The third season of the American

serial drama In television and radio programming, a serial is a show that has a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode-by-episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the complete run of ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

'' Lost'' commenced airing in the United States and Canada on October 4, 2006, and concluded on May 23, 2007. The third season continues the stories of a group of over 40 people who have been stranded on a remote island in the South Pacific, after their airplane crashed 68 days prior to the beginning of the season. In the ''Lost'' universe, the season takes place from November 28 to December 21, 2004. The producers have stated that as the first season is about introducing the survivors and the second season is about the hatch, the third season is about the Others, a group of mysterious island inhabitants. In response to fan complaints about scheduling in the previous seasons, ABC decided to air the episodes without

rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. There are two types of reruns – those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word ...

s, albeit in two separate blocks. In the United States, the first block consisted of six episodes aired on Wednesdays at 9:00 pm and after a twelve-week break, the season continued with the remaining 16 episodes at 10:00 pm. In addition, three

clip-show A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows feature the format of a frame story in which cast members recall past events from past installments of the show, depicted ...

s recapped previous events on the show. "Lost: A Tale of Survival" aired a week before the season premiere, "Lost Survivor Guide" aired before the seventh episode and "Lost: The Answers" aired before the season finale.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment Buena ( ) is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,603,Region 1 on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

Crew

The season was produced by Touchstone Television (now

ABC Studios ABC Signature is an American television production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company. ...

Bad Robot Productions Bad Robot is an American film and television production company founded on May 27, 1999 and led by J. J. Abrams and Katie McGrath as Co-CEO. Under its Bad Robot Productions division, the company is responsible for the television series ''Alias' ...

and Grass Skirt Productions and was aired on the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...

network in the United States of America. The executive producers for the third season were co-creator

J. J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' F ...

, co-creator

Damon Lindelof Damon Laurence Lindelof (born April 24, 1973) is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, and producer. Among his accolades, he received three Primetime Emmy Awards, from twelve nominations. In 2010, ''Time'' magazine named him one of the ...

Bryan Burk Bryan Burk (born December 30, 1968) is an American film and television producer. He is mostly known for producing movies in collaboration with J. J. Abrams, including the ''Star Trek'' reboot series, the ''Mission: Impossible'' films '' Gh ...

, Jack Bender,

Jeff Pinkner Jeff Pinkner (born November 16, 1964) is an American television and movie writer and producer. Life and career Born to a Jewish family,Carlton Cuse Arthur Carlton Cuse (born March 22, 1959) is a screenwriter, showrunner, producer, and director, best known for the American television series ''Lost'', for which he made the '' Time'' list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010 ...

. The staff writers were Lindelof, Cuse, Pinkner, co-executive producers

Edward Kitsis Edward Lawrence Kitsis (born February 4, 1971) is an American television writer and producer, best known for his work with his writing partner Adam Horowitz on the popular ABC drama series ''Lost'' and '' Once Upon a Time''. Early life and e ...

Adam Horowitz Adam Horowitz (born December 4, 1971) is an American screenwriter and producer. He is known for co-creating the ABC fairy tale drama series '' Once Upon a Time'' with his writing partner Edward Kitsis. Days after the show ended its seven-year ...

, co-executive producer

Drew Goddard Andrew Brion Hogan Goddard (born February 26, 1975) is an American filmmaker. He began his career writing episodes for the television shows ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', ''Angel'', ''Alias'', and ''Lost''. After moving into screenwriting in fi ...

, supervising producer

Elizabeth Sarnoff Elizabeth "Liz" Sarnoff is an American television writer and producer. She has written episodes of ''NYPD Blue'', ''Crossing Jordan'', '' Deadwood'' and ''Lost''. She is the co-creator of the Fox crime/ mystery series ''Alcatraz''. Career Sar ...

, story editor

Christina M. Kim Christina M. Kim ( ko, 김수진) is an American television writer. In the 2005-06 television season, she joined the writing staff of ''Lost'' for the series' second season. The staff won the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for Best Drama ...

and executive story editor Brian K. Vaughan. The regular directors were Bender, supervising producer Stephen Williams, Paul Edwards and

Eric Laneuville Eric Gerard Laneuville (born July 14, 1952) is an American television director, producer and actor. His first acting roles were in the science-fiction film ''The Omega Man'' (1971) with Charlton Heston, and the ABC television series '' Room 222 ...

. Lindelof and Cuse served as the

show runner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also the ...

