Lost: Beyond the Looking Glass

by Adam Bergstein

ADAM BERGSTEIN IS LOST BEYOND THE LOOKING GLASS

My name is Adam Bergstein and I am a Lost fanatic. I have been rabidly following the show for years, and so I was blown away like so many others were by the Season 3 finale. When I am not immersed into Lost fan sites, I’m a freelance video game coder and analyst working out of my home in New York City. Adam Bergstein isn’t only about the show though, I also love collecting vintage video game consoles and Snowboarding when the weather allows.

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After the end of Season 3 of Lost, websites popped up based on the show. Remembering how enjoyable the Lost Experience was the previous summer, Lost fans all over the globe eagerly followed along with this new game. The clues were numerous and detailed, spanning everything from website source code to hexadecimal code decryption. When the game came to a finish on June 17th, the alternate story was completed.

It began with the sites, two small sites created with flickering, static-laced images related to the show. The site URLs were based off of the license plate numbers show on the vehicles Jack and Kate drove to their meeting in the season finale. Jack’s license plate was 2SAQ321, and Kate’s 4QKD695. The first bits of information began to be released at the beginning of May, cryptic messages beneath photos of characters and settings from the show. Now, should you prefer to try to follow this trail yourself, simply go to the URLs and begin the search on your own then don’t read on. What I provide are solutions to the puzzles you will face, hints and clues that you will want to ferret out yourself. An alternate reality game is, after all, all about the experience of finding the solution, not the solution itself.

A note though, this isn’t a definitive site by any means. I didn’t have the time to interact with the game as much as I would have liked (damn you rent!) when it was running, so much of what I collected is from research I did afterward.

In other news, season 4 is gearing up to be quite a big one. If you can’t survive the next 5 months until it airs (in Feb of 2008) without getting a little peek I’ve uncovered some season 4 spoilers that should be pretty spectacular. According to a recent interview with Lost co-creator David Lindelof, there’s going to be an “epic confrontation” of warlike proportions between the castaways and the ‘others’ inhabiting the island.

Among other spoilers, Michael will be returning for good, after an intentional year off which according to Lindelof was extremely hard to keep secret, Jack and Claire will find out they’re siblings, and the mystery of the monster will finally be answered! There will also be two new characters, Russell, a mathematician played by David Leung of the Soprano’s and Charlotte, an as yet to be cast 20 something woman who is described as “a very successful academic” who can hold her own on the island.

Lindelof also says that there will be flashbacks and flash forwards throughout the 16 episode season and that the characters may finally get off the island, but that won’t be the end. The great news is, the story will continue for at least another season off the island. Filming is slated to begin around the first third week of August.