Lost (spoilers)

[polkablues]

any thoughts on the statue?

That wasn't even fair, showing us something that mindfuckingly provocative, knowing that we won't get to pursue it until next season (and probably a little ways into next season, at that). 

"I don't know what's more disturbing: that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it only has four toes."

[picolas]

the exact same thing happened with the pirate ship and they didn't pursue.

[edison]

the exact same thing happened with the pirate ship and they didn't pursue.

.... and the polar bear, and the cable into the water, and how the pilot was placed in the trees, and where the smoke comes from, all these things and probably many more are shown and we probably will never get a clear cut reason/answer for any of them.

[Gamblour.]

the exact same thing happened with the pirate ship and they didn't pursue.

.... and the polar bear, and the cable into the water, and how the pilot was placed in the trees, and where the smoke comes from, all these things and probably many more are shown and we probably will never get a clear cut reason/answer for any of them.

Well I'm rewatching the first season from the pilot onward, and I'm hypocritically formulating theories to justify what's going on. The smoke/stomping monster can't be some manmade thing. I think it's a manifestation of certain strandees emotions. I know this is an old theory, but it plays into why Hanso would want to do experiments on the island. Equally, the idea of manifestations explain the polar bear (and why they're testing Walt), and why Eko and Locke both confronted the monster and survived.

Cable in the water? I don't remember that. The pirate ship, I thought that was part of Rousseau's group? I must be wrong.

[edison]

the exact same thing happened with the pirate ship and they didn't pursue.

.... and the polar bear, and the cable into the water, and how the pilot was placed in the trees, and where the smoke comes from, all these things and probably many more are shown and we probably will never get a clear cut reason/answer for any of them.

Well I'm rewatching the first season from the pilot onward, and I'm hypocritically formulating theories to justify what's going on. The smoke/stomping monster can't be some manmade thing. I think it's a manifestation of certain strandees emotions. I know this is an old theory, but it plays into why Hanso would want to do experiments on the island. Equally, the idea of manifestations explain the polar bear (and why they're testing Walt), and why Eko and Locke both confronted the monster and survived.

Cable in the water? I don't remember that. The pirate ship, I thought that was part of Rousseau's group? I must be wrong.

the cable appeared in the episode when Sayid ran off because he was ashamed for torturing Sawyer and as he is walking on the beach he comes upon the cable which he follows it into the jungle which leads to Rousseau

[MacGuffin]

What the Dickens?
Entertainment Weekly's Doc Jensen's post-finale ''Lost'' theory: Here's why Desmond and his lady love are crucial to the story -- and what ''Our Mutual Friend'' has to do with it

In the brief time that I've been in the Lost theorizing business, I've thrown a lot of ideas at you. The History Rubric. (Still looking good after the season finale, even if I was wrong about finding a landing strip.) The Evil Aaron Hypothesis. (Looking shaky, though some elements remain viable.) The Human Extinction Argument. (Looking rather endangered, since the last scene of the finale established that there is indeed life outside The Island.)

But now that the second season of the show has come to an end, I have come to a conclusion, myself. Not just about the second season, but about all of Lost. It's my ultimate theory, and from here on out, my intention is to fold all my Lost thinking into this Big Picture framework. Consider this, then, my ''One Ring to Rule Them All'' concept of Lost.

I call it the All You Need Is Love (and Desmond) Theory of Lost.

Sound corny? Maybe... as corny as Desmond proclaiming, ''And I will win this race for love!''? Maybe... as corny as Desmond announcing, ''I have to get my honor back!''?

Fine. Call it corny, but I'm nutty for the idea. And I think I'm right. With its season finale, Lost revealed its true identity: It's actually a gloriously old-fashioned, ridiculously idealistic romantic epic. But the Romeo and Juliet of this love story aren't Jack and Kate (but I did love their non-verbal Han/Leia ''I love you''/''I know'' nod-and-blink exchange — a fittingly coy way to end the show's bad-guy-triumphant Empire Strikes Back season), or Charlie and Claire (that kiss — an abrupt turnabout in their relationship, don't you think?), or Jin and Sun (even though their relationship is Lost's main source of human grounding).

