One thing I didn't quite understand until this week:

So the Dharma village is next to a small lake?
And the subs have to go underground to get to the sea??

I knew that the village was considerably inland, and it had always confused/annoyed me that characters always seemed to get down to the dock so quickly.

Don't worry. I'll be there in the first thread for season 7 to complain about how'd I'm disappointed we're still not getting answers.

Of course. Most shows wrap up all major plot lines within the first few episodes. Why would a show want to add drama and mystery at the beginning of a season? They should get all the answers out of the way and then spend the remaining 15 hours showing the main characters fall down and get hit in the nuts.

yes. there are 14 episodes left. how many questions remain unanswered? like 100? so to get any satisfactory resolution, they are either going to cram all of these answers into the remaining episodes, or we won't get satisfactory resolution for everything. that is somewhat disappointing because we've been promised answers from the producers.

problem is, instead of answering any questions, they continue to pile on more stuff that only creates more questions.

We've been promised answers but they've said that everything will not be answered. Has any series wrapped up with everything being answered? I suspect some will be disappointed when everything isn't tied up in a nice package at the end.

I think it would be better if instead of wasting time on recap episodes, if they made one episode highlighting the questions they don't intend on answering, and have Ben, Jacob, Hanso, or Richard explain them via voice over.

I have a feeling that a question will be considered unanswered if it isn't rammed down the throats of the least common denominator.

sure. I can think of plenty, most recently being The Shield. We got everything wrapped up in the last season, with the writers taking the time to specifically address many of the lingering issues from all of the previous seasons. personally, i think they set the bar so high, no show will be able to come close to that kind of closure.

Lost isn't like "most shows". And it's all the better for it.

To - I dunno - sustain viewer interest?

All I can say to that is I'm glad you're not running the show...

The viewers it has are the viewers is has at this point. The hardcore watchers are all that's left. We'll see if there is a drop in numbers from this week to next but I would highly doubt it.

Sarcasm. Look it up in websters.

I don't think you can compare The Shield with this show. It would be fair to compare it with shows like X-Files, Alias, Carnivale, Babylon 5, Fringe, etc., where you would wonder what the fuck is going on, which raises a bunch of questions and mysteries.

I love The Shield, but I don't recall any unsolved mysteries or questions that needed to be answered at the end of the series.

In a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly, Cuse and Lindelof actually said that a number of questions/mysteries will remain unanswered.

So this Ep's title is "What Kate Does"

so what did she do?

She kicked some 'others' ass on the Island
She escaped the Airport
She helped Claire find the Surrugate parents ...then off the the Hospital
She helped Claire find the name for her baby? Aaron
She helped Claire decide to keep her baby.
Was she responsible for "unleashing" Claire?

This Title might have been a clue as to the fact that Kate guided Claire into keeping her baby, and somehow finding her way back to the Island.

This cOuld be a significant clue to tell us we are watching a 2004 'new' timeline and the resulting future event 'Infected Claire' in 2007..

hmmm.

I do think the producers take some time to think out the title meanings...

As I mentioned earlier, I believe the producers will mainly give us "answers" this season via sufficient clues to piece the puzzle together ourselves, while still leaving a lot of things open to interpretation and debate, rather than doing it through direct exposition. And I say "hooray" for that (for the most part).

^ this

of course they didn't need to be answered at the end of the series of the shield, because they answered them all in the last season!

while i'll agree the comparison isn't exactly the same, both are serial shows that built upon things that happened in previous seasons. based on that, i'd say the comparison is valid.

Am I the only one happy with the pace of answers so far? After two episodes we get... a) the smoke monster is the MiB, b) Claire is some what alive and infected, living on the island Rousseau-style, c) Richard was on the Blackrock (strongly inferred), d) the 'disease' that Rousseau and Des talked about is real, e) What the temple looks like and who is there.

All these questions go back years, so I don't mind the alleged modicum of answers in the beginning of this season. Heck, every season has provided answers to questions big and small. How long did we wait to see how Locke got paralyzed? So I can wait a little longer for other things.

One of the best aspects of Lost is the questions which cause people to chime in with their own speculation about what it all means (this year it's the sideways flashes). So I don't mind more questions... it's part of the show and part of the fun. I have faith and patience the important ones will be answered.

IMO they are going to answer the major mysteries from S1. They already started with the sickness.

Just curious, what is everybody's top questions/mysteries they want answered?

What was Walt's significance?
How/why did he appear mysteriously to certain characters after his abduction?

I often wonder if the Walt storyline was swept away because the actor physically outgrew his original size.

I know I'm in the distinct minority, but I don't really care if they provide all the answers to mysteries raised over the years. In fact, I'd prefer if they left some things unexplained. The fun to me is in exploring the mystery, not solving it. If I want to solve a puzzle, there's the daily Sudoku. The world they've created feels so deep and complex, I like that I don't completely understand it. "Knowing" everything would take some of the fun away.

The real appeal of the show is the characters and the performances (Sun, Locke, Sayid and Ben in particular), and seeing how they react to all the crazy stuff that happens. And LOST has some of the best production values (and DVDs) of any show.

Then again, I liked the finale of The Sopranos, so make of that what you will.

I initially got it, pal, but thanks anyways.

Maybe we'll get some webisodes or a comic book that covers all the stuff that should be in the series but they didn't have room for because we had to see Kate randomly driving a stolen cab around and a cheap throwaway shot of Ethan.