'Lost': 48 pending questions

After eight months of waiting -- nearly twice the length of time the survivors of oceanic Flight 815 have been marooned on that darn island -- "Lost" will finally, finally, finally return to TV on Thursday night. Actually, for the hard core out there, it returns Wednesday night with a rerun of May's game-changing season finale. If you're reading this, then I'm sure you've already seen it, either on TV or on DVD, but that shouldn't stop you from watching it again.

In fact, you owe it to yourself to see it again. Because "Lost" is the kind of show that rewards the obsessive tracking of bits of dialogue, the careful scrutiny of prop details and the kind of endless speculation that would cause a lesser show to quickly disintegrate beneath the weight of expectations.

So to help ease your transition back into the feverish world of flashback parsing and narrative puzzle-solving, we've assembled a list of 48 unanswered questions we hope -- no, DEMAND -- will be answered in the series' 48 remaining episodes.

48. Will the WGA strike permanently disrupt the original plan to end the series with three seasons of 16 episodes apiece?

47. What is Charles Widmore's association with the Dharma Initiative?

46. Who were those guys in the icebound monitoring station at the end of Season 2?

45. What is the significance of Claire's baby?

44. Will Rose's cancer return?

43. Will Sun survive her pregnancy?

42. What's the meaning behind that crazy mural painted inside the Swan Station?

41. Where exactly is the island located?

40. What gets worshipped at the temple Ben mentions near the end of the third season?

39. Who are the people on the rescue ship?

38. If Penny Widmore didn't send the ship, then where is her rescue crew?

37. Can Juliet really be trusted?

36. How did the Black Rock get on the island?

35. How many more Dharma stations are left to be found?

34. Will we learn more about Libby's connection to Hurley?

33. Are Nikki and Paulo gone for good?

32. What did Jack mean in the flash-forward when he made a reference to his supposedly dead father being upstairs?

31. Will the rest of the survivors learn about Hurley's fortune?

30. Will Jin learn about Sun's affair?

29. How did Locke's father get on the island?

28. Why do all pregnancies result in death on the island?

27. Is Alvar Hanso still involved with the island?

26. What is the sickness Rousseau talked about her crew getting in the first season?

25. How was Walt able to appear to Locke and Shannon?

24. What do the numbers -- 4 8 15 16 23 42 -- mean?

23. Why does the doctor in the Dharma Initiative-orientation films have different names in different films?

22. Who are the bodies dubbed Adam and Eve that were found in the caves?

21. What do the hieroglyphics on the machine inside Swan Station mean?

20. How did the Others get all the names of the survivors?

19. What are the whispers people hear in the jungle?

18. Will we see more of the Other known as Isabel (Diana Scarwid)?

17. Where have the children that the Others took been hiding?

16. Why do so many episodes start with the close-up of an eye?

15. Were the Others really having Sawyer and Kate help to build a runway?

14. What did the psychic that read Claire's future see?

13. Did Jack's dad really come back to life or is that an illusion?

12. Will Desmond retain his ability to see the future?

11. Who besides Kate and Jack got off the island?

10. Who is Kate's unseen mate in the post-island flash-forward?

9. What's the deal with that four-toed statue from the Season 2 finale?

8. In Jack's post-island flash-forward, who was in the coffin?

7. What happened to Michael and Walt after they left the island?

6. What is Walt's power?

5. How did Mikhail (the eye-patch guy) appear to come back from the dead?

4. Why doesn't Richard Alpert age?

3. What is Jacob?

2. What is the smoke monster?

1. What is that island?

PHOTO GALLERY: 'Lost' pop culture references
PHOTO GALLERY: 'Lost' cast cheat sheet

-- Patrick Day

(Photo courtesy ABC)

Comments

[schmupy]

Great questions! Most of my questions were on your list but I have a few more added questions that maybe I missed the answer to somewhere....

Is there more to the story of Jack being Claire's half-brother?
What exactly was the monster that was crashing the trees in season one?
Is there more to the airplane toy that Kate got out of the safe deposit box #815?
What is the significance of the black and white stones found with Adam and Eve?

I'm sure I'll come up with more questions because I am in the process of TRYING to find time to watch all of season 1, 2, and 3 before Wednesday night but I don't think I'm going to make it!

[Katie]

Great article! Can't wait for Thursday!!

[Luis]

32. What did Jack mean in the flash-forward when he made a reference to his supposedly dead father being upstairs?

You weren't supposed to know it was a flash forward until he sees Kate near the airport. It was supposed to make him seem crazy to the other doctor, obviously.

The rest of the answer I would Christmas tree, before you go OCD. :)

[Stumped]

Why did it go on a 8 month break? Is that normal?

[Juliet]

You've forgotten the most perplexing question of all: What is up with all of the polar bears?

[maria]

I think it went on the 8 month break because of the massive work needed to make just one full-hour episode. It's like making a movie, only longer. So the crew needs a long break to develop and film the upcoming seasons. I think.

[Sjames2001]

Um... Is anybody going to ask about... I don't know the POLAR BEAR ON THE TROPICAL ISLAND? Let's not forget that not your average every day occurance.

[Simi]

The polar bears were on the island because the dharma initiative brought them over to carry out experiments on them. I think. So that begs the question, what kinds of experiment were they carrying out. Especially that of keying in the numbers onto the computer? The observing of other people in the station/hatch?

