“LOST” on the North Shore

SPOILER ALERT! Filming for the penultimate season of “LOST” is nearing an end, with about a month left of production to shoot the last two episodes. Location shoots tend to dwindle as the season finale nears, so I’m glad for any tidbit that surfaces these days. Fortunately, thanks to a couple of fans — one a long-time local spotter, the other an extraordinarily lucky visitor — we’ve got more than a tidbit to report this week.

First from Yoshi a brief account of filming out at Camp Erdman yesterday. “They were filming a scene where Locke brought a boar to Richard Alpert with Ben, Sun, and Juliette following,” he writes. “They had tents along the beach with some fish hangers. Locke brought the boar around his shoulders and set it in front of Alpert as if it were an offering of some sort.” His description of the beach settlement jives with other reports of a new beach camp on that stretch of shore, suggesting that it’s where Alpert and the indigenous “hostiles” lived (or pretended to live?) prior to overrunning the Dharma Initiative.

Secondly, visiting fan Matt S. spent today wandering around the North Shore, and (with the help of a particularly talkative crewmember) visited not one, not two, but three separate location shoots.  First, he saw the same beach camp Yoshi saw, and watched from afar as they filmed a scene with Terry O’Quinn, Michael Emerson, Nestor Carbonell and Yunjun Kim. Incredibly, when O’Quinn took a break from filming, he paused to chat with and take a photo with Matt S.

Next they were off to Haleiwa, several miles east, to a stretch of sand near Jameson’s By The Sea. Here, security was tighter, and apart from catching a glimpse of Naveen Andrews and Zuleikha Robinson, there wasn’t much to see.

Undeterred, Matt S. moved on to the last stop, a convenience store and bakery in Waialua. It was the Paalaa Kai Bakery, made up to look like… someplace else. There were no familiar faces at this shoot — just a couple of little girls, hanging out on a truck, then going into the store. But one of the little girls? She was playing a very young Kate Austen.

Mahalo, Yoshi and Matt S!