‘Lost’: 48 pending questions

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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