This page is for the Loads and Loads of Characters of the television series Lost. Beware, there WILL be SPOILERS BOTH MAJOR AND MINOR.
Main Characters
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Original Flight 815 Main Cast
Dr. Jack Shephard
"Everybody wants me to be a leader, until I make a decision they don't like."
Played By: Matthew Fox; John O'Hara (child)
Centric Episodes: "Pilot, Part 1", "White Rabbit", "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues", "Do No Harm", "Exodus, Part 1", "Man of Science, Man of Faith", "The Hunting Party", "A Tale of Two Cities", "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Through the Looking Glass", "Something Nice Back Home", "There's No Place Like Home", "316", "The Incident, Part 2", "LA X", "Lighthouse", "The Last Recruit", "The Candidate", "What They Died For", "The End"
Plot Armor: A rare case where Plot Armor is an actual power the character possesses. Jack realizes he's wearing Plot Armor and allows a fuse to run down on a stick of TNT. The light on the fuse extinguishes itself just before it can trigger. He tries to repeat this later, this time with a bomb made by Locke, but Sawyer screws it up by tampering with the bomb and thus subverting the armor.
Took a Level in Badass: In season 6, he had a Crowning Moment of Awesome in almost every episode he was in, and fans actually began to like him, a far cry from the earlier seasons when he was a whiny, angsty Mary Sue and was surpassed only by Kate and Ana Lucia in fan resentment.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: In season 5, he's willing to blow up the island if there's even a chance it will save Flight 815 in the future.
Kate Austen
"I'm coming with you!"
Played By: Evangeline Lilly, Emily Rae Argenti (child)
Centric Episodes: "Pilot, Part 2", "Tabula Rasa", "Whatever the Case May Be", "Born to Run", "Exodus, Part 1", "What Kate Did", "I Do", "Left Behind", "Eggtown", "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 1 & 3", "The Little Prince", "Whatever Happened, Happened", "The Incident, Part 1", "LA X", "What Kate Does", "The End"
Beware the Nice Ones One of the early reasons Jack trusts Kate seems to be motivated on her good-girl attitude. It's how Kate gets out of many scrapes, but pretending to be sweet and innocent.
Big Damn Heroes: Deals the finishing blow to the Man in Black in the series finale.
Played By: Josh Holloway; Gordon Hardie/Keenan Boos (child)
Centric Episodes: "Confidence Man", "Outlaws", "Exodus, Part 1", "The Long Con", "Every Man for Himself", "La Fleur", "The Incident, Part 1", "LA X", "Recon", "The Last Recruit", "What They Died For", "The End"
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When MIB slips a bomb onto the sub, he tampers with the bomb, and the resulting explosion leads to the death of Sayid, Jin, and Sun.
Played By:Terry O'Quinn; Charles Henry Wyson (child); Caleb Steinmeyer (teenaged)
Centric Episodes: "Walkabout", "Deus Ex Machina", "Exodus, Part 2", "Orientation", "Lockdown", "Further Instructions", "The Man from Tallahassee", "The Brig", "Cabin Fever", "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham", "The Incident, Part 1", "LA X", "The Substitute", "The Last Recruit", "The Candidate", "The End"
Hollywood Healing: Subverted. For a while we don't know that John was paralyzed, or that Rose had cancer. When it's revealed it was fixed upon coming to the Island, it becomes more and more apparent that it's the magical properties of the Island that fixed him.
The Messiah: Ultimately zigzagged. Although Jack is arguably the series' Messiah for stopping the Man in Black and restoring the Heart of the Island, Locke's death ultimately paves the way for Jack's Character Development in Seasons 5 and 6.
The Nicknamer: Inverted. He almost exclusively calls Sawyer and Hurley by Their actual names while others call Them by Their nicknames.
Parental Substitute: Serves as father figure to many of the younger passengers including Charlie, Claire, Walt and especially Boone.
