"Well," Dad remarked to me the other day, "less than two months to go!" "I know!" I replied. "They're starting to show commercials for the fifth season now. I'm so pumped!" At which he laughed and said, "Gee, you didn't even consider that I might be talking about the Inauguration, did you?" Nope, I didn't. And nope, he wasn't. Dad and I are anxiously awaiting the fifth season of LOST, along with everybody else who's been left hanging since May. It's hard for me to believe, but the fourth season was the first one that I actually watched live in its entirety; I saw most of season three that way but had to catch up on the fall episodes on video.

While waiting this time around has been a pain, it hasn't been nearly as difficult as it was last year. I think that's partly because the season four finale left me feeling a lot more hopeful than season three's did. The website www.dharmawantsyou.com also helped, allowing me to take several exams to determine my suitability for a position as a Dharma Initiative volunteer; I received my results not long ago, and I was assigned the role of gardener, which puts me in company with Sam Gamgee and Rubeus Hagrid, a fine pair of peers indeed. I also amused myself by carving a LOST-inspired jack-o-lantern and dressing as a member of the Dharma Initiative for Halloween. But now the wait is nearly over, and fans of the series can brush up on LOST lore by snatching the fourth season on DVD.

I never really felt that LOST lost its footing as a whole, though I have occasionally disagreed with certain creative choices. I have a hard time choosing a favorite season when each has such a distinct flavor and brings something so important to the puzzle that is this show; I'm more inclined to choose favorite episodes. That said, despite the fact that this season contains only 13 episodes, it has several that floored me. The general consensus seemed to be that this was LOST's strongest season since the first, and I certainly have to concur that they were doing something right.

I was nervous about the fourth season because Through the Looking Glass had such an overwhelming despairing effect upon me. Two of my favorite characters got killed off, along with more than a dozen others. We saw into the future, and it wasn't pretty. We were left with the uncomfortable feeling that the desperate rescue plan for which such grave sacrifices were made may have actually been to the undoing of all. Not fun. And there are bone-chilling atrocities in this fourth season. Yet there are still opportunities for light, for hope, for all of the wonderful character-driven moments that make LOST so addictive.

The fourth season begins to move into the show's end game by giving us as many flash forwards as flashbacks, sometimes keeping us guessing as to which is which. We learn that Jack's (Matthew Fox) contact with the freighter will lead to six castaways returning to civilization in the near future. It isn't until halfway through the season that we know the identities of them all, and there's still much to learn about what happens to them between their departure from the island and Jack's desperate determination that "We have to go back!" I was worried that seeing the future might render the present less interesting, especially in terms of knowing that certain characters will survive, but I rarely found that to be the case. The future revelations just gave me different things to focus on as I studied those characters back on the island.

This season brings with it several new characters, the most prominent of which are introduced in Confirmed Dead. In this unusually structured episode, we see what each of these four characters was up to when he or she found out that Oceanic Flight 815 had been found at the bottom of the ocean with all its passengers confirmed dead. (The mystery of just how this illusion was accomplished endures, though there are some conflicting clues.) The intriguingly named Charlotte Staples Lewis is the only woman of the bunch. Played by Rebecca Mader, she's a fiery English archaeologist whose interest in the island may be more than historical in nature. Miles Straume (Ken Leung) is a smart-alecky "ghost whisperer" largely out for personal gain whose unusual skills could be especially handy on an island where so many have recently died.

Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) is a crusty pilot who was supposed to have been flying Oceanic 815 and has become obsessed with learning the truth about what happened to it. He's rough around the edges, but his blunt sense of humor is a welcome addition; shortly after we meet him, he dazedly utters my favorite goofy line of the season: "I saw a cow!" Frank was the first of the freighter folk I came to trust completely, and his heroic qualities render him extremely helpful to our beleaguered friends. Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) is probably the most notable newbie, given the fact that one of the most prominent clips going into the season was of him saying shiftily, "Rescuing you and your people... I can't really say it's our primary objective." A jittery college professor studying anomalies in the space-time continuum, he seems like a gentle, absent-minded professor, and I embraced him quickly, but troubling questions about his mission on the island remain throughout the season.

Other new characters include Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick), an imposing figure who makes his shadowy entrance at key off-island moments, apparently manipulating characters toward a desired end. We still know little about him, but all evidence seems to suggest that he is a creep. More ambiguous is Captain Gault (Grant Bowler), the no-nonsense Australian captain of the off-shore freighter. With the intentions of his crew unclear and some very strange phenomena surrounding his ship, figuring out whose side he's on is no simple task. Same goes for communications officer George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens) and the ship's crotchety doctor (Marc Vann). The only one on the ship who seems absolutely unfit for alliance with the good guys is Martin Keamy (Kevin Durand), a steely-eyed mercenary who seems to take icy satisfaction in methodical killing. He reminds me of No Country For Old Men's Anton Chigurh, and it didn't take long for him to become my most loathed character in the show's history.

Season four finds the castaways we already know and love deeply divided. A majority of them head back to the beach with Jack to wait for further communication from the freighter. Kate (Evangeline Lilly) is among them; awkwardly, so is Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), still a rival for Jack's affections. Parents-to-be Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) are there too; as their marriage continues to mature, they anxiously await news of a rescue, as Sun's survival depends upon leaving the island before her pregnancy becomes too advanced. Surprisingly enough, Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) and her protective husband Bernard (Sam Anderson) opt for the beach as well, even though Rose suspects that leaving the island may result in the return of her terminal cancer. Her profound, accepting brand of faith is a welcome contrast to John's crazed pursuit of his destiny, and I wish the show would explore it more often. Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) start out with Jack but hop Frank's freighter-bound chopper in hopes of getting some answers; they get more than they bargained for when they meet "Kevin Johnson," a figure from past seasons with a lot to atone for.

