It is generally accepted that Lost was a TV show that both amazed and frustrated in equal measure. Like a painfully inconsistent footballer or a school genius that refuses to apply themselves, Lost failed to maintain the incredibly high standards set by the show’s initial two seasons. Indeed, many casual viewers jumped ship either during the largely directionless season three, or in season four when time-travel shenanigans kicked the show into more fantastical, and more complicated, territory.

Those who stuck around beyond this, however, were rewarded with a vastly improved final two seasons but even the show’s most passionate fans, myself included, would surely have to admit to occasionally wondering if the writers were working on an episode-by-episode basis. This is a nice way of saying “they made it up as they went along.” Certainly at times it felt as if plotlines or events were introduced solely to spice things up in the short term, with no real intention of providing the show’s attentive and dedicated fanbase with an explanation. Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have even stated in various interviews that answers to “smaller” questions were forsaken to make time to deal with the show’s more pressing plot points.

For some viewers, the ambiguity provided by these remaining mysteries adds to Lost’s enigmatic mythology and provides interesting areas for fan discussion. But we’re geeks dammit, we need answers and we need closure and with no Lost related projects even rumoured to be in the works, it looks like we’ll have to figure things out for ourselves…

The Flash-Sideways World

Season six’s flash-sideways has arguably been the most misinterpreted element of Lost’s ending. Many people believe the parallel world represented a purgatory or indicated that the cast were dead all along. In actual fact, the Flash-Sideways Universe was simply a place where the survivors of Oceanic 815, who had forged such a unique bond of kinship, could meet one last time and say goodbye after they all died (individually) before “moving on.”