Lost (spoilers)

[JG]

besides the Biblical quotation during the techno clockwork orange scene, where are other instances?

they referrenced him in "I Do," where Danny says something like "he wasn't on Jacob's list." 

[MacGuffin]

'Lost' and Found
The cast and creative forces behind ABC's revolutionary drama spill secrets, answer critics, and mull over how and when they would like to seal the hatch for good

No more mysteries. No more clues. No more questions wrapped inside questions with secret compartments for extra questions. What you need from ABC's castaways-in-paradise cryptodrama Lost are answers, and we're going to give you one — right here, right now. The exact wording is being formulated by star Matthew Fox as he sits in the shade of a twisted tree, pulling tufts of grass from the Hawaiian soil. The answer is simple and definitive, and his brown eyes flicker with defiance as it passes through his lips: ''No.''

Don't worry: Elaboration is forthcoming. We're nestled in the lush foothills of Oahu's north shore, where Lost is shooting the 13th episode of its controversial third season. If you recall the opener in October, you'll recognize this idyllic village setting, with its cookie-cutter cabins and garden gazebo, as hostile territory. ''Welcome to Othersville,'' says Michael Emerson, a.k.a. Ben, the creepy-cunning leader of Mystery Island's devious denizens, the Others. ''Everything's relaxed. The stakes are low. And naturally, all of this is a big setup for...something.'' The spoiler cops won't allow us to reveal that something, let alone expand upon such intriguing sights as Others-recruited fertility doc Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) pushing Ben in a wheelchair, or Jack (Fox) cheerfully lobbing a football to his sworn enemy Mr. Friendly (M.C. Gainey). ''Everyone should be wondering what the hell is going on,'' explains Fox during a break. ''Has Jack been converted by the Others? Drugged? Is he pretending? All sorts of scenarios could be happening here.'' (At that moment, Evangeline Lilly — a.k.a. Kate — buzzes by and interjects: ''Don't believe a word he says. He's a liar!'')

Intriguing possibilities followed by maddening murkiness — that sentiment seems to sum up Lost lately. As the show ends its three-month hiatus with 16 consecutive episodes (designed to eliminate momentum-killing repeats) in a new 10 p.m. time slot on Wednesdays (to shield it from that Nielsen polar bear called American Idol), Lost finds itself at a crossroads: its heady pop-phenom days in the rearview, and life as just a really good show looming ahead. The problem? A nagging sense that ''really good'' isn't good enough. Sucks to be a piece of highly profitable game-changing genius, doesn't it?

Coming off season 2's explosive finale, season 3's initial batch of six episodes fell short of lofty expectations and triggered concerns that Lost's mojo was as ephemeral as its infamous smoke monster. There's too much emphasis on the Others! Where are old faves like Sayid and Hurley? Mr. Eko's death was lame! I hate the new castaways Nikki and Paulo! Locke's sweat lodge was too...sweaty! While the demand for satisfying resolutions to dangling plot questions intensified and suspicions of written-out-of-their-rears hucksterism multiplied, the audience began to dwindle (down 19 percent from the same period in fall 2005). Lost's geek buzz teleported over to NBC's Heroes, and the drama drew fewer viewers in its last two fall episodes than — oh, the unsexy horror! — Mandy Patinkin's Criminal Minds on CBS. Suddenly, the show everyone loved to theorize about had become the show everyone loved to bitch about.

Yet cast and crew see another side to the story: The critics are wrong. Those who pine for episodes filled with beloved characters and familiar situations can't appreciate the true ambition of Lost, which is to tell a deep, sprawling, intricate saga; one that is slowly, if sometimes tangentially, building toward an ultimate end. Mistakes have been made (Mr. Eko's sudden demise, a lackluster fall cliff-hanger), concede executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, but they also believe that their allegedly dubious creative choices are about to be vindicated. Hopefully. ''I feel like we're playing a chess game,'' analogizes Lindelof, ''and in the first six moves, we've lost our queen and two bishops, and the audience is saying 'They are the worst chess players in the world!' What they don't realize is that we're nine moves away from checkmating you. If we lose, we lose. But that's the play, and we're standing by it.''

Nobody is more proud — and more defensive — about Lost than Fox. The fall from amazing grace? That's just the headline-hungry media tearing down what the cast and crew built up. The ratings decline? Those were simply hype-intrigued looky-loos who've decided Lost isn't for them and gravitated toward less complicated fare. ''Good riddance,'' says Fox. Besides, as the actor rightly points out, the show still ranks No. 5 ''in the category that makes this world go around'' — the 18-to-49 demographic. And what of the devotees who yearn for those innocent invisible-peanut-butter-flavored beach days? ''The people who rag on it that way aren't strong enough fans, really,'' he says. ''Those people are copping out.''

