning of the hieroglyphs (*especially* when you factor that in with Henry's revelation that he never pressed the button in "Lockdown") and the exact wording of everything that's written on the map Locke saw sends shivers down my spine. :) But what really makes me obsessive over the show is how well the story is told; once the writers begin to lose their grip on the pacing and characters and situations, I lose my interest. As far as the island goes, being in the dark on things is part of the fun; I'm more interested in discussing why the revelations were given at a particular time in the framework of the story then trying to piece together the puzzle with the intention of solving it.

When it comes right down to it, LOST is a hell of a story.



Tonight: getting drunk and hopefully posting a new entry in smileydanq. I hate that it's been collecting dust all this time.

Also, to those whom I talked to last night. Sorry if I was flaky and distracted and possibly rude. I was kinda toasted and I don't remember a few things. drleo, especially, a thousand apologies for the disastrous cribbage game. I honestly don't remember if we actually finished it, and if we did, who won. I hope I didn't just...pass out on you or anything.