Cast

The season featured 16 major roles with star billing, making it the second largest ensemble cast of the 2006–2007 television season, behind ABC's '' Desperate Housewives''. Characters are briefly summarized and credited in alphabetical order. *

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (, ; born 22 August 1967) is an English actor, director, and former fashion model known for his roles as Lock-Nah in ''The Mummy Returns'', Nykwana Wombosi in '' The Bourne Identity'', Heavy Duty in '' G.I. Joe: The R ...

returns as warlord turned priest Mr. Eko. *

Naveen Andrews Naveen William Sidney Andrews (born 17 January 1969) is a British-American actor. He is best known for his role as Sayid Jarrah in the television series '' Lost'' (2004–2010), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Primet ...

acts as

Sayid Jarrah Sayid Hassan Jarrah ( ar, سَعِيد حَسَّان جَرَّاح, ''Sa‘īd Ḥassān Jarrāḥ'') is a fictional character from the ABC show '' Lost'' portrayed by Naveen Andrews. Appearances Prior to the crash Sayid originally served as ...

, a former

Iraqi Republican Guard Iraqi or Iraqis (in plural) means from Iraq, a country in the Middle East, and may refer to: * Iraqi people or Iraqis, people from Iraq or of Iraqi descent * A citizen of Iraq, see demographics of Iraq * Iraqi or Araghi ( fa, عراقی), someone o ...

. *

Henry Ian Cusick Henry Ian Cusick (born 17 April 1967) is a Peruvian-Scottish actor of television, film, and theatre and a television director. He is best known for his role as Desmond Hume in the ABC television series ''Lost'', for which he received a Prim ...

was promoted to the main cast, playing three-year islander

Desmond Hume Desmond David Hume is a fictional character on the ABC television series ''Lost'' portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick. Desmond's name is a tribute to David Hume, the famous empiricist philosopher. Desmond was not a passenger of Flight 815. He had been ...

. *

Emilie de Ravin Emilie de Ravin (; born 27 December 1981) is an Australian actress. She starred as Tess Harding on '' Roswell'' (2000–2002), Claire Littleton on the ABC drama ''Lost'' (2004–2008, 2010), and as Belle on the ABC drama '' Once Upon a Tim ...

portrays single new mother

Claire Littleton Claire Littleton is a fictional character played by Emilie de Ravin on the ABC drama television series ''Lost'', which chronicles the lives of the survivors of a plane crash in the South Pacific. Claire is introduced in the pilot episode as a pre ...

. *

Michael Emerson Michael Emerson (born September 7, 1954) is an American actor who is best known for his roles as serial killer William Hinks on ''The Practice'', Benjamin Linus on ''Lost'', Zep Hindle in the first '' Saw'' film, Cayden James on ''Arrow'', and ...

Ben Linus Benjamin Linus is a fictional character portrayed by Michael Emerson on the ABC television series '' Lost''. Ben was the leader of a group of island natives called the Others and was initially known as Henry Gale to the survivors of Oceanic Flig ...

, the manipulative leader of the Others. *

Matthew Fox Matthew Chandler Fox (born July 14, 1966) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Charlie Salinger on '' Party of Five'' (1994–2000) and Jack Shephard on the drama series ''Lost'' (2004–2010), the latter of which earned h ...

stars as doctor

Jack Shephard Dr. Jack Shephard is a fictional character and the protagonist of the ABC television series ''Lost'', played by Matthew Fox. ''Lost'' follows the journey of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 on a mysterious island and their attempts to survi ...

, the leader of the castaways. * Jorge Garcia plays unlucky millionaire and comic relief

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes Hugo "Hurley" Reyes is a fictional character on the ABC television series ''Lost'', played by Jorge Garcia. For most of the show's run, Hurley served as the show's comic relief, but occasionally, and most notably in the final season, he was shown ...

. *

Josh Holloway Josh Lee Holloway (born July 20, 1969) is an American actor best known for his roles as James "Sawyer" Ford on the television show ''Lost'' and as Will Bowman on the science fiction drama ''Colony''. Most recently he had a recurring role in sea ...

portrays the sardonic con-man

James "Sawyer" Ford James Ford, better known by the alias "Sawyer" () and later as "Jim LaFleur", is a fictional character on the ABC television series ''Lost'', portrayed by Josh Holloway. Created by Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, he first a ...

. *

Daniel Dae Kim Daniel Dae Kim (born Kim Dae-hyun ( ko, 김대현); August 4, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jin-Soo Kwon in ''Lost'', Chin Ho Kelly in '' Hawaii Five-0'', Gavin Park in ''Angel'', and Johnny Gat in the '' Saints Ro ...

plays non-English speaking Jin Kwon, the son of a fisherman. *

Yunjin Kim Yunjin Kim (Hangul: 김윤진), also known as Kim Yun-Jin (born November 7, 1973) is a South Korean-American film and theater actress. She is best known for her role as Sun-Hwa Kwon on the American television series ''Lost'', and as the North K ...

as Jin's English-speaking pregnant wife

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. * Evangeline Lilly stars as fugitive

Kate Austen Katherine Anne Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series ''Lost'', played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly. Character biography Prior to the crash Born in 1977 and raised in Iowa, Kate is the daughter of diner worker Dia ...