Meanwhile, John (Terry O'Quinn), having survived a Ben (Michael Emerson)-induced near-death experience, leads a small band of dissenters to the cozy series of buildings Sawyer (Josh Holloway) terms "New Otherton". Yes, brooding Sawyer has joined the island-loving John, though he's none too thrilled about Mr. Clean keeping Ben alive. Theirs is a complex relationship, but despite Ben's shockingly petulant behavior in The Man Behind the Curtain, he and John seem to need one another, in part because they seem to be the only people convinced that this supposed rescue is bad news. That the half-cocked John manages to get any followers at all is mostly thanks to Hurley (Jorge Garcia), who delivers an impassioned speech in the wake of his dear friend's death in hopes that it will not have been in vain. Claire (Emilie de Ravin), at least, is convinced, and part of Sawyer's rocky road to redemption lies in the way he, with no ulterior motive, strives to protect her and her infant son.

LOST strays further into science fiction territory with this season, but it's so well done that I doubt even the least geeky viewers mind too much. The biggest mind-bender of the season is The Constant, a riveting, dizzying episode that finds a disoriented Desmond yanked back and forth through time, doomed to eventual brain hemorrhage unless he connects with Penelope (Sonya Walger), his one true love from whom he parted so badly. I consider this one of three episodes in this season that serve as bookends to third-season episodes; it is a perfect continuation of Flashes Before Your Eyes, which introduced the temporal anomaly plaguing the smokin' Scotsman, and taken together, they are every bit as romantic as the gushiest chick flick. In addition to including one of my absolute favorite moments of the season, The Constant reveals a great deal about Daniel in some wonderful scenes that are, by turns, comical and heart-rending.

The second bookend episode is The Shape of Things to Come. I waited for it for a month, and after I watched it I wanted to throw things at the television. The utter despair of this Ben-centric outing renders it the only episode that can compete with Through the Looking Glass in terms of inducing depression. In this episode, we finally see the true consequences of the castaways' choices in the season finale. Suffice it to say they're not good. Dark days are upon the island, and this new threat makes the surviving Others, most of whom are hidden away in a secret fortress, look like little more than annoying neighbors.

Thankfully, it's followed up with the brilliant Cabin Fever, which follows John through childhood and adulthood much like The Man Behind the Curtain did with Ben. Both episodes involve a trip to see the elusive Jacob and a question of whether Ben or John is intended to be the true leader of the Others. The parallels between the episodes are so plentiful that I won't attempt to list them here, but trying to discover them all is a fun exercise. I love this episode because Hurley and John have been among my favorite characters from the beginning, and while Ben undeniably has villainous traits, he's so intriguing that I've come to love him nearly as much as those two. He spends most of this season under duress of one kind or another, and it pains me that Emerson was denied an Emmy for his riveting work once again. An entire episode focusing almost exclusively on these three characters is thrilling, and just as fascinating as the interplay between the once and what may be the future king is the way Hurley reacts to them. His wordless exchange with Ben toward the end of the episode may just be my single favorite moment in the season.

Because of the writers' strike, some characters' storylines suffered, particularly the newbies; head LOST liaisons Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have promised that we'll delve more deeply into their backgrounds soon. The stories that fascinated me most involved Desmond, whose Odysseus-like journey seems tantalizingly close to a conclusion following Through the Looking Glass but faces unfathomable obstacles; Sawyer, who has hit rock bottom in terms of his moral development and must reclaim the progress he had made, with plenty of subtle guidance from Hurley; Sun and Jin, who remain one of the best examples in prime time of a loving couple struggling to make a troubled marriage work; and Ben and John, who are locked into an uneasy partnership as control of the island hangs in the balance. I can't wait to see who will be given the most opportunity to shine during the fifth season. I'm hoping Rose and Bernard will be among the favored; they still are used far too little, though I was glad to see them more active in the fourth season than in the third. No matter who is most prominent as the series moves rapidly toward its 2010 conclusion, I hope that the quality of the episodes remains as high as ever. Somehow, I don't think I will be disappointed.

LOST Parodies:
Bohemian Rhapsody
I Am a Rock
White Christmas
Christmas Canon Rock
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Christmas in Killarney
Henry the Eighth
Sweet Baby James
The Only Living Boy in New York
Here, There and Everywhere
He Was My Brother
For Baby (For Bobbie)
Sloop John B.
When I'm 64
The Longest Time
Run for the Roses
You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore
Eye of the Tiger
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Leader of the Band
Same Old Lang Syne
Cat's in the Cradle
An Innocent Man
The Boxer
Sparrow
Loves Me Like a Rock
Der Fuehrer's Face
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Candle in the Wind
Scarborough Fair / Canticle
Hey Jude
Tears in Heaven
Bridge Over Troubled Water
House of the Rising Sun
Lover's Cross
Lasso the Moon
Rocket Man
El Condor Pasa
Hair
Why Don't You Write Me?
The Greening of Belfast
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Sons and Daughters
I'll Follow the Sun
What the World Needs Now Is Love
Danny Boy

Poems:
Baby Brother
The Pilot in the Pilot
Vincent
Of Sacrificial Death and Life
John the Baptized
Not Penny's Boat
Finding Vincent
I'm Lost Without...
Apollo

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD