There are really just two words you need to remember when it comes to Season Five of Lost – Time. Travel. And lots of it. Enough to scare Marty McFly out of the Delorean. Enough to allow the show to take almost a year’s hiatus before coming back with the final season – with its overzealous fans damn near salivating for more. Flash forwards, flash backs, on  the island, off the island – Lost was all over time and space in season five. With a new plot twist introduced every single week in the 17 episode season, it’s hard for even the most hardcore Losties to keep everything straight. So, in case you need a refresher before tonight’s premiere of the final season, here’s a quick recap of what happened previously, on Lost:

We have to go back, Kate.

The Oceanic Six – Where Are They Now? Or at least, where were they at the beginning of season five? Jack had become a greasy, unemployed hobo version of his former self, Kate was trying to pass off Claire’s baby Aaron as her own, Sayid went back to his torturous roots by taking a job as a hit man, Hurley was in a mental institution, Sun was busy trying to exact revenge on Charles Widmore (who seriously needs to sleep with one eye open) and Ben was doing what Ben does best – manipulating everyone around him to get what he wants. And what he wants is to get back to the island, presumably to be judged by the Monster, but there’s just no taking anything this guy says at face value. He finally manages to convince everyone to go back with the help of Eloise Hawking, Daniel Faraday’s mother. Other her having once been a hostile, I’m still not crystal clear on her importance to the series, but apparently people’s parents are serious business – Miles’ father turned out to be Pierre Chang, star of all those creepy “Welcome to the Dharma Initiative” videos, and the ghost of Jack’s father has been lurking around the island for seasons. Which I seriously don’t get, I mean – yeah, it sucks that your final resting place had to be some twisted island in the middle of nowhere as opposed to a nice, quiet cemetary, but seriously, dude. Head towards the light already.

You can’t change the past to change the future

The moral of this season’s story: whatever happened, happened. Meaning, even if Ben did turn a giant frozen wheel and transported the entire island 30 years into the past, nothing can be done to change the course of history. Nothing. Not even Sayid going rouge out of nowhere and shooting young Ben in hopes that he could stop the 70s version of Benry from ever growing up to become the manipulative mastermind we all love to hate. Or at least, that’s what Daniel Faraday wanted us to think…at first. Later in the season, after a brief hiatus, he returns to the island with the idea that if the survivors dismantle the Jughead bomb, they could bypass the whole “Desmond lives in the hatch and has to press the button every day or else the world will end” scenario and with it, the entire plane crash altogether. And then he gets shot dead by the 70’s version of his own mother. But…I thought you couldn’t change the past to affect the future? Was Faraday’s future to travel back in time just to be murdered by his mother? Because that really, really sucks. You know what…whatever, it’s Lost. Sometimes you just have to go with it.

Sawyer is a sexy beast

Yep. Gorgeous.

The Dharma Initiative is an equal opportunity employer

So what’s a group of plane crash survivors to do when they get transported 30 years into the past? Join the Dharma Initiative, what else? Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Faraday and Jin find themselves with no better option after Ben turns their wheel of fate, so Sawyer assumes the leadership position (an interesting turn, considering how he began the series as the token bad boy) and gets everyone settled into Dharma life. When the Oceanic Six crashes back onto the island (and 30 years into the past), Sawyer pulls as many strings as possible to get them into the community. With Jack still on his “I’m the doctor” power trip and an almost hilariously unhinged Sayid refusing to take orders from Sawyer (gee, I wonder why), however, this proves to be much easier said than done.

John Locke is f***ing invincible

Season four left us with Locke’s body lying in a coffin – though anyone watching up to this point shouldn’t have been surprised that by season five, Locke had been resurrected by The Island. Because The Island has the hots for Locke. And it was apparently his destiny to both return to and rule over it with an iron fist. Which would explain him killing Jacob (I KNOW) at the end of the season. Seriously, there’s no getting rid of this guy. There’s no disabling him either. The man is a tank. Much of the same can be said for Jin, who somehow managed to survive the massive freighter explosion that killed Michael (Thank God), because there isn’t much that’s going to keep him away from Sun, and vice versa. This pretty much leads to the next thing you need to remember about season five:

The Island is, among other things, a love shack

So there’ s this whole love…square…thing with Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Juliet…and possibly even between Ben and Juliet, though that looked to have been completely one-sided. Faraday had a longstanding crush on Charlotte, who didn’t seem to know he existed. Rose and Bernard are discovered to have flashed back in time along with many of the other survivors of flight 816 that were left behind on the island, but instead of assimilating into the happening 70’s Dharma initiative culture, chose to live in hiding together on the island. With all the polar bears, smoke monsters and random jumps back and forth in time, you’d think love would be the last thing on these people’s minds. But I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise, after that whole caged heat scene with Sawyer and Kate in season four. That I was completely unopposed to, by the way.

Either put those things away or take out a ruler already, boys

So, everybody wants to be in charge on the island. Jack had pretty much been the leader of the survivors since day one, a position that was constantly challenged by Sawyer, Sayid and Locke on multiple occasions. So he took offense to being transported back to the island only to find Sawyer in charge. Sayid had no real interest in listening to anyone. Locke came back from the dead for the sole purpose of ruling the island – which is something that both Ben and Jacob took issue with. Well, mostly Jacob, I guess, seeing as Locke told Ben to kill Jacob, and Ben totally did it. The only person not being questioned here is the Monster, and with good reason – after that judgment scene with Ben, that is the last person (?) I’d be trying to question.

Between the jumps through time, random resurrections and unanswered questions (sometimes the answers just give rise to MORE questions), there’s almost too much that happened to completely summarize the entire season. I tried to hit on most of the big themes, but for more detailed plot and character information, along with histories, theories and further questions, definitely check out the Lostpedia – it’s heaven on earth for diehard Lost fans. Then get excited for the premiere of the final season – if the rumor mill is to be believed, all questions are supposed to finally be answered. The questions we have right now, anyway. If I know Lost, it’ll probably answer all our questions for sure, but not without leaving us with more. But the speculation’s just half the fun…shirtless Sawyer is the other half.