After the Lost finale aired, some people complained that there are still dozens of questions left unanswered — but is that really true? Sure, there are still a few loose threads left hanging, but I’d argue that the bulk of the questions people have are either answerable or can be strongly guessed at based on the information the show has already given us.
To put my theory to the test, I decided to rebut a popular video compiled today by College Humor that lists nearly 100 outstanding questions that Lost has left us with. How many could I answer, and how many were legitimate loose ends? Let’s find out.
Why did the monster kill the pilot?
Because he’s an angry smoke monster who often kills people who come to the island, as long as they’re not candidates.
What did Locke see when he first saw the smoke?
Smoke, I’m guessing?
What’s with the polar bear in Walt’s comic?
It…was a polar bear in Walt’s comic. Would you like to know who published it, or…?
Where’s Christian Shepherd’s body if it’s not in the casket?
On the island somewhere, presumably.
Why did the psychic say that Claire had to fly on Oceanic 815, and why did he insist that her son had to be raised by Claire?
It’s open to interpretation. In one of Eko’s flashbacks, the psychic seemed to be a bit of a fraud, but if you subscribe to what he’s saying, it still makes some sense. It was Claire’s destiny to be on that flight, as she was a Candidate (albeit one who was eventually crossed-out…maybe Jacob was more interested in her before she got pregnant). As for why Claire had to raise Aaron, look how many people tried to kidnap that baby! And look what happened to poor Claire when she had to go without Aaron. Her hair was terrible.
Why did the Others want Walt so badly?
The Others kidnapped children, since they were unable to reproduce. Walt was a child. Ergo, Walt was kidnapped.
Who sent Kate the letter telling her about her mother being treated for cancer in the hospital?
Some dude? I mean, do we really care?
How does Walt know about the hatch and why does he warn Locke not to open it?
Walt had some special psychic powers, so he learned about the hatch by picking it up from Locke. As for why he didn’t want it opened…well, a lot of bad shit went down in that hatch. Like, Walt’s dad shot some people and stuff. It wasn’t all fun and Mama Cass records.
Why does the smoke monster make mechanical sounds?
Because it’s cool.
How is Walt able to apparate before Shannon?
Special powers.
How did Walt communicate with Michael using the Swan computer?
Probably got on one of the Others’ computers, checked his email, played a few rounds of Words with Friends, and still had a little time left over to tool around a bit.
What is the deal with Kate and that horse?
I mean, it’s an island with polar bears and zoo animals. A black horse may hold special resonance for Kate, but can’t it just be a black horse? We’ve seen people riding horses on the island before.
Why are supplies still being dropped on the island after the purge, and by who?
All right, we finally have our first really legitimate unanswered question. I wouldn’t mind knowing the answer, either.
What triggered the lockdown, and why on earth would anyone trigger it so that during the lockdown, black lights would go on?
The food drop triggered the lockdown. As for black lights, who doesn’t love those?
What happened to the original Henry Gale?
Ballooned to the island, then died. I mean, it could have been interesting to know more about him, but what more did we really need to know? He was a red herring for the Ben story.
What happened to the original timeline Libby in the mental hospital?
Unanswered question #2.
Who built the four-toed statue?
We can intuit that among the people who crashed on the island were Egyptians, just to go by their hieroglyphics and Tawaret statue-building. Did we actually need to see them in a flashback, peering over blueprints and sweating on ladders? I didn’t, but your mileage may vary.
Why does only one specific bearing get you off the island?
Because it’s a hidden, magical island, and it just does?
What are the hieroglyphics on the Swan countdown timer about?
An homage to the Egyptians who used to live on the island and tagged hieroglyphics all over the place?
Why did Tom feel the need to wear a fake beard?
To fool the Oceanic survivors into thinking that the Others were simply a primitive tribe of other castaways, not a technology-possessing race tapped into the mysticism of the island.
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Posted 25 May 2010, 7:31 PM
Here is a very simple question: If everything that happened on the island was real, why/how did so much supernatural stuff happen there?
Supernatural stuff doesn't happen anywhere else in the world - and the characters sure seemed surprised by it all once they got to the island - so why does it happen there? I think this is a key problem people have...that no one explained why all the weird shizzat was happening at all.
I mean when Tom Hanks got stranded he never had to deal with polar bears. Volleyballs, yes. But polar bears, no.
Posted 25 May 2010, 7:47 PM
It all happened for real... on a science fiction show. The distinction is that the island was a sci-fi reality, not a dream world or purgatory in the context of the show.
Posted 25 May 2010, 8:21 PM
Okay, so it is a sci-fi reality, but even in science fiction you have to explain why things happen. Especially after five years or whatever. They shouldn't just get a free pass for having all this crazy stuff happen because it is a sci-fi show. Good sci-fi has crazy stuff happen, and then explains why it is happening in a way that makes a commentary on our society. It doesn't just give you crazy stuff, and then when you ask why, respond, "Why? Cause it's sci-fi!"
Posted 25 May 2010, 9:14 PM
True, but even good sci-fi has supernatural and unexplained stuff all the time. In Abrams' Star Trek, are we really supposed to believe Kirk would somehow accidentally land on a primitive ice planet and be chased into the only cave where Spock just happened to be living? Where did the Alien first come from, and if it was just native to that (non-colonized) planet, why would it bleed acid that happened to burn through metal? In The Matrix, why would Neo, Trinity, and crew dress so differently than everyone else when they were trying to blend into the other people already in the Matrix?
