Almost Paradise

Image credit: Lost Photograph by Anthony Mandler

THE CASTAWAYS Fox (second from left, with Josh Holloway, Lilly, and Harold Perrineau) almost didn't get his comeback — his character, Jack, was originally slated to die early

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Here on the Hawaii set of ABC's hit drama Lost — that twisty mystery series about plane crash survivors fending for themselves on a South Pacific island inhabited by polar bears, a sadistic Frenchwoman, and unseen monsters — the cameras roll as Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Jack (Matthew Fox) stare at a mound of dirt marked with a wooden cross.

''Why didn't you just put him with the others when you burned the fuselage?'' asks Kate.

''Because I needed to bury him,'' explains Dr. Jack solemnly.

The two pull out some makeshift shovels and begin exhuming the dead guy, a U.S. marshal who was bringing fugitive Kate to justice before disaster struck. See, this marshal carried a wallet. And that wallet contained a key. And that key opens an impenetrable briefcase. And the contents of that case are important enough for them to endure this hellish process, which involves gagging, maggots, and a startling betrayal that the island gods want to keep hush-hush for now.