[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. WARNING: If you haven't yet seen last night's simply amazing 100th episode of Bones , look away. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an interview with Bones executive producers Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan (and series lead Emily Deschanel) in which they talk about the big twist at the end of the episode. You know, the one that has to do with Booth and Brennan? "I think it opens it up in a whole new way," Nathan told Ausiello about the twist. "It gives us some history, which allows us to see all the additional possibilities that could occur between the two of them." Hanson went a step further. "We aren’t nervous about making them a couple, but we want it to play out in a way that is realistic for these two and that will make fans happy," said Hanson. "Everybody always mentions Moonlighting , but that honestly never comes up in our discussions on how to deal with them. The Moonl

I don't always discuss a single Lost episode twice in one week but after this week's episode ("Happily Ever After") brought up so many reader questions and seemed to offer some tantalizing answers to the season's overarching mythology, I felt like it more than merited another post. While I discussed "Happily Ever After" in full over here (along with theories about sleepwalkers, invisible threads of fate, Marvel Comics' "House of M," and more) , I thought I'd answer some reader questions from the episode that arrived via comments, Twitter, or email. So without further ado, let's head back through that veil once more. Not Penny's Mom. Rockauteur asks, "Who is Penny's mom? To me, she always seemed older than Faraday, which begs the question if her mother is an Other, or was someone just in the regular world. Could she be related to any other castaways?" Penny's mom is not an Other. We're told in the mainstre

"None of this is real." - Charlie Imagine a world where you managed to achieve your heart's desire. Would you be questioning the nature of the universe around you? Or would you be so complacent that you'd be blinded to what's actually going on until cracks started to form in the seemingly perfect veneer of your existence? It's the latter that has given the Lost -X (or "sideways" timeline) some of its heft this season on Lost as several of the characters have begun to feel an eerie sense of deja vu or a biting sense of frisson in which they seemed to realize, if only for a split-second, that something was "off" with the world and their place in it. This week's magnificent episode of Lost ("Happily Ever After"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed by Jack Bender, offered the biggest clues yet to the real function of the Lost -X timeline as Desmond was forcibly returned to the island to participate in Widmor

Looking for more Lost goodness? After a particularly busy week, I was extremely honored and more than happy to crash on Friday evening in front of the computer, pour myself a drink (Hendrick's gin and soda with lime, to be precise) and catch up with The Chicago Tribune 's Maureen Ryan and Zap2It's Ryan McGee. Yes, I was the mystery guest this week on the latest edition of their weekly Orientation: Ryan Station Lost podcast . Discussing this week's episode of Lost ("The Package"), we had a lot to say about Sun and Jin's separation (which I believe to be intentional), that stubborn tomato and a certainly conveniently located tree branch, the possible merging of the two realities, the handling of the series' female characters, and much more. You can give the podcast a listen here (and very conveniently watch along to the episode on the embedded Hulu player), download this week's episode here , and subscribe to the podcast here . Curious to see wha

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that the fate of FX's serpentine legal thriller Damages , set to wrap its third season in two weeks' time, is in the hands of DirecTV. "Multiple sources confirm to me exclusively that Sony is talking to DirecTV’s 101 Network about partnering on a possible fourth season of Damages ," writes Ausiello. "The cost-sharing arrangement would be similar to the one DirecTV and NBC forged with Friday Night Lights , which means future seasons of Damages would air first on DirecTV with a second window on FX." An unnamed source further tells Ausiello that Sony Pictures Television began talks with DirecTV after it became untenable to maintain financing Damages on its own and the studio has engaged in talks with other outlets as well. Both FX and Sony refused to comment for the story. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) The Chicago Tribune 's Maure

"A wise man once said that war is coming to this island. I think it just got here." - The Man in Black One of the central relationships on Lost since the very beginning of the series has been the often turbulent (and sometimes tender) marriage between Sun and Jin. It's no surprise then that the duo--linked by bonds of affection and fate--would be the focus of this week's episode, one that offers another facet of their relationship to explore. A what-if, in the Lost -X world, that dives into an examination of what might have been had Sun and Jin made different choices. This week's episode of Lost ("The Package"), written by Paul Zbyszewski and Graham Roland and directed by Paul Edwards, offered one of the strongest "sideways" installments to date, focusing on the very different circumstances in which Sun and Jin find themselves in the Lost -X timeline... while, back on the island, the duo attempts to reunite themselves but are once again thwar

I don't normally dive back into a single Lost episode twice in one week but after this week's episode ("Ab Aeterno") brought up many reader questions--and Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse announced the episode title for the series finale--I felt like it merited a second post this week. While I discussed "Ab Aeterno" in full over here (along with quite a few mythology- and story-based theories I had about the bottle metaphor, the Dharma Initiative, the Man in Black, and more) , I thought that it would be a good change of pace to answer some questions and concerns about this week's Richard Alpert-centric installment of Lost right here. We'll also get to the issue of the series finale's title after the jump, so as not to spoil those who don't want to know. (Though, in all honesty, it's not at all spoilery.) So without further ado, let's turn that bottle of wine over once more. Hell. Over on Twitter, several readers seemed confused abou

I have very mixed feelings about this week's episode of Lost , which is a rarity for me, as I'm usually on board with whatever Team Darlton and Co. throw at us from week to week. But in an opinion that's likely to make me not very popular, I didn't love last night's Richard Alpert-centric episode ("Ab Aeterno"), written by Melinda Hsu Taylor and Gregg Nations and directed by Tucker Gates, which attempted to fill in backstory for one of the most enigmatic characters on the series, the seemingly immortal Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell). My dislike for the episode comes with a few caveats up front. For one, I thought Carbonell did a fantastic job, delivering a knockout performance that carried the entire episode and portraying some very different incarnations of Richard Alpert over a stretch of roughly 150 years. I also give the producers credit for doing something risky in allowing the action to unfold mostly in Spanish, with English subtitles, and attempt