Just to make sure no one skips buying the complete Lost on DVD and Blu-Ray (out August 24) ABC is including a bunch of added scenes that explain who did what to who now, as Kristin Dos Santos reports. The centerpiece will be a kind of “Tale of Hurley and Ben” which follows the two as Island guardians,

“It will address some of the issues, like the food drops, and it will deal with what happened on the island after Hurley took over and how he handled things,” Garcia reveals of the DVD bonus feature he shot. “It will give you a taste of what took place after Hurley took over as the new number one. There’s a little epilogue thing going on with the DVD.”

To answer many of the cries of the faithful, the epilog will also include what happened to Walt, at long last. “The Deeds of Hurley and Ben While They Were Busy Guarding The Island With Their Awesome New Powers” sounds like an ideal spinoff for a comic book, video game or kids’ cartoon series (featuring M’Ress), so keep your fingers crossed.

Since Lost ended, there’s been mucho speculation and analysis and all but the most debated document is this purported tell-nearly-all by a former Bad Robot intern, which we weren’t able to find the original source for:

But, from a more “behind the scenes” note: the reason Ben’s not in the church, and the reason no one is in the church but for Season 1 people is because they wrote the ending to the show after writing the pilot. And never changed it. The writers always said (and many didn’t believe them) that they knew their ending from the very first episode. I applaud them for that. It’s pretty fantastic. Originally Ben was supposed to have a 3 episode arc and be done. But he became a big part of the show. They could have easily changed their ending and put him in the church — but instead they problem solved it. Gave him a BRILLIANT moment with Locke outside the church … and then that was it. I loved that. For those that wonder — the original ending started the moment Jack walked into the church and touches the casket to Jack closing his eyes as the other plane flies away. That was always JJ’s ending. And they kept it.

[Via Vulture]

One episode to go. Let’s discuss “What They Died For” after the jump. spoilers ahoy.

That’s more like it, right?

We got some answers without the need to flashing back thousands of years and plenty of action (and more deaths).

Is Jack really The Replacement? It seems that way, but it was awful quick and easy. One of my friends was sure that Jack was going to be shot and/or killed by Ben right before the episode ends. And no one else really wanted the job did they? I still wouldn’t be surprised if Hurley didn’t end up The Chosen One.

What’s up with Ben? Did he really go back to the dark side? Or is he working MIB? And let’s talk about Sideways Ben. Beaten up by Desmond (you knew Ben had to get thrashed at least one more time), but taken in by Alex and Danielle Rousseau. Word a few weeks ago came about about a possible romance for Ben, so I guess it’s Rousseau (and thankfully nothing creepy like an affair with Alex).

Speaking of Ben, he got his revenge on Widmore after all. I guess all the rules are out the window regarding those two with MIB’s war taking precedent. And great humour in Zoe being summarily dispatched on Tina Fey’s birthday.

Who else thought Ana Lucia would be Jack’s ex-wife when they saw Michelle Rodriguez’s name in the credits? I guess that mystery will be resolved with everyone ending up at this benefit concert. Presumably Juliet is the obvious choice, but this is Lost; who knows who it could end up being.

If we were all unsure if Lepidus died on the sub, what do people think about Alpert’s “death” at the hands of the Smoke Monster?

Tonight’s big talking point so far seems to be “Kate got crossed off the list for being a mother.” My theory is that Jacob, due to all his issues surrounding Mother, did not want to deprive any child of their mother. This would explain Sawyer and Jin still being candidates. Daddy issues seem to be less of an issue for Jacob, since just about everyone who was picked had paternal problems.

Sideways Desmond is like a cross between James Bond and Jim Phelps.

Some links before we go. The Times had a Q&A with Damon and Carlton from their media tour. Carlton even did Bill Simmons’ ESPN podcast last week (was Damon excluded because he’s a Yankees fan?).

Let’s all hunker down, get these comments out of our system and get ready for the mega series finale on Sunday.

