So Lost’s season 2 finale was last night. Some people have to remind themselves that Lost is a show hell-bent on leaving you completely clueless - especially at the end of a season… just like Alias was. So, going in - I had assumed all of the “answers” they were going to give would either not really happen, or be muddied with twice as many questions…

Desmond returned to the island, as it turned out he had been in the boat floating in the ocean - a boat that he borrowed from Libby (yes the dead chick from the island - Hurly’s girlfriend who knew him from the insane asylum) to race around the world - when he crashed into the island and was tricked into pushing the button for 3 years with no backup.

Question: How did all of the people on the island just happen to meet somewhere else before the island? Libby/Hurly, Libby/Desmond, Jack’s Dad/Ana Lucia - I think there’s more, but that’s the top of my head.

We find out that the print-out that Locke found in The Pearl was the record of when the button was pushed, and more importantly, when it was not pushed. It turns out that not pushing the button causes some type of super magnetic activity… and when Desmond decided to stop pushing the button, Oceanic Flight 815 happened to be flying over the island, and was sucked down to earth

1 Question Answered. We’re tied for now…

We find out that Desmond spent time in jail for not obeying orders or something in the military. He had a girlfriend (Penny) who was waiting for him, he had been writing letters, but her father was intercepting those letters. The father picks Desmond up from prison and gives him money to never contact Penny again… she finds him - he tells her about his boat race and tells her he’ll be back in a year… and of course he ends up stranded on the island for over 3 years now…

At the end of the episode (after the timer runs out and the magnetic force causes horrific noises and light) people in a tent at one of the poles notice an “electromagnetic anomaly” and make a phone call… to Penny! Now… BIG question… why is she interested in electromagnetic anomalies? We know that she has an evil father, a lot of money, and is probably looking for Desmond since he’s “disappeared.”

Three answers.. maybe 4:
1.) She works in the field of electromagnetic anomalies and has a research group report anything strange to her. This anomaly is just coincidently caused by her very own Desmond.
2.) She’s been looking for signs of Desmond and new that he would somehow try to contact her. Through her deep monetary resources, she’s paid these guys to watch for anything strange in the oceans - maybe it would be him.
3.) The most likely (to me) is an answer I though of as soon as I saw her dad pull up in the limo to pick up Desmond from prison: Her dad is high up or head’s the Dharma project. She’s working on the project as well and the men at the north/south pole were simply reporting a mishap at the island.
4.) What if there was a some sort of wormhole from the pole to the island (hence the Polar bear) - and these guys were waiting for it to open up? What if Dharma was put in place to prevent this hole from opening up (hence the button) - and Penny and her father are the evil ones trying to perpetuate these tests?

I have a headache.

One thing that this DOES answer, however, is the theory that the people on the Island are the only people on earth (yes, this is a theory). This is actually the only time that we’ve seen, in real-time, people interacting with each other during the time Flight 815 is on the island. Everything else has been a flashback.

I haven’t even gotten to Michael’s betrayal, what’s going to happen to the “captives”, who are the “Others” really, etc… there’s enough open ended questions on this show to last 100 seasons. Where is Michael going with Walt? Does he think that he was really just given their boat and if he follows the correct bearing, he’ll be rescued? If this is true, what are the Others doing there? Do they really run the project/experiment? Was The Pearl bunker the control site or the experiment site? Why were all the journals from The Pearl being sucked up and dropped in the middle of the island? Not to mention that now that the button can’t – or doesn’t have to be pushed – what happens with this electromagnetic force? Was it preventing them from showing up on radars/satellites to be rescued? Will it still now that it’s not functioning?

More questions about the polar bear, horse, mysterious creature that ate the pilot out of the cockpit in the first couple episodes… all still remain unanswered.

Theories
USA Today summarizes some popular ones.
The Lost “Ultimate Theory” is very long, but very thorough and is sure to turn the average Lost watcher into an addict.

I think we’ve established there are many more questions than answers. But if you had all the answers, what would make you tune back in next year? It’s a show I love to hate… and as many times as I’ve told myself that I’m never watching it again…. I’ll be right back there in September.