Lost Season 6 : expect early answers as the show returns

"But that doesn't mean there won't be a couple new flavours in the mélange. There are a couple of new faces, but not as many as there have been in past seasons."

Those new faces will include Deadwood star John Hawkes as Lennon, a scruffy and charismatic foreign corporate spokesperson, and a cunning negotiator, wielding more influence than someone in his position should.

They also include Sheila Kelley, best known from LA Law as Kendall, an intellectual beauty with a sharp edge to her wit who is caught committing corporate espionage.

Of the familiar faces, watch for the return of Ian Somerhalder (Boone), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie) and Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet). It's hard to stay dead long on planet Lost.

(For a full set of new characters, take a look at Bonnie Covel's excellent Lost blog.)

"We have 18 hours over which to do the ending, and I feel we have found the right pace," Lindelof says.

"You only have so much room in your stomach to eat, and you have to digest sometimes too. We're trying to modulate the season so it doesn't feel like you're waiting, getting little meals, then you get one big meal.

"It's a flow of courses. You will probably get a little more than you were expecting a little sooner than you were expecting.

"The questions that count will be answered, and the questions that the fans don't want answered won't be answered.

"I think what they're looking for is a real sense of resolution, particularly on a character level.

"Who's going to live? Who's going to die? Who's going to hook up with who? Why were they all brought here in the first place? Was it arbitrary? Is there meaning behind it?

"That's the kind of stuff we have to answer, or we should be prepared to get rocks thrown at us.

"Now that the end is here, it feels amazing. I can't believe we're going to be able to end the show on our own terms. To be able to cancel something yourself is a rare treat in the TV biz.

"We've spent the last five years answering questions like 'Were you guys making it up as you go along?' and 'Do you know what you're doing?'

"It's a great comfort to know that in about six months people will stop asking us that question. They'll basically say: 'You were making it up as you went along' or they'll go: 'Wow, you really had a plan!'

"There are no excuses. We get to do the ending on our own terms, and hopefully people will like it."

"We want the fans to vigorously debate certain aspects of the show.

"Some things will be very conclusive, other things people will think are more conclusive than we meant them - and some will be more ambiguous than we meant them.

"It wouldn't be Lost if five years from now people weren't still arguing over what they wanted it to be."