Tonight's episode is "Nevermore" is a bit of a return to the weekly artifact hunts of yore, where Pete and Myka witness an artifact's destructive power, identify it, and bring it back to the Warehouse. Plus, we get to meet Battlestar Galactica alum Michael Hogan as Myka's emotionally distant father who gets tangled up with an artifact related to Edgar Allan Poe.

It's by no means show's strongest episode, but one that reflects and respects the show's changing character dynamics. The artifact hunt is fairly straightforward, without the mystery of some of the more recent episodes, but the point is more that we see the team functioning more as a cohesive team. Artie is no longer hiding the ball from his field agents, instead giving clear, concise information where they need it. Claudia takes a spin in the field, and there's still that playful sibling relationship between Pete and Myka, even if it no longer takes center stage. The major ding on character development is that Myka largely sits this episode out, though we at least get a dose of crotchety Michael Hogan (albeit only briefly crotchety) as compensation.

But the season finale, "MacPherson," almost feels like it comes from an entirely different show, one dominated not by artifact hunts and special effects, but one filled with intrigue and danger. James MacPherson, whom we met a few episodes back, provides the series with a much-needed and thoroughly satisfying villain, one ruthless and far more clever than anyone at the Warehouse has anticipated. All of the show's main characters — Artie, Myka, Pete, Claudia, Mrs. Frederic, even the little-used Leena — will have their roles to play, and there will be enough twists to keep you guessing who at the Warehouse you can really trust (and at least one character's loyalties will fall squarely on the wrong side of the fence). We'll even get a revelation about the Warehouse itself that's far more frightening than what's inside the Dark Vault.

Warehouse 13 has been a fun, light summer romp through humanity's secret mystical and technological heritage. But the final episode suggests that the second season could offer more than possessed typewriters and mystical disco balls. It could bring us more into the dark and dangerous underworld that craves these artifacts, and the sometimes disturbing lengths the Warehouse may have to go to in order to protect them.

Dorothy was lucky: All she had to do was click her heels three times while repeating the mantra, "There's no place like home," and boom — she was back in Kansas. It's been considerably more difficult for the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, but after some eighty episodes, we finally saw them get off the island last night. Of course, we already knew they would, thanks to the writers' introduction of the flash-forward at the very end of last season.

Indeed, the flash-forwards were a brilliant save for a show that during its third season sometimes felt perilously close to becoming hopelessly mired in its own mythology, breaking down under the weight of too many questions and not enough answers. The flash-forwards at once liberated the action from the island while giving us tantalizing glimpses of the future. They answered enough questions that during its fourth season, Lost again felt like it was headed towards a definitive ending, even as they aroused sufficient mystery to keep us coming back for more.

Showing the future lives of the Oceanic 6 gave the show a chance to explore the implications of getting off the island, something that, until Jack bayed, "We have to go back!" at the tail end of Season 3, I don't think many people were pondering. What much of Season 4 explored in turn was simply, wistfully, that you can't go home again. (I'm waiting for characters named Thomas Wolfe and Eugene Gant to pop up next season.)

We think of home as a "constant," but sometimes even though you think you know what home looks like, when you get there it's not at all what you remembered. Of course most people aren't plagued by visits from dead friends and fathers — how much did you love Hurley's chess game with Mr. Eko last night? — at least not on the corporeal plane. There's also the issue, raised during last night's finale when Locke tells Jack he's not supposed to go home, of whether leaving the island means evading one's destiny. Indeed, "home" has changed its location as the Oceanic 6 must now return to the island — will they be able to find it?

This season also truly established Benjamin Linus as one of the greatest and most complex scoundrels of the television pantheon. I'd say "villain" but in Lost's ever-shifting mosaic of "good" and "evil," it remains uncertain exactly where Ben's sympathies lie — and as was made clear in the aftermath of his daughter's death, Ben suffers the consequences of at least some of his actions. This gives him a depth of character we haven't seen before, as did the flashback to his (by turns hilarious and disturbing) unrequited crush on Juliet. Yes, Ben's ruthlessly manipulative, cunning, and wicked, but he's also willing to turn that frozen donkey wheel in service to a greater cause, all the while knowing it will separate him from his beloved island. He is the ultimate soldier in Jacob's army.

