What I Did On Summer Vacation

Some interesting tidbits to be had from the official ABC Lost podcast, which had highlights from the Lost panel discussion at ComicCon in San Diego. Of note:
There will be a Rousseau backstory episode this coming season. Not in flashback form, but we will get her story. (Side note - the show's producers said there still will be flashforwards and flashbacks, but also they are going to 'try something new.')
Vincent the dog will show up again.
Jin and Locke, we will see those characters again. In the Q&A session of the panel discussion, someone asked if those two characters were gone. And Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloff said no, we will see them again, that death is relative, yadda yadda. Very cagey they were. But we will see those characters again.
Kate and Sawyer will see each other again at some point.
The island did NOT travel when Desmond turned the key and the hatch imploded and the sky turned purple back in season 3.
Farraday's notepad is full of information about stuff that has happened and that WILL happen and we will find out a lot more about this in season 5.

Season 5 will begin in February. 17 episodes.

Fleeced!

I cannot claim credit for this putting of 2 and 2 together - heard it somewhere else - but it makes perfect sense.
Season one, we see a polar bear on the island. Total frackin' weirdness, makes no sense.
In subsequent seasons, we've seen what appear to be cages for the polar bears and then the skeleton of a polar bear with Dharma collar in some desert.
Significance? I think we now know.
The room with the donkey wheel was Arctic cold, right. That, plus the bear skeleton, leads to a pretty solid conclusion that Dharma was - and this sounds kinda stupid as I write it - was training polar bears to work the wheel to move the island, so that a human wouldn't be zapped to Tunisia. Instead a bear would take the fall.
So this one mystery - the polar bears - points to everything great and stupid about the show. Great = since season one, they've been working to this point wiht tantalizing clues along the way, none of which we could fathom until now. Stupid = polar bears trained to work a wormhole-manipulating wheel in a frigid undeground cavern on a mysterious island? Even the cheesiest Roger Moore Bond flick never went that doofy.
Dammit, it's a long wait to next season.

Your move, Mr. Eko

There are two types of Lost fans - those who were mostly amazed and occasionally annoyed by last night's slam-bang, two-hour season finale extravaganza, and those who hate freedom and want the terrorists to win. It's going to be a looong wait until January (yes, January) to see what happens next with season 5.

But here's some of what we know now: how Jin died, why Sawyer wasn't one of the Oceanic Six, how the Oceanic Six actually got off the island, how (kind of) Ben ended up in Tunisia wearing a winter parka, who was in the coffin, why the Oceanic Six have lied about their ordeal, whether Desmond and Penny ever would get back together, how to move a tropical island.

Of course, now we have a whole bunch of new questions - who the heck built the island-moving-wheel? are Daniel and the other Losties who were on that speedboat heading to the freighter when it blew up dead in the middle of the ocean or did they teleport with the island? Is Sun teaming up with Widmore to get revenge on Jack (Jack indicating that Sun blames him for Jin's death - which really doesn't quite make sense, but you know how chicks are - totally irrational)? Why do the Oceanic Six, including dead Locke, need to return to the island? (was it me or did kate apologizing to sleeping Aaron seem to indicate she had decided they in fact did need to return?) Why did Ghost Whisperer guy and Charlotte remain on the island?

Some fairly solid speculations - the Orchid hatch is how folks like Richard have been bouncing through time.

Some based-on-nothing speculations - Widmore once moved the island. We seem to think he's been there before, by the fact he is looking for it and that he indicated to Ben 'you took what was mine.' Makes me wonder if before Ben, Widmore was the one in communication with Jacob and he moved the island for some reason and has been driven to return yet cannot.

Nice touches - Hurley playing chess with Eko. The Christian Shepard apparition showing up and telling Michael 'you can go now' before the boat goes kablooey. Yet another partial Dharma videotape giving us just a hint of what's going on - and each time Dr. Marvin Kendall has a different name in the video. The big bad mercenary guy getting what's coming to him, though unfortunately it came at the expense of many lost innocent lives. But at least the island is now a peaceful democracy instead of a haven for terror. Whoops, political commentary in Lost Talk, sorry.

Annoyances - the wheel that moves the island and that magic realism stuff going on there; am really having a love/hate relationship with that aspect of the show. the Eko/Christian Shepard/ghosts thing - dammit, I want some explanation, some clue, something to help explain all this.

Trivia - Jeremy Bentham, Locke's pseudonym, was a noted English philosopher, best known for the idea of utilitarianism - that something's moral worth is gauged by how much pleasure and happiness it brings society as a whole, and thus by its outcome. Perhaps an allusion to choices Locke makes that cause great damage and suffering to the island in the time between the Oceanic Six leaving and Jack growing his Jim-Morrison-in-Paris beard?

