The Unanswered Questions
And now for the Questions... This is by no means a complete list, nor do I want it to be. I hope to include some of the more obscure, but significant (I think) loose ends which will hopefully be tied up in the finale. Enjoy and discuss...
What happened to Christian Shephard's body?
In the original timeline, Christian's body apparently furnishes the Man in Black with a new form ("The Last Recruit")—unless he's lying. Assuming the body was in the coffin on the plane, this loose end is easily justified by assuming it was moved by the Man in Black in order to fool Jack ("White Rabbit"). However, without the influence of the Island, we have no such justification in the flash-sideways.
Was every appearance of Christian (after his death) actually the Man in Black?
Assuming the MiB answered Jack truthfully, we know for certain that the suit-wearing Christian was him. After the Ajira crash, "Locke" appeared wearing a suit, but later changed into hiking gear. Christian seems to have done the same. Claire confirms that the Christian who talked to John Locke in the cabin ("Cabin Fever") was the MiB. However, the Christian who dismisses Michael on the freighter and especially the Christian who greets Jack at the hospital after they return from the Island violates the apparent rules about the MiB not leaving the Island. For a normal TV show, Jack could have been simply hallucinating, but for LOST that is a significant loose end.
Who were the two men in the cabin?
When Hurley falls behind the group ("The Beginning of the End"), he suddenly stumbles upon Horace's cabin, which is out of place. Peering through the window, he sees Christian seated in a chair. Suddenly, another face comes into view. If Christian is an incarnation of the MiB, was this second man supposed to be Jacob? Or is there another explanation? My first thought was it looked like Locke, who subsequently finds Hurley after the cabin disappears. However, Hurley's later question regarding where the cabin is seems to catch Locke off guard, confirming that he wasn't the other man.
What exactly happened when Ben and Locke first visited the cabin together?
Ben has not only confirmed that he was pretending about seeing Jacob in the chair ("The Man Behind the Curtain"), but also that he did not expect things to start flying around. I believe that Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse confirmed in the podcast that the man who appeared briefly in the chair was Jacob. Perhaps I'm wrong, or perhaps they renegotiated that particular element due to story changes. In any case, I re-pose the question: who was that? And why did he say "help me"?
What exactly was the purpose of the ring of ash around the cabin?
When Ben and Locke first visit the cabin, Ben steps carefully over the ash, while Locke stoops to examine it. Neither of them seem to have caused the break in the ash line found by Ilana in Season 5, even after fleeing the disturbance in the cabin. We know that the ring of ash is a barrier to the MiB, but it is unclear whether it was intended to keep him out or in the cabin. Since it seemed undisturbed, we could surmise that it was to trap in whatever caused the disturbance, but it could not have been the MiB because we had seen or heard the Smoke Monster elsewhere on the Island many times by then. Perhaps it was a safe-haven for ghosts.
How do the whispers teleport people and things?
Or are the whispers merely ghosts. It seems that the cabin was physically moved from its former location to where Hurley found it, and it seems that Harper physically appeared to Juliet ("The Other Woman")—though we don't know whether she is alive or dead. Ben warns young Rousseau to "run the other way" when she hears whispers ("Dead is Dead"), which suggests there is something to see for people other than Hurley. She was also described as "insane," so perhaps she was able to see what others could not.
What is the deal with the pallet drop?
At the end of "Lockdown," a pallet of food is discovered in the jungle. A parachute suggests that it was dropped by a plane, though no plane was sighted. Given what we know about the Island's physical properties, there might not be much explanation needed. What is more curious is why was it sent? The Dharma Initiative seems to be entirely out of commission (except for Desmond in the Swan Station), so the more interesting question is who sent it?
Who is Dave?
In the episode "Dave," the pallet of food seems to trigger a psychotic episode in Hurley who sees a bald man in a bath robe and chases him through the jungle. It turns out he's Dave, Hurley's best friend from the mental hospital—only he's apparently an imaginary friend. It is revealed that Libby was also in the mental hospital with Hurley. When she gives Desmond the sailboat ("Live Together, Die Alone") she reveals that her dead husband's name is David. Is it possible that Dave is the ghost of Libby husband? (Also, as a side note, Desmond's middle name is David and Jack's son in the flash-sideways is David).
What was Libby doing in Sydney?
In the flash-sideways, Hurley meets Libby for the first time while she is on a "field trip" with other patients from the mental hospital. Therefore, she was not on Oceanic 815 in that timeline. Since she was also in the mental hospital in the original timeline, the question is what caused her to check out and go to Sydney? Was she stalking Hurley? Or is there more to the story?
Who were the people Sayid killed?
Ben claims they were Widmore's people, who needed to be killed to protect those who remained on the Island. Since basically no more has been said on this matter since Sayid finished his task, we can likely assume that their link to Widmore is real. Whether or not killing them actually protected the Island is therefore a matter both of Widmore's and Ben's respective intentions for the Island.
Who is "R.G."?
In "The Economist," Sayid woos a woman named Elsa with the intention of getting at and killing her employer, an economist who works "in emerging markets." Since his name was on the hit list and Sayid claimed to have killed everyone on it ("He's Our You"), the economist is likely dead (at least in the original timeline). When Sayid reveals his intentions, we discover that Elsa was lying about her job. After Sayid kills her, he notices a metal bracelet on her wrist, which is the same as one Naomi is wearing on the Island. Inside is the inscription, "N, I'll always be with you. R.G." Assuming Elsa's bracelet said something similar, these two women seem to be linked to a mysterious third party.
What is the deal with Ray Shephard?
The writers of LOST are not in the habit of doing anything without double meaning or deeper significance. In "316," Jack is told that his grandfather, Ray, had again tried to escape from the retirement home were he resides. Ray claims he will one day escape, saying, "They won't ever find me, either." After a short talk, Jack finds a pair of his father's shoes the bags Ray packed—a belonging he needed as per Eloise's request. We are meant to think this is the only purpose of this scene and that his eventual escape to a place he cannot be found is merely an allusion to Jack's future. However, this seems far to elaborate a set up for merely this. I believe Ray will figure into the finale, or at least the writers were intending to use him for such a purpose. I hope they do.
What is the significance of the number 32 and its relationship the number 42?
We are all used to the number 42 as the last number in the sequence which appears throughout the show, eventually being revealed as corresponding to Jacob's candidates—the number 42 in particular referring to Sun and/or Jin. However, when Hurley and Miles take Dr. Chang to the Swan worksite, Hurley sees two men stamping the numbers into the Hatch. The one who is reading off the numbers says the last one is smudged before deciding it says "42." When Desmond fled the Hatch and Locke took over his job, the first sequence of numbers he entered ended in "32" before Jack corrected him. It is interesting to note that 32 is a reversal of "23"—Jack's number. Miles asked Ben for $3.2 million dollars, to which Ben responded, "Why not 3.3 or 3.4?" Once off the Island, Ben goes to the butcher's shop to drop off Locke's body. When he takes a number, it is "342"—"32" interrupted by "4" (Locke's number).
What caused the condition where pregnant women die on the Island?
Much of Season 3 labored over this point, though Richard pointed out to Locke that it was a lesser problem meant, by Ben, to distract his people. It is likely that somewhere between Ben's healing at the Temple and the Incident, this problem arose. It did not effect Amy Goodspeed, who gave birth to Ethan in 1977.
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