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Those of you who don’t get the reference, do yourself a favor and buy, beg, borrow or steal yourself a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Not only is it a great novel by a great author, it’s one of the best time travel stories ever.

And it was obviously the inspiration for this episode, one of the best in the series’ history. Truth be told, writer-producer Damon Lindelof says he actually took his inspiration more directly from the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, entitled “All Good Things.” But as great as that episode was, Captain Picard’s trip though time pales in comparison to that of Billy Pilgrim, a man who finds himself jumping around the timeline of his life, mostly from his time as a young World War II soldier to his “present” as an older man who knows exactly when and where he’s about to die. It’s impossible to imagine that the writers of that episode and this one didn’t get the idea from Vonnegut.

And, like frosting on a delicious cupcake, “The Constant” also makes apparent references to some of my other favorite time travel stories, including Back to the Future, Twelve Monkeys, and Quantum Leap. How could I not love it?

This episode was unusual in several ways. First there was no “Previously on Lost…” recap at the beginning of the show. Second, only a few of the main characters appeared, and most of them only briefly. But the oddest thing was the fact that there were no flashbacks or flash-forwards in the usual sense. Sure, we saw Desmond go back and forth between 1996 and 2004 (or so they say…I’m not so sure about that being the actual “present” date of the show), but in this case his consciousness was actually jumping back and forth rather than his past being shown to us in pieces.

One thing that was not unusual was that the episode brought up as many questions as it answered. Did Desmond always have the ability to jump around in time, or was it the result of the hatch explosion, when he started to see the future? Is he going to keep jumping around in time, or did finding his “constant” cure him of that? What exactly is Penny’s dad’s connection to the island, the Hanso Foundation, and the group on the freighter? If there is a time distortion surrounding the island, why would the dates match up between what the survivors perceive and what the outside world knows? I realize the calendar on the freighter said it was Christmas Eve 2004, but what if that was a calendar that Daniel used to keep track of what the survivors perceive?

I also realize that Penny said she had been searching for Desmond for three years, but did that three years begin when he was lost at sea during the race, or when Flight 815 crashed, and she realized somehow he might be alive? As much as I’m a sucker for time travel and cultural references, I’m not a big fan of love stories, but the story of Penny being Desmond’s “constant,” her ongoing search for him, and his desperate phone call to her at the end actually got to me.

One of the sure signs of good writing is when the viewer can’t predict what’s going to happen. And let me tell you something: this show is starting to make The X-Files seem about as complex as According to Jim. The mystery, the symbolism, and the recurring themes combine with fantastic writing, acting, and directing to make this one of the best shows on television.

Lost was criticized last season for getting off track, and some even believed the series had started to get, well, lost. But then the producers made a deal to give themselves an end date to aim for, and the improvement was immediate. Now that they know where they’re going, there seems to be no stopping them.

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