Because You Left
After the island is moved on December 30, 2004,[N 1] the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, the freighter team, and Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) begin to erratically jump through time – something Faraday likens to standing on a skipping record – while the Others are unaffected.
In London while en route to Los Angeles, Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) is confronted by Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) at the airport.
[3] Show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse wrote "Because You Left", and decided to put in the episode a setup for most elements of season 5, especially time travel.
[6] When asked if episodes continue to focus on specific and different characters, actor Jorge Garcia, who portrays Hurley Reyes, replied that "It's not as clear cut as it's been in the past.
"[10] According to Lindelof, Neil "Frogurt" (Sean Whalen), a background survivor who has appeared solely in the Lost: Missing Pieces mobisodes,[11] "will rise up this season in the grand tradition of Dr. Arzt [Daniel Roebuck] to let his feelings be known.
Cuse jokingly justified as that "for people who really couldn't grasp the time travel aspects of the show, there would be Sawyer without his shirt on for the entire hour.
[14] Television critic Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune has deemed the latter an "endlessly mockable slogan";[15] Don Williams of BuddyTV gave a more positive review, summing it up as "a fitting way to describe the upcoming season.
[17] Christopher Rosen of The New York Observer went so far as to deem the return of Lost a "bigge[r] event" than other happenings in that week, specifically the unveiling of the 81st Academy Awards nominations and the United States presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.
[21] "Because You Left" and "The Lie" were uploaded to ABC's media website—ABC Medianet—on December 29, 2008, to be viewed by members of the press for advance reviews attached to limited confidentiality agreements.
James Poniewozik of Time thought that "Because You Left" provided a good balance of characterization and mythology and commended the character of Faraday, partially "because a perfectly-cast Jeremy Davies has turned him into a likeable, flawed, brusque, slightly-in-over-his-head nebbish-god.
"[27] Matt Mitovich of TV Guide stated that the premiere "offer[s] compelling twists … the foundation is laid for a pivotal penultimate season … it sends the mind reeling and uncorks infinite possibilities.
"[28] Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote that "it's hard to name a series that is as engaging, surprising and flat-out gorgeous as Lost, or one in which every effort and penny expended seems to be put to shimmering good use.
[30] Verne Gay of Newsday summed up that "The season's premiere represents pig-in-the-python storytelling—there's so much to work through, so many details, stories, characters and time dimensions to attend to, that after a while this all starts to feel like a very full meal.
"[33] Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger deemed it "really good, in terms of keeping the momentum from last season going, servicing the characters and their emotions, and providing an appropriate number of 'Whoa's per hour.
[35] Caryn Kunz of the Honolulu Advertiser said that "This was a great episode to get back into every aspect of our favorite show: relationships, mythology, reunions/cameos, and enough whoa moments to keep me on the edge of my seat throughout.
He wrote that "Lost's tradition of opening the year with a killer, capture-the-imagination sequence is honored and upheld, though the thing I loved most was how it was brazenly frank (and engagingly funny) about the heady high-concept conceit that will define the season.
"[37] Brian Lowry of Variety concluded that "Lost … approaches its twists with what appears to be a greater degree of intellectual rigor than almost anything else on primetime.
[39] Katherine Nichols of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin enjoyed the opening scene, "but the rest of it didn't capture [her] as [she] hoped it would", citing high expectations due to the eight-month hiatus after the fourth-season finale and a possible "yearning for more character-driven stories over machinations revolving around time travel, however clever they might be.
