The Official "Lost" Questions Thread: Season 3

Cafe Society
1

I know the season doesn’t begin until tomorrow night, but there’s things to do and I thought people might like a chance to look at and maybe comment on the changes to the list beforehand.

First thing first. We have answers!

Allow me to explain. Over the summer, they had that Lost Experience game. I was not playing myself but I was aware of it. Aparently as the game progressed you got bits and pieces of a new film. The completed file answes some questions on the list, specifically question 25 (What do the numbers mean?) and question 28 (Who set up the original transmission?).

Personally, I don’t think these answers are all that important and probably aren’t necessary for watching the show. I also think they will eventially be revealed on the show. For these reason I’m not going to put the answers here - some people may consider them spoilers. However, I will link to the youtube video of the film. Check it out if you want, or wait for the explanations in the show. It’s your choice.

Here it is.

Finally, we have the list. I haven’t changed it too much. But I have rewritten a few key questions ever so slightly. The important part is the addition of the “What We Know” section which allows us to talk about the clues which may point to an answer to a specific question. It also helps clarify questions when people may not remember where it came from. Additions, corrections and comments on this section are welcome, but let’s not go crazy. It is simply meant to clarify the list, not as a place to put every idea or crazy theory.

Because of this section, I felt that we no longer needed a “Partially Answered” tag.

Here we go:

The List

  1. Why did the plane lose radio contact?
  2. What is the big monster?
  3. What is powering all the electronic equipment on the island?
  4. Who are/were Adam and Eve?
  5. What’s the deal with the black and white rocks that were found with Adam and Eve?
  6. What exactly was the nature of Locke’s paralysis?
  7. Why wasn’t Jack’s Dad in the coffin?
  8. How did the 48 people (initially) survive the plane crash? Was it just luck?
  9. Did Locke actually see the monster? And if he did, why is he still alive?
  10. What cured Locke and Rose (and possibly Jin)?
  11. Who are the “Others”, and is there more than one group of “Others”?
  12. Why did Danielle kill the other members of her team (or at least Robert)?
  13. Why did Sayid say that Nadia was dead?
  14. What was the scientific mission of Danielle’s team and why did they need rifles?
  15. Was Claire’s psychic legitimate, and if so, what did he see in his vision?
  16. How do the Others decide who to take?
  17. What is the significance of Claire’s baby?
  18. How did Hugo get the nickname “Hurley”?
  19. In what way is Hurley known as a warrior?
  20. What is the nature of Walt’s “special abilities”?
  21. What is the significance of the song “La Mer”?
  22. What is the nature of the islands unusual magnetic properties?
  23. Who sealed the hach and why?
  24. Why was Jin hand-delivering watches for Sun’s dad?
  25. What do the numbers mean? ANSWERED
  26. Is Hurley (still) cursed?
  27. Who set up the original transmission? ANSWERED
  28. Who sent Kate the letter about her mom?
  29. What is the significance of the black smoke?
  30. Why did the Others want with Walt?
  31. What became of Alex? Is that her with the Others?
  32. How did The Black Rock (the ship) get so far inland?
  33. What were the keys that Brendon took, and why did he take them?
  34. How did Martin loose his arm?
  35. Did Walt try and communicate with Shannon and if so, how?
  36. What did Desmond inject himself with?
  37. Were Michael, Kate and Locke all in accidents with the same car, and if so, why?
  38. Why haven’t they sent a replacement?
  39. How did the Nigerian drug smuggling plane get on the island?
  40. Why are there blast doors on the corridors leading to the geodesic dome?
  41. Why aren’t people supposed to use the computers for communication?
  42. What exactly was the “incident?”
  43. Why was the “Orientation” film cut up and pieces of it put in seperate places?
  44. Why was Sayid on the television in the army recruiting station?
  45. Whose glass eye was in the second Dharma station and why did they leave it there?
  46. What is the cause of the whispering?
  47. Why did the blast doors close?
  48. Was the real Henry Gale traveling with anyone, and if not, who burried him?
  49. Why did Alex help Claire escape?
  50. What is the significance of the foot?
  51. Why did the Others release Walt after going to such trouble to get him?
  52. Why couldn’t Desmond sail away and why wouldn’t Michael be able to return without the proper coordinates for rescue?
  53. Was Libby working for the Dharma Project/the Others?
  54. What was the “room” that the Others threatened Walt with?
  55. Why do the Others want Kate, Sawyer and Jack?
    What we know:

