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Lost might not have the character turnover of a show like Law and Order or CSI (so many dead hookers and bizarre deaths require an assembly line of players), but there are so many flying bullets and Locke-induced explosions that there are moments of necessary refreshing. This can sometimes be a brilliant thing; the wide-eyed, bloodied heap of awesome that was 'Henry Gale', or the twitchy adorability of Daniel. While some new editions are loved, others become rather despised.

Television is well noted for its cruel temperament; if an audience doesn't relate well to a character, it doesn't seem to take long for a freak toxic waste dump or animal attack (or bullet) to relieve the viewers of their suffering. Tragically, death only seems to touch the extremely hated or the extremely loved... and all of those red-shirts who flash by the camera so quickly we can't even see their faces.

Well, season 2 brought us a huge wave of new faces, and these two lasses were among them. Libby and Ana Lucia, who perhaps got the axe too quickly. Both of them certainly caused controversy, but for rather different reasons.

First, we have Libby. Elizabeth 'Libby'... question mark. She's so mysterious that she even lacks a last name. Hell, even Richard Alpert has a surname (even if he did steal it from a famous pusher.) Libby ? became a well-liked character. She had a sweet demeanor, but wasn't afraid to be part of the action. She was clever, helpful, and just the right level of sexy. Of course, her relationship with Hurley made her instantly endearing (and, eventually, far more tragic.)

Libby had a lot of promise. You could get a feeling that she was injected into the show with a purpose in mind. We saw the twist of her in the mental institution. We really didn't know much about her past, or her motives, but got the impression that we would like to. We knew she was more that just a smiling face. Our appetites were whetted. Then... bang. Shot in the stomach or something. Dead.

The disappointment of Libby's death was comforted with the promise of seeing her story, but that never actually happened. They just let her character fade away, popping up on the rare occasion for a cameo. Yep, that was it. Although people kept on holding out hope for her story to make airtime, it's been confirmed that it never will. Sigh.

Why did they kill off a well-received character, then? Maybe it had to do with the actress's DUI, though all parties involved will deny that. No, the more likely reason (and the one that everyone seems to stick to) is that Michael's killing of Ana Lucia supposedly wouldn't garner enough audience emotion, and they would have to murder a more loved character to do so.

...wow.

So, let's move on the Ana Lucia Cortez (well, at least she has a last name.) Ana Lucia; the character that the writers felt the audience wouldn't care about if killed off. Seriously, that's heavy hatred there, folks. They had to kill off Libby to make up for the lack of Ana-approval.

Holy hell.

So, what did Ana Lucia do, exactly, to become so loathed?

Well, she accidentally murdered Shannon (wait... when did people like Shannon? C'mon, you only liked the fact that Sayid got to make out with someone.) She was very blunt, very abrasive, and incredibly stubborn. She was in no way a sweet or delicate person. She wasn't a warm and snuggly-up-to character. She was acerbic and vicious and would do whatever she needed to to survive.

Admittedly, I liked Ana Lucia. I'm also fairly certain that there are only approx. 4 people in the world who liked this character, but I feel no shame. She was in no way lovable, but I still liked her. I think the episode 'Collision' helped a lot... when she had that look on her face while saying 'I was pregnant', I got chills.

She is in no way my favorite character... but I didn't hate her. Maybe that's it; everyone hates her, and I didn't hate her. She is what she is. Not lovable, but still interesting. I wasn't devastated when she left the show, but I didn't cheer.

What do you think of these two? Does anyone else actually like Ana? Are you pissed by the utter lack of Libby? Or do you realllly not care, because there are many better characters? I suppose if they don't give a character enough time to grow on you, you don't care as much when they move on to doing movies and CBS programming.