Lost: Break's Over. Time to Get Back to Work.

It's a funny thing, my relationship with this show.

I've said it here many times that my first feeling once "There's No Place Like Home" ended was absolute relief. I was thrilled to have nine months of freedom, because any Lost fan will tell you that it's nothing if not exhausting. Constantly scouring the internet for spoilers, speed-texting Mae to analyze released promo pics, getting wrapped up in the nuance of how Darlton (or anyone, really!) describes the development of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle--it's the most tiring thing I can think of.

As the months have worn on, I've begun to get more and more excited and geared up for the premiere of season five. In early fall, I was starting to jones for new information, ready to see new footage of my people. When I found a minute-long Jack/Kate deleted scene from "The 23rd Psalm," I got teary-eyed. And when that first new promo aired, I made a fool of myself in the computer lab of the student union and school.

Now, though, as we get our first real, tangible information for the first couple of episodes, I'm finding myself filled with a new emotion: dread.

As excited as I am to pick back up with my favorite castaways--including, for the first time ever, Juliet and Sawyer--I find myself less than thrilled to get back into the grind of being terrified of Skate, disappointed by Jateless episodes, and worried about the fate of Jack Shephard.

The Lost season is both my favorite and least favorite time of year.

Over the holiday break--or, at least, my perhaps-too-lengthy holiday break--screeners for the first two episodes went out to the press. I've read every review, every hint posted over at DarkUFO's spoiler page, and analyzed every tidbit of information.

That's the most frustrating part about being a spoiler whore--when other people have information and I don't. My jealousy is palpable.

It's also really difficult to piece together the nuances and biases of different reporters. For instance, I'm really interested to hear about what's going on with Suliet. One reporter insinuated that some scenes suggest that the show is leading up to that; another said there was nothing between them that could be considered romantic.

The thing about this show is that they could both be right. There are probably elements of these episodes that suggest that there could be a future for Sawyer and Juliet, but if you're not looking to ship them (i.e. you're a Skater or a noromo), you'll probably be able to disregard whatever they do.

There are a few other highlights from the spoilers I'd like to hit. There are generally way too many to even try to summarize them, but if you want to be spoiled, head over to Dark's website, because he's got lots of good info. (That said, I still have no idea what's going on.)

The most intriguing spoiler I've heard so far is that Daniel, traveling back in time, meets Desmond on the island. (Constant, indeed.) Desmond has no idea who Daniel is, and from the sound of things, Daniel has a hell of a time trying to explain the situation. Now, Darlton has said a few times that you can't pull a back to the future scenario and change the present by fiddling with the past. But unless we're creating parallel universes here or something, why wouldn't Desmond have remembered Daniel upon their first meeting last season?

Ugh time travel.

We also know now that, despite my hope, we're not picking up three years later on the island. We're picking up in the days following moving the island. Now, this bodes well for 108 Days in 108 Days 2009-2010, my upcoming pre-season-six hiatus project, but really confuses the crap out of me when it comes to reconciling "real world" time with island time. Because I'm going to be really irritated if the Oceanic Six spends three years off-island, and when they get back, Rose is like, "Wow, Jack! I've missed you these last two weeks!" or whatever. And how would that even work with Aaron? All of a sudden, after a couple weeks apart, he suddenly looks like a kid and has gained motor skills and the power of speech? Now, we've had moments of somewhat-clarity about the difference between these times, notably when Daniel conducted the "fire the payload" experiment last season. But they've got to figure out how they're going to deal with the discrepancy between the Oceanic Six being in 2008 and the islanders being in 2005. And somehow, I don't care how, I want the three-year difference to positively affect the relationship between Sawyer and Juliet.

Another exciting element is that apparently the season opens on the island, with a scene that features Pierre Chang and perhaps Daniel and/or the mysterious crying Chang baby. No details, but that's definitely interesting. Here's hoping this sheds a little light on the Dharma Initiative and/or the island and/or time traveling and/or the incident.

Okay, and another thing. Kristin dos Santos says that Ben "seems to imply" that if the Oceanic Six return to the island, then that's that. They'll never be able to escape it again. First of all, Kristin used the word "seems," which says that it's her own perception, and I wouldn't trust her perception to tell me whether or not it's raining outside. Still, this seems plausible, especially since after all this, can you really imagine the series ending with everybody off the island?

I have but one problem with this scenario.

I. Want. Jabies.

So somebody better start working on the Pregnant Women Death Vaccine, because Jack and Kate, after all this junk with Aaron, need a child of their own.

So I was thinking, and you know that whole mysterious business about where Charlotte was born and maybe she was born on the island but we don't really know? Well, I wonder, how could Charlotte have been born on the island? Was it a situation like Rousseau or Claire, where her mom arrived pregnant and merely gave birth to her on-island, or does Charlotte perhaps hold the key to the Pregnant Women Death Vaccine?

I would really appreciate that, thank you.

At the end of the day, we know a lot of stuff about the premiere--and we still know nothing. Yep, sounds like Lost.

In other (sort-of) Lost-related news, I have a new puppy named Freckles. Despite her name, she is already a Jater.