Live LOST show a lovefest

If you were lucky enough to attend the "Times Talks Live: LOST" show tonight at local movie theaters, you probably walked out feeling like you got your $12.50 worth.

The New York Times' Lorne Manly (who wrote last week's excellent feature, "The Men Who Made ABC's LOST Last") played host for showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. The New York audience of LOST fanatics, like the ones in Dallas, cheered, applauded and hung on every word as the writer-producers discussed the creative process behind their cult hit.

Halfway through, actor Michael Emerson, who plays devious Ben Linus, walked onstage unannounced and joined the chat. Later, actor Jorge Garcia, who plays lovable Hugo "Hurley" Reyes, also strolled on to a storm of huzzahs.

Damon and Carlton dropped a couple of hints about who and what we might see in Sunday's finale. (Will there be a Star Wars reference in the first seven minutes? Damon says yes!) They discussed a few choice scenes that were shown, including Penny and Desmond's phone call from "The Constant."

But the best moment came at the end, when we got to see a short clip from the series finale. No spoilers here, but we'll just say that it hinted at the possible appearance of a beloved character we haven't seen since the Season 5 finale.

Lost 6.15: Across the Sea

Tonight's Lost is supposed to be heavy into the mythology of the Island.

We'll see Jacob, Man In Black 1.0 (or at least in the first version we saw him as) and guest star Allison Janney (CJ on The West Wing). I'm not sure what role she'll be playing. But I wonder how she ties into the past of Jacob, MIB 1.0 and the Island.

There will be very little of the main cast in tonight's show. Originally, it was reported that none of the series regulars would be seen in tonight's episode. But apparently, that's not quite true.

Also, supposedly there is a flashback seen to something we saw in an earlier season that will show us that JJ, Carlton and Damon knew what they were doing all along.

Don't forget to come back here after the show to chat about what we see and what we think could be coming up.

The episode was written by Carlton and Damon and directed by Tucker Gates.

Can't wait? Here are two sneak peaks of tonight's show:

Lost finale expanded by 30 minutes!

The series finale of Lost has expanded to two and a half hours!

An extra 30 minutes of Lost awesomeness!

The show now runs from 8 - 10:30 Central Time with a clip show before it. And Damon and Carlton will be on Jimmy Kimmel that night.

Doc Jensen's 'Lost: 10 Burning Questions'

Over on EW.com, Doc Jensen's got his list of 10 questions that must be answered in this final season of Lost, with some revealing commentary from show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

One biggie: "Who are Jacob and the Man in Black?" Well, that is "kind of the driving question of the whole season," says Carlton. He adds that it comes down not only to the conflict between the two adversaries, but to a huge metaphysical issue about "what is the fundamental nature of man. Is man good or is man evil?"

Carlton Cuse: Epsiode 14 is written

CarltonCuse tweets:

Writing with DL and Liz Sarnoff for the last four days until the midnight hour and beyond but ep 14 is now done. 3 more eps to go. Crazy.

The Onion: Last season of Lost will make fans more annoying than ever

Thanks to Jeff for sending this story ...

Fake news outlet, The Onion, predicts that this final season of Lost will make fans more annoying than ever.

Hilarious part: Shelters are being opened for those who live with Lost fans. Don't miss the words on the screen that say that this is modeled after successful containment of fans from The Wire (another brilliant show.)

The best part: Cuse and Lindelof are in on the joke and are actually interviewed.



Final Season Of 'Lost' Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever

Funny FAKE spoiler from Cuse, Lindelof

Check out this video. Yes, it's a FAKE spoiler. But it's funny and very short.

So, at the end of an interview, Damon Lindelof and Carlton make sure the cameras are off and then reveal the identities of Adam and Eve.

The answer will shock you. OK, it won't. But this clip will make you laugh.

What should we expect in the final season?

So, what exactly will happen in the season premiere?

It's hard to say where it will start and where it will go from there.

But, Watch with Kristin at E!Online, has a few tidbits about what kinds of things we will learn this season. (This is spoiler free. Just let's us know that we will get answers ... It just doesn't tell us what they are.) She says:

1. There Are Answers. Finally, now that we are down to the very last season, Team Darlton is able to give the fans what they've been waiting five season for: answers! Who is the smoke monster? What is the Island? Why are they all there? It's all down to the wire now, and I can tell you that in the first two hours alone of Lost's sixth season, there are more "answers" to the show's huge mysteries than there were in all of last season. Even if you've fallen out of this series, you will want to tune in to the end to see what it's all about. And for you fans who've followed all along, you will not be let down.
2. Terry O'Quinn Is Front and Center. Remember a few seasons back when Terry complained that John Locke's storyline was small, meek and misguided? Well, if only he could have seen then what is ahead for him in the final season: a stronger, more intense and more commanding storyline than Terry has ever had on this series. T.O.Q. just plain rocks, and the twists he will take this season will make you scream out loud.
3. It's Like a High School Reunion Without Having to Worry Whether You Look Fat. As you are well aware by now, nearly all of the Losties we've loved and lost (Dominic Monaghan, Ian Somerhalder, Rebecca Mader, just to name a few) will be back in some capacity for season six. It is a pretty awesome welcome-home party, with new connections you might not have guessed.

