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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.


Jackdavinci is responsible for this transcription. It is one in the series of the Official Lost Podcasts.



Kris White: Locke has a breakthrough. Jack's ride goes boom. And Ben introduces us to the man from Tallahassee. Executive producers Damon Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse join us for insights on all that and more in today's official Lost podcast, hosted by abc dot com.

[Lost theme]

Kris White: Welcome back to the podcast. As we just mentioned executive producers Damon Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse will again be joining us totake your fan questions and rehash last week's episode, "The Man from Tallahassee". Of course they'll also be looking to this week's episode, "Exposé". Which airs on Wednesday, March 28th from ten to eleven p.m. on ABC and is available the next day at abc dot com. First up, though we're joined again by actors Jorge Garcia and Josh Holloway who lately seem to be having all the fun on the island, riding in cars with boys, playing ping pong on the beach, and coming up this week solving a mystery. So we sat down with these two intrepid adventurers to talk about ping pong and find out once and for all who is really the better player.

[Theme music]

[Clip: Sawyer and Hurley boast about their ping pong skills in "Enter 77"]

Josh Holloway: What's so funny about that is I am the... biggest, personally, heckler in the world when it comes to um ping pong or anything and I'm a good ping pong player. No one has beaten me yet. So, to play that role, I was, I got to really, I was being myself, you know being cocky, like, come on like, you want a mercy rule? You know, it was hilarious, and then he kills me, (laughs) so..

Jorge Garcia: Josh is a pretty good ping pong player. And he's also a good trash talker too. Uh, but we didn't, I mean, it's not, we didn't even do an organized tournament, but um, the people who were outside that day, Josh actually might be able to beat. It was, I actually bought a table because I heard it was coming, and they said um, you know, is is you know uh, actually uh Steven Williams asked me if I played ping pong. I was like ooohhh uhhh I think I could play ping pong. I mean, I was like wait I don't have to be good at it do I? It was like, oh yeah, you have to be the best at it. (laughs) So I was like okay, I'll get a table, but um, yeah there's ways to make yourself look really good on t.v. too.

[Lost clip: Hurley comforts Sawyer after beating him in "Enter 77"]

Kris White: You read, your character has lost in poker, and he's, any time he plays other, any of the other characters in games, right...

Josh Holloway: He loses.

Kris White: He just loses.

Josh Holloway: Yeah, even though he believes *fully* that he's gotta. You know, it, it's like... and it's with the gun thing too, I mean he's the slowest draw in the world. I mean it's like every time I reach for my gun I get hit. Why don't he just have it out (laughs) you know. It's uh, you'd think he'd learn. But he, he doesn't learn from his mistakes, he continues to make them. It's, it's fun to watch Sawyer uh, be his worst enemy (laughs). So it, it's funny comedy. Good stuff.

Kris White: Of course as we learned last week, the inspiration for the ping pong story came from the writers' own ping pong table. To find out exactly what they're drawing inspiration from this week, we once again turn it over to executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

[Theme music]

Carlton Cuse: Well hello, Damon.

Damon Lindelof: Hiiiiiii, Carlton.

Carlton Cuse: Here we are in another podcast, fantastic.

Damon Lindelof: Oh god, it's so exciting.

Carlton Cuse: I can tell, you can barely contain your enthusiasm today.

Damon Lindelof: I am, I always love doing the podcast, but uh, but we are in that, uh, we are in that zone now where we are in the midst of breaking the final three episodes of the show. Uh, episodes 21 and 22, obviously 22 would be a uh, two hour season finale. So, just a little, just a little sleepy, Carlton.

Carlton Cuse: Yes, it's uh, its a lot of work in the next eight weeks, it's hard to believe that within the next eight weeks, all of season three will be finished and aired. It's not kind of, it's kind of a, it's kind of astonishing, if you actually knew how much we had left to do (laughs) you would, uh, you would understand the, uh, the kind of subtextual anxiety perhaps that, uh, is existant tonight

Damon Lindelof: Can you take a pill for subtextual anxiety? (both laugh)

Carlton Cuse: You can take pretty much *every* pill that American Pharmaceutical Industry makes for subtextual anxiety.

Damon Lindelof: It just sounds like one of those things in the, you - (subdued narrator voice) "do you have subtextual anxiety?"

Carlton Cuse: Yes. Well you do.

Damon Lindelof: Yeah

Carlton Cuse: Try -

Damon Lindelof: Exactly.

Carlton Cuse: Angal -

Damon Lindelof: Yeah.

