Via TV Guide:

As the sarcastic and strapping Sawyer on Lost there were few things that rattled Josh Holloway. Taking on polar bears, the Others, and those creepy folks from the Dharma Initiative — no sweat! But when it comes to things that intimidate the actor in real life, the smoke monster doesn’t hold a candle to the cast of NBC’s Community.

“They’re all so funny!” he told TV Guide Magazine of his guest stint on the show’s season finale. “They’re really tight with their comedy. It’s rhythmic. It makes me feel so not very funny being around them. I was a little like, ‘Uh oh. I’m not funny. I’ve got no rhythm.’ But it worked out.”

That may be an understatement, as Holloway, whose character engages in a paintball fight with the cast, received nothing but high marks from the show’s actors. “He’s such a man. So charming, and such a nice, nice man.” gushed Yvette Nicole Brown to us last week. “He’s playing a mysterious character and he’s wonderful in the role. It’s a role that written perfectly for him.”

“It’s a fun role,” says Holloway of the experience. “I loved those guys. I had a really good time and they were so awesome. I’d worked with Chevy [Chase] before on a movie so I was honored to get to work with him again, and the rest of the cast.”

Fans should enjoy Holloway’s TV appearance — rumored to be an homage to The Man With No Name from Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy — because for now the actor is not looking into doing more television. “Well, right now I’m giving it a break because you have to sign that rather lengthy contract,” he admits. “But I’m open with TV still. TV has changed quite a bit, even since Lost. There’s a lot of great TV out there now, but I’m giving movies a shot, while I can.”

[Photos via LIFE.com]

Related posts:

1. LOST Star Josh Holloway To Star In ‘Community’ Finale
2. Josh Holloway Talks LOST with EW
3. Josh Holloway Talks Acting on LOST

These are the first photos of Josh Holloway on the set of Mission Imposible 4, his first post-LOST project. Check out more photos after the jump.

[Photos via WENN and Splash]

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2. New Photos of Josh Holloway on the set of “Stay Cool”

(Click to enlarge)

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2. Josh Holloway on TV Guide Magazine Cover
3. Josh Holloway Interview

WARNING: Video contains Spoilers if you have not yet seen this episode!

This episode featured lots of crazy happenings both on and off the island.
Watch the video for the whole rundown and our reactions…

SHARE your theories in the comments section and tell me your thoughts at Twitter.com/AdamRucker

Thanks for watching, and subscribe for our LOST pre-finale special and series wrapup!

Find me @ facebook.com/ruckitup

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Josh Holloway spoke to USA Weekend‘s Bill Keveney about LOST, marriage, fatherhood, Hawaii, Post-LOST plans and more.

He values his years on Lost, especially as his character evolved from a bitter, insulated man to one who was more mature and involved in a committed relationship with Juliet (played by Elizabeth Mitchell). But with her death at the beginning of this season, the old Sawyer bile came back. “He’s a dead man inside,” he says. Now, the character just wants to get off the island.

Holloway also appreciates the financial stability that comes with a hit show; he bought a house on Oahu, his first. “In my experience, a single man doesn’t need much to be satisfied,” he says, brushing back his hair in a losing battle with the warm patio breeze. “You could have a tent and a six-pack of beer, and you’re pretty good.”

But not necessarily good for his six-pack abs, which he needs in his frequent bare-chested scenes. “My wife [Yessica] and I love food, especially rich French food,” he admits. “That doesn’t go with sex symbol, either.

Click here to read the full interview.

[Thanks to @SawyerandKate for the heads up!]

Related posts:

1. Josh Holloway Reveals What’s Next for Sawyer
2. New Q&A with Josh Holloway
3. Josh Holloway Interview

[Via Bamtan]

Related posts:

1. Mirror, Mirror: Cultural Themes in LOST 6.05 by Pearson Moore
2. Mirror, Mirror (Part II): Cultural Reflections on LOST 6.05 “Lighthouse” by Pearson Moore
3. In Preparation for Season 5, Episode 5: “Lovers” – Votation Results

Who’s next?

[Via FuckYeahLOST]

Related posts:

1. Jack & Kate, Sawyer & Juliet Action Figure Sets Coming in February 2010
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“Do you want to die alone?”

Miles’ question went to the heart of tonight’s episode.  The more James Ford remains unchanged, unmoving, the more the world around him whirls about, laughing at him, demonstrating time and again the inadequacy of his actions and plans.  Whether wooing an archeologist with a flower, conning a woman with a too-obvious scheme, or losing a battle of wits with the Man in Black, Sawyer found himself in over his head, rendered impotent by event and circumstance.

The worlds around Sawyer are not only changing.  They are converging.  The challenges James has faced to this point are as molehills to the coming mountains.  If he is to survive, Sawyer will have to do something he has successfully resisted his entire life:  Sawyer must grow up.

