Don't look now, but there are only a few more hours of Lost left before the series finale. Does the show have enough time left to answer all the questions it's posed since the very first season, and do the producers even want to? In advance of tonight's episode, "The Candidate," Movieline rounded up 15 burning questions Lost still has yet to resolve.
What is the flash-sideways world?
It was originally assumed that the flash-sideways world was just an alternate reality of what would have happened had Jack's bomb changed the course of history. Still, there are all sorts of hints that things in this color-desaturated timeline are not all they seem.
Likelihood of Answer: High, but it feels like it's building toward a big series finale revelation instead of one we'll get earlier.
Who are Jacob and the Man in Black?
We've gotten tantalizing hints about these two figures' backstories, and the MiB has often seen visions of young boys in the jungle, taunting him. Could these be childhood versions of Jacob and the MiB? Who is the MiB's crazy mother? And what are they doing there in the first place?
Likelihood of Answer: High. Aside from the sideways-world, this is the biggest mystery Lost has been teasing at.
Why was Libby in the mental hospital?
Libby's season-two death was so shocking in part because the show still hadn't explained why she was briefly glimpsed as a mental patient in Hurley's flashback. Since then, it's remained a question that fans continually ask about.
Likelihood of Answer: Low. Though Libby is now a part of Hurley's flash-sideways and an answer could conceivably come there, Sideways Libby appeared to have her own reasons for the stay in Santa Rosa.
What is Charles Widmore's motive?
There's still plenty we don't know about the mysterious Widmore. Will we ever find out who he had an affair with, resulting in his exile from the island (and is that Penny's mother)? How was he able to return to the island now after its location was unknown to him for so long? And just whose side is he on, anyway?
Likelihood of Answer: High. Widmore is a major player whose agenda has been kept purposefully vague. When he declares his side in the upcoming final battle, we'll need to know why.
Who shot at the outrigger in season five?
During one of season five's nosebleed-inducing time jumps, Sawyer and his posse (including Juliet, Miles, Locke, Daniel and Charlotte) ended up in what now appears to be the show's contemporary island timeline, as proved by a then-mysterious Ajira water bottle and an outrigger on the beach. When they boarded the outrigger and went out to sea, another canoe appeared, firing at them. Juliet fired back and appeared to hit one of the faraway assailants before another time jump whisked them away.
Likelihood of Answer: High. The show seems to have caught up with this time jump. Could this spell bad news for Ben, Richard and Miles, who will probably be the characters to board the other canoe on their way to blow up the Ajira airplane? And will a scene in which they're fired upon make any sense for an audience who may have forgotten this incident from last season?
Who built the statue?
The four-toed foot statue was revealed last season to be a statue of Tawaret, and this season, we discovered that the bulk of the statue was destroyed when a tidal wave flung the Black Rock into it. Still, we don't know what it was doing there in the first place.
Likelihood of Answer: Medium. This may factor into what we have yet to learn about Jacob, or we may have to assume that it was simply built by island inhabitants that we'll never get to see.
Who are Adam and Eve?
In season one, Jack and Kate explored the caves and found two long-dead corpses, who they nicknamed Adam and Eve.
Likelihood of Answer: High. The corpses were reintroduced this season when Jack and Hurley made a stopover at the caves. It's clear that the writers want us to be pondering this question in advance of its resolution.
What is the island?
Jacob told Richard that the island is a "cork," meant to contain the Man in Black. Will we get any more of an explanation than that?
Likelihood of Answer: Medium. We'll probably learn some more about the island's history, but in the end, I expect the true nature of the island to be something that never gets a 100% explanation. It's ambiguous for a reason.
Who is Jack's sideways ex-wife?
In the sideways world, Jack has a kid and keeps fielding calls from his ex-wife. Who is she?
Likelihood of Answer: High. The show obviously wants us to keep asking this question. It seems pretty obvious to me that the answer will be Juliet, but when we'll see her (will we have to wait for the series finale?) is almost the bigger mystery.
What is the "Hurley bird"?
In the finales for season one and two, a huge, green bird was sighted that cawed Hurley's name. This is still one of the weirdest things I've ever seen on Lost, and I've seen a lot.
Likelihood of Answer: Medium. The Hurley bird was written into two important episodes early in the show's run, but we haven't seen it at all since, and I couldn't even begin to guess what could explain it.
Was the Man in Black trapped in the cabin?
Originally, it seemed like Jacob was the one who'd been trapped in the cabin for ages, but we've slowly been able to piece together that it was actually the Man in Black (in the season five finale, Ilana says that Jacob hasn't been there for a long time). In a way, that would explain the circle of MiB-imprisoning ash that's typically found around the cabin, but it's not like the smoke monster was hampered by it in the early seasons. Was someone letting him in and out?
Likelihood of Answer: Medium. I thought this might be explained in the Richard flashback episode, but the series hasn't so far gone there. Are producers really interested in filling in the more recent gaps of the Jacob-MiB timeline, or will we simply get some of their backstory and be forced to piece it together ourselves?
What's the deal with Cindy the stewardess?
This chick! Cindy was the alcohol-pushing stewardess who ended up with the tail section survivors, then was kidnapped by the Others in a mondo-suspicious incident that made Ana Lucia awfully trigger-happy. Next time we saw her, she was peacefully integrated into the Others, and she told an imprisoned Jack that she was "here to watch." Whuhhh?
Likelihood of Answer: M
edium. The show has dutifully kept Cindy a background figure in Locke's camp, so it's not as though they've entirely forgotten about her. Still, they haven't given us any new information on Cindy's conversion since season three.
What was the deal with the supply drop in season two?
While the hatch was under lockdown in season two, a Dharma supply drop fell from the air, full of food pallets. Did a Dharma plane drop it? Was Dharma still in place after the Purge? And if so, why didn't they head to the island to see what the holy hell was going on there after all their buddies got massacred?
Likelihood of Answer: Medium. I would think this was an item of low interest for the producers to explain, and yet they've hinted in interviews that a resolution will come. How it's germane to the current plot, I can't even begin to guess.
How did the frozen donkey wheel get there?
Ben and Locke have both had to burrow deep into the island to turn a frozen donkey wheel, after which they were consumed by bright light and cast into Tunisia. (Lost plot points don't really look so sane when you write them out like that, do they?) Should we accept the wheel as something that's always been there, or is there more to its story?
Likelihood of Answer: Low. I'd lead toward the former.
Why isn't Kate a candidate?
Kate's name wasn't on the list of candidates in the cave that the Man in Black took Sawyer to. Why not?
Likelihood of Answer: Medium. Not only was Kate listed at the lighthouse, but producer Carlton Cuse has said that her crossed-out name was supposed to be shown in the cave, yet didn't make the final edit. Still why were people like Kate and Miles crossed out? What did they ever do to anyone, huh?