NY Post Review

Thanks to Lisa for the heads up.

THE big secret of "Lost" is finally out.

After four years, the mystery of "Lost" is revealed in the first few minutes of this season's much-anticipated fifth season debut, Jan. 19.

If you think you already know too much about what's in store, stop reading now.

At bottom, "Lost" is about time travel. That is what rescued the show last season from two seasons of go-nowhere stories.

The stories began to flash forward - and the focus moved past the romantic triangle of Jack, Sawyer and Kate.

The upcoming revelation will lay to rest years of Internet wrangling and instantly settle about a million fevered questions between dedicated fans about what the heck has been going on this whole time.

Without revealing details, the remote island so integral to the lives of the castaways is home to what a very important scientist on the show calls "virtually unlimited power." And the "power" has been harnessed, quite haphazardly, for time travel.

"You have no idea how difficult it would be for me to explain this phenomenon to a quantum physicist," well-meaning super-scientist Daniel tells Sawyer, the island's loveable marooned scoundrel who has remained unhappily confused and shirtless since last season.

Time travel this season appears to have replaced flashbacks and flash-forwards.

Instead, while watching memories of the past or events in the future, chunks of the entire cast are sent skipping through time, like a needle on a vinyl record.

Of course, since this is "Lost," even with the big reveal out in the open, there are only a million other questions left unanswered. (After all, the show still has two years before its agreed-upon finale.)

For now, the story seems to have turned on itself. For at least part of the new season, the folks on the island don't know where or - more specifically, when - they are.

The action jumps between the handful of people who escaped the island last season, only to find themselves much worse off for leaving, and their friends who are still trapped on the time-warping island.

Like the classic 1937 Frank Capra film, "Lost Horizon," the cast of "Lost" finds itself struggling to get back and set things right.

Source: NY Post