MAY 20TH: MILKRADIO REPORTS ON THE LOST TALKS BROADCAST LIVE FROM NYC
ALRIGHT NERDS, so I already mentioned in some places that I was going to see the Times Talks presentation of Lost with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for my birthday today and I just got home and I have much to tell you! I'll put things under a cut just in case people don't want to read before the finale (it's not spoilery though, don't worry!).
So the presentation was broadcast live from NYC in the New York Times Centre into about 500 theatres across Canada and the USA and they took questions that were emailed into them from across North America as well as questions from the audience who were present in New York. Some of the things brought up were:
1) Whether or not they make things up as they go (answer: They know where they want to end up with the show, it's just that they have to "colour in the drawings they have in mind" as they're writing each season/episode)
2) How they plan the series from the beginning (they have a vague sketch and then have plans for each season that they come up with during the writers' mini camps before they sit down to write details)
3) When asked whether fans have any influence, Darlton say they're always asked that. Fans either want to hear they have a set plan from the beginning plotted out in a binder, or be assured that fans influence the show. Neither is strictly true, they balance between the two. They did say that sometimes they put little things in to acknowledge what the viewers are thinking/asking, such as "why isn't Hurley losing weight?" so they put in the bit about him stashing food in the jungle. (Though they are puzzled about why no one asks why everyone always looks so nicely groomed and sexy. "There's nobody who looks like Tom Hanks in Castaway in our show.")
3) Michael Emerson showed up and got squeals from the crowd! He wore a dapper vest as per usual and someone asked him about his illustrating career (he did it for a living, but he prefers acting and hasn't done any illustrating in a long time) and to tell his wife she's awesome on True Blood, at which point he smiled really adorably lol.
4) Jorge Garcia also showed up and got squeals! When he sat down, Memerson had just mentioned Hurley about 2 minutes earlier and he kind of went "Oh, yeah, they weren't super confident about whether or not that was my cue, so if you had said another name, it would have been a little awkward." lol. He came in and chatted a bit about Geronimo Jack's Beard and how he came up with the name first and then thought "Oh crap, now I have to do it..." and then got his friend to make a logo and then felt an even stronger urge to actually do a podcast, but that he probably won't do any more podcasts when the show is over aside from maybe one or two for the finale. Darlton agreed that they wouldn't continue podcasts for long after the show ends because they don't want to be "those guys" who "don't know when the party's over" and they don't want to be the guys at Comic Con 7 years later still basking in their Lost afterglow and will move on to other projects.
5) When asked about their favourite characters, Damon and Carlton said they had a lot and that it kind of changes from time to time, kind of like how you have many favourite kinds of food, but vary them because you don't want to get sick of them. Jorge said he's "partial to Ben" and Michael said he really liked Mr Eko (and everyone applauded).
6) About Nikki and Paulo... They claimed that at this point in the show, they didn't know how long they had to finish the overall story since they had no end date yet, and every season they add new characters. They already had Juliet involved and they knew she would be interesting to look at in the Others' camp, but they needed someone new at the beach, so they figured they should have some of the "socks" (aka people in the background who carry wood from place to place lol) talk for once since there's about 30+ survivors left and we only ever hear from the main ones. However, after a little while, they realised this was a mistake and they knew the fans wouldn't accept them shoving these characters in and pretending like they had always been there and knew we would be going "Excuse you, I've been here since the beginning and I know I have seen you here before, who are you, why are you on my turf >:|" This is why they had Sawyer speaking for the audience a bit to show they're acknowledging our frustration when he says "Who the hell is Nikki?" when she "dies" after running out of the jungle. They felt this is how they can tell us that they get that they made a mistake by introducing them. Exposé was then meant to be more of a humorous/tongue-in-cheek episode as well as an easy way to get rid of them. The other option would have been to just drop them completely with no explanation and Damon, the nerd that he is, thought "No, the idea of an episode with Lando is much better, so we're doing that."
7) Talking about being filmed for DVD extras during the filming and post-production of the final episodes: Darlton talked about watching the orchestra do the soundtrack with Michael Giacchino, and how Lindelof had to be asked to leave the studio because he was crying too loudly. He even said the cellist looked at him with a "WTF?" expression as he had to leave. Then Carlton said he also cried, but was trying to do silent tears instead lol. Damon then conceded that the emerging theme for tonight's talk was that he actually cries a lot (WOW DO YOU THINK JACK IS HIS FAVOURITE LOL). They also said it was hard to feel like they were totally finished with the show because even though they finished writing, they still had to shoot and when they finished shooting, they still had to edit and now it's all ready, but oh wait they still have to go Lost Talks and David Letterman so it's not over! Damon then said he will probably move onto the anger stage of grieving by Monday.
