Bob D’Amico

With less than a month to go until the Feb. 2 premiere of the final season of “Lost,” ABC gave the show’s promotional machine a first fateful crank on Monday evening, releasing two images designed to whet the appetites of longtime “Lost” fans.

The pictures, which can be seen in their entirety here and here, are clearly inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” (not to mention, as The Hollywood Reporter points out, similar promotions for the final seasons of “The Sopranos” and “Battlestar Galactica”), and their subtle differences seem to promise clues to attentive observers.

What hidden secrets about the conclusion of “Lost” have we divined after several hours of careful meditation? Almost none. But here are a few things we’ve noticed. Do they mean anything?

In both pictures, the character John Locke (played by Terry O’Quinn) sits at the center of the table. But in the first image, he is stern-faced, while in the second image, he seems to wear a beatific smile. What’s he so happy about? Is he the key character to this final season? Is he just happy he’ll never have to make another “Stepfather” movie again?

If you flip between the two pictures, you’ll notice that the characters of Miles (played by Ken Leung) and Claire (Emily de Ravin) appear to swap places. What does this mean? Does it have anything to do with Miles’s mysterious ability to communicate with the dead, and the fact that Claire is (or seems to be) dead?

In the first image, the married couple Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Sun (Yunjin Kim) are next to each other, but in the second image they are separated — just as, in the current continuity of the show, they are separated in time by more than 30 years. Is a reunion in their future, or will they be kept apart permanently?

In both pictures, Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is the fourth figure from the left — the position in which Judas Iscariot was seated in Leonardo’s painting. Does this mean he will eventually betray Locke or the rest of the castaways? Is this in any way connected to his apparently failed attempt to kill Ben last season?

Also in both images, you’ll find Kate (Evangeline Lilly) on the left side of Locke. Does this mean that, as “The Da Vinci Code” taught us, she is pregnant with Locke’s child?

And hey, check out that clean new haircut on Jack (Matthew Fox). Pretty spiffy, huh?

That’s the best we could do. Got any thoughts of your own? Please post them in the comments below. We could use the help.