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yes. next season will have flash backwards, flash forwards and flash nothing all mixed. meaning some episodes will be special like "flashes before your eyes", "the brig", etc. the flashbacks will serve the same function they always have, but the flashforwards will tell an individual story, and if i understood it correctly, jack's realization that they have to go back to the island will be the culprit of that story.
furthermore, the producers said that the show was never about getting off the island. they have said this many times. they've said the ending to the entire show is a sad but tragic one. that's what i think is so exciting about lost. everyone thinks that they're stuck on an island with a bunch of weird shit on it that they are trying to get off of. by introducing the future as an aspect to the show, we now know they DO get off the island, which means how they get off and why they get off is the real treat. makes the show more interesting imo, and hopefully other people will think so too.
not much has been said about next season. the things i do know are that michael returns and it won't be just a quick pop. how and when he returns is not decided yet, but it will be early in season 4 and he will be a series regular. desmond will deal with guild concerning charlie's death. would charlie have done what he did if desmond never said anything, did what happened to desmond happen SO that he could tell him, all kinds of philosophical shit. it won't be like a huge plot point or anything though i think. they will introduce two new characters this season (so far known). they may stretch over the entire season, and maybe even the next one. couple of rumours: they want peter stormare for a new role, and they have also invited forest whitaker to make a few appearances early in the season, but those are just rumours.
the show will not change it's focus. it is still about the island and what happens there. the only reason they wanted to start doing flash-forwards is that the flash-back concept is starting to get played out. they actually thought about this early in season 2 that they would eventually have to go this route, although there were never any definite plans until later on in season 3.
danielle's story will maybe probably get touched on in season 4, as will libby. libby wasn't just another random person, i think her story will pay off in the end. don't expect to get to know richard alpert too much this season. he is on a cbs show called cane and will probably not be able to appear on lost this season. alternatively, he may be able to appear at the beginning of the season, but i expect him to either get killed off or go awol like michael somehow.
we will continue to learn about the others. more of what happened while we didn't know them will be explained i think. i think we'll get to know what ben was doing when he was caught in the net, and i think we will touch on the real henry gale too. "who was in the coffin in the future" is one important question, "who is on the freighter out there and what do they want out of the island" is another one. both will get touched on next season. i assume there will be a lot of uncertainty around the new people from the freighter just like there was with the others. are they good, are they bad, are they lying or being for real?
There was also some sort of event at the start of the conference. I haven't seen it and don't know much about it but here was what was said:
- Event starts off with a clip with Michael Emerson calling the Others a "Rebel Sect"
- Also on the clip show "By the time you see this I will be dead," says M.C. Gainey).
- Voice-over: "The survival of the Island is now at stake."
- Footage of the Lost game is shown (You can see this in the DarkUFO Home page)
So that obviously sounds interesting too. Gonna finish off with this which fills more out on the start of the event as well as the future:
Executive producer Carlton Cuse and line producer Jean Higgins appeared at the LATV Festival last week, and E! Online spoke with them exclusively, getting answers to your questions. As for the for the future of the show in general, here's what Carlton had to say: "Some people speculated that [going forward] the show will be set in the future and then flashbacks to the present, but no, we aren't changing any of the format of the show. We are just adding the flash forwards as an element. They have made a radio call to a freighter, and there are people on that freighter, and it might be logical to imagine that that storyline will continue... The situation is going to be very intense this year. Charlie wrote on his hand not Penny's boat, and the message he wrote on his hand was very important. It was really funny because [ the clip at Comic-Con showed] Mr. Friendly saying, 'by the time you see this, I'm gonna be dead, but I am telling you it's a shame because whoever is going to come after the Others is going to be a hell of a lot worse than we ever were.' Damon and I were listening to him and sort of nodding our head going, 'That's pretty prophetic.' "