Lost Season 4: Now With Added “Waaaaaaaaalt!”

The last few mind-twisting episodes aside, the last season of Lost was a bit of a damp squib - something that we attribute solely to the lack of any men running round a forest screaming the word "Walt" every three and a half seconds.

That's all set to change, though - it has been announced by ABC chief Steve McPherson that the next season of Lost will herald the return of Harold Perrineau's Michael, the character who managed to squeeze in killing two rubbish Lost characters with a gun and leaving the island on an Others-sanctioned boat in between all the aforementioned Walt-screaming. As yet it's unknown what role Michael will play in the fourth season of Lost, although Lost experts seem to agree that it'll either involve more of him either a) yelling "Walt!" like an autistic toddler or b) standing around trying to figure out how Walt managed to go through all of puberty in the space of two weeks.

We're not sure exactly when, but Lost got crap back there for a while, didn't it? It started off nicely enough - all the boys were hot and everyone from Lost was the entertainer of the year and all we wanted to know was if there was a dinosaur on the island or not. But, thanks in part to the Lost book, the Lost interactive game, the Lost videogame and the Lost exclusive mobile content, the Lost mythology just became too knotty and we all decided it was more fun to see the stars of Lost fail to drive a car properly and go to prison and burn their house down and get married and divorced at lightning speed instead.

But that's all changed - Lost has an endpoint now, and an actual ending, so it can begin to move on with a fresh sense of direction. And part one of that new direction is drafting back Michael, played by Harold Perrineau, last seen apparently sailing a boat off the Lost island to freedom at the end of season two. However, it took a roomful of 150 television critics several furious minutes to get ABC chief Steve McPherson to actually admit as much, as the Mercury News reports:

It took a bit for reporters on The Tour to prey this little nugget out of ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson today. Originally, Perrineau’s return was going to be part of a big “Lost'’ presentation at this weekend’s Comic-Con in San Diego. But writers here found out that there was to be an announcement and there was a near revolt when McPherson initially refused to say what it was. Eventually, the network’s publicists contacted “Lost'’ producer Damon Lindelof and he gave the OK to release the news about Perrineau.

This news will come as a relief to dedicated Lost fans because, as the man who killed Michelle Rodriguez, Michael will always have a special place in their hearts. But what everyone wants to know is how Michael will return to the island? Will he even return to the island at all, or will he only feature in those snazzy flash-forwards that Lost seems to be so keen on these days? Will Michael be a force of good or evil on the island? And - most importantly of all - will Michael ever realise that his son has turned into a 35-year-old man with the voice of a particularly authoritative bear trapped down a well? Only time will tell.

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Michael Sails Back To Lost - Mercury News