Lost season 6 begins Feb. 2

The show's two-hour premiere begins at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with a 8 p.m. recap leading things off on Tuesday Feb. 2. From then on, "Lost" will air at 9 p.m. Tuesdays.

Check out the Lost Complete Season 5 Dharma Initiation Kit,

This cool special edition of the season 5 DVD set, now available for pre-order from Amazon:

The pack includes DVD/Blu-ray disc holders that look like floppy disks, pamphlets, stickers, recruitment material, maps and an authentic VHS of the Dharma Orientation Video. The set is contained in a box that will be distressed in order to have the feel that it is over thirty years old.

Included in the set are all 17 episodes of season five, never-before-seen bonus materials like cast interviews, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes features, and Blu-ray only exclusives.

Looks like it also include a CD featuring the Geronimo Jackson "Dharma Girl" song.

Creators dish on Lost season 6 at ComiCon

From San Diego, Lost producers and cast hint about the upcoming season. Spoilers may apply so watch at your own risk:

Lost's man in black speaks!

Titus Welliver, who played Jacob's unnamed, black-clad nemesis on the season 5 finale of "Lost" chats with TV Guide:

TVGuide.com: The funny thing is they can only refer to you as "you," because they didn't give your character a name. By what name did you know him?

Welliver: He has no name. He's just "the man," because they don't want to give anything away. I know that this character has a name and I know the importance of it; that's all that I know.

TVGuide.com: So you don't know his actual name?

Welliver: No — and I think they deliberately withheld that.

TVGuide.com: Did the producers give you any notes on what the dynamic should be between you and Mark Pellegrino's Jacob?

Welliver: Liz Sarnoff one of the writers on the show, is actually an old colleague from a show that we did with David Milch, Big Apple, and from Deadwood. Her explanation was that Jacob sees man as being a flawed creature, but that there is always hope, whereas my character has a much more cynical but in some ways realistic view of man. She said, "Now extrapolate from that what you will. Are they waxing philosophical? Are they gods?" What occurs to me as I watch Locke mention the loophole and pitch Jacob into the fire is, "Clearly this other man on the beach has inhabited Locke on some level" — and it never suspends your belief simply because of how intricate the mysterious nature of the show is. You never say, "Aw, c'mon." I find it interesting that the audience completely buys into what [the writers] put in front of them.

Matthew Fox on how Lost ends

From E! Online:

The only castmember to know what that crazy smoke monster is and how the show ends said, "I think it is going to be very satisfying and cathartic and redemptive and beautiful. I've talked to Damon pretty extensively and every time I talk to him it's sort of surprising how moving it is just to talk about it."

But before we get the very end of our adventure, Fox reveals the beginning of Lost season six...

The sixth season will begin with an examination of what happened after Juliet seemingly detonated the hydrogen bomb. As usual, Fox said, "It's very surprising and probably fairly confusing initially to the audience.

"Like, a third of the way in [to the season], I would guess we are going to [settle] into one time frame, and it will be very linear—no more flashbacks, nothing. It will be on the Island and sort of a final conflict to the end," said Fox.

Back from the dead! Dominic Monaghan and Maggie Grace coming back for Lost season 6?

We already mentioned how Emilie de Ravin will be back as the possibly dead Claire next season on "Lost." But now rumors are all a Twitter that the very dead Charlie (played by Dominic Monaghan, also set to star on ABC's "Flash Forward" next season) and Shannon (played by Maggie Grace) also are set to return for a few eps each.

Stay tuned...

Claire to return in Lost season 6

She may be alive, she may be dead, but Claire is coming back to "Lost" next season.

Team Darlton confirms. "Damon and I are very excited to bring Claire back to the show," says Carlton Cuse, "and even more excited for people to experience just how she will return."

Lost season 6: The touch of Jacob-What does it mean?

More possible clues from ABC's recap of the season 5 finale? Reading through it, I see that there are several references to Jacob touching, not touching, key characters. This seems to signify something important--something we can speculate on endlessly until season 6 finally arrives!

Check out these excerpts :

...a small-town general store: Young Kate and Young Tom plot their crime: they want to steal a New Kids On the Block lunchbox. Young Kate snatches it and hides it in her backpack, but on the way out they're caught. The owner threatens to call the cops, but a man steps forward and offers to pay for it. The man is Jacob. Young Kate tells him thanks, and Jacob asks if she's going to steal anymore. She shakes her head no, and Jacob smiles. He reaches out and taps her on the tip of her nose. "Be good, Katie," Jacob says and leaves.

