No show in the history of television has had more fun with viral marketing than ABC’s Lost, partly because viral marketing is a relatively new strategy in television and partly because the creative forces behind Lost are extraordinarily clever. Before the show even aired there was brilliant ingenuity laced in the marketing, like when the producers threw a few dozen glass bottles off of the Santa Monica pier stuffed with Missing Person sheets for the fabled passengers aboard Oceanic Flight 815. Befuddled vacationers didn’t know what to make of it, but were undeniably fascinated.

Now, anyone who watches the show intently knows that in the off season the folks behind Lost do a great job of keeping their fans salivating with viral videos, alternate reality games, ghost-written literature and a whole slew of other maddeningly inventive approaches to staying relevant. As last season ended, we were left with a mind-bending cliffhanger (as usual) wherein Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) detonated a hydrogen bomb that was intended to negate all of the tragic events that ensued on the island post-crash. If all went to plan after the cool fade-to-white title card, we can expect all who boarded that plane (even those who later perished) to land safely at LAX as scheduled. Or can we? My guess is this: Based on what we know, which is that the season premiere is entitled “LA X” and Lost likes to mess with your head, the passengers will arrive in LA as planned only it won’t be 2004… it’ll be 2010. Yes, just as the plane crash coincided with the shows original air date (September 22, 2004), I believe the show will end with a resynchronization of the timeline, with the concluding events of the epic series playing out in present.

We’ve still got a little under a month before we see just how right or wrong I am, but here’s a little video that certainly hints at an alternative reality of sorts… take it away Hurley.Mr. Clucks – Hurley\’s New Chicken Shack!