'Lost': The Bittersweet Finale

"Get ready to scratch your head, America," said Lost exec producer Damon Lindelof, paraphrasing actress Emilie de Ravin's assessment of the Feb. 2 premiere of the final season of the mysterious and addictive Lost.

But it's a pleasant confusion, said Lindelof's partner, Carlton Cuse, who promised you won't have to have been an unrelenting devotee to keep up. The producers are pretty proud of the catch-up clip job special that will run before the premiere, and Cuse said a different narrative style (another one?) might make things a little easier for newbie viewers.

The actors themselves enjoy the uncertainty. "It's better to be in the dark groping around a bit, and not to be burdened with the future," said Michael Emerson, who plays the once super-evil and now not so bad (I think) Ben.

"It was easier to play whoever Locke is now, before I knew I wasn't playing Locke," said Terry O'Quinn, who plays Locke, or whoever he is now.

Actors and producers are bittersweet knowing they have only seven more episodes to shoot.

"This last year, everyone is really getting nostalgic," said Josh Holloway (Sawyer). "There's camaraderie and a lot of magic, like the first season."

"We're feeling so much gratitude that we're getting to end something while anybody still cares," Lindelof said.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-career experience," Cuse added, "this sense that I can't believe they're actually going to let us get away with this."

ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson told the critics that Evangeline Lilly, a native of Alberta, who plays the gorgeous, plucky Kate, almost didn't make it onto the show. She couldn't get a visa, and ABC was 24 hours away from picking someone else to play the part, and wouldn't that have been an awful shame?

"I'm going to cry lilke a baby when this show ends," said Lilly. "We've spent six years growing up together."