“You can let go now…”

CAUTION -- contains spoilers...

Lost returned to the forefront of consciousness last night and it did not disappoint. Always willing to elude audience expectations, the premier of this new and final season delivered like a freight train, turning our notions of how an atomic “reset” of the timeline might somehow prevent Oceanic 815 from having ever crashed in the first place. Do mysteries still abound? Do they ever. Where we’ve had flashbacks and flash-forwards, now we have “flash-sideways,” as last year’s finale explosion has seemingly created two realities – and two sets of primary characters.

Attempting to change their fate has actually returned the characters to outcomes far bleaker than they might have imagined. Suffering hasn’t been avoided, it’s merely been re-assigned, as the show made clear in some achingly memorable sequences. Locke, no longer able to use his legs, being wheeled off the airplane in Los Angeles, looking utterly defeated and ashamed. Charlie being escorted off the plane by the authorities, looking at Jack with complete hatred for having saved his life, for having robbed him of the escape of death, perpetuating his lonely misery. Because Jack (and presumably Faraday) miscalculated when assuming that a reset would only effect their group. Like the butterfly in Ray Bradbury’s classic A Sound of Thunder, their small change has seemingly wrought enough additional consequences that in one reality, the island now lies at the bottom of the ocean. Their “reset” has had repercussions far beyond the changing of their own immediate destinies. Seemingly other enormous changes have occurred in the world as well. A lot of things have changed. What’s the story with that blood Jack notices on his neck in the airplane bathroom? Why is Desmond on the plane? Why isn’t Shannon?

In the reality of the still-above-sea-level island, a new wrinkle is the discovery of a group of Temple-dwelling Apocalypse Now Jacob devotees, including the always cool John Hawkes, who I believe makes the sixth former Deadwood actor to appear on Lost, including Titus Welliver as Jacob’s nemesis.

It seems we now have the identity of the smoke monster and it seems Jacob is still moving through at least one reality. Resurrection looks like it will be a potentially major theme this year. Will sacrifice also loom large?

This was an utterly fascinating and completely involving return, with Lost doing everything it does best. I was surprised we didn’t revisit Jacob’s nemesis in that briefly glimpsed timeline from last season, where it appeared we were about to see the arrival of the Black Rock. But a lot is bound to happen between now and the end of these roads.

I, for one, can’t wait.