I should not be this happy after a cliffhanger like that.
[ mood| 
crazy]
[ music| “Eve, The Apple of My Eye”- Bell X1]
I know part of it might be because I was barely paying attention, but was anybody else peeved at the very end of Lost? The episode(s) as a whole was damn good, yes, but compared to Alias, it was kind of let down. But of course, that’s not what I really want to talk about right now. ;)
There’s very little that I want to say that doesn’t have anything to do with the ending, so this’ll be pretty short.
As for the ending, well, the ending deserves a section of its own not so much because of what happened (but, oh, how I will address that) but because of what fellow watchers both online and around me did. It’s kind of long under the cut, and I don’t expect anyone to read it. It’s mostly for my own memory because the way Judawg and I reacted was something I don’t want to forget. During the episode, I was online with xchatnoirx, and towards the end, our conversation went like this:
[10:55:43 PM] xchatnoirx: they have 2 minutes to give us a shocker...
[10:56:03 PM] yumytaffy: oh, no
[10:56:06 PM] yumytaffy: don't say 2 minutes
[10:56:13 PM] yumytaffy: you remember what happened last time they warned us about 2 minutes
[10:56:23 PM] xchatnoirx: yeah
[10:56:24 PM] xchatnoirx: true
[insert car crash here]
[10:57:03 PM] xchatnoirx: OMG!
[10:58:14 PM] yumytaffy: AND THERE YOU GO
As for what Judawg and I did, as Syd, Syd’s Elektra hair, and Vaughn were doing their OMGADORABLE “I love you” thing, we were unconsciously moving our faces closer and closer to the TV screen as we awww’ed, and I hugged my SpongeBob cuddle pillow closer to cushion whatever blow I knew was coming (no pun intended).
When Vaughn dropped his smile, I said, “Oh, crap. Don’t say anything, Vaughn. Don’t kill it.” When Vaughn started talking about him being assigned to her, Judawg gasped, covered her mouth, and pointed at me like she knew what he was going to say. I waved my arms in her direction and cried, “Shhhh! I don’t know what he’s talking about yet!” When Vaughn said, “My name isn’t Michael Vaughn,” I said, “What the fuck?!” (which was, ironically, my exact reaction when Syd woke up in Hong Kong). And when the other car came and hit them, Judawg jumped out of her chair, screamed as much as her almost-lost voice would let her, and I let out the short, high-pitched, surprised scream I cam only conjure up when I’m truly afraid or surprised. I can’t even scream like that on roller coasters because on roller coasters, it’s a forced scream. The last time I screamed like that was when I was younger on Halloween when some sick guy thought it would be a fun Halloween trick to scare a 10-year-old little girl by coming at her with a chainsaw, but I digress.
Both of us were laughing so hard by this point for some weird reason. She was sort of walking around the room, and I was trying to figure out what to do with myself. Almost at the same time, Judawg and I proclaimed, “I need to take a walk.” I was shaking but somehow managed to find my shoes and type to xchatnoirx that I needed to take a walk. Judawg and I ended up in the kitchen laughing hysterically, but I remembered that a whole group of hallmates were in downstairs-and well in earshot of us-watching Hotel Rwanda, so I said we had to quiet down. We both continued laughing and full out freaking out. Our reaction was hilarious.
I went back to my room to see if Jessica was calling my phone. When I went back to the kitchen, Judawg was gone, but I was still laughing and freaking out. I saw my suitemate, Vanessa, and asked if she saw my roommate, and Vanessa said Judawg disappeared into one of the suites downstairs. I then asked Vanessa if she heard our screaming. She answered in the negative but said she saw the jumping and laughing in the kitchen. Whoops.
As for the ending itself, well…*takes deep breath in attempt to calm herself down* Okay. Let’s be honest, guys. When they were on the road and kept looking at each other, I’m sure at least one of you out there was yelling, “Keep your eyes on the road!” too. Not to undermine the writers’ creativity, but who else saw the accident thing coming? *raises hand* Anyone?
