On September 22, 2004, Oceanic 815 crashed onto a secluded island, with only a few survivors attempting to find a way off, left to discover the mysteries inherent within the land. On September 22, 2004, Lost also had its series premiere. Lasting six seasons, Lost was beloved, hated and everything in between, angering viewers at times, but also giving them an intricate, science fiction series partly in disguise, with characters that resonated and a story that was truly impossible to predict (most of the time).

Without Lost, the TV landscape would be entirely different. This was a dense series that would pave the way for such high-concept shows like The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black and many others. For six seasons, Lost captivated and frustrated, but it was unlike anything we had seen on TV before, and we still haven’t seen anything like it yet.

In honor of the recent fifth anniversary of its series finale, Paste invites you to go back to the island with us. Let’s revisit the show that touched our hearts and boggled our minds—the show that took a simple deserted island story and made it so much more. Here are all 111 episodes of Lost ranked, from worst to the absolute, undisputed (just kidding, we’re awaiting those inevitable disputes) best.

When Lost showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof were asked what their least favorite episode of the show was, they answered “Stranger in a Strange Land.” And for good reason, because this is easily the worst hour the show (and maybe any show) has ever made, with Jack flashing back to how he got his tattoos on his vacation in Thailand, where he flew kites with Bai Ling. It’s a pretty terrible episode, but at least the lack of ideas in the third season led to the decision for Lost to come to an end three seasons later.

“Born to Run” reuses the boat sabotage idea, but this time Sun accidentally poisons Michael instead of Jin to make sure he won’t leave on the boat. Kate’s flashback doesn’t really add anything either, and instead tells us more of what we already know: that the toy plane she found belonged to the man she loved and killed. Without much new information given, “Born to Run” is the worst episode of the fantastic first season.

As the deceptive convict on the plane, Kate was one of the most secretive and mysterious characters in Lost’s first season. “Whatever the Case May Be” only added to her mystique by presenting her as a thief, a murderer and a toy plane owner. But Kate’s second flashback episode inspired more unnecessary questions about her past, rather than really giving any answers, and sets up the disappointing reveal of the case’s contents in “Born to Run.”

Charlie’s descent into madness (which may or may not have been heroin-fueled), once again centered on his attempts to save others, even though it meant the rest of the island ended up hating him. However in “Fire + Water,” it ends up being Locke who acts uncharacteristically—almost lecherous in his new bond with Claire and Aaron, and taking Charlie’s place. There’s even some hinting in the episode’s end that Locke will use the heroin as a weapon against Charlie one day. It’s a strange turn for Locke and Charlie that doesn’t feel quite right.

In the episodes prior to “The Package,” we saw Lost taking on huge concepts like good vs. evil, loss of faith and redemption. But “The Package” takes things back to a simpler time, with Sun forgetting how to speak English after a blow to the head from Locke. Maybe earlier on in the season, this could’ve been a fun look at what could’ve happened if Jin and Sun hadn’t married, but instead it just felt like a major waste of time while bigger, more important things were happening all around the island.

Considering the darkness of what came before it and the shock of what comes next in the season, “The Greater Good” flashback of Sayid attempting to stop his friend from going through with a terrorist attack doesn’t have as much impact on the larger scale of things. Similarly, watching Sayid try to stop Shannon from shooting Locke for Boone’s death doesn’t hold weight either, leaving this episode feeling like a small link in the mystery of the hatch.

In “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead,” the title character covers a story on Hurley’s lottery win, calling it a puff piece. Well, the same could be said about this episode, which solely exists to remind the audience that this show can be fun. And for the most part it is, with Charlie, Sawyer, Jin and Hurley trying to fix a crashed Dharma vehicle and drinking beer. But there’s really no substance, just four guys hanging out, albeit in an enjoyable way.

“Further Instructions” finally gives us the after effects of the hatch exploding to the core group. Locke makes a sweat lodge after losing faith in the island and Boone tells him to find Eko, who is trapped in a bear cave, while Desmond is running around naked, now with precognition abilities. We also met Nikki and Paolo for the first time (who seemed to have popped up out of nowhere). In one of the few weak Locke-centric episodes, we saw how he accidentally ruined communities that accepted him in the past, only adding to the amount of horrible things that have occurred to John Locke.

“The Lie” is sort of the calm before the insanity storm, giving us a Weekend at Bernie’s style plot with conflict between Hurley and Sayid and very little time travel material. The people who get off the island decide that they’ll have to keep the past 100 days of their lives hidden from the general public to protect those left behind on the island. “The Lie” focuses mostly on Hurley, making it a bit more lighthearted, with scattered humor and Ben’s failed attempt to bring the group all together, but lacks anything truly substantial.

It seems like every single person on Lost has problems with their father in some way or another. But Miles’ situation is a little different, since he now lives a few yards away from his estranged father and a baby version of himself. “Some Like It Hoth” gives us Miles’ backstory, and just enough of his past to care about him beyond his taking up the wise-cracking mantle from Sawyer.

Kate episodes were rarely very good and “What Kate Does” follows in that tradition. In fact, it feels less focused on Kate and more on Claire. In the flash-sideways we see her and Kate going to the hospital together to deliver Aaron with the help of Dr. Ethan. The most Kate did in her own episode was escape from one of the Others, played by It’s Always Sunny’s Glenn Howerton. And the most compelling material in “What Kate Does” came from Dogen’s explanation about how Sayid’s infection will cause him to lose himself, and we then get the big reveal that that’s exactly what happened to Claire.

“This Place is Death” starts off focusing on the origins of Rousseau on the island, and quickly diverts to Jin reuniting with his friends. It’s a slightly disappointing U-turn in an episode that lacks an emotional punch. This is especially strange, considering the fact that Charlotte dies, Sun finds out Jin is alive and Locke is told he will have to sacrifice himself for the island.

Kate-centric episodes always seem to be the hardest to make interesting and that’s unfortunately the case with “Left Behind.” In her flashback, we see Kate meet Sawyer’s former love/con artist student who helps Kate see her mother. In the present, Kate is handcuffed to Juliet as they try to get back to The Others. Both stories lack any real depth, only adding to the consistency of weak Kate episodes.

