Watching Lost

According to EW’s fantastic article in the December 1 issue, here’s what we can expect after the hiatus.

- We’ll find out more about “Jack’s tattoos, Locke’s wheelchair, and Desmond’s crepy clairvoyance.”

- The February 7 episode focuses on Juliet, and we may learn the according to Damon Lindelof, “Her agenda is more in line with the castaways’ than we originally suspected, but that does not mean that she is not sinister.” Ooooh, I can’t wait to figure her out!

- Since the hatch “imploded,” we’ve been wondering if that’s it for the story of the hatch. Lindelof says, “Definitely more to this story. You will get a better picture of what happened when Desmond turned the fail-safe key.” I’m guessing this might appear in the episode from which our first nugget came…

- Carlton Cuse confirms that the Others have a submarine!

- When asked about who Jacob was and why Jack was not on his list, Cuse says, “The answer lies further downstream in the ongoing story.” Okay. Then, Lindelof gave a clue by reminding fans that “character names in Lost are not assigned without reason.” So, what could that mean? Any significance in the name Jacob that you can think of?

Lost, Juliet, Jack, Locke, Jacob, Desmond

ABC gave us the nugget a little earlier during Day Break this week. I only had to wait thirty minutes this time! So, this clip shows Charlie going through Sawyer’s “stash.” Hurley wonders if they should be looking through Sawyer’s stuff, probably because he knows Sawyer would beat the crap out of them if he found out. Anyway, Charlie says that people need what Sawyer has, so surely he won’t mind. Maybe the new, “in love” Sawyer won’t mind that they’re stealing his stuff, but I highly doubt it. Anyway, Desmond walks up, and Hurley calls him, “Desmundo!” I’m sorry, but that cracks me up! Of course, Desmond is very serious and grave, and he tells them that they need to come with him. Wonder where they’re going???

Lost, nugget, Hurley, Desmond, Charlie

Write your own ending for Lost and win an autographed Lost script! The Tail Section is hosting a weekly contest during the hiatus. Get all the information for the first contest here. The deadline for entries is December 6, so hurry!

Lost, contest, The Tail Section

This EW article I mentioned earlier has tons of information. Here’s a little more.

The producers reveal that they have been surprised by how much the numbers seem to mean to fans. Talking about the numbers, Carlton Cuse says, “We didn’t expect that to have as much resonance as it did!” Damon Lindelof continues, “There was some intentionality behind it, but we had no idea, no grand design behind the Numbers. But suddenly, the No. 1 question stopped being ‘What is the monster?’ and went to being ‘What do the numbers mean?’ This isn’t to say that the Numbers don’t mean anything. We just had no idea it had this potential to get totally out of control.” Hmmm, so have we as fans placed TOO much emphasis on the numbers? But, seriously, if they didn’t want us to wonder about them, they shouldn’t have made them show up EVERYWHERE on the island and in the characters’ flashbacks!

Another thing discussed was the theorizing that goes on about the show. Since the producers have shot down Stephen King’s previous theory about the island being purgatory, King was asked if he had another theory. He didn’t have another theory, but he did tell the producers how he would end Lost if given the chance. The Tail Section gives a full excerpt of his ending here.

One thing that has been discussed among fans is how Stephen King’s works seem to weave their way into Lost episodes. This article confirms that the episode where Ben “kills” the bunny was inspired by King’s book On Writing. Also, Charlie’s character is inspired by a character in King’s novel The Stand. Finally, Juliet’s favorite book is Carrie. So, we’re not crazy; the allusions to King were there purposely.

Lost, Stephen King, the numbers, Ben, Juliet, Charlie

Sort of. In the December 1 issue of Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King and Lost creators Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof, and J. J. Abrams have what EW calls the “greatest geek date ever.” They went out to dinner, went to a movie, and discussed, among other things, our favorite topic, Lost!