Reconnecting with the Island

Miles–Detective Miles Straum–found a date for Sawyer.  An interesting woman, worked with his father (Dr. Chang!) at the museum.  In my mind there were only two possibilities.  One of them was a woman on the run from the law, and not likely to have suddenly discovered enduring affinity for the staid and careful studies and tedious classification chores inherent in museum work.  The other choice was much more likely, and more appealing:  a scientist, familiar with the laboratory, well versed in the rigours of research and careful speciation and analysis.  Of course!  She didn’t seem suited for assignment to a museum, but perhaps this was a museum devoted to obstetrics and fertility.  When I saw her long, red mane from the back I wondered why she dyed her hair–she had been gorgeous as a blonde, and Sawyer loved her as she–

And then she turned around.

Charlotte?  It made no sense to me.  It was supposed to be Juliet.  It had to be Juliet, so that she could suggest they “go Dutch”, fulfilling the promise of her words to Sawyer on the Island in “LA X”, proving the connection between the two realities, demonstrating the instability of the separation of the two spacetimes.

Why Charlotte?  She was the spice of Faraday’s life, not Sawyer’s.  She was connected to Widmore, not the man Sawyer so desperately sought, Anthony Cooper.  She was a dead end for Sawyer.

As the story unfolded, I began to understand the necessity of their meeting in the bar, their bedtime banter about the world’s most famous bullwhip.  She said she wasn’t a museum kind of gal at all–she traveled the most exciting places in the world–dangerous, exotic places.  She was Indiana Jones, no less, and she would show James Ford things he had never even dreamed of.  While Sawyer stood next to her in the bar, imagining her in a fedora and nothing else, I thought about the Charlotte Staples Lewis I knew from Season Five.

Though not much older than a toddler when she left, she remembered the Island.  Something in her imagination, something at the very centre of her being, was captured by the lure of the Island.  She spent her adult life fantasising about returning to the enchanted jungle of her youth.  She must have oriented her entire life toward the singular goal of going back to the magical place that had been her greatest happiness.

This was the portrait we were offered in Season Five.  It made sense that the experiences of a girl at a moment somewhere between toddlerhood and pre-school would provide the warmest childhood memories to the motivated, restless mind of the adult Charlotte Lewis.  Her obsession led her to what seemed a most unlikely profession:  archeology.  But she was more historian than archeologist, and her choice of vocation was not motivated by childhood dreams alone.  The motivation derived of sure, indisputable knowledge she had carried with her from her youth.  Someone–Widmore or someone on the Island–gave her that knowledge early in her life.  “Study ancient Carthage,” that person told her.  “Carthage is the key to understanding the Island you love.”

She obeyed the instructions with every graduate course she took.  She didn’t so much study the assigned texts as absorb them into her psyche.  Field work was what she yearned for, and she grabbed every opportunity to spend time in the desert places that would unlock the secret to her jungle paradise.  Whenever there was a dig in Tunisia, she was there.  It wasn’t Tunisia, of course, that interested her.  It was what Tunisia had been once, two millennia ago.  It was Carthage, the civilisation of Elissa, home of history’s greatest military leaders.

“I know more about ancient Carthage than Hannibal himself.”  It was one of the oddest statements ever made in the six years of LOST.  It seemed disconnected, unrelated to anything else transpiring on the Island.  Charlotte Lewis was an expert–quite possibly the world’s leading authority–on ancient Carthage.  Why?  Why would a woman whose entire being had been oriented toward rediscovering the island home of her youth spend every waking moment studying, thinking, brushing the sand away from, imbibing, eating and breathing nothing but ancient Carthage?

It was the drop point.  And she knew it.  “You will find something interesting in Medenine, Charlotte.  There’s a dig there.  You’ll find the proof.”  Whoever it was who told her was correct.  The polar bear expired in the desert heat short kilometres from the drop point.  When Charlotte found the skeleton she dropped to her knees and dug at the neck.  This, too, was something she knew–that she would find the leather tag still chained around the dead animal’s neck.  It was a Dharma tag.  The undamaged leather tag, the fresh bones–not even twenty years old–constituted the strongest possible proof that the Island remained.  The polar bear was a love letter, a “wish you were here” postcard from people still on the Island, years after Charlotte left, proclaiming to the world that the Island lived.

Charlotte is key to the whole business of the Island, not only because she made her home on the Island, not only because she loved the Island, but because she is the bridge to the Island’s distant past.

Tunisia is the drop point because Tunisia is where the Island started.  Carthage was the closest neighbour of another ancient civilisation, and many Carthaginians worshipped Egyptian gods.  The statue of Tawaret would not have been at all out of place in Carthage.

Charlotte’s passion is the Island.  Sawyer’s passion is finding his parents’ killer.  Sawyer’s challenge–one I think he will succeed in overcoming–is finding intimacy with Charlotte in spite of his selfish dismissal of her after their one-night stand.  And when he does this–probably just before the wedding party (Locke and Helen’s party) where he discovers the man who killed his parents–Charlotte will confide to Sawyer her greatest passion, the lifelong obsession that has turned her into Indiana Jones.

