The Tail Section

The latest issue of TV Guide is full of Lost goodness.  Not only are there some set visit spoilers that I wrote about here, but Jimmy Kimmel also took the time to sit down and interview Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. The first part of the interview is now online.  You can read some highlights below, or go to TVGuide.com to check out the rest.

Kimmel:  People come up to you all the time with theories.  Has anyone come close to cracking the code?
Cuse:  I think there are two assumptions that people make that are incorrect.  One is that the whole answer to Lost reduces down to a sentence.  It’s not like searching for Einstein’s Unified Field Theory.  And the second is that you have enough information to "crack the code."  The flash-forwards completely changed your notion of the show.  So how could you do some accurate theorizing before you even knew those existed?

Kimmel:  But you do actually know the final specific scene?

Lindelof:  We absolutely, 100 percent know what the last scene of the show is and could put [the pages] in a safe deposit box.  But there is an asterisk next to that, which is that we’re slaves to fluctuations in reality.  If one of the actors in that scene decided to stop being in Lost…
Cuse: Or, perchance, got a DUI, the entire ending of the show could change.  Basically, the show is in the hands of Hawaii law enforcement. [Laughs]

Kimmel: [Laughs] Do people find clues that surprise you guys?

Lindelof: In the pilot, there’s a still frame of Walt, and behind him, burnt into the fuselage wreckage, is what looks like a Dharma symbol.  We’d talked about the idea that there had been a group of hippies on the island, but the phrase "The Dharma Initiative" or the design for the logo didn’t come along until much later. But it’s there and it’s not Photoshopped.  Suddenly, you understand how hundreds of people can show up and see…
Cuse:  The Virgin Mary in a piece of toast.  It’s a mystery that’s even greater than our understanding.
Lindelof: We would love in moments like that to go, "Yes.  We knew we’d be introducing the idea of the Dharma Initiative in the second season premiere and we wanted people to go back to the pilot and see that the symbol had been burned into the fuselage."  But if we had known, we wouldn’t have done it in such an oblique way.  Sawyer would’ve went [adopts Southern twang], "Hey, what’s this?"  We want people to see our Easter eggs.

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"Your Voice" is a new TTS series in which Tail Section fans submit their articles, theories or reviews to be published on The Tail Section for all their fellow fans to read. Have you spent far too much time pondering the origins of the DHARMA Initiative? Have you alienated your co-workers by rambling about Daniel Faraday’s wacky time anomaly experiment? If so, we want to hear from you. Send your own Lost theories, reviews, or general thoughts to Editor(at)TheTailSection.com. Please keep all submissions between 300 and 1,000 words. We will read through all submissions and contact you if we publish your entry. You will also receive byline credit on our site.