Last Night’s ‘Lost’: How’s It Going to End?
As the castaways of Oceanic 815 celebrated the 100th episode of “Lost,” what did we viewers receive as party favors? Another episode in which the big reveal is that a supporting character is secretly the child of two other supporting characters. (Will we next learn that Ben is the son of the smoke monster and the four-toed statue?) And another episode in which the plot increments could be measured only at the sub-atomic level.
We’re now less than two weeks away from the “Lost” season finale — ostensibly the last major cliffhanger its creative team can cook up, before the show’s final season begins in 2010 — and yet events are unfolding so slowly, we have to wonder more than ever: Do the producers of “Lost” really know where they’re going with this thing?
When we met with Damon Lindelof, an executive producer and co-creator of “Lost,” not long ago to talk about “Star Trek,” we asked him how he and his staff were preparing for the final year of the show. Here was his (appropriately cryptic) answer:There’s so much organizational power, especially now. The less episodes there are, the more you have to go, like, “Oh my God, we have to do this. When are we going to do that?” We always get asked iterations of the same question which is, “Are you making it up as you go along?” It’s a very complicated question to answer, but ultimately, we have all the story but we don’t know what order we’re going to tell it in. So it’s like “Pulp Fiction.”
There was always an option in past seasons which was, “Let’s hold it for next year. I don’t think they’re ready for that,” or “That’ll have more emotional impact later.” And then there are also actor deals to contend with – what’s the stable of regulars you can maintain at any one time? Next year, I feel like for the first time we’ll have the entire box of crayons to color with, without having to worry about the mechanics. All our ducks are in a row.
I think one of our biggest concerns is reaching the climax of the story too soon – you have to time it right, you have to walk that line between giving a steady supply of story and character pathos and mysteries being answered along the way, so that the audience doesn’t feel like it all comes in one big chunk. But then if you do it too soon, they kind of feel like, “I got everything that I cared about halfway through the season, so why am I still watching?” And it’s terrifying. Finally, we’re going to do it. There’s no excuses, we don’t get to say, “We didn’t get to end the show on our own terms. They kept us on the air three years longer than we wanted to be. Blah blah blah.” It’s like “Galactica,” you have to say, “Here it is, do you like it? I hope you like it.” There’s a lot of second-guessing going on. I think the show will end exactly as it began. There’ll be people who love it, there’ll be people who hate it. There’ll be people who’ll be confused by it, there’ll be people who love being confused. It’ll end on its own terms.
Did that answer all your lingering questions? Got any theories of your own about how the current season of “Lost” might wrap up, and where the show will go in its final year? Let us know in the comments below.
(Incidentally, in the scene when Charles Widmore comes to visit Daniel Faraday, did you wonder why the camera seemed to flash gratuitously on a back issue of Wired magazine? The Twitter-sphere is wondering, too.)
Source: NY Times
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