LOST finally returns next week, to wrap up it's reduced fourth season, and presumably answer a whole heap of questions regarding the overall mythology at the sametime. It's sad, because while up until now we've all been craving answers, as the show enters it's final years -and over-arching mysteries are answered weekly with subtle answers- there's still that recurring craving for more mystery. Hopefully these next six episodes can provide on that front, while providing a cliffhanger that will hopefully keep our minds interested and mangled for the best part of a year. We'll see soon enough.

Either way, here's a list of my six favourite episodes, non-ranked. I've seen some other sites doing this while we're on hiatus, so I thought i'd have a go myself. And hey, if it means DVD rewatching these episodes again, it's all win.

Deus Ex Machina

This was the seventeenth episode of the first season, and to this day, still remains perhaps my all-time favourite. In their continued efforts to get the hatch open, Boone and Locke go on an island-prompted adventure and discover a crashed Beachcraft suspended in the trees- complete with radio communication to the later revealed character of Bernard and numerous links to that of Mr Eko, who would also make his debut the following year. The plane would end up falling with Boone still inside, killing him shortly afterwards, but Deus Ex Machina marks the beginning of so much more, with the subsequent birth of Aaron, a minor introduction of 'Desmond', and the first real beginnings of hate between Jack and Locke- a rivalry that very much still exists today. For the first time ever we're introduced to Locke's father, and via island surrealism throughout the episode, Deus Ex Machina ends with one of the saddest, yet iconic scenes ever in the show's history. Boone's death is undoubtedly a MacGuffin, but the episode, as a whole, is pivotal viewing.

Maternity Leave

Though being a mid-season episode in the second year, Maternity Leave deals a lot with some of the issues and questions of the year before, in particular the period of Claire Littleton's capture at the hand of The Others. Still a relatively unknown group back then, Maternity Leave rewards viewers with plenty of new information on the group, while still tantalisingly omitting core information. Claire is still the most underrated character on LOST, so what makes this flashback all the more special is it's slight detour from convention, as the scenes featured are actively memories and bad reminders from Claire herself- at the start it's a flash-jumble of images, but as the episode progresses these faces and places begin to make more sense, before resuming to standard flashback procedure. Recurring scenes with Season 1 favourite Ethan Rom, only help make the episode all the sweeter.

Live Together, Die Alone

The season finale for the second season, LTDA is a real shock to the system. Things in this episode get wickedly surreal, and here, more than ever, the show loses it's genre tag as simply being 'drama'- this is where it goes undoubtedly sci-fi. With the Swan hatch interior having dominated the season, here it's simply blown up in an explosion of purple, as Locke and Eko discover what really happens when the button isn't pushed. Elsewhere, the party of five led by Michael get ambushed and captured by The Others -setting up for a big story arc the next year- and Desmond is reintroduced as full-time cast, as well as given his own flashback. It's a story of love and island mutiny, and we're shown his circumstances that led him to the island in the first place, as well as his first three years, alongside a previously introduced flashback character the thought of which, still surprises. More than this, the island's true age is hinted at with the reveal of a foot statue- a part of the mythology yet to be revealed fully, but easily, one of the most twisted and insane discoveries on the show that is just so deliciously out-there.

The Constant

The Constant is the most recent episode in my list, and once again breaks flashback convention.The fifth episode of the fourth season, it sees Sayid and Desmond heading to the off-shore Kahana, out of curiosity and interest, as to who these people here to 'rescue' them, really are. Things don't go to plan though, and on the way there upon hitting turbulence, Desmond has flashbacks to his life in the army. Except, he's really there, and his consciousness randomly floats between present day and 1996- time-travel without moving your body. It's incredibly daring, and the prospect alone feels, to begin with, as if the show's jumping the shark. But if you've made it this far, you've passed those kind of hurdles before, and the idea is so flawlessly executed that it makes complete sense, and additionally, continues the theme of true love integral to Desmond's backstory. Being relatively recent, it's an episode I won't spoil, but it's so detached from the rest of the current plots and characters that it's immedieately striking and unique. It's a very special story and episode, so isolated and self-contained, that there really is no excuse to not watch it.

The Other 48 Days

With the thirty epiosdes before it focussing entirely on the survivors of the 815 main section, The Other 48 Days shifts interest towards that of the tail-section, and their harrowing experiences at the hands of The Others. It is, as the title suggests, the experiences of the last forty-eight days from an entirely different perspective, and with it, an hour of television with only cameos fom the regular cast. Because of this substansial shift the episode is pretty exciting, and seeing entirely new characters and the crash from their perspective is incredibly rewarding. While nothing new is revealed to an enormous extent, the small ties that exist between this episode and the past forty-eight days of the main story and characters are so deviously subtle they're easter eggs themselves. Genius- as with the proper crash in the Pilot episode, the opening minutes of this episode are epic.

Through The Looking Glass

Through the Looking Glass is an incredible episode. As the finale to last year's third season, the episode seemingly has everything that makes LOST so good in the first place. Mystery, surrealism, romance, death, and most excitingly, mindfuck. Here, as with every finale, the survivors are split up, all heading off on their own adventures and journeys of redemption, discovery and revenge. The core castaways finally head to the radio tower to call for help, Sayid, Jin and Bernard sacrifice their own personal safety for that of their friends, Juliet and Sawyer make the most unlikely on-screen duo ever, and finally, Desmond and Charlie head to the Looking Glass underwater station to complete the cycle of events that will lead them all home, minus Charlie after his heroic destiny. Additionally for two whole hours the episode's centricity flash seems baffling and minus effect-it's dreary Jack in his ever-dreary past. Or is it? Because the ending of this episode and indeed third season moves the show forever forward, changing the game entirely and not only wrapping up the previous three seasons, but setting up the big story arc for the next three. Jack and Kate are off the fucking island. Is there more? How did they escape? Where's Claire, and best of all, why-o-why does Jack want to go back there of all places? It is, without exaggeration, the perfect midpoint and episode of the show's first three seasons.

Will this selection of episodes be completely different in three years time? Lets hope so.

 LOST: This hiatus is killing me #1