LOST Questions TBA (To Be Answered)

1. The numbers – First appearing in Episode 18 of Season 1 (Numbers), 4-8-15-16-23-42 have been part of LOST folklore from the very beginning. They help Hurley win the lottery, they must be typed into the hatch computer every 108 minutes or the world will end, they appear on Danielle’s map, they are the serial number on the door of The Swan, and they drive Leonard crazy, but what are their origins? With the Losties stuck in 1977, could Hurley actually be tied to the origin of the numbers that later drive him mad?

2. Claire Littleton – Our favorite island mother has been missing since Season 4, Episode 10 (Something Nice Back Home). We know she saw her father, Christian Shephard, leaves Aaron behind, and wanders off in the jungle night with her dead dad but we don’t know why! What happened to Claire that could take her from doting mother to jungle wander? Why did she leave Aaron behind? We see her in Season 4, Episode 11 (Cabin Fever) seemingly relaxed and Aaron-free sitting in Jacob’s cabin with Christian, but again we receive no explanation of why she’s left her child behind. Let’s hope Season 6 gives us some Claire related clarity!

3. Smokey – Another question that has plagued loyal viewers from the very first episode. What the heck is the black smoke monster!? Is it a security system? Is it a sort of attack dog? Whatever it is, smokey has the ability to ‘judge’ people (Ben, Eko) , seems to live in The Temple, and can be deployed by draining a puddle of water under Ben’s old house in New Otherton. Wealso know it the smoke monster has been on the island for a very long time, as the Egyptian hieroglyphics on the wall of the room below The Temple depict. But the exact purpose and origin of smokey still remain one of Lost’s greatest mysteries.

4. Flocke – As we know from Season 5, Episode 16 (The Incident) the Locke that returns to the island, is not the Locke that left the island. Commonly referred to as “Flocke” (fake + Locke = Flocke), he convinces Ben to kill Jacob, but not before Jacob recognizes Flocke as his nemesis. Who is this Flocke and how did he shift shape to look like John Locke? We know he doesn’t just take over Locke’s body, as Illana’s crew is hauling the body all over the island in search of Richard Alpert, so how exactly does he become John Locke? And does Jacob’s nemesis choose John Locke anyway? For how long has he been John Locke? Many fans postulate that Locke’s been Flocke since Ben shot him in Season 3, Episode 22 (Through the Looking Glass) , but we still don’t know for certain! Surely Flocke related mysteries will be resolved in Season 6.

5. The Black Rock – A British trading ship that is shipwrecked in the Dark Territory of the island, we’re not sure how a giant ship ended up on the middle of the island. According to the first mate’s journal in Season 4, Episode 5 (The Constant) the ship left England in 1845 and sailed towards modern-day Thailand. The journal was found with pirate artifacts on an island off the coast of Madagascar and was owned by the Hanso family (think Dharma Initiative financing) until it was auctioned off to Charles Widmore in 1996. Who was on the boat? What brought the Black Rock to the island? How did the journal get to Madagascar? So many questions, hopefully enough time to answer them all!

6. Man In Black (Jacob’s Nemisis) – Since Walt and Locke played backgammon in the pilot episode; fans have known that black and white hold symbolic significance in the world of LOST. So when Jacob’s nemisis shows up on the beach wearing black while Jacob is wearing white, we knew that the scene was significant. But who, exactly is the man in black, why does he want to kill Jacob? How did he get to the island? Is he really bad, as his black shirt leads us to believe? How does he have the ability to become ‘Flocke’? Also, is there a biblical connection to the story of Jacob and Esau, in which two brothers fight for ‘birthright’ to rule over their father’s wealth and authority? Seems awful likely to this humble fan.

7. Richard Alpert – If you have a pulse and are a fan of LOST, you’ve got to be wondering what the heck is going on with Richard Alpert (and I’m not talking about his guyliner)! He claims that Jacob gave him the ability to never age (can I get that in a bottle?), but we’re still not sure why. What brought Richard to the island? Why did Jacob select him to be his ‘advisor’? Does he have a relationship with Jacob’s nemesis? How old is this guy? One of my burning Richard-related questions comes from Season 3, Episode 20 (The Man Behind the Curtain). Richard meets young-Ben in the jungle, and this is the only time Richard’s appearance is different. His hair is long, his clothes are disheveled – what’s up with this? Why isn’t he clean cut Richard we’ve seen ever since? Weird. Let’s hope for some Alpert back story in Season 6.