So...Lost hasn't lost it? ''No.''

It's an answer. Simple. Definitive. Defiant. The question is, Do you buy it?

To be clear, the creators of Lost don't have their heads buried in the sand. They hear the grumbling. They recognize that Lost's future is dependent upon making viewers happy. And guess what? Lindelof even considers some of their complaints to be ''legitimate...but that doesn't make them any easier to hear.''

So what happened? The producers believe the primary cause of discontent stems from the way they made use of season 3's weird if well-intentioned scheduling. Their plan was to utilize the fall ''miniseason'' to set up an array of story lines and tell one complete arc: Ben's scheme to manipulate Jack into operating on his tumor-choked spine. But with too much plot to deploy, the scribes opted to craft narrowly focused episodes that left no room for other characters, much less the show's myriad of ongoing subplots. Lost's pilots concede that season 3 should have emulated 24's model of consecutive installments. Next year, it likely will, says ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson: ''The show is best when [episodes air] in big chunks, if not all together.''

There are other regrets, too, none bigger than the clumsy killing of Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). The producers wish they could have sicced Smokey on the warlord-turned-holy man later in the season, but the death was moved up to accommodate the actor's wish to exit the show. Not that anyone sounds terribly bothered by the accelerated execution. ''I don't miss him at all,'' says Terry O'Quinn, whose Locke matched wits and sticks with Eko. ''They cast people so perfectly that you confuse the actors and the characters. You feel an affinity for the ones you're supposed to, and friction with the ones you're supposed to. That was a very friction-filled relationship.'' (Akinnuoye-Agbaje declined to comment.)

However you viewed those half-dozen hours, the producers hope that you'll look at the big picture, three-quarters of which has yet to be unveiled. And they believe that you won't be disappointed by the masterstrokes yet to come. ''If the viewers don't like season 3 as a whole,'' says Cuse, ''then I'll be upset.''

What to expect in coming weeks? Plenty. There's flashback action for Claire, Hurley, and Sayid, the secret of Jack's made-in-Thailand tats (somehow connected to guest star Bai Ling), and the long-awaited tale of how Locke wound up in a wheelchair. (''I was afraid it'd be anticlimactic,'' says O'Quinn. ''It's not. It's pretty stunning. You're gonna go, 'Man, no wonder this guy wants to stay here!''') Also, the castaways discover that the Others possess a submarine. Want mythology? You got it. The kidnapped kids and stewardess Cindy (Kimberley Joseph) make an appearance in episode 9 (Feb. 21). The Others' connection to that utopian weird-science project, the Dharma Initiative, is slated to be revealed in episode 11 (March 7), which also features a visit to a new hatch (dubbed the Flame). And throughout, expect to see the repercussions of Ben's spinal surgery. ''There is a period of not being at full power, and in any hierarchical organization, that is a period of danger,'' says Emerson. ''That leaves a vacuum at the top, and other people may try to swoop in and occupy it.''

Meanwhile, back on the beach (Remember that place? Kinda sandy?), the Oceanic 815-ers will finally be dealing with the aftereffects of Desmond turning the fail-safe key, which imploded the hatch and lit the sky purple. In episode 8 (Feb. 14), the lovelorn Scottish soldier — new and improved with precognitive abilities! — informs a central character that he or she will die; he is also the subject of a flashback device employed ''in a way we never have before and never will again,'' hints Lindelof. ''It'll either blow people's minds or chase them away for good.'' (That sound you just heard? ABC execs chuckling nervously.)

Viewers were certainly interested in chasing away Nikki (Kiele Sanchez) and Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro), those heretofore unseen comely castaways whose wedged-in entrance would've been more stilted only if they'd been wearing winter parkas. While even Lindelof acknowledges that they are ''universally despised'' by fans, that's going to change, he vows: ''We had a plan when we introduced them, and we didn't get to fully execute that plan. But when the plan is executed, Nikki and Paulo will be iconic characters on the show.''

