Characters / Lost Main Other Characters

BEWARE OF SPOILERS. Due to the nature of the show with its many Walking Spoiler characters, twists and turns, no spoilers are whited out so a page of pure white can be avoided.

Other Characters

The Island

The Island

"The Island isn't done with you yet."

"It's not an island. It's a place where miracles happen."

—John Locke

A mysterious island supposedly somewhere in the South Pacific. It was settled as far back as the age of antiquity, was colonized by the DHARMA Initiative for scientific research, and is the location of the crash of Flight 815.

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• Bears Are Bad News: Specifically, polar bears, which were brought to the Island by the DHARMA Initiative and escaped after the Purge.
• Because Destiny Says So: People are brought to the Island because Jacob wanted them to come.
• Chekhov's Volcano: Subverted. The early seasons made reference to volcanic activity in the distant past, which was intended to set up a dramatic eruption for the series finale, but this was ultimately scrapped.
• Cult: Over the years, Jacob cultivated a group of inhabitants who worship him as a deity and do his bidding to protect the Island from outsiders. This group would later become known to the Flight 815 survivors as "the Others."
• Elaborate Underground Base: Many of the DHARMA Initiative's stations were underground bunkers.
• Eldritch Location: Throughout the series, it is suggested that the Island has a consciousness of its own.
• Establishing Character Moment: The pilot episode quickly makes it clear that this is not any ordinary island. 40 people survive a horrific plane crash with minor or even superficial injuries. A loud mechanical sound is able to uproot trees. There are polar bears on a tropical island. And there is a radio distress signal transmitting from the Island that has been running for 16 years.
  Charlie: Guys...where are we?
• Healing Hands: One of the most unique properties of the Island is its ability to heal the injured and cure the sick, such as Locke's paralysis, Rose's cancer, and Jin's sterility.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: Due to the electromagnetic anomalies having a harmful effect on early gestation, women who conceive on the island die during their second trimester.
• Island of Mystery: Caves, ancient ruins, castaways, physical anomalies, bizarre weather, weird creatures, angry natives, secret research stations, doomsday devices, a monster, the Island has it all.
• Light Is Good: The Heart of the Island, a massive source of electromagnetic energy that is described as life, death, and rebirth, the good energy inside everyone.
• Lighthouse Point: There are two that the survivors visit. The first is the Flame station, which was the DHARMA Initiative's only means of communicating with the outside world. In the final season, Jack and Hurley visit an actual lighthouse which Jacob used to look into the lives of those he wanted to come to the Island.
• Lost at Sea: Many of the island's inhabitants were lost in their own travels and were either shipwrecked or crashed on it.
• No Name Given: The Island has no official designation or name besides "The Island," though the smaller accompanying island is called "Hydra Island" due to the DHARMA station on it.
• Non-Indicative Name: The Island is actually two islands, the main island and Hydra Island.
• Traveling Landmass: The Island is constantly moving due to the mystical energy it sits upon. Because of this, leaving the Island is very difficult unless you follow an exact compass bearing, and finding it again after you leave is next to impossible unless there's been a huge electromagnetic discharge giving away its position or you have access to the Lamp Post Station to track its movements.
• Uncanny Village: The DHARMA Initiative built a small village to house their workers and their families. After the purge, the Others moved in and made it one of their primary bases.
• Unknown Phenomenon: The DHARMA Initiative discovered extreme electromagnetic anomalies on the Island, along with pockets of "exotic matter," and they constructed their research stations, especially the Swan and the Orchid, in order to tap into these energies.
• When It Rains, It Pours: There's never a light drizzle on the Island, only torrential downpours.

Desmond

Desmond Hume

"See you in another life, brotha."

Played By: Henry Ian Cusick

Centric Episodes: "Live Together, Die Alone", "Flashes Before Your Eyes", "Catch-22", "The Constant", "Jughead", "Happily Ever After", "What They Died For", "The End"

"Oh, there's nothing special about me, brotha."

A Scotsman who spent years on the Island. He had a number of unusual experiences there with electromagnetism, sending his mind repeatedly through time.

Before coming to the Island, Desmond's life seemed to be defined by failure. He was fired as a monk, sadly broke up with his girlfriend Penny Widmore, dishonorably discharged from the Royal Scots Regiment, and regarded with contempt by Penny's father Charles Widmore. In an attempt to regain his honor, Desmond entered Charles Widmore's sailing race around the world and consequently became shipwrecked on the Island.