In closing - that episode rocked. Your thoughts, speculation, take?

Web 2.0

A multimedia experiment, we are live blogging tonight about Lost.

10:01 - man, Locke had one messed-up childhood.
10:03 - the freighter's doctor is still alive. The same doctor we saw wash up on the shore before with his throat cut. Eeenteresting.
10:11 - the Horace dream sequence was some spooky stuff, Horace being the guy who welcomed people off the boat when they arrived for the Dharma Initiative. Then Ben had an interesting comment, "I used to have dreams." Dreams like Locke's? Seemingly communicative with something supernatural dreams?
10:20 - 'whoa' moment, Richard there at the Locke's maternity ward. A close second, Hurley's supposition as to why only he and Locke can see the cabin: "because we're the craziest."
10:26 - More Richard. I think we're starting to see indications the Losties were set there bh circumstances long ago. Young John Locke then failed some inscrutable test by choosing the knife. Interesting. Am betting the jar of dirt was island dirt.
10:36 - Dick Ide Honda just did a Lost-like commercial? Am I impressed? Am I disgusted? Am I hungry? Where are the carrot sticks? More than halfway through and not much has happened and yet a lot has happened.
10:44 - Ian raises a good question - in regards to Red Lobster, what is 'crunch fried'?
10:51 - Abaddon and Locke! I'm curious if we're going to see evidence of other characters manipulated to be on the Oceanic flight. For example, what brought Christian Shepard to Australia, I wonder.
10:58 - best line "Yeah, I'm cool with you going in alone, too." Hurley with the win.
So I was betting it was Abaddon in the cabin, but Christian Shepard also makes sense. As much as anything in this show makes sense. So what do we know now? Locke was chosen/manipulated to come to the island. Why him? Maybe the time-bending properties of the island meant it knew he'd be there one day, playing the role he is playing, so the island then had to ensure he did in fact go there to play that role (dude, my head hurts). We know Martin and the mercenaries are heading to wipe out everyone and Frank the chopper pilot seems to have some plan. That Ben's role as chosen by the island is apparently over - he fulfilled whatever task and now he's tossed aside. That Claire is a willing part of whatever the island is doing - the Claire sitting there in the cabin with dead ghost dad after having left her baby in the jungle was seemingly cool with everything.
Next week it looks as if we get some Oceanic Six flashforward.

The hours

Sigh.
According to TV Guide, this season will get an extra hour added to it - 14 hours long instead of the strike-shortened 13 hours. So why the sigh, you ask? Here's how the season finale will work - hour one of the finale will air May 15, then there will be no Lost on the 22nd to make room for the Grey's Anatomy finale. Then on May 29, the other two hours of the finale ep. Apparently the Lost producers convinced ABC those last two hours had to air together.
So a week without Lost essentially in the middle of an episode. Quelle annoying.

Lost's hips, Lost's thighs, you got me hypnotized

Due to popular reader demand (thanks for making the staff here at Lost Central feel needed, Sheila R.), LostTalk is back for a Fill In The Downtime Until The April 24 Episode session.
The basis for today's reading material will be some info from the official Lost Podcast put out by ABC and the most recent Entertainment Weekly, which had a story about Lost. If you don't want anything spoiled, avert your eyes.
- Every season finale episode has had a code name used internally by the Lost production staff. Season 3, with the first flashforward, was "The Snake in the Mailbox," the significance being that would be something you'd never see coming, a snake in your mailbox, and it would shock the heck out of you. So this season finale's codename? "The Frozen Donkey Wheel." What's it mean? I don't know.
- So this whole Desmond adrift in time thing, it started happening when he left the island. Why wasn't he so effected when he left the island once before on that yacht? Answer, according to the official Lost podcast, is that he likely never really left the influence of the island, that maybe he only got a few miles out and then boated in circles. Getting on and off the island apparently can only be done on a very precise course. The Lost producers likened it to reentering the Earth's atmosphere from space - too steep, you burn up. Too shallow, you bounce back into space.
Also, Desmond got a big honkin' dose of electromagnetic radiation when the hatch imploded after his yacht episode, that wouldve been a trigger.
- No shocker, the producers also confirmed that the adrift in time psychosis we're seeing is The Sickness Rousseau referred to.
- Finally, a second no shocker, but a confirmation of what we suspected - when we've seen Walt on the island recently, such as when Locke was shot and in that pit, that was actually not Walt but an apparition tied to the Smoke Monster. Supposedly we'll learn more about that soon.
- Coming up, we find out from Entertainment Weekly that this season we will get answers to some big questions: how'd the Oceanic 6 leave? what happened to those left behind? why is Sayid working for Ben as a killer? who is in that coffin from Jack's Jim Morrison flash forward?
- There also will be a major gun battle involving Locke's group of Losties. My guess- it involves whoever shot Rousseau and Carl. (My guess, those big gun-toting mercenary like dudes from the freighter, on a Go Kill Ben and Anyone Else cruise).
- It also sounded like we might get a Ben-centric flashback in which we see him in his globetrotting days, which could be fun.
Anyone got any interesting tidbits? Theories? Speculations?

