

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Lingering Lost Questions

Less than a week to go!

Amongst all the myriad questions that still remain to be answered in the final 18 hours, here are the five that I want to see answered more than any others (and really, it's a lot of little questions grouped into five different categories).

1. Smokey

I'm less concerned with the mechanics of how a giant cloud of smoke attacks and kills people (I'm willing to chalk that up to "magic island") but what is his purpose? Is he truly an instrument of island judgment? To whom does he answer? Was he put in place by Jacob? Someone else? Is he his own entity, beholden to no one? Is he a form of Jacob's adversary/Esau/Man in Black/Flocke? Does he truly take the form of the dead, accounting for all the appearances of otherwise dead people and creatures on the island? If so, is Jack's dad a manifestation of Smokey? 

2. The Others

The Others seem like a strange mix of long term residents/island natives and "found" members (like Juliet, or Flight Attendant Cindy). What are their origins? Are they tasked with protecting the island, or do they just live on it? Why does someone like Cindy, who was abducted by the Others, seem so peaceful and pleased to be part of them when next we see her? Are the Others brainwashing people?  How do they choose their leader? Does Jacob truly rule over them, or is that something the leaders use to maintain their power? What caused the rift between Widmore and Ben? Why are they fighting over the island? Why didn't the Others move through time with everyone else when the island was skipping through time? Why, at the end of season five, were some of the Others with Richard and Flocke on the beach while the rest were in the temple? What is the temple, and what makes it such a safe haven? What were the after effects of young Ben being healed in the temple? 

3. The Dharma Initiative

Despite season five being "the Dharma season", questions linger regarding the DI. What are the mechanics behind the pallet of food dropped in season two? Why were those drops continuing when, as far as we know, the DI had been purged from the island (aside from the residents of the Swan)? What triggered the Purge? What were the ultimate goals of the DI? What work went on in Ann Arbor? What did Daniel do there, and what led him to come back to the island when he did? Unfortunately, with "the Dharma season" ended and the show likely to move on to other things, it seems doubtful that these questions will be answered.

4. Richard

Why doesn't he age? Why does he seem, at different times, to be the leader of the Others and beholden to the leader of the Others? What is his relationship with Jacob? 

5. Walt

More than any other character or plotline, Walt seems to have been destined for bigger things before the actor's growth cut short his storyline. Hugely important in the first two seasons, seemingly the owner of mysterious powers, Walt has faded into the background in later seasons. While an explanation has been given as to why the Others let him go (his power was more than they could handle), why did they want him in the first place? What, exactly, is the nature of his power and how did he acquire it? Were the various visions of Walt seen through the years (the backwards-talking version that appeared to Shannon in season two, the taller one that gave orders to Locke in season three) Walt somehow projecting himself, manifestations of Smokey, or something else? Sadly, as with the Dharma Initiative, it seems the ship has sailed on Walt, and we'll simply be left wondering "what if" and what the original plans were before the writers were forced to write him out.

So those are the questions I'm most eager to see answered; what are some of yours?

(And with season six fast approaching, check out this video for a hilarious refresher course.)


  1. Yeah, good point about the pallet drop! I am really interested to find out what that was all about. Also, what the hell is the deal with the whispers? Who are they? When are they? Why? What *exactly* are they saying? They seriously better release the whisper transcripts after the show ends. Word.
    Who was Dave? An actual dead person or just a Crazy Hurley hallucination? What about Abadon? Why did he have to come and "get" Hurley and John to come to the island and not other people? What is the deal with Libby? Why does Naomi appear to made out of wax, even when she is alive?
    I gots tons - you say more now! :)

  2. Yeah, the whispers and Libby almost made my top five. The later, I'm afraid, we're going to have to do without. Darlton have been pretty insistent that they aren't going to get back around to her story. Perhaps they're BSing us, but I feel like they're not.

    Ditto Abaddon, who's involvement w/Fringe pretty much means he'll remain a cipher beyond "worked for Widmore". Hopefully, once the Widmore/Ben conflict is clarified that'll retroactively give Abaddon some more meaning.

    Good point about Dave; was he in Hurley's head or a manifestation of Smokey? Another one, I think, we'll be able to answer once we know more about Smokey.

    What's the deal with pregnancy on the island?

    Why was there a picture of Eloise Hawking on the desk of the monk in charge of the abbey where Desmond almost became a monk?

    Oh, and I totally forgot the biggest "most likely to go unanswered" question for me: Claire's psychic. Was he legit? Did he put Claire on Oceanic 815 because he knew it would crash and Aaron would end up w/Kate?
    Or did he just know it would crash, and thought that would ensure Aaron was raised by Claire? WHY did he insist Claire must raise Aaron?
    What did he see in Aaron's future? Is Aaron important to the story of Lost, as was hinted at early on? Or was the psychic just a fraud?
    Remember when his daughter drowned than came back from the dead, and Mr. Eko listened to the tape of her 'autopsy'?
    Was there ever a creepier moment on Lost?

  3. Yeah, watching through it all again, I'm realizing all the questions they never answered. argh! Frustrations.

    I am also curious about Cindy and what happened to all the people they took?? Are the Tailies just hanging with Jacob?

    On the other hand, I'm so glad Charlie and Claire never made through all the season. They were both so irritating.

    And are they ever going to cover the "infected"? What is this mysterious infection?

    Or have they answered all these questions?!

    I have a horrible memory.

    I'm excited nonetheless. Eeeeek!

  4. I really want to learn more about Christian before the series is done - is he a manifestation of the MIB, Jacob, or something else entirely? If he is a manifestation of MIB, where did his body go (since Locke's body remained after he was taken over by MIB). I feel like we might actually get an answer to the pallet drop though, especially since it was referenced in the "Mysteries of the Universe" bonus features...not much longer to wait and see!

  5. I still want to know how the hell the Black Rock ended up in the middle of the island.
    But i'm sure that's just chalked up to "more mystery".

  6. @Palindrome


    Heh. Claire is supposed to be back this season. And don't say you don't like Cha-lee too loudly on the web; ever since he died, everyone seems to LOVE him.


    There seems to be two kinds of infections: the one Rousseu talked about her crew getting, and the one for which Desmond was taking innoculations.

    The first, it seems, was a result of her crew getting possessed by or imitated by Smokey, and Rousseau lacking the understanding of that to call it anything other than a sickness. Now, I'd like to think that once we learn the true nature of Smokey we'll have a better idea of whether or not he did possess her crew, and why.

    The later illness, if we're given no other info, I think we can assume was something that the DI (or just Kelvin) lied about to keep people in the hatch. After all, we know that Kelvin knew there was no illness on the island and that the innoculations were bogus.

    @Ashlie: I have a pretty good feeling we'll learn more about Christian and whether or not he's Smokey, MiB or something else entirely. He just seems too entwined in too many things to be completely ignored at this point.

    I hope you're right about the pallet drop; that's one of those mysteries that, in the long run, probably isn't very important but that I always remember.

    @Falen: Ha, yeah, that's another good one. At this point, I'm willing to chalk it up to magic, but I am curious if it's island magic or Jacob magic.

    Also, it's full of dynamite, but it was a slaveship, and dynamite was created after the abolishment of slavery, so it wouldn't have been carrying it originally. So how did the dynamite get on the ship? Is that a mystery to be solved, or just something no one thought of before loading it with dynamite and then establishing it was a slave ship?

  7. Thanks!

    Oh, and I'm thinking maybe Cindy was brainwashed like they were trying to do to Karl.

    I would also really like to know what's the history behind the statue.

    I'm remembering a TON more because of the rewatching. I'm halfway there!! I have today and tomorrow off!! I can do it!!!!!

  8. Yeah, if we get no other info on the Cindy front, then I'll just assume she was brainwashed. Even then, I hope we find out WHY they brainwash some people and just kill or ignore others.

    I'd like to think the statue will get some explanation, at least tangentially, if all the Eygptian ruins stuff gets an explained.

