For everyone who thought we'd have to wait deep into season 4 for our first glimpse of Harold Perrineau's return to Lost, think again. Sort of. Missing Pieces #4, called "The Deal," came to Verizon phones today, and it's our first new footage of Perrineau as Michael since he first shipped off at the end of season 2. Of course, in keeping with the Missing Pieces theme, it's another flashback to Michael's time during his imprisonment with the Others, so it doesn't shed any light on his post-island life. Or does it?

The scene features Michael and Juliet, which is an odd pairing. Michael left at the end of season 2, and Juliet didn't first appear until the start of season 3, so to viewers, it's the first time we've seen the two co-exist on Lost. "The Deal" takes place after Michael spent his three minutes with Walt. Juliet tells him about how "special" his son is, then provides her backstory that we already know.

On its face, there is absolutely nothing new to learn from this. It's the same stuff about Juliet and Michael's individual deals they've made. The interesting part comes when you read in between the lines. As previously discussed, the theme I get most from Missing Pieces involves the characters' foolish optimism, so confident in their beliefs although we know they're wrong.

In this case, we must infer the meaning since we have no clue what happened to Michael and Walt after they left the island. In "The Deal," Michael is incredulous that Juliet would stay behind on the island in order to ensure her sister's health, although it means never seeing her again. I don't think it's a huge leap to guess that the same thing will happen to Michael.

The big question surrounding Perrineau's return is how, and this sort of answers it, if you're willing to make the same informed guesses that I am. Michael will strike up another deal that ensures Walt's safety off the island, provided Michael returns for some purpose. The bigger question is who he makes this deal with. The people on Naomi's ship? Alvar Hanso? Mr. Widmore? Kaito Nakamura (sorry, I couldn't resist that one)? Whoever it is, Michael's return is one of the biggest questions fans have for season 4, and this mobisode starts to answer it.

As most all of you know, you can now find the first two Missing Pieces episodes on ABC.com. I would recommend watching them, if for no other reason than it's new content and we are still a few months away from the premiere. You can find a brief summary below, along with my thoughts:

"The Watch" - This takes place just before Jack & Sarah's wedding, and we actually get to see Jack and Christian having a functional, somewhat emotional, father and son moment. It's interesting to see this dynamic between the two, given that the vast majority of what we have seen to date is turbulent at best. Christian gives Jack a watch that his father passed down to him on his wedding day, and unlike his father, Christian believes Jack is making "the absolute best decision" by marrying Sarah.

"The Adventures of Hurley & Frogurt" - This basically takes a 180 from the first episode. A funny, satirical exchange takes place between Hurley and Neil, referred to as "Frogurt", a character that has been mentioned before, but until this episode never actually appeared on Lost. Nothing earth shattering here, but again, an interesting, condescending exchange. After seeing Hurley take some DHARMA Cabernet from Bernard & Rose's tent for his picnic with Libby, Frogurt basically tells Hurley he needs to take the next step in his pursuit of her, or move out of the way so he can have his shot. Hurley let's Frogurt know that he is well beyond "doing laundry" with Libby.

I'm not sure you can read into these too much other than for the sake of character development, but at this point I am interested in ANYTHING new related to Lost. We will continue to get one of these per week, leading up to the premiere for Season 4 in February.

I was just thinking about listing my favourite sites for TV apart obviously TV.COM

http://spoilerfix.com

http://spoilertv.blogspot.com

http://fanforum.com

http://imdb.com

http://tvguide.com

Are there any others that I should check out?