(Spoiler warning if you have not watched LOST)
Six years ago, a new television series, called LOST, graced our TV sets. Each week brought more and more questions. Each week caused the viewer’s mind to race with questions, not-so-concrete answers, and more uncertainties. For six years, I, along with millions of other viewer’s, joined the survivors of the lost Oceanic Flight 815 on this mysterious island of wonder.
Sadly, LOST has come to an end. But, just as LOST started with questions, it also ended with questions. As many feel that LOST truly agitated them and made them feel very lost in watching the show, I feel as though all questions were answered at some point in time during the show’s run. Those questions may have been answered upfront and obvious, however, other questions may have just been answered by mere passing.
I’d like to focus on presenting ten uncommon LOST questions with answers. Please remember that I have no ‘inside’ scoop on these answers. Like you, I am just a passionate fan of LOST.
Who dropped the pallets of food?
The easy answer would be the DHARMA Initiative, seeing as how all the food on the pallet had the DHARMA Initiative packaging, but the island started jumping through time. The DHARMA Initiative started infiltrating the island in the 1970’s. The pallets of food were still being dropped after Oceanic Flight 815 had crashed in 2004. Over 30 years of food being dropped on the island and most of the original DHARMA Initiative workers were dead. The DHARMA Initiative created an off island station, called The Lamp Post, in order to locate the island – assuming they knew that the island had the ability to travel through time. Creating this off island station assured that the workers were properly fed when food was requested (via computer game) or when the last pallet of food allotment assumed to have run out.
Another answer could be Jacob. After a certain point, the DHARMA Initiative may have given up on its failed and abandoned project. Reports were piling up in random parts of the island field’s and going nowhere. Jacob had openly stated that he had been bringing people to the island, does that mean that when the drops had stopped, Jacob had used his Jacob powers and kept producing food drops for these dedicated and stranded workers that Jacob may have felt guilty for letting them arrive to the island or even bringing them there himself?
Why pregnant women die on the island?
Juliet, a fertility scientist, was brought to the island with the promise that she would see things that she could only dream about. However, she was quickly thrown into a life of watching women die during pregnancy and trying to figure out why women could not give birth on the island. Several answers stick out in my mind, the main answer being that the island decided who lived and who died. It was explained that the island’s light was ‘life, death, and rebirth’ as well as stated that the light was something that was inside everyone. Obviously, the island harnessed some sort of coherency and power to chose who lived, who died, and who was reborn. If there was a purpose for the child and mother, then they lived. If they had no purpose then they died.
Claire was already pregnant when she arrived on the island and had successfully given birth to Aaron. Jin and Sun, prior to arriving on the island, were not able to conceive. After crashing on the island, Sun conceived on the island and successfully gave birth off of the island.
Even though Jacob was considered to have a say so in what happened on the island, I doubt that he would let a baby or unborn child die. He had stated that the reason why Kate was crossed off the chosen list was because she had a child – she was taking care of Aaron.
Another possible answer, however not a very solid one, is when the DHARMA Initiative hit the pocket of what they referred to as electromagnetism that caused the ‘incident’, they really damaged a portion of the protective covering of the island, releasing the light in an uncontrolled manner.Picture the human body when it’s injured or a part of it is severed; muscles, tissue, nerves, bone, and blood are uncontrollably lost causing damage to the body as a whole. When the island was injured, one of its characteristics may have taken over as other parts healed.
What did Jacob drink when he became the island’s guardian?
Jacob’s ‘mother’, after a whispered chant, presented Jacob with a glass of wine to drink to take his place as the island’s guardian. Jacob presented Jack (and Jack gave Hurley), after a whispered chant, a glass of island stream water to assume the guardian role. At first seeing the wine, I assumed that it was some sort of ambrosia, but after seeing water do the same job, I assume that it’s not the drink that does the trick. The drink is just a symbol, like a changing of the guards’ type role. It’s the words that are said beforehand that seals the deal. The words are not some sort of magical spell; I believe that they are just a certain phrase or notification to alert the island that you have a new protector.
