Tonight was the night — the eagerly anticipated season premiere of Lost.

And now, I think I'm more lost than I ever was before. No polar bears, no dark wisps of smoke, and a focus on only those held captive by The Others (Jack, Kate, and Sawyer) with no other folks other than The Others and flashbacks to Jack's father and wife.

The show opened in a very un-Lost-like state. It could have been Nebraska on a lazy Sunday afternoon. But, these weren't your normal Pleasant Valley Sunday friendly neighbors. No, they were The Others! They have normal homes, a normal-looking rural sort of neighborhood. A woman chose to play a CD with Petula Clark's song "Downtown." (What's it all mean?) And, they were holding a fairly normal activity — a meeting of a book club. The book club leader, addressed as Julie by another, defended the reading material choice saying, "This is my favorite book!" An older man thought the book literary trash. "It's by-the-numbers religious hokum-pokum."

The book in question? Stephen King's Carrie, in hardcover. I had to freeze-frame my tape, see its title was short and began with a "C," then look for covers online as it doesn't match my own original paperback of the book from 1973. But, that's what it was, for sure... a hardcover edition released in 1974 of Carrie. What's the significance of the book? Well, I don't know. I figure it must have some meaning or they wouldn't have shown a traceable book cover. Of course, Carrie was the outcast girl who wreaked havoc on her high school.

The Others, Henry, in particular, look a lot younger than they did in previous episodes. His hair is a healthy dark brown and there aren't the deep lines in his face. Oh, and Henry's name is Ben. The woman running the book club made a comment about being foolish enough to "pick a book Ben wouldn't like." So, Henry/Ben has some power. The book club meeting was interrupted by what looked like an earthquake, but was the magnetic forces which caused Oceanic Flight 815 to crash. All of The Others, who seem like normal ol' people, ran out and watched it split into three parts falling over the island.