Season 4/spoilers

• Donna. Caucasian, 40s, blonde, pretty, Australian. Has had to deal with many set-backs in her life but is strong and has persevered. Now has to deliver painful and emotional news. Very nice co-star in finale ...must be authentically Australian or be able to do an impeccable Australian accent.
• Karen Decker. Any ethnicity, 30s to 40s, pretty, pleasant and sharp as a whip. She is a leader and quick-witted. Can manage difficult personalities with ease. Can hold sway three people in a room or a hundred in an audience. Very nice co-star in finale.
• Millbanks. 30s to 50s, Australian, rugged, smart, works outdoors with his hands. The kind of guy you'd want with you to get out of a tough situation. Co-star... must be authentically Australian or be able to do an impeccable Australian accent.]

• A major story line will begin for Claire. "Mysterious things are happening to Claire that set up the next few episodes — and the next few years, too."

• Scenes at a funeral involving Hurley, Kate and Sayid and Jack.
• An exterior scene involved Sayid and Kate standing outside the church as mourners filed in. A limo arrives, and Hurley exits along with a young woman (possibly Starla?). And the woman, not Kate, is the one carrying the baby (could be a stand-in). The group hugs and talks briefly at the top of the stairs before heading inside. Though it looked like a flash forward involving many of the "Oceanic Six", there was no flock of press.
• Jack shot scenes inside the church.
• Andrea Gabriel reappears as Nadia at the funeral - at Sayid's side.
• The funeral is Christian Shephard's.

• We will see the Orchid — all three levels of it — that might shed more light on the Island's time-warping properties.

• The Orchid will play a big role in the finale

• We'll see that period of excitement when the Oceanic 6 come back.
• The settlement comes into play in the finale.

• An elaborate funeral scene was shot. All of the Oceanic Six were present and accounted for.
• The finale features a pilot, a "young Top Gun type" who, per the casting sheet, doesn't like it when his copilot brings a lucky charm aboard.

• A huge crowd of extras reported to the old Barbers Point Naval Air Station in Kalaeloa, taking part in a scene involving the return of the Oceanic Six to the outside world.
• Their rescue is a huge media circus, with a throng of reporters and photographers on hand as they step off a military transport plane that brought them back to the United States. Via Honolulu.
• The filming focused on an elaborate Oceanic Airlines-coordinated press conference. Or, as sources put it, “a big press con.” The world’s media was there for answers, as well as several familiar faces: (Margo Shephard), David Reyes and Lillian and Carmen Reyes).
• Questions asked included: "Ms. Austen, how old is Aaron? Ms. Kwon, what happened to your husband? Mr. Reyes, what of your fortune, and this hefty airline settlement?"
• The press is skeptical of the official story.
• Hurley’s hackles are raised by a query that’s been raised by viewers and comedians alike since Season 1.
• Sayid tows the line, but isn’t happy about it.
• The Oceanic Six make surprising mention of some long, lost friends. Three of them, at least, whose deaths occurred in each of the first three seasons.

• The Orchid Dharma orientation film was set up for where we were going in our season finale.
• Our characters are in fact going to discover the Orchid and see a bit more of that film. There will be plenty to sort of fact check and debunk on that axis.
• We can say that we've been very interested in these physicists who have been building this particle accelerator in the Alps, and there's been a lot of debate and concern about what's going to happen when they start smashing these particles into each other.

• The face-off between the survivors and the freighter people begins
• Guest starring are L. Scott Caldwell as Rose, Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday, Ken Leung as Miles Straume, Rebecca Mader as Charlotte Lewis, Jeff Fahey as Frank Lapidus, Kevin Durand as Keamy, Anthony Azizi as Omar, Andrea Gabriel as Noor “Nadia” Abed Jaseem, Byron Chung as Mr. Paik, June Kyoko Lu as Mrs. Paik, Lillian Hurst as Carmen Reyes, Cheech Marin as David Reyes, Veronica Hamel as Margo Shephard, Michelle Forbes as Karen Decker, Susan Duerden as Carole Littleton and Noah Craft as Hendricks.

• Widmore’s freighter fiends, as one might guess, do not rescue the Oceanic Six. Desmond may come very close to becoming one of the Oceanic Seven. The finale will depict the arrival on the American mainland of the Oceanic Six, as well as the funeral of Christian Shephard. And we’ll learn more about why Jack is so hot to return to Dharma Island.

• Two pilots are at the helm of a transport plane. One chastises the other for clinging to his lucky charm; the one holding the rabbit's foot says he has to be extra vigilant considering the cargo they are carrying. Karen Decker (Michelle Forbes) is an Oceanic Airlines representative, strapped into the jump seat immediately behind the pilots. The pilots tell Decker they're approaching the runway.

