Eleven years later and still LOST: Salt Lake Comic Con 2015 transcript

The following is a transcript of the Salt Lake Comic Con 2015 panel "Eleven years later and still LOST":

Mark: We’ll do some introductions so people know who they’re talking to… or talking at, I guess. We’ll start down on the left with someone who has actually taken notes: Rebecca … Here’s a couple things I want you to start with: tell us who you are, what you do and your favorite [Dharma] station on the Island.

Rebecca: Ok. My name’s Rebecca Frost. I’m a panelist on the “Hello, Sweetie! Podcast” and I also write for Big Shiny Robot. Which station was my favorite?

Mark: Yes.

Rebecca: What’s that one where they have Desmond?

Several panelists: The Swan.

Rebecca: The Swan station.

Mark: Ok.

Cassidy: My name’s Cassidy Ward. I’m an author and writer for Big Shiny Robot, as well. Uh, favorite station… I’m going to say [the Lamppost].

Adam: Hey! I’m Adam Berg. I’m from “Studio C.” I write and act on that… Yay! One person clapped! [Laughter and applause from audience] I’m gonna be looking at you the whole panel. My favorite station? I’m gonna say the Hydra. It’s a good station. It’s a good one. Team Hydra.

Jeremiah: Hail Hydra! [Laughter from audience]

Aaron: My name is Aaron Christensen. I’m a writer. I have written for the Deseret News, Examiner.com and Salt Lake Comic Con, and my favorite station is the Swan.

Mark: Represent! Show them your shirt!

Aaron: Oh yeah. Here it is. [Shows the audience his shirt, which has a Swan logo on it] [Cheers from audience]

Mark: How many of you are wearing Dharma apparel? I see one right here.

Aaron: Oh, yeah!

Mark: One? Really?

Panelist: And you call yourself LOST fans… [Awkward laughter from audience]

Amber: I am Amber Dahl and I’m an artist with Track 36 Studios and I also write a blog called “When You Wish Upon the Force.” I have to say the Swan, just because… Desmond… I love him so hard, so…

Jeremiah: I’m Jeremiah Lupo. I work at a local comic retailer, Dr. Volt’s Comics, and my favorite station is the Orchid.

Audience member: Woo!

Mark: All right. I am Mark Dago. I am the moderator of these lovely people, I guess, and I make music – markdago.bandcamp.com. I do nerd-brat music… There’s a “nerd music” panel later. Seven o’clock, over there. I also write for Big Shiny Robot, along with Rebecca and Jeremiah, sometimes, … and Cassidy. … So yeah, it’s a blast doing that and uh, no joke when I say that LOST is my favorite television show of all time. I’ve watched it over and over – it’s like Star Wars to me, but in television form. It really is my favorite. There are people – you know, we were talking about this outside – there are people who like the show and then there are people who don’t like the ending. We’ll get into that a little bit…

Panelist: What’s your favorite station?

Mark: Oh! It’s the Looking Glass, by far. Thanks again for coming out. Give yourselves a round for checking us out! [Applause] I’m going to go just about 30 minutes or so, throw some questions at these guys and then we can actually open it for any speculation or other questions or comments. So, my first question – we’ll start down at the end and work our way this way – no, we’ll do it backwards. We’ll start with Jeremiah. The first question to you!

QUESTION: So, ABC has just – and this is going to happen, whether we like it or not… it’s definitely going to happen – ABC has just hired you as show-writer for a new LOST show. What would be your approach and what would you do?

Jeremiah: [Laughs] On the spot… Really? I don’t know what I would do!

Mark: It’s gonna happen, inevitably. Disney and ABC own it. ABC’s kinda, “Ehhhh…” They’ve got some things, but they’re gonna reboot it at some point, going a new direction. What would you do?

Jeremiah: Man, I’m really at a loss. I would maybe set it in a different time? With different people? Maybe see where the origins of the Island are? I think we’ve already done a lot of the mystery, the unknown and the present-day stuff. Maybe set it a couple hundred years ago, see where the hieroglyphics came from, see what kind of civilization was on the Island. Did the Island still draw them in or did they do something to enchant the Island? Kind of see its beginnings.

Amber: Yeah, probably similar. Mine, I would like to see actual very, very, very start of the Island… So, as it gets created, how the hieroglyphics, how everything just started, and I would like to see different effects that it would have on people around the world… on how it ties them in together, kind of like it did previously. …Just to see how the actual formation of how it was created and maybe actually get more answers.

Aaron: I don’t know if this is going to be a popular answer or not, but I really hope they never reboot LOST or do anything to it – just keep it the way it is! [Applause from audience] But… if I had to choose a subject for a new show, I love the Dharma Initiative, so seeing something with them could be either really interesting or really boring and monotonous. Then, the other thing you could do is, if you’ve seen – and I would recommend it if you haven’t seen it – there’s a bonus feature called “The New Man in Charge”…

Audience member: YES!

Aaron: …it takes place after the series is over and there’s actually somebody that went back to the Island – that would be Walt – and I think that, now that Walt’s grown up, you could do a show about him.

Adam: Ditto. I was going to talk about Walt, but I feel like that was the one thing I just didn’t get any resolution on, even with “The New Man in Charge,” I just wanted to know more about Walt! So, if they were to do a continuation, I think that’s where I would want it to go – his story and whatever else was happening at that same time.

Cassidy: For me, the thing that I thought was most interesting that we didn’t get a lot of information about was what the Light actually was and, specifically, what would happen if we pulled the cork out of the bottle and left it out and let the Darkness come out. Basically, let the Smoke Monster win, and then you could spend six seasons trying to dial it back.