Question 2: What we’ve seen of it is a black smoke entity.
Question 3: There has been talk of a geothermal energy source under the hatch, but it hasn’t been addressed lately. If that is the case, it leavs us with the question of what the cable running into the sea is for.
Question 12: Danielle believed that her crew were infected with some kind of sickness. What the sickness is and if it’s real remains to be seen. However, some kind of infection can also be inferred from Desmond’s injections and the “Quarentine” on the hatch.
Question 15: At the time of Ecko’s flashback in “?” the psychic considered himself a fake.
Question 23: Dharma presumably sealed the hatch and Put “Quarentine” on it. Seemingly more evidence for a disease of some kind, but currently unconfirmed an unexplained.
Questions 34 amd 35: These refer to Danielle’s time on the island prior to the arrival of flight 815.
Question 37: Presumably something to protect himself from the disease he believed that he had been exposed to on the surface. See other questions regarding the island’s mysterious illness.
Question 41: The blast door seal the computer room durring a “lockdown”, likely related to the arrival of food shipment.
Question 44: Kelvin mentioned that his predessor made some “edits” to the original film.
Question 48: See above regarding question 41. This may or may not be the same as question 41.
As usual, this is a work in progress. For instance, I’m considering collapsing the various questions about the “sickness” into one, but no decision has been made. Your comments are welcome.

Finally - Lost starts tomorrow night! Woo-Hoo!

2

Apparantly I missed some stuff (I had to catch up with Lost, and might have missed an ep or two, or just forgot.)

Who are these Adam and Eve people of whom you speak? And I completly forgot who Brendan is and anything about keys.

More questions:

  1. Why was Ms. Hottie-blond (the girl that was with Desmond and we see her at the end of the season finale last season) in some station with Spainish speaking people monitoring…whatever it is they were monitoring (I think they said/implied it was magnetic interference.)

  2. (This might be answered with that youtube video I will watch shortly,) But why do the numbers have power. They were the right number of…beans in a car, or something? Then brought bad luck to the Australian dude. They were also the right lotto numbers for Hurely, but brought bad luck to his family.

And a question not about the Lost world, but about the production of Lost:

Do the writers/producers have any kind of long-term plan, or are they just throwing as much crazy shit as they can in this just for shits and giggles and have no idea how to explain away half of it, and then when it gets canceled in another season (I don’t want it to, but it might,) are we to be left with a billion unanswered questions?

3

They’re the skeletons found in the caves early in Season 1 (and never mentioned since).

Brendan was a member of Danielle’s crew, and I believe the thing about him and keys is in the translation of the original French Transmission.

And woo-hoo, season three! :slight_smile:

4

Her name’s Penny Widmore, and her dad is a big-time industrialist (the guy who picked up Desmond when he was released from military prison) who, it would appear, has some connection to the Dharma Initiative. (IIRC, some of the boxes that got dropped on the island were imprinted with the Widmore name.)

I got the impression that the dudes at the end were calling her *from * some Arctic region, not that she was there, too. And they picked up the huge EMP or whatever it was that occurred when either a.) Desmond blew the hatch/giant magnet/whatever the hell he did, or when b.) the electromagnetic power of the island was going kerflooey as Locke refused to punch in the numbers. But the implication is that either she’s looking for Desmond or she’s part of this group–with or without her dad–who are aware of something going on in the island region in terms of electromagnetic activity.

Woo hoo, indeed!

5

I’ll be sure to link to this when I set up the Season Premier “Lost” thread for season 3. In fact, I’ve almost got the OP fininshed, and will put it out later this afternoon. We probably need more than just a few hours tomorrow to get our juices flowing!

6

Actually, they were mentioned briefly by Danielle herself in the Season 1 finale.

Count De Moné covers the specifics on this well enough. There probably should be a question about the monitoring station and all that. I’ll try to create a properly worded question (unless someone else wants to take a crack at it).

As to the question regarding the “power” of the numbers - I dunno. Could all be coincidence, luck and perception - big themes on this show. If the numbers themselves do actually influence anything, I think it would be covered by the question on Hurley’s curse. Let me re-write that one to be inclusive. Say:

  1. Is Hurley (still) cursed? And if so, how?

Thanks John.

7

Since Trion mentioned the Lost Experience up top, if you don’t want to watch the YouTube video he links to yourself, here is a list of everything revealed during the Lost Experience. It may or may not contain spoilers, depending on how much from the Experience makes it into the show, so click on it at your own risk.

