Lost: The Questions I Need Answered in the Final Season — Part Two!

Yesterday I began listing a variety of burning questions that I’d really like to see answered in Lost‘s sixth and final season (which begins tonight!).  Here are several more:

What is Walt’s special destiny and what are his special abilities? In “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues,” Walt tells Hurley: “My Dad said I was the luckiest person he ever knew.”  In “Special,” we see Walt apparently summoning or creating an obscure bird just by thinking about it, and then his stepfather Brian insists that Michael raise Walt after his mother’s death because “he’s different.”  (Brian almost seems frightened of Walt.)  We also see Walt demonstrating incredible skills with a knife, and then telling Locke “I actually saw it, like in my mind or something” (as if he were a Jedi Knight) to explain how he threw the blade so accurately.  In season 2’s “The Hunting Party,” Tom Friendly calls Walt “a very special boy.”  In season 5’s “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham,” Walt tells Locke that he’s not surprised to see him because he dreamed that Locke would come visit him.  So what is it about Walt that makes him special?  Does he really have supernatural abilities?  Why did the Others kidnap Walt (in the season 1 finale, “Exodus”)?  How did Walt communicate with Michael through the computer in the hatch (in “What Kate Did”)?  (Or was that Walt at all?  In season 3’s “Expose,” Paulo overhears Ben talking to Juliet about how he plans on using Michael to bring Jack to them.  Since we know that the computers in the Dharma stations are connected to one another, does this imply that it was Ben on the computer, pretending to be Walt??)  What of the other times that characters on the show have seen visions of Walt, such as Shannon before her death (in season 2’s “Abandoned”), and Locke after being shot by Ben (in season 4’s finale, “Through the Looking Glass”)?  Was Walt responsible for those visions, or were they sent by the island (or Jacob, or the M.I.B., or the smoke monster, etc…)?

What is Aaron’s special destiny? What is the danger surrounding Aaron that the psychic warned Claire about in “Raised by Another”?  What dangerous event would happen if Aaron were raised by someone other than Claire?  Is this why Jack is later warned (by Hurley, speaking on behalf of the ghost of Charlie in season 4’s “Something Nice Back Home”) that he is not supposed to raise Aaron?  How does this connect to Kate’s raising Aaron for the three years that she spent off the island in season 4?  Why isn’t that a problem?  Why does Claire warn Kate (in Kate’s dream in season 5’s “Because You Left”) that Kate must not bring Aaron back to the island?

Is the Dharma Initiative still active? It certainly seems as if they are.  Someone dropped that huge palette of Dharma food and supplies during the lockdown (seen in season 2’s “Lockdown”), and we learn in season 2’s “Live Together, Die Alone” that Kelvin joined the Dharma initiative some time after his service in the first Gulf War (which we saw in Sayid’s flashback in “One of Them”).  So what the heck has this group been up to ever since the Purge on the island??

Who are the Adam & Eve skeletons that Jack and Kate found in the caves in “House of the Rising Sun” back in season 1? Are these going to wind up being the skeletons of someone we know?  (My guess: Desmond & Penelope.)  What is the significance of the white & black rock that we see Jack swipe from the bodies?

What is up with the mysterious whispers in the jungle? Various characters have been hearing these enigmatic whispers in the jungle ever since season 1.  What do they mean??

What is the meaning behind the Numbers? I am OK if the writers leave the precise nature of their mysterious power vague.  But what is the explanation behind the transmission of the numbers over a radio signal 16 years ago that lured Rousseau’s ship to the island, and that Hurley’s friend Lenny from the insane asylum picked up?  (See season 1’s “Numbers.”)  Who was broadcasting the numbers, and for what purpose?  Why are they also inscribed into the hatch door?  Just what significance do these numbers have in the universe of Lost?

How did Libby wind up in the same mental hospital as Hurley did? (We saw her there in “Dave.”)  What’s the story behind her lending Desmond a boat to race around the world , that eventually got him stranded on the island (as we saw in “Live Together, Die Alone”)?

Who killed Nadia, and why? In “The Incident” we see the moment when Sayid’s true love was mowed down in a car accident.  Was this an accident, or was she murdered?  In “The Shape of Things to Come,” Ben tells Sayid that Charles Widmore had her killed.  Do we trust Ben on this one?  (I don’t!  Why would Widmore harm Nadia?)