Rebecca: Two things: I would love to see the show from the perspective of the dog [laughter] and I would also like to see the show based on their initial experimentation with time and space travel – just kind of how they figured out how they could manipulate the time travel and manipulate the location of the Island. I’d like to see their experimentation with that.

Jeremiah: Does it have to be a show? Because I have a few of them that would work a lot better in comicbook form.

Mark: It’s whatever you want to do. I always thought that doing different art from different characters, from their point of view. You know, similar to stuff on Netflix – it doesn’t have to be, you know, six seasons. You could do it in three-to-six episodes. Just do different arts from different points of view from different characters. … I wanted to see what happens with Hurley and Ben trying to get Desmond back. How do they do that? That’s interesting. I want to see that happen.

Rebecca: That’s what I really liked about LOST, too. Just like in real life, everyone has a story, and that was a show that took the time to let you know: “Everyone has a story and it’s important. Let us tell you why.”

Mark: Even the people whose story you don’t want to know.

Amber: Like that one episode about the stupid couple!

Aaron: Nikki and Paolo. [Laughter] That was the first full episode of LOST that I ever watched, so I didn’t know any different. [Laughter] And then I found out later that that was the worst episode of the entire series, so… [Laughter]

Jeremiah: I don’t know. That tattoo one [“Stranger in a Strange Land”] was a little weird. [Laughter]

QUESTION: At what point… what episode sold you on the show? What was your “A-ha! moment,” like, “Wow! This is really going to be special. This is awesome!”?

Rebecca: My dad’s a TV critic, and so this is way back when he used to get VHS tapes in the mail from the networks, and he got one for LOST. I plugged that sucker in and I watched it six times in one day. I am in love with the pilot episode! That is what sold me – and I don’t like pilot episodes! I have a rule: “Never trust a pilot episode.” Never trust a first season, honestly. But the first, pilot episode had me hooked and I was so addicted to it, and ever since then, I watched it religiously. I watched it every week and then I went online and I read all of the fan theories. … It’s all in that first episode.

Cassidy: Yeah, I agree. It was the first episode. That was the first time that I ever remember watching a new show and going, “Whoa! I’m into this! I will block out time… the rest of the world is going to shut down for an hour every week so I can watch this” – and it was only because of how much I loved the first season that I suffered through the second season…

Rebecca: The second season was so good!

Cassidy: Ugh… Ana Lucia couldn’t leave soon enough! [Laughter] No, but the very first episode, I’d never seen anything like it.

Adam: Ok, so I started watching between Season 2 and 3, so I had all of 1 and 2 to watch all at once, and I’d say … I wasn’t quite invested with the first episode, even though I thought it was really good, but the fourth episode, when you find out that Locke is no longer in a wheelchair, it was like, “Well, ok, now the Island is good and bad and I want to know more!” I continued marathon-ing through the first two seasons and then I got my wisdom teeth out right before I started Season 2, so I was like, trippin’ on drugs and watching all of season two at the same time… and it was amazing! [Laughter] I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I was definitely hooked at that point.

Aaron: It took me a while. LOST first came out when I was in college and I refused to watch it because it was really popular and I didn’t want to be like everyone else. And then I went on an LDS mission, so I was gone for a little bit. I came back and my family… There used to be this thing called “Blockbuster” [Laughter] … So, they would, like, mail you DVDs… [To Mark, sarcastically:] “Blockbuster.” You could… rent movies…

Mark: Oh. I don’t… know what you’re talking… about…

Audience member: [It was] like Netflix!

Aaron: Yeah… [Laughs] So, my family was blowing through these DVDs and they would just watch the DVDs and send it back, they’d get a new one… it was kind of this weird concept, but I still didn’t want to watch it. I was, at the time, I think, trying to figure out what Facebook was, and there was one episode that I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for – and that’s “Tricia Tanaka is Dead.” [Brief cheers] That’s when Hurley finds the Dharma van. I remember hearing Three Dog Night and I said, “You know, any show that plays Three Dog Night can’t be that bad.” So then I started watching through Season 3 and I had to go back on Wikipedia and read episode recaps because I hadn’t seen seasons 1 and 2, so that was kind of a weird approach. I wouldn’t recommend it. Really, the first episode that I actually watched and my mind was blown was “The Constant” – and I love “The Constant.” [Applause]

Amber: Well, like you guys, I did like the pilot episode. I didn’t start watching it until the second season, so I thought everything was great. I loved seeing the backstories of all the characters, but I think what was really starting to get my heart pounding was when they found the Hatch, because I’m like, “Oh my gosh, what’s in it?! Someone’s going to get them!” I was just so intrigued and excited by that and… Locke was just crazy and just didn’t care what anyone thought because he was so excited to get into that… I was just really excited and that was probably when my heart really started pounding and I just got sucked in like crazy.

Jeremiah: I didn’t start until after Season 3 had finished. I had always heard about LOST – I heard my friends talking about it – and I never really thought much about it, just because, “I watch so many things, I can’t add another thing!” And then I went in, not knowing anything about the show, I read a review of the Season 3 finale on IGN or something, and when… “Oh, now they’re doing flash-forwards!” I was like, “What is this??” [Laughter from audience] So then I went and got the DVDs from the library for the first season and that pilot had me so hooked! I love a good mystery and I was like, “What is that? Is that a dinosaur in the jungle? What’s this smoke?” [Laughter continues] “Why is the radio tower saying this sequence of Numbers over and over again? What’s going on? Is it counting up to something?” I was hooked.

Mark: Mine was like Adam’s story. I was really sick for a bit, where I was ill, and Season 1 had already passed and, like Blockbuster, I stopped in to get a Jamba Juice and there was a Hollywood Video… [Laughter from audience]

Jeremiah, sarcastically: What’s that?