8

That’s the $48,151,623.42 question.

9

#48 Why did the blast doors close?

I think the blast doors closed at the same time as the food drop. It seems so to me.

10

My vote is for, “they just throwing as much crazy shit as they can in this just for shits and giggles and have no idea how to explain away half of it, and then when it gets canceled in another season we to be left with a billion unanswered questions.”

It’s getting way too out of hand with the secrets and BS. I saw ads for Season 2 on DVD, and the VO said something like, “More ‘Lost’ secrets revealed! Buy the DVDs!”
I just want to watch the show, thanks. I don’t want to have to buy the DVDs and visit various websites and unravel tons of clues just to enjoy the show.
As another poster said in another thread, I don’t want to have to do homework just to understand a damn TV show.
:rolleyes:

11

I’m pretty sure you’re right myself. I tend to think of it as answered but some others wanted to wait for some cofirmation that the food drop was the trigger for the lockdown. Erring on the side of caution has left it on the list, but if the rest of you guys vote it off, off it goes.

We go through this every year. And multiple times within each season. At the very least I think this is a discussion that should be had in another thread. Take it outside before I turn the hose on the lot of you. :wink:

12

I don’t think any of these questions will ever be answered:

If Kelvin knew the location of “Station Pearl” why didn’t he ever investigate it?
Desmond knew something happened when you didn’t enter the code, why didn’t he tell Locke?
Why did “Henry Gale” lie about not entering the code? Didn’t he realize than the whole island maybe the whole planet might explode (or whatever)?

The foot is all that’s left of a giant statue of Homer Simpson. :smiley:

13

Well, I don’t know. The first one at least is speculative (Maybe Kelvin knew, maybe not). They all have to do with character motivations. I can give my understanding of the characters and why they did things. They may even make sense. But people’s actions aren’t always totally logical and there may not even be one “true” answer - just a mess ov motivating factors, plans, explanations, excuses and points of view. For this reason I prefer to try keeping the list focused on questions with actual specific answers.

Anyway, regarding bouv’s addition to the list:

  1. What exactly were those guys doing at the monitoring station, and why was Penny Widmore having them do it?

I plan on checking out “The Nine” tonight and after thet it’s off to bed. So I’ll see you all tomorrow.

14

No solid answers thet I can see, but at least we have some information for question 11) Who are the “Others”, and is there more than one group of “Others”?

What we know: Juliet seemed to indicate that they were left over members of the Dharma initiative.

15

Perhaps I’m thick, but how have we been told what they mean?

16

Well, perhaps “mean” is the wrong word. We have been told their significance as I mentioned in the OP.

17

I just watched all three seasons pretty much back to back (up to DOC), and I’ll try and throw in what answers I have:

  1. What is the big monster?
    Partial: Rousseau said that it was a security system. Also, when chasing them after Arzt went boom, it tried pulling Locke down a squarish (manmade?) hole in the ground. Potentially there is a tunnel network throughout the island that the monster can travel through.

  2. What exactly was the nature of Locke’s paralysis?
    His dad pushed him out of a window.

  3. Did Locke actually see the monster? And if he did, why is he still alive?
    Partial: It’s probably safe to presume that he did, as did Eko. The monster didn’t kill either of them once, but then did attack them the next time (Locke survived.)

  4. Who are the “Others”, and is there more than one group of “Others”?
    Partial: They were there before the Dharma Initiative moved in. Ben (who is in his 40s according to Jack) was born on the island, so that establishes a minimum time period for them to have been there. (Dharma appears to have moved in in the late 70s or early 80s.) Their actual leader is is supposedly not Ben.

  5. Who sealed the hach and why?
    Given that there’s a more regular doorway to the original hatch, I suspect that for the most part, the sealed hatch was just a plot device to give Locke something to obsess over that looked cool and mysterious. In practical terms though, it wasn’t “sealed”, it was just locked on the inside, presumably because there was a quarantine on the rest of the island and you wouldn’t want to give someone sick a chance to get in. (Of course, the regular doorway entrance to and from the hatch destroys that somewhat, but like said, they probably just found it convenient for filming to have a more regular entrance to the hatch.)

  6. What became of Alex? Is that her with the Others?
    Without a DNA test, who can say, but I think it would be a given that that is indeed her (adopted by Ben.)