Does she know of the Island’s submergence beneath the ocean?  Does she require a con artist’s special skill in obtaining knowledge vital to the discovery of the Island?  Is she the person who will create the bridge between the two spacetime realities?  Charlotte Lewis will be a person of interest in coming episodes.

Reconstituting Reality

“What was that all about, then?”

“Just savin’ the world.”

Kelvin Inman didn’t believe the words he uttered in response to Desmond’s inquiry.  Desmond came to share in the CIA agent’s scepticism, too, for a time.  Until Locke destroyed the countdown computer, and the countdown clock turned over from 000.00 to the Egyptian hieroglyphics that mean “Underworld”.

The energy build-up accompanying the failure to enter the numbers and press the Execute key was a demonstration of the power of the Island.  We have seen several such demonstrations of unusual power since the Season Two destruction of the Swan Station on Day 67.  The Island heals and it destroys.  It transports people and things through space and time, and it can move itself, to places far, to times long ago.  It unleashes electromagnetic energy of such force as to pull airplanes from the sky.  It contains within its bowels forces of such magnitude that not even the detonation of a nuclear bomb can surpass its strength.

Such abilities are not localised wonders to be exploited and directed.  Such powers are not controlled.  They control.  They exercise their own need to integrate into things even greater than themselves.

The Island is not an entity subject to containment or detached study or exploitation for personal gain.  It is the world’s umbilical cord, attaching the entire planet to the richness of forces beyond description.  It is the time merchant’s scale in which good and evil, freedom and responsibility, past and future, will and humility are balanced, guarded, nurtured, and rendered into forms suitable to the human spirit and to the greater good.

The strange combination of Sawyer and Charlotte will lead us to this conclusion.  I’m very much looking forward to the wedding party in Locke’s back yard in a few weeks.  It should be wild beyond anyone’s imagining.  People and forces converged on the Island in 2004.  They are reconverging now, on-Island and off.  The entire world is headed for dangerous, completely unpredictable chaos.

Reconflicted, Not Reconciled

“This is completely inappropriate.”

Claire’s attempt to kill Kate made sense.  She believed Kate intentionally took Aaron away from her, and Aaron was all she had.  A psychic had warned her she had to raise the baby herself.  Kate was not only a kidnapper, but she had interfered with destiny itself.

Nothing else about the interaction between Claire, Kate, and Cerberus made any sense.  The Man in Black’s calls for civility were issued short hours after he mercilessly slaughtered everyone remaining in the Temple.  He threw Claire like a sack of potatoes and then in soft, restrained tone said, “This is completely inappropriate.”

The Smoke Monster’s camp is a warped, fractured mirror of civilisation.  Cerberus has soaked in bits and pieces of humanity, insists on a deliberate adherence to gentlemanly behaviour one minute but extols the virtues of hatred the next.  The MIB doesn’t have a concept of the natural boundaries of human culture.  He understands an idea here, a lesson there, but he has no sense of the whole of humanity.

He separates Claire and Kate, and frizzy-haired Claire comes around later, the punished child, offering a lame apology to the woman who cared for her son.  The pain in Claire’s cries is real.  But the two women remain unreconciled.

The complexity of Claire’s pain defies understanding.  Even before Claire attacked Kate she reached for her friend’s hand.  And after the Smoke Monster lectured her, she hugged Kate and cried wretched tears on her shoulder.

What is the source of her anguish?  How did Aaron become separated from her in Season Four?  Why did Cerberus have to concoct the fable of Aaron’s abduction by the Others?  Was he responsible for the initial kidnapping?  Did Jacob play a role in Claire’s disappearance or Aaron’s separation?

Rumpelstiltskin

If we are to understand the events surrounding Claire’s separation from Aaron, we will probably need to know more about the Smoke Monster.  But Cerberus has erected overt and intentional obstacles to our understanding.  When Jin repeatedly asked who Claire’s “friend” was, she said quite pointedly, “My friend.”  She knows the man’s name, but nothing will induce her to reveal it to anyone.

In the tradition of many cultures, knowledge of a name confers power over the object named.  The person naming the object may have the power to control its essence or actions, or make it do things against its will.  The person or object named is at the very least diminished in importance compared to the person invoking the name, or may come to be under the complete control of that person.  For this reason, many cultural traditions prohibit the invocation of a person’s name in that person’s presence.

For instance, in the Biblical account of creation, human beings were said to be created in the divine image (Gen 1:27).  That is to say, humans shared important spiritual characteristics with the Deity.  The instruction manual was very short:  “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.” (Gen 1:28)  In the divine hierarchy of Genesis, humans stood above all other parts of creation.  The fact of human beings’ power over the animals was given in Gen 2:20-21:  “So the Creator formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name.”  In the ancient Hebrew understanding, the fact that human beings named the animals was proof that we were given control over them; by invoking the animals’ names, humans established and maintained their superiority.

