STILL unanswered questions on Lost, or "why this show sucks"

Lost is nearly done and the show's scripts read more and more like a thrown-together term paper written the night before it was due by a drunken college student. I mean, come on! Mysteries that have been strung out since season 1 are still unanswered. And when they are addressed, the "answers" are tossed off and lame.

At this point, I think there's little hope of a dramatically satisfying conclusion to the end of this series. This season has been horrendously bad.

Yet, I've watched thus far and will certainly be watching the conclusion this Sunday, hoping that it's not too bad.

That said, here are questions that STILL haven't been answered. I'm sure there are a ton more that haven't occurred to me:

*  What is the history  of the Others? Where did they come from?  Why did they kill off the  Dharma Initiative?

* What's  up with Walt's powers? How did  the Others know  about them?

* How did Cindy  the stewardess and the two  children from the Oceanic flight come  to be among the Others?

* Why exactly did Jacob pick these particular folks as his candidates? He tells them because they are "flawed." Seriously, this is the best the show's producers can do? By that standard, any random human fits the bill! Six years and all we get is, "they're flawed." Criminy.

* Jack is now Jacob's successor and it's his job to protect the magic golden light at the center of the island. But why? What has this light ever done for anyone apart from turn them into smoke monsters. What's so danged good about the island. Everyone on the danged thing has been threatened, beat up and killed, it seems like. Sure, it has healing properties. But, to what purpose? Locke was made able to walk again so he could get killed by an evil entity that wants to destroy the self-same healing island. This makes NO SENSE people. And if the point is that it's not supposed to make sense, that's not coming through clear either. It's all random and tossed together.

* Why was Ben selected the leader of the Others? And why, ostensibly in the name of Jacob, do such horrible things to people? Did Jacob intend this? Why did the Others go along with it? Why did Richard go along with it?

* Why did Jacob exclude Kate from being a candidate because she's a mother? Wasn't Sun a mother also? Wasn't Jin a dad? Aren't Jack and Sawyer also dads? Is Jacob a sexist pig?

*  What was Ben's breakfast on the beach with  Kate in season 3 all  about? We didn't see any of their discussion. [I'm still a bit  baffled by this scene. We've not been given any insight into what was  discussed. Was Ben merely trying to persuade Jack to operate on Ben's  spine? Or was there something more going on.]

*  Why does the smoke monster kill some people and not others?

* Why did the smoke  monster kill Eko, in particular? What did the monster see/sense  in him?

* Why did the magic light turn the man in black into a smoke monster? If the light is such a good thing, why did it create an entity that goes around killing essentially innocent people?

* Why did the Others initially disguise  themselves as shipwrecked  pirate types complete with fake beards? [What  was the point? To make the crash survivors think that the Others were  merely fellow castaways, not an organized faction on the island with a  secret history? What?]

* What's up  with the sickness  that killed off Danielle's team? [Were they killed by Smokey or  turned evil by him? Or both?]

* Is  the Dharma  Initiative still active at all?

* Who  was behind  the air drop of Dharma  supplies  that has benefited the Oceanic survivors? [There was  a drop after the Oceanic survivors arrived, wasn't there? Or was this  an old drop that Hurley discovered? I may be misremembering.]

*  Why do  women on the island die instead of giving birth?

*  Why did the Others steal children?

*  What's behind the apparent healing properties of the island?

* What's responsible for the visions   of animals and dead people the crash surivors sometimes see on the   island?

* What's the deal with Libby, killed in   season 2, who evidently gave Desmond the sailboat that landed him on  the  island and who once was in a mental ward with Hurley? [Despite  Libby's recent appearance this season, these questions were not  answered.]

*  What's up with the giant statue?  Who built it? What is its significance?

* Is there   any explanation for why the man in the Dharma Initiative videos is at   different times identified as Dr. Marvin Candle, Dr. Mark Wickmund,  Dr. Pierre Change and   other names and why the CIA agent who identifies himself as Joe Inman   to Sayid tells Desmond that his name is Kelvin Inman?

*   Why did the psychic in Australia encourage Claire to take the  doomed  flight?

* Who is the man Sarah left Jack for? Why is she so   reluctant to reveal his identity? Is he somehow associated with the   Dharma Initiative and/or the Others?

* What's up with that polar bear in Tunisia? Was Charlotte   part of Dharma when she found it, or was she snooping into what Dharma   is all about? [Pretty much answered, I guess. We know Charlotte was  investigating her Dharma past? The polar bear likely transported from  the island ala Ben and Locke.]

* Who is Penelope's  mother?

*  Why did Alpert want the body of Amy's  husband? [Was it merely as proof of retribution to the Others?  Or did they do something creepy with it?]

*  Who  created the ancient temple  on  the island?

* How did the Others save young Ben after he was shot? [They put him  in the dark pool, most likely. But we weren't shown that this is the  case.]

*  What is Ilana's history with  Jacob? Why was  her face bandaged?

* Is Locke really dead? Will he return?

Additional  unanswered questions from Lostpedia:

  • Why did  Desmond tell Charlie he saw a vision of Claire and Aaron getting  on a  helicopter that could only come true if he died?
  • Why did Claire abandon Aaron?
  • What caused the bad luck surrounding Hurley?
  • What does Juliet's mark mean?


Questions from last week's episode

These aren't so much questions as writing that is bad and just doesn't make any sense:
  • Smokey gets Ben to do his bidding by promising Ben that, once everybody is dead and gone, Ben will have control of the island. But at episode's end, Smokey tell Ben that he's going to destroy the island. And Ben seems ok with that. WTH?!!!
  • In a previous episode, Ben confronts Charles Widmore. Widmore asks "Have you come to kill me" and Ben says "You know I can't do that." Yet, in the penultimate episode, Ben kills Widmore. So, it's suddenly ok now?
  • Likewise, Smokey and Jacob's crazy mother says that neither can harm one another. Yet Jacob beats the snot out of Smokey and throws him into the magic light. I'm unclear on the definition of not hurting here.

4 comments:

  1. A lot of this WAS answered/doesn't even matter :)

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  2. no it wasn't/yes it does

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  3. Excellent analysis. Particularly enjoyed your spot on postings about 2 things in the most recent episode: The crossing out of Kate's name (she wasn't the only parent!), and the whole "Ben being promised the island by Smokey who then says he wants to destroy the island".

    But let me say this: as much as I agree with pretty much EVERY point you've made, I find myself enjoying the show tremendously. Why? Because I've come to view it as a fever dream, a soap opera/adventure hybrid that features a cast of characters I love to watch, to see what they're up to and where they're going.

    Dreams don't always make sense, but they can be enjoyable on their own merits.

    Does that excuse some of the folly we've seen? Certainly not for those, like you, who want logic and answers (NOT an unreasonable thing to ask!). Normally I'd be in your corner but I've just found so much enjoyment in this series that its lack of logic no longer bothers me as much.

    To each their own, I guess.

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  4. Lost is Cancer to Television

    For six years LOST has had me more confused than Paula Abdul at a physics lecture. Really, LOST, Really? A parallel reality, really? I saw it the first time when it was called SLIDING DOORS. Yeah, I just called you out for ripping off a Gwyneth Paltrow movie from 1998! This whole last season has been nothing but a disappointment. Yes the Jacob/Man in Black was a compelling story-line, but could you please tell me what that has to do with the last five seasons? Good writing demands that these two integral characters must be introduced in the first act of the story, but good writing was never your strong suit. Instead we have to be content with the fact that it happened on the island so it is vaguely kind of related to a story line similar to the one that I have literally devoted six years of my attention to. The "Adam and Eve" skeletons are the man and black and his mother? You know what would have been more interesting? More>>>

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