8) They also briefly mentioned how scared they always were when they had to go to the execs for ABC to pitch the new seasons. They mentioned how nervous they were to talk about the time skips for season 5 and after they pitched everything for about 40 minutes, the exec just went "...Whatever." LOL. They said it was more of a "I don't get it right now, but I believe in you guys," not a "Whatever, I don't care." They also mentioned that they thought about applying to Starbucks if things didn't work out and how they were over the moon when ratings came in for the pilot episode.
9) They said the saddest death was Charlie's, but they felt this was necessary because not only had they been talking about it for a whole season with Desmond's flashes, but it would show the stakes were still very real (after Boone) unlike shows like CSI where Horatio Crane will get a gun pointed at him and you're not as invested because you know he's going to be fine in the end. On Lost, you know anyone can die at any point and they want you to feel uneasy going into the finale (AHHHH).
10) They showed a couple clips throughout the show:
a) The first was from Man of Science, Man of Faith (season 2 premiere) where Jack has come back to correct Locke on the last number of the code for the computer and Locke hesitates before pushing, telling Jack he has to do it, etc. We all know what scene I mean. They then discussed how this is mirrored in The Candidate when Jack is trying to tell Sawyer "nothing's going to happen" if they don't pull the wires and even though Jack is saying the same thing in both situations, in season 6, he is now the Locke figure/man of faith and Sawyer is the season 2 version of Jack/cynical and doubting. They talked about how important mirroring is to the series because it shows the progression of the characters and how they situations change. They also related this to the many times we've seen characters in the sideways timeline looking into mirrors, kind of pondering who they are and why they are.
b) The second clip was the infamous phone call between Desmond and Penny from The Constant. They were talking about which romantic pairings were the most beloved and this was an episode that most people liked because of the romance angle and because we love these characters. The point of the episode, however, was to establish time travel as a functioning plot point that we're meant to understand, to set up the skipping in season 5 after Ben moves the island, and to establish that Penny actually IS looking for Desmond so we can expect her at the end of season 4 when she rescues the Oceanic 6. And while this episode is mostly remembered as setting up the close bond of a fantastic couple, it's not the overall function of the episode, which is instead designed to get us adjusted to plot points for later episodes.
c) The third clip was Hurley and Miles in the DHARMA Initiative in the 1970s where Hurley is being the "voice of the audience." We were meant to feel validated when he trips Miles up in his explanations of time travel and having Hurley asking questions means we will stop asking questions and will just listen. lol. They explained it less rudely, if that makes sense. They also said a lot of these "explain things to the dumb guy" scenes are based on actual conversations they have in the writers' room, which is hilarious to imagine.
d) This is a clip from the finale, but I will put it in white font, so highlight if you want to read. Damon promised it wasn't spoilery, so even though I'm a spoilerphobe, I was totally excited to see this. The scene starts in daylight with FLocke coiling up a rope at the well. Sawyer is shown peering through the bushes and Ben comes up behind him with a rifle and says "If you're going to watch, you might as well join us" (~bow chicka wow wow~). Sawyer reluctantly comes over to the well and FLocke smiles and asks what brings him there. Sawyer says Sayid told them Desmond was in the well and that he was coming to get him out and after looking into the well, he says it looks like someone beat the both of them to it. FLocke asks why he wants Desmond, and Sawyer addresses him as "Smokey" (LOL) and says because he knows FLocke needs him for whatever he's planning on doing to destroy the island. FLocke says something about Jacob's "little candidates" and Sawyer says they're not candidates anymore, but doesn't elaborate. He suddenly hits Ben in the face, takes his gun and leaves. Ben gets pissed that FLocke just stood there and asks why he's letting him leave, and FLocke says he doesn't need him... to destroy the island! Ben gets annoyed that he was told he would get to be in charge of the island after FLocke leaves because it looks like that's not the plan and FLocke says Ben can join him on his boat because he's going to leave "this godforsaken island" and "watch it sink". He looked at some tracks on the ground, crouches and says "...I think there was a dog here." AT WHICH POINT I WENT "OMGGGG VINCENT IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING DEAL WITH IT."
