Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Pure Speculation: Island Annie is...

I know I'm not the first person to explore these possibilities, but here are a few fun theories about the true identity of Annie, Ben's childhood girlfriend from the Dharma village on the island. In typical JOpinionated style, I immediately dissect such speculation by poking holes in each theory.

What if PENNY WIDMORE is Annie?

PRO:
  • We never met Annie's parents on the island, and because Daddy Widmore probably financed the Dharma Initiative, it's probable that Penny spent a substantial amount of time there when she was young.
  • We now know that Ben and Daddy W go way back, so it's possible that they met on the island. Widmore claims that the island is his, but when Ben orchestrated the purge, perhaps Daddy and Penny were either sent away beforehand or escaped when because they knew it was about to happen.
  • Ben and Penny could be around the same age.
  • We haven't seen Annie since she was a young girl, before the Dharma purge. We were introduced to Penny when she met Desmond at the Monastery, as an adult.
  • Penny may have put two and two together when Desmond disappeared...her father disliked Desmond, and when he vanished from Daddy Widmore's race around the world, she assumed that her father had something to do with it. She has known about the island (through either living there or because of her father's ownership of it), so she also knew how to find it via electromagnetic anomaly; thus, the remote listening station in the snow that she financed. How else would she know to contact the Kahana freighter (daddy's boat) and the Looking Glass station on the island?
  • Harper said that Juliet looks like "her," referring to why Ben likes her. It's a stretch, but Penny is blond like Juliet. Most people think that Harper was talking about Ben's mother, but I disagree.
CON:
  • Annie did not have a British accent, and Penny's is pretty strong. Even if Annie grew up in England after leaving the island, it's doubtful that her accent would be that pronounced.
  • Ben threatened to kill Penny because Charles Widmore was responsible for Alex's death, but it's unlikely that he'd actually harm Annie.
  • If Penny were Annie, then Ben would have used Desmond to get to her long ago. Desmond was on the island for three years before Flight 815 crashed there, and Ben was monitoring him in the Swan hatch but never made contact...that we know of.
  • Ben has all the resources and money in the world at his disposal on and off of the island; if Penny were Annie, he would have found her by now.
What if KATE is Annie?

PRO:
  • They look alike.
  • Kate's middle name is Anne.
  • We've never seen a glimpse of Kate's childhood or where she grew up.
  • She killed her father for wronging her mother; she may have taken a cue from Ben's patricide.
  • She met with Ben on the beach for breakfast in handcuffs after being captured last season, and was informed that she was about to face a very difficult few weeks. Perhaps Ben informed her of her past at that moment, and what he had planned her on the island. Remember that whatever she was told resulted in resistance and anger, as illustrated by her handcuff wounds and swollen wrists.
CON:
  • Kate doesn't seem to remember the island, so if she did spend some time there as a child, should would have to have been brainwashed. Even for Lost, that seems far-fetched.
  • Ben has had the resources to track Annie down, so he probably wouldn't crash an entire plane full people with the hopes that his beloved would survive.
Ok, it's on. Agree or disagree, but be polite!

See you late tomorrow night after the new episode.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Missing Limbs & Time Travel: A LOST Connection?


The unknown injury to Ben's arm in the last episode of Lost led me down this path. I believe that his wound relates to time travel, and that side characters like Dr. Marvin Candle have lost limbs and various body parts attempting to do the same thing over the years...either leaving the island or attempting to get there.

Whether or not any or all of these characters were injured during 'the incident' or the violent journey of time travel (or are connected to Ben, Widmore or Dharma) remains to be seen...

SEASON 1
Norman Croucher

We never met him, but Locke referred to double amputee Croucher as an example of someone with disabilities who conquered a physical challenge (he climbed Everest; Locke wanted to go on the Australian walkabout even though he was in a wheelchair).

Hibbs

Sawyer's former con partner was missing the top part of a finger on his left hand.

Montand

Another character that we never met. Danielle Rousseau briefly mentioned that he lost his arm in the dark territory near the Black Rock ship.

Ray Mullen

Ray called the Marshall on Kate (for the reward money) shortly after she showed up at his farm. She crashed his truck to avoid the Marshall, and discovered that he had one prosthetic arm when she pulled him out of the wreckage.

Martha Toomey

Martha's deceased husband Sam was in the military with Leonard Simms, the man who mumbled "the numbers" at Hurley's mental institution. Leonard told Hurley that he first heard about those cursed numbers from Sam, so Hurley went to Australia to find Sam Toomey (and then left on Flight 815). While there, Hurley learned that Sam had passed away, and saw that Martha had one prosthetic leg; she told him that she lost it in a car accident.

SEASON 2

The 4-toed statue

The infamous statue of an amputated leg with four toes was spotted by Sayid, Jin and Sun on the sailboat as they were awaiting a signal from Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Yeah, that never happened.

