I agree - although I would like more info on the smoke monster in particular. I don't need a blueprint or anything - but I want more then it's a "security system" made of smoke that sounds mechanical and appears to "look" at you.

This is the shows oldest mystery and the one that hooked so many people to the show........it's one thing to not answer a question like this in a short 2 hour movie(Cloverfield for example); the audience has not invested a lot of time and dare I say....emotion in the answer. To not answer this one satisfactorily would be a huge slap in the face.



I rate this as a mid-level type question....I am curious and want to know the answer but I wouldn't consider it a deal breaker if they didn't address it further.

I think the reasons given as to why they needed to enter numbers every 108 minutes has been sufficiently addressed.....but as to why those specific numbers and how they are connected to Hurley winning the Lottery we'll probably never get any more answers.

Because the unopened box, no matter how infuriating, frustrating, and maddening it can be is always less lame than the opened one;)

I just realized that Frank Lapidus (the pilot) didn't touch the donkey wheel either....

I despise open endings. It's the main reason I did not like Cloverfield. I wanted (still do) to know what that stupid thing was, where it came from, yadda yadda yadda.

I'm really trying to prepare myself for an open ending to Lost, to not expect answers to the smoke monster*, beyond what we know. To the numbers, beyond what we know, to why polar bears were on the island and those who touch the donkey wheel end up in Tunisia. But I'm still gonna be annoyed.

We know that smokey can be controlled by Ben and is a security system to the temple. But what is the temple?

I've been catching some of the reruns on Sci-Fi during the day and it's hard to remember what has and hasn't been answered yet. Right now Kate and Sawyer are being held captive and Mr. Friendly just came out.

Oh, that reminds me! I'm assuming the temple is connected to the giant idol we saw briefly this last episode. How awesome was THAT?!

I would be shocked if they don't give a little bit more insight into the #'s and smokey. Even if the answer to the numbers is something as simple as, "Those are the intervals that the time jumps happen on, so we use them as easy reference points," or even, "They don't 'mean' squat on their own, we just planted them to f*ck with Hurley." As long as it's something. As sleepy said, those were the 2 key mysteries that the show was built around, it would be ludicrous/lazy to just ignore them.

I don't expect them to lay out a technical blueprint of the donkey wheel, but I do expect we'll know more about exactly what it means to "move the island".

They appear so much.

I do wonder if the numbers are the intervals the time jumps happen. I'm not patient enough to go back and watch prior episodes, but did it did seem that the pauses between jumps got longer, then shorter as time went by?

Didn't they already reveal that they were brought by DHARMA for genetic and learning experiments?



I can't believe that they won't explain the numbers since they have been such a big part of the mythology of the show.

My theory is that the numbers are just self referential. Let's see if I can explain:

Hurley uses the numbers and wins the lottery. Bad things happen to him so he begins to believe the numbers are cursed. (We keep seeing the numbers pop up everywhere but that's just coincidental or people see what they want to see or the producers are messing with our heads.) He goes to Australia and ends up on the island where he finds the numbers marked on the outside of the hatch and are being used as a code to reset the 108 minute clock.

Hurley goes back in time to 1974. "The incident" occurs requiring them to enter numbers into a computer to reset a 108 minute clock. Hurley chooses to use the cursed number sequence because he was "supposed to." (This is an unchangeable time line, not the Back To The Future type of time line.) In order to keep the number sequence available for all generations to use he etches it on the outside of the hatch and records it to tape to be broadcast by radio (that sounded an awful lot like Hurley's voice on the transmission the Frenchies picked up).

Hurley's friend from the mental institution (can't remember his name) hear's the numbers on the radio broadcast. Something eventually causes him to go insane (possibly number and/or island related). He goes to the loony bin constantly repeating those numbers. Hurley uses the numbers and wins the lottery.

:snap: :snap: :snap:

I think you've got it..........once you learn how to think in a circle this show is a lot easier to understand...:cheers: