Introduction

It's been just a few weeks since the Season 4 finale of Lost, and it feels like only a few more weeks since the season began. Now that this superb season has come and gone, 2009 feels like a very long time away. However, this season has given us many questions to keep us busy: where and when did Ben move the island to? What bad things happened afterwards? What plane of existence is Claire operating on? How did Jacob's cabin become mobile? Will Daniel Faraday ever have to use Desmond as his constant (and for that matter, what happened to Daniel and the other people in the Zodiac when the island moved? And why was Daniel crying when he saw the footage of the salvage of Oceanic 815)?

All of this is on top of the many questions that still remain from previous seasons: what is with that four-toed statue? Why did a supply drop land on the island? How long have the "Hostiles" been on the island? Who is Jacob, and why does God love him only in the past tense? Did God's love for Jacob stop? Or is Jacob hidden from God, the way that Ben claims the island is hidden from Him?

To aid in understanding these questions (and to pass the time until season five arrives), I decided to re-visit all of the four seasons. The producers have often been accused of making everything up as they go (as if, for some reason, this would be the utmost crime they could perpetrate on audiences). While they obviously have not planned out all the twists and turns, there is a level of planning that is evident throughout the show (for instance, Rousseau's map in Season 1 shows a smaller island next to the main island, which would be revealed as the Hydra Station island in Season 3). By re-watching the series, I hope to spot those times when the producers' foreshadowing hands are at work, but also to see how some ideas and plotlines have evolved or been abandoned altogether. Most of all, I hope to gain a clearer vision of the secrets of the island, and what the future holds for our castaways, who remain, after four seasons, lost in space, time, and purpose.