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Podcast Summary • Podcast Transcript |
A transcript is a retrospective written record of dialogue, and like a script (a prospective record) may include other scene information such as props or actions. In the case of a transcript of a film or television episode, ideally it is a verbatim record. Because closed-captioning is usually written separately, its text may have errors and does not necessarily reflect the true Canonical transcript.
Transcripts for Lost episodes up to and including "Enter 77" are based on the transcriptions by Lost-TV member Spooky with aid of DVR, and at times, closed captions for clarification. She and Lost-TV have generously granted us permission to share/host these transcripts at Lostpedia. Later transcripts were created by the Lostpedia community, unless stated otherwise below.
Disclaimer: This transcript is intended for educational and promotional purposes only, and may not be reproduced commercially without permission from ABC. The description contained herein represents viewers' secondhand experience of ABC's Lost.
Kris White: Jack is the homecoming king, Claire feels under the weather, and Juliet fills out an application for celebrity mole. Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse join us to point out why this episode rocked in today's Official Lost Podcast, hosted by ABC.com.
[Lost theme music]
Kris White: Welcome to the podcast for "Catch-22," which airs Wednesday, April 18, from 10 to 11 pm on ABC and the next day at ABC.com. We'll have executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse here in a bit to reveal why is Catch-22 and other preponderous questions inspired by its novel title. Of course, they'll also be rehashing last week's turn of the screw, "One of Us," and discussing just who the "us" might be referring to. First up though, we're joined by actor M.C. Gainey, whose character on Lost has had many names, Mr. Friendly, Zeke, Bluebeard, and most recently Tom.
[Lost credits music]
Kris White: Okay guys, welcome to the Official Lost Podcast. We're here today with M.C. Gainey, who plays Mr. Friendly a.k.a. Tom. How are you doing sir?
M.C. Gainey: I'm doing great. How you doing today?
Kris White: So I wanted to start off by asking you, I guess you actually know executive producer Carlton Cuse from a previous show.
M.C. Gainey: I do. He wrote and produced a western called Briscoe County, The Adventures of, and I was a character called Big Smith on there, and that's where I met him and fell in love with the way the man writes.
Kris White: So what was that conversation like when he approached you to be part of Lost?
M.C. Gainey: It was very brief. I said, you know, "Carlton, I spent ten years of getting away from television. The grind of television is wearing me down. I'm just doing movies now. But if it's you, I'll do it." Not knowing what I was getting into, I just, I went to Hawaii without a script, without any idea who the character was, and here I am three years later, and I'm still not quite sure who he is. [chuckles]
Kris White: Well, your- and the first time you showed up on the show was so iconic when you kidnapped Walt.
M.C. Gainey: Oh yeah, out of the clear blue, this friendly bearded sort of sailor who's, you know, the rescuer turns out to be something loathsome and horrible. The off-season was really tough on me because everywhere I went people just were giving me dirty looks and they were like, "What are you gonna do with that boy?" They were assuming I was gonna do something horrible, of course.
Kris White: And how much did you know about your character at that point? Did you even know what his name was?
M.C. Gainey: Let me give you an example of how little I knew about that character. Let's take it on half way through the second season. I'm running through the jungle barefooted, bearded, wearing ragged clothes. I get the script, and it says they found my beard in a locker. It was only at that moment that I realized "it's a fake beard!" I've been running around half the season, and I didn't even know I was wearing a fake beard.
Kris White: So when we first met you then as an actor, was that actually your real beard?
M.C. Gainey: No, no, I'm just saying, no, it was a fake beard all along, I mean, I knew that it was a fake beard. M.C. Gainey knew it was a fake beard, but I didn't- the character, you know, I thought I really was a guy in the jungle who had a beard, not a guy in the jungle who was wearing a fake beard.
Kris White: Well, talk about that a little bit more. How much actual like your character, or unlike your character are you? Are you afraid of blood?
M.C. Gainey: Oh, I'm nothing like this character. I mean, I should say, I can speak pretty cogently about who I am, but in terms of who this character is, I can't. I don't really know that I'm much like Mr. Friendly, or Tom as they call him, or Zeke, you know, or any of the other names they call him. He seems to be very loyal, and I'm a very loyal person, so I have that in common, but other than that, I don't really know what he's about. He seems much more socially awkward than I am. In the surgery scene where I introduce myself to him, "By the way, I'm Tom," you know there was just so much awkwardness in that, that would never be me, but that's Tom.
Kris White: Now one thing that I have noticed about your career looking back at, you know, IMDb and other sources, is that you seem to have a propensity for playing bad guys.
M.C. Gainey: Yeah, I know. It's just an honest face, what can I tell you. You know, I got to Hollywood in 1977 and from the regional theater, and I played most of the great roles in plays, the O'Neil canon, the Williams canon, and I got here, and they took one look at me and said, "Yeah, give him a gun." And, you know, that's pretty much what it was for a long time. You know, in those days every TV show on primetime had to have a gang of bad guys, every week another gang, it was T.J. Hooker, Simon & Simon, Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, Knight Rider, all those shows required a fresh gang of thugs and goons every week. So I, you know, I did a lot of good work in the goon and thug department for a few years there.
Kris White: Well, what's the strangest role that you've played. Have you played anything non-thuggish?
M.C. Gainey: The strangest role I've ever played, hands down, was the naked man in Sideways.
Kris White: That's an image.
M.C. Gainey: [chuckles] That's the strangest, if you've seen Sideways, I was the naked man who ran down the streets, ran through the streets of Lompoc, California. That was strange.
Kris White: So who do people recognize you more from now? Are they like, "Oh my god, you're the naked guy in Sideways"?
M.C. Gainey: No no no, I would have to say that if it's not Lost, it is Con Air.
Kris White: Interesting.
M.C. Gainey: That I'm most recognized for. Con Air apparently is a film that has been seen by every adult male and female in our society, in the last two generations.
Kris White: Well getting back to Lost though, how has people's reaction to you changed now that Tom has been on a little bit longer and we saw him playing football with Jack, and, you know, he may just be a nice guy caught up in a bad situation?
M.C. Gainey: Yeah, you know what? The attitude that, strangely enough, the attitude people had toward me in the beginning when I kidnapped Walt was one of fear and "what are you gonna do?" but after the campfire scene in the second year when I told them, "stay on your beach, and you'll be okay," ever since then I've seen Tom's been sort of a benevolent character, and the public has been- they've been very friendly about it, you know, they haven't given me a hard time since then, except that they want to know what's gonna happen, and maybe I've just been around so long and also since I've took off the beard, I mean I really haven't done that much to people, you know, I'm conversational when I had them in the cages, locked in the cages. I never put a hose on them or hit em with a stick, you know, I mean I really have been trying to go the other way. I mean before I knew the character's name was Mr. Friendly, I was still trying to be friendly because somebody on the island should be.
Kris White: Or is it just that you're trying to keep your character from getting killed off?
M.C. Gainey: No, no, actually that wouldn't work, it doesn't matter. If you take the attitude that you're going to try to keep from being killed, you will certainly be killed. And you know what, when you get killed on this show, you're still coming back ten more times, so getting killed is no big deal. I've been killed so many times on TV sometimes I think I was born to be killed.
Kris White: Do you keep a running tally on how many times you've been killed?
M.C. Gainey: I don't. I used to, twenty-five years ago I used to. I've been shot, stabbed, electrocuted, burned alive, hanged, poisoned, stabbed with spears, shot with arrows, blown up with dynamite, killed in a... snow sled slides, I mean, you know, there are very few ways I haven't been- In fact, Carlton killed me on Briscoe County by throwing me off a moving train over a bridge into a river, but in true Carlton Cuse fashion, I had an orb from outer space in my arms when I went off the train, and I came back from the dead with superpowers.
