ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager is a runaway hit, scoring acclaim and praise from fans and critics alike. Last month, the show was nominated for a Teen Choice Award. This week, it ended it’s debut 11-episode run in a rather jolting fashion - and left fans wishing for more.

Secret scored right away with viewers, and the numbers show that this successful summer series could warrant a winter run. Almost 4 million viewers (3.9 to be precise) watched the recent “Back to School Special” episode - big numbers for cable.

The remainder of the 23 episodes left in the first season of Secret Life will begin airing in January, but the open-ended mid-season finale left plenty of secrets still undiscovered.

True to form, the mid-season cliffhanger started off with several eye-popping moments right in a row, revealing in the first two minutes that bad girl Adrian had run off with the school counselor Marc Molina, bad boy Ricky is in treatment and seeing a therapist and that main character Amy’s best friend Lauren made out with Ricky - who is also the father of Amy’s unborn child. Then, the show intro started.

The rest of the episode continued on Adrian’s little-girl-lost-and-found storyline, while Grace progressed her relationship with Ricky (making out with him on school property). The rumors flew and so did the sparks - but that’s what we’ve come to expect from the show.

Of all the twists and turns which are slowly being revealed (including the girl who was introduced briefly in the episode as yet another possible love interest for Ricky), I find the most disturbing to be Alice and Henry (Ben’s two best friends) who seem determined to keep having sex until they learn why it’s no good between them.

The biggest mystery of the mid-season break centers around school counselor Marc Molina (played by Jorge Pallo), who has disappeared for unknown reasons. Introduced in the show’s pilot, Molina was the very first character I liked. In fact, the mid-season ender was conspicuously missing the three characters I find most fascinating and likable: Molina, “Sausage King” Leo Boykevich (Steve Schirripa) and Ricky’s therapist (Ernie Hudson), who is also Lauren’s dad.

But even with some of the cast absent in the mid-season ender, the upcoming episodes promise to be fascinating. It was only a few episodes back that mom Anne (Molly Ringwald, who I absolutely can’t get enough of on the show) and King Leo sat down together for pizza - I would love to see this relationship become romantic. It would, however, make things a little odd between Amy and Ben (they’d be step-brother and sister then). Still, it’s a possibility, as the last scene of the episode finally showed a real confrontation between Anne and George (Mark Derwin). The pair talked about their marital issues, and Anne admitted she just doesn’t want to be married to him anymore. The guy’s as dense as a brick, and I’m sure I wouldn’t stay married to him, either - though I find the character immensely amusing.

This leaves a lot of rich fodder for the remainder of the season, which I can only assume will conclude with the birth of the baby. At that point, I feel like the writers of the show are going to have a real problem. I’m still not sure where the plot can possibly go beyond that, and I don’t think they are, either.