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• Accidental Murder: While fighting with Kelvin, who was trying to leave the Island and abandon Desmond to push the button alone, Desmond bangs Kelvin's head against a rock, accidentally killing him.
• Badass Bookworm: Loves the works of Charles Dickens and has read every work but "Our Mutual Friend" which he is saving for just before he dies.
• Beard of Sorrow: While on his boat after trying to flee the island and discovering that he can't escape the island; it just keeps bringing him back. He's clean-shaven when he's off the island; his facial hair seems directly proportionate to his state of mind.
• Butt-Monkey: Desmond has gone through some extremely bad times in his life. He's been emotionally destroyed, lost the love of his life, came close to death several times and was literally told that the island wouldn't let him have a happy ending.
• Breakout Character: Originally intended only to appear in the first three episodes of Season 2, he was brought back and given A Day in the Limelight in the season finale and later promoted to the main cast thanks to his unexpected popularity.
• Catchphrase/Verbal Tic: He has a tendency to call people 'brother' or 'sister'. It's a habit he picked up from his time in a monastery.
• The Constant: Desmond and Daniel are the Trope Namers. Daniel notes that Desmond will be his Constant if anything goes wrong.
• Cosmic Plaything: He's told multiple times that no matter what he does, fate is against him.
  Eloise: You may not like your path, Desmond, but pushing that button is the only truly great thing that you will ever do.
  Eloise: I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Desmond, but the Island isn't done with you yet.
  Widmore: The Island isn't done with you yet.
• Death Seeker: It’s revealed that he almost committed suicide in Season 2, having had enough of the loneliness and the mental stress caused by pushing the button. Fortunately, Locke chose that moment to bang on the hatch loud enough for Desmond to hear, making him realize that other people were on the Island and restoring his will to live.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Whenever he's crushed by the world (which is often) Desmond has himself a drink or four.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Desmond has been through emotional and physical pain that would drive most people to insanity, but he's one of few main characters to survive the series. With their Love Interest intact, no less.
• Genius Bruiser: He's very intelligent and crafty when he needs to be, and is one of the tougher characters around. Out of the main cast, only he and Sayid have an extensive military background.
• Guile Hero: In the flash-sideways timeline.
• Happily Married: Once he and Penny reunite, they waste no time in getting married.
• Iconic Sequel Character: He's a major part of the show's over-arching mythology and the focus of several popular episodes but was first introduced in the second season premiere.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Exactly how Desmond can survive massive amounts of electromagnetism, why he got flashes of the future related to Charlie's death, and why he's so susceptible to Mental Time Travel, is never revealed.
• Living Macguffin: Once he’s back on the Island and it becomes clear that the Man in Black wants him for his plan, the entirety of the conflict revolves around everyone trying to either find him or kill him.
• Looks Like Jesus: Before he shaved off his beard. Henry Ian Cusick has actually played Jesus before.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: When Daniel talks to Desmond during the time flashes in season five, the buzzing that heralds the time jumps begins. Unlike the other characters who aren’t time traveling, Desmond can clearly hear the buzzing and looks around trying to figure out what it is, and at that exact moment in the present day, Desmond suddenly remembers Daniel telling him to find his mother.
• Meaningful Name: He is named after Scottish philosopher David Hume, who is known for his philosophical empiricism and scepticism and is considered one of the most important figures of the Scottish Enlightenment.
• Messianic Archetype: He even looked the part while he had a beard.
• Mr. Fanservice: He has shower scenes, shows up naked at one point, and spends most of Season 3 and 4 dressed in a blue shirt unbuttoned halfway down.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He doesn’t mean to, but pursuing Kelvin away from the hatch causes him to almost not push the button in time. As a result, an electromagnetic incident occurs and causes Oceanic 815’s crash.
• Nice Guy: He's very pleasant and friendly, considering he was isolated from the woman he loved and almost all human contact for about three years. He is extremely hostile when first introduced, but because he thinks the people who've just broke into the Swan are dangerous. Which, given the dynamite and sidearms they were packing (dynamite which they had just used to break uninvited into his dwelling), was entirely reasonable to assume.
• Promotion to Parent: When Charles Widmore asks why he didn't graduate from university Desmond mentions that he had to look after his three brothers. Desmond's tone implies their father either died or left them, and there's no mention of their mother.
• Put on a Bus: After he escaped from the Island, he mostly disappeared from the story except for a brief fight with Ben Linus.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: People (mostly Widmore) throw these at Desmond at any opportunity.
• Sanity Slippage: He's more than a little unbalanced when the survivors first find him in the Swan. Mind, at that point, he'd been completely alone for over six weeks, likely unable to get a good night's sleep (having to wake up to push the button every 100 minutes or so), and thinking that he may have caused the world to end. Under those circumstances, anyone would be a little frazzled. By the time he arrives back at the Island, however, he's far more stable, if drunk and depressed, and manages to stay a relatively well-balanced individual for the remainder of the series.
• The Bus Came Back: After a large amount of absences from the main timeline of Seasons 5 and 6. Well, more like the bus was kidnapped, locked in a submarine, and dragged back against his will.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the flash-sideways, if running over Locke is any indication.

The Man in Black

The Man In Black/The Smoke Monster

"They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same."

Played By: Titus Welliver, Ryan Bradford (child), Carlton Cuse, Simon Elbling, Rob Kyker, Adetokumboh McCormack, Tania Raymonde, Terry O'Quinn, Mirelly Taylor & John Terry

Centric Episodes: "Across the Sea"

"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."

A long-time inhabitant of the Island. He was once a normal man with dark hair and steely eyes, but an encounter with the Heart of the Island, brought on by his brother and enemy, changed him into the Smoke Monster, a living cloud of black smoke. As the smoke, he could manifest himself as deceased individuals, most frequently as his former self.

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• Achilles' Heel:
  • DHARMAs sonic fence is one of the few things shown to hold back the Smoke Monster; trying to get through the active pylons even seems to cause the Monster physical discomfort.
  • Jacob's blessing, whether on individuals like Dogen or on white sand used by Ilana's crew, has been shown to keep the Man in Black out of various places and prevent him from directly attacking people. That said, he's smart enough to find workarounds for this (having Sayid kill Dogen or using his surroundings to knock Bram out of a protective circle).
  • The Man in Black cannot directly harm either Jacob or any of his Candidates, though as with Jacob's blessing, he's smart enough to come up with alternative means of dispatching them.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Given the presence of actual ghosts on the Island, and characters like Hurley and Miles who have the ability to commune with the dead, it's not clear if the Man in Black's Dead Person Impersonation trick accounts for every seemingly dead character who shows up on the Island, nor is it always entirely clear which dead people are him and which are the actual person. Further muddling this is the fact that dead people appearing on the Island predates the Man in Black's transformation; he himself had his biological mother appear to him when he was a boy.
  • Several characters state that the Man in Black's escape would bring about the end of the world, but it's never made clear if the Man in Black knows or believes this himself; he denies to Sawyer (whom he's trying to manipulate) that the Island needs any protection, and at least once, asked Jacob to simply let him leave, though given the Man in Black's tendency to lie and selfishness, it's not clear if he genuinely thinks that his escape would have no consequences, or if he just doesn't care if it does.
  • Both Rousseau and Robert describe the Monster as a "security system" that protects the Island, and Ben is shown to use an ancient pedestal to summon the Monster to sic it on Keamy and his men and to submit himself to its judgement. How the Man in Black is connected to such a thing is never mentioned, especially as he's later confirmed to be a sentient being who despises the Island.
  • It's not clear why the Man in Black is stuck in Locke's form throughout season six. Ilana confirms that he can't change into anything other than his Smoke Monster form, but she doesn't explain why, and the other characters don't have time to ponder it before his plan kicks into gear.
• 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.
• Badass Boast:
  • He has a tendency to make these.
    "Because I could kill you, Jack. Right here, right now. And I could kill every single one of your friends, and there is not a thing you could do to stop me."
    "I'm gonna destroy the Island."
  • Of course, it's easy to act badass when you know you can't be killed.
    Sawyer: I'm wondering what would happen if I put a bullet in your head.
    The Man in Black: Let's find out.
• Bald of Evil: While posing as Locke and Yemi.
• Becoming the Mask: Despite finding Locke pathetic and being the total opposite of everything the man stood for, the longer he uses Locke's appearance, the more the Man in Black mimics his personality. By the finale, he's even speaking of Locke's memories as if they were his own, something Jack considers an insult to Locke's memory.
• Berserk Button:
  • Do not suggest that he should stay on the Island or that he's never going to leave. Also, don't be Jacob. Or act like Jacob, in regards to Locke and Jack.
  • Not cooperating with him when he wants something from you is a good way to get yourself killed by him without hesitation.
• Big Bad: He spends several seasons manipulating everyone from behind-the-scenes, only showing up occasionally to terrorize people in his monster form or manipulate them in the form of dead characters, until he's finally revealed to be the series Big Bad towards the end of Season 5, and finally plays the role directly for the entirety of the final season.
• Blatant Lies: The Man in Black is a Consummate Liar and manipulator, so he lies nigh-constantly, but a few of his claims stand out: he tells Ben that he's been "trapped so long that [he doesn't] even remember what it's like to be free", when in fact, he's never been off the Island, and by his own definition, has never been free; he tells Sawyer that Island doesn't need protection, but his master plan involves the destruction of Island itself; he tries to convince Jack of his good intentions by claiming that he could kill him and everyone else, but won't, but, as Jack later realises, the Man in Black can't directly kill him or any other Candidate.