Centric Episodes: "Solitary", "The Greater Good", "One of Them", "Enter 77", "The Economist", "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 1 & 3", "He's Our You", "The Incident, Part 1", "LA X", "Sundown", "The Last Recruit"
"Okay, that thing in the woods... maybe it's a monster, maybe it's a pissed-off giraffe. I don't know. The fact that no one is even looking for us, yeah, that's weird. But I just go along with it. 'Cause I'm along for the ride. Good old fun-time Hurley! Well, guess what? Now I want some freaking answers!"
Played By: Jorge Garcia; Caden Waidyatilleka (child)
Centric Episodes: "Numbers", "Exodus, Part 3", "Everybody Hates Hugo", "Dave", "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead", "The Beginning of the End", "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 1 & 2", "The Lie", "The Incident, Part 2", "LA X", "Everybody Loves Hugo", "The End"
Genre Savvy: But since the rest of the cast are mostly Genre Blind, it doesn't always help him.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Despite all the "Dudes" he often turns out to be the one with the solution to a problem. In fact he's often the one who realizes there's a problem in the first place.
Only Sane Man: Regularly shown to be the only person on the Island who realises that keeping secrets from each other is what keeps causing them major problems and that if the Losties don't find some way to relax, they'll go insane. Hence, he built them a golf course.
As of the finale, he's likely the first Protector of the Island who can actually be said to be competent.
Centric Episodes: "...In Translation", "Exodus, Part 2", "...And Found", "The Glass Ballerina", "Ji Yeon", "This Place Is Death", "The Incident, Part 1", "LA X", "The Package", "The Last Recruit", "The End"
It is, however, worth noting that the "Heart of Gold" part is slow in coming. Early on, Jin was the oppressive, angry husband of Sun and fans were not supposed to like him. The writers were setting up for a love triangle between Jin, Sun, and Michael. However, they changed their minds and decided to have Jin become a better husband, and Jin and Sun became the most faithful and longlasting pair on the Island.
Never Found the Body: after the explosion of the ship, and his subsequent return.
Son of a Whore: His mother was a prostitute who dumped him on his father. His father isn't even sure if Jin is really his, but he raised him as his own, nonetheless.
Centric Episodes: "House of the Rising Sun", "Exodus, Part 1", "...And Found", "The Whole Truth", "The Glass Ballerina", "D.O.C.", "Ji Yeon", "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 1 & 3", "This Place Is Death", "The Incident, Part 1", "LA X", "The Package", "The Last Recruit", "The End"
But I Can't Be Pregnant!: The Island sort of kills pregnant women, but that's not what she's worried about: she fears that she's pregnant with the child of the man who taught her English and with whom she had an affair just prior to leaving the Island. It's not.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jin's mother threatened her that she would publicly dishonor Jin by leaking information that he is a Son of a Whore unless she received money. Sun asked her father for the money, but in exchange Jin would work directly under him. The audience knows that it was as Paik's enforcer, which caused the near deterioration of her marriage.
Took a Level in Badass: Once her flashforwards of being off the Island happened, it's clear losing Jin steeled her. So that she was no longer a downtrodden daughter she bought a controlling share in her father's company and told him now he will respect her.
Charlie Pace
[singing] "You All Everybody!"
Played By: Dominic Monaghan, Jeremy Shada (child)
Centric Episodes: "Pilot, Part 2", "The Moth", "Homecoming", "Exodus, Part 2", "Fire + Water", "Greatest Hits"
Shoot the Dog/Kick the Son of a Bitch: Depending on whether or not you believe that sparing a defeated but highly dangerous person is worth it, Charlie shooting Ethan may fall into either.
To be fair, she was left alone and abandoned on an island for three years longing for her son who didn't know she existed and thought Kate was his mother. With several people who wanted to kill her.
"I just want you to know that no matter where you go, I...that your daddy...yeah, your daddy, he loves you very, very much. And I always will. Always."
Played By: Harold Perrineau
Centric Episodes: "Special", "Exodus, Part 2", "Adrift", "Three Minutes", "Meet Kevin Johnson"
Reality Warper: Walt shows signs of being one before being Put on a Bus. The polar bears seem to have been retconned away, but the dead bird was never explained.
Real Life Writes the Plot: The fact that a year was passing in real life but only a couple of months in screen each season meant that Walt had to be shipped off fairly quickly.
Tagalong Kid: The only kid who has ever been a main cast member.
Shannon Rutherford
"I've just been through a trauma here, okay?"
Played By: Maggie Grace
Centric Episodes: "Exodus, Part 1", "Abandoned"
A Death in the Limelight: Her centric episode had a lot of people pitying her, when finally her goals and motivations where put into the spotlight instead of Boone's and rendering her a truly sympathetic character. Then Ana-Lucia kills her.
Alpha Bitch: If the island was high school, there's no doubt Shannon would be the head of the popular clique.
Honor Before Reason: Nearly drowns trying to save someone in the fifth episode despite not being a strong swimmer.
Jumped at the Call: From minute one, he's trying to be the hero... except that he's really bad at it, and everyone is already looking to Jack.
Like a Son to Me: Boone is like the son Locke never had, even informally calling him "Son" at one point.
Nice Guy: Probably the most likeable character on the show as he seems to spend most of his time helping others, asking what He can do to assist and generally trying to pull his weight. He was also spared the Character Derailment the writers hit Charlie with.
The Atoner: Subverted. He seems to be a very clear-cut example of the trope, but he turns out to be utterly unrepentant, as his brother would have wound up in his position had he not made the choices he did.
Badass Preacher: Except he isn't really a priest, he just pretends to be.
The Shrink: Usually Type 3, but pulls into Type 2 at least once.
We Hardly Knew Ye: The only main character to never get a centric episode, though she had a brief flashback at the end of the Hurley centric "Dave". It took 4 years for the creators to reveal her surname!
Disc One Final Boss: In the early seasons he was portrayed as the Big Bad, but it became much more questionable with his enemy, Charles Widmore, entering the picture. Finally Ben wasrevealed to be a pawn of the REAL Big Bad, Man in Black/Smoke Monster the whole time. It's played pretty straight too, since Ben was defeated and captured in the season 3 finale, which was the halfway point of the series, in which it seemed everything was finally going to be okay for the Oceanic survivors, until the Your Princess is in Another Castle twist ending, which lead to the second half of the series, which depicts Ben as slowly gearing toward a Heel Face Turn which he finally does in the final season.]]
The Dragon: He briefly pretends to be this to The Man in Black at the end of the series so he can avoid being killed by him as well as to get revenge on Charles Widmore. As soon as Man in Black went to the Heart of the Island without him, he immediately went back to siding with the survivors.
Enemy Mine: Pretty much this to the rest of the cast.
Heel Face Turn: Done beautifully in a gradual build-up before finally being solidified in "Dr. Linus".
Karma Houdini: Some may see him as one of these. He survives the series and is forgiven by the characters despite the fact he committed several murders and put the survivors through hell. However he isn't a true example, as he constantly gets his ass kicked, loses everything he cared about, and he finally realizes what a monster he has been in his quest for power and decides to redeem himself of his actions, and in the afterlife he is shown to be a much better person and despite all of the forgiveness and redemption he still decides not to move on since he feels he hasn't earned it yet]] Lampshaded musically by the track "Karma Has No Price" that plays during his redemption scene.
Knight Templar Parent/Papa Wolf: Toward his adopted daughter, Alex, to the point of attempting to brainwash her boyfriend to prevent Alex from getting pregnant. His direct responsibility for her death is a major driver of his Atoner status in Season 4 and beyond.
The Lancer: Becomes Hurley's lieutenant on the Island at the end of the series.
Laser-Guided Karma: When he was the manipulative leader of the Others who killed and tormented people, he lost everything (his adopted daughter, his leadership, etc.). It worked both ways as well, since when Ben redeemed himself, things went a lot better for him and even safed his life.
Pet the Dog: The Season 6 episode "Dr. Linus" is one big, concentrated bottle of sympathetic moments.
