Michael is back and all is right with the world! You know the rumor was that the creators of Lost wanted Michael back last year, meaning he would have never missed a full season, except they couldn’t work out a contract for his return and then Harold Perrineau was cast in the horror movie 28 Weeks Later, which conflicted with Lost’s filming schedule. What is interesting about that rumor is that it is completely rebuffed by an excellent interview with the actor posted on CNN yesterday. According to the article:The 44-year-old actor from New York tenses up when he talks about the third season. Perrineau was the only one of the 14 original "Lost" cast members to not appear in a third-season flashback, mind-bending vision or otherwise. He says he "wasn't so happy" about the creative decision to leave Michael and Walt off the island and focus on others.
"I was hurt, really hurt," said Perrineau. "I told myself I had to watch the show, so I at least knew what was going on in case I was brought back, but then I was like, 'Why?' I never knew what was going on before. Why should I start trying to figure it out now?"
Instead of waiting by the phone to hear if his character would return to the series, Perrineau moved on to other projects, including a part in the film "28 Weeks Later" and a role in the CBS pilot "Demons." When "Demons" didn't get picked up, that made room in Perrineau's schedule to get "Lost" again. (link)
You know this really contradicts everything I had heard about the creators of Lost wanting to bring Perrineau back to the show and it really frustrates me. It angers me that we were force fed Nikki and Paulo when the executive producers could have just sucked it up and gotten Michael back to the island faster. But, the longer wait may have given more mystery as to what struggling single father Michael Dawson has been up to during these past three months of “island time.” I guess as long as they give Michael some quality screen time and a reasonable explanation as to why he’s working with Ben all will be forgiven.
According to the same interview, many of our questions as to where Michael and Walt have been will be answered in tomorrow’s Michael-centric episode "Meet Kevin Johnson." The article promises tomorrow night’s episode will not only explain to us in Flash Backs where Michael’s been, but “will [also] feature flashbacks detailing what happened after Perrineau's character shockingly gunned down fellow passengers Ana-Lucia and Libby in order to release seemingly evil Ben and retrieve his son Walt from captivity.” (link) I have always felt bad for Michael in that he always seems to make the wrong decision that just keeps getting him in deeper and deeper trouble. You’d think with his and Walt’s escape from the island while leaving his friends behind and killing Ana-Lucia and Libby in the process would weight heavily upon him. Heavily enough to eventually bring him back to the island, and here he is.
The last two tidbits from this week’s Lost Wednesdays come from TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello. It seems that who the final member of the Oceanic 6 will not be revealed after all. (link) Carlton Cuse told Ausiello that they’re “not going public with any further clarifications right now,” and that they “don’t determine how ABC promotes the show.” (link) Man that certainly is a downer when it comes to Jin’s ultimate fate, isn’t it? But, Cuse does say that “you have now seen all of the Oceanic Six in this season’s episodes.” (link) If that’s not the biggest non-answer I’ve ever heard then I don’t know what one is. Of course we’ve seen all of the members of the Oceanic 6 this season, we’ve seen every possible member of it this year except maybe Walt, so I guess that means strike him off the list.
Another interesting tidbit about the four toed statue was featured on Ausiello’s blog this week. According to co-executive producer Damon Lindelof the reason we haven’t seen the statue again is that they “got a note back from the network that said, ‘This is too weird,’" (link) Evidently a six toed statue would have been ok, but a four toed statue was just too much for ABC. Hopefully the show’s writers will be able to find a way to bring the statue back into the fray that’s not too out there for the ABC brass. Well that’s all I’ve got for this week, I just wish it was Thursday already so we could get some answers and maybe even a sneak peak at just how tall Walt’s gotten.