Unanswered LOST questions?

[lodica1967]

What questions do you wish they would have answered? Or maybe your questions were answered and you just missed it?



Here are a few of mine:

What was the infection that Sayid and the French explorers had?

What was Widmore’s role in all of this?

What rules made it so Ben and Widmore couldn’t kill each other?

What was the purpose of the ash around Jacobs’s cabin?

Was it actually Jacob’s cabin since we saw Christian (MIB) inside?

Why did the others take the children?

Why couldn’t Aaron be raised by another?

How did Sayid come back to life?


Those are just the first few that come to mind.

[Magnolia88]

Originally Posted by lodica1967

What was Widmore’s role in all of this?

Yeah, what the hell was up with Widmore? Why was he such an evil SOB? I'm not sure I ever understood what his motivation was for doing the things he did.

At the Jimmy Kimmel after party, they were talking about how it was ambiguous if Widmore was good or bad, and how he was both. Huh? I thought he was pretty bad all the way through. He sent evil Keamy to kill everyone. (Didn't he?)

[NatasNJ]

Here are mine.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

[latrobe7]

Originally Posted by NatasNJ

Here are mine.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

I posted that in the finale thread and it is funny, but ultimately I am reminded of what Island mom says: "Every question I answer will simply lead to another question."

Part of what I got from LOST - and I never would have believed this up to a few weeks ago, I even have a spreadsheet I'd been updating for about three years with questions I felt the show "owed me" an answer to - is that all the unanswered questions in life is in some ways just a distraction from what's really important - which is relationships with other people. The rest of it is pretty inconsequential in the long run.

Don't get me wrong, I look forward to hearing what answers they'll give us about the show on the DVDs and I can't wait until I know someone who is watching the show for the first time and wants to talk about it; but I'm perfectly content if we never get another definitive answer.

[cheesesteak]

The "Every question they answer will simply lead to more questions" philosophy drives me nuts. No, every question that gets answered explains that particular mystery and terminates that question. I just don't think that we the viewers should let the show runners off the hook so easily for some sloppy story telling. If all those mysteries weren't worth explaining, they shouldn't have been in the story in the first place. The "journey is more important than the destination" philosophy strikes me as a retroactive cop out we're making for the creators. Just my two cents.

[Jeffho]

Originally Posted by lodica1967

What questions do you wish they would have answered? Or maybe your questions were answered and you just missed it?



Here are a few of mine:

What was the infection that Sayid and the French explorers had?

What was Widmore’s role in all of this?

What rules made it so Ben and Widmore couldn’t kill each other?

What was the purpose of the ash around Jacobs’s cabin?

Was it actually Jacob’s cabin since we saw Christian (MIB) inside?

Why did the others take the children?

Why couldn’t Aaron be raised by another?

How did Sayid come back to life?


Those are just the first few that come to mind.

The infection is still kinda vague. I agree.

Widmore's role was handled poorly I believe. They built him up all series long and they have him wandering around Ben's house for no reason just so Ben can kill him. They had one throw away line that Jacob came to see Widmore off island. So he came to try and kill the Smoke Monster. Also his thing that the island needed him for was to bring back Desmond. So I guess the island was done with him at that point.

I guess Widmore and Ben followed the rules set up by Jacob. There is no rule book so no one really knows the rules. So the rule that Widmore can't kill Ben's family never existed as he thought it did.

The ash around the cabin probably trapped MIB in the cabin at one point. There was a break in the ash during one of the episodes so it was ineffective.

Illiana said that Jacob doesn't live there anymore then found the picture of the statue to know that he was in now living in the foot. MIB appeared to Locke and said "Help me". This started the jealousy and anger by Ben to Locke and started the path for Ben to kill Locke and start to get get Ben on the path of doubting Jacob and feel like and unwanted puppy. Ben just wanted to be important. Once Jacob said "What about you?" to Ben, it pushed him over the edge.
That's why he was genuinely happy to help Hurley by being his number 2. He felt needed and important. Something his father never gave him.