, who is unsure whether she loves Jack or Sawyer more. *

Elizabeth Mitchell Elizabeth Mitchell (born Elizabeth Joanna Robertson) is an American actress known for her lead role as Juliet Burke on the ABC drama mystery series ''Lost'' (2006–2010). Mitchell also had lead roles on the television series '' V'' (2009–2 ...

joins the cast as fertility specialist

Juliet Burke Dr. Juliet Burke (née Carlson) is a character on the ABC television series ''Lost'', portrayed by Elizabeth Mitchell. Created by J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, the character was introduced in the third season as a member of the hostile grou ...

, an Other trying to escape the Island. *

Dominic Monaghan Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan (born 8 December 1976) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck in Peter Jackson's film trilogy ''The Lord of the Rings'' (2001–2003), and Charlie Pace on J. J. Abram ...

plays former rock star Charlie Pace. *

Terry O'Quinn Terrance Quinn (born July 15, 1952), known professionally as Terry O'Quinn, is an American actor. He played John Locke on the TV series ''Lost'', the title role in '' The Stepfather'' and '' Stepfather II'', and Peter Watts in ''Millennium'', ...

plays John Locke, an alienated survivor with a deep connection to the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

. *

Kiele Sanchez Kiele Michelle Sanchez ( ; born October 13, 1977) is an American actress who starred in the A&E Network drama '' The Glades''. Previously, she had starred as Anne Sorelli in The WB comedy-drama ''Related'' and as Nikki Fernandez on the main cast ...

and Rodrigo Santoro also join as previously unseen crash survivors

Nikki and Paulo Nikki Fernandez and Paulo ( ) are fictional characters on the ABC drama television series ''Lost'', which chronicles the lives of over forty people after their plane crashes on a remote island somewhere in the South Pacific. American actress Ki ...

Fernandez. The third season featured numerous

recurring Recurring means occurring repeatedly and can refer to several different things: Mathematics and finance *Recurring expense, an ongoing (continual) expenditure *Repeating decimal, or recurring decimal, a real number in the decimal numeral syste ...

guest star In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other ...

s. M. C. Gainey plays the Other Tom. Tania Raymonde plays Alex, while

Mira Furlan Mira Furlan (7 September 1955 – 20 January 2021) was a Croatian actress and singer. Internationally, she was best known for her roles as the Minbari Ambassador Delenn in the science fiction television series ''Babylon 5'' (1993–1998), and as ...

plays her mother Danielle Rousseau, who meets Alex for the first time since she was born. Andrew Divoff acts as the eye-patched Other

Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (; 1814–1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, socialist and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major founder of the revolutionary s ...

and Nestor Carbonell acts as the ageless Other

Richard Alpert Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert; April 6, 1931 – December 22, 2019), also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga, psychologist, and author. His best-selling 1971 book '' Be Here Now'', which has been d ...

Marsha Thomason Marsha Lisa Thomason Sykes (born 19 January 1976) is a British television and film actress who is best known for playing Sara Evers in Disney's ''The Haunted Mansion'', Nessa Holt in the first two seasons of the NBC series '' Las Vegas'', Naomi ...

plays

Naomi Dorrit The characters from the American Drama (film and television), drama Television show, television series ''Lost (TV series), Lost'' were created by Damon Lindelof and J. J. Abrams. The series follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysteriou ...

, who arrives on the Island. Blake Bashoff plays Alex's boyfriend

Karl Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...

. Michael Bowen portrays the vengeful Other Pickett and

William Mapother William Reibert Mapother Jr. (; born April 17, 1965) is an American actor, known for his role as Ethan Rom on the television series ''Lost'' and starring in the film '' In the Bedroom''. He is also known for the film ''Another Earth''. Personal ...

portrays the late Other,

Ethan Rom Dr. Ethan Goodspeed, also known as Ethan Rom, is a fictional character portrayed by William Mapother on the ABC television show ''Lost''. Introduced in the first season as the main antagonist, Ethan is the surgeon for the antagonistic and myster ...

