21) Who is Henry Gale and why was he in a Charles Widmore-branded hot air balloon?
The man whose identity Ben assumed while in castaway captivity in The Swan, the real Mr. Gale met his unfortunate end at the hands of the Others.
So was he sent by Widmore to find the Island? Or, like Desmond, was he on a race around the world (albeit in a balloon and not a yacht)?
Answer (8/24/10): Another plot thread for seasons seven through nine.
22) what did Kate promise to do for Sawyer back on the mainland?
I’m guessing it was something for his daughter Clementine.
And I’m also guessing the “Noreen” Kate was talking to on the phone in season four might be Cassidy, Sawyer’s fellow con-artist-in-arms.
Answer (4/1/09): Sawyer asked Kate to take care of his daughter, Clementine. Kate drops off a piece of her Oceanic settlement and refreshes her friendship with Cassidy, the grifter-turned-mother.
23) What exactly happened when Desmond turned the Swan key?
The station imploded into an ultra-dense ball of matter, as per showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. But what happened to Desmond?
Answer (4/6/10): Desmond was bombarded with an impossibly high concentration of electromagnetic energy — perhaps even absorbing it. He was then sent flashing through time, something apparently unique about him. He is again bombarded by EM energy when brought back to the Island — against his will — by Charles Widmore, and is again sent flashing through time.
24) What was the “incident” that led to cemented-up wall in The Swan, along with the countdown and Number entry every 108 minutes?
Was Dharma mining a bit too deep?
In the excised portion of the Swan station orientation video, a one-handed Marvin Candle made mention of an “incident” that required entry of the Numbers into a computer every 108 minutes to release built-up electromagnetic energy originating from an “anomaly” behind that wall.
Answer (5/13/09): The season 5 finale, appropriately titled, “The Incident,” gave us all the details we needed. While drilling through the earth toward one of the Island’s pockets of electromagnetic energy, the Dharma Initiative breached the pocket, likely causing all manner of havoc. Despite that, the Initiative was able to seal the breach with a whole bunch of cement and continued with plans to build a habitat/research station of sorts around the EM pocket.
25) Where are the supply drops coming from?
Are the Degroots still alive and shipping off palates of food to the Island they’ve lost contact with?
Answer (8/9/10): Dharma set up an isolated warehouse on the Pacific island of Guam, staffed by two Initiative members for the last couple of decades. Ben, tying up loose ends after the finale, finally shuts the place down.
26) Did the island create that magical toupee Cheech wears?
Answer (8/24/10): Yes. Yes, it did.
27) When do we get to meet Dr. and Mrs. Gerald Degroot?
The scientists who founded the Dharma Initiative have been glimpsed only ever so briefly in Dharma orientation films and the Room 23 brainwashing video. I’d like to see their first visit to the Island, and just what they were trying to accomplish with the Initiative there.
Answer (8/24/10): Never, apparently. Maybe they’ll turn up at the end of this Lost University promotion on the season six DVD set.
28) Who is Marvin Candle/Mark Wickmund/Edward Halliwax?
And what is his fascination with candlemaking materials? Is he really minus one hand? Are they triplets? Did he bite it with the rest of the Initiative in Ben’s Purge?
Meet Mr. Pierre Chang.
Does that cameraman’s voice sound familiar (not the fat kid)?
Answer (1/21/09): Well, yeah, it’s Pierre Chang. Apparent leader of the Dharma Initiative in the 1970’s. The ill-tempered doctor is a demanding boss, but one that loves his son, Miles. And that video clip above should no longer be considered part of the show’s canon. It was originally intended to be part of an online event/game over a hiatus but ABC decided to ditch it when the writer’s strike hit and the economy crumbled. Tryin’ to save a buck.
29) Why doesn’t Faraday remember Desmond visiting him in the past?
If he scribbled “IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG, DESMOND HUME WILL BE MY CONSTANT” in his notebook, how can he not remember the guy when he first meets him on the Island? Why was he crying when he saw the report of 815’s discovery at the bottom of the ocean on TV? Ms. Hawking told Desmond in no uncertain terms that time has a way of “course correcting.” Faraday himself tells Desmond in the past that “you can’t change the future.”
Answer (8/24/10): I think I’ve gone over this somewhere in the hundred thousand or so words I’ve written in the past couple of years. Just read all of my posts chronologically and you should be all set. Go ahead; I’ll wait.
30) What exactly did Ben do when he turned that frozen donkey wheel?
Why’d he end up in Tunisia almost a year into the future? Did the Island come along with him in time? And why can’t he go back to the Island? Based on Charlotte finding the remains of a polar bear skeleton bearing a Hydra station collar, I think the bears were trained to turn that wheel themselves.
Answer (5/11/10): The frozen donkey wheel contraption seems to have been conceived by Esau and the villagers living on the Island. The wheel was somehow meant to channel the water and light (the light responsible for all life) in such a way as to transport one off the Island. We know it works, as Ben and Locke (the real Locke) were able to use it.
Great to read and be reminded of all of this before the show starts again this week..thanks. More questions? Are you kidding me? That’s all I have is questions….and no answers! Yes, you’ll get your share as they come to me…you asked for it!
great stuff gordo…without your recaps I would be as lost as the cast members themselves.
41) Why do pregnant women die after their first trimester?
Juliet was brought there to try and figure out why but failed. Claire was 8 months pregnant when they crashed. Perhaps it’s getting past that first trimester that’s the trick.
Just reading all of these again make all these things seem so far in the past! So much has happened this season that, as usual, it boggles the mind…Let’s hope the writers have answers to all of them, and that our “tracker” makes sure that all storylines are tied up with no loose ends in the end!!!
42) What are the “whispers?”
Answer (4/13/10): They are the voices of those that have died on the Island but can’t yet “move on.” Michael tells Hurley as much while guiding him away from the Black Rock’s dynamite and an explosive fate.
Stumbling into your blog while researching some stuff kicked up by visiting the nuclear weapons museum in Albuquerque was truly wierd. I visited that museum as a USN trainee in 1959, the casing of the Mark 17 was exhibit #1, and the resemblance between the “Jughead” bomb in “Lost” and the EC-17 was noticeable, the other thing that startled me was finally seeing that the Dharma emblem is a cross-section of the trigger section, the Mark 5. Well, the test of it “vanished” the island, leaving a pit 6,000 feet wide. All the Dharma technology is so reminiscent of all the testing equipment I used to work with in the project, it is truly creepy. Maybe the island is the missing island of Bikini, off wandering.
Good stuff; thanks for the insight!
43) Who was in the outrigger chasing and shooting at Sawyer, Juliet and company during the time flashes (5×04 – The Little Prince)?
Answer (9/7/10): Those who’ve purchased the complete series box set should read over the journal entries included in the set, as they reveal the mysterious outrigger was captained by crewmembers of the Black Rock.