Catching up with Entertainment Weekly's Doc Jensen

Doc Jensen is once again musing on the ins and outs of Lost.

Catch up with what he's been doing:

• How long has Locke actually been Fake Locke? And more. Like how JJ Abrams decided to leave Lost of MI:3 and how Lindelof and Cuse became the show runners. How Abrams "dated" Tom Cruise. And, of course, more theories.
• The island as Mouse Trap and other games.

EW's Doc Jensen interviews J.J. Abrams

Over on EW.com, LOST guru Doc Jensen has an interesting interview with the show's co-creator, J.J. Abrams, whom the magazine has named one of their Entertainers of the Decade. He gives full credit for the show's success to co-creator Damon Lindelof, executive producer Carlton Cuse, and lead director Jack Bender, who anchors the crew on location in Hawaii.

Doc J. also has a new column, in which he challenges readers to decipher the hieroglyphics on the Season 5 DVD package, which reportedly just might contain a Season 6 reveal. There's lots more, too, including an interview with super-fan Andrew Wilmar.

Check out this spoiler free Spanish promo for the final season

Watch With Kristin at E!Online says:

Holy kickass promo! Since ABC and Lost's producers have decided not to show a single frame of the upcoming season, at least one international outlet (Spain's Cuatro network) has busted out what boss Carlton Cuse just retweeted is the "best promo ever"...

Season 6 will answer 'oldest and most confounding' mystery

No spoilers here. I don't don't what the answer is or what will be answered.

But, according to Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly: "I hear Team Darlton will give us the answer to one of Lost’s oldest and most confounding mysteries. And I’m pretty sure it’s an answer none of us expected to get."

What mystery could it be? The numbers? What is smokey? Who are Adam and Eve?

Zap2it: summary of LOST panel at ComicCon

For all the millions of Lost fans who couldn't make it to San Diego for ComicCon 2009 -- and the thousands who were there but couldn't squeeze into the auditorium for the panel with show runners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof -- Zap2it.com has a fabulous summary of the panel, with lots of videos included.

Pay special attention to the videos "from our sponsors" -- fake ads from Oceanic Air and Mr. Cluck's Chicken. And there's a faux segment of America's Most Wanted, with host John Walsh putting out an APB for everyone's favorite freckled femme fatale and fleeing felon, Kate Austen.

Which begs the question: Are we being given hints about an alternate timeline caused by Juliet's explosion of the Jughead?

Whose eye was that, anyway?

At the end of Lost's Season 5 finale, we saw a brief teaser for Season 6, which is supposed to run approximately from February 2010 into May. The only hint we were given for the final season (which the producers are calling "Destiny Found") was a closeup shot of someone's eye -- as seen above left. Such a closeup shot has been a recurring visual motif in Lost since the very first shot of the pilot episode.

But whose eye was shown?

Well, most often when we have seen it in Lost, the closeup shot of an eye has been Jack's, which is also whose it was in the pilot's opening shot at the very beginning of the show. And my guess is that the eye we saw this time, teasing Season 6, was also that of Doc Shephard the Younger.

Partly this is because producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have acknowledged a sort of mirror effect taking place in the series' structure, wherein Season 6 will contain certain resemblances to Season 1 -- and will at last answer any big questions still lingering from the first season.

But part of it is just the fact that if you compare the eye seen in the teaser with a previous closeup of Jack's eye, as seen above at right, the resemblance is hard to miss.

What do you think? Is it in fact Jack's eye? If so, will he awaken after "The Incident" to find himself lying in the jungle on the Island, just as he did post-Oceanic 815's crash in the very first episode? Or will he wake up... somewhere else?

And when will he wake up -- in 1977 or 2007? Or perhaps even back in 2004?

Video sneak peaks of "The Variable"

Here are three videos from the upcoming episode "The Variable."

Obviously, these are spoilers, but I'm guess that they don't give away too much of what will happen in the rest of the show.

There are no major spoilers like who dies in these videos. They're simply promotional material for the show.

You so know that Carlton and Damon wouldn't let major stuff out there on video.

Lost showrunners answer 10 reader questions

NO spoilers.

The Lost showrunners, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, answered 10 questions from readers.

Twenty question were submitted and they answered 10 (as previously agreed). Here are the questions they didn't answer.

What questions would you ask Cuse and Lindelof?

Check out the producers' podcasts

If you’re not listening to producers Damon and Carlton’s podcasts at abc.com, you should be.

They are quite the comedy duo. And sometimes they actually answer a fan question.

