Lost honchos Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse will be the guest judges on the June 17 episode of the reality cook-off. As host Kelly Choi told the competitors (see video below), they'll have to make do with island staples: fish, tropical fruit, wild boar meat, and canned Dharma food. (Note the "Confidential" folder in Choi's hand, with the Dharma logo on it.) Fittingly, the challenge is dubbed "The Lost Supper." No word on whether the Top Chefs will have to put ranch dressing on everything, or whether Lost epicure Jorge Garcia will get to participate (Dude!). But a word of caution to everyone involved: a billowing column of smoke may mean something far more sinister than a burnt salmon fillet.

The adverts come from Flickr user Adam Campbell, and rival anything that the ABC drama's props team have managed to produce yet. Give this man a job immediately, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof!

Vintage Dharma Ads [Flickr]

For the "bargain" price of only $76.45 (not including $14.50 shipping), you too can own your very own Dharma Initiative worksuit, complete with your own name and choice of Dharma station patch. While I'd really like to be sarcastic about this, I have to admit, if I had the money lying around, I'd have bought one already. Just, y'know, in case of emergencies.

LOST Dharma Initiative Jumpsuit with choice of patch [eBay]

What Happened To The Island At The End Of Last Season?
Well, we saw it disappear, but did it move in time or space? Or both? We know from season 4 that Ben went from the Island in 2004 to late 2005, after all, so perhaps the Island never actually physically moved at all... it just jumped somewhere else in time.

Has FutureSun Gone Bad?
In the "future" of the fourth season's final episode, "There's No Place Like Home," Sun told Charles Widmore that they have common interests and reminded him that the Oceanic Six "are not the only ones who left the island." Has she gone bad, is this a double bluff, or is Charles Widmore actually the good guy in this after all? Okay, maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch.

Is Ben Working Against The Island?
Here's some more evidence to support the "Maybe things aren't as we seem" theory: Ben said, at the end of last season, that the Island wants all of the Oceanic 6 to return, but when Claire appeared in Kate's dream, she said that Aaron shouldn't go back. Assuming that that Claire was the "real" Claire, does that mean that the Island doesn't want Aaron to return? If that's the case, then why did Ben say the opposite? Unless, for some reason, he's working against the Island... or the visions that have been appearing to the Oceanic 6 aren't the work of the Island at all.

What Happened To Locke?
This one, admittedly, is many questions in one: How did Locke get off the Island? Why did he get off the Island (We have a partial answer to this: To get the Oceanic 6 to return. But, again, why?)? Why was he calling himself Jeremy Bentham back in the outside world? How did he die? And much, much less importantly, why am I convinced that he'll come back to life when he gets back to the Island?

Why Does The Island Want Everyone Back? And What Does Back Mean, Anyway?
Remember, this is now a show about time travel. Does the Island want everyone to return to the Island now, or does the Island want everyone to return to some particular point in time - and if it's the latter, when, and why? Are they supposed to prevent something from happening? Tied in with this, of course, is the basic question "What is the Island, anyway?" I think it's safe to assume at this point that it's not actually an Island - or, at least, not only an Island.

What Are "The Rules"?
If Charles Widmore "broke the rules" in telling mercenaries to kill Ben's daughter (as Ben claimed in "The Shape Of Things To Come" last season), what rules are we talking about? And the rules of what, exactly? Apparently the competition between the two men had some kind of gentlemen's agreement quality to it previously, so what was going on between the two of them before Alex died? Remember: Widmore not only knows about the Island, he calls it "his" Island. But why?

Is Desmond The Only Character Unstuck In Time?
Ben, as I said above, has already been shown to have jumped ahead in time, and at the end of "The Constant," we saw in Daniel Farraday's notebook that Daniel's constant was Desmond... does that mean that he is also lost in time? And if so, when did that happen? Or did it happen when Daniel's raft also disappeared in the white light that the Island disappeared in (And, again, if so, does that mean that everyone caught in that blast is lost in time? Told you the show was good at raising questions)?

What's Charlotte's Secret?
Snarky Miles told fellow newcomer Charlotte last season that he knew that she'd been trying to "return" to the Island for some time, right before Charlotte herself told Daniel that she was looking for where she was born... Was she born on the Island? And what importance would that fact have, on an Island where mothers have traditionally died in the third trimester under mysterious circumstances?

Is Miles A Clue About Hurley?
Talking of Miles, it's worth pointing out that he can hear dead people. Is the introduction of Miles meant to clue us in to some latent psychic ability in Hurley that allows him to see Charlie and Mr. Eko off the Island that has less to do with the mystical powers of the Island and more to do with Hurley himself? He was the one who found the numbers, after all. Is Hurley the series' third psychic (After Miles and Walt)?

What Is The DHARMA Initiative?
Yeah, yeah; this is the one that we most likely won't get an answer to for some time to come, but it's still one of the most important questions from the show to me. Yes, we know a lot of facts about the DHARMA Initiative, but I'm not buying that whole "70s commune of hippies out to save the world" thing... The experiments we know that they were engaged in - Teleportation? Time travel? - seem a little too ambitious for a collection of freethinkers engaged in social experiments, and I'm sure shadowy secrets remain to be uncovered. Did DHARMA create the Island altogether? Or did the Island create the DHARMA Initiative?

