Will fans' 15 top LOST mysteries be solved?

EW.com's Doc Jensen just posted a list of the top "15 must-answer mysteries" that fans hope will be explained in the sixth and final season of Lost.

Some seem likely to be answered, such as No. 5, "What happened to Claire?" After all, Emilie de Ravin (right) is to be back as a series regular, so we should be seeing a lot of her, and presumably we'll find out what happened after Claire walked off into the jungle with Dear Old Dead Dad.

Only Locke has seen her since then, hanging with Christian inside Jacob's cabin. He was asked not to tell anyone he'd seen Claire, and he didn't tell. And now ReaLocke's really dead, it seems, not magically resurrected after all. (Although "Esau," aka Jacob's enemy, certainly seems to know everything that ReaLocke knew, plus a whole lot more.) So, once Claire reveals herself in Season 6, we should learn more of the mystery behind her vanishing. Maybe we'll find out whether she's actually alive or just among the Island's numerous walking dead. Miles (whose Island-bred talent lets him hear the dead) certainly didn't seem to think that Claire was entirely alive after apparently surviving a house explosion -- but then, after the Season 5 finale, we don't yet know what happened to Miles, either.

Other mysteries may never be completely explained, such as No. 14, "What's Libby's backstory?" For one, Doc says, the Lost producers have said that actress Cynthia Watros is unlikely return to the show. For another, the show runners are going to do extremely well if they can just unravel the major plot points in the 18 hours they have allotted to finish the Lost saga. Compared to the larger Island mythos, Libby's backstory is relatively small potatoes.

My theory is that Libby went into a depression after her husband David died, and that's when she went to the Santa Rosa mental hospital to recover. She remembered Hugo from Santa Rosa, but he doesn't remember her. After she was released, she met Desmond and gave him David's boat, the Elizabeth, to compete in the Widmore solo-sailing race. Three years later, she boarded Oceanic 815 and crashed on Craphole Island. She survives with Ana-Lucia, Bernard and the Tailies, then treks to the Losties' beach, where she makes friends with Hugo, hypnotizes Claire, and gets tragically shot by Michael in the Hatch. End of story. (Sorry, Libby.)

UPDATE: Doc Jensen's also presenting a short Lost-related course on "The Cult of 'Cult TV' " --with the option of a fun but tricky "Final Exam" on Season 5. Its 26 multiple-choice questions will determine if you've really been paying attention.

And there's more... ABC.com has begun signing up participants -- er, make that "students" -- for "LOST University", and Doc J explains what that's all about. He says:

Included among the many real-life academics on staff is actor Jeremy Davies (Daniel Faraday), who proved himself something of a science egghead the last time I interviewed him.

Lost U's mascot is, of course... a polar bear.

You may go to the http://lostuniversity.org/index.php site and sign up now to be notified by e-mail when "enrollment" beings in two months.

Where are Bernard and Rose?

What happened to Rose and Bernard when Ben and then Locke turned the frozen donkey wheel?

Are they alive? Are they dead?

Did they end up in another time?

Are they the Adam and Eve the Losties find early in the series?

Are they living in Dharmaville unseen to us so far?

Post your rank speculation in comments!

More season finale tidbits

Courtesy of Michael Ausellio at Entertainment Weekly, we get a little info about the season finale.

Not major spoilers. But something interesting.

Question: Do you have any snippet to share with us about Lost's season finale? --Megan
Ausiello: We will come to learn that the dude who may or may not be playing Jacob bore witness to pivotal events in the pre-island lives of Locke, Sayid, and Sawyer. Speaking of Lost, I wanna say a few words about Evangeline Lilly's performance in tonight's episode: Wow. (Okay, one word.)

Question: Will we ever find out what happened to Rose and Bernard on Lost? --Lucas
Ausiello: I'm hearing we will.

Check out the producers' podcasts

If you’re not listening to producers Damon and Carlton’s podcasts at abc.com, you should be.

They are quite the comedy duo. And sometimes they actually answer a fan question.

Here’s what they said this week in the episode recorded Monday and posted Thursday. Beware minor spoilers.

This week’s episode title was in fact referring to the book, “The Little Prince.”

Rose and Bernard survived the flaming arrow attack. As did Vincent (who is the one character that the producers say will surely live until the series’ end).

Resurrection (remember the vanagram?) is an ongoing theme this season. The hieroglyphs in the donkey wheel cave cannot be literally translated, but they reflect the notion of resurrection.

(thanks to Lost fan Beth for this post)

SPOILER: Where is one of the Dharma Stations?

UPDATE: Watch With Kristin issued a correction: "A very good source tells me that the information I received about off-Island Dharma stations is not quite right: There is one and only one off-Island Dharma stations—the show hasn't filmed any of those scenes yet—and that station may or may not be the key to returning to the Island. Argh! My sincere apologies. Reuniting the O6 with the Left Behinders is going to be harder than I thought."

Watch With Kristin at E! Online provides some scoop about where we might find one of the Dharma stations in the outside world. There are apparently six stations off the island that could be a key to getting back.


Amanda in St. Petersburg, Fla.:
Where is the powerful place we've already seen that might have a Dharma station in it?

In the words of the sage Hugo Reyes: "Australia is the key to the game." I'm told there's at least one off-Island Dharma station in Australia, and I personally love and believe your guesses were right: The station is specifically in or around Ayres Rock/Uluru, the place Rose and Bernard visited on their honeymoon.