All is not ‘Lost’ for first gang

This season’s Others story line is creating a new population boom on Lost.

In tonight’s episode (ABC, 9 ET/PT), the series finally reconnects with established characters Locke (Terry O’Quinn), Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), Claire (Emilie de Ravin), Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), absent since May’s cliffhanger.

“We feel like Jay Leno, who has a garage full of fancy cars and can only drive one every day,” says executive producer Carlton Cuse. “We have a garage full of fancy, wonderful actors, and we just don’t have as much time to drive each one as much as we want to.”

The season’s first two episodes focused on The Others, including Ben (Michael Emerson) and newcomer Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), and the crash survivors caught by or chasing them.

“The show demands we introduce new characters on a regular basis, and the new toy is always the one that’s very engaging to the audience,” executive producer Damon Lindelof explains.

“This year so far, the story that’s captivated us has been the captivity story,” Cuse says.

But even cast members who are the season’s early focus have concerns about overpopulation.

“I think The Others are going to take a lot of our time away,” says Yunjin Kim, who plays Sun and was left out of a lot of last year’s action, which focused on survivors from the plane’s tail section. “But we need new blood to get things going. That’s how Lost goes.”

Says Matthew Fox, who plays Jack, held captive by The Others: “There were characters last year that people felt weren’t developed enough. Now, all of a sudden we find ourselves into The Others with new people introduced there.”

The producers promise that all will get their due ? and that more characters will be introduced and others will return.

But is tracking the vast cast contributing to a viewership slide? (Last week’s episode drew 16.9 million viewers, compared with 21.7 million for the same week last year.) Cuse says no and attributes the dip instead to the plot’s complexities.

“Lost has a whole history behind it,” he says, “and some casual viewers think it’s daunting to come watch the show if you haven’t been. We tried to design the show this year to make the basic concept pretty simple: our characters vs. The Others.”

USA Today

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