Watching Lost

All these switching back and forth in time has probably confused you as to where each and every character are in the continuum. USA Today has therefore provided us a cheat sheet, so that we don’t forget where they are stuck, when Lost returns for its sixth season in nine months…

Follow this after the cut…

From USA TODAY

• Sawyer and Juliet: Aboard the Dharma sub in 1977 with the other evacuees, a condition Sawyer demanded before he’d draw a map to the Others’ camp. "Sawyer in a mature relationship with Juliet was a different sort of romantic relationship than we’ve seen on the show before," executive producer Carlton Cuse says.
• Kate: A last-minute addition to the 1977 sub manifest after she leaves Jack’s group and returns to Dharmaville. "When Kate gets dumped into that submarine, there’s a round of looks between her and Sawyer and Juliet. She’s the proverbial wrench in the romantic mechanism," Cuse says.
• Jack: Following Eloise Hawking and Richard Alpert in 1977 to the underwater bunker where they took the hydrogen bomb 23 years earlier. In the finale, Jack will try to change the future. "He is now kind of stepping up into his old ways. He’s a man on a mission," executive producer Damon Lindelof says.
• Sayid: With Jack, Alpert and Hawking in 1977 as they retrieve the bomb. Had shot, but failed to kill, young Ben Linus. "He shoots young Ben not to prevent him from becoming old Ben, but because he was emotionally tortured by this guy," Lindelof says. "Sayid isn’t thinking about creating a paradox."
• Jin, Miles and Hurley: Hiding in the jungle in 1977 after Dharma officials realize the group was pretending to be part of the Initiative. Confronted by Dr. Pierre Chang, they confess they really are from the future and Miles is his son. The humorous Miles-Hurley time-travel conversation was meant to strike an empathetic chord with viewers, Cuse says. "We put in the mouths of the characters the same kind of questions we were having ourselves: ‘Does this make any sense? Wait, what’s going on here?’ I think the audience really appreciated it when we put it in Hurley’s and Miles’ mouths."
• Faraday: Shot dead by his mother in 1977 at the Others’ camp. Before his death, he added a new wrinkle in Lost time, Lindelof says. "Faraday comes back and says, ‘You know how all season long I’ve been saying we couldn’t change anything? Well, I just spent three years in Ann Arbor and now I’ve changed my mind.’ "
• Locke: Resurrected and supremely confident in 2007 (present day for Lost), he leads the Others to meet (and kill) Jacob with Ben in tow. "Locke seems to be in very serious communion with the island and hopefully, by the end of the finale, the audience will understand why," Cuse says.
• Ben: Following along on Locke’s hike to meet Jacob. Confesses to Alpert that stunts like this are why he killed Locke. A significant question: Why doesn’t adult Ben remember being shot by Sayid or having lived with Sawyer and Juliet? The show hasn’t answered that yet, but Cuse points out: "Ben famously lies all the time."
• Sun: At the Others’ camp in 2007, where she’s hoping Locke can find a way to reunite her with Jin, who is so close (on the island) yet so far away (in 1977).