King asked how much the creators knew when they started the show. Abrams explains that he and Lindelof wrote an outline, decided to base characters on the actors that were cast, and created a “bible of the series.” He states that “the essence of the show” is “a leap of faith.” So, we just have to take what’s given to us and believe what we see. I can live with that… most of the time.

I know that a major question the fans have is do they know where the show is going? Do they have a plan. Lindelof answers this question by saying, “We’re proceeding as if [ABC is] going to allow us to do what we plan, which is a four- or five- season arc with potentially a movie to wrap it up. My guess is they’ll realize the endgame is in play when major characters start getting bumped off.” So, with this being the third season, could we only have two more seasons left? If that’s the case, some mysteries need to be solved pretty soon. And it sounds like we’ll be losing major characters before the end. Wonder if that will start this season??

There’s a lot more to tell, and I’ll have more later!

Lost, Stephen King, Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof, JJ Abrams

IGN has created a list of the Top 50 Lost mysteries. It is fantastic, and it’s just what we need to keep our minds occupied during this long break. Check it out.

One mystery I’ve wondered about was touched on in numbers 35 & 42, but they didn’t ask my exact question. I want to know why our Lost friends didn’t go through all those notebooks of information that were deposited in the middle of a field from The Pearl station. That would be the first thing I’d be doing if I were on that island!

Lost, mysteries, loose ends, IGN

The Tail Section reports a rumor that Josh Holloway may be chosen to play Gambit in one of the upcoming X-Men movies. Read more about it here.

Lost, X-Men, Gambit, Josh Holloway, Sawyer

Here’s the second nugget:

Lost, nugget, Locke, Hurley

In case you missed it, here’s the first nugget courtesy of YouTube.

Lost, nugget, YouTube, Day Break

Cheech Marin in an upcoming episode of Lost.

Michael Ausiello reports the following:

I just found out that Cheech Marin has been cast as Hurley’s dad. He’ll appear in the big guy’s next flashback episode, slated to air Feb. 28.

Wow, I can’t wait to see those two interact! I wonder if this flashback will include Hurley in the asylum or what…

Lost, Cheech Marin, Hurley, Jorge Garcia

Here’s the latest from Ask Ausiello:

Question: What’s the latest on Cynthia Watros returning to Lost to finish out her backstory?— T.K.
Ausiello: I asked Lindelof-Cuse that very question when I spoke to them for AA’s 100th. Here’s what Carlton had to say: “We would love to tell the rest of [Libby's] story, it’s [just] a question of whether we get to it. We’re now working on the early episodes for the second pod, and we want to get back to some of the characters we haven’t seen, and spend a little more time with them. We’d like to get to Cynthia’s story, but I think we’re going to try to tell the stories of our regular characters before we do that.” Adds Damon: “Obviously, we have a couple more beats of Libby’s story to tell to fill in the missing pieces, and the way we would tell that story is in the flashbacks of another character. But that character can’t be a character that we already know and love, otherwise they would recognize Libby. We know who those characters are and what those story beats are, but it might be a while before we get to their flashbacks.”

So, maybe we’ll learn more about why Libby was in the asylum with Hurley? And wasn’t Libby connected to Desmond, too? Libby’s been in quite a few flashbacks, and I am very curious to know what her role is. I was sad to see Libby’s character killed.

Lost, Libby, Cynthia Watros, flashbacks

Okay, this is pretty funny. I know some of us Lost fans have had complaints lately. Too many questions, not enough answers. New people randomly popping up. Beloved characters being killed off. So, here’s a humorous take on what we can expect from Lost in 2007.

In the May season-ender of Lost, something mysterious will happen, and a big question will finally be answered, while 36 new questions will suddenly pop up. At the end of the episode, one or more people will be in peril, one will be dead, and immediately after the episode fans everywhere will jump online and talk about what they think happened and what it means to the opener next season. In the fall 2007 opener, we will be introduced to 12 castaways that have actually been there the whole time. They will all be sexy.

What’s sad is that this is probably pretty close to the truth. But I don’t care. I’ll be watching anyway.