For some reason the questionnaire involves origami, and for perhaps the same reason, the "recruiter" I talked to refused to say whether they are looking for people with mind-control powers, spy powers, or just science backgrounds. Apparently, as you'll see in the video below, they are "looking for all kinds of people." Really? Even the guy in the storm trooper Elvis outfit? I saw him today at Comic-Con, by the way. The man is everywhere.

The latest viral marketing exercise from the mind of JJ Abrams, Octagon Global Recruiting, has started ramping up by sending out the following email to those who'd registered at the website advertised during the final episode of the show's fourth season:

Octagon Global Recruiting, on behalf of the Dharma Initiative, would like to thank you for registering your expression of interest in our latest volunteer recruitment drive.

We will be launching in San Diego on July 24th at Comic-Con International offering select registrants the opportunity to take an exciting aptitude test that will give applicants the chance to demonstrate their unique talents.

The Dharma Initiative hopes you will be able to join us to find out more about their ground-breaking new research project. We will contact you closer to the date with more information.

For those not able to attend the con, don't worry - the email adds:

For those not able to join us in San Diego, Dharma's full recruitment program will be made available online to registered recruits after July 27th.

What kind of aptitude test will those (un)lucky enough to participate have to face? There haven't been any clues dropped as of yet, but I'm hoping that it includes making rabbits travel through time and fighting displaced polar bears. Sure, it sounds dangerous now, but imagine the crowds!

This being Lost, of course, there are hidden mysteries within the email itself. Firstly, there was a hidden recipient to each email that went out:

After hitting "Reply to All" and sending a message back to "Hans Van Eeghen," I received this message:

"Thank you for your email. I am currently on assignment in the field. I will contact you as soon as I am back in the office.
Sincerely,
Hans"

Who is Hans Van Eeghen? Enough people are apparently trying to find out that it's making Google notice, but it may just be an Easter Egg gone wild; Hans shares a name with Henk Van Eeghen, one of the editors on the TV show.

The second hidden message is actually a shout-out to an earlier Lost shout-out:

When you follow this link from the email: "if you can't view the images in this email please click here", you get to view the same image, but if you view source, you can see this tidbit in the header: . This doesn't anything in terms of coding, and was obviously placed there for fun. Now, if you follow this link you will see that the meta tag was a reference to the Mystery Tales #40 as seen in lost: http://www.mysterytales40.com/march-has-32-days-last-story-from-the-mystery-tales-40-comic-book-96555
And yes, I got to this site by googling "March has 32 days", so I know it's not official, but still pretty fun stuff. And hey, the obviously put this meta tag in there for a reason. Let the games begin!

But did the games begin earlier than anyone expected? Suspicious fans over at 4815162342.com certainly think so:

I hope I am not over-thinking the whole thing. But I find what has been revealed to us so far a bit.... strange, to say the least.
Firstly, although this blog "MysteryTales40.com" might look like a fan site, I was quite surprised to see that its domain & user profile were actually registered 1 day (May 16) after the domain for "Octagon Global Recruiting" was registered (both through GoDaddy .com).

Secondly, the owner of the blog devoted a couple of posts to the journey how he/they acquired the comic book on eBay, even provided a Paypal receipt/screencapture as proof. It also mentioned that the comic book was put up for auction before the relevant S4 episode "Cabin Fever" was aired— May 8, 2008 in the US. It seems that the first blog post was "published" on the same day. But as mentioned before, the user profile wasn't created until May 16. Therefore I believe the publish dates for all posts prior May 16 are manipulated/fake.

What's more, after looking at the archived eBay auction page I was once again surprised to see the buyer "yojo_26" (obviously the owner of the blog "lost" or one of his friends) being a first-time eBay bidder/buyer, who only joined eBay in mid April 2008.
And judging by the bidding history, he's not the only first-time eBayer who was willing to pay good amount of money for the same obscure comic book (probably to ensure they could actually get the book).

I am not familiar with the vintage comic books collecting / trading scenes online or on eBay. But from my past eBay experience, it is very unusual to see any first-time bidder who would make their first purchase on high-price items. Not to mention, I would have thought this "lost / yojo_26" guy to have a bit more experience on eBay since he appeared to be a major comics fan/collector... It's not like eBay was created only recently. It has been around for years, and millions of collectors search & buy things on eBay.

Anyway... now suddenly that OGR's 1st email happened to have the phrase "March has 32 days" hidden in its meta tags. And the scans of the comics can only be found on this supposedly "fan site"?
Either this is some amazing (& very convenient) coincidence in life or ARG3 is much more sophisticated (& convoluted) than I've expected.

Where does the new marketing campaign begin? Where does it end? Just wait; When Lost finishes its run, we'll discover that all of life was actually a concerted effort by JJ Abrams to get you to watch his TV shows.

Octagon Global Recruiting News [The Tail Section]

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