Lindelof ‘s speaks about the finale….
Here are some highlights from the  spoilery article from Lost Redux:

• uses the Force as a metaphor for the Island (Seriously, how can you not love this guy?)

“There are certain questions about the show that I’m very befuddled by like, ‘What is the Island?’ or ‘What do the numbers mean?’ We’re going to be explaining a little more about the numbers, maybe significantly more about the numbers, but what do you mean by ‘What do the numbers mean?’ What is a potential answer to that question? I feel like you have to be very careful about entering into midi-chlorian territory…I grew up on Star Wars, I’ve seen the Star Wars movies hundreds of times, I can recite them chapter and verse, and never once did anyone ever say to me or did it occur to me to say, ‘What is the Force, exactly? Can you explain that for me, better than Alec Guinness does?’ I understand, ‘When are we going to find out about Libby?’ That’s a very finite question. ‘Who is Jacob?’ OK, yes, we’ve been talking to this guy named Jacob, so those questions then should have answers, but ‘What is the Island?’ That starts to get into ‘What is the Force?’ It is a place. I can’t explain to you why it moves through space-time, it just does. You have to accept the fact that it does.”

• The show’s ending

Damon says, “There isn’t a perfect way to end the show, but the end inevitably approaches and so the show has to start answering more and more questions. To me the greatest thing about Lost, just in terms of writing it, was that [over the years] the show could ask a question, and everyone [watching] could say ‘Here’s what I think the answer to that is.’ And next year we’re basically going to spend the entire season telling you you’re wrong. ‘Here’s the actual answer to that question.’ And you’re going to say, ‘S–t, my answer was actually much better.’ “

• The fact that Lindelof thinks that  M*A*S*H has the best episode series conclusion ever!
• The idea that the show has always been character-driven instead of mystery-driven

“All of the character resolutions will be very defined. There is going to be no cut to black. The show for me and Carlton [Cuse] and J.J. [Abrams] and all the people writing it—it’s not about the Island. The Island is where it takes place. It’s about this group of people who crashed on the Island on Sept. 22, 2004, and how they influenced the history of the Island in some ways and had a very significant and pivotal role to play there. You’re going to see that role play out, and their fates will all be resolved by the end of the series—that’s the story that we’re telling. In terms of every little bit of minutiae about the Island itself…there will be questions [left unanswered] after the show [ends].”

• Valenzetti and the ARGs….

This information, in more convoluted form, was leaked out via the online games rather than explained on the show itself, says Damon, because, “That would be the worst thing ever. We have to make the show for the hardcore fans who care about the numbers, but we also have to make it for my mom, who just wants Sawyer to take his shirt off.”

In this interview from daemonstv.com, Lange answers a few questions about Radzinsky, the set,  and himself.

(Filed under spoilers so that no one gets too irked… although personally I would classify it as spoilerish. )

I only grabbed some of the highlights here, but you can click to read the entire article. Lange is a huge fan of the show, and was really excited to work on LOST.

Can you talk a little bit about what’s coming up for your character? I think your next episode is on April 15, is that correct?

Eric Lange: Exactly, yeah. Well, unfortunately ABC has me on a really tight little leash and they’ve given us some stuff, but it was for previous episodes and they haven’t given me much more to be able to say about what’s coming up. But obviously he’s a bit of a mad scientist. He has some control issues and some anger management issues. He’s a bit of an annoyance for the heroes there in 1977.

Can you tell us if how many more episode he’ll be in?

Eric Lange: I’m every episode until the end of the season. Through to the finale. So there’s more of him to come.

Have you already shot the finale and now know everything that’s going to happen?

Eric Lange: Yeah. I know almost everything. There’s some stuff that they try to keep secret from just about everybody except the people involved in it. But yes, we just finished the finale. I got back about – I don’t know – a week and a half ago. They left, I think, April 3rd or something like that. So we’re just finishing the season.

We kind of know a little bit of what happens Radzinsky in the future, but I wonder if they were thinking about doing some flash forward episode centered on him? Are we going to learn more about why he killed himself?

