100 things I love about 'Lost', Part 4

First up, welcome all Pop Candy readers who found their way here thanks to Whitney Matheson's linkage. Grab a seat, stay a while. Those who have been around a while longer know what's on tap now: 20 things I loved about Season 4, as part of my look back at 100 things I love about "Lost." Tomorrow morning, we'll be finishing up the series just in time for "The Variable."

If you haven't already, be sure to check out Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3 before moving on. And for full recaps of any episode you want to relive, there's no better place than our "We Have to Go Back" gallery, now redubbed The "Lost" 100. Every episode analyzed in full at your fingertips!

On with the things I love in Season 4...

61.    The succinct and fascinating flashbacks for the Freighter Four in "Confirmed Dead." The height of economical storytelling that invested us in all four characters by episode's end. Daniel's flashback, which might not truly be a flashback when all is said and done, especially intrigues.

62.    "The light, is strange out here isn't it? It's kinda like, it doesn't scatter quite right." And THAT would be the moment I fell in love with Daniel Faraday's character, the strongest addition to the initial cast of characters after Benjamin Linus.

63.    "I have a man on their boat." Of course you did, Ben. Of course you did.

64.    The delayed arrival of Faraday's rocket, confirming time wonkiness in the "Lost" universe. This moment might have sent a million fans to "Law and Order" reruns, but kept those remaining more glued to their TV's than ever.

65.    Ben's super secret walk-in closet, seen for the first time in "The Economist" then further revealed in "The Shape of Things to Come." It's got room for all his clothes, passports, plus a hieroglyphic door leading to a drain that summons Smokey. Also? Universal design friendly.

66.    Seeing a broken Sayid have his wounds treated by Benjamin Freakin' Linus in a German veterinary hospital. If there was one person we thought would never leave the Island, it was Ben.

67.    Every single thing about "The Constant," my personal favorite episode of the show and maybe my favorite hour of television ever. Darlton not only took a complex subject and made it accessible, but above all focused on the human element to pull at our hearts as much as they toyed with our minds.

68.    The third iteration of the post-book club scene in which Ben orders Goodwin and BenEthan to seek survivors. In many ways, Season 5 is all about this technique: playing with what the audience thinks they know about a certain event then peeling back another layer.

69.    Discovering that there was a hatch containing chemicals that could kill every living thing on the Island. Was The Tempest always a biochemical plant, or did someone change the Colonel's secret recipe of eleven herbs and spices into something lethal? Looking forward to learning this fact when we finally, finally, finally learn just how The Purge went down.

70.    The equally disgusting and equally compelling explanations for how either Charles Widmore or Benjamin Linus could have staged the fake crash in the Sunda Trench. This was a mystery so deep and compelling that only a recap show during Season 5 that most people skipped could provide the definitive answer. And yes, that's sarcasm. Sigh.

71.    Ben waking up with a gasp in a Tunisian desert, with cold air coming off Pierre Chang's Orchid jacket. Talk about a compelling series of quick camera jumps from Ben's face to a wide shot showing the cracked earth beneath his prone body.

72.    The aching slow shot after Alex's death showing a seemingly comatose Ben, followed by his simple words, "He changed the rules."

73.    Watching Ben confront Widmore in the latter's penthouse suite and realizing that everything over the past four scenes is a direct result of the feud between these two men. Season 5 complicates this view, but "Lost" fully exposed the scope of the show in this scene, taking us from a close-up of a man's eye in the pilot's opening shot to an expansive, global, decades-spanning war between two titans over the most important piece of real estate in the world.

74.    Jack's appendectomy, which provided the beginning of the end of the show's love quadrangle and also served to show a Season 1-esque on-Island surgery. Island life's freakin' HARD, and even with hatches and pallet drops and bungalows, at day's end these people are surviving in much the same way as the Island's first inhabitants. Granted, the extra toe gives the current iteration a slight advantage, but still.

75.    The introduction of "Cabin Christian," the name I assign to the man who walks and talks like Jack's daddy but wears a brown shirt, not a blue blazer. Whether he's Jacob's spokesman (the general assumption) or Jacob's captor (my assumption), his insertion into the show has never ceased to be provocative.

76.    All of Locke's flashbacks in "Cabin Fever," the result of a conversation between himself and Richard Alpert fifty years in Alpert's past and a few days away in Locke's future. Like I said: LOVE this show! Love love love. I so wanna buy it a smoothie and take it to prom.

77.    Hurley and Ben sharing a candy bar. I mean, come ON.

78.    The Keamy/Sayid throwdown, which if put atop the card of a major PPV event would leave the viewers feeling they got their money's worth. Best fight since Xander and Harmony on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in my books.

79.    Ben hysterically loading up the Orchid chamber with everything Pierre Chang insists should not go into it. Kudos to Locke for the great "um, hey, wait a sec" look while Ben systematically goes about his bizzness.

80.    Last, but in no means least: frozen donkey wheel. Like this could NOT be on the list. Cool than the other side of the pillow. Literally.

OK, that's 20 things I loved in Season 4. Tomorrow: Season 5! Be sure to leave your favorite Season 4 moments in the comments below.

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude. He invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed.

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