Kris White: Strangely enough.
M.C. Gainey: [chuckles] That's Carlton Cuse for you.
Kris White: Well on that note, final question, what exactly does M.C. stand for? Is it "Mister Cool", "Michael..."
M.C. Gainey: No, you know what's really funny. If you look on Wikipedia and IMDb, it actually has my wrong name. Somebody put the wrong name on there. I didn't put it on there. It stands for my first two names: Mike Connor. Mike Conner was the first Irish governor of the state of Mississippi, and I was named after him, a good Irish boy from Mississippi, and when I joined Screen Actors Guild in '77, they wouldn't let me be Mike Connor Gainey, because Mike Connors was still around doing Mannix. So I just thought I would use my initials, never realizing that "MC" would become the most popular cultural initials of our generation.
Kris White: It's true.
M.C. Gainey: Not my generation, your generation. Yeah, so that's what it's for, it stands for Mike Connor.
Kris White: Well it could have been worse, you could be "D.J. Gainey".
M.C. Gainey: You know what, DJ may have been better actually because I've had so many people shocked to see that I was white when I showed up. They'd see the name on a call sheet and they'd be like "Oh, you're M.C.? Oh gosh."
Kris White: That's hilarious.
M.C. Gainey: Who knew? Who knew?
Kris White: Well thank you for taking the time to join us and of course you can catch M.C. Gainey in upcoming episodes of Lost, and thank you for joining us on the Official Lost Podcast.
M.C. Gainey: Sure thing, my pleasure. I'll talk to you again.
Kris White: Alright, thanks.
M.C. Gainey: Bye bye.
[Podcast theme]
Carlton Cuse: All right, welcome to yet another Lost podcast. I'm Carlton Cuse.
Damon Lindelof: And I'm Damon Lindelof.
Carlton Cuse: Well, hi Damon. How are you today?
Damon Lindelof: I'm fantastic, Carlton. How are you?
Carlton Cuse: I'm good. Let's get right to it today, shall we?
Damon Lindelof: Yeah.
Carlton Cuse: Let's rehash "One of Us."
Damon Lindelof: We're both feeling a little giddy because we were here late last night, believe it or not, writing the season finale, which will be on the air in about six weeks.
Carlton Cuse: We've had-
Damon Lindelof: Two hour season finale, so we will be shooting what is essentially a movie-
Carlton Cuse: Which we have written in about eight days.
Damon Lindelof: As soon as we're done writing it.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: Um, very exciting.
Carlton Cuse: We, uh, yeah, we pulled two very late nights. And one more late night tonight oughta get us a draft of the script, all the way to the end.
Damon Lindelof: But at least you get to wear your pajamas to work.
Carlton Cuse: That's true. That's very good.
Damon Lindelof: So, let's get uh, let's get right to it 'cause I think we have a lot of exciting questions today, from what I understand.
Carlton Cuse: We do have some good questions today, and the title of the episode, Damon, my beloved--
Damon Lindelof: [chuckles]
Carlton Cuse: --just who is the us referring to. Hey!
Damon Lindelof: Wait, back up.
Carlton Cuse: Kris!
Damon Lindelof: Did you write, "Damon, my beloved"?
Carlton Cuse: Damon, my beloved. See Kris has now picked up on my propensity to just read his not particularly conversational rehash questions and--
Damon Lindelof: Speaking of conversational.
Carlton Cuse: --stuck that in there.
Damon Lindelof: What? What's the question?
Carlton Cuse: The question is, you know, I think ABC should give Kris a big raise.
Kris White: [laughs]
Carlton Cuse: Wait.
Damon Lindelof: Hold on, what?
Carlton Cuse: I'm just reading what it says here [chuckles]. All right. So, Damon what's going on with Sayid and Sawyer? They're kind of doubting Jack's trust in Juliet. Do you think that's- it's valid to doubt that trust?