What came completely out of left field, though, was the “My name isn’t Michael Vaughn” thing. My initial reaction was, “Oh, no. You do not mess with that gorgeous name.” Of course, that shouldn’t have been my main concern. I know that. When I was able to gain some semblance of coherence, I came up with the following:
The writers are going to have to come up with something good to pull off this storyline because everything they reveal about Vaughn will have to pass the The Sixth Sense test: you know, after finding something out in the end, the viewer re-watches everything that happened already, and what was revealed at the end is still valid in the past. Okay, that wasn’t worded well, but you know what I mean. It’s not like they can say something like Vaughn was planted by Jack because Jack distrusted Vaughn in S1 far too much for that to be true. Unless I’m missing something…
I’m not even going to think about the implications of his name not being Michael Vaughn. There have been countless fics that have addressed Vaughn being assigned to Sydney as a weird coincidence. And someone back me up on this: there is at least one fic out there where Vaughn specifically says, “My name is not Michael Vaughn.” Someone tell me they remember it so I won’t lose my mind.
And then there is the question of who the hell William Vaughn is if he’s not Vaughn’s father. Why would Vaughn react so emotionally if Irina didn’t kill his father? So many questions. So much time to ponder over them. Damnit.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t love that the SVR looks like it just took a blow to the head and that it’s possible that everything we knew to be true about Vaughn (including his-and I’m not being dramatic here-gorgeous name) is false.
What I do love is the way the cliffhanger was delivered. J.J. and his writers have it down to an art if you ask me. Neatly giving the ‘shippers the Santa Barbara car ride and having Sydney and Vaughn say everything the ‘shippers have always wished they would say lured all of us into a sense of calm and happiness-although I’ll admit to waiting for the other shoe to drop, so I was a little anxious. Then delivering not one but two cliffhanger blows successively was awesome. Just like the S2 finale with “Vaughn, why are you wearing that ring?” and “You’ve been missing for almost two years.”
Right now, I’m far too happy about how the ending played out to really think about what happened. I bow down to the writers’ collective genius because that is the way you end a season.
My only theory about S5 right now is that when they’re in the hospital, Syd will find out she’s pregnant. (But of course, that’s not really the point right now.) Also, I have the feeling that that Vaughn’s revelation will not have as big of an impact on the next season as we’re all initially thinking. I’ll admit that the S1 finale was big because it brought Irina, but the S2 finale’s implications weren’t that big. She lost two years and Vaughn got married. About 12 episodes later, it didn’t matter too much anymore. At the end of S3, Jack confronted Syd in Wittenberg, but by the S4 premiere, that was pretty much cleared up. I’m not undermining the implications of this cliffhanger, but the pattern is that we usually overreact, and that’s exactly what the writers want.
Yep. Denial, denial, denial. That’s always my M.O. after Alias finales.
One question to sleepingawake47: Claire, how the hell were you even able to type after that?
I have an anthro midterm tomorrow, and I should be studying, but I have a few more things to add:
crazy]
[ music| “Eve, The Apple of My Eye”- Bell X1]
I know part of it might be because I was barely paying attention, but was anybody else peeved at the very end of Lost? The episode(s) as a whole was damn good, yes, but compared to Alias, it was kind of let down. But of course, that’s not what I really want to talk about right now. ;)
There’s very little that I want to say that doesn’t have anything to do with the ending, so this’ll be pretty short.
- Marshall + Weiss = Love: Come on. How could you not love these guys? They brought the much needed comic relief, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who cracked up when they “thought like Jack Bristow” and watched the video. And poor Marshall who says “I love you” to his wife so little that when he does say it, she thinks he’s drunk. So much love to both Weiss and Marshall right now.
- Richard (or whatever his character’s name is): I think it was Brodine or something, but he’ll always be Richard from Felicity to me. I really liked the 4x01/02 callback. It was good continuity. But his “If you’re going to put more holes in me, warn me now” plus the immediate stab? Damn. Those writers do irony like nobody’s business.
- Zombies? I know they weren’t supposed to be zombies, but they sure as hell looked like them especially when they all dogpiled Nadia. I thought they were going to eat her brain or something
- Evil!Nadia: Her red eyes made Roomie (Judawg) and me scream.
- Bad Ass Bristow Women: The three of them are so bad ass. I love it.
