"LOST" on Saturday [Updated]

SPOILER ALERT: In years past, the "LOST" filming schedule would stretch to six days a week only occasionally, and usually as days run out toward the winter break or the season finale. But things for this final season seems to be especially intense, as we've already seen a few Saturday shoots even though we're only a few weeks into production. And yesterday, two separate units were working on opposite sides of town.

The first shoot was in downtown Honolulu. "LOST" fan and HPU student "Alevermor" caught the set dressing crew at work off Alakea St., in the largely vacated back offices of Hawaiian Telcom, on Friday. A friendly crewmember told her that the Saturday morning shoot would be behind closed doors, but that Terry O'Quinn (Locke) was the scene's central star. A report from TVOvermind today suggests that Billy Ray Gannon was also there, reprising his role as Locke's box company nemesis, Randy Nations.

So, the good news for Locke fans is that, in a sense, "old Locke" will return for Season 6. The bad news is that his life, once again, is not a particularly joyous one.

The second shoot was larger and more tantalizing, staged miles away at Waipahu High School. A large group of young extras were assembled (many accompanied by their fortunately talkative parents) to play high school students and a girls basketball team. There was much glee (including one fan who was giving a play-by-play over a cell phone to relatives in Pennsylvania) when the day's key actors emerged from their respective trailers: Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson (Ben).

Terry O'Quinn was dressed smartly, in slacks and a dark purple plaid collared shirt. And Emerson was looking similarly snappy, wearing khaki pants and a dark sweater vest over a long-sleeved light blue dress shirt. He was also sporting fairly bookish glasses and a modest head of hair.

Locke and Ben, off island, in what appears to be a post no-crash scene? And with Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello revealing the title of Episode 6x04 as "The Substitute," I think one or both of these gentlemen may be working in education — wherever or whenever they are.

Of course, "substitute" could apply to many other things fans have been pondering since the end of Season 5. Only sixteen weeks to go...

Updated 5:05 p.m. HST: According to a Twitter post from Kurt Sutter, husband of the actress who "LOST" fans know as Locke's lost love, Helen Norwood, Katey Sagal in Hawaii right now. A separate account, @kateysagal, also mentions being in Hawaii. Might the Locke and Helen story get a different ending?