 Furlan is said to have asked for her character to be written out of the series because she did not want to travel to Hawaii to film her scenes , although she later called this an untrue rumor . The producers decided for Rousseau to be shot , with the possibility of her returning in season five . Co @-@ show runners and executive producers Damon Lindelof and Cuse originally intended for Rousseau to get her own flashback episode in season four , however as a result of the Writer 's Strike , this did not come to pass . When asked whether Rousseau would have a flashback in season five , Lindelof said that Rousseau 's story would " definitively " be revealed , but that " to use the word flashback would be disingenuous " . Cuse revealed that they were trying to steer away from the word flashback and were " embracing a whole new word " . He explained that " there will still [ ... ] be flashbacks and flash @-@ forwards on the show , but we 're going to do something different this year . We 're going to mix it up . " Instead of using flashbacks and flashforwards like in previous seasons , stories of the fifth season will play out both on and off the island stories in different points in time . The writers were supposedly scheduling an appearance by Furlan for the fifth season , but Furlan did not end up making an appearance . However , she returns in the form of Rousseau 's " sideways " counterpart ( who never crashed on the Island , lost Alex or went insane ) in the sixth season . 