Also seen in "The Man Behind The Curtain". Despite being responsible for The Purge, the only member of the Dharma Initiative Ben shows actual remorse for killing is Horace and respectfully closes his eyes.
Yandere: For Juliet, in Seasons 3 and 4. He even orchestrates Goodwin's death because he's his romantic rival. Then he shows Juliet the body and tells her "You're mine".
The Dog Bites Back: Via cue cards — "Ignore everything I'm saying." "Ben is a liar" "...And he's very dangerous." "But it has to look like an accident." "It's a very complicated surgery. No one would ever know."
Establishing Character Moment: One of her earliest episodes demonstrated that she doesn't play games. When Sawyer and Kate acted out of line, she aimed a gun at Kate's head. And Sawyer commented that she would have done it too without even batting a lash.
Extreme Doormat: Before joining the Others she worked for her ex-husband who walked all over her and flaunted his affair with his sexy new assistant. It took a Bus Crash to free her.
Informed Attribute: Apparently she looks uncannily similar to Sarah, Jack's ex-wife. This actually came into play in the final season when she was Jack's Amicably Divorced ex in the flash-sideways, instead of Sarah.
Kuudere: Watch her normal cool, soft-spoken nature, and then watch her big smile when Sawyer brings her a flower.
Took a Level in Badass: She used to be an Extreme Doormat. Check out the other tropes that describe her character and try to tell me that this doesn't apply.
Richard Alpert
"...what I can tell you is that, you'll see things there that you never imagined."
Centric Episodes: "Live Together, Die Alone", "Flashes Before Your Eyes", "Catch-22", "The Constant", "Jughead", "Happily Ever After", "What They Died For", "The End"
Absentee Actor: While all characters have missed several episodes, Desmond is notable for missing enough in season 4, 5 and 6 that several recurring guest stars were in more episodes than him. Especially season 5, when he wasn't even in the finale (which usually every living character is in).
Badass Bookworm: Loves the works of Charles Dickens and has read every work but "Our Mutual Friend" which He is saving for his last moments.
Aborted Arc: Her entire storyline - Zuleikha Robinson says that Jacob was meant to be her character's actual father, but the only hint at this that wasn't cut is in "Dr Linus" (also the only episode of the season in which she plays a major role)
Dropped A Bridge On Her: Probably the most abrupt and unexpected one in the whole series- she literally blew up mid sentence, without any foreshadowing. According to Carlton Cuse, this was a quick way to remove her from the story once they decided to cut her arc.
Promotion to Opening Titles: Though after promoting her, the writers decided they didn't have enough time to develop her - hence her minor role, lack of a centric episode, and abrupt death.
You Killed My Father: To Ben, after she learns he killed Jacob. Even though Jacob wasn't her actual father, he was the closest thing she had.
The Man In Black/The Smoke Monster
"What I am is trapped. And I've been trapped for so long that I don't even remember what it feels like to be free."
Played By:Titus Welliver, Terry O'Quinn, John Terry, Tania Raymonde, Adetokumboh McCormack, Mirelly Taylor, Ryan Bradford (child)
All There in the Manual: He is The Nameless throughout the series; it practically goes out of its way to not give him a name. It was later revealed that the character's name was on Titus Welliver's chair. It's Samuel. Although this is likely non-canon, and just used by the production crew as short-hand.
Bad Boss: Towards the end of the series. He sends Sayid to his death (though justified as Sayid was also a candidate), abandons Claire when she refuses to help him kill her friends in a deleted scene, breaks his promise to give Ben the Island, and later tries to leave everyone on the Island to die as it sinks into the ocean.
Expy: An ancient, incredibly powerful and manipulative demon described as the source of all evil with brilliant skills at Chessmastering, Xanatos gambits and who is capable of impersonating any dead person? Sounds like the First Evil.
Fan Nickname: Esau, Un-Locke, Flocke, Samuel and Smokey are the most common, but he has a lot.
Freudian Excuse: Like pretty much all of the other main characters.
More than Mind Control: The single person in the series who can effectively manipulate Ben; being able to read peoples' memories and manifest as a deceased person from their past certainly helps.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His murder of Sayid, Jin, and Sun gave the survivors the Heroic Resolve to kill him, rather than just simply leave him on the Island. This wouldn't be an issue for him had his plan to destroy the Island not made him mortal as well.
Telepathy: Is able to "scan" people in his Smoke Monster form and read their memories, which makes his Manipulative Bastard tendencies that much more effective.
Posthumous Character: Killed so early on it's not a spoiler, but appears many more times after his death, and actually appears in more episodes after his death than when his character was still alive, a fact that his actor finds very amusing.
Self-Made Orphan: Participated in the Purge, which killed both his parents.
Knight Templar: He questions his loyalty to Ben for all of six seconds before murdering two women in cold blood. Funnily, one of the women inadvertently convinced him to go through with it after going on an ill-advised tirade about the importance of not questioning orders.
Your Cheating Heart: Cheats on Harper with Juliet, and seemed to be flirting with Ana. It's implied by Ben that his attraction to her was genuine...but then, it's Ben.
Gambit Roulette: Pretty much the entire series was planned by him so he could find his replacement as protector of the island. Maybe...
Guile Hero: Yes, he's more heroic than his nemesis, but he is still able to make people do exactly what he wants with some well placed words. Even after his death.
Dangerously Genre Savvy: He dismisses all the usual conventions of villains, managing to be extremely effective and creating a huge body count during his relatively brief appearance. He launches a full-scale merciless attack on the survivors that kills three people straight out, murders Alex when he figures she can't be beneficial alive, and
"This is a high risk covert op in unstable territory. It's dodgy enough without having to babysit a headcase, ghost buster, anthropologist and a drunk."
Manipulative Bastard: Manages to convince Desmond to stay underground pushing a button, effectively stealing three years of his life so that he could repair a boat in secret.
"Kinda hard to celebrate on the day you killed your mom. She was just seven months pregnant. We went for a hike, but you had to come early. Now, she's gone. And I'm stuck here on this island...with you."
Break the Cutie: She was forced to kill all her friends, including the love of her life, then her baby was taken away. Cue sixteen years alone. Followed by a sudden death that goes unmourned. It says a lot when Sanity Slippage is an understatement.
Heel Face Door Slam: When he showed up in season six claiming to have redeemed himself, it was questionable as he still locked up the survivors in cages and his people even shot at them. When we finally realize Widmore meant his redemption, he is shot and killed by Ben.
Pet the Dog: Played straight and subverted. He's very kind and gentle with Daniel Faraday but, while this seems genuine, it's all part of his manipulations. Played straighter when he's relieved to hear Desmond is going to survive his wound, finally just accepting that Desmond makes his daughter happy.
Meaningful Name: In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope was the faithful wife of Odysseus who never took another husband despite having numerous suitors after her husband left to fight in the Trojan War 20 years prior to the story.
"Don't choose, Jack, don't decide. You don't want to be a hero. You don't want to try and save everyone because when you fail... you just don't have what it takes."
"All right. I apologize if this is confusing, but...let's pay attention, yes?"
Played By: Fionnula Flannagan; Alexandra Krosney (teenaged); Alice Evans (middle aged)
Action Girl / Dark Action Girl: During the time in which the younger versions of her appear. Either way, it's Up to Eleven with "Ellie" in the 1954 timeline.
Dramatic Irony: She loved her son very much, but remained critical, cold, and distant to him his entire life because she knew that when he reached adulthood he would be shot and killed by her younger self.
Asshole Victim: Go on, it's okay to admit you cheered when Sawyer strangled him with a chain.
Card-Carrying Villain: He's a charming, manipulative liar...but when he drops the charade, he's refreshingly up-front about being a selfish, sociopathic sub-human monster.
Faux Affably Evil: Don't let his polite facade fool you for a second. Beneath it lies an utterly unrepentant, sociopathic monster who cares not one bit about the innumerable lives he has destroyed.
