Give It Up for the December Contest Winner

Hello my dear friends -

First and foremost, thanks to everyone who entered the drawing for the limited edition Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit. I absolutely loved reading why you thought Dharma should come to your hometowns. But all you want to know about right now is WHO WON, right?

What I did to pick the winner was assign a number to every entry (per the order in which they were received). Then I found a web site that generates random numbers, entered in the appropriate range and waited to see what the Internet pixies came back with. The number returned was 69 (if you click on the picture below you'll be able to see the page more clearly), and so the winner is... ERNIE.



Ernie said that Dharma would love Baton Rouge because they could use the underground tunnels at Louisiana State University, would feel comfortable around the "out-there, hippie researchers on campus (similar to the DeGroots)," and could make Mike the Bengal tiger their new mascot. I think you've convinced them, Ernie.

I have to admit I was really pleased that a longtime fan of my sites won this awesome DVD set. How's that for good karma? Ernie's been one of my most faithful commenters over the years, and in the summer of 2007 he started a blog of his own, Gulf Coast Offense. It's a sports-focused site on which he also shares his Lost thoughts every once in awhile, so be sure to check it out. Congrats, Ernie!

And I truly thank everyone who gave this contest a shot and submitted a creative entry. If you have a few spare minutes, I highly encourage you to check out the thoughtful and often hilarious responses to the question, "Why should Dharma set up a station in your city?" I also thank the fine folks at Buena Vista Home Entertainment, who made this giveaway possible -- they rock, no?

Remember that if you really have your heart set on the special Dharma version of the Season Five DVDs, you can order one here while supplies last. The regular set of DVDs can be found here. They hit shelves tomorrow!

In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at a few particularly cool extras that are part of the bonus features.

This one is a deleted scene from "Namaste," and it brings to mind the debate that episode inspired among viewers at the time it aired: did the gang stuck back in the '70s do something to change the future? Because these barracks that Frank and Sun were at with Christian looked totally different than we'd ever seen them. This clip shows even more evidence of something fishy going on, with all the boarded-up doors and windows and whatnot. Of course we now have the benefit of having seen the rest of Season Five and knowing that the time-traveling Losties very well might have changed things when Jughead was detonated, which would explain the drastically different appearance of Dharma's Island headquarters.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment. ©ABC Studios.


Building on that, here are Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (and Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and Jeremy Davies (Faraday)) discussing the possibility of Jughead giving our Lostaways a "do-over."


Courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment. ©ABC Studios.

Sounds like the perfect set-up for Season Six, huh?

Speaking of Season Six, it's barreling toward us now, and I have yet to post my thoughts on what went down at Comic-Con this summer. I haven't even shared pictures of Zap2Locke Con or my recent venture into Lost ARG territory. I truly hope I'll get to these things ahead of February 2, but it's doubtful I can crank out any more posts before 2009 draws to a close. So check back in January for the next Long Live Locke contest and perhaps a few show/theory-based posts for the first time in a long time.

Finally, as a reminder, in addition to the January contest I'll run here on the blog, I will hold a Twitter-based contest as well, probably starting shortly after the calendar rolls over to 2010 (is it just me, or does that just sound so... futuristic? 2010!?!). Therefore, if you're on Twitter, be sure you're following me at twitter.com/erikaolson.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday season and I will "see" you all in the new year. At that point we'll have only one more month until Season Six begins. Can you believe it?

- e