No new footage and precious little information about the sixth and final season of Lost, launching on ABC on February 2nd, but showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and cast members Emilie de Raven, Daniel Dae Kim, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, and Jorge Garcia did tease some information about Season Six.And Team Darlton had one specific announcement that might just be catnip to Lost's legion of obsessed fans: "Harold Perrineau will be back on the show this year," said Lindelof. "Cynthia Watros will be back!" said Cuse.
You heard it here first.
And some other changes are afoot as well. "We're doing something different narratively in this season," said Cuse, which that doesn't require either a deep investment or in-depth knowledge about the series. (Just what that could mean? Hmmm....)
So what can fans expect from the beginning of Season Six of Lost? "The season premiere picks up right after the finale," said Cuse. "We've been very circumspect about the sixth season... We don't really want to give away what this season is." (And Team Darlton has done a phenomenal job at keeping the lid on Season Six. We don't know when it's set, where it's set, what the new narrative device is that's being employed... or, well, very much at all.)
"The story of the sixth season has to go back to the beginning to examine a lot of things," said Lindelof. "We want to show the audience the before [for the characters] and then how far they've come."
"The premiere is definitely like WHAT? Wait. What? Let me read that part again," said Garcia.
As for Cuse, he teased that the final season will offer a "healthy cocktail of mysteries, answers, surprises, and character resolution." But don't look for every single mystery to be tied up neatly with a ribbon.
"Not all questions will get answered," said Cuse. "There's a fundamental sense of mystery in our lives and these characters'." It wouldn't be true to the series, Cuse felt, if he and Lindelof spelled out the answer to every single one of the series' lingering mysteries. Likewise, Lindelof feels that there is bound to be some division among the ranks about the ending itself. "I don't think it would be Lost if there wasn't an ongoing debate about whether it was a good ending or a bad ending," said Lindelof. "This is the ending that we wanted to do on the terms that we wanted to do."
But whatever happens, this is the end of Lost, at least in this incarnation.
"They have not pressured us at all," said Cuse about whether ABC has asked about spinoffs or pressured any of the actors into signing onto a spinoff or sequel. "I mean, the network has been fabulous, and we owe a great debt of gratitude to Steve McPherson again just for this whole notion of ending the show... We are definitively ending this story of these characters and the show that we wanted to tell in May, and there's not going to be an implanted sequel. There's not going to be a secret back-door pilot embedded in that. The story of Lost that we've been telling for these six seasons is coming to a close this May."
But the final image of the final episode is one that Cuse and Lindelof had had in mind since nearly the beginning of the series. "We came up with the final image of the show a long time ago back when we were first plotting out the mythology in the first season and then we started adding elements to that as we went along," said Cuse. "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. I mean, that's part of the discovery process of writing."
Let the guessing begin.
Best quote: "I have lots of found memories of breathless confrontations in small rooms." - Michael Emerson, when asked about his favorite moment from filming the series.
Meanwhile, the producers revealed that Terry O'Quinn had no idea about the plot twist revealed at the end of Season Five (which revealed that Locke was in fact dead and O'Quinn was playing a new character). "I think if we had called Terry during the shooting of 'The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham,' which is around the sixth episode of the season, and said, 'Hey, Terry, we do not want to confuse you, but the Locke that you are now playing on the island is not actually John Locke anymore," because thousands and thousands of years ago... He'd say stop," said Lindelof. "But instead you put in the script, 'There's something about Locke that's different,' and Terry plays something about Locke that's different. And you keep it simple and you trust your actors, and it's worked out pretty marvelously for us."
As for the cast, the race to the end is getting under way and each of them will have to deal with the series' passing in their own way. "I am going to cry like a baby when this show ends," said Lilly.
You and me both, Evangeline.
[Keep refreshing for latest info. More tk after my on-camera interviews with the Lost cast for Sky1.]
Season Six of Lost begins February 2nd at 9 pm ET/PT on ABC.
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