8. Walt’s powers – There’s something special about Walt Lloyd, but no one knows exactly what his ‘specialness’ is. Part island psychic part bird-caller, Walt is of special interest to the Others , until he does something mysterious that scares them. Ms. Klugh asks Michael if Walt has ever appeared where he wasn’t supposed to be, but this is almost the only clue we have to Walt’s powers. What are they and how did he get them? Will his powers bring Walt back to the island?

9. Adam and Eve – In Season 1, Episode 6 (House of the Rising Sun) the Losties travel to some caves located in the interior of the island where they find two skeletons, one male, one female. Jack finds two stones on the bodies, one black, one white. The creators of LOST have said that the most common question they are asked is if they are making up the plot of the show as they go along, or if they have had it planned. They say that the long-term plot has been planned from the beginning, and in the end, viewers will be able to look back to Adam and Eve as proof that the creators always knew where the show was going to end. So this leads me to believe we will find out the identities of Adam and Eve, and they are probably characters we already know. Rose and Bernard, as the black and white stones may indicate? Sun and Jin, as the bodies first appear in a Sun-centered episode? Sawyer and Juliet, Jack and Kate, Aaron and Ji-Yeon, Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore? The possibilities are endless!

10. Libby – Gasps were heard around the world when Michael shot Libby at the end of Season 2 and LOST fans have been waiting for the show to wrap up the Libby plot line for four seasons. So why was she in the Santa Rose Mental Hospital with Hurley? And why didn’t they recognize each other on the island years later? Online rumors abound that the Libby story will not be tackled in Season 6, because Cynthia Watros (a Michigan native) won’t return to Hawaii to pick up the Libby role, but I hope the creators find a way to wrap it up with or without her.

11. What does it mean when Jacob touches you? - In Season 5, Episode 16 (The Incident), we see Jacob touch eight of our favorite Losties (Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Locke, Sayid, Hurley, Sun, and Jin) sometime during their life. He touches Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Locke, Sun and Jin before they travel to the island on 815 and touches Sayid and Hurley after they were rescued as part of the Oceanic Six. He also visits Illana in a Russian hospital and while we think he touched her, he was wearing gloves. When he touches John Locke after Locke falls eight stories, it appears that Jacob brings him back to life. What does this all mean? Will it have implications for the characters he touched in the future?

12. Is Charlie “The Musician”? – In Season 3, Episode22 (Through the Looking Glass) everyone’s favorite British musician, Charlie Pace meets his destiny below the Lost Sea in the dharma station, The Looking Glass. Charlie has traveled to this station to turn off a signal that is jamming the islands communication equipment. Bonnie, an Other, tells Charlie that the code to turn off the jamming equipment is the tune of “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys. Before she dies, she reports “It was programmed by a musician”. Could Charlie be this musician? For all of you shaking your head at me, I remind you that nothing is impossible on LOST.

13. Hurley Bird – There’s a bird on the island and it says Hurley. Weird, right? We’ve seen and heard the bird twice, once in Season 1, Episode 24 (Exodus, Part 2) and Season 2, Episode 23 (Live Together, Die Alone). What is the origin of this bird and how the heck does it know Hurley’s name?

14. Love quadrangle – Who ends up with who? – Don’t pretend you don’t want to know. Are you a Jate (Jack and Kate), a Skate (Sawyer and Kate), a Suliet (Sawyer and Juliet), or a Jacket (Jack and Juliet)? Whoever you’re rooting for, let’s hope this complex love story gets wrapped up in Season 6.

15. Egyptian Connection - There are many instances of Egyptian artifacts showing up on the island. You can’t spit without hitting a hieroglyphic drawing (on the countdown timer in the Swan, secret door in Ben’s New Otherton house, by the frozen donkey wheel, where Smokey lives, in Dharma classrooms, ect.) and the four toed statue turned out the be a statue of Taweret, the Egyptian Goddess of childbirth (holy crap!). Dharma Paul also wore an ankh around his neck before his death and his widow, Amy, keeps the necklace in her dresser. The ankh is also an ancient Egyptian symbol for life and fertility. There must be some kind of connection between the ancient Egyptians and the island, but what is that connection and is it important? With all of the fertility references, are the Egyptians somehow responsible for the strange pregnancy issues on the island?

16. What’s up with Latin and the Others? – While we’re on the ancient population track, why do the Others speak Latin? In Season 5, Episode 3 (Jughead), we meet two Others (one of which turns out to be good ol’ Chuck Widmore) who speak Latin. It is in this episode we learn that Juliet also speaks Latin. Latin is also the language of choice for Illana’s crew when asking, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” and for Richard’s reply “He who will save us all”. So how the heck did they learn Latin? Why chose a dead language? Strange.