No: The star-crossed lovers of Lost are Desmond and Penelope Widmore, the English heiress whose powerful and possibly Dharma Initiative-connected father Arthur Widmore (see: the Lost tie-in book Bad Twin) seems determined to make sure that his daughter and the lovelorn hatchman will never, ever be together.

In fact, you can forget Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, and the dozen other characters that we've come to know intimately well over the past two years. When Lost is all said and done, it will stand exposed as the story of Desmond and Penelope, two people we barely know, and the lengths these crazy kids will go to in order to be together again — and the lengths to which Daddy Big Bucks will go to keep them apart.

In my view, Desmond/Penelope has suddenly become the defining narrative thread of Lost. Everything else is a subplot within that larger context. I know this is a peculiar argument to make, since until now, Desmond has technically been a supporting character in the larger Jack arc, and a mere footnote in the broader island mythology. And who knows? Maybe he'll remain a marginal figure in terms of total screen time.

But Lost can be all about Desmond and Penelope even if it isn't literally all about Desmond and Penelope. Just ask Desmond's favorite author, Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities is a great example of a cast-of-thousands opus whose two main protagonists don't truly emerge until the second act of the novel. Desmond's progress in the season finale from a cynical, self-pitying drunken sot to an idealistic, self-sacrificing romantic hero reminded me of Two Cities' Sydney Carton; and as Desmond turned the fail-safe key in the final moments, I recalled Carton's famous final worlds: ''It is a far, far better thing than I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.''

As for Dickens' Our Mutual Friend — which Desmond designated as the last book he intended to read before he died — I must confess, I haven't read it. But my understanding is that the novel is a mosaic of characters and incidents, much like Lost. Moreover, the character that could be classified as its chief protagonist, the presumed-dead John Harmon, haunts Dickens' last completed work like a phantom; one source dubs Harmon the ''absent center'' of the story. That's a great description of how I view Desmond: He's the absent center of Lost. (At least, absent until now.)

By the way: I am told that the Big Twist in Our Mutual Friend — SPOILER ALERT! — is that Harmon adopts a new identity for the purpose of clandestinely evaluating the moral fiber of a woman whom he has to marry in order to claim his inheritance. Tests of character, subversive surveillance, false identities — that's Lost, too, isn't it? (Could it be that Arthur Widmore actually sent Desmond to the Island to test his worthiness as a husband to his daughter?)

[A tangent, but a relevant and maybe important one: Just like John Locke, Desmond's name could be another densely coded reference that Lost is becoming famous for. First of all, Desmond connects you to Desmond Morris, the writer, controversial scientist, and surrealist painter. His books The Human Zoo and Manwatching could be Dharma source texts. And then there's Desmond's last name — Hume. Did you all catch it on the envelopes of all the letters he had written to Penelope? Hume links you to yet another important philosopher, David Hume, who was influenced by John Locke, and who was also concerned with issues of ethics, identity, free will, and determinism. You know, the essential Lost themes.]

Lest I've crashed your brain with potentially wrong-headed references, I'd like to suggest one more possible Lost link. It's the main reason for the title of this theory. Anyone remember The Prisoner? If you've never seen this landmark cult pop series from the 1960s, spend the summer break from Lost becoming obsessed with it. In the infamous final episode of The Prisoner, Number Six has his own character-defining, key-turning moment. Moreover, he inspires a bloody revolt against his mysterious captors that plays out to the tune of the Beatles ''All You Need Is Love.'' The complicated and deeply symbolic climax of the show offers both an endorsement and critique of 1960s counterculture... but that's an essay for another time. The idea I want to leave you with today — an idea I promise to unpack in a future Doc Jensen column — is that Desmond is the Number Six of Lost, albeit an ironic version of the character. Like Number Six, he embodies the romantic pursuit of idealism in a marked-by-cynicism, dogmatic culture war, and manipulative power politics. But again: an essay for another time.

Regardless, here's my bottom line (for now): With the season finale's emphasis on Desmond, and with other Lost media suggesting that Desmond's Widmore-colored backstory is intertwined with the Hanso Foundation/Dharma Initiative mythology, a profound shift in focus has occurred: Lost is the Desmond-and-Penelope show now. And I think the series will be better for it. By introducing a more embraceable romantic hero to root for, and by recontextualizing the entire Lost saga around a more emotional narrative arc, the producers have given us something that we kinda desperately needed: a more conventional rubric for their unconventional ideas. The Desmond/Penelope storyline opens up the show and suggests new possibilities, not the least of which is this: the prospect of a happy ending. Through Desmond and Penelope, Jack and company now have reason to hope.

