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The perfect place to geek out after Saturday morning’s Lost Hall H presentation was the “Totally Lost” panel hosted by Entertainment Weekly’s Lost-guru Jeff “Doc” Jensen and his partner-in-crime Dan Snierson. The panel included enough to tide-over any die-hard Lost fan until next season, including some surprise guest appearances, impossible trivia and…Nikki and Paulo?
Of course, the room was still buzzing about the Lost panel earlier that morning.
“The first thing we want to talk about are the five things we learned this morning about Season Six of Lost,” said Jensen, as he broke it down:
“Number five…
“Nothing,” said the two hosts in unison.
Number four was the potential foreshadowing of a time reboot of some sort, hinted at by the short videos shown during the panel, including one talking about Oceanic Airlines’ perfect safety record.
It was also revealed in the Lost panel that the Dharma Initiative won’t factor into the final season too much. Instead, it looks like Dharma’s history will be revealed via the “Mysteries of the Universe” videos on ABC’s site.
Number two was that Faraday and Juliet are both coming back, although in what capacity is still anybody’s guess. (It’s also been confirmed that Boone will also be back.)
And the number one bombshell dropped was that we’ll finally get Richard Alpert’s back-story, guy-liner and all.
Next, Jensen and Snierson brought up Gregg Nations to the podium, who along with co-writing “Some Like It Hoth” also has the insanely cool privilege of being in charge of the Lost “Bible.” (Although they don’t officially call it a bible, Nations is in charge of keeping track of the continuity, mythology and ultra-detailed backgrounds of each character.)
Nations admitted Jack is one of the hardest characters to keep track of, continuity-wise. He also gave props to Michael Emerson (Ben) and Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet) for looking beyond the pages of their character to search for their characters’ potential motivations during the show’s more mysterious moments.
After the ‘Totally Lost’ hosts grilled Nations, they turned to the audience looking for two super-fans to compete against each other in an impossibly-hard trivia challenge featuring questions by Nations. Everyone went wild when these two rose to the challenge:
More pressure was brought to the Battle of the Hurleys when it was announced that a $100 would be donated to the Hero Initiative, a charity that benefits aging comic creators, for each correct answer.
The questions were:
How many flashes — representing time shifts — were there in Season Six? (Answer:15)
What was the first and last line of Jack’s dialogue in the pilot episode? (Answer: “Hey you, give me a hand” and the last line was to the Marshall after he asked where Kate was: “I don’t know.”)
In the second season episode, “Two For The Road,” what was the combination Ana Lucia gave to Michael? (Answer: I could just make up something and you’d believe it.)
Despite both Hurleys going 0-3, all the money was still donated, as Doc and Snierson turned the heat on Nations to spill Season Six details.
“Who is the Man In Black?” asked Jensen, just as a voice boomed from the back of the room, telling them to stop.
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse rushed to the front of the room to the applause of the room. The two were less than pleased with the ‘Totally Lost’ hosts for messing with Nations, and leveled some sharp criticism at the two about their web show:
“By the way, the whole Pig E. thing? You’re totally making it up as you go along.”
The loyalty of Nations was put to the test as both duos made him an offer. But before Nations could choose between ‘Totally Losts’ “tens of fans” versus Darlton’s “raise up to $9.10”, Lindelof and Cuse threw a bag over Nations’ head, “Others’-style,” and took him out of the room.
Next up was a video interview on what is easily the most divisive episode of the show’s history, the Nikki-and-Paulo-centric “Expose”, with Jeff Jensen talking to the two writers behind the episode, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.
Horowitz joked (or did he?) that “when all is said and done, “Expose” will outrank “Walkabout,” calling out the fan-favorite episode.
But the episode was given proper due for being Lost’s version of X-Files‘ “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space”, and giving a new perspective to the show, but still playing with the themes of the show, asking, “what if you were in the background?” [ed- I always thought of it as Lost’s “The Zeppo” from BTVS.]
Jensen also bounced some ideas of the writers, asking if the reveal in “Expose” forshadowed the Locke reveal in the Season 5 finale (Answer: Nope.), and pointed out the retroactive insight into Ben’s manipulative nature, from the scene with him and Juliet.
They also mentioned an important line from Locke in the episode that resonates not only with Expose’s ending, but with the whole series: “Things don’t stay buried on this island.”
After the video was over, Snierson had fun at the audience’s expense by building up a possible Michael Emmerson appearance.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Michael Emerson…?”
Wild cheers quickly turned to silence when there was no Ben to be seen.
“How awesome would have that have been?” said Snierson to a few boos in the crowd.
Another twist was had, and Emerson came up to the podium, as the crowd went nuts.
“Hello, I’m Totally Ben,” introduced Emerson, who was congratulated by the hosts for his recent, much-deserved Emmy nomination.
Emerson talked about the on-and-off-screen dynamic between Terry O’Quinn and himself, saying “it’s as if we’ve been in a theatre company together for 30 years,” adding that the two don’t talk about their scenes a lot in advance, opting for goofing off instead. But they quickly turn to business when it comes time to shoot.
He also talked about the hundreds of interpretations on lines he goes through, likening it to making music, as well as finding “the tight-rope balance” needed not to overdo a line.
The floor was opened to questions and the man who plays Ben admitted he had no idea where next season will pick up, and won’t find out until two days before they start shooting. Then Emerson dropped a few interesting comments, including the fact that he knew “why” Ben used the knive to kill Jacob, and that Ben hadn’t chosen to kill him before he went into the room.
“I was gonna lay a theory on you, but I don’t think we have time,” said Jensen, capping off a day that will give Losties a lot to think about until next year.