“Rumpelstiltskin” provides a relatively recent example of the power of invoking a person’s true name.  First published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, “Rumpelstiltskin” tells the story of a goblin who helped a beautiful young woman attract the attention of the king, extracting from her the promise to give him her first-born son.  The woman became queen and when her son was born, Rumpelstiltskin came to collect his due.  The queen could not refuse, but seeing the woman’s anguish, the goblin agreed to these terms:  If the queen could guess Rumpelstiltskin’s true name in three days, she could keep her son.  With the help of spies, the queen learned the goblin’s name, and told him.  Humbled, Rumpelstiltskin had to honour the terms of the agreement, and the queen kept her son.

The Name of the Beast

The intentional withholding of the Smoke Monster’s true name must have an importance greater than the name itself.  I don’t think this is a case of withholding the name only for the sake of withholding, strictly in order to build suspense.  The circumstances of withholding the name seem qualitatively different from those associated with the re-naming of Locke to “Jeremy Bentham”.  When we learned that “Jeremy Bentham” was John Locke, we learned that John Locke was dead.  We learned nothing additional about the character, since the name “Jeremy Bentham” told us nothing new about John Locke.  We can theorise endlessly about possible connections between the historical philosopher Bentham and his on-Island namesake, but these are all speculative imaginings.  On the other hand, the Smoke Monster is not a name, but more or less a title.  If we were to gain knowledge of the Smoke Monster’s true name, we might be able to guess some means of controlling him.  For instance, if we found out the Smoke Monster was the historical Julius Caesar, we would know much of his personality, personal and professional choices, yearnings, and vanities from the historical record.  Such information would be valuable in defeating him.

Addressing the Smoke Monster, or allowing the Smoke Monster to speak, may have some effect on the entity’s power.  Dogen expressed the belief that Sayid could kill Smokey if he plunged a special dagger into the Monster’s chest before the Monster said anything.

My best guess is that the intentional withholding of the Smoke Monster’s true name is a security measure designed to prevent greater control over the beast.

The Nature of the Beast

Bram and his team could not harm Smokey with ordinary bullets (Lost 6.01, “LA X, Part 1″).  Sayid was not able to harm the Monster, even with a special dagger (though see possible qualifications above).  At times the Monster appears to be virtually invincible.

We know the Smoke Monster can be summoned, and perhaps in some ways controlled.  Ben Linus summoned the Smoke Monster by loosening a plug to drain a small pool of water (Lost 4.09, “The Shape of Things to Come”).  Somehow, the water, the flowing of the water, the movement of the water to another place, or some hydraulic effect of the movement (perhaps even a hydraulically controlled device to open or close portals or valves), caused the Smoke Monster to appear only minutes later.

We know of some limitations on the Smoke Monster’s power.  He could not kill Jacob directly.  He probably cannot kill a Candidate directly.  He cannot cross a line composed of ash or a certain type of ash.  He cannot traverse a plane along which a sonic field is activated, even at a vertical distance well above the effective reach of the field.  We know the sonic fence around the Dharma barracks had no visible effect on humans who crossed the field above the pylons (Lost 3.12, “Par Avion”), but the Smoke Monster could not traverse the field and was unable to go over it (Lost 3.15, “Left Behind”).  We have never seen the Smoke Monster more than a few metres above ground level; it is possible that the Monster must hover close to the ground.  If so, this would explain the Monster’s inability to go over a sonic fence approximately four metres above ground level.

He has unusual powers.  Apparently he can appropriate the likeness of those who have died.  He has appeared as Alexandra Rousseau and John Locke, and may have taken on the form of Dr. Christian Shephard.  He can shift into a formless cloud of black smoke, though the circumstances of the transformation are not clear, and may be subject to forces beyond whim or volition.  The smoke form may become available only when the Monster is provoked, when the Island is threatened, or when Island rules determine the transformation is required or advised.

He is Cerberus, the Island’s security system.  Although Jacob was called “Protector of the Island”, it is Cerberus who rushed to the scene whenever the Island was under attack.  He protected the Island from Keamy’s band of mercenaries, Rousseau’s science team, and probably many other groups over the centuries.

He was granted or attained some kind of equal footing next to Jacob, perhaps being appointed co-protector of the Island.  An appointment to a position of responsibility seems more likely than forcible seizure of power.  The Man in Black has expressed his disdain for the Island, and has said he wishes to leave, to “go back home.”  His aspirations, and possibly some of his powers, seem to have been kept in check while Jacob was alive.  The white and black stones, evenly weighed on the balance pans in the cave on the cliffs, seem to have symbolised the balance of power between Jacob and the MIB.

Now that Jacob is dead, the MIB is free to pursue his dream of leaving the Island–or whatever his agenda really is.