Eric Lange: Yeah, with the map and all of that. I certainly hope so. I would love to see that because when that map showed up in season two I was pretty riveted by that just because of all this information.  I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness gracious. What?’ Then of course the theory is that he off’d himself. All the information we have about him is from that guy Kelvin who ended up being not too trustworthy a source. So I think there is some mystery about what actually went down in that Swan hatch. I sure hope we get to see that, but I have no confirmation from any powers that be that that’ll happen or not. But I have my fingers crossed.

I think a lot of people didn’t realize who he was. I had to search online to figure that he was the guy who wrote the map.

Eric Lange: Exactly, yeah. I think it’d be fascinating to find out more about that. When I auditioned for the show I was thrilled because I’d always wanted to be on it. It was like a two episode arch and the character’s name was Marty Jankowski in the sides. So I got the part and I was like, ‘Fantastic.’ I didn’t know anything. Then a couple of days later the costumer called and said, ‘Alright, you’re going to be playin…who are you playing? Let me see. Oh, you’re playing Radzinsky’. I was like, ‘No, no, no. I’m playing this Marty Jankowski guy.’ He said, ‘No, no. That’s a fake name. They made that up so that if the sides got out no one know you were showing up.’ The name off the bat didn’t ring a bell to me, but I just Googled it after I saw it. I thought, ‘Why are they making such a secret of it.’ My gosh, the amount of information on the internet about him is astonishing. For someone who was mentioned in one episode three years ago there’s a lot of people talking about him for a long time. I was a little intimidated with those shoes to fill. My impression was that these fans have a definite view of what they’d like to see him be or who they think he is. I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, how am I going to measure up to that.’ But it’s been just a blast, what an honor to play someone so entrenched in the mythology of ‘Lost’.

The part that I highlighted immediately makes me start to question what we’ve assumed about Radzinsky. I mean, Lange was pretty careful to keep everything suggestive and not concrete. Any thoughts?

But now, inside sources spill that a major character death is coming—and that the person who is leaving the show was not the first to know.

So, could it be Evie? If not, who is it?

Here’s what I can tell you about this death:

• A current series regular is getting killed before the end of season five.
  
• The character who will die is someone who is much-loved by many of you fans.
• This is a real leaving-the-show death, à la Shannon or Charlie, not a quick-fix time-travel death like Jeremy Bentham/John Locke.
• The character getting killed off is not, I repeat, not Evie’s character Kate Austen.

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b103931__lt_i_gt_Lost_lt__i_gt___A_Major_Character_Death_Is_Coming.html

source : lylyford.blog

Q: You’ve previously confirmed that Michael is dead. It would appear that Claire has also taken a dirt nap. But we’re still left hanging on Jin’s fate. Will both characters fates be resolved in Season 5?

Damon Lindelof: Good question. I would beg to differ on Claire’s alledged “dirt nap” (unless you mean taking a nap on dirt) — didn’t we see her last sitting in a cabin with the mysterious Christian Shephard? As for Jin, we’ll definitely be seeing more of him in season five… but as we’re moving through past, present and future… who knows WHEN we’ll see him.

Q: We here a lot of shows accused of jumping the shark. To your thinking, is it even possible for a show as time-bending and surprise-laden as Lost to jump the shark? In other words, how often do you guys say, “Hmm, that’s going too far?”

Cartlon Cuse: We actually TRY and jump the shark all the time. The last thing we want to do is feel like the show is falling into a tired paradigm. In fact this season we start out with a new narrative approach. Not the now traditonal flashbacks or flashforwards. We always are trying to keep the storytelling surprsing.

Q: At this point, how do you view the Lost DVD sets — are they part and parcel of the show? Are they extensions of it? And what are your thoughts on the people experiencing Lost week to week on TV versus in one or two or three commercial-free sittings on DVD?

Damon Lindelof: The DVDs are definitey part and parcel of the show. We’ve always thought of an episode of Lost playing on several different levels… they’re almost designed for repeat viewings. In fact, our habitual use of planting hidden “easter eggs” is tailor-made for the DVD experience. Personally, I love watching my favorite shows (particularly serialized ones like DEXTER) one after the other. I sometimes think about how frustrating it would’ve been to read the Harry Potter books ONE CHAPTER AT A TIME once a week. I’d pretty much kill myself.

Q: Hi Damon and Carlton, did the new structure (and experimentation) of flashbacks and flashforwards in season four open help you feel emboldened to explore even more with structure in S5 and how?

