Hooray for "Lost" night! Now let's play 10 questions.

Yesterday's warm and fuzzy inauguration coverage should have been the highlight of everyone's TV week.

But obsessive "Lost" geeks Thomas Rozwadowski and Adam Reinhard can't get that darn island -- and as the above picture clearly demonstrates, Ben's creepy visage -- out of their heads.

Holy crap, it's finally "Lost" night!

The long-awaited two-hour premiere (8 p.m., ABC; clip recap at 7 p.m.) should shed light on a few lingering island mysteries while setting new ones in motion. After all, it's only two more seasons before everything "Lost" vanishes for good.

How often will Sawyer be shirtless? What kind of razor does Jack use to shave his griz-beard? Will Locke's promotion to island Grand Poobah go to his bald head?

Without further ado, Channel Surfing's 10 burning questions (in no particular order of importance) for Season Five and beyond. Destiny calls, people!

1. What becomes of island time? The key to the series, no doubt. All this time bending/bloody nose manipulation makes for heart-stopping day after water cooler talk. And from the look of early promos and online interviews, some familiar events (and long-forgotten faces) appear to gain some new island polish. Did the frozen donkey wheel set the island meter back at zero? Is that Eko's drug plane crashing on the island again? Who are the dudes in Hazmat suits? Oh, I think you know where this is heading ...

2. What’s with the cryptic use of pronouns? “You're not supposed to raise him, Jack." "Don't you dare bring him back, Kate.” Code words are for pansies, folks. A popular theory is that the whole Jack-Kate-Aaron triangle is a red herring – that the big Locke-as-dead-Jeremy Bentham revelation at the end of Season Four points to a Lazarus-like attempt at re-animation once the Oceanic Six go ... back ... in ... time. Admittedly, I had some inklings of this as well, because if you watch enough TV, well, you know that word choices are often deliberate and the obvious almost never happens. Then again, Claire was the one who cryptically instructed Kate to not bring “him” back as she kneeled by Aaron’s bed side, so what do the crazy “Lost” theorists really know?

3. Speaking of Claire, what the heck happened to her? Did our favorite adorable Aussie simply walk off to get some of that Dharma rum Juliet was chugging, only to go splat off the side of a cliff like an island version of Wile E. Coyote? Leaks suggest that Claire isn’t going to be around much in Season Five, making her Michael-like return in the final installment all the juicier. Her creepy bond with ghost dad Christian Shepard suggests she’s now toasting with otherworldly beings a la Beetlejuice. Frankly, we’re just happy she’s doing something other than toting her baby in the island background.

4. Is Ben good or evil? This likely won't be answered until the end of Season Six, but a major part of Ben's allure is that you never know where he's coming from. You want to believe that he has Sayid on the hunt for golf course baddies because it's truly justified. You want to believe he's sincerely trying to help the Oceanic Six and save those on the island. You want to believe that the Widmore beatdown footage he gave to Locke is legit "Sopranos"-style villainy. But you also know THAT THIS IS BEN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT. Michael Emerson: where, oh, where is your Emmy?

5. Should anyone dare mess with Sun? "Sun" doesn't even begin to describe this vengeful woman's frigid demeanor post-island. Following Jin's non-death (c'mon, we all know he dove off!), Miss Angry Storm Cloud stuck it to her crinkly-faced old man by purchasing a large controlling interest in Paik Industries. Now she's seeking out Chaz Widmore and looking to make some under-the-table deals. But Ben warned Jack that everyone has to go back for island atonement. Anyone remember how Sun went ba-ba-ba-bonkers in the helicopter as the freighter went kablooie before her eyes? Yeah ... good luck with that, Jack!

6. Is Charlotte an island native? She was one of last season’s least compelling new characters, but helicopter-hopper and archaeologist-hottie Charlotte Lewis got a rise in interest when it was hinted that the island is actually her home. She admitted as much to Daniel when she cryptically told him she needed to stay behind to look for the place she was born. Is Charlotte an Other? And if so, what role does she have yet to play?

7. Why “Jeremy Bentham,” and how did Locke get off the island? Yes, it was Locke in the coffin all along, as we saw at the fairly anti-climactic end of last season’s finale. We assume Locke came to mainland to find the Oceanic Six and convince them to come back to the island, and that “Jeremy Bentham” is merely his cover name. But why “Jeremy Bentham”? And how the heck did he get off the island?

8. Was Ben lying to Locke when he said he couldn’t get back to the island? Before he “moved” the island, Ben told Locke that whoever did so would be forever banished, and that this was his punishment from Jacob. Yet Ben seems fairly certain he can take himself and the rest of the O6 back, so who is he lying to?

9. Where will Desmond/Penny fit in this season? “Lost’s” great love story seemingly reached its happy ending last season, with Desmond and Penny reunited on the deck of her rescue boat. So is that it for them? Good money says no, what with Ben’s vow to avenge his daughter’s death by killing Widmore’s daughter, Penny. How then do the long-separated lovebirds fit in this season?

10. How big of a role does Jack’s dad play? Sometimes, Jack’s dad seems like the key to the whole damn puzzle. If we could just nail his ghostly tail down and grill him, we’d probably have it solved in no time. Not only does he appear to Jack and Claire, but now to Locke and Michael as well, playing big roles in each characters' fates. He claims to be a spokesman for Jacob, and seems inextricably tied to the island. No doubt we'll be seeing him again, and soon.

No Dharma Initiative. No Daniel Faraday. No Richard Alpert. We've only scratched the surface here.

What questions do you want answered, "Lost" fans? Leave a comment below!

-- Thomas Rozwadowski, trozwado@greenbaypressgazette.com and Adam Reinhard, areinhard@greenbaypressgazette.com