IGN's Top 50 Lost Loose Ends We look at the multitude of nagging little questions Lost has left us with thus far.
Lost is a unique television series that manages to be engagingly captivating yet annoyingly frustrating. As big of fans of the show as we are here at IGN, we have more questions about the show's events than we have answers. So as Lost goes on a three-month-long Day Break, we thought we'd count down our Top 50 Lost Loose Ends.
#50: The Others and the Outside World
Whether or not The Others and The Dharma Initiative are the same, one thing has become obvious - The Others, unlike the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, have connections to the outside world. They apparently can watch TV, they know tons of details about each survivor, including Sawyer's real name, Jack's profession, etc. -- things that you might get with some Internet searching skills or perhaps something more advanced than that. One also wonders whether their new clothes, food, books, medicine, etc. mean that they have intimate connections to the world outside the island, at least in order to gain life's necessities.
So the question becomes why don't The Others leave the confines of their surroundings themselves? If they know where to find rescue or how to get away from the island, what's stopping them from doing so? After all, they promise Michael and Walt when they hand over their boat to them that by going in a specific direction, they will find rescue. How come they don't utilize this outlet themselves in order to go back to the outside world, maybe for some spinal surgery?
#49: Who Is the Guy with the Eye Patch?
Eye Patch Man -- or "Patchy," as fans are affectionately calling him -- made his first appearance in season three's "The Cost of Living." In his brief appearance, "Patchy" suddenly appeared on one of the Pearl station video monitors. Noticing that he was being watched, he quickly turned off the surveillance device from his end. A startled Locke joked, "I guess he'll be expecting us." Who could this mysterious man with an eye patch be? The answer may lie in an episode that aired about a year ago called "The Other 48 Days." In that episode, the survivors of the tail section discovered a glass eye along with the other half of the Swan orientation film inside a box that was located at the Arrow station complex. If "Patchy" is the owner of the eye; why would he abandon it?
Those of you who were paying close attention to the mural in the Swan station may have noticed that there was a drawing of a man with his left eye crossed out. Unfortunately, the man who appeared on the video monitor was missing his right eye. The mystery continues but hopefully we will be seeing more of this character when the series returns in February.
#48: Getting to the Prison Island
This is one of the few loose ends that we expect to be cleared up when Lost comes back in February, but it's one that keeps nagging at us. How did Jack, Kate and Sawyer not know that they were being moved to another island when they were taken prisoner? Considering Jack, Kate and Sawyer all wake up disoriented in their respective cages/holding cells, it seems that they were drugged and completely unconscious during the transfer. How else could one explain how they didn't know they traveled a couple miles to another island? As to how they traveled, the online hubbub is that the Others have a submarine. When Colleen is shot aboard Desmond's sailboat in "Further Instructions," Ben tells Juliet, "The sub is back." Whether this means they really do have a submarine remains to be seen -- until then we consider this a Loose End.
Another possibility is that Ben was lying/tricking Sawyer into believing that there are two islands when they're actually part of the same island. This seems fairly unlikely since once would think Sawyer would be able to see that for himself when Ben showed him the second island. Another possibility is that they didn't actually move from the main island at all and the island Ben pointed out to Sawyer was just a neighboring island the plane didn't crash on.
We can only think of one other explanation: there are two islands and there's a secret underwater tunnel between them. Maybe it opens up into that underwater area Jack's being held in. It could even be set up like an airport tunnel between terminals, with a moving walkway, maybe a little shuttle system. And perhaps a Muzak version of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" plays while you make the trip, in 108 seconds.
#47: The Quote on Eko's Stick: John 3:05
Was this passage Mr. Eko's last message to Locke, or is it just a reference to the Bible verse? John 3:05 states: "Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. But on Eko's 'Jesus Stick' it showed, "Lift up your eyes and look north, John 3:05." This loose end seems like it will get answered sooner rather than later as Locke sees this as a calling -- even if it really is a coincidence. But here at IGN we are betting on the fact that it is a combination of both the verse and the etching on the stick -- as Locke will have to head north, while giving himself totally up to the island to get the answers that he needs.
