"Lost": Fan deluge at Paley Festival

Here's another view on the "Lost" Paley fest sesh, from Variety's Shalini Dore:

If there's one word fans were to take away from Saturday's "Lost" sesh at the Paley Festival, that word would be "water," according to exec producer Carlton Cuse. (In keeping with the spirit of the show, Cuse never explained what he meant by that!)

In a discussion ranging from the funny to serious to strange, writers and actors discussed such things as why there are no monkeys on the island ("There are big apes," according to writer Adam Horowitz), or LGBT actors (series co-creator Damon Lindelof pointed to Mr. Friendly, the gay Other who was killed off a while back) or whether the String Theory explained the flash sideways.

Paul Scheer moderated the discussion as Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, Nestor Carbonell and Zuleikha Robinson talked about how they played their roles without any idea of where their characters were going.

"It runs against your work habits but once you get used to it, it frees you," Emerson said.

With the last three episodes being written, scribe Eddie Kitsis says most of the emails he gets are from fans imploring him "Don't screw it up."

The show will not answer all questions that people may have, per Cuse (we'll never find out more on that economist Sayid killed on the golf course). Lindelof said the writers are fans of "Top Chef," and like that show they take all the ingredients and then choose what to reveal as the show ends.

Director Jack Bender said the key to the show is trust among all the players. The writers, who are on the mainland, trust him to translate their words and he and the actors trust the scribes in turn to not lead them astray. "A weird alchemy happens," Bender explained.

-- Shalini Dore