Even Heroes Have Secrets

When the island is in the Seventh House,
And the writers align with the producers,
Then Jacob will guide the planets,
And Dr. Jack Shepherd will steer the stars.

This is the dawning of the 4th season of Lost!
The 4th season of Lost!
Lost!
Lost!

Anarchy and misunderstanding
Antipathy and mistrust abounding
Lots of falsehoods and derisions
Smoke Monsters and other visions
Walt’s absurd revelations
And Locke’s true liberation
Lost!
Lost!

Welcome to the Dharma Blog, Losties! We haven’t had a day this exciting for 253 days! Literally! We are so glad you are here and VERY excited for the next eight weeks!!

We have a lot of new blog readers as we begin this fourth season of the best show ever. If this is your first time to the Dharma Blog, namaste from Nebraska! Allow me to give you a quick overview of our Mom-and-Pop shop:

1. You are on the main blog in the Stephan/Stuckey Lost universe. The Dharma Blog is our hub. Twice a week, you will find postings by either Charlie or me. The preview post will appear Thursday morning and give you an idea of what to expect on tonight’s episode. The review post will appear on Friday morning and give you a brief recap of what happened and our reaction.

2. Dharma Bonus Tracks is our secondary blog, where you will find irregular posts on theories, gossip, and news relating to Lost and the actors. You can link to Bonus Tracks in the left hand column.

3. Fair Warning: Neither of our blogs function as “Lost Spoilers” blogs. If you are looking for spoilers, you’re not going to find them here. We don’t care – and we don’t know anything either.

4. We welcome you to write comments in the comments section of the blog after reading our articles! In fact, we insist! We’d love to hear what you are thinking…and could use a dose of reality when we fall off the deep end with our theories. So, fire away. You can find the comments section at the end of each entry – just click on # comments, which will navigate you to a different page where you can leave your opinions.

5. Curious to learn a little more about the writers? Click on our names in the left hand column towards the top of the page to read our biographies. Want to ask Charlie on a date? Curious what Maggie ate for breakfast today? Have a question/comment/suggestion/criticism for one of us? You can leave us a message on that page…we promise we’ll respond.

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And now onto the main event.

Tonight’s return of Lost marks the end of a long 253 days. We will have two episodes this evening: The Past, Present and Future and The Beginning of the End.

The Past, Present and Future
For the last three seasons, Lost has served up an episode like this immediately before the season premieres. If they follow the same set up as years past, it will be an hour of recapping the last 3 seasons. New to Lost? This episode will catch you up enough to be able to watch the season 4 premiere without much confusion. An avid fan of Lost? This episode will reveal some information that you don’t know yet…and show you scenes you never saw the first time around.

Time: 7PM to 8PM (CST), 8PM to 9PM (EST)

The Beginning of the End

"Worth the wait"
"Emotionally satisfying"
"Provide[s] gasp-worthy plot twists that should whip fans into a theory-spinning tizzy."
"A crushingly emotional, action packed introduction… [which proves] that… Lost's
groundbreaking protean form still has plenty of blinding ways to dazzle and entertain in a way that is nonetheless unique unto itself”

These phrases have been used by TV Guide reviewers who have prescreened tonight’s episode. Let me get a “hell yeah” from all of our readers – tonight is going to be nothing short of awesome!

When tonight’s episode opens, where are we? In the previous episode, 93 days after the crash (December 23, 2004), creepy Ben warns Jack that contacting a freighter to rescue the stranded survivors of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 "is the beginning of the end". The show commercials have confirmed that there is some truth to what Ben said. Tonight, the survivors wonder whether or not they should trust Charlie's dying message (Not Penny’s Boat) and Ben and Locke's warnings about Naomi and her associates not being who they say that they are.

Sounds like we’ve got a few problems on our hands.

If you missed Doc Jensen’s incredible post yesterday over at EW.com, I highly encourage you to head on over and read it. Doc has come up with 12 things to look out for in tonight’s premiere, as well as a powerful reflection on the true power of Lost. I’d argue it is one of the best articles he has ever written. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20174762,00.html?iid=top25-20080131-%27%27Lost%27%27%3A+Preseason+cheat+sheet

Time: 8PM to 9PM (CST), 9PM to 10PM (EST)

A Theory I have been mulling:
I believe Charlie Pace. The guys on the freighter were not sent by Penny.

Widmore Industries (Penny’s Dad), Paik Industries (Sun’s Dad), and the Hanso Foundation were the creepy conglomerate funders of the DHARMA initiative back in the day. The DHARMA initiative was to find out the properties of the island – and harnass the electromagnetic energy for possible use outside the island.

When Ben led the revolution, he ended communication with the W-P-H folks and turned on the signal blocker in the Looking Glass station. Ever since then, W-P-H has been trying to find the island. Mr. Widmore sent Desmond on the sailing trip in the general area of where the island with hopes that he would eventually find the island and Widmore could reclaim what is rightfully his (the initiative, in general). However, Ben’s signal blocker ruined the plan and Widmore was only able to come within 80 miles of the island, not all the way to the shore.

Fast forward to now, Naomi has been working with her associates on the freighter to find the island…and they finally did. Ben is freaking out because he knows that as soon as the freighter people arrive, they are going to reclaim the island and eliminate Ben’s little creepy society.

The Oceanic 815 survivors are stuck in the middle of this huge confrontation between W-P-H and Ben & Co. (which has been reduced to a very small number of people). We’ve found out that there will be 2 divided groups within our 815 society: those who want to leave the island (Jack) and those who want to protect the island (led by Locke).

Locke’s group: They have come to feel at home on the island (save the whole smoke monster thing) OR have been cured by the island. They feel a twisted loyalty to Ben. They will do what they can to ensure that the island is not taken back by the W-P-H people. These people also don’t have anything to return to off the island (Sawyer, Rose).

Jack’s group: They want to leave and will do whatever it takes to get off the island and return to their lives. They hate Ben and they hate this island. It could be argued that the pregnant women/mothers in the group (Sun, maybe Kate, Claire, maybe Juliet?) are going to join this group – because if they don’t, the pregnant women will die and/or their children will be raised on the island (which can’t be all that great).

Tonight’s episode will set up this divide within our group (Jack vs. Locke). It will also give us a glimpse into what the W-P-H folks are doing here on the island…what their goal is. There is also a good possibility that we will find out another individual who eventually makes it off the island through flash-forwards. Since we know it is a Hurley-centric episode, it makes me think the big, loveable guy gets off the island...

Ready? Set? Respond!

Come back tomorrow!
Charlie promises to stay up all night writing one heck of a review of tonight’s episodes. We hope you will join us then – and look forward to the next eight weeks!

Namaste,
Maggie