As I re-watched LOST, I tried to keep an answers-oriented mindset. There were questions that I didn't feel were answered when I watched the show live a couple years ago, so, from the get-go, I set out looking for resolutions to my lingering concerns. While watching LOST this way was probably more meticulous than practical and likely consumed way more attention and energy than I'd ever recommend someone else to use, I believe I was able to answer most of the big questions. There were a few questions that I didn't get answers to, but most of them had no significant impact on the plot or development of essential characters.
So, I suppose what I'd like to do at this point would be to list my questions, categorized by character, and answer as many of them as I can. Also, it is of note that a few of my questions were recorded in my trusty notebook simply for the sake of Daniella Varas, who was watching the series for the first time. She occasionally had a question that I already knew the answer to, but I would record it anyway for drama's sake.
**Minor and major spoilers to follow.** Additionally, going forward, a basic knowledge and understanding of LOST, its plot and characters is an implied prerequisite.
Here we go.
***
The Island
Q. Who were "Adam and Eve" (the skeletons the Survivors found in the caves early on in the series)?
A. The Man in Black and Jacob's "mother."
Q. Where do the polar bears come from?
A. In a very informative DVD bonus feature in the Season 6 box set entitled "A New Man in Charge," a Dharma training video explains that polar bears were brought to the Island as Candidates, based on their intelligence. Experiments and tests were done on the polar bears by the Dharma Initiative. When the polar bears had solved a logic puzzle in the cages, rewarding them with a fish biscuit (Sawyer solves this puzzle while he is locked up), the polar bears were taken to the Orchid Station, where they would turn the Donkey Wheel, thus transporting the bears to "The Exit" in Tunisia. Several things are of note here: You will recall that John Locke and Ben Linus both turn the Donkey Wheel at points during the series. For some reason, the climate surrounding the wheel appears arctic, which would be suitable for polar bear survival. Charlotte Lewis, an anthropologist by trade, had been working at an excavation site in Tunisia, where she found a polar bear skeleton and a Dharma collar. This is the same place where Locke and Ben wind up after turning the Wheel.
Q. What is the Smoke Monster?
A. The Man in Black.
Q. What is the significance of the random horse that Kate sees in Season 2?
A. While the horse does mirror a horse that is seen in one of Kate's flashbacks, I was unable to find any further meaning behind its appearance. Horses are also seen during the episode "Catch 22," outside the communications station that is inhabited by Mikhail.
Q. What is the significance of 4:00 on the Hatch countdown clock?
A. Every 108 minutes, someone (usually Desmond or Locke) needed to press a button to reset the Hatch clock. When the clock hit 4:00, an alarm would go off as a reminder. The number 4 is an important one in LOST. It is one of Hurley's "cursed" Numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) and corresponds to John Locke as one of Jacob's Candidates, which is interesting. The significance of the number 4 in the countdown clock is never specifically addressed. Interestingly, the submarine bomb in Season 6 also starts counting down from 4:00.
Q. Why does the statue only have four toes?
A. While the unnatural number of toes is unanswered, we do find out how the statue is broken - the Black Rock, carrying Richard Alpert, crashes into it during a tidal wave, breaking the statue off mid-shin.
Q. Why do all the pregnant women on the Island die?
A. This was my biggest complaint after watching LOST for the first time. I felt like this topic was never fully addressed and was one of the biggest loose ends as the series ended. In the aforementioned bonus feature, "A New Man in Charge," the Dharma training video mentions that Dharma workers must ensure that no female polar bears get pregnant on the Island, as the abundance of electromagnetic energy on the Island had extremely negative effects on early-term gestation. As far as I know, that's about as specific as it gets. Several women who got pregnant on the Island die during child birth. Claire, who gave birth to Aaron on the Island, was very pregnant before the Oceanic crash. Danielle Rousseau was also pregnant when she got to the Island and would later give birth to Alex on the island. Sun got pregnant on the Island, but gave birth to Jin's baby off the Island. During the Survivors' time with the Dharma Initiative in the '70s, Horace Goodspeed's wife, Amy, gives birth on-Island; Sawyer assumes that whatever causes pregnant women to die hasn't happened yet, leading to the assumption that the burst of electromagnetic energy caused by "The Incident" is a major contributor to the problem.