For me, the biggest disappointment of Season 4 was Rousseau's death. A powerful woman, a survivalist and a scientist, Rousseau was an excellent antidote for the show's occasional forays into "me manly man; you girly girl, so go watch the baby" territory. Along with Rose, she seems to have been the only woman on the island over 30. Indeed, both she and Rose are middle-aged and thus, as every woman over 40 knows, all but invisible in a culture that values extreme youth. Danielle is the person who set up the numbers transmission. She's been on the island 16 years and would appear to have valuable information to share — and yet, to date, there's never been a flashback explaining her story. That may come in future seasons, of course, but given that she's already dead and buried, I rather doubt it. After all, they trotted almost everybody out for last night's finale, even a deep-voiced Walt, but Rousseau was nowhere to be seen.

Finally, I love the way Lost has turned a generation of couch potatoes into textual critics as they parse each line in an attempt to squeeze out every meaning from all those references to literary figures and enlightenment philosophers, not to mention the island's own mythology. But I'm somewhat ambivalent that it takes blogs, podcasts, websites, mailing lists, and constant IM-ing between friends to make sense of it all — and even then it's not possible. Like Frank Lapidus, we're all Flight 815 conspiracy theorists, whether we want to be or not. I'm beginning to think I need to set up a whiteboard in the living room to keep it all straight.

A few random thoughts on the finale:

• When I was a kid, I had a book about mummies that included a few paragraphs on Jeremy Bentham, illustrated with a rather gruesome picture of his head. Bentham's will stipulated that his body be preserved and brought out to attend meetings of University College London's College Council. Wonder if that's a clue as to how the Oceanic 6 will get Locke/Bentham back to the island? And I'm with Hurley: Locke doesn't seem like the suicidal type to me, either.
• Locke is, however, enough of a rules-follower to be bugged when Ben tosses all sorts of metallic objects into the Vault immediately after the orientation video explicitly says not to do that.
• As always, Ben gets some of the best lines, delivered with expert deadpan by Michael Emerson. Last night he confirmed for Locke that "time-traveling bunnies" were indeed the gist of the Orchid orientation film, then explained away Keamy's murder with, "Good command decisions get compromised by bad emotional responses. I'm sure you're going to do a much better job than I ever did." Zing!
• Hurley's best line: "I've been having regular conversations with dead people. The last thing I need is paranoia."
• I was so surprised and pleased by Desmond and Penny's reunion that I could barely type my notes. Enjoy it while it lasts kids, because you know the wrath of Charles Widmore will soon descend upon you.
• Charlotte suggests she may have been born on the island, which instantly makes her much more than the annoying redhead on the beach. I'll be interested to see where they go with this storyline—and in fact, I want to see more of Miles and Daniel as well. Except than the latter, these characters didn't get quite as fleshed out as they probably would have if the season hadn't been shortened.
• All in all, it was an excellent season. I can hardly wait to see what happens next!

Why did the company keep the deadliest virus in the universe on ice for 30 years? I know they're evil, but how dumb are they? Also, what exactly is that virus? Is it just another derivation of Mohinder's sister's blood, or something else?

How exactly did Sylar lose his powers, and how does he think Mohinder can help him? Was it just Hiro's samurai sword, or did Sylar get the Shanti virus and somehow not die? How on Earth did Sylar get from the bunker in the middle of the jungle to the roadside in the Mexico desert anyway?

Is Claire a robot or an alien after all? Who stole her damn car? More importantly, how exactly can she blow the whistle on the Company without confusing the heck out of everybody?

What exactly was Mohinder and Noah's plan to bring the Company down? Are they still carrying it out, or did Mohinder really switch sides?

Why did Angela Petrelli try to take the fall for the murder of George Takei and the others? Was it just to keep regular folks from knowing all about their mutant superpowers, or was there something else?

What did Adam get up to in the 400 years between the Kyoto stuff and the present day? Once Hiro was gone, why didn't he just go and conquer Japan after all?

What exactly were those pills the Company was giving Peter when they had him locked up? Did they actually negate Peter's powers? If so, then why does the Company need to work on a "vaccine" for superpowers? Why doesn't the Company just dose every mutant it comes across? If the pills weren't negating Peter's powers, what were they? Downers?

Whatever happened to those ipods that were supposed to be in Peter's shipping container?