Dr. Marvin Candle

Candle appeared with a prosthetic arm in the first Dharma Orientation film, in the original Swan hatch. The same actor has since appeared in other Orientation films using different names (Dr. Mark Wickmund, Dr. Edgar Halliwax) and with the use of both arms at times. Sidenote: all of his pseudonyms share a common theme (candle, wick, wax).

The glass eye

Eko found a glass eye placed inside a bible, in the Arrow station where the Tail Section folks hung out for a while. Perhaps it belonged to Mikhail...

SEASON 3

Mikhail Bakunin

Dead or not, Mikhail sports an eye patch.

..am I missing anything?

Friday, April 25, 2008

Quid Pro Quo, Widmore: Further Musings About "The Shape of Things to Come"


After watching last night's episode again, I have a plethora of new thoughts and questions running through my exhausted mind...

BEN

What is the significance of the vapor emanating from Ben when we first glimpse him in the Sahara? Was he wearing the Dharma parka and layers because the time travel wormhole is a cold journey? That would certainly be convenient for the teleporting polar bears...

This is a stretch, but is Ben's brief illness upon arrival in the desert at all related to Jack's sudden sickness?

How did the Bedouins know that Ben was there? Did they seem him arrive (however that happened)?

Did Ben learn multiple languages during his many trips off the island using that stack of passports, or did he have a Dharma tape of Hooked on Turkish?

Perhaps this is a continuity error...when Ben first arrives in the Sahara, he does not have his satchel. But when he takes off on horseback minutes later, he does. Something tells me that it was meant to first appear after he checked into his hotel (where he had stored it during a previous visit), because it seems unlikely that the huge camera in that bag would survive the rough time travel in one piece.

Is the creepy portrait of the blonde woman in Ben's house supposed to be his childhood girl Annie as an adult, or his mother? He never met his mom and hasn't seen Annie since they were kids...as far as we know.

Ben tells Locke that he needs to survive because they have to see Jacob, yet only Hurley knows where to find the cabin. Why not tell Hurley that he needs to stay alive? Does Ben only need Locke to communicate with Jacob? And why, after Sawyer and Claire part ways with them, does Ben say "follow me" when Locke asks which way to the cabin? Is Ben lying about what his plans for Hurley are?

"Every single one of my people is prepared to die in service to this island." Really, Ben? In service to the island, or to you? Even your daughter?

BLACK SMOKE MONSTER

Last season, Juliet told Kate that she didn't know what the Black Smoke Monster was. But she knew that the sonic fence would stop it. So has Juliet always been aware that Ben controls Smokey and what he uses it for?

CHARLES WIDMORE

How far back do he and Ben go? Ben inquired about Widmore having a bottle of scotch by the bed, which might imply that they were friendly at some point, and quite familiar with one another's habits. Did the animosity begin only after he discovered that Ben purged his Dharma staff and took over 'his' island?

What were Widmore's nightmares about?

At what point was the island obscured from the world? Widmore claims he has always owned and the island and will return there again, so was Ben responsible for creating the invisible barrier that seems to cover it?

CLAIRE

How is it that Claire slept through the commotion of gunshots and Sawyer yelling her name?

Why bother having her mistake Sawyer for Charlie? She wasn't that disoriented; she immediately asked about Aaron.

DANIEL

Even though he was lying about what the freighter responded with in Morse code, Daniel said that the helicopters (plural) were coming to the island. I know that there were 2 landing pads on the freighter, but didn't one helicopter crash when Naomi bailed out and parachuted in?

What is Daniel's true mission on that island? Why did he and Charlotte disable the gas at the Tempest?

DR. RAY

Did Michael or Sayid kill Dr. Ray on the freighter? If so, why?

Similar to when Ben dispatched Ethan to the survivor's beach and certain death...why kill off your only doctor?

HURLEY

Hurley clearly and genuinely cares for Claire and Aaron, as he did for Charlie. It would make sense that he'd visit Aaron frequently in the future. Will we see Hurley visiting Kate and Aaron in a flash forward?

JACK

Does this illness mark the beginning of Jack's abuse of pills?

MARTIN KEAMY & CO.

Did Keamy know that Alex was Ben's daughter, or was he aware that Ben only pretends she is? He and the mercenaries had certainly done their homework about the island, and they did not open fire on her after shooting Karl and Rousseau.

Did he kill Alex only after Ben confessed that she wasn't his daughter? If the "rules" between Widmore and Ben were that loved ones are to be spared from their war, and Alex wasn't a true loved one, she became meaningless to Keamy.

Why do they stop shooting at Sawyer when he goes into the burned house to rescue Claire? Were they instructed to keep Sawyer alive for some reason? For trained snipers, they certainly failed to kill him as he ran toward her and fired back.

NADIA

How was she killed?

SAYID

There were American soldiers accompanying Nadia's funeral procession in Iraq. Were they already stationed there under the current war, or were they ordered to protect Sayid because he was one of the Oceanic 6?

FILE UNDER: RANDOM OBSERVATION

Did Ben's attire and demeanor remind anyone else of Hannibal Lecter after he escaped in The Silence of the Lambs?

And then when he traveled to London to offer up a serious heaping of Quid Pro Quo to Widmore (you killed my daughter, I'll kill yours) with similar creepy eyes and delivery, that just sealed it for me. Perhaps he went to Widmore's penthouse to "have an old friend for dinner."
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Thanks for the many comments - keep 'em coming!

Additional Reader Theories About Episode 4.9

Below are some additional thoughts about "The Shape of Things to Come" from two readers via email. The first is from my shy friend 'Jacob' and the second is from a new contributor, Tom. They are certainly on the same page when it comes to the Widmore/Black Rock theory.

Leave a comment if you agree or disagree with any of these ideas:


JACOB
"I think Charles Widmore was somehow related to the Black Rock ship, and he is one of those ageless people like Richard Alpert. At one point Ben said somthing to Widmore about the Rock,' which everyone would just take to be the island. Since when has the island ever not been referred to as 'the island?' Has it ever been called the Rock before....unless he was referring to the Black Rock ship. That would also explain why Widmore wanted the log of the ship.

He may have been there and got off somehow, and now he needs to find it again. Hanso had it and that was how they found it to set up the Dharma Initiative to test the island."
[update from Jo: I just watched that scene between Ben and Widmore again. Ben says 'Iraq' and not 'Rock.']

TOM
"Ben popped up in Tunisia in the same place where Charlotte Lewis found the polar bear collar. I think now that there weren't Dharma operations in Tunisia; stuff, like the collar, just went through the same time-space hole that Ben did.

Widmore doesn't have security, because as Ben says, 'You know I can't kill you.' But then Ben refers again to a changing of the rules. So that's why Widmore felt safe, and until Alex got killed, it sounded like family members were out of bounds, too.

And this is my personal wild moment of speculation with nothing to back it up: Widmore was on the Black Rock when it shipwrecked on the island."

Reader Theory: Ben IS the Black Smoke


One of my friends emailed this theory earlier, and I loved it, so I got his permission to post it:
"So, if Ben can time travel, talk to or see a man in a mysterious cabin that appears and disappears...and came out of his hidden room 'dirty'...could it be that he can manifest himself as the Smoke Monster? His character was obviously cast to trick us in the early going, as somewhat surprising physically (wimpy, eggheaded)...not the physical force we've come to know him as.

I guess the question is, have we ever seen Ben and the Smoke Monster in the same shot? He didn't come jumping out of the weeds until the smoke monster furor had ended...and the monster seems to treat people like he does. It inspected/watched Locke, killed the pilot (who we know is important because the helicopter pilot knew he was too good to crash a plane from their past together), nuzzled up to Kate as if to sniff her out and determine if she was good or bad (since he didn't get a good read on her at breakfast)...

Perhaps Ben can do more than transport himself in time. When on the island and super pissed, he can get his Smoke Monster on. In the early Smoke Monster moments, it didn't show itself, but rather tried to scare everyone to stay on the beach...stopping at the treelines...stay away from the center of the island, where he and the others lived."
So...what do YOU think?

LOST, Episode 4.9 - "The Shape of Things to Come"

Welcome back! I think I figured out a successful way to stay up this late each week after every new episode of Lost: a quick nap after work and a shot of espresso.

Here are my initial thoughts, theories and questions about tonight's episode...

ALEX

When Alex disarmed the sonic fence, did she purposefully punch in the 14J code to warn Ben? Are there various ways to disarm it?

BEN

Ben wound up in Tunisia on 10/24/05. Flight 815 crashed on 9/22/04. So now we know that the Oceanic 6 were rescued a year or less after they crashed.

Ben had been to Tunisia before. Was he involved with the extinct Dharma stations there, where Charlotte discovered the polar bear skeleton with the Dharma collar?

How did he receive the cut on his arm?

Ben specifically verified the date…he must have either teleported/time traveled to Tunisia [we know how island time differs from real time]. And he did so directly from the island – how else do you explain why he’d be wearing a Dharma jacket? Then again, he was dressed for the snow. Was he traveling to more than one location? Was he searching for Penny’s listening station, the one tracking electromagnetic anomalies?

Ben’s jacket had a new Dharma logo on it, as well as the name Halliwax. Edgar Halliwax was the name that Dr. Marvin Candle used in the new Orchid station Orientation video…

If Sayid hadn’t killed Widmore’s man in Iraq, what would Ben’s message to Widmore have been? Lock up your daughter, because Benny boy is back?

This drives me crazy…Ben monitored Desmond for years when he was in the Swan hatch. Ben knows everything about everyone. If he was so interested in Daddy Widmore, why on earth not use Desmond for information or bait to find/lure Penny? Ben’s lack of interest in Desmond doesn’t make sense.

