Michelle Rodriguez will join the cast of ''Lost''

One of the many unanswered mysteries of the Lost finale: Why was there a prominent flashback of Jack (Matthew Fox) chatting in the Sydney airport lounge with an alluring stranger (played by Michelle Rodriguez) before boarding the ill-fated flight that left him and dozens of others stranded on the mysterious island? There appeared to be no payoff to the sequence, but apparently it’s coming next season. According to Variety, Rodriguez is joining the cast full-time. The Fast and the Furious actress will reprise her role as fellow Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 passenger Ana-Lucia Cortez.

Meanwhile, ABC is refuting rumors that two other high-profile names will be joining the cast next season. Credit listings that appeared on the Internet Movie Database last week claimed that Samuel L. Jackson and Survivor: The Outback winner Tina Wesson would be appearing in the first episode of Lost‘s upcoming season. ABC tells the New York Post that both credits were false. The hoax credit has been removed from Jackson’s IMDb page, but at press time, Wesson’s page still lists her as a Lost guest star. Too bad it’s not true; having outlasted the rest of the castaways in Australia (where the doomed Lost flight originated), Wesson could have held her own among the marooned islanders on the ABC drama; besides, they could use a nurse. Given his penchant for death scenes, Jackson probably wouldn’t have fared as well.