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Structure and time frame of Season 5

Ensign_Redshirt

Commodore
Commodore
Alright, at first glance I couldn't find a topic on this here and maybe this is already basic knowledge and I'm just totally out of the loop (this is written from a totally unspoilered POV anyway), but I wonder how the next season could be structured exactly.

According to the timeline on Lostpedia the events of "present day" are currently taking place on Day 100 after the plane crash (December 30, 2004). In the press conference in yesterday's episode it was said that the Oceanic Six were rescued on Day 108 (which would make it Jan. 7). Assuming that the circumstances of the Oceanic Six's survival and rescue were a lie, but the date was true, there's a high possibility that the six make it off the island in the season finale (either that or it has to happen early in Season 5).

Assuming all of this is right... where do we go from here? Will the next season chronicle how the Oceanix Six are trying to get back to the island? Does this also mean that the whole "flashforward" routine will be dropped (since the "flashforward" time level becomes the new "present")?

And will there be possibly some sort of jump ahead to "our" present day of 2008 in Season 5? According to Lostpedia's timeline, the flashforward scenes of Season 3's finale (which were also the flashforward scenes taking us the farthest into the "future" so far) most likely took place in late 2007. Plus, a two-year jump ahead had already occurred once in J.J. Abrams's other series "Alias". So it isn't without precedence (BSG did it too).

So, please discuss. I have no idea whether there are already any kind of spoilers out there who relate to my questions. I would also like to remain unspoilered as far as the events in this season's finale are concerned (with the possible exception that the Oceanic Six go off that island, which would be kind of obvious and not that "spoiling" anymore). I would merely like to know when the events of Season 5 will take place.

Granted, since time tends to pass very slow in "Lost" it's also possible that Season 4 ends with the Oceanix Six just about being rescued (so, basically just like Season 3 ended :lol: ). In theory, there's also enough room for more than a few episodes between Day 100 and Day 108.

P.S. A somewhat related question: The Oceanix Six seem to get "rescued" (?) in January 2005. However, Ben does end up in that Tunisian desert in October 2005. I guess there was some sort of time travel involved in Ben's supposed "teleportation"?
 
I believe the intention is for Season 4 to be dual-natured: following the lives of the Oceanic Six as they attempt to find a way to return to the Island, while simultaneously following the activities of those still on the Island. Season 5 would then pick up with the return to the Island, with everyone who is still alive coming back together.
 
Team Darlton hinted that the present on the show as we know it might change, but I think there's something no one expected in store.
 
I've been thinking that season 5 would jump ahead to 2009 where we'd see the Oceanic 6 return to the island within the first few episodes. They might even start off with the 6 back on the island and show us how they got there via flashback. We'd then get flashbacks that would fill in the four year gap for both the island survivors and the Oceanic 6. We'll also get other flashbakcs for Ben, Juliet and Desmond that don't take place within that four year gap.

I'm still up in the air about a lot of things though. I'm not sure if four years will have passed on the island and right now, I'm open to the possibility that we'll get some sort of twist that I haven't factored in yet.
 
My assumption has always been that season 4 was sort of a transition season where they're just setting up the end stages of what's actually going on and how they're going to take care of it.

So it seems logical to assume season 5 will revolve around the Oceanic 6 realizing that they need to return to the Island and how they go about doing that. Meanwhile the Losties remaining on the, now moved, Island team with the rest of the Others and wage an all out war against Widmore and his cronies.

Also, I still don't buy that Widmore is "the" bad guy here. I think he's the underling of someone more powerful. Perhaps Alvar Hanso?
 
I do think that they will get rescued in this season's finale...and I think I remember reading that in an interview but I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, if we assume that happens, then I really have no idea what time season 5 will take place in. It really could be any number of scenarios. It makes you wonder if the focus will be on the island people, the Oceanic 6, or both evenly. I really just don't know. Maybe I will get a clearer picture after the finale.
 
Primary "advantage" of a time jump to actual "present day": The character of Walt could appear again (I mean other than in Locke's hallucinations or as a shadow behind a window :lol: ).