I think that the others took the children for the simple fact that people couldn't give birth on the island. They wanted children but couldn't have their own.

Aaron couldn't be raised by another might be just that the psychic was a fraud which was shown one episode. Or they had some other ideas that they abandoed along with Walt's storyline.

Sayid coming back to life goes back to the first question. Maybe something to do with the sickness that wasn't explained. Both Sayid and Claire came out of it at the end and seemed normal.

My 2 biggest "letdowns" of an otherwise great show was the handling of Widmore and the "sickness". I think Widmore's role wasn't explained well and was anticlimactic. Also the "sickness" was a big deal early on with all the vaccines that Desmond and the others took. Maybe it was to help with the Time Travel Sickness but I didn't see that explained or connected in any way.

[jking]

Originally Posted by Magnolia88

Yeah, what the hell was up with Widmore? Why was he such an evil SOB? I'm not sure I ever understood what his motivation was for doing the things he did.

At the Jimmy Kimmel after party, they were talking about how it was ambiguous if Widmore was good or bad, and how he was both. Huh? I thought he was pretty bad all the way through. He sent evil Keamy to kill everyone. (Didn't he?)

Actually, it was never revealed that he sent Keamy to kill everyone. Ben told everyone that, yes, but Ben is a liar. The only thing I think we know for sure is that Keamy's team was there to get Ben. I think his main objective at that time was to gain control of the island and perhaps exploit its special properties for his own gain. Not exactly the motivations of a good guy, but it doesn't necessarily mean he meant to kill everyone either. Keamy was nuts. I think he went off the reservation once he got there.

[Rosincrans]

Most of my questions revolve around the others. I can handle that the island was mysterious and no one knows certain things. But when characters act in ways we don't understand, and we're told that the writers have a plan, I expect those actions to make sense in retrospect.

If the others followed Jacob and Jacob was good, how come so many of the others were so evil?

What exactly was Whidmore up to? Not just the last season, but the whole show.

Why did the others kidnap people (not just children) and what did they say that would so quickly turn them to their side?

Who was in the cabin? If it was Smokey all along, when was he trapped there, and by who? If he was trapped, how come there wasn't a time when Smokey wasn't wandering the island? If Ben didn't know he wasn't Jacob, why would he not want to disturb the ash circle?

Why did the others build a runway, other than the plot convenience later?

Why were the others okay with Ben telling Locke that he had to kill his father to become leader? If this really is an others tradition, it is also very unJacob like.

Why couldn't Ben kill Whidmore off island, but could later?

Why didn't Juliet fill in James on all their secrets during their 3 years together?

[Freshman JS]

Originally Posted by cheesesteak

The "Every question they answer will simply lead to more questions" philosophy drives me nuts. No, every question that gets answered explains that particular mystery and terminates that question. I just don't think that we the viewers should let the show runners off the hook so easily for some sloppy story telling. If all those mysteries weren't worth explaining, they shouldn't have been in the story in the first place. The "journey is more important than the destination" philosophy strikes me as a retroactive cop out we're making for the creators. Just my two cents.

what is an example of a possible answer to a question like "what is the smoke monster?" that would not lead to more questions?

[DevdogAZ]

I'll answer the ones I think I can:

Originally Posted by Rosincrans

Most of my questions revolve around the others. I can handle that the island was mysterious and no one knows certain things. But when characters act in ways we don't understand, and we're told that the writers have a plan, I expect those actions to make sense in retrospect.

If the others followed Jacob and Jacob was good, how come so many of the others were so evil?

I think the Others believed they were following Jacob, because that's what Ben told them, but Ben had never actually spoken to Jacob, so he was simply giving the orders that advanced his interests. Thus, the concept of good and evil was blurred for the Others, who blindly believed that what Ben told them to do was good, because it was directed by Jacob.

Originally Posted by Rosincrans

What exactly was Whidmore up to? Not just the last season, but the whole show.

