Michael Emerson on Season 6 of LOST

From SciFi Wire:

Michael Emerson, who plays Ben Linus, confirmed that at least he is still an active part of the show. “My understanding is that I am,” Emerson said in an exclusive interview last week at the Saturn Awards in Burbank, Calif. “For how much of season six, that’s a good question.”

Yes, more cryptic answers from the actor who plays the most cryptic character on the show. He even kiboshed my theory about erasing the present timeline. If the bomb prevented the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, seeing everybody live happily ever after wouldn’t earn high ratings for the finale.

“I could see why you might think that, but from my perspective as playing that character who arrived late on that show, it doesn’t sound terribly dramatic unless there’s something in that equation that I don’t quite get,” Emerson said. “I’m just curious about what dramatic paths we’ll follow.”

One dramatic path might be further explorations of the mysterious Jacob. The fifth season finale revealed Jacob as a corporal presence, but still not quite human. Ben stabbed him, intending to kill Jacob. “I’m still not sure that he’s a person like you and [me],” Emerson said. “I’m still not sure he’s a person like Ben. Is he killable? I don’t know. We haven’t been to his funeral yet so I don’t know. I don’t know where all that’s going.”

Season six might finally give us a Ben flashback. We’ve seen Ben in flash-forwards, sending Sayid on assassination missions and trying to shoot Desmond. We’ve met Young Ben in the past, but we have yet to see Ben flash back to reflect on his own adult life.

“What constitutes a proper Ben flashback?” Emerson said. “There are some gaps in Ben’s bio, and I think we may look backward a couple of times this season. I’m just guessing.”

Don’t expect any big changes for Ben, though. While audiences have seen him go from Henry Gale to the evil leader of the Others to a sympathetic young boy, Emerson has always acted as Ben and will continue to do so. “Ben has always seemed straightforward to me, and I don’t think Ben has changed much over time,” he said. “I think audience perceptions of Ben has changed.”

The Brainwashing of Republicans?

I’ve decided to pretty much stay out of the hoopla surrounding the escapades of Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, passing it off as just another example of the hypocrisy involved when a group of people tell others what to do or not do in their bedroom.

Of course, most times it’s Republicans doing the telling and citing the word of God in the purest fundamentalist Christian sense when they do.

Then, when caught with their britches down and their gavels hanging out, once again it’s God in the purest fundamentalist Christian sense who gets the credit for showing them the error of their ways. And we’re all supposed to forgive and forget.

After the comedy tour known as The Return of the Wasilla Hillbillies (more – lots more – on that coming in future posts), nothing really surprises me anymore.

Except for this. TPM has found a connection between Ensign, Sanford, and other political bed-hoppers-while-praying-to-The Almighty in the form of a halfway house hidden away in the hallowed streets of Washington, DC.

Both Ensign and Sanford have mentioned something called “C Street” whilst expressing their extramarital mea culpas to the waiting ears of their Republican brothers (and, of course, God in the purest fundamentalist Christian sense).  Why didn’t we think of this before? Who better to counsel and confer with these miscreants than their very own Scientology-style cult designed to wash them of their sins?

Courtesy of The Washington Post

From The Washington Post:

On any given day, the rowhouse at 133 C St. SE — well appointed, with American flag flying, white-and-green-trimmed windows and a pleasant garden — fills with talk of power and the Lord. At least five congressmen live there, quietly renting upstairs rooms from an organization affiliated with “the Fellowship,” the obsessively secretive Arlington spiritual group that organizes the National Day of Prayer breakfast, an event routinely attended by legions of top government officials. Other politicians come to the house for group spirituality sessions, prayer meetings or to simply share their troubles.

It seems like  ”The Family”, apparently another name for the super-secret Scientology-style  ”The Fellowship” which runs C Street, which, according to author Jeff Sharlet, has been around for a while, reminding wayward Republican politicians they have strayed from the path.

And shaping right-wing conservative neocon policy along the way?