In Charlie’s first flashback episode we see his beginning heroin use and his comedown from the drugs on the island, while the group saves Jack from a cave-in. With the exception of seeing Charlie’s strength in dire situations and his selflessness when others are in trouble, little of “The Moth” has any bearing on future episodes.

“The Last Recruit” is the first time we see Claire and Jack together, upon learning that they share the same father. On the island, it’s not that exciting, but the true emotion comes from the same moment in the sideways story. More touching though is Jin and Sun finally seeing each other again for the first time since the end of Season Four. As the teams on the island come together, the people in the sideways story are even closer to realizing something strange is happening to all of them.

Kate’s flash-forward episode reiterates that yes, she got off the island and even though she was worried about returning home and being thrown in jail, a character witness from Jack gets her off relatively scott-free. She’s now Aaron’s mother, which of course brings up the question of what happened to Claire, but comparatively fewer mysteries begin than earlier flash-forwards. Back at the old Others camp, Locke is quite a difficult leader, banishing Kate from the group and putting a live grenade in Miles’ mouth to keep him from talking. The island should really tell him to calm down.

If there ever should have been a spinoff of Lost (besides Expose of course), it probably could’ve been a cop show with Sawyer and Miles, as we see in Sawyer’s sideways story. Instead of choosing to be a con man at a young age, Sawyer decided to become a cop. He partners with Miles, goes on a blind date with Charlotte and arrests Kate. It’s a fun bit of “what if?,” especially in seeing the different ways these character could’ve met. Back on the island, Sawyer cons both Locke and Widmore, planning on getting them to fight each other while he and Kate finally leave the island in Widmore’s submarine.

“Homecoming” brings us to the end of the original Lost villain Ethan, as Charlie proves that he can take care of something other than his heroin habit. His flashback is a sad look at what his life had been and even hints that if he had continued down this safer path as a copy machine seller, he may have ended up working with The Office’s David Brent…

Michael’s flashback fills in small gaps in his history of losing touch with Walt, but back on the island, his lost son leaves him defeated and searching for someone to blame. In the hatch, Kate finds food and Locke enters the numbers into the computer for the first time, but really, “Adrift” is just an episode that throws in tiny bits of information, with very little vital new knowledge.

After starting the second season with three episodes centered on the surprising and stressful discovery of the hatch, Hurley gives away all the hatch’s food as a way to bond together, and so that people won’t turn on the most lovable survivor. Despite what the title says, “Everybody Hates Hugo” shows how Hurley is the one guy on the island that can unite everyone—except for Michael, Sawyer and Jin, who discover that the Tailies haven’t been close to as fortunate as the rest of them.

Boone’s only flashback and his vision quest gets at the true nature of his relationship with Shannon, which in the long run of things doesn’t really matter. However Boone’s allegiance to Locke’s ideas and throwing off the old world is important, as is the first hint that maybe our survivors have an interconnected past before the crash. All this makes “Hearts and Minds” a fairly curious episode.

Jin and Sun’s third flashback episode shows the couple’s meet-cute after independent moments of despair that they feel on different parts of the island. Sun loses her wedding ring and Jin tries to find Michael as he searches for Walt. Both stories show how greatly this couple has changed since the beginning of the show and further introduces the Tailies in a simple but effective way.

“House of the Rising Sun” split the group for the first time, between Jack’s choice to move inland towards water and Kate’s optimistic choice to stay on the beach and wait for help. But this episode (finally) focused mostly on the more minor characters, dealing with Charlie’s heroin addiction, Sun and Jin’s troubled marriage and also presented the idea of Locke as the voice for the island.

When Lost first aired, one of the many theories to explain all of the craziness was that everything might be happening in one person’s head. This Hurley-themed episode pokes fun at that, with the titular character basically reciting fan theories before the episode ultimately disproves them. “Dave” ends with maybe the most glaring question not answered by the series: why is Hurley in the same mental hospital as Libby? (the answer is probably as simple as the reason Hurley was there: to recover from trauma, in her case the death of her husband). The reveal of Dave not being real is obvious, but the final moments between Libby and Hurley help redeem “Dave.”

No one likes to be told what to do, especially on this island. “The Hunting Party” over and over again shows groups rebelling against what they’ve been told not to do, with Michael going after Walt, Kate following after the group searching for Michael and Jack’s flashback where he tries to become a miracle worker to a man he’s told can’t be fixed. It’s the meeting with The Others, though, that bears the most important warning, telling the group to avoid their side of the island and not to go snooping around. But what fun would that be? Rules were made to be broken.

Sun and Jin’s relationship always looks like it’s surrounded by lies and the things they keep from each other, so in “D.O.C.,” we see that Sun knows far more about Jin’s life than he thinks she does. Juliet’s move closer to the Oceanic team and further away from The Others is charged by her continued hatred of Ben and her dedication to her study in birth mothers on the island. On the other side of the island, a rescued helicopter pilot tells Hurley that Oceanic 815 was found and that there were no survivors, giving cred to the theory that everyone on the island is already dead—but it’s really just another fun jab from the writers at one of the stronger fan theories.

Telling the story of Jack’s future substance abuse and the crumbling of his relationship with Kate, “Something Nice Back Home” is more melodramatic than the usual episode of Lost. Somehow, this installment can’t even make an appendectomy on the beach with a lucid patient all that compelling. However, visits from the dead Christian Shepherd on and off the island bring his two offspring—Jack and Claire—closer to realizing that they may be related.

Sun’s flashback in “The Glass Ballerina” shows the depth of her lies throughout her life, from her childhood to a troubled marriage. In The Others’ camp, Kate and Sawyer break rocks while remaining imprisoned, while the best scene closes out the episode—Ben explaining to Jack that the outside world is within Jack’s grasp if he does what Ben asks him to do.

By the first night on the island, we knew there was more than met the eye to the survivor’s new home. With “Tabula Rasa,” we saw the first flashback prior to the plane crash, which showed that there’s also more than meets the eye to these survivors as well, and that, for many of these people, the crash is a second chance. Through the island, we know that these people will try to escape their pasts—even if their pasts aren’t through with them yet.

Is there any worse way to introduce yourself to a new group than by shooting one of its members? In “Abandoned,” the Tailies search for the rest of the survivors, as Shannon searches for fault, with both journeys ending tragically. Shannon’s only solo flashback explains that her desire to find herself and becoming something greater has been hindered by losing the people that she loves.

“...In Translation” is an episode about finding independence through relationships. Shannon avoids the insults of Boone to be with Sayid and Walt attempts to remain on the island that feels like home by burning Michael’s raft. Yet it’s Sun and Jin’s tumultuous relationship that blows up the most, with Sun revealing that she can speak English, while Jin remains secretive about the awful things he’s had to do to for Sun’s father to be able to marry the woman he loves.

Almost every love story on the island was incredibly grandiose, from the many problems that plagued Jin and Sun’s marriage to the global scale of Desmond and Penny. But the love between Bernard and Rose was elegantly simple, with both of them meeting and falling for each other in their later years. Their dedication to each other causes Bernard to give up leaving the island in order to keep Rose’s cancer at bay. It’s a wonderful love story, which we see unfold in “S.O.S.,” without the frills and excitement that the others on the island often had.

Thanks to the eerie presence of Ethan and Sayid’s escape from Rousseau, “Raised By Another” represents the group’s first realization that they aren’t the only ones on the island. With Claire’s flashback, we also get the first sign that maybe the plane crash was part of a bigger plan—maybe it wasn’t an accident and maybe they are all here for a reason.

Sun’s discovery that she’s pregnant in “The Whole Truth,” especially right after “Maternity Leave,” makes it feel like the show can’t go on without at least one pregnant woman. Sun’s flashback reveals that a baby with Jin would basically fix everything in their past life and it certainly seems to do the same on the island, as Jin and Sun soon reconcile after a fight. But the episode’s conclusion shows that “Henry Gale” is playing everyone—even from his makeshift prison cell—which proves just how much power he has and how much fun it is for him manipulating everyone.

“Every Man For Himself” is an episode full of maybes: Maybe Sawyer is a dad, maybe Kate loves Sawyer, maybe Jack was brought to The Others to perform surgery, maybe Desmond can see into the future. This Sawyer-centric episode is also about Ben breaking down the spirit of his most rowdy prisoner, by conning Sawyer into thinking his heart could literally explode if he gets too excited, to showing Sawyer that he isn’t even on the same island as the rest of his friends. Our two con men face off, and Ben comes out victorious.

Juliet’s third flashback episode is really more about Ben and his control issues. Ben claims Juliet is his, paves the way for her lover to be murdered and if things on the island don’t go as planned—he also has a way of murdering everyone with toxic gas. Most important, though, is his battle to keep the island away from Charles Widmore, who for the first time becomes a threat to the island, in addition to already being a threat to Desmond’s happiness.

On the scale of good and evil, Sayid always hoped he leaned closer to good, but in “Sundown,” Dogen tells him that he leans more on the side of evil. At this point, he might be right. Even when trying to abandon the violent side in his sideways story, the act of killing still ends up finding him. He’s looking to atone for his sins, even as they keep coming at him. But “Sundown” is integral to the end for setting up sides, with the changed crew, consisting of Locke, Sayid, Rousseau-fied Claire and a reluctant Kate (just along for the ride). But we also see that maybe it’s better to be on the side of the smoke monster that can kill an entire temple of people, than to be against him?

The constant time jumps in the fifth season are quite fun, especially those taking us to past moments of importance, showing the part these survivors have had in the island’s history. But with “The Little Prince,” we see that it isn’t all fun and time travel in this exploration of the past, especially since those who have been on the island for a longer time start having nose bleeds, leading to brain hemorrhaging. The impending danger to those longest inhabitants and Ben’s unification of those who returned back to the regular world are all great developments, but none more shocking than the fact that Jin is still alive and he is now with a young Rousseau, who just crashed on the island.

“Across the Sea” exists for the people who heard Jacob’s wine and cork analogy and wanted a more literal explanation. The episode essentially tells us the core of what we already know: Jacob and The Man in Black are battling and there’s something special about the island. Yet when Lost seemingly digs deeper into explaining, as per usual, it only adds more questions and makes the island seem less like an exciting mystery and more like something about a weird, glowing lake.

While on the island, Sayid states that the day he trusts Ben will be the day he has sold his soul. Well, in his flash-forward, Sayid must be soulless since we learn he is Ben’s employee. Now a contract killer, Sayid is killing off people from a list Ben supplies, with the only hint into the job being that Sayid does it to protect his friends. Much of “The Economist” is about the cast switching teams from Jack’s side to Locke’s side and vice versa, but also Sayid and Desmond take a helicopter flight off the island, at this point hoping to never return again.

Once Desmond has awareness of what the sideways flashes are, it seems to become his goal to get everyone else where they need to go. In “Everybody Loves Hugo,” he pushes Hurley to meet with Libby—finally giving them their long-awaited picnic date and awakening Hurley in the process. It looks like a certain amount of déjà vu has to occur before the survivors can truly understand what the sideways story actually is and what their former life was. “Everybody Loves Hugo” also have the explosion of Ilana and the Black Rock, but this episode is really more of an important piece to what these flashes have been all season.

The first time Eko met the black smoke, he survived because he showed courage and bravery. The second time, Eko died because he was afraid and prepared for the end. Eko’s death wasn’t the original plan the showrunners had made, but his conclusion puts him where he always wanted to be: back with his brother Yemi. Of course the survivors still have a hard time ahead, with Eko warning that they’re next to be attacked by the smoke and Jack being propositioned by Juliet to kill Ben and make it look like an accident.

Jack’s leadership would both help and hinder the survivors on the island throughout the series, but it’s in “White Rabbit” where Jack truly takes a stand as the head of the group. His credo of “live together, die alone” would resonate for all six seasons, but it is Jack’s first sit-down with Locke—in a discussion of their faith vs. science mentalities—that would become a huge part of the show’s identity.

Shannon’s death was much more unexpected than the death of her brother Boone, and the repercussions were even greater. Ana Lucia’s panic over her accidental murder causes her to be reckless and terrified—we see she’s reacted this way in her flashback. The dead look in Sayid’s eyes as he holds the woman he loves is staggering, but the joy in the reunited Bernard and Rose, as well as Sun and Jin manages to balances the pain with love.

In “Catch-22, Demond realizes that no matter what he sees in the future, whatever is supposed to happen will happen, regardless. This doesn’t bode so well for Charlie, who has already had his life saved by Desmond over the course of only a few days. Desmond’s flashback to being fired from his life as a monk and ultimately meeting Penny is one of the calmer Demond episodes, but still a fine piece in his history.

“Enter 77” gets back to the world-building and mythology of Lost, which was sorely missing from parts of Season Three. The discovery of a potential way to get off the island and Mikhail—an Other so cartoonishly evil he even has an eyepatch—actually give our cast something major to do for the first time during this whole season.

“Special,” the first flashback episode for Michael and Walt, shows Michael’s determination over the years to protect his son, even though his son doesn’t even know who he is. Michael’s love for Walt knows no bounds, as we’ll see later, and “Special” also represents the beginning of the mystery about what makes Walt so special—a question that many believed was left unanswered by the end of the series.

In hindsight, “Solitary” is a huge episode of reveals, from the first appearance of people who were already on the island—Rousseau and Ethan—to the first mentions of the Black Rock and The Others. Beyond those facts of future importance, we also see Sayid’s tragic love for Nadia intercut with the bliss of the group coming together as a community over Hurley’s newly created golf course.

It’s strange that even though Hurley almost immediately became a fan favorite, he would be the last major character to get his own standalone episode—but what an important episode it is. Hurley’s obsession with the numbers (and the numbers themselves) would be a major part of Season Two especially, and as all Hurley episodes do, this one provides a comedic respite from the near-constant dangers on the island.

“The Long Con” gives us Sawyer pulling off two different cons, one in his flashback with a woman he loved and the other on the island, taking guns from Jack and Locke, while working with Charlie. Even for Charlie, this coldhearted approach doesn’t suit him well, but the episode does help to elaborate on the multilayered emotions within Sawyer. But the bigger con here is the writers of Lost teasing the future time-traveling stories with what seems like a simple throwaway line between Hurley and Sayid.

The introduction of Daniel, Miles, Charlotte and Frank is set up perfectly to make them fit right in with the survivors. Mysterious abilities and/or links to the island? Check. Flashbacks vague enough to make them interesting? Check. A deep desire to possibly do horrible things to Ben? Of course. By the end of “Confirmed Dead,” we still don’t know much about these four, not even if they’re good or bad, but we do know at the very least that they’ll be compelling to learn more about.

Throughout “Confidence Man,” Sawyer is hit by three separate people, tortured and stabbed, yet after we learn about his past, we find out that no one can beat up Sawyer as much as Sawyer himself. “Confidence Man” also started the Sawyer-Jack-Kate love triangle in earnest, while we also discovered that Sawyer—the island’s “bad guy” up to this point—might have a bark bigger than his bite.

It’s a big move to have one of your main characters kill off two innocent people, but it takes some confidence to make that same character’s actions seem completely justified in the larger scheme of things. Michael’s remembrance of his last two weeks tracking down The Others, getting captured by them and being given his orders to get Walt back explains Michael’s motivation and process, while also allowing the viewer to sympathize with a person who it should be, otherwise, very easy to hate.

The repercussions of Michael’s shooting spree leads to Eko and Locke discovering another hatch, and then filling Locke with doubt over pressing the button. There’s also the end of the long, stretched-out death of Libby. Hurley’s goodbye to Libby is more emotional than Libby’s actual death, as we see the most beloved person in the camp reduced to tears, hurting everyone that loves him as well.

Even when they’re hiding in the shadows, The Others are basically controlling everything on the island, as we see in “Maternity Leave.” Claire discovers where Ethan took her and her baby, leading to many revelations about The Others, and Ben takes his first stab at screwing with Locke’s mind. Claire’s flashback—the first to take us to previous moments on the island—is eerie, as Ethan drugs Claire and tells her his plans to steal her baby, and she woozily nods in agreement.

“Namaste” settles Jack, Kate and Hurley into their new Dharma roles, while Sayid is stuck in jail, and considered a hostile. Sawyer’s newfound leadership lightens the load for Jack, who no longer has to be in charge, while Jin and Sun still desperately search for each other on the island, even though they are still thirty years apart. “Namaste” is a good episode that sets up the pieces for the second half of the season and introduces Sayid to young Ben, which leads to all sorts of bigger questions down the line.

Sayid doesn’t want to be a killer, but he knows what he has to do in any given situation. For example, as a child, he knew his brother had to kill a chicken, but refused to do it. So Sayid did the hard thing and killed for his brother. The same happens in “He’s Our You,” as Sayid finally discovers his purpose in coming back to the island: to kill young Ben Linus to stop the things he’ll do in the future. It’s a dark Sayid episode for sure, but hey, you can’t blame the guy for trying.

“Ji Yeon” is by far the strongest of the Jin-Sun episodes, particularly due to its great multiple twists throughout. “Ji Yeon” cleverly and surprisingly gives Sun a flash forward while telling a flashback story for Jin. The episode also concludes with another sorrowful twist, where Jin appears to be dead. And we also see the return of Michael, who is now working as a spy for Ben. For once, a Jin and Sun episode doesn’t focus on the betrayal and lies that exist between these two, but instead shows their dedication and love for each other and how crashing on the island was the best possible thing to happen to their marriage.

Juliet’s loneliness and desire to get off the island makes her a sympathetic character in “One of Us,” even if the camp doesn’t like their new Other campmate. But their first impression of Juliet is correct, as we see that she is betraying them and working with Ben, who (through the power of Jacob) can apparently cure cancer for everyone except himself. If there’s any one of The Others who can play multiple layers of betrayal and deception, it’s Juliet, who can put her allegiances in multiple camps, while only worrying about herself and getting off the island, all while remaining amazingly likable to the audience.

For the first time since the plane crash, “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues” gives us a glimpse at the true dangers that await the survivors, while hinting heavily at who will be some of the first casualties. The near-death of Charlie is an emotional rescue with a surprising conclusion, while the discovery of the infamous hatch leads the survivors to their first giant step in finding out how far down the rabbit hole goes.

“What Kate Did” is possibly Kate’s best episode, as we look into her past and inside her psyche. We learn that she is on the run for for killing her abusive father and that her indecision between Jack and Sawyer is deeply tied into her parental issues. Kate’s fear of losing her sanity is probably a fear that everyone on the island should’ve had by now as well. But “What Kate Did” is also an episode of integration, with Ana Lucia pretty much forgiven for her actions and Mr. Eko supplying Locke with the missing piece of the orientation video.

