#Michael Bowen

[claudia1829things]

"LOST" (3.15) "Left Behind" Commentary

"LOST" RETROSPECT - (3.15) "Left Behind"

Have you ever watched a movie or television episode and had maintained an opinion of it for years? Only to change your mind after an umpteenth viewing of it? That is what happened to me after a recent rewatch of the "LOST" Season Three episode, (3.15) "Left Behind"

I might as well begin with the episode's "B" plot. This featured a "B" plot that involved Oceanic survivors Hugo "Hurley" Reyes and James "Sawyer" Ford. Following the events of the previous episode, (3.14) "Exposé", Hurley informs Sawyer that the rest of survivors are in the middle of a debate on whether to banish the Alabama-born con man from the camp. Hurley reminds Sawyer about the benefits of living within a society and suggests that Sawyer start making efforts to make amends for his past actions.

All I have to say is . . . who had written this episode? Honestly. For years, I thought it was a decent, but not exactly mind-blowing episode. But after this latest viewing, I honestly do not know what to think of it. I might as well start with the "B" plot. What can I say? I found it annoying and pointless. It is not that I had any sympathy for Sawyer at this point in the series. I did not. I did not care for Sawyer until Season Five. If Hurley believed the Oceanic camp needed a leader to fulfill the absence of Jack, Sayid and John Locke; he should have stepped up and volunteered for the role, himself. If he was capable of pushing or manipulating Sawyer into stepping into the leadership role, he was capable of assuming the role of leader himself. Instead, Hurley pulled this stupid con job in order to manipulate Sawyer into assuming the role. All this plot managed to achieve was solidify my belief that Hurley was definitely a man child . . . at least through most of the series' run.

Since "Left Behind" happened to be a Kate-centric episode, I might as start with her flashback. In it, Kate meets Sawyer's old flame (at least two-to-three years before she met him on the island), Cassidy Phillips, while the latter was attempting to sell questionable jewelry. Kate comes to her aid before a potential customer could inform the cops. After Cassidy guesses that Kate, who was a fugitive, also did not want to attract the cops; the two women become fast friends. Cassidy agrees to help Kate distract the local law enforcement and U.S. Marshal Edward Mars, so that the fugitive could contact her mother, a waitress at an Iowa road cafe Diane Janssen. You see . . . Kate wanted to know why dear old Mom had ratted her to the cops after she had murdered her father.

I rather liked Cassidy and it was good to see her again after her previous appearance in a Sawyer flashback from Season Two. But I found Kate's agenda very annoying. Why on earth would she be shocked at her mother's decision to inform the police about her murder? Was the audience really expected to sympathize with Kate over Diane's action . . . and becoming perplexed about it? Because I still feel no sympathy for Kate. Audiences learned in the Season Two episode that Kate had murdered her father, Wayne Janssen, in (2.09) "What Kate Did". Diane had a very good reason for snitching on Kate. As she had reminded the latter, Kate had cold-bloodedly murdered Diane's husband, blew up her house and committed insurance fraud to cover up the fact that a murder had been committed. Worse, Kate had lied about the real reason she killed Wayne. She had killed him for her own personal and selfish reason. And yet, in the end, Kate had decided not to forgive her mother for ratting her out? Fuck that! Diane had a chance to rat her out a second time in this episode. Only she did not bother. Kate had her good moments as an individual, but her complaints about Diane in this episode only convinced me how incredibly selfish and delusional she could be.

I finally come to the episode's main plot. While being held captive by the Others for less than a day at their compound, Kate Austen peaks out of a house and spots the group packing to leave. Seconds later, someone tosses a gas cannister, which knocks her out. Some time passes before Kate regains conscious and finds herself handcuffed to the Others' rogue member, Dr. Juliet Burke. Kate is not particularly fond of Juliet, due to the latter being an Other and for developing a close friendship with the Oceanic survivors' leader, Dr. Jack Shephard. While Kate insists upon returning to the Barracks to find another Oceanic captive, Sayid Jarrah, and Jack; Juliet insists upon heading for the Oceanic beach camp. The pair experience a series of adventures involving an encounter with the island entity, "the Smoke Monster", while arguing over Jack and the reason behind Juliet's estrangement from the Others.

