Walt Disney Home Video is releasing Season 5 of Lost on DVD and Blu-ray on December 8th of this year. They’re also — for the first time ever — releasing a special edition package that includes everything the DVD or Blu-ray sets contain, plus a whole bunch of special extras. TVShowsonDVD.com has acquired the first image of what this special edition set looks like, and here it is. Can I get a “wow!” out there, anybody? Holy crap!

It’s called The Complete 5th Season Dharma Initiation Kit, and based on what can be seen in the image, it looks to be an appropriately weathered-looking 3-ring binder that contains Dharma pamphlets, Dharma dossiers, octagonal logo patches, a VHS tape marked “Orientation Video” that we have to assume contains all of Pierre Chang’s orientation vids as seen on the show, and the DVD or Blu-ray discs in sleeves made to resemble old school floppy disks.

As TVShowsonDVD.com right points out, the image is marked as preliminary artwork and “subject to change.” So don’t take it to the bank just yet. But right now, it looks like the kind of set that most of us fans would wet ourselves over!

Image: TVShowsonDVD.com/Walt Disney Home Video.

I told you earlier this week about a possible new Alternate Reality Game called Who Is Simeon Hobbes? There was no evidence that it was legitimate, but it was done just smart and enigmatic enough to give the appearance of being real.

ABC has since confirmed that Simeon Hobbes is not a new Lost ARG, and there is as yet no indication that there will even be an ARG pre-Season 6. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have, however, promised something special and cool at Comic-Con International in late July, which they said in the final Season 5 Official Lost Podcast will be their last Comic-Con appearance ever for Lost.

What if Jack’s plan worked? What if history has been altered thanks to the H-bomb detonating at the Swan construction site? Then Season 6 could conceivably be a restart of the series, with our heroes having not yet met.

What do you think of this possibility?

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Still wondering if we’ve seen the last of Juliet? Take a deep breath and get used to it — you’re supposed to be pondering that question until 2010.

The good news, according to E! Online, is that actress Elizabeth Mitchell will appear as Juliet on Lost next year. But what capacity she appears in… That’s the question. Full time cast member? Recurring or guest star? And how will her appearance be explained?

Did Juliet change history and allow herself to live? Will she appear as someone dead, like Christian Shephard? Will she somehow survive what happened at the bottom of that hole?

Settle in, the wait for answers is going to be a long one.

Image: Newscom.

Still wondering what was written on that tapestry that Jacob wove together? The good folks over at the always-reliable Lostpedia managed to translate it from ancient Greek. It translates as:

May the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires.

However… There’s a bloke over at AudiblyLost.com who translated it a little differently:

May heaven grant you in all things your heart’s desire.

“Heaven” implies a single God, while “the gods” denotes multiples. So the distinction is a significant one. Which do you think is correct?

And am I the only one that finds it odd that the words were in ancient Greek, when everything else about the tapestry’s surroundings alluded to ancient Egypt?

For a long time, Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have maintained that fans don’t yet have enough pieces of the overall puzzle to explain everything on Lost. In “The Incident,” the Season 5 finale, I think we got the beginnings of those final, most significant pieces. It’s now possible, after five years, to formulate a plausible theory on what the entire show is about. We don’t have all of the answers, but we have enough to start connecting the dots and making intuitive leaps that stand a good chance of being right.

Then again, this is Lost. And if the history of this show has taught us anything, it’s to assume nothing.

Favorite line: “This don’t look like LAX.” - Sawyer

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Today is the day. The end of Season 5. The last season-ending cliffhanger Lost will ever produce. The prelude to the final season.

Whatever you want to call it, tonight is the night that “The Incident” airs. Remember that it’s a 2-hour episode, beginning at 9:00pm EST/PST, and it’s preceded at 8:00pm by another Lost recap/clip show.

Let’s start, as always, by taking a look at ABC’s official synopsis and guest cast for the episode. The SPOILER WARNING flashing neon light is on from here on out — though I won’t be spilling any major secrets, just teaser-y stuff. Strap in and get ready, this is going to be a big one…

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The New York Post has a preview of what’s to come in tomorrow night’s Season 5 finale, “The Incident.” It doesn’t reveal any actual spoilers, but it does include lots of wonderfully cryptic teases from Damon Lindelof. A few choice quotes from Mr. L.:

“In the grand mapping out of things, one would assume Sun has a larger role to play.”

“There are two fundamental approaches to the show. There’s the Jack approach, which posits that there’s no real explanation for what’s going on. Or there’s the Locke approach, which assumes that everything on the show is happening for a very specific reason. We are very strong supporters of the Locke approach.”

“Season six will feel a lot like season one,” says Lindelof. “The focus comes back to the characters with whom we began. We’ve been winnowing away everyone else who came along. The Tailies are gone, only Miles [Ken Leung] is left of the Freighter Folk and only Juliet is left of The Others. We’re getting down to the end now.”

The season finale will reveal more about the Egyptian symbols and the four-toed statue. Lindelof has also said elsewhere that all the time-traveling is about to stop, but it’s going to be replaced by something no one will see coming. I stuck that in here because my guess is that that stuff is going to happen with this finale, too.

The Post also mentions that Season 6 will deal with the show’s core characters on the island, presumably in the present, resolving why they landed on the island in the first place (which implies that the ones who are still alive were brought to the island for a reason).

Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, & Elizabeth Mitchell weigh in on Jack’s plan to erase time by detonating a hydrogen bomb in the season finale of Lost, in this week’s Official Lost Video Podcast. Note that, as the headline says, this will be the last regular video podcast expected in 2009 (barring anything special) from ABC. With no further ado…

This week’s “Getting Lost” by tvguide.com finds executive producer Damon Lindelof commenting on Jack’s new plan to erase history, and the two most popular fan theories on who or what Richard Alpert is. Enjoy…