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We’ve been really patient with Lost. We gave them years to set up each character’s backstory. We plodded through the filler episodes while they negotiated an end date with the network. Now we’re going into season 5: The Oceanic Six (Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and little Aaron) have gotten off the island — Ben and Desmond, too — but, some of them (Sawyer, Juliet, the boat people) are still on the island. It’s time for some answers:
1. How, and why, did Locke leave the island?
Forget about how he died. People die on Lost all the time — though now it looks like even that’s not permanent. But how on Earth did Locke’s body end up being stateside when last we saw him, he was firmly ensconced on the island? Something really big must have happened to convince, or even force, him to leave his spiritual home. Because when he gets stateside, disguised as “Jeremy Bentham,” he tries to convince everyone to go back to the island with him before kicking it. What gives?
KEEP READING: The numbers, please explain!
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2. The numbers, please, what are they?
This has been one of the longest mysteries, since the numbers started in season 1 and still haven’t been totally explained. Where did a sequence that causes both disrupted flight patterns and lottery winnings come from? They’ve answered the plane crash, the Others’ mission and who gets off the island. It’s time to tell us about to the numbers. Are they going to keep haunting Hurley?
KEEP READING: OK, um, Jack’s beard?
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3. Why did Jack grow a beard?
We know he took a turn for the worse after returning from the island, but what’s with all that facial hair? He sported the perfect three-day stubble for months on the island — suddenly in the future he gets bushy? Really, is he THAT depressed?
KEEP READING: Sun needs her Jin back, hello?!
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4. Is Jin coming back?
They finally made us like the guy — and then they seemingly blow him up on the freighter. At least they threw us the bone in the season 4 finale: Looks like Sun is going to avenge Jin’s death by siding with Widmore — or she may even try to time-travel and bring her husband back. Don’t make us wait until 2010; we want our Jin fix this season. By the way, can they also bring back Ana Lucia, Charlie, Boone and Shannon, too? I know, that’s asking a lot.
KEEP READING: “THIS” island, WTF?
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5. Why do they keep calling it THIS island?
Whenever someone makes a dramatic declaration, it’s always about THIS island. “I’m going to get these people off THIS island! We’re going to defend THIS island.” Well, how many islands are they stranded on? True, there’s the Others’ peninsula, but it’s all part of the same chain. Shouldn’t it just be THE island?
KEEP READING: Uh, and the black smoke?
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6. What the hell is the Black Smoke Monster?
So far, nothing in the Dharma Group files or the Others’ medical facilities speak to the monstrous black cloud. We’ll buy the voice of Jacob (well, almost). That could be some manifestation of metaphysical properties of the island. We’ll even accept the giant stone foot (there’s definitely a time-space continuum). But big, black clouds that suck people in to their deaths? Someone’s got some ‘splaining to do.
KEEP READING: Where’s Claire!
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7. Where in the world is Claire?
And why has she gone off into island la-la land with her dad Christian (and Jack’s, mind you)? Don’t even get us started on how Christian, whose body Jack was bringing back when they crashed on the island, is walking around, talking about Jacob. We now know the no one really dies on the island. But we still don’t get how Claire could leave her son Aaron like that!
KEEP READING: Still stuck on the island!
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8. What happens to the people who stay on the island?
We know Locke stays on the island to become the new leader of the Others. We know that those who will become the Oceanic Six get on a helicopter, trying to make it to the freighter, only to see it blown up. We know Sawyer sacrifices himself and jumps off the helicopter so it won’t crash, swims ashore, and is greeted by Juliet, who shows him how the freighter just blew up. AND we know Ben makes the island disappear, per Jacob’s orders (while Ben lands in the desert somewhere in Morocco), just before the helicopter, which is quickly running out of gas, can land again on the island. Thanks for all that, by the way. But where did THIS island go? What’s going to happen to the people on it?
KEEP READING: Ben = good? Ben = bad?
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9. Is Ben the good guy or not?
We really believed him when he sent Michael and Walt off the island, saying, “We’re the good guys.” Even his most helpful acts of kindness are still morally ambiguous. So is he saving everyone or just leading them to their doom? His latest mission is to get Jack, the dead Locke and the rest of the Oceanic Six back to the island so they can save the rest of them still stuck there. Good luck trying to find it!
KEEP READING: It’s a Freckle-Off!
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10. Why isn’t Sawyer calling Charlotte “Freckles”?
Freckled women around the world started swooning when Sawyer gave Kate her nickname. Now that Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) is on the island, she has way more freckles than Evangeline Lilly. We see a Freckle-Off in the future.
KEEP READING: Oh, right, the bear!
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11. What’s with the polar bear?
There’s lots of crazy, messed-up stuff happening on the island. There’ve been a few explanations (the 108-minute button, the Dharma Initiative, the hatches, a cure for cancer … ) but still nothing that would explain a friggin’ polar bear. So come on, really, a bear? Answers, now!
