There's No Place Like Home - A Summer Update

Hey Losties,

Do your eyes deceive you? Can it be? Yes - an update!

Although I assured one of you (you know who you are, Ellen) that I would be posting something about three weeks ago, I haven't sat down to do so until now. Obviously. It's not that I've been all that busy during my summer vacation; I have gotten a lot done around the house that sorely needed to be done, and have been able to watch Yankee games uninterrupted for the most part. It's more that I wanted a little breathing room away from LOST for a while. I got to a point where every time I thought of it, my mind would go numb, so I figured that wasn't good. I'm slowly getting back into listening to podcasts and actually having something to say here at the blog, so I hope that I'll have more for you more frequently. As part of my "required summer reading," I also will be reading The Lost Chronicles by Mark Cotta Vaz, and I recently picked up a copy of Lost and Philosophy, edited by Sharon M. Kaye. I will let you know how they are.
Beyond all that, I have three things for you for now:

1. They have added an extra hour to the upcoming sixth and final season of the show, which makes the season 18 hours long. No word on what form those 18 hours will be in, but even if it's an hour of random boar hunting and jungle walking, I'll still be glued to my TV.

2. This next tidbit might be considered a spoiler - I saw it by accident but figured I'd pass it along for those who wanted to know - so if you don't want to see it, skip the small gray text below:

There are rumors swirling that cast members who have been killed off are going to be involved in the filming of Season 6. Which means that we will be seeing them again. Which means that a return to 2004 might indeed be possible. The rumors are getting shot down through official channels, but they keep coming back up again, so who knows. To be honest, I'm not sure they've even written anything for the season yet, but I'm sure they have a pretty good idea about what's going to happen and who needs to be involved, so I could see this being possible.
This would mean that the Jughead explosion might indeed have returned our Losties to Oceanic Flight 815 in 2004, and will land in L.A., which means that everything that happened since the crash never "happened." Many, many fans are completely against this idea, saying that it would be cheap and make the entire show up until now totally pointless. I disagree - I kind of like the idea because of the possibilities it holds. Will they remember what happened? Will the crash have been an alternate universe that they mistakenly crossed into, only to have them have some sort of memory of it and a desire to find the island? Will they return to the course their lives would've taken if the crash hadn't happened, but have the island somehow call to them? The reason I like the idea so much is just to see what the writers would do. At this point, I have no idea where the show will go. But remember - "whatever happened, happened," right? Think about this: how many actors left the show on supposed bad terms: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr. Eko - he "didn't like Hawaii"), Cynthia Watros (Libby) and Michelle Rodriguez (Ana-Lucia - both were rumored to have been killed off because of real-life DUI's), Mira Furlan (Danielle - she wanted to leave because her family had recently left a place of political unrest in eastern Europe and she wanted to reunite with them), Rebecca Mader (Charlotte - she had a well-publicized spat with the writers over her character's age), Harold Perrineau (Michael - a big deal was made of his return in Season 4, only to kill him off after two episodes, which he was publicly upset about), and even Dominic Monaghan (Charlie - he claims that his character didn't need to be killed off)? Could the public, media-promoted controversy over their departures have the intention of making it look like their exit from the show was final, with no chance of a return, when in truth the producers have been setting us fans up for a "long con" of their own? Has all of the bad blood between the "jilted" actors and the producers been a conspiracy between all of them to shock us in Season 6 when we see them return? After all, this is LOST - would you put it past them to do something like this?

3. And finally, the news I hope that fans of this blog will be happy to hear: The Great LOST Series Rewatch is here! That's right - I am watching the series from the very beginning this summer and into the fall, and I will be posting things I've noticed from past episodes that may have new meaning after crazy Season 5 has now ended. I won't be recapping anything, but will simply go episode-by-episode, taking notes on what might jump out as significant with the hindsight of more recent seasons. This is actually something that several bloggers and podcasters have already begun, and I plan to read and listen to what they find as well. I may even begin tonight, but I also want to catch up on some movies, so I have no set schedule; it may be six episodes one week, and one the next, but there are a lot to get through, so I'm going to keep up with it as often as I can. I'm really excited about it! And if anyone would like to rewatch along with me and let me know what they noticed, please do - I'd love to hear what you found. Keep checking back weekly!

Until then, Good Luck and Namaste,