[MacGuffin]

Lost S2 Finds DVD in October
The series hatches a second season set in Oct.

On October 3, 2006, Buena Vista Home Entertainment will release Lost - The Complete Second Season on a seven disc DVD set. The long-awaited release will contain every single episode from the revered second season of the mystery/drama, and will be packed to the rim with bonus materials and extra features. It will be available for the MSRP of $59.99.

The Lost - The Complete Second Season DVD will feature the following bonus materials:

*Lost Connections
*Lost: On Location
*The Lost Flashbacks
*Secrets of the Hatch
*Lost Bloopers
*Deleted Scenes
*Fire and Water: Anatomy of an Episode
*Audio Commentaries and more

[MacGuffin]

LOST TO BE TURNED INTO A MOVIE?
(www.wenn.com)

The makers of LOST want to end the hit TV show after a maximum of five years and are planning a feature-length movie spin-off.
Co-creator DAMON LINDELOF is so worried producers and studio executives will drag the show out he is making his opinion on the matter clear now.
He says, "We'd love to end the show after four year, five years tops and do a movie."

[Kal]

Thats if they can make it stay this good for 3 more years... which is not easy.

What is with the DVD release on October? The season will probably start in September... and the point is that people who havent seen the show have a chance to catch up before the new season begins... I dont get that release date.

[diggler]

Thats if they can make it stay this good for 3 more years... which is not easy.

What is with the DVD release on October? The season will probably start in September... and the point is that people who havent seen the show have a chance to catch up before the new season begins... I dont get that release date.

i'm pretty sure it starts a week after the dvd release.  it's different now because they're splitting the season into two parts, which sucks because you have wait longer but is nice because once new episodes start there wont be any reruns.

[Gamblour.]

Thats if they can make it stay this good for 3 more years... which is not easy.

Well, on the special features of season 1, they talk about how they know the story arc through a fifth season. So hopefully, that means it will be fucking great the entire time.

[MacGuffin]

Lost Season 3 Scoops From Comic-Con!
Source: Coming Soon

"Lost" co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof, executive producers Bryan Burk and Carlton Cuse, and stars Jorge Garcia (Hugo) and Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) attended the San Diego Comic-Con today and talked about the upcoming season three starting on October 4. The presentation was briefly interrupted by a planned protestor, a Rachel Blake, who yelled at them for supporting the Hanso Foundation and told people to go to HansoExposed.com.

Here are the highlights of what they said!

- Season three will have a vastly different feeling, but at the same time reembrace the roots of the series.

- Season three will focus more on adventure.

- The first six episodes in the fall will be like a mini-series and focuses on the captivity story of Jack, Kate and Sawyer.

- We'll learn more about The Others and Alex's story.

- An event will happen mid-season that will blow people away!

- J.J. Abrams will co-write the first episode which is titled "The Tale of Two Cities." He'll also direct the seventh episode, which is the first episode of the second half of the third season (early next year).

- They are going to reveal what happened to Locke, Desmond and Echo.

- They are adding new regular characters, which they are casting for now.

- You'll see more scenes from the outside world (taking place at the same time they are on the island).

- Desmond and Penny's relationship forms a new seed for a new element in the series.

- Libby will be back to fill in the gaps.

- Within the first few episodes Kate "gets with someone".

- They are going to explain the medical miracles.

- They debunked the rumor that the monster is a cloud nanobot.

- The hyroglypics on the countdown clock are signs of the underworld.

- They have 4 to 5 seasons planned out, and they knew the beginning and ending from the start. Going beyond 5 seasons would be stretching it, they said.

- If they introduce a question on the show, they already know the answer.

- They do look at fans' reactions and that does affect how they do things on the show.

- They showed a promo for the 13 "Lost" diaries that will be on Verizon, which featured Hugo finding a camera and interviewing people on the island.

- A "Lost" game from Ubisoft is coming next year which features a new story.

