Back to the island: It's time to get ‘Lost’ again

It’s time to get confused all over again. After a lengthy nine and a half month wait, “Lost” returns for its penultimate season of island intrigue and off-island head-scratchers Wednesday night. Ready to dive back into the murky mystery?

Of course, it’s not such an easy task, after a hulking hiatus like that. Heck, it’s tough enough to seamlessly transition back to any story with the better part of a year separating the action, but with “Lost” even parsing the tale from week-to-week is tricky business.

With season five set to pick up the action where the last and most convoluted season-to-date left off, a refresher’s in order.

Just as viewers got to know their flashbacks from their flash-forwards, “Lost” upped the ante by revealing that time itself is flexible, and island time in particular is a thing of its own. This odd tidbit became clear when a freighter full of foes pulled up offshore and experienced lag time between their island crew and the gang on the ship, as in the body of one member washed ashore long before he met his final on-deck fate.

In addition to that, some members of the crew, as well as island regular Desmond, suffered from a time-based sickness. This out-of-nowhere and fatal-for-most condition was marked by the afflicted’s consciousness traveling throughout different moments of their own life. Their actions during these moments could even result in changing future events. Sound confusing? It was.

A clue behind the displacement disease and time fluctuations came from one of the few friendly types from the freighter, Daniel the physicist. While treating Desmond, Daniel vaguely connected it all to an unspecified electromagnetic phenomenon, and as everyone knows, the island is a hotbed of electromagnetic activity.

Hurley sees dead people
Time wasn’t the only thing that proved relative on the island. Death is pretty up in the air, too. Sure, Jack’s defunct dad, Christian, has long had a habit of strolling around the island, but even he’s expanded his repertoire, acting as ghostly liaison to island bigwig Jacob. And Christian’s not alone in haunting the gang nowadays.

Last season’s first appearance from the great beyond came when fallen island hero Charlie paid Hurley a visit during the big guy’s future stint at a mental institution. Explaining his postmortem mobility, Charlie said, “I’m dead, but I’m also here.”

Slideshow   Celebrity sightings Lady Gaga signs CDs in New York, Alicia Keys performs on the TODAY show, Gwyneth Paltrow steps out in London and more. more photos

The late DriveShaft bassist wasn’t the only deceased islander to drop by Hurley’s haunt, as Mr. Eko engaged his old friend in a game of chess. These visits might seem trivial if they were just the stuff of mental institutions, but the dead got around.

Hurley’s almost-girlfriend Libby popped in to see her killer, Michael, on more than one occasion. And this is as good a time as any to mention that, while he hasn’t got around to haunting anyone yet, Michael gave up the ghost in an effort to save his former fellow castaways from those pesky freighter foes.

Also taking a dip in the dead pool were veteran survivalist Rousseau, her (and sort of Ben’s) daughter Alex, Alex’s star-crossed lover Karl and a host of redshirts from all sides of the island. Whew.

But not everyone’s life or death status is as easily known. There’s Jin, who’s presumed dead thanks in part to a flash-forward in which Sun mourns at his grave, and in part to his relative proximity to Michael, who went out in a blast. And things aren’t looking good for Oceanic’s young mom, Claire, either. She took a hike to Jacob’s cabin alongside Christian, and that’s never a good sign.

Oh, and there’s one more dearly departed, but that one’s going to take some explaining.

MORE FROM TELEVISION OPINIONS

40 years of diversity on ‘Sesame Street’

40 years of diversity on ‘Sesame Street’ Is Leno’s 10 p.m. experiment nearing an end? TV snobs are wrong about ‘Two and a Half Men’ For ‘Big Bang’s’ Sheldon, the nerd is the word Sykes and late night TV’s new color barrier Proudly un-hip, ‘NCIS’ still tops ratings Monty Python the original kings of gore ‘Glee’ has rabid fans, but they deserve better Newsweek: Is 'FlashForward' the next 'Lost'? Newsweek: 5 flagging TV shows that need to end   Add Television Opinions headlines to your news reader: