With last week’s “The Constant”, we’re now five episodes into Season 4. The writer’s strike is now long over, and after only two more episodes, we’re in for a lengthy break before the six final episodes are aired, bringing the total number of episodes for Season 4 to thirteen, a considerable improvement over the eight that were finished before the strike. To help me with what’s sort of a mid-season wrap up, I’ve invited James “Gazebo” Elliott along to the Sprocket Hatch, popped open a couple of bottles of Dharma Initiative Shiraz and chewed the fat over the last 5 episodes.

Gazebo: The thing I found probably the most interesting is now the writers have finally got a concrete structure (a finite number of episodes remaining) the narrative structure has changed - obviously in part with the flashbacks being replaced with the flash-forwards.
This begs the next question; why has this changed happened? Before it was about giving the character’s back-story, often in a way that related to (sometimes paralleled) the present-day scene on the island, such as in “Homecoming”, “Collision” and “The Cost of Living”, but also it was used in many cases to show something unexpected about the character.
Now I guess they’ve gone as deep as they can (particularly with the characters who’ve been around from the beginning), It’s interesting to see not just where the characters have come from and how they’ve become, but now where they’re going and where they’ll be.

The 815 survivors gather
around the cockpit

Furious: I like that as a sort of transitional move the show’s not been dominated by the flash-forwards either. We’ve had one episode surrounding the introduction of the Helicopter crew, and most recently with Desmond what wasn’t even a flashback episode at all, but one where time keeps shifting for him, like he’s living his flashback, almost an extension of Claire’s sudden and numerous bursts of memory back in “Maternity Leave”. Interestingly the format of the show hasn’t changed - but the rules that govern the format have been elaborated on.

Gazebo: Part of what makes the show strong and in some regards unique is that they’ve expanded on their structure; keeping it from being stale. It will be curious to see where this season takes this structure, and whether we’ll still have the flash-forwards by next season, or if they will be more or less unique to this season.

Miles and Daniel - New cast
members this season

Furious: I’m fairly sure that the staple from this point on until the end will be dominated by flash-forwards - excepting newer characters and even some we haven’t yet met in future seasons, who will likely get flash-backs, I don’t think we’ll be seeing too much more of them on the horizon. Speaking new characters, how do you like our helicopter crew?

Gazebo: Daniel Faraday is my favourite out of the bunch so far. (Possibly because his unshaven face reminds me so much of my own.) This might be because he comes across as being sincere and likeable, and that he seems like he could be willing to side with the survivors of 815, perhaps even acting against the orders his superiors have given him.

Furious: Given his actions in “The Constant”, I think Frank Lupidus might well fit into that category as well. Also a possible traitor - my own favourite, Miles - but for completely selfish reasons, rather like Season 1’s Sawyer. Hurley even voiced in “The Economist” that the freighter sent them a new Sawyer. Lastly I like her demeanor, but winning the coveted “Most Annoying British Accent in a Serialised TV-Drama” goes to…

Gazebo: But Naomi’s dead!

Furious: I meant Charlotte.

Gazebo: Dude. Red Head. Hot.

Furious: As long as she doesn’t talk.

Gazebo: Right… Thanks for joining us here in the Sprocket Hatch tonight, Furious.

Furious: Hey, this is my place, you get out!

Thanks for joining us tonight! Be sure to catch the next episode of Season 4 “The Other Woman” airing this Thursday in the US, and the week after here in Australia. In the meantime, check out elroy’s article on Desmond, Time Travel, and last week’s episode “The Constant”

Furious: After what seemed like a lifetime, last week the Season Four Premiere of Lost finally aired in the US. We’ve still got a couple of days to go before it graces our shores here in Australia, and all of us here at the Sprocket are waiting ever so patiently.

The hiatus hasn’t been all that dry, however. Over the last 13 or so weeks a web-series (Actually intended for a Mobile phone carrier in the US, but the rest of the world can catch them on the Internet) titled “Lost: Missing Pieces” has given avid fans small chunks of stories mentioned in passing from the main series, and elaborated on other scenes we have been part of, all the time giving us further insight into the characters and situations on the Island.

Jack and Ethan meet for the first time in Lost: Missing Pieces

While most of them aren’t terribly important to the mythology of the show (”Jin Throws a Temper Tantrum on the Golf Course” being a prime example), the ones that don’t are still quite fun to watch (”Hurley and Frogurt”). Of course if you’re into the mythology, then pay close attention to “King of the Castle”, “Room 23″ and “So It Begins”. [Missing Pieces at Wikipedia]

While I’d like to talk about them in this article (Stay tuned for a full analysis on them as Season 4 progresses), the web-series isn’t the only bit of Lost-related tie-ins going on to generate interest for the 2008 season. More interesting, and probably slightly less known is a slew of easter eggs that have appeared in a number of Marvel Comic books in January.

“We were able to seamlessly integrate these elements from the “Lost” world into the books in a way that does not take away from the stories but adds some fun and intrigue for both our readers and fans of the show as well.”

- Michael Pasciullo [source]

So – Oceanic Airlines and Dharma Initiative logos appearing in the background? Well, yes, there’s a bit of that going on, but it appears that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and fans will have to get out their magnifying glasses and Sherlock Holmes hats to find them all.

This new collaboration between Marvel and ABC however did get me thinking, however. Actually it got elroy thinking, but he’s much more a comic book geek than me.

Up until this point, pretty much any comic book references on the actual show have been DC characters; Walt spends time reading Hurley’s (Spanish translated) issue of the Green Lantern, Hurley and Charlie argue who would win a foot race between Superman and the Flash.

Oceanic Airlines truck: One of the many easter eggs appearing in January’s comics

But now with this deal taking place in the Marvel world, will we hear about Marvel characters in the Lost world?
Or let’s take a step further with the upcoming releases of Iron Man and Incredible Hulk. Will we see some more background elements drawn upon from the Lost world, such as Stark Industries competing with the Hanso Foundation for government weapons contracts, or Bruce Banner turning a Dharma fail-safe key before being bathed in gamma particles?

Better yet, will we see a Lost-spin off series produced by Marvel Comics?

The future is exciting for fans of both TV Show and comics alike, now if only we could see flashes of it… [source]