Last night's episode of Lost "Enter 77" feigned some answers, but of course provoked more questions. Did we learn anything?
According to the one-eyed man, Mikhail, the DHARMA operatives arrived on the island long after the "Hostiles". At some point, DHARMA operatives decided on a "purge" to wipe out the Hostiles, with the Hostiles winning. Mikhail pretends he is the last DHARMA operative, but later it is revealed that he is one of the Others. He claims that everything else he told Sayid was true.
- What was the relationship between DHARMA and the Hostiles in the beginning? Allies? Observers and Subjects?
- Did the DHARMA members really try to "purge" the island of the Hostiles/Others?
- How long ago did this "purge" happen? Juliet's flashbacks from a couple episodes ago seem to back up her story that she was "hired" from the outside world by (presumably) DHARMA three years ago. If so, then how did she come to work for the Hostiles/Others? Presumably this sets the date of the "purge" to less than three years ago (in other words, not too long ago).
- Was Kelvin (Desmond's hatch-mate) a DHARMA operative or a Hostile posing as DHARMA? He clearly was expecting a replacement to come when he first met Desmond, so I say he was DHARMA. Was Kelvin hiding in the Swan because he was afraid of the Hostiles who had taken over the other stations?
- What is Rousseau's real story? How is it possible she didn't know about the Flame station after 16 years on the island? In the first season, she told Sayid she never saw anyone else on the island, only heard their whispers. She must be lying. Maybe she is one of the last DHARMA operatives on the island and has been in hiding since the "purge"? If so, why would she set up a distress signal saying in French "I'm alone now, on the island alone. Please someone come. The others are dead. It killed them. It killed them all." I'm afraid I'm lost on this one (are the writers?)
- Rousseau also mentioned to Sayid (in the first season), that she killed all her fellow scientists when they became infected with some type of plague. Why were the Swan hatch door's also marked with quarantine warnings? Why did Kelvin lie to Desmond about a plague (I guess just to keep him in the hatch)? Hey - maybe DHARMA tried to "purge" the Hostiles by releasing some sort of plague and it back-fired?
- We know that the girl, Alex, considers Ben to be her father, but we also know that Rousseau is her mother. If Ben is really her father, then why didn't Rousseau react differently when she first captured Ben (posing as Henry Gale)? Something like screaming at him "Where's our daughter, Ben?" From all the evidence so far, we can be reasonably confident that Rousseau is not an Other (they have her daughter, after all). My guess here is that Ben is Alex' adoptive father only and that Alex' father was simply Rousseau's husband, Robert.
- Ben shows Jack that they can contact the outside world by showing him a recent baseball game. Yet the Flame station's dish was not operational. So how are they in contact with the outside world? And if Ben is not DHARMA, then who are they in contact with?
Lost is getting me real tired these days. Like lots of folks, I've moved on to Heroes (which is now my favourite Serial Drama). Lost writers might know what they're doing - but I think not enough things were well-formed in the beginning of the series and we're seeing some sloppy ret-cons and character mismanagement now. Of course, I hope I am proved wrong.