With the revelations this week concerning the five actors joining Lost I thought it would be a great time to dust off these predictions that I produced on demand for a good buddy last week. Who are the five characters? Now that we know Lost’s producers are savvy to the secretagentman and company’s ploy of mining spoilers from character casting sheets, we need to look at these things in a whole new way. Not as pure bunk, but as semantic puzzles. Hidden somewhere in the inference that lays between the character traits is a real description. Even though the particulars may not be dead-on, they definitely steer us in the general direction. Each character description must be deconstructed to divine what the Lost boys are really after. Here are some of my guesses. Beware, some of them are wild.
Russell - A brilliant mathematician and deep thinker who is capable of great insights and has a tremendous knowledge across various scientific fields. He sometimes struggles socially by being too direct and disconnected in his interpersonal relationships. While an empiricist by trade he is humbled and fascinated by the magic and mystery of all in this world that cannot be explained by science.
Also rumored only to be appearing in eight episodes.
Because he is roughly half of the episodes, I’m going to say that Russell is a flash forward character - since the forward/back ratio is rumored to be 1:1 - and someone who shares Jack’s desperation to find the island, but for an entirely different end result.
So here are a couple of options for you theory wise:
(Playing themes of Russell’s mix of Science and Faith against the series’ tendency to play those themes in absolutes of character, i.e. Locke and Jack, this theory assumes that Russell is developed as a character capable of extending those themes through amalgamation. I strongly suspect that one of the season four mysteries will be did Locke get off the island, and I suspect we’ll find out he did, but not by choice, towards the end. Just a hunch. But a character that embodies unifying character traits could lead Jack and Locke back into unity, or at the very least unify the themes themselves within the context of the story.)
1. Russell is an extension or liaison of the Brother Campbell/Mother Time organization for the flash forward sequences, and the only one that can help Jack in his quest to find the island, but only after Jack can make the same leaps of faith that this ‘man of science’ has.
(Here’s a far out one assuming the entire character description is misdirection.)
2. Assuming that every character trait is misdirection to prevent fans from learning too much from the casting description I would say Russell sounds a lot like an autistic savant since autism is marked by social adjustment, disconnectedness, and a constant discomforting wonder of the world regardless of the deep insights that can come with savants.
Charlotte - Very attractive in a naturalistic, athletic way, her looks are only one small part of charms. Precocious, loquacious, and funny, Charlotte a very successful academic who also knows how to handle herself in the real world. On a personal level, it is hard to crack the hard shell of poise and certainty around her, but when it does crack, it’s like an egg; lots of repressed and pent up emotions spill out.
Wow, this one is either full of creative usage - which is fine by me - or we have a genuine mystery on our hands. Loquacious, yet hard to crack? Hiding behind a fountain of trivial information? Here we go…
3. Charlotte’s delicate interior indicates she has been through a trauma, I would say this is a trauma of isolation as one of the only surviving, functioning, members of the original Dharma initiative who has has been continuing her mysterious task in seclusion on the island.
Arthur - Ruthless corporate recruiter. Tall, thin, chilling.
4. I also predict Arthur for the future story arc, and keeping with the cues of the basic description I would expect that Arthur is someone who knows that certain survivors of Oceanic 815 know about a certain island, this drives his sinister ‘recruitment’ efforts and his menace will be what drives those characters back together.
Ken Leung’s top secret character.
5. Since Leung’s character’s name is a secret we must assume it will give something away. Young doctor Candle wouldn’t be that big a giveaway since we don’t even know what Candle’s name really is, so how about Kwon, or better yet Paik, for a possibility. Maybe the mysterious watches from season one - the reason Sun and Jin were on the road to begin with - will become a very long tail part of Lost’s underlying plot.
Every season of Lost confronts issues that just can’t be kept secret any longer, Lost season 4 has a lot of them. With the length between the final three seasons, and the precious few episodes to wrap it up, the time for lollygagging is over. This doesn’t count as prediction, but I expect the mystery to move at a decent clip now. That said, it’s time to dispense with a few things before we all get thrown into the wait for season five. Here are five things I think we’re going to know before the end of Season Four.
Yes it was bound to happen. I’ve been showing incredible restraint, but it is time for me to unleash my wild predictions for Lost season 4. I like to think of my odds for being correct as "highly unlikely, but highly entertaining." 
