Lost's final Comic-Con ever was a brief but fun panel, but there were so many bits that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse didn't have time to field a lot of questions, which was undoubtedly by design. And that's probably for the best. A juicy Lost spoiler is like that second slice of pizza -- so tempting, but you'll hate yourself for consuming it. I'm OK with what little answers we did get; I don't think any of us are worried that the final season won't blow our minds. But in the meantime let's look at everything we learned, and all the fun little skits in between the spoilers.
-- "You will be seeing Faraday on the show [next season]." -- Damon Lindelof.
-- In terms of rumored similarities between Season 6 and Season 1, Darlton promises the element of surprise and unpredictability will be back (it never really went away, but I take their point), and that "there's a good chance you'll be seeing many characters you haven't seen since the first season." -- Damon
-- They're still tight-lipped on this season's driving storytelling device, saying only, "We're doing something different in Season 6. Time travel season is over, the flash forward season is over. We have something different planned." -- Carlton Cuse
-- For a moment, the panel looked like it was just going to be Darlton by themselves, until Jorge Garcia got in the audience question line and asked if "what Jack did in the finale actually worked" and wiped away the entire first five seasons of the show. To which Carlton answered, "You just have to trust us." Jorge's retort? "The last time I trusted you guys, you said Nikki and Paolo were gonna be awesome." Heh.
-- Then Michael Emerson showed up next to him and they trash-talked for a while, semi in character. It was funny, but pretty much just a very transparent diversion. After that, the two actors joined Darlton up on stage, and eventually Nestor Carbonnell came out after a hilarious pre-taped segment showing him diva-ing out while applying the infamous mythical eye liner. Josh Holloway followed and tased Damon for secrets (in between calling him "J.J. Abrams" and "Linda," among other Sawyer-esque nicknames), and the show ended with Dominic Monaghan coming out to wave to the audience. He must have been there for Flash Forward, but it was nice that he made time to pop in to the Lost panel, even if it was just for a second.
-- Speaking of Richard, someone asked if we'll be seeing his back story, and if it will coincide with the landing of the Black Rock in the middle of the island. Damon's answer: "That's a very, very, very good question. Next." So I think we can assume that's a spoiler right there.
-- They wouldn't say in what capacity of course, but "Elizabeth Mitchell will be in Lost in the final season." - Damon
-- Both Paul Scheer and Comic-Con legend Bob Stencil crashed the panel and were funny. Scheer brought a painting he'd made of Damon, Carlton and a polar bear, and they seemed really annoyed by it, but it was funny from a not-them perspective.
-- They're likely going to address who dropped the Dharma food on the island in Season 2.
-- Question: "Has Jacob ever appeared to our Lost castaways as any other character than himself?" "No, is the answer to your question." -- Damon. So I guess that "Vincent is Jacob theory" is shot to hell. And so are those scenes where Jacob was totally Locke and/or Christian in The Cabin all those times, but whatever.
-- The Dharma Initiative won't be a big part of Season 6, which was to be expected.
So all things considered, it seems as though Jack's plan to reset the plane crash worked. I don't think that's particularly shocking -- I don't know how else they could have gone with it. Either a giant chunk of central characters landed safely on that plane, or they're dead now, and we all knew there was never going to be a Jack/Sawyer/Kate/Hurley-less Lost for an entire season. Maybe they'll land in L.A. not knowing each other but somehow have weird flashbacks of things on the island that never happened to them? And I'm not really clear on whether Jack and crew resetting the crash in their time period also sucks the people in Locke/Esau times into landing safely in L.A. in 2004, because time travel seriously hurts my brain. Who knows, could be anything. But hey, at least we know Richard was on the Black Rock! That's something!
And it would have been nice to have more of the cast there, but I understand that the show doesn't exactly film in nearby Burbank.
Futher evidence of Jack's plan working: Hurley's Mr. Cluck's ad and Oceanic's ad boasting a "perfect safety record" from 1979-2009. And ABC's been awesome enough to leave the entire panel up on YouTube for your viewing enjoyment.
Surely you must have opinions about all of this. Tell us about them!
For more from Television Without Pity:
- San Diego Comic-Con: All of the Big TV Scoop
- TV Prequels We Want to See
- The Sexy Sci-Fi Star That Can Save Television
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