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We're counting down the days until the Jan. 21 premiere of Lost (ABC, 8 p.m.) Let's waste the time in between taking a look back at how season four ended for characters on and off the island.

TODAY: Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies)

When we last saw Daniel ... he was ferrying survivors off the island to the freighter. At that moment, it appeared Daniel was doing a solidly brave thing. Then it looked really foolish as the freighter exploded with Daniel still en route to the freighter with a second load of survivors.

Props to Daniel ... for helping Desmond reunite with Penny by guiding him back and forth between 1996 and 2004 with all that "I am your constant" BS. (The Lost fan/nation thanks you for doing your part to create that emotional phone conversation between Ms. Widmore and Mr. Hume.) For being the guy to tell the Losties that he, Miles and Charlotte did not come to the island to rescue them.  (OK, so he did it only after Foxy had grabbed him by the throat and demanded Daniel tell them the truth. That was shady.)

For revealing that there's a discrepancy (31 minutes worth) between time on the island and time everywhere else. For disabling the lethal gas thingy at the Tempest station with Charlotte. For offering to drive the Zodiac raft to and from the freighter to take more people off the island. And for finally getting a smooch from his crush (Charlotte) before he left.

Poor Daniel ... of course, the raft caught the residual ugliness from the freighter blast and could be floating aimlessly in the water. You know, GPS doesn't work on the island. AND the island moved so the good Ph.D. might have a tough time navigating back there much less anywhere else. How are we going to have explained to us things like the black smoke, the time discrepancy, why people get healed on the island, how it was possible for Ben to move the island, why that Alpert guy never gets old, etc., etc., without the absent-minded physicist running around doing his thing? And when is he going to take off that dang tie?!