Mark: Yeah. I went in and I got the entire first season. People [kept] recommending, saying, “You like sci-fi, you like mysteries, this will be good.” … That was it. I was hooked. I did the website… got on the forums with theories, would stay up until three in the morning with other people, just talking about stuff, losing sleep, printing off … the blast door, when it came down on John Locke, actually printing off a hi-res copy of that and then, with my friends at work, trying to determine what was in each station… [Laughter] …as other people just looked at us like, “You know this is fake, right??” And I was just like…

Rebecca: This is serious business!

Mark: “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” [Laughter] So that was it for me. After that, I was gone. I listened to the “Jay and Jack Podcast” religiously… [Scattered, loud cheers from audience] …and I ended up traveling, doing a road trip out to the final episode out in L.A. so I could watch it at the Orpheum Theater in L.A. with them, live. Just a really cool experience. I still, to this day, I can re-watch it… We’ll talk about the finale, because it seems pretty divisive with people… and there’s nothing about it, even Nikki and Paolo, even sometimes when it went a little wonky and some episodes weren’t as good as others… As a whole thing? Fantastic.

QUESTION: Which character do you identify with most? And is there one particular character that you feel is the most representative of your beliefs?

Jeremiah: That’s a tough one, also. Man, you’re hitting me with the hard ones! I probably identify most with… it would be a mix of them. There’s not a one…

Mark: It could also be who do you think is the coolest? Most awesome?

Jeremiah: Each character has a different aspect of my life. I love music, so I identify with Charlie. I love comicbooks, so I identify with Hurley. … There’s not one that I would identify with. Sawyer would [have the tough guy attitude] that I want to be. Come on. … There’s no real one character that I like. As far as beliefs go, I… don’t know what my beliefs are. I’m still figuring that out.

Amber: Yeah, you kind of screwing us over with the questions. They’re amazing, though, but this is like…

Mark: Well, this show is a very deep show!

Amber: It’s bringing up all “the feels.” If I start crying, please don’t judge – and I don’t have any tissues … I have to agree. It’s really hard for me to pick just one character, but the ones that I felt really connected to were definitely Jack and Kate and even Desmond and Penny. They just have something that’s so incredibly powerful about them and their backstories… it just wrenched my heart. I felt a personal connection on each character and … I still, no matter what else I see [those actors] in, I still think, “Eh… you’re great in this, but… Jack! Yay!” I think if they could all be meshed into one glob of a person, it would be probably be them. Oh, and the beliefs thing, probably be Kate, just because it’s… having to make really tough decisions, even though it may come back and bite you in the butt. It’s just something, if you feel that strongly in and passionate about, it’s like you will do whatever it takes to get that done, and it’s like you get to the point that you can’t care about what people think about you – you just have to do it – so I really admired her courage.

Aaron: If I had to pick one character, I’d probably pick Arzt. [Laughter from audience] Just kidding! No, he’s a funny guy, but he got what he deserved. No, one character… I just recently watched LOST for the third time. I just barely finished it up a couple days ago, but one character that I really like the development of is Jack. … There’s the “Man of Science” Jack from the first couple seasons, but I like the “Destiny” Jack from season six, in the flash-sideways – and there are a lot of things that I don’t really care for in the flash-sideways – but I like Jack, how he changes from being what we grew to know him as, where he didn’t have any belief, he didn’t have any faith, but I really like what Jack becomes in Season 6.

Adam: I’m gonna say Hurley, because he’s the most lovable person on the Island. But I feel like, most of the time, Hurley is just so overwhelmed by everything – he doesn’t know what to do, he just wants everyone to play golf and be happy! [Brief laughter from audience] But you can’t do that in such a horrifying place! There’s something about that that’s just… I would do that! I would panic about everything, I would freak out about the Island and I just wouldn’t know what to do. I don’t think I could handle it. I wouldn’t want to step up as a leader, even though he winds up doing that, and I think there’s something just fascinating about his story because he’s so lovable, but he thinks he’s so incapable of doing things… Not that I find myself really super incapable… But uh, yeah. I would just say Hurley because of those… reasons… [Nervously laughs] I’m so eloquent.

Amber: Just like Hurley.

Cassidy: There were two characters that I really related to. The first, I would say Locke because I want to imagine that I would be the person that would be like, “This is an incredible experience! Why would we possibly want to go back to boring, mundane, ordinary life?” But really, I would be Hurley and, like, “Can we just hide out on the beach and maybe not go chase after the Monster?” [Laughter from audience] “And… these people who are shooting at us… can we just… chill?” That’s probably who I’d really be.

Rebecca: The Smoke Monster! [Laughter] Just kidding. I feel like I’d probably be a blend of Hurley and Juliet. Like Hurley, I just want to have a good time and I just want everyone to get along, but also, like Juliet, I try to be the best “good” that I can be, and I try to see the best in everything, but I’m also willing to let my mind be changed by certain experiences. I’m not going to be stuck in my opinion forever, so I try to be like Juliet – I want to be the ultimate “good” that I can be.

Mark: Excellent! My answer would be Miles. I didn’t think that Miles got enough time; I think they worked him in late, but I always found him fascinating. He was one of my very favorite characters. Outside of that, Hurley. …And I really did try to get an Apollo Bar. I never got one, and once I found… He did the right thing when he found the food down there, man! I wouldn’t have told anyone, either! [Laughter from audience] I would have purged everything and just, like, “Oh! Where did this come from? I don’t know where this came from! It just showed up!”

QUESTION: Did we ever know what the Island really was? Was there ever an explanation? And what was it to you?

