UT vs. Louisiana-Monroe pregame entrance

Team entrance with new video...

Hooked on the Horns

For all the Horn fans out there, this is one cool song.

Lost season 4 finale...

... was awesome. Yes, I know I've been noticably AWOL in my posts this year, but who really has as much free time as they used to? Anyhow, I can't wait to make some time to read up on the episode and discuss everything with all of you who watch it. This show really is amazing in how it keeps on cranking out great story lines. I love the way it picked up where last season's finale left off (drunk Jack and Kate in the show's first flash-forward). I wonder where the show will go from here? I guess we've got 4 or 5 months to think about that. In the mean time, here are some random thoughts and discussion points...

* the disappearing island. So where'd it go? We now have confirmation from the video that the Orchid has power to move time and space, though there's got to be something missing about the fact the VCR just happened to malfunction before Locke could see all the info
* Ben's comment about "whoever moves the island can't come back" as he's bundling up in the parka we saw earlier this season as he popped up in the Tunsian desert.
* Lock telling Jack to lie to protect the island and those there. Jack following through.
* Michael seeing Christian immediately before the explosion "You can go now". Go where? Finally die, or back to the island, or home?
* What's Jin's fate? We see the ship blow up from the middle but it looked like the deck was initially intact. Did he jump off in time? If so, then what?
* What about Daniel Faraday and the people in the raft headed to the boat? Half way between a disappearing island and a blowing-up freightor. Or did they get absorbed by the island disappearance just as the 2nd island (and presumably the hydra station) did? Or are they out there to rescue Jin?
* What does Miles know about Charlotte coming "back to the island""? Why do they choose to stay? Was Charlotte born there?
* Sayid and Keamy's fight, and Keamy's body armor recovery to the Orchid and his heartbeat-monitoring transmitter (this I had a problem with -- how the heck did it have a strong enough signal to broadcast way back to the ship from that far underground?)
* Ben killing Keamy with no remorse for those on the ship
* Sawyer jumping out of the helicopter and whispering to and kissing Kate
* Penny rescuing the helicopter crew
* Sun contacting Charles Whitmore for what appears to be an alliance to get back to the island
* Claire appearing in Kate's dream saying DON'T go back
* Sayid continuing to off people
* Hurley and not-so-little Walt
* Sayid and Hurley
* Hurley playing chess with "Mr. Eko"
* Ben telling Jack ALL of them have to go back
* Many of the off-island characters saying "Jeremy Bentham" had come to visit them, and that things on the island have been bad in the ensuing three years since the Oceanic 6 got off. Jack says "He told me that after I left the island, some very bad things happened"
* Jeremy in the coffin being... Locke!
* How exactly does Ben get off the island? Is it during the relocation? How does Locke eventually get off?

Lots of interesting and conflicting story lines going on here. Ben telling Jack all of them have to go back, yet Claire telling Kate NOT to take Aaron back. Lots of people taking various sides. Sun potentially teaming up with Charles while we see Jack rejoining Ben. Sayid still teaming with Ben, and now Hurley joining Sayid. And of course we still have Charles vs. Ben, which means Sayid vs. Desmond? Ouch, my brain hurts again!

I have no idea where it is going, but I do know I need to get to sleep! Two seasons -- 34 episodes -- left to go!

Countdown to Lost

Two more weeks until Lost returns from its strike-induced hiatus. From the sound of things in this Entertainment Weekly article, it will jump-start right back into the excitement!

A snippit from the article:
The ensuing four installments will answer some of the season's biggest questions: How did the much-vaunted Oceanic 6 leave the Island? What happened to those left behind? Why is Sayid (Naveen Andrews) killing people for Ben in the future? And who's rotting inside that darn coffin? "It's big and epic," promises Matthew Fox (Jack). "Our first eight episodes, by design, were all set up for these episodes to come. That we're doing just five instead of eight means they're even more packed with plot. It's payoff time."

Also interesting, here's a teaser for the upcoming episode:
In addition to being a flash-forward adventure for globe-trotting Ben, in which his war with British billionaire Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) over control of the Island will intensify, episode 9 revisits a long-simmering subplot: Sayid's romance with Iraqi love Nadia (Andrea Gabriel). According to Lindelof, a new dimension of Smokey the monster's mercurial nature will also be revealed, per the Lost rule that "you learn something new about the monster whenever it appears." And Cuse says a major story line will begin for Claire (Emilie de Ravin), Aaron's Aussie mommy, who lost boyfriend Charlie in last year's finale: "Mysterious things are happening to Claire that set up the next few episodes — and the next few years, too."