The Monster is at least 162 years old, and probably considerably older.  We saw him in adult form (Lost 5.17, “The Incident”) sometime after March 22, 1845, the day the Black Rock left Portsmouth, England (Lost 4.05, “The Constant”).

He suffers the psychological scars of his upbringing, or so he would like Kate to believe.  ”My mother was crazy. Long time ago… before I… looked… like this, I had a mother, just like everyone. She was a very disturbed woman. And as a result of that, I had some growing pains. Problems that I’m still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided had things been different.”  Perhaps this is the beginning of real insight into the nature of the beast.  Or maybe the master manipulator is simply trying to gain Kate’s sympathy.

The Identity of the Beast

I don’t feel we have enough information to divine the true identity of the Smoke Monster.  Assuming his self-revelation as son of a disturbed mother, some possibilities become obvious, and other possibilities become more distant.

Legion

“I am called Legion, for we are many.”  The Gerasene Demon presented himself in the Gospel of Luke as many demons captured in a single human body.  When the demons were released, they fled to a herd of pigs and charged over a cliff to their death.  The Smoke Monster seems to take delight not only in killing, but in capturing.  As Kate held onto the rope ladder above Claire’s prison cell in the Temple, she saw live bodies inside the black smoke rushing above her.  The Smoke Monster captures entire bodies.  Does he incorporate the bodies into his own being?  Does he absorb the thoughts, the souls, the spirits of others?  Is it even possible to say that Smokey is one person?

Locke

Only two women have been portrayed as certifiably crazy.  One of these was Libby, who spent time with Hurley in the mental institution.  The other candidate for crazed motherhood is Emily Locke, who at the age of fifteen gave birth to a several months premature John Locke.  Almost fifty years later she hunted down her son and claimed he had no father.  “You were immaculately conceived,” she said.  [I groaned and then laughed when I heard this all-too-frequent confusion of Roman Catholic beliefs.  What Emily meant to say was that John was the result of a virgin birth.  The word "immaculate" means clean, and has nothing to do with the absence of a man.  "Clean", in the context of the Immaculate Conception, refers to the spiritual state of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  Immaculate Conception is the Roman Catholic doctrine that Mary, Mother of Jesus, was born "without the stain of original sin."  All human beings, according to common Christian belief, are born with a kind of spiritually-passed-down sin called original sin.  Mary, who was to carry the Christ Child, had to be free of sin, and was granted the extreme grace of being born without even hereditary sin.  I've absolved the writers in my mind for their ignorance, but I do wish they would make more of an effort to study religion when they wish to delve into these topics!]

Locke certainly “had some growing pains. Problems that I’m still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided had things been different.”  Time has no particular significance on an Island that is freely transportable from one age to another.  Could it be that Locke has always been the Smoke Monster?

Jensen’s Choice

Doc Jensen this week wrote a most entertaining analysis of “Recon”.  His theory?  Smokey is none other than Daniel Faraday.  I won’t repeat his very detailed and eminently defensible support for the theory.  I will say that his theory offers the quite attractive possibility that Charles Widmore (Faraday’s father, who even now sits on Hydra Island, plotting seizure of the Island) is in fact the true personification of evil, as I have suggested in a few of my analyses.  Jensen’s theory also provides a means of tying together a number of disparate threads and may have proven more than a bit enticing to the writers.  I think it would take a good deal of quite nuanced writing to make this work, though, and I have my doubts about the idea.

Hannibal

I’ve found myself attracted to this idea ever since the end of Season Five.  Not only does the greatest military strategist of all time tie into Charlotte’s connection to Carthage and the Island, but there is also this gem, found on Wikipedia by LOST theorist Erowyn:

A youth of divine beauty appeared to Hannibal in the night. The youth told Hannibal he had been sent by supreme deity, Melqart, to guide the son of Hamilcar to Italy. “Follow me,” said the ghostly visitor, “and see that that thou look not behind thee.” Hannibal followed the instructions of the visitor. His curiosity, however, overcame him, and as he turned his head, Hannibal saw a serpent crashing through forest and thicket causing destruction everywhere. It moved as a black tempest with claps of thunder and flashes of lightning gathered behind the serpent. When Hannibal asked the meaning of the vision Melqart replied, “What thou beholdest is the desolation of Italy. Follow thy star and inquire no farther into the dark counsels of heaven.”

I find this connection most compelling.  And even though I find no evidence that Hannibal’s mother was crazy, the firm connection between Island and Carthage provided by this historical figure constitutes yet another way to bring together many of the loose threads on our favourite television programme.  Of all the Smoke Monster theories I have read, this one has most captured my attention.

The Party

Regardless of the Smoke Monster’s identity, key players will reconverge in coming weeks.  I have a feeling that the humble little wedding party at Locke’s house (or at the hall rented for the occasion) will reveal the immediate future course of events.  Perhaps it will become the event that triggers the final cascade toward the convergence of separate realities.  I still believe, and offer as reasonably supportable speculation, that the man of honour at that party will find himself offered a one-way trip to another dimension, and that once there, he will again find he has strong legs and, this time, an even stronger will.  Evil forces gather.  But the forces of trust, faith, and sacrifice converge, too.  It will be a fight worth engaging with every faculty of mind, body, and spirit.  I’m ready.

