Click to view alternate version of group photo.

If you’re curious about what clues may (or may not) be hidden in the way the image has been constructed then you should definitely have a read through this post on docarzt.com. Its a pretty comprehensive write-up comparing the Lost version to the famous painting, it covers everything from the placement and position of certain characters to what they are wearing, who they are looking at, the props placed around or near them. There are also some comparisons to similar ‘Last Supper’-themed promo photos used for other TV shows in the past. After all this is Lost, and as we seen in the past they rerely produce something like this without there being some sort of hidden meaning.

Group photo source: docarzt.com

Click on the images below to download the full res versions (1920 x 1200 pixels)

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/netmen2009/3763600381/

Its likely they’ll have a ‘special guest’ with them, last year it was Matthew Fox, the year before it was Harold Perrineau. Rumours have been circulating that it could even be Dominic Monaghan, that would be cool, we all miss Charlie, but I personally don’t think its likely. But then again we don’t really know what the 6th season is going to be about, remember that appears that they’ve just detonated a nuclear bomb on the island.

In the first couple of day of Comic Con a few Lost related things have popped up on the abc website. The first was the ‘Lost University’ site which I linked to here a couple of days back. It appears that it could be part of a new ARG to fill in the months until season 6, but no-one seems overly sure just yet. Lostpedia has compiled all the info off the site in one easy to read page, so I won’t bother duplicating it all here, but you can find out more about Lost University here.

Now another video has popped up, and it looks like its the first in a series of five videos to be released over the coming months. Titled ‘Mysteries of the Universe’, its been compiled to look like a 1970’s conspiracy documentary about secret societies. This first video doesn’t give too much away (you can watch it above), but any drip fed Lost info is a good thing. One thing to keep in mind though is that even if the content is ‘cool and interesting’ it doesn’t necessarily mean than the info is canon.

Hopefully we get teased with something cool at the last-ever Lost panel at SDCC.

However, and this is where even I get a little confused, those on the island that encounter the losties during that time in their past (both 1954 and 1977) still have memories of their meetings in 2007. For example, Charles Widmore tell Locke that he met him when he was just 17, yet Locke hasn’t aged a day since then. Locke tells him that its only been four days since they met, despite the meeting taking place in 1954. I’m not entirely sure how this works, is it similar to what Desmond experienced where he just woke up one day with this new memory. In other words, when did Charles remember remembering meeting Locke?

Then in “The Variable” Eloise is telling Charles that she had to send Dan back to the island knowing full well what would happen to him. She knows, because she remembers. How it is that she knows what happens to Dan on the island before she shoots him after she sends him to the island I’m still not sure (and yes, I’m aware the sentence didn’t make much sense). I can work it out in my mind, but couldn’t explain it in words if my life depended on it.

So, everything that the losties are doing in their “present” always happened in the hostiles past, it wasn’t necessarily the losties doing it but it did happen, for example Ben was probably always shot, and always healed by the hostiles, but in circumstances that didn’t involve the losties. Make sense? No? Didn’t think so.

Dan’s plan was based on his theory that he’d worked out the important ‘variables’ in the complex equation of time, and that these ‘variables’ are the people (not sure if he just meant the losties, or people in general). These people have free will etc etc and should be able to think for themselves, despite what they know, and be able to alter what happens in their future (in the case of the losties). But so far almost everything we’ve seen has really pointed towards time “course-correcting” no matter what the losties or anyone else does. The only thing that went against this was when Dan knocked on the hatch door and told Desmond to go and find Eloise, Des awoke with his ‘new’ memory of Dan that he seemingly didn’t have before.

By detonating the hydrogen bomb, Dan hopes to stop the incident occurring, which will remove the need for Dharma to encase the Swan station in concrete, which removes the need to push a button every 108 minutes, which means Desmond will never not push the button, and that will never cause Oceanic 815 to crash, meaning the losties will never be on the island, they’ll never have to leave the island, Ben will never turned the donkey wheel, the island and those on it will never skip through time and they’ll never end up in 1977…. But, if they never end up in 1977 how will Dan detonate the bomb to prevent those other 47 things from happening. Confused, hell yes. Prediction, don’t worry about it because I don’t think they will detonate the bomb.

With “the incident” just a few hours away, and Dan, umm, not doing so well, what’s going to happen in the last couple of episodes? I’m guessing that the incident will result in the losties returning to the time they belong in (2007), but will it be the same 2007 that they left? Depends if Dan is right or not about being able to alter the future.

At the end of season 4 Ben turned the ‘donkey wheel’ and moved the island, to those aboard the helicopter it was simply there one moment and gone the next leaving them no option but to put the chopper down into the ocean, for Ben it resulted in him being transported from January 2005 on the Island to the middle of a Tunisian desert… in October 2005. But for those on the island the consequences appear to have been a little more severe.

