Is It Time For A Last Lost Lust List?

OK, so maybe the "lust" in this case is simply my deep desire for answers. But I'm really starting to worry about which answers we will and won't be receiving as Lost finishes up in a 2.5 hour spectacular on Sunday night. I'm OK with the fact that many of the smaller unresolved puzzles won't be dealt with, but there are still a fair number of large-ish ones hanging in the breeze.

Here's an example: Who was in Jacob's cabin when it was visited by Benry and Locke (Season... 4, maybe?)? It seemed like whoever was in there could be seen, at least partially, by Locke (as a dim figure sitting in a chair), and was heard - again, by John Locke but not Benry - to plead, "Help me!" It makes no sense that it would be Jacob, since we know he had the run of the island, and why would he act so directly, anyway? It could have been Man in Black (messing with Locke's head), if we accept that he wasn't really trapped in there. He couldn't have been trapped, after all, as we've seen the Smoke Monster roaming free and wreaking havoc all throughout the show's run (all the way back to the pilot episode, for crying out loud!). But if he wasn't a prisoner of the cabin, then what was the deal with the ash perimeter that was up around it, and why had it been partly erased when Jacob's acolytes arrived there in Season 6? At the time of each of these various incidents, we were led to believe they were significant... was that just subterfuge, or bad writing/planning? I'd hate to think that something like that is going to be left unanswered, but I'm beginning to lean heavily toward just that outcome. And there are dozens more just like it.

As I get ready for Sunday's finale, I keep thinking that there's a great risk at this point that Lost is going to be remembered for promising more than it delivered. Not on the order of magnitude of, say, Twin Peaks... but maybe more like an X-Files or an Alias. I hope that doesn't prove to be the case, as in most other regards Lost has been a vastly superior product to either of those earlier shows. But it is somewhat depressing to think of all the acres of soil we tilled over 6 years only to have most of it bear little or no fruit.

[Just as an aside: Has it seemed strange to anyone else that the Sideways world and the Island world seem to be converging and yet are separated in time by 3 years? Happy Jack and nice Benjamin Linus are still back in 2004, shortly after the Oceanic 815 flight, whereas their Island-world counterparts are operating in 2007. I can't help but think - hope? - that there's some significance to this. Vicki posited an interesting theory last night as we watched "What They Died For": what if someone, possibly Eloise, created the Sideways reality as a place to hide the "source" that's supposed to be at the center of the island? That would explain the other world's existence and why we've been shown it all season long, as well as the generally well-off nature of the people there (it's full of light!). It would also imply that Island Jack (the new Jacob) and Fake Locke are headed to a confrontation over something that isn't even there anymore... which would be a Hell of a twist, no? Still not sure how Desmond would fit into that, as he obviously now has enlightenment toward what's really going on... so is he going to merge the various dopplegangers together in the sunny Sideways world, or what?]