...a funeral outside a Southern church: Young Sawyer watches as they load his mom and father's caskets into hearses. Afterwards, Young Sawyer is trying to write a letter but his pen won't work. Jacob walks up and asks if he needs a pen. He hands one, and as Young Sawyer takes it, their fingers touch briefly.

...Los Angeles and an intersection at Santa Monica Boulevard: Sayid and Nadia wait for the light to cross as a man standing next to them looks at a map. The man is Jacob. Nadia steps into the crosswalk as Jacob asks Sayid for help. Sayid looks at the map and asks where he wants to go -- as VRRRM -- KA-BAM! An SUV plows into Nadia. Fast. Shocking. Brutal. And during the moment of impact, Jacob reaches over... but does he touch Sayid's shoulder?

...Jacob reading a book on a bench: It's a quiet, peaceful moment -- and then we hear the sound of glass shattering. Behind Jacob we see a man fall out of an apartment window and drop to the ground! THUD! A woman screams and people yell out to call 911. Jacob stands and is the first to walk over to the man -- who we now see is John Locke. Jacob reaches down and touches him, and Locke sucks in a breath, in shock. Jacob tells Locke everything will be all right and that he's sorry this happened to him.

...Sun and Jin's wedding as they exchange their vows and Sun slips Jin's ring on his finger. Neither of them have ever been so happy, and the guests applaud. Afterwards, receiving their guests in line, Jacob approaches them and puts his hands on their shoulders as he speaks to them in flawless Korean. He offers them his blessing, and wishes them a long and happy life together.

...Jack buys a candy bar from a vending machine but the candy bar is stuck. He hits the machine a few times but it doesn't budge. Christian comes in and tells Jack that the girl is in recovery and there's no paralysis. Jack says Christian embarrassed him in front of the entire team by giving him a time out. Jack knows his father doesn't believe in him, but he needs his team to. Christian asks if Jack's sure Christian is the one who doesn't believe in him and then leaves. At the vending machine, a man makes his selection and Jack's candy bar drops. He holds it out to Jack and asks if it's his. The man is Jacob. Jack says yeah, the machine jammed. Jacob says guess it just needed a push. And as Jack takes the candy bar, their fingers touch slightly.

...the Los Angeles County prison as Hurley is released: He gets into a waiting cab only to discover someone else is already there sitting next to a guitar case. It's Jacob. Hurley starts to get out, but Jacob tells him they can share the cab. As the cab drives off, Jacob tells Hurley he was waiting for him. Hurley asks if Jacob is dead, and Jacob says no. Jacob wants to know why Hurley won't go back to the island, and Hurley says that he's cursed. That's why the plane crashed, and why his friends died. Now they visit him, and he can't stop it. Jacob asks what if Hurley isn't cursed but blessed? He gets to talk to the people he lost. Isn't that a wonderful thing? Hurley says sure, except for the part where he's crazy. Jacob tells Hurley he isn't crazy. Jacob puts his hand gently on Hurley's knee and gives him the flight information for Ajira flight 316 at L.A.X., and then waves the cabbie over.

Lost season 6: Identity of mysterious statue revealed!

ABC has posted its episode recap for the season 5 finale and slipped in this little tidbit:

as the camera pulls back, we see what we've been waiting to see since we first glimpsed that four-toed foot over three years ago... the towering, majestic statue of the Egyptian goddess Taweret. And we clearly know we're a long time ago...

Naturally, our first stop upon hearing this news is Wikipedia, where we learn:

Her name means (one) who is great. When paired with another deity, she became the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil. Since Apep was viewed as residing below the horizon, and only present at night, evil during the day then was envisaged as being a result of Taweret's malfeasance.

...In their art, Taweret was depicted as a composite of all the things the Egyptians feared, the major part of her being hippopotamus, since this is what the constellation most resembled, with the arms and legs of a lioness, and with the back of a crocodile. On occasion, later, rather than having a crocodile back, she was seen as having a separate, small crocodile resting on her back, which was thus interpreted as Sobek, the crocodile-god, and said to be her consort.

...Taweret became seen, very early in Egyptian history, as a deity of protection in pregnancy and childbirth. Pregnant women wore amulets with her name or likeness to protect their pregnancies. Her image could also be found on knives made from hippopotamus ivory, which would be used as wands in rituals to drive evil spirits away from mothers and children.

Elizabeth Mitchell slated for Lost return

She apparently blew herself up at the end of season 5 and has landed a major part in ABC's remake of the sci-fi series "V," but Elizabeth Mitchell will appear on "Lost" during season 6.

