What About Walt?

11/24/05

This is a quick post, but something to think about.

Walt has been missing since last season, only to show up several times in the jungle. When Michael and the rest of the survivors finally catch up to him, and he’s alive, (and the same actor) he’s going to be changed in a pretty dramatic way, and in a way that I’m sure will be true.

I know what you’re thinking… he’s been zombie-fied, or turned into one of “The Others” or something like that. Either of those could be true, but it could be something else entirely. What I’m talking about it something I’m positive about, and you’re going to smack yourself in the forehead for not thinking of it yourself.

Here goes….

If you’ve been watching LOST since the beginning of the series, you’ll know that time in the series doesn’t equate to “real-time”. In other words, only about 48 to 50 days have past in the series. The raft launch from last season only happened two weeks ago on the series. That’s when Walt was taken by the people on the boat.

I got to thinking about this, and there’s one thing the people writing the show have no control over, and they’re either going to have to write it in to the storyline, or they’re going to have to completely bypass it by doing away with Walt’s character.

Thought of it yet?

Walt’s a young kid on the series. Anyone with kids will be able to tell you that children around Walt’s age grow (and change) pretty dramatically even in as short of a time as a year. They grow quickly, their faces change, their voices change.

So, if the island time is passing so slowly, how can the people writing the show resolve the dramatic changes that will be occuring in the actor playing Walt? He’s going to change just like any other kid, and he’s going to look quite a bit different if we see him again (and I mean outside of his spooky-dripping-wet-backwards-talking self).

The writers have a couple of ways to resolve this. 1) They could just make the character “disappear” and never return; 2) They could change actors, replacing the current actor playing Walt with someone that’s supposed to be Walt’s age; or 3) They’ll write in some sort of explanation for his dramatic aging.

Numbers 1 and 2 aren’t very satisifying, and would be pretty disappointing. Number 3 is likely to be what happens, and might even tie in with the recent posting on the Hanso Foundation website about the life-expectancy experiments they’ve been doing.

8 thoughts on “What About Walt?”

  1. I thought about something similar re the two “tailie” kids that were recently abducted, and then we saw the teddy bear among the “others.” I thought about when will we see these kids again? Probably soon, because they better not age much…considering we’ve only been on the island for 50 some-odd days.

    But then it dawned on me…I saw interviews of the creators and they claimed that they had 5 or 6 seasons written even before the first episode was shot.

    Is it possible that most of the episodes, especially the ones with the children (including Walt) were already shot?

    It seems that solve all of those problems, doesn’t it? They do that don’t they…film several episodes in a shorter period of time than it takes for us to watch them? I can’t imagine that each episode is that fresh, as if filmed each week. I don’t know…perhaps the cast and crew are camped out in Oahu for the next decade.

    What do you think?

  2. well i think that their is a hatch underwater becase that wire on the beach lead into the water and that wire leads to the hatch the surviors are in. and the others are their thats why walt is always dripping wet ,cause someone is helping him down and up and probaly the others wernt their at the moment and walt wrote to michal thats how they got in touch.

  3. I Agree with Rob.
    Each season is filmed daily non stop. Actors go to work each day, the whole season may have been filmed in 8 weeks.
    Whether or not they shoot 2 or more seasons in a year is questionable. I know the Sopranos filmed each season a year at a time.
    Remember these actors have other commitments. They cant fly backwards and forwards to Hawaii the entire year.

    Also, the young actor playing Harry Potter didnt really change that much throughout the last 4 or 5 movies. did he? Well he is taller and slimmer. πŸ™‚

  4. I think they will have to have to agknowledges Walt’s growth. they can write in an ability to leave the island into real time… cause we all know that time moves slower on the island. 4th season and its only 91 days… they baby stayed young… so walt must have ability to leave. Any thoughts ??

  5. I think they’ll either explain it by a time shift of some sort. Walt seems to have the ability that Desmond now has. Remember in Season 2, when Ms. Klugh asked Michael whether Walt had been seen anywhere he wasn’t supposed to be seen?

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