Lost to Air 100th Episode

That's 87 more than they thought.

So many secrets, so little time.

When the creators of Lost found themselves trying to pitch the show to TV bigwigs four years ago, they really believed they had something special on their hands. But nobody believed it would turn out like this.

The hugely popular show is set to air its 100th episode tonight, an achievement that hardly anyone could have predicted.

"We're probably not going to get past episode 13," Damon Lindelof remembers saying in a meeting with ABC executives. "If I traveled back in time to tell myself after that meeting that we were going to make it to 100," he said, "and still have a season beyond that, I would have laughed in my face."

But it seems nobody's laughing now, as Lost rounds the century mark and finds itself struggling to keep viewers and tie-off loose ends. Tonight's episode is titled "The Variable," and producers say it will reveal another piece of the puzzle.

The show itself draws the season to a close with a two-hour finale on May 13th, and then returns for one final season. In the end all will be revealed, and according to Lindelhof, it will be "very cool and enormously satisfying."