Eight months have passed since we last saw our favorite castaways on “;Lost.”; The fifth season of ABC's filmed-in-Hawaii series begins tomorrow, with some mysteries explained and new ones planted.

The series will end in 2010, leaving two seasons to go and a clear end in sight, so the writers and producers finally know where all of these glimpses into the past, present and future are going. But the rest of us might need some help negotiating the show's twists and turns. Here are five things to ponder as Season 5 begins.

Where we left off

Of the original cast, Jin and Michael are now dead, blown up on the freighter that the castaways had thought would take them to safety. Claire has wandered off into the jungle, leaving her son, Aaron, to be raised by Kate. Walt, Michael's son, is all grown up and living with his grandmother, but still lost and confused. Locke is lying in a coffin.

The Oceanic 6—Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Sun and Aaron—make it back to civilization and take up separate lives. Sun gives birth to Jin's baby, a girl.

Ben moves the island (using an icy underground gear system) to protect it from discovery. It disappears, and so does Ben, banished from the island but free to hound the Oceanic 6 for the greater purpose only he understands.

The mood apparent

In tantalizing flash-forwards last season, we learned that leaving the island doesn't mean salvation. The Oceanic 6 are even more lost since their return to reality, essentially remaining castaways.

Any number of official and unauthorized promos make it clear that Jack must return to the island to save those he left behind. But he has to bring everyone with him—including the newly deceased Locke.

Locke has morphed into Jeremy Bentham, new leader of the Others (and the name of an actual philosopher from the 18th and 19th centuries). Locke/Bentham convinced the Oceanic 6 to lie when they left the island to protect everyone who remained. This massive deception causes or contributes to their undoing.

Rumors

Internet speculation indicates that Reiko Aylesworth from “;24”; plays a professional businesswoman named Amy, Zuleikha Robinson from “;New Amsterdam”; takes on the role of a dangerous European woman named Illeana and French actor Said Taghmaoui becomes a not-so-good guy named Ceasar.

More factual—people actually saw her filming in Honolulu—is the buzz that Michelle Rodriguez (Ana Lucia) returns for the second episode. Talk about flying the cast to Paris also circulated on a few Web sites and message boards. But if they can make Hawaii look like Tikrit and Tunisia, can't they use a green screen for the Arc de Triomphe as well? Really, why go to Paris?

The mystery of Ben

Isn't it enough that he makes the island disappear and hires Sayid to become his hit man? Apparently not, because Benjamin Linus has more clever surprises awaiting, according to Michael Emerson, the actor who plays him.

“;What we can expect from Ben this season is a higher order of improvisation with a lower order of resources,”; notes Emerson. “;He's better groomed but less powerful, and it may be the island's will that he suffer more punishment as he pursues his ends. Like the other characters, he is a pawn in a mechanism that he understands but cannot control—but no one does more with less than our Benjamin.”;

What's coming

Future episodes focus on the existential concept of how much free will the characters have, according to comments from the producers on the Season 4 DVD set. What is their destiny? The upcoming season revolves around why and how the Oceanic 6 try to return to the island, wherever it might be.

Be prepared for complicated time shifts that “;demand active engagement,”; according to Entertainment Weekly. In addition, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid and freighter guy Daniel Faraday take the lead in the first couple of episodes. Apparently, the opening scenes turn everything upside down, so don't come to the party late!