I saw a trailer for a movie in which Matthew Fox plays the villain. He looks really different - it seems like he put in a LOT of work to bury himself in the role of the crazy paramilitary serial killer, and is hardly recognizable at first...except when he's bare shouldered, as he frequently is in the trailer, you can see the distinctive tattoo that they focused a whole Lost episode around. You can't forget that he's Jack from Lost. And then, the character's crazy rantings start to remind of some of Jack's more unbalanced moments, and suddenly this elite soldier gone bad is no longer a figure of menace, he's a shipwrecked doctor with daddy issues who gets too worked up about stuff, to the point that at his dramatic apotheosis in the climatic episode of the series, other characters are making jokes about his persona and "god complex". The odd thing is, the visual design aspect of the tattoo that tempted the Lost writers to try to imbue it with some mystical, relevant-to-his-character significance, would also make the thing fit in on the shoulder of an insane, dedicated commando serial killer - but now that they have attempted to give the tattoo a specific meaning, you can't help but notice that the bad guy has "Jack's tattoo."

Okay, maybe it's not such a bad move for "Lost", to make him permanently associated with their show, but Matthew Fox should have just said "Hell, no!" rather than letting the plate-spinners on the Season 3 writing staff define his image for their fans for all eternity. And on second thought, it wasn't so bright a PR move for "Lost" either. Now, when people see Matthew Fox with a bared left shoulder, they will not be remembering Jack's heroism, or his touching arc of the final season, or the too-rare moments of humor or gentle self-deprecation or serene confidence. Instead, no matter what the context, they'll see that uncovered body part and immediately their brains will go right to the Tattoo Episode. Maybe he could get Nikki & Paolo's faces tattooed on the other shoulder, just to ensure he is always associated with the most-hated episode no matter which faction is looking at him.