Halfway through the third season, “Par Avion” feels like a wonderful return to the simplicity of the first season. Showing us the camp working together on a project that gets back to them intentionally trying to get off the island is a throwback to a time when escape felt like a possibility. Claire’s flashback actually adds depth to her character and to her relationship with others, and we learn more about the island—most importantly their location and the security that surrounds it. And we end with a cliffhanger that makes us desperately want to see what happens next.

“A Tale of Two Cities” is the first time we are taken into the true community of The Others, even though their captives Jack, Kate and Sawyer are stuck in prison cages made of former Dharma buildings. Jack is in a glorified aquarium, showing off his stubbornness and Kate and Sawyer are imprisoned in bear cages. But The Others’ modest living situation seems to be filled with normalcy, where book clubs and muffins are affluent, showing us a much less violent existence than expected.

The introduction of Nikki and Paolo on Lost was a mistake from the beginning, so “Exposé” plays like the show is realizing its mistake and correcting the error. “Exposé” hilariously shows how Nikki and Paolo discovered important island moments before everyone else did, from one of the hatches to the plane that killed Boone. It’s a ridiculous installment that gives these two hated characters a Twilight Zone-esque conclusion. With this episode, Lost fixed one of its biggest problems in the most amazing way possible.

Possibly the most boring story of Lost is the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle, but “I Do” does the seemingly impossible and makes it interesting. Kate and Sawyer finally have sex and say that they love each other, while Kate also tries to convince Jack to save Ben’s life in order to save Sawyer’s. By the end of “I Do” this triangle is finally captivating and the ticking bomb of Ben’s surgery sets off the first truly exciting moments of Season Three.

Watching the Oceanic 6 (and others) interconnecting and uniting on the main land gave us a nice change of scenery, but ever since Jack said “We have to go back,” it all just seemed like burning time until they return to the island. “316” marks that return, as Daniel Faraday’s mother Eloise explains how the island was discovered by Dharma and how to return. Getting the gang back together to crash back on the island is a great reminder of Season One and how much has changed. Even with the death of John Locke, his clashing with Jack still remains one of the most compelling aspects of the show.

In “Lighthouse” we see Jack finding his own path in multiple stories. First, in his sideways story, we see him as a father, learning from the mistakes his own father made with him and fixing himself instead of others. On the island, Jacob and Hurley lead him down the path to possibly becoming the next guardian of the island. Jacob has been watching all of the candidates their entire lives, but when Jack smashes all of Jacob’s mirrors to the outside world, he makes sure no one is watched again.

Michael might have thought his utter despair would end once he saved his son from the island, but “Meet Kevin Johnson” shows that his life has only gotten worse. His openness with Walt about his actions on the island has left him alone and suicidal, so much so that Michael is even willing to work for Ben in order to find peace in death. “Meet Kevin Johnson” is a great extended flashback, and is possibly Harold Perrineau’s finest hour on the show.

Sawyer’s rivalry with a renegade boar starts off rather silly, but “Outlaws” gives us an intricate look at what’s made Sawyer the way he is and shows off the interconnectivity between the passengers in their pre-crash lives. The focus moves away from the group as a whole and onto Sawyer for the majority of the episode, and we get some of the best scenes in the first season, such as Sawyer’s drinking game with Kate, his chance meeting with Jack’s dad and his failed attempt at revenge.

Even though it has been hinted at since the first season, “Cabin Fever” confirms that, yes, Locke was chosen by the island. Locke’s flashback shows the island’s interest in him from the time he was a newborn baby to a handicapped man, proving that it was his destiny to end up on the island. “Cabin Fever” also gives us an idea of just how much the island is capable of, even throwing in the possibility that the island can actually be moved. But that would be crazy… right?

Learning that at least some people will get off the island should give us some type of closure, but in “The Beginning of the End,” it’s clear that a whole new level of problems await those who returned to the real world. Hurley drops all sorts of hints about how the world after the island is filled with mysteries, like that he’s part of the Oceanic 6—even though we don’t know who the other members are and entirely what that means—that the survivors are keeping a huge secret and that maybe, going back to the island is what needs to be done. The island might have been crazy, but after all the trauma, we learn that maybe it’s now also home.

Throughout his life, John Locke gave everything he could for the sake of love and understanding. In “Deus Ex Machina,” we meet Locke’s father—possibly the most evil villain on the show, ever—and we also get to see the lengths Locke will go to in order to earn his love. Meanwhile on the island, he begins to lose feeling in his legs as well as faith in the island, while also being partially responsible for the fatal injuries of Boone.

Ben Linus was always a man of contradictions, as seen in “Lockdown,” where first he earns Locke’s trust, then is found out to be a liar. Once again, Locke’s flashback is a downer, as he chooses his father over his girlfriend and ends up losing both. But the sadness of this story mixes in well with the fun of Sawyer and Jack playing poker for fruit and medical supplies. Locke’s discovery of an island map and the fact that Henry Gale isn’t actually Henry Gale shows us that we’re only scratching the surface of the insane amount of secrets this island truly has.

With a last name like “Shepherd” and doctors running in his family, it’s no surprise that Jack has a messiah complex. His inability to lose Boone showcases not only his stubbornness, but also nicely parallels with his main enemy Locke. And even though the death of Boone is sad—especially with that heartbreaking Michael Giacchino score—the birth of Claire’s son Aaron shows that the island gives as often as it takes.

“Follow the Leader” is one last ditch effort to get in a lot of great, insane time travel threads out of the way before the fifth season finale. Locke (who clearly has something wrong with him) heads off with all the Others and Richard Alpert to go kill Jacob. Back in 1977, Jack—with the help of Richard as well as Kate, Sayid and Eloise—continues working on Faraday’s plan to blow up a hydrogen bomb. There’s a lot going on in “Follow the Leader” in order to get everything ready for the go-for-broke season finale, with tragic consequences.

Daniel Faraday’s plan to get everything back to normal is based on the tenant, “Go big and maybe go home, or die,” as he plans on blowing up a hydrogen bomb to stop Oceanic 815 from ever crashing. The stakes are huge and will set up the rest of the series, but poor Daniel faces the consequences of his idea before he even gets to make anything explode. His mother shoots him back in 1977 and we discover that Charles Widmore is also his father. Daniel Faraday might be dead, but his crazy ideas live on.

