Just when Lost should be regularly beating the competition - we're heading towards the three month break cliffhanger - the show is actually losing viewers. The episode the other night, where Eko was killed off, lost 1 million viewers from the previous week, and was beaten by CBS' Criminal Minds. (Brett talked about this last month.)

Wow, so 17 million viewers actually watch Criminal Minds? I've seen the show twice and didn't really see anything special about it. Are people that frustrated by Lost?

One part of the article I don't really understand though. It seems to have the attitude that the "a character is going to die" episodes of Lost should pull in more viewers, but why? How would you know that a character is going to die unless you actually watch the episode? The hardcore fans of the show and web geeks, the only ones who would know ahead of time that a death might be coming via web spoilers, they're watching the show anyway, so why would that matter? Why would a death of a major character bring a ratings spike? (Or am I totally missing the point here?)

I don't want to ruin it for you guys who haven't had a chance to see last night's episode of Lost. After all, it hasn't even been 24 hours since the show aired.

Let's just say that someone dies and there are conflicting reports all over the internet today about why that certain someone was written off the show.

Warning: *SPOILERS* from last night's episode are after the jump.

(S03E05) Now there's only one new episode of Lost left before a 13-week hiatus until February. The writers have answered quite a few questions in the last two episodes, but you know we're going to be left with a big, fat cliffhanger one week from tonight.

This episode had a heavy religious theme that ran through all of the storylines. In Eko's story, we come to understand how he interprets his life and that he does not see himself as a sinner, despite all the people he has killed. Eko spends the episode chasing his brother, Yemi, around the island. I think that Yemi was the black smoke, either actually taking the form of a man or causing Eko's hallucinations (he also saw the people he killed and the altar boy). During season two, in the "23rd Psalm" episode, the black smoke scans Eko and we see scenes from his life in the smoke. So, the question is: did the smoke take on alternate physical form or did it cause him to hallucinate? It did seem to admit to him that it was his brother at the end, and it may have set the tent on fire at the beginning.

Well, you knew this was going to happen.

People are selling Apollo candy bars (the candy being handed out around the country as a promotion for ABC's Lost) on ebay. They are selling for up to $60 in some cases! (Type the words Apollo Candy into the search.)

I barely remember these things being on the show. I remember Kate finding a box of them when they got into the hatch (pic on the right), but I had no idea they'd become part of the show's mystery.

[via TV Tattle]

The other day we told you that Variety had broken the news that Bad Twin, the Lost tie-in book, was written by acclaimed mystery writer Lawrence Shames. Shames doesn't confirm that he's the author of the book, but he does have a few things to say about it:

"It is interesting how closely his prose style resembles mine. He sets a lot of the story in places I've been." He also says that the book is "excellent" and "everyone should read [it]."

Ha!

[via TV Tattle]

Bad Twin, the novel "by" Gary Troupe (it's an anagram of "purgatory," but the Lost producers have already said that they're not in purgatory, damn it!), who was "on Oceanic Air Flight 815," is a hit. Lost fans are buying it in hopes of perhaps learning some more clues about what the hell is happening on the TV show. My guess is that it's just going to drive fans more crazy, though the family in the book is "Widmore."

Has anyone read it yet? Is it any good, as a novel, regardless of the Lost tie-in? There's a rumor going around that Stephen King actually wrote it, but publishers and Lost folks are keeping quiet.

I know, I know, you're saying to yourself, "jeez Bob, more Lost posts?" I hear ya. But it's a popular show, and the theories and articles just keep a-comin'.

This site gives a chart of how many of the show's characters are related. Now, I try to follow the show as closely as I can, but since I don't want to go batshit crazy and end up in the loony bin with Hurley and Libby, I don't follow every single piece of information or clues, so I don't know if all of this is correct or up to date.

The date says it was last updated on May 11, so I'm sure a post-season finale upgrade is coming soon.

