Oh yeah, this is the big one. There is no 'Ultimate Mystery' which requires solving, they claim. Now go ahead and have a long, bitter laugh, then let's continue. Eventually Lost fell victim to JJ Abrams' obsessive need to turn everything he works on into a mystery box, the elaborate delivery system for a series of MacGuffins that rarely pay off. He's even doing it with the next Star Wars film at this very moment! Lost was his piece de resistance when it came to mystery boxes, though. So the initial assurance that no such thing would ever appear in Lost is interesting. This is, after all, the pitch they used to sell the show to ABC, meaning they at least initially intended to stick by it. Either that, or Lindeolf and co are the most ballsy group of con artists this side of Hustle. In fact, the same document claimed that any mysteries that did appear in the show would be cleared up pretty quickly. The infamous smoke monster, whose origins never really were cleared up, was supposed to be revealed to be a security system for the island's owners, and that was to come up within the first few episodes. Lost without an ultimate mystery might not have been such a hit...but it would've been way less frustrating.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