As the bright light and loud noises dissipated Sawyer, Juliet and co found themselves still on the island but in a time before Flight 815 had crashed, the result being that they no longer had any of their shelter, food or other supplies that they’d been keeping at the beach. Sawyer points out to Juliet that the burning wreck of the freighter that they could see previously has now vanished. Dan arrives back at the island in the Zodiac, which he was on along with several other losties during the move and was brought along for the ride. He mentions something about “being inside the radius”, obviously both the freighter and the helicopter were outside this radius.

The ‘Island 5’^TM (Sawyer, Juliet, Dan, Charlotte and Miles) head off to the hatch, on the way there the Dan explains that the Island is like a skipping record, and that they might have been dislodged from time. Before they get to the hatch the island ‘skips’ again, and when they arrive they find the hatch already imploded, in other words they’ve jumped forward again, but they don’t know how far. While standing looking over the imploded ruins of the hatch the island ‘skips’ again, taking them back again to a time before the hatch was found.

Sawyer, being Sawyer, storms off to find the back door because he wants supplies from the hatch. Dan tries to explain to him that it won’t work, because if it didn’t happen before it can’t happen this time. Everyone heads back to the beach, except Dan who conveniently left his pack at the hatch. Once Dan goes back to his pack he gets out his notebook and flips frantically through the pages, we don’t see what it is that he finds, but remember this is the same notebook that has “if anything happens Desmond will be my constant” written in it.

Dan explains to Des that he’s special because the rules don’t apply to him, is this because of the whole ‘constant’ thing? If it is, could it be that Desmond is not only Dan constant, but he is also the Islands constant. The only catch with this would be that he isn’t on the island in the ‘present’ time on the island, only the past, meaning they’d need to wait for his return to correct the skipping problem.

I know what you’re thinking, what about Locke? Well when Ben turned the donkey wheel he’d just met up with Alpert and the Others, but after island skipped the first time he found himself all alone not another person in sight. He headed through the jungle where he came across a clearing, he sees something in the distance, its the Nigerian drug plane that he’d found previously. So we now know that Locke too has gone backwards (possibly to the same time that the Island 5 has). Locke heads to the wreckage of the plane and as he’s climbing up to check it out someone starts taking pot shots at him, one hitting him in the leg causing him to fall.

He lying on the ground, with a bullet in his leg, when the gunman comes out of the bushes, its Ethan. Right about now Locke is probably think WTF is going on (as if the plane hadn’t already caused him to think this). He tries to explain to Ethan that he knows who he is, as Ethan goes to shoot him the island skips again and Ethan is gone. Locke is now in a time after the plane has fallen from the cliff it was hanging from. Alpert turns up to help patch up Locke’s wound, he explains that he’ll be moving on soon, and that the only way to fix things is to bring everyone who left back to the island. He also says that Jack, Kate and the other are already home, which kind of indicates that Locke has skipped forward to a point after they left the island. Alpert informs Locke that the way to convince them to come back to the island will require him to die.

Back on the beach (after Dan has returned) the losties are fighting, its mainly Frogurt and Bernard, when fiery arrows begin to rain down on the, the first of which stick straight into Frogurts chest (thank god for that). They scatter in all different directions to escape the attack (presumably from the others and/or Dharma). Sawyer and Juliet are caught by a small group of Dharma-ites only to be rescued by a knife-wielding Locke.

So when are they now? We saw Dan beneath the under-construction Orchid station in the 70’s at the beginning, they’ve been on both pre and post-crash version of the island and appear to be currently in a time before the crash, and before Ben wiped out Dharma (which we think was early 90’s), so lets say that they are in the 80’s sometime… maybe.

What does this all mean, if the Oceanic 6 saw the island vanish, how are they going to get back? Presumably they’ll need to ‘arrive’ at the island at a time when it exists in their timeline, which is probably where Mrs Hawking and the 72-hour window (determined by that big swinging magnetic thing and that ancient computer in her own personal little Dharma station beneath some random church) comes into play. I doubt they’ll make that ‘window’ though, that’d be too easy.

The Video

Chang sits down and begins to introduce himself as Dr Marvin Candle before he pauses and says that its not worth playing games anymore, and that if you’re watching this you already know that his name is Pierre Chang. There is a baby crying in the background, Chang get gets up and yells for Lara (wife?) to take him outside. He says that he only has one chance at ‘this’.

He explains that he was brought to the island many years ago and has been working on a number of experiments, during his explanation the image breaks up and there is a lot of static and the sound is lost briefly. There is a random image flashed during the static (the third image below) not sure its relevant or not, can’t really make out what it is, might be trees, might not be?