It takes guts for any show to introduce time travel into its central conceit five seasons in, but for Lost, it just sort of makes perfect sense. With so many unknowable mysteries occurring, “Because You Left” presents time travel in a way that explains some of them, quite a bit. It’s also a fun way to once again explore the history of the island, jumping from when Ethan was alive, to Yemi’s plane crash to Desmond still in the hatch. “Because You Left” has big ideas, but handles them in a way that is exciting, rather than confusing.

All things considered, the members of the main group of survivors from flight 815 were pretty lucky in their first 48 days on the island. The people in the tail end of the plane… well, they were stuck in their own hell. “The Other 48 Days” is filled with constant loss, fear and deception, as the Tailies are infiltrated by The Others and thrown into one horrible situation after another. Compressing their pain into one episode shows just how awful things could’ve been for the other survivors, and also reminds us that—no matter where they go—sorrow will follow the Tailies.

Mr. Eko once told Locke that he shouldn’t confuse fate for coincidence, but it’s hard to argue it’s Eko’s fate to be on the island when he finds his brother’s body in the drug smuggling plane. Eko’s flashbacks make even the worst previous flashbacks seem so simple, as we see Eko growing up as a child soldier and then turning into a drug lord, bringing about the end of his brother Yemi. Eko’s dedication to Psalm 23 and to “fear no evil” comes in handy when he faces off against the black smoke, showing a level of courage that Charlie can’t understand, especially considering that he’s hiding Mary statues filled with heroin. But both Charlie and Eko understand in “The 23rd Psalm” that the decisions of their past still resonate in the present, even when they’re on the island.

For every positive that occurs in “There’s No Place Like Home,” there’s a negative right around the corner. Six survivors get off the island, but Michael and Jin appear to be dead in the rescue. The island is safe, but things have only gotten worse since the six survivors left, causing them to have to go back. Locke finally finds his place in the world, only to have apparently died not long afterwards. Comparatively, this might be the weakest of all the Lost season finales, which is saying a lot—especially since this is an episode where Ben literally moves the island.

Although Jack is known as a man of logic, “Man of Science, Man of Faith” proves that he might do well to believe more in miracles and in fate. As Jack enters the hatch, we meet Desmond for the first time, a man who warned Jack years ago about the reality and power of miracles. After hearing this advice, Jack’s future wife—who had recently lost all feeling from the waist down after a car crash—regains feeling, even after Jack’s reparative surgery fails. With miracles like these, it’s surprising that Jack doesn’t even have a mustard seed worth of faith.

“All we really need is one person who truly loves us,” Penny says in her letter to Desmond, which we see in his beautiful flashback. This message is a major theme of “Live Together, Die Alone.” Michael needs Walt, so he takes desperate measures to get him back. Charlie and Claire need each other, even after weeks of fighting. Locke’s lack of anyone to love has left him desperate on the island and losing his religion. “Live Together, Die Alone” wonderfully wraps up major Season Two arcs—the button in the hatch DOES serve a purpose and Walt and Michael leave the island an entire season after first setting sail. And it also sets up major themes for the third season and beyond, with Jack, Kate and Sawyer going to The Others’ real camp and the introduction of the integral Widmore family.

If you could go back in time, would you, say, go back and kill a young Hitler to change the future? According to “Whatever Happened, Happened,” that would be impossible. This episode places the confusing time travel logistics of Lost in a humorous and easily digestible conversation between Miles and Hurley. When shooting young Ben, Sayid meant to stop his future plans, but instead just turned him towards the path he was always meant to go down. We also get an incredibly rare Kate episode that’s actually quite good, as she explains what happens to Aaron and Clementine, Sawyer’s daughter.

The premise of “Orientation” is that if a button isn’t pushed every 108 minutes, the world could end. On any other show, this would be ridiculous. On Lost, it’s very plausible. Not only does “Orientation” set up the rules for the entire second season, but it also throws out hints for the rest of the series and introduces us to The Dharma Initiative and the Tailies. By typing in six simple numbers, Jack also takes an important step towards his gradual change from a man of science to a man of faith.

Even though we knew that Charles Widmore was desperately trying to find the island, it isn’t until “Jughead” that we discover his history with the mysteriously moving body of land. “Jughead” is one of the most informative flashback episodes of the fifth season, with Locke unknowingly setting up his own future on the island and viewers getting their first look at the hydrogen bomb that will cause so much strange activity. “Jughead” is just a really fun episode, made even more so by the incredibly adorable name that Desmond and Penny choose for their child: Charlie.

The addition of Michael Emerson to the cast of Lost is probably the most important character introduction in the entire series. When we meet him in “One of Them,” he’s known as Henry Gale, a hot air balloon enthusiast whose wife recently died on the island. Sayid’s interrogation brings plenty of emotions out, concerning Shannon, while we start to see the many layers Emerson will bring to his character. Meanwhile, outside of the interrogation room, Jack and Locke’s rivalry comes to an all time high and the button almost doesn’t get pushed in time, leading the countdown clock to change to ominous red and black hieroglyphics.

What starts out as a rescue mission for Jack becomes a battle over who knows the island better in “The Man From Tallahassee.” Pitting Ben and Locke at each other in this episode provides some of the most exciting dialogue in the entire season. We learn how Locke lost his ability to walk and that the island might be able to make almost any dream possible. But it’s the jealousy over Locke’s recovery and the bewilderment on Locke’s face when he sees his father tied up on the island that makes this an incredible episode.

“Dead is Dead” gives us something we rarely see on Lost: a confused, remorseful Ben ready to face up to his actions. Ben presents himself to be judged by the smoke monster, and yet—even with all the murder and deception in Ben’s past—he is shown compassion and allowed to leave. “Dead Is Dead” is the deepest look we get into the core of who Ben is, and even gets the audience to pity the man who in this same episode kidnaps Rousseau’s baby, shoots Desmond and attempts to kill Penny.

