Lost is a Golden-Globe-winning drama about plane crash survivors who, for some mysterious reason, land on a freaky-deaky island that is either out to kill them or heal them, I’m still not sure which it is. The island is full of mysteries, the Dharma Initiative, and strange people called the Others, as well as an evil force disguised as black smoke. The show reminds me of a sinister Wizard of Oz, with its own “lions and tigers and bears, oh my.”

The “Losties” are not random either, and all of the survivors are connected in some way. Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) is a fugitive from the law, because she killed her mother’s abusive husband Wayne.

Kate’s heart is torn between the psychologically-haunted surgeon Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) and the hunk of a con-man James Ford, aka Sawyer (Josh Holloway).

Miles Straume (Ken Leung) is a ghost whisperer who finds his Dharma Initiative father, Dr. Pierre Chang, on the island, and comes to the realization that he was actually born there. Ilana (Zuleikha Robinson) is a mysterious temptress who has a connection to the Island’s authority Jacob.  She seduced Iraqi Special Republican Guard Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) in a bar and then attempted to kill him.

Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) is the daughter of a Korean mob leader and the wife of one of his mobsters, Jin-Soo Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim). So many of these characters have been a party to brutality, but then we meet John Locke (Terry O’Quinn). He appears to be a strong-but-gentle spiritual soul, that is, until his dead body is overtaken by the smoke monster. Hugo “Hurley” Reyes (Jorge Garcia) is another gentle soul, but was tormented by the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42, and self doubt—that is until the final season, when he suddenly turned into the luckiest man alive.

Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin) is Jack’s half-sister, a fact that escaped him until meeting her on the island. And who knows who Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) is?  On the surface, it is clear that he is one of the cold-blooded villains on the series, who can make the inhumane  seem so humane (He also has diabolical eyes, if that is possible). Ben was once the leader of the Others and killed John Locke so that he could return to power once he found his way back to the island.

If you have never watched the show, much of what I’ve written seems ludicrous, but I promise, much of it makes perfect sense, or at least I hope it will by the end of this season.