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The first few episodes establish some of the significant themes of the series. The backgammon game with light and dark pieces and the idea of two opposing sides.

Having an Iraqi former Republican Guard as a sympathetic major character in 2004 on US television was a bold move and it reinforces the idea that we need to discard whatever notions we might have of who the enemy is in this show.

Sawyer starts off as a bit of a rogue who is somewhat of a tragic figure and who initially tries to do the right thing, but is soon diverted along a different path when people start thinking of him as an antagonist so he continues to act this part that has been foisted upon him.

And with Locke we seem to have come full circle over the series as he starts off in these three episodes as quite a sinister and potentially dangerous character.

In anticipation of the final season of Lost which will be broadcast in early 2010 I have decided to watch again the entirety of the five previous seasons so as to reassess what went before with the knowledge gained from later episodes.

However it is likely that things which seem significant in hindsight are so only because the writers took it upon themselves to develop things which were initially meant to be inconsequential into something larger.