I am Kevin Johnson

Sorry, I was out of town and away from a computer last week. But with us not having any new Lost eps. for a month, I figured we'd still do a quick discussion on some key topics:
-- Who shot Rousseau and Karl? -- It could be the Others, though the motivation for that is unclear. It could be the Freighties (remember, the chopper pilot took a few people and supplies on 'an errand.') Or, most intriguingly, it could be some group we've not seen before. Maybe Dharma survivors, hidden in the jungle the last few years after the Ben purge? The question also becomes, did Ben know some shootin' was going to happen when he sent Alex away for her own safety? He has been trying to keep Alex and Karl apart - both because of his possessiveness, I reckon, and because if Alex gets preggers, she's in a heap of trouble. And then dead.
-- What's up with the island supposedly keeping Michael from kililng himself? Am of mixed feelings about this notion. On one hand, it's kinda cool. On the other, it becomes this deus ex machina idea where any crazy s*** can happen and we just have to chalk it up to 'oh, that crazy island is being all crazy again.' Though it opens up some intriguing notions, like Richard Alpert not having aged because the island won't let him because it needs him for something maybe, and Ben and Widmore both wanting the island because of its godlike abilities. Then again, maybe Tom just swapped Michael's gun with a gun that wouldnt work - this show has a running sub theme about cons and scams.
-- The Oceanic Six. So the TV ads have made it clear, the six are Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sun, Aaron and Sayid. One thought as to why those six in particular - five of them were on the far side of the island when the hatch blew and the skies went all purple - Hurley, Jack, Kate were captured by the Others, while Sun and Sayid (and Jin) were on that rescue mission on the boat. So maybe it has to do with exposure to the electromagnetic pulse that makes you adrift in time (= 'the sickness'?). Aaron was still receiving those shots at the time so maybe that innoculated him from those effects?

Kinda sucks that we now have a month without Lost. Damn you, writers strike. You blew it up, you blew it all up. Damn you to hell.

From reader Mike Crupi --
I have to think Ben sent Rousseau and Karl intentionally into harms way. He just doesn't miscalculate like that. Also seems convenient that his 'daughter' was spared.
I like the theory about the oceanic six being the only ones who could get off the island because everyone else is sick or affected by the time drift. Makes sense, as much as something can make sense on lost.

From reader Kevin Werther --
I would gladly send my daughter—if I had one—into
harm's way to kill Karl. That guy's a turd. Heck, I
would sacrifice my daughter—if I had one—for Taco
Bell.

From reader Amy Werther --
I thought it was Ben himself who took out Karl and
Rousseau. He is a very jealous man (see Juliette's
backstory, "You're mine") and think he would do
anything to keep his "daughter" to himself.

As far as the episode, I was a little disappointed
since that was supposed to be season ender. It did
cement the fact that Ben's henchmen was correct in
saying that Kate "wasn't his type."

How does Walt go from being on the island to off so
quickly? First Locke is seeing him, then he's hanging
with his Grandma.

And why does Ben allow Michael to go back to NYC and
pretend he wasn't on Oceanic? Why not Sawyer, Claire,
Locke, etc. get off the island in the future, maybe
they do get off the island, they just lay low.