Speaking of icons, the love triangle of Kate, Sawyer, and Jack morphs into something of a quadrangle as Juliet cozies up closer to Jack. ''I don't think she knew he'd be the right person to help her [escape] until she started talking with him, and then, yes, I firmly believe her intention was to get him on her side,'' says Mitchell. ''But I think she also likes him. That's unexpected for her.'' Their nebulous relationship may not sit well with Kate, who for now has made her bed with Sawyer. ''I don't think that book is closed at all,'' says Lilly. ''Kate has a real journey to go on with Jack, in that they've never addressed the underlying current of attraction and love between them.... It has to be addressed.''

And yet, the talents behind the show concede that none of this may prove satisfying to those who pine for what Lilly calls ''the golden year'' of season 1. Lost is an evolving entity that is growing toward a final payoff, they say, and it must be allowed to switch focus (see: the Tailies, the Others) or plant slow-cooking subplots (see: Penelope, the four-toed statue) that serve the larger saga. Moreover, this is a mystery — which means the Big Answers (What is the island? What is the monster?) come much later. Get used to this, folks: ''None of the big questions are going to be answered until the end of the series,'' says Cuse, adding that according to the master plan, the Lost story has just passed its midpoint. ''How could we tell you those answers without deflating the central mystery of the show?''

Therein lies the inherent conflict surrounding this drama as it segues away from the romance of its beginnings. Call it Paradox Lost: The very thing that titillates fans and has them furiously creating conspiracy-theory websites also frustrates the bejesus out of them. Perhaps execution is everything. When Lost captures the imagination (and it surely can, as evidenced by Feb. 7's top-shelf return outing, ''Not in Portland''), there's no better mythology-rich pop culture puzzle. When the show doesn't — or, at least, when it decides to get all poignant and stuff with those Jin/Sun or Bernard/Rose episodes — the whole thing starts to teeter-totter like an ill-conceived game of Jenga. Occasional misfires are acceptable to hardcore fans, but they no doubt feel suspicious to those for whom the flameouts of Twin Peaks and The X-Files still burn. Which leads us to a critical question: Are the producers just screwing with us until the grand finale, stretching out story lines like taffy because they're out of ideas?

To paraphrase Mr. Fox: No. Or at least, not yet. They very much fear the day that they'll have to start filling time until they can unleash the finale they've already been plotting. That's why Lindelof and Cuse have begun talking to ABC about settling on an end date for Lost, before the show runs the risk of degenerating into irrelevance and/or self-parody. (Lindelof has publicly stated that episode 100 would be the ideal stopping point.) ''We know all the big moves we have left,'' explains Cuse. ''The reason we're having these discussions now is that we don't want to stall. By defining an end point, it gives the audience the confidence to know that this is going someplace.'' In theory, ABC's McPherson agrees with the producers' logic: ''It's important not to let things just peter out and end because they've lost traction.'' That said, he remains cryptic about the finer details of Operation Kill Cash Cow: ''At this point, it's just notions that everyone is kicking around.''

Those conversations could prove tricky. ABC may have come up with the concept for Lost, but it was co-creator J.J. Abrams, Lindelof, and Cuse who managed to make something artistically and financially remarkable out of it. And with their deals set to expire after season 3, Lindelof and Cuse have more than a modicum of leverage. Negotiations with the producing pair are said to be friendly, although with other Lost writers recently renewing their contracts, a contingency plan may be in the works. Asked if he's prepared to continue Lost without the duo, McPherson says, ''We'll keep them as long as we possibly can. We're going to lock Damon and Carlton in the basement.'' (Okay, but isn't that what the hatches are for?)

Among the cast members, there is actually considerable support for the idea of losing their jobs sooner rather than later. Establishing a farewell date ''is really necessary for our enthusiasm as actors,'' says Lilly. ''The idea that the show could go on ad nauseam is very crippling as an actor, because then you start to degrade the idea of the material in your mind.'' She adds that if ABC agrees to wrap the show at a creatively optimal (if financially premature) time, it sends a message that ''Lost didn't just set out as a precedent-setting television show, it's going to finish as one.''

And that's essentially what Lindelof and Cuse want: a happy ending to their trippy, trying, triumphant fairy tale. For Cuse, it looks like this: ''We get to end the show on its own terms. Whether other people like what we've got planned is TBD, but we think our ending is cool, and that's always been our criterion.'' Adds Lindelof: ''Then we want a big parade, like when John Glenn comes back from space in The Right Stuff.'' You deliver on your promises, guys, and we'll take care of the confetti later.

[sickfins]

i got a very strong 2001 vibe from the most recent episode -- ben's voice sounds sort of like HAL when he's lying down, and then that immediately gets followed by jack watching the conversation through the glass, unable to hear.