Why could the DHARMA submarine/ the Other’s submarine come and go from the island, yet the island could not be found by normal means?
Many have tried to leave the island, but I believe that this is only able to happen if Jacob allows it. Everyone that is meant to be on the island at a certain time will return at the time that they are needed. Such as when Sun was in 2009 but Sawyer and some others were in the 1970’s. They were placed in the time that they were needed to be. I believe that Jacob allowed the submarine to come and go as they please because he knew that they were always bringing back more people, hence more candidates for him to observe. So in a way, the DHARMA Initiative was helping him out.
What was the Smoke Monster?
The Man in Black thrown into the heart of the island created a large, lightning crackling, cloud of smoke. Throughout daily life, where there is a positive, there is always a negative to counter-act it. Jacob was a ‘good’ child, who gave into anger and the act of revenge after his brother, the Man in Black, killed their mother figure. The Man in Black seemed to feed off of lies and deception. After hearing of his real mother’s death, the lies his fake mother had told, and being left behind by the people that his fake mother had told him were bad, he had a hatred for humanity. When he was thrown into the light of the island, I believe he inherited part of the island’s power – the power of death, evil. Jacob was now not only protecting the goodness of the island, but now preventing an evil from being unleashed unto the world – that of which was stated by Jacob in season six. It wasn’t until Desmond had disturbed the heart of the island, that of which is where the Smoke Monster is his energy source, caused him to not be immortal and susceptible to death.
Where did the polar bears come from?
Polar bears in the middle of a jungle on an island. Not something that is a normal occurrence. Sawyer more than likely hit the nail on the head when he said it came from bear village. Remember the cages that Sawyer and Kate were locked in over in Hydra Island? That was the bear village of the DHARMA Initiative. Hydra Island was the Zoological Research Station of the DHARMA Initiative. More than likely, a polar bear was brought to the island and through the research had created a polar bear adaptive to island climate.
Why did the bomb blow up the submarine with Jack and the other candidates in it, however the dynamite didn’t blow up Jack, Richard, and Hurley in the Black Rock?
Richard had never done anything wrong; Jacob had seen his nobleness to save his wife and the accident that had happened in an argument to save her. Jacob had given him a second chance, that of which he succeeded at being a trusted and righteous individual. He had a purpose, as did Jack, and Hurley. So the island still needed them and prevented the dynamite from exploding. The bomb brought onto the submarine exploded because the island didn’t need certain people anymore. Everyone who died in the submarine explosion had reached the point of their purpose. Everyone who survived the submarine explosion still had a reason for survival; their purpose for living had not been met yet.
What happened to Christian’s body?
Christian Shepherd was already dead before the plane crashed, so when Jack found the casket, his father’s body wasn’t there. I honestly believe that it was either separated from the casket by the Smoke Monster/Man in Black in order to attempt to cause Jack to go insane, and then he would be eliminated from being a candidate. He had a tendency to play a lot of mind games.
Why Walt was told he was so special?
I think why Walt was so special is because he too had a connection with the island but realized it way before everyone else did. He was having dreams about things that were happening on the island. I honestly believe that the reason why Walt was not with them in “The End” was because he took over after Hurley as the island’s protector.
How did the Black Rock get to the island?
Even though the Black Rock played a significant location to LOST, the reveal that the ship that Richard came over on in the 1800’s was the Black Rock. If you watch closely, during the scene of “Ab Aeterno” when the ship is crashing through the waves, there is a brief light that reveals the name of the ship being Black Rock.
These are just ten of the hundreds of questions that were asked during the six seasons that left the world of LOST fans scratching their heads to come up with their own conclusion or to re-watch the show and find the answers hidden in the island for them. But whether or not they were answered, LOST will always hold a special place in television and in our hearts. Creativity is a powerful thing, and the writers were pure genius!
