After a brain-bending opening hour to kick off its fifth season, ?Lost? gave us ?The Lie,? which paled in comparison to opening hour. Still, this was a good episode, with some intriguing developments of its own.

Where to start? Well, Hurley drags an unconscious Sayid back home, somehow evading the police. The limp body of Sayid is funny the first time, but the joke eventually wears thin. Hurley?s father gets Sayid to Jack, Ben eventually comes to get Hurley, who ends up surrendering to the police rather than go with Ben. This is after he tells his mother the truth about everything, and she actually believes him.

In there somewhere, Kate meets up with Sun, the remaining islanders come under fire -- literally -- from some paramilitary bad guys, who almost chop off Juliet?s hand. And Ben is told that he has only 70 hours to get back to the island.

If you are confused, that is okay. ?Lost? has gotten so complex you practically need a concordance to keep everything straight. Who was that creepy lady at the end? Apparently, her name is Mrs. Hawking, and she is the one who told Desmond about his time traveling in a previous episode.

Both episodes that aired on premiere night were quite complex and frankly, in order to write this review, I had to go back a few times to see if I had everything straight. I?m still not sure I do. When entertainment takes this much work, one has to question whether this much complexity is necessary. While I enjoy the depth and complexity of the show, it makes it very hard for people who are casual watchers, or potentially new viewers, to get interested. I?ve seen every episode -- many of them twice, and I found it difficult to keep all the events straight.

But that is a very minor quibble. I much prefer complex episodes focusing on many characters to the drawn out filler episodes focused on secondary characters. Apparently, the creator of this show aren?t about to waste an episode, and for viewers, that is a good thing.

What Worked

The flaming arrow attack was quite cool. Also, I loved the fact that Hurley?s father was watching ?Expose!? a clever reference to the season three episode that saw Paolo and Nikki?s demise.

What Didn?t Work

A little bit of Hurley goes a long way for me. Jorge Garcia plays the loveable loser role very well, but when asked to stretch beyond that range, well, the results are a bit disappointing. Hurley has a hard time carrying an episode. The episode luckily contained enough interesting elements to be a worthy, albeit inferior partner to the season opening episode.

I didn?t like Ana Lucia in season two, and I don?t feel the series needs her now. Season two was a disaster. Leave it in the past.

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

"The Lie? was written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. It was directed by Jack Bender. It stars Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Michael Emerson.

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