Q. Where did the Black Rock slaving ship com from?
A. At an auction attended by Charles Widmore, the auctioneer is sells a painting of the ship, which he describes as being from the mid-19th century. We also learn that the ship was headed to Siam in 1845 and was found in Madagascar. Richard Alpert arrives at the Island as a prisoner on the Black Rock sometime after 1867.
Q. It is mentioned, in passing, that the Island used to be a volcano. What happened to the volcano?
A. The volcano is located under "the Heart" of the Island and appears to be plugged up be a switch-like rock that Jack removes in Season 6. When that rock is removed, the Island begins to shake uncontrollably, implying that the volcano is not entirely dormant.
Q. Why does it spontaneously start pouring rain on the Island so frequently? - UNANSWERED
Q. Who shot the fire arrows at the Survivors during the Time Jumps?
A. While never directly addressed, it is heavily implied that the Primitive Others (also known as "Hostiles," led by Young Charles Widmore) shot the arrows.
Q. Who brought the outriggers with AJIRA water bottles during the Time Jumps?
A. The outriggers probably belonged to the group led by Caesar and Ilana, but the answer is never specifically given.
Q. What causes the Time Jumps, where the Island sporadically bounces the Survivors to different years and locations?
A. The Time Jumps start because Ben Linus moves the Island after the Man in Black (in the form of Christian Shephard) specifically told John Locke to move it.
Q. When the Oceanic Six come back to the Island on AJIRA 316, why do the passengers get separated from each other? (Ben, Locke, Frank and Sun are separated from Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sayid) - UNANSWERED
Q. What are the whispers that signify the arrival of the Others?
A. Dead Michael explains to Hurley that the whispers are people who are stuck on the Island and can't move on.
JACK SHEPHARD
Q. What happened to Jack's wife?
A. They both cheated on each other and broke up. So depressing. So LOST.
SAWYER
Q. Does he ever find out who "Sawyer" is?
A. Yep. (This is a great example of a question that I wrote down for Daniella's sake.)
JOHN LOCKE
Q. What did Locke see when he stared down the Smoke Monster?
A. Not sure... but whatever it was, it was beautiful.
Q. How was his paralysis healed?
A. Uh... magic?
Q. What is so special about backgammon?
A. Locke is seen playing backgammon on the Island and is later shown in a flashback playing as a child. Backgammon pieces are black and white, which symbolizes LOST's running theme of good vs. evil. It also resembles the game that is played by Jacob and the Man in Black.
Q. The Island magically heals John Locke of his pre-crash paralysis. Why, then, does Locke temporarily lose the use of his legs after Boone's death? - UNANSWERED
A. Locke was a Candidate.
Q. What happened to Helen?
A. She left John when she met Anthony Cooper. She was always unhappy with Locke's obsession with his father and I guess meeting the creep face-to-face was the final straw.
Q. Why doesn't Lock recognize Richard Alpert when they first meet on the Island?
A. During the Time Jumps, present-day Locke hadn't told 1970s Richard to find him (as a child) yet. That's really confusing... but it makes sense to me, ok?
HURLEY
Q. What do the Numbers mean?
A. Each of Hurley's "cursed" Numbers refer to one of the Survivors that Jacob has selected as a Candidate to become the next Protector of the Island.
Q. Why is Hurley so unlucky? - UNANSWERED
Q. Why doesn't he lose weight on the Island?
A. He had been hoarding Dharma food.
Q. What's the big deal with his comic?
A. On Oceanic 815, Hurley is seen reading a comicbook. Walt later sees a polar bear in the comic and, subsequently, a polar bear charges at and is shot dead by Sawyer. With that being said, I have no idea what the significance of the comicbook is.
Q. What is in the guitar case that Hurley is seen carrying in Season 6?
A. A giant ankh symbol that, ultimately, proves that the Oceanic Six were sent back to the Island by Jacob.
SUN & JIN
Q. How does Sun get pregnant on the Island?
A. Well, you see, when a man and a woman love each other very much....... Just kidding. I suppose that Sun gets pregnant by a previously infertile Jin in the same way that Locke is cured of his paralysis. She just... does. The Island let it happen.