Rebecca: Um, I feel like I never got resolution on that. And I kind of liked that. I liked that it was pretty ambiguous. … We never got that answer as to what, exactly, it was because the Island was its own entity, but then you also get the Dharma Initiative and you get Jacob and the Man in Black. You get all of those, and they all kind of co-exist with the Island… The Island is its own thing and these things happen to have happened on the Island. I like that we never got that resolution of what the Island is, as its own character.

Cassidy: Jacob explains that [the Island is] like the cork in the wine bottle, holding in evil, right? So I always sort of imagined it as a crappy apartment next-door to Hell… [Laughter from audience] …and that’s why all this weird, bizarre stuff happens, and they sort of need these people to go there to make sure that the next-door neighbors don’t leave the subdivision. That’s kind of what it was to me. They were like security guards at the crappy apartment next-door to Hell.

Adam: A few months after I finished LOST for the first time, I took a World Religions class, and the more I learned about different religions, the better I felt I understood LOST, because there’s a lot of religious symbolism in the show and I didn’t really pick up on it while I was watching it. I could see the Christian stuff, but there’s a lot of Hinduism and a whole bunch of other things. We know the Island is like the Source of Light around the world, which is a very Hindi way of thinking, like, “Namaste,” like, all the Dharma Initiative sayings – “the light in me recognizes the light in you,” and “the Island is the Source of Light,” so it’s something that combines us all together. And I think the real answer is that it’s really up to interpretation, but I think what they did with the Island is that they are trying to say something, like, make a point that it is a source of good, essentially, and it needs to be protected and it needs to be watched and it affects everyone because we all have light in ourselves.

Aaron: Something I really like about LOST, as well, especially Season 6 – I remember watching Season 6, specifically the conversation between Richard and Jacob, when he explains … the wine and the cork and all that – so I think that that’s really fascinating. I actually wrote a blog about LOST and religion – it was like 8,000 words, or something. I think that five people read it. But it’s really interesting if you watch it from that standpoint, and that’s part of the reason why I’m ok with the ending – because there is so much religious symbolism. But what was the Island? I think the first time I watched it, I was like, “Well, you know, it’s so mysterious! What was that? Where are all the answers?” But after recently re-watching it, it was just an island. It was just a place. Obviously, it had magical properties or whatever, but I think, more than anything, when Jacob is talking to the survivors when he’s about to disappear for good, he says that he took all of them – he chose all of the Candidates because they were like him and they were in really sad, kind of pathetic existences, and so he took them and put them on the Island. So, I think that, for me, the Island was a place where people could get second chances.

Amber: Dang it! That’s exactly what I was going to say! … It’s this force that has these specific people that really need a second chance and this is their time that they could come together and prove that they do have good in them and that there is a chance that they can come back from whatever they had in their pre-existing life and stuff, and so I thought it was amazing how they were all able to come together. [They were] from completely different backgrounds and you were able to see this power that they were able to connect with each other and when they got off the Island, it’s like they were trying to keep that going. It’s just a way for them to redeem anything that they had done in the past, … kind of like a blank slate, especially when they’re going back and no one knows who they are. … That’s just something that a lot of people would love to have, and just being able to watch people do that is amazing.

Jeremiah: What you two just said is exactly what I was going to say, so I’ll just keep it short and say that it was rebirth. I can’t really add onto that because everything has already been said.

Amber: Sorry…

Mark: I always thought it was the internal/external struggle of light and dark, and it’s right there… Everything that they set up for the entire series was right there in the pilot: the playing of the light pieces versus the dark pieces, and … you know, maybe this is a purgatory –… you do good again, you get to start over, you get a blank slate – Tabula Rasa. What you do with what you’ve got now is going to be the determination of how this plays out. And, again, with the Flash Sideways – and I know a lot of people got on that… To me, [it was a] perfect storytelling device to show, you know, maybe what you wish for isn’t really what you want! … When Jack… him having the family and that… They had to tell him, straight up, “You don’t have a son, Jack. This isn’t your fate. This isn’t your destiny.” I always liked that, and that’s why the finale, to me, I think it’s perfect, and let’s run that down…

QUESTION: Finale: good? Yes or no? I know it really upset a lot of people and them putting that crashed plane at the end of the credits had people looking around like, “Well yeah, they were dead the whole time. Why’d we spend all this time watching it? They were dead!” That’s not the point. So, let’s go with Jeremiah, going down… Finale: Good? Yes or no, and why?

Jeremiah: Good, yes. Not every mystery needs to be explained. The show wasn’t about the mystery. It was a big, driving force of the show, but the show was about the characters, and we got resolution on every character in the show. As far as that footage [of the crashed plane], I believe they said that was just b-roll footage of the plane from the first season.

Mark: And, going back, [muffled] they didn’t even really want that there. That wasn’t their choice … and it really ended up getting people like, “Wait, what?” No. They weren’t dead.

Jeremiah: Yeah… Good. Good finale.

Amber: I loved it and I defend it like crazy. And when I saw it, I sobbed, and even sobbed for, like, 30 minutes after and … I couldn’t help it. It just really kind of hits you on a soulful level and I feel like, in a lot of ways, it just kind of makes you think about things that you kind of take for granted or you don’t really think about because… life happens. But I thought it was fantastic and I will fight to the death for it.

Aaron: I think the first time I saw the finale, I liked it, and then, the next day, I woke up and was like, “What was that?” All these people complained about, “They didn’t answer all of our questions!” So, the second time I watched LOST, I actually… this notebook right here, I wrote down every single question that I had – and I answered, actually, most of them! I wrote a blog about that, too, that only five people read. [Laughter from audience]

Audience member: What’s the blog?