[JG]

there was also a red light looming in the background in the operation room. 

the episode had a kubrick feel in general, as this scene was like something out of a clockwork orange. 

[Chest Rockwell]

I don't think it needs to be said, but spoilers below.

Well I thought last night's episode was definitely a worthy follow-up to last week. Desmond is the most interesting character on the main island at the moment. Charlie is the most annoying, but this new mystery about his impending death (and Desmond's foresight) is interesting enough to rival what's happening on the Others' island.

[grand theft sparrow]

Now even mod has to admit that last night's episode was of top-shelf season 2 quality if not season 1.  Unless he decides to be skeptical about it and writes it off as a Quantum Leap rip-off.

REQUISITE SPOILERS

This episode reminded me, for you Six Feet Under fans, of the Season 3 premiere when Nate was in limbo during his brain surgery.  The woman in the jewelry shop must be Desmond's subconscious (either that or Dharma can manipulate everyone much better than anyone realizes) in the same way that the dead were to the living on Six Feet. 

I'm kind of torn between accepting his quantum leap as having really happened and looking at it as a Wizard of Oz (referenced by the man's red shoes)-type thing.  With Charlie singing on the street (and Wonderwall... "Maybe/You're gonna be the one that saves me...") and the woman, I think it's more an internal rationalization that everything happens for a reason.  But then again, there's still the fact that he has memories of his entire life including things that have yet to happen.  So who knows?

Two things I was let down about: 1) I don't know that I like the Final Destination subplot introduced for Charlie.  I'll have to see where it goes because it will get tiresome if Desmond is constantly pushing him out of the way of falling trees and out of the way of ditches and shit; and 2) I was that I was hoping this episode would tie in directly with Penny's search for an electromagnetic anomaly in the South Pacific.  Maybe that he would have told her about it or something.  But no.  Not a complaint, just disappointed that my hunch was incorrect.  But other than that, it's the best episode since the one with Hurley's imaginary friend, I think.

And there were Hanso, Apollo Candy and Oceanic Airlines ads on the sidelines at the soccer game.

[modage]

Now even mod has to admit that last night's episode was of top-shelf season 2 quality if not season 1.  Unless he decides to be skeptical about it and writes it off as a Quantum Leap rip-off.

honestly, i was not feeling it.  and here's why.  LOST at its best is an extremely complicated juggling act.  there are a dozen main characters, and in order to keep all of them in the air, it takes a lot of skill.  last night, when we saw sayid and charlie and sun and claire (new bangs) i had almost forgotten they are on the same show it had been SO LONG since they had anything to do.  granted we just came back from a 4 month break but even earlier this season i don't remember them having too much to do either. 

even though or if jack and kate and sawyer are some of the main or most interesting or most popular characters, when you reduce LOST to focusing on only/mostly them for so long you lose the other characters and even they become less interesting.  so to come back from this break and have the first episode be again ONLY jack kate sawyer i think was a mistake.  and for the following to be ONLY desmond, an even bigger one.  they shouldnt ignore jack kate and sawyer just like they shouldnt have ignored the rest of the island the previous episodes.  its more interesting when you have both storylines to cut back and forth to.  obviously its not possible to feature every character in every episode but if they were able to focus on multiple storylines concurrently it would be better than this whiplash of going in opposite directions episode to episode. 

i see that last nights episode was somewhat breaking the mold of the show but didn't feel like it had very much to offer otherwise.  to switch subjects, 24 is great and everybody loves jack bauer.  but if 24 were ONLY jack bauer for episodes on end and there werent any other peripheral storylines and characters to cut to, it wouldnt be as interesting.  LOST is great because it (was) a true ensemble show whose structure enabled every character to be the MAIN character for at least one episode.  but even if they become the focus, when you lose track of too many other characters for too long, you are failing them and the show. 

i think the main problem is tv is ruining this for me.  if these could be watched without commercials and without a week between them i think the bigger picture would be seen easier than episode by episode.  if i had the willpower to wait till these were out on DVD (and attempt to block out all the spoilers floating around, probably impossible) i would.  i do not enjoy doing this.  i want TO LOVE THIS SHOW.  its ALL I WANT.  and i sit there and i watch and i'm feeling nothing. 

[mogwai]

the scene where desmond throws down his tie reminded me a bit like the one in "out of sight".

[Pozer]

a bit?  that was intentional, no doubt.  even when he pulls back his hair.  thought that homage was quite nice. 

fantastic show, friends... desmond is definitely in the top 3 characters I'd wanna see a whole entire episode devoted to.  Right behind jack & benny.

[polkablues]

It's sad that mod's heart is turning to stone, but that was one of the best episodes of the series so far.  In a lot of ways, Desmond is the true protagonist of the whole story; everyone else's goals mostly involve surviving the island and figuring out what's going on, but Desmond actually has this one overriding purpose that goes beyond all that.  Seeing that goal wrenched from him was heartbreaking.  And...

TINY LITTLE SPOILER

...could this mean the most pointless character on the island is going to die soon?  Is it Christmas again already?

[MacGuffin]

I was that I was hoping this episode would tie in directly with Penny's search for an electromagnetic anomaly in the South Pacific.  Maybe that he would have told her about it or something.  But no.  Not a complaint, just disappointed that my hunch was incorrect.

Ninth question down:

The Isle Files
Will Michael and Walt return? When will we get the Others' backstory? Just in time for the show's Feb. 7 return, ''Lost'' producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof tackle the best of the many tough questions you sent in

''LOST'' AT SEA Rest assured, we haven't heard the last of the Michael and Walt story, say our exec answer men.

You've got questions, we've got answers — straight from the mouths of Lost exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. We sifted through more than 2,000 queries from EW readers and presented the most pressing to the powers that be.

What happened to Michael and Walt?
CARLTON CUSE: We put a pin in the Michael and Walt story for the season, but by no means is it over. It would be very strange for the end of Michael and Walt to just send them off in that boat without any acknowledgment of what has happened. But if you look at the bigger picture of Lost, there's a circularity to the way that story is going to unfold in the overall mythology, and that is a long, planned approach. Yes, we'll get back to the Michael and Walt story, and it will be really compelling when we do. But that's most likely a year 4 story.
DAMON LINDELOF: Michael and Walt are the first characters on the show to ''get off the island.'' But the pervasive question remains: What is ''off the island''?

Are we going to get the history of the Others in one shot, or will this be revealed over time?
LINDELOF: It's definitely unfolding. We will begin to find out how certain members of the Others joined the Others. Episode 7 should play as a surprise to some audience members that Juliet was not born on the island — she came off the island and was recruited by the Others. So some of them were born there and some of them were recruited, but what they are there to do will be revealed before who put them there and why.
CUSE: The connection between the Others and Dharma gets revealed in episode 11.

When will we see Libby again? Will we ever learn how she got into the mental hospital with Hurley?
CUSE: Given everything else we have to tell, that's going to be a mystery that's going to have to get answered in year 4.
LINDELOF: There's really one significant missing piece to Libby's story. We saw in the season finale last year that she met with Desmond, she gave him his boat, and we know that her husband died — and then we know that subsequent to that, she spent some time in a mental institution, the same one as Hurley. The question the audience wants answered is, How did she get from A to B — from Desmond to the mental institution? We know the answer to that question, but the only way to tell that story is through another character's flashback, and that character would have to be another character on the show who is not among the beach dwellers.

What is the significance of the horse that Kate saw?
CUSE: People seem mystified by this. I would say this: We have seen a number of apparitions on the island, from Jack's dad to Kate's horse. You'll be getting more of an understanding of those apparitions during the course of this season.
LINDELOF: What is the nature of those apparitions? By definition, an apparition shouldn't be something you could go up and touch, or that other people should be able to see. And yet, Kate's horse is real. It is living in the physical world. Sawyer sees it; Kate goes up and touches it. Does the horse bear a striking resemblance to a horse that provided her an escape in her past as a fugitive, or is it the same exact horse? That is a fundamental question. But look at the show in total. Here's Christian Shepherd [Jack's dad]. Here's Yemi [Eko's brother]. Here's the horse. Here's Walt. [Remember, Walt appeared to Shannon, and later to Shannon and Sayid in a backwards-speaking vision.] Are all those things the same thing, or are some of them different things?
CUSE: We're also using these things to set up an animated sitcom spin-off called ''Kate's Horse and Sayid's Cat.''
LINDELOF: That's right. Sayid's cat is coming up in episode 11. We're not joking.
CUSE: Except for the animated part.