Forwards, backwards, sideways—Desmond can travel any way through time possible, as we see in “Happily Ever After.” Charles Widmore is back at the island with a new device, and he uses Desmond as his guinea pig, finally appreciating his son-in-law. Desmond’s adventure takes him to Charlie, who knows something strange is going on, as does Daniel Faraday, who leads Desmond to Penny in the sideways story. As we head to the conclusion of Lost, it’s great that we got at least one more episode dedicated to Desmond and Penny, even if there are some huge questions it raises.

“LAX” sets up two different timelines that follow through the entire sixth season, into the end of the series run. The first is the aftermath of the hydrogen bomb explosion, leaving Juliet dead and Sayid bleeding out. The group heads to the temple to save the injured Sayid, who mysteriously dies, then comes back to life. But the other timeline seems like it’s one where the bomb worked, where Oceanic 815 never crashed and for some reason the island is underwater. Of course, it turns out this timeline is really something far more interesting.

In three years, Sawyer, Juliet and the rest of the time travelers on the island go from being confused visitors to the 70s, into some of the top workers at the Dharma Initiative. “LaFleur” is a great look at Sawyer’s growth over three years, turning him into a leader and starting a years-long relationship with Juliet. Even though it comes out of almost nowhere, the Sawyer and Juliet relationship immediately makes perfect sense and becomes one of the best couples on the show. “LaFleur” shows our survivors sticking around on the island for three years longer than they had to, and finding happiness in their decision.

“Two For the Road” features one of the most haunting and shocking moments of the entire Lost catalogue. In the episode, Ana Lucia is intent on killing Ben, Michael is brought back to the camp and Libby goes on a picnic with Hurley. With the three of them in the hatch, Michael shoots both Ana Lucia and Libby, then himself and lets Ben free. Michael’s actions are filled with fear—knowing what needs to be done to reunite with his son—and the desperation in his eyes says more than any words could ever say.

As the penultimate episode, “What They Died For” takes care of lots of business before the series finale. For one, the threat of Widmore’s involvement with the island is completely snubbed out by Ben getting revenge. The remaining four candidates finally get to meet and talk with Jacob about the future of the island, with Jack choosing to take his place watching over the island. Meanwhile in the flash story, Desmond works on “releasing” Sayid and Kate, while Locke decides to let Jack try to fix him. But Ben finding a true family with Danielle and Alex becomes a fantastic parallel to what his true life was like. “What They Died For” packs plenty of information in concerning all that we need to know before the end, and does so incredibly well.

“The Substitute” is shocking for being a rare look at Locke’s life that isn’t incredibly heartbreaking. The flash sideways shows Locke still handicapped, yet living with Helen and getting fired from his job. But with Hurley’s help, he receives a new, better job as a substitute teacher, where he befriends fellow teacher Ben. Back on the island, fake Locke takes Sawyer—who is drinking his sorrows—to Jacob’s cave, showing him that he is a “candidate” to take over the job as protector of the island. The contrast from the flash story to the island story is excellent and learning exactly why they are on the island begins to reveal Lost’s endgame.

For the first third of the third season, Jack, Kate and Sawyer are each trapped in their own cages. With “Not in Portland,” we find out that one of their captors (Juliet) is also in her own cage, created by Ben. Through her flashbacks, we see the pregnancy research Juliet did that made her a recruit to come to the island and we meet Richard Alpert, who plays a much larger part later on in the series. But Jack’s surgery on Ben and the release of Kate and Sawyer breaks up the monotony the third season suffered from up until this point, and gives the best episode of the season so far.

After spending over an entire season with Ben, we’ve learned little about him. And if we did learn anything, it would have been hard to know whether or not it was a lie. “The Man Behind the Curtain” presents Ben’s history on the island without the deception we’ve come to expect from his side of things. In doing so, we discover what happened to the Dharma Initiative, that Jacob is the true leader of The Others and that even if you spend almost your entire life on the island, you still can’t avoid the ever-present daddy issues. Ben’s past created the man he is now, but his jealousy towards Locke and his selfishness in regards to the island become his biggest weakness in this enlightening episode.

Desmond episodes are automatically more tragic than almost anyone else’s, due to the regret and love in his past. But unlike everyone else, Desmond is forced to relive these tragic moments, without being able to repair or change anything that occurred. “Flashes Before Your Eyes” presents the awful dilemma Desmond has in being able to essentially time travel (an important aspect of the show later on) and simultaneously being unable to change things forever—such as when he foresees the death of Charlie.

Ben’s loss of his faith, his purpose and his daughter made him a shell of the deceptive mastermind he once was. By the time “Dr. Linus” airs, he’s just looking for somewhere to belong, a much more sympathetic character than when he arrived as Henry Gale, for sure. His sideways story has some of the most touching parallels to his current situation, as he’s shown using his powers of persuasion to protect Alex, rather than doing harm to her. Ben is one of the most complex characters, perhaps in TV history, but “Dr. Linus” presents us with his whole personality, flaws and all, and says that maybe he’s worth saving.

Charlie’s finest episode is also one of his last episodes, where he risks his life in an attempt to get everyone saved. “Greatest Hits” is a wonderful showcase of Charlie looking back at his life and seeing his favorite moments, but more importantly, the moments that made him who he is in the present. His bravery, determination and love for those close to him in the past lead him to give up everything on a rescue mission. Dominic Monaghan does his best work here, as his character is fighting both himself and the fear of dying, along with the desire to let someone else take his place. But as always, when faced with helping the people he cares about, Charlie does step up and puts others before self in a tragic but beautiful display of love.

“Two players. Two sides. One is light. One is dark.” Locke said this in the very first episode of Lost and in “The Incident,” we finally see the larger scale of this phrase, as we come to the beginning of the end game, meeting Jacob and The Man in Black for the first time. “The Incident” is just a huge episode. Jack tries to redo the last thirty years by blowing up the hydrogen bomb. Juliet dies, leaving Sawyer in tears, but not before Juliet beats the bomb with a rock to set it off, attempting to destroy the island that destroyed her in her final moments. But it’s the scene between Ben and Jacob that is truly a wonder, with Ben—a man of faith that has lost his religion—begging his god for answers and getting a big middle finger in reply, before Ben stabs his god to death. In the flashbacks, we see Jacob going to a select few of the survivors in integral moments of their lives, almost as if he’s handpicking these people to come to the island… From beginning to end, “The Incident” is a bombshell, pun intended.