I'm not saying Lost stacks up to these amazing works (although none of these had to arc over 6 years), but my point is that sometimes with sci-fi, like in life, you have to be okay with a lack of answers. If you just like the show, it's easier to go with it.
p.s. the polar bear was brought to the island by the Dharma folks, who had cages where they kept a lot of animals.
Posted 25 May 2010, 9:52 PM
I agree with you about having to accept a certain amount of unexplained mystery in sci-fi, but I think there was just too much in Lost. In Star Trek, for example, you bought that Kirk went into that cave because there weren't a million other things that didn't make sense or weren't explained. If there were many, many questions like that one in Star Trek (as there were in Lost) it wouldn't have been as good, I think.
Posted 25 May 2010, 10:28 PM
Fair enough. Lost had more than its share. I am willing to overlook most, however, because a) I fell for the characters, and b) Damon Lindelof is my sideways-reality boyfriend.
Posted 13 Jun 2010, 2:57 PM
" In Star Trek, for example, you bought that Kirk went into that cave because there weren't a million other things that didn't make sense or weren't explained."
Like warp drive, time travel, ray guns, transporters, planets imploding...yeah, no other questions left open.
Posted 30 Jun 2010, 8:09 PM
Ray guns now exist, we just havent gotten them quite Start Trek powerful. :-) battery pack 1400 joule is nothing to sneeze at though.
Posted 18 Jun 2010, 3:37 AM
No, we are not. Abrams's Star Trek wasn't good sci-fi, it was LOST sci-fi.
Posted 26 May 2010, 11:14 AM
You can use two words to answer pretty much anything: quantum physics.
We're all just atoms floating in a vacuum, right? The huge electromagnetic (and presumably volcanic) forces at the center of the island and the Well-o'-Light ™ can do all kinds of crazy stuff, like scrambling your soul into a pillar of black smoke, or creating a wormhole to Tunisia.
So why can't Smokey leave the island, but Jacob can? Because the power of the island has destabilized Smokey's atoms, meaning he can't physically exist beyond the limits of the island's energy source. When the light went out, his physical body was reconstituted, meaning he could have left if he hadn't been killed by Jack-ob.
What's the Well-o'-Light ™, then? Well, you can buy into all the spiritual stuff spouted by Mama Janney, but I think we can also ration out that there's a purely scientific explanation as well (note: not real scientific, but within the science of the show). The island sits on a site of raw, electromagnetic energy, potentially powered by some big volcanic activity underneath. This energy is so strong that it makes all reality around it bend in ways that are impossible anywhere else in the world. For reasons that aren't important, this energy is stabilized by the Magic Cork ™, and when the Cork is removed, the energy dissipates out into the water beyond, putting the kibosh on any funky changes it's caused (e.g. immortality), and uncapping the giant volcano that sits underneath it.
If the island had actually sunk, it could have caused widespread natural disasters: earthquakes, tidal waves, giant clouds of ash, etc. Who's to say the evil waiting to be unleashed isn't just incredible elemental forces that could kill thousands, if not millions of people? If we want to go really far with our extrapolations, we could theorize that the island sits on a point of convergence for multiple tectonic plates, and that the massive eruption that would be caused by its sinking would create monstrous disasters powerful enough to affect the entire world.
Anyway, that's my take on the whole thing. Since you can pretty much explain most of the "weirdness" that took place through that, I'm content to think that it's at least a very viable explanation for everything.
Posted 26 May 2010, 4:03 PM
I'm cracking up here with your TM's
I totally buy the Quantum Physics explanation, plus it also fuels the possibility of a sideways reality where Lost continues to air every week and I don't have to suffer withdrawal symptoms.
Posted 27 May 2010, 4:20 PM
DL, I would like to buy you a fish biscuit. Great stuff.
Posted 31 May 2010, 6:01 PM
we could theorize that the island sits on a point of convergence for multiple tectonic plates, and that the massive eruption that would be caused by its sinking would create monstrous disasters powerful enough to affect the entire world.
Ok, but the island can be moved... :D
Posted 04 Jun 2010, 10:54 AM
I like this. And I like you.
Posted 25 May 2010, 7:38 PM
Great, great list! But I'd add this one:
Why can Jacob leave the island but the smoke monster can’t?
Because Jacob made the rules.
Posted 25 May 2010, 7:52 PM
"It just does" and " So, do we really care? " are not real answers Kyle. This is not the View and you are not Joy Behar.
Posted 25 May 2010, 7:53 PM
Remember when Daniel came to the island and did the experiment with the rocket? It took much longer for it to get from the freighter to the island than it should have, and the clocks were off.
I think that's what happened with the Dharma food pallets. They were dropped in the '70s, got caught in some funky space-time weirdness, and they showed up in 2004.
Posted 25 May 2010, 10:55 PM
Nice theory, but did they never push the food request button and get food thereafter?
I thought perhaps Widmore or Eloise was responsible for it? Eloise was manning the lampost, so she may be the only one who could find the island. Or perhaps the Others? They certainly had a presence in the regular world (Richard recruiting Juliet), but why would they continue to use Dharma labeled products? Perhaps there is a Dharma station out there somewhere that never get the message about the purge or Ben tricked them into thinking Dharma was still going on?
