No more Jack?

Would Lost really kill off Jack? One of the reasons I love this show is it's willingness to do almost anything, but I wonder whether the producers would willingly go that far. (Granted, if Matthew Fox bolts to do more movies, there really isn't much they could do to prevent it.)

As I've previously mentioned, my wife and I have an "untouchables" theory regarding Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Locke, meaning that the show will never get rid of these characters. That theory can't cover when stars decide to get out while the show is in its prime, though, so we'll have to wait and see.

Maybe all of this is one reason why the producers awkwardly introduced two new cast members at the beginning of this season by pretending that they had been part of the crash survivors all along. Note to the producers: If Fox or anyone else leaves, please do kill them off or somehow explain their absences. Don't recast the roles. (I don't really think they're that foolish, but it has crossed my mind.)

Lost review: I Do

If you haven't seen this episode, spoilers await below.

I thought last night's episode of Lost was fine. Really, that's about it. As with most of this season's episodes, I enjoyed this installment, but it was not riveting for me the way that previous episodes have generally been. Here are a few of the highlights, according to me:

• Jack to Ben, after refusing to perform surgery to save Ben's life: "At least you won't have to be disappointed [that I refused] very long."
  
• The assessment of Kate's fiancee about his future bride, who thinks her name is Monica: "That's what I love about you. What you see is what you get." Boy, did she have him fooled.
• Eko's posthumous guidance to Locke, via the carving on his staff ("Lift your eyes and look to the north"). Hopefully we'll see where that leads before too long.
• "I love you" and "I love you, too" by Kate and Sawyer.

My favorite element of the episode was Jack's eventual decision to perform Ben's surgery and his bold move to threaten to let Ben die in the midst of the procedure. I loved this retaliation by Jack, and his initial refusal to perform the surgery perfectly concealed his motives from the Others. I do have one gripe, though, with the cliffhanger setup. If I were Ben, I would have had Pickett hold Kate in the observation room with a gun to her head throughout the procedure to ensure Jack's cooperation. It seems perfectly logical for Ben to use this kind of insurance policy, and he has no real reason to trust Jack. It seems like a plot flaw to me that Ben doesn't do this. A simple solution would have been to have Kate and Sawyer escape prior to the beginning of the surgery, so they couldn't have been used as leverage.

I'll keep watching in February to see where all of this leads, but I'm not desperate for more the way I have been previously with Lost. The recent episodes have been adequate, but they are not delivering on the prior seasons' intrigue and excitement in the same way. Success is a tough act to follow, and will see in a few months whether Lost can regain its previous energy and suspense.