Gearing Up for Season 5

We're just over three weeks from the premiere of Season 5 of LOST, still without question the best-written show ever to appear on American television. I mention this only to prepare ground for the question: How will the writers keep up the pace?

Note that I am not asking 'will they?' because it can be expected to be good based upon 4 straight seasons of narrative excellence, I am only pondering the means by which they will maintain the story, especially considering a few critical factors, such as:

1. The impact of the writers strike on the remainder of the story, if any.

2. The circumstance of splitting what should have been two seasons into three.

3. The many 'loose ends' remaining from previous seasons compared to the limited number of remaining episodes (36 at maximum, according to calculations based on official statements).

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I can't claim to be the world's best-informed LOST fan, but I have been keeping eyes and ears open for information about the impact of the writers strike on the advancement of the 'big picture' LOST storyline.

The original plan was a total of 48 episodes spread across three seasons, or rather three 16-episode seasons. That amount of space would tell two-seasons-worth of story, where a 'normal' season would be 24 episodes roughly.

At the resolution of the strike, it looked like we'd miss 3 total episodes of the S4, but they managed to include a third segment of content in the S4 finale, so we are heading into Season 5 short two episodes. I hope they will at least grant us those as a bonus during S5 instead of trying to spread the time over the remaining two seasons (though I don't think anyone would complain about extra episodes in both seasons).

The hype for the S5 opener is a 'three hour event' but that usually includes a one-hour re-cap trailer that leads into the actual premiere. I haven't yet learned which they will choose, but it would be most excellent if they delivered the content of two missing episodes in the first episode of S5, but that's rather nonsensical, given the way the writers adaptively present the story in the space allotted them.

To backtrack slightly: Given that S5 was supposedly originally the final season, we can reasonably assume that we are presently in the midst of the conclusion of the series. If we consider S4-S6 to be acts I, II and III of the conclusion, we can by that delineation begin to formulate a rough outline of what we might get to see during these episodes based upon the fact that it's supposed to be ending with S6.

S5 should feature at least 16 episodes, if not 18, or at least that much in programming time. Based upon the content of S4, we can assume that much of S5 will deal with the efforts of Ben, Jack and Sayid to carry out "Jeremy Bentham's" wishes - to reassemble the 'Oceanic 6' and return along with the corpse of "Bentham" to the island. We can expect this goal to be accomplished during S5, with hints of what comes next presented either in the form of flashes or in 'real time' action.

Sub-plots may include: The efforts of Ben to carry out his vendetta against Charles Widmore, which would tend to involve Desmond as well; The Jeremy Bentham story - namely, glimpses of the three-year gap between the time of rescue and the time of Locke's assumption of a false identity, return to the 'real world', and death.

Certain necessary "filler" at this point: The history of the DHARMA Initiative. It's been too long to wait any longer, and we have reasonable evidence to suggest that the Widmore side of the story can't be told without this critical information. This may also include deeper histories, such as the identity, nature and origin of Jacob and 'The Others', the history of the Black Rock and its crew, the history of Danielle and company, and possibly the history of the island itself.

All of this COULD be handled in 18 episodes, but much of it may have to come in sketchy blotches, by way of flashbacks. Certain major story arcs could be given entire episodes, and I do hope such a decision was made, but they couldn't risk more than about 4 sub-plot/filler dedicated episodes without losing their grip on the momentum of the primary plot.

That would leave us with Conclusion Act III, or S6, which should be the final resolution of the major storyline: Who's the real good guy, real bad guy, or is there even such a thing as that in this whole mess? What does the island want, and is it or will it ever be satisfied? Where will the characters finally end up, and why?

The nastier but more compelling possibility is that the 'closure' we get at the end of S6 could be the end of the series, but NOT the end of the mystery. It would be a disappointment, to me at least, if at the end of LOST there were no more questions to be asked. On the other hand, many of the above points, and others to follow, really should be addressed simply to clarify the narrative - major details, I hope, will be provided. Minor thorns in sides can be left to ponder, but some of these questions have lingered for long enough.