What is the meaning or significance of the two skeletons that Jack and Kate found in the cave of season 1?
CUSE: The answer to that question goes to the nature of the timeline of the island. We don't want to say too much about it, but there are a couple Easter eggs embedded in [the Feb. 7 episode], one of which is an anagram that actually sheds some light on the skeletons and hints at a larger mythological mystery that will start to unfold later in the season.
LINDELOF: There were certain things we knew from the very beginning. Independent of ever knowing when the end was going to be, we knew what it was going to be, and we wanted to start setting it up as early as season 1, or else people would think that we were making it up as we were going along. So the skeletons are the living — or, I guess, slowly decomposing — proof of that. When all is said and done, people are going to point to the skeletons and say, ''That is proof that from the very beginning, they always knew that they were going to do this.''

Last season, we saw in Ana Lucia's flashback that she witnessed an argument between Christian Shepherd and a woman in Australia, in which Christian demanded to see his daughter. The burning question/conspiracy theory that fans have is this: Is Claire Jack's half sister?
CUSE: We're not going to answer that question — but the show will. In the next six episodes.

Did Desmond's failure to press the button REALLY cause the plane to crash — or is there more to this story?
LINDELOF: In terms of the pragmatic reality, Oceanic 815 never would have crashed had Desmond pushed the button. But is there a larger, more faith-based, spiritualized reason that these people happened to be on that plane when he failed to press the button? If Desmond hadn't run into Jack at that stadium, would he have made the same choices that he made in his life? They all impact each other's lives. The fact that that guy is on that plane up there, and Desmond brings that plane down, it speaks to an interrelatedness among characters, why these people, why do they all connect. No amount of mythological answers will ever speak to this. That's the one thing that when the show ends, you won't have a causal explanation for why did all these people interconnect. Why some, why not others? The answer is just that they just do. The show is a massive Rube Goldberg device, in which all the components of the machinery are humans.

Even though The Hatch blew up, will we return to the mystery of the Dharma map that Desmond's previous Hatch occupants were painting on the retractable blast door?
CUSE: We will be visiting another Dharma station soon. But the map becomes less important, because when they visit this new station, they'll be getting some new information that helps them understand where the Dharma people lived and where their stations are.

Will Penelope ever become a significiant character, and when will we get a follow-up to the monumentally dramatic revelation at the end of season 2 that the EM burst was detected off the island?
CUSE: Penelope's story continues in episode 8 [Feb. 14] in Desmond's flashbacks. We put that scene at the end of the season finale for a reason, and like the anagram, they're components to a larger revelation. You'll learn more about why we put that scene at the end of season 2 by the end of season 3.

Does time pass differently on the island than off the island?
LINDELOF: That's a really perceptive question. We know that the Others taped the Red Sox win the World Series in 2004... so that would seem to indicate that time flows the same both on and off. But then again, when the sky turns purple and the ground shakes... wait. Hold on. Carlton is wringing my neck.
CUSE: Yes. Time passes very slowly because they don't have American Idol to watch.

In the ''death of Mr. Eko'' episode, it was my interpretation that the Monster was able to assume human form, i.e., Eko's brother. Am I crazy for thinking that? And will we learn anything more about the Monster's origins this season?
LINDELOF: You're not crazy. You will see the monster again this season. Its origins, however... well, you'll have to wait.
CUSE: Whether or not you learn more about it will depend on how obsessive you are. If you enjoy recording the program and studying individual frames, you might. But really, is that healthy?

Is there a mystery you will never solve?
LINDELOF: We will never give story time to revealing the construction of the infamous rope bridge.
CUSE: And honestly, we're never going to tell you why the French lady has a Yugoslavian accent.

[Gamblour.]

Hm, if Malcolm David Kelley (Walt) was 13/14 when we last saw him, and the next time we see him will be when he's 15/16....that will be a pretty awkward bit of show continuity.

Also, what in the hell did they mean by this: "one of which is an anagram that actually sheds some light on the skeletons"......I have that episode on my computer, but I'm not about to go looking for an anagram. Unless it's got something to do with Jacob. They didn't even vaguely mention the skeletons, they haven't brought them up since season 1, and it seems like a pretty random/obscure time to do it in that episode.

[Kal]

These guys have so much fun with people like us going crazy about this... its excellent.

I wish someone would stop Desmond from saving Charlie next time 

BTW, I just read that last nights episode had the lowest ratings ever for a new Lost episode... which is NOT good at all.

[grand theft sparrow]

BTW, I just read that last nights episode had the lowest ratings ever for a new Lost episode... which is NOT good at all.

But it's still the number one show on iTunes and iTunes can keep The Office in business, so who knows?

[Kal]

It was very low but its still higher that most shows... however its bad because it shows how stupid people already think the show is not good anymore and stopped watching.