You're mine

Losttalk is back, after a one-week hiatus as we followed our favorite jam band around the country. Now let's get into the good stuff:
It was Juliette's flashback, but really that episode was all about Ben, boiling down to two key moments - when we see Ben and the Others were willing to let the Tempest powerplant go blooey, presumably so that the chemical contamination would kill off the island populace (or at least that's what we have been lead to believe by the Freighties). The other key moment was Ben's little "you're mine!" rant to Juliette after leading her to Goodwin's body. It really gives us more insight - that Ben is not only a master manipulator but also this Machiavellian child. Maybe Charles Widmore wants to exploit the island. And maybe Ben just doesn't want to share 'his' island.
Side question - so if the chemical explosion had gone off, presumably the Others had easy access to gas masks, but where was Ben supposed to get such a thing, locked up in the basement?
The Freighties know far more about the layout of the island than even the Oceanic gang does - note Daniel's handdrawn map to Tempest. Presumably they got their knowledge from Others that Widmore had captured? Or does Widmore have moles as well? Or does he even have access to Hanso Foundation information? Meanwhile, the question is why he wants this island in the first place. And how it is Desmond ended up on the island on the first place - definitely not coincidence, since he was in a Widmore-sponsored race.
Ben's ability to play Locke never fails to amuse me - by dangling bits of truth and half truth, Ben is getting whatever he wants and at the same time starting to create that insurrection he referred to (how long are Locke's sidekicks going to listen to him if they keep being confronted with things like Ben walking around free when they never were consulted).
Meanwhile, we're getting closer to seeing who Ben's mole on the freighter is - the most obvious guess is Michael. Which makes me wonder if it's someone else.
Nice moments - Tom's mustache and Ben with a bouquet to welcome Juliette; creepy Dr. Harper the Other; a quick reference to the Oceanic 815 children swiped by the Others; Harper telling Julliette "Ben is exactly where he wants to be"; Ben telling an open-mouthed Sawyer and Hurley "see you guys at dinner."
Finally, in the flashback we hear reference to one of the pregnant Others, Henrietta, dying. Henrietta? That a shoutout by the writers to the Rochester region's best-read Lost blog? I think so. I think so. LostTalk is exactly where it wants to be.
Your thoughts, insights, analysis? Let 'er rip.

You just totally Scooby Doo'd me

As always, if you didn't watch last night's ep, don't read this, but instead catch up later at http://thursdaylosttalk.blogspot.com/ where you also can click on our one ad for the thriller Vantage Point!!

Like the blind guys and the elephant, were getting small puzzle pieces here and there that are answering some questions and opening up so many more. Which is why I'm lovin' this show.
So how did Kate end up with Claire's baby, Aaron? And why wont Jack come see the kid? First speculation - that Jack failed in some way to save Claire and feels guilt about it. Does that mean Claire is dead? Or still on the island?
The story Jack told on the stand about Kate, he's told that story numerous times, Kate says later. If this is part of the cover story the Oceanic Six have to tell, it raises interesting questions about why the story has Kate as a hero. Did the Losties create it to try to build Kate up later in anticipation of the criminal trial? Or is there some other reason?
Meanwhile, the story we know now is that eight people survived the crash and apparently six got off the island, implying two died subsequently (?) (Claire?). Does that mean two of our Losties are to die soon? So far we know Jack, Kate, Sayid and Hurley are among the six, Aaron is probably one. A big question mark is if Ben is one - though the likelihood is that he got off the island on his own accord. Considering the celebritydom that has surrounded the Six, Ben wouldve had trouble being one of the Six since he was not on the manifest or assuming the identity of someone else.
Ben hit the nail on the head when he accused Locke of not having any sort of plan or direction of his own, and just looking for the island or Jacob to tell him what to do next. I think that was reflected in the backgammon moment between Sawyer and Locke, when Locke asks whether Sawyer believes he knows what he is doing. (Meanwhile, on a side note, Locke is gettin' crazier and crazier. Just when you think he's bats--- insane, he does something even crazier like shove live grenades in people's mouths.)
Lots of questions abound:
What the heck is up with Dan's mental state that the playing card test was hinting at?
Where'd the helicopter go? Is it lost in the seeming timewarp around the island?
Interesting touches:
The book Locke brought to Ben in the basement was Valis by Philip K. Dick, which is this odd sort of s.f. novel in the form of dialogues about various religions.
I have gots to get me a Dharma coffee mug. And a videocassette of 'Xanadu.'

Lost Talk for Feb. 15

Welcome to day one of the Lost Talk fund drive. You know, quality programming like Lost Talk doesn't come for free. We have a staff of dozens who obsess over every episode, and a crack gag-writing squad to fill your Friday's with pithy commens and one-liners. So please, do what you can to help keep this programming going. Go to the Lost Talk at http://thursdaylosttalk.blogspot.com/ and click on our one lousy banner ad. And go see 'Vantage Point' the exciting new thriller starring that dreamy Matthew Fox and that dreamier Forrest Whittaker!

