The episode begins with the famous action-packed crash aftermath sequence, grabbing the viewer right from the beginning. It keeps the tension throughout, and establishes a variation on the island-flashback-island-flashback format every episode to follow would more or less stick to.

From the crash, to the polar bear, to the monster, to the French broadcast, the pilot lets you know right from the beginning that this isn't your grandma's castaway show. By the end of the episode, we're right there with Charlie when he asks the now famous line: "Guys... where are we?"

2. "Exodus"

The show's two-hour first season finale has received a fair amount of hell for its cliffhanger ending. I, too, rolled my eyes at the groan-inducing obvious final shot of the heroes staring down into the mysterious blackness of the hatch. Still, you can't deny it was a hell of a lot of fun getting to that point.

The story is a set-up for the paradigm shift that is the beginning of season two, and is thick with reminders that, on Lost, nothing is sacred and nobody is safe (just a reminder: I totally called the hatch getting destroyed at the end of season two). From Arzt blowing up, to the weeks-in-construction raft being destroyed, to the kidnapping of Walt, everything in the episode lets us know that everything is about to change.

Again, like most others on the countdown, the episode breaks from standard flashback format, showing us how all of the principals ended up on Flight 815 together. 

1. "Walkabout"

It never fails. You try to get somebody to get into the show, so you let them borrow your DVD set of Season One. Yeah, they dig the pilot. And, yeah, "Tabula Rasa" is kinda neat. But maybe they're still a little bit resistant to try to get into a new TV show.

Until they reach the final episode on that first disc.

Then they're hooked. 

"Walkabout," the fourth episode of Lost, has never failed to grab anyone by the balls. The Locke-centric episode has Locke boar hunting on the island, as well as revealing to the audience this badass great white hunter had a very tragic pre-island life. It also subtly breaks the established two-timeline format for a Lost episode. Rather than flashing back and forth between the island and before the crash, "Walkabout" exists on three timelines: the present, Locke's life at the box company, and the aftermath of the crash. The triple timeline is what gives the episode's climactic reveal of Locke's miracle the smartest storytelling gutpunch any scripted moment on network TV has given an audience in decades.

And there's that. Think I'm wrong? Let me know what you're favorite episodes are.

Remember, at 9 Eastern & Pacific/8 Central tonight, "A Tale of Two Cities" premeires on ABC. So, be sure you've cleared your evening, and are ready to kick back and get sucked back in.

Lost is back, folks.