PREVIOUSLY ON LOST

Remember the ad for “Octagon Global Recruiting” that ran towards the end of the season 4 finale, well the dates it mentioned were referring to Comic-Con 208 in San Diego. In addition to what appears to be the beginning of a new ARG to keep us entertained until Season 5 starts next year, the producers broke their self-imposed “radio silence” to talk about some bits and pieces about both the last season and next season.

Now, I wouldn’t really say that any of these are “spoilers” but if you are trying to avoid anything remotely spoiler-like you might notwant to read the Q and A section that’s after the jump. There we go, vague warning out of the way.

In addition to the official Lost panel on Saturday, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse also took part in a combined EW Panel the day before. Doesn’t sound like they mentioned anything earth shattering, just a few small points about Season 5.

• They were disappointed they didn’t get to tell the stories of the freighter folk (presumably beyond the main four), but that they will cover them in season 5, and using a different method (whatever that means).
• We will be seeing Claire again, but they’ve said it might be a while, and that it will be explained, and that it will make sense. They also said that there are sometimes paradoxes, but they that do have a “plan”.
• The characters on LOST can not change the future, and the flash forwards we’ve seen are what will happen and won’t change.
• Confirmation that there will be 17 episodes in each of the last two seasons. (One more than originally announced due to slightly shorter Season 4)
• Filming for season 5 starts in about 3 weeks.

Dharma Initiative Recruiting Project

The new ARG, also known as “The Project” is being done by the same people who did last years Find815 ARG. I really enjoyed Find815, especially waiting for all the new clues and bits of info, I only hope that this years ties in a bit more consistently with the overall Lost “canon” though.

The first few pieces have appeared, with the most interesting being the new Dharma/Marvin Candle video mentioned at the bottom of this post. It would appear that the ARG “starts” on Monday.

Summary of fan questions, and answers from the official LOST Panel

How accurate these answers are remains to be seen, in all honesty could you blame the producers for just toying with us? Remember they said they would be in total radio silence until Season 5, so take everything they’ve said with a grain of salt, they might be intentionally leading us up the garden path.

Q: When the hatch imploded and the sky turned purple, did the Island move then?
A: No, but something happened.

Q: What is the fate of Jin and Locke, are they actually dead?
A: Jin will still be on the show in some form. You haven’t seen the last of either of those characters. Death is a relative term. There is a lot of story yet to be told for both characters.

Q: Will there be a Rousseau flashback?
A: We will see Rousseau’s story in season 5, to use the word flashback might be disingenuous. We’re steering away from the flashes.

Q: What happened to Vincent?
A: What about what happened to the Island and Sawyer and Juliet? Vincent’s OK and will appear in season 5.

Q: Will Kate ever see Sawyer again?
A: Yes. Kate will see Sawyer again.

Q: What happened to the non-speaking “beachies” who were being ferried over to the freighter at the end of season 4?
A: They’re dead. Faraday is probably going to be ok.

Q: Is there a limit as to how far the flashes can go back and forth in time?
A: We’re going to tell stories in a new and exciting way. This year, when season 5 starts, you’re not going to know when and where you are, no constraints. There will be story telling
both on and off the Island and in different periods of time.

Q: How did Daniel know about the secondary protocol?
A: His notebook says what happened and what will happen, and it will figure prominently in season 5.

Q: How old is Richard Alpert and how many toes does he have?
A: Quite old. We will see Alpert barefoot in the very near future and that puns intended: the very near future.

Q: Regarding Locke’s pseudonym Jeremy Bentham, and one of his big things was the panopticon, are the people on the Island being watched, and by who?
A: Good question. Their response is cut short when a new Dharma/Marvin Candle video is shown.

Candle reveals that his real name is Pierre Chang, and among other things tells us that Geroge W. Bush is the president, and that if all “this works” we’ll be seeing this video 30 years after it was filmed…in other words he record this in the late 1970’s. I think I’ll cover more about this video in a separate post. Watch the video

Sources
Clearly since I’m not in San Diego I couldn’t have gather this info myself, instead I just combined the more interesting bits from the good coverage at these sites:
http://livelost.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/hawaii
http://www.youtube.com/user/tapdawg
http://www.docarzt.com