- Lena! Thanks for visiting! Please come back soon! I like how they left her departure open-ended. Very classy way of doing it.
As for the ending, well, the ending deserves a section of its own not so much because of what happened (but, oh, how I will address that) but because of what fellow watchers both online and around me did. It’s kind of long under the cut, and I don’t expect anyone to read it. It’s mostly for my own memory because the way Judawg and I reacted was something I don’t want to forget. During the episode, I was online with xchatnoirx, and towards the end, our conversation went like this:
[10:55:43 PM] xchatnoirx: they have 2 minutes to give us a shocker...
[10:56:03 PM] yumytaffy: oh, no
[10:56:06 PM] yumytaffy: don't say 2 minutes
[10:56:13 PM] yumytaffy: you remember what happened last time they warned us about 2 minutes
[10:56:23 PM] xchatnoirx: yeah
[10:56:24 PM] xchatnoirx: true
[insert car crash here]
[10:57:03 PM] xchatnoirx: OMG!
[10:58:14 PM] yumytaffy: AND THERE YOU GO
As for what Judawg and I did, as Syd, Syd’s Elektra hair, and Vaughn were doing their OMGADORABLE “I love you” thing, we were unconsciously moving our faces closer and closer to the TV screen as we awww’ed, and I hugged my SpongeBob cuddle pillow closer to cushion whatever blow I knew was coming (no pun intended).
When Vaughn dropped his smile, I said, “Oh, crap. Don’t say anything, Vaughn. Don’t kill it.” When Vaughn started talking about him being assigned to her, Judawg gasped, covered her mouth, and pointed at me like she knew what he was going to say. I waved my arms in her direction and cried, “Shhhh! I don’t know what he’s talking about yet!” When Vaughn said, “My name isn’t Michael Vaughn,” I said, “What the fuck?!” (which was, ironically, my exact reaction when Syd woke up in Hong Kong). And when the other car came and hit them, Judawg jumped out of her chair, screamed as much as her almost-lost voice would let her, and I let out the short, high-pitched, surprised scream I cam only conjure up when I’m truly afraid or surprised. I can’t even scream like that on roller coasters because on roller coasters, it’s a forced scream. The last time I screamed like that was when I was younger on Halloween when some sick guy thought it would be a fun Halloween trick to scare a 10-year-old little girl by coming at her with a chainsaw, but I digress.
Both of us were laughing so hard by this point for some weird reason. She was sort of walking around the room, and I was trying to figure out what to do with myself. Almost at the same time, Judawg and I proclaimed, “I need to take a walk.” I was shaking but somehow managed to find my shoes and type to xchatnoirx that I needed to take a walk. Judawg and I ended up in the kitchen laughing hysterically, but I remembered that a whole group of hallmates were in downstairs-and well in earshot of us-watching Hotel Rwanda, so I said we had to quiet down. We both continued laughing and full out freaking out. Our reaction was hilarious.
I went back to my room to see if Jessica was calling my phone. When I went back to the kitchen, Judawg was gone, but I was still laughing and freaking out. I saw my suitemate, Vanessa, and asked if she saw my roommate, and Vanessa said Judawg disappeared into one of the suites downstairs. I then asked Vanessa if she heard our screaming. She answered in the negative but said she saw the jumping and laughing in the kitchen. Whoops.
As for the ending itself, well…*takes deep breath in attempt to calm herself down* Okay. Let’s be honest, guys. When they were on the road and kept looking at each other, I’m sure at least one of you out there was yelling, “Keep your eyes on the road!” too. Not to undermine the writers’ creativity, but who else saw the accident thing coming? *raises hand* Anyone?
What came completely out of left field, though, was the “My name isn’t Michael Vaughn” thing. My initial reaction was, “Oh, no. You do not mess with that gorgeous name.” Of course, that shouldn’t have been my main concern. I know that. When I was able to gain some semblance of coherence, I came up with the following:
- Vaughn loves Sydney. No matter what his name is or isn’t, that will always be true. They’ve gone through way too much, and he’s done enough things to prove how much he loves her for that to not be true.
- Irina knows the truth about Vaughn, and even she knows there will still be a wedding. Even though she hasn’t been around much, she knows her daughter, and she knows that Sydney loves Vaughn no matter what he did.
