Oh...why is Damon Lindelof so shy on camera? He is usually more open on the audio podcasts. Anyway this interview was kinda interesting. Jimmy annoys me a lot of the time in this. And the clip? OMG!!!! Hope Ben doesn't have another gun and shoots both Locke and Hurley....

The only thing it really showed is why Lost is loosing somany viewers and sliding down the ratings.. They proved how the show is being made up as it goes along and has no real start, middle or ending.
I'm guessing there will be many loyal lost fans (myself included) who are gonna be mighty pissed off at the end of it all.
Bringing in Ben for a "show or 2" then deciding he's great let's make him the leader of the others is concrete proof of no script writting direction.
I wish shows like lost knew the story b4 they set out as it would save us from many absurdaties and plot holes which we are now gonna have to endure. They have dug themselves in a hole bigger than that pit shown in the next weeks video clip i feel.

Burial, I really have to defend these guys from that. These guys can't be expected to make up the complete set of details of an entire six-year series, including every character and event, in time for the filming of the pilot episode. A lot does get made up as they go along. It's normal.

And it doesn't mean there isn't a story arc. In the example you cited from this interview, if they had decided to kill off Michael Emerson after two episodes they'd have made someone else the leader of the Others, and "Henry" would have been a real guy from Minnesota, or a minor spy from the Others. In the end, though, the questions of why the Others kidnapped Claire, what the black smoke is and where the Black Rock came from would have been the same. The core elements of the show have never depended on the specific characters these guys created.

I agree with Ed let us give them credit for keeping Michael Emerson as Ben. The range of emotions his character displayed in The Shape Of Things To Come was amazing. All in a one hour episode. I could not even imagine a better Ben. His portrayal of a creepy, smug, and manipulative character is dead on. I applaud their insights because adding Michael Emerson made Lost a better show.

Burial,

You're kidding, right? The writers have known all along the overall arc of everything, but you can't blame them for not knowing every detail and element of every episode before they even begin shooting Season 1.

JK Rowling and Stephen King said of their Harry Potter and Dark Tower books that they both knew from the beginning how it would end; it was a matter of figuring out how to get there. Cuse and Lindelof have been meticulous so far and are starting to tie things up very swiftly. The meandering of much of season 2 and early season 3 (and about half of season 1, honestly) was getting a handle on a show and finding the path to the end point. Besides, they've gone on record as saying they've pretty much written the final scene of the show already.

Finally, the Nielsen numbers are a bit slippy only because they're NOT including DVR ratings, which are through the roof. Virtually everyone I know who loves the show DVRs it. And ABC knows this, and ain't gonna cancel it due to low(er) ratings.

Have faith!

wat im not getting at all is the time difference on lost

1. freighter fired rocket to the island to daniel, when it should of reached the island, it took an extra half hour to actually get there.

so it seems time goes slow on island and takes the rocket longer to reach.

but

2. doc rays body end up on the island before he is even dead, in the sneak peak we see him alive on the freighter

so it seems here that the island time is faster as his body is dead and at the island b4 it happens???

I DONT GET IT ONE BIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ANY ANSWERS/THEORIES PLEASE PEOPLE

Since 6 seasons of Lost were not shot in 1 year it is only reasonable that the writers have to scrap some ideas in order to make the show progress. The actors aren't going to guarantee six years of their lives to make a show that is only contracted for a year. The writers aren't going to write 6 seasons worth of episodes up front when they are only guaranteed to be paid for the first season. In retrospect, had the team been guaranteed money up front along with the amount of episodes they had to produce, Lost would have wound up the best show on TV ever. The problem is that the writers have to adjust the show to outside life (actors leaving/not being available or strikes) which force the writers to improvise or condense shows into an unnatural script.
The writers biggest gaffe was not recognizing Michael Emerson's talents earlier. The character from the supposed balloon crash that was captured in Season 2 should have been played by another person so Emerson could solely be Ben Linus. It really cheapens both the writing and the show to call an audible like that and then have Emerson be the leader of the others. It just doesn't make sense knowing what we do about Ben that he would have let himself get captured to spy on the Losties when he had so many other ways of spying on the passengers and communicating with them. If Ben were willing to send himself into the 815 camp then he would have done so immediately after the plane crash.

I think it's too bad that Ben wasn't realized to play such a big role in the plot earlier. He is probably my favorite character on the show...he's DEADLY! And i have to say that it's definitely not too late for the writer's to come up with a story as to why he was headed to the beach when he got caught in the trap. In fact, i fully expected that we'd find that out at some point.

Also i can totally see how a new character like Ben (new at the time) could've been brought in during the writing process of season 2 and kept on as one of the biggest characters. I would assume these writer's bring in new characters from time to time (as they still are doing) to keep things fresh, etc and if he/she hits it off with viewers, etc...then why not keep him/her. Ben for example was probably brought in as a fairly insignificant character and then as the writers got feedback and stuff they decided to keep him and make him a bigger character and i'm VERY glad that they decided to make those decisions well into the writing process instead of going with whatever was originally planned.

I wouldn't be surprised if Burial just wrote that to get a rise out of people....

Don't play into it.

They already told us why Ben was walking across The Eyeland when he got caught in the trap! Well Ben told Locke, he could've been lieing, "I was coming for YOU!"