And you thought “Lost” was confusing BEFORE this season.

Well, I hope you’ve had your seat belts buckled and your compass locked on a bearing of 315 degrees. If the first three hours are any indication, season five of the engrossing ABC drama is going to be a wild ride.

As usual, the start of a new season has brought few answers but certainly more questions.
— Where did the island go?
— WHEN did the island go?
— What the heck is wrong with Charlotte (Rebecca Mader)?
— Why does Ben (Michael Emerson) have only 70 hours to get the Oceanic Six back on the island?

I have been hooked on “Lost” since its debut in 2004. I’ve been enthralled by nearly all the trials and tribulations of the group of plane crash survivors and the mysterious “Others” already on the strange, uncharted island. I’ve stayed a true believer as friends have given up on the show, sure that all the visions, polar bears and smoke monsters would, ultimately, add up to very little.

Even if you’re worried the ending may not be all that satisfying, how can you not enjoy this ride? The characters are great, and the situations are unique.

Yes, it’s frustrating when a character who actually knows what’s going on at any point in time simply doesn’t have time to explain. And sure, I’d like fewer scenes with a shirtless Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and more with a bikini-clad Kate (Evangeline Lilly), but you take the bad with the good, you know?

I like how every season introduces new environments and situations. After the first season took place on the surface of the island, much of the second centered on an underground compound. In season three we spent more time with the Others, while the fourth season put several characters back in civilization and introduced us to a group of new characters — and re-introduced us to an old favorite —aboard a freighter bound for the island.

This season, as viewers know, has centered on time travel. I held off on even a preliminary judgment of this storytelling device after the two-hour season premiere because it felt cheap, and I thought it would lose a lot of people. But I’ve warmed to it after last week’s episode, which gave further hints on how this whole mythology would tie together.

So Locke (Terry O’Quinn) TOLD Richard (Nestor Carbonell) to visit him during his birth, which was to happen a few years from that particular point in time. Of course! It’s so obvious!

And how cool was it to meet a young Charles Widmore (Tom Connolly) on the island in the past? It makes sense that he was an Other (as much as anything on this show makes sense). What about Ellie (Alexandra Krosney)? Could she be Penny’s (Sonya Walger) future mom? Or how about Faraday’s (Jeremy Davies)?

I’d like to think next year’s series finale — and the episodes leading up to it — will make sense of the visions, polar bears and smoke monsters. In the meantime, I’m ready for more questions (and Evangaline Lilly in a bikini).

— Mark Meszoros