For those that have not viewed the promo.
, LOSTies everywhere are starting to flock back to the island again. I do not typically watch promos during the season in-between episodes, but right now, I will gladly absorb every second of every tidbit and teaser tossed my way. Less than 60 days from now marks the premiere of the new season. Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have finally broken their annual hiatus "radio silence" time. And this week I just watched an episode of FRINGE that flashed us an Oceanic Airlines ticket.
So where were we? Or more appropriately,
when are we? After sharing my thoughts regarding the "leaked"
Dharma video starring Dr. Pierre Cheng, I've pretty much held the same suspicion that the island is going to be revealed to have traveled backwards roughly 30 years. This idea is not only based on the information Pierre gives us in the video, nor the voices in the background, who from all I can tell sound to be Dan Farraday and Miles Straume. The other nagging detail that I cannot escape came from Damon and Carlton themselves when they told us this summer that they were no longer going to be using the "flashback" as a storytelling device. At the same time we have been promised more information about the Dharma Initiative's history on the island in this new season, and told that we would finally get to see Danielle Rousseu's story.
Without long, boring character diatribes, how else do you show "history" without moving the entire setting to the time period in which you wish to tell your tale? How awesome would it be if the Island really did move to the 1970's?
If this were indeed the case, it would place our survivors into the time frame of when the Dharma Initiative was still active on the Island, perhaps even in it's supposed infancy.
I now present to you exhibit A, a two screencaps from a brief scene in the latest LOST promo from ABC:
If I were to take a wild stab, it appears the location is the Swan Hatch back door (currently imploded), and a fully-suited Dharma-Initiative worker (currently dead), pointing a gun at Dan Farraday (last seen alive in the Zodiac raft somewhere in the vicinity of the Island).
If the Island goes back in time, this would also place our survivors in the middle of the war between Dharma and the "original" inhabitants of the Island.
I now present exhibit B, some additional screencaps from the same promo:
Are those explosions? The beach camp burning? Who are these people holding Charlotte and Dan at not only gunpoint, but arrow-point? I seem to remember the Others using more primitive weaponry in the past, yet, I thought everyone (Survivors and Others) had pretty much united against Keamy and the freighter people. Could these be the
original Others who were at one time fighting off the Dharma Initiative?
And what does all of this have to do with a tiger in the sun anyway?
Well, if you caught one of the two nearly-subliminal flashes in the new promo, then you already know about Ajira Airways.
A quick web search then takes one to what seems to be an entirely new website set up for yet another air carrier for the show. Currently, you can only enter in your email address, so we can only make blind guesses as to what it will turn out to be.
However as with everything on LOST, there are other ways of seeing things, and we can at least speculate as to how Ajira Airlines might relate to the bigger picture. Just a couple of quick tidbits:
Ajira - Various sources provide differing translations depending on the language the word is being translated in. The two that stuck out to me the most were "Island" (Hindi) and "Eternal life after Death" (Islam). Sounds as if Ajira is all about
destination...
The Sun - Besides the obvious reference to our beloved survivor, we also have yet another tie in to Apollo, the Greek sun god who also shares the name with the chocolate bar the Dharma Initiative seemed to be so fond of.
The Tiger - Another loaded symbol like the sun. However, anyone who knows the Korean zodiac knows that it exactly follows the Chinese one. And the next Year of the Tiger falls in 2010, corresponding to the scheduled finale of LOST.
We all know the Oceanic 6 have to return to the Island. We also know that Sun recently bought a controlling share into her father's corporation, Paik Heavy Industries. Is it possible that Sun uses her newly acquired position and resources to facilitate the return to the Island via Ajira Airways? Whatever it turns out to be, I have a feeling we will not be seeing this in the show until the latter part of this year's season.
Since there is now a solid conclusion planned for the show, we will hopefully get to see many of our many questions play themselves out over the next two years. And even if not, LOST will continue to have me along for the ride and under its spell until the end.
Looking forward to it.
a.N
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