While this episode is more on the mythological aspect, it's not reflective of a change in direction. Next week is a Hurley episode which is fairly comedic.

The mistake they made was hanging everything on the question of who killed Laura Palmer. In our show there is not one overriding question comparable to that. There are a series of mysteries: what is the nature of the island, what is the monster, what is the hatch, who are the mysterious 'other people'? Making sure that some of those mysteries are answerable over time is the way to prevent that frustration.

I think we very much want to put those things into the show that lead to discussion and analysis and that's what makes the show engaging. It's not a show in which everything is spoon-fed to you, which is the problem with a lot of American television. There is room for ambiguity in this story.

We're viewers with control.

Damon and I came up with the idea that this character would die last spring,

The genre aspects of the show are cool, and we have fun doing it. But I am much more engaged by the people on the show, and I think that is fundamentally what we try to do.