I have a question. Why did Kate ask Juliet what the latter had done to piss off Ben and the Others? Juliet had murdered Pickett - right before Kate's eyes - in order to save her and Sawyer. Had she experienced memory loss or something? Had Damon Lindelof and Elizabeth Sarnoff really concocted this ridiculous plot to handcuff Juliet to Kate? According to a later episode, Ben had conceived this handcuff plan. But why? Hold on. I know why. Ben had expected Juliet to use this situation to gain Kate's trust - and through the latter, the Oceanic castaways' trust. Yet again, WHY? All Juliet had to do was agree with Kate's plan to return to the Barracks. Both would have easily found Jack. After all, she had managed to gain his sympathy and friendship during his captivity with the Others. It seemed so pointless to handcuff Juliet to Kate and try to gain her trust. This whole scenario struck me as unnecessary and infantile. As for the catfight in the rain? Very sexist and I suspect, typical of this series' showrunners. And Juliet's encounter with the Smoke Monster? Pointless, because she never encountered it again.

Looking back on my recent rewatch of "Left Behind", I cannot believe I had accepted it as a tolerable episode that could pass muster. Because I find it difficult to accept this . . . at least now. There were too many idiotic plot points and situations for me to regard it as nothing more than an example of one of the less than exemplary episodes from "LOST".

[movie-pirate]

[pretty-little-fools]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Michael Bowen

Published: Dec 3, 2023

Q: What does it mean to have “privilege” or a “privileged upbringing”? Is this just having parents with money, or is there something else involved?

A: Privilege is best understood as ‘a culture of success’. You may understand and expect this culture to help you out in life. There’s no guarantee that it will or that you will understand it properly, but chances are better than zero.

So growing up with money that you didn’t earn is not going to help you earn money. So just because you are a consumer doesn’t make you a producer. Just because your parents have a talent doesn’t mean you will have talent as well.

Here’s the best way to understand the difference. You could call the culture of success a pattern. Therefore the culture of failure is an anti-pattern. For example. People expect doctors not to be excitable but calm. If your doctor is nervous and jittery, he won’t be a success. People expect bankers to be conservative with money. A banker who wears a 40k gold chain is an anti-pattern. People expect rock stars to be rebellious. A rock star who dresses like a banker will lose her audience.

Adopting the culture of success helps you see who does and does not flaunt an anti-pattern. In many ways Elon Musk flaunts the anti-pattern of an engineer. He certainly has revolutionized his industries, so like I said, adopting the culture doesn’t guarantee success. Millions of engineers work for companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. They switch employers all the time - it’s the same culture in aerospace, many of whom hold secret clearances. You have a ‘privilege’ if you know how to get a secret clearance in aerospace - but you’re simply conforming to the expectations of aerospace culture of success. If you don’t do so, you shouldn’t expect to get secret clearance.

If you grow up in a household where you have different manners and cultural behaviors than the people who run businesses, you can still be successful in business, but your chances are better if you understand and conform to the ‘unwritten rules’. Or maybe you’ll troll around for ‘life hacks’. It’s all the same thing, you wish your parents would have taught you X, Y and Z when you were a kid. Now you have to break your bad habit and learn a new skill and turn it into your habit. That’s difficult. If your habit is to take extra money that falls into your hands and bet it on football games or trips to Vegas, chances are that you’re not the kind of person who runs a good business and always meets payroll. If you grew up respecting gangsters with fat gold ropes, then you’re going to probably have a longer road to success as something other than a gangster.

