Season 6, Episode 1: The Beginning of the End

SPOILER ALERT: This post may give away information on the cast of the opening episode to season 6. I will provide a warning before the spoiler so that you can read the rest of the post.

Summer greetings, LOST fans! So I was skimming through the headlines of an online magazine when I stumbled upon an image of Emilie de Ravin (aka Claire). The sight of Claire sent me into a tailspin (ha ha ha) of LOST obsession and is responsible for my post today. There is much that I can discuss at this moment but I will limit this post to (semi-)verifiable information on the opening episode.

The season 5 finale provided us with a glimpse of the the sixth season - an eye opening. Here's a link to refresh your memory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFOqIuNla5A Let's assume that this is the opening scene to the 6th season, much like the opening to the 1st season and the 1976 return to the island. In both cases it's Jack's eye that we see. If you pause the video 40 seconds into the clip (here's where my obsession really starts to kick in) you can see it's a green eye very similar to Jack's. I do not, however, believe it belongs to Jack; I'm pretty sure it's Kate's. If you compare this image to that of Jack's eye and the surrounding facial features 15 seconds into this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byN6qX7MmDI you'll see some notable differences including:

1. If you freeze both clips to the point where they show an equal amount of iris, you'll notice that Jack's eyelid in the season 1 opening is open wider than that of the person I'll call Kate in the season 6 preview.
2. Although the two eyes are similar in color, Kate's eye is a lighter green and Jack's has a reddish star-like pattern throughout the iris.
3. The frame of Jack's nose slopes deeper than Kate's nose.

If it turns out these discrepancies aren't due to makeup, lighting, and/or the camera position and the eye truly does belong to Kate you're probably wondering, "So what?" I personally find it interesting because it makes use of a recurring motif but approaches it from a separate angle. With a couple of rough patches this past season, Jack has always been the leader of the group. It was appropriate for us to see the opening of the show and the 5th season from his (literal) point of view. If this is Kate's eye, I don't think it is meant to suggest new leadership (OH GOD - KATE IN CHARGE?!). If anything, it probably represents her perspective that they shouldn't detonate the bomb. Better yet, maybe the flash we see at the end is not from the bomb but the release of electromagnetic energy that was believed to be the initial cause of the incident.

For now, the beholder of the eye is a mystery. Although we can't tell if it's Jack or Kate we can definitely rule out Juliet. If memory serves, Juliet's eyes are blue. On top of that we have to remember that this clip is a teaser for the 6th season. The producers aren't going to let us know Juliet is alive just as soon as they potentially kill her off. Come to think of it, they do something like this every season. Someone is violently separated from the other survivors in every finale. (S1: Walt gets kidnapped. S2: Jack, Kate, and Sawyer get kidnapped. S3: Charlie drowns. S4: Jin is left behind on the freighter that is blown up by C4. S5: Juliet falls down a shaft and possibly sacrifices herself by detonating a hydrogen bomb.) Even though the writers probably aren't going to kill off Juliet, they'll still have suspense eat away at us until season 6. I mean, it's LOST...



SPOILER ALERT!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!



If my intel is accurate, we'll have to wait until at least the second episode to see what happens to Juliet. IMDB has already posted the cast for the first episode of season 6 at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1453335/ and Juliet is not listed. Don't worry, LOST will still his its blonde quota. Clair is back! That brings me back to where I began so this seems as good a place as any to stop.