Hey, remember Lost, everyone? Who wants to hear news about Lost? You all love Lost, don't you?

Wait, don't walk away yet! Okay, yes, we probably talked a bit too much about that last season of Lost given how (in retrospect) it, to put it delicately, sucked and was horrible (even though one of us kind of liked the ending).

Though it would seem like there isn't anything to add about Lost by now, please bear with me for a minute - I have to Let Go Before I Can Move On.

In the time since "The End" aired, I've seen reactions ranging from pure love to fury. I'd say Suzanne Merkelson's review for the Atlantic was probably the closest to mine: I thought it had some problems - and more on this in a minute - but at the same time, as two and a half hours of television, I found it entertaining enough that I didn't mind.

Nobody at the Brattle applauded for the credits. The party host, attired in the manner of a Dharma Initiative scientist, who'd been dispensing raffle and trivia prizes during the commercial breaks, strongly advised everyone not to stick around for the (terrible) Jimmy Kimmel post-show, and go home. The mood felt rather glum, and I knew why.

Above: Before being pushed out a window, strangled, and possessed, John Locke was also stabbed by his stepdaughter.

And so, we've come to the end with "The End," a two-and-a-half-hour behemoth that promises to further confound, obfuscate, and infuriate (and it'll probably have pacing issues, also).

It's not exactly breaking news, but Nerve's list of the Top 40 hottest male Lost characters is definitely entertaining fluff. Unfortunately, some of that entertainment value comes from the sheer stupidity of their choices. For example: why is Widmore on the list at all, let alone at #20??

^{Freud visits the Island}

Turns out, the cheap thrill of seeing C.J. "The Jackal" Cregg bludgeon Jacob's mom to death with a rock wasn't enough to keep legions of Lost fans from moaning about how much last week's episode sucked. But for me, "Across the Sea" -- which explored the relationship between Jacob and the (still-unnamed) Man In Black/Smokey -- was one of the high points of the season so far -- which is saying something, considering that we're only one episode away from Sunday's hugenormous two-part finale.

^{Jacob, before he started playing cosmic backgammon with Smokey}

Last week, around 9:45 pm, the tubes of the internet reverberated with the blood-curdling shrieks of Lost fans everywhere, as episode 15 -- "The Candidate" -- let loose an almost unprecedented blitzkrieg of carnage. Our weekly chatjam was no exception -- one of our regular chatters, in a frenzy of agonized rage, punched right through his television screen and broke his hand.

Okay, I think I have my unified theory of why I'm not that crazy about this season of Lost (note: if you look through the archives, you'll see that I've said I've enjoyed a few episodes, but I'm talking about the season as a whole here, which I can't describe as anything but a disappointment).

In every season of Lost, there are a handful of episodes that are uninteresting but necessary - episodes that are clearly just about moving characters from point A to point B, stalling for time before whatever The Next Big Event is happens.

Your mom might not get you, your co-workers might not get you (unless you work here at at the Phoenix), and it's a pretty safe bet most members of the opposite sex really don't get you but, hark, there are people out there who do. Or so ImprovBoston's Geek Week claims. That's right, it's that time of year again. The time when even the pastiest-faced of Level 60 Night Elves put their Alienwares to sleep, crawl out of their parents' basements, and step out into the light.

First off: Can we talk about how maybe all this volcano nonsense is just a cover-up for the fact that Smokey has obviously gotten off the island? And if the thwarting of Adam Lambert's plan to shed glitter all over the British Isles is the worst consequence to come of it, maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all?

I'm not going to lie: the final season is starting to feel like a bit of a chore. It feels as though the story is simultaneously rushing and standing still; I think we probably learned some significant things in that last episode, but mostly it just felt like an absolute slog, marking time for the sake of marking time.

... And we're now officially more than halfway through the final season of Lost. That went by quick, no?

After last week's Alpert Explained episode, a few of us Phoenix Lost-watchers were talking. Specifically, we were talking quite about how it seemed like there was basically nothing to talk about after each of these episodes.

Prior to his voyage on the Black Rock, Richard Alpert took part in some amateur crime-fighting.

Last week's Lost ... what happened again? Something about Sawyer and Charles Widmore and Miles and Claire and Charlotte and Smokey's mommy issues? Plus some new woman who's apparently the key to the whole show (more on this in a minute)? I seem to remember thinking it was pretty good at the time, but as with a surprisingly large number of episodes from this season, I didn't find it particularly memorable.

^{Illustration plucked from Nedroid's amazing Lost gif bin}

Maybe it's just because it had an unusually high Ben Linus/Everybody Else ratio, but last week's episode, "Dr. Linus," was (in my humble opinion) pretty awesome. To briefly recap: In the Sideways Universe (also known as "Degrassi High: The Alternate Timeline"), disgruntled history teacher Ben -- initially egged on by Sideways Locke, no less -- tries to blackmail Principal Reynolds in order to claw his way to the top, but aborts mission when it threatens to ruin Alex's shot at getting into college.