I think he wanted to gain control of the Island and tap into its power. He was pissed when Ben banished him from the Island, and he spent his lifetime trying to find a way back.

Originally Posted by Rosincrans

Why did the others kidnap people (not just children) and what did they say that would so quickly turn them to their side?

We know that Jacob provided a list of the candidates through Richard, and this is why some of them were captured at some point. But I have no explanation for the other kidnappings.

Originally Posted by Rosincrans

Who was in the cabin? If it was Smokey all along, when was he trapped there, and by who? If he was trapped, how come there wasn't a time when Smokey wasn't wandering the island? If Ben didn't know he wasn't Jacob, why would he not want to disturb the ash circle?

I don't think Smokey was ever trapped there. I think the ash circle was to keep him out, just like they used the ash to keep smokey out of the Temple in S6. When it got disturbed, Smokey was able to get inside. He could come and go as he pleased, but he was able to be in the cabin (in the form of Christian), when Locke and Ben visited. Ben wouldn't want to disturb the ash circle because he was still trying to protect the cabin from Smokey.

Originally Posted by Rosincrans

Why did the others build a runway, other than the plot convenience later?

Presumably because they were sick of taking the sub back and forth and wanted a faster way to travel. Or maybe Jacob foresaw the events of seasons 5 and 6 and knew that in order to defeat MiB, the Ajira plane and its passengers would eventually have to land on Hydra Island. Just like MiB was playing an elaborate chess game with multiple steps in order to manipulate Ben into killing Jacob, Jacob was also playing an elaborate chess game with many, many more steps that brought the Losties to the Island and eventually led to the defeat of MiB.

Originally Posted by Rosincrans

Why were the others okay with Ben telling Locke that he had to kill his father to become leader? If this really is an others tradition, it is also very unJacob like.

See my first answer.

Originally Posted by Rosincrans

Why couldn't Ben kill Whidmore off island, but could later?

I don't know that it was a "couldn't" as much as it was "against the rules." When Keamy "broke the rules," I think that made Ben realize that they weren't operating under a gentlemen's agreement anymore, which is why he went to Widmore and said he was going to kill Penny. I don't think there was ever any supernatural prohibition on them hurting each other.

Originally Posted by Rosincrans

Why didn't Juliet fill in James on all their secrets during their 3 years together?

Because the characters on this show never divulge information to each other. Also, we don't know how much Juliet actually knew. She hadn't been on the Island all that long, and believed, like the rest of the Others, that Ben was in charge and knew what was going on. I'm not sure she ever knew much about the Island's mysterious properties other than babies couldn't be born and there's a sonic fence to keep out wild beasts.

[Cearbhaill]

The numbers.
The damn vaccine #, radio transmission #, punching in every 108 seconds #, lotto #, hatch #, candidate #... all the god forsaken numbers.

[mixedday1]

Originally Posted by lodica1967

What questions do you wish they would have answered? Or maybe your questions were answered and you just missed it?



Here are a few of mine:

What was the infection that Sayid and the French explorers had?

What was Widmore’s role in all of this?

What rules made it so Ben and Widmore couldn’t kill each other?

What was the purpose of the ash around Jacobs’s cabin?

Was it actually Jacob’s cabin since we saw Christian (MIB) inside?

Why did the others take the children?

Why couldn’t Aaron be raised by another?

How did Sayid come back to life?


Those are just the first few that come to mind.

I'm gonna guess that Sayid never did come back to life. He died and the revived Sayid was post-life, and in that post life, he started out following a wrong direction but returned to being good upon speaking to Desmond. And in the ALT, it was when he kissed Shannon, and realized his good. Much like his real life.

Sayid and the French explorers were just affected by the Smoke monster, and Rousseau actively killed the explorers (as seen when Jin when time traveling).

"Why did the others kidnap people (not just children) and what did they say that would so quickly turn them to their side?

