LOSTs Answered Unanswered Questions
As all fans of this show know, there are a ton of unanswered questions. Our hopes are that this final season 6 will put to rest many of these questions. Of course, there will remain some mysteries for speculation, but I believe there will be some good payoff this year.
The good folks over at Lostpedia have been capturing these unanswered questions. I’ve decided to take a few of them and try to answer them based on my own theories, which I will admit are likely influenced by some of the podcasts on Lost that I listen to such as The Transmission and LOSTCasts.
These are in no particular order, just some of the ones I was interested in from the Lostpedia list. I want to thank Lostpedia for maintaining this list, the links you see beside it will link you to relevant articles on the site.
On Walt
Q: Does Walt have “special powers”? If so, how and why? (“Special“) (“Man of Science, Man of Faith“) (“Abandoned“)
A: Yes, Walt likely has many abilities. I believe they have been with him and grew with maturity, but became more pronounced once he was on the island, magnified somehow. He is akin to Desmond, whom many believe to be “the variable” in the equation and of great importance. He wasn’t made that way, but was born that way. Both serve a purpose for the good.
Q: Why did Walt tell Locke not to open the Hatch? How did he know anything about it? (“Born to Run“)
A: Walt, although maybe not understanding clairvoyance, knew of the disaster that would unfold if the Swan hatch was destroyed, and felt through the survivors breaching the Hatch it would eventually lead to the stations destruction. The so called “Man in Black” or Jacob’s unamed Nemesis, is somehow restricted by the energy of the island, and while that energy is being regulated by the Swan station, he is trapped or is helpless to leave. Once the station is destroyed and that energy is released, he will be free to leave or put is plan into motion to do so.
Q: What did Walt see that frightened him enough to want to leave the Island? (“Born to Run“)
A: He fears the repercussions of the Swan station being destroyed. He knows that he cannot stop the turn of events so is desperate to flee once the Man in Black is free.
Q: Why does Shannon hear Walt say (backwards) not to push the button? (“Abandoned“)
A: The image of Walk is one of the many forms the Man in Black takes to manipulate the survivors on the island. Perhaps by mistake he thinks he can coerce Shannon to not have the button pushed which would accomplish his goal of destroying the Swan station. He speaks backwards because he is not able to recreate Walt’s image due to the unique nature of the child, the same would happen if he tried to appear as Desmond.
Q: Why do Shannon, Sayid, and Locke see Walt in places he shouldn’t be?
A: Part of the strange abilities of both Desmond and Walt is the ability to appear places. In some cases Walt appearing is actually the smoke monster (aka Man in Black) while in other cases he simply appears, as Desmond did on Oceanic 815 (flash sideways) and then disappear.
Q: Why did the Others make Walt take “tests”? What were the tests for? (“Three Minutes“)
A: The Others knew Walt was special, and that he had some keen insight or unique oppositional force to the Main In Black. If Desmond had not fled the island after the survivors began pushing the button they would have captured him too. They did tests on Walt to try to understand his relationship with the strange energy on the island and the Main in Black.
On The Swan Hatch
Q: Why was there a Quarantine sign on the door? (“Man of Science, Man of Faith“)
A: The sign was put on the door from the inside and meant to maintain the ruse of a virus or disease being rampant outside of the Hatch. It’s intention was to deceive the people inside to continue to push the button and was a lie perpetuated by Kelvin on Desmond.
Q: What are the blast doors for? (“What Kate Did“)(“Lockdown“)
A: The doors are meant to help contain an implosion in case it would happen. The structure of the station would allow to minimize the damage caused by initiating the fail safe.
Q: Why are the Numbers the code for pushing the button?
A: They were the numbers stamped onto the outside of the Hatch as noticed by Hurley when he was in the 1977 as a member of the Dharma Initiative visiting the construction site. Releasing the pressure by entering the code every 108 minutes coupled with the numerical station ID was meant to make the code easy to remember. It could also relate to how the pressure is released, with the numerical values corresponding to units or series of commands that must be executed.
Q: What did the fail-safe do to the station?
A: The fail safe did the same thing turning the frozen donkey wheel does, it releases energy in a way that moves the island. The key is just the more modern way that this occurs. While the primitive wheel can also shunt the energy once released, the station could not and could only cap it again by allowing the entire structure to close the exposed pocket of energy. This means that when Desmond turned the key, the island did move in location and possibly in time, how far or how much is unknown.
Q: Why was contact with the outside world strictly forbidden? (“What Kate Did“)
A: This was forbidden so that all outside influences and distractions could be maintained and the objective of releasing the energy in a controlled manner could continue. The isolation was not meant to be permanent but when no more replacements came it appeared as though a new rule of a virus outside requiring a quarantine would be needed. Also, external influence from the Man In Black, even if not well known was an outside influence that had to be prevented since it was his goal to have the energy released.
Q: If it imploded (as opposed to exploded) why were Desmond, Eko and Locke not crushed within it? (“Further Instructions“)
A: The energy is not destructive to human tissue. In fact, for the people on the island whenever a flash would happen or the energy being released, they would shift in time and location. Proximity to the blast would have different effects physically, or the type and scale of energy being released would have different effects. For Locke he lost his voice. It also displaced in location Eko and Desmond. This can also been seen most recently when the Jughead bomb detonated causing “The Incident” in the season 6 premiere we saw that Kate was displaced in location into a tree and at least her and Miles suffered temporary hearing loss.
Please leave a comment on what you think of these theories or if you have your own.