Lost: The Complete Fifth Season

Since Lost made its debut in 2004, certain things seemed inconceivable, but in its fourth year, some of those things, like a rescue, came to pass. The season ended with Locke (Terry O'Quinn) attempting to persuade the Oceanic 6 to return, but he dies before that can happen—or so it appears; and where Jack (Matthew Fox) used to lead, Ben (Emmy-nominee Michael Emerson) now takes the reins and convinces the survivors to fulfill Locke's wish. As producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse state in their commentary for this fifth-season compilation, “We're doing time travel this year”; and, indeed, the pile-up of flashbacks and flash-forwards in the 16 episodes aired from January through May 2009 will make even the most dedicated fan dizzy. Ben, Jack, Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) arrive to find that Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) have been part of the Dharma Initiative for years. The writers also clarify the roles that Richard (Nestor Carbonell) and Daniel (Jeremy Davies) play in the island's master plan, setting the stage for the prophecies of Daniel's mother, Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan), to play a bigger part in the sixth and final season. Dozens of other players flit in and out, some never to return; a few, such as Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), live again in the past. As Lindelof and Cuse admit, there's a “fine line between confusion and mystery.” Other extras include commentary from writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz on “He's Our You” (a reference to Sayid, who tries to change the future by changing the past), featurettes, deleted scenes, and a “lost” episode of Mysteries of the Universe. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)