Getting “Lost”: Follow The Leader Preview

It’s the second-to-last Lost of the season. With only “The Incident” Parts 1 & 2 to follow next week, we should be in for quite a ride tonight. Last week, we were on the verge of getting some major answers, but those likely died along with Daniel Faraday. We mean, he is dead … right?

As for what to expect tonight, here’s the official word from ABC: Jack and Kate find themselves at odds over the direction to take to save their fellow island survivors, Locke further solidifies his stance as leader of “The Others,” and Sawyer and Juliet come under scrutiny from the Dharma Initiative.

Guest stars this week include Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Francois Chau as Dr. Pierre Chang, Doug Hutchison as Horace Goodspeed, Patrick Fischler as Phil, Eric Lange as Radzinsky, David S. Lee as younger Charles Widmore, Alice Evans as younger Eloise Hawking, Leslie Ishii as Lara, Sebastian Siegel as Erik, Kevin Chapman as Mitch, Elisabeth Blake as Vanessa, William Makozak as Captain Bird, Victoria Goring as mother and Maya Henssens as young girl.

In lieu of preview videos — since there are several very spoiler-ific ones out there and we don’t want to ruin anything — here’s this week’s official Lost video podcast, in which cast members Josh Holloway, Elizabeth Mitchell, Michael Emerson, Daniel Dae Kim and Henry Ian Cusick talk about what they’re reading.

Here are the unanswered questions heading into this week’s episode, “Follow the Leader”:

• Daniel Faraday is dead … right?

• Did Faraday do enough to convince Dr. Chang to build the hatch?

• What’s going to happen to Sawyer and Juliet now that Radzinsky has blown their cover?

• “What lies in the shadow of the statue?”

• How do Ilana and her crew know about the statue — and who sent them to the island?

• What’s in the silver crate?

• Who is Penny’s “outsider” mom?

• Why would Richard Alpert have to check with Charles Widmore and Ellie before saving Ben?

• Is Horace Goodspeed really Ethan’s father?

• How will Sun get to 1977 to reunite with Jin?

• What is the deal with that giant four-toed statue?

• Why did Jack, Kate and Hurley end up in 1977, while the rest of the Ajira 316 passengers seem to be in a different time?

• At the time of the purge, Horace is married to Olivia … so what happens to Amy?

• Is Helen really dead or did Matthew Abaddon simply show Locke a fake grave site to get him where he needed to be?

• Who is the man who created the equations used to find the island?

• How and why did Hurley get on the plane? (A visit from Charlie perhaps? It would explain the guitar case.)

• Why didn’t Richard and the other Others move through time when Locke did?

• How is Desmond “uniquely and miraculously special,” according to Faraday?

• Who is the woman in the butcher shop?

• Is Claire dead? If not, how is she communicating with Kate off the island?

• Who (or what) is Jacob?

• Why doesn’t Claire want Aaron to go back to the island?

• What does Christian Shephard want from Jack and Claire?

• According to the Oceanic 6’s story, who is Aaron’s “father”?

• Why doesn’t Jack want to see Aaron off the island?

• Why was Locke chosen by the island?

• What exactly is Richard Alpert’s role in the Ben vs. Widmore battle?

• What exactly are “the rules”?

• Why can’t Ben kill Widmore?

• What happened to Annie?

• What’s in that Black Rock journal, and why does Charles Widmore want it so badly?

• Who are the people on Ben’s list, and why are they on it?

Check back on Thursday for a recap of this week’s episode.