• Brought Down to Badass: In the series finale, he loses his invulnerability and his ability to turn himself into a cloud of black smoke after Desmond turns off the Heart of the Island. However, he is still a very formidable opponent in his fight with Jack, as he succeeds in inflicting a mortal wound on him and would have killed him outright if Kate hadn't shown up at the last moment.
• Cain and Abel: With Jacob.
• The Chessmaster: The entire series is a game of chess between the Man in Black and Jacob. Since Jacob is so solitary and disinterested, many of the events in the series are a direct result of his manipulations.
• Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Wondering what lies beyond the Island spurs his Start of Darkness.
• Consummate Liar: Which of the Man in Black's claims can be trusted is very difficult to determine, especially when he has everything to gain from lying. Driving home his talent as a deceiver, he'll often mix in the truth (such as telling Richard that he is the black smoke) to seemingly no benefit in order to make his Blatant Lies (such as telling Richard that Jacob is the Devil and holding his wife hostage) more convincing.
• The Corrupter: Whether it's masquerading as a dead loved one, putting his excellent manipulation skills to work, or just flat-out infecting you with a "sickness" that makes you blindly loyal to him, this guy knows how to make people do his bidding.
• Dark Is Evil: He's the Big Bad of the series and his motif is darkness.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  (After brutally murdering the men sent to stop him from killing Jacob) “I’m sorry you had to see me like that.”
  ”That’s probably the coffin they were gonna bury me in.”
• Dead Person Impersonation: A favourite of his. He is able to impersonate any person who has died and appear to those on the island as them. They don't need to have died on the island either and he gains all of their memories and personality traits, allowing him to easier prey on those he wants to manipulate.
• Death Glare: He has a few very menacing ones, usually when something doesn't go his way. But the most chilling has to be when he declares his motive to Ben: "I want to go home.
• De-power: When Desmond turns off the Heart of the Island.
• Didn't Think This Through: His plan to use the wheel to escape the Island, had he actually gone through with it while still just a man. The Man in Black would have indeed escaped from the Island... but only to find himself stranded in the middle of the Sahara Desert, with none of the 21st Century conveniences that ended up saving Ben and Locke. In his defense, it's not clear if there was any way for the Man in Black to have known this.
• Disney Villain Death: We do actually see the body, though.
• Doppelgänger: For various dead people, including John Locke in Seasons 5 and 6.
• The Dreaded: Everybody who knows about his existence and nature is terrified of him.
• Establishing Character Moment: After five seasons of hiding in the shadows and manipulating others with Locke's form, the Man in Black finally showcases everything about him in "LAX". When Bram's team ambushes him, the Man in Black hides behind a pillar - only to reemerge in his monster form and brutally massacre the entire squad within seconds. Bram is initially the only survivor, as he quickly pours an ash circle around himself, but the monster then uses the environment to knock him out of the circle and kills him too. After this, he disappears, only to reappear staring at Ben like nothing happened and say "I'm sorry you had to see me like that". With this, we finally meet the show's Big Bad: manipulative, intelligent, murderous, and dangerously charismatic.
• The End of the World as We Know It: Jacob and higher-ranking members of The Others are convinced this will happen if he is ever allowed to leave the Island. The protagonists are eventually convinced of this as well, as The Man in Black proves to be The Corrupter Big Bad with a Straw Nihilist view of the world... in addition to being a One-Winged Angel MONSTER who callously murders anyone he has no use for.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He claims to Kate that he knows what it's like to lose someone you love; the only people that the Man in Black has ever shown affection to are the Mother and Jacob, both of whom he murdered when they wouldn't allow him to leave the Island, though in the Mother's case, he did show some regret before Jacob punished him.
• Evil Wears Black: Although as Locke, his shirt is usually a dark grey.
• 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.
• A Fate Worse Than Death: His existence as the Monster. He is physically prevented from leaving the Island, which he'd already been trapped on and trying to escape while still human. The lack of humanity doesn't help. He's spent nearly two thousand years as a cloud of black smoke, capable of imitating life, but unable to truly live or die.
• Faux Affably Evil:
  • He's remarkably charming to people whose deaths he's orchestrating, but it's all superficial, and disappears the moment that he no longer needs them alive. The sadism that exists beneath his friendly façade is very clearly shown in the season 6 premiere, where, after posing as Locke, he reveals his contempt for the man, cruelly mocking his belief in his destiny and his confusion at his death.
