Lost

Fans are frantic to find out which of Lost's 4,815,162,342 mysteries will be resolved in the show's final season. But think how the actors must feel. Even the people bringing the characters to life have no idea, in some cases, why they do the things they do. We talked to a few of the show's stars to see what they desperately want answered before the series concludes on May 23.

"First and foremost, what is the smoke monster?" —Jorge Garcia (Hugo "Hurley" Reyes)

In the Season 6 premiere, it was revealed that the smoke monster is an incarnation of the Man in Black. But what does that mean? Danielle Rousseau once described it as a security system, and the people of the Temple — where much of the premiere takes place — appear to fear the smoke monster and have no defense against it other than encircling themselves with ash.

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"What are the numbers? I was always intrigued by the numbers even though I'm not a sci-fi person." —Evangeline Lilly (Kate Austen)

"What the hell are those numbers about?" —Josh Holloway (James "Sawyer" Ford)

The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 are very important to Lost, but we don't know exactly how or why. Hurley played them in the lottery after hearing them in a mental hospital, but had a run of bad luck afterwards. The bad luck rubbed off on other island inhabitants, including Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), whose failure to enter them into the computer caused Oceanic 815 to crash. However, in Season 6, the Hurley on the Flight 815 that did land says he's always been lucky.

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"What was the island really about and what was the contest about the control of the island?" —Michael Emerson (Benjamin Linus)

Ben Linus and Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) have fought for years for control of the island. Initially, Ben had Widmore exiled from the island and usurped his position as leader. Widmore searched for decades, even purchasing a journal belonging to the first mate on the Black Rock, a ship that crashed there. He later sent a freighter to the island to retrieve Ben, and Widmore's mercenaries killed Ben's daughter, Alex (Tania Raymonde).

"Why are we here? Why us? Is there a particular reason we were chosen to be on this island? —Daniel Dae Kim (Jin Kwon)

"Why are we on the island?" —Terry O'Quinn (John Locke)

In the Season 5 finale, the mysterious Jacob visited Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Jin and Sun and Hurley before they all boarded the same doomed flight — minus Jin, who was still on the island living with the 1970s Dharma Initiative. Why were they so special?

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"Who is John Locke?" —Yunjin Kim (Sun Kwon)

The dearly departed John Locke is now an incarnation of the Man in Black, but Locke was mysterious even before his latest turn. He crashed on the island paralyzed, but regained his ability to walk. He was so special that he became the leader of the Others for a short period of time. But why is he so special?

"What's Walt's connection to the island? They kidnapped him and they tested him and we did terrible things to get him back." —Harold Perrineau (Michael Dawson)

Even before arriving on the island, young Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) was regarded as "special," and may have had psychic powers. The Others kidnapped him in the Season 1 finale and conducted unseen, but extensive testing on him. Michael betrayed Jack, Kate and Sawyer to get him back.

What Lost mysteries do you want solved?