Lost Wednesdays

Michael is back and all is right with the world! You know the rumor was that the creators of Lost wanted Michael back last year, meaning he would have never missed a full season, except they couldn’t work out a contract for his return and then Harold Perrineau was cast in the horror movie 28 Weeks Later, which conflicted with Lost’s filming schedule. What is interesting about that rumor is that it is completely rebuffed by an excellent interview with the actor posted on CNN yesterday. According to the article:

The 44-year-old actor from New York tenses up when he talks about the third season. Perrineau was the only one of the 14 original "Lost" cast members to not appear in a third-season flashback, mind-bending vision or otherwise. He says he "wasn't so happy" about the creative decision to leave Michael and Walt off the island and focus on others.

"I was hurt, really hurt," said Perrineau. "I told myself I had to watch the show, so I at least knew what was going on in case I was brought back, but then I was like, 'Why?' I never knew what was going on before. Why should I start trying to figure it out now?"

Instead of waiting by the phone to hear if his character would return to the series, Perrineau moved on to other projects, including a part in the film "28 Weeks Later" and a role in the CBS pilot "Demons." When "Demons" didn't get picked up, that made room in Perrineau's schedule to get "Lost" again. (link)

You know this really contradicts everything I had heard about the creators of Lost wanting to bring Perrineau back to the show and it really frustrates me. It angers me that we were force fed Nikki and Paulo when the executive producers could have just sucked it up and gotten Michael back to the island faster. But, the longer wait may have given more mystery as to what struggling single father Michael Dawson has been up to during these past three months of “island time.” I guess as long as they give Michael some quality screen time and a reasonable explanation as to why he’s working with Ben all will be forgiven.

According to the same interview, many of our questions as to where Michael and Walt have been will be answered in tomorrow’s Michael-centric episode "Meet Kevin Johnson." The article promises tomorrow night’s episode will not only explain to us in Flash Backs where Michael’s been, but “will [also] feature flashbacks detailing what happened after Perrineau's character shockingly gunned down fellow passengers Ana-Lucia and Libby in order to release seemingly evil Ben and retrieve his son Walt from captivity.” (link) I have always felt bad for Michael in that he always seems to make the wrong decision that just keeps getting him in deeper and deeper trouble. You’d think with his and Walt’s escape from the island while leaving his friends behind and killing Ana-Lucia and Libby in the process would weight heavily upon him. Heavily enough to eventually bring him back to the island, and here he is.

The last two tidbits from this week’s Lost Wednesdays come from TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello. It seems that who the final member of the Oceanic 6 will not be revealed after all. (link) Carlton Cuse told Ausiello that they’re “not going public with any further clarifications right now,” and that they “don’t determine how ABC promotes the show.” (link) Man that certainly is a downer when it comes to Jin’s ultimate fate, isn’t it? But, Cuse does say that “you have now seen all of the Oceanic Six in this season’s episodes.” (link) If that’s not the biggest non-answer I’ve ever heard then I don’t know what one is. Of course we’ve seen all of the members of the Oceanic 6 this season, we’ve seen every possible member of it this year except maybe Walt, so I guess that means strike him off the list.

Another interesting tidbit about the four toed statue was featured on Ausiello’s blog this week. According to co-executive producer Damon Lindelof the reason we haven’t seen the statue again is that they “got a note back from the network that said, ‘This is too weird,’" (link) Evidently a six toed statue would have been ok, but a four toed statue was just too much for ABC. Hopefully the show’s writers will be able to find a way to bring the statue back into the fray that’s not too out there for the ABC brass. Well that’s all I’ve got for this week, I just wish it was Thursday already so we could get some answers and maybe even a sneak peak at just how tall Walt’s gotten.

Lost - Ji Yeon

Wow, our first Flash Back and Flash Forward in the same episode. But first let’s get to the real shocker from last week’s episode. For about a year now I’ve been waiting for Michael’s reappearance. The worst kept secret on Lost has been the return of Harold Perrineau to the island. I really don’t understand why Lost went and ruined what could have been such a huge revelation for all of us Lost fanatics. Not only did Lost creators reveal before the start of the current season at Comic-con that Perrineau would be rejoining the cast, but they added a new Michael wallpaper in the download section of the official Lost website and his name has been appearing in the opening credits all season long.

For a show that is so secretive about every single detail of its characters, why did Lindelof and Cuse not work harder to hide Michael’s return? Obviously Michael’s working for Ben as a spy on the freighter was kept relatively secret, but come on…anyone who either knew of Perrineau’s return or read one of a million articles spoiling his reintroduction into the Lost mythos could have figured it out. Regardless, Perrineau has been one of my favorite actors since he stared on HBO’s Oz as the wheelchair bound Augustus Hill. Hopefully his character Michael Dawson will not be stuck on the freighter for the rest of this season and we can see the reaction his return to the island gets from the rest of the Losties.

Ok, now on to what has the internet really spinning, the Flash Forward/Flash Back of “Ji Yeon.” This past summer rumors were abound about the revelation of the Oceanic 6 and which character would be getting off the island. Every “insider” had the same list and as this year’s 7 episodes played out it seemed as though their list of characters were right, Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Jin. And yet, maybe that list wasn’t as accurate as we all thought. You see ABC has been saying all along that by the end of the 7th episode we would know who the Oceanic 6 were, and yet we don’t.

Is Jin really dead? Did he die on the island or once the Oceanic 6 returned to the mainland? Does this mean Aaron is one of the Oceanic 6 or should we be counting Michael? Then again, if Michael counts shouldn’t Walt be included on the list as well? This is oh so confusing. Maybe the secrets being kept by the Oceanic 6 are being done so to help protect Walt from outside forces? Arrhhh, so many questions and so few answers. At least Thursday we should get a few answers as it appears Sayid will be going postal on Michael in the final episode of this season's intial run of 8 episodes, "Meet Kevin Johnson."

I thought it was a surprising and nice twist that the big reveal last week wasn’t Michael’s return but the death (or supposed death) of Jin. The love story between Sun and Jin has really had its ups and downs, and after this past week their relationship seems to have hit an all time low. Thankfully we know Sun survives and eventually gives birth to a beautiful baby girl, Ji Yeon. While we finally had another, albeit brief, appearance of Flash Forward Hurley, the best cameo of the week was Bernard’s who gave some very timely advice about love and relationships to Jin while the two of them were fishing. I just hope Jin survives long enough to make it to the final season of Lost. Unfortunately I'd imagine our favorite fisherman's son is living on borrowed time for the rest of this season.

And now on to our last subject of the epsidoe. The last question I need answered is "Is the freighter captain to be trusted or not?" If you subscribe to Ben and Michael’s point of view that Captain Gault is not to be trusted then most of what he told Sayid and Desmond was a lie. While we know Ben and Sayid are not the most truthful characters on Lost, I still would prefer to side with them on this one. If we do believe them, then what was Captain Gault lying about? The black box? Who planted the fake Oceanic flight 815 and bodies in the ocean? Or what is the real connection between the freighter and Charles Widmore? Needless to say, I am sure these questions will be the focal point of many episodes to come. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for a final answer.