Each week, hardcore fans of Lost watch every episode carefully, attempting to spot any hidden clues or connections that might help them better understand just what is going on. More than any other show, Lost loves putting in these little Easter Eggs, things especially placed in an episode for the eagle-eyed viewers.
BuddyTV is here to help spot what you might have missed. Every week we’ll be giving you the small details and the thoughtful analysis of mysteries and connections to previous episodes. Some you may not have seen, others you may have spotted immediately, but either way, these Easter Eggs are what make watching an episode of Lost the great experience that it is.
This week, we saw connections to past episodes, past characters, and even to the recent Missing Pieces mobisode series. First up, however, is something that might not even be considered an Easter Egg because the writers were so open and honest about it.
In the opening scene, the cop who interrogates Hurley in the flash-forward said he used to be partners with someone on Oceanic flight 815, Ana-Lucia Cortez. We all remember Ana-Lucia, as does Hurley, since he was present at her funeral, though he claimed not to recognize the name.
The reason we’re considering this an Easter Egg is because, even if the writers didn’t mention this connection, we still would’ve made it. The officer, named Mike, is played by Michael Cudlitz. In true Lost fashion, the creative team didn’t just bring back the name, they brought back the same actor. Cudlitz was in fact the same man who played Ana-Lucia’s partner in her first flashback episode way back in the second season, “Collision.” So right off the bat, kudos to the Lost casting department for bothering to get these small guest actors to return for multiple episodes. As we’ll see later, this was not the only instance of this.
#2 Jacob’s Cabin
Easily the most freeze-framed and rewatched scene of last night’s episode of Lost was when Hurley looked into Jacob’s cabin. He saw two figures, one sitting in a rocking chair and the other looking back at Hurley through the window.
Who are these people? Well, the guy in the chair is definitely, as many have speculated, Christian Shepherd. As proof, we offer the facts that not only is the figure wearing the same white shoes seen on Christian in the final Lost: Missing Pieces mobisode (continue reading for more mobisode connections), but also John Terry’s name was listed in the opening credits as a guest star. Seeing as how Terry certainly didn’t appear anywhere else in the episode, it’s easy to conclude that the man in the chair was Christian Shepherd.
This inevitably causes lots of questions. Is Christian Jacob? Is he a ghost, alive, or just a corpse someone put in a chair? Unless the Australian medical examiner was a secret Dharma agent, I have to assume that Christian is really and truly dead. Therefore, this Christian is either a ghost (we know that Hurley sees dead people all the time) or we have ourselves a Psycho situation. That is equally valid, as we know the corpse is missing, or at least it wasn’t in the coffin. Then there’s the third possibility, that the island brings the dead back to life as zombies, but even for this show, that’s really, really stupid.
The other big question in Jacob’s cabin is who was the close-up face that looked back at Hurley. Many viewers who left comments on either BuddyTV or TheTailSection seem to believe the man staring back at Hurley was John Locke. Maybe the enigmatic Locke was seeking answers from his new mentor Jacob. If that’s the case, and if he was “talking” to Christian, it’s weird that Locke would go from one troubled, abusive father to another.
Now that you have a bigger image, take a close look? Is that John Locke? Some may say yes, I think it looks like this figure has hair, which eliminates Locke as a candidate. But since BuddyTV doesn’t own advanced facial recognition software, this one is a total toss-up…
#3 Randy Nations
Even if you are obsessed with Lost, you may not instantly recognize the name Randy Nations, though you certainly know the character. He was John Locke’s disapproving boss at the box factory. Next, we saw him as the manager of the Mr. Clucks Hurley worked at. Of course, that is in reverse chronology, as we all know Hurley used his lottery winnings to buy a box company, and subsequently must have given his old fast-food boss a new job working for him.
Right now, you may be thinking that we didn’t see a box company or a Mr. Clucks in last night’s season 4 premiere of Lost, and you’d be right. But Randy, played by Billy Ray Gallion, did show up on the episode, as an employee at yet another crappy job. This time around, he’s working for Circuit House, the electronics store where Hurley’s big car chase that opens the episode ends. Randy is the employee videotaping the entire thing.
Is this Randy’s ultimate revenge, recording Hurley’s downfall? And why is it that Randy seems eternally stuck in middle management? With 47 episodes left before the series finale, I have a hunch we’ll be seeing more of him.
#4 Mobisode Connection
While the Lost mobisode series Missing Pieces has been vexing fans for a long time, making them question what it all meant, last night’s episode may have shed some light on that. Perhaps the mobisodes were there to foreshadow future events.
Maybe we’re reading too much into this, but one particular line from last night’s episode jumped out at us. In his final flash-forward, when Hurley and Jack play HORSE, Hurley thinks that perhaps they need to go back for some reason. Jack says never, and Hurley responds “Never say never.” Certain that we’d heard that on this show before, we looked back and saw that we did: in the third mobisode.
In “King of the Castle,” Ben and Jack play a game of chess and have a near-identical conversation. Ben warns Jack to be careful of what he wishes for, namely getting off the island, because then he may realize he wants to come back. Jack says never, and Ben responds with the same line Hurley delivered. Coincidence? If you’ve read this far, then you’re a dedicated enough fan of Lost to know that in this show, there’s no such thing as a coincidence.
-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC, Lostpedia)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