What the heck has been going on in Room 23? We see that Alex’s boyfriend Karl was being kept there in season 3’s “Not in Portland,” forced to listen to weird loud noises while watching a parade of imagery and repeated phrases on a big screen.  Was this some kind of behavior modification room?  To what end?  Is this “the room” that Ms. Klugh threatens to send Walt to in “Three Minutes”?  Is this room responsible for Cindy the flight attendant’s apparent conversion to the Others (more on Cindy in just a moment)?  (And what sort of nastiness has been going on in rooms #1-22??)

What happened to Cindy the Flight Attendant? She vanished without a trace in season 2’s “Abandoned” while helping the Tailies carry a comatose Sawyer back to our castaways’ camp.  What happened to her?  Who took her, and why?  Why was she the only one kidnapped at that moment, as opposed to any of the other characters?  (For that matter, why did the Others kidnap so many members of the Tailies’ group, as seen in “The Other 48 Days,” while not doing the same for our castaways — except for their temporary kidnapping of Claire?)  I am also perplexed by Cindy’s brief reappearance in season 3’s “Stranger in a Strange Land,” in which she seems strangely unconcerned to see Jack kept in a cage, and claims that the Others aren’t really so bad.  What has been happening to her, and how/why did she come around to the Others’ point of view?  (Was she subjected to behavior modification in Room 23?)  She certainly seems to consider herself one of the Others when we get the final glimpse we saw of her in season 3’s “The Brig,” in which she tells Locke that “we’ve been waiting for you.”

What is up with the Others’ magic box? We saw that Locke’s dad (the original Sawyer) somehow appeared out of what Ben claimed was a “magic box,” as a test for Locke (in “The Man From Tallahassee”).  Is there really a supernatural element at work here, or had the Others just found daddy Sawyer, kidnapped him, and brought him to the island?  Later, when Locke demands an explanation from Ben (in “The Brig”), Ben responds, “the box is a metaphor, John.”  Um, okaaay…

What is up with the big green bird that shouted Hurley’s name? Betcha forgot about that, didn’t you?  I know I did, until recently re-watching “Live Together, Die Alone” (the season 2 finale).

When will we get to see the volcano on the island? This has only been mentioned once: when we see young Ben in the Dharma schoolhouse back in the ’70s (in season 3’s “The Man Behind the Curtain”), his class is doing an experiment about volcanoes and one of the students asks about the volcano on the island.  There must be a reason for this seemingly random mention of a volcano, right???  I really hope we see this volcano is season 6!!  Related question: will we ever learn what happened to the little girl, Annie, who we saw was friends with young Ben in that episode?

What is Eloise Hawking’s story? Why did she leave the island?  How was she able to locate the island (apparently using the Dharma Lamp Post station in season 5’s “The Lie” and “316”)?  Just why/how did she know of Desmond’s destiny to wind up pushing the button in the Swan Station (when she refused to sell him a wedding ring for Penny Widmore in season 3’s “Flashes Before Your Eyes” and declared that, unless he winds up on the island to push that button, “we’re all of us dead”)?  Who is she working for?  In season 5, she seems to be helping Ben get the Oceanic 6 back to the island (and return there himself).  But Charle Widmore (Ben’s bitter enemy) tells Locke (in “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”) that he should find Eloise and she’ll help him.  How can Eloise be working with BOTH Widmore and Ben??

Eloise describes herself to her son Daniel (in season 5’s “The Variable”) as having the job of keeping him on “the path” (which she does in spades by ensuring that he returns to the island where she knows he will be killed), and which seems to explain her focus on getting Desmond and later the Oceanic 6 back to the island.  She’s the person who gets people where they “need” to be.  But who determines this need?  Is she aware of the future, and is therefore just making sure that the time-line stays on track and everyone does what she knows they’re supposed to do?  If so, how did she gain that knowledge of the future?  (Was it because she got her hands on Daniel’s journal, from the future, when she killed him back in 1977?)

Will we learn the identity of the “very smart man” who build the Lamp Post station? This comment by Eloise Hawking (in season 5’s “316”) has always intrigued me.