Now back to our regular programming ...
Holy shmenkies! That last 30 seconds made the whole episode worthwhile - Sayid working as a hitman for Ben the vet, whacking people on some vague list Ben has! Questions abound!
- Who's on this list and why are they being whacked? Am presuming these folks, like the Accountant and the Golfer (note to self - cancel foursome with Sayid), have something to do with the forces that have sent the freighter to the island in search of Ben.
- Is Ben holding some of Sayid's friends hostage? Or is Sayid whacking these people to head off further looking for the island? Remember, Doc Ben said Sayid was protecting his friends by being a stone-cold killah.
- So both Naomi and Elsa of Berlin were wearing the same bracelet? If such is the case (can you TiVo hi-def folks verify), that presumably indicates they work for the same employer. Interesting. Was it me or did seeing Naomi's bracelet set off Sayid on his fired-up quest to get on the freighter? Has Sayid seen this bracelet before?
- So there is a time gap between the island and the rest of the world. Of course, now everything makes sense. Wait, what?
- Helicopter pilot Frank and Brief History of Time Dan obviously know who Penny Widmore is, despite their bad lying. Curiouser and curiouser. (Speaking of Dan, I didn't watch the repeat episode on before last night's new one, but apparently there was a brief bit of addt'l footage in the repeat that showed that the lady with Physicist Dan in his home when he's watching that news about Oceanic 815 was some kind of caretaker. Maybe a mental health issue there? Speculation - why is Dan crying? Because while he is in the past, that is Dan from some point in the future, sent back, maybe in some kind of Moebius Loop/Groundhog Day kind of scenario?)
- So what happened to the cabin? For me, this seems to decide it that Hurley wasn't hallucinating when he saw the cabin move. Freaky deaky.

We'll get back to our regular programming in just a moment. But just to remind you, all our phone lines are open for the Lost Talk fund drive and operators are standing by. Rochester, NY's best weekly Lost blog - with readership in Seattle and Ohio - is a massive undertaking. And even though we've now signed an agreement turning over all the gag writing to a well-known comedy writing firm in Bangalore, India, those folks still cost a pretty penny. So please, do what you can to help keep this programming going. Go to the Lost Talk at http://thursdaylosttalk.blogspot.com/ and click on that banner ad again and again and again.

Nice touches from last night:
- Ben's Scooby-Doo hidden room.
- Sawyer tossing in his lot with Locke as part of a growing group that seems to want to stay on the island.
- "Great, the freighter sent us another Sawyer."
Speculations:
- Kate also is working for Ben in the future. Remember, she was talking with bearded Jack and said 'I have to get back to him.' I bet 'him' is Ben.

Your thougts? Let 'em rip.

Oceanic Six

I cannot claim authorship of this idea, but thought it was worth sharing. We're going on this assumption six people get off the island in the future due to Hurley's reference to the Oceanic Six. But I don't think only six people get off the island, and Kate is not one of the Oceanic Six. Consider - she's wanted for murder, when she and some other Losties were looking at getting off using Michael's raft she pocketed a dead woman's ID. Yet when we see her in the future, she's not behind bars. Leading me to believe that while a group got off the island and the became minicelebrities for a short time because of their ordeal, Kate was not one of them. Raising the interesting notion that more people - maybe everyone? - got off the island. And maybe Jack and Hurley's reasons for wanting to go back have nothing to do with leaving people behind. Or at the very least, more than six folks got off the island. In which case, who are those six? Jack and Hurley are confirmed. I'm going to put Kate in the Non Oceanic Six pile. Jin and Sun? Claire and baby? Ben?

Lost songs

This comes from loyal Lost Talk reader Kathy:
Go here, this song is funny:

http://www.myspace.com/previouslyonlostmusic

I was going to post it on the Lost Talk blog but couldn't figure out how to do it. After all, I'm just a dumb student. :)

- Kathy



From USA Today's Pop Candy blog:


The sounds of Sun and Sawyer
Tired of the same old Lost recaps? A new band called Previously on Lost has come up with a unique way to celebrate the series: Each week they'll post a song on their MySpace page that summarizes the show and offers commentary.

Check out the first tune, We're Goin' Home, to hear about the premiere. Sample lyrics:

Jack can't trust nobody but himself

And Hurley's quickly losing touch with his mental health

Locke's gotta toss another corpse upon the shelf

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're goin' home

It's actually pretty cute and catchy -- especially when they get to the "Cannonball!" interlude.

Who are we to argue with taller ghost Walt?

