Emilie de Ravin, who plays Claire, has already said that she will be rejoining LOST next year.
Now producer/writer Carlton Cuse has confirmed it. He said that he and Damon are excited to bring Claire back, and “even more excited for people to experience just how she will return.”
Just how she will return. Interesting. Would that be through the Zombie Entrance?
Zombies from the 1968 classic horror movie "Night of the Living Dead"
Picture via Wikipedia
Posted in Claire (Emilie de Ravin), Damon and Carlton, Season 6
Claire in Jacob's cabin, in Episode 4x11 "Cabin Fever"
Val asks:
Do we have any idea what really happened to Claire? After she turned up in Jacob’s cabin with Jack’s father, I got really confused about what her role in the whole island mystery is.
I originally thought Claire was killed after she wandered into the jungle, leaving Aaron behind. I had thought if she were alive, she would have come back for her son.
I was surprised to see her show up in Jacob’s cabin and in Kate’s house on the mainland, but I still thought she was dead. She was with Christian in the cabin, and we knew he was dead. As for showing up on the mainland, other dead characters had been doing that as well, and Clair’s appearance could also be explained as being just a dream.
But then while I was watching Destiny Calls, the Season 5 clip/recap show that aired in January 2009, Damon said something in the commentary that surprised me, and made me think that Claire might still be alive:
Damon (at 3:34 on video): And now, essentially, Claire is missing. We don’t know where she is. She saw Christian Shephard in the jungle. She left the baby behind. And that’s it.
At the time I saw the Destiny Calls recap show, I thought, “She’s only missing! So she’s not dead, after all!” But now, on second thought, I believe she could still be dead. Damon didn’t actually say, for sure, that she wasn’t — just that we didn’t know what happened to her.
Forging on, I found an interview that eonline did with Damon and Carlton last year, before the Season 4 finale, where they muddied the waters even more:
Q: “Is Claire dead?” Is that a question you are wanting the fans to be asking at this point?
Carlton: I think we want the fans to ask, “What’s happened to Claire?” I don’t think it’s “Is she dead?” I think it’s like, “Where is she?” and, “What’s going on with her?”
Damon: What’s fascinating with Lost is there’s a scene where Claire is in the cabin, and she is sitting next to a guy who is dead, and nobody is saying “What’s up with that?” They’re all asking “Is she dead?” I think the more operative question is “What is dead?” That’s a good question to ask, and one you will certainly be asking over the long hiatus.
“The operative question is ‘What is dead’?” Okey-dokey. 😉
It sounds like Claire may have joined the ranks of the undead, the quasi-dead, the not-quite-dead — or, as I like to think of them, actors who still have a job even after their characters die.
And, in fact, Emilie de Ravin recently told TV Guide that she would be coming back to LOST in Season 6:
TVGuide.com: Having been involved in all these projects as of late, will it be harder to go back to Lost for its final season?
De Ravin: No, I’m really looking forward to going back. I’ve had a wonderful time being able to express myself creatively in different ways [during this Season 5 absence]. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again and, being the last season, I’m thinking it’s going to be pretty exciting.
So maybe we’ll get some answers next year.
Thanks, Val, for asking the question!
Picture of Claire in Jacob’s cabin is a promotional still, via Lostpedia
No, the Star Trek movie doesn’t take place on a tropical island. There are no polar bears, monsters made of smoke, frozen donkey wheels, or four-toed statues. But there are elements of the new movie from J.J. Abrams that have a strong LOST-ian flavor.
J.J. Abrams and Zoe Saldana as Uhuru
Trekking Through Time
There is time travel in Star Trek — and there is talk of destiny! There is even talk about how going back in time can change one’s destiny!
There is a major character (who I won’t name so as not to add even more spoilers to this post) who appears in both his young and old versions in the same time period. He even meets up with himself eventually — at which time he talks about how disruptions in the time/space continuum can be hard to process.
What could be more LOST-like than that?
Either J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, who also worked on the movie, love the ideas of destiny and time travel so much that they feel compelled to use them over and over, or they ran out of ideas and had to recycle old ones — or this grafting of LOST plots onto Star Trek was a nod to us LOST fans.
Not Quite Flashbacks
Backstories are important in Star Trek. They aren’t quite LOST-style flashbacks — they are much shorter and, of course, are not signalled with a whoosh. But they serve much of the same function of showing how the past motivates the actions of the present.
The backstories are done very deftly. We are shown what drives Kirk and Spock with just two quick scenes each, one from their early childhoods and one from the moments they made the decisions that set them on their adult paths. We see the key aspects of their characters, which we later see come to fruition when they are adults. It’s economical story telling, and very well done.
Zachary Quinto as Spock
Characters
The characters in the movie, especially Spock, were more moving than I remember the characters ever being in the original TV series. Having interesting characters the audience cares about is a LOST trademark, and a welcome addition to Star Trek.
Love Triangle
Don’t panic, Kate haters! There was only the tiniest whiff of a love triangle in the movie. What would have been 30 hours of angsty dialogue on LOST was just a glance and a raised eyebrow in Star Trek
Daddy Issues
What would a LOST-influenced movie be without Daddy issues? In Star Trek, though, the Daddies were mostly benevolent and inspirational influences on their sons. There was some friction, but nothing like that on LOST, where the Daddy issues could make even Oedipus blush.
Lights, Camera … Action!