Aaron: It’s SotTUnderground.blogspot.com. It’s a long one. Talk to me after. But no… I like it. The more I see it – I’ve seen it three times now – the more I see the finale, the more I’m totally fine with it. I understand people are really upset by it sometimes, but I think it’s great. I think that the characters ended up where they needed to be and, in most cases, I think they were happy. I think they were happy towards the end, and, also, I have to just mention that there were the most depressing 15 minutes of television that I’ve ever seen, when we lost Sayid and then Sun and Jin like back-to-back-to-back. [Grumbles from audience] I almost cried. I didn’t cry! I almost did, though. But yes, I like the ending.

Adam: I also love the ending, for a lot of the same reasons. It was just so cathartic and… I kind of want to know: who cried during the finale? [Many audience members raise their hands] I totally did.

Amber: Thank you!

Adam: [Laughter from audience] Yeah, it’s normal! Especially when Charlie sees Claire and they recognize each other, it’s like, “This is too much! It’s too much!” [Laughter from audience]

Mark: We should have brought tissues… [Laughter from audience]

Adam: This is a surprisingly emotional panel. But I thought it was fantastic and, leading up to the finale, my friend who introduced me to this show kept telling me, “Oh they’re not going to have a big twist, they’re not going to reveal something huge because they’ve already answered pretty much everything,” and… I don’t know if everyone’s familiar with Lostpedia… it’s like a LOST Wiki…

Aaron: So good.

Adam: It’s amazing. They just have catalogued everything. But if you look at it, they really did answer pretty much everything. There are a few odds and ends…

Mark: What was in “The Box”? [Laughter]

Aaron: The magic box? The magic box? It was the Man from Tallahassee… and a bunch of other stuff…

Adam: I was so glad that they wrapped up the characters’ stories and really gave us a great sense of resolution for those characters that you kind of fall in love with.

Cassidy: Yeah, I liked it, too. …Should I be the voice of dissent?

Mark: Well, there’s gotta be one!

Cassidy: That finale sucked! [Laughter from audience] If you liked it, you suck! [One man cheers] No, I really liked it for one reason: because I was so confused or… lost… watching the Flash Sideways because it didn’t make sense, right? Like, Jack has this 13-year-old kid, and how is that possible if it’s just them resetting the timeline? So, I thought it was a really neat way for them to explain all of that. Also, I was just impressed that they were able to wrap it up in such a way that was satisfying because I did start to worry during Season 3, Season 4, like… they’ve made this so convoluted and crazy and bizarre that I thought that it was going to be too much build up and there was no possible way that they could make it satisfying, and they did!

Rebecca: I, like everybody else, loved the finale! I had a lot of friends who were very much, like, “What’s up with the polar bears??” And I’m like, “It’s not about the polar bears!” [Laughter from audience] “It’s about so much more than just the stupid polar bears!”

Mark: …but what about the polar bears?

Rebecca: It doesn’t matter!

Aaron: Watch “The New Man in Charge.” It explains it. And pregnancy, too.

Rebecca: I watched all of the seasons during some very formative years of my life. The finale did mean a lot to me! It was a nice tie – like when Harry Potter ended, I sobbed for hours. I, weekly, would go online after every episode and read all the fan theories and read what was going on. It was a big chunk of my life that I suddenly didn’t have to deal with anymore. And that was kind of a bummer, but I really liked how they wrapped it up and, sure, they weren’t dead the whole time, but that’s what I love about [that last season], was, “Here’s how they all kind of get back together.” It was a nice bow on the whole series.

QUESTION: What part of the mythology of LOST that was introduced throughout the series did you feel was under-developed or that they could have built upon?

Rebecca: Probably the Numbers. I don’t know. It’s really hard to say. There’s a lot of mythology on the show that they could have built upon. Yeah, maybe the mythology behind the whole Dharma Initiative. That’s a really hard question. Why do I do this? You ask a lot of hard questions.

Mark: I should do easy questions, like, “What is the future of ______?” That’s an easy question!

Cassidy: I would have liked more explanation on the Protectors: Jacob, the Man in Black and the Mother. The kids show up, she kills their mom and she just takes them on, and she’s like, “You’re like me now!” And then, later, Jacob gives a drink to Jack, and he’s like, “You’re like me now!” And there’s no real explanation as to what, exactly, is happening. Jack even says, “I don’t feel any different.” But they sort of, essentially, become like gods or demigods and there’s no real explanation as to how that happened, how that started, how this sort of Protector person first came to be, and I would like to know a little more about that.

Adam: don’t know. Just, like, odds-and-ends stuff. Why was there kind of a heavy, ancient Egyptian influence on some parts of the Island and a whole bunch of hieroglyphics? And what’s the deal with spreading the ashes and how does that protect the cabin? You know… it’s LOST. There are a thousand things I want to know about! – and you only get half-answers, but it’s still an amazing show.

Aaron: One thing that kind of bugged me was … I wanted to like Jacob because, for seasons and seasons, we hear about this “Jacob” guy and then he’s on the screen for, like, five minutes and they kill him! So, I was a little disappointed by that.

Amber: I know that they probably said a lot, but Christian [Shephard], just because I absolutely loved the story of Christian …. [Jack] seeing his dad and Jack’s just, “What’s going on?” … I just love that whole following and … with Claire… I just wish that I could have learned more about it because I was just so obsessed with that storyline that I just kind of felt like I got gypped a little bit.

Jeremiah: I think I want to know more about the mythology on this hot, humid, sweaty island… I want to know more about the mythology of Richard’s perfect eyeliner. [Laughter from audience] …why it doesn’t smudge or run.

Rebecca: Did you know that they actually had to lighten that for the show?

