"Things don't stay buried on this island." Me thinks that we, unfortunately, may not have seen the last of those two.

So, I've been pondering what the producers said about whether they have an end game planned or not. At this point, my most optimistic guess is that they've got an agreement with ABC in which they've said, "Okay, we'll go ahead and string this along as long as you want to milk it, on the condition that you give us enough advanced warning before pulling the plug to write and shoot some number of episodes and wrap the story up as intended."

Not the best scenario, and a recipe for more episodes like this last one, but it's unrealistic to think that ABC wouldn't want to keep it open ended and at least in my hopeful scenario they won't just cancel the show mid-season and force them to slap together some hurried unsatisfying ending a-la X-Files or Arrested Development.

Damn it. STAY BURIED, YOU TWO. That's an ORDER!

Oh, damn it.

And, I think the writers/producers know two things: What the island IS. And as far as I know, that's all they've promised. And if that's true, I'd like to believe it explains the Dharma Initiative and the Others.

What I don't think they've resolved (because they cannot predict actors wanting out of their contracts early - take the actor who plays Eko as an example, etc.) are the story arcs for most of the characters. I think they're uncertain of specific plot developments that are created for the individual characters. More troubling, I'm not entirely sure they know why they've created all these connections and coincidences between the characters....what the overall payoff would be.

I think that Walt was supposed to play a more important role on the show, but when they writers (far later than they should have) realized the glacial pacing of the show would make it very difficult to keep Walt a young boy, they realized he'd have to be written off. [My guess, anyway.]

I think the show should have planned for a 3 season arc. Season 1 - the survivors. Season 2 - Ben and the others. Season 3 - Resolution. For me, this show can't behave like the X-Files, where the majority of the episodes (and the more interesting, IMO) weren't related to the overall alien arc. Lost really needs to keep on target. There can be cool random stories revealed in the flashbacks, so long as they're well done, but at the end of each episode we should be closer to the goal line.

I'm fairly certain they know this. Now that it's crystal clear that the others have full, detailed background info on everyone, and know who is "good" and who is not (even if we don't know what makes them such), I think it's obvious that the writers/producers know WHY they have all that info, why everyone is there, and why all of their paths crossed. I'm also pretty certain that it's tied directly to what the island is, so if they know one, they know the other.

5 seasons/100 episodes were the original numbers I heard. They're still well within that, but I'm sure no one could have guessed or hoped that it would be as successful as it was out of the gate. And ABC may have been willing to take risks when it was at the bottom of the heap, but now that they have a winner, sadly, the risk-taking is likely to subside. But they're hopefully smart enough to realize that an X-Files-esque fizzle will spark massive geek-filled riots. Honestly, I'd be surprised at this point if they go beyond 5 seasons.

I hope you're right. I'm fairly certain you are. But some of the connections must blow up in their faces if they're forced to kill off cast members before they intended. No matter what they say, I'm convinced that Ana Lucia and Libby were nixed because of the DUIs. And if I'm right about Walt being ditched because of the age issue, Michael's character was probably greatly revised to fit that change in the storyline.

All said, then, they aren't lying. They know where things are supposed to end up, but they have to make tricky changes now and again to deal with unpredictable blips now and again.

That's another thing they addressed in the interview. Yes, they were very aware of the aging problem and decided that the best way to deal with it was to remove him for a while, with plans to bring him back in a way that would allow any changes to make "sense" in the context. Who knows what that means, but they seemed to be indicating that Walt would return, play a role, and perhaps still be the same actor.

Meant to respond to this, as well. I've only read that the show will go on for 5 season and 5 season only. I thought that was their plan all along, even if the show was a HUGE success. At this point, I think it would be a HUGE mistake to drag it out past 5. But I say this because I'm feeling dragged along in the 3rd. And I don't have a problem with slowly paced shows. I loved the first season of Carnivale. When the creator was made to increase the pacing, everything was thrown off balance and forced and it really hurt the show. Ah, well. Thems the breaks.

That's the nature of this kind of show. They are writing it as they go and they constantly have to balance the overall story with the realities of working with real actors as well as gaging and adjusting to audience reaction. They mentioned that with the big hiatus this season, they're writing and shooting episodes further in the future than they have in previous seasons and it's been a challenge to not have that more immediate audience reaction to help steer them.

The freaky island ages him. I could buy that. Glad it was address and surprised that I assumed correctly. My assumptions usually make an ass out of me. Heh.

That's what I had hear too...until this interview. They were asked point blank if there was a target end time or # of episodes and they failed to give a straight answer. Basically they said that they have an end point to the story mapped out, that the audience deserves a clean ending, but business and creativity need to be balanced. It was worrisome, but like I said, my optimistic interpretation is that they've been assured by ABC that they'll have fair warning and given a chance to actually write and shoot an ending rather than getting the plug pulled willy-nilly.

The writer/producer of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, has said that, when he was creating the show, he came up with a way to write out every major character, should he need to, in a way that fit into the overall show arc. Smart.