Lost - The Complete Third Season (DVD, 2007, The Unexplored Experience; 7-Disc Set)

"Lost" ended its second season with a bang... literally. The hatch violently imploded, and Kate, Sawyer and Jack were captured by the Others.

And so the third season is all about the repercussions of those events. It lags badly in the first half, but shocking predictions and new arrivals on the island add fresh twists -- and some stunning answers -- to the twisty, surreal storyline. But there's still plenty left for the remaining three seasons.

Kate and Sawyer are put to work, then locked up in gorilla cages, while Jack is similarly imprisoned inside an Other compound -- and finds that he is there to be a doctor to the sinister Ben, who is suffering from a spinal tumor. Jack finds himself suspended between two Others -- Ben and the mysterious Juliet -- and unsure what to do, or who to trust.

The tensions between the Others and castaways become worse as Kate and Sawyer escape, and she mounts a rescue to find Jack. But even when they get him (and the disgraced Juliet) back, things don't improve -- Juliet is secretly spying for Ben, Desmond has terrible visions of Charlie's demise, and the newly solo Locke forces Ben to reveal the island's greatest secret -- Jacob, a mysterious power that commands the Others like a god.

Suddenly a woman parachutes onto the island, and tells the castaways that a ship is only a few miles out to sea. As the Others fragment and turn against each other, the survivors decide to take them out once and for all, while Charlie and Desmond set off to infiltrate an underwater hatch. But there will be shocking losses on both sides, as Jack is faced with the most important decision he may ever make....

"Lost" still has plenty of unsolved, unanswered mysteries, and the first half of the season is frustratingly slow and oblique. No answers, at all. But it picks up and answers questions in the second half, including who ruined Sawyer's life, who commands the Others, and the relationship between Dharma Corporation and the Others and why they protect the island so fiercely.

The writing for the first half is pretty lax (major questions are answered with non-answers like "We watch"), but later on it tightens up considerably, with dozens of seemingly unrelated plot threads coming together in the battle with the Others. Locke's dad, Desmond's checkered past, Rousseau's daughter and Sun's pregnancy are only a few of them.

But despite all the personal drama (enough about the love triangle!), the stories are still full of gritty action (including Sayid killing a man with just his feet), and increasingly twisted flashbacks that let us see the pre-crash lives of the islanders. These had gotten kinda stale, but Desmond's timeslip makes it seem fresher, as does the revelation of how Ben became King of the Magic Island. It answers a lot of questions too.

And there's the occasional loss. Two beloved characters bite the big one in this season, and the handling of their deaths is enough to bring tears to your eyes. But there's some humor as well -- usually provided by Hurley, who revives an old van, triumphs at Ping-pong, and even gets to be the rescuing cavalry. Not to mention the wry, solid dialogue (" If it was Rousseau's, a massive rock would be flying at my head right now").

The first half of "Lost's" third season is decidedly tepid -- not terrible, but flabby. But when it tightens up again, this tense series blossoms out. Now on to Season Four...