Wednesday night’s 100th episode of “Lost” was exactly the kind of dramatic, action-packed roller coaster ride the show will be remembered for after its final season has ended. For what has been referred to by some fans as an uneven fifth season, “The Variable” was the creative effort they’d been waiting for. I was a bit surprised that Daniel Faraday and his back-story were given the 100th episode. I thought perhaps the original cast, or the island itself should have had it, not a character that was introduced last season and missing from most of this one, but I digress. It certainly didn’t diminish my enjoyment.

I’m going to start off with a question: Is there any character on “Lost” who doesn’t have big issues with their father? I’ll give you a minute to try and think of someone. Kate doesn’t count, because as you’ll remember, she had some major problems with her stepfather, unfortunately resulting in a house burned to the ground, with him inside. And as far as Jin goes, Sun’s father was enough for both of them to handle. Jack? No. Sawyer? No. Locke? No. Unless I’m mistaken, I believe Hurley is the only character currently on the show (whose home life we’ve been familiarized with) that has a healthy, close relationship with his or her father. Just something to chew on.

Let me start by confessing that as someone who has seen every episode of “Lost” since Flight 815 crashed onto the island in 2004 (or was it?), I have characters that are my favorites and others that bore me to tears. For example, I loathe Jack and the whiney, put-upon way that Matthew Fox plays him, and for contrast, I love Sawyer and how Josh Holloway can make you root for a character you’re not sure you should even like. So naturally, if I know that characters I generally dislike, say Jack or Kate, are going to be the focus of an entire episode, I tend to lower my expectations because more often than not, the episode, for me at least, will just be blah. On occasion, I’m surprised, as I was by last week’s enjoyable Kate-centric episode.