'Lost,' Season Four: More questions than answers

By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff

Courtesy of ABC

The cast of "Lost" is in for big changes this season, which kicks off Thursday night on ABC.

Season Three of “Lost” ended on an upbeat premise — the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 were about to be rescued.

Or so it would seem.

Those who watch the series regularly, however, know that nothing is as it seems on the island, and if anything, the season finale only served to ask more questions than it answered.

Here’s what’s on our mind as Season Four prepares to launch on Thursday night (9 p.m. on ABC, preceded by an hour-long recap of seasons 1-3 at 8 p.m.), as well as a few juicy tidbits actor Michael Emerson, who portrays baddie Benjamin Linus, revealed:

Who are those would-be rescuers?

Charlie, the drug-addicted rock star, died in an underwater Dharma station, but not before he passed along a message — the boat floating offshore wasn’t sent by Penny, the true love of castaway Desmond, as the plane crash survivors seemed to think.

Previews of Season Four show at least one new glimpse of Charlie, so whether he’s actually dead or relegated to one of those famous “Lost” flashbacks remain to be seen. Press releases from ABC reveal a number of impressive guest stars this season, all presumably playing the mysterious rescuers — Jeremy Davies (the wormy Cpl. Upham in “Saving Private Ryan”), Jeff Fahey (a character actor who recently starred in the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double-feature “Grindhouse”), Ken Leung (a character actor with roles in “Red Dragon,” “Vanilla Sky,” “Spy Game” and “X-Men: The Last Stand”) and Fisher Stevens (who had the lead role in the short-lived Fox series “Key West”).

“I haven’t worked with many of them, but I have had some scenes with Ken Leung,” Emerson said. “He plays a really interesting, scary kind of character. I think he’s really going to make an impression.”

Is Michael returning?

It’s been the rumor of the Internet and Hollywood trade publications that Harold Perrineau, who played the traitorous Michael in seasons one and two, will be returning to “Lost” for Season Four.

“If so, I haven’t shot any scenes with Harold,” Emerson said. “I have seen Harold in Hawaii, and when I saw him, I didn’t think he was there for vacation.”

Who gets off the island?

With the reveal in the Season Three finale that the show is now going to incorporate flash-forwards as well as flashbacks, which castaways make it off the island? Rumor has it that six make it off — including Jack and Kate, who are the other four?

How will the strike by the Writer’s Guild of America affect what was originally scheduled to be a 16-episode season?

Scripts for eight episodes were completed before the strike began late last year. As long as the writer’s continue to picket, however, nothing new for “Lost” or any other fictional network show will be written or filmed.

“I haven’t heard anything from the network,” Emerson said. “All I hear is that the network still intends to finish this season if they can. I would assume there’s got to be a magic date in late February or early March when, if an agreement isn’t reached, they’ll have to say, ‘Look, we’re going to can this season. We’ll see you next year.’

“That’s frustrating for us as actors, because it’s a demanding show physically and psychologically, and we shoot it far from home. We had a head of steam going, and this season, more than ever, there’s a lot of jungle shooting and location shooting and a lot of violence. And once you get down inside something like that, you want to finish it instead of contemplating getting inside of it later and firing it up again.”

What about the smoke monster? The ‘Black Rock’? The Dharma Initiative? Jacob? What gives? Can’t you tell us more?

We’re afraid not. Secrets must be kept, Emerson said, to preserve the storyline.

“Never before has there been so much in the can without being aired — before, we would be shooting only two or three weeks before a show aired, but this season, we’re a long way ahead of the viewers,” Emerson said. “Because of that, there’s the danger that some of the secrets could get out. Some stuff has been revealed lately, and memos were sent out reminding everyone that this stuff hasn’t aired yet and that we should be discreet. Somebody gave up something big, but I gather that ABC caught it before it went to press.”