  7. Why are there blast doors on the corridors leading to the geodesic dome?

  8. Why did the blast doors close?
    Partial: They lower when the plane comes to bring a shipment of DharmaFood. Potentially, the goal was simply to make sure that no one could go out to try and see the plane.

  9. Why was the “Orientation” film cut up and pieces of it put in seperate places?
    Partial: The guy that Kelvin was with (before Desmond came) did it, as well as creating the invisible painting on the blast doors. His reason for doing so is unclear.

  10. Whose glass eye was in the second Dharma station and why did they leave it there?
    Possible: Mikhael?

  11. What is the cause of the whispering?
    Possibility: Hollywood convention.

  12. Was the real Henry Gale traveling with anyone, and if not, who burried him?
    Partial: If I recall correctly, it was the real Gale’s body in the grave (given as the corpse had his ID on him.) So given as that it seems to have been Ben who killed him, it was most likely Ben who buried him. I believe that his wife did die of disease or the crash or something.

  13. Why did the Others release Walt after going to such trouble to get him?
    Partial: Supposedly, just since Ben always keeps his word (in appearance.) I suspect that Ben had something planned though.

  14. Why do the Others want Kate, Sawyer and Jack?
    Semi-speculative: In truth, they just wanted Jack so he would fix Ben. The other two were most likely meant to be used as leverage to make sure Jack went through with it. Personally, I would argue that the actual selection of characters had more to do with pushing the love triangle on the part of the producers than anything particularly mystical about those three.

18

Gosh, Sage Rat what timing you have.

As you may have noticed, this thread has languished for a while now. Not because my interest in “Lost” has changed, but because I find myself spending less time here on the Dope. As a matter of fact, this is the last day for which my subscription is valid and I have no plans to renew it. This may very well be my last post.

I’ve enjoyed talking Lost with you guys and while the Questions threads have been work at times, it’s also been great fun. I leave it now to you guys to do with this thread what you wiil. Hash it out amongst yourselves. I know you guys can take care of things and if someone wants to do the editorial chores, please treat this poster as well as you treated me.

While I won’t be posting any more, I’m sure to be lurking about. So remember - I’ll be sitting in my chair in front of the large bank of TV monitors keeping notes and passing them along in the pneumatic tubes.

Bye.

19

waves a mournful farewell to Trion :frowning:

11) Who are the “Others”, and is there more than one group of “Others”?

My best-guess theory, FWIW: they’re the remnants of the Dharma Initiative project that started on the Island in 1970, a team of rogue scientists who broke away from the original scientists on the Island and took over the experiment (the tinkering with the numbers in the Valenzetti Equation) for their own purposes. They initiated the purge against the other Dharma scientists and took control of the radio tower shortly after Danielle changed the signal in 1988.
*
43) What exactly was the “incident?”*

From the Swan and Pearl orientation films (and Kelvin’s drunken testimony), the incident seems to refer to a discharge like the one that crashed Oceanic Flight 815–a huge electromagnetic leak, destroying a lot of equipment, that required a failsafe device and the code to let the electromagnetic energy out safely.

47) What is the cause of the whispering?

I’m wondering if I’m the only one thinking it’s related to the Monster somehow…

50) Why did Alex help Claire escape?

Alex knew what was going on in the experiment, and probably helped Claire out of a combination of compassion and rebelliousness (ever since Dad took Karl away, Alex has not been a happy camper among the Others).
*
53) Why couldn’t Desmond sail away and why wouldn’t Michael be able to return without the proper coordinates for rescue?*

Related to the theory that the Monster is a security system: Desmond couldn’t get away because he didn’t sail in the right direction–he sailed for Fiji, the nearest landfall, and the Island’s anti-transport whatever put him back on Fiji. The Others were able to control the anti-transport whatever to allow Michael and Walt to get away (*if *they got away, which is a big if) and then changed it back so that he couldn’t get back there.

56) Why do the Others want Kate, Sawyer and Jack?

My thoughts again: they took Ethan and Ben’s observations and guessed that Jack and Sawyer were among the alpha males in the group, and there was tension between them over Kate. So they kidnapped them, in order to demoralize the Losties (and possibly brainwash the leaders–Jack seems really happy playing football with the Others in one of those final scenes–before releasing them). Hurley was a trustworthy figure to bring back the message, but ultimately disposable.

20

I’m a moron and I missed the edit window:

Put him back on the Island. Fiji ≠ the Island. As far as I know.