Jeremiah: He’s naturally like that…

Rebecca: That’s crazy.

Jeremiah: Really, I’d say more of the Egyptian stuff, like who originally put those statues there – because they were there when Jacob got there.

Mark: My thing is, why did people go along with pushing that button for so long? [Laughter from audience] Honestly, that’s such a crazy social experiment! At what point are you like, “Man, I’m going to see if this goes and something really does happen. I’m sick of doing this!” I can’t believe Desmond did it for that long! Honestly, if you really think about putting someone down there and saying, “Look, you gotta keep doing this, this amount of time or the world will die. I’m telling you, this is true!” I think, how many people, like, “I’m done!” After six months, “I’m not doing this anymore!”

Jeremiah: I would have hit the point where I just passed out and [forgot] to wake up – just a point of sleep deprivation and just sleep through it.

Mark: That’s why they’ve got the alarms and stuff going on.

Jeremiah: That’s true, yeah.

Mark: “Oh, the end of the world just came. I’m done.”

Cassidy: You’d think they would be better off if they at least gave them a friend? Because, being alone, you’d be like, “Screw this! I’m done! If the world ends, so be it.”

Jeremiah: Wasn’t that one guy there and he ended up killing himself?

Aaron: Yeah.

Rebecca: It’s not like Desmond had a friend. He just kind of showed up and had to take over. I’m sure he would have loved a friend!

Mark: So now, at this point of the panel, we would like to invite you [the audience] up to the cordless microphone… Anything you want to talk about. Let’s have a discussion. Just come up to the front. Anything you guys want to chat about… Let’s throw some ideas around. Thanks again for coming. [Applause] I applaud you because I think this show still has a huge following and I think it’s indicative that the people who watched it are smart. It’s fantastic!

Jeremiah: Also, I put on my LOST cosplay because I had to join in on the fun, so here’s my LOST cosplay… [Holds up hand, which says, in Sharpie, NOT PENNY’S BOAT] [Audible sadness from audience]

Mark: Say your name and tell us your favorite station, as well.

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE MEMBER: Well, my name is Matt. It’s been a while, so, I guess, just the Swan station. My question is, since you guys didn’t really bring it up, probably your favorite character? Like, the character that you rooted for the whole time, you were just super happy for them, and the person that you learned about their backstory or their story and just, “Yeah, I want them to die.” For me, it was probably Desmond and Penny, how they got back together. His [adventure] to get back to her… I was bawling at the end of the episode. And then, probably, Locke’s dad was the person that I wanted to die the most.

Mark: My favorite, obviously, Desmond was my favorite. I still think “The Constant” is one of the best hours on television. I can watch it over and over. It’s fantastic. Who I wanted to go? I think Locke’s dad was just a complete jerk! There was nothing about his character that I was like, “Well, maybe he’ll turn around,” and then, you know, “The Man from Tallahassee”… This guy should just… He’s a jerk! So, yeah. I agree with you there.

Jeremiah: I flip-flop my favorite character between Ben and Desmond. We’ve already mentioned everything about why Desmond is good. But Ben just because, even though he was bad, he was good. He was interesting … He was fascinating to me, just because he never revealed everything about himself; he always played his cards close to the vest.

Mark: And his dad was messed up, too.

Jeremiah: Yeah, his dad was messed up, too. Who I’d want to see – just not to copy your answer – Ethan. Uh, yeah… He’s… creepy.

Amber: For me, it’s a toss-up with favorite characters, but Desmond is definitely up there. I also do love Miles. In fact, he was the inspiration of naming my son Miles, just because I loved the whole story with that and he was just fascinating. Um, really hated Ana Lucia, bad. [Laughter from audience] And I have a hard time with [Michelle Rodriguez] in any other roles, anyways, so it just really emphasized it in the show, for me.

Aaron: My favorite was Desmond. And Hurley. I love Hurley, too. And I’ve gotta give a little shoutout to Ben Linus because I hated that dude so much, but he’s amazing! He is one of the greatest villains, I think, in the history of television. So, hated him, but Michael Emerson is amazing.

Adam: I’m also going to say Hurley, like I mentioned earlier. But, if I were going to kill someone, I’d probably say Ben, even though he’s such a fantastic character. I feel like once you start getting to know him, you’re just like, “Kill him! He’s gonna get you! He’s going to do something bad!” And he did! But I love to hate him. He’s fantastic.

Cassidy: I think Hurley is the most lovable character, right? But, besides that, I loved Charlie. [Cheers and applause from audience] His struggle with addiction… He was charming and he took on this kid that wasn’t his… I loved Charlie. Ben was probably, initially, the person that I wanted to kill, but the more I learned about him, the more it was like, “It’s kind of not his fault. He’s been manipulated his whole life and he’s just sort of the product of this crazy environment.” If I had to pick someone, I’d probably say Michael. Like, “You sold out everybody!” [Laughter from audience] “You sold out everyone!” And he had some remorse at the end, but, like, “Boo!!”

Rebecca: Probably, my two favorite characters are Sawyer and Charlie. [Some cheers from females in audience] Mostly because they started out as terrible people, but then, the more you learn about them – especially Sawyer, and the more he grows and changes into LaFleur, he turned into a really good guy! Like, “Yeah, Sawyer!” I never got on Team Shannon. [Groans and laughter from audience] So I was really happy to see her go. [More laughter]

Audience member: What about Keamy? Kill Keamy!

Aaron: Oh, he was the worst! Oh, I hated that guy.

Audience member: Another quick one that I wanted to throw out was that I think Rose was really under-appreciated, too.

Aaron: Rose and Bernard are awesome.

Adam: Loved Rose.

