popular thinking

LOST, THE REVIEW: “Lost”
9 p.m. Wednesdays, ABC (Ch.5, WCVB)
(4 stars out of 4 stars)
UPDATE: Spoiler, schmoiler. You know you want to know this stuff. And for those of you, like my TV editor, who ribbed me for giving the premiere four stars, let me say that I was going to give it 3.5 or 3 stars, until the final seconds, when they revealed the mystery hatch resident to be the guy Jack had met years earlier running the stairs at night in a football stadium. During that flashback, I wondered why the guy had a Down Under accent. Now I have even more questions, and more reason to want to tune in next week.

By SEAN L. McCARTHY
Do you like people who answer a question with a question?
If you say no, then how long will you put up with the maddeningly mysterious adventures on “Lost?”
While a handful of new shows openly copy from the Emmy-winning drama’s playbook this fall, “Lost” co-creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof demonstrate how much they’ve learned from supernatural predecessors such as “The X-Files,” cultivating a cult-like devotion to unraveling the truth behind crashed Oceanic Airlines Flight No. 815.
The truth may be out there.
But last night’s slow tease of a second season only reminds us that the more we know about these island castaways, the more we realize how much we don’t know about where they are, why they’re there or how they’re all connected.
For instance, we learn that at least one man lives in the hatch. He likes LPs and lava lamps, working out, injecting himself with unknown chemicals, and he has several matching uniforms, an arsenal of ammo and a series of mirrors that lets him see down corridors and up to the hatch opening.
But who is he? And why does the inside of the hatch door say QUARANTINE?
Shannon (Maggie Grace) hears voices in the jungle and sees young Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), who was kidnapped by “the others” (although she doesn’t know that yet) and whispers gibberish to her about “look through” – whatchu talkin’ about, Walt?
Hurley (Jorge Garcia) explains his theory on the cursed numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) to Jack but he doesn’t believe it. Not yet, anyhow.
Kate (Evangeline Lilly) gets lowered into the hatch, only she doesn’t come back up, which leads us to believe she has met the mystery muscle man. Locke (Terry O’Quinn) follows; later, Jack (Matthew Fox).
We see more of the underground lair that looks like it continues to function on early 1980s technology (and 1970s AM radio tunes).
We also see Locke held at gunpoint.
We see in back-story how Jack met his future bride (and encountered the mystery muscle man on a nighttime run?).
But nothing on the fate of Michael, Jin and Sawyer, left wading in the ocean at the end of the first season. Nothing, too, about Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) or the other surviving passengers we’re sure to encounter later this season.
Last night’s episode, “Man of Science, Man of Faith” refers to how Jack and Locke have differing views on destiny and miracles.
It’ll be a miracle if we learn the destiny of “Lost” anytime soon.
With suspense like this, though, we certainly can wait several more Wednesdays to find out.

Related: Read today's Boston Herald to play the home game and see which sentence didn't make the cut in print: More questions than answers in 'Lost'