A Q&A with 'Lost' director Jack Bender

It will be the most anticipated episode of television in 2010, if not the most anticipated episode of television in years. The series finale of Lost will air around the world in May 2010, bringing to an end six years of torturous teasing and incessant puzzles. Recently we caught up with long-time Lost producer Jack Bender, who's been given the enviable task of directing the show's swansong.

What's your day-to-day role on the show?
"From the beginning I've creatively been in charge of the show as an executive producer in Hawaii, although I didn't do the pilot. I also direct many of the episodes. In some ways Damon [Lindelof] and Carlton [Cuse] and the rest of our writer-producers in Los Angeles are like the architects. They design the show and send us the blueprints and then we build it."

As you mentioned you direct a lot of the episodes as well and you're going to direct the finale. When did you find out about that and how did you feel?
"Well, either it was going to be me or JJ and JJ generously believes it should be me. I just assumed that it would be the case [that it would be me] because I've been the guy from the beginning who's directed the most episodes. Stephen Williams has been a co-executive producer and directed many episodes starting at the end of season one but I will do the two hour premiere this year, and some episodes in between, then the finale."

How much of a handle do you have on the finale now? Do you know everything that's going to happen?
"No, not every detail, but I know what the ending of the show is and I know the overall arc of the season but I don't even know all the specifics of the two hour premiere! There are surprises along the way, even for the writers."

What did you make of the reaction to the season five finale? A lot of people were surprised by Juliet's death.
"I think, like all good drama, the audience being surprised is a good thing - even a little pissed off is OK - because I think challenging an audience is important. From the beginning our characters have been flawed and have done things you don't frequently do on television - you don't have one of your leads putting bamboo in the fingernails of one of the other leads, like Sayid did to Sawyer! We show real black-and-white, flawed people and in the storytelling they kill people you love. That's part of the reality of life and part of the reality of our show. I think in the same way there were some people who were probably annoyed at us for killing Juliet, yet it was a necessary step in the storytelling of the show."

Will you do more of that as you move towards the finale?
"You mean will more people die? It's a dangerous island. Our show has always been about survival but the one thing I can say about our final season is that it will be very satisfying in the way that season one was satisfying - that it focused very much on our characters."

As you said lots of characters have been killed off but they've also tended to come back. Will we see dead characters come back in the next season?
"You'll see."

There have been lots of rumours about Dominic [Monaghan, aka Charlie] coming back.
"Mm hmm - I've heard those rumours! I'll say that I love Dominic and we've missed him on the show but his death was one of the most powerful moments on our series, so was it a good idea? That's the great thing about our show - our writers don't take the easy path. Having a whole season take place in the past of the DHARMA Initiative could have been terrible but it wasn't, it was really good. I think that's been true of a lot of bold choices the show have made."

Recently we learned that the final season would have one extra episode above what was planned. What was the reason for that?
"When Damon and Carlton were writing the season four finale, it was going to be an hour but as they got into writing it, it became two hours. That didn't upset anyone at the studio or the network even though it cost a bit more because they get another episode out of it. Even though contractually we only have to deliver X number of episodes they're always happy if we do one more. I think that Damon and Carlton felt that a two hour premiere for the final season was fitting. Certainly a two hour finale too - which I don't think will become a three hour finale! - because a two hour finale is appropriate for the end of the series."

Going back a couple of years to the writers' strike, you produced fewer episodes that season. Did that affect your storytelling plans?
"It did because there was less room on the chalkboard to write the story, so it did very much affect the storytelling. What they had in mind they had to reduce and lose some things in order to fit in the season. Our show always had to be a different book each season so it wouldn't have made sense to take some of that stuff and push it to the following year. Every book of Lost - every year - has its own arc in the overall big story. The writers' strike was a drag for everybody. A lot of people lost a lot of work. It was not a good thing for Hollywood, it was not a good thing for anybody. What the writers gained some of them may never get back because it hurt, but I also understood it."

There's a new show starting next year called FlashForward which has received comparisons to Lost. What are your thoughts on that?
"I've seen FlashForward and I think it's very well done. It's a smart show, very well executed, the actors are good and the storytelling is good. The one thing I would say about FlashForward is that I think it's very important is that you have to, in a television series, really be invested in the characters and really care about the characters. For FlashForward it's essential that the audience be invested in those characters and hopefully they will be. I'm not implying that they won't be or that the pilot wasn't that, but what occurs in the show is very big and so a strong part of the challenge is keeping the characters first."

Finally, what are you going to do when Lost is over?
"Cry! No - when Lost is over I'm going to continue to paint and sculpt, as well as direct and produce. I'm talking to various people, developing things and I've written a movie script. I'll be continuing to do what I do. The one thing I know for sure is that it won't be Lost - that's an experience that comes around very rarely in your work lifetime. I feel very blessed to have been a part of it and I'm very excited to finish it."

Lost season six premieres in January 2010.

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Additional reporting by Chris Allen