Were Ana Lucia and Libby killed off for story reasons, or because the actresses were DWI?

I don't know. I just know there's speculation, haven't seen anything definitive.

Mr. Eko was killed because the actor wanted to leave the show.

Eta: I should say, the timing of his death was determined by the actor wanting to leave. They may have planned to kill him off and just moved it earlier.

I still think it's lopsided against the women, in terms of important characters. Walt and Michael are off the show, so although they didn't get killed (not in front of our faces, anyhow), that does balance the character loss, a little.

Another part of it is that there are fewer female characters to begin with, so that the deaths seem disproportionately high. (A complaint I also have with Heroes.)

If you look at Minear's Drive, it's vastly more lopsided to female cast members (over twice as many females to males), so I'd imagine he'll get the female hate stick aimed at him when they start being bumped off.

Lost -- I enjoyed this episode. A lot, actually. It does occur to me that the more Jack is on screen, the less interest I have in the show. Personally, I thought Locke was spot on. He might be a bright person, but he's also deeply flawed in how he seems to handle situations.

So...closer to the earth, easier to bury -- that's Drive's thesis statement?

All excited about a new Lost tonight? I'm interested again. They’re on probation.

DH has taken it off probation and declared it good again. I'm not quite so sure, but cautiously optimistic.

I can't remember what last week's previews showed, but I seem to recall that they were promising...

What I couldn't get over was watching Kate bandage Sayid's arm without making any attempt to clean it off first. Infection, people! Yeah, it made him all manly and stuff, but I like him pretty, myself.

I thought eyepatch guy had claned the wound with Dharma brand vodka or somesuch.

If he did, he sure left a lot of blood all over Sayid's arm.