Flight 815 Anniversary Podcast

Today, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse released a "surprise" podcast to commemorate the third anniversary of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. If you click on the title of this post, you will go directly to the podcast, in which D and C call a number of Lost fans who submitted questions (though, of course, not yours truly) and answered their questions on the phone. Some highlights:

• As I observed in my recap of "Through the Looking Glass," the Krazr phone Jack used in the flash-forwards was meant to be a clue as to about how far in the "future" of the crash of 815 the flash-forward was meant to take place.
• The Jack and Kate at LAX scene is by no means meant to be the end of the story (with the remaining 48 episodes designed to catch us up to that moment).
• On the subject of how time travel works on Lost - see Ms. Hawking's self-correcting universe theory from "Flashes Before Your Eyes." In other words, Jack's obsession to get back to the island, and the fact of flash-forwards, are not meant to indicate that it will be possible to go back in time to alter whatever it is that makes Jack so miserable after his return to L.A. What happens on Lost stays happened on Lost.
• The story of Richard Alpert remains "parked" as actor Nestor Carbonnel has been cast as a regular on CBS's new series, "Cane." There is more to this story, but its telling will depend on whether Cane gets a full-season order or, in general, on Nestor's availability going forward. There is some hope for flexibility, however, in that Cane is an ABC studios production, meaning the studio could arrange Cane's schedule to make Nestor available. Sorry, Jimmy Smits, but Richard is too cool, so I hope your new show gets cancelled early...
• The answer to the question of whether Kate is pregnant with Sawyer's baby will be answered by around the fourth episode of Season 4.
• Mikhail is dead. No matter how resilient the guy seems to be, point-blank grenade explosions are awfully lethal. That said, he will in all likelihood appear in future flashbacks.
• Carlton joked that the mysterious occupant of the coffin in the flash-forward might have been John Locke, until Terry O'Quinn had to go and win an Emmy.

Finally, though not in the podcast, TV Guide reported this week that Libby (Cynthia Watros) will be returning to Lost this season for a multi-episode arc (which will, of course, be told in flashbacks) that will fill in the blanks of her story.

So, that's what's new in Lost-land. Happy (?) anniversary of the crash!