17. Charlotte Lewis’s back story - We know she’s an anthropologist who grew up on the island where her parents were members of the Dharma Initiative. We know she leaves the island with her mother but not her father and that she meets Daniel Faraday as a child and again as an adult who has returned to the island as a member of the freighter crew. We even know she’s not allowed a chocolate before dinner. But we still don’t know an awful lot about Charlotte, including who her father is and why this pretty British woman speaks fluent Korean. Even though she met her untimely death, I hope we hear more about Charlotte and the mystery that surrounds her character.

18. Why can’t Ben kill Widmore? – In Season 4, Episode 9 (The Shape of Things to Come), Ben travels off the island Ben visits Widmore in his bedroom in the middle of the night. Widmore asks Ben if he’s come to kill him and Ben replies “we both know I can’t do that.” Why would this be? What is the relationship between these two characters and how will it end? Is one man good and the other man bad? Does the Widmore/Ben relationship shadow the Jacob/Man in Black relationship? I’m sure we’ll learn more about this relationship in Season 6.

19. Dharma Vaccines – First seen in Season 2, Episode 1 (Man of Science, Man of Faith) multiple LOST characters have come into contact with the Dharma vaccine including Desmond, Claire, Aaron, and all Dharma workers when they first arrive on the island. We still don’t know what the vaccine protects island residents from, if anything. What is the vaccine and does it have anything to do with the sickness that Danielle’s team fell victim to during their stay on the island or does it have anything to do with the pregnancy issues?

20. Aaron Littleton – is he meaningful to the island? – Born on the island in Season 1, Episode 20 (Do No Harm) Aaron Littleton has had a rough life. Bound for adoption, injected in-utero with the weird Dharma vaccine, kidnapped by Danielle, left in the jungle by his mother, taken back to the United States to be raised by Kate and Drunk-bearded Jack, and now in the loving care of Claire’s mother, rumors abound that Aaron is a very special little boy. Biblically speaking, Aaron is the son of Jacob, making him a significant piece of the island puzzle. Some even think Widmore is Aaron’s paternal grandfather, making the island connection to Aaron even stronger. Others speculate that Aaron died in-utero and was “resurrected” by Jacob’s nemesis. Still others think he’s the Adam of Adam and Eve. Much speculation for such a little boy!

21. Pregnancy Issues - Juliet Burke is brought to the island as a fertility specialist in Season 3, Episode 7 (Not in Portland) to help the Others with their child-birthing issues. It appears that the island reduces a woman’s reproductive capabilities, but enhances male sperm count. Women who conceive on the island die before their third trimester, but women who conceive off the island appear to be able to give birth on the island without complication (Claire, Danielle). We’re not sure though, that the pregnancy issues occurred before 1977, as Amy gives birth to a healthy Ethan and we’re pretty sure she conceived on the island. So why are there pregnancy issues when the island seemingly ‘cures’ other ailments (Locke’s paralysis, Rose’s cancer)? What causes the problem? Is it ‘the incident’? Is the pregnancy issue related to the Dharma vaccine and illness?

22. Why did the Oceanic Six “have to go back!”? – Season 3 ends with Jack yelling, “We have to go back, Kate! We have to go back!” But once the Losties return to the island in Season 5, Jack doesn’t do much of anything at all until Season 5, Episode 16 (The Incident). Did he “have to go back” just to blow up the electromagnetic pocket with the hydrogen bomb in order to save the island, prevent the incident, and reset the lives of the Oceanic 815 passengers to pre-crash? Is that the only reason they ‘had to go back’? For such a prominent line, it seems like it must mean more than it does right now.

23. Room 23 – The Others put both Walt and Karl in Room 23, located in the Dharma Hydra station. Located inside the room is a chair, where the Others strap people in and force them to watch a very strange brainwashing video over and over. The video contains the phrases, “We are the cause of our own suffering”, “Everything changes”, and “God loves you as He loved Jacob” along with many different images. Eyes are also a central part of the video, which fans know are important to LOST in general. What’s the purpose of this video? Why brainwash people? Since Room 23 is located at the Hydra, which was used for zoological research – was the video meant for animals? Also, if the movie was created by Dharma, why the references to Jacob and why are the Other using it?

24. Why do Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sayid flash to 1977, but Sun stays in the present during the 316 crash? – When the Oceanic Six ride on Ajira 316, the plane begins to shake and it is evident that the plane is about to crash on our favorite mysterious island. During the crash, a white flash takes place and Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid disappear. We later learn that they have been transported to 1977 and meet up with Sawyer and the other Losties that have teamed up with the Dharma Initiative. So why is Sun the only member of the Oceanic Six to crash in 2007 with the rest of the Ajira passengers and John Locke’s corpse? I’d like nothing more than to see Sun and Jin reunited – Season 5 was enough time apart! Please, please, please bring them back together in Season 6.

