BACK-TRACKING JACK

In the past, Toobworld Central has made the suggestion that sometimes the televersion of God has stepped in to create a do-over in the TV Universe. That is, He has rolled back Time to alter events that already transpired.

Usually this has taken the form of recastaways which can't be covered by the usual splainins like plastic surgery or quantum leaping. There are two specific examples I have of that - 'The Sopranos' and 'Seinfeld'.

On 'Seinfeld', great character actor John Randolph had been cast to play George's father, Frank Costanza. But they soon brought in Jerry Stiller to play the role instead and he indelibly made it his own. Normally, we'd have to then come up with a reason for the recasting, but in this case it wasn't necessary. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David decided to reshoot Randolph's scenes with Stiller and then replace the original footage for the eventual DVD sales. It was as though John Randolph's portrayal of Frank Costanza never existed. (But they didn't bother to do this with the role of Jerry's dad, played in the pilot by Phil Bruns, once Barney Martin came on board as Morty. Probably because too much time had passed and Jerry looked slightly older than he did in the pilot.)

On 'The Sopranos', Fairuza Balk was originally hired to play FBI Agent Deborah Ciccerone and she filmed a few scenes for a season finale. But then the next season was pushed back so that David Chase could plot out the next two seasons rather than just one, and Balk needed to be replaced. Lola Glaudini was now cast in the role and Chase also re-filmed those first couple of scenes so that Glaudini would always be Ciccerone within the show. No trace of Fairuza Balk was left in the world of 'The Sopranos'.

So to splain this away, Toobworld Central makes the claim that God went back to the very moment of conception for both characters and caused a different sperm to reach the egg. And that's why they look so vastly different.

I'm going to make the claim that God turned back Time again within the series finale of 'Lost' as well, but not for the purpose of a recastaway. It was in order to change the course of events during the ultimate battle between Jack and the Locke-ness Monster.

Jack and the Man in Black rushed towards each other and Jack leaped into the air with the intent of landing down upon the fake Locke. And that's when the show cut to a commercial break. But when the show returned, Jack was back up the slope and once again rushing towards Locke. Time was turned back because in the original scenario, Locke must have thrust upwards with his knife as Jack came down and killed him. With Jack dead, the Golden Light would remain extinguished which would have brought an end to the world, not just the Island.

So there was a bit of a reboot and this time Jack's approach varied. He was still stabbed by MiB, but it wasn't immediately fatal. He still had time to fulfill his duties as the Island's guardian by restoring the Light.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

BCnU!