Carlton Cuse: Angalfal.

Damon Lindelof: Angalfal is good.

Carlton Cuse: Angalfal...

Damon Lindelof: Hey, speaking of falling, how bout that episode last night?

Carlton Cuse: Wow, it was awesome, I was watching it with, uh, my wife and daughter who had not seen it and I was watching -

Damon Lindelof: I'm not, what, I'm not talking about American Idol, I'm talking about Lost.

Carlton Cuse: Nooooo! I was talking about Lost. And I -

Damon Lindelof: Carlton actually voted for, for Sanjaya, just so everyone knows.

Carlton Cuse: I, I will not admit that. Um-

Damon Lindelof: (laughs) He, he will not deny it either.

Carlton Cuse: (laughs) I won't deny it either. And, uh, so I got to watch the reaction when, when Locke went out the window and, uh, their kind of big open mouth gaping expressions, which was fun, it was like "oh my God!"

Damon Lindelof: And thank God Terry only needed one take to do that fall. It's-

Carlton Cuse: I know.

Damon Lindelof: Well, he's a real pro.

Carlton Cuse: And, uh, then my daughter turned to me and said, "you can't *survive* falling eight floors out of a building!" And I said "well if you're John Locke you can."

Damon Lindelof: Not just that but we like, someone, we were, we were having this debate about how many stories was it, would, would make it ridiculous. You know, and how many stories could make it believable, and sort of in the midst of that argument, somebody brought in this article about this guy who like fell out of a *plane* or something.

Carlton Cuse: No, he fell of like, a hotel in like, Toronto or something. They were horsing around, and they, with some buddies and he crashed out the window and he fell like fifteen floors.

Damon Lindelof: and Carlton Cuse: [?]

Damon Lindelof: Oh.

Carlton Cuse: Yeah but,

Damon Lindelof: But-

Carlton Cuse: He did survive. He fell a long way.

Damon Lindelof: And that should remind you kids, that's what happens when you're horsing around.

Carlton Cuse: Don't horse around in hallways during fraternity parties, or anything else. Wedding...

Damon Lindelof: (laughs) Or sorority parties!

Carlton Cuse: Conventions.

Damon Lindelof: Anything.

Carlton Cuse: Okay, now that's, that's kind of our safety announcement for today. Let's get on to talk a little bit more about "The Man from Tallahassee". And today I'm going to try to make the questions that Kris has prepared sound very conversationally.

Damon Lindelof: As if you were not reading them.

Carlton Cuse: Conversationally? Conversational.

Damon Lindelof: A good idea would be to look at the question (Carlton laughs), get an impression of what the question is, and then look away at me, and, and pose the question in your own words.

Carlton Cuse: Um, so I'm kind of curious Damon, (Damon laughs), what's up with this *box*? I mean, is there literally a box on the island, um, I think you know, that word "box" is really sticking in people's claws.

Damon Lindelof: Well, I think that, uh-

Carlton Cuse: If people have claws.

Damon Lindelof: I think that Ben quite clearly says, "let me put this into terms that *you* can understand, John," which in, in, in knowing that they have some sort of file on Locke, and they, they refer to having kn- kn- knowledge of the fact that he worked in a box company. Then maybe this is just, some sort of, uh, metpahor that Ben is using to explain, uh, whatever this box construct is on the island. Because I think it would be sort of silly to walk to the middle of the island and there was like, kind of a big large refrigerator box sitting there, and Kate's horse comes tromping out, and Sayid's little cat, and Jack's Dad, and you know, I don't know, that would kind of be the worst idea in the history of ideas.

Carlton Cuse: Yeah, besides, the best box idea was done in that show Prophet, where there was the naked guy sleeping in the box.

Damon Lindelof: Oh yeah, that's right, that was Adrian Pasdar, now on television's hit show Heroes. So look what happens if you sleep in a box long enough.

Carlton Cuse: That's right you end up on Heroes.

Damon Lindelof: I keep telling you Carlton. (Carlton laughs) Um - so, yeah, I, I would say if you continue to watch the show in a, in in in in, uh, the next time when we revisit this story about what happens next to Locke and Ben and, uh, Mr. Cooper who is, uh, bound and gagged, then we will have a much clear understanding of whether or not Ben was being literal or figurative when he was talking about the box. But, as all good things on Lost, you may have to wait a bit.

