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8 Unresolved LOST Questions

The Final Season of Lost TV Show Conundrums

By Joe Oesterle January 26, 2010
Source: www.joeartistwriter.com

8 Unresolved LOST Questions
© Mania/Bob Trate

Who would have predicted back in September 22, 2004 that a show which specialized in alternately frustrating and delighting its audience with anagrams, red herrings, religious overtones and seemingly meaningless tattoos would have millions of people alternately looking forward to, and wistfully regretting its final season six years later?

We’ve wished for answers for a long time, but as the old saying goes, be careful of what you wish for... We’ve all wanted this puzzle solved, but as we are facing the final 17 episodes of this wonderfully teasing televised mindfuck, We’re not sure we ever really wanted closure.

That said, here are a few unanswered questions that have been gnawing at us like Hurley on a bucket of Mr. Clucks extra crispy.

8. Jacob Vs. The Man in Black

We’ve been hearing all about this mysterious Jacob for a very long time now. Some of us assumed he was good, others felt if Ben was such a staunch supporter then Jacob must be wicked. Well in last year’s finale Jacob was finally revealed. He was dressed in flowing white robes, he possessed a sense of Zen-like calm about him, he proved polite to a fault and he was confronted by an evil looking bearded man with sinister eyebrows and murderous intentions. So how come we’re still not convinced Jacob is the good guy?

7. Eloise Hawking

Maybe I’m too busy trying to understand my own inexplicable crush on this silver-haired cougar to really concentrate on whose side she is really on. She’s Daniel Faraday’s mother,conceiving him during a probable on-island affair with Ben Linus’ ultra nemesis Charles Widmore. Ms. Hawking seems to at the very least a serious mistrust of Ben, if not an outright dislike of him. Of course she’s not real warm toward baby daddy Widmore either. She’s shot her own adult son while he was still in utero, and has teamed up with some mysterious sorts to make sure Desmond’s fate has been anything but his own. Perhaps Eloise is not on Team Ben or Team Widmore and has formed her own Team Eloise long ago.We’re going out on a limb and declaring the most perplexing part about this woman is the terrible Photoshop picture of her and Brother Campbell. Come on art department, you should have spent another 10 minutes on that .psd file before you displayed for the world in hi-definition.

6. Penny Widmore

It’s possible I’m far too suspicious to believe anything on this show anymore, but this program makes skeptics of even the most trusting souls. And by the way, We’re not too caught up in my our machismo to admit we welled up during the famous Christmastime phone call from the freighter in “The Constant,” but we’re still not entirely convinced Penny has always had Desmond’s best interests at heart. Sometimes it’s a glance she gives, and sometimes it’s the things she doesn’t say. We want to be wrong, because if anyone on that stinking island deserves a chance at happily ever after, it’s ol’ Des Hume. We just don’t completely trust any daughter of Charles Widmore.

5. Adam and Eve

Dem dry bones in the cave haven’t gotten much airtime since they were originally broadcast but you just know this is one of those questions that will have to pay off big time. The most prominent theories are Bernard and Rose, Jack and Kate, Sawyer and Kate and even Desmond and Penny, but they all seem too obvious as of now. Of course these writers have 17 episodes to make them much less obvious looking before they reveal that the answer was very obvious… or maybe not. These LOST scribes do love to screw with us.

4. Libby

We believe ourselves to be in the minority, but we really loved the character of Libby, and felt she was removed from the show way too early. It’s likely actress Cynthia Watros was removed for the same reasons as Michelle Rodriguez’ Ana Lucia character was cut out, (a little too much happy juice while going zoom-zoom while driving their vroom vrooms) but while we found Ana Lucia to be annoying and abrasive, we always had a soft spot in our hearts for the girl who had a soft spot for Hurley.

Why was Libby institutionalized at Santa Rosa with Hurley, and was she in fact insane, or just acting that way to keep tabs on our favorite calorically-challenged chubster?

Who was her late husband Dave? Is he actually a late husband, or Hurley’s very much alive father, Dave? Or is he Hurley’s possibly invisible, or dead friend Dave? Why was her ship named, The Elizabeth, and why did she just give it to Desmond for free?

I need a lot of Libby answers, and I fear (based on previous statements from Cuse and Lindelof) we may not get them all.

3. Charlie Pace

How the heck does Charlie appear to Hurley at Santa Rosa and why did he try to convince Hugo to go back? Charlie seems dead enough, because he was gracious enough to tell us so. It seems like most “sane” people can’t see Charlie, but we could have sworn one of the Santa Rosa crazies acknowledged the recently expired, rehabbed Hobbit.

Is Charlie only visible to Hurley like his asylum pal Dave was only visible to Hurley?

And we know this is an oldie, but we don’t have a definitive answer to our recollection; How come Charlie said he couldn’t swim, and yet he was shown enjoying swim time as a lad with a loving dad (even though we were led to believe his pops was a bit of an uncaring thoughtless dick) and later out-Wintered Shelly Winters and swam a great distance underwater without a breathing apparatus?

And we’ll dust off this old chestnut again for good measure, because we’re not convinced it was a simple production error; How come Charlie, a one-time devout Catholic, makes the sign of the cross with his LEFT hand as he prepares to drown in an episode entitled, “Through the Looking Glass?

2. The Children

We really aren’t 100 percent sure why all women die giving childbirth on this island. We can assume it’s because of “the incident” and we can assume “the incident” was Juliet detonating the bomb in 1977, but unless we’re mistaken (and trust us, we’re surprised how much we’ve forgotten during this long LOST draught so it’s possible) we have never figured out the definitive reason why childbirth equals death for mother and child 100 percent of the time on this island.

We haven’t seen much of Walt since he left the island to grow three feet and drop his voice six octaves, but before he grew curlies on his privates, he was a pretty special little kid. He could chuck a knife like nobody’s business, could kill birds with a thought, was an outstanding backgammon player and would appear wet and whispery out of nowhere. The whole “children are special” angle played a very important part of the first two and a half seasons of this show’s mythos, and it would be a serious letdown to just drop something like the unexplained powers of a polar bear wishing child.

We’ve also been wondering how baby Aaron is supposed to fit in to all of this. His mother Claire may or may not be dead, but after playing on the third string for most of the first four seasons, and being left off the team entirely last season, she is apparently ready to rejoin the first unit. But is she Claire, or like her daddy, is she Ghost Claire as Miles seemed to imply way back when.

Is Aaron a good kid or a bad kid? Christian Shephard, who previously always seemed like one of the good guys, seems kind of creepy lately, and his interest in his grandson certainly appears more than just that of a proud grandfather.

Just like Jacob himself, we are left to wonder if baby Aaron is the redeemer or the scourge.

1. The Numbers

Oooh look how spooky! The Numbers are listed as Conundrum Number Eight and the number eight is one of “The Numbers.”

We’ve seen these ominous digits in airports, pill bottles, hatches, jerseys, maps, notes, odometers and of course lottery tickets but are these simple integers harbingers of bad luck, or part the numerical representations of human and environmental variables, or are they merely numbers, and we should just get over it.

Well we know the last option is no option at all which is why we painstakingly went letter by letter while drafting this article to make sure its character count actually ended up at exactly 4,815,162,342.

Nah, we didn’t do that, but I do wonder how many of you were just about to cut and paste this into a Word doc to see if we were telling the truth. That’s what this show does to us. It makes us buy hi-def televisions sets so we can make out logos on passing sharks. It compels us to pony up for TiVo so we can freeze frame on ostensibly innocuous background paintings and it makes us watch with a laptop set on Google so no book title, biblical reference, song lyric or tee shirt graphic goes unchecked.

And so we’ll end this humble item waiting as we always do to interact with our fellow LOSTophiles in the comment boxes below and look forward to reading your own questions. Is Locke really dead? Why is Hurley called Hurley? Will the passengers of Flight 815 all wind up back in the present time and if so, will any or all of them remember their bizarre adventures as time-traveling, crash surviving, biblically proportioned pawns? Does Kate wind up with Jack or Sawyer, or my personal favorite does she wind up with neither, and is terrorized by neighborhood children as the fun to irritate sad and lonely cat lady for the rest of her man-playing fickle days?

For the answers to these and countless other questions, get ready to fire up television set, make sure you hit the record function on the TiVo, keep your laptop nearby, and load up that bong (because for many of us, LOST is not our only drug of choice) and get ready to get LOST for one final season.

Get Caught Up on Lost Season 5 Reviews

& Lost Season 5 Questions

Fear not Maniacs, The Movie Maven special LOST episode is coming early next week. Tara may also have a special LOST expert guest. (hint, hint)

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About our writer: Joe Oesterle is an award-winning writer and illustrator, but what he often fails to mention is that many of those awards were won on a New Jersey boardwalk. If you’re a fan of humorous articles, quirky animated shorts, various pop-cultured inspired illustrations, or you just love clicking on little blue links, click this little blue link here.

http://joeartistwriter.wordpress.com/

COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

invisage 1/26/2010 3:55:54 AM

Lets just they do answer them Joe... and more importantly lets just hope they really did have and end game in mind way back when that plan crashed on the island. Otherwise I fear we will just end up with a very underwhelming ending.

But the guys in charge have done an awesome job these last years so I have faith dear lost brothers and sisters :)

midwest216 1/26/2010 5:41:25 AM

Was never a fan of this show, its called "Lost". Yet smugglers, pirates, and etc can find the island. The cast even got off the island and went home to their families to then return for "unfinished" business, but the show is called LOST?!?! Doesnt sound very "lost " to me.

ddiaz28 1/26/2010 6:21:05 AM

invisage ... According to the producers, at the very beginning, they had only a vague idea where the show would end up going. It was only after they announced the end three years ago that they completely mapped out the show to to the end.

isgrimner 1/26/2010 6:31:32 AM

Does the literal connection to the shows title really mean that much? They were physically Lost at one time. Yet who's to say that being physically Lost is the only way to describe them being lost? Jack got off the island, but he had emotionally lost his way and purpose. In fact all of the castaways who got off the island "lost" a part of themselves.

Last season you could even go back to a more literal physical definition of them being "lost" as they were lost in time.

As to the article, I also suspect Penny of some kind of shady shenanigans. I've read some theories that she sought out Desmond at that monastary for island related reasons, but that she also probably really did fall in love with him.

Now on the matter of Jack/Kate and Sawyer/Kate, I think Jack will probably martyr himself at some point taking himself out of the triangle. One of Jack's earliest flashbacks was him as a kid taking a beating after trying to break up a fight. (memory is a little fuzzy, it could have been slightly different) I think along the lines of Jack switching from "Man of Science" to "Man of Faith" will end to him sacrificing himself in some way, and thus Kate will end up with Sawyer.

Regarding wether Jacob is good or bad. Tough call. Due to the actor they have playing him, it is even tougher to surmise. There are some actors that always play the role of a bad guy and anytime you see them in a film/show you don't trust them right off the bat. The actor playing Jacob is one of those guys. That's not to say its even a valid reason to say Jacob might be bad, but it does give me pause.

Hobbs 1/26/2010 6:39:06 AM

Joe, good to see you back on LOST! Looking forward to next week and our weekly banter!

I agee with your list.

I actually thought the dead people like Charlie Pace showing up to talk to Hurley was kind of obvious...or not? When Ecko was telling his brother he didn't have any regrets, his brother told him "You act like I'm your brother." then smokey comes out and kills Ecko.

It's either the light or dark diety. I think all the characters are pieces in a game they are playing and depending on what they want them for the diety shows up as the dead person. Remember the episode with Hurley talking to his invisible friend and his friend wanted him to jump off the cliff? Hurley, I believed, was too big of a game piece the bad guy wanted to get rid of. Remember the guitar case he is now carrying? What's up with that? It was left in the cab by Jacob and hurley is taking it everywhere with him. Also, in the episode with Jacob meeting all the main characters, he touches all of them.

I'm actually wondering if Lost will go the way ala "Wild Bunch" where everyone dies in the end. Seeing how they kill off people at the rate they do no one is safe in the last season.

midwest....you clearly don't get it and to try and explain it to you in the last season is a lost (no pun intended) cause...and thats not a rip but seriously man, if you havent gotten it by now you won't.

