My Questions About This Week's "Lost"

So, “Lost” made its grand return Thursday night, bringing with it even more questions…

Warning: If you have not seen last week’s episode of “Lost,” stop reading now…

Here then are my top questions from last week’s episode…

Why was Ben wearing a winter coat in the middle of the desert? Where--or when--had he been?...

And where did Ben go when he went through the door in his house? Does he control the smoke monster? And if he does, was the psychiatrist Other sent by Ben to Juliet actually a manifestation of the smoke monster (as I have always thought)?…

Why would Charles Widmore want to kill Sayid’s wife? Or was the Widmore story just what Ben told Sayid to get him to join his war?…

Why didn’t Juliet (or Jack for that matter) recognize the symptoms of appendicitis? I recognized it immediately…

If Ben kills Penny, will that completely mess everything up since she is Desmond’s constant?…

Did Ben really get off the island with Desmond’s boat or did he use some kind of time travel to leave?…

What did Ben mean when he said Widmore changed the rules?…

As always, I consulted with EW.com’s Doc Jensen after the show and he had an interesting theory about that last question. He thinks that Ben has time traveling capabilities that allow him to know the future. And in the future he knew, his daughter was still alive. So when his daughter was killed, the future was changed, thereby changing the rules.

Hmmm…

Doc Jensen had some other theories about Ben and time travel that I won’t share with you because they would just make your head hurt. And he’s got one doozy of a theory that I’m afraid to share with you because if it’s right, it will ruin a MAJOR twist.

For now, I’m just content that Alan Dale (Charles Widmore) is going to play a major part in all of this. I am a big fan of his and I really want to see him leave a better legacy than what “The O.C.” saddled him with (which even he admits was disappointing). And after playing a rich American businessman, the Vice President of the United States (“24”), the director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (“NCIS”), and an American fashion magazine publisher (“Ugly Betty”), it’s nice to hear Dale use his actual accent. I think they should have let him use it on “The O.C.”…

Next week, the focus returns to Jack as we get another glimpse into his future. Whether that future focuses on the together Jack of Hurley and Kate’s flash forwards or the falling apart Jack we got in last season’s finale, I have no idea. We’ll just have to wait and see…

“Lost” airs Thursday at 10 p.m. on ABC. You can watch past episodes at ABC.com…