With the new posters for Lost’s 5th season spreading like wildfire over the Internet (AICN, The TV Addict, Dans Media Digest), there are a few things that really need contemplation.

 

1) Why does the above poster exclude original castaways Jin, Claire and Michael but include freighter folk Charlotte, Miles and Farraday when the other poster does the opposite?

 

2) If Jin and Michael died on the freighter and Desmond has sailed off with Penny, why are they still in the promos? Does this mean that Desmond (a favourite of mine) may not have disappeared to live happily ever after? Is it possible that Penny may join him as a regular “Lost-ie”? Might there still be hope for Jin’s survival? Do we still have to put up with Michael (the worst castaway ever!)?

 

3) Last we saw John Locke alive he was with the mysteriously age-less Richard on the island that has “been moved”. Will Richard not play a prominent enough role this season to merit poster status? How will Locke end up off the island, under a pseudonym and in a coffin? He is pictured above as part of the island group, will he reunite with them or is it just representative of his geographic location?

 

4) The show’s central love triangle (Jack, Kate, Sawyer) takes center stage on the above poster, Kate and Sawyer’s eyes fixed on each other through their dividing line. Will we learn more about Jack and Kate’s engagement? Will Kate and Sawyer ever be reunited? Will Sawyer move on (possibly with Juliet?) on the island? What was it that Sawyer whispered to Kate before jumping from the helicopter in last season’s finale?

 

5) Look at how they’re standing; Sawyer’s front and center in the island group, standing opposite Jack. Will Sawyer be taking the reigns as leader of the island group with the departure of Jack?

 

6) What the heck happened to Claire? Is she dead? Alive? Living in between worlds? Is that why her and the apparently-dead Michael and Jin were left off the poster that divides the group by physical location?

 

7) Farraday (and others) were in a lifeboat on their way back to the island when it disappeared. I guess we’re supposed to assume they were taken with it since there was no sign of them stranded in the ocean and Farraday appears safely on the island side of the line in the above poster.

 

8)And, is there anyone NOT excited about Lost‘s season 5 premiere on January 21 at 9pm on ABC?