There were lots of sequences of fighting in Star Trek, more than I might normally like — but they were so goofy and over-the-top that they were harmless. I counted at least three times that Kirk was in a cliffhanger scene. I mean literal cliffhangers, where he was hanging by his fingers off the edge of one thing or another, with a huge, in one case infinite, drop below.
Reaction of a non-Trekkie
Although I’m a LOST nerd, I’m not much of a Trekkie, at least not as far as anything that came after the original series. That one I liked. I must have seen most or all of the episodes of the original series, some of them more than once. After that my interest in Star Trek fizzled out. I never saw more than a few episodes of any of the spin-offs. I saw a couple of the movies, but they bored me. As far as I was concerned, Star Trek had ended 40 years ago.
Even so, I heard so many good things about the new movie, that I decided to see it — though not without some trepidation. The characters of the original series were icons of my childhood. I was afraid it would be jarring to see these familiar characters played by strange actors.
I needn’t have worried. They did a great job. Spock looked uncannily like the original. As for the others, while they looked different, they either captured the essence of the old characters, or they were so compelling in their own right that it didn’t matter.
Time Investment
Two hours versus 103 hours. Okay, there’s no comparison to be made on this one.
Satisfaction
The movie does live up to its hype. I think most LOST fans, whether Trekkies or not, will enjoy it.
Picture of the Star Trek cast and publicity stills of Abrams and Uhuru and Spock from IGN. Lunch box made by Vandor.
Posted in Damon and Carlton, J.J. Abrams
I liked this recap show better than the previous one (“The Story of the Oceanic 6”). It’s faster paced, it’s narrated by Michael Emerson, it has commentary by Damon and Carlton, and it actually answers a couple of questions — why Ben killed Locke, and why four of the Losties on Aljira 316 ended up in 1977.
Now, the Finale is about to begin. Wheee …..
Posted in Ben (Michael Emerson), Clip shows, Damon and Carlton
"Locke's compass is in an infinite mobius loop" -- Damon and Carlton
The May 11, 2009 official audio podcast, a good one that I recommend listening to in its entirety if you have time, is Damon and Carlton’s last for Season 5. Michael Emerson, though, will be doing the podcast next week to rehash the Finale.
On the podcast, Damon and Carlton rehash Follow the Leader, talking about how Locke emerged as a strong and compelling guy in tune with the Island, much to the consternation of Ben and Richard Alpert, and how Jack had finally found his mission, after weeks of mopping floors and erasing chalkboards, although he hasn’t been able to attract many followers.
As for the finale, they say we will get a substantial piece of information, and that by the end of the premiere of Season 6, we will have enough information to be able to come up with some theories about how it will all end.
In response to a question about the compass — the one that Locke gave to Alpert and Alpert gave to Locke — they say that what they have done with the compass was intentional in terms of the broader themes of the show. The compass is a puzzle that really has no solution. It is purposefully perplexing — it has no origin! It is in an infinite Mobius loop.
They say they believe there is a large portion of mystery and magic in the world, and it is not their intention to demystify the world of LOST by overexplaining things.
Damon and Carlton’s next talk will be at Comic-Con — their final appearance there.
Photo of Mobius strip by David Benbennick, via Wikipedia, GNU FDL
This is a good interview.
My favorite part of the first segment is when Carlton says, Phew! They are done with the time-travel season — and that was the defining characteristic of Season 5 — and Season 6 will be about something different.
Interesting …
In the second part of the video, Damon and Carlton talk about the time loop — and they say that even they get a headache thinking about it! Ha ha ha.
This part of the interview can’t be embedded, but you can watch it on the EW site. Recommended!
There are also videos there, which I haven’t had a chance to watch, about Darlton’s favorite Season 5 moments, and some teasers for the Season 5 finale.
Earlier, I posted clips of Evangeline Lilly and Michael Emerson at last month’s Jules Verne Festival. Now, here are some clips of producers/writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, starting with their walking out on stage to extended applause, and then being introduced to the audience:
They start to answer questions. Carlton talks about how being dead on LOST doesn’t mean you won’t appear on the show again:
The questions continue, and this is where they talk about the ending of the show, and where it gets really interesting.
Damon says that they’ve known, for a long time, what the very last scene of the show will be. Carlton promises that the ending will not be that it “happens in a snow globe,” or that it “all takes place in a dream in a dog’s mind” — and that they won’t just cut to black, the way The Sopranos did.
He says they have a very appropriate and legitimate ending for the show, and they are excited about it, even if they are already starting to feel nostalgic about the show coming to an end.
Damon says that they will answer all the mysteries “that we care about” in the final episode. They won’t make us pay to see a movie to find out!
They also discuss the show’s theme of faith versus science. Carlton calls it one of the central philosophical debates of our time. He says that he, who is Catholic, and Damon, who was raised Jewish, debate these issues between themselves, and then they put the debates into the mouths of the characters. He says that the ongoing nature of the debate is what gives the show its thematic power.
Carlton says that they will take the debate to a conclusion that is, hopefully, satisfying. Damon says that so far on the show, faith seems to be winning.
The questions continue. Damon talks about the Dharma Initiative, which he describes as a group of people who say they are trying to make the world a better place, but are probably more violent than anyone else we have met on the Island. He says there is still “much to learn” about them.
Carlton says that we will get some more answers about the Smoke Monster in this season’s finale.
Damon talks about how difficult it was to cast the character of Kate, how he and J.J. Abrams had to audition almost 75 actresses.
And here you can see them receiving the Jules Verne Achievement Award:
Here’s hoping LOST wins all the awards it deserves!
Also available for men.
