'Lost' countdown: 8 days

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.

TODAY: James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway)

When we last saw Sawyer, shirtless and dripping wet, ... he was sharing a bottle of rum with Juliet. In a season that really was about Sawyer redeeming himself in just about everyone's eyes, he'd just pulled the ultimate selfless act.

While finally making it to the helicopter, after a brief flirtation with the Locke camp in preceding episodes, Sawyer ends up on the helicopter that is supposed to take some survivors off the island and onto the freighter, presumably to safety. En route and losing fuel, Frank says the bird is too heavy. Sawyer thinks about it, leans over to Kate, whispers what we assume is instructions to find his long-lost daughter, and a declaration of his love, and kisses her before he jumps out into the ocean. Then he swam to shore.

Props to Sawyer ... for unloading some self-centeredness, though he thankfully held onto his prolific gift for nick-naming (Yoda, Taller Ghost Walt, Bruce Lee, Chicken Little, Genghis, Shaggy, Kenny Rogers, Sundance). For issuing the first island restraining order on Miles to protect Claire and Aaron.

For going on that mission with Jack to save Hurley. For sacrificing himself to save the other six people on the helicopter headed off the island. (What happened to the guy who sold antibiotics from his tent black market in S1? Oh wait, there he is boldly giving "el beso del año" to Foxy's girl with Foxy himself sitting two feet away.)

Poor Sawyer ... Locke, sometimes known as Jeremy Bentham, is telling folks that bad, bad hooey went down for the people left on the island after the Oceanic 6 bolted. We'll soon find out if Sawyer caught the worst of it. But with Sayid, the Ben Linus-bankrolled, designer-suit wearing chick-maget hitman, and Jack, the drunk, desperate, unstable neurosurgeon, otherwise occupied on the mainland, someone has to pick up the hero slack. Jumping out of the helicopter was good.