Dharma Special Access #4: fan questions & new Season 5 scene

This week’s Dharma Special Access with Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse is a special holiday edition, featuring a new sneak peek scene from the season premier (more on that in a sec) and Team Darlton answering fan questions about the show. Highlights and more after the jump.

There’s only one actual “answer” among Darlton’s replies, so don’t get your hopes up much…

• Question: Does Ben’s “all of you have to go back together” statement includes the likes of Desmond, Walt, Frank Lapidus, and Ji Yeon?
  Answer: Lindelof and Cuse wouldn’t tell, but they said this was something the Oceanic Six would ponder early on in the season. So in other words, you’re right to be wondering about this, dear viewer.
• Question: In Season Three, we learned that the Others are building a runway. Are they building it because they’re expecting something to land, or because they’re expecting something to take off?
  Answer: As ambiguous as ever, the duo replied to this by saying that the runway was either a complete throwaway that we’d never hear about ever again, or it would be something absolutely essential to the plot of Season 5.
• Question: Which came first, the smoke monster or the Dharma Initiative?
  Answer: Finally giving a definitive response, Lindelof replied that the smoke monster existed before the Dharma Initiative ever came to the island.
• Question: Is Jacob the heart or the physical manifestation of the island?
  Answer: No answer.
• Question: Did Locke move the island again in the flash-forward at the end of Season 4 as a means of getting off of it, the same way that Ben did?
  Answer: Again (and frustratingly), their lips were sealed.

The new sneak peek scene from the season premier features Ben and Jack, in what looks like a cheap hotel room, commiserating on what they must now do. From the sounds of it, they intend to go get Hurley first, then Sun, Sayid, and Kate, and quite possibly in that order. Jack also tells Ben that Locke told him that Sawyer, Juliet, and all of the other survivors who remained behind on the island would die if he didn’t return. (And happily, the scene begins with Jack shaving off that godawful beard.)

I imagine some enterprising fan has already used their fancy video capturing tools to grab this vid and is posting it on YouTube as we speak. Once it’s available there, ApproachingLOST.com will bring it to you.