M.C.F.A.T. XII: Answers

Though I thought the M.C.F.A.T. was a dead concept, the latest version of the Mysterious Cloaked Figure's Astonishing Test had a decent showing. It's interesting how readers are divided. The majority are indifferent, ignoring the test completely. I've only had two people tell me they outright hate it. But those who answer the questions every time are passionate about it, and miss it when it's not there. I think changing the day from Monday to Saturday helped this time as well, and gave people more time to reply. I may not post questions every week, but we probably haven't seen the last of the M.C.F.A.T. On to your answers:

Darrell

Wendy

Neolithic

Kev Bayer

Sean

*NAME HIDDEN*

Lorna

Kelly

1) What are some of your favorite season finale cliffhangers from your favorite shows over the years?
Falcon Crest: “Where are you going to tell Maggie you're alive?” While the finale included Angela's son Richard’s shooting and subsequent funeral, the season began with Chase dying. Both had been married to Maggie, so viewers had to wait an entire Summer to learn who the figure in the shadows was that Angela questions.

Alias:”My name isn't Michael Vaughn” A mediocre season ends with a shocking revelation, but before Syd(and the viewers) can process what Vaughn said, a truck strikes the driver's side of the car, shot from the passenger's point of view, and the screen goes black.

Smallville: Lionel's Vengeance Every season amid filler episodes and teen angst, this show has at least 3 or 4 strong episodes, and the finale to season 3 is one of them. In a montage set to classical music, an imprisoned Lionel is having his head shaved while horrible things are shown happening to his enemies. Martha runs out of the house to see a strange Kryptonian symbol burned in her field. Jonathan lies unconscious in a cave after being knocked out. Chloe and her father walk into a house moments before it explodes. Lex takes a sip of wine, and collapses on the floor of his office. As for Clark, he floats off in a void somewhere, the weakest of all the fates shown. Chloe's possible demise was most worrisome, but it was the music and the smirk on Lionel's face that made that final scene.

Star Trek: The Next Generation:”Resistance is futile” There were two things that would make me want to tune in to this series: Q or The Borg. So I caught the third season finale to watch the crew fight scary cybernetic zombies, and the shocking ending in which the ship's own Captain Picard has been converted into a cyborg himself, and leads an assault on his former crew.

I find I can't include Buffy or Angel. Buffy seasons were always self-contained, and each season's “big bad” was always defeated in the finale on the off-chance the show wasn't renewed. Angel had some good season cliffhangers, but the midseason cliffhangers when the show would go on hiatus were always far stronger. I can think of at least three powerful ones, which I'll review in a future post. I suppose one could argue that the season 5 Buffy ending, in which she dies could count as a cliffhanger, but had the show not had two more seasons on another network, the heroine sacrificing herself to save the world would have made a good series finale as well.

2) As we grow older time, at the very least by our perception of it, elapses faster and faster. True or false? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
It's true, and it's bad, and I haven't figured out how to stop it. Books sit unread, DVDs lay unwatched, and by the time I start mowing the lawn it's almost time to shovel snow. When I was young, filling time and alleviating boredom was a constant problem, even when plagued with a lot of homework. When I first started working after college, I didn't know if I could take sitting for eight hours in the same chair in front of the same computer in the same room. I make lists of things I want to accomplish, both at work and in my personal life, but I never get to everything. I saw a trailer yesterday for the movie Click, in which Adam Sandler obtains a “universal remote” that allows him to pause, rewind, fast forward, or slow down real life. I need one of those. I'm constantly looking at the clock and wondering where the last few hours went.

3) What do you remember about your first day of school?
I was terrified. I remember the teacher holding my hand as my mom walked away, and the hall she walked down seemed to get longer even though it was only about twenty feet. The sun was blinding outside the windows, and my mom disappeared into the light. Then the teacher dragged me through a side door into kindergarten, and I remember two kids knocking over my blocks and kicking and punching me a lot. My first day of school in first grade wasn't much different, nor was second grade. By third grade, I looked forward to seeing my friends and didn't freak out when my mom left me, or miss her really. I still got beat up though.

4) What's the best thing to put on ice cream?
Rainbow sprinkles if it's a cone, and hot fudge on a sundae, but only a plain vanilla sundae. Flavors like cookies ‘n' cream, rocky road, and tin roof sundae already include the best possible toppings mixed in, and require nothing added. At Coldstone, Kit Kat is a great item to mix in, as well as fresh Oreos. They also have a Boston cream pie mix that includes yellow cake.

5) How do you defend the things you enjoy?
I don't. People enjoy sports, music, movies, television, comics, video games and more. Everyone has different hobbies, and no one should ever apologize or defend those things. After posting the results of an RPG-themed internet quiz, Kev Bayer received a comment from a reader asking “what void in your life does stuff like this fill?” Life is divided into two categories: the things we have to do and the things we love to do. Too much time is spent on the former to waste time apologizing for the latter.

SPECIAL BONUS QUESTION: Who is Liddy Wales?
In a tie-in to the series Lost, television commercials have been airing the last few weeks for the fictitious Hanso Foundation. The Hanso web site has undergone recent upgrades, and there are a lot of hidden messages to be found once passwords like “breakingstrain” and “heir apparent” are found through the 800 number or sublymonal site. There are sections for the executive bios are well as the board of directors, but one of the directors has a question mark instead of a photo. The mystery director is “Liddy Wales”, and Sean probably had the best guess in suggesting it was the fake-beard character played by MC Gainey.