OTHER THINGS:
1) No one asked about Lapenis :(
2) Hurley and Miles are both special in that they can see/hear the thoughts of the dead. Walt, however, was special in a way that was disturbing to people (see: Room 23 webisode). They also said they cast a 12 year-old for an 8 year-old's part and that by the time his voice was changing at the end of season 2, they were like "Oh shit, get this kid on the raft ASAP." Then they said Malcolm David Kelley is 39 years old now and 6'5", so it got hard to keep him in the show. HOWEVER, they did say this isn't to say he's not special and that he wouldn't maybe show up at some point in the finale (will he?! Dun dun dunnnn, we will watch to watch!)
2) They didn't want to answer someone's question about whether Desmond's "you have to lift it up, brotha" quote means anything more important. From Lostpedia, in case you can't remember:
After surgery Jack takes a jog in a stadium. He notices another man who is jogging up the staircase next to him. Jack races to catch up to him but rolls his ankle and falls. The man comes to Jack's aid and introduces himself as Desmond. After taking a look at Jack's ankle, Desmond reveals that he was almost a doctor. After Desmond asks why Jack was "running like the devil was chasing him" he discusses Sarah's procedure and how he made a promise he couldn't keep. Desmond wonders out loud whether he actually did save her, but Jack tells him that that would be a miracle. Desmond leaves with a final bit of advice; "lift it up". He's referring to Jack's ankle.
They were purposely evasive with this question.
3) They also refused to answer anything about Eloise.
4) They also wouldn't answer someone's "friend's" crazy theory about the cave of light being comparable to the button in the hatch ie. Desmond/Locke pushing the button in case there is the remote possibility it will save the world paralleled with Jacob protecting the light of the island because Mother said bad things would happen if he didn't. Neither Desmond/Losties or Jacob/Jack knew/know if they actually have to push the button/protect the light and they're going on belief alone. Desmond and the Losties eventually found out the button is real, but we still don't know about the light. This person's theory also was part of a larger question of whether or not Jacob is really who we should be rooting for and whether or not FLocke is who is ~actually the good guy~. Yeah, they basically just refused to answer this one by tiptoeing around it lol.
5) Someone asked "Why does there have to be a human presence on the island?" and they tried to avoid answering this too. They first laughed it off and said "Well you wouldn't watch otherwise!" and Jorge said that would be a show on the Discovery Channel, but yeah, they just really didn't want to elaborate so close to the finale.
6) DAMON SAID THERE WILL BE A STAR WARS REFERENCE IN THE BEGINNING OF THE FINALE AND THIS IS SUPER SURPRISING TO ALL OF US OF COURSE.
In conclusion and in summary, Lost is complicated and we will just have to wait to see how it all ties together on Sunday night.
And I don't want to see any "tl;dr" comments >:|
So the presentation was broadcast live from NYC in the New York Times Centre into about 500 theatres across Canada and the USA and they took questions that were emailed into them from across North America as well as questions from the audience who were present in New York. Some of the things brought up were:
1) Whether or not they make things up as they go (answer: They know where they want to end up with the show, it's just that they have to "colour in the drawings they have in mind" as they're writing each season/episode)
2) How they plan the series from the beginning (they have a vague sketch and then have plans for each season that they come up with during the writers' mini camps before they sit down to write details)
3) When asked whether fans have any influence, Darlton say they're always asked that. Fans either want to hear they have a set plan from the beginning plotted out in a binder, or be assured that fans influence the show. Neither is strictly true, they balance between the two. They did say that sometimes they put little things in to acknowledge what the viewers are thinking/asking, such as "why isn't Hurley losing weight?" so they put in the bit about him stashing food in the jungle. (Though they are puzzled about why no one asks why everyone always looks so nicely groomed and sexy. "There's nobody who looks like Tom Hanks in Castaway in our show.")
3) Michael Emerson showed up and got squeals from the crowd! He wore a dapper vest as per usual and someone asked him about his illustrating career (he did it for a living, but he prefers acting and hasn't done any illustrating in a long time) and to tell his wife she's awesome on True Blood, at which point he smiled really adorably lol.
4) Jorge Garcia also showed up and got squeals! When he sat down, Memerson had just mentioned Hurley about 2 minutes earlier and he kind of went "Oh, yeah, they weren't super confident about whether or not that was my cue, so if you had said another name, it would have been a little awkward." lol. He came in and chatted a bit about Geronimo Jack's Beard and how he came up with the name first and then thought "Oh crap, now I have to do it..." and then got his friend to make a logo and then felt an even stronger urge to actually do a podcast, but that he probably won't do any more podcasts when the show is over aside from maybe one or two for the finale. Darlton agreed that they wouldn't continue podcasts for long after the show ends because they don't want to be "those guys" who "don't know when the party's over" and they don't want to be the guys at Comic Con 7 years later still basking in their Lost afterglow and will move on to other projects.
