Entertainment

That’s it?!

Like a long-running relationship that you keep expecting to take a turn for the better but never does, “Lost”’s final season has dragged on and on, answering a few questions here and there, but never ceasing to raise more mysteries as it goes.

“Lost” is finally going to break up with all of us come Sunday, May 23, at 7 p.m. ET (set your DVR now!) and we have to admit, we’re a little relieved. Six years of asking questions gets exhausting.

As the show winds toward its massive 2 1/2 hour season finale, we’re trying to accept that when it’s all said and done, there’s still going to be a lot of freaking things we still don’t understand. Donkey wheels? Golden springs? What’s all this really about?

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While we know that much will be left unsaid, there’s a few things — 10 precisely — we feel we have the right to know before “Lost” blinks off into some time-space void and leaves us with no choice but to scour the DVDs for answers.

1.) Question most likely to be resolved: Who is The Candidate? Who will end up having to remain on the island as its eternal protector? Will it be the most obvious choice: Dr. Jack Shepherd (Matthew Fox)? Will con-man-turned-hero Sawyer (Josh Holloway) decide to stay behind with his beloved but dead Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell)? Will Hurley (Jorge Garcia) finally evolve into the leader we’ve seen him becoming this season? And is it true that Kate (Evangeline Lilly) really isn’t a candidate? If so, why is she still around, unless it’s to resolve the six-season love triangle between her, Jack and Sawyer?

And then there’s the dark-horse choice for Candidate: Claire’s (Emilie de Ravin) almost-forgotten son Aaron (William Blanchette). Will he turn up at the last minute?

2.) Here’s one we’re probably not going to learn: What is the Man in Black’s (Titus Welliver) name?

“Lost” creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have said in several interviews that this is one question they are intentionally leaving unknown. And if they won’t reveal that, they are also unlikely to explain how it is that he’s dead but continues to live on as the island’s resident evil, Smokey the smoke monster. For that matter, how did Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) live so long and then manage to be killed so easily by Ben (Michael Emerson)?

3.) We’d also like to know why Smokey decided to go ahead and kill Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) early in season three while leaving the other survivors alone, although we partly know that the decision was logistical: Akinnuoye-Agbaje wanted to leave the show. That death did give viewers an early clue into the nature of Smokey, as Eko tells John Locke (Terry O’Quinn) “I saw the devil,” just before dying. Ironically, Locke tells Sayid (Naveen Andrews) that Eko instead said “you’re next.” Locke ultimately was next: he became the next leader of The Others and, later, the Smoke Monster himself.

4.) As for Jacob, how could someone built up to be The Mysterious Island Protector Who Must Be Served end up being such a whiny mama’s boy? “Lost”’s May 11 episode, “Across the Sea,” told the back story of Jacob, the never-named Man in Black, now Smokey, and their murderous foster mama (Allison Janney). When it was over, we discovered that we’d much rather have a beer with the supposed embodiment of evil.

5.) Why are women on the island infertile? In the end, Claire had her child, Aaron, and Sun got pregnant and had her daughter off-island, but that storyline disappeared after Sawyer, Juliet, Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Miles (Ken Leung) jumped around through time early in season five, only to finally settle in 1974, three years before Miles was born on the island.

6.) Why do some people on the island have special abilities? Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) is immune to electromagnetism and had flashes of the future in season three. Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), who exited the island in season four, seemed to have psychic gifts so frightening even The Others didn’t want him. Claire’s son, Aaron, also has some psychic powers. Miles and Hurley each speak to the dead, allowing Hurley to talk to Jacob and Miles to unearth hidden secrets.

7.) How does Christian Shepherd, the father of Jack and Claire, keep turning up everywhere? Christian originally appeared to Jack on the island in the show’s first season, leading him to caves that offered water and shelter. In season six, the Smoke Monster, appearing as Locke, admits that he previously took on Christian’s form to relay messages. That doesn’t explain Christian’s off-island appearances, however, especially since Smokey’s big problem is that he can’t leave the island.

8.) Why do people who exit the island end up in Tunisia of all places? And does that have anything to do with the 15-story statue of Egyptian-fertility goddess, Taweret, that once stood on the island and that Jacob lived under? (Cuse and Lindelof recently suggested that the statue was built by Egyptians, which is only relevant to Tunisia in that both countries are in Africa.)

9.) This question is the least likely to get a straight answer: What is the island? Is it a “cork” placed to keep evil in check, as Jacob once explained? Is it the Garden of Eden? The heart of the world? That’s one the producers are likely to let us try to figure out for ourselves.

10.) And finally, where is that sweet dog, Vincent?