CLAIRE & AARON
Q. Why was Claire abducted? What did they do to her?
A. She was abducted by the Others so they could run pregnancy tests on her.
Q. Why was the off-Island psychic so adamant that Claire needed to raise Aaron?
A. This is never specifically addressed - and the psychic ends up being kind of a quack - but the reason why Claire was flying from Sydney to Los Angeles was to give Aaron up for adoption. If she would have kept Aaron herself, she wouldn't have been on that flight in the first place.
Q. Does anyone ever get the S.O.S. letter Claire sends with the bird in Season 3? - UNANSWERED
Q. How does Claire's mother get out of her coma? - UNANSWERED
Q. How the heck did Aaron survive the helicopter crash? - UNANSWERED
Q. Was Claire Time Jumping along with the other Survivors?
A. Yes.
SAYID
Q. Where did Sayid go after being separated from the other Survivors during the AJIRA 316 flight?
A. He wanders out of the woods and is eventually found by Dharma Jin.
MICHAEL & WALT
Q. Why is Walt so special?
A. In "A New Man in Charge," Hurley explains that Walt was meant to stay on the Island. He is recruited by Hurley and Ben to go back to the Island to work in an assistant role, a la Richard Alpert.
Q. Who was driving the car that hit Michael at the crosswalk? - UNANSWERED
Q. Why can't Michael die, commit suicide or be killed after leaving the Island?
A. The Island needed him to be alive so he could help the Survivors. (See "Meet Kevin Johnson.")
DANIELLE ROUSSEAU
Q. Why did she write the Numbers all over the papers in her hideout?
A. She heard the Numbers being repeated over the radio when she arrived on the Island. She likely scribbled the Numbers down in a state of insanity.
Q. What happened to her original crew?
A. The Smoke Monster made them "sick" and she was forced to kill them.
CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD
Q. Why wasn't he in his casket after the Oceanic crash?
A. The Smoke Monster began inhabiting his body.
Q. How is he alive on the Island?
A. He's not.
DESMOND
Q. Why did he have to inject himself while in the Quarantined Hatch?
A. This was purely a scare tactic by the Dharma Initiative to make sure he didn't leave the Hatch.
Q. When did Desmond get his psychic powers?
A. Desmond begins having psychic flashes after he turns the fail-safe key.
THE DHARMA INITIATIVE
Q. Why was there a glass eye in a desk drawer at the Arrow Station?
A. UNANSWERED, although I assume that it probably belonged to the eye-patch laden Mikhail.
Q. Who was Roger Workman, the body that Hurley found in the Dharma van?
A. Ben Linus' father.
THE OTHERS
Q. Why are the Others obsessed with children?
A. Not specifically addressed, but it probably stems back to the pregnancy problem.
Q. Why do they walk around barefooted?
A. Initially, this is a ploy to make the Survivors think that the Others are a primitive people, but Others are spotted without shoes long after Jack and company meet Ben Linus, so this question remains partially UNANSWERED.
Q. Why haven't the Survivors ever heard of Geronimo Jackson and the other bands whose records are found in the Hatch?
A. One comment that is made when the Survivors first discover the Hatch makes it seem like Geronimo Jackson was some little-known artist that possibly could have been exclusive the the Island, but we later learn otherwise. Charlotte says she loves Geronimo Jackson, Locke picks up a hitchhiker that wears a Geronimo Jackson shirt and Locke has a Geronimo Jackson poster in his high school locker, so it's not like this guy wasn't popular off-Island.
Q. How did Mikhail come back to life after "dying" at the Fence?
A. He says that the pylons were not set to a lethal level.
Q. What is the truce between the Dharma Initiative and the Primitive Others?
A. No killing each other.
BEN LINUS
Q. Why isn't Ben cured of his paralysis immediately like Locke was? - UNANSWERED
Q. Why does Ben tell people that he was born on the Island?
A. Possibly to cover up for the fact that he purged most of the original Dharma Initiative.
Q. Why do so many bad things happen to Ben on the Island?
A. He says that he deserves them - that they're his destiny.
Q. Why/how does Ben wake up in the middle of Tunisia?
A. He turned the Donkey Wheel, moved the Island and wound up at "the exit."
Q. When Ben wakes up in Tunisia, why is his arm hurt?
A. He hurts it going down to the Wheel.
Q. Why doesn't Ben remember getting shot by Sayid as a child?
A. When Richard heals him, he forgets the incident and loses his innocence, although he does remember being healed at the Temple.
