On Tuesday the creators (Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse) and cast (Terry O’Quinn (Locke), Michael Emerson (Ben), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) and Emilie de Ravin (Claire) of Lost talked about the show at the TCA (Television Critics Association) Press Tour.
The most important bit of news that came out of this sitdown is that Harold Perrineau (Michael) and Cynthia Watros (Libby) will return this season.
On Season 6 Cuse said, “Obviously not every question’s going to be answered, so obviously, some people are going to be upset that those particular questions don’t get resolved. We felt if we tried to just answer questions, it would be very pedantic.” Lindelof added, “Now there is certainly a hope on all our parts that everybody sort of universally loves the ending that we put forward. (But) I don’t think it would be Lost if there wasn’t sort of an ongoing and active debate amongst the people who watch the show as to whether or not it was a good ending.” Cuse envisions the season to include a “healthy cocktail of answers, mystery character resolution, and some surprises.”
Lindelof added that this season will harken back to Season 1 in many ways in order to compare and contrast how the characters have changed since the beginning. Cuse said that he and Lindelof had the final image of the series in their heads way back in the beginning; it’s the character development and closure they have to work on. “We kind of knew what the end point was, but as you move towards the end point, you add elements. And obviously, the end is not yet written, and there are certain sort of mythological, architectural elements that are intact for that ending, but a lot of character stuff will get worked out as we go along.” Cuse added, “We are doing something different narratively which doesn’t require sort of deep-and-vast knowledge for you to get, and we also just feel like the stories that we’re telling this season kind of really do harken back to the first season of the show. I think if you watched the first season of the show, that’s probably the most important thing leading into the final season. We do feel that there’s some accessibility there.”
The cast members shared their favorite moments from the show. Michael Emerson: “I have lots of fond memories of breathless confrontations in small rooms” – referring to scenes from Jacob’s cabin, The Hatch, and Widmore’s bedroom. Jorge Garcia: “Running away from an exploding plane wing” and “when the comet hits Mr. Clucks…laying there and they’re throwing raw chicken parts at me.” Evangeline Lilly: her favorite episode was the one “Do No Harm,” the one where Claire gives birth and Boone dies. “I’ll never forget watching that episode because for me it just culminated everything we were talking about on the show. I don’t often cry while watching my own show, but I watched that episode and I cried and I thought this is something that I’m proud to be a part of.” Terry O’Quinn: “Just coming to work with these people and working the way through a scene and just collaborating with them.” O’Quinn also talked about how he had no idea that his character had died and he was playing “not-Locke Locke” at the end of last season until the audience found out. O’Quinn’s script only said that “something about Locke is different,” so that’s all he had to work with. Emerson added, “It’s actually better on this show to be in the dark – sort of groping around a bit.”
So what’s in store for the Season 6 premiere? Lindelof said, “Get ready to scratch your heads, America!” Holloway added that the premiere episode plays out like a finale in scale and scope. I. Can’t. Wait.
Lost: The Final Season premieres February 2 at 9PM on ABC. Speaking of the premiere date, did you hear that President Obama almost scheduled to have his State of the Union Address at the same date and time, potentially pushing the Lost premiere to a later date? Well rest assured, Losties. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs confirms that the Address will air on a different date. Cuse added to the confirmation with this tweet: “No State of the Union conflict with LOST! We go Feb. 2!”
Look after the break for an exerpt of an IGN interview with Lost creator J. J. Abrams, hot off the presses!
[Via IGN, here, here & here; TV Squad]
Q: With Lost ending this season, will you be directing the last episode?
Abrams: No. Jack Bender has really been the guy on that show as the directing producer, so it would be wrong for me to come in and be like, “Oh, move over, I’m going to direct.”
Q: But you did the first episode.
Abrams: I know, but it would somehow be spoiling all this amazing work that he’s done. The fact is that he’s been living in Hawaii with the cast, so he’s going to do the last episode.
Q: With Lost, because you knew what [executive producers] Damon [Lindelof] and Carlton [Cuse] were going to be doing, as the final season was playing out, or were there moments of real excitement and joy, as you learned what was going to happen?
Abrams: With this season, they’re doing some amazing, intricate stuff that’s really unexpected and very different, in a lot of ways. The way that it’s going to conclude is consistent with their unbelievable track record of brilliant storytelling, that’s really surprising in ways that are mind-bending, which is the thing about the show that I think they’ve done so wonderfully.
Q: Is the end of the series what you thought it would be, from the beginning?
Abrams: Oh, no way! No. There are little threads and elements, here and there, but truthfully, when we started it, we didn’t know exactly what was in the hatch. We had ideas, but we didn’t know to what extent it would be. The notion of The Others was there, but we didn’t know exactly what that would mean. Damon hadn’t come up with the idea of flash forwards yet. To see where we are and what they’ve created is insanely gratifying and it’s something that no one could have predicted, at the beginning of it. The evolution of it is really part of their glorious experiment of taking a show that we were all, at the beginning, saying, “How do you make this a series?” and to see what Damon and Carlton have done is amazing to me.
Q: You had the idea for the basis of it though, right?
Abrams: There were a lot of ideas, but the specificity with which the thing played out was part of that leap of faith that it was going to work. That doesn’t mean that you plan everything out. You have big ideas, but when the better bigger ideas show up, you go with them.
Q: If the minutia and mythology hadn’t worked with the viewers, would you have tried to change Lost, or would you have just walked away?
Abrams: It’s hard to imagine the alternate universe version of Lost where you think, “Oh, that’s the version that is the other way to tell the story.” It really does feel like the trajectory that was started had no obvious place to go. Over time, they created this amazing narrative that is really just a result of that leap of faith and trusting that the characters will tell us what the show is, as much as anything. Damon and Carlton really did an amazing job.
Q: With ABC announcing an end-date so far in advance, did that help immeasurably, in terms of the storytelling?
Abrams: That’s something that Damon and Carlton insisted upon. They said, “Tell us how fast we’re running, so that we know what the end-game is and where the finish line is.” If you don’t know whether it’s 10 seasons or 6 seasons, you’re spinning your wheels. I’m thrilled to see billboards that say, “The Final Season.” You don’t see that very often. To know that it’s a show that’s going to end on its terms means that there will be a sense of inevitability to it, and not a sense of a series reacting to a marketplace or a viewership. It’s really cool.
Q: How satisfying do you think this final season will be for those who have followed the show since the beginning?
Abrams: I think it will be really bittersweet. While I think it will be very satisfying, I also think it’s going to be the end of something that, for the cast and everyone involved, has been a magical ride. So, the idea that it’s ending is a little sad, but it’s much better to end this way than to have it be, “You should have ended two years ago.” I believe it will be a satisfying ending, for sure.