• Decker ventures into the cargo hold where Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Kate are strapped in to passenger seats. Kate is holding Aaron. Michelle Forbes tells them the press calls them the Oceanic Six and wants to talk to them, but she can get them out of it. Jack speaks for the group and says that's fine, they're prepared to answer any questions. Decker leaves, tottering back to the cockpit in her stilettos.

• Jack says they all know the story, but if they get any questions they can’t answer, the press will just assume they're in shock. Sun: "Jack, we are in shock." Sun and Sayid do look like they're in shock indeed, whereas Kate just looks generally devastated. The plane lands, and the gangplank is lowered.

• The Six exit the back of the transport. Carmen Reyes, Mr. and Mrs. Paik and Margo Shephard are all waiting for them. The three families are overjoyed to see each other. Sayid and Kate have no one greeting them. Hugo jumps back after hugging his mom hello and introduces Sayid, who gets the full family hug treatment. Kate just holds on tight to baby Aaron and looks around, all alone.

• The pictures show the Oceanic Six and their families at the press conference, and Jin alone on the Island.

• Keamy (on SAT phone): Put it down over there

Charlotte: Is that from the chopper? Lapidus (on SAT phone): We're still five clicks from the site! Keamy: I said put it down Frank. We'll pick you up guys, as soon as we hit the ground we can go to the Orchid. Head down! Let's do this. Jack: You know what the Orchid is? Juliet: No, I didn't hear Desmond or Sayid either. Jack: Kate! Wanna take a walk? Kate: Absolutely Jack: I'll get the guns, you get some water OK? Kate: OK. Juliet: You can't..possibly be serious. You just had surgery, Jack. Jack: I'm fine. Juliet: You're not going to be fine. Jack: I can't just sit around waiting.. Juliet: Recovery is not sitting around. Jack: I have to do this. Juliet: Why? Jack: Because I promised those people..that I would get them off this island. Juliet: Don't bleed to death Jack. Jack: I'll see you in a couple of hours. Charlotte: Daniel, what's wrong? Daniel: Charlotte, did you hear what he said? They're going to the Orchid. They're using the secondary protocol. Charlotte: What are you talking about? Daniel: We have to get off this island...right now.

Sayid: Hey! Over here! Sun: Sayid, where's Desmond? Sayid: He's fine, he's on the freighter. Listen, I'm going to start taking people back, six at a time. We have to go right now, before the helicopter gets back to the boat. Juliet: Why do we have to go to the boat before the chopper gets back? Sayid: Because the men on that helicopter have every intention of killing us all. ...What? Juliet: Jack and Kate just went running after it.

Hurley: OK, let's say this greenhouse place does what you say and yeah, I get it, it's really dangerous and unpredictable but suppose..somehow it works and we move the island. Dosen't that mean the dudes with guns move too? Ben: Yes, I suppose they would. Hurley: Well isn't that, y'know, a problem?! Ben: I'm working on it. Hurley: Well what about me? I still wanna get off it! Locke: I'm afraid it's a little late for that Hugo. Ben: May I have the binoculars please? You might want to get down lower to the ground. Locke: Why might we want to do that? Ben: Because we're at the Orchid.

• The volcano on the island will be of "seismic importance" (pun very much intended).

• “Faraday may be contending with a seismic metamorphosis under the surface”

• "Frank Lapidus never takes anything at face value. He is a true conspiracy nut and that's going to pay off for him."

• "This season ends with the Oceanic 6 getting off the Island. How, and what they have to sacrifice and what happens to the people that didn't leave."

• "Before the end of the year, you will know who's in the coffin".

• Ben probably knows why Widmore is looking for the island, but may not be telling the full truth. We will find out whether Ben is telling the full truth by the end of this season.

• The secret production code name for the finale twist is "The Frozen Donkey Wheel."
• "It's not the last scene in the show that has that code name, it's actually a scene that happens towards the end of the show, but reveals a very significant secret."

• "... you definitely haven't seen your last purple sky, and basically, yes, there are other electromagnetic events that happen periodically, and we have another electromagnetic event coming up on the show this year."

• "Michael becomes really pivotal to the end of the season. His return will have a lot of impact on the other characters."
• "You will be getting the detailed version of what exactly happened to Michael in between Ben sending him and Walt off the island and when we first meet him behind the wheel of that car."

• "Romance is always blooming on and off the island. I hereby promise you one of the most spectacular kisses you've ever seen on the show in this year's finale."

• Michael Emerson (Ben) and Yunjin Kim (Sun) have just flown into Heathrow for some London based filming along with director Jack Bender. Alan Dale (Charles Widmore) was spotted as well.

• The spectacular kiss will happen between a boy and a girl. But it doesn't happen on the island.

• The Freighter people are NOT the ones that do the rescuing
• The Season finale will leave you ballistic as far as cliffhangers go.

• Penelope will pop up.

• The finale will complicate the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle by featuring 'a spectacular kiss' and elaborate on Jack's flash-forward ambition to journey back to the Island. "This year's finale will sum up exactly how difficult it may be to accomplish that."

