Finale Preview

Before the season kicked off, I made several lists of mysteries I predicted we would or would not get answers to before the end of the show. For starters, let's look at how we're doing on mysteries from my pre-season poll:

1) Who are Jacob and the Nemesis?

Pretty much answered, although I'd still like to know whether they or Mother have any ties to Egyptian mythology (or whether all the Egyptian stuff was just a hobby of Jacob's).

2) What is the Monster?

Again, pretty much answered and we'll certainly find out what the exact nature of the Monster is tomorrow night, i.e. Is he Smokey's soul or something Jacob released by throwing his brother into the Source.

3-tie) What are the Whispers?

Answered. Restless souls trapped on the Island, incapable of moving on.

3-tie) What is the Island?

Basically answered. It's certainly a prison for Smokey now, but we still need to know exactly what The Source is and why Mother was protecting it before Jacob came along.

5) What's in the Temple?

Answered. Too bad it was kinda lame. I am still curious as to whether the pool in the Temple bubbles up from The Source. If so, it seems The Source was corrupted with Jacob's death. Has it been restored now that Jack has taken over?

6) Why is Aaron important?

In the wake of the previous episode, this something I'm even more curious about. Since the end of last season, I thought Aaron had to be raised by Claire and Claire alone so that he would remain "good" and be able to replace Jacob. However, Jacob said he chose all the candidates because they were "flawed like him." Furthermore, he was raised as an innocent and railroaded into becoming Jacob against his will and I can't see him doing the same thing to another young, blond-haired lad.

So was the whole Richard Malkin thing simply a ruse by Jacob to get Claire on the plane. Did Aaron have a destiny on the Island before Kate took him away. This is one of those big questions that hasn't been addressed. I really hope we get an answer to tomorrow.

7) Why do pregnant women die on the Island?

This will be addressed tomorrow. It's one of those things Darlton has been incredibly evasive on, so you know it ties into the nature of the Island itself.

8-tie) Who are Adam and Eve?

Answered. Even if (to me) the answer was incredibly disappointing.

8-tie) What's Libby's backstory?

Unfortunately I think this is one of those things that's going to fall by the wayside, unless her Alt timeline counterpart reveals something in the finale. And the sad thing is how little we really know about her - we don't know why she was in Australia, why she gave Desmond the boat, who her husband was or why she was in Santa Rosa. And even sadder is the reason we don't know all of this is likely because Cynthia Watros decided to get go get herself a DUI and was written out of the show. :P

10-tie) Who are Ilana and Bram?

Answered. Again they were both kinda lame, although Ilana did have one really good scene with Ben before she went boom.

10-tie) Does everyone on Flight 815 have a specific destiny?

Answered. The people who survived certainly did. It does seem that the majority of them were candidates, brought to the Island by Jacob. And you have to imagine he manipulated them to get them all on Flight 815. Much easier to have to bring just one plane to the Island then have them all arrive separately. :)

12) Did the Juliet really change history by detonating the bomb?

Kinda answered. She certainly created the Alt, but it remains to be seen how the two timelines are connected and how it's all going to be resolved.

So out of the twelve listed here, we have five that have been fully answered, four more that we've gotten partial answers on and one that we've got nothing but almost certainly will be addressed tomorrow. The only two from this list that might fall by the wayside are Aaron (boo) and Libby (oh well). That's really not too shabby.

But what about my two lists of Minor Mysteries (some of these do overlap)? How did I do on these?

Mysteries That Will Be Answered:

1) Claire and Aaron - Probably not
2) The Whispers - Answered
3) Walt's importance - Probably will
4) The Black Rock - Answered
5) The Supply Drops - Likely not

Mysteries That Will Not Be Answered:

1) Ben, Locke and The Swan - Probably not
2) Kelvin, Radzinsky and The Sickness - Probably not
3) Henry Gale - Likely not
4) The Capsule Dump - Likely not
5) The Elizabeth - Answered

Unless we revisit (and get to see) a bit of the aftermath of The Incident, I think most of the DHARMA minutiae are going to fall by the wayside as well. I definitely think we'll get a reason why they kidnapped Walt - Ben is going to say something along the lines of "we were trying to get him to manipulate the Island's energies for us" to wrap that up. We could conceivably get the same sort of answer about Aaron as well, but part of me thinks Walt is more likely.

Regardless though, I'm really not that concerned. As long as they wrap everything up in a well-written, non-cheesy manner that does right about the characters, I'll be really happy. Lost has been a wonderful, imaginative, completely original trip for the past six years and I'm really happy I've been along for the ride.

Don't forget that tonight at 8pm there's a pop-up version of The Pilot on ABC! Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some wings to prepare. :)