The first episode of the series Lost celebrates its 20th anniversary on September 22, 2024. Even today, some of its most important mysteries continue to fascinate. Sometimes, answers must even be found outside the series. Here are the 7 most significant mysteries of Lost.
Lost is 20 years old. On September 22, 2004, the American channel ABC broadcast the first episode of this series, which would become a phenomenon on the small screen. During its 6 seasons, the series kept its most assiduous fans in suspense with its many mysteries… which may have also discouraged some, for fear of never getting answers. However, most of the questions that one may ask find an explanation – whether in the series itself, or in its extended universe. Devoted fans have listed, on the site Lostpediaall the important mysteries appearing in the series. Today we look back at 7 of the most striking of them.
If you think the characters have been dead since the beginning, or you’re wondering where the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42 really come from, then this article is for you!
Obviously, this article contains major spoilers from the series.. If you haven’t seen it all the way through, there’s still time to go — for example, to discover other series similar to Lost on Netflix.
What was the black smoke monster?
During their first night on the Island, in the pilot episode of Lost who has not aged a day, the survivors hear a succession of terrifying sounds coming from the jungle. We will have to wait until the end of the first season to finally see what “the monster” looks like, which takes the form of a cloud of black smoke.
It’s in the episode Across the Sea (season 6, episode 15) that we learn its origins. About two thousand years before the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, Jacob (who will later become the “protector” of the Island) and his brother, whose name will remain unknown and who will be referred to as “the Man in Black”, arrive on the Island. The latter only wants one thing: to leave the Island on which he finds himself.
His mother tries to stop him by slaughtering her clan. The Man in Black, in a fit of rage, murders his mother – before Jacob takes revenge in turn and sends his brother to the heart of the “source” of the Island. This last act results in the release of the black smoke monster.
Being able to take on the features of a deceased person (notably Christian, Jack’s father, or John Locke, in the last season), he will try, by manipulating the people around him, to kill Jacob in order to escape the Island once and for all. This suggests that the black smoke monster represents the spirit of the Man in Black, who always has the same goal.
It is worth noting that during the series, hieroglyphs appear, depicting the monster alongside Anubis. The Egyptian period pre-dating the transformation of Jacob’s brother, this may suggest that the monster (or another version of the monster) already existed before.
Why did help never come?
The answer is two-fold: first, because it is complicated to find the Island, as it moves in the ocean. There is even a Dharma station in Los Angeles, the Lantern, dedicated to calculating its location.
Then, the search stops two months after the crash, following the discovery of the wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815 in the Indian Ocean. In reality, we will discover that it is a set-up by Charles Widmore, a former member of the Others exiled for having a daughter outside the Island (Penny, Desmond’s wife). He wanted to keep the existence of the Island secret, so that he could find it by his own means – which he will do by sending the Kahana, during season 4.
Where do cursed numbers come from?
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. These are the six numbers that allowed Hurley to win the lottery, before he suffered a series of disasters: his grandfather died, the priest officiating the funeral was struck by lightning, a meteorite destroyed one of his restaurants…
Numbers appear many times in the series: they are the code to enter into the Swan’s computer, or the numbers assigned to each of the remaining candidates to replace Jacob.
To understand their meaning, you have to delve into the extended universe of the series. Indeed, between seasons 2 and 3, the writers of the series offer fans a alternate reality game (Alternate Reality Gameor ARG). At the time, a treasure hunt leads to several websites that blur the line between fiction and reality. Throughout the adventure, we can glean information about Alvar Hanso, one of the founders of the Dharma project, but also — and this is what interests us here — about Enzo Valenzetti.
In the expanded universe, he is a mathematician working for the United Nations, and has developed the Valenzetti Equation, which accurately predicts the time remaining before humanity’s extinction. The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 are important factors in it, and are said to be part of the very fabric of reality, which would explain, at least in part, why they are cursed.
What is the Dharma Project?
The Dharma Project is a scientific mission to study the unique properties of the Island. The project was active in the 1970s to 1990s. In the alternate reality game, it is revealed that the project aims to find a way to modify the factors of the Valenzetti equation, in order to push back the date of humanity’s extinction.
During its existence, the Dharma Project would build several stations on the Island, including the famous Swan Station. This station, created after the accidental breakthrough of a pocket containing a reserve of electromagnetic energy, requires a user to enter the numbers every 108 minutes, in order to release some energy and prevent another catastrophe.
Who are the Others?
The Others are a group of individuals whose lives on the Island predate the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Their first member is Richard Alpert, who arrived during the 19th century aboard the Black Rock. He is one of the first people Jacob brings to the Island, and who will serve as his go-between for all the people who subsequently end up on the Island.
In 1992, the Others organized the purge of the Dharma Project, which exterminated most of its members – with the exception, notably, of Ben, who would become their leader a few years later.
Were they dead all along?
This is a recurring interpretation that we find among some viewers of the series: Jack, Kate, Charlie and the others are dead and everything that happens on the Island is a kind of purgatory. The end of the final season shows us a large number of the characters of the series in a church, before a white light makes them disappear. In this scene, the characters present are indeed dead, and find themselves in the afterlife to “move forward”.
But that doesn’t mean that nothing really happened. In the universe of the series, all the events that occur on the Island (and later, off the Island) are real. Only the scenes in season 6 involving a universe in which the plane never crashed (the flash-sideways) correspond to the afterlife, in which all the characters, once dead at different times, find themselves. Thus, if Boone dies in season 1, Jack dies a few years later, once after leaving the Island and returning. Hurley, the protector of the Island at the end of the series, will die later, at an undetermined time.
Why are the characters on the Island?
This is the question that much of the final season focuses on: what if the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 had not arrived on the island for no reason?
Most of the survivors turn out to be potential candidates to become protector of the Island, and thus succeed Jacob. The latter, sensing that the Man in Black would sooner or later find a way to get rid of him, sets out in search of a replacement. The candidates have in common that they have reached a point in their lives where they find themselves isolated, lostoften after being manipulated or betrayed by someone close to them (Jack and his father, Kate and her mother, Charlie and his brother, Michael and his wife, etc.). Jacob therefore selects people going through an existential crisis, giving them the opportunity to give meaning to their lives.
Source: www.numerama.com