Carlton Cuse: Yes, I think that, you know, this story line is a uh exercise in delayed gratification. We feel like when we return to it, it's going to be very rewarding, but it's not next week, it's not the week after that, or even the week after that-

Damon Lindelof: Yes -

Carlton Cuse: Or even the week after that.

Damon Lindelof: You'll be seeing Locke again, um, within the next couple weeks but you will not, uh, you will not be seeing, uh, Cooper yet-

Carlton Cuse: We will not be returning to the story for awhile.

Damon Lindelof: yeah, exactly.

Carlton Cuse: Did Locke really blow that submarine up?

Damon Lindelof: Well I would say that it certainly appeared that he, uh, that he blew it up. You know-

Carlton Cuse: Exactly.

Damon Lindelof: Unfortunately, it was at the expense of Jack. It was very interesting to hear him lecture Ben last night and basically say that, he, you know, Locke is, is sitting in judgment that Ben has sort of corrupted the spirit of the Island by using, putting on J. Crew outfits and using electricity, and you know, all those things. Locke has always been sort of a, a very naturalistic dude, so... do you think that's going to lead to the Others sort of, you know, taking a more naturalistic approach to life, do you think that, that any of Locke's words will have resonance on them? Or are they going to continue to live in their little houses, and, um, make peanut butter sandwiches, and listen to, you, you know, Petula Clark songs?

Carlton Cuse: Um, that sounds, you know, the way you pitched that question was kind of loaded, Damon. (Damon laughs) But, uh, I think it would be fair to say that the, uh, that, that Locke's attitude about the Island and his attitude about Ben's sort of seeming disregard for the Island will definitely come back into play in that the Others are, were not, the Others are not gonna be completely and fully encamped in that place for the, for the entire season.

Damon Lindelof: Interesting. Wow.

Carlton Cuse: Yeah.

Damon Lindelof: I can't wait to see what happens next.

Carlton Cuse: Yeah it's gonna be good I mean we-

Damon Lindelof: Speaking of which-

Carlton Cuse: Yeah.

Damon Lindelof: I'm really interested in Rousseau. Now, we saw last night she's checking Alex out from afar. Why, what, why doesn't she just come running out of the jungle and grab her and hug her and say "I'm your Mom," you know, "let's, let's go off into the jungle together and eat bugs."

Carlton Cuse: That was so good cause the actual line Chris wrote was "talk about Rousseau watching Alex from afar."

Damon Lindelof: "See, but I threw in the whole eating bugs thing, I made it conversational...

Carlton Cuse: And yet you got the word "afar" in there which is not a word I've ever heard you use in your own conversation.

Damon Lindelof: Is it a word?

Carlton Cuse: Yes of course it's a word.

Damon Lindelof: It's like "I've admired you from afar." (Carlton laughs) I mean not *you*.

Carlton Cuse: Just those three feet away on a couch would count as an amount as afar?

Damon Lindelof: This is about, this is about as close as I'd want to get. (both laugh)

Carlton Cuse: Wow. That's nice of you.

Damon Lindelof: Do you, so you don't want to answer the question?

Carlton Cuse: Um, I think that Rousseau, um, you know, any French woman who speaks with a Serbian accent and has been living in the, uh, woods for sixteen years eating bugs as you so aptly put it, you know, has got some issues and those issues need to be overcome before she can actually go and embrace Alex as her -

Damon Lindelof: Yeah and what-

Carlton Cuse: As her daughter.

Damon Lindelof: And what would she even say, you know, "I'm your real mother"? I mean, what would you do if some crazy-

Carlton Cuse: "Would you like a grasshopper"?

Damon Lindelof: Woman with, yeah, cause, woman with twigs sticking out of her hair came running up to you and said "I'm your real mother, would you, would you"-

Carlton Cuse: That happened yesterday!

Damon Lindelof: "Would you care for a cricket?" That *was* your real mother though, strangely enough.

Carlton Cuse: I know, um, it's - but I love my mother, but-

Damon Lindelof: You've gotta get her back-

cc She, she's gotta get the twigs out of her hair.

Damon Lindelof: She has uh, she has subtextual anxiety disorder, (Carlton laughs) so you know. That's what happens when she goes off her meds. Uh, hey! Uh, let's talk very briefly about "Exposé" which is an episode that we're *vveeeeeery* excited about next week.

Carlton Cuse: We love "Exposé," although, I'm sure that there will be a lot of people that will jump on, uh, you know, various websites like, uh, you know, television without pity and say that we've jumped the shark with this episode, but, you know, if we're ever-

Damon Lindelof: And we have!