• Large and "seismic" events will happen for all the Losties before the end of season.

• The audience has been waiting for what happened after the finale scene of Season 3. We are going to deliver on that in this season's finale.

• There are definitely some very large and seismic events that will happen to our characters between now and the finale. Some people's fates will be clear, and others will not be so clear."

• Locke and Jack represent the two philosophical poles of the show. "The conflict between those guys is really the central conflict on our show. And there's a big culmination of that taking place in the season finale."
• Look for a resolution in the Jack/Kate/Sawyer drama. Obviously, Sawyer is not one of the Oceanic Six; Jack and Kate are. What happens in the finale "is all on the axis of the love triangle".

• Greg Grunberg will reprise his role as Oceanic pilot Seth Norris in the two-hour season finale.

• the Funeral director (Nigel Gibbs) is back for the Season 4 Finale

• Filming took place at Hurley’s mansion as last seen in “Tricia Tanaka is Dead.” A group of extras was spotted wearing party hats, loud shirts and plastic lei… it certainly looked as if Hurley has something to celebrate. Sayid, Nadia, Hurley and Aaron were spotted on set.

• There's a supersecret Sawyer scene in the finale.

• Ben centers in the “secret scenes” in the season finale.

• At the arid, rural west coast of O’ahu a a scene was shot on sea, featuring a large, octagonal life raft. Hurley, Sun, Jack, Kate, Sayid and Desmond swim toward the Zodiac raft through some debris. Hurley — clutching Aaron - helps pull Kate, Sun, and Sayid aboard. But Jack and Desmond take a little longer to reach them. And Desmond is holding someone who’s not moving.

• In the two-hour season finale we will find out just how the Oceanic Six escaped, the circumstances of why the others were left behind, and why they had to keep what happened to them a secret when they returned to the real world. Don't be surprised if the Grim Reaper strikes again, targeting one of our favorite castaways...

• The face-off between the survivors and the freighter people continues, and the Oceanic Six find themselves closer to rescue.

• Jin, Sawyer and Locke are alive on the Island in the future.
• Fans who were upset by the Jack and Kate proposal still have the spectacular kiss to look forward to.

• three filming locations are Kate's house in Kahala, Santa Rosa in Kaneohe, and Hoffs/Drawlar Funeral Parlor in Liliha.

• The numbers will be back in the season finale

• Charlotte lives through the finale, but doesn't have a very large role in it.

• Guest starring are Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday, Ken Leung as Miles Straume, Rebecca Mader as Charlotte Lewis, Jeff Fahey as Frank Lapidus, L. Scott Caldwell as Rose, Malcolm David Kelley as Walt, Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, John Terry as Christian Shephard, Sonya Walger as Penelope “Penny” Widmore, Alan Dale as Charles Widmore, Kevin Durand as Keamy, Francois Chau as Dr. Marvin Candle, Anthony Azizi as Omar, Alex Petrovitch as Henrik and Starletta DuPois as Michael’s mom.

• While filming at the Hoffs/Drawlar Funeral Parlor the only character spotted was Desmond! In suit and tie, hair pulled back...

• Not only is the kiss spectacular, but according to a very solid source, it's the kind of liplock that "stops f---ing time" and "makes the entire world vanish in the moment."
• There's a fair amount of blood shed in the two-hour capper. And there's at least one significant death.
• We won't see Cynthia Watros (Libby) back on Lost this season

• "There's a circularity to the way the story of Michael and Walt is going to unfold in the overall mythology, and that is a long-planned approach."

• "We've always known Malcolm was going to grow faster than we could shoot the show. And we planned for it."

• Andrea Roth has a recurring role.

• We will see Harper again. She is an other, we did not kill her and she is still on the island.

• "Jacob? The answer lies further downstream in the ongoing story. Character names on the show are not assigned without a reason. And yes, that is a clue."

• "What happened to Annie is another chapter of Ben's story that will be seen at some point."

• "Annie is an extremely important part of the island's backstory, and it is a planned chapter to come."

• "You will be seeing Ms. Hawking again."

• We will find out why she was with that monk. We will see her again.

• Rousseau may pop up in another character's flashback.

• We haven't seen last of the Rousseau yet.

• Claire's psychic and his visions for Claire and her baby's future will be revisited.

• Horace and Olivia are important to the DHARMA story, and we can expect to see more of them in the future.

• "Will we at some point catch up with [them]."

• To the question of whether we'll ever see Helen again, Darlton indicated that they "hoped so."

• To the question of whether the DeGroots are still alive, Cuse and Lindelof pressed for more specificity on the time frame of the question. As of the time line of "The Shape of Things to Come", they said: "One of them is."

• The four-toed statue is very important and will be addressed in season 4.

• You will learn more about the four-toed statue but not necessarily from a flashback.

• The four-Toed statue WILL be explained before the series ends.

• You will learn more about the Black Rock but not necessarily from a flashback.