Yay! My favorite islander, Vincent, had substantial screen time and dialogue ("woof!") last night.
That was probably the least confusing, most straightforward aspect of last night's ep. I think viewers walked away last night scratching their heads over roughly 2,600 new mysteries and questions raised and few answers:
If the four new characters were there looking for Ben, howcum Naomi had a picture of Desmond?
Why the heck are four non-special ops folks being sent to get Benry?
The Oceanic 815 flight found off the coast of Burma, was it in fact a fake planted there? That's pretty elaborate a deception to be undertaken.
Loved the flashbacks on the Freighties. And I like the Myles character - he's a nice lit match in the gasoline we've got on the island. But a ghost whisperer? Wha?
Intriguing Hurley/Locke exchange - seems like the cabin appeared to Hurley, that it is not necessarily in a fixed place. And Ben's face had an interesting reaction to the notion that Hurley also may be attuned in some way to the island.
So the Freighties choppered in with gas masks and guns and bulletproof vests? What exactly do they want with Ben? When/where was that photo of Ben taken? (Speaking of Ben, he had some great manipulator moments last night with Sawyer with the whole 'what chance do you have compared to a first-class surgeon' talk. Ben is such an intriguing character - is he evil?)
Golisano Children's ran another ad exploiting sickly children? For shame.
Speaking of polar bear skeletons in Tunisia (nice segue), has Dharma been around been around for a lonnnng time? Or, my pet theory, had it been working on teleporting stuff over time and space? (And if that's the case, why for frick's sake teleport polar bears, of all things?)
What was up with the cow the pilot Frank saw?
Finally, Matthew Abadaon, the guy who last ep. told Hurley was an Oceanic lawyer, seemed pretty insistent when hiring Naomi that there were no Oceanic survivors. Why would that topic even come up if he and whoever he represnts (Hanso Foundation?) knew where the missing airliner went down and were sending this group for Ben in direct response to the crash?
Ohhh, my brain hurts a lot right now. What're your thoughts? What'd I miss?

We're laying heavy money on Walt simply punting Aaron into submission

Cracked has still got it.
http://www.cracked.com/article_15838_5-questions-lost-writers-need-answer-why-they-wont.html

Oceanic 6

Here's a tidbit about the Oceanic 6 from TVGuide.com.

Who could the others be?

You're standing there over by the Ho-Hos

*Pop*
You hear that sound? That was my mind blowing after last night's season premiere. The good news is if there was any worry Lost might've started season 4 on a weak note or that the eight-month hiatus would've proven to be a problem were quickly wiped away.
So let's get into the meat:
One annoyance - 8 p.m. was another recap show? MotherSCRATCHER! Though ultimately it was a bit useful, I must admit.
Then 9 p.m. rolls around ...
Observation - Instead of the season starting with a closeup on someone's eye, it starts with a car plowing through a pile of papaya, like something out of an episode of Simon & Simon or Matt Houston. Sweeeeet.
So Hurley is one of 'the Oceanic Six'? First assumption - six people got off the island and, as we saw later, became brief media celebrities. We got the idea in season 3 finale that Jack was wrestling with some guilt over having gotten off the island when others had not. But the writers did a great move by splitting the Losties into two packs, with Hurley in one and Jack and Kate in the other, instantly quashing any easy assumptions about how some Losties got off the island vis a vis Naomi's folks.
With the Oceanic Six, now we have to wonder if one of the other six was the person in the coffin at that funeral Jack went to in the season three finale. Or, more intriguingly, it was not one of the six.
Also intriguing was that Oceanic atty. who visited Hurley in the booby hatch with his insistent "Are they still alive?" question. My theory - the Losties who remained on the island were hiding, maybe even faked their deaths, to avoid the rescuers. Why? Dunno. But now someone off the island - perhaps whoever was behind Dharma - wants them, perhaps because of their prolonged exposure to the island. Your thoughts?
A quick shoutout to Tivo, which let us repeatedly see Jacob in the cabin - a suit and white sneaker wearing Jacob who looked to some like Jack's father (dun dah dun!) Creeeeeeepyyyy. Raises an interesting question - Henry had indicated to Locke that one could only see Jacob if attuned to the island or worthy. Is Hurley attuned? What the F is Jacob? What does that have to do with Jack's dead dad, if anything? Why the white tennys? I don't know.
And speaking of weird stuff Hurley saw, perhaps the biggest 'you've GOT to be kidding me' moment was an alive Charlie - with a much nicer haircut - shows up at the nuthatch. "I am dead. But I'm also here," he said before indicating Hurley has something to do: "they need you, Hurley." He slapped Hurley. Another looney saw him. So he was real. Unless Hurley hallucinated both. Except why hallucinate Charlie with that haircut? And who needs Hurley? The most obvious supposition is, once again, it has to do with the Losties left behind on the island.
Interestingly, two of the Losties we've seen in the future off the island seem much more miserable now than they were there. Jack's self destructive and wearing a bad beard. Hurley's hallucinating and freaking. Makes one wonder what Kate's post-island life is like.
Meanwhile, life for me is good because the best hour of TV on TV (bite me, The Wire fans, I'll get around to Netflixing it at some point) is back. Next week looks good, too.

Eight is enough to fill our lives with love

Here's a nice little look at Lost ratings/Lost filming issues, courtesy of one of my Gannett brethren.

New season of 'Lost' is beginning of the adventure's end
By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
Will eight be enough?
Viewers will have to decide whether Lost is half-empty or half-full when the ABC adventure-drama returns for its fourth season Thursday (9 ET/PT). Because of the Hollywood writers' strike, only eight of 16 planned episodes have been produced.

Cast members say that ABC's decision to provide some Lost rather than none is smart and that they are pleased with a quickened pace and more answers to Lost's mysteries.

"We're all going to be disappointed that there are only eight instead of 16, but the eight episodes are amazing, and I think fans will be very satisfied," says Yunjin Kim, who plays Sun, the pregnant wife of Jin (Daniel Dae Kim). "I feel like this season all the episodes are self-contained. The speed of the story is faster. Each episode contains a question and an answer, finally. So there's a lot of satisfaction."

That approach may be the result of the unusual decision to set an end date for a hit series, with 48 episodes over three seasons. Knowing when the story concludes (which may be reflected in the title of the one-hour season-opener, "The Beginning of the End") has helped writers map out a faster, more focused pace, says Matthew Fox, who plays Jack Shephard, the reluctant leader of the survivors of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815.

"Lost is a story with a beginning and an end. Knowing he's got 48, (co-creator Damon Lindelof) can make each installment move the narrative forward to that conclusion with momentum," Fox says.

Based on Lost's previous production schedule, five or six more episodes likely could be produced by the end of May if the writers' strike is settled by mid-February.

Lost ended last May with a jolt, opening the door to the castaways' possible rescue while adding a twist, a first flash-forward after three seasons of signature character flashbacks.

•The island update: Hurley (Hugo Reyes) saved three survivor colleagues from the Others, a mysterious island group at odds with the Oceanic passengers. Jack contacted an offshore freighter, and he and other stranded island dwellers were waiting for its crew to rescue them. And, just before drowning, another colleague, Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), passed on the message that the boat people weren't who the islanders thought.

That leads to a big season-opening question, one that will divide the islanders as four strangers arrive: Are they coming to hurt or to help?

•The future revelation: In a surprise directional change praised by cast and TV critics, Lost's May finale looked ahead to find that Jack and Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and possibly some others from the island, made it back to civilization.

The episode ended with a bearded, substance-abusing Jack raising more questions by imploring Kate: "We were not supposed to leave. … We have to go back, Kate."

Other questions hover: Who will leave the island, and who will stay? What will become of the pregnant Sun on an island where expectant mothers die? How will the romantic possibilities play out? Of course, Lost's big questions — what and where is the island, and why are these people there? — remain. (ABC will repeat the two-hour finale Wednesday at 9 ET/PT and air a series recap Thursday at 8.)

After averaging 15.9 million and 15.4 million viewers in its first two years, Lost fell to 13.8 million last season. (Lost is the top show in time-shifted viewing, ABC says.)

A complex, serialized show such as Lost loses some of its audience via attrition, but many viewers and critics blamed a six-episode fall 2006 arc they say had too much of the Others, not enough of the first-year regulars and too little in the way of action and answers.

A longer episode allotment in the spring received a much better critical response, and the season finale (13.9 million viewers) gave Lost its largest audience in more than three months. That led to the decision to run its 16 episodes consecutively this season.

But if this season also ends up divided, cast members say, the eight episodes will stand up better because they have lots of action and all the regulars are featured. (Lost's writers would not discuss the season because of the strike; ABC execs declined to be interviewed.)

Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Juliet, one of the Others, likens the literature-referencing series to a novel. "I'm reading this book, Orley Farm. The first 150 pages are all setup. You're like, 'Where are the people I care about?' Then, all of a sudden, the book takes off. I feel that's what happened in Season 3. The writers laid their groundwork. And it hits the ground running" this season.

Lost could benefit from the strike, too, since there is less scripted competition. With time slots available because other shows have only reruns, it was moved from Wednesday, American Idol's regular night, to Thursday, and from 10 ET/PT to 9, an hour with more viewers.

In addition to new characters from the freighter, Michael (Harold Perrineau), who left the island with son Walt earlier, will return. Some on the island, most recently Locke (Terry O'Quinn) in the season finale, have seen a vision of Walt (Malcolm David Kelley).

Michael Emerson, who plays the spooky Others leader Ben, says that this season not only keeps up last season's momentum, but that the flash-forward opens great creative opportunities. "None of us knew what was going on until we saw the broadcast. I thought 'Hallelujah! This is going to make this show.' "

The future perspective is "how they're going to spin it out to be suspenseful and dramatic. Who has gotten off the island and at what price?" he says. "Now, there are these bittersweet notes of regret and missed opportunity that will come into play. To the extent the island was some crucible in which people could hope for redemption, maybe not everyone was redeemed, at least not happily."

