In a season stuffed with small, stop-gap TV shows due to the Hollywood writers' strike, a big one is finally returning.

"Lost" premieres tonight, with eight new episodes and endless possibilities.

Last season ended in heroics. Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) drowned in the Looking Glass station after turning off a jamming signal so rescuers could contact the island.

And Hurley discovered an old vehicle on the island and used it to plow over a gunman and save his friends.

And now? "There's not a parade for him or anything," said Jorge Garcia, who plays him. "But it does start right up where it left off. ... A lot of it is about: 'Who are these new people? Are they really here to rescue us?' "

Don't count on it. The plan has been for "Lost" to wrap up its run with three, 16-episode seasons. This year — trimmed in half by the writers' strike — is just the start.

Then what about the rescuers? "In typical 'Lost' fashion, they are not what they seem to be," Garcia said.

No one ever is. At first, even the actors don't know what their characters are up to.

"At first, we'll play it up and we'll play it down," said actor Michael Emerson. "Then we'll start to see which one they choose in the editing."

Still, Emerson said he was able to quickly home in on his character, the enigmatic Ben. "I knew it was going to be one of those really good characters. I instinctively knew how to play him."

Ben was the leader of "The Others," who seemed to be manipulating those who had crash-landed on the island. Now Ben is warning all around him about those "rescuers" who showed up in the last new episode viewers saw last May.

Few people believe Ben, however. Now things are in flux.

"No one has a home anymore," Emerson said. "Everything is changing."

And that seems to be the show's natural state.

Some actors, including Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly, have also been in "flash-forward" scenes, showing the characters after getting off the island. Garcia won't say if he's done any of those.

Specifics are scarce: Garcia said the fourth episode of this season has interesting moments for Hurley. Emerson said the sixth has key scenes for Ben. ABC said Michael (Harold Perrineau) will be back.

Mostly, though, "Lost" fans will have to wait and guess. They've done that for three seasons; now it will be three-and-a-fraction.

LIFE-CHANGING ROLE

Garcia was there from the start and has been told that he was the first person cast. Back then, things were just being figured out. "The first idea they had was that Hurley was a repo man," he said.

Then came hints of a larger fate — and of a link to a specific set of numbers. Those turned out to be numbers that he chose when he won the lottery for millions; they also were crucial to an island computer.

All of that was in his back story. More important is the way he's evolved on the island.

"Every year, Hurley has taken a lot more ownership of the situation," Garcia said. "At first, he was just the guy who passed out the food. He was not trying to be a hero."

For Garcia, 34, this has been a life-changing experience. A massive guy who was a high school wrestler in Nebraska, he's become an instantly recognized star. Unlike his colleagues, he has a tough time being anonymous on O'ahu, where the show is filmed. "It's kind of hard to hide me," he said.

BORN TO BE BAD?

For Emerson, 53, "Lost" has been his third classic villain or semi-villain role. "For a country guy like myself, it has been a bit dizzying," he said.

Emerson grew up in the central Iowa town of Toledo, which then had a population of 2,200. He acted in high school then went on to Drake University, New York City and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

He worked as an illustrator in New York before his acting career took off. Emerson has been on Broadway in "Hedda Gabler" and "The Iceman Cometh"; he married actress Carrie Preston and landed key TV roles.

One was as William Hinks, the serial killer in "The Practice"; Emerson won an Emmy in 1997. Another was as the villainous Zep Hindle in "Saw."

Then came Ben, joining a show that was already successful. It seemed like a perpetual hit — except for the decision to give it a definite end date.

"The businessman in you says, 'I wish it could go on forever,' " Emerson said. "As an artist, I think, 'What a really cool, bold thing to do.' "

Now he and Preston split their time between homes in Honolulu and New York City.

Some actors, including Garcia, have made Hawai'i their main home. That's where all the filming is done, even the flashback (and flash-forward) scenes set in other parts of the world.

"It's a little weird, because you're clean for those scenes," Garcia said. "You get to work with some new people."