Season Three Spoilers and More

A question related to Live Together, Die Alone: Could Libby be a Widmore? We still don't know Libby's last name. If Libby (or her husband, David) was a relative of Penny's father, Charles Widmore, then this would seem to explain how Libby ended up getting connected with Desmond in the coffee shop. Perhaps Charles Widmore asked or coerced Libby into meeting Desmond and offering him a rigged boat that would somehow cause him to get stranded on the island. Far-fetched? Maybe, but we have seen several hints of island-Widmore connections on the show and more especially in The LOST Experience.

On the Generally Speaking podcast, it was pointed out that Charlie and the flight attendant, Cindy, were in the front section of the plane when the plane began to go down. Charlie got out of the lavatory and buckled himself into the first available seat, which appeared to be in the front section. However, he somehow ended up landing near the middle section of the plane with the majority of the survivors; the front section of the plane landed elsewhere. What's even more mysterious is how Cindy managed to end up with the tail section survivors! Either these are serious production errors, or else they're mysteries that have yet to be explained on the show.

A new Orientation Film, known as the Sri Lanka Video, is being revealed in small fragments through The LOST Experience. It features Alvar Hanso and explains the name and nature of the DHARMA Initiative. In the film, apparently created in 1975, Alvar Hanso explains that "DHARMA is an acronym for Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications. It also stands for the one true way." The purpose of the Initiative was "to do nothing less than save the world as we know it." The film explains that the Valenzetti Equation "predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself." Apparently the DHARMA Initiative's intent was to conduct research that could prevent the destruction of mankind.

Following are some notes and important highlights from the Comic-Con 2006 discussion panel, wherein executive producers answered fan questions about LOST.

• Damon indicated that many fans had been overwhelmed by the mythological aspect of the show, so Season 3 will tone down the island mythology.
• In response to a comment from someone who enjoyed Season 1 but apparently disliked Season 2, Damon agreed that the show was very different between the two seasons and that "Season 3 is going to be much different than Season 1 or 2."
• Damon and Carlton hinted that the giant foot statue is very old, presumably much older than the DHARMA Initiative.
• Spoilerific quote from Damon: "It's interesting that you should ask about time because... you're making a basic assumption that... they've been there as long as they think they've been there. I would say by the end of Season 3 you might have a very different idea--" [Carlton stops Damon from continuing].
• Jack from Jay and Jack's podcast asked about an underwater hatch. Damon said that this was interesting and that he would not deny the existence of an underwater hatch, but Carlton interjected saying that he wouldn't confirm it, either. (As an aside, it is interesting to note that a Season 3 teaser shows Jack Shephard opening a hatch door and being thrown backward by a flood of water, which seems to indicate that The Others might take Jack, Kate, and Sawyer to an underwater hatch in the first episode of Season 3.)
• Jay from Jay and Jack's podcast asked on Jack's behalf whether Rose and Bernard "work for DHARMA," which Damon and Carlton emphatically denied.
• Rachel Blake, a character from the LOST Experience, was in the audience and demanded that the executive producers say what they knew about the Hanso Foundation. They claimed that the Hanso Foundation is a philanthropic organization with no actual connection to ABC. Rachel called them liars, and demanded "Where is Alvar Hanso?" to which Damon replied "He is an actor!" and Carlton quipped "He's in a window on our TV show." Rachel yelled that Alvar Hanso is real, that she herself was real, and that if we want the truth we can go to hansoexposed.com.
• The show makes a lot of references to The Wizard of Oz. Damon: "There are going to be and have been other Oz references in the show which are either incredibly meaningful or they don't mean anything at all."
• Damon promised that "You will never, ever hear the word 'clone' on LOST."
• On the Season 2 DVD, there's a bonus feature where "every single insult" that Sawyer has made has been edited together.
• Carlton: "We are definitely going to be back in the world of Jack's role as a spinal surgeon this year as well as the history of Locke and why he's in a wheelchair is obviously a question that we have not yet answered but we are not going to tell you exactly when but yes, we are going to explain that eventually." Damon: "You will know definitively, and one of the things we talked about down here at the very first time we came was this sort of idea of the show dancing between the supernatural and actual science and as far as the island's healing abilities, Locke's ability to walk, the fact that Rose was cured, and the many other sort of island mysteries... it's going to get a little scientific this year, which is going to be fairly cool. We want to be able to bounce between those two points of reality and fiction..."
• A member of the audience asked a question about a scene from Hurley's mental institution. Leonard said that Hurley had "opened the box," and the question was asked whether this had reference to Pandora's box. Damon: "Hurley's time in the mental institution, who he met there, and obviously his overlap with Libby, which is sort of a very significant character we sort of dangled out there before she met her unfortunate demise, is definitely going to be woven into the fabric of season three both in flashbacks and in the island, so you won't have to ask that question again next year."
• About 13 LOST "mobisodes," each a couple minutes long, will air this season. They will probably be available during the gap between the first six episodes and the rest of Season 3. They will be available on Verizon phones first, and will be available for free on the Internet one week later.
• Terry O'Quinn, the actor who plays Locke, got frustrated as Locke was getting frustrated on the show. Damon said that Terry would plead, "I want a knife in my hand and [to] kill things again!" and Damon said "Oh, you'll get your knife back, John Locke."
• Daniel Dae Kim, the actor who plays Jin, speaks English, and Carlton hinted "maybe you'll be seeing more of that" on the show.
• Damon: The literal translation of the five heiroglyphics seen on the counter in the Hatch mean "Underworld."
• Executive producer Bryan Burk said that there are going to be new characters, some of whom were still being cast at the time.
• Carlton: Desmond will be back on the show.
• Damon: "No, [the monster] is not a cloud of nanobots."
• Damon was fairly coy about answering when Sun would have her baby, but he hinted that the show will continue to cover a time span of about 30 days on the island per season.
• Carlton: Kate will hook up with somebody "very soon, we promise." Damon: "Within the first six episodes... [she] will be officially making her selection."
• Carlton hinted that Jack's dad really is dead, and said that there is still a lot "to be told, particularly about Libby, that we hope to get to." Damon stated that "some of those blanks [in Libby's story] will be filled in in the course of season three, and some beyond."

