Ask Ausiello has just run an exclusive Q&A with Lost's main men, executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse who went into heavy spoiler detail about their upcoming plans. Read ahead if you dare (WARNING: Spoilers up to and including last week's episode 2.06):

Will Shannon be back? Carlton says "It's always possible she could pop up in someone's backstory. But she is definitely dead. When a character dies on the island, they stay dead". Their job now is to turn the hated Ana-Lucia into a likable character - "At the beginning of last season, people didn't like Josh Holloway's character either. And by the end of the season, he was one of the most-liked characters on the show. It'll be really interesting to see, as we tell more about Ana-Lucia, whether that changes the audience's perception of her".

As they move into the middle run of episodes, the producers are definitely emphasizing the Jack-Kate-Sawyer romantic triangle again with the level of sexual tension between those three characters is definitely being ramped up. How will Ana-Lucia figure in? "She is a woman; she will have romantic entanglements. But I think the one that will begin to emerge over the season will be the one that you least expect". In the next string of episodes, one of the really compelling backstory elements is what happened to Jack's marriage.

Will there be more Charlie and Claire? "We're definitely going to be paying attention to their relationship, but it's not going to turn in ways the audience expects" says Carlton. Might Walt be recast due to aging issues? Damon cryptically answered "To answer that question is sort of to reveal what the plan is for Walt, and there is a plan... Walt's disappearance and, ultimately, Michael's efforts to reunite with him were part of a grander plan".

As for the bad luck numbers, the answer is NO answer - Damon saying "I think that that question will never, ever be answered. I couldn't possibly imagine [how we would answer that question]. We will see more ramifications of the numbers and more usage of the numbers, but it boggles my mind when people ask me, "What do the numbers mean?"".

Will we find out why Ethan abducted Claire? "Yes. You'll learn more about it this season. The loss of her memory happened so long ago that it requires a sort of deft touch in order to reintroduce the concept...All of that stuff is in play. It's just a matter of when and how we reactivate it". They plan to explain why the plane crashed around the end of the season, and definitely learn more about the monster. Finally, Mr. Eko's stick is apparently a key clue.

Thanks to 'Duke'