JEALOUSY
An unexpected flirtation begins to build between Michael and Sun and both their counterparts ain't too pleased about it. Eager to win his wife's affection back, but too entrenched in his own cultural bias, Jin finally caves and allows Walt (feeling abandoned and thus motivated to throw a wrench in his father's new romance) to begin teaching him English lessons.
In the actual series, there was a very short flirtation between Michael and Sun, but that was abruptly stopped when Michael backed off. That made sense in a way, since Michael was trying to create a family bond with Walt, so destroying a marital bond between Sun and Jin would make little sense. Jealousy would be a minor theme throughout the series. In the actual series, Jin did try to win back Sun after their marital arguments, but his solution was to help build the raft to get her rescued off the island. As stated previously, the Jin being able to understand English without lessons was another story hole that TPTB let slide through. The idea of Walt teaching Jin English would have corrected that plot issue, but it was never done in the series.
THE CAT PROBLEM
A series of flashbacks drastically counterpoint Locke's former life as an office drone with the warrior he has always dreamed himself to be when he boldly decides to hunt down the three PREDATORY JUNGLE CATS that are raiding the camp and devouring the dwindling food supply.
This story idea was never used in the show. There are a couple of problems with the concept. Jungle cats avoid human contact. They live off capturing fresh meat, something the beach camp would not have out in the open. Even with a boar catch, 48 people would quickly consume the meat, or if not, would have to smoke it, make jerky, etc. in order to preserve it. Locke as the self-proclaimed hunter would have probably wanted to take down dangerous animals to increase his status amongst the group, but once the smoke monster was introduced in the pilot, what could be more dangerous than that?
THE DIG
When the survivor's discover a tiny piece of metal jutting from beneath the rocky ground, a massive attempt to UNEARTH it begins... but the digging instruments are rudimentary and put a strain on already scarce resources. The dig continues, however, ultimately revealing a LOCKED HATCH- impossible to breach, but offering up a fascinating new dimension to the island's unexplored territory.
Instead of hunting jungle cats, Locke became obsessed with the Hatch. His belief that the Hatch would answer all their questions about the island (which would be wrong) led him to recruit a few members of the group to open the facility. We assume that in the guide's earlier sections, this hatch was supposed to be the gateway into a huge underground complex where the 815 survivors would move to en mass. But that never happened. The core leadership kept the Hatch, and its comforts, to themselves. Some fans to this day believe that the Hatch story line was a fumbled opportunity to enrich the series mythology. But the reason for the input of the Numbers, the incident, and what was the unique electromagnetic energy were never clearly answered in the show.
THE STILL
Fed up with Sawyer's-monopoly on alcohol, Michael and Hurley decide to build their own still, requiring considerable outside-the-box thinking and a fascinating MacGyver-esque version of Island invention. But when Sawyer finds out what they're up to, we learn what INDUSTRIAL SABOTAGE looks like on a tropical island...
The idea that Sawyer turned into an alcohol robber baron may have been appealing to a writer's group, but it would have been out of character. Sawyer understood and respected the "every man for himself" mentality. He would selfishly guard his material stash, not necessary to barter or exchange, but more to consume himself since he had the ability to con material goods from other people. This idea also reinforces the original description of Hurley being a more "doer" than causal observer. The still story line was also not used in the series, even though there was some brief conflict over resources after the initial crash.
TWO DAYS OF DARKNESS
After a 48-hour ECLIPSE, the castaways are intrigued by the appearance of thousands of strange viscous COCOONS in and around their camp. Curious, but unwilling to cut one open and investigate, a debate rages as to how to deal with this bizarre new development. And the cocoons are HATCHlNG...
Now this story idea would place LOST into full science-fiction mode. In an earlier (not used) story idea about unidentifiable fruit, the emergence of strange "vicious" cocoons surrounding them would create an immediate danger that would have the survivors in real peril. One could readily imagine that the placement of the cocoons around the camp meant that the emerging beings would be close to their new food source: humans. This adds to the other non-used Vincent story idea that the dog was bitten on the ear by a human. Potentially, the group has to deal with two savage predators on the island.
It would seem that farther along in the original story line list, the less likely it was for the writers to actually use or incorporate fully these ideas. There may have been some pressure not to use too many sci-elements in order to concentrate on character development through the means of constant, long form flashbacks. However, the 48 hours of darkness/cocoon story as well as a strong, take charge Hurley character would have been a interesting development in the show.
