[IMG:L]Lost fans can now take a flashback of their own with Season 3 on DVD. Between Desmond’s morbid visions, the Nikki and Paulo debacle and the explosive finale it is well worth the trip down memory lane.
Hollywood.com caught up with show creators Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof to get their take on the controversial season.
HW: What was your favorite moment of the last season?
Carlton Cuse: My favorite moment [last season] was actually when we had a little party for the writers and editors and the people that worked on that show. Nobody tells their spouses anything about the show and when it was revealed the last scene was a flash forward instead of a flashback, I was so keyed up to sort of see what everybody’s reaction was and there was just this collective gasp! I was so fun actually after having plotted it and written it to actually see how it played. We never actually knew that it would land as well as it did. I mean, you do something like that and then you hope for the best. There will still be flashbacks and there will also be flash forwards.
[IMG:R]HW: How hard was it to do that scene where you knew Dominic Monaghan’s character Charlie was going away?
CC: It was really emotional. I remember when Damon and I went into the editing room and we first saw it. Even though we knew exactly what we were going in to see, just actually watching the dailies of him dying and watching the first cut of that scene, it was really emotionally affecting. It’s like it hits you on a sort of visceral emotional level. And even though we were prepared for it, and even though we’d written it, we’d planned it, there was something that was really sad watching it. We kind of sat there in sort of stunned silence. As a writer you sometimes have to kind of confront the reality of your decision making and that was what was right for the story, but it was still really hard. We took a minute and we really mourned it ourselves after we first saw it on film.
Damon Lindelof: It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to Charlie. We really felt the season needed to end with the loss of one of the major characters and began setting it up very early in the year. Charlie’s sacrifice was brutal for us to write… and Dom‘s performance made it particularly brutal to watch. The reverberation of that death echoes right into the premiere of Season 4.
HW: Can you explain why Charlie didn’t swim back to the surface instead of drowning?
DL: Two reasons. One, once he closed the door (to save Desmond) the porthole that Mikhail blew out was too small for him to fit through. Second reason, because he knew, no matter what, that he was gonna die… so why bother?
HW: Is there any one actor that you’ve loved watching mature through the whole Lost process?
CC: I think really Josh Holloway. You know who was not really known to audiences and I think he’s just fallen into the role of Sawyer and he’s become this huge star and he still is as great a guy as he ever was and he’s just so charming and wonderful and I think he so was deserving of the success that’s come to him. And just sort of watching him finally sort of achieve his dream kind of late. You know I mean, and after a lot of struggles, that’s really, really satisfying. And I think he’s just a fun, wonderful actor and a lot of writing for Josh is like wish fulfillment writing. You know I wish I could be as cool as him and as funny and quip-y as he was.
[IMG:R]HW: The third season pushed Kate and Jack apart. But the last episode shows that their relationship is stronger than ever. Why did you want the fans to believe they have no chance together?
CC: The Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle is something that will go on for a long time! .And who says they don’t have a chance??
HW: Why did you created the characters of Paulo and Nikki? Why did they have to die?
CC: People asked questions about the other characters on the beach. Are we ever going to learn anything about them? So we decided to bring Nikki and Paulo out of the chorus, but once we did it people were angry that we we were taking time away from out main characters and giving it to Nikki and Paulo, so we listened to the fans and decided to bury them alive.
HW: Is there any explanation for selecting the names of Locke, Rousseau, Hume for some characters?
DL: Yes. They are all people on Carlton‘s bowling team. Oh… and world famous philosophers whose writings we liberally steal and infuse into the show.
HW: Will we know someday what do the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42 really mean?
CC: We may explain what 16 and 23 mean. We’re very conflicted about giving up the meanings of 4,8 and 42.
HW: The feminine characters are complete by themselves and do not depend on the masculine characters to be credible. Was this something that was thought from the very first moment or was it something that gradually rolled on?
DL: It’s totally intentional. And if Carlton and I didn’t do it that way, our wives would get angry at us. Honestly, we’re blessed with such amazing actresses… individuality and strength are traits we really look for when we’re casting. We knew from the moment that Elizabeth Mitchell came in to read for Juliet that she was really gonna shake things up. If there’s any reason to watch every episode of Season 3 again, it’s to watch the growth of that character.
[IMG:R]HW: Season 3 saw the death of a lot of main characters. Was it your intention from the start of the season to create such a bloodbath?
CC: This year was about the Others. The ending of the show we felt had to resolve the story of the others. We promised a showdown. that showdown had profound consequences on both sides.
HW: Since you reveal that the secret of the island is about space-time traveling, many unsolved things in Lost now seem to have an acceptable explanation. Why did you decide to reveal that?
CC: When ABC/Disney allowed us to end the show in 48 more epsides it was time to begin a new modality of story telling which includes flash forwards. The show is like a mosiac. There are tiles in the presnet, in the past, and now in the futre as well. When all the tiles are in place the story of lost will be complete.
HW: Why watch Season 3 on DVD?
DL: One of the things that we think hurt the storytelling this year was breaking the season up… doing six episodes that were dark and depressing and probably too focused on the Others before we reunited the group and got to the meat of the season. In addition to the fairly awesome behind the scenes stuff, watching the season as a whole is something we really think enhances the experience.
HW: What do you think fans will be most excited about on the DVD special features?
CC: We’re very excited about the 24 hours of Lost feature. It really illustrates how complex and collaborative a process it is to make a TV series. We are also very excited about the Blu-ray release. This is the first ABC Disney TV show to come out on Blu-ray and it will be awesome on a quality level. There also is a very special answers feature on the Blu-ray discs only in which Damon and I confirm or deny various truths of the show.
[IMG:R]HW: We saw that these new DVD contain your literature’references. Which reference is the most obvious in season 3 ?
DL: One of the special features on the Season 3 DVD is called “Lost Book Club.” You’ll get your answers there… but my personal favorite is that Aldo (the Other guarding Room 23 in Episode 7) is reading “A Brief History of Time.”