5) When asked about their favourite characters, Damon and Carlton said they had a lot and that it kind of changes from time to time, kind of like how you have many favourite kinds of food, but vary them because you don't want to get sick of them. Jorge said he's "partial to Ben" and Michael said he really liked Mr Eko (and everyone applauded).
6) About Nikki and Paulo... They claimed that at this point in the show, they didn't know how long they had to finish the overall story since they had no end date yet, and every season they add new characters. They already had Juliet involved and they knew she would be interesting to look at in the Others' camp, but they needed someone new at the beach, so they figured they should have some of the "socks" (aka people in the background who carry wood from place to place lol) talk for once since there's about 30+ survivors left and we only ever hear from the main ones. However, after a little while, they realised this was a mistake and they knew the fans wouldn't accept them shoving these characters in and pretending like they had always been there and knew we would be going "Excuse you, I've been here since the beginning and I know I have seen you here before, who are you, why are you on my turf >:|" This is why they had Sawyer speaking for the audience a bit to show they're acknowledging our frustration when he says "Who the hell is Nikki?" when she "dies" after running out of the jungle. They felt this is how they can tell us that they get that they made a mistake by introducing them. Exposé was then meant to be more of a humorous/tongue-in-cheek episode as well as an easy way to get rid of them. The other option would have been to just drop them completely with no explanation and Damon, the nerd that he is, thought "No, the idea of an episode with Lando is much better, so we're doing that."
7) Talking about being filmed for DVD extras during the filming and post-production of the final episodes: Darlton talked about watching the orchestra do the soundtrack with Michael Giacchino, and how Lindelof had to be asked to leave the studio because he was crying too loudly. He even said the cellist looked at him with a "WTF?" expression as he had to leave. Then Carlton said he also cried, but was trying to do silent tears instead lol. Damon then conceded that the emerging theme for tonight's talk was that he actually cries a lot (WOW DO YOU THINK JACK IS HIS FAVOURITE LOL). They also said it was hard to feel like they were totally finished with the show because even though they finished writing, they still had to shoot and when they finished shooting, they still had to edit and now it's all ready, but oh wait they still have to go Lost Talks and David Letterman so it's not over! Damon then said he will probably move onto the anger stage of grieving by Monday.
8) They also briefly mentioned how scared they always were when they had to go to the execs for ABC to pitch the new seasons. They mentioned how nervous they were to talk about the time skips for season 5 and after they pitched everything for about 40 minutes, the exec just went "...Whatever." LOL. They said it was more of a "I don't get it right now, but I believe in you guys," not a "Whatever, I don't care." They also mentioned that they thought about applying to Starbucks if things didn't work out and how they were over the moon when ratings came in for the pilot episode.
9) They said the saddest death was Charlie's, but they felt this was necessary because not only had they been talking about it for a whole season with Desmond's flashes, but it would show the stakes were still very real (after Boone) unlike shows like CSI where Horatio Crane will get a gun pointed at him and you're not as invested because you know he's going to be fine in the end. On Lost, you know anyone can die at any point and they want you to feel uneasy going into the finale (AHHHH).
10) They showed a couple clips throughout the show:
a) The first was from Man of Science, Man of Faith (season 2 premiere) where Jack has come back to correct Locke on the last number of the code for the computer and Locke hesitates before pushing, telling Jack he has to do it, etc. We all know what scene I mean. They then discussed how this is mirrored in The Candidate when Jack is trying to tell Sawyer "nothing's going to happen" if they don't pull the wires and even though Jack is saying the same thing in both situations, in season 6, he is now the Locke figure/man of faith and Sawyer is the season 2 version of Jack/cynical and doubting. They talked about how important mirroring is to the series because it shows the progression of the characters and how they situations change. They also related this to the many times we've seen characters in the sideways timeline looking into mirrors, kind of pondering who they are and why they are.
b) The second clip was the infamous phone call between Desmond and Penny from The Constant. They were talking about which romantic pairings were the most beloved and this was an episode that most people liked because of the romance angle and because we love these characters. The point of the episode, however, was to establish time travel as a functioning plot point that we're meant to understand, to set up the skipping in season 5 after Ben moves the island, and to establish that Penny actually IS looking for Desmond so we can expect her at the end of season 4 when she rescues the Oceanic 6. And while this episode is mostly remembered as setting up the close bond of a fantastic couple, it's not the overall function of the episode, which is instead designed to get us adjusted to plot points for later episodes.