- On the season two DVD, you can expect one feature which has all of Sawyer's famous lines!

[polkablues]

- Within the first few episodes Kate "gets with someone".

Oh, I hope it's me...   

[MacGuffin]

"Lost" Lands New Star, Reveals Numbers



Lost has added another bad guy to the island mix. Or, actually, he could be a good guy. Really, the odds are 50-50 either way.

Rodrigo Santoro, the South American import dubbed by press as the "Brazilian Tom Cruise"--a reference to his heartthrob status only and not to any off-screen antics--is joining the cast of the Emmy-snubbed drama next season.

It's unknown whether Santoro, who acted as theatrical eye candy opposite Laura Linney in Love, Actually and Demi Moore in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, will be a regular addition to the cast or simply a recurring character, though neither would be a guarantee of his character's longevity.

Show producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof remained characteristically mum on the details of the 30-year-old actor's role, confirming the casting to TVGuide.com, but refusing to divulge whether Santoro's alter ego will be an Other, part of a character's flashback or a member of the off-island world.

"We don't really want to be at all specific about what we're doing with the character or what he's going to play," Cuse told TVGuide.com. "Part of the surprise and the enjoyment of watching the show is sort of getting a chance to meet a new character and see how his role is going to unfold in relation to the rest of the cast."

Still, says Cuse, Santoro, who is so critically lauded in his native country that "Brazilian Tom Hanks" may be a more accurate nickname, will play against the expectation of his character, at least in terms of his pinup-worthy looks.

"The ladies like it when he takes his shirt off--not to say he'll be competing with Sawyer in that category," Lindelof told the Website. "On Lost, what you see is never what you get."

Despite his more than established career abroad, Lindelof said Santoro's relative anonymity Stateside made him an ideal match for the show.

While the producers clammed up about the show's new character, they did shed some light on what's coming up for some of the old ones.

The writer-producers spoke about the upcoming third season at San Diego's Comic-Con Saturday.

Cuse said the run-up to the season's first hiatus--the show takes a 13-week break after the airing of its first six episodes--"will look a little like a miniseries." Lindelof added, "Something happens midway through the year that will fry everybody's brain."

The Lost masterminds also said that they'll be amping up the adventure elements of the show this season and will revisit the off-island world they tapped into with the season finale.

"We're laying the seeds for a whole new element," Cuse said.

As for the characters themselves, Desmond, played by lone Lost Emmy nominee Henry Ian Cusick, will return. Lindelof also promises that the two-seasons-strong love triangle among Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Jack (Matthew Fox) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) will have a resolution.

"Within the first six episodes, she'll be officially making her selection," he said.

Meanwhile, fans of Hurley (Jorge Garcia) will be happy to know that the lovelorn island dweller will be getting some extra face time, albeit on the very small screen.

Producers will be rolling out 13 two-minute mobisodes--i.e., mobile phone episodes--through Verizon this fall titled The Lost Diaries. The series will focus on Hurley as he finds a video camera--that Dharma Initiative really did think of everything--and chronicles different events on the island.

"It has been hard to get it off the ground because we don't want them to be...lame," Lindelof said.

It's proving to be a banner week for Lost fans. As if details of the new season spilling out weren't enough, one of the show's most-hyped mysteries will soon be solved.

The Lost Experience, the online interactive game launched last spring to give fans clues to the island, will spill the meaning behind Hurley's lottery numbers--4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42--which are prevalent throughout the show. Their importance will be revealed to gamers who complete the third phase of the challenge.

The show's third-season premiere, "A Tale of Two Cities," airs Oct. 4.

[MacGuffin]

Mitchell on 'Lost' patrol for season
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Elizabeth Mitchell has joined the cast of ABC's hit drama "Lost" as a regular.

Mitchell will play Juliet on the Emmy-winning series from Touchstone TV and studio-based Bad Robot Prods. Details about Mitchell's character are being kept under wraps, but some sources indicate that Juliet might be a new love interest for Jack (Matthew Fox).
 
Mitchell is one of two regular players "Lost" has added for next season. Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro signed on to co-star on the series this week.

The actress, who most recently co-starred in NBC's drama pilot "Haskett's Chance," next will be seen opposite Tim Allen in the feature "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause."