SO MANY QUESTIONS

‘Manifest’ is just TV’S latest mystery. Will it have more answers than these series?

LOST

THE MYSTERY: Why did Flight 815 crash? WAS IT RESOLVED? Yes. Technically, a burst of electromagnetic activity following an incident inside the Swan station drew the plane towards the uncharted Pacific island and caused it to break in two. But before that, island protector Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) caused the plane to fly off course so he could choose a successor from among the passengers.

FLASHFORWARD

THE MYSTERY: Why did almost everyone in the world black out for two minutes and 17 seconds, gaining a glimpse of the future in that time? WAS IT RESOLVED? No. Although we met some of the people involved in the global conspiracy to cause the blackout, there was no explanation as to why they were doing it. Lasting just one season, Flashforward ended with a second blackout … and more questions.

THE EVENT

THE MYSTERY: What is the Event? WAS IT RESOLVED? Kind of. In the closing moments of the series – The Event was another show that only lasted one season – the aliens’ planet came through a portal and into Earth’s orbit. But it was explained that “the Event” was actually something evolutionary that would happen to the aliens and endanger humans in the process. Yep, pretty vague.

FRINGE

THE MYSTERY: What caused the Pattern? WAS IT RESOLVED? Yes, this was resolved quite early in Fringe’s five-season run. In Season 2 episode “Peter”, Walter Bishop (John Noble) explained that the Pattern (a series of unexplained phenomena) was caused by a crack between universes, which came about when he crossed into an alternate universe to try to save his son. But there were plenty more mysteries to come…

THE X-FILES

THE MYSTERY: Is there a government conspiracy to hide the existence of alien life? WAS IT RESOLVED? Yes. By the end of the original series, it had been established that a group called the Syndicate had been working with an alien race that planned to colonise Earth in 2012. In the reboot, with that colonisation having not occurred and the Syndicate destroyed, new conspiracies arose.

ALCATRAZ

THE MYSTERY: Why are the prisoners and guards from Alcatraz prison in 1963 turning up in the present? WAS IT RESOLVED? No. With only a 13-episode season making it to air before it was cancelled, Alcatraz never got as far as revealing how the “63ers” were making the jump forward in time. The closest the finale came to a big reveal was showing what was behind the Warden’s (Jonny Coyne) secret door.

UNDER THE DOME

THE MYSTERY: Why did a giant, clear dome cut off the town of Chester’s Mill from the rest of the world? WAS IT RESOLVED? Yes. The dome was triggered as a protective covering over the town by a virus-like alien species called the Kinship. Transported to Earth inside an egg that crashed into Chester’s Mill in 1980, the Kinship tried to infect the entire population of the town, incubated inside the dome.

THE LEFTOVERS

THE MYSTERY: What was the cause of the Sudden Departure, which resulted in 2 per cent of the world’s population vanishing? WAS IT RESOLVED? Yes. Or maybe no. In the final episode, Nora (Carrie Coon) detailed her journey to an alternate world inhabited by the missing 2 per cent from which the other 98 per cent had disappeared. The question remained: was she to be believed?