Carlton Cuse: I were ever gonna jump the shark, this is the, the best way to have done it, I think.

Damon Lindelof: Yes.

Carlton Cuse: I mean, to do, uh, to take a time out, after, you know, seeing Locke with Cooper on the Island to go do an episode which of is a Nikki and Paulo's flashbacks, I mean, certain people are gonna find that, um, annoying-

Damon Lindelof: The very idea of it is, uh, is it, of, of it offensive. (Carlton chuckles) How, how dare we?

Carlton Cuse: And yet, I think it will, it will satisfy those people who were like, "who the hell are Nikki and Paulo? Why the are they even on this show?

Damon Lindelof: You mean like Sawyer?

Carlton Cuse: (laughs) Yeah, exactly, like Sawyer, exactly . And I actually think Rodrigo, who many of you have probably seen in the, uh, interim, in the 300.

Damon Lindelof: Just "300". There's no "the" in front of it I don't think.

Carlton Cuse: I think it is "The 300".

Damon Lindelof: No, it's "300".

Carlton Cuse: Is it?

Damon Lindelof: Can we have a ruling?

Kris White: It's 300.

Damon Lindelof: 300! Ding ding ding ding!

Carlton Cuse: Okay, sorry.

Damon Lindelof: Ding ding ding!

Carlton Cuse: Sorry. 300.

Damon Lindelof: Yes.

Carlton Cuse: Apologies.

Damon Lindelof: hmm.

Carlton Cuse: That's Rodrigo.

Damon Lindelof: It is.

Carlton Cuse: And, um, anyway, I think, uh, both he and Kiele did a great job in this episode, and, we're really anxious to see what your guy's feedback is, uh, on this episode so write in with your thoughts and questions and comments-

Damon Lindelof: Yep.

Carlton Cuse: For next week.

Damon Lindelof: What's really cool about it is you'll be seeing some old friends, too. You know, one of the things about Nikki and Paulo is we're gonna be doing theirs, but their flashbacks don't, take place mostly on the island, in fact only a couple of them take place in Australia before they came to the Island. But, uh, we'll be seeing you know, some friends, some of our dearly departed friends.

Carlton Cuse: You know what, that is actually the perfect segue into my first question.

Damon Lindelof: Questions!?

ccd Time for the questions!

Damon Lindelof: Hmm.

[music]

Carlton Cuse: Did you say that in a falsetto? I don't know.

Damon Lindelof: What you hear is like amazing music. What we hear is Kris going-

Damon Lindelof: and Carlton Cuse: (in falsetto) "Yaaaaaay".

Carlton Cuse: Like Michael Jackson.

Damon Lindelof: That's nice.

Carlton Cuse: He's even got one glove on, that's really-

Damon Lindelof: Wow.

Carlton Cuse: "Um, Damon, what's up with Boone's new hairdo in "Exposé"?" posted by damarlton (both laugh) who posted once in the last ninety days but a good post.

Damon Lindelof: Is this, is damarlton like 'Bennifer', that's our Bennifer name?

Carlton Cuse: Yes, it is, exactly.

Damon Lindelof: Brangelina? Okay I like that.

Carlton Cuse: Damarlton. Damarlton. That's good. "I've seen some screen grabs from the upcoming episode "Exposé" and I have to say I'm a bit confused. One shot shows Boone holding Nikki by the shoulders, and his hair is noticeably longer than it was back in season one. I mean, I know there's some discrepancies, particularly with Sawyer's hair in the pilot changing to a longer style in the second episode, but Boone's hair is the one constant for all of season one." (laughs) This is difficult to swallow for those of us who are dis, disturbingly obsessed with the show. (laughs) I think that's pretty much the operative phrase.

Damon Lindelof: Yes, I'm not really sure there's an answer to that question, other than-

Carlton Cuse: It's not really a question, it's just a statement.

Damon Lindelof: You're gonna be one of the people who *really* hates "Exposé".

Carlton Cuse: Yeah.

Damon Lindelof: I mean, the reality -

Carlton Cuse: If you hate Boone's hair in it's abnormal form than you'll hate "Exposé".

Damon Lindelof: Yes, that constant has now become a variable. (both laugh) And there's nothing we can do about it. We-

Carlton Cuse: We ourselves are not that happy

Damon Lindelof: Yeah.

