This TV series creates riddles not only for its characters but for its viewers as well. The names of some characters hide hints for famous writers, scientists, and thinkers of the past. Ben Linus, the leader of the Others comes from the chemist Linus Pauling, the surname of the French woman. Danielle Rousseau comes after the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Daniel Faraday — after the physicist Michael Faraday. The names of John Locke and Mikhail Bakunin are direct allusions to famous philosophers.

Moreover, there are intersections with the life of prototypes in the plot. For example, John Locke tells Claire to pacify the crying baby with the help of swaddling, however, the British philosopher himself was against swaddling and even wrote a scientific treatise about it.