LOST SEASON 5 HIGHLIGHTS; LOST: BECAUSE YOU LEFT {SEGMENT}; DAMON LINDELOF, CARLTON CUSE INTERVIEW
Summary
This clip package and interview session, screened as a part of The Paley Center for Media’s “Lost” Season 5 Preview and Discussion (ACCNUM B:93821), contains clips and background for the first four seasons of “Lost,” the fantasy drama series about a group of plane-crash survivors forced to live with each other on a remote and mysterious island. Clips are set to “You Found Me” by The Fray and include scenes from season four, including the “moving” of the island in the season finale, as well as the survivors’ lives off the island and their interactions with one another.
A narrated “starter kit” is then presented which offers background information on the show’s history, including the top three overall concepts that viewers need to understand: that the survivors were strangers first, that they survived for a reason, and that the island is “special.” Also included are descriptions of the main characters; a breakdown of plotlines concerning romance, power struggles, conflicts and the big events at the end of the fourth season, including the moving of the island and the lies told by the “Oceanic Six,” the six survivors who made it off the island.
The first half of the fifth season premiere, “Because You Left,” is then shown. In this episode, a flashback to 1977 shows Dr. Pierre Chang, also known as Marvin Candle, revealing that one of the island’s stations, the Orchid, contains a vast pocket of volatile energy that will allow them to manipulate time, but that it cannot be unleashed just yet. Also somehow present alongside Chang is Daniel Faraday, the physicist from the freighter in the present day.
In 2007, at the funeral home, Ben tells Jack that they must round up the rest of the Oceanic Six and return to the island, bringing along with them the body of John Locke, but Jack doubts that the others will be willing. The matter is further complicated by the mistaken arrest of Hurley, who is believed to be a murderer, although the killings were committed by Sayid. Elsewhere, Sayid takes Hurley away from the mental hospital and to a safe house, which is quickly revealed to not be safe at all, and Sayid is shot with a tranquilizer dart as he fends off their attackers. Kate faces her own complications when men arrive at her home demanding a blood test to prove her relation to Aaron, Claire’s son, whom she is raising as her own. She refuses, and immediately packs her bags and flees with Aaron. Sun, while attempting to travel back to the US from London, is waylaid by an angry Charles Widmore, who asks about the “common interests” she mentioned, and she replies that they both want to kill Benjamin Linus.
Back on the island, Ben is again shown turning the frozen wheel, and those still on the island experience a “flash” as a bright light engulfs the island and alters their position in time. Bernard panics when he finds that their camp is gone, and Dan attempts to explain that it has not been built yet. Sawyer demands further elaboration, and Dan explains that Ben’s actions “dislodged” them in time, like a record skipping on a turntable. They are now “unstable” in time and liable to “flash” to another time period at any moment, which they do. Locke, who is also on the island but separate from the group, experiences the time shifts as well, and witnesses the crash of the fateful Nigerian Beechcraft, which he encountered as a decaying wreck in his own past. When he attempts to climb to the plane, he is shot by the dangerous Other Ethan Rom, who does not believe Locke’s claims of being appointed the new leader of the Others by Ben. However, another “flash” removes Locke from Ethan’s line of fire and transports him to another unknown period. Commercials deleted.
An interview with creators and executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof is then conducted by Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff Jensen. The discussion touches on such topics as: their current place in the writing and editing process of season five; a countdown of viewers’ favorite episodes as voted online, and how the popular episode “The Constant” required much explanation of time travel to the network; original plans for the pilot and alternative suggestions by creator J.J. Abrams; the challenge of the time-travel plotlines and how past seasons led up to it; how the show’s sci-fi nature is now more “overt” and contains clear explanations; whether the scientific issues will be “too exotic” for some fans; the importance of taking risks in writing; the third season episode “Flashes Before Your Eyes” and how the writers have been committed to the idea of time travel for several seasons; the focus on the characters’ reactions and how they cannot “accept their universe” too easily or dwell on its absurdity; the show as a character-based adventure story; the “rules” of time travel and how the past cannot be changed or else ruin the “stakes” of the show; the characters’ lack of control over their destinies; the trend of opening season premieres with specifically-chosen music; planting clues and in-jokes known as “Easter eggs” for fans’ interest; plans for the series finale at the end of the sixth season; the influence of “Twin Peaks” and “The Prisoner”; their desire for the show to be remembered as “bold” whether viewers liked it or not; and how the show’s “legacy” will be determined by the audience response.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: January 9, 2009
- RUNNING TIME: 00:55:28
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:93827
- GENRE: Drama; Interview
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Interview
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2004-2010
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Jeff Jensen … Interviewer
- The Fray … Performer
- Bryan Burk … Executive Producer
- Edward Kitsis … Executive Producer
- Adam Horowitz … Executive Producer
- Jack Bender … Executive Producer
- J.J. Abrams … Executive Producer, Created by
- Damon Lindelof … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Carlton Cuse … Executive Producer, Writer
- Jean Higgins … Co-Executive Producer
- Elizabeth Sarnoff … Co-Executive Producer
- Stephen Williams … Co-Executive Producer, Director
- Paul Zbyszewski … Supervising Producer
- Ra'uf Glasgow … Producer
- Brian K. Vaughan … Producer
- Pat Churchill … Producer
- Richard Peter Schroer … Co-Producer
- Melinda Hsu Taylor … Co-Producer
- Samantha Thomas … Co-Producer
- Greggory Nations … Co-Producer
- Amanda Lencioni … Associate Producer
- Jim Triplett … Associate Producer
- Noreen O'Toole … Associate Producer
- Jeffrey Lieber … Created by
- Michael Giacchino … Music by
- Naveen Andrews … Cast, Sayid Jarrah
- Henry Ian Cusick … Cast, Desmond Hume
- Jeremy Davies … Cast, Daniel Faraday
- Michael Emerson … Cast, Benjamin Linus
- Matthew Fox … Cast, Jack Shephard
- Jorge Garcia … Cast, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes
- Josh Holloway … Cast, James "Sawyer" Ford
- Daniel Dae Kim … Cast, Jin-Soo Kwon
- Yunjin Kim … Cast, Sun-Hwa Kwon
- Ken Leung … Cast, Miles Straume
- Evangeline Lilly … Cast, Kate Austen
- Rebecca Mader … Cast, Charlotte Lewis
- Elizabeth Mitchell … Cast, Juliet Burke
- Terry O'Quinn … Cast, John Locke
- Sam Anderson … Cast, Bernard Nadler
- L. Scott Caldwell … Cast, Rose Nadler
- Nestor Carbonell … Cast, Richard Alpert
- Alan Dale … Cast, Charles Widmore
- Tom Irwin … Cast, Dan Norton
- William Mapother … Cast, Ethan Rom
- Sonya Walger … Cast, Penelope Widmore
- Sean Whalen … Cast, Neil "Frogurt"
- Brad Berryhill … Cast, Anxious Guy
- William Blanchette … Cast, Aaron
- Chantal Boom'la … Cast, Counter Girl
- Michael Dempsey … Cast, Foreman
- Leslie Ishii … Cast, Woman
- Sven Lindstrom … Cast, Crew Member
- Cindy Paliracio … Cast, Reporter/TV Anchor
- Stefanie Smart … Cast, Ticket Agent