  • The Man in Black's true nature is foreshadowed in "Yemi's" meeting with Eko in "The Cost of Living"; at first, "Yemi" is all smiles, asking Eko if he seeks forgiveness for his sins. When Eko declines, saying that he has not sinned and simply did what he needed to do, the Man in Black drops any pretense of benevolence, coldly chides Eko for speaking to him as if he really were Yemi, then turns back into the Smoke Monster and savagely beats Eko to death.
• Final Boss: He has one final fist fight with Jack in the series finale which leads to his demise.
• Freudian Excuse: Like pretty much all of the other main characters. He's been stuck on the island his entire life and is desperate to see the world beyond and has lost basically any sanity from his time trapped there.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He starts off as an ordinary man who has Mommy Issues. Then he's thrown into the heart of the Island by his brother Jacob and becomes the immortal Big Bad Smoke Monster who would cause The End of the World as We Know It should he ever escape the Island. Nice going Jacob.
• Genre Savvy: The castaways' confusion and ignorance of the exact nature of phenomena on the Island is key to his strategy, and he is centuries ahead of everyone. Being a psychic shapeshifter is real handy in a place running rampant with ghosts, mysterious visions, prophetic dreams and a bunch of people who are never entirely sure which is which. His crescendo is pretending to be a resurrected John Locke, trusting that no one would be able to dispute this given all the crazy, unexplainable things they've already seen.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: He's been stuck on the island for two-thousand years with no one but his hated brother and the various people who wash ashore at random times and die soon after. As a result, he's lost basically any sense of restraint or morality he once had.
• Hero Killer: He kills Eko, Sayid, Jin, Sun and Jack. Jacob and Widmore could count as well, since they were both trying to stop him.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The Man in Black/Smoke Monster is the first antagonist to be introduced in the series, making his presence known in the very first episode. He ultimately is revealed to be the Big Bad of the entire series.
• Humanoid Abomination: He usually appears in human form, and was once human himself.
• Humans Are Bastards: Believes this wholeheartedly, in direct opposition to Jacob's worldview. Also, considering the fact that he's also human, this one applies on him literally.
• Hypocrite:
  • One of the Man in Black's most frequent criticisms of humanity is that they kill and destroy, which is pretty rich coming from someone who kills countless people in brutally violent ways and will happily destroy anything and everything if it means he can get what he wants.
  • A criticism he has of humans is that they "corrupt"; the Man in Black is evil incarnate and will happily corrupt others, either through manipulation or the "sickness" to get them to do what he wants.
  • He criticises Caesar for calling people "friend" without meaning it; "Ab Aeterno" shows that he spoke exactly the same way to Richard when they first met, calling him "my friend" while conning him into doing the Man in Black's dirty work.
  • In "Across the Sea", he describes the people he's working with as flawed and selfish... in more or less the same breath as admitting that he's just using them so he can get off the Island.
• I Just Want to Be Free: This has been his motivation since he was a boy.
• Icy Blue Eyes: In his original form.
• Immune to Bullets: And knives. He doesn't even bleed, with most objects passing right through him. The only thing that seems capable of harming him even slightly are sonic noises. When Desmond uncorks the Heart of the Island, this trope completely inverts; Kate shooting him gives Jack an opening to finally take him down.
• Invincible Villain: The Man in Black is immune to any conventional weaponry, and various attempts to defeat or destroy him simply slow him down if they don't fail entirely. It's only when he's been Brought Down to Normal at the eleventh hour that he can truly be stopped.
• Irony:
  • The Man in Black's stated mission in life is to "go home"; he was born, raised, and has lived his entire life on the Island, the very place he wants to escape from and the only home he's ever known. It's not clear if he has any idea of where the "home" he seeks even is, or if he even has a specific place in mind.
  • The Man in Black is the opposite of everything John Locke stood for, despising the Island and having none of John's better qualities. Despite that, the Man in Black angrily uses John's Catchphrase "don't tell me what I can't do" when Jacob's ghost warns him against trying to kill Sawyer, and ends up at odds with Jack, John's former rival.
• It Can Think: The Smoke Monster is initially believed to be a supernatural beast that mindlessly destroys at random. Eko's encounters with it imply, and the final two seasons confirm, that it is, in fact, sentient, highly intelligent, and actively malicious.