Source

Lost, season finale, new characters

Or the exec producer’s mouth, in this case. Here is Carlton Cuse’s explanation for the long Lost hiatus.

”Yes, we are totally happy with the 6/16 solution. We make 22 or 23 hours in a 35-week season. Our options were to stay on the air and have repeats, which everyone hated last year; or delay the show until January, which would have meant eight months between finishing the second season and starting the next one, which we felt was way too long. This became the compromise. We thought it was and still do believe it is the best possible solution. The thought that we’re going to come back and run 16 or 17 straight episodes is very exciting to us, because we’ll have complete narrative traction at that point.”

Because of all the complaints about reruns ABC received last year, they are sparing us reruns by giving us a big break. Here’s my question: Why not start the show a little later in the year and run straight through? I’m sure this has been discussed before, but it makes perfect sense. I’m just happy we’re getting our Lost period. I just hate having to wait!

Source

Lost, hiatus, Carlton Cuse

Sawyer is dominating Lost-vivor right now. He’s followed pretty closely by Locke. Honestly, I can’t believe Jack isn’t making a stronger showing in this little game. I surely thought he would have gained ground in that last episode. Check it out.

In the realm of theories, Jeff Jensen’s newest one makes quite a bit of sense. Could some of the Others be a collection of secret agents from the U.S. and the Soviet Union sent to the island to figure out what the Hanso Foundation was up to with its Dharma Initiative? Jensen’s explanation is this:

Everything about the Hanso Foundation and the Dharma Initiative is a hoax — an elaborate lie created by Cold War-era utopian idealist/activist prankster Alvar Hanso, designed to undermine BOTH the United States of America and the Soviet Union. His idea: trick both countries into thinking he found a way to save the world. His hope: force the superpowers into diverting their attention away from each other and toward his mysterious enterprise. Call it ”Operation: Venus Flytrap.” The whole point of Dharma was to lure agents from both countries (like Kelvin and his old Hatchmate, Radzinsky, who per this theory could have been a KGB agent) to infiltrate the Hanso Foundation, become part of the Initiative, and get to the island in order to find out what the hell was going on there.

Ironically, those who believe that Lost is actually just a big waste of time are more right than they know. Because that’s basically the true purpose of Dharma: to waste the time and energy of the two superpowers leading the world toward ruin.

IMPLICATIONS Could the Others be a collective of secret agents, American and Russian, who came to the island, saw through the deception, but for various reasons abandoned their respective missions, banded together, and are now hiding out from their spymasters?

Could this explain why Ben told Sawyer that they were better con men than he could ever be — because they are all spies, trained in the art of deception and subterfuge?

And could it be that a long, long time ago, the U.S. and the Soviet Union figured out Hanso’s ruse, but instead of busting him, have co-opted his enterprise for their own benefit? Could the island be a place where they banish bad agents and other undesirables? Or could it even be a place like The Village in The Prisoner — the place where they send People With Secrets in order to figure out what secrets they’re hiding?

Or what if one of the castaways is a sleeper agent with a secret mission, and when he finds the target of this mission, a suppressed memory will activate inside the mind of this secret someone, and his flashback will reveal everything?

I’m thinking this secret someone could be Sayid.

And I’m thinking he’s been sent to the island to kill Patchy.

To refresh your memory, Kelvin was the guy who got Sayid into torture when he was in the war. Kelvin’s also the guy who was in the hatch with Desmond, and Desmond ended up killing him when he found out Kelvin was planning to escape. So, there is a connection between Kelvin and Sayid. But why would Sayid want Patchy (Radzinsky) dead? Are we agreed that Patchy may be Radzinsky, or is he someone else?

I’m pretty much convinced that the Dharma Initiative was a big psychological experiment, but the ramifications of that experiment surely extend way past psychology. Too many people are on that island now. It seems the experiment (if that’s even what it is) has gotten out of hand.

Any thoughts?

Lost, theories, Dharma Initiative, Hanso Foundation, Alvar Hanso, Cold War, spies, Patchy, Sayid, Kelvin