Carlton Cuse: With Ian's hair in that episode. Ian himself was fantastic, but the hair-

Damon Lindelof: We had to get a wig cause the reality is, is Ian Somerhalder is a working actor and is enormously gracious considering he is a character we have killed off the show. Every time we have ever asked him to come back, and visit us again in a flashback, he has been, you know, on a plane on his way to Hawaii always happy to rejoin the family. He's a classy guy, an enormously talented actor but, the one thing we're not gonna ask him to do is to cut his hair for two days of work to uh-

Carlton Cuse: No, we just ask him to wear an otter pelt instead.

Damon Lindelof: That's right, no, we're just gonna stick this squirrel carcass on your head. (Carlton laughs) And, uh, so, he's an enormously good sport but the reality is, is sometimes the wigs on the show... The, the most, the most egregious wig is still Jack's mullet in (Carlton giggles) the, uh,in the season premiere of season two, um, when he is uh, you know, telling, uh, Sarah that she's never gonna walk again, I just can't keep my eyes off this-

Carlton Cuse: That was like Will Ferrell hair.

Damon Lindelof: It was bad news.

Carlton Cuse: It was, you know, but, look, the, the important thing is the acting underneath that hair is first rate. And I think you will really enjoy seeing Boone, and it was really fun for us to actually have Boone and Shannon reemerge in the stories. It's, it's, it's always fun to have them back on the show, and Maggie and, and Ian are awesome.

Damon Lindelof: So, uh, I guess I, I get to ask a question now. Uh, "my connection with Carlton" by birthdaybuddy322.

Carlton Cuse: Wow.

Damon Lindelof: What an interesting name. One post in the last ninety days. Hey Carlton, imagine my surprise when I learned that you and I share a birthday. Oh my gosh, Carlton, is it your birthday today?

Carlton Cuse: It is, Damon. (Damon giggles) Thank you.

Damon Lindelof: (Singing) Non approved clearable birthday song to you... (Carlton laughs) Non approved clearable birthday song to you...

Carlton Cuse: You better change the tune.

Damon Lindelof: (Singing) Birthday Carlton birthday. (Carlton laughs)

Carlton Cuse: Thank you.

Damon Lindelof: Literally I-

Carlton Cuse: Wow.

Damon Lindelof: I wanted to sing you Happy Birthday, but we were informed by the ABC lawyers that we would have to pay a fee!

Carlton Cuse: So we had to make up our own birthday song.

Damon Lindelof: So I just wrote up that song on the spot for you.

Carlton Cuse: That is fantastic and I really appreciate it. Than you very much.

Damon Lindelof: Wow let me now get to birthdaybuddy322's actually question, actual question, um, who by the way mentions that you have supplanted William Shatner as their number one, I guess it's his birthday today as well.

Carlton Cuse: It is, for my entire life, I've always lived with people on the radio saying, "hey it's William Shatner's birthday today!"

Damon Lindelof: I share a b, a birthday with Barbara Streisand.

Carlton Cuse: Well see, that's better.

Damon Lindelof: I missed Hitler's birthday by one day. (Carlton laughs) That's what I was told.

Carlton Cuse: That's fantastic, and it's, um, and now that you're working on the new Star Trek movie, it's kind of, uh, an, an extra connection with William Shatner.

Damon Lindelof: Then I can say hey! You, you know Carlton?

Carlton Cuse: You can go up to Will Shatner and say hey!

Damon Lindelof: You guys share a birthday.

Carlton Cuse: That's right. [?]

Damon Lindelof: And *I* share a birthday with Barbara Streisand.

Carlton Cuse: And he'll go, "what are you talking about, who? What? Carlton?"

Damon Lindelof: By the way, this is not confirmation, nor is it denial that William Shatner will be appearing in the new Star Trek film.

Carlton Cuse: Thank you.

Damon Lindelof: Anyway, birthdaybuddy322 actually does have a question. And that is, "now that we've seen a fair amount more of the Other's M.O., it seems like Charlie being struck up in a tree in season one is fairly out of character for them. Is there a particular significance to why that happened?"

Carlton Cuse: I think that you may think it's out of character now, but by the time the finale rolls around you will not think that it's out of character. The Others are a lot badder than maybe, you might think that they are.

Damon Lindelof: Good answer.

Carlton Cuse: That's pretty much all I got to say on the subject.

Damon Lindelof: Well Happy Birthday Carlton.

Carlton Cuse: Well thank you, Damon, again. So, Damon, "what song did Jack play" by alphacenturi855 who's posted 17 times. "Does anybody know the name of the song Jack was playing on the piano?"

