'Lost' and Found

Bill Ervolino - The Record - Hackensack, NJ

Ready for another year of confounding plotlines? Mysterious deaths? Unexplained monsters? Spies? Ghosts? Crackpots and con artists? And way too much physics homework?

If so, look no further than ABC tonight, when you-know-what returns at 8 with an hour-long recap and two brand-new, back-to- back episodes guaranteed to ... oh, who are we kidding?

If you want predictable, watch something else.

In the action-dense fourth season of "Lost," we gasped when the Oceanic 6 left the island. We gasped all over again when Jin, Des, Dan and Lapidus left the island. Then, we scratched our heads when - - Huh? -- the island left the island.

Yeah, it's one thing to be lost. But it's another thing entirely when the place where you ARE lost gets lost, too.

In keeping with tradition, the Season 4 finale answered three or four key questions, while dropping another 50 into our Unresolved file. To recap:

GONE, BABY GONE: In the midst of a showdown with the doomed freighter-folk, Ben descended into the Orchid and pulled off the sort of stunt you might expect from David Copperfield. (The illusionist, not the Dickens character.)

Fans have been divided ever since on whether the island popped into a worm hole, went back in time, went forward in time, moved to an undisclosed location, or simply ceased being visible to the human eye.

Two Season 4 references of note: In "Cabin Fever" we saw a REAL Atlas comic book from the 1950s that had a city rising into the sky on its cover. The same episode saw the death of the freighter's Capt. Gault -- a possible reference to John Galt of "Atlas Shrugged," who retreated to a valley in Colorado protected by a light refraction device that made his "gulch" invisible from the air.

One rumor of note favors "back in time" as a means of reintroducing Dharma and explaining Charlotte's origins. But isn't that what flashbacks are for?

DEAD, MAYBE DEAD: We've seen -- or think we've seen -- Jin blow up. We even saw his grave. So that means he is definitely NOT dead, right? Hey, this is "Lost," not "Gunsmoke."

We're less sure about Michael. And Claire's ethereal reappearance with the dead Christian in Jacob's cabin was uber-creepy. Is she dead, too? Probably.

The biggest shock of all, though, was seeing "Jeremy Bentham" in the coffin at the Hoffs-Drawlar Funeral Parlor. We're assuming that John Locke left the island and assumed the Bentham alias in an attempt to persuade the Oceanic 6 to return to Lostville. But are we assuming too much? Isn't he Jacob's successor? Or has Aaron made that irrelevant?

Of note: The names Bentham and Locke are borrowed from real English philosophers who disagreed on the notion of "natural" (or "moral") rights. The real Bentham was also a critic of the Jacobins who implemented the reign of terror during the French Revolution. (Stuck on the Jacob/Jacobins connection? So are we.)

NEXT, BABY NEXT: There is so much we're anxiously awaiting this season, including the flashback returns of Ana Lucia and Libby; clues about how Locke became Bentham; the reappearance of the island- bound Others; and some explanation of why Richard Alpert looks the same in every flashback, no matter what decade it's set in.

Then, of course, there is Ben's threat to Widmore, concerning Penny. Are she and Desmond doomed, baby doomed? Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for the woman who sold Des a ring in the past and knew all about his future. Apparently, she's returning this season, too.

Rumor has it that tonight's double-episode Season 5 premiere packs a big jolt, especially near the end.

----

More television news

More Entertainment

Copyright 2012 by The Record - Hackensack, NJ