I think in one episode Ben mentioned to Ana Lucia in the hatch, that killling Goodwin was a mistake. The Others were interested in her, to join the Others. She didn't believe him obviously. I'm assuming Ben figured Cindy, and Ana Lucia, and some others could be of use to in the society he was the leader. Cindy became the caregiver of the two kids that were kidnapped earlier.

The Others did make Walt go through testing. Which actually seems unusual, given that it was Widmore and his group, and the Dharma folks that were into science, not so much Ben when he was leading the Others. Walt had some special abilities (as seen in S1 backstory), but that story was downplayed.

I think they could have had an episode on the use of the kids (esp. Walt since so much of Season 2 was about Michael trying to find Walt), rather than some of the other dumb episodes (like Nikki/Paolo backstory).

[mrdazzo7]

Widmore: Widmore was on the island at least from his late teens/early 20s and was their leader, but managed to get exiled by Ben (who he found inferior). He spent the next 15-20 years trying to get back to the island since it's all he'd known, and I think he felt a claim of ownership over it. I don't think he sent the freighter to kill everyone on the island, I think he just wanted Ben and to secure it basically. Then the commandos lost their ****.

Answers leading to questions: My thought on this is that as a writer, it's your job to pay-off the mysteries you set up. It doesn't mean every single facet of a story has to be spelled out, but think about it--if every single movie or TV show went the "it's up to the viewer to decide" or "it's more interesting if we don't answer it!" routes, what would be the point?

I get that this story was about this particular time period--I don't care about what the island is or who ran it before Jacob and after Hurley. We don't *need* to know what happened to the Ajira flight because it didn't matter-the island story was over. But other aspects should have had answers. the line "it would only lead to more questions" is a line of dialogue written by writers, who could have just as easily just provided some answers. The infection, lots of story time around Aaron having to be raised by Claire, Walt being special, Libby in the mental hospital, the mysterious "rules" that seemed to pop up when convenient.

I'm ok with the monster explanation to a degree--it did lead to more questions but whatever, it was something. Allison Janney said going down there would lead to something "worse than death"... later MIB goes down there and his soul becomes a shape-shifting pillar of smoke that gets trapped for the next 2000 tears. Got it. But where they dropped the ball is by not explaining--AT ALL--how the monster escaping would lead to the 'end of the world'. To me that was an awesome storyline with global implications, and yet aside from Jacob's saying it, there was just no information for *what* would have happened. How can you invest in something when you don't have a clue what the stakes are? It totally undermined the central conflict of the season, and possibly the entire series.

The Lighthouse: They introduced a cool concept by showing us that Jacob had a lighthouse that magically showed him the lives of 108 people. Ok, cool concept, but that was it... How were the people on the wheel selected? Who built the lighthouse and with what futuristic technology? Something...

Dharma: Dharma sends a team of researchers to the island in the 70's to conduct experiments on the island's extraordinary properties. Sometime in the 80's they are completely wiped off the face of the earth, yet no one comes looking for them? And all of the communications technologies, satellites, information gathering capabilities, food drops, and travel services remain fully uninterrupted for the next 20 years? I never got that. The others gathered massively detailed info on the crash survivors within minutes of the crash, I'm guessing using Dharma tech. Juliet even knew that Sawyer killed some guy in a dark alley the day before the crash. I guess the writers could pull the "it's not important to actual story of the show so we don't have to address it no matter how illogical it is".

The Pregnancy Issue: I go back and forth on this. I guess from a story stand-point, it doesn't matter "why" the women suddenly couldn't get pregnant--the characters don't know why so we shouldn't either. But my logical/analytical side had always hoped that the answer would come and bring revelations with it. I figured as the show got deeper into the mythology they would have tied it in and made sense. But they just said "women can't get pregnant" and rolled with it. Again, story wise I guess it's fine, but I still had thought it could have been a cool explanation.

Man this was longer than I intended. It's really crazy how every time I try to respond to a Lost question quickly, it suddenly turns into paragraphs, formatted fonts for emphasis, bullet points... did anyone even read all this?

