Lost goes from 16-16-16 to 14-17-17
By fred | May 10, 2008
What do those numbers mean ? Simply that, as planned, while the strike means the current season of Lost will be shortened by 2 episodes (14 instead of the 16 originally planned), we will get exactly the same amount of Lost in the end. As Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof explained, “We were supposed to do 16-16-16. But we ended up doing 14 this season, so we owe two.” So, instead of having the three last seasons of the show made out of 16 episodes, this one will feature 14 episodes, while the other two got one more episode each.
For some reason Lindelof was apparently asked about adding even more episodes to the show, extending to one more season for example, which is obviously the stupidest thing ever. Or, in Lindelof’s own words, “Carlton Cuse and I worked so hard to get the show to end that I think to suddenly say, “Oh, I think we’ve got another season in us” would be a betrayal to everybody involved in the show — but most of all the audience. It’s better to retire your number at the top of your game.”
Talking then about the upcoming finale, in a spoiler-free way of course, Lindelof said that “The finale this year will not be as tricky as last year. Hopefully, this year it’s a little bit more of a straightforward action-adventure narrative. But the ending of the episode will hopefully engage and intrigue people looking forward to the next season of the show.”
Talking about the series finale, to air in sometime in 2010, he revealed that he and Cuse were planning to “go into hiding for many, many months [at an] undisclosed location,” which may or may not be a secret Island no one knows its location as it can move in space and time I guess, to ensure they wouldn’t be harassed by questions from every fan in the World.
“David Chase set a great example when he went off to Paris after The Sopranos ending, which is great because all these people are going to be asking, “What does it mean? What is it?” The fact that there’s no one really around to answer that question, it forces people to come up with what they think it means. We can guarantee our show will not end with a cut to black, it will be more clear than that. But whenever anything you love ends … there’s a certain disappointment.”
In other words, while I’m sure we will get many many answers during that series finale and long before that, not everything will be resolved, of course. I just really hope they don’t let too much of it open, but I have faith.
Finally, talking about next season and how things will evolve, while Lindelof declined to say whether the flash-forwards will continue, he did open a new possibility… — And if you’re really spoiler-phobic you might not want to keep reading on!
Spoilery talk ahead:
Lindelof did open the possibility of the show’s main story line on the island catching up with the flash-forwards that have taken place on the mainland this season. “It’s very exciting that the audience is going to be wondering when is the present going to be [next season]. We’ve moved backward in time, now we’ve moved forward in time. The present of the show has always been on the island — that may not necessarily be the case in the future.“
