LOST Autopsy: 8 Questions We Want Answered
by Tom Burns

7. Who was Mrs. Hawking, i.e., the creepy lady in Desmond's time travel dream?

Probably the most unsettling aspect of Desmond’s time travel to the past in Lost’s third season was the presence of Mrs. Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan from The Others... not the Lost tribe, the Nicole Kidman movie), first seen in the episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes." While Desmond was daytripping through his past, this odd little Irish woman appeared, who seemed to know EVERYTHING about Desmond and compelled him to stop trying to change the past, arguing that, if Desmond doesn’t end up on the island and turn the failsafe key at the end of season 2, "every single one of us is dead." And in the later episode "Catch-22", we see a picture in Desmond’s monastery that suggests that the lady Hawking has been mucking about in his timeline for a while now.

So who the hell is she? The bastard love-child of Stephen Hawking’s wildest dreams? A cosmic referee? God? The devil? Jacob’s estranged twin sister? It’s weird enough that Desmond time-traveled by accident, but the existence of strangely omniscient people who can time travel by will really makes us think that Jacob isn’t the only super-powered weirdo on the island. (This might also explain Nestor Carbonell’s seemingly ageless character Richard Alpert.)

8. How is Jack getting back to the island?

Forget what Seth Rogen said in Knocked Up - Matthew Fox is a bad-ass and, if Jack Shepherd says, "We’ve got to go BACK!, you just know that the good doctor is going to spend most of Season 4 figuring out how to get back onto the island by sheer willpower alone. Sure, Jack’s unrelenting hero complex might be annoying at times, but, thanks to his inability to leave anyone unsaved, that crazy bastard will head-butt his way through space and time to drag Locke back to reality, kicking and screaming.

How’s it going to play out? We imagine it like a big dysfunctional Ocean’s 11. Once Jack decides to get back to the island, he’s going to set out to build a team made up of ex-castaways and people with blood ties to the island. Maybe he’ll be bankrolled by Hurley - whom he’ll break out of an asylum - convince Kate to be his wing-man, go find the one man who previously escaped the island (Michael), and recruit some powerful friends - possibly Desmond’s true love Penny, the deceased Ana Lucia’s police captain mother (Rachel Ticotin), or Alvar Hanso himself.

CONCLUSION:

We’re not betting that most (or even any) of these questions are going to be answered by Lost’s fourth season, but J.J. Abrams and friends MUST know that they’re on the minds of any true fan of the show. Expect lots of partial answers and new mysteries, which we’ve come to both expect and love. In terms of story speculation, all we’ll say is we’re betting that the season opens with half the castaways making an uneasy bargain to get off the island, leaving several major friends behind, and the rest of the year will involve those compromised few realizing the error of their ways and trying to return to their island paradise for some supernatural closure.

Let’s just hope that the writer’s strike doesn’t keep the rest of season delayed indefinitely, and that we were totally wrong about the talking demon-baby thing. That would kind of suck.