'LOST': DOWN THE HATCH!

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

Get ready to get ``Lost.''

The season finale of ABC's Emmy-winning island adventure/thriller had a small delegation of the castaways adrift on a raft, hoping to make contact with an aircraft or vessel that could rescue the whole lot or at least send for help.

But nothing ever is cut and dried on J.J. Abrams' hit show. The rafters do indeed find a boat, but the crew is as unfriendly as they come, kidnapping young Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), shooting Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and blowing up the raft.

Meanwhile, the question of the summer has been ``what's in the hatch?'' No one among the huge cast and producer delegation at Sunday's Emmys was willing to drop any hints about what Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Locke (Terry O'Quinn) discover when they explore the mysterious tunnel, but the producers promise it will be revealed in tonight's 9 p.m. season premiere. Here's hoping the answer lives up to the fans' expectations.

As for the intrepid rafters, insight about their fates does not come until the second episode.

Here's a brushup on other series making a comeback tonight.

--``One Tree Hill'' (8 p.m., The WB) Baddie Dan (Paul Johansson) was inside his car dealership when it went up in flames. Did he make it out? And so many suspects ... whom to arrest?

--``Yes, Dear'' (8:30 p.m., CBS) The writers thought they were delivering a series finale last spring when they came up with a hard case of toxic mold and termites forcing Greg (Anthony Clark) and Kim (Jean Louisa Kelly) out of their house. The surprise pickup by CBS means bringing in the exterminators and clean-up crews ASAP.

--``Veronica Mars'' (9 p.m., UPN) The Lilly Kane murder mystery is considered solved, and Veronica has learned that Logan (Jason Dohring) wasn't her rapist and Duncan (Teddy Dunn) isn't her brother. Whew! Now, which one of those two (she likes them both) was the guy at her door when the bell rang at the end of the last season?

--``Law & Order'' (10 p.m., NBC) NYPD detective Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin) has returned to the job, having recovered from a gunshot wound suffered while he was protecting a witness. In the real world, Martin has wrapped filming on the big-screen version of ``Rent'' and is free to return to his day job. That means Michael Imperioli, who played the substitute partner of Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina) for the final weeks of last season, is free to go back to the wrong side of the law on ``The Sopranos.''

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

valerie.kuklenski(at)dailynews.com

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no caption (scene from show ``Lost'')