Lost's Rolling Stone Profile

Rolling Stone recently did a rather lengthy profile of Lost that includes an interview with Lindelof and Cuse. They do talk about how they plan to wrap up the series, and even though it doesn't actually contain any plot points, it's interesting to hear the overall thematic plan.

Lindelof says:

The storytelling is now marrying the mysteries of the characters and the island. Why are these people intertwined with the island? Why them? I think the audience has always gotten a sense that Oceanic 815 did crash for a reason, and those people on that plane were brought to the island to do something. The audience has been buying that — they want to feel that this crash wasn't arbitrary. This is the shift we're moving into.

Haven't they already revealed how the plane crashed? Well, yeah: Desmond left the Swan hatch to go confront Kelvin, stayed out too long, the timer run down, and the island's electromagnetic freakiness dragged the plane down. But was that "fated" to happen -- did the island always want the castaways to come? I doubt that's a question they'll answer, but Lindelof's quote basically admits that it's a question they'll raise.

There's a shift that started around the time we announced an end date, and that corresponded with the Obama campaign, towards faith. Carlton and I have made no secret of the fact that we're big Obama supporters, and we're very high on hope and change and optimism, and we hope the final seasons of the show will be infused with that idea. And we're seeing that reflected in the attitude of the viewers. People started to say, 'Maybe the show won't f*** me. Maybe if I believe in it, and change my thinking, I will get answers.'

So the show will end on a hopeful note. Right? Though probably not for everyone...given how regular the deaths have been throughout the series, I think Lindelof and Cuse will pull a J.K. Rowling and kill off a lot of people near the end of Season 6.

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.

Oh, sure you would. When you're dealing with these themes, the end of your show is going to lean toward one over the other. But which one? He was just talking about optimism, which implies that free will can win out, and faith, which implies that you need to put trust in your destiny. Naturally it will probably be a combination of the two.

This is getting kind of pretentious, so I'll stop. But it's interesting to see what they envision the show as beyond just the answers to its mysteries.

TAGS: Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof, Interview, Media Coverage
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