To say that the Lost finale was divisive is an understatement, but the fact that we’re still even talking about the ending of a network TV show 10 years later—when the landscape of television has so radically changed in that time—is a testament to the legacy of the series. And in the wake of the finale’s tenth anniversary, co-creator and showrunner Damon Lindelof and co-showrunner Carlton Cuse are reflecting on the journey, warts and all.

When Lost first premiered, its allure was largely twofold: it had fascinating characters about whom you wanted to learn more, and it posed absolutely bonkers mythological questions relating to the central island (polar bears? A hatch? “The Others?”). Lindelof and co-creator J.J. Abrams have been upfront about the fact that when they created the pilot, they were posing questions they didn’t yet know the answer to—but of course that’s how stories are told, especially serialized ones in which you're crafting 25 episodes a season. Abrams left to direct Mission: Impossible III after the pilot was made, and Cuse was brought in to help Lindelof run the show. Together, they crafted an insane and incredible 25-episode first season that went on to win the Emmy for Best Dramas Series.

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Image via ABC

But as the show continued on past Season 1, it became harder for Lindelof and Cuse to toe this line of posing intriguing questions but also not running out of story before the show ends. Because you have to remember, at that time, shows didn’t announce when they were going to end. They simply ran out of steam and were cancelled. This posed a problem for a show like Lost, which had a definite endpoint.

In the middle of Season 3, ABC, Lidnelof, and Cuse announced that the show would continue on for just three more seasons, after which it would end. This was an unprecedented move at the time, allowing Lindelof and Cuse to build to a definitive conclusion, and according to Cuse as part of The Independent’s oral history of the finale, it was partly borne out of the “Jack’s tattoos” episode:

“The driving forces behind us really pushing to get an end date for the show were two problems we had: one – we didn’t know how long the mythology had to last, and secondly, we were running out of flashbacks for the characters. So, when we did Jack’s flashback where he’s in Thailand with Bai Ling – one of the episodes that would not be on my list of favorites – we felt it was time to end the show.”

At the same time, the show was being criticized for “making it up” as they went along, despite the fact that that’s how storytelling works. Another show that made it up as it went along? Breaking Bad, whose writers would routinely write themselves into corners and then have to figure out a way out.

Cuse says coming to the organic endpoint was a process:

“There was this weird paradox – people were criticizing us for making it up as we went along, but at the same time they also wanted to influence the course of the show. I think with any creative endeavor, anyone is lying to you if they say they had it all figured out up front. Only by doing six years of the show and going on that creative journey were we able to arrive at the show we made. It was a long process.”

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Image via ABC

As Cuse and Lindelof sat down to plot out the series finale, they ultimately had to decide what was important: the mythology or the characters:

Lost was all about mystery and questions and answers, and we wanted to try to answer a mystery the show hadn’t even asked up until that point. I was like, ‘Everybody’s talking about polar bears, hatches, the Dharma Initiative, Jacob and the Man in Black, but let’s answer the mystery of what happens when you die and the process that you go through in order to achieve some fundamental level of grace.’ A portion of the audience was like, ‘Oh, that wasn’t on my list, I’m not interested in that.’ But we were.”

Even some of the actors had grown tired of the mythology and mystery, as Kate actress Evangeline Lilly candidly recalls to The Independent that she didn’t even watch the last few seasons:

“I didn’t really watch the show from seasons four to six. I would just show up to work and do it. I loved season one when it was all about the characters, but when it became all about the mythology, it wasn’t my taste. I think for the genre, though, it was catnip.”

In crafting the finale, Cuse says he and Lindelof both agreed there was no way to please everybody, and trying to answer all the mythological questions would be disastrous:

“When we started writing the finale, we were having breakfast in my office, and I said, ‘Look there’s no version of the finale that everyone is going to embrace, particularly with a show like this where there are so many mysteries.’ Early on, we arrived at the fact that trying to answer all the unanswered questions was a recipe for disaster. It was didactic and uninteresting and actually, just as Damon has said, not true to life.”

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Image via ABC

So Cuse and Lindelof came up with a sort of compromise. The third-to-last episode of the series, “Across the Sea,” would be a sort of “origin story” for the island that would answer some big mythological questions, and then the series finale would be entirely character-centric—and ambiguous at that. The episode is basically a meditation on mortality and the afterlife, with the underlying theme being that the time on the island that these disparate characters had was one of the most profound and meaningful experiences of their lives.

Lindelof’s reflection on that idea draws a clear line to his brilliant HBO series The Leftovers, which was upfront about the fact that it had no interest in answering questions:

“I feel that, ultimately, the fundamental question that I’m most interested in exploring is whether there’s a purpose behind suffering and, more importantly, do you have to suffer to achieve a level of grace? I think that when you’re ending a television show, the longer it goes – the longer the characters suffer – the more satisfying their grace has to be.”

Despite some harsh reaction from fans who were frustrated by a lack of “answers” in the Lost series finale, Lindelof isn’t sorry (nor should he be):

“I guess the takeaway from Lost is that I am unapologetic about the fact I’m fascinated by ambiguity and questions that will never be answered, because that’s what life is. I’m just really interested in those stories and I understand that there is an experience of frustration and dissatisfaction. But I also think that there is nobility in the exploration and the journey of these ideas.”

Cuse concurs:

“I wouldn’t apologize either. I think the journey of Lost, like life, has its flaws and blemishes, which may be perceived differently by different people. But in totality, I’m very proud of what we did. The fact we made the show and touched a lot of people’s hearts is something that’s incredibly special to me.

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Image via ABC

As for the show’s legacy, Lilly remembers how the show stood in stark contrast to the reality TV boom of the time:

“What I love about Lost is it came on the scene at the same time that reality shows exploded, and I am the person that, when reality shows took over television, was saying ‘Has the intelligence of America diminished so far that people don’t want to be challenged anymore? That they don’t want to have to think?’ Then Lost came along and proved completely otherwise: that people love to be challenged, that people are desperate for intelligent entertainment and, when you give it to them and honor their intelligence, they can not only understand but go beyond and live up to, and read even further into what you’re making than you could have imagined. It’s incredible.”

Cuse and Lindelof have routinely said they understand Lost will be rebooted someday, and while they have no intention of being involved, they’re completely fine with someone else taking the reins:

“Damon and I have resisted the idea of rebooting the show, but we’ve been very open that it will happen. Someone will come along and pitch a great idea that happens in the world of Lost. It’s Disney’s property and we won’t begrudge them the fact they may want to do something else with it. We got the chance to tell our story.”

And what a hell of a story it was. As Matt eloquently reflected in his recent essay on why the show endures, Lindelof and Cuse stayed true to their characters up through the end. And the mere fact that we’re still talking about Lost in the wake of shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men and Game of Thrones is a testament to how much those characters meant to us, and the complexity with which they were drawn by Cuse, Lindelof, and the writing staff.