Here’s what they said this week in the episode recorded Monday and posted Thursday. Beware minor spoilers.

This week’s episode title was in fact referring to the book, “The Little Prince.”

Rose and Bernard survived the flaming arrow attack. As did Vincent (who is the one character that the producers say will surely live until the series’ end).

Resurrection (remember the vanagram?) is an ongoing theme this season. The hieroglyphs in the donkey wheel cave cannot be literally translated, but they reflect the notion of resurrection.

(thanks to Lost fan Beth for this post)

Season 5 of 'Lost' begins tonight...

...and that officially makes this the best week of the new year so far. Tune in to ABC at 7 p.m. (CST) for an hour-long clip show to refresh your memory of events. Then stick around for the first two new episodes: "Because You Left" at 8 p.m., followed by "The Lie" at 9. Word is that "Because You Left," in particular, will leave fans gasping. Here on Losties Island, of course, we'll blog about the show ASAP afterward.

So many questions to be answered, although most of them probably won't be resolved conclusively until the series ends in its sixth season. Among the mysteries bugging me:

Is Claire dead or just MIA? Miles seemed more than usually interested in her fate. That's never a good sign, having a ghostbuster interested in you.

What's Charlotte's connection to the Island? Was she a Dharma Initiative child who escaped the purge but grew up elsewhere? Is that why Ben tried to kill her -- because she knows things he doesn't want anyone else to know about the bad old days?

Are we going to become reacquainted with Annie, Ben's childhood sweetheart, and learn what became of her?

What will we learn about that four-toed statue? (Spoiler warning: On EW.com, the Ausiello Files reveals that showrunner Carlton Cuse says the statue helps to illustrate the Island's long, rich history. Could it really be so simple? Nah...)

How do Ben Linus and Charles Widmore know each other? Obviously, they go way back. Why is Widmore so assertive about the Island belonging to him?

Do Desmond Hume and Frank Lapidus also have to return to the Island, along with Ben and the Oceanic Six?

Why does the ageless Richard Alpert remain so extraordinarily well-preserved? Is he perhaps a centuries-old survivor of the Black Rock?

Are Bernard and Rose destined to become "Adam and Eve"?

Will we finally meet Dr. Pierre Chang, aka Edgar Halliwax/Mark Wicklund/Marvin Candle? And was he, like the other Dharmaites, really doomed to die in the Purge?

Does Daniel Faraday get involved with trying to change the Island's fate, or its timeline? Will we meet Desmond's enigmatic Ms. Hawking again?

Will Penny evade Ben's stated goal of killing her as revenge for the death of his adopted daughter, Alex, at the hands of Charles Widmore's mercenary?

Will we learn more about the late Libby? About Danielle Rousseau?

Is Locke really dead? Or will he, like Christian Shephard, appear to be alive again once his body is back on the Island? Was Christian also connected to the Island before his death?

Is Jin really dead? What exactly does Sun have planned for Charles Widmore?

How will Sawyer and Juliet cope with the presumed deaths of Kate and Jack? Will they turn to each other for comfort?

When will we ever find out the real scoop about the mysterious Jacob and his watchdog, Smokey?

And finally: Why does everybody on this show have so dang many daddy issues?

Another S5 sneak peek is coming online...

...according to Lost showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, in this week's special preview -- e-mailed to fans who were Dharma Initiative volunteers in ABC's most recent ARG:

Hello Dharma Friends,

In less than a week, LOST season 5 premieres! You're hopefully excited.
We're heavily medicating ourselves to overcome our anxiety.

What you'll be seeing on premiere night is, first, a special clip show
designed to get you back up to speed after our eight months off the air. The
clip show is followed by episodes one and two of this season. While we did not
write them to air as a two-hour block, we are happy that you are getting to see
both episodes on the first night.

Episode one, entitled "Because You Left," picks up where the finale left
off, and the second episode, "The Lie," is a Hurley-centric episode.
Honestly, we're very excited for you to see them.

Speaking of the Hurley episode, this week we've got a special sneak peek at
a scene from that episode just for you...

What follows is a 45-second flashback clip from "The Lie" of the Oceanic Six, plus Penny and Desmond, on board the Searcher, Penny's rescue boat. Jack's explaining to Hurley and the others why they must lie to protect their friends who remained behind. It's not really spoilery, but as always, don't watch if you do want to be totally surprised next Wednesday night.

Click here for more details and a look at that newest video clip from the Jan. 21st premiere. It's not posted on www.abc.com/lost yet, but should appear there within the next 48 hours.

Lindelof and Cuse answer viewer questions, well sorta

Check out this post from E! Online with a video of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse answering viewer questions.

Well, kind of.

If you want to check it out, it's not too spoilery. It gives you an idea of what questions will be addressed in season five but doesn't give answers. Questions include: why does Jack's dad wear white shoes and will we see more about the four-toed statue?