Posted 25 May 2010, 8:05 PM
I can answer the DHARMA food drops... they were sent by Eloise, who was working in the still-functioning Lighthouse Station. She knew they'd need food, and is quite the interloper of the island's events.
Posted 25 May 2010, 9:27 PM
That makes so much sense! Great idea!
Posted 30 May 2010, 11:53 PM
This is the best answer! Of course she knew how to find it -- she told them all what plane to get on and when it had to leave! thank you -- if i come up with any other questions i'm going to send them directly to you.
Posted 25 May 2010, 8:13 PM
the most important question for me is how come college humor stopped being funny 3 years ago yet still keep releasing shit like this? The questions were good, the answers were more along the lines of a 8 year old trying to be a smartass and failing.
Posted 25 May 2010, 9:08 PM
Only one bearing gets you off the island because the Island is like a big fracking electromagnet and as such has its own magnetic field. To get off of the Island, you have to head directly "north" or "south" from the magnetic field to avoid getting trapped and brought back to the island (like happened to Desmond)
Posted 31 May 2010, 5:14 PM
I completely agree. Most of the answers were terrible... some were sufficient, but most were flippant and barely elucidating.
It was the questions that excited me and made me realize that LOST was poorly written and full of red-herrings! The best mysteries are ones that seem complicated and full of impossible-to-reconcile details, but (once you see the full picture) are actually completely explainable.
There were so many holes in the plot, particularly around Walt and, of course, the way the island works. The more I think about it, the more disappointed I am in the whole show... Not just the finale.
I don't regret watching. At the very least, it was entertaining -- but I'm glad I'm not an OCD-type who, over the years, had carefully catalogued each and every "mystery" hoping that they would someday be carefully explained by the creators.
Because I'd be sorely disappointed!
Posted 25 May 2010, 9:37 PM
The only real unanswered question is: Why didn't everybody just tuck in to the heroin found on the small airplane? They were stuck on a deadly island with no hope of rescue. If there is ever a good excuse for getting addicted to heroin, it's being stuck on an island with an unlimited supply of heroin.
Posted 25 May 2010, 9:49 PM
Maybe they did....and that explains why all the crazy stuff happened! It was all just heroin induced delusions the whole time! You know what? If that was the big reveal, that they had all become delusional, crazed junkies, that might have been more satisfying. Which tells you how much I liked the finale, I guess.
Posted 29 May 2010, 11:12 AM
Serious LOL!!
Posted 25 May 2010, 9:48 PM
The more I soak in the finale, the more I like it. Just say no to midichlorians.
Posted 25 May 2010, 10:44 PM
I'm satisfied with the ending - I mean, we all know JUST AS MUCH AS OUR LOSTIES DO
Posted 25 May 2010, 11:04 PM
The only thing "LOST" in this series were the writers. I swear they made it up as they went along. LOST is so bad it makes Gilligan's Island look good.
Stupid show. Jumped the shark in the first episode. How could it last so many seasons.
Posted 26 May 2010, 11:50 PM
Yet you felt the need to troll comment boards about a show you thought was bad from the first episode. You should seek punitive damages from the person who held a fucking gun to your head and made you continue to watch, or to decide it was worth your time to troll a comment board for something you presumably know fuck-all about. Idiot.
Posted 26 May 2010, 12:09 AM
the problem isnt the small questions, but the big ones.
what was at stake really? people were always so cryptic about everything, you never knew who was good or bad, and if what they were telling was true or not.
so the smoke monster, who is shown to have been, a normal, curious and not necessarily evil person, falls down the whole and suddenly is very bad and he must not leave the island. why? is he going to destroy the world? maybe, we never knew what he would do. as much as i love Terry O Quinn, and could clearly see the difference between Locke and MIB, i never felt he was threatening enough... i just didnt buy it, maybe it isnt his fault, some of his dialogue, specially on the finale was borderline cartoonish. since he couldnt kill the candidates, i never really feared him, and there he was, easily killed in the end.
then the island.... oh the island is a cork! a cork for what? the magic white liquid light! what does it do? is it life? we are not sure, never. Mother looked crazy, should we believe her? i felt like i was desmond pushing the button, not knowing if it was really worth it.
and then right at the end, they sorta re-wrote the show, and the point wasnt the island anymore, or even all of the characters, the point was just jack. and the magic light church! that just about ruined everything for me
Posted 26 May 2010, 8:08 AM
You're really asking for a specific explanation for a vague idea of the source of all life, and what the writers probably mean to be a vague idea of "god". They can't explain that in specific terms.
As to the many rules and time-travel oddities, they happened because that's what needed to happen. As we saw at the end, Hurley was going to run a much more sensible piece of mystical land. The island stuff is really pretty simple - Jacob made it complicated because he could, was probably a little crazy, and clearly ADD.
Posted 26 May 2010, 8:37 AM
If it was God, why not say that? We accept the Force in the first Star Wars movie because it's fairly well-explained internally to be the magical stuff that the Jedi draw their power from (which is why the midichlorians thing was unnecessary). Saying that the golden vagina stream contains the light that's in all men doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand what light is supposed to be inside me. Do you mean my consciousness? Do you mean the spark of life--movement, thought--that's in all sentient beings? Do you mean that this is some energy left over from the big bang? Do you mean that this is where an alien spacecraft landed and the bacteria from which life started came from? Say that. Don't be willfully obtuse.
