NEW YORK – During the thrilling first season of "Lost" (search), viewers of this eerie ABC serial may have felt a little lost themselves. So no wonder these "Lost" fans were hoping to find a few more clues as the two-hour season finale aired Wednesday night.
Would there be more information on the Others — those mysterious folks terrorizing the island castaways?
How will things go for the raft built by the castaways that launched, with four of them aboard, from the beach last week?
Will that noisy monster that's been running amok finally attack?
And what's up with that strange, port-holed hatch installed in the jungle floor, and thus far vexingly impenetrable?
Premiering last fall, "Lost" has tracked the adventures of some four dozen survivors of a jetliner crash on a tropical island who-knows-where (turns out the plane's last transmission before splitting apart in midair pegged its location as hundreds of miles from where it came down).
A freak accident recently claimed the life of one of the main refugees.
But there are plenty more, as portrayed by a large cast of featured regulars including Matthew Fox (search) (as a sexy doctor),Evangeline Lilly (search) (a dishy jailbird), Terry O'Quinn (search) (a mystical outdoorsman), Dominic Monaghan (search) (a rock-star junkie), Jorge Garcia (search) (a fat guy who says "dude" a lot) and eight others.
As they try to determine where they are and get rescued, these characters have also forged some semblance of a civilized community, however fractious at times. Meanwhile, details of their past have been filled in with flashbacks leading up to that doomed Oceanic Flight 815 from Sydney.
From its first week, "Lost" has been a solid Top 15 hit for ABC. But Wednesday it dared to go head-to-head against the season conclusion of the FOX megahit "American Idol."
Maybe Simon Cowell is that noisy monster.
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