What happened to Daniel Faraday’s girlfriend, Theresa? In “Jughead,” we learn that she’s been turned into a vegetable, as a result of being exposed to the dangerous energies used in Daniel’s time-travel experiments.  (The same experiments that also scrambled Daniel’s brain before he arrived on the island and was healed.)  Theresa’s sister angrily tells Desmond that Daniel abandoned her — but that seems pretty out of character with the kind, gentle Faraday we’ve known.  In “The Variable,” we see Daniel tearfully claim to his sponsor (and father!), Charles Widmore, that he’d never hurt Theresa, and that he tested his machine on himself.  Does that imply that someone ELSE subjected Theresa to the tests that destroyed her mind?  Was it Widmore himself?  (Maybe after Daniel started losing his marbles?) Is that why Widmore was paying for her medical bills?

Did Penelope Widmore give birth to her own father? This is one of my crazier theories, but I stand by it.  It’s sweet that, in season 5’s “Jughead,” we learn that Desmond and Penny have named their son Charlie, after Charlie Pace.  But it’s striking to me that, of the three Widmores we’ve met over the course of the show, two of them have the same name.  Eloise warned Desmond that the island wasn’t through with him (in “316”) — does that mean that he will wind up back there before the show ends?  If he does, might Penny and Charlie wind up there with him?  With all the time-travel shenanigans of Lost, what if they wind up back on the island sometime in the PAST (I proposed yesterday that maybe the “Adam and Eve” skeletons will wind up being Desmond and Penelope), in which case young Charlie would grow up on the island…possibly becoming the Charles Widmore we know (who becomes an Other and fathers Penny and then gets exiled…)!!

What is the story with dead bodies on the island? Speaking of crazy theories, in re-watching Lost I’ve been wondering about what happens when people die on the island.  Consider the season 5 episode “LaFleur,” when, in the 1970’s, we see that Richard Alpert demands the body of the Dharma Initiative guy, Paul, who got killed.  When I first saw that episode it seemed like that request was borne out of some sort of desire by Richard to balance the scales for the two Others who were killed by Sawyer.  But when I think of all the times we have seen dead people on the island re-appear as visions or apparitions, I wonder if he demanded to take Paul’s body in order to ensure that certain steps were taken so that it was buried properly, to either PREVENT or FACILITATE the dead body’s being used as a manifestation of the smoke monster or the M.I.B…

What is the true story behind the button in the Swan Station? I suspect the Lost writers think they have adequately explained this, but I’m still left scratching my head.  Was the button-pushing really necessary in order to stop the electromagnetic whatever, originally tapped/unleashed in “The Incident”, from getting out of control and destroying the world?  If so, why such a bizarre method of containment (with the weird numerical code and the Egyptian symbols)?  Or was it just a twisted psychological experiment (a possibility raised in “?”, when we discover the Pearl station, from which the button-pushing in the Swam station could be monitored)?  Or was it the Dharma folk in the Pearl who were the subject of a psychological experiment (which seems to be suggested in “Live Together, Die Alone” when our gang finds that all of their journals, which they thought were being taken by pneumatic tube to the Dharma HQ, actually ended up, unread, in a big pile in the middle of the jungle)?  The button was such a major part of the show for so long, I’d really like to see some stronger resolution to these questions.

Why does Pierre Chang use different aliases in all of the Orientation videos? He calls himself Dr. Marvin Candle in the first video we see in season 2’s “Orientation” (as well as in the Arrow station’s orientation film that we see him begin to film in “Because You Left”), but he also refers to himself as Dr. Mark Wikmund (in “?”), and Dr. Edgar Halliwax (when he discusses time-traveling bunnies in “There’s No Place Like Home”).  For that matter, why was the Orientation video for the Swan Station cut up (with the part referring to the danger of using the computer to communicate with the outside world being hidden in a Bible in the Arrow station, as Mr. Eko would eventually discover)?  Kelvin Inman tells Desmond (in “Live Together, Die Alone”) that Radzinsky edited the film — but why?

Who is the mysterious Alvar Hanso, founder of the Dharma Initiative? He’s first referred to in “Orientation.”  Who is this enigmatic figure?  Was his founding of the Dharma Initiative connected to his desire to investigate or control the island, or did Dharma’s involvement with the island come later?  For that matter, how did the Dharma Initiative initially discover the island, and what were they really doing on the island in the ’70s?  Were they on the island BECAUSE of all of the weirdness we’ve seen associated with it over the course of five seasons of Lost, or did they just stumble upon the secrets of the island over the course of their work there?

OK, that’s quite a lengthy list!  Will some of these questions by answered in Lost‘s final season??  I certainly hope so!!  Needless to say, I’ll be watching with great anticipation…