The only scenario in which Season 5 could still completely take place on the island: The 5th season chronicles the events of Day 100 to Day 125. In the season finale the Oceanic Six finally make it off the island, but also travel back in time to Day 108. :lol:
 
I'm very curious to know what format the 5th season will take as well. It seems like the days of the "A-plot on island, B-plot in flashback/forward" structure are coming to an end. I say that because it just doesn't seem like there will be enough characters left on the island to keep the current 100+ day island storyline going anymore. At least not in the way it used to, where it normally takes up 60-70% of a given episode's runtime.

I suspect that for characters on the island (Locke, Sawyer, Juliette?) events will continue to play out over a short time period. Season 4 spanned about 10 days on the island, and I think that style of "on island" storytelling will continue. Whatever happens to the island, I have it in the back of my head, that in a future episode when Sawyer and Kate or Jin and Sun are reunited, that years will have passed for Kate & Sun, but only weeks or months for Sawyer & Jin.
 
The only scenario in which Season 5 could still completely take place on the island: The 5th season chronicles the events of Day 100 to Day 125. In the season finale the Oceanic Six finally make it off the island, but also travel back in time to Day 108. :lol:
What do you mean go back in time? The Island timeline is on Day 100. Add 8 days to go wherever they went from the Island (maybe less with what happens in the finale).
 
The only scenario in which Season 5 could still completely take place on the island: The 5th season chronicles the events of Day 100 to Day 125. In the season finale the Oceanic Six finally make it off the island, but also travel back in time to Day 108. :lol:
What do you mean go back in time? The Island timeline is on Day 100. Add 8 days to go wherever they went from the Island (maybe less with what happens in the finale).

I was talking about a hypothetical scenario in which the Oceanic Six do not get off the island in this season's finale, but in the finale of Season 5. Since up to a month of time passes by during a single season of "Lost", this would mean that they have to leave the island on, let's say, Day 125, but are then "rescued" on Day 108 or something.

Since time travel phenomena (and plot twists :) ) are not unusual on the island this would be the only possible scenario I can imagine where the Oceanic Six do not get off the island in the next episode and the current format and structure of the series would be retained for the next season... which I don't think will happen, it's just a thought experiment. Unless the scenario I just described would occur, the Oceanic Six will most likely leave the island next episode and the structure and time frame of the series could be dramatically altered.

Or maybe I'm just confused about the time travel aspects of the island. Is it possible to leave the island and travel to the "past" (Day 125 -> Day 108) or does it only work the other way around?

Never mind, it was just an attempt to back up the point that the Oceanix Six make it off the island next episode.
 
I'm not sure what to expect, but at least this time we know to expect something.

Frozen Donkey Wheel, indeed.
 
The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that next season will have to focus on the island inhabitants that have stayed behind about 75% of the time, while showing what's going on with the Oceanic 6 and their efforts to get back the other 25%.

There are characters like Miles, Charlotte, and Faraday who they have just brought in and still need their backstory filled in. There's also plenty of drama that could go on with Locke and Sawyer and all those people. I think that the Oceanic 6 won't make it back until the end of the series, possibly the end of next season. Either way, I think that island life will remain the main focus.

They've shown so many flash forwards of the Oceanic 6 now that to follow that group in present time would become confusing (or the producers would consider it too confusing). You'd have to fit those flash forwards in with what you're currently watching, which makes you wonder if those scenes will be replayed when they become the present, or if they will be skipped over. It's made even more confusing by the fact that the flash forwards weren't done in chronological order.

Anyway, this can be done but would get confusing. It seems to me that the Oceanic 6 storyline is one that is played out only in flash forwards. The island story will continue to be the present. There will be a few episodes that focus on Ben and the rest off the island. I admit that there are still some problems with this theory, but it seems the most workable to me.

Another possibility is that the next season skips ahead a couple of years to them returning to the island, and then we learn through flashbacks how they found it and what happened with Ben. Those on the island will also have flashbacks to what happened when the Oceanic 6 were gone. This would definitely work within the show's format pretty easily. But would it really skip that far ahead in time? I kind of doubt it.
 
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Crazy theory: In the SF the Island (or our characters anyway) jump back in time to the 1970s and encounter the Dharma Initiative firsthand, along the way becoming "the Hostiles" that we saw Dharma fighting off-screen. This is "The Incident".
 
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