Cassidy: She was the best, yeah. Rose and Bernard’s whole relationship…

Amber: Their love story was cute.

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: Hi. I’ll say my favorite station was actually the Flame station. I was Mikhail for Halloween a couple years ago. But, actually, I think you guys pretty much answered my question, so I just wanted to hear either some Ben-love or Ben-hate. I just wanted to hear you guys’ opinions on Ben Linus because he was my favorite character – just his complexity and also, I started out hating him and I thought, like, “Oh, he’s going to die. He’s going to die.” But then he lasted the entire show and became a good character. So, I just wanted to hear some more opinions, I guess, on him.

Rebecca: I loved Ben. I loved him.

Jeremiah: The idea that he sacrificed his daughter for what he thought was the greater good, and the way he acted that scene, I, man, I don’t know. So many conflicting thoughts with that guy!

Mark: On the flip side, after she’s dead and he murders Keamy, he has no appreciation for everyone else. He’s like, “Screw that they’re going to die. You killed my daughter, I don’t care.”

Jeremiah: Yeah, I just…

Mark: Emerson is great, by the way. I think he’s a fantastic actor. … You wanted to hate him so much, and then, at the end of it all, he ends up doing really good things. You’re like, “You sacrificed your daughter…” I don’t know if I can get over that, so that’s where I’m at with that character – and I still struggle with it! I don’t know!

Jeremiah: I love him, too, for all the same reasons, and, man… Ben Linus has the best crazy eyes I have ever seen. [Laughter from audience]

Rebecca: The ol’ bulgey eyes.

Amber: I thought he was great. I thought his character was really intriguing and, even though I did want to hate him, I couldn’t help it. Maybe it’s Stockholm syndrome. I don’t know, but I thought he was pretty amazing.

Aaron: By the way, if any of you were wondering, he gets beat up 11 times. [Laughter from audience] He gets beat up a lot – probably more than anyone on TV.

Amber: I want to read your notebook!

Mark: Yeah, what other neat stats do you have in there?

Aaron: I also have the ways that he gets beat up: he gets shot with a crossbow, he breaks one of the pantry shelves when he’s trying to climb through the vent, he gets hit in the face by multiple guns, Keamy… Sun hits him in the face with an oar… But I do think that “Dr. Linus,” the episode in Season 6 is a great episode – when he gets redemption in the Flash Sideways. I love that episode.

Cassidy: If this dude starts flipping through his notebook and talking about time travel, just run away. [Laughter from audience]

Rebecca: What’s in that blue notebook?

Aaron: This [green notebook] is the second time I watched it, this [blue notebook] is the third time I watched it. [Laughter from audience] My mom is concerned about me.

Amber: I would read it.

Mark: This is why I asked the question, “What would you do next?” We’ve got the blueprint right there.

Aaron: I wouldn’t change a thing!

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE MEMBER: First of all, I want to say that it’s awesome that you have a son named Miles. I have a daughter named Rousseau. [Audible response from audience] My question is this: we have all the books that are referenced in the show… You mentioned a little bit about learning about different religions and how that affected your viewing of the show… I’m curious if any of you read any of the books that are seen in different parts of the show and if that affected your viewing of it, if it helped you understand the ending. I know, for my husband and I, we both read… we went through the LOST book list and it enhanced so much on ours, so… I’m actually really excited about this subject.

Mark: This is so awesome.

Audience member: …As soon as I learned that some of the characters’ names were based off of philosophers, I went out and I learned about all of the different philosophies. I went and read about Locke, I learned about Rousseau, I read about – there was a ton of them! I went and picked up books and I picked up, you know, that David Copperfield book and I loved it, but I, more importantly, I really loved learning about the different philosophies and how those characters embodied those philosophies.

Cassidy: I read a lot, anyway. I didn’t purposefully go through and read the LOST books, but I had read a bunch of them that they referenced, and yeah, there’s a whole bunch of just little, hidden nods to literature, and it definitely enhances the viewing.

Adam: I haven’t done it, but now I want to.

Random audience member: Read Slaughterhouse Five first!

Mark: Oh my gosh, that’s one of the best books ever written.

Aaron: Believe it or not, I have not read any of the books. Not yet.

Rebecca: WHAT?!

Amber: I haven’t, either, but I was obsessive and learned everything I could online, and so… it counts as reading. [Laughter from audience]

Mark: There was a book… It was like 50 cents. It was the actual book, I think it was Bad Twin… Has anyone else read this? [Some responses] Ok, so I’m not the only one. That makes me feel better. It wasn’t that bad, but I was really obsessed and I know that they talked about … books by Stephen King – and The Stand is still one of the best things – so, to me… The Stand, this Bad Twin book… Not that bad, for 50 cents. That’s a pretty good buy. Those are my two. … If you just go on Lostpedia and start going down there, man, that will lead you down the rabbit hole. You’re going to find all kinds of crazy, crazy… parallel universe, all kinds of stuff.

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: Hey. My name is Claire…

Several panelists, in Australian accent: Claire?? Where’s your baby? Charlie!

Audience member: So, Adam, I expect more LOST references on “Studio C.”

Adam: Ok. We are doing a LOST sketch this season, so…

Audience member: Ok, awesome. Looking forward to it.

Adam: We’re making fun of the scene where Jack and Kate revive Charlie after he’s been hanged, and Jack, who is a doctor, starts doing CPR like this… [mimics terrible CPR procedure] [Laughter from audience] So, that’s annoying.

Audience member: Well, so my question, me and my dad, we watched it every week and we’re crybabies, so when Charlie died, that was such a great death, but when Locke died – don’t make me cry again – I feel like we didn’t really get a proper death out of him because we didn’t really know he was dead…

Amber: We got kind of cheated with that!

