LOST updates, 20 July 2006

In The Official LOST Podcast for May 29th, 2006—which is jam-packed with interesting morsels of information—it was confirmed that "Joe" Inman (the American who coerced Sayid to become a torturer) is in fact a pseudonym for Kelvin Inman, Desmond's hatchmate. The name "Joe" was apparently used to prevent people from figuring out before the season finale that he was Kelvin. Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse pointed out that we "left the island" for the first time (other than in flashbacks) at the end of the season finale. They confirmed that when Desmond triggered the fail-safe it made the island temporarily visible, which is why it was detected by the Portuguese-speaking men's equipment. The Portuguese-speaking men said they didn't want to miss it again , and the executive producers indicated that the first time they missed the detection of an electromagnetic anomaly was when Desmond followed Kelvin out of the hatch and returned after a system failure had already begun (which event occurred on September 22, 2004, and apparently caused Flight 815 to crash). Damon and Carlton coyly bantered about the massive four-toed statue that Sayid, Jin, and Sun saw from the boat without revealing much about it. Regarding next season's episode schedule, they confirmed that there will be 6 straight episodes, then there will be a break through the holidays, and in January the show will return with 17 straight episodes. The executive producers announced that they will be making a public statement about The Hanso Foundation at Comic-Con (presumably connected with The LOST Experience) on July 22. We can expect a new Official LOST Podcast after the Comic-Con announcement.

There's an interview with Damon and Carlton over at comic-con.org with some tidbits about Season 3. Spoiler alert: Damon stated that the question of whether the island healed Rose and Locke "will be a real central focus of the storytelling next year." Rumor has it that next year we will find out about how Locke became confined to a wheelchair before the crash, which brings speculation that he survived the discharge from the season finale but may again be crippled in Season 3. Based on Damon Lindelof's statement, it might be reasonable to assume that Rose's cancer symptoms may also return. Some have speculated that Jin and Sun's ability to have a baby may have been positively affected by the island, so Sun's pregnancy might also be in jeopardy. One has to wonder why from the writers' perspective Sun became pregnant when each season of LOST takes place over a single month, and the show is only scheduled to last for six seasons, meaning that if the show continues at the same pace Sun would not even give birth by the end of the series.

DJ Dan's podcast from June 1st was posted as an MP3, which you can download here. In the podcast, DJ Dan gave his opinion that Persephone could not be working for a rival company, because "the Man don't hack the Man." DJ Dan also expressed his concern about the realm of science that companies like The Hanso Foundation delve into: "I'm afraid of the consequences of a science that moves so fast that we don't have a chance to stop and think and analyze what's going on."

In his June 8th podcast, DJ Dan expressed his concerns over The Hanso Foundation's work in genetic engineering which, he alleges, is intended to save us from "the end," but will actually turn us all into genetic carbon copies. A caller said that he had seen a shark with a marking like "a black octagon with some word on it that starts with a 'D'" and that he had pictures of it that he would send in. Strangely, these photographs have been on djdan.am since the site was first discovered. The last caller threatened DJ Dan for smearing The Hanso Foundation and made it clear that Dan was being watched and that the caller knew a lot of personal information about Dan. DJ Dan was clearly a bit shaken up by this call, and made a remark about having to name a successor. It will be interesting to see what becomes of DJ Dan if he continues to make disparaging remarks about The Hanso Foundation.

In the June 14th DJ Dan podcast, a caller explained nanotechnology and described nanites—microscopic, intelligent robots that could swarm like a cloud. The description is reminiscent of the smoke monster. On June 21st, DJ Dan theorized that the 105-year-old orangutan Joop from thehansofoundation.org is none other than Alvar Hanso—a very strange theory, but interesting because they would probably be somewhere around the same age. There were two interesting callers on the June 30th podcast. The first was a mathematical forecaster who said that the Valenzetti equation could be used to predict future events—including, perhaps, the future of mankind—and that Enzo Valenzetti disappeared (and was allegedly killed) when flying from Naples to Paris. The second caller was Persephone—aka Rachel Blake—who confirmed that The Hanso Foundation has employees who are "running [the Valenzetti] equation over and over." Rachel Blake has a hidden blog detailing her present search for Alvar Hanso and her ongoing efforts to uncover the truth about The Hanso Foundation. Rachel's blog has become one of the primary sources of LOST Experience information since thehansofoundation.org was shut down.

In the July 5th podcast, a caller claimed that his grandmother was involved with a "cult" known as "the Karma Imperative" and that she was last heard of in the "early 70s" when she was headed to a place called "The Flame" in the South Pacific. This woman may possibly be Karen DeGroot, who has been seen in the Swan and Pearl orientation films.

Another relatively new site to The LOST Experience is retrieversoftruth.com. According to the site, which is sponsored by The Hanso Foundation, yellow Labrador retrievers (like Walt's dog, Vincent) have special psychic abilities. Interestingly, the founder of Retrievers of Truth is named Dr. Vincent "Wally" Bolé, and "Wally Bole" is an anagram for "Yellow Lab"—hence, "Vincent Yellow Lab." A couple of possible clues have surfaced on this site, which you can read about at Lostpedia's article.

Speaking of Vincent, it seemed a bit strange that Walt would leave the island without thinking of Vincent. Walt had been very attached to his dog previously, but perhaps after his experiences with the Others he was willing to leave Vincent in order to save his own skin. Some viewers have speculated that Walt will realize he has left Vincent and try to turn the boat around, possibly stranding them again since the fake Henry Gale said that they had to follow a precise heading from a specifc starting point in order to leave the island. One theory opines that Vincent is in fact the "monster," which theory came about after the executive producers stated on the official podcast that we may have seen the monster in Season 2 without knowing it.

Don't forget to preorder LOST Season Two on DVD! The Season 2 anticipated release date is September 5th, giving viewers time to rewatch last season before Season 3 begins on October 4th. Preorder now!