Lost may be the only TV series that actually benefited from this year's debilitating writer's strike.

While series like Heroes were diminished by shortened series or lost momentum when production stopped in November, like Desperate Housewives, the Losties used their time wisely, cobbling together a story about six of our 40-something castaways leaving the island that -- of course -- raised as many questions as it answered.

So what do we really know about the Lost universe after last night's two-hour finale (if you DVR-ed last night's show and haven't watched it yet, you might want to stop reading now)?

  -- John Locke is the mysterious dead guy whose funeral Jack attended at the end of last season, when producers whipped out the way-cool "flash-forward" scenes which have made watching Lost even more of a challenge. As a longtime fan, I love guessing whether a particular scene is in the past or the future, but I worry such storytelling tricks will keep new people from jumping on board.

-- So, if Locke is dead, why were the Losties off the island calling him Jeremy Bentham? And what killed him? And do you want to bet that, if everyone goes back to the island -- as we know they will, there's two more seasons to go, after all -- he'll somehow come back to life?

-- The Losties who made it off the island lied about being the only survivors from their plane crash to keep the world's attention away from the island. But since the island was moved in last night's finale, no one -- including them -- even knows where it is, anymore. So why lie? Wouldn't focusing the world's attention on the island make it less likely the remaining castaways would be hurt? And don't some of those people still want to get off the island?

-- I never realized how bad Matthew Fox's fake beard was during the first flash-forward until they used clips from it in last night's show. The guy looks like he's wearing an old felt beard from a G.I. Joe doll.

-- Given that Lance Reddick -- the mysterious black man who visits Hurley in the mental institution -- has joined the cast of Fox's new J.J. Abrams series Fringe, does that mean we'll never learn who he was on Lost?

-- What happened to all the plot points revealed in the Lost Experience, the multimedia game ABC organized in summer 2006 that revealed the Dharma Initiative was an experiment -- or series of them -- aimed at forestalling human extinction? Will lost producers ever get back to that concept, or will they be too busy trying to figure out who (or what) Jacob is to really get back to any of that?

-- We're still left with an island which seems to have its own consciousness, time traveling capabilities and even power over life and death skipping across the sea in between Australia and the U.S. And we don't get another tidbit of information until January 2009. Theorize away, kiddies...