Damon Lindelof: That was an original composition written by Michael Giacchino. Um, our genius composer, and basically we wrote this script and, uh, we knew that Jack was going to be playing an original piece that Jack wrote and we started getting mp3s from Michael, um, playing this sort of beautiful haunting piano melody, and then they sent it down and Michael Fox, who does not play the piano, *learned* it. Um, so that he could play it on the piano, and, uh, you get the finished result, uh, on your television set.

Carlton Cuse: That's right.

Damon Lindelof: That's a very straight forward answer to a very straight forward question.

Carlton Cuse: We're not, we're not doing a lot of dodging today, are we?

Damon Lindelof: Well-

Carlton Cuse: So, so I guess then I'll, uh, go back to you with another question.

Damon Lindelof: Okay.

Carlton Cuse: Umm.

Damon Lindelof: I'm asking you one now.

Carlton Cuse: Oh.

Damon Lindelof: Cause I just, speaking of dodging. "Trigger happy producers" by swingmeister4, one post in the last ninety days. "Hi, first of all, the usual love the show, watch every week, etc., etc.," I might point out, that's *not* the usual. (Carlton laughs) The usual is "hate this show, it's too confusing, what are you doing, when are you going to end it all?" but, uh, thank you for the, thank you for the-

Carlton Cuse: For the props.

Damon Lindelof: kind words. My question is this, "why in recent episodes when you have introduced interesting characters such as Ms. Klugh and Mikhail, Jacob, or Patchy," and I Mikhail and Patchy I guess are the same guy, "do you decide to kill them off again a few episodes later. I was very much looking forward to mind games being played on the Losties by Mikhail only for him to be fried by that sonar force field thingy. Is this because you don't have back story for the characters or are you worried about overloading the show too much? Thanks! And it would be great to, it would be great to hear a question from a British lover of Lost end up on the podcast". So mission accomplished there.

Carlton Cuse: (British accent) Well thank you British lover of Lost. (Damon giggles) Um...

Damon Lindelof: Schwingmeister!

Carlton Cuse: Schwingmeister. Well...

Damon Lindelof: Sounds like a classy guy.

Carlton Cuse: Or girl.

Damon Lindelof: Or girl.

Carlton Cuse: It's true. Um, the um, the answer is, I don't think that, uh, you will be disappointed, um, in a upcoming episode, when one of those characters that you mention might actually show up again.

Damon Lindelof: Really? So they're not dead?

Carlton Cuse: Maybe not.

Damon Lindelof: One of those fascinating characters.

Carlton Cuse: That's true.

Damon Lindelof: Wow. Interesting.

Carlton Cuse: Maybe not, maybe not. And, um-

Damon Lindelof: That's very exciting.

Carlton Cuse: We, uh, we also love Patchy and Mikhail, who are one and the same.

Damon Lindelof: Exact-

Carlton Cuse: We call him Patchy, but his name is Mikhail. (German accent) "Are you guys Volkswagen fans?" posted by a-

Damon Lindelof: Nice pronunciation.

Carlton Cuse: A h, hgale. (German accent) Volkswagen. "Are we going to see the Volkswagen bus again any time soon? I've noticed you've used two now, with Locke's bug and the bus we found in the jungle. I'm a big Volkswagen fan and an even bigger Lost fan and I just love the two merging. And I can't imagine finding a vehicle like that and then leaving it, you know? Thanks. Henry Gale"

Damon Lindelof: Well Henry, I think you'll be seeing the, uh, the bus again, and I think we're just gonna kind of leave it at that. But it would, would be interesting, you know, if the bus itself had a flashback of sorts. And, uh, we, we understood how it came to be resting in the jungle there.

Carlton Cuse: I'm gonna even make a bolder and audacious revelation right now which is that you will see yet another Volkswagen product.

Damon Lindelof: Wow!

Carlton Cuse: Before the end of the season.

Damon Lindelof: Oh my!

Carlton Cuse: On the Island.

Damon Lindelof: Unbelievable. I hope that-

Carlton Cuse: We're in answer mode today, ladies and gentlemen.

Damon Lindelof: Okay.

Carlton Cuse: Alright.

Damon Lindelof: Wow. Um, my final question for you, Carlton, "Alcatraz Island in season one" by chewie837, one post the last ninety days. "I just started listening to your podcast and they have single handedly saved me from confusion and disappointment during season three." Again, unbelievably you're the opposite. (Calrton snickers) Even listening to your previous shows-

Carlton Cuse: Does that person have an anxiety, uh, subtextual anxiety?

