Here is an article in L.A. Times about Lost.  Watch out for some spoilers.

JUST HOW did these half a dozen plane crash survivors — and not their counterparts — come to be the Oceanic 6?

The producers began to make their selections in the second season but did not pick all six until after they had negotiated 2010 as an end date for the series and could plan out the rest of the stories. The first requirement was that they had to be passengers on flight Oceanic 815, which crashed on the island on Sept. 22, 2004, and not any of the other island inhabitants.

“Jack has been saying from the word go, ‘I’m gonna get everybody off the island.’ So we thought, ‘What happens if the hero accomplishes his goal but realizes he’s made a horrible mistake?’ ” Lindelof said. “And he would only qualify it a success if Kate were off the island as well. We also knew the baby had to be a part of it. Then we asked ourselves, ‘Who are the other people who have something to go back to and what might their lives be like off the island?’ ”

The answer was Sayid, Sun and Hurley, but Lindelof and Cuse won’t say exactly why, noting that some of their reasons are based on events in upcoming seasons that even the cast ignores at this point.

“Those choices are representations of the dramatic poles of the characters,” Cuse said. “Jack is the ultimate empiricist. He’s never believed in the mystery and the mythology of the island. He just wants to get the hell off this place whereas Locke has embraced the mysteries of the island. His goal is to understand what the island is about.”

Nobody was more surprised to learn he was in the exclusive club than Garcia. Often, the emotional center of the show, Hurley, isn’t in the middle of the action.

“I knew some people were getting off and some weren’t and I assumed at the time that it was all going to be people close to the [satellite] phone,” Garcia said. “But it turned out to be a bunch of us from all over the place and I thought it was cool because it became a puzzle to unravel as to how we all end up together off the island.”

The only exception to the only-passengers rule is Aaron, who wasn’t on the manifest because he was born on the island. That Kate is his mother off-island is one of the components of the intricate lie the Oceanic 6 weave when they reach civilization. From the beginning, viewers have wondered if Aaron is somehow at the center of the show’s mythology. The producers have repeatedly said the island is not purgatory, but whether Aaron (or Locke or Ben or who knows?) is pivotal to a healing island with smoke monsters and electro-magnetic properties remains to be seen.

“It could go either way,” said De Ravin, who plays Claire, who in the present could be dead or undead, depending on how you look at it. “Seeing as they’ve already revealed him to be with Kate, there’s got to be some other twist there. He’s just a little baby, so it’s hard to tell if he has some crazy powers. Maybe he can see the future too.”

The future doesn’t look so promising for Jin, whose wife grieved by his grave in Korea. But many fans, taking a cue from his tombstone, which listed the day of the crash as the day he died, don’t believe Jin is dead.

“I do like the fact that his fate is unresolved and that his life is in jeopardy,” Kim said. “Now, believing that he might be dead, I’m getting a lot of people saying, ‘Wow, please, don’t be dead.’ It’s a nice sign of appreciation for a character that I haven’t necessarily felt in the past.”

The finale, Cuse said, will have “some spectacular romantic moments along with spectacular action moments.”

“The story of the Oceanic 6 is the ultimate break-up story,” Lindelof added. “That’s what the finale is about — everybody breaking up. And the show is going to have to proceed from here as to whether or not we’re going to get everybody together. Who is still around to get together?”