What do you think? Is Jorge Garcia's sex-object status in these videos ironic or straightforward? And are these secret flash-forwards to a time when Hurley escapes the island, but finds himself trapped in a suburban hell populated by reality TV stars? [Lyly Ford]

What Happened To The Island At The End Of Last Season?
Well, we saw it disappear, but did it move in time or space? Or both? We know from season 4 that Ben went from the Island in 2004 to late 2005, after all, so perhaps the Island never actually physically moved at all... it just jumped somewhere else in time.

Has FutureSun Gone Bad?
In the "future" of the fourth season's final episode, "There's No Place Like Home," Sun told Charles Widmore that they have common interests and reminded him that the Oceanic Six "are not the only ones who left the island." Has she gone bad, is this a double bluff, or is Charles Widmore actually the good guy in this after all? Okay, maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch.

Is Ben Working Against The Island?
Here's some more evidence to support the "Maybe things aren't as we seem" theory: Ben said, at the end of last season, that the Island wants all of the Oceanic 6 to return, but when Claire appeared in Kate's dream, she said that Aaron shouldn't go back. Assuming that that Claire was the "real" Claire, does that mean that the Island doesn't want Aaron to return? If that's the case, then why did Ben say the opposite? Unless, for some reason, he's working against the Island... or the visions that have been appearing to the Oceanic 6 aren't the work of the Island at all.

What Happened To Locke?
This one, admittedly, is many questions in one: How did Locke get off the Island? Why did he get off the Island (We have a partial answer to this: To get the Oceanic 6 to return. But, again, why?)? Why was he calling himself Jeremy Bentham back in the outside world? How did he die? And much, much less importantly, why am I convinced that he'll come back to life when he gets back to the Island?

Why Does The Island Want Everyone Back? And What Does Back Mean, Anyway?
Remember, this is now a show about time travel. Does the Island want everyone to return to the Island now, or does the Island want everyone to return to some particular point in time - and if it's the latter, when, and why? Are they supposed to prevent something from happening? Tied in with this, of course, is the basic question "What is the Island, anyway?" I think it's safe to assume at this point that it's not actually an Island - or, at least, not only an Island.

What Are "The Rules"?
If Charles Widmore "broke the rules" in telling mercenaries to kill Ben's daughter (as Ben claimed in "The Shape Of Things To Come" last season), what rules are we talking about? And the rules of what, exactly? Apparently the competition between the two men had some kind of gentlemen's agreement quality to it previously, so what was going on between the two of them before Alex died? Remember: Widmore not only knows about the Island, he calls it "his" Island. But why?

Is Desmond The Only Character Unstuck In Time?
Ben, as I said above, has already been shown to have jumped ahead in time, and at the end of "The Constant," we saw in Daniel Farraday's notebook that Daniel's constant was Desmond... does that mean that he is also lost in time? And if so, when did that happen? Or did it happen when Daniel's raft also disappeared in the white light that the Island disappeared in (And, again, if so, does that mean that everyone caught in that blast is lost in time? Told you the show was good at raising questions)?

What's Charlotte's Secret?
Snarky Miles told fellow newcomer Charlotte last season that he knew that she'd been trying to "return" to the Island for some time, right before Charlotte herself told Daniel that she was looking for where she was born... Was she born on the Island? And what importance would that fact have, on an Island where mothers have traditionally died in the third trimester under mysterious circumstances?

Is Miles A Clue About Hurley?
Talking of Miles, it's worth pointing out that he can hear dead people. Is the introduction of Miles meant to clue us in to some latent psychic ability in Hurley that allows him to see Charlie and Mr. Eko off the Island that has less to do with the mystical powers of the Island and more to do with Hurley himself? He was the one who found the numbers, after all. Is Hurley the series' third psychic (After Miles and Walt)?

What Is The DHARMA Initiative?
Yeah, yeah; this is the one that we most likely won't get an answer to for some time to come, but it's still one of the most important questions from the show to me. Yes, we know a lot of facts about the DHARMA Initiative, but I'm not buying that whole "70s commune of hippies out to save the world" thing... The experiments we know that they were engaged in - Teleportation? Time travel? - seem a little too ambitious for a collection of freethinkers engaged in social experiments, and I'm sure shadowy secrets remain to be uncovered. Did DHARMA create the Island altogether? Or did the Island create the DHARMA Initiative?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, apparently the photo reference for Jorge Garcia's Hurley got mixed up with Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore. This is in no way a bad thing. In fact, now you can put this toy with all of your BSG Mini-Mates and imagine that you, too, are on the set of Sci-Fi Channel's groundbreaking TV show.

