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For the last year, I have rewatched Lost in preparation of Season 6. I took thorough notes on each episode, keeping careful track of the show’s mysteries, and when and if they were explained. The remaining unanswered questions I present here are based on those notes.
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the masterminds behind Lost, have made it clear that when it comes to wrapping up the show, their priority is the characters and their story arcs. All of the mythology stuff comes in a distant second. I wholeheartedly agree that the characters are what ultimately matter. But to satisfy my own kicks and curiosity, I just wanted to know what was left to be addressed.
My questions might be a little different than yours. That’s okay. Mine come from the perspective of a fiction writer who recognizes literary techniques and has a pretty good handle on how writers think and work. (But please don’t think I’m comparing myself to Lost‘s writers — I’m in awe of what they’ve done with this show.)
Got a question to add to the list? Email me.
I present:
A downloadable PDF checklist of Unanswered Questions. This version groups the questions together by topic, and words them in a concise summary that takes everything known about the show into account. This list is by far the easiest to follow and understand.- The complete, unabridged list of unanswered questions I compiled when I rewatched all five seasons of Lost. It’s unordered, extensive, and not recommended for casual fans. That list is on this page you’re reading now; just scroll down.
- What about the questions that are likely to go unanswered? Here are my best guesses as to which trivial mysteries just won’t be addressed.
Follow ApproachingLOST on Twitter for all the latest news, information, and thoughts on Season 6!
Unanswered Questions
What is the monster? [1.01]
Why did the monster kill Captain Norris, and not the others? [1.01]
Kate posed a valid question to Jack: Are the survivors any safer from the monster on the beach than they are in the jungle? [1.02]
How did Locke suddenly regain the use of his legs on the island? [1.04]
Who or what is Christian Shephard on the island, when he is known to be dead? [1.05]
Where is Christian’s body? Why wasn’t it in the coffin? [1.05]
Who were the two decomposed bodies? [1.06]
How did the bodies die? [1.06]
Did they really die forty to fifty years ago? [1.06]
Why was one of them carrying two stones, one white and one black? [1.06]
Sayid’s question to Kate is perfectly legitimate: How did the survivors escape from the violent crash of Oceanic 815 with “nothing but a few scrapes”? Was it just “blind, dumb luck” as Kate suggested, or was there another reason? [1.07]
What are the Whispers? [1.09]
According to psychic Richard Malkin, “danger surrounds” Claire’s baby, and the child requires her protection and influence. Why? What did he see in Claire’s reading? What was so dire about the child’s future that he would go to such great lengths as arranging for Claire to be on Oceanic 815 to ensure that she alone would raise the child? [1.10]
How exactly is Walt “different somehow”? Does he, as it appears, subconsciously cause things to happen? [1.14]
Did Walt subconsciously cause the polar bear to attack him? [1.14]
What was the transmission heard by Leonard Sims and Sam Toomey at the Navy listening post in the Pacific — the same transmission heard by Danielle’s team, that lured them to the island? Who sent it? And for what reason? [1.18]
Why did Locke lose the use of his legs again? Put another way, whatever on the island that repaired the paralyzing damage to his legs — why did it stop working? [1.19]
How did the Black Rock wind up so far inland on the island? [1.23]
Is there anything to Sayid’s suspicions that the heavy concrete shielding around the Swan’s electromagnetic source could have connections to something powerful enough to emit dangerous levels of radiation, like a nuclear bomb? [2.04]
How was the smoke monster able to call up images from Eko’s past? Was it reading his mind? Or is it technological in nature, accessing electronic records of some kind? [2.10]
Why were there hieroglyphic symbols on the countdown clock after it went past zero? [2.14]
Who made the Dharma food drop? [2.17]
How often do the food drops take place? [2.17]
Why would the Dharma Initiative still be receiving food supplies on the island when it hasn’t been in operation on the island for what appears to be a very long time? [2.17]
The conclusion we’re meant to make from the episode is that the Swan station went into lockdown mode based on the timing of the food drop. So… why? Why would the station need to be locked down when a food drop was being conducted? [2.17]
Locke suggested that the blast doors being triggered during the supply drop may have been intentional — to trap the Dharma workers in a place where they couldn’t see who was dropping it. Is this the reason for the lockdown? If so, why would the source of the food drop want to remain anonymous? [2.18]
Why was Libby at Santa Rosa Mental Hospital? [2.18]
Why is Libby hiding the fact that she was also at Santa Rosa from Hurley — and that she remembers him from there? Does she have ulterior motives for her budding relationship with him? [2.18]
Was Eko right about the salted circle on the ground above the Pearl station being made a visible target for planes to see? If so, why? Could the circle be the intended target of the Dharma food drops? [2.21]
Why does the man in the Dharma orientation videos go by different names in each one? [2.21]
