Who Are Those Hotties? No Really, WHO Are They? - ABC Thursday Edition (Lost and Eli Stone)

Lost - The Constant - Ep. 405
Eli Stone - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Ep. 104, One More Try - Ep. 105

Back in the original ABC Thursday schedule, we had the men surrounding Ugly Betty, from Marc (Michael Urie), Daniel (Eric Mabius), Henry (Christopher Gorham), Gio (Freddy Rodriguez), and of course, the little fave, Justin (Mark Indelicato). Grey's Anatomy is built upon women swooning over the hotties like Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), Karev (Justin Chambers), Sloan (Eric Dane), and George (T.R. Knight).

Now ABC replaces those guys with the men of Lost and Eli Stone and I'm loving it, and I can't wait for the post-strike episodes with new Betty and Grey's to create ABC's strongest lineup when Lost finally gets the 10pm slot vacated by the dismal Big Shots (which granted, did have it's share of hot men, and in fact, was the only reason to even have it playing on the television screen...oooh... Michael Vartan...). I wonder where the hotties from Scrubs might fit in (now that it might be moving to ABC?) and where Eli may get relegated to?

So this week on Lost we rewind just a bit back to the helicopter ride when Sayid, Desmond and Lapidus finally got to leave the island and we learn more about hottie Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick). Because really, what do we REALLY know about Desmond anyways? (Or anybody on this show for that matter?)

A storms-a-brewing and Desmond is now in the (Scottish?) army sporting a nice short cut with memories of a dream on the helicopter ride. When his mind gets back to the helicopter, he doesn't recognize Sayid anymore. They land on the ship where he's taken to a cell where Fisher Stevens has been hiding since Early Edition
(back when he was with Friday Night Lights hottie Kyle Chandler) as a bed-ridden George Mikowski (below) who is just as psychotic as a post-helicopter-ride-Desmond.

When Desmond is able to call Faraday back on the island, he's told to find Faraday(?), and to ask about Eloise. All before the shipmen try to stop the contact.

Short haired Desmond finds a long haired Faraday in a university, in what is now officially neither a flashback nor a flashforward (who knew Lost could come up with a THIRD option in storytelling?), and Faraday shows Desmond the rat named Eloise who completes a maze. A maze Faraday had just finished building and had used some time-traveling mind control to teach the rat to run the maze.

Good lord, what time is it? Time traveling mind control?

Back on the ship, George Mikowski knows who Desmond is, as he was the communications officer that communicated with Penny Widmore, wherein the shivers hit down my spine and entire body for this episode of Lost. Check. Shudder....

In the mindflash, Desmond sees the dead Eloise, figures out his own deadly future, and tries to call the one constant which doesn't work. The One Constant?

Then there's an auction and Caleb Bradford Meade Charles Widmore (Alan Dale, late of Ugly Betty!) is bidding on something, Desmond tracks him down, and is given Penny's address. What the f#$k is going on?

Desmond, Sayid and a crazed George are off to find the transmission room that had been ransacked, and just as they arrive, George passes out, bleeding to death out of his nose, much like what is going to happen to poor Desmond.

Back in 1996 (or Desmond's mind?), Desmond finds Penny (Sonya Walger) in her new place (as she's trying to get away from Desmond who had broken up with her), and asks for her phone number so that he can call her in 8 years.

Apparently, it's Dec. 24th 2004 on the ship now, and Desmond calls and Penny picks up and sounds excited!

The phone dies (don't you hate when that happens?) but after Desmond and Penny are able to confirm their love, but then back on the island, Faraday looks in his notes, to read that if things go wrong, Desmond Hume is HIS constant.

What the hell does THAT all mean? As usual, I'm so confused, but damn that was another great episode!

On Eli Stone, an entire show built around hottie Jonny Lee Miller, Eli finally breaks up with Taylor (Natasha Henstridge) and there she goes, joining the firm (I guess they had to keep her in the show somehow) along with the annoying Keith (Jason Winston George) who had tried suing Uncle Phil (James Avery) for race discrimination. Seriously, it was a nice plot twist that would have made more sense if I actually felt that Keith was a good lawyer and not just a whiny egotistical bitch (sorry, but Uncle Phil was right).

Meanwhile, they are finally giving Sam Jeager some lines and using his character Matt Dowd as his now-lesbian ex-girlfrend comes to him for help in a case of the lesbian breakup with her new no-longer-a-lesbian ex girlfriend suing for sole custody of their unborn child. Got all that?

This week, Eli is seeing choirs in court, and surfers in the office, all while he is forced to re-trial a case from his past when a guy in a wheelchair sued the SUV company for his accident. All while envisioning himself in Hawaii! Plus, I still love when he does his little dances to the songs in his mind. So cute!

And speaking of hotties this week, who was that guy that played the guy in a wheelchair?

So Eli must continue the work of old Eli and desecrate wheelchair guy, which of course goes against all of Maggie's moral value, and while I can see most people would get annoyed with Maggie's spunky positivity, it's a nice reminder to Eli of what the new Eli is all about (even though the point is hit on our head to the upteenth level).

Loved when Eli gave Maggie the realistic speech against her optimism, but loved it even more when he saw a vision of Patty (Loretta Devine) singing George Michael's "One More Try", THEN asking if she happened to be in a gospel choir. Loretta Devine always gives good sarcasm, but I'm not sure it's ever been combined with her Broadway diva skills. Patty happens to know where one of the insiders from his original case, so it's off to Hawaii Maggie and Eli go! Thus explaining Eli's Hawaii visions!

Meanwhile, Matt's lesbian baby case is a losing case when a waiver was found, but it's basically a case to humanize the frat boy womanizer Matt (above with Keith) and to help us actually like Sam Jeager for once (and I'm actually buying).

Meanwhile, Eli gets the info from the insider whistleblower of being bought off by the SUV company and the firm, finally going tete-a-tete with Martin Posner (Everwood's Tom Amandes) but Eli stands his ground, making Maggie proud!

Except, how DID Patty know where the whistleblower engineer was? GASP, she and Posner were together 5 years ago? She broke up with him because of what he did on this case. Seriously, Harold Abbott and Loretta Devine? This gives me a whole new

So even though Eli won his case, someone is looking into disbarring Eli after his outbursts and odd actions in court.

The drama is upping, and I'm starting to care about the characters after already loving the cast for their former roles in favorite shows.

I hope ABC will find a slot for Eli Stone when all the regular shows come back. I need my Jonny Lee Miller fix, not to mention the odd joy I still get from the mixing of Tom Amandes with Victor Garber with Julie Gonzalo with Matt Letscher with Loretta Devine, plus Laura Benanti and now Sam Jeager (man, I'm so easy, aren't I? Wait, don't respond to that).