Not the actors and actresses that will be playing these parts, but the characters themselves. If it's true that the outside world will now become a plot point in the show (and after seeing the two Arctic station guys and Penelope on the phone at the end of the season finale, it looks like it will be), new characters on Lost will include:

• Female, 30s, with leadership qualities
• Female, early 20s, very attractive
• Male, Latino, early 20s, handsome, mysterious quality

So who do you want to see in these roles?

ABC's Lost is such a hit (one of those shows that's both a mainstream hit and a cult fetish) that it's doing everything it can to make it even more popular. There's the show you can watch on TV, there are the eps you can watch via iTunes, there's the interactive online game and a tie-in book, and now comes the news we all knew was coming, a videogame. Ubisoft will make the game, and J.J. Abrams and other Lost people will help with the storyline.

Can I make a suggestion? Make the numbers a part of the game. Players have to punch in the numbers every 108 minutes - no matter what else is going on elsewhere in the game - or the game ends! Ha!

[via TV Tattle]

Usually I'd go ahead and use the comment section for our posts to mention something like this, but I really think I'm onto something here. After seeing last night's episode of Lost, I've got some thoughts on what's going on with that weird black mist, the island "security system," as Rousseau called it.

Recall in the episode titled 'The 23rd Psalm', where Eko confronted the black mist, face to ... mist. Looking closely at that scene, we could see flashing images within the mist, clearly images taken from Eko's memory. then, in last night's episode, we see many of the same images flashing in Eko's dream.

(S02E21) I've been waiting for this episode ever since I saw its most interesting title: a simple question mark. We all knew what it would refer to once we saw the mysterious map Locke caught a glimpse of, but it was knowing that this would be an Eko-centric episode that, to me, made it all the more interesting.

For those of you who like to over analyze the episodes on a microscopic level like we do, you may have noticed that little scene in Eko's dream where a bunch of images flashed by before he saw his brother, Yemi, sitting at the computer. Here's a list of what was shown:

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we're finally there-- the end of the season. This has been a rocky season for Lost, many wondering if it's been able to live up to the hype it generated last year. Personally, I think it's been better than the first. The stupid schedule is what killed the momentum and flow of the show. Make sure you you join me here tonight so that you can voice your own opinion. As with all of our chats, you need to have AIM or a compatible client (Trillian, GAIM, etc). Once you have that, make sure you meet right back here to this very post at 8pm ET, and that's when I'll unveil the location for the chat room. You can chat along with me (TVSRyan) and the rest of the Lost fanatics live! I'll see you there.

UPDATE:
Come one, come all; here is the secret location for our Lost Chat! See you inside.

Disclaimer: All or parts of the discussion in this chatroom may be posted in a later column on this site.

Heck, the second season isn't even over yet and here we are with news about the DVD set. Buena Vista Entertainment has tentatively scheduled the second season set to be released on September 5.

Which means it will be timed perfectly for you to watch the last episode of the season over and over and over again in slow motion and freeze frame, trying to figure out the season-ending cliffhanger in time for the third season opener that will happen in late September.

(Spoiler warning: Don't look up)

OK, with that out of the way, let's talk tonight's Lost. Once again we're left with more questions than answers, though overall I'd say this was a good episode. Not great, but good. revelations about Eko, Charlie, the "monster" and ... Walt, maybe?

And you guys thought us working for "the man" wasn't going to have it's benefits.... Over on AOL's page devoted to Lost, they've got four clips of tomorrow night's episode available for viewing. The first two up revolve around Charlie, Eko and Charlie's statue of the Virgin Mary, and actually seem to confirm a pretty big secret, but I'll let you guys watch it. The third one has Kate cutting Sawyer's hair as he gets some unexpected visitors. The final one follows up on November's cliffhanger with Michael at the keyboard inside the hatch. The longest clip is only a little over a minute and a half, but all are really juicy, and well worth your valuable time. Man, I can not wait until tomorrow night!