• The OLD Beat is up at a new URL: whenmonkeysattack.com. Believe it or not we’re still trying to get all the old posts imported into the newer Beat, but it looks like I’ll have to clean up the database by hand which will take….well, there were over 8800 posts at the Old Beat. So….don’t hold your breath.

• I’m at an Undisclosed Location this week (unless you read Twitter) and using the old laptop, which isn’t performing too well since the Panther upgrade. (It’s the 12″ G4 Powerbook, the most adorable Apple ever, unless you think it was the clamshell. It is maxed out with memory and so on, and I think it’s so cute, but I think it may be time to move on.) Anyway, it’s been kinda tiring to negotiate which is why I haven’t been lightning fast with the updates.

• This isn’t housekeeping but, poor Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. In this interview they confront some of the negative reactions to this week’s episode “Across the Sea” and it isn’t too pretty. It’s as if they thought that by saying they would neevr discuss LOST again after that last episode they thought no one else would, either and…that isn’t how it’s going to work. And they get a little defensive with their “Why we know ALL ABOUT who was shooting at the outrigger back in Season Five — we just aren’t going to tell anyone!” Okay, okay, if that’s how it’s going to be, maybe you’ll trade your peanut butter and banana sandwich for my tuna fish, Darlton.

Look at the bright side: “ATS” just lowered our expectations a bit and we can just be grateful for 6 years of mostly solid entertainment and let Darlton get on with their lives to the point where they too do not need to move to Undisclosed Locations for the rest of their natural lives. As one of our own commenters said, “this show is really about is sexy people shooting each other on a beautiful backdrop” and on that level it’s always worked.

We’re sure there will be plenty of debate about “Across the Sea.” Let’s just get to it.

00:2 – Sure John doesn’t want the surgery now, at the beginning of the episode. Will that still be true at the end of it?

0:03 – The return of the Polar Bear cages. I presume too many people around this time for Sawyer and Kate to knock boots again.

004: Reminder – The guy that looks like Patton Oswald is the kid from Kate & Allie all grown up.

0:07 – Bernard!

0:08 – Bernard is Locke’s dentist! Awesome~~!

0:11 – Don’t we know that MIB can’t kill any of them? Does Jack know that?

0:12 – If only this teasing of killing Kate was not just a tease?

0:12 – So, the Kwons are finally talking about their daughter.

0:13 – Uh-oh is right.

0:14 – Jeff Fahey – man of action.

0:15 – You may not have seen this commercial, but the Burger King in the Iron Man armor is very, very weird.

0:19 – Is it just me or does Katey Sagal look really different than her Peg Bundy days?

0:20 – Jack. Always trying to fix things.

0:22 – if you are a red shirt, do not eff with the MIB.

0:23 – Isn’t it time we finally found out where Richard, Ben, and Miles are?

0:24 – Why does it seem like Locke may have had that bomb in his bag and is swerving everyone? And isn’t that the same kind of C4 that was on the freighter?

0:25 – Sawyer. The man with the plan(s).

0:31 – Music boxes are always trouble in sci-fi/horror shows.

0:33 – Kate gets shot? They are really teasing me here.

0:36 – Why would MIB need to shoot people when he can just turn into the Smoke Monster? Because he’s all wet?

0:38 – Ha. MIB is a better con-man than Sawyer.

0:42 – Couldn’t they shoot the bomb out the torpedo tube? Or is that a movie cliche?

0:45 – Let the body count begin.

0:51 – Soft piano music is never good. Everyone grab your Kleenex.

0:56 – Plane crash? Weird.

0:58 – Who else expected to see Jin running from the hospital room, because something had happened to Sun?

1:01 – Next week…. well, if the rumors are true, some people will probably be missed.

—

Also, remember when Ben had to drain that water to call the Smoke Monster back in Dharmaville? Will that tie into MIB’s trip into the water tonight?

Does the “no body” run in comics apply here? Is Frank dead? IS SAYID DEAD? Magic 8-ball says yes, but you never know on this show, right?