Multiple sources confirm that the actress is expected to appear in an unspecified number of episodes next season, so it's entirely possible Juliet survived Jughead and her absence will be explained in another way.

Could be she'll be appearing in flashbacks/forwards, or is alive after having successfully reset time. We'll see.

Lost to air on Thursdays next fall

ABC has announced it fall 2010 TV schedule, which places "Lost" at 8 p.m. on Thursdays. This may change, of course, and there's no word on when season 6 will debut.

Lost: Previously unseen picture of Jacob

Now here's a promo pic from the Lost season 5 finale that shows Jacob sitting in his rocking chair in his cabin. There was no such seen in the episode itself.



And here are a couple of shots from season 4 of "Jacob." Doesn't look like the same person. Why would Locke see an older, bearded Jacob, when the one we see in the finale doesn't seem to be old. Or bearded.





Was Locke seeing an older version of Jacob's as yet unnamed nemesis?



And, of course, we've also seen Christian Shepherd in Jacob's cabin.



My theory is that, for some reason, Jacob's nemesis is body-less. He must appear via other people: Christian, Locke, etc.

I'm also thinking that he may be the Smoke Monster or that he controls the monster.

Lost: Unanswered questions, what we STILL don't know

As a guy going into the finale filled with dread, I admit I was often moved and greatly entertained by the last episode of "Lost" last night.

But, as self-predicted, I also was disappointed.

Jack's sacrifice, the showdown with Smokey, the thrilling escape from Hydra Island, the touching reunions (particularly the one between Sawyer and Juliet) and the open-to-multiple-interpretations ending: I was good with all of it.

But I still feel cheated. Not because the producers failed to answer every tiny question I had about the show's myriad tiny mysteries. But because they failed to even touch on the big ones. To end this series without even an attempt to explain:

The mysterious numbers. What do they mean? Where do they come from?
The significance of the island? Why is it's survival so crucial to humanity? After all, it seems most of what it did was bring people misery?

Is a cheat and give the impression that the writers just couldn't come up with good answers for these, or the many other lingering questions from the series.

So, while greatly entertaining over the years, I have to say I find "Lost" ultimately a let down.

A year or two back, I imagined I'd want to re-watch the entire series once it ended, so I could see how -- "The Usual Suspects"-style -- the puzzle all fits together. But I now realize that wouldn't work. There are still too many missing pieces.

Fun characters aside, these unique mysteries are what made "Lost" truly special. But, in the last season, the producers dropped any intention of addressing them in a satisfying way. In other words, they failed the story.

So, that's that. I doubt I'll re-watch any of it. But, just out of curiosity, I'll likely rent the final season bonus disk that promised to address unanswered questions. Not holding up too many hopes that will be satisfying either.

Here's my list of STILL unanswered questions -- big and small:



*  What is the history  of the Others? Where did they come from?  Why did they kill off the  Dharma Initiative?

* What's  up with Walt's powers? How did  the Others know  about them?

* How did Cindy  the stewardess and the two  children from the Oceanic flight come  to be among the Others?

* Why exactly did Jacob pick these particular folks as his candidates? He tells them because they are "flawed." Seriously, this is the best the show's producers can do? By that standard, any random human fits the bill! Six years and all we get is, "they're flawed." Criminy.

* Jack is now Jacob's successor and it's his job to protect the magic golden light at the center of the island. But why? What has this light ever done for anyone apart from turn them into smoke monsters. What's so danged good about the island. Everyone on the danged thing has been threatened, beat up and killed, it seems like. Sure, it has healing properties. But, to what purpose? Locke was made able to walk again so he could get killed by an evil entity that wants to destroy the self-same healing island. This makes NO SENSE people. And if the point is that it's not supposed to make sense, that's not coming through clear either. It's all random and tossed together.

* Why was Ben selected the leader of the Others? And why, ostensibly in the name of Jacob, do such horrible things to people? Did Jacob intend this? Why did the Others go along with it? Why did Richard go along with it?

* Why did Jacob exclude Kate from being a candidate because she's a mother? Wasn't Sun a mother also? Wasn't Jin a dad? Aren't Jack and Sawyer also dads? Is Jacob a sexist pig?

*  What was Ben's breakfast on the beach with  Kate in season 3 all  about? We didn't see any of their discussion. [I'm still a bit  baffled by this scene. We've not been given any insight into what was  discussed. Was Ben merely trying to persuade Jack to operate on Ben's  spine? Or was there something more going on.]

*  Why does the smoke monster kill some people and not others?

* Why did the smoke  monster kill Eko, in particular? What did the monster see/sense  in him?

