NO CLEAR ANSWERS

No matter how much we analyze, brood, think, speculate or brain numb the information and story lines of LOST, there are several major questions that remain murky, unanswered, debatable to unfathomable. No one really knows the intent of leaving mysteries unanswered in a long running series for whom the fan base spent their waking hours trying to come up with the answers.

The main questions (in no particular order) that remain:

1. WHAT WAS THE ISLAND?

Was it actually a Pacific Island on Earth? Was it place in a different dimension, like a spiritual realm? Was it a spacecraft since it could allegedly move in time and space? Was it the figment of some one's imagination?

2. WHAT WAS THE LIGHT SOURCE?

We were told that it was the source of life, death and rebirth. Was it a spirit? Was it a vague Star Wars type reference to the force that Jedi could manipulate in nature? Was it intelligent? If the light source was the power of life and death, then why did it need a human or spiritual protector? And if so, why did Jacob allow so many civilizations and people over the thousands of years to come to the island with the intent of exploiting its special properties? (The Romans, Egyptians, the U.S. Military, the Dharma Initiative). And did the guardians such as CrazyMom use the light use to destroy people? And how did she set the rules that would bind Jacob and his brother for centuries? Is the light the power to be a demi-god and set one's own rules?

3. WAS THE LOST STORY THE STORY OF JACK?

This is a hard one. We know that Jack was the first character to appear in the show by opening his eye and the last to close his after being the last one to awaken in the sideways church. One could say the first shall be last and the last shall be first. The last major character introduction was Flocke (MIB) so was he what the LOST story was really about?

4. WHY WAS WALT SPECIAL?

We discussed Walt's character in a previous post. But this question remains one of the top give gnawing issues on most fan blog lists. Was Walt psychic? Telekinetic? Alien-hybrid? And if Walt was so special, why did Ben let him leave the island?

5. WHY DID KATE WIND UP WITH JACK?

There were some hue and cry after the finale on this point. In the off-island O6 story arc, Jack had his time with Kate and they broke a part. They were incapable, at odds on the island and off the island. Kate was not part of Jack's fantasy sideways world. Jack was not part of Kate's fantasy sideways world. If Kate truly loved Jack, she would have stayed with him on the island instead of getting on the Ajira plane. Yes, she was fulfilling her mission to get Claire back to Aaron, but once Claire was on the plane, Kate could have gotten off. But she chose to run away, again. In the sideways world, Jack's love was actually Juliet - - - which is an odd choice, too, considering she was once his captor. But it also was not Sarah, the one woman in his life that he pined over. Then, why Kate?

6. WHAT WAS THE SICKNESS?

There was a specific and dangerous element of the story that we were warned about: the sickness. It took Rousseau's crew. It was going to take Claire and her baby. It could have injured Sun and her baby. How can an island with magical healing powers allow a deadly disease to destroy human beings? But again, the sickness should have infected everyone - - - since only a few got shots, but none of the 815ers came down with the sickness (except Sayid or Claire, if you believe Dogen that the "sickness" was a metaphor for evil or the darkness.)

7. WHY DID SOME PEOPLE DIE AND OTHER PEOPLE LIVE?

The island as an entity had no consistency in "saving" one injured person over another. Rose was cured of cancer, but Ben developed a spinal tumor. Locke was cured of his spinal paralysis, but Boone could not be saved from his fall. Patchy got shot and killed numerous times. Michael crashed a car and attempted suicide but lived. Some people like Artz got blown up by unstable dynamite while other people did not. The inconsistency or lack of life and death rules on the island continues to trouble many fans.

8. HOW AND WHEN DID THE FRIENDS CREATE THE SIDEWAYS WORLD?

This is a concept that is way, way, way out there with no explanation. It is based upon Christian's speech to Jack in the backroom of the church. If everyone died at different times and by different means, how did their "souls" create a vast, complex, physical universe in the after life? How could someone who was "alive" create their existence in the sideways world? How could someone who was dead freeze their after life journey in their own fantasy world? And when did this world start? By whom? The first person to die or the last person? And how would that person "know" to put in secondary bad guy villains into the sideways stories when they never met them?

9. WHAT WERE THE LESSON(S) OF LOST?

Normally, the end of a good book or movie there is a moral lesson or teaching about the characters. It is hard to pin point any final lesson or moral compass in The End. In fact, the entire six seasons of LOST had no moral consequences for any character's actions, good or evil. For example, Sayid's character does not change from his murderous, torturer ways. He is not punished on the island for his deeds; in some respects he is rewarded even after he is reborn as evil in the temple. And if the story is of Jack's happy reunion with his friends, what was the sacrifice he made to change the problems and ethical lapses in his past? There were no great moments of change. He gave up nothing to die on the island because the dangers of rescue or leaving were abated before Jack collapsed in the bamboo clearing. Was the lesson that friendship is the most important thing in one's life? But that is a weak and simple view - - - since some of the characters in the church never truly got along during their lives.

10. WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH THE TIME TRAVEL & MENTAL SKIPS?

LOST presented us with both metaphysics and quantum theories to unravel. How could the island move in time and space? How could only certain characters leap to 1974? How did only Desmond's mind flash to alleged future events? And how could characters actions change the fate of the future? There was so much gibberish on the basis of time travel but there was no concrete answer to the clues. So how did Minkowski die without a "constant" when in fact everyone knows of a person in their past and present to latch onto (a sibling, friend, colleague, etc.) Were these plot points merely unbelievable filler? TPTB created these story paradoxes then left them to hang to move on to the next cliffhanger or plot twist.

There are many other side questions like if Jacob was the only one who could bring people to the island, how could Ben leave the island freely to recruit new members such as Juliet? And why did pregnant women die on the island? And why did Alpert scold the Others about Ben's focus on Dharma stations and science? Why was it so difficult to "return" to the island when Ben and Dharma had regular submarine trips to the mainland? Why did the food drops continue when the Dharma people were mass murdered by Ben? And how could food drops magically appear immediately after a lock-down event if the island was thousands of miles off Portland?

Every person who watched the series has their own burning questions about the show, its plot lines, its character choices, and how the series ended.