“The Brig” is an incredible example of Lost killing two birds with one stone. We discover that Locke’s father not only ruined his life, but is also the Sawyer that ruined our Sawyer’s life. When Sawyer decides to murder the con artist, we finally get resolution to Locke’s burden of wanting his father’s love and Sawyer’s plans to kill the man responsible for his parent’s death. What was to be Locke’s gesture of free will and commitment, becomes Sawyer getting revenge and finding it empty, leaving him at his most vulnerable.

“Ab Aeterno” is one of the largest scale narratives Lost ever told, finally giving us the history of huge mysteries like Richard Alpert’s history, the Black Rock ship and the giant statue that is now nothing more than a four-toed statue. Alpert’s tale starts almost 150 years in the past, telling us the story of how he tried to save his dying wife, the doctor he accidentally killed, the priest who wouldn’t forgive his sins and his journey to become a prisoner on a boat headed to the New World. And that’s all before he even arrived on the island. Once there, he became a pawn in the battle between Jacob and The Man in Black. Jacob explains to Richard that the island is a way to keep evil from escaping the world with the great “Cork in the Bottle” speech that defines the island in the most simplistic of examples. “Ab Aeterno” is an epic episode, filled with answers and island mythology, but it’s the work of Nestor Carbonell that makes it incredibly moving and a striking example of one of the show’s best character examinations.

As the episodes dwindle down, so do the number of candidates. In “The Candidate,” we lose three important characters that have been there from the start. Sayid finally dies for real this time, but his death doesn’t feel as tragic as it would have at the beginning of the season, due to him clearly not being the same person. But the deaths of Jin and Sun are amongst the most heartbreaking, with Jin refusing to leave Sun after their three-year separation and recent reuniting. After several episodes spent getting everyone in the right place, “The Candidate” shows the great power that Locke has and that his intentions mean lots of death. In the flash story, Jack notices that everyone he seems to run into was on Oceanic 815 and tells Locke it’s time to let go of his past. The end is near and letting go will only be more important in the final three episodes.

“The Shape of Things to Come” basically has everything you could want from an episode of Lost: great action, shocking emotional surprises, genuinely funny moments and mythology building that explains certain elements while raising more questions. The plot is exactly what the title suggests, giving just a glimpse of how nuts the fifth and sixth seasons will be, setting up the fight over the island between Widmore and Ben and balancing stories on the island and off in a brilliantly interesting way.

The first part of “Exodus” is all about optimism, with Jin and Sun finally reconciling and Michael’s boat floating off to find rescue. But the second part literally starts off with a Leslie Arzt-filled bang and ends the first season on a downer. Walt is kidnapped when hope was at its highest, we get our first real look at “Smokey,” Aaron gets kidnapped by a desperate Rousseau and—despite the ominous numbers and warnings from Hurley—the hatch is opened in one of the biggest finale teases in recent TV history. After only 44 days and only one season, these survivors are already completely different people, even before entering the mysterious steel tunnel.

When Locke presents himself to the group for the first time, he’s basically the island’s version of Quint from Jaws. Back in the real world though, Locke is a lonely and handicapped man, destined to do something great but unable to convince the world of his potential. “Walkabout” is Lost’s first sign that the island has a plan for these people and that by cleverly hiding the truth from the audience, the conclusion will be all the more powerful.

The first episode of Lost is one of the most expensive pilots produced ever and a decade later, it’s still quite impressive. J.J. Abrams directs the plane crashing from three different vantage points, each haunting in their own ways and the opening beach disaster is masterfully done. But what’s most fascinating about the genesis of this series is the presentation of all fourteen of its main characters in a succinct way that hints at questions and themes the show will be dealing with until the very final episodes.

The depth of tragedy in the life of John Locke is almost staggeringly depressing when you think about it. For his entire life, he was told there was something special about him. Whenever something terrible would happen to him (which was very often), he was able to reaffirm that there must be something about him—surely, his life has to mean something more. “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” (chronologically the last time we see John Locke) shows that he was nothing but a piece in the Ben/Widmore game. Locke’s desperation to return to the island with everyone is the last straw in a life that was filled with too many downward turns.

By the third season—easily Lost’s worst season as a whole—the flashbacks that had been so prominent has lost their luster. The series was growing at least partly predictable, the formula had become expected. Knowing that the show would have to change to continue captivating the audience, “Through the Looking Glass” presented the flash forward, so obvious, yet still able to pull the rug out from the viewers’ feet. The entire third finale defies expectations beyond its shocking final minutes, with Charlie’s preordained death still somehow surprising, Locke going from tragic hero to possibly tragic villain and Jack’s complete determination to get off the island, followed by his crippling desire to return once more. “Through the Looking Glass” proved Lost could still surprise three seasons in, and win us over once again.

“The End” has gone down as an incredibly divisive series finale, but considering how massive a scale Lost went for throughout its run, it shouldn’t be a surprise the show went for a ballsy finale. “The End” is the most moving episode of Lost ever made, showing that the flash-sideways have actually been the afterlife. Jack had always said that they would “live together, die alone,” but once again he was wrong, as those on the island are there for each other to give themselves the happy ending they always deserved. The islanders discovering where they truly are and finding each other once again is staggeringly beautiful, leading to those gorgeous final moments. Back on the island, Jack finishes his transformation from man of science to man of faith, leaving the heart of the island to be guarded by the true heart of the island—Hurley (and gives Ben a leader he won’t have to blindly follow). People are still mad about “The End,” but in hindsight and in the context of the final season, there’s no better way for the show to have gone out.

Desmond Hume is the personification of Lost at its best. He’s a character with huge, powerful emotions and high concept ideas inherently connected with who he is. He is filled with mystery and love, the two most important aspects of what made Lost great. “The Constant” is the epitome of Lost’s storytelling, with the show once again rebuilding the flashback by having Desmond’s consciousness jump from 1996 to 2004 and completely evolving what themes Lost will take on from this point on. The episode is deep with time travel paradoxes and theories, but what makes “The Constant” an instant classic is the epic love story between Desmond and Penny, with the two finally interacting for the first time in years over a heartfelt phone call predicted eight years prior. This is Lost at its biggest and its absolute best.

Ross Bonaime is a D.C.-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. Don’t tell him what he can’t do. You can follow him on Twitter.