It’s time to get ‘Lost’ again

Are there more passengers?
And speaking of the dead, are they really dead? Viewers have been told that the rear of the plane broke off in massive turbulence, and the castaways have been assuming those passengers were killed. But were they really?

Many viewers started suspecting there were more passengers when a minor character, Rose, was introduced. We haven't seen much of Rose since then, but we do know her husband is among the passengers from the back of the plane. When Jack and others tried to force her to face up to her loss, she coolly told them that her husband is not dead, and that everyone in the tail of the plane "are probably thinking the same thing about us."

That started the ol' foreshadowing pendulum a-swinging, but things really started cranking  when a Jack flashback showed him meeting a woman, Ana-Lucia, in the airport bar before boarding. She clearly announced that she was sitting in the back of the plane, and this summer, it was announced that Michelle Rodriguez would be joining the cast full-time as Ana-Lucia. (Hope you heeded this article's spoiler warning, folks who didn't want to know that.)

While it might seem difficult to add new cast members to a show that takes place on an island, it was also announced that Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (best known as Adebisi from HBO's "Oz," the show that Harold Perrineau also came from) will be joining the cast too. We know less about where his character will come from, but at least one person, Frenchwoman Danielle Rousseau, has been surviving adeptly on the island for quite some time.

Where’s Walt? Who's Aaron?
There are plenty of other plots left dangling. In the most dramatic scene from the "Lost" finale, young Walt was kidnapped off the raft that his father, Michael, and the other castaways have built. Walt's obviously deeply tied into the island's mysteries somehow. Viewers have seen a bit of his strange powers; he seems to especially be able to influence animals. But why do the supposed "Others" want him? Do they have a plan to use his powers for evil?

The mysterious Rousseau may not always be reliable, but she has claimed that her own child, Alex, was taken years ago by the Others — she even kidnapped Claire's infant, Aaron, hoping somehow to work a child-for-child trade. We haven't seen the newborn Aaron develop any Walt-like powers yet, but they're likely to be coming. Claire's pregnancy was filled with ominous warnings from psychics, and seasoned "Lost" watchers suspect that her infant cannot just be your average baby.

Children aren't the only ones with powers on the island. John Locke was wheelchair-bound when the plane crashed, and in the aftermath, discovered he could walk. Hugo "Hurley" Reyes may not have his own powers, but he believes he carries with him a curse, attached to the mysterious numbers that won him megamillions in the lottery, and which also show up on the island's buried hatch. Viewers may be hoping for one all-encompassing secret tied to the numbers, but show creators have confessed in interviews that they didn't have that idea going in. Let's hope they come up with one — they've already played fast and loose with the numbers, having them show up in seemingly random places throughout the show — it would be disappointing if this plot didn't go anywhere.

"Lost" fans have invested a lot in an über-complicated show. Fans have done this before — "The X-Files" and "Twin Peaks" are just two examples. Both of those shows ended up twisting their plots into such pretzels that only the most devoted fans could keep track. ABC would be smart to take a lesson from those shows and start serving up answers soon. "Lost" has built a loyal fan base, but viewers will only wander so far into the island jungle without a bit of a road map.

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper is MSNBC.com's Television Editor

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