Maggie Gracie to Return to "Lost"

As usual, the creators of Lost will not be letting a little thing like being killed off several seasons ago prevent a character from returning to the show.  Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Maggie Grace is now confirmed to reprise her role as Shannon during Lost's final season. 

Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have not revealed when or for how many episodes Shannon will be returning, but they do promise "we have a good story for her."

Shannon, as Lost fans will remember, was (in the original timeline, anyway) accidentally shot to death by Ana Lucia during Season 2.  With this season's new 'what-if-the-plane-never-crashed' alternate timeline, all we know is that she was not even on the flight back to LA this time.  Her stepbrother Boone, who had flown to Sydney to bring her home after a con with her boyfriend went wrong, was now flying home alone.

(he's also now sitting in a different section of the plane - something I noticed while re-watching my Season 1 dvds this past week)

Of course, many things are different about this alternate timeline version of the Oceanic 815 flight - besides the fact that it doesn't crash in the first place.  Several characters from the original flight are missing - and how the hell did Desmond get on the plane?

With only 14 episodes left, we'll hopefully be finding out soon enough.