[Ken]

The Polar Bears are from the Darma Zoo. They were release when all the Darma People were killed. Sawyer was kept in the bears cage. IMHO

[oakmonster]

And also...

- Even before they found the massive Dharma food cache, what the heck does Hurley eat to maintain his Hurley-ness?
- Who cut Sawyer's hair on the island? Actually, who cuts EVERYBODY's hair on the island? I mean, come on. You can't possibly keep the perfect hair this whole time!
- Is Mikhail a Terminator?
- Is the Cloverfield Monster related to the Smokey Monster and the Polar Bears?
- Will the Enterprise show up to rescue the gang?

[Clever Disappearing Act]

I think JJ Abrams can't even answer these questions. The whole hook of his show is to raise questions that can't be answered. I keeps a fair amount of people on the edge. For me, it's just frustrating. You have to give me some answers to at least a few of the questions or it just becomes a gimmick. Which is what it is. Also, whats with the recaps every show. They seem to tell the story almost twice on each episode. So it really turns out to be a ten minute tease for the next recap..........I give up. I'm going to wait for the last couple shows where they will some how try to long wind it and explain a few things. But I won't hold my breath. I really don't think JJ can do this effectively now that all these questions have been left unanswered. If you really think back to all the stuff they dished out there are probably hundreds of small but important unanswered questions that have been left to a clever disappearing act.

[tracy]

Why can't the smoke monster go over the sonic fence?
Why can't the women on the island conceive on a boat off the island?
Is the "event" that caused Flight 815 to crash a natural phenomena?

[Kate]

20. How did the Others get all the names of the survivors?

I'm pretty sure we already learned the answer to this question last season...with the revelation that the Others have contact with the outside world via television feeds. It seems as though they simply learned about the survivors from their profiles on the news.

[BJAMME]

I THINK I HAVE LOST MY MIND. WHAT IS WITH THE JACK KATE JACK KATE JACK KATE ALL THE TIME? EVERYONE KEEPS ASKING ARE JACK AND KATE THE ONLY ONES TO GET OFFF THE ISLAND. NOW I EVEN SEE A REFERENCE TO JACK SEEING THE COFFIN. WHAT AM I MISSING? IT WAS NOT JACK WHO SAW THE COFFIN, IT WAS LOCKE. AS IN LOCKE GOT OFF THE ISLAND TOO. RGHT????

[Aimee]

polar beers, smokey monsters, cloverfield monsters... That does sound like an Enterprise rescue to me. Next thing you know Jack will have lines like... "Damn it Jim i'm a doctor not a scientist!"

[Will Hicks]

Uh, Bjamme, did you see the same season finale as the rest of us?

[blurry]

it's Jack in the coffin-

dealing with time warp and the island is a psychological experiment-
the main characters of LOST are all involved and it is a "mirror image" of real life
(hence, through the looking glass reference.)
he is wondergin why no one came to his funeral, and wants to go "back"
he is not "himself"

[J.]

Here are a few answers for you: Mikhail explained that the sonic fence wasn't set to a lethal dose (No. 5). This was in the ep where Locke insisted on being taken to see Jacob. The others had dossiers on the survivors -- remember, they were in contact with the real world and when there's a disaster like a plane crash, the names of the "lost" eventually make their way out (No. 20). In fact, early in the last season, when there was the flashback about the breakup of Jack's marriage, didn't Juliet come into his holding cell with the dossier so we could all see it?

[Daryl]

In the season 3 season finale, there is a Charlie flashback of him swimming with his dad and then he swims down to the underwater station to turn off the signal. BUT if you go back and watch the first season, I think it was the third episode, there is a woman drowning in the ocean and Charlie tells Jack about it. As Jack is jumping into the ocean to rescue her, Charlie is in panic mode and yelling "I don't swim! I don't swim! I don't swi!" What's up with that?

[vfree]

I gave up on this in the second season. They've never answered any questions, never let us in on the story and I felt yanked around. I don't think the writers know what they're doing. Great at developing characters, no ability to write story-lines. So we have a bunch of interesting people that we want to watch doing a lot of nothing for no apparent reason. I feel like they swept up what was on the cutting room floor and accidentally aired that instead of the real episodes. I mean, do they write these in their car just before they run in and zerox copies 10 minutes before the table read? It's too much work to care about this show. My husband still watches. He has hope. He made me read this to see if any questions were answered. Silly man.....

[Erin Anne]

What about the huge 3-toed statue that was seen when Sayid and the others took the boat to surprise The Others?

[brad]

20. How did the Others get all the names of the survivors?

we already know this one. in the first episode last year ben had ethan and goodwin pretend to be survivors and gather information on the people.

[Liz]

33. Are Nikki and Paulo gone for good?
God I hope so!

30. Will Jin learn about Sun's affair?
He already knew about it. Remember that he went to see him and then the guy got tossed out the window.

12. Will Desmond retain his ability to see the future?
His "future" was seeing Charlie die, so maybe since Charlie is dead he won't see the "future" anymore.

[Dantheman]

Clever Dissapearing Act has a great point. The unanswered questions are a gimmick. If this was real, would YOU get all the answers as a person directly involved? Probably not so why expect it from the show.
JJ Abram's show, Alias, also created many questions and never delivered answers. Sounds like a pattern.

[MC]

I'd like to know how the Others knew such personal information belonging to the Survivors such as Locke's paralysis, Jack's former marriage, etc.