Was Desmond’s chance encounter with Libby really so random? She was awfully trusting and willing to believe in a man she didn’t know. Was there more to this than it seems? [2.23]
What’s the deal with the big green bird? Was it really saying Hurley’s name? [2.23]
Who built the four-toed statue? [2.23]
When was the statue built? [2.23]
How was the statue destroyed? [2.23]
What exactly happened to the entire island when the Swan’s failsafe was activated? [2.24]
Now that the failsafe has been used, does that mean that the electromagnetic pocket of energy beneath the island is gone, or perhaps dormant? Or does it still pose a threat to those living on the island? [2.24]
Why did Locke see the monster as a “beautiful bright light” (in 1.04 “Walkabout”) when every other time it’s seen, it appears as black smoke? [3.05]
Why did the smoke monster kill Eko? [3.05]
What did Eko mean when he told Locke that the rest of them were “next”? Next at what? The next to die at the smoke monster’s hands? [3.05]
Mikhail said that Dharma instigated a war with the Others, which led to the Purge. Was he telling the truth? [3.11]
What was the smoke monster doing when it flashed its bright lights at Juliet? Was it reviewing her past the same way it did Eko’s about a month earlier? [3.15]
Why do pregnant women die on the island before giving birth? [3.16]
Why was Ms. Hawking in a photo on Brother Campbell’s desk? How do they know each other? [3.16]
Where is the volcano that’s on the island? [3.20]
When in the past did the volcano erupt? [3.20]
Is the island’s volcano now dormant? [3.20]
How old is Richard Alpert? [3.20]
Who exactly is Jacob, and how did he come to be on the island? [3.20]
What became of Ben’s childhood friend Annie? Was she killed during the Purge, or had she left the island by then? [3.20]
Why did the Others enact the Purge, which was nothing less than a massacre? What pushed the war between the Others and Dharma to such an extreme? [3.20]
What is the purpose of the Temple? What happens there? Is it for worshipping something or someone? [3.22]
Who built the Temple, and when? [3.22]
Who or what was the Walt that Locke saw from the Dharma burial ditch? [3.22]
Is there a scientific reason Miles Straume is able to contact the dead, or is his gift merely an inexplicable trait, like Walt’s odd abilities? [4.02]
If Frank was originally supposed to be the pilot of Oceanic 815, why was he replaced by Seth Norris? [4.02]
How did the journal belonging to the Black Rock‘s first mate get to Madagascar after the ship wrecked on the island? [4.05]
Tovard Hanso found the Black Rock journal and kept its contents secret for over a century. Is this journal how Alvar Hanso found out about the existence of the island, and decided to place the Dharma Initiative on it? [4.05]
Why did the Hanso family decide to sell the Black Rock journal in 1996 after years of keeping it a family secret? [4.05]
How did Penny know about the island, and that Desmond was on it for three years? [4.05]
Harper insinuated that Juliet was favored by Ben because she “looked just like her.” Which “her” was Harper referring to? Ben’s mother? His childhood friend Annie? [4.06]
Why would Dharma build a station (the Tempest) with the purpose of containing a poisonous gas inside it? Did they intend to use it against the Others if a weapon of last resort was needed? [4.06]
Who killed Nadia? Charles Widmore? Someone else? [4.09]
Why was the hidden door in Ben’s basement covered in hieroglyphs? [4.09]
Why has Widmore been having nightmares? [4.09]
Why was Miles so interested in Claire? Did something about her set off his abilities as a medium? Could Claire possibly be dead, having not survived the explosion of her house at the Barracks after all? [4.10]
Is Hurley really seeing visions of dead people, or is it all in his head? [4.10]
What’s become of Claire? Where did she go with her father Christian? Why did she leave her child behind? [4.10]
Why is Claire with her father Christian in the cabin? He’s dead; is she dead too? [4.11]
Why didn’t Christian want Locke to tell anybody he saw Claire at the cabin? Why does Claire’s status need to be kept a secret? [4.11]
How is moving the island even possible? [4.11]
Who was the man stationed outside of Santa Rosa Mental Institute, watching Hurley? Who did he work for? [4.14]
Charles Widmore knew of Paik Industries and even mentioned that he played golf regularly with Sun’s father. Are these two powerful men merely business associates, or do they share a deeper connection (such as an interest in the island, perhaps)? [4.14]
Why is it so cold down in the chamber where the island-moving wheel is housed? [4.14]
How exactly does the frozen wheel make the island move? [4.14]
What’s behind the wheel that generated the bright yellow light? [4.14]
Why doesn’t Claire want Aaron brought back to the island? [4.14]
Since turning the wheel beneath the Orchid station sends one to the Tunisian desert, it stands to reason that the polar bear Charlotte found in Tunisia wearing a Dharma Initiative collar (in 4.02 “Confirmed Dead”) must also have turned the wheel at some point, and that’s how it wound up there. What and when were the circumstances surrounding the polar bear that turned the wheel and moved the island? Who was responsible for this, and why? [4.14]
Chang selected the site of the Orchid station, based on his knowledge of the pocket of “unlimited power” beneath the site. How did he know ahead of time where to build the Orchid? [5.01]
Did Chang recognize the wooden wheel buried beneath the Orchid station? Does he know what it is, and who put it there? [5.01]
Who were the men waiting at Sayid’s hotel room, intent on killing him and Hurley? Who did they work for? [5.01]
Why are the Oceanic survivors, the Freighter Folk, and Juliet affected by the time jumps, yet the Others are not? [5.01]
Does Charles Widmore own Oceanic Airlines? [5.01]
Why is Ms. Hawking living in a church in Los Angeles? [5.02]
Why did Jacob order Richard to kill the Army men? [5.03]
Ms. Hawking likewise was once an Other on the island, so why did she leave the island? [5.03]
Where did the canoes come from that were at the survivors’ camp? When in time did they arrive, and who brought them there? Did they arrive on Ajira Airways? [5.04]
Who shot at the survivors from the second canoe? [5.04]
Why did the smoke monster kill Nadine, but leave Montand, Robert, and the others alive? Was it so it could “change” them, as it seemed to? [5.05]
What exactly happened to Montand and the other Frenchmen beneath the Temple? Did the monster do something to them, as Danielle believed? [5.05]
Why did the monster single out Montand to attack and drag beneath the Temple? Was he merely bait to get the others to go down there on their own, or was there some significance to the monster picking him over the others? [5.05]
Who is the “very clever fellow,” working for the Initiative, who figured out how to find the island? [5.06]
What did Eloise mean when she said the island “isn’t yet finished” with Desmond? [5.06]
Why was Hurley carrying a guitar case? Is there really a guitar inside? [5.06]
If Abaddon’s the reason Locke went to Australia for his walkabout, and Abaddon works for Widmore… does this mean that Widmore knew Oceanic 815 was going to crash on the island, and he arranged for Locke to be on it? [5.07]
Since Amy was able to carry her baby to full term and deliver successfully (with Juliet’s Caesarian help), then the problem that present-day Others have with bearing children is something that began after 1977. What’s the cause of this childbirth problem in the present? [5.08]
How and when did the Others and the Dharma Initiative come to a Truce? What were the circumstances that spurred this agreement? [5.08]
Why was Sun left behind in the present, when all of the other Oceanic 6 were transported through time to the past? [5.09]
Presumably, the Hydra Island runway was ordered built by Jacob, who knew that Ajira 316 would be coming to the island in 2007 and would need a place to land. So how did he know it would be coming? [5.09]
What exactly did Richard Alpert do to young Ben inside the Temple? Why did it cause Ben’s memory to be erased and his innocence to be lost? [5.11]
How did draining the water out of that tiny hole below Ben’s house summon the smoke monster? [5.12]
Who built the monster-summoning water hole there to begin with? [5.12]
Why would the island let Ben come back, but not Widmore? [5.12]
Is Pierre Chang really dead in the present? Did he die on the island? If so, how? [5.13]
Why would Eloise Hawking send her son to the island, knowing that he would die at her own hands? What could be so vitally important to the fate the island that Eloise would sacrifice her own son to see it done? [5.14]
Eloise Hawking said to Penny, “For the first time in a long time, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” Since she seems to be able to see the future, why is it that as of this episode, she’s lost that ability? [5.14]
Is it possible, as Daniel believes, to change history after all? [5.14]
What will happen to the island if the hydrogen bomb is detonated in 1977? Will the blast destroy the island? [5.14]
How exactly did Richard watch Jack, Kate, Hurley, Jin, Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles die? [5.15]
Is it mere coincidence that the Dharma Initiative built the Barracks over the place where the Others buried the hydrogen bomb? [5.15]
Who built the Tunnels? [5.15]
Do the Tunnels run all over (or rather, under) the island? What else do they connect to? [5.15]
Who is the Man in Black, aka Jacob’s Nemesis? [5.16]
How did Jacob and the Man in Black come to be on the island? [5.16]
Jacob and the Man in Black have a real yin/yang thing going on. What’s the nature of their relationship? And why can’t they kill each other? [5.16]
Why does the Man in Black want to kill Jacob? [5.16]
Jacob appears to be responsible for bringing everyone to the island that gets there. How exactly does Jacob bring people to the island? [5.16]
Why was an enormous statue of an Egyptian fertility goddess (Tawaret) erected on the island? And what is the significance of Jacob living beneath it? [5.16]
Why did Jacob touch so many of the castaways in their pre-island past? For what purpose did he mark them this way? [5.16]
Did Jacob touch anyone else in the same way? [5.16]
What is Ilana’s history with Jacob? [5.16]
What happened to Ilana in the past, that gave her such a severe head wound? [5.16]
What did Jacob need Ilana’s help with? [5.16]
If Jacob hasn’t been living in the cabin, who has? The Man in Black? Is this who Ben and Locke encountered the day they visited the cabin? [5.16]
How did the Man in Black take on Locke’s form? Can he assume the form of anyone he wants, or does it have to be a dead person? [5.17]
What all did the Man in Black “go through” to get to Jacob? [5.17]
Since we’ve seen other dead people (like Locke) on the island before, such as Alex Rousseau and Yemi, who very likely were the smoke monster taken human form, does this mean that the Man in Black is the smoke monster? Could they be one and the same? [5.17]
Who was Jacob referring to when he warned the Man in Black that “they’re coming”? [5.17]
Were Jack, Juliet, and the other survivors successful in altering history by detonating the hydrogen bomb? [5.17]
Compiled and posted by Robin Parrish.