c) The third clip was Hurley and Miles in the DHARMA Initiative in the 1970s where Hurley is being the "voice of the audience." We were meant to feel validated when he trips Miles up in his explanations of time travel and having Hurley asking questions means we will stop asking questions and will just listen. lol. They explained it less rudely, if that makes sense. They also said a lot of these "explain things to the dumb guy" scenes are based on actual conversations they have in the writers' room, which is hilarious to imagine.
d) This is a clip from the finale, but I will put it in white font, so highlight if you want to read. Damon promised it wasn't spoilery, so even though I'm a spoilerphobe, I was totally excited to see this. The scene starts in daylight with FLocke coiling up a rope at the well. Sawyer is shown peering through the bushes and Ben comes up behind him with a rifle and says "If you're going to watch, you might as well join us" (~bow chicka wow wow~). Sawyer reluctantly comes over to the well and FLocke smiles and asks what brings him there. Sawyer says Sayid told them Desmond was in the well and that he was coming to get him out and after looking into the well, he says it looks like someone beat the both of them to it. FLocke asks why he wants Desmond, and Sawyer addresses him as "Smokey" (LOL) and says because he knows FLocke needs him for whatever he's planning on doing to destroy the island. FLocke says something about Jacob's "little candidates" and Sawyer says they're not candidates anymore, but doesn't elaborate. He suddenly hits Ben in the face, takes his gun and leaves. Ben gets pissed that FLocke just stood there and asks why he's letting him leave, and FLocke says he doesn't need him... to destroy the island! Ben gets annoyed that he was told he would get to be in charge of the island after FLocke leaves because it looks like that's not the plan and FLocke says Ben can join him on his boat because he's going to leave "this godforsaken island" and "watch it sink". He looked at some tracks on the ground, crouches and says "...I think there was a dog here." AT WHICH POINT I WENT "OMGGGG VINCENT IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING DEAL WITH IT."
OTHER THINGS:
1) No one asked about Lapenis :(
2) Hurley and Miles are both special in that they can see/hear the thoughts of the dead. Walt, however, was special in a way that was disturbing to people (see: Room 23 webisode). They also said they cast a 12 year-old for an 8 year-old's part and that by the time his voice was changing at the end of season 2, they were like "Oh shit, get this kid on the raft ASAP." Then they said Malcolm David Kelley is 39 years old now and 6'5", so it got hard to keep him in the show. HOWEVER, they did say this isn't to say he's not special and that he wouldn't maybe show up at some point in the finale (will he?! Dun dun dunnnn, we will watch to watch!)
2) They didn't want to answer someone's question about whether Desmond's "you have to lift it up, brotha" quote means anything more important. From Lostpedia, in case you can't remember:
After surgery Jack takes a jog in a stadium. He notices another man who is jogging up the staircase next to him. Jack races to catch up to him but rolls his ankle and falls. The man comes to Jack's aid and introduces himself as Desmond. After taking a look at Jack's ankle, Desmond reveals that he was almost a doctor. After Desmond asks why Jack was "running like the devil was chasing him" he discusses Sarah's procedure and how he made a promise he couldn't keep. Desmond wonders out loud whether he actually did save her, but Jack tells him that that would be a miracle. Desmond leaves with a final bit of advice; "lift it up". He's referring to Jack's ankle.
They were purposely evasive with this question.
3) They also refused to answer anything about Eloise.
4) They also wouldn't answer someone's "friend's" crazy theory about the cave of light being comparable to the button in the hatch ie. Desmond/Locke pushing the button in case there is the remote possibility it will save the world paralleled with Jacob protecting the light of the island because Mother said bad things would happen if he didn't. Neither Desmond/Losties or Jacob/Jack knew/know if they actually have to push the button/protect the light and they're going on belief alone. Desmond and the Losties eventually found out the button is real, but we still don't know about the light. This person's theory also was part of a larger question of whether or not Jacob is really who we should be rooting for and whether or not FLocke is who is ~actually the good guy~. Yeah, they basically just refused to answer this one by tiptoeing around it lol.
5) Someone asked "Why does there have to be a human presence on the island?" and they tried to avoid answering this too. They first laughed it off and said "Well you wouldn't watch otherwise!" and Jorge said that would be a show on the Discovery Channel, but yeah, they just really didn't want to elaborate so close to the finale.
6) DAMON SAID THERE WILL BE A STAR WARS REFERENCE IN THE BEGINNING OF THE FINALE AND THIS IS SUPER SURPRISING TO ALL OF US OF COURSE.
In conclusion and in summary, Lost is complicated and we will just have to wait to see how it all ties together on Sunday night.
And I don't want to see any "tl;dr" comments >:|