Popular theory already making the rounds: MIB and Widmore have actually been working together. MIB gets off the island and Widmore gets to keep it.

Looking at this, it’s obvious that Lost is MADE for an animated spin-off…who will be the first to draw the model sheets for LOST BABIES?

Speaking of Lost, shooting of the final episode officially wrapped this weekend, making Damon Lindelof sad. Lindelof and Carlton Cuse — the two show runners known colloquially as “Darlton” — have vowed to never talk about the finale after the show airs — they will take the secret of Libby to their grave. Maybe. But that doesn’t mean they can’t yap to Wired magazine before the finale, in this impressive package of coverage.

For those wondering what is going on, ever reliable Vulture rounded up The Latest Internet Lost Theories — warning, SPOILERS.

I guess tonight’s episode proves you can’t trust anyone, can you? Discuss away.

MIB can’t trust Sawyer. MIB can’t trust Sayid. Sawyer can’t trust Widmore.

Two great swerves tonight:

1. I expected Claire to shoot Kate at the showdown at the boat.

2. It sure looked like Jin and Sun were going to be fried by the electric fence.

All in all, it seemed like they crammed three or four episodes of plot into one tonight.

Jack’s jumping off the boat was a nice call-back to Sawyer jumping out of the helicopter.

Jack certainly appears to be moving closer to being Jacob’s replacement.

And now … a gap until the next episode. Boo~!

Well, not at all what most of us expected, I would hazard a guess to say.

Let’s discuss after the break, shall we.
Disclaimer: I’ve only watched the episode once so far, so some of the more subtle points have not come to me yet.

So, Desmond is not dead (yet). ABC deserves kudos or a kick in the nads for the promo (playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes, making all us nerds think about Mr. Spock dying) that swerved most people. And it appears he is on a mission not from God (or Jacob), but Charles Widmore.

Has there ever been such a loaded list of guest stars in one episode? Charles Widmore, Penny (Milton?), Eloise Hawking/Widmore, Daniel Faraday/Widmore, Charlie Pace and even George Minkowski.

Early thinking is that Eloise is working somehow with MIB right? And she’s probably doing it all for Daniel, to atone for killing him in 1977. And she probably doesn’t like Penny, since she’s the evil stepmother.

I have to admit, I chuckled when I saw that Penny was running at the track. Is she the one entering the race around the world in the Flash Sideways?

Hard to miss the giant painting of a scale in Widmore’s office. Same with what I presume was the Black Rock. And there’s that Scotch again.

I totally expected the page in the notebook Faraday was going to reveal was the one that said “Desmond Hume is my constant” (pictured in last week’s column).

So was Charlie actually the first person to become aware of the Sideways-verse on Earth-2? We think Juliet somehow was aware of it. Do you need a near-death (or death-death) experience to converge?

We all knew that MRI machines were evil already, yes?

the EM building seems very reminiscent of Jacob’s cabin, right down to the rocking chair.

They should have just gone ahead and cast Patton Oswald as the tech guy working for Widmore.

Next week: spotlight on Hurley. How many dead characters will return? Looks like at least 2 from the trailer.

Your thoughts?

Discuss last night’s show here.

More later.

At long last, the Richard Alpert flashback episode. Let’s discuss it after the jump.

If you’re one of those people who complain about no answers being given, what do you have to say about tonight’s show? We saw how the Black Rock got the island, how the statue got destroyed, Richard’s first meeting with Jacob and MIB and how Richard got his job as Jacob’s “representative.”

MIB really is a silver-tongued fellow, isn’t he, getting everyone to do his dirty work, or at least try to do it. Lots of parallels tonight, from the echoed dialogue to people trying to kill other people with that big ol’ dagger.

It was also funny that we’ve seen characters espousing fan theories about the show recently (“We’re all dead,” “We’re all in Hell”) and then have them shot down by the more omniscient characters.

A friend tonight said this was more telenovela than sci-fi drama and, with all the crying and dying and Español, it’s hard to disagree. Nice to see Hurley’s medium skills are bilingual.