AMiSHPiRATE 1/26/2010 7:06:43 AM

Avast! What about the bird that spake Hurley's name!? The hurley bird!

Entertainment Weekly recently had an insert ad for Lost that included a panoramic picture of the Lost cast, stretching back to the first season. The one cast member notably missing? Walt. Unless the producers awesomely shot some secret scenes way back when he was a wee laddy, I don't think we're going to get closure on Walt. Although, if season 6 starts with Oceanic 815 landing in LA, I'm calling that we will get exactly one cutaway shot of a young Walt somehow pulled from stock footage, and we'll all go, "Woah! It's Walt!" And that will be that.

hanso 1/26/2010 7:43:40 AM

I want to know what brand of eye liner Richard wears. Keeping my fingers crossed it’s made from Smoke Monster particles. Speaking of Smoky, I’m surprised you didn’t list him on your list Joe. Btw, loved the 8 items on the list to go with the numbers

Joe, you just can’t let Libby go can you? You may be in luck; I read that the producers were bringing her back for the final season. I guess the actress that played Libby schedule opened up or she needed some rent money and decided to go back to the Island. I’m not sure if we’ll get answers on her but she is suppose to pop back up.

I hope there isn’t anything shady with Penny. She & Desmond have the best love story going on in the show; they even named a kid named after Charlie. That whole relationship can’t have started on some lie.

I guess I would add to this list The Temple; I wanna know what’s in there and Illana and her people, wat up with them? I’m also curious to find out wtf happened when the bomb went off. With all the returning characters and the premiere titled LA X, it looks like they reset the timeline. If they did that and past 5 seasons are sort of meaningless because of it, I will take my fist and punch myself in the balls.

millean 1/26/2010 7:56:20 AM

I'm glad lost is almost back, whoo hoo! Though I haven't been one to leave comments on Mania until very recently, I have followed this site quite a while, and one of my favorite things have been all of the LOST discussions going on in the comment sections. (My other favorite is the Movie Maven, and admit that I'm stoked that the two will now become one -- So does that mean Joe=Jacob, Tara="Esau" (or Vice Versa, hmmmm)?

My top two unanswered questions didn't even make the list: what does the full statue look like (and it's significance), and, most importantly will we finally get the back story to the Black Rock???

fft5305 1/26/2010 8:09:23 AM

If they reset the timeline and the past 5 seasons are meaningless, I will take my fist and punch hanso in the balls. I seem to remember reading that LindeCuse said that many, but not all of the questions will be answered/resolved. Really, no matter what they do, they are screwed, because rabid fans want answers to every single question posed, and have their own answers in mind already. I just hope they throw all that out the window and make the best, kick-ass show they can.

I think the "ghosts" on the island are a manifestation of Smokey. We've sorta kinda got an answer to what Smokey was, but not really. He's a security system, but we don't know how it works. I want to know how Richard (or Bat-Manuel, as I call him) doesn't age. Penny better not be evil, or I will punch hanso in the balls. Mrs fft and I believe Eloise may be a 3rd player in the Linus/Widmore War, with Sun possibly playing a spoiler role, or a 4th combatant, since taking over her father's company.

As for midwest's arguments against the show, I don't believe the literal translation of the word "lost" really has anything to do with his dislike of the show. It's just an excuse. Somewhere in the beginning, he just decided the show wasn't for him, and came up with this idea for his reason why. Not that it's necessary. Just because we think it's the best thing since sliced bread doesn't mean it has to be everyone's cup o' tea. Different strokes and all...

Hobbs 1/26/2010 8:09:43 AM

hanso....lol!! I hope you don't have to punch yourself in the balls! Though the title of the episode makes me think something like that happened...otherwise they would all be dead in the Nuclear blast. Plus doesn't resetting the time line erase the bad diety loop hole? If Locke never goes to the island he can't have his loop hole to kill Jacob. I hope they don't go that route either...that reminds me of the dream it all didn't happen episode in Dallas.

That's a good point about the Temple...all the connections with Egypt have to be answered. The producer already said he wasn't going to explain the Island but he can at least explain the connection to Egypt and how people teleport to Tunisa when they turn the wheel.

millean, good point...forgot the Black Rock...I have a feeling they already have that one figured out.

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