Death Ray Magazine has a brand new interview with Lost masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse in which they discuss the coming final season of the show. Much of what’s said in the interview is reiterations of bits we’ve heard before (”negotiating the end date of the show was the smartest thing we ever did,” etc.), but the duo offer a few hints as to what will be addressed, thematically, in the show’s final season.

Carlton Cuse: “…we will answer the questions that we feel are important and central to the show, as well as basically trying to tell redemption stories.”

Death Ray: Is the end of the show about the characters discovering what the purpose of life is?
Carlton Cuse: “It certainly is about them discovering what the purpose of their lives is. Ultimately it doesn’t matter if you were a doctor, a musician, or a torturer, now here on the island is the opportunity to erase the sins of your past… What exactly is [their] destiny?… That’s what the last season of the show will explore.”

Add this to something Lindelof said earlier in the interview: “…this idea of a hero’s journey. Traditionally that journey is a protagonist going on an adventure… They have this call to fulfill their destiny. Well, we’re doing that 14 times, for each and every character.” Sounds to me like Season 6 is going to be a year heavy on redemption and solidifying the show’s main characters as the mythological archetypes we always knew they were.

For those of you still needing closure on the death of Daniel Faraday, Lost’s executive producers Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse wrap up the whole affair in an interview with TV Guide. The juiciest excerpt from the interview:

“It was an incredibly painful thing to kill this beloved character,” [Carlton] Cuse adds, “but we feel that’s what this show has to do. His death is kind of the culminating event in the entire season. It really ends one chapter and commences the start of the final chapter of the entire series.”

Take note: the final chapter of the entire series has officially begun.

In other news, this week’s Official Lost Audio Podcast offered some really interesting teases and clarifications for fans wondering about various things from this season — and things yet to come…

Read more

Lost masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse say in a new interview over at Lostpedia that last summer’s “Dharma Wants You” alternate reality game was all about prepping the audience for this season’s Dharma Initiative storyline. “Essentially the whole idea was to signal to the audience that our characters… were going to end up in Dharma times.” So the purpose of “Dharma Wants You” was to foreshadow what was going to happen in the second half of Season 5, in the same way that “Find 815” was about the fake wreck and “The Lost Experience” was about the numbers.

There’s more interesting trivia about the show in the interview, though all of it in a “looking back” kind of way. There’s nothing about what’s yet to come, and definitely no spoilers.

Image: Ryan at Hawaii Blog.

Even though there was no new episode of Lost this week, ABC has still produced a new edition of the Official Lost Video Podcast. The video claims to be in honor of the upcoming 100th episode of the show, next week’s “The Variable,” but actually has nothing whatsoever to do with that episode. Instead, it features the second half of an interview with actress Evangeline Lilly, who discusses the “Kate & Jack” vs. “Kate & Sawyer” debate.

Variety’s Season Pass blog has posted an interview with Lost masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse in which all of the questions came from fans. The ground rules were simple: no questions about what’s to come, and Damon and Carlton each committed to answer five questions each, for a total of ten. It fell to the Season Pass blog to whittle down all of the submissions to just ten questions (though they combined quite a few).

A few highlights:

• Regarding the fabled “lost Sawyer episode” which was filmed several years ago but never aired and switched instead to a Michael storyline, Carlton Cuse says not to expect that footage to ever show up on any future DVD or Blu-ray releases. “That was the only time we dumped an entire storyline,” he says. “[It] was not at the quality bar we have for the show.”
• In reference to the much-discussed “6-season structure” of the show, and how that was finally, contractually decided at the halfway point, Cuse jokes, “People used to be worried that Lost was spinning its wheels. Now the concern is, are we gonna be able to wrap it all up in only one more short season?”
• Damon Lindelof mentions, in answer to an unrelated question, that “the overall storyline of the final season has been planned for almost five years.” That puts the conception of the end of the show back around the end of Season 1.

Actor Jorge Garcia (Hurley) says that the season finale of Lost, titled “The Incident,” is finally going to reveal (among other things) the reason Hurley got on Ajira 316. He says we can also expect to learn a little bit more about Jacob.

Watch for the moment when Garcia shares about what a hard time he has keeping a straight face around Matthew Fox. My favorite part is near the end where they talk about (and show) some of Garcia’s homemade Halloween costumes. HI-larious.

The real secret of Lost, according to a new Rolling Stone interview with Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse, is that ultimately it’s less about “what is the island?” (though those answers are coming) and more about “who are these characters?” Regarding the end of the show next season, Lindelof says:

“We have always known what the very end of this series will be. We are going to present the audience with the empirical answers to these questions — the questions that we care about and that we feel are really important to understand in order to give the show the necessary closure. We will not be cutting to black as a Journey song plays. But as for the grander questions Lost raises — you know, does free will win out over destiny? — these sort of larger thematic questions can’t be answered by a single show, and we certainly wouldn’t have the hubris to try.”

Read the entire interview here.

Actor Harold Perrineau, aka Lost’s Michael Dawson, is starring in the new ABC series The Unusuals. He talks to BlogTalkRadio.com about his new role, and includes a bit where he clarifies his personal feelings on how things played out with Michael on Lost, as well. (In short: his much-publicized comments about not being happy about how Michael’s story ended were taken way out of context.)

Here are this week’s editions of “Lost Untangled” and the Official Lost Podcast.

“Untangled” tackles “He’s Our You,” the latest episode of Lost, in which all of our attention was focused on Sayid and his killing ways. This vid offers a 5-minute humorous recap of the ep.

Next up is the Official Lost Podcast, which, like last week, features co-executive producer Jean Higgins, continuing her tour of the show’s sets…

It’s Friday. And that means it’s time to goof off at work while you wait for the clock to free you from your occupational bonds.

(C’mon. Am I wrong?)

So here for your boredom-soothing pleasure, are a whole flock of videos related to Lost, and to this week’s episode, “Namaste,” in particular. You’ll find the official ABC recap and podcast, new interviews with Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly, and a new edition of “Getting Lost” from TV Guide.

Let’s start with the always-amusing ABC recap, aka “Lost Untangled,” for this week’s ep. All other videos will be after the jump.

Read more