It was also interesting to see so much of the show tonight turned over to a tertiary character and his backstory, even though there were tons of plot revealed. Hardly any Ben and Locke is fine as long as it also means the same for Jack and Kate.

Can we agree that the Isabella on the boat was MIB, trying to trick Richard? As longtime comics readers, we know never to trust action that happens off-screen, especially people’s deaths.

Will there be people disappointed Richard is less than 200 years old and not some ancient Egyptian?

The island is the cork keeping MIB from contaminating the rest of the world. This reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode called “The Howling Man,” where the Devil is kept under lock and key by an ancient order and the guy who accidentally sets him free causes WWII.

There were a few minutes in this episode where I thought that a great swerve was coming and it turned out that Jacob really was the Devil, but actually benevolent.

Next week, do we finally get a Sun and Jin reunion?

Thoughts?

Feel free to use this post as a virtual water cooler to discuss Sawyer, MIB, [name redacted] arriving on [vehicle redacted] and everything else on last night’s episode.

Look for a new Lost post sometime in the afternoon, EDT.

Hard to make a bad Benjamin Linus episode. Let’s discuss after the jump.

Let’s just be totally honest. People are supposed to identify with Jack or Sawyer. They are nominally the heroes. But, you can bet there are plenty of people out there like me, who identify with Ben. And what a kick in the pants to see, what many of us fear deep down inside: We may want to be the over-educated Machiavellian manipulator, with the clever quips of a Bond villain. But, we know that, after all is sad and done, we’re more like Flash Sideways Ben: a sad, lonely little man who is more Shylock than Iago.

Flash Sideways Ben seems like a nice enough guy: taking care of his ailing father (giving him oxygen instead of nerve gas to breathe), concerned about his students (although there was a creepy vibe between Ben and not-daughter Alex Rousseau). But, life doesn’t treat people like Ben very well. His planned cout blew up in his face and you have to wonder, did Alex manipulate the whole plan? Poor Ben.

Island Ben didn’t fare much better. First, it looked like Ilana was fixin’ to have a necktie party with Ben as the guest of honor. But, instead, she just made him dig what would be his own grave? As my friend Matt says, just pretend Ilana is really Ana-Lucia and it’s even more fun. Did we really see Ben have a babyface turn there at the end of the episode? Could his salvation really be the key to the series? Was MIB being square with Ben about being the island’s protector after he and his heel faction leave?

If there’s one flaw with Lost the TV show, it’s that annoying thing where guest stars have to be listed in the opening credits. Don’t you wish they could not reveal them, so we didn’t know that Widmore would be making his return to the show tonight? Conversely, anyone frustrated that Henry Ian Cusick is in the credits every week, yet we’ve only about 3 minutes of Desmond this season?

Don’t you wish Miles had been around since the beginning of the show? Could he have used his “ghost whisperer” powers on the Adam and Eve skeletons in season one? And the callback to Nikki and Paolo was great. I wonder if Sawyer would have gone looking for the diamonds later and wondered who stole them from the graves?

I hate to bury this amazing comment, but it’s true: I like new Jack. Let’s hope he doesn’t turn out to be New Coke. And please, stop teasing and give us the Richard Alpert flashback already. And who else expected to see Ghost Jacob show up in the Black Rock after all the bad mouthing he was taking from Richard?

We already knew that the Island wouldn’t let people kill themselves. We saw that with Michael and maybe with Hurley during his car chase. And why does the Island let some people die (Michael, Boone, Charlie) and have others end up like Sayid and Claire?

It seemed fitting to see William Atherton show up on TV this week, just a few days after the great tribute to John Hughes at the Academy Awards.

Shame on me for devolving into tabloid gossipy tidbits, but I couldn’t be the only one thinking, everything that Alex was on screen tonight, “Jeff Goldblum? Really?”

All in all, best episode of the season so far probably. Mail Michael Emerson his Emmy already, thank you.