TVSquad

(S05E16/S05E17) "See you in Los Angeles." - Jack

I'm not really sure where to begin, but I think this is a pretty good starting point: holy crap. Just like every season finale before this one, Lost has once again left us all with our jaws on the floor and our brains on overdrive. This changes everything. The big question? How does it change everything? Is it January yet?

(S05E15) "I have a purpose now." - Locke

I can't believe how fast this season of Lost has gone by. There's probably a time-travel joke buried in that realization somewhere, but my head is still spinning from "Follow the Leader," so I'm not really in clever witticism mode. Honestly, I'm speechless. For the most part, this wasn't one of my favorite episodes of the season. But for me to be at a loss for words at one of Lost's sub-par installments - well that says something about the quality of this show. "Follow the Leader" was a lot of set up for next week's two hour finale and the events that have been set in motion (even though it seems they always happened) are mind-numbing.

Lost continues to impress me. I really do think it's one of the great TV dramas of all-time, and last night's episode was rock solid. Except for one thing I'm going to be nit-picky about.

OK, so Sawyer and Kate bring young injured Ben to the Others so they can save him, and Richard tells them that, yeah, I can save him, but he won't remember what happened to him and he'll lose his innocence. Up until now we (and Hurley and Miles, in one of the episodes best scenes) were wondering why Ben didn't remember that Sayid shot him as a kid when he became an adult. And the writers quickly solve this by just having his memory erased?

That seems really, really...lame.

Needless to say, this video contains possible spoilers.

So last week's episode of Lost ended with a little Ben delivering a sandwich to Sayid, who was caught by Jin and put in a jail cell. It's hard to say how this is going to play out. We do know that Sayid has always been an independent guy and doesn't like being all cooped up and confined. So will he screw up Sawyer's plans? Will he accidentally expose Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Juliet, and Miles? Will he try to escape? And how does junior Ben Linus fit into all of this? Is he already planning things at this age? Does he already know, somehow, about the Oceanic passengers and John Locke? And most importantly, does the kid playing Ben have that weird Michael Emerson stare down pat yet?

The answers after the jump, courtesy of Kristin over at E! It seems like all that camp has to eat are damn sandwiches.

(S05E01) "You're gonna have to die, John." - Richard Alpert

Time travel! The future is now! later! here! gone! beginning! ending! OK, I give up. Lost is back and the future is... well, we don't know what the future is. Or the past. Or the present. All we know is what they were, because now they're just one big time travelin' mess.

As with seasons past of Lost, the fifth chapter of TV's favorite mindf*ck opens by presenting an entirely new storytelling technique - one that demands equal parts patience, attention, and imagination. More than anything, it's a test for true fans because the casual Lost viewer (do they exist?) probably had a hard time moving from A to Z (worst metaphor ever - I know) in tonight's season premiere. That being said, this whole hour gave me my own bloody nose.