• It's All About Me: Don't let his friendly and helpful charade fool you. He's ridiculously self-centered, and will gladly destroy everyone and everything that stands in the way of him escaping the Island. If the claims that his escape would cause The End of the World as We Know It are true, he becomes even more selfish, willing to doom the entire world just to get what he wants.
• Jerkass: Beneath all the charm, fake affability, and manipulation, the Man in Black is a selfish, cruel, nihilistic bastard who puts what he wants ahead of anything and anyone else.
• The Juggernaut: In his Smoke Monster form. In human form, he's more of an Implacable Man, shrugging off gunfire or knives, but still able to be slowed down temporarily.
• Knight of Cerebus: When The Monster shows up, it's serious business. This is even more pronounced when he permanently takes the form of the dead John Locke in the final season.
• Lack of Empathy: The lives of others are worth absolutely nothing to the Man in Black compared to what he wants. He clearly recognises and understands the emotions of others, which is what makes him such a good manipulator, but he very clearly doesn't care about anything except himself.
• Laser-Guided Karma: His manipulations, lies, and attempt to kill the survivors eventually resulted in them killing him.
• Manipulative Bastard: His main weapon to deal with people who he can't kill. Special mention goes to taking Alex's form to force Ben to obey John Locke... who is another of the Man in Black's forms. He uses the same trick on Sun and Frank, posing as Christian Shephard and telling them to listen to Locke, then walking up to them later in Locke's form.
• Misanthrope Supreme: For all of his life, the Man in Black has looked down on other people, considering them fundamentally flawed, weak, selfish, and destructive.
• Mode Lock: Ilana claims that he's stuck in the form of Locke during season 6, though we get no explanation why. The most common theory is that Jacob’s death somehow took away his shape shifting, except for his smoke monster form.
• 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.
• Mommy Issues: He himself admits to having issues with his mother.
• Nerves of Steel: Widmore's people try to intimidate him by shelling his camp with mortars. He doesn't even blink.
• Never Given a Name: His birth mother never gave him a name, and neither did his adoptive mother. It's likely that he did have a name, but it was simply never said for the sake of this trope's effect. And after he became the Monster, the person he used to be is pretty much gone. In the present, the main cast, for want of anything else to call him, simply refer to him as "the Monster" (as they've always known the black smoke) or "Locke" (whose form he's stuck using).
• 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.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Even in human form, he's Immune to Bullets, and being stabbed in the chest didn't do anything but surprise him. This ability disappears after the Heart of the Island is turned off.
• No Name Given: His birth name is never revealed. Even in flashbacks with Jacob and his mother, he's never referred to by any name.
• No-Sell:
  • Sayid drives a dagger into the Man in Black's chest. The Man in Black simply pulls out the knife (which isn't even bloody) with a bemused expression.
  • When being shot at by Widmore's henchmen, the Man in Black doesn't even pretend that the bullets are doing anything to him.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Exactly how the Man in Black's escape would bring about the end of the world is never elaborated on, though the fact that snuffing out the light (which the Mother had described as "life") at the Heart of the Island causes the Island itself to be wracked with destructive storms and start to fall apart raises some unsettling possibilities.
• Obviously Evil: Once the Man in Black finally reveals himself, he goes to considerable lengths to convince the survivors that he's not a bad guy and that they are actually on the same side. This despite the fact that he's, you know, a monster that terrorized them since the day of the crash, who is now casually impersonating a dead guy whom they all had mixed feelings about due to his deceptive nature.
• Oh, Crap!: A subtle but notable example. In the final episode, his air of invincibility is briefly broken when Jack states with utter certainty that he's going to kill him. Considering that at this point the Man in Black has fully displayed how unstoppable he is, Jack's confidence in his defeat is enough to unsettle him.
  • He has an even bigger one later when Jack punches him in the face after the Island begins falling apart and he bleeds for the first time in thousands of years, realizing that he's vulnerable now.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He tried to kill everyone on the Island by destroying it, and possibly threatened mankind as a whole in the process.
• One-Man Army: His powers make him virtually invulnerable to harm, especially when he's in his smoke monster form and can lay waste to large, heavily armed groups of soldiers, becoming a sentient tornado with bullet-like precision.
• One-Winged Angel: His true form is the Black Smoke, an invincible column of darkness that can 'scan' the memories of others.