25. Who does Illana work for? – Illana (no last name) crashes on the island in 2007 after escorting Sayid on Ajira 316. Once the plane has crashed she and a few other survivors (including Bram) stuff John Locke’s corpse into a giant metal box and begin wandering around the island to find Jacob’s cabin. When they find Jacob’s cabin deserted, Illana takes the group to the ‘shadow of the statue’ where she shows John Locke’s body to Richard Alpert. We’ve seen both Illana and Bram before, off the island. Illana is visited by Jacob in Season 5, Episode 16 (The Incident) where she says she will ‘help him’. Bram throws Miles into a van in Season 5, Episode 13 (Some Like it Hoth) and tells him not to work for Widmore. So how are they connected to Jacob and the island? How does Illana know her way around the island enough to find Jacob’s cabin and the statue? Who do they work for, who are the “good guys”?

26. Hurley’s dead people visions – is he just crazy? – We know Hurley’s had a couple of stints in Santa Rosa Mental Institution, but are his visions really just a result of his mental instability? Desmond’s visions meant his consciousness could move through time, so do Hurley’s visions mean more than meets the eye?

27. What happens in the temple? - In Season 5, Episode 11 (Whatever Happened, Happened) Richard Alpert takes a dying young Ben Linus into The Temple to be healed. Richard tells Kate that Ben will lose his innocents and will always be “one of them”. The Temple also appears to be the home of the smoke monster. There are extensive walls built around The Temple to protect it and tunnels underground leading to it. So who build The Temple and what is it used for? What happens inside The Temple that caused young Ben to become the Ben we know today?

28. Did Jack’s plan to blow up the electromagnetic pocket with the hydrogen bomb work or did the Losties cause the incident they were trying to prevent? – Definitely the central question leading into the Season 6 premiere, hopefully we’ll all soon know if detonating a hydrogen bomb atop a pocket of electromagnetic pocket helped save our Losties from ever crashing on the island. If it worked, what will we find out about the lives of our favorite characters minus the involuntary island vacation? If it didn’t work, will the blast have been enough to kill those in the area when the detonation happened? What will it all mean for the future of LOST?

29. Why did the Others choose Cindy and the children? – Cindy was a flight attendant on Oceanic 815 and a survivor of the crash with the other Tailies. She went missing when the Tailies were journeying to the beach camp along with Zach and Emma. We later learn that they’ve been living with the Others and Cindy and Emma come to talk to Jack when he’s captured at the Hydra station in Season 3, Episode 9 (Stranger in a Strange Land). Jack asks Cindy why she’s with the Others. She tells him that they are there “to watch”. So why Cindy, Emma, and Zach out of all of the survivors? What’s Cindy’s connection to the Others and did it exist before the crash?

30. Christian Shephard – We know he’s more than just Jack father, but what’s going on with Christian Shephard? When Jack saw visions of his father during Season 1, were they really visions or has something possessed Christian’s body? Why does Christian lure Claire into the jungle? Why does Christian appear in Jacob’s cabin?

31. Jacob’s Origins – I know I’m not alone when I say I hope that a large portion of Season 6 is dedicated to Jacob’s back story. Who is this guy? How long has he been on the island? How did he become the leader of the island? Is he good or bad? Did he ever live in that cabin, or has he always lived inside a foot? Does he travel on and off the island via the frozen donkey wheel or is there some other way? How does he know the Losties he traveled to touch? How does he make Richard Alpert seemingly immortal? Jacob must be explored in depth this season!

32. Jacob’s Cabin – First seen by fans in Season 3, Episode 20 (Man Behind the Curtain) Jacob’s cabin is full of mystery. First, we’re not certain Jacob was ever really there, and it he was, he hasn’t lived there for a very long time. So when John Locke visits the cabin, who does he hear whisper “Help me?” Why does Christian Shephard take Claire to the cabin? What’s with the circle of ashes around it? Why can only certain people find the cabin (Hurley, for one) when others cannot?

33. The Horse from Kate’s Past – In Season 2, Episode 9 (What Kate Did) Kate encounters a horse from her past on the island. She thinks she is crazy, but when she sees the horse again later in the episode, Sawyer is with her and confirms that there is, in fact, a black horse in front of them. While this moment is seemingly unimportant, the creators keep revisiting the moment in clip shows, the kind that are meant to help viewers ‘catch up’ with the important moments of LOST. Does the horse mean something more than we first thought?

34. Why isn’t the island done with Desmond yet? – My favorite Scotsman, Desmond has a unique gift that makes him a central character in the story of the island. We know that Desmond spent time as a monk, in the Royal Scottish Regiment, and as a set designer for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he’s one of the only main character’s whose childhood is still a mystery to loyal viewers. Are there clues to Desmond’s special powers hidden in his childhood? In Season 5, Episode 6 (316) Eloise Hawking tells Desmond that the island isn’t done with him yet. So what does the island have in store for Desmond and will it take him away from Penny again (I’m just not sure I can bare that pain again!).

35. Eloise Hawking – The character of Eloise Hawking really embodies what is so fabulous about LOST. A character with a brief appearance in Season 3, Episode 8 when she encounters Desmond and lectures him about destiny, Eloise then appears again in Season 5 and plays a central role in the island’s story. There are still many questions surrounding the woman who spent the 1950’s as the leader of the Others on the island. We know that she was on the island, where she was pregnant with Charles Widmore’s child. We know that she must have left the island at some point, but we have no idea why or when. We know her child is Daniel Faraday, but we don’t know why his last name is Faraday or why she hid Charles Widmore as his father. We know she pushed Daniel to the island, but did she know that a younger version of herself would kill him once he’s on the island? Why does she continue to meddle in the affairs of the island? Does she work for Widmore or for someone else connected to the island?

36. What the heck was the loophole? – The opening scene of Season 5, Episode 16 (The Incident) shows Jacob and the man in black sitting on the beach. The man in black asks Jacob, “Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you right now?”. Jacob responds that he does and the man in black says that one day he will find “a loophole”. Later in the episode, when Flocke meets Jacob in the statue Jacob says “Well, I guess I found your loophole”. So what is the loophole and why did it take so long to find this loophole? Could the loophole only involve John Locke or does it include any dead body?

37. Why does the island whisper? – The whispers are one of the original island mysteries. Many have speculated that the voices are the island’s dead trying to communicate with the living. Others think that the voices may be in a parallel reality and the island is the point where these two worlds meet. Other theories include the Others and Smokey. Who knows? Not me! What I do know is that the whispers have occurred in every season, so I wouldn’t be surprised to hear more whispers in Season 6.

38. Who is Henry Gale? – He crashed in his hot air balloon on the island and wrote a message to his wife on a $20 bill before dying sometime in 2003. According to his driver’s license, he’s from Minnesota and we know he is the founder of Minnesota Metallurgy, a Widmore Company. But why was he traveling over the Pacific in a balloon? How did he crash? How did he die and who buried him? Since this is LOST, I can’t help but think Henry is connected to our Losties somehow.

39. Frank Lapidus is a candidate for what? – Lapidus first arrives on the island as a member of the freighter team, but we later learn that he was suppose to be the pilot of the ill-fated Oceanic 815. He brings the Oceanic Six to the freighter via the helicopter and returns to the island as the pilot of Ajira 316. When Illana’s team takes off in search of Richard Alpert and Jacob, Illana asks Lapidus the infamous question, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?”. Lapidus doesn’t have the slightest idea, so she knocks him out. When he wakes up, the group tells him he may be “a candidate” and that he can come with them. What the heck is he a candidate for?

40. Who’s coming? - When Jacob bites the dust at the hands of Ben in Season 5, Episode 16 (The Incident) he’s last words to Flocke are “They’re coming”. Then he burns to death. I’ve got no idea who’s coming, do you?

41. Why does Stuart Radzinski kill himself? – Definitely my most-hated Dharma character, we’re told that Stuart Radzinski shoots himself in the head while living in the Swan station. Radzinski plays an important role in the building of the Swan station throughout Season 5 and we know that eventually he works in the station with Kevin Inman. He paints a mysterious map of the island on the Swan blast door and edits the Swan Orientation video before he kills himself in the Swan. Does madness drive him to suicide or is there more to the Radzinski storyline?

42. Origin of the Frozen Donkey Wheel – Located beneath the Orchid station, the frozen donkey wheel moves the island through time. When one turns the wheel, it causes them to land in a Tunisian desert. We know the wheel exists in 1974, when Locke pushes the wheel and stops the island from skipping in time. We know that Dharma discovers the wheel in 1977 and that Ben used the wheel sometime in 2005 to leave the island, but we’re still not sure of the origin of the wheel. Since there are hieroglyphics on the wall by the wheel, we can guess that it has been on the island for a very long time, but it would be nice to firm up the origin of the frozen donkey wheel this season, as it is such an interesting and important piece of the island.

So we’ve reached the end my fellow LOST fans. I’ll be keeping track throughout Season 6 and updating this list with answers when they are delivered.

Namaste.