This is the first time that Ben has lost at his own game, that he’s been caught off guard. He did not know that Keamy & co. were waiting at the Temple, or else he never would have sent Alex there with her mom and boyfriend. And then he tried his usual mind games to reason with Keamy, but he failed and Alex was killed.

Why didn’t Ben direct Alex to the sailboat and give her the coordinates to get out of that bubble safely?

Why was Ben dirtier after going to the secret chamber to summon the Black Smoke Monster?

Who drew/carved the design on Ben's chamber door? The same person who painted the Swan hatch wall? Did Dharma build the barracks village over an underground or pre-existing/pre-historic locale? Does it relate to the 4-toed statue?

BERNARD

Where was Rose?

Was he in the military? Between his secret knowledge of Morse code and his success with a gun (shooting at the dynamite on the beach, killing Others last season), it seems that there is more to this dentist than we thought…

BLACK SMOKE MONSTER

We’ve never seen the locomotive version of Smokey before, and obviously Ben unleashed it from the hidden chamber behind his hidden spy room.

Does Ben actually control Smokey, or does he simply take orders from Jacob and instruct Smokey to kill the ‘bad’ guys who aren’t on Jacob’s list?

So Locke was captured by Smokey in Season 1, but he wasn’t harmed. Juliet and Kate were scanned by Smokey last season, and also lived to tell about it (which is very interesting; even though she is a fugitive off island, Kate is considered one of the ‘good’ guys by Jacob…perhaps because he considered the murder of her father self-defense?). Smokey must have quite an extensive photo recognition database, loaded in by Ben with all of his intel about the survivors, others, freighter folks, etc.

Smokey did kill Mr. Eko, which is understandable given his murderous background and the island’s definition of good and bad. But why was it programmed to kill Seth, the pilot of Flight 815? What don’t we know about him? Did he have anything to do with the crash? Was he following orders? Frank Lapidus knew him…

Did Ben summon Smokey to check out the survivors on the beach that first night because Ethan hadn’t arrived yet? Is it only able to scan individuals and pairs rather than large groups at a time; is that why it didn’t go past the trees and onto the beach? Is it affected by or rendered immobile by water? It wasn’t dispatched to the Tail Section because Goodwin got there within an hour after the crash.

CHARLES WIDMORE

Did he arrange for Penny to be in a safe location only after discovering Ben on the island? If Ben had been able to travel to and from the island for years, why was Widmore only now taking strides to hide her?

Why was a man of his wealth and knowledge sleeping in an unsecured location, without an alarm or guard? He had to have known that Ben would show up at some point. Either he’s extremely overconfident or actually smarter than Ben. Only time will tell…

As usual, Widmore had a bottle of MacCutcheon scotch on hand. I believe that there was also a painting of the island in his penthouse.

Widmore said the island has always been his. Did he fund and oversee the original Dharma stations and teams? At what point did he become aware that Ben killed them all in the purge, and how?

Ben said to Widmore that “we both know I can’t kill you.” Is Widmore protected by the island?

CHARLOTTE

She was in Tunisia searching for the polar bear around the same time that the fake wreckage from Flight 815 was making headlines, which we can estimate was in late 2004. Was Ben there at the same time? Could she be another one of his moles; doe she work for Ben? Does she survive and get off of the island, and if so, does she work for him in the future like Sayid?

CLAIRE

Is she protected by the island? That girl should have died when her house was blown to pieces. If the island won’t let her die, that would indicate that she is alive and stuck there in the future, and that she probably gave Aaron to Kate upon her rescue.

DESMOND

Technically, Desmond would not be considered one of the Oceanic 6, as he was not on the plane. So it is very conceivable that he survives and gets off of the island. Does Ben somehow use him to help lure Penny out of hiding?

DR. RAY

In the last episode, the doctor warned Sayid and Desmond not to cross the Captain. Did Captain Gault kill him?

Was Dr. Ray killed because he became infected by the proximity to the island and subsequently became a danger to the crew?

Why would the freighter tell Daniel that Dr. Ray was fine?

JACK

Jack asked to speak with Bernard, which I initially thought was to discuss his illness…but then I realized that he’d probably consult with Juliet first (the only other doctor there). Jack took Bernard aside while Faraday was constructed a Morse code machine to before to contact the freighter. Did Jack know about Bernard’s military experience and ask him to interpret the freighter’s response back?

KATE

What on earth was the purpose of starting off this episode with Kate bathing and flirting with Jack? Talk about misdirection…

MARTIN KEAMY & FREIGHTER THUGS

In the last episode, Ben told Michael that the bomb didn’t detonate because there were some innocent (interpret: “good”) people on the freighter. Who? Captain Gault? Frank Lapidus?

If Ben unleashed the Black Smoke Monster to kill the 'bad' men responsible for shooting some survivors in camp, as well as Rousseau, Karl and his own daughter Alex, how and why does Keamy survive?

MILES

Had he been strung up with the grenade in his mouth the entire time? Did Keamy coerce Alex into telling them where Miles was being held?

NADIA

Was she killed because she knew too much about the island (from Sayid), or because Sayid broke the rules about what to say upon rescue, as set by whomever rescued the Oceanic 6?

PENNY

Is she aware that the freighter she’s been calling is her father’s? Does she know that it is close to the island where Desmond has been stranded?

Does Daddy Widmore explain the island and Ben to her? Does she realize that she’s in danger when he insists upon moving her to a hidden location?

I’d always imagined one of the last scenes ever on Lost (in Season 6) to be Penny’s reunion with Desmond. Let’s hope that Ben doesn’t actually find her.

SAWYER

Sawyer has transformed into Jack while over in Locke’s camp. He risked his life to save Claire, and then got protective of Hurley. Is this leading up to him sacrificing himself in order for Kate or any of the other five to be rescued? The episode is called “The Shape of Things to Come” after all…

SAYID

Did the rest of the Oceanic 6 attend his wedding to Nadia? Where did he find her? We’ve seen her in London (Charlie saved her from a mugging) and in Orange County (where Locke inspected her house).

After Nadia’s death, Sayid joined forces with Ben to eliminate Widmore’s men. Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sun are probably unaware that Ben was off of the island and that Sayid was working with him. Don’t they wonder where Sayid is? Doesn’t the media-hungry world at large also wonder where one of the most recognizable men in the world is?

LINGERING QUESTIONS

Where the hell are the tail section kids, flight attendant Cindy and the remaining Others hiding during all of this? They HAVE to be underground (I got very excited when Ben opened the secret door behind the wall in his spy office; I thought that it would lead to the underground village for sure).

How are Matthew Abbadon and Oceanic Airlines connected with Ben and/or Widmore?

LITERARY REFERENCES

Ben’s alias, Dean Moriarty, could refer to the name of the main character in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, and Moriarty is also the name of Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis.

Widmore’s man in Iraq, Ishmael Bakir, could be a shout out Ishmael in Moby Dick, who is the captain’s right hand man.

Ben told the bellman at Widmore’s place that he was there to visit Mr. and Mrs. Kendrick. In the aptly titled novel The Time Traveler’s Wife, Dr. Kendrick is a molecular geneticist. The protagonists in this book are named Henry (Lost: Ben/Henry Gale) and Clare (Lost: Claire). Henry has a rare disorder which allows him to travel through time at the same age, visiting people from his future when they are younger. I think I remember seeing or hearing about this book in Juliet flashback last season…

CRAZY THEORIES OF THE WEEK

Shortly after and because Alex was killed, Ben went into that hidden chamber behind his spy office and traveled to the future to visit Widmore in his London penthouse. Because Widmore had “changed the rules” by killing Alex, Ben immediately went there to threaten Widmore’s daughter Penny in return and for retaliation.

Ben’s little black club is some kind of time traveling tool.

Ben killed Nadia because he knew that Sayid would work for him when he had nothing left in his life. His creepy little smarmy smile as he walked away from Sayid in Iraq said it all…

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More to come Friday night and/or this weekend. Feel free to respond to any of the above or post your own theories!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Mr. Friendly Throws Like a Girl: LOST recap in 4:24


If you'd like a brief refresher about what's happened thus far on Lost through Season 4, here is a video. Because the series returns on 4/24(tomorrow night!), ABC condensed the video into 4 minutes 24 seconds.

See you back here early Friday morning!

Friday, April 18, 2008

LOST Producers Peeved


The recent Writers Strike was a wake-up call to the archaic Nielsen ratings system; an indication that online views and digital downloads need to be counted and added to traditional television ratings. We all know that Lost's weekly ratings would be tremendously higher if the folks in charge at Nielsen would simply monitor the number of purchases on iTunes and views on ABC.com.

Click here to watch Carlton Cuse, co-executive producer of Lost, briefly address this very topic.

Don't worry, there are absolutely no spoilers contained in this video. There are, however, an alarming number of spoilers about the upcoming episodes all over the Internet, and I am doing my best to avoid them all!

Have a great weekend.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Lengthy List of Lingering LOST Questions

I've been working on this extensively during the hiatus, and now that we're only a week away from the second half of Season 4, the time is right to post it. Don't forget that Lost returns next Thursday at 10pm!

AARON

Why is it that Aaron is counted as one of the Oceanic 6, but Sun’s baby Ji-Yeon is not? Aaron was in-vitro when Flight 815 crashed and was born on the island, but Ji-Yeon was in-vitro upon rescue. Is Ji-Yeon's exclusion part of the Oceanic 6 lie?

ALEX

She wasn’t on Flight 815, so she would not be considered one of the Oceanic 6, but did she make it off of the island? Something tells me we’ll see her with Ben in a flash forward soon.

How is it that she never noticed that Ben was gone for periods of time, off the island being a secret spy?

Was she pregnant? Does Ben arrange for Karl to be killed and for Alex to get off of the island to save her life?

BEN

Why isn’t he more interested in the survivors from Flight 815 who were also healed by the island (besides Locke)? I realize that he has larger issues to deal with now, but he’s been obsessed with island fertility and healing, so you’d think that he’d make it a priority to question Sun and Rose as well.

For that matter, will Ben follow Ji-Yeon’s journey off island, because he is the first child to be conceived on the island and live? Then again, if Kate was pregnant, her Aaron would also be of interest to him…

Also, given Desmond’s pre-existing relationship with Widmore, you’d think that Ben would want to talk with him. Ben had a camera in the Swan hatch and was monitoring Desmond for years before Flight 815 crashed. He had intel on everyone, so Ben had to be aware of Desmond’s history. And he also must have witnessed Desmond’s failure to enter the numbers on 9/22/04, causing the electromagnetic anomaly that brought down the plane.

Will we see his childhood girlfriend Annie again? Did he arrange for her safe return to the real world before he purged the Dharma folk? Is she his constant?

Will we ever find out why he was building a runway over on the Hydra island?

How does he manage to leave the island for good? Obviously there were other means of transportation besides the one submarine.

Is anyone besides Sayid aware that he’s among them after rescue?

Was Ben truly afraid of Widmore, or was he working for him? It makes sense that he was working with Widmore. How else do you explain Ben’s wealth, ease of travel back and forth, multiple passports, etc.?

Is Ben the Economist, or is it Daddy Widmore?

THE BLACK SMOKE MONSTER

Is it somehow controlled by or through the Tempest, the chemical/gas station? What is Jacob’s relationship to it?

Both Ben and Juliet claimed to not know what Smokey is…could they be telling the truth?

BROTHERS & SISTERS

Will Claire find out that Jack is her half-brother before or after he gets rescued?

Is it possible that Locke is Ben’s older brother? Both of their mothers were named Emily. Yes, I realize that Swoosie Kurtz appeared at Locke’s mom, but she also claimed that his birth was immaculate. Thus, her credibility seems sketchy at best. Locke was born in 1956 and abandoned by his parents for foster care when he was very young. Ben’s mother died giving birth to him in the early 60’s, so it’s entirely possible that they’re siblings.

CHARLES WIDMORE

Did he become aware of/ interested in the island only after purchasing the original journal from the Black Rock slave ship?

Is he a major investor in Oceanic Airlines? Did he have anything to do with the actual crash, or just the staging of the fake wreckage? And how would the robbery of 300 or so graves in Thailand not make major headlines? Did he really go to such lengths to fake the crash, or did Ben provide the bodies from his Dharma purge?

CHARLIE

When he appeared and talked with Hurley at the institute, he said that “they” need him. Is he referring to those from Flight 815 who weren’t rescued, who are stuck back on the island?

Does Charlie also appear to Aaron? And if so, does Aaron respond (as well as a young toddler can)?

Were his efforts down in the Looking Glass station all for nothing? It appears that Claire does not get on a helicopter and does not get rescued, per Desmond’s vision.

CHRISTIAN SHEPARD

Is Jack’s dad alive? If not, how did he appear in Jacob’s cabin?

Will he ever appear to Claire?

You might want to watch the mobisode of Missing Pieces called "So it Begins." Christian has a very intriguing and pivotal role...

CLAIRE

Does she die, or is she still on the island? Did she hand over Aaron to Kate because they didn’t have room on the helicopter for another adult, or did Kate take him from her?

Will the SOS message that she attached to the bird ever be discovered, and if so, how will that affect the lie that the Oceanic 6 are maintaining?

THE COFFIN

Did the person in the infamous coffin take his own life or was he killed (by Widmore or Oceanic) for sharing the Oceanic 6 secret? If he did kill himself, the island must have let him, which may indicate that he wasn’t an Other or Flight 815 survivor. One of the Freighter Four, perhaps?

CONSTANTS

So is it safe to say that Constants don’t come into play for people who get killed on the island (as opposed to those who take their own lives), such as Ana Lucia, Artz, Boone, Eko, Libby, the Marshall, Nikki, Paulo, Seth the pilot and Shannon? And because Charlie sacrificed himself to save everyone else, his Constant didn’t save him either.

Tom told Michael that the island wouldn’t let him die. Are Constants only affective for those on or near the island?

On the freighter, Minkowski and Regina died due to proximity to the island. So do all other crew members have Constants?

DANIEL FARADAY

Who was the mystery woman living with Daniel when we first viewed him at home, crying about the discovery of the fake wreckage?