Damon Lindelof: Howdy, Tara! Yes — the fact that the audience embraced switching gears on the show from REVERSE to DRIVE emboldened us to get a little more loose with how we drive (as long as we’re never in neutral!) the story. The cool thing about Season Five is that it takes a little while for your brain to fully absorb how the story is unfolding… but hopefully, once it does, you’ll realize we’re trying something new yet again.

Q: It’s common knowledge that Ben was a character that came in, clicked with the audience and the story. What other characters/actors HAVE clicked that surprised you and HAVEN’T that surprised you?

Cartlon Cuse: Good question. And you’re right about Michael Emerson. He’s the biggest example of a character who we just fell in love with beyond our expectations. I would say Desmond would also be in that category. The audience really fell in love with him right from the get-go and he quickly moved right into the mainstream of our cast. Nikki and Paulo were less successful. We tried to introduce them out of the show’s chorus as it were and the audience cried foul. We listened and killed them off.

Q: We saw a lot more of Christian Shepherd in Season 4. Does this re-appearance tie into the empty coffin Jack discovered in Season 1?

Damon Lindelof: Indeed it does… and I think its safe to say you’ll be seeing Christian again in Season Five. And what’s up with those white tennis shoes he was wearing back in Season One?

Q: It seems that the next season will have A stories set in two time frames. Does this mean that you have to outline the story of the season in advance in ways you never did before?

Cartlon Cuse: Our approach to the story telling changed drastically once we were able to negotiate an end date to the show. Before that we didn’t know if the mythology had to last two seasons or seven seasons. Once we knew there were only going to be 48 eps of the show left we were able to start charting out the remaining journey. We approach it on three levels. First we have discussions about the uber-mythology and plant the big landmark events in rough locations. Then at the end of each season we have a writer’s mini camp where we discuss the arc of the upcoming season in great detail. Then we break each individual episode and see where we end up at the end of each break. We give ourselves a fair about of latitude to listen to the show and react — writing more or less for various characters or situations depending on how they play.

Q: The show continues to return to eastern religion and mysticism. How much of that is your personal interests and how much of that is just window dressing?

Damon Lindelof: Well… we try to infuse the show with all sorts of religious allegory, depending on what kind of story we’re telling. The Eastern religion and mysticism is something that started coming up a lot as we talked about the Dharma Initiative… but the thinking was more, “What if these hippies from Ann Arbor, Michigan were kind’ve like the Beatles and thought a trip to India could spiritually rebirth them?” Hopefully, when all is said and done, the themes of the show are hopefully universally spiritual… at least that’s what we’re going for.

Q: When you’re breaking stories, do you play to the strengths of a particular director — character development = Stephen Williams, action = Jack Bender — or do you tell the best story and let your incredible production crew figure out how to bring it to life?

Cartlon Cuse: Thank you Stephen Williams, masquerading as Michael Stailey, for your question. No, we break the episodes irrespective of who’s up on the director’s calendar. In fact, the director’s schedule is fairly fluid and they move slots so we would drive ourselves crazy trying to target a certain episode for a certain director.

Doc For UGO: There is a lot of concern amongst fans over how the show will work without the chemistry of the full ensemble. Is that separation something you will address in season 5, or is that more part of the remaining two seasons of story.

Damon Lindelof: We’re concerned, too! I think everyone, writers and fans alike, feels the show is at its best when our characters are together… but the fact of the matter is that the story is constantly twisting and turning to keep them apart. Let’s face it — Absence makes the heart grow fonder… but there’s nothing sweeter than a reunion. All we’re willing to say at this point is that if we were to spend the ENTIRE duration of Season Five with the Oceanic Six trying to get back to the island, we are fully aware that the audience would strangle us.

Q: You mentioned Desmond earlier… his reunion with Penny at the end of S4 was one of the greatest moments in the show’s history thus far (not to mention one of the year’s best TV moments). Nothing’s going to happen in S5 to jeopardize their happiness, right? Right?

Damon Lindelof: I’m sorry, Daniel. Wrong. Wrong.

Doc For UGO: Hey Guys, when will season one and two be getting the Blu-Ray treatment? Any plans?

Cartlon Cuse: Hi Jon. We have heard of no plans to go back and re-release seasons one and two on bluRay. But if I were a betting man I’d lay down a lot of money that you’ll be ale to buy a complete series blu-Ray box set when all is said and done.

