The third episode of LOST Season 5 airs tonight.

No hip hop to be seen here, move along. Well unless, you watch one of the best shows on television now.

Spoilers after the jump…

Ooh, I felt like such a critic when I said that!

This two parter premiere was one of my favorite episodes as far back as I can remember. Season 3 was pretty pish posh, and Season 4 was mostly enjoyable, but here’s hoping that Season 5 returns to the ridiculousness of Seasons 1 and 2. These 2 episodes were definitely a good start.

When the time element was originally revealed as a major part of the island’s mythology, I winced, mostly because time is rarely ever dealt with in a realistic manner in fiction. LOST however, has been doing a wonderful job. It is all reminiscent of 12 Monkeys (or La Jetee for all you film snobs out there).

From Desmond becoming “unstuck in time,” to the island becoming lost in time, to Desmond being the only one who can stop the island from becoming lost in time, there is a lot going on. Wait a minute, if Desmond can only stop the island from spinning like a record, then what the hell are the Oceanic Six coming back for? I guess that remains to be seen?

- How about that Ana Lucia cameo? She wasn’t a very likable character when she was a regular, but it was great to see her back. Notice how Hurley went with Sayid’s advice of doing exactly the opposite of what Ben Linus tells him to do, rather than follow Ana Lucia’s advice of not going to jail? We’ll see if that comes back to bite him in the ass.

- Is it asking too much to get a return of Mr. Eko? Between him and Michael, all of the black folk outside of Rose have been kicked off the show. Wait, is Lieutenant Daniels coming back this season?

- Is Ben Linus really going to kill Penny as he said he would do last season?

- It was good to see The Others, which we hadn’t seen much of last season. According to the Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelhoff, Richard Alpert will be featured more prominently this season because he’s been signed into a contract for the rest of the series. I imagine that naturally, we’ll be seeing a lot more of The Others as well.

- I’m not into predictions too much, especially with this show, but I’m putting good money on the team somehow getting Hurley out of jail in the next 96 hours.

- Total tangent: Anyone seen Breaking Bad? I’m definitely renting it when it comes out on DVD.