* The island did not travel when the hatch imploded, but something did happen.
* We'll see more of Locke and Jin on the show. "Dead is a relative term," and there's still a lot of story to be told about those characters.
* Their favorite episodes are "The Constant" (Carlton) and "Exodus" (Damon). Damon adds that he really liked season four, and he admitted the show has had its "ups and downs."
* They reiterated that getting an end date for the show has really reinvigorated it in terms of giving it energy and purpose.
* We will see Rousseau's story this year, but it won't exactly be a flashback. We're done with flashbacks and flashforwards, but there will be some time-jumping excitement anyway. There will be storytelling on and off the island, and in different periods of time.
* Vincent the Dog is fine and will be in season five — and will survive until the end of the show.
* The Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle is central to the show, and we'll see more interesting permutations of it over the next two seasons. And Kate will see Sawyer again.
* The nameless extras in the Zodiac boat with Farraday, stranded with the island gone, may be toast, but "things are looking up" for Farraday himself.
* Speaking of Daniel, he has a little notebook that tells him stuff that's happened, and stuff that will happen soon, and it's going to figure prominently in season five.
* Richard Alpert is "quite old," thanks to the island's mystical properties, and we'll see more of his history this year. We'll also see him barefoot in "the near future, pun intended," so we'll find out how many toes he has.
On Saturday at the San Diego Comic-Con, a huge crowd of Lost fans was treated to a Q&A session with the famous team of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, several knick-knacks, a few pieces of scoop and one big surprise.
To kick things off, "Darlton" handed out specific gifts to each person who asked a question. The best exchange: An uncanny Hurley look-a-like was awarded a Dharma bottle of ranch dressing.
Later, after someone posed a question about the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle, the exec producers began bickering about how the action figure they were about to gift the fan didn't really look like Matthew Fox. Cue the surprise entrance of... Matthew Fox! The Losties went nuts because not five minutes earlier Darlton said the panel was only going to involve the two of them (if only because the cast is so hard to track down before they start shooting in Hawaii).
The main draw for any Lost diehard, of course, is the vague promise of scoop. As far as new intel goes, it was typically scarce. The execs revealed that Jin (who last was seen on the exploding freighter) and Locke (reclined in a coffin under the purview of FutureJack as the season finale faded to black) each would be back in some capacity, and that "dead is a relative term" on this show. Also, animal lovers may be pleased to know that Vincent is not only alive and well, but will make it to the end of the series!
To wrap things up, a fan came out on stage with a video camera screaming that he had "exclusive video from the Dharma booth." It was shot Blair Witch-style, and was clearly a planned part of the panel, yet the footage still was hilarious. As the tape unspoiled, the scientist from the Dharma orientation films hinted that the island is 30 years behind. (The hatch music from the '70s now makes a bit more sense.) He begged anyone watching to reconstitute the Dharma Initiative, because all of the original doctors are dead. Say what?!
Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse weren't expected to reveal much of anything about the upcoming season at their Comic-Con panel Saturday; production on the drama won't begin for another three weeks in Hawaii and the writers are typically loathe to give spoilers away, anyway. Still, the duo didn't disappoint. They immediately took questions from the audience and gave Lost memorabilia to anyone who made it up to the microphone. Besides handing out nifty prizes like an autographed life jacket and a T-shirt that read, "I asked a question about Richard Alpert and all I got was this lousy T-shirt," the producers did offer up a few tidbits about the coming year. Jin and Locke will appear in one form or another, Rousseau's story will finally be told, and Walt's dog Vincent will stage a comeback (some fan, in fact, actually inquired about the dog's status before asking about any human characters). Oh, and Lindelof insisted that the Island did not move in the finale. Matthew Fox (pictured) showed up, too, mostly to glad-hand a fan and smile pretty for the room.
The panel then took an odd turn when a pudgy, red-faced "recruit" from the Dharma Initiative bounded on stage to report that he just captured secret video from Dharma's Comic-Con booth. It featured Lost character Dr. Marvin Candle admitting to the camera that his real name was Chang, he was a professor from Ann Arbor, Mich., and that he was about to fall victim to a "violent purge" that he's "powerless to escape" (translation: he's dead now, folks). Candle's purpose for the video? He wanted to say his research on the Island was valid so the "Dharma Initiative should be reconstituted." |