- Vaughn and Sydney are not going to die. You don’t just do a cliffhanger like that and then kill the person who has the most explaining to do especially when it’s Michael Vartan.
- The writers understand just how important of a character Vaughn is to the audience. Making him the cliffhanger proves that. This comforts me a little because it shows that they know they have to handle this situation delicately. One false move, and the writers are going to have a lot of pissed off fans on their hands…if they’re lucky. If they’re not lucky, they won’t have any fans to deal with. Yeah. You all know what that means.
- The writers also understand how much of a fanbase is invested in the SVR. They didn’t just toss a Santa Barbara bone like that without knowing exactly what they were doing.
- Heh. Michael Vartan thought he was hounded the summer after the S1 finale? He’s going to need to stay indoors for the next four months because people are going to stalk him for answers.
The writers are going to have to come up with something good to pull off this storyline because everything they reveal about Vaughn will have to pass the The Sixth Sense test: you know, after finding something out in the end, the viewer re-watches everything that happened already, and what was revealed at the end is still valid in the past. Okay, that wasn’t worded well, but you know what I mean. It’s not like they can say something like Vaughn was planted by Jack because Jack distrusted Vaughn in S1 far too much for that to be true. Unless I’m missing something…
I’m not even going to think about the implications of his name not being Michael Vaughn. There have been countless fics that have addressed Vaughn being assigned to Sydney as a weird coincidence. And someone back me up on this: there is at least one fic out there where Vaughn specifically says, “My name is not Michael Vaughn.” Someone tell me they remember it so I won’t lose my mind.
And then there is the question of who the hell William Vaughn is if he’s not Vaughn’s father. Why would Vaughn react so emotionally if Irina didn’t kill his father? So many questions. So much time to ponder over them. Damnit.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t love that the SVR looks like it just took a blow to the head and that it’s possible that everything we knew to be true about Vaughn (including his-and I’m not being dramatic here-gorgeous name) is false.
What I do love is the way the cliffhanger was delivered. J.J. and his writers have it down to an art if you ask me. Neatly giving the ‘shippers the Santa Barbara car ride and having Sydney and Vaughn say everything the ‘shippers have always wished they would say lured all of us into a sense of calm and happiness-although I’ll admit to waiting for the other shoe to drop, so I was a little anxious. Then delivering not one but two cliffhanger blows successively was awesome. Just like the S2 finale with “Vaughn, why are you wearing that ring?” and “You’ve been missing for almost two years.”
Right now, I’m far too happy about how the ending played out to really think about what happened. I bow down to the writers’ collective genius because that is the way you end a season.
My only theory about S5 right now is that when they’re in the hospital, Syd will find out she’s pregnant. (But of course, that’s not really the point right now.) Also, I have the feeling that that Vaughn’s revelation will not have as big of an impact on the next season as we’re all initially thinking. I’ll admit that the S1 finale was big because it brought Irina, but the S2 finale’s implications weren’t that big. She lost two years and Vaughn got married. About 12 episodes later, it didn’t matter too much anymore. At the end of S3, Jack confronted Syd in Wittenberg, but by the S4 premiere, that was pretty much cleared up. I’m not undermining the implications of this cliffhanger, but the pattern is that we usually overreact, and that’s exactly what the writers want.
Yep. Denial, denial, denial. That’s always my M.O. after Alias finales.
One question to sleepingawake47: Claire, how the hell were you even able to type after that?
I have an anthro midterm tomorrow, and I should be studying, but I have a few more things to add:
- Happy Birthday to my amazing, fun, and all-around wonderful buddy Bhavna. Love you, Bonie! I hope you have a great birthday! And remember: Bhavna/Bona + Roda = Boda!
- Someone remind me not to look at my flist before posting my entry. The generally negative reaction brought me down a little.
- *melts* Gorgeous green eyes and a crooked half-smile? Between this picture and the pictures from Venice Magazine, I think he’s trying to kill us.
- For the record, no, I have no idea how I’m so calm right now after that cliffhanger.
- On Jimmy Kimmel right now, J.J. Abrams said his paddle ball game thingy record is 147. Oh, J.J., you evil genius, you.