Lost Kubricks [Muledesign]

According to Lindelof, "Season 4 is about who gets off the island and the fact that they need to get back. Season 5 is about why they need to get back, and season 6 is about what happens when they get back." Meaning there's going to be a lot of sitting around on that island throughout the rest of this season. Sure we've had some flash-forwards, but it feels like you're going to see Locke cooking breakfast for some time to come. Plus they've run out of eggs, so I hope everyone enjoys pancakes. Although they must realize it's getting slow, because Cuse added, "There will be very significant mysteries answered in the seventh episode. The eighth episode is non-traditional and the start of something new."

Remember how bad Season Three got last year? People were proclaiming the death of Lost everywhere, and the ratings were plummeting. Then all of the sudden it got better right at the end, and everyone cheered and said it had regained the magic. Well, we're several shows in, and it's already showing signs of sputtering again. We're bored with the whole fate of those left behind, the new Freighties are sort of boring, with the slight exception of Jeremy Davies. We're mired in squabbling that seems to repeat from episode to episode, the Dharma Initiative remains a big unanswered mystery, and it's just the Jack, Kate, Locke and sometimes Hurley & Sawyer show. If you think it's boring now, just wait. Lost takes a month-long break in a two weeks, then returns with the wacky episode 8. We hope it's not just another empty hatch.

[Chicago Tribune]

And here are some new promo pics from season four, episode four, "Eggtown". [Lost Spoilers]

The episode was a fabulous, Hurley-centric return to form. There was a minimum of soap opera; I only gagged a little when Claire, Sun, and Rose sat around congratulating each other's men and teasing about the superiority of giving birth in hospitals. The opening car chase/crash sequence revealed that Hurley is one of "the Oceanic 6" who have made it back to civilization, presumably along with Jack and Kate and three yet-to-be-identified others (though you can never, ever take anything for granted with this show). Flash-forwards show that Future Hurley is having just as much trouble with life off the island as Future Jack.

Meanwhile, back in 2004, Desmond returns from the Looking Glass with the news that it's Not Penny's Boat. Jack's too invested in being a Fearless Leader of Men to listen, and the survivors split into two groups: those who want to leave follow Jack, and those who want to stay go to the barracks with Locke.

And yes, there are the inevitable questions. Who are the people who, according to Charlie, need Hugo? Who was the man who visited Hurley in the hospital? If Hurley wanted to stay on the island with Locke, why is he back in L.A. with Jack? Where's Walt? Was that Jacob? When did Sawyer get so sensitive? What happened to make Future Jack change his mind about going back to the island? In summation, storylines were advanced, helicopters arrived, new questions were raised, and Charlie came back from the dead with a cute new haircut. I can hardly wait for next week.

• "The Watch": This was the kickoff scene for these scenes, and it didn't bode well when there was some hammy acting and dialogue. Basically, Jack's father gives him a watch, which belonged to his father. And no, he hadn't been keeping it in his ass. The moral of the scene is "Don't be a crappy father like I was."

  

• 
  
• "The Adventures of Hurley and Frogurt": Remember Neil, the frozen yogurt salesman from Season One? The producers always promised he'd become "more interesting." Sadly, that doesn't happen in this clip when he tells Hurley to make a move on Libby or he'll step in.

  

• 
  
• "King of the Castle": Ben and Jack play a friendly game of chess, and Ben promises Jack he won't try to stop him from leaving the island... but the island might. He also tells Jack that one day he might look back and regret leaving, and that if he does he hopes that he'll remember this conversation. Ooooooh! This is probably the best acted of all of these, and written by comics scribe Brian K. Vaughan to boot.

  

• 
  
• "The Deal": Juliet visits Michael while he's held captive by the Others, and tells him that he can believe Ben's offer of freedom. She confesses that she's staying there to help save her sister, and wouldn't he do anything to save Walt? Michael sure isn't happy about it.

  

• 
  
• "Operation: Sleeper": Juliet wakes Jack up and tells him she's been working with Ben all along, and that the other survivors have been right not to trust her. Off all the mobisobes, this one felt the rip-offiest.