He says that if he can keep “this pinhole” open long enough that we should be receiving this message roughly 30 years in the future, he says that the current US President is a man named George W Bush, and that we share digital information instantaneously across “something called internet”. Both things that he would/should/could not really know in the mid 1970’s. He adds that he and his colleagues are all dead, victims of a violent purge, hat they are apparently powerless to escape. Is this Ben’s purge? or another purge that happened earlier?

Chang says that the information comes to him from a source, that has proven himself to be credible. A voice from behind the camera interrupts, saying that none that that matters, “just get to it”. Chang says that if this transmission is successful then it is proof that the work he has been doing is successful. He says that (the island) has extraordinary properties, and that no matter what’s happened it imperative that the Dharma Initiative be reconstituted, that the research has to be continued, now, “Time is not just of the essence. Time IS the essence”, and the perhaps the may be a way to save them, to change the past and the way to stop what is about to happen. The voice from behind the camera chimes in again telling Pierre that “this is useless”, that ‘they’ are never going to see this. And he turns the camera off.

The video ends with Hans discovering that Dan was filming the video, and he runs off screaming just like you would expect the chubby fanboy character to do.

The Theories

Ok, first, the man behind the camera, who is it? I’m pretty sure that its Daniel Faraday, which was the general consensus in the days after the video was initially shown. Don’t agree? listen the the voice again and tell me who YOU think it is.

He says that time IS the essence. He also mentions keeping a pinhole open, and if this “transmission” is successful. My guess is that the video is being sent from WHENever the losties (and the island) went after Ben moved it, forwards to the present day (Ben? Locke? Widmore? Oceanic 6?). Since it appears as though Dan is Chang’s “source”, and he obviously had to travel back in time somehow to provide him that information the question is whether he is the only one that went back. Im guessing he’s not. It does, however, seem a little odd though as Dan was in a boat offshore when the island “moved”, were objects in close proximity “moved” too?

The other alternative to Dan traveling back in time is that he experiences the same effects that both Desmond and Minkowski suffered, due to him being in the boat offshore when the island moves. Faraday may end up being in both 2005 (on the island) and in the 1970’s visiting Chang, much like when Des visited Dan in Season 4. Could Chang be Dan’s constant… or could Desmond be back there with Chang, after all Dan’s note book said Des would be his constant. Confused. Yeah, me too.

If Dan has gone back to visit Chang, does that mean that he and other Dharma-ites might be making an appearance in Season 5? Is it possible that we’ll see this video in some other context early on in Season 5? When will we find out “when” the island is, and if it has moved in time hows that going to affect Ben’s plans to get back, assuming he knows it moved through time of course.

Only a bit over two weeks to go now, can’t wait.

These postcards popped up on the ABC website a bit over a week ago, not sure if they reveal anything of great interest, I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions. It is worth noting that “Ajira Airways” is shown in a couple of them. There has also been some new info around Ajira popup in the past couple of days which I’d like to find time to write up before the premiere.

First Promo (click to view)

While its not a new shot, just one I hadn’t screencapped in the previous promos, we again see Charlotte with her nose bleeding, possibly related to why she’s no longer listed as one of the primary cast. We also see Desmond telling Penny that everyone of the island is in danger. We hear (but don’t see) Jack saying that they need to protect the people that they left behind, and Hurley saying “people are trying to kill us”. Sayid and Hurley arrive at an apartment building in the same 4WD seen in the last promo. Alpert is telling Locke that “the only way to save the island is to get your people back here”. Desmond running off, with Penny asking his where he’s going. And lastly another look at the explosion that looks like its going to wipe out a couple of the background losties.

Second Promo (click to view)

Nothing too much in this next promo, just another couple of shots of Locke falling.

Third Promo (click to view)

A couple of very interesting bits in this third promo. We hear Dan say “I know what’s happening”, right before we see Ethan emerge from the bushes pointing a gun at Locke. There someones clock that flips over to 8:15, and a mystery baby being held by someone who may be wearing Dharma clothes. There is also another angle of Locke’s fall. Sawyer screaming “run” (probably as the flaming arrows start falling from the sky).

We get a slightly extended view of the explosion we’ve already seen in the other promos. We then see Sawyer again trying to get in a door… looks a little like the external door to the Swan hatch, but that can’t be possible, right? The last shot is of Juliet and Sawyer who are shielding their eyes from possibly another “discharge”. Initially I thought this might have just been the footage of them on the beach from when Ben moved the island, but looking at the background it definitely seems to be night time (which it wasn’t when the island was moved.)

Fourth Promo (click to view)

The only new bit of interesting this promo is Sun talking to Jack, she tells him “you did what you had to do, we probably all would have died instead of just my husband”. Its not clear when this conversation takes place, but it could possibly be after Locke/Bentham’s death meangin she’s had time to forgive Jack

With still 6 weeks left until the premiere, theres bound to be several more promos, plus the sneak peaks that are being provided by “Dharma Special Access”, which replaced this years ARG which was ended early.