'Lost' fans will be out to sea all summer

[Sydney]

The season finale of "Lost" carried on a series tradition -- not giving away too much and leaving the audience guessing as to what could come next.

But "Lost" fans will have to keep guessing for a long time -- until Season 2 in the fall -- because very few questions were answered Wednesday night. Instead, the producers decided to leave most of the evening up to interpretation.

Fan boards on the Internet will buzz about what's in the mysterious hatch that was finally opened but not entered. There will be talk about the island monsters (fan boards already had them pegged as everything from dinosaurs to nanotechnology, the ability to manipulate atoms to create almost anything) and the background of the Others. (Pirates? Survivors of their own wreck?)

And if those questions weren't enough to keep fans wanting more, producers used the season finale to throw a couple more into the mix.

Is Sawyer alive after taking a bullet and falling off the raft? What's going to happen to Walt after being kidnapped at sea? And now that the hatch door is off, what does Jack plan to do about his "Locke problem"?

The ploy to tell so little after all the hype is a dangerous one for ABC. It can test the patience of viewers who stuck around for 23 weeks only to feel like they got shafted at the end. Unlike the "Desperate Housewives" finale, which wrapped up the primary storyline and solved other mysteries, the "Lost" finale only created questions without letting viewers feel like they at least got something answered.

But with that said, it's that type of daring television that has made "Lost" a hit. You may lose a couple of viewers with the tease, but you create a buzz that will guarantee more.

Even in the finale Wednesday, there were clues on what was going to be coming. When Sawyer began singing Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" it was a prelude to Walt's fate. In the song, Marley sings, "Old pirates yes they rob."

The show has been a ratings darling for ABC, landing in the Top 15 since its beginnings. What started out as a show about a plane crash -- 48 survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 from Sydney to Los Angeles -- has become a head-scratching, puzzle-solving must-see that combines fantasy, action and adventure.

The characters are all stars, and none has that much more face time than any other. 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.

The producers were smart to not introduce all 48 survivors of the crash in the first season but instead give us a glimpse of about a dozen or so. That, too, gives ABC the chance to be daring with this show. Since there are dozens of other people we haven't met, the producers can kill off cast members we know -- self-loathing teacher Arzt blowed up real good in the first 10 minutes -- and introduce us to new ones later.

Surely, Season 2 will include new heroes and villains, new partnerships and new loves. Whether viewers will stick around during the turbulent story lines -- without any clear air in sight -- remains to be seen.

By LUCIO GUERRERO
Chicago Sun-Times
May 26, 2005