  

• 
  
• "Room 23": Alarms and panic around the Barracks! Juliet tells Ben they need to let Walt go, but Ben tells her he's special and that Jacob wants him there. She shows him a pile of dead birds around Walt's window and wants to know what's so special about that. Is Walt's power the ability to get birds to commit suicide? We've seen it before, and we'll probaby see it again.

  

• 
  
• "Arzt & Crafts": It's Arzt! He's in his pre-dynamite phase, and he's trying to convince everyone on the beach not to move to the caves. That is until they hear the smoke monster's crazy horn bellow, and he craps his pants.

  

• 
  
• "Buried Secrets": Michael stumbles across Sun burying her fake California driver's license in the woods, and she confesses that she was going to leave Jin. They almost kiss, but then Vincent cockblocks them. That's right, the dog makes 'em stop.

  

• 
  
• "Tropical Depression": Arzt confesses to Michael that he lied about the monsoon season, and that he just wants to get off the island. He also tells him that he'd flown to Sydney to meet a woman he'd been chatting with on the internet, but she left him at the restaurant. Boy, this guy really has a depressing life.

  

• 
  
• "Jack, Meet Ethan. Ethan? Jack.": Jack meets Ethan while looking for medicine, and Ethan whips up a few tears and tells Jack his wife and child died in childbirth. Then he creepily stares at Claire. After he leaves, Jack creepily stares at Ethan, like "Hey... I know something is weird about that dude."

  

• 
  
• "Jin Has a Temper-Tantrum On the Golf Course": Jin has a Happy Gilmore freakout on the golf course after he can't sink a putt. While Hurley and Michael look on, he sinks to his knees and curses the ball. Probably the best scene out of all of them.

  

• 
  
• "The Envelope": Juliet burns her hand on something in the oven, and then almost confesses to Amelia and shows her Ben's x-rays, but someone rings the doorbell. Another exercise in frustration, since this one is really just a deleted scene. Okay, maybe this one was the big ripoff.

  

• 
  
• "So It Begins": There's a POV shot of Vincent running through the forest until Jack's dad stops him and tells him to go wake Jack up on the beach, just moments after the crash. So is Jack's dad alive? This is the only real "What the hell?!" clip in the whole bunch.

  

• 
  

So, without the commercials you've still got about 75 minutes of Lost to watch next week, and rest assured they're probably saving the really good stuff for right before the second hour ends, all the better to make you turn in the following week. However, it's worth at least part of these six minutes to see Hurley continue to assert his newfound balls. Think he'll run over someone else with the van?

Red Hot Video: Lost Sneak Previews [E! Online]

Desmond wakes up, punches the numbers into the computer, riffles through his vinyl and drops the needle on Cass Elliot singing "Make Your Own Kind of Music." He washes up, works out, injects himself with a gigantic dose of serum, and then—kaboom! The beauty of these season-opening moments is that until the first-time viewer sees Jack and Locke peering down the chute into the hatch, they have no idea where or who Desmond is or what the hell is going on. Extra points are also awarded for our first glimpse of Desmond without his shirt.

Locke's Backstory, Part 1. During the first several episodes of season 1, John Locke is established as a faintly sinister survivalist/naturalist, a New Age Grizzly Adams with a case full of knives. Then, in episode 4, a flashback reveals that not only did he used to be a game-playing geek with a paper-pushing job at a box company, but he was confined to a wheelchair. It was a genuinely surprising turn of events that gave the character plenty of impetus for his future actions.

The Orientation Film. The Hanso Foundation orientation film is an absolutely brilliant pastiche of every educational film I was ever forced to sit through in grade school (barring "Hemo the Magnificent"). What an incredibly entertaining way to learn more about the Dharma Initiative, Alvar Hanso, and the island's unique electro-magnetic properties.

Apocalypse on the Beach. From the nightmare-inducing scenes of the plane crash to Jack wandering the beach in a state of shock to the weirdness of Locke smiling at Kate with a slice of orange in his mouth, the very first episode offers lots of crazy, disoriented post-apocalyptic imagery that still packs a punch on viewing three seasons down the road.

Sawyer: More Than Just Fish Biscuits. I don't think of Sawyer as one of my favorite characters (and I'm sure he'd feel the same way about me), yet so many Sawyer-centric moments made my list that I'm giving the manipulative pretty-boy scoundrel his own entry. He is master of the snappy one-liner, and delivers a favorite when accused of stealing annoying Shannon's asthma inhalers. As a myopic constant reader, I strongly relate to his book love and cobbled-together reading glasses from another first season episode. And, really, who can resist all those nicknames?