Q: Do you feel that following the various viral campaigns that have been tied to the show is essential for understanding the mythology? Is there a risk of losing more casual viewers who can’t keep track of the complex mythology.

Cartlon Cuse: We consider the viral campaigns to just be additive and non-essential. Our rule of thumb is you should not need to watch anything but the mothership — the network show — to have a complete understanding (or at least as much as that is possible) of the show.

Q: If you had to pick THE pivotal moment from season four, for each of you, what was it? Why that scene?

Damon Lindelof: Hard to pick, but the one that immediately leaps to mind is the scene in the finale between Jack and Locke in the greenhouse. Obviously, the ramifications of Locke telling Jack (once again) that he’s not supposed to leave the island… but if he does, he must LIE about everything that happens… is essentially what kicks off the entire story of the Oceanic Six. We think its really cool that it was actually Locke’s idea, even though Jack doesn’t present it that way. And now that Jack is standing over Locke’s coffin, the relationship between these two men becomes really central to the endgame of our story.

Q: Do the shorter season schedules give you the time and energy needed to accomplish want you want, or do you still find yourself under the gun from week to week? Are you still on a 8-day turnaround schedule?

Cartlon Cuse: Thanks Michael. No, we are still on the same schedule, starting a new episode every eight days. Its just that the overall production season is shorter. When we’re in the middle of it, its just as insane. The biggest benefit to only doing 17 hours this year is pacing — we don’t find ourselves writing stall episodes. It really allows us to keep the peddle to the metal.

Q: Will there still be flashbacks and flash forwards next season?

Cartlon Cuse: Hi Kelly. Yes, there will still be flashbacks and flashforwards but we are not limiting ourselves to those ways of transitioning between stories. We still love doing them and will when appropriate. There are still some cool flashbacks left to tell for our characters.

Doc For UGO: The story has really arrived at a point where the science fiction and fantasy aspects can’t really stay in the subtext anymore, is this liberating for you guys as writers or do you wish you could go back to some of the science vs faith ambiguity of the earlier episodes?

Damon Lindelof: It actually IS liberating… but at the same time, the show constantly forces us to evolve. We CAN’T go back to the ambiguity of Season One because our characters have experienced so much since then. Carlton and I often talk about the STAND… how the story starts with something scientific, an epidemic that kills of 99% of the world’s population… but slowly and steadiy transforms into a mystical tale where people are having prophetic dreams… and finally, LITERALLY ends with the hand of God coming out of the sky and setting off a nuclear device. Our story has always been about a journey… but just because we’re embracing some of the more fantastical aspects of the island, doesn’t mean we’re completely abandoning the science vs. faith of it all.

Q: You’ve mentioned Nikki and Paolo not hitting with the audience. How do you draw a line between making the audience happy and telling the story you set out to tell?

Cartlon Cuse: Devin, its now kind of a moot point. Moving forward it will be virtually impossible for us to adjust in-season to audience feedback. By the time the show premieres on Jan 21 we will have written 14 of the 17 hours and probably will be deep into the specific scene plotting for the finale. This season we’re going to be completely relying on our on instincts and judgments — combined with the feedback of our collaborators here on the show and at the studio and network.

Q: What television series imprinted you as kids the most growing up-that perhaps influenced your decision to make a career in smallscreen?

Damon Lindelof: Thanks for asking that question, April… because I was a TV JUNKIE growing up. Other than watching endless hours of cartoons (THUNDERCATS, VOLTRON and yes, SMURFS), I loved watching “grownup shows” with my folks… like DALLAS. Perhaps that’s where I got my love for melodrama! The show that REALLY affected me, however, was TWIN PEAKS, which I’d watch every week with my dad. He’d tape the show on his VCR (remember those?) and we’d watch the episode AGAIN right after it aired in our quest to pull every last clue out of the show. The idea of a TV Show being a mystery and a game that spawned hundreds of theories obviously was a major precedent (that’s a fancy way of saying we ripped it off) for LOST.

Q: Watching season four in one or two sittings, on DVD, do you think there’s a break in style between the pre-strike and post-strike episodes?