• Passed-Over Promotion: In "Across the Sea", it seemed as if Mother was grooming him to be her replacement as Protector of the Island. Until he learns about his real mother and begins longing to leave the Island. This is his Start of Darkness.
• Person with the Clothing
• Pet the Dog: He stops Claire from boarding Widmore's sub, knowing that it will soon sink when the candidates discover the bomb he planted with their gear. He later subverts this by abandoning her when she refuses to help kill her remaining friends.
• Psycho Knife Nut: He's proficient in firearms, but his weapon of choice is typically a knife, whether he's using them himself or giving them to people he uses to do his killing for him. This makes his final form as resident Knife Nut John Locke all the more fitting. Although, there is greater emphasis on the nut part in the Man in Black's case, as displayed when he threatens to use his hunting knife to slowly kill Bernard and Rose to force Desmond to go with him.
  "I'll make it hurt."
• Psychotic Smirk: When things are going the way he wants, his twisted pleasure is plain to see.
• Really 700 Years Old: Over 2000, actually.
• Sadist: While the Man in Black comes across as polite and civilized, his actions as the Smoke Monster demonstrate a twisted sense of pleasure in violence; he savagely beats Eko to death in a twisted imitation of the sign of the cross and violently guts one of Keamy's men while they shoot at him in vain. He isn't void of sadism in his "human" form either; in describing Locke's final thoughts of fear and confusion to Ben, he has a smile on his face and an amused tone, and when threatening Rose and Bernard, he promises to "make it hurt" when he kills them.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: With the island being the can cork of the bottle.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: After Jacob's death, he doesn't appear to be able to shapeshift like he could before, stuck between either smoke cloud mode or fake!Locke.
• The Sociopath: After a few thousand years of isolation and anger, he fits almost every marker to be identified as one on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist.
  • Glibness/superficial charm
  • Grandiose sense of self-worth
  • Cunning/manipulative
  • Lack of remorse or guilt
  • Callousness; lack of empathy
  • Poor behavioral control
  • Impulsivity
• Start of Darkness: "Across The Sea"
• Straw Nihilist: Despite his obsession with escaping the island to the world "across the sea", The Man in Black really looks down on humanity. Even what he knows of life outside of the Island from looking into people's memories doesn't impress him, as he considers the lives that the Oceanic survivors left behind to be "pitiful." Not that he doesn't have a point. And not that he's one to talk, of course. You'd be forgiven for thinking this was a symptom of his being, well, The Monster, but no. He loathed everything about other people even when he was still a man.
• Superpower Lottery: Being trapped on the island, he has some pretty nifty abilities to compensate. Aside from being immortal and turning into a giant mass of smoke that is invulnerable to harm and incredibly strong, he is an extremely skilled telepath, a shapeshifter and is even said to be able to revive the dead. Kind of makes Jacob's power to bestow immortality look a bit lame by comparison.
• Super Smoke: He is known as the smoke monster for a reason.
• 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. He can also appear as their loved ones and gain their memories, create illusions so that only the person he's speaking to can see and hear him and appear in dreams.
• The Unfettered: There is nothing he won't do to get what he wants.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Attempts to flee the Island as it's crumbling down in order to finally accomplish his goal in escaping the Island. It's subverted as just as he's about to get on his boat though, he stops to have a Final Battle with Jack anyway when Jack tries to stop him which leads to his Disney Villain Death.
• Villain Protagonist: The Big Bad was also a main cast member in the final season. He was also a Hidden Villain Protagonist in season 5, as the audience believes he's John Locke until the season finale.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Prior to killing Jacob and being stuck in the form of Locke, he could appear as his original self and virtually anyone else. Usually these would be people who have a connection to those he was trying to manipulate, especially dead loved ones.
• Was Once a Man: Before being tossed into the Source by Jacob.
• We Used to Be Friends: As children, he and Jacob were very close, and, despite the Man in Black falling out with their mother, they continued to chat and play games together as adults. However, once Jacob became the Island's protector and the Man in Black killed the Mother, all that went away; Jacob, enraged, punished his brother by throwing him into the Source, which transformed the Man in Black into the Smoke Monster and trapped him on the Island forever. In the present, the Man in Black despises Jacob and plots to murder him, while Jacob remains resolute in his commitment to keep the Man in Black right where he is. Tellingly, in the present day, they no longer refer to themselves as brothers; Jacob simply calls the Man in Black an "old friend".

