'Lost': Five Episodes With Clues for Season 5

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''THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME (PARTS 2 AND 3)''

Otherwise known as the Season 4 finale. Even if it's still fresh in your mind, you might want to re-watch the Orientation Film for The Dharma Initiative's time travel station, The Orchid, as well as the scene when Ben crawls down into the ice cavern and cranks the frozen donkey wheel — good context for the season premiere's opening sequence. If you don't feel like digging out the DVDs, ABC will re-broadcast the episode on Jan. 14.

''FLASHES BEFORE YOUR EYES''

This Season 3 classic — which revealed how Desmond projected his mind back in time after The Hatch imploded — is the producers' choice for essential Season 5 prep. Pay close attention to all things Ms. Hawking. Timecop Granny is something of a paradox. On one hand, she tells Desmond that time can't be altered — that if you try to change the past, Fate will find some way to thwart you. On the other hand, she warns of catastrophic consequences if Desmond doesn't repeat all of his past actions. But if history can't be changed, why the apocalyptic angst? Knowing the producers, my guess this contradiction isn't an inconsistency, but rather exactly the question we should be asking.

''THE CONSTANT''

This Season 4 stand-out built upon the Rules of Time foundation laid by ''Flashes Before Your Eyes.'' Viewers would be wise to bookmark a couple ideas: Island time travelers have a tendency to get sick, bleed out of their nose, and die; and said sickness can be at least temporarily slowed by fixing one's mind, heart and life to a single source of meaning — a lover, a passion, an ideal. A constant.

''CABIN FEVER''

Perhaps the least essential of my five suggestions (at least at this point), but I put it No. 4 on my list because I sooooo loved this season 4 noodle-cooker, which chronicled John Locke's strange and sorry-ass early years, from his premature birth to his esteem-challenged adolescence. If there is one scene I think you should check out, it's the moment where ageless Other Richard Alpert shows up at Boy Locke's house and gives him The Test. Make note of the items that Locke touches — and the one he ultimately chooses. The premiere will reward your research.

THE PIERRE CHANG COMIC-CON VIDEO

Who is Pierre Chang? Well, if you believe last July, Pierre Chang is the real name of the mysterious narrator of all those Dharma Initiative orientation films, whose other aliases include Dr. Marvin Candle, Dr. Mark Wickmund, and Dr. Edgar Halliwax. The Chang stuff kicks in after the comical, now-irrelevant bit about the Comic-Con dude being brought to a Dharma recruiting booth. Listen carefully to the very end of this proverbial message-in-a-bottle SOS from the past. Doesn't the cameraman's voice sound rather Season 4-familiar? Check the clip out below:

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