The Wait is Over

It’s hard to believe it’s been 9 months! I could have had a baby since then. Yet here we are, just a few days away from the season four premiere of Lost. Things have definitely changed since season one.

In preparation for this big day, I thought it would do some good to brush up on what happened toward the end of last season and what went down this summer (things still happened!) so we can all be prepared for season four. There are 16 episodes slated for this season, however only half of them have been shot and edited and are ready-to-air. How long it takes the WGA to get a fair deal and get back to work is what the last 8 depend on. As of right now, they haven’t said much in terms of what would happen in the event the strike continues, just that the 8th episode could serve as a season finale if needed. My guess is if it came to that, they’d just tack the last 8 episodes onto the first part of season five and start the show in the fall next year. But that’s my guess… let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Originally, I had tried to type up my own summary for the events leading up to season four, but this ABC press release sums it up nicer.

With only 48 original episodes left until the final episode airs in 2010, this season truly is the beginning of the end with the promise of rescue at hand. Jack has radioed a freighter stationed somewhere off the island. But when it’s disclosed that Charlie’s dying warning was that these people may not be who they say they are, the castaways are split as to what to do. Jack is convinced that the freighter people are there to rescue them, while Locke is not. A division occurs among the survivors. Who is on the freighter? What was the significance of the flash-forward showing Jack and Kate off the island at some point in the future? What will the consequences be when the characters once again encounter Michael, who seemingly escaped the island after murdering two of the survivors?

So what’s in store for our castaways at the start of this season with the ominously named episode “Beginning of the End?” I think “Penny’s Boat” really will be a disaster and we’ll find that out right from the start. What kind of a disaster is still up for speculation — was it sent by Charles Widmore to destroy all evidence of the island? Was it sent by the Hanso Foundation to restore the Dharma Initiative? It’s any body’s guess at this point, but I think the line between our castaways and the others will be blurred when they find themselves united against a common threat (something I’m not thrilled with — I still want the Others to die a slow, torturous death. Except Juliet.)

Hello, Juliet.

There’s simply too much speculation at this point to start getting into theories (but believe me, I’ll do that soon), so I’ll stick with the facts: over the summer two big pieces of news hit us: Michael is returning (when, how, why, and how Walt plays into it all are still unknown), and we got this piece of an orientation video for yet another station, the Orchid.

Lots of funny things happen in this video, all of which I go into in a previous blog of mine. I won’t repeat what I said earlier, but it’s all there in that link if you care to refresh yourself.

As for the return of Michael, it will be interesting to see how they address the growth of Malcolm David Kelly, the kid who plays Walt. People have been wondering how they’ll play that into the story, seeing as how only 80 or 90 days have passed island-time, but 4 years have gone by in the real world, which is a lot for a growing child actor. They can’t simply bring him back to the show and say “this is Walt,” because he’ll look four years older.

The writers said, early on, that this “problem” will be addressed in the show. Originally I thought this meant something sci-fi was coming… something to do with time travel or genetic testing in the ominous Room 23, but ever since we learned that the show now tells us via flash-forwards what happens after our castaways are rescued in addition to what happened before, I think it’s something much more simple: Walt will appear in flash-forwards from this point on. These flash forwards will no doubt take place years after the events on the island, thus neatly explaining why Walt has aged.

Very creative.

Starting this past fall, Verizon and ABC teamed up to put out two or three minute mobi-sodes that filled in some of the back story leading up to our current situation. I originally thought they were just deleted scenes from previous episodes, but no — people actually wrote them, and they were recently filmed, just for this purpose. Here they are, along with my commentary, because it’s my blog and I can do that.

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Episode 1 - The Watch

So, here we are shown a flashback featuring Jack and his father a few moments before Jack gets married to Sarah. This is a little disturbing given what we know about Jack’s suspicions later on that Sarah is cheating on him with his father. Maybe we’ll find out of this is the truth in season four, and maybe, based on Jack’s line in the season three finale, we’ll hear it from Christian himself (is he still alive, did the island heal him)? I don’t know, but it’s one of the few moments on screen where we see Christian and Jack getting along and it’s actually kind of sweet. Like those aviators.

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Episode 2 - Hurley and Frogurt

Eff Neil, I’m calling him Frogurt. Whatever happens, though, we all know that this ends in tragedy because while he’s getting the wine, Libby’s getting shot by Michael.

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Episode 3 - King of the Castle

“When that day comes…” Well, we’ve already seen that day, and I wonder if Jack really was remembering this conversation during that scene. So what is it about the island that makes you want to come back? Is it just that it can heal you? Maybe Jack’s healed mentally and just doesn’t realize it yet. Is it a utopia that, once you experience it, going back to a capitalistic western society just doesn’t feel right anymore? Who knows. Either way, it looks like Ben was right about the island not wanting Jack to leave. It didn’t sink the submarine, but it might have made Locke do it, using explosives stolen from one of the stations that featured a pretty challenging game of chess.

