"The LOST Ruins"

I don't know about anyone else yet, but I am so looking forward to what the LOST creators have in store for us concerning "the Temple" that was mentioned at the end of Season 3. I very much hope that it will be something really mysterious, detailed, and juicy when it is revealed. In short, I want it to be a mystical complicated set of ruins such as Machu Pichu for instance. Not much to ask for, right?

I will be disappointed if all TPTB can give us about the Island Ancients are just another couple monolithic columns in a field again, with some kind of stone altar. If this implied ancient civilization that inhabited the Island before the D.I. (and possibly the Hostiles) got there is going to be an integral part of the overall story, it could be revealed in the same way that the Swan station mysteries were revealed. After TPTB gave us many hints in Season 1 about the hatch and station, in Season 2 we and the Losties were totally immersed in the underworld of the Swan station. Of course we weren't told everything about the Swan, but hinting was over by Season 2 and we got to know, to a comfortable extent, much of what the station was about, e.g. what it looked like, who lived there, what its purpose was, what was done there, etc. And what wasn't explained we at least got to see a lot of, like the failsafe switch, the blast door map, the magnetic enclosure, the books on the bookshelves and the gun closet. Even in Season 3 we were absorbed into the homes of Othertown, the grimy work of the Hydra station on Falcatraz, and the underwater Looking Glass.

The scene that I am dreaming will happen in Season 4 could be one such as this: a group of the Losties, Juliet, and some Others will be hiking to meet the rest of the Others at the Temple. As we walk with them through the jungle, the Losties begin to get a visual of a clearing through the dense foliage. As they reach the edge of the jungle, the eyes of the Losties get huge, their mouths drop open, and the camera slowly pans up and away from them to incrementally reveal the rubble and remains of an expansive array of ancient, vine and moss covered stone structures surrounding a larger building, which would be the Temple. Statues (of four-toed humanoids of course) are sprinkled throughout the ruins, and grass filled broken stony walkways grid the area.

It would also be nice if there was evidence that this ancient society was scholarly and science oriented, in that there would could be placed throughout the village some primitive observational instruments, teaching arenas, and small libraries. Any of the types of things that would indicate that these Ancients were fully aware of their special Island and its powerful scientific and paranormal qualities. And that they knew how to utilize them peacefully to the fullest extent to create an intelligently crafted lifestyle for themselves. Basically along the lines of what we believe the fabled civilizations of Lemuria and Atlantis were like. It would be a community possessing all the qualities that Alvar Hanso was hoping to study, produce, and give to the human race by secretly using the Island in the same way.

So, if Season 1 unfolded survival after the crash on the beach, and Season 2 answered the mystery of the Hatch in the ground, and Season 3 unveiled the Others and their habitats, then Season 4 should be about revealing the ancient secrets of the Island. Oh yes, a season like that would make me very happy!