PM

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2. Mirror, Mirror (Part II): Cultural Reflections on LOST 6.05 “Lighthouse” by Pearson Moore
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Via Canoe‘s Bill Harris:

Elizabeth Mitchell said she was shocked by the outpouring of grief from fans when her character on Lost was killed earlier this season. “That was surprising,” said Mitchell, who played Juliet. “I never thought Juliet was particularly likable, so I was surprised that people were sad that she died.”

When asked if Juliet and Sawyer (played by Josh Holloway) might be living together happily in Lost’s alternate universe, Mitchell said, “I love to think that.”

Mitchell chuckled when considering that Juliet kind of died twice. She fell down a well in the finale of Season 5, and was presumed dead, but then she was still breathing for a short time in the first episode of Season 6, just long enough to die in Sawyer’s arms. “I had somebody say to me, ‘Like, really? I already cried!’ ” Mitchell said with a laugh. “And I was like, ‘Well, we didn’t ask you to cry again! I didn’t write it! They just asked me to come back and I said yes!’

“So maybe a little overkill on that one.”

Related posts:

1. Ask LOST – Elizabeth Mitchell
2. Elizabeth Mitchell on Coco Eco Magazine
3. Elizabeth Mitchell: The Woman Behind Juliet

Tonight’s episode focused mainly on Sawyer, played by Josh Holloway. Also, making a reappearance in the flash sideways is Charlotte, played by Rebecca Mader.

Sawyer was his typical con self and left us guessing as to if or when we should ever believe a word he says.

SHARE your theories in the comments section and tell me your thoughts at http://twitter.com/adamrucker

Thanks for watching, and subscribe for more videos and a new LOST recap every week!

All of my videos can be found at http://www.RuckitUp.com

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[audio:http://wsbfm.media.streamtheworld.com/audio/josh_hollolway_3_100634111.mp3]

[Thanks to @SawyerandKate for the heads up and for keeping this site updated for the last few hours!]

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KATE, SAWYER, LOCKE, HURLEY, CHARLIE AND THE DHARMA INITIATIVE

FROM THE ABC HIT TV SERIES “LOST” REVEAL THEIR “LOST TRACKS”

ON SIX LOST EPS AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON iTUNES

The Final Season of “Lost” Premieres Tonight, February 2 on ABC

As pop culture phenomenon “Lost” begins its sixth and final season TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 2 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on ABC, fans of the ABC television series will gain a unique glimpse into the minds of characters Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Hurley and Charlie, as well as the vibe of the Dharma Initiative, with the release of six EPs revealing classic songs important to each of them. Appropriately for characters stranded on a remote South Pacific island, these recordings are their “Lost tracks.”

Each seven-track digital download LOST EP–individually titled Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Hurley, Charlie and Dharma–will be issued by Universal Enterprises (UMe) exclusively via iTunes beginning today, Tuesday, February 2, to coincide with the season premiere episode of the popular, critically acclaimed and Peabody, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning series. The Lost EP’s can be previewed at The ABC Music Lounge on ABC.com.

“If you want to get inside the characters’ heads and find out what inspires and motivates them, then just push play,” said Executive Producer Edward Kitsis regarding the Lost Tracks EPs.

The artists heard on the LOST EPs range from classic rockers The Who, Rod Stewart, Traffic, Steppenwolf and The Kinks to new wavers Squeeze, The Specials and Elvis Costello; from country legends Patsy Cline and Hank Williams to R&B giants Marvin Gaye and Etta James. The selections, culled from the vast Universal Music Group archive, reach back to vintage gems from Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, and ’70s tracks from Lynyrd Skynyrd and KISS, plus contributions from more contemporary artists such as Sonic Youth, The Roots and Eels.

Kate’s Tracks: LOST EP: A fugitive on the run, the strong-willed Kate Austen has a tumultuous past.
1. “Cherry Bomb” (The Runaways)
2. “Crazy” (Patsy Cline)
3. “Jack of All Parades” (Elvis Costello)
4. “(I Know) I’m Losing You” (Rod Stewart)
5. “Another Nail in My Heart” (Squeeze)
6. “Bad Medicine” (Bon Jovi)
7. “Somebody I Used to Know” (Elliot Smith)

Sawyer’s Tracks: LOST EP: Con man James “Sawyer” Ford at first was self-centered and disliked, but he becomes a trusted, courageous leader.
1. “Hair of the Dog” (Nazareth)
2. “Bad Moon Rising (Live)” (John Fogerty)
3. “You Got That Right” (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
4. “Farther Along” (Flying Burrito Brothers)
5. “Walk Away” (The James Gang)
6. “Strutter” (KISS)
7. “Love Ain’t for Keeping” (The Who)

