Lost: Season 5 (2009)

Spoilers for Lost: Season 5 ("He's Our You")

In previous posts about Lost, I praised the show to the skies and encouraged newcomers to get onboard and see what all the fuss is about.

I take it all back. Why? Because despite the fact that Lost continues to surpass its own lofty standards, it's clearly a show for the hardcore fans. Instead, I urge you – more strongly than ever before – to start buying those DVD box sets and catch up. Lost is brilliant.

Once upon a time, casual viewers could easily tune in to Lost and still have a vague idea about what was going on. A self-contained flashback was more than enough to hold one's attention amid the polar bears and hatches and dead people walking around the island.

Those days are long gone. Unlike Alias (J.J. Abrams' pre-Lost series), which hit the reset button several times during its five-year run, Lost is now in the process of delicately assembling five seasons of stories into an impressively cohesive whole. The side effect of this is that it has separated the true fans from the casual viewers.

If you skipped out on Lost a season or two back and tuned back in now, you may be forgiven for thinking you're watching another show entirely, what with Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer and co. currently ingratiating themselves with the DHARMA Initiative in a 1977-version of the island. The acceptance that time travel is possible in the Lost universe has proven itself not only a great way to finally reveal the island's twisted history, but also to allow our favourite castaways to become inextricably linked with it.

With just 24 episodes to go until Lost calls it a day, the resolutions to the show's main mysteries are slowly shifting into focus: the smoke monster, the four-toed statue, Richard Alpert's agelessness... but there are a few other questions I hope we'll get answered. I hereby present my top five lesser Lost mysteries I hope we see resolved before the island disappears for good...

1. Does Walt have special powers? One of Lost's few disappointments for me was the poor handling of Michael's storyline. Though he promisingly returned last year, the troubled dad was offed shortly after. While Walt, his son, had to be written out of the show (the actor was growing up too fast for the show's compressed timeframe), the death of his onscreen father seems to have sidelined any resolution to the notion that Walt is "special". A recent cameo by the character has given me renewed hope that this will be addressed in the future.

2. Who was Libby? The short-lived tail survivor who captured Hurley's heart before being gunned down by Michael was never treated to a flashback of her own. We've caught intriguing glimpses of her in other characters' flashbacks (why was she in the mental asylum with Hurley? was it just a coincidence that she gave Desmond the boat that took him to the island?), but she's got an almost clean slate for the producers to address her history however they like.

3. What happened when The Swan station blew up? Aside from the fact that Locke lost his voice and Desmond lost his clothes. With The Swan under construction in the show's current '70s setting, the answer to this may be closer than we think.

4. What happened between Benjamin Linus and the real Henry Gale? This was something the producers intended to address during the show's strike-shortened fourth season. It's not essential information, but there's a good story to be told about the hot-air balloonist Ben impersonated after being caught in Danielle Rousseau's trap. Heck, I just wanna see more of the creepy former leader of the Others.

5. What is "The Magic Box"? Remember Locke's father mysteriously appearing on the island back in season three? Ben claimed his sudden appearance owed to a "magic box" that would give you anything you desired. How about some answers to these questions?