If you're wondering why I put "talk" in quotations in the headline, it's because Lost creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have mastered the art of talking about the show's future without really saying anything.  The Live Feed conducted an interview with Lindelof and Cuse where they were asked about the final season and while they revealed very little, Lost fans will take any table scraps they can find as they anxiously await the February 2nd season premiere.

Hit the jump for Lindelof and Cuse talking about who may be returning, how the final season will fit in with the whole, how they expect the finale to be received, and why they both loved the season finale of The Shield.

Describing the tone of the new season, Cuse says they'll be bringing it back around and it will be most similar to season one.  They're will also be some returning faces...

Cuse: We feel tonally it's most similar to the first season of the show. We're employing a different narrative device, which we feel is creating some emotional and heartfelt stories, and we want the audience to have a chance in the final season to remember the entire history of the show. So we have actors coming back like Dominic [Monaghan] and Ian [Sommerhalder]. We're hoping to achieve a circularity of the entire journey so the ending is reminiscent of the beginning.

Remember the poster to the right?  See how just about every cast member from the last six seasons is on it?  Seems there's a reason for that.

As for how fans will receive the finale, Lindelof prognosticates:

Lindelof: The one area we're in agreement is there will be a short-term reaction to the ending and then a legacy reaction that comes six months, a year down the road, looking at the show as a whole... What people take away from our finale is going to be based purely on that two-hour episode, but our hope is they'll be able to connect that experience to the six years that preceded it.

Finally, as far as the season finales for other shows, both Lindelof and Cuse had some mad love for how Shawn Ryan wrapped up The Shield:

Cuse: Shawn Ryan did a great job ending "The Shield."

Linedlof: The ending for "The Shield" was, asking whether Vic Mackey would get some form of comeuppance for all the things he's done over the series... the "Shield" ending was phenomenal, and almost every fan of the show agrees with that. Whereas the other shows -- and probably with the ending of "Lost" -- there's some debate about the ending.

Lost's final season begins on Tuesday, February 2nd at 9pm on ABC.