Damon Lindelof: I think Sayid and Sawyer pretty much agree with the rest of America, and, you know, obviously they were right because now we have seen that Juliet is in fact undercover working... doing some sort of mission for Ben. We don't know exactly what it is, but he says, "See you in a week." So she's up to something and uh...
Carlton Cuse: She's up to no good.
Damon Lindelof: I think she's up to no good, but I like her. I don't know. I'm very confused.
Carlton Cuse: Sometimes I like her, but other times she gets that sort of- that kind of look- it's a very sort of- kind of potentially malevolent kind of look that she gets, and it's kind of scary.
Damon Lindelof: Yeah, I've seen that--
Carlton Cuse: She kind of scares me.
Damon Lindelof: --seen that look from my wife sometimes--
Carlton Cuse: [chuckles]
Damon Lindelof: --when I come home at 2:30 in the morning, and I tell her I'm quote "writing the finale."
Carlton Cuse: I think, you know, getting a high-
Damon Lindelof: (???) barbecue sauce.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah. I think getting a million points on Galaga is definitely worth staying up until 2:30 in the morning, I'm just saying.
Damon Lindelof: The feeling of seeing it go flip over to zero again is something that can't really be described.
Carlton Cuse: We have some like really old-school video game consoles here in the office, and that is uh...
Damon Lindelof: Which is why the submarine is named the Galaga... Let's talk about Juliet for just one second. We saw some really exciting things last week. Obviously emotionally we learned that, you know, Ben has basically been keeping her on the Island by holding out this promise of curing her sister's cancer, which apparently he's done, but you also see little pieces of her life. We realize she was having an affair with Goodwin.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: Will we learn any more about that?
Carlton Cuse: I am really hoping that they cover that in another flashback. I'm very engaged.
Damon Lindelof: They?
Carlton Cuse: They--
Damon Lindelof: Who?
Carlton Cuse: --meaning--
Damon Lindelof: Meaning you?
Carlton Cuse: --meaning you and me.
Damon Lindelof: Oh, okay.
Carlton Cuse: Wait, all of a sudden you're gonna question us talking about ourselves in the third person?
Damon Lindelof: I think it's a little...
Carlton Cuse: It's a little pretentious?
Damon Lindelof: I wouldn't use the word "pretentious" as much as I'd use the word "confusing."
Carlton Cuse: Yes--
Damon Lindelof: But...
Carlton Cuse: --well-
Damon Lindelof: Let's start referring to ourselves in the second person.
Carlton Cuse: Okay. How do we do that?
Damon Lindelof: The second person is you. So I really hope you solve that.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah, okay.
Damon Lindelof: You are going to do a Goodwin story in the future.
Carlton Cuse: You are too.
Damon Lindelof: Excellent.
Carlton Cuse: Okay. All right--
Damon Lindelof: Let's stop that now.
Carlton Cuse: --let's stop that now, that's--
Damon Lindelof: It's very confusing.
Carlton Cuse: --that's painful. Do you think that Ben actually cured Rachel, or do you think that Rachel just got better on her own?
Damon Lindelof: I'm not so sure that Rachel was ever sick in the first place. I mean, what, he hands Juliet a folder, and it's basically like here's conclusive proof that your sister's got cancer again? I mean like the guy doesn't have a copy machine or whiteout? Like, I mean-
Carlton Cuse: That's true. Maybe she was cured initially and--
Damon Lindelof: She never got sick again. Who knows?
Carlton Cuse: She never got sick again. That's very- Ben's very manipulative.
Damon Lindelof: But I will say this: Every time that we've thought that Ben lied on the Island, he actually sort of comes around the end and says like, "I wasn't lying. In fact, I was telling the truth." So...
Carlton Cuse: But he does lie... sometimes.
Damon Lindelof: I- I can't- I'm hard-pressed to think of a single lie that he has told...
Carlton Cuse: We'll see.
Damon Lindelof: ...other than he wasn't an Other.
Carlton Cuse: [chuckles] Yeah, other than that.
Damon Lindelof: But that was just- that was a white lie.
Carlton Cuse: And that he was Henry Gale, his name was Henry Gale, and he was from Minnesota?
Damon Lindelof: Yeah, that'll- that's probably- would go- would qualify up there.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: All right, well, "One of Us" was a good episode. I think--
Carlton Cuse: I liked "One of Us."
Damon Lindelof: --a lot of people liked it, and, you know, Juliet is gonna be making a lot of interesting moves in the future, so keep your eyes peeled for that. But next week, we have an episode called "Catch-22."
Carlton Cuse: Yes.
Damon Lindelof: And uh... that should be very exciting because it's another Desmond episode, right?
Carlton Cuse: Yes, and, uh, I think if it's a Desmond episode, we're probably gonna be seeing a few premonitions, aren't we?
Damon Lindelof: Yes, and since Desmond's premonitions almost exclusively seem to focus on Charlie getting killed, we might be getting back to that storyline as well.
Carlton Cuse: Do you think Charlie's gonna die?
Damon Lindelof: Do I think?
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: Do you think?
Carlton Cuse: Do you think Charlie's gonna die?
Damon Lindelof: Uh... this week?
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: I don't- I don't know, man. But I'm worried about it--
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: --'cause it would be just like you to make a big deal out of Charlie's death and then have it happen in episode 17.
Carlton Cuse: As opposed to like, you know, the end of the season sometime.
Damon Lindelof: Right. That's what happened with Boone in Season 1. He died in the 18th episode, so...
Carlton Cuse: That's true. Well, he actually kinda, he kind of, the worst thing happened to him in the 17th episode. That's when the plane fell. And the 18th episode was Jack just trying to, you know, put coconut milk in his veins or-
Damon Lindelof: Right, good idea Jack. And cut his leg off--
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: --in a baggage c-
Carlton Cuse: Why hasn't anybody else had a limb cut off in that baggage cart this year?
Damon Lindelof: I don't know. I think probably you need something to- a good reason for it. It's just not like: Hey, what are you doing today? Want to play golf? No, let's cut off each other's legs.
Carlton Cuse: Um, so here's a question from Kris, our producer. When are we gonna get back to the whole pregnant women die on the Island question?
Damon Lindelof: [snickers]
Carlton Cuse: [giggles]
Damon Lindelof: Wow, that's an interesting question, Kris. Um, I think we're gonna be getting back to that the week after next.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: Um, which- just a pre-prehash, a double prehash, an episode called "D.O.C." which features our favorite Sun and Jin because we know she's pregnant and she's on the Island, so it would feel like that's fairly pertinent information to be dealing with. I will say this about next week's episode though, about "Catch-22," which is: something fairly momentous is going to happen.
Carlton Cuse: Oh yes.
Damon Lindelof: I think you were probably teased about that in the preview from "One of Us." You saw- something was indicated, a rather large and significant happening next week.
Carlton Cuse: Right.
Damon Lindelof: And we don't think you'll be disappointed.
Carlton Cuse: Well there's a good- there's definitely some good narrative momentum in next week's episode. You guys let us know what you think. But let's get to these questions.
[fanfare]
Damon Lindelof: Oh! Thank the lord.
Carlton Cuse: We have so many- I have so many good questions today.
Damon Lindelof: Shoot, Carlton.
Carlton Cuse: All right, I'm gonna start with this one here.
Damon Lindelof: Yeah.
Carlton Cuse: This is under the title "Locke's brother" by LittleAmiga.
Damon Lindelof: Okay.
Carlton Cuse: "Hey Carlton and Damon. I write you from Spain. I am a big fan of Lost. Congratulations for the show. In 'Left Behind', we could see the game Mouse Trap in the rec room. In 'Deus Ex Machina', Locke was working in the toy store, and he said that Mouse Trap was his favorite game and that he used to play it with his brother. Questions: Is Locke's brother alive?"
Damon Lindelof: Locke's brother? [Carlton giggles]
Carlton Cuse: I'm just asking the question.
Damon Lindelof: Locke's brother... I did- I'll be honest with you, Carlton, I did not know that Locke had a brother. I know he had a foster brother that he's referred to, and my guess is yes, he's probably still alive and well.
Carlton Cuse: [starts laughing] Okay, my next question [continues laughing]
Damon Lindelof: Yeah.
Carlton Cuse: [still laughing]
Damon Lindelof: Let's have it.
Carlton Cuse: Is he... [laughing too hard to continue]
Damon Lindelof: [snickers] Come on, Carlton, give it up. This better be as good as...
Carlton Cuse: Is he lo... [still laughing too hard to continue]
Damon Lindelof: I wanna know!
Carlton Cuse: [still laughing]
Damon Lindelof: Should I read it, Carlton?
Carlton Cuse: [while laughing] Is he somebody we already know, like Ben?
Damon Lindelof: No! No, he's not. I like this-
Carlton Cuse: [still laughing] Will we learn more about him?
Damon Lindelof: Never.
Carlton Cuse: Oh my god. I gotta get some sleep.
Damon Lindelof: I guess we've cleared that up. Um... can I ask you a question?
Carlton Cuse: [giggles] I don't know. I'll try. Go ahead.
Damon Lindelof: "Was the mud scene with Juliet of importance" by CarltonsBanjo
Carlton Cuse: [exhales] Whew!
Damon Lindelof: "Hi. I'm aware that Lost tries as much as it can to avoid meaningless scenes," that's underlined, "so how ended the wet sticky scene with Kate and Juliet in Left Behind on the show? Bears it any real significance, or was it just for the fun of television?"
Carlton Cuse: Um... honestly, there was a... we had a different scene that we were gonna put in the show that involved them having a lot of mud on them. And we had already shot a scene in which they were muddy at the end of the show, and so for continuity purposes we had to have them slip and fall in the mud. We had sort of an idea, and then we had ultimately what we thought was a better idea about how to sort of execute what went on in that whole sequence when the Monster came and hit the fence. Okay, Damon, this is from MissDiane, 1 post in the last 90 days, "I don't understand the," referring to "Exposé" episode, "I don't understand the purpose of this filler episode--"
Damon Lindelof: Oof.
Carlton Cuse: "--Carlton and Damon. Could you please explain? I get that now we know how they're connected to the other crash victims, but seriously what does this have to do with anything? I'm so frustrated. I was so relieved when you went back to the actual storyline the following week. Thoughts? Ideas?"
Damon Lindelof: Interesting. Well, "Exposé" is actually, I would say as far as episodes that we've ever done on the show, you know, created a varying degree of fan reaction. Some people say it was the best episode we've ever done, and some people say it was the worst episode we've ever done. Some people say it was filler. Some people say it was amusing. So, it's kind of hard to respond to that question, other than to say we had an idea for Paulo and Nikki to introduce them. People had been asking us since the beginning what's going on with the castaways in the background. We introduced them, the backlash was instantaneous and unanimous, and we felt that we owed the fans and the viewers of the show "Exposé" at least to explain what the original plan was.
Carlton Cuse: You know, we were really proud of it, and I think it, you know, it was a little bit more of an anthology episode for the show. But I think, you know, it's unrealistic, in a show that is now 72 episodes in, that every episode is gonna be, you know, chock full of plot momentum. I mean, I think it's entirely reasonable, and we sort of by necessity have to have episodes that aren't super-narratively, you know, propelled.
Damon Lindelof: They're on an island.
Carlton Cuse: [snickers] Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: They are on an island, sitting on a beach. The good news is, for you at least, Nikki and Paulo are in fact buried and dead--
Carlton Cuse: They are not-
Damon Lindelof: --and they will not be back until Season 7.
Carlton Cuse: They are not reaching out of the ground until the zombie season.
Damon Lindelof: Right.