[Peter000]

Originally Posted by mrdazzo7

Man this was longer than I intended. It's really crazy how every time I try to respond to a Lost question quickly, it suddenly turns into paragraphs, formatted fonts for emphasis, bullet points...

You're going to hate me for saying this, but you just answered your own question.

Every question leads to other questions.

What you are asking for are answers to questions about stories the writers weren't telling. Or just couldn't tell in the time allotted.

[jlb]

On a special Jay and Jack podcast, Jorge Garcia confirmed what Michael Emerson mentioned....there will be an epilogue on the full set DVDs (maybe S6 too, I am not sure). So, some questions will be answered, and some in the form of footage shot for the finale that was cut from the final edit.

[Rob Helmerichs]

Originally Posted by mrdazzo7

The Pregnancy Issue: I go back and forth on this. I guess from a story stand-point, it doesn't matter "why" the women suddenly couldn't get pregnant--the characters don't know why so we shouldn't either. But my logical/analytical side had always hoped that the answer would come and bring revelations with it. I figured as the show got deeper into the mythology they would have tied it in and made sense. But they just said "women can't get pregnant" and rolled with it. Again, story wise I guess it's fine, but I still had thought it could have been a cool explanation.

I'm not sure why so many people have trouble with this. Granted, they never explained the exact medical condition, but before the Incident women could have children normally, and after they couldn't. So clearly the Incident somehow interfered with women's ability to have children. Something about the energy that was released made the island a place where children couldn't be conceived and born.

[ADG]

And of course, why did the statue have only 4 toes?

[Rinkdog]

All of these questions are why it would be better to believe none of this happened. There are to many conflicting things that just don't add up. The writes were weaving a mystery designed to keep us baffled with no answers ever intended to be given. It was all irrelevant. They strung us along for an entertaining ride but ultimately duped us. The actions of certain people, the crazy stuff the others did, the babies not being born on island if they were conceived there, etc. were never going to be answered because there just wasn't a good answer that made sense. This is why for me it is better to believe that the island events only happened in Jack's mind. i realize this isn't how the producers ended it the plane wreckage was added by "others" but oh wel

[dianebrat]

Originally Posted by latrobe7

Part of what I got from LOST - and I never would have believed this up to a few weeks ago, I even have a spreadsheet I'd been updating for about three years with questions I felt the show "owed me" an answer to - is that all the unanswered questions in life is in some ways just a distraction from what's really important - which is relationships with other people. The rest of it is pretty inconsequential in the long run.

I couldn't have put it better, thank you for saying what I was going to before I reluctantly came into the thread.

Diane

[latrobe7]

Originally Posted by mrdazzo7

Answers leading to questions: My thought on this is that as a writer, it's your job to pay-off the mysteries you set up. It doesn't mean every single facet of a story has to be spelled out, but think about it--if every single movie or TV show went the "it's up to the viewer to decide" or "it's more interesting if we don't answer it!" routes, what would be the point?

IMO, it's only important that they payoff what is relevant to the characters and the story they are trying to tell. What was in the briefcase in "Pulp Fiction"? How could anyone have known Charles Foster Kane's last word ("Rosebud") in "Citizen Kane"? WTF is Oz all about (as in "The Wizard of Oz", not the prison drama)?

Or how about the X-Files and Twin Peaks; there are a ton of unanswered questions left over, but my lingering dissatifaction with their resolutions, or lack thereof, isn't because I never got Log-lady's full story, or any number of alien/super-soldier conspiracy theories cleared up; it's that the central character stories where not well resolved. Who killed Laura Palmer was anti-climatic and so was whatever was the last explanation regarding Mulder's sister.

I'm satisfied with the conclusion to LOST, I think because it was ultimately about emotional investment in the main characters. All the mysteries just provide things for the characters to do and reasons for them to go through a range of emotional experience that we, the viewers, get to share with them. The creators of LOST stayed true to the story they wanted to tell and the mysteries themselves are inconsequential beyond what the main characters do/feel about them. Whatever explanation we fans want to give to those things are just as valid as what the actual writers would've wrote.

