
While sides are being taken, lines are being drawn, and the battle between good and evil is just heating up – this week’s Entertainment Weekly pays a visit to the Island to get exclusive scoop on what the final season is all about – and how it may end.
As the intricate, intoxicating, and occasionally infuriating drama stands 13 episodes from the finish line, one thing is clear: Executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof aren’t playing it safe. While they’ve begun the process of resolving some of the show’s biggest mysteries, they’ve also dropped a provocative parallel-universe paradigm in viewers’ laps. Fans have greeted season 6’s first few episodes with oohs, ahhhs, and a few harrumphs. “I certainly was not prepared for the level of scrutiny that the show is being held to this season,” says Cuse. “It’s like if you actually had to have your Christmas televised as the Super Bowl halftime show, and America was going to watch what you bought for your family as presents and then pass judgment on them.”
All the tension boils down to this one overarching question: Can the Lost enterprise boldly go where few mystery dramas have gone before – Satisfactory Resolutionville? As much as fans want to be gobsmacked every single weak, Lindelof and Cuse say that, like it or not, they have chosen to make season 6 a deliberately mounting saga; each episode is an important chapter, but some are more monumental than others. Coming off Feb. 16’s meaty episode, the series will unleash a succession of episodes that further illuminate Island mysteries, bring back more old favorites, and set the stage for the first major battle in the epic standoff between good and evil. “The stakes are rising,” warns Evangeline Lilly. “We’re building to a situation where we have two camps of people pitted against each other….The season 6 finale is not just a big Brady Bunch party where we all have cupcakes and enjoy ourselves. Not gonna be like that.” As Matthew Fox put it, “[The season] has so far surpassed whatever my imagination could have dreamed. I feel really fortunate to have been a part of this series. It’s going to go down as one of the all-time greats.”
When Cuse and Lindelof originally began planning the final season, they looked at two possible scenarios: telling a story about a profoundly tweaked Lost timeline off the Island, or one in which the characters’ attempt to rewrite history didn’t work. Then they decided to do both. “We thought just doing one would not inherently be satisfying,” says Cuse. “We’ve designed each season to be its own thing. This season is about parallel timelines. The thing that was appealing to us as storytellers is that in hitting that reset button, we get to make the show really feel like season 1. We’re basically getting to tell origins for the characters all over again.”
The Island bluff-master Ben (played by Michael Emerson) offered the most alluring analysis of this season’s trippy story. “What if you saw what the show meant, but couldn’t recognize it?” says Emerson, who also gave voice to what many in the Lost audience were likely thinking after watching the premiere. “Like the viewers who saw the finale of season 5, I thought, ‘As soon as we come back, there’s going to be some great revelation about what all has changed,’” he says. “It’s full of amazing events and crazy-good scenes. But I can’t put it all together from where I’m at right now.”
For those viewers who share Emerson’s view, keep in mind that Lost seasons tend to end with a wow, not an ow. “All we can say is, Be patient,” says Lindelof. “You’ve come with us this far. Maybe we haven’t earned your trust, but whether you like it or not, you’re in the car and we’re driving. You have to basically trust us not to go off the road.” Adds Cuse: “If you’re feeling sick, roll the window down and throw up. But don’t get out of the car.”
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Posted Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 9:09am
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