Locke’s Tracks: LOST EP: A man of faith and a philosopher, John Locke believes in the mystical and spiritual to explain the world.
1. “Can I Get a Witness” (Marvin Gaye)
2. “Listen to Me” (Buddy Holly)
3. “Memphis, Tennessee” (Chuck Berry)
4. “Lost Highway” (Hank Williams)
5. “Mannish Boy” (Muddy Waters)
6. “I’d Rather Go Blind” (Etta James)
7. “I Put a Spell on You” (Nina Simone)

Hurley’s Tracks: LOST EP: Winning the lottery only brings loveable Hugo “Hurley” Reyes bad luck, including stays at psychiatric hospitals.
1. “The Seed (2.0)” (The Roots)
2. “C’mon and Love Me” (KISS)
3. “Jesus” (Velvet Underground)
4. “Call Me Names” (The Specials)
5. “Goodbye Girl” (Squeeze)
6. “Shangri-Las” (The Kinks)
7. “Fresh Feeling” (Eels)

Charlie’s Tracks: LOST EP: The most obvious character to have an EP, Charlie Pace is a rock musician who conquers his drug addiction while on the island.
1. “Gasoline Alley” (Rod Stewart)
2. “Less Than Zero” (Elvis Costello)
3. “I’m One” (The Who)
4. “Going Underground” (The Jam)
5. “Dirty Boots” (Sonic Youth)
6. “Lady Godiva’s Operation” (Velvet Underground)
7. “Empty Pages” (Traffic)

Dharma Tracks – LOST EP: The Dharma Initiative was created in 1970 by Gerald and Karen DeGroot and funded by reclusive Danish industrialist and munitions magnate Alvar Hanso. It was designed as a multi-purpose social science research facility where scientists and free-thinkers from around the globe could pursue research in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, utopian social dynamics and electromagnetism.
1. “Dharma Lady” (Geronimo Jackson)
2. “Shambala” (Three Dog Night)
3. “Hot Burrito #2″ (Flying Burrito Brothers)
4. “The Acid Queen” (The Who)
5. “The Pusher” (Steppenwolf)
6. “Heaven Is in Your Mind” (Traffic)
7. “Bell Bottom Blues” (Derek & The Dominos)

ABC Music Lounge, which launched in May 2009 on ABC.com, provides users with an interactive online music experience that is uniquely ABC. Reflective of the network’s commitment to using digital platforms to deepen its relationship with viewers, the ABC Music Lounge showcases everything about the music and artists featured on ABC’s popular primetime schedule, offering a deep catalog of music-related content. The site features a streaming radio station programmed with over 12 hours of music featured on such ABC series as “Brothers & Sisters,” “Castle,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice,” “Scrubs” and “Ugly Betty,” among others. Visitors to the site can get a glimpse of ABC’s music future as the radio station also showcases new music picked by series producers, music supervisors and others involved in the music selection process for shows that have previously seen tremendous success.

In addition to a streaming radio station, the ABC Music Lounge is home to music videos, exclusive performance footage, photos and behind-the-scenes interviews with artists, series producers and music supervisors on topics such as “why certain songs were chosen for specific scenes” and “how having their music featured within a show affected their careers.”

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[Via Watch with Kristin]

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(Click to enlarge)

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Watch the rest of the videos after the jump.

[Via THRfeed.com]

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Josh Holloway sat down with TV Guide Magazine to answer fans’ questions:

If you could have played any other character on Lost, who would it have been and why? —Christine
Good question! Terry O’Quinn’s character [Locke], but I don’t have the wisdom that his age naturally brings. That character’s so vulnerable and struggling off the island. But on the island, he’s such a badass. That dichotomy would be fun to play.

If you were a Lost writer, which characters would you have hooked up on the show because of the great chemistry the actors have with each other? —Chlo
Ana Lucia and Sawyer would have been a fun, volatile romance after their animalistic meeting out in the woods.

Out of all of Sawyer’s nicknames, which is your favorite? And have you ever ad-libbed any? —Robert
Stay Puff for Hurley. Mr. Clean for Locke. Slingshot Sally for Ben’s daughter, Alex. I came up with Sweet Cheeks for Shannon in the pilot. I also ad-libbed one they didn’t use. I called Ken Leung Ping-Pong when he had a grenade in his mouth!

Since playing Sawyer, have you had any nightmares about islands, being polar-bear food, bombs or time travel? —Yonomeaburro
Constantly! And I’ve had dreams of being with cast members on a boat that changes into a magic carpet.

Do you think that Sawyer will ever meet his daughter, Clementine? —Sally
Wow, I have no clue. That’s something I would like to see. Even if they don’t meet, his intention to meet her would be important to me. To see him off the island with her name and address on a piece of paper.

Please tell me you are not really going to shave off all that beautiful hair when the show is over. Are you? —D.J.
I did say I was going to shave a Mohawk in when we wrapped the last day, and I may still. Were it not for Lost, I would have changed it up by now.

