COMICS: San Diego Comic-Con 2006 Day 3 - The Lost Panel

Saturday July 22

I realized that yesterday turned out so terribly because I was not waiting in line for two hours for my panels. This was a bit of an annoyance because I also wanted to explore the main floor of the Comic Con. So I decided that an hour will have to do, if I don't get in oh well, I get crazy if I have to wait in line for more than an hour cause my legs start to atrophy and--well you have a big mess. So there were a couple of panels that intrigued me, most especially the Lost Season 3 panel. I rushed over early and was rewarded with a pretty good seat in the middle. As people were filing in there was some lady, I swear to god she was bored or something, she was a bit crabby telling people to settle down and repeating over and over again that if they left the room they may not be able to get back in. For at least a half hour this chick was saying the same thing over and over again, but she kept herself hidden well, I never physically saw her. Anyway--they play some ominous music and the special guests enter and the show begins---

Well sort of--before they could start off with a clip that crazy woman comes back on reminding people again and again that they can not record what they are about to see and they will be escorted out of the room blah, blah--all right already, play the damn clip. They started off with what the moderator called, "Video Biscuits," a quick little scene with Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) where Hurley finds a video camera in the jungle and is subsequently attacked by Sawyer. Very cute. Then they showed another clip that explained the conditioning experiment on the island through the Dharma initiative. If you are confused, check out the Lost website, if you do not watch Lost then you might want to skip this part of the article because you will be confused. The video was sketchy just like on the show and they explain the three steps of observation, conditioning and conclusion. They also showed a couple of behind the scenes clips of two episodes last season Dave and The Whole Truth. The best part of these scenes were the stunt shots of Hurley attacking Sawyer into a tent, some of the time it was Jorge sometimes it was his stunt double, but it was very amusing. They must have shot that scene about fifty times; poor Josh Holloway must have been all bruised up.

So we get to the panel which consists of Jorge Garcia, Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), producer/writers Damon Lindloff and Carlton Cuse as well as producer Bryan Burk. They open up the floor to questions. First off the producers assured us that there will be no more mini breaks between episodes. They will start in October for I believe it was eight or nine episodes and then have a break around Christmas/January and then come back for the final episodes of the season. I wish there were no breaks at all, but I can live with this schedule. So a couple of things that head writer Damon Lindloff said in response to some of the questions. Someone asked him how long the survivors are going to be on the island. He stayed mysterious by saying they might have been there longer than they or we have originally thought, curious. He said there will be more romance in Season 3, especially Kate who will apparently hook up with someone in the first six episodes. Just in case you were wondering, Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) and Bernard (Sam Anderson) do not work for Dharma, just in case you were wondering.

So we are chugging along, people are asking questions, nothing too out of the ordinary, until some crazy woman named Rachel Blake stepped up to the mike. Now I say crazy, cause she started off ranting to the producers about the Hanso Foundation, and that they know it exists and that all of these things that are happening on the island are real--bizarre stuff. Anyway click on her name and you can watch the thing yourself, security had to escort her from the room. I have to admit if this was a stunt it was a pretty good one cause the panel looked pretty shocked by what she was saying, so I don't know. Honestly I believe it was a stunt but I gotta say that panel was doing a helluva an acting job, I don't know you decide.

A couple more tidbits regarding the show, Lindloff loves The Wizard of Oz and he references it many times like the Henry Gale character who shares the same name as Dorothy's uncle. Of course there is the balloon reference, but he did not confirm or deny that Lost could be an underplayed land of Oz, curiouser. He did deny vehemently that there have not been nor ever will be CLONES on the island! Lindloff said that there will be more spinal surgery with Jack (Matthew Fox) at the helm. We will also have a conclusion to Hurley and Libby's (Cynthia Watros) stint in the nut house in Season 3. The producers assured us that after the 5th season they will not be apart of keeping the show on life support. Damon Lindloff said that if there are no new stories to tell he will walk, he is not interested in keeping up the show for financial concerns, he said it is for the fans only. If you want daily updates for the show during the season you should go to the Lost website and check out the pod casts, they give you insight and information on the show in case you get a little confused, plus they're kind of fun. Lindloff assured the fans that you will see more of Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) and you might even see Anna Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) in somebody's flashback. And just in case you were wondering: The cloud monster on the island is not--repeat--not a cloud of nanobots--whatever that means. There will also be some new regulars on the show and the focus of this season is to explore and understand The Others, why they are there, how they got there and what they want. Producer/Writer/Director J.J. Abrams will return to write the premiere and the seventh episode of the season. Damon Lindloff assured the loyal viewers that if and when they run out of material the next logical course--Zombies! You heard it here first folks. The first episode of Lost, A Tale of Two Cities aires on ABC Wednesday October 4, so check it out.

I enjoyed the panel and because this one was so long I will continue Day 3 on my next entry, you are going to want to read this, especially if you are a big Nick Cage/Ghost Rider fan or Toby McGuire/Spider Man fan, I got the scoop on both upcoming films.