Can 'Lost' Find Its Way Again?

Will anything ever be cleared up on Lost? As new episodes return tonight, viewers are no closer to understanding any of the mysteries of the island. Do the brains behind the show even understand the world they've created?

"Basically, Lost is one of those things where you have to appreciate the journey and try not to worry about the endpoint," Executive Producer Carlton Cuse said in an interview with Zap2It. "We're not in control of the endpoint."

Apparently, the official stance of the show's creators is that they started the show but have no plans for how it will end. That's a less-than-comforting prospect for viewers who could invest years in the show without receiving any ultimate payoff.

Producers blame some of the show's ambiguity on network pressure. ABC would like the show to remain a hit for as many years as possible, and Lost's creators believe the best way to do that is to extend the original storylines indefinitely. Co-creator Damon Lindelof insists that wrapping up any of the mysteries would lead ABC to replace the original staff with their own writers.

It's unfortunate that Cuse, Lindelof, and the rest of Lost’s writing staff can't find any way to resolve even a few of the mysteries, rather than leaving all of them up in the air. Instead of explaining the monster that attacked the survivors during the first few days on the island, the writers have simply left it out of recent episodes. Is the audience expected to believe the gigantic killing machine just decided to leave the crash victims alone? More likely, the writers are hoping the audience will forget about it.

Lost has so many balls in the air, there's no reason why a few of them can't fall to earth. Who is the Dharma Initiative, and will the world really end if the crash survivors stop pressing the button? Is Dharma behind the monster or the polar bear, and is any of this related to The Others? What happened to the French woman or the guy from the hatch? Answering a few of these questions wouldn't hurt the show because the survivors are still left with the biggest question of all: how will they get off the island?

If Lost's producers would rather focus on the character drama than the island, they need to commit to that choice. With a few loose ends tied up, they could concentrate on the flashbacks that now make up the bulk of each episode. Instead, the audience is left with a bunch of inexplicable occurrences and characters who don't even like each other. The survivors are a joyless lot who communicate only through arguments. Do they ever have any fun besides the occasional game of jungle golf?

Lindelof hinted that the show's mysteries may never be solved. "How can you ever possibly think that Lost will end in a satisfying way? Carlton and I can almost guarantee you that it will not." Fans may have to wait until the final few episodes of the series to see if that’s because of a network-orchestrated change of staff, or simply because the creators never really knew how the show was supposed to end.