You might be right that time travel happened because it needed to, but that's just a massive deus ex machina as part of the show's central plot, isn't it? Not very good writing, then.
Posted 26 May 2010, 8:29 AM
Yes, exactly.
As someone who loves well-done SF/F, I can't help but feel like the mysteries were dropped in there to rope viewers who--understandably--thought they would be answered. All over the internet, I'm now being told that I was watching the show for the wrong reason, that "questions only lead to more questions" (as if I'm some demanding five year old), that it's all about the fuzzy emotional experience and that I'm missing the point of the amazing experience.
So the primary theme was that seeking answers is futile. Well, that's silencing, and a little insulting to the viewers who were justifiably roped into the show because they reasonable thought they'd find resolution. But whatever, it made ABC lots of money, and I guess that's what really matters.
Posted 26 May 2010, 12:11 AM
hole
Posted 26 May 2010, 12:56 AM
"What’s the deal with the pool that brings people back to life?
The island always had healing properties, so maybe bathing in the light was like that wax bath from Wanted."
The pool idea is directly taken from Batman comic book villain Ra's Al Ghul. He has minions resurrect him whenever he is near death in a pool called a Lazarus Pit. They also become a bit unhinged after being taken out of the water, but it subsides shortly after.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Pit
Posted 26 May 2010, 1:44 AM
The Food Drops were sent in 1977 but got caught up in a time problem like Faraday's rocket.
"You're Next" could mean exactly the person he said it to. Locke. Who was, indeed, next.
Ben's dead mother was the smoke monster, wasn't she?
Posted 31 May 2010, 8:23 PM
No. She didn't die on the island and smokey couldn't use her body.
Posted 26 May 2010, 3:30 AM
My question is where did Ajira Airways get a Boeing 737 that could back up under its own power??? Planes don't have a "reverse" gear--the engines only point in one direction. To back up, a plane has to be pushed by another vehicle (a push-back tug). After all the time-travel, monsters, miraculous healings, etc...this is definitely the most unrealistic thing ever on the show. ;)
Posted 26 May 2010, 8:21 AM
I believe it's possible for a jet to push back using reverse thrust.
Posted 26 May 2010, 10:36 AM
Aircraft most assuredly can back up under their own power and don't need a tug. I work on an Air Force base and see it periodically, although usually they are pushed back simply because it's easier for the guy in the truck to see where he's pushing them. The pilot can't see behind him to back up (planes don't have side or rearview mirrors) and in fact, Lapidus had to have Miles hanging out the door to directing him while he was backing up.
Posted 26 May 2010, 3:54 AM
What I want to know is this:
1) Did Hurley use his newfound powers of the island and create some wookies and ewoks to hang around with?
2) Did he send Ben off the island to acquire a DVD of The Dark Knight, only to gasp in shock at something called Avatar?
3) Why didn't the show end with a picture of Jeff Fahey smiling, winking, and shooting his fingers at us, like Gopher on Love Boat?
Posted 31 May 2010, 2:04 AM
1) Wookies, possibly. Ewoks, never. Remember, Ewoks suck.
Posted 26 May 2010, 8:34 AM
My theory on why Smoke-Monster couldn't leave the island: He was created by the light at the heart of the island, and as long as it glowed, he couldn't get away from it without dying or something. He probably could have left before he was cast into the golden shower.
Posted 26 May 2010, 8:54 AM
Who the hell cares. It's over and done with. Yes the finale was vaguely disapointing and more than a little sappy but thems the breaks. Time to "move on" people.
Posted 26 May 2010, 9:44 AM
Ah, Ha, Ha, HAAAA!!! I accept your answers but like everyone says on LOST, "Answers just lead to more questions...SO QUIT ASKING THEM DAMMIT!" But, I've got one more: How in the Hell did Locke's dad, Sawyer, get on that Island? Which leads to the second question: "If you conned some man's mother and caused his parents to commit suicide, why do you mock them while tied up in a chair?" And finally the third question: "If, like Ben says, there's a box where you can have anything you want (Ben had some C4 in it apparently) does Hurley get pizza delivered there, now that he's Grand Puba?"
Posted 26 May 2010, 10:38 AM
I think Smokey wanted Eko originally, then killed him and when he told Locke "You;re Next" - he meant Locke would be smokeys next target
Posted 26 May 2010, 10:39 AM
The one thing that really bothered me about lost and I'll admit this is stupid but the size of the submarine on the outside was way to small! and I know it was just a prop but man that thing was small they could of used some CGI or something.
Posted 26 May 2010, 12:06 PM
maybe it was a tardis class submarine?
Posted 26 May 2010, 12:57 PM
I love lost cause it was different and weird, but there're so many things I don't understand like the ending, where did all go? were they dead on that church or what? I need some logic to this deal...
Posted 26 May 2010, 1:49 PM
Nadia was given short shrift because Shannon was Sayid's lover that didn't remind him of his past being a torturer. Recall that at no time during Season 6 does he specifically mention (when asked by Smokey, etc.) that he wishes he could have Nadia back. He just wishes to have back 'someone special'.
One quirky theory I had about the food drops, besides the good ones folks have come up with... imagine that dropping something that large and heavy really causes it to bounce around in time... now imagine that you have a bunch of island inhabitants radioing for the drops. They wait a bit and nothing happens. Head's are gonna roll! GET ME MY FOOD DAMMIT! So what happens? Another food drop is attempted. And then another and another and another... soon they discover that they have a 10% success rate. If they drop 10 pallets, one makes it down. So they do it for a few years and they've now constructed this huge queue of food in space-time that's set to drop every 6 months or so.
It's got holes in it, but it's a cute idea I think. :)
Posted 26 May 2010, 2:36 PM
The Food Drop was basically explained by Faraday when Sayid and Des went to the freighter and it took forever. Unless you go via the bearings Faraday and Ben knew about, time isn't going to be behave properly. So the airdrop could have happened when Dharma was still there, and it just now got to the ground. It also explains Hurley finding a radio station for the ending of one episode. Radiowaves were delayed in getting to the island when it was in a particular spot.
All of these questions are silly. People wanting small answers instead of having to think about hints the story gives you were bad viewers. Viewers that just didn't get the point.
Posted 26 May 2010, 3:10 PM
Libby in the mental hospital. Libby went a little nuts when her husband died. The end.
Posted 26 May 2010, 4:37 PM
I absolutely hated the finale, but it's not because I didn't get answers. It's because the episode was too sappy and sentimental for my ice cold heart, and the ending was really, really dumb. In fact, I didn't care for a single episode in season 6, because the writing was terrible. I don't know what happened in the writer's room (Damon's ego, perhaps?), but Lost didn't end up being the show I started watching.
Posted 26 May 2010, 6:42 PM
"Why are supplies still being dropped on the island after the purge, and by who?"
This supply drop was made WAY before it actually arrived. It was caught in the time loop that everyone experienced in season 5 and finally arrived in season 2.
Posted 26 May 2010, 8:13 PM
Cody is right re: "Unanswered" Question #1. IIRC, Farraday addresses this.
Posted 26 May 2010, 8:39 PM
stupid answers lol..
Posted 27 May 2010, 4:44 AM
So basically all the answers are "because it's a TV show"?
Posted 27 May 2010, 12:03 PM
I think Claire broke the circle of ashes around the cabin, so her buddy MIB could get in.
Posted 27 May 2010, 7:56 PM
What happened to the original timeline Libby in the mental hospital?
Unanswered question #2.
-This is actually answered. Her husband died (named Dave, had the ship she gave to Desmond) and that caused her to be depressed and break down, so she was in the mental hospital.
Posted 27 May 2010, 10:01 PM
"Why did Desmond have a false vision of Claire and Aaron leaving the island on a helicopter?"
In a vision, Desmond saw Charlie die, and it eventually came true BUT it wasn't in the way Desmond initially saw. The circumstances of Charlie's fate kept switching. Similarly, Claire and Aaron did leave the island, but not via helicopter, and not together.
MYSTERY SOLVED
Posted 28 May 2010, 9:41 AM
I know no one here has said much about it, but the one thing that has been annoying me is that everyone thinks Dharma was pointless and a big build up for nothing.
Actually take a second look and think about why Dharma was there. Jacob (as far as we know) was the only Island guardian who had to deal with an evil force(which he created) the MIB. So, in order to stop the man in black from carrying out his ultimate plan i.e. kill Jacob and escape/destroy the island thus releasing his evil into the rest of the world Jacob had to ensure that someone would be around to replace him should the MIB succeed. Hence the long list of crossed off candidates in the cave that Jacob had tried to bring to the island in the past, but were ultimately corrupted by the MIB.
Dharma was brought to the island by Jacob (IMHO) to exploit the electromagnetic properties of the island, thus turning MIB into a human once more (as we saw in the finale) thereby enabling Jacob or whomever to kill him. As we know Jacob has a strange and I would say fairly sh**ty way of running things, so MIB intervened and corrupted a member of the Dharma initiative and turning him to his side.
How did he do this? You may remember that the thing that drove Ben out into the jungle and, if I remember correctly, was where he met Richard in one of his flashbacks, was an apparition of his long dead mother. Which I believe was the MIB, because up until that point only two other characters who died off island appeared on the Island post-death. Christian Shephard and Yemi and we have been told MIB did in fact pose as Christian so I assume he did pose as Yemi as well.
This event lead to a chain of events ultimately resulting in Ben taking leadership of the Others and being corrupted by MIB to do his bidding and eliminate a major threat to his plan. The threat...the Dharma initiative. Ben always thought he was doing things for Jacob, but in fact he was being manipulated by the MIB to carry out his plan and eliminate Jacob.
IDK i could be wrong, but I just assumed thats what most people thought about Dharma and why it was there.
Posted 31 May 2010, 8:37 PM
Christian Shepard and Yemi both died on the island. Ben's dead mommy didn't.
Posted 28 May 2010, 4:52 PM
"Why was there a time difference between Faraday’s timers?
Because time is different on the island as opposed to the outside world."
Actually, the answer is that "coming from and to the island, there are time fluctuations, if not going through the bearing..."
Posted 28 May 2010, 6:01 PM
Libby in the mental hospital - as another commenter said, she had a nervous breakdown over her husband's death.
HOWEVER, she told Desmond that her husband was named David. So who was Hurley's 'invisible friend'? Dave.
So it seems to me that Hurley already had the ability to see dead people long before he came to the Island - he's palling around the mental hospital with the ghost of Libby's husband, although why Dave never tried to communicate with Libby is another question (heh). Maybe he was just a jerk.
Posted 28 May 2010, 7:02 PM
Ok, in the episode telling the backstory of MiB and Jacob, Allison Janey somehow destroys the camp of all those people after she finds out they are getting close to the heart of the island. All the people are dead and the well is filled in. I assumed at the time that she could do this because she was the smoke monster. Was she a smoke monster? She told Jacob that he should never go into the light because that was worse than death. How does she know? Did she herself? Why didn't Jack or Desmond turn into a smoke monster or experience something worse than death?
Also, after the nuclear bomb went off there was a scene showing the island at the bottom of the ocean. When is that supposed to be? Showing that was in part what made people think that the parallel story line was real. If the island didn't sink in the '70s (which it didn't seem to do) then when does the island end up at the bottom of the ocean? Did Hurly and Ben screw it up and sink it? That would explain how they're "dead" at the end, I guess.
Posted 29 May 2010, 4:24 AM
["To be fair, Aaron did leave the island on a helicopter."]
No, he didn't. Sun carried him off the island in a boat. The boat or whatever you called them, conveyed them to the freighter.
Posted 29 May 2010, 9:48 AM
Ugh. I couldn't even get past the first eight of these. If you don't care about the answers, that's fine -- don't care about the answers. But don't act like some bullshit, flippant statements or saying "who cares?" actually answers the questions.
Posted 29 May 2010, 10:51 AM
To be fair: The smoke monster noises really aren't necessarily mechanical sounding.. I have a nature CD where you hear some creature in the backgrond making the infamous clicking noise. Everytime I listen to it, I think about ol' smokey.
Posted 29 May 2010, 3:12 PM
Uhm,
Re dead ppl in polar bear cave: wasn't that smokey and his mom? or are there two mysterious caves with dead people in them?
Posted 30 May 2010, 10:26 AM
gee, that's some impressively sharp insight. you know, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Posted 30 May 2010, 11:08 AM
I think you came up with about 5 valid theories.
The rest was flippant bullshyt.
And at the end of the day, anything that you or I
or anyone else says is just a "theory".
Unprovable.
Because we were not privy to the thought processes (or lack of)
that went into the planning of the show.
Until someone gets their hands on a pirated copy of
Gregg Nation's LOST bible and we can see that the plot has
more holes than swiss cheese.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002950.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
Posted 30 May 2010, 11:24 PM
This is the dumbest article ever. I could have answered all of the questions better. Next time, hire someone who is a fan.
Posted 31 May 2010, 2:34 AM
This article is baaaad. It's not satisfying, and it's not even funny.
Plus, some of the answers are obviously wrong (i.e. what did locke see first time he saw the black smoke, Locke says in the show he "looked into the eye of the island, and it was beautiful" and later he says he saw a bright light (i.e. the light in the heart of the island cave).
I stopped reading at question 12.
Posted 31 May 2010, 6:54 AM
The woman not giving birth on island wasn't caused by "the incident" because we know for a fact that it happened in 1977 but Alex was born on the island aproximativly in 1988 since the message Danielle Rousseau had recorded had been aired on loop for 16 years.
And for the food drop I guess it was somebody working for ben since he probably took over the Dharma after the purge.
Sorry if you can't understand me but I'm french.
Posted 31 May 2010, 8:43 PM
U're right but Danielle was already pregnant when she reached the rock.
Posted 31 May 2010, 11:21 AM
I think you missed the point of some of the questions.
From the other one:
"Why did the monster kill the pilot?
Because he’s an angry smoke monster who often kills people who come to the island, as long as they’re not candidates."
No, he tries to kill candidates. Was the pilot a candidate? If not, what was the point?
"What did Locke see when he first saw the smoke?
Smoke, I’m guessing?"
But after seeing Smokey, Locke said that he looked into "the heart of the island, and it was beautiful." So why does Locke see something beautiful in the thing that scares everyone else?
My guess is that the monster took the form of Helen, but like so many things, the writers never bothered to clarify.
"What’s with the polar bear in Walt’s comic?
It…was a polar bear in Walt’s comic. Would you like to know who published it, or…?"
Yes, but there was also a polar bear on the island. And in a later episode, he thought about a bird, and the bird came flying and hit his window. The question is, what's the deal with Walt and thinking about animals and them suddenly appearing?
Anyway, this was still a fun read.
Posted 31 May 2010, 9:10 PM
Tomh, the smoke monster tries to get candidates killed but it can't do that directly. Some have speculated he was impersonating Hurley's imaginary friend on the island to make him commit suicide, for instance.
Now, this is just my speculation - but if we assume that the smoke monster retained MiB's personality (I think they are separate entities; Original Flavor MiB, who wasn't that bad, died 2000 years ago)... well, MiB didn't like people, even if he lived among them. Like his mother, he claimed they would only corrupt the island, while Jacob wants to draw people to that place to prove that they can prosper. So Smokey a) "judges" people to see if they are worthy of being there (or if they can be useful to his goals, like he did with Ben), b)indiscriminately kills them to oppose Jacob's plan. At least that's how I see it.
Posted 07 Jun 2010, 7:46 PM
The pilot could fly them off the island if they were an opportunity to be had. Smokey didn't wan't anyone leaving except for himself. And ntm, he's just cruel. And yes, he does try to kill candidates and he can - indirectly. Or after they've been scratched off Jacob's list. Because that is one of Jacob's rules, can't harm the candidates.
Smokey showed Locke something he wanted to see, no doubt. Take note that Smokey did indeed scare Locke at first. It's not until the last few frames that Locke smiles a bit and then later he tells Jack what he saw was beautiful. Locke was wanting to believe he was on the island for a purpose because of his ability to walk again. Smokey took advantage of him and led him to places that could bring him harm. i.e. The plane that fell (no doubt Locke would have gone up if he hadn't gotten hurt.), the hatch, etc.
We're to assume Walt has powers to make things he thinks about appear, obviously. This is why I think he's able to make himself appear to others, actually. Plus whatever else occurred having to do with him. But, I mean, I honestly don't know how Damon and Carlton could explain Walt to us. There is no explanation, he can just do really random things with his mind from the looks of it. A gift from the island, maybe Jacob specifically, since he's a child and therefore more "pure". I assumed as much the reason Hurley's able to speak to the dead is because of his good heart and honesty - so only he can hear true thoughts from those who have passed on. You know?
Posted 31 May 2010, 7:34 PM
Why can Jacob leave the island but the smoke monster can’t?
Because Jacob didn't die, his brother did... the smoke monster is what was created through his death... being dead & supernatural might have a little to do with his not being able to leave the island.
Posted 31 May 2010, 7:44 PM
Also, perhaps after Jacob's brother died (his body was laid to rest next to their "mother's" in the cave... they were the "Adam & Eve" bodies) this just allowed the smoke monster to take on his form... it could take on the form of anyone who died right? Maybe it was trapped in the cave with the light until the Man in Black was tossed in, giving it a form to take on. Smokey probably liked the MIB's form as it messed with Jacob more than any other form could. Just as it chose to take on Locke's form to mess with Jack.
It was bound to the island.
Posted 31 May 2010, 8:05 PM
Excuse me 4 my english, i'm from Italy and I may have a question: Why did I see roman people building the wheel while I had seen the same wheel completed with... hyerogliphics upon it?
Posted 31 May 2010, 9:14 PM
All your answers were crap.
Posted 01 Jun 2010, 12:32 AM
I'm willing to accept a little bit of loose ends, but the main thing that bothers me is that it's pretty obvious that the creators just made up crazy stuff without any idea of why other than it might confuse people more. "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if pregant women died on the island? Why? Dunno - ratings I guess." I feel a little duped by the writers spending most of Lost intimating that they had full knowledge of what they were doing, when in fact, they were as clueless as anyone else. We had pretty much an entire season about pregnant women not surviving on the island, and no answers. This is not a trivial "loose end" - this is a major plot point of the story arc that apparently they really didn't think out carefully before including it in the story. It's much easier to write random crazy stuff and let people believe that there's actually something behind it than to write a cohesive story that really does have something behind it. I still like the show, but I'm definitely disappointed.
Posted 07 Aug 2010, 4:52 PM
Dude the producers said that the pregnancy issue was answered but it was not spoon fed. You can derive it from the story...Since they said this the bits and pieces of this question lie across the whole series.
1) Richard said to Locke that the Others have missed the point of their purpose and they went on doing insignificant things under Ben, like caring for the pregnancy issues(Season 3?)
2) Our Losties did create the incident. In Richard's POV those were the people that created it. The bomb vs the electromagnetic energy created some instabilities on the island and one of those instabilities were the pregnancy issues(Season5).
3) In the hatch there were vaccines. It might be that Desmond's partner knew that the incident's after effect wore off, but he wanted Desmond contained. So he tricked him that there was STILL an effect outside the hatch and so the vaccine was needed(at the time it was not, but it is crystal clear the Radzinsky knew what he was doing and using the vaccines was a must in his time)(Season 2).
4) Horace's wife gave birth to Ethan. So at that time and before that, women didn't have any problem with pregnancy issues. Telling them to give birth outside the island does not say there were problems. It was just healthier for a kid to be born in the real world.
What do you derive from all these? That the incident created the pregnancy issues. And so the woman who were brought to the island to find a solution for these issues was the creator of these issues. Funny isn't it? And so the producers knew exactly where they were heading with this one.
Posted 02 Jun 2010, 8:54 AM
My Big Unanswered Question:
How did Locke's dad get on the island so Sawyer could kill him?!?!?
Posted 07 Aug 2010, 5:01 PM
Really?? Is this your big question?? Ben knew Locke's past. Ben didn't want Locke to become leader. Seeing that he was slowly losing his leadership to Locke, he found an idea...he brought the man who shows Locke's real self(a pathetic little man), his father. So he asks him to kill this man to prove his worth as a leader to the others. Ben knows exactly that Locke doesn't have the guts to kill his father, so this will show to the Others that he is not worthy of being their leader.
Richard, who is convinced that Locke is their true leader(through the Smoke Monster's trickery), brings Ford's file to Locke to read it. Locke discovers that Ford will eat his father alive if he finds out who he really is. And so he takes him to Ford and Ford kills him...How easy was that?
There is no magic box. It was just Ben's plan.
Posted 02 Jun 2010, 11:49 AM
Why are supplies still being dropped on the island after the purge, and by who?
The island is moving, and if something doesn't enter through the right bearing, it can come down at any time. So, the supplies drop is just a Dharma plane w/ bad aim. Easy !!
Posted 02 Jun 2010, 12:23 PM
Henry Gale is a Wizard of Oz reference, not someone who previously crashed on the island.
Posted 02 Jun 2010, 5:58 PM
like the finale itself, this post is fatuous and condescending. like, "how dare you have gotten invested in this show and actually wanted a decent ending with decent answers? what happened happened, OK DUDE?" pfffft.
Posted 02 Jun 2010, 9:12 PM
Many of your answers are awful. Particularly the four toed statue. Ok so Egyptian people get shipwrecked on the island, what possible reason could they have to toil for like 100 years on a 100 foot high statue? Ok maybe their ruler crash landed with them, and there just happened to be a big enough population to sustain the many many people that would be required to get that statue built and not starve to death by eating every animal on the island, but still WHY 4 TOES??
Posted 04 Jun 2010, 10:50 AM
Awesome article. I don't agree with all the answers, and there were some I could have answered better, but there were a few things there I hadn't thought of, and generally I applaud any well-researched attempt to explain why Lost is actually awesome if you're smart enough to think it all through.
Posted 05 Jun 2010, 7:30 PM
Are you paid by Darlton?
Posted 07 Jun 2010, 2:24 AM
Most of these answers are correct. But there's no way that the Other women died in childbirth as a result of the nuclear bomb!
Consider: (1) The bomb went off in 1977, and Alex was born healthy on the Island in 1988. (2) Juliet was a brilliant doctor and would easily have diagnosed radiation poisoning. (3) Juliet determined that if a pregnant Other left the Island by her second trimester, she could give birth on the mainland and then return. [This raises the tangential question of why the Others didn't find that solution satisfactory.] What kind of radiation has no effect on first-trimester embryos or infants, but is a guaranteed killer of pregnant women in their third trimester? Not just of their babies, but of the women themselves! And recall that Ethan was only two days old when the bomb went off and it didn't hurt him. (4) The curse ended suddenly, with Aaron's birth, rather than fading out as a natural cause would have.
So the cause must have been mystical. And therefore it's a true Unanswered Question. Because Ben and Richard seem to have thought that it wasn't mystical when they recruited Juliet, a very skilled but non-mystical doctor!
Posted 07 Jun 2010, 7:33 PM
Isn't it anyone who gets pregnant ON the island is harmed? So it still could be from the The Incident. Who knows why... but for some reason, that does seem to be the connection.
Posted 08 Jun 2010, 8:33 PM
Alex borned healthy because Danielle was already pregnant when she got to the Island. Just like Aaron.
On the contrary, Sun conceived her baby on the Island, so she had to go out to be able to deliver.
Posted 07 Jun 2010, 7:30 PM
Not sure if anyone's mentioned this but I believe we are to assume Ben was almost always taking instruction from the MiB posing as Jacob. Ben wanted to be a leader and MiB took advantage of that. With that said, it'd change 2 of your answers. But I don't want to go back and find them, though - one had to do with The Purge. I assumed that was MiB's influence.
Posted 08 Jun 2010, 8:35 PM
mmmh...I think Ben was taking instruction from Richard (so from Jacob). He didn't know nor Jacob neither MiB.
Posted 08 Jun 2010, 12:54 PM
I always thought Tom wore the beard so he'd freak Michael out even more when he kidnapped Walt. Because he enjoys messing with people.
Posted 09 Jun 2010, 5:59 AM
lol, one of more idiotic attempts to give answers to lost questions.
some people should never ever write.
Posted 13 Jun 2010, 2:43 PM
What did Locke see when he first saw the smoke?
Smoke, I’m guessing?
You guess? Did you watch the show at all? He said he saw a white light.
Posted 21 Jun 2010, 4:25 PM
Any reason why there aren't any insightful comments still?
Posted 02 Jul 2010, 11:03 AM
Ridiculous. Half of your answers are "A wizard did it." Let's just accept that the show was a whole mess of bull by people who teased us for six years without having any idea what they were doing. If you're breaking the rules of science and reality, that's fine in a sci-fi show, but you can't just say it's "just 'cuz." The finale was a HUGE disservice to its loyal fans--and saying it's "about the characters" is just a load of garbage. You don't read a murder mystery for the love story, you read it to find out who killed the butler. And this mystery was no better. Six years wasted.
Posted 27 Aug 2010, 1:33 PM
the people shooting at sawyer, juliet & the others while they were jumping through time wasn't necessarily answered, but there could be a good explanation....after the ajira flight went down & landed on hydra island, notice the boats that were taken back to the main island, by locke, sun, ben & the shadow order group thingy...these are the same boats that our crew grabs off the shore of the main island (where the shadow crew went)....this is proved by the ajira water bottle that sawyer finds inside the boat before they take off....so i think it's safe to say that the people shooting were the shadow order, since they knew that sawyer was with locke in their time, seeing his wonderful mane probably got them insane with jealousy, & they had to let a few go....but seriously, this jump was obviously a near-future jump, & they were being shot at by the shadow crew