Damon Lindelof: Hopefully not, Charlie. The fact of the matter is that we designed out — at least roughly — the entire sixteen episode season… planting flags as to what would happen where in the grand scheme of things. In that original design, there were a couple of episodes focusing more on the Freighter Folks (Faraday, Miles and Charlotte) that got pushed into this season, but more importantly, things like Jack’s appendicitis and Keamy arriving at New Otherton and killing Alex happened SOONER than we had planned due to the collapsed schedule. I think if there’s a sense of separation between the first eight episodes (ending with “Meet Kevin Johnson”) and the final six hours, it’s that the story is really moving at a much higher rate of speed than we’re traditionally accustomed to.

Q: Now that you are close to being finished with writing season five, how does it feel to know you are so close to the home stretch in this odyssey? Has it brought out reflections or feelings you didn’t expected either personally about the process or towards the storyline?

Cartlon Cuse: Tara, I think all of us who work on the show know what a special experience it is. Our ability to negotiate and end date to the show so far in advance was I believe unprecedented in network TV. It has given us a real sense of what the journey is going to be. Normally when you work on a TV show you never know when it is going to end. You’re just trying to survive season to season until the proverbial horse drops out from underneath you. We’re not quite far enough along yet to start to wax nostalgic, but I think we all recognize that we’ve had a chance to do something really extraordinary. I was watching all the bonus features and thinking about the special alchemy of LOST. You can do your best as a storyteller but on TV you also need a great cast, crew, directors, composer, etc. You really see on those features what a collaborative art form it is. We are truly blessed that this assembly of talent came together for this project. The journey of making a show over six years and the hourse it takes really makes you a family — and we’re about as happy and as functional a TV family as I’ve ever seen or worked with.

Q: With the end of the series looming in 2010, is a feature film being considered at all?

Damon Lindelof: The answer, Brian, is no. At least not by us. We’ve always felt that the show should definitively end the same place it started… on television. To bring our characters to some sort of cliffhanger where the audience gets none of the answers that they really care about and then say, “Now give us ten bucks. buy some popcorn and we’ll give you the rest!” would pretty much be the worst thing ever.

Q: Are we ever going to get back-stories for Rousseau, Libby, and/or Walt or does that now fall by the wayside with only thirty-four episodes left?

Cartlon Cuse: Let’s just say you will get more information about Rousseau and Walt at least. We can’t comment about who will or wont get full-on flashbacks. Obviously as the story moves forward we’ll be answering questions at a faster rate. But some stories — like Libby’s — we feel are pretty much finished.

Q: Are we ever going to get back-stories for Rousseau, Libby, and/or Walt or does that now fall by the wayside with only thirty-four episodes left?

Cartlon Cuse: Let’s just say you will get more information about Rousseau and Walt at least. We can’t comment about who will or wont get full-on flashbacks. Obviously as the story moves forward we’ll be answering questions at a faster rate. But some stories — like Libby’s — we feel are pretty much finished.

Q: What’s up with the four-toes statue and some of the crazy stuff that’s happened over the years on the show … are we ever going to get the answers to these questions?

Cartlon Cuse: Yes, more on the 4 toed statue to come! In fact (spoiler) the 4 toed state might come to life in the Zombie season. As we roll into the end of season 5 and certainly in season 6 the show will definitely be much more in answer mode.

Q: By having shorter seasons now, do you feel the storytelling has become much easier — or do you feel regret and often go “man, it would be great to have three more episodes?”

Damon Lindelof: The storytelling has never been easy… but we’ve always felt that “less is more.” The complaint that we got most often in the first couple seasons of the show is that we were not moving the story forwards fast enough — “stalling” — which, unfortunately, is a necessary tactic when you’re doing 25 episodes a year. The truth is that we actually liked those episodes low on incident (“Claire sends a message on a bird, anyone?”), but the show is much more fun to write when we can just power through and give you guys a hearty meal as opposed to a zillion little courses that never quite get you full.

Closing Remarks

Damon: All right, gang! Thanks so much for stopping by and we hope you dig the DVD! We know its our job to pimp the product, but in this case, the extras are actually pretty awesome. Especially since I get to wear an eyepatch in one. So Happy Holidays and we’ll chat with you again once the new season gets hopping!

Carlton: Thanks so much for showing up today. We gotta go. The writer’s room awaits. We hope you guys will enjoy the upcoming episodes and hope to talk to you all again soon. Best, Carlton

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