Audience member: Yeah! Did you guys have any feelings, like, did you have any deaths that you would want to change?

Amber: Well, there was that whole thing, too, with the alternate scenes, where you don’t know who’s in that coffin. They filmed, like, three separate things so that nobody knew…

Mark: So that if it leaked, they would have the three ones and you still wouldn’t know?

Amber: Yeah, because the writers have admitted that they didn’t know what they were doing… they filmed one with Locke, they filmed one with Sawyer and – was it Desmond or Ben?

Adam: I think it was Desmond.

Amber: One of them. But I’m actually kind of glad that it was Locke because I felt the least connected to Locke, out of everybody. I’m trying to think of who else died that was, like, “Oh, that was a bummer.”

Aaron: I’ve got one. Charles Widmore! That was the most abrupt death and I wanted more because that dude was evil! So I was disappointed with his death. It should have been worse. [Laughter]

Adam: I think Sun and Jin’s death kind of tied their story together, but I was like, “BUT THE BABY!” [Laughter from audience] “THE BABY! Someone go home to the baby!” So that was a little hard to get over.

Mark: Good question.

Amber: I was like that with the baby. I was like, “But the baby!” [Laughs]

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: I just have a question. Actually, I’d like to direct it directly to Aaron.

Aaron: Sure!

Audience member: Of that whole series, do you have one moment in that, since you’ve done it three times – and, of course, I know that Mark has many times, as well – but is there one part in that whole series that really affected you greatly? One moment.

Aaron: Um, oh man. You know, one of these pages [in the notebook] is “The Greatest Scenes of LOST,” so I’ve got, like, top 10 or something, but one that I really like that I think is really impactful is when, in Season 6, when, in the Flash Sideways, Jack heals Locke’s paralysis. I just really love that scene, just seeing how far they came when they were just always fighting in Season 1, but seeing them in Season 6, ending with a friendship, I love that scene. [One person claps] [Sarcastically:] Thank you.

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: I love John Locke. … And I agree with you, it’s not about the polar bears. Everything between – all the little minutia. The story is great, but, something that always occurs on my mind is Walt, and Claire’s kid. There’s so much emphasis early on about how special Walt is and about how special that kid is and, frankly, at the end of it, Walt seems to disappear. I would like to know if you guys have any thoughts on what that special quality was and, if that quality was somehow shown later on in the show with other characters…

Rebecca: With Walt, I always thought he was kind of like a psychic. Kind of, like, [telepathic] or whatever.

Mark: Kind of “Professor X” going on.

Rebecca: Kind of like Professor X.

Mark: With that, I think they just ran out of time. That’s a good question though, honestly. And that kid [Malcolm David Kelley] grew like 15 feet in four years. [Laughter from audience] I don’t think they anticipated him having this gigantic growth spurt, and that why, when I’m talking about other stories and whatnot, the dynamic between Walt, Hurley and Ben, to see what they could have done with the Island afterwards… I’m sorry. I don’t like reboots or re-imaging and that, but it’s going to get done. I know it’s going to happen, and hopefully it’s done with [the] care of people who actually watched this and thought, “You know what? That would be a cool story to tell and that’s the kind of take I want to go with.” But I always thought of Walt as a “Professor X” and they never got there – and I thought it would have been cool if they did, but… Yeah, they ran out of time. Speaking of which, I think we’re almost out of time! Let’s do these three people really quick and then we’ll let the other people come… And thanks again for coming out. You guys rock. [Applause] Ok, really fast.

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: Favorite station is the Pearl, just because it’s such a screwed up psychological [experiment]. It just goes nowhere. What was the deal with Aaron? The psychic/mind-reader guy was like, “Oh no. He has to be raised only by you [Claire] and he has to be raised here,” and then it’s like, “Oh no. He’s raised by four other people and Claire isn’t even in the same country,” and nothing wrong happened.

Amber: From what I read, there isn’t anything special about him, so, really, it’s probably just a plot twist, but, from the theories and stuff that I’ve read online, there’s nothing fantastic about Aaron.

Aaron: The psychic ended up being a sham, anyway.

Mark: Good question, though. I don’t know.

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: I’m Sarah. I’m probably just weird, but I’m still not over Boone’s death, so what did you guys feel?

Rebecca: I’m still so sad about Boone’s death. He was too perfect for this world.

Aaron: Did you go see Ian Somerhalder?

Audience member: My mom and I might. I might definitely go.

Mark: His death was… I think it was a way to shake things up, and it sucked.

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: I’m constantly quoting Sawyer, when he says, “[in Southern accent:] I just shot a bear!” [Laughter from panelists] What little quotes and references [from LOST] are you constantly thinking of and bringing up in conversations?

Rebecca: I always think of this one meme that I saw, [which is when] Desmond hits Locke with his car. Is that who he hits? Desmond, like, hits Locke in his wheelchair? I saw this meme. It was, “They see me rollin’…” It sticks with me, for whatever reason.

Cassidy: Any time I use the word “brother,” I always do it in Desmond’s voice, because it’s the only way that doesn’t sound totally douchey. [Laughter from audience]

Adam: I like to point out the LOST numbers in real life.

Aaron: “We have to go back!"

Amber: I was going to say the Desmond stuff, too, but… “See you in another life…” I love that.

Jeremiah: … When I’m online playing video games and other people will be on the headset and I kill them, I go, “YOU KILLED MY DAUGHTER!” [Laughter from audience]

Mark: I think my very favorite thing, though, is Jack’s fake beard. I still, to this day, that is one of the best props ever. If I could own that, I would [muffled]… Thanks again for coming out. Thanks to the panelists. Awesome job.