If Desmond is his constant, why didn’t he react or recognize the name when he first encountered him at the helicopter?

Daniel, Frank and Miles freaked out because Juliet wasn’t on the 815 manifest…but neither was Desmond. And yet, no one seemed to blink upon meeting him. Odd. They also didn’t seem surprised to find Locke walking.

Given his short term memory loss, will Daniel remember that Desmond is his constant? How will that affect their future interaction?

Does he know Donovan, Desmond’s professor friend in England? Seems likely and not a coincidence, given the same field of study (physics) and general location.

DANIELLE ROUSSEAU

Her husband and their crew supposedly died after getting sick. Did it have anything to do with their lack of Constants?

Is Alex her Constant?

By the way, I don’t think she’s dead. They’re not through telling us her back story.

DESMOND

Was his vision (seeing Claire and Aaron being rescued on a helicopter) a crock? Did he know that Charlie would make contact with Penny, and is that why Desmond really encouraged him to swim down to the Looking Glass station?

How did he recognize Daniel Faraday when he flashed back to Oxford?

He wasn’t on Flight 815, so he wouldn’t be one of the Oceanic 6, but does he get rescued as well? Will the last scene of the entire series be his reunion with Penny?

FRANK LAPIDUS

Why wasn’t he the pilot of Flight 815? Did someone relieve him of his duties that day on purpose? Will he ever reveal to the survivors that he was intended to be their pilot?

Will Frank ever find out that Seth (the actual pilot) died via Black Smoke Monster?

How did Frank sustain injuries if he safely landed the helicopter on the island?

Did his helicopter “errand” involve dropping off freighter crew on the island to assassinate Karl and Rousseau?

Assuming that Frank is the pilot of the helicopter that actual rescues the Oceanic 6, what becomes of him after that? Will we see him in a flash forward? Does he interact with Matthew Abbadon?

THE FREIGHTERS

Yes, there are two. The first is the Kahana, led Captain Gault and financed by Daddy Widmore, carrying the Freighter Four (Charlotte, Daniel, Frank and Miles). The second is the Christiane I, which was reported in the news as the freighter which discovered the (fake) wreckage of Flight 815. When the Oceanic 6 are safely returned home, how will the fake wreckage be explained, as well as the different freighter with the survivors?

HURLEY

What will the ramifications be for Hurley now that Ben is aware that he has seen Jacob’s cabin move?

In the future, he is visited by Jack and visits Sun. Does he keep in touch with Kate? You’d think that he’d be very concerned about Aaron, given that he was close to and protective of Charlie and Claire on the island.

THE ISLAND

So it can prevent certain people from killing themselves, but it also appears to be able to kill others or let them meet their end on the island (Artz, Boone, Eko, Nikki, Paulo) and the freighter (Regina, Minkowski). The island must really like Mikhail, because that dude just won't die. Is Jacob’s list relevant to who lives or dies on or off the island?

JACK

Did the island prevent Jack from jumping off of that bridge during that first flash forward, just as it had prevented Michael from killing himself on several occasions?

If Juliet is left on the island when he is rescued, does he feel strongly enough about her to want to return? Or is she off the island, and he is simply motivated to rescue the remaining survivors stuck there?

JACOB

When Ben is off of the island, does he remain in power? Are they still communicating?

What is the significance of the ash surrounding his cabin, and does it move when the cabin does?

JIN

Is he dead or just stuck on the island? Seeing that the date on his tombstone is the date of the actual crash, chances are that he’s alive but marooned. I think that Sun and Hurley know this, but are playing along and making appearances to maintain the Oceanic company line/lie and keep Jin safe.

JULIET

Does she look like Annie, Ben’s childhood sweetheart, or Emily, Ben’s deceased mother? According to Other Shrink Harper, Juliet resembles someone close to Ben.

Was the fear of pregnancy a non-issue with her? Juliet had an affair with Goodwin, and Dharma prophylactics don’t seem to be abundant, so perhaps, in a Lost twist of fate, she was infertile.

Are we sure that she didn’t order Michael to kill Ana Lucia as one of the conditions for Walt’s return? I’m sure she found out that Ana Lucia was responsible for killing Goodwin…

Does she return to the real world unnoticed? She wasn’t on Flight 815 , so her rescue might be under the radar. Does she reunite with her sister and finally meet her nephew?

KATE

Will we EVER find out what was said during her breakfast on the beach with Ben last season, when he informed her about her very difficult two weeks, after she was captured and caged?

Was she pregnant? Is there a possibility that the Aaron we met in the future is actually her child with Sawyer (that she named Aaron as homage to the real kid)? With the time discrepancies, you never know. After all, Claire’s Aaron should be older than the one we see with Kate. Also, why work so hard to find out about her off-island status from Miles unless contemplating a return home?

Does the real world think that Aaron is Kate’s biological child? Was her acquisition of him part of the deal and lie that the Oceanic 6 are maintaining?

