"Lost": You have questions, we have ... more questions

"Lost" co-creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have already cautioned that while several big questions will eventually be answered, not all the little ones will -- which appears to go against the grandiose mythology built by ABC's beloved drama leading to tonight's premiere of the sixth and final season.

But episodic writing needs to be stretched for the sake of survival, so not every island mystery from Season 1 can be wrapped up with a neat and tidy bow. And as a "Lost" fan who is more than ready for the show to reach its conclusion, I can accept that.

Before tonight's premiere event at 7 p.m., here's a look back at some burning questions Adam Reinhard and I have raised during our time covering "Lost" for Channel Surfing.

Will they finally be answered in Season 6? Are they still relevant in the grand scheme? And for every question answered, does that mean the five new ones created are just as important?

As always, these are just the tip of the iceberg -- for instance, the numbers, Hurley's guitar case, the four-toed statue, Pierre Chang's aliases, the donkey wheel, the lists, the Black Rock, the importance of children like Walt, Jacob's confinement ... blah, blah, blah.

A list of 100 wouldn't have sufficed, but from past posts, these are the ones that may actually get answered and play an important role in the show's eventual conclusion.

Please, leave your own in our comments section.

What became of Claire? Aaron's mum didn't make an appearance in Season 5, but she's poised to return. But will it be as her sweet Aussie self or Christian Shephard's ghostly sidekick?

Is Ben good or evil? Some view Ben as pure evil. Others may not yet understand his devotion to the island and the good involved in his protective stance. So while shades of gray certainly have come to define the man formerly known as Henry Gale, once the fate of the island is determined, there should be some greater clarity here. Either way, his stabbing of Jacob at the end of Season 5 certainly threw another dagger in the ongoing dilemma.

Where will Desmond/Penny fit in? Reunited ... and it feels so good. But this storybook romance has to meet a dark end, doesn't it?

How big of a role does Jack's dad play? A big one, no doubt, seeing as how Christian keeps popping up, most notably to Locke as he turned the donkey wheel. Still, there's been hardly any headway in determining why it's Jack's dad who holds a lot of the cards in this ongoing island enigma.

Who do you have in the island death pool? Juliet said goodbye in heroic fashion at the end of Season 5, and several cast members -- Charlie, Boone, Libby and Michael -- are expected to be brought back (even though they're technically still dead) now that the Oceanic crash may have never occurred. A whitewash courtesy of the hydrogen bomb can certainly re-write some rules, but a final season also gives creative license to the show's writers since they no longer have to worry about furthering storylines. So, who of those technically still alive on the island will actually make it to the Season 6 finale? Some big names could get capped for pure shock and awe. We'll save our theories for a later post.

Why doesn't Richard Alpert age? Alpert's age seems directly tied to the island's origins and secrets, whether it's Black Rock based or otherwise. We can't wait to see what he's always known about its mystical properties.

What Ilana's relationship to Jacob? She knew to ask for Ricardus. Knew about the statue's riddle. Who are these island newbies who brought Locke's real body to Alpert?

Where do Widmore and Ben fit into the grand scheme? Now that Jacob and the Man in Black have been introduced, Widmore and Ben's face-off seems like a mere childhood spat. But so much was built up regarding Ben protecting the island from Widmore's exploitative ways -- and Ben being manipulated to stab Jacob because Locke had surpassed him on the island's scale of importance -- there's no way the two aren't tied together.

Why did some on the Ajira plane end up in 1977? We'd like to get away from any time travel queries (they still make our head hurt), but why did the plane split, sending some to 1977 and others like Sun and Ben to 2007? How does that concept even work?

Did Jacob plan to die, and what is the significance of his touch? Again, two threads that seem directly related. It would appear that Jacob had always planned to fall at the hands of the Man in Black's "loophole" -- hence the flashbacks showing his all-important touch to several of our main characters. Did Jacob find some loopholes of his own? Now that he's been cast into the fire -- quite literally thanks to Ben and Faker Locke -- it should be interested to find out who's "coming" and why.

What IS the island? Will this ever be adequately answered, or are we just supposed to go along with the premise that the show had to happen SOMEWHERE, and an exotic island (that allowed the cast and crew to film and live in Hawaii, ahem) was the best option? Recent interviews with Cuse and Lindelof seem to indicate that fans will just have to accept certain realities.

What, or who, is the smoke monster? Probably one of the biggest ongoing puzzle pieces (besides the numbers) since it goes back to the pilot. Man in Black = Smokey? Even so, what is the monster's primary function as island protector/scanner of fates/mechanical sounding kill machine?

-- Thomas Rozwadowski, trozwado@greenbaypressgazette.com