Season finales - are they good this year?

Over the weekend, two shows I watch had their season finales. Ghost Whisperer, which I watch every week and Desperate Housewives, which I only watch when the hubby is busy playing Wii or watching a movie on the HDTV. Needless to say, both did exactly what I look for in a season finale; they left me wanting more and asking myself tons of questions.

(For those of you who watch these shows and haven't seen the endings yet, there are spoilers below.)

Desperate Housewives neatly tied up the central "mystery" of the season, then went on to show us the housewives (five of them now, as it appears Katherine has been welcomed into their fold) five years later. After a night of poker, they all return home and we get a glimpse of how things have changed. Gabrielle is now a mother to two young girls who love playing with mommy's makeup and fancy dresses. Bree is apparently a successful caterer with a cookbook being published and still happily married to Orsen. Edie comes home to find out her son has been arrested for joy riding, only to find out it isn't the one who has been in trouble recently. Katherine returns home to find a message from Dylan, happy in Paris and engaged. And the biggest surprise is Susan entering her house, saying "Honey, I'm home," and hugging a man who is not Mike.

How did these women get here, to life five years later. I for one can't wait to find out! I might have to find a way to DVR this one next season.

As for Ghost Whisperer, it's been nothing if not confusing this year, but the last few seconds of the show once again have me counting down the days already for a good conclusion. In the final scene, as Melinda, her mother, Delia, her son, Jim and Payne walk together on a sidewalk, they stop at the curb to wait for traffic. Payne looks down and says to Melinda that it's weird that there are six people but only five shadows. What does this mean? One of them has to be dead, but who?

My theory is that it has to be Payne. If Payne was a ghost, only he would know there are six people there at that time. Everyone else would only "see" five people. But I'm curious to know why the writers would do this a second time. Season one ended with Melinda's best friend dying during a plane crash and she (the friend) didn't know she was dead for a while. But, I guess the writers only had so much to work with since Jay Mohr is moving on to do a comedy for FOX, but at the time the finale was written and shot, they didn't know whether his new show would be picked up. It has been, so now, my guess is, Payne is no longer for the Ghost Whisperer world, unless he sticks around as a ghost.

This week, the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. And the best has been saved for last. Lost will end this season with a two-hour finale on Thursday, May 29th. Can't wait!

Now, if anyone can tell me when The Closer will start again, I'd be thrilled.