Why was Kate’s trial in Los Angeles? She never lived there before the crash, and none of her crimes were committed there either.

Did her mom know whether or not Aaron was really her son?

She had wealth and infamy upon rescue. She was on trial. And yet, no security or driver? Taking a taxi home from a major trial without any paparazzi? Something didn’t add up.

In the future flash forward when she meets up with bearded Jack at the airport, how much time had passed since her trial? She said that “he” will be wondering where she is. If Aaron is still a young child, wouldn’t be asleep at that hour? Why would a kid of that age he be concerned when Mommy runs an errand one night?

LOCKE

If he ever gets off of the island, will he be affected by his proximity to the electromagnetic pulse and radiation from the Swan hatch implosion, like Desmond? If he does, I wonder who his Constant would be. Helen? Will they reunite if he does return home?

MICHAEL

Did he disable the ship’s communications at the same time that Charlie unscrambled the island’s?

How is it that he is able to slip back into society without being recognized? Photos of the passengers from Flight 815 were probably plastered for months in the media and in every newspaper around the globe. As one of the only passengers traveling with his son, I’d remember him. Like Sayid’s free roam after rescue, it strikes me as odd.

Does he make it off of the freighter and return back to Walt? Does he continue to work for Ben, joining forces with Sayid?

MILES

We know he’s a ghostbuster who can communicate with the dead. How soon until he starts chatting up the island’s many deceased residents (Dharma, Flight 815, Others)?

If and when he leaves the island, does he use his abilities to scam the families of the victims from Flight 815 for money they received on behalf of Oceanic? He certainly knew the manifest and then had the opportunity to glean pertinent information from the survivors.

NAOMI

If the freighter’s primary objective was to find Ben, why did Naomi have a photo of Penny and Desmond with her? Did Widmore hire her on a side mission to look for Desmond? Did he find out about the location of the island through Penny and her team in the remote snow station?

The initials engraved on her bracelet were RG. Could it have been from either Regina or the freighter captain, Gault?

OCEANIC ATTORNEY MATTHEW ABBADON

When he visited Hurley at the mental institute and asked him if “they” were still alive, was he referring to the remaining survivors of Flight 815 or his team (Charlotte, Daniel, Frank & Miles)? Remember, Charlie later told Hurley that “they” need him.

When he offered Hurley an “upgrade” with an ocean view, was he threatening to return him to the island?

He hand-selected the Freighter Four to find Ben and the island, and then hired Naomi to oversee the mission. Was he on Widmore’s payroll, as well as Oceanic’s?

PENNY WIDMORE

If she had been contacting the freighter (which Minkowski confirmed) in search of Desmond, why didn’t she put two and two together when Charlie asked her about Naomi’s boat? Instead she responded with “what boat?”

Did Penny even know that the freighter she was contacting was financed by Daddy?

Did she hire a team to look for an electromagnetic anomaly in order to find the island because she read Daddy’s Black Rock journal?

RICHARD ALPERT

Is he the one who videotaped Widmore beating up one of Ben’s informants?

Is he still working for Ben in the future? Is he still able to travel back and forth from the island? Is he monitoring the remaining survivors there on Ben’s behalf?

We know that he appears to be ageless. Did he first arrive on the island via the Black Rock? Judging from his attire when young Ben first meets him in the jungle, it seems possible.

SAYID

Are Hurley, Jack, Kate and Sun aware that he is working as an assassin for Ben? Are Ben and Sayid working together to eliminate the people responsible for the crash and the marooning of the remaining survivors?

In the future, when Ben references a time that Sayid made a mistake by “following his heart,” was he talking about Sayid’s decision to turn Michael in to the Captain on the freighter?

Is Sayid working for Ben under threat of harm to those still on the island, or is Ben using Nadia (the love of Sayid’s life) as collateral or blackmail?

How is it that he is able to travel internationally without so much as a glance askew from anyone? As one of the Oceanic 6, and with a very memorable name and look, you’d think that Sayid would be recognized immediately and everywhere.

Will we ever find out about his “incident in Basra” that Juliet referred to?

TOM

Given the time it would have taken for Tom to travel to and from the island to New York, there had to have been a faster mode of transportation than a submarine. Either that or the island is much closer to the real world than we’ve been led to believe.

Is his boyfriend in NY the one who Widmore captures and roughs up on the video that Ben and Jack watch?

TUNISIA

Who funded the Dharma stations in Tunisia, where Charlotte discovered the polar bear skeleton, and why where the stations abandoned and buried? Is Tunisia directly above or below the island? Was it a mirror experiment to the Dharma stations set up on the island? Are the 4-toed statue and the temple pillar on the island related to this location?
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Obviously the questions are endless and limitless. I tried to cover as much ground from the first 8 episodes of Season 4 as possible. Please feel free to add your own!