After six years of being chased by polar bears and smoke monsters on a tropical island, traveling through time, falling in love and grieving death Lost will end in about two weeks. How it will end, is unknown except to a few people who work for the show.
The show has been full of mystery since its earliest beginnings, totaling 144 mysteries, with 42 still open or partially unanswered per Lostapedia, which is highly regarded as “the source” of all things LOST besides 'Darlton', or Gregg Nations the guy who keeps the LOST bible. Which if they ever needed to replace that guy because he was ill or wanted time off, I could do it.
The biggest areas of mysteries are related to Jacob, the Man in Black, the Island, Visions, Dreams and the Flash Sideways. Not all of the mysteries are important to answer to have a satisfying ending or to declare the show as being good or bad. Much will be left to interpretation, which is a general rule of thumb in what makes the difference between a good movie or book, and a great one.
However a few things do need to be cleared up to make sense out of what the heck we have been watching all this time.
The Island that is Lost on LOST
The biggest question is what is the islands purpose and function, besides a cork as Jacob described to Richard, that doesn’t actually answer why they are protecting it, if they are protecting it, why all the weird science stuff. Why does the light scatter differently, why is time different on the island, how does an island move through space and time anyway? We do know that it does not keep all darkness down there, because evil and stuff exists in the world.
After this week’s episode Across the Sea, the question of the island requiring protecting was answered. Yes there are people protecting it, protecting this glowing light source. According to the ‘current protector’ who incidentally was referred to as crazy from someone, who may or may not be trustworthy (sigh) the light exists in all men, and they get greedy and want more, and if they try to harness this power or use it, it could go out, and if it goes out there, it will go out everywhere.
So we do know there is a light, we saw it, is it really what she said? That may never be answered because part of the point of the show is there is no truth. Truth is subjective, and what is good or bad is not clearly black or white. We can take the characters word, whether she is crazy or has been misled, or is misleading us the viewer. Regardless, they are protecting it because of this light that they believe is in everyone (soul perhaps).
The Healing Powers of the Island
We accept there are these healing powers from the island, but does it work so powerfully this is why most of our passengers looked as if they were gently laid down on the island when they fell from a plane thousands of feet up in the air, that you know just broke into pieces?
The Frozen donkey wheel, Pregnancy issues, Character connections
Not every single mystery would be specifically solved; we may never know why Libby was in the funny farm, or any other back story mystery. I think the most important issues to be resolved are those that have to do with what the Island is about, why these people, why this flight, why this island, are the others protecting this island, if so from what. Certain questions could not be left open as it would be like dropping the ball before crossing the finish line. Investing this time into this show is about the journey for certain, but for now we don’t really know what the journey is except they are in a weird place with weird things and maybe it means something, or maybe it doesn’t.
Issues like the pregnancy problems may not be important if it has nothing to do with the basic plot, and was just an interesting mystery that helped tell Juliet’s story. This existed to add depth to other characters, create controversy and these elements make LOST the great show it is because of how deep the roots go. Across the Sea answered how the Donkey wheel was created, but not who got it going before Dharma. We don’t really need to know that information either, unless it has to do with the main plot.
The Flash Sideways
We have always known what was flashback or flash-forward eventually. This should be the same since there is much controversy on what it actually is, and I do think there will be a connection between this and the main time line, were we will find that they both have created each other, like a chicken or egg scenario. Never knowing which came first, and that can be left as a mystery.
Ultimately the answers should be within the body of the show, the issue is determining which elements are clues and which are not. What anyone gets from the show, the lessons learned will be personal. How the show ends is important in concluding the plot of the story, and hopefully it will all make sense and fit together. Sometimes you just have to have a little faith, and a little science to back it up.
Christina Dagnelli - non-fiction writer with 200+ published articles. Little Squares with Colors: A Different way to Look at Autism is a memoir about her ...
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