Carlton Cuse: Here's another thing you can clear up, Damon.
Damon Lindelof: Yeah.
Carlton Cuse: This is from Faciana... a...
Damon Lindelof: Don't even bother.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah, I won't.
Damon Lindelof: Heh.
Carlton Cuse: "I recently posted a topic in the pilot in the plot forum regarding something I'd read stating that either Damon or Carlton had said that there was a vital clue in the pilot episode. It turns out this topic has come up several times, but no one could ever cite the source. So now I'm asking definitively, did we all miss something groundbreaking in the pilot? If not, have we at one time missed something that has since been discovered? It would be awesome if you guys could clear this up."
Damon Lindelof: A plot- a mystery in the pilot?
Carlton Cuse: Yeah, something... I think this is actually- this must be a false rumor. I don't- I honestly can't think that there's anything in the pilot that we haven't addressed that isn't obvious to viewers of the show. There is no sort of embedded secret coded undiscovered clue in the pilot that--
Damon Lindelof: Yeah.
Carlton Cuse: --has not yet been unearthed.
Damon Lindelof: Kind of going down the list of the pilot mysteries that are presented, with the exception of Charlie saying, "Guys, where are we?"
Carlton Cuse: Right.
Damon Lindelof: I think pretty much, you know, you see- you've at least seen what moved the trees--
Carlton Cuse: Right.
Damon Lindelof: --and you know what Locke's secret was, and you know what the source of the French transmission at the end of the episode. You know what Kate did. You know what Sawyer's letter says.
Carlton Cuse: And even if it's a bit of an extrapolation, we know that the Alcatraz island was a zoology station and that Sawyer was locked in a polar bear cage. So you at least know that the other- the DHARMA Initiative was doing polar bear research and--
Damon Lindelof: Sure.
Carlton Cuse: --that the polar bears probably escaped at some point, swam across the channel and got on the Island. So you even know really the source of the polar bears, if not necessarily the specific nature of the polar bear research that the DHARMA Initiative was doing. Right?
Damon Lindelof: Right.
Carlton Cuse: Okay, so--
Damon Lindelof: That's one mystery.
Carlton Cuse: --yeah, so I think- so that's down. We actually answered- I just wanted one question that was actually gonna-
Damon Lindelof: Make people feel like some sense of definitive conclusion.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah, exactly.
Damon Lindelof: All right, I've got another question for you, Carlton. This is one that I've been hearing since last w- uh two weeks episode--
Carlton Cuse: All right.
Damon Lindelof: --"Left Behind." And I think it's a good thing to deal with. "Black smoke jumping the fence," by JedLocke, "Dear Damon and Carlton, I really like last week's episode," this is a couple week's ago now, "but had major beef with the scene where Juliet and Kate are safe from the black smoke behind the Others' fence. Why wasn't it able to go over the fence like Kate, Locke, Sayid, and Rousseau did in 'Par Avion'? Could it not afford those expensive sneakers? Love the podcast, Jed."
Carlton Cuse: It really is a- Yeah, it's kind of um, you know, smoke monsters can't jump. I mean that's kind of basically the bottom line.
Damon Lindelof: Interesting.
Carlton Cuse: And the sonic barrier is something obviously that the DHARMA Initiative discovered at some point would be an effective way of repelling the smoke monster and-
Damon Lindelof: So it's not very smart is basically what you're saying.
Carlton Cuse: Well, I don't think it's... you know, even things that are smart have weaknesses.
Damon Lindelof: Right. Well I'm not entirely sure why it does any of the things that it does. Like it looked like it was taking pictures of Juliet or something like that.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah, a little bit like sort of reading Eko, wasn't it?
Damon Lindelof: Right, but obviously it can get vertical because it smashes Eko against all those trees, so there must be something about that fence.
Carlton Cuse: But can it get vertical and completely detach itself from the ground?
Damon Lindelof: That's interesting.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: Or if it can come out of the ground, why wouldn't it just go under the fence?
