LOST: Three Questions for Season Six

Before the end of LOST Season 5, Jeff Jensen at EW.com asked readers for their top three mysteries they could not live without knowing by the end of Season 6. I very rarely actually respond to those types of surveys, but I have been thinking about my responses. After a very fun re-watch of Season 5 with my dad over the last couple of months, I do indeed have three questions burning in my mind that, if not addressed, would leave me incredibly disappointed with the series as a whole.

If you haven’t watched all the way through Season 5’s finale, then I suggest you stop reading here, as the rest of this post will contain spoilers.

1.) Why is the Island (or a section of it) under quarantine?

I go quite a bit more in-depth with this topic here. Basically, even though viewers have known from the beginning of the second season that the inside of the hatch said QUARANTINE, we are still unsure of why. While my own personal theory is that Jughead’s detonation saturated the Island with radiation, there has been no actual verification of that (or whether Jughead actually detonated, actually) or anything else. As such, viewers don’t know what could have caused the quarantine, Jughead maybe, or a plague of some kind (maybe like Rousseau kept mentioning after her team went into the Monster’s vent), some airborne pathogen (like Charlotte and Dan destroyed back in Season 4), or something completely different. I just hope that the sixth season tells us what it is.

2.) Who are the Ancients that built all the ruins?

This is my really big one; I will feel completely let down by the show if they hint at having so rich a back-story for the Island and then never come through with it. I am seriously going crazy wanting to know about the Island’s original (presumably) inhabitants. Until “The Incident,” there had only been glimpses of their handiwork. An Egyptian-descended people are highly likely based on the teases of the Four-Toed Statue that turned out to be Tawaret, the hieroglyphs, the columns, Ben’s secret summoning chamber, the Monster’s vents and his Judging Chamber (complete with a picture of Anubis). All these teases make me incredibly interested to find out just who these people are. “The Incident’s” opening sequence of Jacob and Dude-in-Black teased me even more by letting me see a few moments of what could be part of a civilization or group, given that there are two of them who obviously know each other. The writers have been ramping up the amount of “ancients” they have been including in the series through the end of Season 5, and I hope Season 6 stops, at some point, teasing me by actually introducing them, their culture, their histories, their origins, and why they’re on the Island in the first place. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

3.) Just what is the Temple?

We don’t know a lot about the Temple, except that both Ben and Richard mention it as being sacred to the Others. And I want to know why. While it seems to tie into my #2, I am not 100% sure that it will. One of the things that time-travel during Season 5 made me think of is that perhaps the Temple is something more modern or futuristic (or set apart in some other way, at least) than the rest of the Island’s structures, and it has to be kept hidden from everyone else. As much of a The Dark Tower fan as J.J. Abrams is, I could see the Temple as a kind of a reality nexus akin to the Dark Tower itself. Given the exotic nature of the Island as it has been represented through the seasons, that is where I am currently placing my bet. I think there is something exceedingly special about the place that makes it more than just “holy ground” for the Others. There is a lot of storytelling potential in a place that is considered sacred and secret enough to construct a wall around just to keep outsiders away, even though the Island only has a select few people on it at any given time. I just hope that at some point in the final season viewers get a glimpse of it or, better yet, a guided tour and explanation.

My burning questions about LOST are those that are mentioned in passing yet seem to play a huge role in the behind-the-scenes narrative. I love the show’s “answer two questions and present five more” style, but it’s getting to the point in the series where loose-ends need tying up. One of my big qualms with Season 5 was that the revelations it tied up were based entirely in the season itself instead of many of the series-wide mythology concerns. I hope that Season 6 will take up the task of elucidating small, vague references made in passing four seasons ago that casual viewers might not even remember, but hardcore LOST-philes (what is the term for LOST groupies, anyway?) and mythology nerds place a great deal of importance on.

So those are my three mysteries that I hope get explained in the final season. What are yours?