post-Season 4 mysteries, predictions, and theories (SPOILERS)

[Fish]

Okay, here's a few morsels to whet the wheels of discussion:


In this season we finally got a sketchy idea of WHY Jack wanted to get back to the island at the end of season 3.

We now know why it is that some but not all escaped the island, and we also know what ultimately happened to Michael and Walt.

We saw Ben entering mysterious glyph-covered stone areas to 1) release the smoke monster and 2) move the island.


BUT...


We still do not know WHAT the smoke monster is, or where it came from.

We do not know why that one guy seems to be immortal

We do not know exactly why the island is so hard to find, or why it seems to have all these special properties


That's all I can think of for now, but feel free to post things we still don't know, things we want to know, and thinks we may be able to figure out or think about.

[Zok]

We also don't know why the island wants them to return - nor do we know why all of them have to go back.

[Fish]

We also don't know why the island wants them to return - nor do we know why all of them have to go back.

I'm going to guess that this stems from the whole time travel aspect of it. If the timestream has been split or ruptured, then "the island" may be not only the portal for such changes, but also the manifestation of the "health" of said "timestream."

As such, all of them needing to return probably means that in order for it all to be "fixed," something needs to happen that involves all of the people who landed on the island. For example - when the island "decreed" that Charlie had to die, Desmond tried to prevent it, but ultimately, could not. However, as a result of Charlie's sacrifice, the signal from the boat was picked up, and rescue became possible. That was when we started seeing flash-forwards of the "broken" future.

I'm not sure what the possibilities are, however, for the exact why of their return. If they all were supposed to die in the crash, you would think that it would have happened much earlier. Perhaps they are needed to make sure that something happens on the island - it seems that the moving of the island was not a problem so much as the fact that there were people not on it.

[Fish]

With the advent of season 5 upon us, it's time to unstick this thread...

and open up a new, stickied Season 5 discussion thread!