The Tail Section

If Javi Grillo-Marxuach were not the author of my favorite LOST episodes of all time, "…all the best cowboys have daddy issues." and "Orientation", and had not written several others in his tenure with LOST — not to mention his work on the LOST Experience — I probably wouldn’t be seeking face time with him right now.  Then again, I probably wouldn’t be talking to you either.  Javi is the kind of guy with the boundless energy and nimble creativity that makes shows like LOST even possible. 

I’m not going to try to mislead you people.   I’m a LOST fan.  I know this may be a shock, but its true.  I love LOST above all other shows.  This does not stop me, however, from being a huge fan of Javi’s ancillary and post- LOST work.  I own every copy of The Middleman (even the mimeograph editions), which you are obligated to get more information on here, and am working on getting his Battlestar Galactica comics together, which you must also check out (just nod and say ‘by your command’.)  I loved ‘The Chronicle’ back in the day, the way you love a kid with a terminal illness (just too brilliant to last),  Javi’s done Charmed, The Pretender, The Dead Zone, Jake 2.0, and now he’s doing Medium, which, sorry Javi, I Tivo every week and watch immediately after LOST.

So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to briefly interview Javi and ask some of my burning questions.  And yes, don’t worry, I did try to find out what the Monster was…

Doc: Hey Javi, we have something in common. We both saw the original Battlestar Galactica in its theatrical run…

Javier Grillo-Marxuach: Ah yes…why, back then, the moving picture shows had no sound and were presented in black and white…I can still hear the nickelodeon’s pipe organ burbling away the strains of Stu Philips’ Colonial anthem over the clitter-clatter of the hand-cranked projector…I remember sitting in a wooden seat, munching on peanuts and cracker-jack while the siege of Cimitar played on the screen and the rest of the patrons ran out the back, thinking the Cylon Raiders would come out of the screen and hit them! Those were the days!

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The thought occurred to me tonight.  Maybe there is a bit of foreshadowing tucked away in this Expose’ season four thing-a-ma-jig.  Why?  Well the villain is named ‘The Cobra’, a guy who seemed to be good guy (sort of the Charlie to these strippers, I guess), but turned out to be the arch enemy of the shows good guys.   Is a similar reveal coming as the setup for season four?  Why do I say this?  Because remember, the code name for this years end of season twist is "The snake in the mail box". 

Now lots of interesting things to over analyze there.  First there is the mention of a box.  The ’snake’ is of course what got me motivated in the direction of Expose holding hints for season four, cleverly disguised as a cheesy crime drama.

Warning:  This article is guaranteed to bore you to death.  You have been warned.

The producers of LOST are in a unique position.  While it was self effacing for sure, Expose held a lot of messages in its subtext that, in my opinion, amounted to somebody’s catharsis in the hallowed halls of LOST production.  I reference the ‘Prisoner’ for a very specific reason.  There is much to be said for the genesis of Patrick McGoohan’s surreal little gem.  Taken at its most shallow viewing, ‘The Prisoner’ is a unique premise full of mystery, imbued with themes of individualism, and the spontaneous regimentation we suffer by merely ‘participating’ in a society,  no matter how ‘free’ we perceive ourselves.

Beneath that, however, was an entirely different story.  It hasn’t all been told, but enough is known to make a few good guesses.  ‘The Prisoner’ came to be when Patrick McGoohan, exhausted by the rigors of his success with "Secret Agent Man" (or "Danger Man", if you’re UK nasty), and feeling rather pigeon holed, refused to sign on to the show, which he saw as having no end other than to eventually creatively sputter out.  He convinced the studio to give him carte blanche to pursue a new cutting edge spy thriller, with a twist.  The consensus is, once the ink dried, McGoohan shrewdly transmuted the show from quirky spy thriller, to personal allegory;  a statement about, amongst other things,  his personal dissatisfaction with the assembly line mentality that had led him to become  a - very successful - stereotype.  Artists were not born to paint one picture over and over again.

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Special thanks to Ryan for pointing this out!  Ryan alerted me to a play called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, which chronicles the lives of two characters played out against the backdrop of events from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

In Hamelt, the two characters are charged with determining Hamlet’s motives, and plans.  Instead they, themselves are killed.   The characters are thrust into the universe of Hamlet in much the same way that Paulo and Nikki were thrust into ours,  by the will of the writer.  Inasmuch, they seem to serve no valid purpose and are generally mocked throughout for being the extraneous folk they are.

In "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead", however, much like Expose is Nikki and Paulo, the playing field is reversed and they are the major characters with Hamlet seeming to be the character with misappropriated importance.

More info can be found at Wikipedia.

Those of you who have read TheTailsection for a long time know that Javier Grillo-Marxuach is one of Doc’s few ‘incorruptibles’ in the LOST universe.  Quite simply, the man did no wrong and I was always happy to pimp his extracurricular activities by my own volition.   Why?  Because Javi entertains at a high level of excellence in every medium he chooses to apply his writing virtuosity to.  And, I’m told he is a hell of a lounge singer too.  Okay, I made that up.  But I wouldn’t be surprised.

So the exciting news is that Javi has agreed to an interview here with TheTailsection to bring us up to date on what is going with his career post- LOST.  As usual, my opportunity to ask questions is your opportunity to ask questions, so please use the comments system to plug any question you might about Javi’s current comic and TV projects.  We’re all LOST fans of course, and many of you , I’m sure, are Javi fans like me, so let’s balance that and try to avoid questions about LOST’s mythology.  Okay, I might allow one…. "Now that you don’t work for LOST anymore, will you give us the secrets?"… I’ll even answer that one for Javi…. "Uh, no."   Of course, he might surprise us all and say "purgatory", but haven’t we traveled that road long enough?  Seriously though, in composing the questions let’s think of this in terms of catching up with what one of our favorite LOST writers is up to since leaving the show.  Don’t expect Javi to know the significance of Ben’s refrigerator contents rearranging from scene to scene.

Here is the nice clean full resolution version of the 3.15 USA Promo for left behind.  Just right click to download.  Divx encoded so you will need to visit www.divx.com or google ffsdhow to play on your pc or mac.  YouTUBE coming right up.  You must download the file before playing it.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking, which believe me, is never a good thing… and you’re about to find out why.  One of you brilliant comment contributors, El Prez to be precise, got me started when he said ‘Did anybody notice that Locke was watching Expose’ last week’. I had to investigate, and sure enough, the claim was absolutely correct.  (Not that I doubted El Prez, just needed a dramatic segue) The proof is in the mention of Expose’ baddie ‘the cobra’.

Here’s the tell tale bit of dialog that gives it away:

"Here’s what we know Crystal.  The bolivian gold deposits were stolen last night around 2:00am.  That means, ‘ The Cobra’, he’s back."

Ever since Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof graced us with a podcast this week I’ve been wondering something.  What is the reveal that Carlton felt so compelled to use the most loathed phrase in the world ‘Jump the Shark’ to describe.  Between our own hawkish commentor’s discovery, Carlton’s foreshadowing of a risky bit of reveal, and severe sleep deprivation… I think I’m prepared to make a predication as just what it is that is going to stun us all.

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We all know that some of the characters on Lost are similar to some philosophers. What do we really know about them? How well do we really know them? If you want to know you will click the link. USA Today has a rather nice article based on the Philosophers and their Lost characters that have the same name. Just click and read.

www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-03-27-lost-philosophers_N.htm

Here is a clip I swiped from ABC which reveals a lot about what Expose’ is, why it looked like a script, and even who the mysterious Mr. LaShade is played by Billie Dee Williams. Presented in state of the art YouTube Goodness!

This little bit of vid actually consists of two scenes.  One will settle what Expose’ is all about, to a point, including an exclamation from Nikki that will definitely either make you laugh out loud or shake your head and say WTF.

The second is some beach action that is essentially a procession of old friends, including my favorite character of all time.  (Care to guess who that may be?)

I’m not going to make Divx available because I was forced to do a cruddy screen recording to get the clip, so Divx would not improve it.  If better quality turns up, though, I’m all over it!

This makes four scenes all together, if you want to see the other two visit my buddy DarkUFO at spoilerslost.blogspot.com.

Okay… I’ve noted your complaints. You want spoilers!  Heck, I even want spoilers!  So I found some!  On e!online!  It was tough, but somehow I managed it.  And just because I have no regard for copyrights,  I’ll go ahead and share them with you right here. (But urge you to definitely check in with spoiler-babe Kristin at www.eonline.com)

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