'Lost': Producers address Libby's fate

[WARNING: Spoilers from last night’s episode of Lost below]

Okay, Libby’s death wasn’t quite the jaw-dropping shocker Ana Lucia’s was, since we’d been prepared for it not only by last week’s episode, but by news last month that Cynthia Watros (pictured) had signed on for a ”guest” role in a CBS pilot. About which, Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have much to say. Like last week, they gave an immediate post-show scoop to TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello to explain why they killed off Libby and the real-world trade reports that led viewers to correctly predict her imminent demise.

Lindelof and Cuse insist that, despite Libby’s burgeoning relationship with Hurley, the creators felt her story wasn’t going to go anywhere in Season 3, and they liked the idea of shocking the audience by killing her off just as things were getting interesting, and before we’d had a chance to learn her backstory. (Which will be revealed eventually in the flashbacks of others.) Regarding reports of Watros’ pilot deal, the producers shrug and note that it’s not fair to a performer’s career to stifle news that could help her find work, and they felt they owed her moral support after she took very hard the news that she’d be leaving Lost.

Speaking of island mysteries, do you have room in your brain for one more online attempt to decipher the Dharma mythology? There’s a well-organized article at HowStuffWorks.com that neatly lays out all we know about the Dharma Initiative (though it doesn’t yet include last night’s revelations about the Pearl monitoring station, Dr. Whitman/Candle of the orientation video, and the nature of the button-pushing exercise), as well as the major theories about what it all means (including those put forth by EW.com’s own Doc Jensen). Check it out.