* Why did the magic light turn the man in black into a smoke monster? If the light is such a good thing, why did it create an entity that goes around killing essentially innocent people?

* Why did the Others initially disguise  themselves as shipwrecked  pirate types complete with fake beards? [What  was the point? To make the crash survivors think that the Others were  merely fellow castaways, not an organized faction on the island with a  secret history? What?]

* What's up  with the sickness  that killed off Danielle's team? [Were they killed by Smokey or  turned evil by him? Or both?]

* Is  the Dharma  Initiative still active at all?

* Who  was behind  the air drop of Dharma  supplies  that has benefited the Oceanic survivors? [There was  a drop after the Oceanic survivors arrived, wasn't there? Or was this  an old drop that Hurley discovered? I may be misremembering.]

*  Why do  women on the island die instead of giving birth?

*  Why did the Others steal children?

*  What's behind the apparent healing properties of the island?

* What's responsible for the visions   of animals and dead people the crash surivors sometimes see on the   island?

* What's the deal with Libby, killed in   season 2, who evidently gave Desmond the sailboat that landed him on  the  island and who once was in a mental ward with Hurley? [Despite  Libby's recent appearance this season, these questions were not  answered.]

*  What's up with the giant statue?  Who built it? What is its significance?

* Is there   any explanation for why the man in the Dharma Initiative videos is at   different times identified as Dr. Marvin Candle, Dr. Mark Wickmund,  Dr. Pierre Change and   other names and why the CIA agent who identifies himself as Joe Inman   to Sayid tells Desmond that his name is Kelvin Inman?

*   Why did the psychic in Australia encourage Claire to take the  doomed  flight?

* Who is the man Sarah left Jack for? Why is she so   reluctant to reveal his identity? Is he somehow associated with the   Dharma Initiative and/or the Others?

* What's up with that polar bear in Tunisia? Was Charlotte   part of Dharma when she found it, or was she snooping into what Dharma   is all about? [Pretty much answered, I guess. We know Charlotte was  investigating her Dharma past? The polar bear likely transported from  the island ala Ben and Locke.]

* Who is Penelope's  mother?

*  Why did Alpert want the body of Amy's  husband? [Was it merely as proof of retribution to the Others?  Or did they do something creepy with it?]

*  Who  created the ancient temple  on  the island?

* How did the Others save young Ben after he was shot? [They put him  in the dark pool, most likely. But we weren't shown that this is the  case.]

*  What is Ilana's history with  Jacob? Why was  her face bandaged?

* Is Locke really dead? Will he return?

Additional  unanswered questions from Lostpedia:

• Why did  Desmond tell Charlie he saw a vision of Claire and Aaron getting  on a  helicopter that could only come true if he died?
• Why did Claire abandon Aaron?
• What caused the bad luck surrounding Hurley?
• What does Juliet's mark mean?

Questions from last week's episode

These aren't so much questions as writing that is bad and just doesn't make any sense:

• Smokey gets Ben to do his bidding by promising Ben that, once everybody is dead and gone, Ben will have control of the island. But at episode's end, Smokey tell Ben that he's going to destroy the island. And Ben seems ok with that. WTH?!!!
• In a previous episode, Ben confronts Charles Widmore. Widmore asks "Have you come to kill me" and Ben says "You know I can't do that." Yet, in the penultimate episode, Ben kills Widmore. So, it's suddenly ok now?
• Likewise, Smokey and Jacob's crazy mother says that neither can harm one another. Yet Jacob beats the snot out of Smokey and throws him into the magic light. I'm unclear on the definition of not hurting here.

Lost Season 6: Get ready!

The sixth and final season of "Lost" begins in 2010 (no air date yet).

This is your spot to get info about the upcoming season and to stay up to date once it starts. We'll be posting news as soon as it becomes available.

Meanwhile, check out the Lost Season 5 blog for pics and episode guides to last season.

What happened in Lost season 5?

Here's the complete episode guide for Lost Season 5:

* 5.1/5.2: "Because You Left" and "The Lie"
* 5.3: "Jughead"
*5.4: "The Little Prince"
* 5.5: "This Place is Death"
* 5.6: "316"
* 5.7: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"
* 5.8: "LaFleur"
* 5.9: "Namaste"
* 5.10: "He's Our You"
* 5.11: "Whatever Happened Happened"
* 5. 12: "Dead is Dead"
* 5.13: "Some Like it Hoth"
* 5.14: "The Variable"
* 5.15: "Follow the Leader"
* 5/16/5.17: "The Incident" parts 1 and 2