Carlton Cuse: Well, it would need a hole to go underneath the fence, perhaps.
Damon Lindelof: Right. I would love to see that story, Carlton, I would love to see the DHARMA Initiative trying to figure out how to repel the Monster.
Carlton Cuse: I would too. That would be--
Damon Lindelof: That would be awesome
Carlton Cuse: --really awesome.
Damon Lindelof: Too bad we're never gonna do that.
Carlton Cuse: Ohhh, I wouldn't count on that, Damon.
Damon Lindelof: I got something in my eye.
Carlton Cuse: You could actually do that story.
Damon Lindelof: I could?
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: You mean you could.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah, exactly.
Damon Lindelof: That'll be so-
Carlton Cuse: I'm trying to speak in second person, but I can't figure that out.
Damon Lindelof: It would really be cool to see the DHARMA Initiative in their heyday, but who wants- nobody would want to see that because, you know, it has nothing- it would just be filler. It has nothing to do with advancing the storyline, I mean 'cause it happened so long ago.
Carlton Cuse: I don't know. I'm gonna roll the dice and say you might be seeing a little bit about the DHARMA Initiative in their heyday this season.
Damon Lindelof: Really?
Carlton Cuse: Yeah.
Damon Lindelof: Wow, that's exciting.
Carlton Cuse: I think that would be really exciting. All right, "Damon--"
Damon Lindelof: Yeah?
Carlton Cuse: "--Carlton. Big fans of the show here in Canada," DePlaneDePlane78, "I read a while ago the Lost video game is coming out for Xbox 360 this year. First, can you confirm or deny this?"
Damon Lindelof: Confirm.
Carlton Cuse: Yeah, also not just for Xbox. It'll also be...
Damon Lindelof: PS3
Carlton Cuse: ...PS3 and PC compatible too. It's actually- we were sitting here with the guys who were making it actually are from Canada. They're from Montreal.
Damon Lindelof: Ubisoft.
Carlton Cuse: Ubisoft. And they came down here the other day and they--
Damon Lindelof: Very impressive.
Carlton Cuse: --did a demo of some of the elements of it, and it's really cool. It's actually gonna be really- it's gonna be a pretty cool game.
Damon Lindelof: I think so too.
Carlton Cuse: Um...
Damon Lindelof: Not as cool as Galaga, but what is?
Carlton Cuse: [chuckles]
Damon Lindelof: Well, I think that's a lot of questions today.
Carlton Cuse: Okay.
Damon Lindelof: I do want to take one special opportunity to give out a shout-out to a young man named Travis, who is a greeter at the ArcLight Cinemas who basically came up to me and actually recognized me and said that he listens to the podcasts and loves us and that his friend would never believe that he saw me. And I said, "Is it that impressive of a thing?" So now, friend of Travis, ha-ha on you. It's true, Travis saw me at the ArcLight Cinemas!
Carlton Cuse: Wow.
Damon Lindelof: I was going to see Blades of Glory, which was fantastic.
Carlton Cuse: Wow, cool.
Damon Lindelof: Reminded me of you, Carlton, for various reasons.
Carlton Cuse: Well, I mean it's 'cause we're gonna be taking that ice skating vacation once the season is over. We're gonna be touring all the major ice arenas of Europe, so if you miss us on the podcast, you'll be able to find us. We'll be working on our triple lutz jump.
Damon Lindelof: It'll be worth it just to see the costumes.
Carlton Cuse: Absolutely. Well, thank you guys, and we'll be back next week uh... well rested.
Damon Lindelof: Yes, god willing.
Carlton Cuse: Bye.
Damon Lindelof: Bye-bye.
Kris White: That's it for this podcast. Join us again next week for another post-modern installment of the Official Lost Podcast hosted by abc.com. We'll have commentary on our next episode "Catch-22" and more. "Catch-22" airs Wednesday, April 18th from 10 to 11 pm on ABC and the next day at abc.com.
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