Dude

Here's an interview with Hurley from BuddyTV.com. Here's the encapsulation - nothing all that interesting, he knows nothing. But here it is anyway.

How is season 4 going so far for you?

It's going really well. The scripts are really exciting. It's very much reminiscent of the excitement of going through the scripts we got in season 1, where it was really crazy directions and like "What's going on?" Season 4 is going to be very important for people to adjust their Tivos or record the show after Lost. A lot of closing teasers are really WTF moments, and it's going to be pretty cool.


So the cliffhanger is a big focus this season?

Every season they do like to end the show with a good little something, but there have been some great final pages in scripts we've been reading.


Hurley, in the season 3 finale, finally got to show his warrior side. Are we going to see some more of that in season 4?

Gradually I think we've seen, from season 1 all the way to the van moment, Hurley slowly kind of take responsibility, slowly start to be a leader and step up, and kind of take a more leadership role. He's assuming a little more, for sure.


Has the new shooting schedule increased demand or opened up any extra opportunities for you as an actor?

Well, I don't know yet. It's opened up the break between the end of season 4 and the beginning of the next season. I know there's still talk of the impending writers' strike situation, which might turn days off into snow days, where they keep adding it to the end of the year if we can't shoot it. Who knows.


Let's talk about the numbers. Hurley's numbers, is that an issue that's resolved for Hurley? Are we ever going to see anything about that again?

I don't know. The numbers became a monster for awhile, and then they kind of faded away a bit lately. Not much has been numbers oriented recently that I can think of.


With the new people arriving on the island, does that move the threat away from the monster and the issues that were a threat to the survivors on the island to the new people? Or is that just something new to the mix?

I think it's just something new to the mix. Sure the monster's always there, but we've been living with that there for awhile, so you might give a little more weight to the slightly more unknown I guess. But the monster is definitely still on our minds for sure.


You're probably restricted on what you can say.

Yeah, I don't have that much information. I've had scenes with two of the newcomers, and my run-ins with them have been pretty ambiguous still.


So I know in earlier seasons there's been this lore about the Lost set that when the new actors come in it's very welcoming. Now that you guys are three seasons in and have built a more hardened core, is it still that kind of an open experience?

I think so. I think it's fun when new people come and join us, because it's just new dynamics and new chemistries to form with people. It kind of keeps an actor on his toes. I guess that's something you have to ask them more than us, but I always try to make an effort to bring people along and tell them where the good places are around Hawaii to hit up. Especially cause they're all living out of their hotels at the start usually.


On that note, now that the show has got an end point, I know you guys kind of started lives here. How did the prospect of production coming to an end affect you guys personally?

I'd been house hunting, but never finding anything, so now I'm definitely looking at going back to California to be closer to the business and my family and stuff. That reality I'm dealing with. I've been in the same place for three seasons so far, so I have amassed stuff that now has to either get sold off or sent back. I'm actually gonna start maybe a public storage near my sister's house, so I can send her boxes to kind of stash for me. I don't want to have to move everything at the last minute.

So why don't you kill me

This really has nothing at all to do with Lost itself. But the two great tastes of Lost and Weird Al Yankovic make this a must see.
http://www.compfused.com/directlink/5020/

You are everybody

ABC has this really nice synopsis of the first three seasons of Lost that clocks in at eight minutes and change. It doesn't hit everything, but it serves as a nice refresher for those of us who might've forgotten a point here and there.
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index

Anticipation

It's been a long time. How've you been? You look good - did you lose weight?
Enough small talk, girlfren', it's time for Lost Talk.
With a two-hour season premiere on the 31st, and the hype beginning to build, I thought it time to start up the engines.

First things first, ABC has some nice stuff posted online (thanks Wendy and Nicole), including an interesting video clip from a boyfriend of a stewardess on the Oceanic flight, leading to some interesting questions, like what is this Maxwell group he references?
Also, two trailer clips for the upcoming episode are posted, both with tantalizing clues:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index
The ads, if to be believed, make us think that in this episode, some Losties will be "rescued," but I use quote marks around it to indicate that things go quite awry and that some people don't leave the island and the rescuers are actually nefarious and bad. Eeeeenteresting.
Entertainment Weekly has a somewhat interesting interview with Matthew ("Jack") Fox about the show. Here's one thing he had to say:
"Jack gets people off that island, [and] suddenly he and the other people are very well-known — it becomes this massive story because everybody thought that every person on this plane was lost.... Who are they? What is everybody else doing? Jack's mission was to get all of them off. It's the overriding force behind him. So, the fact that he ends up getting off and doesn't get that accomplished — I'm very curious to find out how that all goes down. And part of that is going to be part of the reason why he wanted to jump off the bridge in the future."