Well, um, maybe not everything. (Writers is slipper bastids, y’know.)
by Kimberly Nordyke
Four years after the Lost finale aired, showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuseare still fielding questions about it.
The duo reunited with several of their former castmembers … on Day 4 of PaleyFest at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where they introduced that night’s screening (the audience watched season one’s penultimate episode, titled “Exodus (Part 1),” before the panel discussion). Joked Lindelof of the polarizing series finale: “We debated whether to not to show you the real finale.” To which Cuse quickly responded: “Too soon.”
As for the theory that the characters were dead during the entire course of the series, which ran from 2004-10 on ABC, Cuse later quashed any lingering doubts: “No, they were not dead the entire time.”
He explained that the theory was fueled by the final moments of the series, in which shots of the plane wreckage were shown before going into commercial break. Cuse, who now serves as co-showrunner on A&E’s Bates Motel and also has The Strain coming up on FX — said those shots were inserted on the advice of former ABC Studios head Barry Jossen, who suggested that there be a “buffer” between the final scene and the commercial break.