An unexpected flirtation begins to build between Michael and Sun and both their counterparts ain't too pleased about it. Eager to win his wife's affection back, but too entrenched in his own cultural bias, Jin finally caves and allows Walt (feeling abandoned and thus motivated to throw a wrench in his father's new romance) to begin teaching him English lessons.
In the actual series, there was a very short flirtation between Michael and Sun, but that was abruptly stopped when Michael backed off. That made sense in a way, since Michael was trying to create a family bond with Walt, so destroying a marital bond between Sun and Jin would make little sense. Jealousy would be a minor theme throughout the series. In the actual series, Jin did try to win back Sun after their marital arguments, but his solution was to help build the raft to get her rescued off the island. As stated previously, the Jin being able to understand English without lessons was another story hole that TPTB let slide through. The idea of Walt teaching Jin English would have corrected that plot issue, but it was never done in the series.
THE CAT PROBLEM
A series of flashbacks drastically counterpoint Locke's former life as an office drone with the warrior he has always dreamed himself to be when he boldly decides to hunt down the three PREDATORY JUNGLE CATS that are raiding the camp and devouring the dwindling food supply.
This story idea was never used in the show. There are a couple of problems with the concept. Jungle cats avoid human contact. They live off capturing fresh meat, something the beach camp would not have out in the open. Even with a boar catch, 48 people would quickly consume the meat, or if not, would have to smoke it, make jerky, etc. in order to preserve it. Locke as the self-proclaimed hunter would have probably wanted to take down dangerous animals to increase his status amongst the group, but once the smoke monster was introduced in the pilot, what could be more dangerous than that?
THE DIG
When the survivor's discover a tiny piece of metal jutting from beneath the rocky ground, a massive attempt to UNEARTH it begins... but the digging instruments are rudimentary and put a strain on already scarce resources. The dig continues, however, ultimately revealing a LOCKED HATCH- impossible to breach, but offering up a fascinating new dimension to the island's unexplored territory.
Instead of hunting jungle cats, Locke became obsessed with the Hatch. His belief that the Hatch would answer all their questions about the island (which would be wrong) led him to recruit a few members of the group to open the facility. We assume that in the guide's earlier sections, this hatch was supposed to be the gateway into a huge underground complex where the 815 survivors would move to en mass. But that never happened. The core leadership kept the Hatch, and its comforts, to themselves. Some fans to this day believe that the Hatch story line was a fumbled opportunity to enrich the series mythology. But the reason for the input of the Numbers, the incident, and what was the unique electromagnetic energy were never clearly answered in the show.
THE STILL
Fed up with Sawyer's-monopoly on alcohol, Michael and Hurley decide to build their own still, requiring considerable outside-the-box thinking and a fascinating MacGyver-esque version of Island invention. But when Sawyer finds out what they're up to, we learn what INDUSTRIAL SABOTAGE looks like on a tropical island...
The idea that Sawyer turned into an alcohol robber baron may have been appealing to a writer's group, but it would have been out of character. Sawyer understood and respected the "every man for himself" mentality. He would selfishly guard his material stash, not necessary to barter or exchange, but more to consume himself since he had the ability to con material goods from other people. This idea also reinforces the original description of Hurley being a more "doer" than causal observer. The still story line was also not used in the series, even though there was some brief conflict over resources after the initial crash.
TWO DAYS OF DARKNESS
After a 48-hour ECLIPSE, the castaways are intrigued by the appearance of thousands of strange viscous COCOONS in and around their camp. Curious, but unwilling to cut one open and investigate, a debate rages as to how to deal with this bizarre new development. And the cocoons are HATCHlNG...
Now this story idea would place LOST into full science-fiction mode. In an earlier (not used) story idea about unidentifiable fruit, the emergence of strange "vicious" cocoons surrounding them would create an immediate danger that would have the survivors in real peril. One could readily imagine that the placement of the cocoons around the camp meant that the emerging beings would be close to their new food source: humans. This adds to the other non-used Vincent story idea that the dog was bitten on the ear by a human. Potentially, the group has to deal with two savage predators on the island.
It would seem that farther along in the original story line list, the less likely it was for the writers to actually use or incorporate fully these ideas. There may have been some pressure not to use too many sci-elements in order to concentrate on character development through the means of constant, long form flashbacks. However, the 48 hours of darkness/cocoon story as well as a strong, take charge Hurley character would have been a interesting development in the show.
