Season 6 preview clip is tantalizing

Today's WashPost 'Lost' Hour chat included a Season 6 preview video clip from ComicCon 2009 that I'd somehow missed seeing up till now.

Most of the 90-second snippet is a clip that faithful viewers will remember from the Season 1 finale: the various Losties busily boarding Oceanic 815, and then Jack catching Locke's glance. But this time, as Locke sees Jack, his mind zips through a quick montage of important images from Lost's previous seasons... right up to seeing himself in his coffin. Talk about flashes before your eyes!

The scene goes briefly to black. And then we see an airplane hurtling through a darkening sky in a doomed crash landing, bursting into flames as it smashes into the ground. But: It's a Plymouth Air jet, not an Oceanic one.

Is the post-Jughead universe course-correcting itself? Are the Losties' destinies being reset on an alternate timeline? Is that really John Locke, or is it Jacob's nemesis in Locke's body?

Well, we have six months to think about the possibilities. As well as about the fact that the producers are still using the reversed, black-on-white LOST logo that we saw for the first time at the end of the Season 5 finale. BTW, the ComicCon audience also got to see a farewell video to all the notable characters who have died on Lost. Interestingly, Juliet was not shown among them, nor was Claire -- although Daniel Faraday and Charlotte Lewis were.

PS: And for all those who have wondered what Libby's surname was? The RIP video called her Elizabeth "Libby" Smith.

Zap2it: summary of LOST panel at ComicCon

For all the millions of Lost fans who couldn't make it to San Diego for ComicCon 2009 -- and the thousands who were there but couldn't squeeze into the auditorium for the panel with show runners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof -- Zap2it.com has a fabulous summary of the panel, with lots of videos included.

Pay special attention to the videos "from our sponsors" -- fake ads from Oceanic Air and Mr. Cluck's Chicken. And there's a faux segment of America's Most Wanted, with host John Walsh putting out an APB for everyone's favorite freckled femme fatale and fleeing felon, Kate Austen.

Which begs the question: Are we being given hints about an alternate timeline caused by Juliet's explosion of the Jughead?

Will fans' 15 top LOST mysteries be solved?

EW.com's Doc Jensen just posted a list of the top "15 must-answer mysteries" that fans hope will be explained in the sixth and final season of Lost.

Some seem likely to be answered, such as No. 5, "What happened to Claire?" After all, Emilie de Ravin (right) is to be back as a series regular, so we should be seeing a lot of her, and presumably we'll find out what happened after Claire walked off into the jungle with Dear Old Dead Dad.

Only Locke has seen her since then, hanging with Christian inside Jacob's cabin. He was asked not to tell anyone he'd seen Claire, and he didn't tell. And now ReaLocke's really dead, it seems, not magically resurrected after all. (Although "Esau," aka Jacob's enemy, certainly seems to know everything that ReaLocke knew, plus a whole lot more.) So, once Claire reveals herself in Season 6, we should learn more of the mystery behind her vanishing. Maybe we'll find out whether she's actually alive or just among the Island's numerous walking dead. Miles (whose Island-bred talent lets him hear the dead) certainly didn't seem to think that Claire was entirely alive after apparently surviving a house explosion -- but then, after the Season 5 finale, we don't yet know what happened to Miles, either.

Other mysteries may never be completely explained, such as No. 14, "What's Libby's backstory?" For one, Doc says, the Lost producers have said that actress Cynthia Watros is unlikely return to the show. For another, the show runners are going to do extremely well if they can just unravel the major plot points in the 18 hours they have allotted to finish the Lost saga. Compared to the larger Island mythos, Libby's backstory is relatively small potatoes.

My theory is that Libby went into a depression after her husband David died, and that's when she went to the Santa Rosa mental hospital to recover. She remembered Hugo from Santa Rosa, but he doesn't remember her. After she was released, she met Desmond and gave him David's boat, the Elizabeth, to compete in the Widmore solo-sailing race. Three years later, she boarded Oceanic 815 and crashed on Craphole Island. She survives with Ana-Lucia, Bernard and the Tailies, then treks to the Losties' beach, where she makes friends with Hugo, hypnotizes Claire, and gets tragically shot by Michael in the Hatch. End of story. (Sorry, Libby.)

UPDATE: Doc Jensen's also presenting a short Lost-related course on "The Cult of 'Cult TV' " --with the option of a fun but tricky "Final Exam" on Season 5. Its 26 multiple-choice questions will determine if you've really been paying attention.

And there's more... ABC.com has begun signing up participants -- er, make that "students" -- for "LOST University", and Doc J explains what that's all about. He says:

Included among the many real-life academics on staff is actor Jeremy Davies (Daniel Faraday), who proved himself something of a science egghead the last time I interviewed him.

Lost U's mascot is, of course... a polar bear.

You may go to the http://lostuniversity.org/index.php site and sign up now to be notified by e-mail when "enrollment" beings in two months.