Why did you let go of me and watch me fall to my death? That was not cool. I thought we had something. —Juliet
Oh, God! I prefer brunettes. Kidding! I did not let go of her. She let go of me!

For more on Josh Holloway, pick up the next issue of TV Guide Magazine on stands December 31.

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Via Jennifer Goodwin:

So What Is Lost‘s One True Pairing? We find that a lot of good literature follows the same tropes and arcs, so in hopes of getting a teeny-tiny bit of clarity on the final-season direction of some of Lost‘s major romantic storylines, we asked Lost boss Lindelof to compare Sawyer’s love life on Lost to the love story in any other fictional work. “Wow,” said Lindelof, “Sawyer’s love life compared to any…” (He looked a little dazed at all the possible options, so we threw The Notebook, Jane Eyre and Gilligan’s Island at him as totally random starting points for thinking about the question.) “All way off so far!” Lindelof said, “Perhaps the relationship between Gilligan and the Skipper, because there’s a lot of hitting on the head with hats…OK. Serious…I think Wuthering Heights is probably a good one then. We’ve got a little Heathcliff action going on.”

Putting aside our memories of the wacky cartoon alley cat, we find Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights an incredibly intriguing answer to this question. Literary scholars: Compare the stories of Emily Brontë‘s Heathcliff and and Lost‘s Sawyer so far. Senior shipper analysts, please convene a white-paper committee in the comments section to debate and report on these and other questions: In a metaphor where Heathcliff is equivalent to Sawyer, which Lost character is Catherine Earnshaw? Who stands for Edgar and Isabella? Is there a young Cathy or a Hareton figure in Lost? Can Heathcliff/Sawyer ever overcome his basic wildness? And does this presage a tragic and perhaps lonely end for James Ford? (So much to discuss!)

These and Other Answers, To Come: So what can we expect to learn from the sixth and final season of Lost? Lindelof shared a sneak preview: “The questions that count will be answered, and the questions that the fans don’t want answered won’t be answered, but I think what they’re looking for is a real sense of resolution, particularly on a character level. Who’s going to live, who’s going to die, who’s going to hook up with who, why were they all brought here in the first place, was it arbitrary, is there meaning behind it? That’s the kind of stuff [we] have to answer, or [we] should be prepared to get rocks thrown at [us].”

This Is the End, My Friend? When we get to the end of the series, is that the last and final word we’ll ever hear about the Island and its denizens from Team Bad Robot? Says Lindelof, “We’re going to be out there doing other stuff. Just like right now I’m talking to you about LostStar Trek DVD rollout, we have to be held accountable for our actions. We’re not going to go into hiding. I do, however, employ doubles, like Saddam did, so you can never trust that you’re talking to the actual Damon Lindelof. That being said, what we don’t want to do—and [fellow executive producer] Carlton [Cuse] and I talk about this all the time—is explain what our intention was. At a certain point, it doesn’t matter what our intention was, and we want the fans to vigorously debate certain aspects of the show. Some things will be very conclusive, other things people will think are more conclusive than we meant them, and some will be more ambiguous than we meant them, but it wouldn’t be Lost if five years from now people weren’t still arguing over what they wanted it to be.”

Please Don’t Shake the Gaily Wrapped Packages Too Hard Please: So how does it feel to be a Lost show runner on the eve of the sixth and final season? Lindelof says it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, telling us, “It’s very exciting to us basically. It feels like we’ve been Christmas shopping for five years, and we’ve been accruing all these presents, and we’ve been locking them up in closets and not letting people look at them. And now there’s sort of this, ‘Oh my god, do they have one of these already? Did I get the right sizes? What was I thinking when I bought this? Are they even going to like it?’ So there’s a terror there, but at the same time, Christmas is here and it’s time to open up the closet and start unwrapping and we’ll see what happens.”

J.J. Abrams Isn’t Particularly Busy or Anything, Is He? Will Star Trek director and content producer extraordinaire J.J. Abrams be involved in writing or directing any of Lost season six? “I will not,” says Abrams, “but I will be watching in amazement of what Damon and Carlton do.” (Note: The Lost finale should rightfully be directed by producing Lost director Jack Bender, aka the man who has put in six years with the show in Hawaii and totally deserves the honor of directing the finale. That said, if for some reason Bender’s not in the mood or is busy that week, wouldn’t it be perfect if Abrams directed the Lost series finale, as he directed the series pilot? Is anyone else hearing “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King in their heads right now?)

Multimedia Damon Lindelof: As for Star Trek Dos, as we’ve dorkily taken to calling the expected sequel to this summer’s hit movie, Damon Lindelof says, “Alex [Kurtzman], Bob [Orci] and I are writing it together, and I will be producing it in my similar capacity to the first one. I’m looking forward to it, because this time I won’t have to run between my Lost duties and my Trek duties.”

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