The waiting is finally over for “Lost” fans as season five premiered last night and will have an uninterrupted run of seventeen episodes this year.

A drama about what happens when people survive a horrific plane crash and end up on a mysterious island, J.J. Abrams’ drama series has been a huge hit for ABC, with some of the most thought-provoking and engrossing writing on all of television.

The characters are so rich due in part to each episode showing viewers their back stories through flashbacks that give you insight on the character’s life.

From doctors to on-the-run convicts, the island has a diverse array of characters.

The plot has always been about getting off the island; however, the island is a mysterious place capable of both healing and destroying and has a group of people, the others, that call it their home.

The show has worked by always spreading morsels of answers to burning questions throughout each episode while always managing to shock and make you think you know nothing after a new mystery is revealed.

What follows is a synopsis of where things are in the story and the questions that need answers.

Season four ended in extraordinary fashion as it was finally revealed how the Oceanic Six got off the island.

Starting at the end of season three, the show started showing flash-forwards of characters back on the mainland and season four put those pieces together while shocking fans for what was to come.

The Oceanic Six consists of Jack (Matthew Fox), one of the two leaders of the castaways on the island.

Jack is a spinal surgeon who spent his 108 days on the island helping the other survivors with medical issues, while with doing everything in his power to get his people off the island.

His love interest on the island was Kate, a tough woman with a history of criminal activity.

Jack and Kate’s similar strong-willed nature and desire for adventure are just two of the reasons why they become so close on the island.

The third member of this triangle is Sawyer, a con man with a nickname for everyone and who does not take orders from anyone.

A deeply tortured individual, Sawyer struggles to come to terms with witnessing the murder of his mother as a child and Kate provides him an equally troubled person to confide in due to their mutual understandings of the pain each feels.

In the finale, while fleeing with the Oceanic Six in a helicopter to escape, Sawyer whispered something in Kate’s ear and went back to the island after the pilot needed someone to stay behind.

Kate made it off the island with baby Aaron, the son a survivor named Clare had on the island.

The other three members of the Oceanic Six are Hurley, a mentally-disturbed yet fun individual who has been cursed since hitting the jackpot in a lottery; Sayid, an Arab torturer who becomes an assassin for Ben Linus (the leader of the others) after getting off the island; and Sun, a well-off and kind Japanese woman who becomes the head of her father’s mob business after getting off the island.

The main plot of season four involved a group of scientists and mercenaries working for Charles Widmore, a rich mogul with a mysterious interest in the island, finding the island.

Their primary goal was to bring back Benjamin Linus to their boss and to exterminate all other inhabitants.

Unfortunately, Jack made the mistake of wanting to try and believe the people who wanted to help them and the consequences were catastrophic.

The other leader of the flight survivors is John Locke (Emmy winner Terry O’Quinn), a cripple who was magically healed when the plane crashed on the island.

Locke became a hunter and it became clear early on that some higher power was guiding him to do what he did. This brought him into conflict with Jack several times eventually resulting in Locke finding his own way.

It was Locke’s belief that the people coming to the island were going to try and kill them and several people took his word and followed him to a safer part of the island.

Throughout season four he struck up a bond of sorts with island sage Ben Linus, a manipulative and fascinating character out to protect the only home he has ever known.

Ben states that his people are led by a mysterious figure named Jacob who has yet to be revealed in the flesh.

In last year’s finale, Locke made contact with the spirit of Jacob who told him that he must move the island to preserve it.

Ben took John to the Orchid station, the place where the island can be moved.

The head mercenary found them and Ben murdered him for killing his daughter. This set off a chain of events that ended with the destruction the freighter on which Widmore’s people arrived.

Luckily the Oceanic Six had a raft.

Desmond, a man who got stranded on the island while prepping for a sailing competition, was in the raft with the six.

During the season he made it to the freighter ship of Charles Widmore’s people and made contact with his ex-girlfriend, Penelope, the daughter of Charles Widmore who had been looking for him for the three years he was lost.

Her boat found the raft and the Oceanic Six got to go home.

Jack made the decision that they all must lie that there are no other survivors to protect the people that are still on the island from any further attack.

Ben Linus ends up in Tunisia eleven months after turning the wheel with the understanding that he can never return to the island since he moved it.

Jack and Kate get engaged but their relationship begins to unravel with Jack unable to make peace with himself. He is disturbed because people are still stranded on the island and does not like the fact that Kate is raising Aaron as her own son after learning that Clare was his sister. He grows a beard and turns to alcohol and drugs.

Trying to get back in any way possible, Jack tries to get into another plane crash by riding different Oceanic flights.

In the final scene of last season he is confronted by Ben at a funeral home where he is overlooking the body of Jeremy Bentham.

Jack tells Ben how much it kills him that Bentham told him when he came back that bad things happened on the island when the Oceanic Six fled.

Ben states that the only way to get back to the island and to save the remaining survivors is to get the entire Oceanic Six together and to try one of the methods Ben feels will get them back there.

The show ended with the camera panning to the body of Bentham, who shockingly happened to be Locke.

This week the next chapter began. How did Locke die and why did he change his name? Will Ben and Jack be able to reunite the Oceanic Six and find a way back to the island?

Clare disappeared on the island last season. Is she dead? What will become of Sawyer, Juliet, the rest of the survivors and “the others” when bad stuff starts happening on the island?

What is Charles Widmore’s motivation for wanting the island and the reason for his interest in Ben?

Will Ben make good on his promise to exact revenge on Charles by taking the life of his daughter Penelope and ruining her and Desmond’s happy reunion?

We will hopefully find out all the answers soon enough as the most unique drama on television continues its penultimate run.