'Lost' answers one question

There are many questions we cannot answer when it comes to “Lost,” but here’s one we can: Co-show runners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof confirmed today that they will produce five more episodes of the ABC island-castaway drama to air this spring. Before the strike, production had completed eight episodes -- half of its season order.

Now that the writers “have hit the ground running,” they know they will only have time to complete five more episodes, Cuse said. The show runners have a deal with ABC and ABC Studios to produce two more seasons of 16 episodes each and will add the three missing hours to those two seasons.

The fourth season of “Lost” premiered two weeks ago in a new Thursday time slot and has been performing very well for ABC. “Lost” will continue to air on Thursdays at 9 p.m. until April when “Grey’s Anatomy” returns with new episodes. “Lost” will then move to the time slot after “Grey’s” at 10 p.m.

“We will condense our storytelling, but we don't think that will be a bad thing,” Cuse said. “We couldn't be more excited to be back!”

Since the show returned this month, the Internet has been abuzz with all of the new mysteries and questions presented, the biggest ones being: Who are the Oceanic 6 and what is their secret? Indeed, the producers designed the season to be full of questions and suspense in the first half and full of answers and satisfaction in the second. Does the shortened season mean we might not know what “the freighter folk,” as Lindelof calls them, want with Ben until next season?

“With three less episodes, that's 18.7% less episodes than the originally promised total of sixteen,” Lindelof wrote in an e-mail. “Therefore, while it is true you will get 18.7% less answers, you will also get 18.7% less new QUESTIONS to bang your head against the wall about.  So at least there's that."

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

(Photo courtesy ABC)