From an ABC press release on August 4th, we get some hints and spoilers about what's coming up on LOST in Season Three. Following are some excerpts.

"Just who these 'Others' are and what they want are primary questions Season Three will explore."

"Michael Emerson joins the regular cast in his ongoing role as Henry Gale, leader of 'The Others.'" (Does this admission that Henry is the leader of The Others indicate that he's the mysterious "Him"?)

"Romance looms on the horizon as Jack's interests veer towards a mysterious new woman, whose motives may be questionable."

"Sun and Jin will continue to celebrate their pregnancy - but is the child really Jin's?" (On the Generally Speaking Lost Podcast, the question of whether someone other than Jin—perhaps either Michael or Sun's English tutor, Jae Lee—might be the father has been discussed.)

"Locke and Sayid will band together with some of the other survivors and journey across the island in an attempt to free Jack, Kate and Sawyer."

"The fates of Locke, Desmond and Mr. Eko in the aftermath of the implosion of the hatch are answered." (Their fates are pretty obvious at this point; all three characters are featured in the Season Three promo poster and have been otherwise confirmed to be alive and well in Season Three.)

"Will Penny Widmore find the island and her long, lost love, Desmond, and can the survivors find a way to interact with the outside world?" (This seems to be a hint that the survivors will continue their attempts to find a way off the island.)

In a July 21st interview with Carlton Cuse, several tidbits were revealed about Season Three:

"...[I]t's not going to be just one new romance. There will be several new romances on the show this year. ... The second season was a little darker, a little more intense, a little more mythology-oriented, and I think that this year we're looking to make the show a little bit brighter, a little bit more vibrant, a little bit more on the action-adventure axis, a little bit more on the romance axis. ... Penny is an important character in the overarching mythology of the show. ... The interrelationship between the outside world and the island will be something that will be a part of Season 3. ...[T]he monster will be a part of Season 3, as will the polar bear. ...[W]e will be doing some polar-bear stories." In the first episode of LOST, the monster was indeed what killed the pilot. "The smoke creature and the monster are one and the same." Walt and Michael are "not necessarily" gone forever. "They still remain a part of the overall mythology of Lost. But as to when we will revisit their story, that's not something I can answer. But we will not immediately be getting back to Michael's story." The fact that the actor who plays Walt--Malcolm David Kelley--continues to get older is "something that we've accounted for." This fact may have something to do with what Damon Lindelof implied at Comic-Con in regards to time on the island not necessarily being the same as in the outside world. "[W]e have many actors on our show; [the actress who plays the flight attendant, Cindy,] is not at the top of the list of actors we're servicing."

At least three new characters will appear in Season Three:

Juliet, played by Elizabeth Mitchell: An Other, and possibly a love interest for Jack?

Nikki, played by Kiele Sanchez: Possibly an Other?

Rodrigo Santoro will also play a new character on LOST in Season Three, apparently a survivor of Flight 815, and he is not expected to appear on the show until later in the season.

Jack's ex-wife, Sarah, will be featured in an upcoming flashback. (Source: USA Today)

According to SpoilerFix, the first four episodes of Season Three will be titled, in chronological order, "A Tale of Two Cities" (with Kate flashbacks), "Further Instructions" (with Claire flashbacks), "The Glass Ballerina" (possibly with Jin and/or Sun flashbacks), and "Every Man For Himself" (with Desmond flashbacks). On the Generally Speaking Lost Podcast, it was pointed out that the title "Every Man For Himself" seems to be the opposite of the Season Two finale's title, "Live Together, Die Alone"—Kate's abbreviation for Jack's statement that if the survivors couldn't live together, they'd die alone.

Don't miss the first episode of Season Three! It airs Wednesday, October 4th in the United States and Canada.

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