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Episode 4 - The Deal

Ooooooooo. Here’s proof these aren’t just deleted scenes, onnaconna this woulda revealed too much if shown back in season two when this conversation took place. Not to mention, Juliet hadn’t even been introduced yet at that point.

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Episode 5 - Operation: Sleeper

This is one of my favorites because it blatantly answers the question of what Juliet was talking about when she asked Jack “should we tell her?” after Kate confronted them about nobody trusting them.

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Episode 6 - Room 23

Nah, nevermind. This here’s my favorite. We get confirmation that Walt really was in Room 23, the brainwashing room. Miss Klugh hinted at this when she threatened Walt by saying “we’ll put you back in the room!” He also appears to have some form of supernatural powers. Remember in season 1, during an off-island flashback, a bird flew into the window and died in a similar manner. So it seems they’ve planned on Walt’s power all along. The question is: why would the Others openly give him up? My theory is that, after the Hatch implosion, his powers vanished. Why? Because they are electro-magnetic powers that were fried when the magnetic anomaly exploded. Birds know where they are going because they navigate the Earth’s magnetic fields. This could also play into Claire’s idea to tie a message onto a bird’s foot.

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Episode 7 - Artz and Crafts

OH, yes, Mr. Artz. Those that missed the last part of the first season missed his dramatic departure from… well, life itself. I won’t ruin that surprise in case you want to go back and watch for yourself, but it’s good to see him now and then through flashbacks (like this and the third season episode featuring Nikki and Paolo). What’s interesting here is that he references Jack seeing his father on the island. This is important soon (keep reading).

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Episode 8 - Buried Secrets

Hmmmm.. Sun and Michael, huh? I can’t say this is a surprise. And I’m not glad that it was interrupted. That damn dog knows more than he’s letting on, I’m sure of it.

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Episode 9 - Tropical Depression

Nothing too special here, at least, not that I can see. I guess the fact that he’s catching the spider’s that later cause Nikki and Paolo’s death is a bit creepy. And Michael telling him he’s going to bring back help is a little bit ironic.

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Episode 10 - Jack Meets Ethan

So (assuming he’s being honest) Ethan had a wife who got pregnant on the island and succumbed to the curse and died? To my knowledge that’s new info., although not really a shock. But I bet that medicine didn’t come from the plane. We didn’t know anything about the Others for the most part in season 1, but there they were, running the whole show.

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Episode 11 - Jin Has a Tantrum

Poor Jin. When this took place, though, Jin was still an ass, so this is a bit of previously unseen development for him.

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Episode 12 - The Envelope

This was about to be another favorite, but they never revealed what’s in the envelope. My guess is something as boring as Ben’s tumor. The other cool part about this video, at least for me, is pretending the old woman is Amelia Earhart.

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Episode 13 - So It Begins

OMFG. “So it begins,” is the name of this one, and if that’s taken at face value, this is the beginning of the Lost story. This is huge. Jack’s dad, who, the more I think about it, might very well be Jacob (see the resemblance in the photo below?… maybe?…), or at least a distant offspring. I think it’s brilliant that they gave Vincent a flashback episode here, because it’s been joked about since the beginning. But Jack’s father?! Is he really alive, as Jack said in the flash-forward at the end of season 3? After all, his coffin was empty when they found it in season 1. But, we later found out that the smoke monster can take human form as it did for Eko when he saw his brother, and Kate’s horse, and maybe even Walt when Locke saw him again late last season. (The smoke monster might have even been the Mikhail that killed Charlie–I mean, he did DIE before that).

But how would the smoke monster even know who Jack was at this point? The plane had just crashed. And what work would he have to do? I haven’t decided if I believe this theory or not, but: maybe Jacob reanimated Jack’s father. Jack’s father’s name is Christian. If Jacob is, let’s say, Christian’s father, the initials there are J.C., and we all know of a popular guy who was resurrected with those initials.

“God loves you as he loved Jacob.”

So which “missing piece” do you like best? What are your thoughts? What do you hope gets explained this season? Is it a good idea for them to keep introducing new main characters each season? Who do you want to see more of? Who do you want to see die? I think someone will die this season, and I think it will be Claire. Claire, who is Jack’s half-sister. Jack, with the initial J, and Claire, with her initial C. It’s all over the place.

Poor Claire.

So, this Wednesday at 8pm they are replaying the season 3 finale with Pop-Up-Video-like text descriptions reminding you of some of the island lore. Then on Thursday at 8pm is the recap episode you’ll need to watch if you’re new to all of this or just have forgotten everything, and at 9pm is the beginning of season 4.

Until then… stay outta Room 23.