Honorable mentions go to:
Just about every scene with Hurley, from the moment he reveals he won the lottery but believes he is jinxed to the golden moment when he gets the Volkswagen bus started up.
Mr. Eko and his whacking stick, for being the best of the "Tailies."
Driveshaft's hit song, "You All Everybody". For being a perfect and perfectly meaningless rock anthem and because I miss Charlie, though of course, we probably haven't seen the last of him.

Tomorrow: Lost's Greatest Misses.

You'll play Eliott, a character who (surprise!) we haven't seen before. He's suffering from amnesia, and will be sent all over the island solving mini-games, deciphering clues, and yes, even punching the sacred numbers into the hatch computer. You'll find out a bit more about stuff like the mysterious black smoke and the Black Rock ship that's been marooned on the island for years. You'll also interact with the main characters, although they've used soundalikes for most of them, which is fairly lame.

Since we've been wasting far too much time on the Lost viral marketing games, this game looks even more promising. Check out the trailer for it here. However, we wonder if automatonic versions of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer can tide us over. Will we be playing all of our favorite shows as video games in a few months? Come to think of it, we'd welcome the chance to play a cool Doctor Who or Battlestar Galactica game. Keyword being cool.

'Lost' Video Game Preview — Writer Taunts Me With Knowledge Of Black Smoke And Four-Toed Statue [MTV Multiplayer]

Well, if you haven't seen the show, then we doubt you'll "get it", but for the uninitiated out there, 815 was also the flight number of the Oceanic flight that crashed onto the island. We'd also forgotten about the four-toed giant statue... what the hell does that thing mean? Plus we love how they say Mr. Friendly throws like a girl because he most certainly does.

In the future, we wouldn't mind having all television shows and movies given to us this way. They've compressed 69 hours of Lost down to 8 minutes, and kept most of the pertinent facts that you need to know intact. At this rate, we could also watch every episode of Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, and the entire run of Planet of the Apes (both the movies and the television show) in an hour. Our brain might not survive the onslaught, but think of all the time we'd save. Plus it would make commercials entirely subliminal, which would thrill the advertisers. How can you skip past what you don't even know what you've seen?

Capsulized television. Bring it on.

Let's assume for a moment that you're one of the thousands of actors trying to make it in Hollywood, fighting daily for auditions, waiting tables by night, and hoping your big break will come along at any moment. Then suddenly you're catapulted into fame and fortune and starring on a hit show that films in, of all places, a tropical paradise. Sounds fairly idyllic, so what would lead someone in that position to become a drunk-driving boozehound?

• Daniel Dae Kim: Kim plays enigmatic Korean Jin-Soo on the show, and he's the latest in a trio of Lost stars drinking their way to DUI charges. He's also the first actor to actually fight his arrest in court. He pled not guilty on Friday to the charges from his October 25th arrest, which included a blood alcohol reading that was above the "highly intoxicated" level. We're not sure what sort of evidence he'll be presenting in his case, but look for plenty of black smoke and escape hatches.
• Cynthia Watros: After playing one of the survivors from the tail section on the show, and later Hurley's love interest, Cynthia was pulled over and arrested on the same day as fellow costar Michelle Rodriguez, although she was driving a separate vehicle. She plead guilty to driving under the influence, and was later killed off by Michael on the show via an "accidental" gunshot. Ka-blam. However, it looks like she'll be returning this year, albeit in flashbacks and dream sequences. Don't give up on Hurley getting some action just yet.
• 
  
  
• Michelle Rodriguez: Michelle played hothead L.A. cop Ana Lucia, and her problems onscreen mirrored some of her offscreen dramas, including an arrest for assault, a hit and run, and a previous DUI. After being arrested the same day as Cynthia Watros, she also plead guilty and was offed seconds before Cynthia was on the same episode. Coincidentally, the show where they both bit it was called "Two For The Road." She's back on the hot seat lately, having broken her probation. Chances are she'll be serving more time before she appears in James Cameron's Avatar.

• We're not sure if the monotonous days of filming are driving these actors to excess, or if it's something darker and more mysterious. However, if we were betting people, we'd have to put money on Josh Holloway's Sawyer as being the next to guzzle and gas. After all, it would be fitting for his character who has amassed quite a hoard of alcohol on the show. With the writer's strike holding up filming, it might be causing everyone to catch Island fever.