(S05E04) "I have to make them come back... even if it kills me." - Locke

And so begins the quest of Jeremy Bentham. That's been one of the real treats this season - seeing the Oceanic Six in the present while having their plot juxtaposed against the real-time (well... as "real-time" as real-time can get when you're time traveling) plight of those still on the island three years ago. The fact that we only saw Locke lay the foundation for his plan involving the Orchid to get everyone back was still mesmerizing. I love knowing what happens to him but not knowing the circumstances of his "suicide" and how he ended up in that coffin at Hoffs Drawler. Despite the lack of any more development on Locke's plan beyond what we got, this episode was still phenomenal - mainly because two people we've all been missing finally showed up again.

(S05E03) "Because... he's one of my people." - Locke

I really need to get in the habit of taping my mouth shut while watching Lost because my jaw is always on the floor by the end of every episode. Time-traveling has added an entirely new dimension (literally) to the story-telling techniques of this show and the first three hours of this season have been some of Lost's best. The flash-backs always lacked a certain amount of tension because they already happened. On the flip side of the same coin, the same can be said about the flash-forwards because you know they're going to happen. But time-traveling has created this new ripple where nothing has permanence anymore, whether it happened, is happening, or will happen. This is mesmerizing stuff to watch unfold because everything becomes new the second Faraday, Locke, and Co. make a new jump. They may not be altering the ultimate outcome, but they are altering the moment.

(S05E02) "There's no calling my father off." - Penny

Everybody lies. Some people enjoy the thrill of getting away with it ... and then there's Hurley. While this wasn't a traditional flash-back/flash-forward episode with one character as the focus (hard to say if those will ever be feasible again), this was pretty much a Hurley-centric hour anyway.

As the plot progresses this season, it's going to be interesting to see who becomes important (and who becomes irrelevant) to the ultimate endgame. That being said, we learned one pretty important fact in this episode:

Without Hugo in the mix, "then God help us all."

(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.

I like a show that doesn't BS around with dull scenes in its season finale. Right off the bat we're given the scenario: Miles and his family are packing up to escape town before the tsunami hits, Caitlin's Vespa is stolen when she arrives too late to find Miles, and she's knocked out when the crook pushes her, and Laura steals a rental car from the airport and blows by a road block to find Rich, who has been locked in a room at the mysterious lab. (And what is Jackson's name and pic doing on the lab's computers? Section Chief?!?)

Here we go!

You know how sometimes they'll advertise an episode of a TV show as the "episode you must see" or "the episode that changes everything?" Usually it's just hype or wishful thinking. They didn't advertise episode 14 of Surface as an episode that changes everything or a must see. But they could have. Because, well, this is the episode that changes everything.

One of the things that I like about Surface (one of many things) is that I really don't know where it's going with its story. I had assumptions I made about where these creatures came from, and they turned out to be wrong. I made an assumption on how the story was going to play out between Laura, Rich, and Miles, and I was wrong on that too. So I'm not going to try to predict what's going to happen anymore. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the remaining episodes for this season.