Curse My Lack of Resolve...I'm Back!

Boy, I stink. The Writers' strike continues, and yet, here I am. So much for sticking to my guns.

Despite my earlier pledge to stand firm with the writers and not support the corporate masters by contributing to the buzz around their product until the strike is over, there are a few reasons why I've returned to my posting ways.

1. My blog's hits, on a good week, are in the low three figures. Realistically, Disney does not notice any benefit from the "buzz" I generate (which is about the same as a fruit fly not flapping its wings).

2. As Carlton Cuse's sign displayed in my previous post points out, love of Lost is love of the writers.

3. My seven-week old daughter Sarah is such a good sleeper, I'm not nearly as tired as I thought I would be when I came up with a good excuse not to blog.

4. There's just so much cool new Lost content out in the weeks before the Season 4 premiere, I just couldn't contain myself!


First off, there have actually been a number of new scenes released online. This brand new content, called "Missing Pieces," debuts each week on Verizon Wireless Vcast phones before showing up on ABC.com the following Monday. All in all, 13 of these "Missing Pieces" were written and shot with the show's regular writing and directing staffs and main cast members. You can see these scenes, in reverse order of release, by clicking on the title of this post. Amazingly, the deal that was struck between Disney and the creative folks behind Lost is almost identical to the deal the WGA is seeking in the strike, except for the clause that states the "Missing Pieces" deal is not to be used as a negotiating point with the unions.


So, what are these Missing Pieces? Think of them as deleted scenes from the first three seasons. But, unlike DVD special features, these scenes were written after those seasons were completed (and, indeed, if they had been included in the "normal" sequence, they may have shaded the story unduly). A brief set of highlights of what you'll encounter in these vignettes:

• An eerie bit of foreshadowing, in which patient Ben, playing chess with Dr. Jack in Othersville, suggests there may come a time after Jack leaves the island where he finds he wishes he never left.


• A fairly clear indication that "the Room" to which Ms. Clugh threatened to return Walt was, in fact, the psychadelic Room 23 on Hydra Island.


• A near-kiss between Sun and Michael before Sun reconciled with Jin in Season 1.


• A conversation between Juliet and then-captive Michael, tying her character into the story earlier than her first appearance on the show.


• Juliet's coming clean to Jack about her double-agent status.


• ...and much much more.

Also, a new "alternate reality game" akin to The Lost Experience from Summer 2006 has sprung up. It began with the announcement that Oceanic Airlines has resumed operations (Doc Jensen at ew.com notes there is a continuity error here - apparently, the flash-forwards in the Season 3 finale were set in April 2007. They featured Jack regularly flying Oceanic Airlines. This game suggests Oceanic was not flying until December, 2007. Hey, nobody's perfect!)

If you go to the airline's new website, flyoceanicair.com, you will find the carrier's re-introduction video was hacked by technician Sam Thomas, who directs you to another site, find815.com. The Lost Experience, with all its herculean labors, was incredibly cumbersome, relying on multiple websites, hidden messages in magazine, TV and online ads for various sponsors, and posters and flyers that were left in plain sight in locations all over the world. In contrast, find815.com exists entirely on the one site (it occasionally forwards you to hidden parts of Lost's site on abc.com, but it does so directly). In the new game, you'll get to know Sam Thomas, an Oceanic IT worker whose girlfriend, Sonya, was a flight attendant on 815. When Oceanic announces it has abandoned the search for our lostaways, Sam takes it upon himself to keep the hunt alive, particularly after he receives a mysterious email from the Maxwell Group that contains clues about a cargo ship, a geographic location and the familiar-to-lostophiles name, "Black Rock."

This game is pretty easy to plow through (particularly compared to its predecessor, which required advanced codebreaking skills and friends around the world to solve), and has been produced with an amazing degree of production value. It's not a major time-suck, and, given that it is scheduled to end just hours before the January 31 premiere of Season 4, may even provide some hints of what's to come. The first such clue may indeed be this mysterious Maxwell Group. Given that the Maxwell Group website will only go live the day after the season premiere (click on the login button on the home page to get this information), Doc Jensen surmizes we will hear more about these guys in the coming episodes. Could they be the people who sent the freighter that put Naomi and her satellite phone on the island?

In any case, I suggest you peruse this game (or, if you don't want to take the time to solve the little clues, check out http://www.docarzt.com/, where the good doc reveals each new piece of the puzzle as it debuts).

Well, that's that, lostophiles. Only 20 days until Season 4 begins with the ominously titled episode, "Beginning of the End."