Cutting off has enough unanswered questions and detailed fan theories to make even the most steadfast viewer concerned that the series will ultimately stick the landing. In recent interview with Diversityseries creator Dan Erickson insists the sci-fi drama won’t have the same ending as the historically much-derided denouement of the ABC drama Lost.
To remind the few unaware people (Lost Final spoilers follow!), Lostthe sixth and final season pissed off a group of people who had devoted hundreds of real hours to watching a show about a group of plane crash survivors stranded on a mysterious tropical island. In the final season, the show introduced a confusing parallel timeline where the orphaned characters lead normal lives, but it turned out to be not a parallel timeline, but some kind of purgatory-like afterlife where everyone can be reunited. We never find out why all these strange things are happening on the island, what all those numbers were about, or how Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) got the power to grant immortality and leave the island whenever he wanted.
Erickson promises Cutting off won’t turn into Lostbut he dances around, fully committed to answering all of the show’s mysteries. “I promise the show won’t literally turn into a Lost. We won’t put them on the island and let Sawyer show up. No – we are very conscious that we need to know where we are going and we need to reward people’s patience and faith.”
This Cutting off fan theories are multiplying faster than Apple can release episodes, almost guaranteeing there will be questions left unanswered, largely because they were questions Erickson never asked. A series could have a satisfying ending without explaining how many departments are in the Lumon Building, which houses the main cast, or why the building is located child working on a cut off floor. These secrets are of an auxiliary nature and are not the central element of the dramaturgy of the performance. However, there remain a lot of mysteries that they will have to explain by the end of the series if they want to avoid this Lost level of disgrace.
We need to know what these laid-off employees are actually working on and what Lumon’s ultimate plan is. Ms. Casey’s (Dichen Lachman) whereabouts seem to be the focal point of the current season, but we also need to know if and how Lumon faked her death, given what Mark S (Adam Scott) claims to have identified her body. Under no circumstances can this series end without explaining what the hell is going on with the goats.
These are just a few major mysteries that need to be solved, but time is running out. Luckily for us Cutting off fans, Erickson says that Season 3 shouldn’t have to wait almost three years like Season 2. Let’s just hope that this whole series doesn’t just take place in Kiera’s coma in some nursing home in Lumon.