ROSE & BERNARD
Q. Was Rose cured of cancer by the Island?
A. She tells Lock she knows about the Island's healing powers. She also tells Bernard that she felt her sickness leave her after the crash.
CHARLES WIDMORE
Q. What is locked up in Widmore's submarine?
A. Desmond.
Q. What did Charles say to the Man in Black before he died?
A. He told the Man in Black that Desmond was a fail-safe.
JULIET
Q. What was Juliet going to tell Sawyer right before she died?
A. "It worked."
ALEX ROUSSEAU
Q. Why don't the Others want Carl and Alex to be together?
A. Ben was probably afraid that Alex would get pregnant and die.
JACOB
Q. Why is Jacob invisible the first time Ben takes Locke to visit the Cabin?
A. He wasn't really there. Ben was pretending to talk to him.
Q. Who can find Jacob's Cabin?
A. Ben, Locke and Hurley all find the Cabin. Hurley believes that he and Locke can locate the Cabin because they are "the craziest."
Q. Who was Jacob referring to when he said "They're coming"?
A. Either his bodyguard, Ilana, and her group on the AJIRA flight or Charles Widmore and his team, but no clarification is ever provided.
THE SMOKE MONSTER
Q. How does Ben summon the Smoke Monster?
A. At first, he is shown unclogging a drain and telling the Monster where to go, but Ben later admits that the Monster was, in reality, summoning him.
Q. Why did the Smoke Monster choose to appear in the form of Christian Shephard?
A. To help Jack find water and, ultimately, get off the Island with the Survivors.
Q. Why did the Smoke Monster choose to appear in the form of John Locke?
A. Because Locke was "stupid enough to believe [he was] on the Island for a reason" - a belief he would pursue until it got him killed. Also, because Jack conveniently brought a dead, uninhabited body back to the Island.
RICHARD ALPERT
Q. Why doesn't Richard age?
A. He makes a deal with Jacob which, basically, grants immortality. Previously, Richard had asked Jacob to bring his wife back from the dead and to let him get out of "Hell"; both requests were denied.
DANIEL FARADAY
Q. How did Faraday get off the Island during the Dharma Years?
A. Faraday went with a team of scientists to do research at the Dharma headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
MILES STRAUME
Q. Why does Miles want $3.2 million?
A. It was double what Charles Widmore originally offered him to go to the Island.
MARVIN CANDLE/PIERRE CHANG/EDGAR HALLIWAX
Q. Why does he go by different names?
A. In "A New Man in Charge," Pierre Chang mentions that he does not want to require an alias in the future, but this is the only instance in which Chang's multiple personas are referenced.
ILANA
Q. What is in the crate that is carried by Ilana's crew?
A. John Locke's dead body.
Q. "What lies in the shadow of the statue?"
A. "Ille qui nos omnes servabit," or, in English, "He who will save us all" (Jacob).
THE CANDIDATES
Q. Who are the Candidates?
A. John Locke (4), Hugo Reyes (8), James "Sawyer" Ford (15), Sayid Jarrah (16), Jack Shephard (23), Jin Kwon (42).
Q. Why isn't Kate a Candidate anymore?
A. She becomes a mother, so Jacob takes her off the List, though he mentions that being a mother is not an automatic disqualifier.
Q. Why were they brought to the Island?
A. Jacob explains that he brought the Survivors to the Island because he made a mistake. That mistake was creating the Smoke Monster, who tried for centuries to kill Jacob. Jacob knew the Island would inevitably need a new Protector and the Candidates were all potential replacements. All of the Candidates were alone (off-Island) and were (mercifully) taken out of an unhappy existence. Jacob, in essence, believed that the Candidates were all like him.
***
Well, there you have it. Those are all the questions that I either had going into my second watching of LOST or questions that were raised as I re-watched the series. Certainly, this list is not all-inclusive, nor is it in any way adequate in comparison to the vast wealth of knowledge amassed over at Lostpedia, but I think I did a pretty good job in finding answers on my own.
What questions do you have? What loose ends were you upset about when you watched? I'd love to get a little commentary going, although it's probably very unlikely, so feel free to comment below or hit me up on Facebook or Twitter.
Until next time,
Namaste... and good luck.
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