No, I don’t know what’s coming in Wednesday’s premiere of Lost, but I
confess that I’m distracted by how much I’m looking forward to it. And
Steven Johnson’s

entry yesterday along with ABC’s commercials roil my anticipation even more.

The genius of Lost is that its mysteries are fractal: at every scale —
from the macro to the micro — the series delivers a consistent payload of
confusion. There are the biographical riddles: why was the beautiful Kate
accompanied by a federal marshal on the flight? There are geographic riddles
(“why have the rescue teams missed the island, and why does it appear to have
a history of attracting castaways?”) and historical ones (“why has that SOS
signal been playing for so many years?”)

Since last season’s

finale, I’ve been imagining what’s next: will the back-stories continue as
before? how long will the cliffhangers linger (esp. Walt’s fiasco)? new
characters? new/resolved riddles?  No mystery about what I’ll be doing
Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST.