Season premieres of ‘Desperate,’ ‘Lost’ will provide answers

Television’s two most talked-about series, ABC’s “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives,” quickly plan to answer questions this fall raised by their season-ending cliffhangers.

On “Desperate Housewives,” the first episode of the second season will open by showing what happens when plumber Mike (James Denton) goes into the house where agitated teen Zach (Cody Kasch) is holding Susan (Teri Hatcher) hostage, series creator Marc Cherry says.

Meanwhile, “Lost” will plunge into the mysterious hatch in its first episode, series co-creator Damon Lindelof says.

“You will see everything that’s in there. What is in there will change everything about how they live on the island,” Lindelof says. “We’re erring on the side of giving away too much as opposed to being too vague.”

The Television Critics Association recently honored “Desperate Housewives” as program of the year, while “Lost” earned prizes as best new program and top drama.

Despite fan speculation to the contrary, one thing is for certain, Cherry says: Rex (Steven Culp), husband of Bree (Marcia Cross), is definitely dead.

“There was a scene in the finale which made it really, really clear,” he says. “Because we were long, I cut it. I thought the phone call (from the doctor to Bree) did it. I did not mean to confuse the fans in any way.”

In the fall opener, Bree and her mother-in-law (played by Shirley Knight) will battle over how Rex should be buried.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Cherry says. “Let’s just say it’s a scene you’ve never seen before on TV.”

Alfre Woodard, who’s a new regular, plays a housewife with a dark secret.

“Her character was a concert pianist,” Cherry says. “She’s going to be involved in something pretty gothic on the show – pretty dark and spooky.”

Cherry previews what’s ahead for the other wives:

•Susan finds out the truth about Mike’s relationship to Zach.

•Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) will begin a romantic relationship in the second episode that frustrates Susan greatly.

•Pregnant Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) has to convince Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) that the baby is his, and finds a way to do it.

•Lynette (Felicity Huffman) joins the workforce in a surprising way. Joely Fisher will play one of her bosses.

Lynette’s newly out-of-work husband, Tom (Doug Scavo), will stay home and play Mr. Mom to their bratty kids.

“I’d like to see Tom be the favorite new housewife on the block now,” Savant says. “I can host poker games and gab with the girls.”

On “Lost,” the hatch looms as the main topic, and producers plan a bold revelation.

“I can guarantee you there will be people (viewers) who do not like what they find in the hatch,” Lindelof says. “We found this door in the 10th episode of the show, and 13 episodes later they finally open it up. So what’s inside has to be something big.”

Although the contents can be construed as science fiction, Lindelof rules out a few possibilities.

“There aren’t aliens in there,” he says. “There isn’t a time-travel portal. They aren’t going to find a ship they blast off into space.”

The ill-fated voyage of the raft forms another major plot. A band of vicious strangers set the craft afire and seized the boy Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). Three other castaways – Michael (Harold Perrineau), Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) – were left struggling for survival in the ocean.

“If they will reconvene with the main group becomes the story fodder of the first seven or eight episodes,” Lindelof says.

The show will continue to examine characters’ lives through flashbacks before the plane crash put them on a remote island.

Those plots will include more on the marriage of Jack (Matthew Fox); the injury that put Locke (Terry O’Quinn) in a wheelchair; the rock-star existence of Charlie (Dominic Monaghan); the fugitive past of Kate (Evangeline Lilly); and the lottery lifestyle of Hurley (Jorge Garcia).

Michelle Rodriguez joins the cast as a passenger who was in the tail section and who survived elsewhere on the island.

The recurring numbers – on the flight, hatch and lottery ticket – will become “the driving and fundamental plot point of the second season,” Lindelof says. Viewers will know how the plane crashed by season two’s end, he promises.

But Lindelof stresses the people are the main element.

“The island just serves as a conduit to tell character stories,” he says. “No one is really watching the show for the answers to those mysteries. They’re watching to see: Will Kate and Jack hook up?”