I keep hearing Bill Murray in my head lately when I read about LOST, here's the scene with the chant that rings in my head :

The wisdom of Meatballs :)

[latrobe7]

Originally Posted by dianebrat

I couldn't have put it better, thank you for saying what I was going to before I reluctantly came into the thread.

Diane

Thanks for the kudos!

[Rob Helmerichs]

Originally Posted by Rinkdog

...the babies not being born on island if they were conceived there, etc. were never going to be answered because there just wasn't a good answer that made sense...

In other news, Ben is Glory.

[Hunter Green]

Originally Posted by ADG

And of course, why did the statue have only 4 toes?

The same reason Mickey Mouse does.

I think it's mostly clear that the "rules" between Ben and Widmore were a "gentleman's agreement" and not some cosmic rule. The fun thing is, for all we know, there never was anything to stop Jacob and MiB from killing each other either, other than them being convinced there was, and so hewing to a similar agreement. Maybe Ben and Widmore agreed to one by comparison to what Jacob had instilled in the Others.

This is really very simple but it got muddled because we had five different things causing people to not be able to kill each other or die, and we learned about some of them at the same time, so we assumed they were related, but they really weren't.

• Michael couldn't kill himself, and Mr. Friendly couldn't kill him. Why? The real answer: the Faraday Postulate. He couldn't die yet because we knew things he hadn't yet done would be done by him.
• Jacob and MiB can't kill each other, either because of the magic Mom did, or because of the assumption that Mom wasn't lying about that magic.
• MiB can't kill the candidates directly. We don't know why: it's probably an extension of the previous one.
• Jack can't kill himself with dynamite: He says it's because the Island isn't done with him, but I think that there's no in-world reason for this one, he just got lucky.
• Ben and Widmore can't kill each other and each other's families: I think this is just a gentleman's agreement, binding only insofar as they both hewed to it.

[Cearbhaill]

Originally Posted by latrobe7

I'm satisfied with the conclusion to LOST, I think because it was ultimately about emotional investment in the main characters. All the mysteries just provide things for the characters to do and reasons for them to go through a range of emotional experience that we, the viewers, get to share with them. The creators of LOST stayed true to the story they wanted to tell and the mysteries themselves are inconsequential beyond what the main characters do/feel about them.

While I remain unsatisfied (at least until I exhaust whatever info will be on the upcoming DVD) that comment did a lot to help me accept what I was given, so thanks

[rondotcom]

It is (was) a statue of Anubys (No not the poster the ancient mythological anubys.} Look it it up and tell me if four toes isn't right.

[spikedavis]

Why did The Others wear costumes, makeup and fake beards? And they guarded a Fake Dharma door?

Those were dropped and never even mentioned again.

[DevdogAZ]

Originally Posted by rondotcom

It is (was) a statue of Anubys (No not the poster the ancient mythological anubys.} Look it it up and tell me if four toes isn't right.

It was actually a statue of Taweret, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility. No idea if four toes is consistent with other depictions of Tawaret.

[JYoung]

Originally Posted by spikedavis

Why did The Others wear costumes, makeup and fake beards? And they guarded a Fake Dharma door?

Those were dropped and never even mentioned again.

The first part can be answered though with some reasoning.
The Others wanted to look more primitive and by extension, more of a threat.
A primitive hostile is more intimidating on a primal level than a clean cut suburbanite.

The fake Dharma door, well I chalk it up to one of Ben's fake outs.

[TheMerk]

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

It was actually a statue of Taweret, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility. No idea if four toes is consistent with other depictions of Tawaret.

How many toes does a hippo have?

[getreal]

In the finale, why did Kate change clothes at the church? She left Jack's vehicle wearing a black strapless dress, but was waiting for him in the final reunion wearing a slinky sleeveless blouse and slacks. What up wit' dat?