 SPOILER: Lena Olin (qv) was never fired from the show, nor was her  character written out as a result of a contract dispute. Lena Olin  did not want to rejoin the cast because she lives in Manhattan with  her family and did not want to commute back and forth to Los Angeles  for filming. To "cope" with Lenas departure, her character was  killed off at the hands of Jack. Afterwards, Lena was available, and  Irina was revealed to be alive.