Sonya Walger Sonya Walger (born 6 June 1974) is a British actress who also holds American citizenship. She had starring roles in the short-lived sitcoms ''The Mind of the Married Man'' (2001–2002) and ''Coupling'' (2003) before landing her role as Penny W ...

plays Desmond's off-island girlfriend Penny Widmore. L. Scott Caldwell and

Sam Anderson Sam Anderson (born April 2, 1947) is an American actor. He is best known for his character roles such as Sam Gorpley on '' Perfect Strangers'', Holland Manners on ''Angel'', dentist Bernard Nadler on ''Lost'' and in film, as the principal in ''F ...

briefly return as Flight 815 married couple Rose Henderson and Bernard Nadler as does

Kimberley Joseph Kimberley Joseph (born August 30, 1973) is a Canadian Australian actress who is based in the United States. Joseph was born in Canada, brought up on the Gold Coast in Australia and educated in Switzerland. After returning to Australia, she beg ...

as kidnapped 815 flight attendant Cindy. Special guest stars are actors and actresses who were once given star billing, but due to a character's death or escape from the island, now appear on occasion. First season main cast member Ian Somerhalder reprised his role in hallucinations and flashbacks as Boone Carlyle, as did his stepsister Shannon Rutherford, played by

Maggie Grace Margaret Grace Denig (born ) is an American actress and model. She is known for playing Shannon Rutherford on the ABC television series ''Lost'' (2004–2006; 2010), Kim Mills in the '' Taken'' trilogy (2008–2014), Irina in ''The Twilight Sa ...

. Malcolm David Kelley returned for a single scene as ten-year-old Walt Lloyd.

Reception

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the season has an approval rating of 71% with an average score of 7.9 out of 10 based on 12 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Lost'' asks its audience to suspend their disbelief in ways that can be extremely trying for the grounded sci-fi show, but its character-driven plot holds season three together." The first block of episodes was criticized for raising too many mysteries and not providing enough answers. Complaints were also made about the limited screen-time for many of the main characters in the first block. Locke, played by Terry O'Quinn, who had tied for the highest second-season episode count, appeared in only 14 of the 23 episodes in the third season – only two more than guest star M.C. Gainey, who played Tom. Reaction to two new characters, Nikki and Paulo, was generally negative, with Lindelof even acknowledging that the couple was "universally despised" by fans. The decision to split the season and the American timeslot switch after the hiatus were also criticized. Cuse acknowledged that "No one was happy with the six-episode run." The second block of episodes was critically acclaimed however, with the crew dealing with problems from the first block. More answers were written into the show and Nikki and Paulo were

killed off The killing off of a character is a device in fiction, whereby a character dies, but the story continues. The term, frequently applied to television, film, video game, anime, manga and chronological series, often denotes an untimely or unexpected ...

. It was also announced that the series would end three seasons after the third season, which Cuse hoped would tell the audience that the writers knew where the story was going.

Awards and nominations

The third season was

nominated A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * ...

for six Primetime Emmy Awards. It was nominated for

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series is presented to the best directing of a television drama series, usually for a particular episode.Though this category is the dominant one in which dramatic directing has been ...

( Jack Bender for "Through the Looking Glass), Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (

and

Carlton Cuse Arthur Carlton Cuse (born March 22, 1959) is a screenwriter, showrunner, producer, and director, best known for the American television series ''Lost'', for which he made the '' Time'' list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010 ...

for "Through the Looking Glass"), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (

), Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series, and Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series.

won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. " Flashes Before Your Eyes", written by Damon Lindelof and

, was

for a Writers Guild of America Award in the "Episodic Drama" category. The producers were nominated for a

Producers Guild Award The Producers Guild of America Awards were originally established in 1990 by the Producers Guild of America as the Golden Laurel Awards, created by PGA Treasurer Joel Freeman with the support of Guild President Leonard Stern, in order to honor ...

in the "TV Drama" category. ''Lost'' stunt team was

for the season's only Screen Actors Guild Award. ''Lost'' third season also received a

Television Critics Association The Television Critics Association (TCA) is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canada, Canadian television television criticism, critics, journalists and columnists who cover television television programme, programming for newspapers, ...

nomination in the drama category. The season also received two Directors Guild Award nominations,

for "The Brig" and Jack Bender for "Through the Looking Glass".

Ratings

The season averaged 13.74 million American viewers per episode, ranking 17th in viewership and ninth in the key adults 18–49 demographic. The first block had an average close to four million more viewers than the second block, with the 14th episode meeting a ratings low for the series, with 11.52 million viewers. However, ''Lost'' was the most recorded program of 2007.

Episodes

The number in the "No. in series" column refers to the episode's number within the overall series, whereas the number in the "No. in season" column refers to the episode's number within this particular season. "Featured character(s)" refers to the character(s), whose back story is featured in the episode's flashbacks. "U.S. viewers (million)" refers to the number of viewers in the United States in millions who watched the episode as it was aired.

Home media release

References

External links

* *List o
''Lost'' season 3 episodes
at Lostpedia {{Featured list Lost (TV series) 2006 American television seasons 2007 American television seasons