LOST-the mystery continues

For Lost fans only--not that non-Lost-fans aren't allowed to read this post...they just probably won't care.

Well, you didn't really think we'd have to wait all summer to have us some more Lost, did you?
Were you worried how you would fill that fix for three months while waiting for Season 2?

Worry no more.

Go here. It's the Oceanic Airlines website--that's right, the fictional airline whose plan crashed, dumping our favorite survivors on what i like to call The Wackiest Island Ever.

At first glance, it appears to be a normal-looking airline website. But, as with anything Lost, this is far from ordinary. There's a message on the right hand side from the airline, telling us the airline has canceled all flights and the company is shutting down due to the tragedy of flight 815.

First thing you'll probably notice is that on the right column, there appears to be an overlap of text...like two articles are intersecting. Highlight that area, and some strange text becomes clear...that appears to be the contents of one of the notes they all stuck in the bottle.

Second, notice that grey line...sort of a vertical bar on the far right? Click once on it and hold...then drag it out to the left. It is a photo. The photo is of a script page for a Season One episode of Lost. If you read that script page, it contains a detailed description of the monster...one that didn't make it to air. And there are handwritten notes there on the script page imploring the writers not to show the monster yet ("Not Yet!! Not Yet!!"). Hmmm, interesting.

Now for the really fun stuff. Toward the bottom of the page, there's a section called "travelers" with several small white boxes for different age groups. Put the lottery numbers in those boxes in order (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) and click the "Find" button. You'll be taken to a seating chart for flight 815. Down at the bottom left of the chart it says "Oceanic 815." But it won't say that for long. Eventually it'll start blinking (depending on what seats you try and click on) and will finally stop flashing, reading Oceanic 777. What that means is anyone's guess.

But you can click on the seats and weird stuff happens for some of them. Some seats turn green, and when you hover over them display a character's name. Then you click that green seat and even more weird stuff happens. (Make sure you have your sound turned on). Some of the stuff is freaky (like the flashing dual ID cards for the U.S. Marshall guy who was transporting Kate or the creepy noise that plays when you click John Locke's seat) and some of it is just strange (like the giant eyeball or the fading picture of Boone). But it's all cool...because it's about LOST!!

At the very bottom of the seating chart...you will see a horizontal list of numbers, 1 through 42. Click, one at a time, the lottery numbers in order (click 4, then click 8, etc.) and you will see a teaser trailer for season 2 that has never before seen footage. Now, some of the footage could be old (Sawyer running through the forest)...but there's a shot of a red wave of something (lava?) that just boggles my mind. And the teaser ends with the words "On the other side of the island, they'll learn they're not the suvivors they thought they were."

Now what in the world does that mean?!?! I have no idea, but it is beyond intriguing to me. After the promo plays a new page opens up (with an address of oceanicairlines815.com, by the way) where there are secret Lost messageboards and some sort of e-newsletter sign-up.

There's rampant speculation here, a messageboard, that perhaps the castaways were never on flight 815...but were perhaps on a mysterious flight 777. Who knows? There are countless other theories on that board, as well as a lot of tips for finding new things on the Oceanic site, and also screen grabs from various things other web surfers have discovered.

This stuff is total geek heaven, and could easily soak up several hours of my life...and I dig this sort of underground internet campaign. I also think it's wicked cool that the producers and writers aren't just leaving us hanging all summer, but they're dangling a few carrots out there for us to chase...and making the wait for new episodes more fun. Check it out. There's tons of stuff I haven't even found yet, I'm sure.