Damon Lindelof: I don't think so, um-

Carlton Cuse: Disorder, um,

Damon Lindelof: I think that chewie837 has kind of got it together for this time, for this question. "Ever, even, even listening to your previous shows, you hint at things that are just now coming to light. On that note, watching season one again, I noticed another clue that proves you do know what you're doing. When Sayid is examining Rousseau's map, he overlays a few pa-pages talking about places on the Island and whatever. But I noticed the final map shows a small island in the foreground clearly separated from the larger island in the background."

Carlton Cuse: Thank you!

Damon Lindelof: "Is this really Alcatraz Island, and has this clue gone unnoticed since then?"

Carlton Cuse: Not by you my friend!

Damon Lindelof: Well done, chewie837, believe it or not, we have known since the very beginning, that there was at *least* one smaller island off of the coast of our main island.

Carlton Cuse: Yes, and you, you can go back and look at that for confirmation.

Damon Lindelof: Yes, and Rousseau, uh, has known about it, but she, in the grand spirit of I leave them alone and they leave me alone, as long as they take my baby away from me, and I can continue eating twigs, and bugs. I will stay on the main island and then make traps.

Carlton Cuse: That's right Damon.

Damon Lindelof: Alrighty, that's all the questions I've got.

Carlton Cuse: I've got, can I ask you one final question on my side?

Damon Lindelof: Would you?

Carlton Cuse: Posted, "behind the scenes", by artiecoon, this is actually kind of a good question.

Damon Lindelof: Alrighty.

Carlton Cuse: "Great episode tonight. This isn't a question about the mythology of the show as much as it is about the process the writers have. I've been listening to the Battlestar Galactica podcast, with Ron Moore. He spends most of the time talking about how the story came to be and it's really interesting. So I know that you said that Ben wasn't intended to last, you know, the few episodes, but to, but you guys decided to keep him around after seeing how great Michael Emerson was. That makes me wonder what the original plan was, without Ben none of tonight's episodic events would have happened. Would Jack, Kate and Sawyer, would never have been captured, etc., etc., what was the original plan, what is your process for flushing out the details of the larger mythology? I know it involves ping pong, but can you go into greater detail?"

Damon Lindelof: Uh, first off, Ron Moore is a genius, and we're big fans of, uh, of, of him and his show although we don't have the time to listen to his podcast. We're sure it's excellent. As I recall. And this is, I can only be as honest as my memory serves. Our original plan for, for the character of Henry Gale was a three episode arc. The first episode was when Sayid captures him and one of them. And then, it would've, it, by the end of the third episode, after he sent Charlie and Ana Lucia running off to find the balloon, he was going to escape.

Carlton Cuse: Correct.

Damon Lindelof: Um-

Carlton Cuse: And go back to the Others camp.

Damon Lindelof: And, and, and run off to the Others camp, and that was going to insulate us, if we wanted him to be the leader of the Others, it would've kept in play everything that we wanted to do. Michael, who, who was always planned that Michael was going to come back and kill a couple of our people. And that would, and, and, and there was some, there was like, gonna be a frame job on the Others. But we kept him around, uh, Michael Emerson was so good that we extended the arc to coincide with Michael's arrival back and we killed two bird with one stone. So that the escape happened at the same time that Ana Lucia and Libby were killed.

Carlton Cuse: Right, and honestly, if, you know, if Emerson had not been great, if we'd had an actor in that part who hadn't worked out. We could have still done the same stories, we would have had another character established among the Others who would have fulfilled the same functions, captured our characters, you know, and the story line would have continued. There would always have been a leader of the Others but that was just an back door escape hatch. I mean, I think it was always our intention and the reason we went to great lengths in selecting Michael Emerson, and you know, we really basically, Damon and I sat around breakfast one morning thinking about like, oh who were some actors who would really be good as this guy and, we had both seen him in the Practice, playing this serial killer, for which he won an Emmy, um, and we had loved him so much, and we, literally we got him on the phone, and he was walking through the slush in New York, and said hey you want to go down to Hawaii, but it was always our intention that if the, if he wasn't as good as we had hoped that he would be in the part, that that would be the cool reveal, that they, that our guys had captured the leader of the Others, they had him in their captivity, right under their noses was the guy who was their greatest nemesis and adversary, and then he would escape. The, the variable became, well, Emerson is *so* good and compelling that we were like hey, you know, we could write some other stuff for him.

Damon Lindelof: Yeah, we can actually, cuz, we were thinking no matter how good he is, we can't keep him locked in a room for, for essentially, you know, five episodes. You know, cause he-

Carlton Cuse: And then we discovered actually yeah we could, he was *that* good, I mean.

Damon Lindelof: And then obviously then "Lockedown" came along.

Carlton Cuse: Yeah.

Damon Lindelof: And it was like, it was the perfect opportunity. Originally the idea for that episode was, we knew that they were gonna do a lock down because Michael identi- when we designed the hatch we had the blast doors built in and Michael points it out several episodes before he even runs off, but the reality is, is um, we had always planned "Lockedown" was gonna be like a Locke-Jack episode or a Locke epi- Locke-Eko episode but when we decided to keep Ben around, um, Henry at the time.

Carlton Cuse: Right.

Damon Lindelof: We felt like, that, oh that's who Locke has gotta be trapped in there with, so, you know, it was really the story began to morph around our desire to write more for Emerson, but we *had* already come up with the line, I think that was about in his third episode, when he was being questioned after it's revealed that he is an Other and they get back he talks about who the Others' leader is, and you know, what a great man he is.

Carlton Cuse: Right.

Damon Lindelof: And, and we wrote it in the way of he could be referring to himself, or he could be referring to someone else, and I think that question is still very much in play.

Carlton Cuse: Right.

Damon Lindelof: Even in, even a season later.

Carlton Cuse: Was yeah, was it, was it a kind of a mind game, was he literally sort of dumping the sort of notion of Jacob on them, I mean...

Damon Lindelof: Who the f- who the hell is Jacob? Carlton? While we're answering questions. (Carlton laughs)

Carlton Cuse: That's a question that is *not* gonna get answered today.

Damon Lindelof: Damn you.

Carlton Cuse: That's pretty much it, that's, we've run up against the wall of questions and, and of time I think, Damon.

Damon Lindelof: Aright Carlton.

Carlton Cuse: So.

Damon Lindelof: Well Happy Birthday to you.

Carlton Cuse: Thank you. Oh! Next week special guests, uh, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, the writers of "Exposé". And-

Damon Lindelof: And many other quality Lost episodes including, uh, the Hurley episode this year.

Carlton Cuse: "Dave" last year.

Damon Lindelof: "Dave" last year.

Carlton Cuse: And, um, Eddie and Adam are, are, fantastic writers and are really important, an integral part of the creative process of this show.

Damon Lindelof: Very funny.

Carlton Cuse: We felt tlike it would be good for you guys to meet them out there.

Damon Lindelof: I think they'll probably be sitting in for me, so you guys will have a, uh, have a lovely time together. I'll be a little jealous. But maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Carlton Cuse: It does.

Damon Lindelof: My, my biggest fear is that all the, the response will be, what do you, what do you need Damon for?

Carlton Cuse: No, that won't be the response. But honestly-

Damon Lindelof: That's what happens.

Carlton Cuse: What happened, the subtextual issue here is that, uh, the, uh, Eddie and Adam were very anxious about coming on the podcast with Damon not wearing his pants. And that, that was kind of the deal breaker so we're at an impasse, it's either Eddie and Adam, or Damon has to put his pants on.

Damon Lindelof: Do you have to be so negative? Can you, do you have to say I'm not wearing any pants? Can be just phrase it as I've chosen to wear no pants (Carlton giggles). Or, you know, if this is a lifestyle decision, Carlton, then just cause it's your birthday doesn't mean that you have any rights.

Carlton Cuse: I- you're right and I, I apologize for that.

Damon Lindelof: And you sit there in your sombrero, and you, and you look down your nose at me. You shake your maracas, and you tell me that you don't like the way I dress? Well, well sir, I'm not thrilled about the way that you dress either.

Carlton Cuse: You think those students from Tufts are really listening to this for credit still? I can't believe that they are.

Damon Lindelof: If, if they want to pass their class they'd better. Alright guys!

Carlton Cuse: Alright! That's it! Adios!

Damon Lindelof: Adios muchacho.

Carlton Cuse: Damon. Muchacho. Bye bye.

Damon Lindelof: Bye.

Kris White: That about wraps up this podcast. Join us again next week for commentary and insight from two more of our writers, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. They'll be rehashing "Exposé", and giving a preview of the following week's episode, "Left Behind". "Exposé" airs Wednesday, March 28th, from ten to eleven p.m. on ABC, and the next day at abc dot com.

[Ending music]

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