#46: The Four-Toed Statue Foot
There was arguably no bigger "What the hell?" moment in the season two finale, "Live Together Die Alone," than the glimpse of an enormous sandaled foot with just four toes. Seen by Sayid, Jin and Sun while onboard Desmond's sailboat, Sayid comments that he's not sure which is more disturbing -- that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it only has four toes. Series executive producers/writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse stated in the official Lost podcast on May 26, 2006 that the statue is a lead-in to season three, where we'll find that the statue predates the Dharma Initiative being on the island. Well, we have approximately 18 episodes left in the season for them to come up with some kind of flashback to pre-Dharma life on the island.
#45: Why Were All the Guns in the Hatch?
Sure, it's one thing to own a single gun for protection, but inside the hatch that our heroes spent much of their time in during season 2, was a room that held a rather vast array of firearms. These guns eventually became central to a power struggle between Sawyer, Locke and Jack, but the question remains, what were all of those guns doing in the hatch in the first place? Did Dharma put them there when they initially set up their experiments and created the hatch, or were they brought to the island later for a reason that occurred later? Was that reason a specific threat, such as the polar bears or the Others (if the Others and Dharma are not directly connected)? Of course there are hints that Dharma was conducting tests inside of tests, such as the revelation that whoever was pushing the button was being observed from another hatch. So perhaps the guns were there to simply test the hatch occupants and see what ramifications their presence would eventually result in? We don't know yet, but we do know those guns have proven to be very important to those on the island.
#44: The Cable
Early on in the series, in the episode "Solitary," Sayid finds a cable running out of the ocean and into the jungle, but his attempt to follow this cable leads to his capture by Danielle Rousseau. Later on, Hurley finds the cable again, and discovers it leads into the hills on the island, but then disappears underground. What exactly is this cable? One would assume it is transferring power or information, but for what purpose and to whom? It leads directly into the ocean - is the power source somewhere underwater and if so, how did it get there in the first place? When the cable goes underground, is it leading to another underground hatch? Or is there a power source inside the hills, and the cable is leading to something even more mysterious underwater, such as an underwater hatch that some fans have speculated may exist? No one has made mention of the cable since season one, so here's hoping it is brought up in the not too distant future.
#43: Compass Bearing 325
Many people were angered at Michael for his self-righteous escapade across the island in order to save his son, Walt, at the expense of four other crash survivors. What many people don't consider, however, are the specific directions given to Michael when he's given a boat and told to leave the island, headed back towards the real world. Gale, who we now know as Ben, tells Michael to "take this boat and follow a compass bearing of 325, and if you take that exactly, you and your soon will find rescue." What exactly is the compass bearing 325, and what significance does it have?
The significance is likely extreme. Apart from the science that keeps the island somehow obscured from natural vision (likely due to electromagnetism), 325 can be a lot of things. In fact, if you take 108 minutes (the time in between necessary button presses at the original hatch) and multiply it by 3, you get 324, one off. Beyond that, some have even suggested that the paintings in the hatch done by Desmond (or one of his predecessors) have "325 symbolism" within, as absolutely, positively the only way off the island. And if you take into account the concept of 360 degrees, then 325 would point somewhere northwest of the island, likely towards the Asian mainland. Is Michael really escaping the island via compass bearing 325? Only time will tell.
#42: The ? Hatch a.k.a. "The Pearl"
Was it coincidence or fate that the "? hatch" is such a center of attention? Whether or not the plane crash, eye patched man, or disappearance of that particular team means anything, we will have to watch and hope to see answers on those issues. But what perplexes us most about this hatch is that all the information that was printed out and compiled was sent by tube to a field in the middle of the island. Was there somebody who collected the information from this position? If so, where are they? Or was the station built to see if the participants would actually write up about what they saw on their monitors and not about the collection of information - but then why not have the tube lead to an incinerator? Why leave evidence that the information wasn't being processed? So was this truly an experiment, or was this monitored area like Ben's - allowing those in the hatch to survey over whoever is in each of these monitors? But then that leads us back to: Where is the team that was in this hatch?
#41: The Radio Tower
The radio tower had an early impact on the series as it broadcast the first signal, a distress call, that the Flight 815 survivors heard. It was later revealed that Danielle Rousseau had created the sixteen-year-old distress call. The radio tower initially broadcast the infamous Valenzetti Equation numbers. These numbers are what drew Rousseau and her team towards the island in hopes that they may find their origin. Rousseau then changed the broadcast from the numbers to her distress call, which describes an unknown threat that apparently killed off her team.
The survivors of Flight 815 have yet to discover the Radio Tower but Rousseau did mention that it was near the "Black Rock," an old British vessel that had crashed onto the island.
