Sorry about the subtitles.

We begin season 4 with a car chase, and find out at the end of it that the person being chased is in fact Hurley:

At the end of this sequence, Hurley tries to resist arrest by shouting that he's one of the Oceanic six, implying that this was a flash forward. Hurley is then interviewed in a police station, where he has a vision of Charlie swimming up to the two-way mirror, and breaking the glass with his hand, on his hand it reads, "They need you":

Back on the island, Hurley and Bernard are chatting by the sea about going home:

Desmond arrives back, bearing the news that Charlie has died, and also that the freighter is not Penny's boat. They decide they must go find Jack and warn him:

Meanwhile, back at camp, Naomi has gone missing, and Ben won't say which way she went:

Flashforward, and Hurley is back in the mental hospital, playing Connect 4, when he receives a visitor, who asks him if 'they' are still alive. Note the drawings on the chalkboard:

Back on the island, Hurley gets lost in the forest, and stumbles on Jacob's cabin. Inside, he see Christian Shepherd, and an eye stares out at him:

Hurley runs for it, and encounters Locke. Together they decide to go and warn Jack about the freighter people. Meanwhile, Kate has been searching for the missing Naomi, she finds her, and Naomi lets the freighter people know that the Losties are not hostiles (despite being knifed in the back by Locke):

Everyone meets up, symbolically enough, at the fuselage wreckage, where Claire finds out about Charlie's death. Cut to a flashforward, and Hurley sees Charlie again, this time at the mental hospital. We discover that Hurley saw Charlie in a shop, which is why he freaked out and got into a car chase. Charlie tells Hurley that 'they need you', and Hurley tries to make him go away.

Back at the fuselage, Jack knocks Locke down, and tries to shoot him with an unloaded gun:

Owing to a few epic speeches from Hurley, the survivors split into two groups, one goes with Locke to the barracks for protection, the other stays with Jack to wait for the helicopter. Hurley, Swayer, Claire, Aaron, Ben, Alex, Karl and Rousseau go with Locke, and Juliet, Kate, Rose, Bernard, Sun, Jin and Desmond stay with Jack.

Flashforward, and Jack visits Hurley at the hospital. They play basketball together, and Jack asks whether Hurley will tell. Hurley doesn't answer. Hurley apologises for going with Locke, and is convinced they didn't do the right thing. Hurley says, "I think it wants us to come back, and it's going to do everything it can to..." Jack cuts him off and shouts, "We're never going back."

Back at the fuselage, Jack and Kate are at the fuselage, they see a helicopter spiral to the ground and a man parachute from it. The man removes his helmet and asks, "Are you Jack?" The end.

A massive pile of fruit explodes:

Locke finds a girl and Sawyer threatens Ben:

Someone (Desmond/Ben's Dad?) has a cow and a stormtrooper arrives:

Hurley sees a smooth-looking Charlie:

We see a skull and an exploding switch:

And still we are plagued by the bloody number 6:

We meet two new characters:

We meet two characters we thought were dead:

We are presented with the number 6:

Hurley finds Jacob's cabin:

And it's still not Penny's boat:

Here we have a lovely little theory which, I think, offers the best explanation yet of what on earth the ring-selling woman was talking about with Desmond, in 'Flashes Before Your Eyes'.

Okay, I have to admit that my idea for the “theory of everything” started with the hint at the ABC website about the “Casimir effect”* on the island and the bunny problem (2 15s that have to be kept away from each other. I think that the island has this power: its electromagnetic field has created Casimir Effect, or a vacuum between time and space.

Not to get all Star Trekkie on you, but it has pulled this place into a quantum string that crosses onto/into other timelines. Basically, it can pull people and things out of time. When Dharma, or whoever started to try to apply this, a rupture was created, which left “them” stuck. Now “they” are trying to fix the rupture, get out of the vacuum and reset time back by influencing a series of events toward a particular endgame before anyone else has a chance to get on the island and try to either use the power or shut it down for good before “they” have a chance to fix things. Once that endgame is achieved successfully, then time will be reset, and everything that has happened on the island since the “incident” will be put back in order, reversing any ill effects.

The reason I think that “they” are working the system to bring everyone on the plane, to manipulate Desmond into zapping it, etc, are the recurring “coincidences” that make sure that events and people are in place before Flight 815 takes off. I think “they” are able to jump around in time and space, and the whispered voices our pals hear in the jungle are echos through time that bounce around when “they” move around. It’s why “they” are able to jump in, snatch someone and then disappear (and why the “others” can be bludgeoned to death when they try).

I keep using “they” because I haven’t quite figured out who all of “them” are. Surely the lady who talks Desmond out of marrying Penelope is one. Desmond is pulled out of time after the hatch implodes and relives part of his past, but with a twist. The lady explains to him that he is supposed to be on the island and press the button, or “they” will “all die.” Her picture is on the desk of the priest who first recruits Desmond and then lets him go just in time to meet Penelope.

That full theory is available here. The video to which the theory writer is referring was found as an easter egg on ABC's website:

And for more sneak peaks, click here.

There are a few differing trailers floating about the web, but these two seem to be the main ones:

We learn from this trailer that Jack and Kate see a helicopter flying over the original plane wreckage. This would also imply that either the freighter people have two helicopters available to them (and are therefore probably coming from a fairly wealthy organisation), or that Naomi's original helicopter crash was staged. Desmond is taking Charlie's final message as fact, and we discover that the new freighter people's primary objective is not to rescue the Losties. There is a small frame of Christian Shepherd, and Locke obviously wants to lead the Losties into staying with him on the island.

This trailer is mostly montage, however we do see Hurley peering through what looks like Jacob's window (how very exciting!), a massive pile of lemons, a cow, and the number six. Theories abound as to what the six means, and the most popular theory seems to be that six people will leave the island.

Well, being as I am a massive Lost fan, I feel obliged to have a new blog on this site, dedicated entirely to the genius that is Lost. Expect to see trailers, spoilers, theories, interesting screenshots and suchlike, relating to series 4, which starts tonight on ABC.