There’s also the ‘black hole’ problem, which is that you don’t even know what your bad habits are. You think maybe your boss is being discriminatory against you because you always act like you know better. But you had untrustworthy parents and it was necessary for your survival to always second-guess them. So you think you’re being smart at work, but the boss thinks you’re just being insubordinate. You think every dog is vicious because where you grew up they were, so you don’t trust dogs or the people who own them.

There are very hard limits on what money can buy. It cannot buy trust. It cannot buy the habits of a culture. You can’t just put money in a plate or bribe a priest and then call yourself Catholic. You have to adopt the pattern. You can’t shadowbox your way into the UFC. You have to learn the moves and train. If your parents, smoke, drink or curse casually at home, maybe you think that’s how everyone behaves - and plus you only watch and enjoy movies where people do those things, otherwise you think it’s not realistic. So you think your habits are ‘keeping it real’ and then you’re surprised when people don’t treat you with respect in fancy restaurants, even when you’re spending all that money. People don’t just instantaneously change their attitude when you throw money in their faces. Well, maybe some people do - that’s their bad habit.

Here in Los Angeles, we have a lot of Mexicans who come from poor farming families. Maybe their parents have nothing more than an 8th grade education and don’t speak English. Well if those were my parents, I would think I’m doing very well if I speak English and graduate from high school. But not compared to kids whose parents are college educated and work in professions. On the other hand, if I run a trade business, like landscaping and I employ 12 workers and have 3 trucks full of tools and equipment, I have the pattern for that kind of success that a lawyer’s kid will probably never know. They’ll be lining up for the service I provide.

The biggest mistake people make is that they don’t take the effort to develop new disciplines and new skills because they think the game is fixed. These people simply don’t understand how labor markets work - again a failure to study a pattern of success. No you may never be an economist, but you should listen to economists. No you may never be a mathematician, but you should learn algebra. No you may never be a dentist, but your should brush your teeth. You may never teach English, but you should read books.

You should understand that there is a politics of talking about ‘privilege’ that lulls people into complacency so that they will believe their success depends on the destruction of ‘privilege’. That’s a trap. Everyone with desire and discipline can learn a culture of success. Just get after it yourself.

[movieassholes]

Well, ain't you the slice of cutie-pie they said you was.

Buck - Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

[vintagewarhol]

[gameofthunder66]

'Beverly Hills Cop III' (1994) film

-watched 7/22/2024- 1 [1/2] stars- on Paramount+

This was the worst Eddie Murphy movie I've ever seen!

10% Rotten Tomatoes

[realbeeing]

Michael Bowen, 1937-2009

[therealmrpositive]

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009)

In today's review, I find more than love is in the air at the local high school. As I attempt a #positive review of Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever #NoahSegan #RustyKelley #AlexiWasser #GiuseppeAndrews #ReganDeal #MarcSenter #MichaelBowen #LindseyAxelsson

There was a time when the fear of infectious diseases was reserved for the offshoots of conspirational thinking, not a major policy to constantly worry about. Teens could go about their lives without worrying about Zoom classes, masks, and the like, while it would be nice to go back to such a time, such precautions may have been invaluable in certain fictional settings. In 2009, a follow-up to…

[three-headed-monster]

team canada travels to hungary

[undergroundrockpress]

Michael Francis Bowen by Gene Anthony (1967).

[justdealingwithsomeissues]

We are squaring up for the big final fight, when Cloak suddenly shows up, bringing along the suddenly no longer dead Dagger with him.

[mariocki]

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (BBC, 1974)

"In what other parish church in the advowson of the good Abbot Thomas shall we find Bartholomew, Jude, Simon and Matthias all together in one window?"

"Not the 'good' Abbot Thomas, Peter. That was never suggested, not even by himself."

[harveyguillensource]

Harvey with friends and more at the 34th GLAAD Awards in NYC.

[jamesmalatesta]

the lord giveth (bowen byram to the sabres), and the lord taketh (michael bunting to the penguins)

[jbaileyfansite]

What a cast!