Christian

Dr. Christian Shephard

"Some people are just supposed to suffer. That's why the Red Sox will never win the damn series."

Played By: John Terry

Centric Episodes: None

"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."

The son of Ray Shephard, the father of Jack Shephard and Claire Littleton, the husband of Margo Shephard, former lover of Carole Littleton, and the grandfather of Aaron Littleton.

Prior to having his license stripped for performing surgery under the influence of alcohol and the resulting death of a patient, he was the Chief of Surgery at St. Sebastian Hospital.

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• Abusive Parent: Psychologically abusive. Jack's father was a drunk who never showed him any approval or affection, constantly belittling his own son just to feed his own ego. His mother blames him for getting his dad fired, ignoring the fact that Christian performed surgery on a pregnant woman while drunk, leading to the woman's death, which Christian subsequently tried to cover up.
• The Alcoholic: He struggled with alcoholism for much of his life, and it ultimately cost him his job and his life.
• Alcoholic Parent: To Jack.
• Ambiguous Situation: Christian makes quite a few posthumous appearances, which the Man in Black eventually takes credit for, but given the confirmed presence of ghosts on the Island, as well as Christian making a few appearances off of the Island and the Man in Black being a Consummate Liar, it's less clear as to whether all of Christian's appearances were the Man in Black; a few of them were definitely him (leading Jack to the caves, abducting Claire, manipulating Locke, instructing Frank and Sun to trust "Locke"), some others are less certain to be him (Christian appearing to Michael on the Freighter when the Man in Black can't leave the Island and appearing to Vincent just after the crash), and others still aren't definitely supernatural at all (Jack seeing him after leaving the Island).
• Armor-Piercing Question: In the flash-sideways timeline, he asks Jack a question that ultimately makes him realize that they're currently in the afterlife:
  Jack: I don't understand... How are you here?
  Christian: How are you here?
• Character Death: After losing everything, Christian goes to Australia to see his daughter and ultimately drinks himself to death.
• Deadpan Snarker: It's clear to see where Jack got it from.
• Death Equals Redemption: It was only once he was dead that Jack realized that he was a good man underneath the alcoholism and bitterness, and the father and son are ultimately able to make up and repair their fractured relationship in the afterlife.
• Disappeared Dad: To Claire, who only finds out who he is when her mother ends up in a coma.
• Dr. Jerk: Averted while he's on the job; he's aware of what bedside manner can do to help someone.
• Drowning My Sorrows: He spends his time in Australia drinking himself to death out of bitterness over how his relationship with Jack turned out.
• Everyone Has Standards: He might be an smug jerkass, but even he's horrified that his son would think so low of him to think that he would be having an affair with Jack's ex-wife.
• Good Is Not Nice: Arrogant yet self-loathing, callous, selfish, an alcoholic, verbally abusive to his son, an adulterer, absent parent...and still a good man who feels he's failed his son in almost every way and tries to be a good doctor in spite of his many, many flaws.
• Jerkass: He's an arrogant drunk with a penchant for verbal abuse.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • In his first appearance pre-death, Christian lectures a young Jack that he can't be a hero because he doesn't have what it takes, namely that he's not prepared to fail. It's horrible to give this lecture to such a young boy, but Jack later proves him right, particularly when he tries to save Boone and is so desperate not to fail that he nearly kills himself trying to save him.
  • Even disregarding how abusive he is to Jack, Christian is generally an incredibly unpleasant alcoholic whose antics got a patient killed. However, he accurately calls Jack out for his terrible bedside manner and lectures him on the importance of giving patients hope they can recover, even if it's only a 1% chance.
  • While he was proven wrong by her later recovery, he's also quite correct to tell Claire that her mother is unlikely to ever wake up from her coma and it's not fair to keep her around in an impaired state due to not being able to let her go.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Paying for Claire's mother's medical care and trying to convince Claire to let her go, out of genuine compassion. He also genuinely wanted to help Jack move on from his divorce, even bringing the latter along to one of his AA meetings. Sadly, Jack's refusal to cooperate depresses Christian so much that he ends up hitting the bottle harder than before.
• Meaningful Echo: Actually a retroactive example. His comment to Sawyer about the Sox winning the World Series makes Sawyer realize that he’s Jack’s father once Jack repeats it. Sawyer uses this information to repeat everything Christian said to him about how proud he was of his son.
• Meaningful Name: 'Christian Shephard'? It’s lampshaded in the finale, when Christian fulfills his name and shepherds the survivors to the final afterlife.
• Mr. Exposition: In "The End", it's Christian who explains the purpose of the flash-sideways and guides both Jack and the audience through what will happen next.
• Parents as People: Ultimately what Christian boils down to. He was a good man who did genuinely care for Jack, he just never knew how to express that to him, and his tendency to put down his son earned his son's resentment. They finally patch things up in the flashsideways though.
• Posthumous Character: He's only ever seen in the flashsideways and flashbacks, having died prior to the crash. The Man in Black sometimes takes his form.
• Punny Name: Lampshaded in the Finale.
• Promoted to Opening Titles: For the last episode.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He doled these out to a young Jack.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Christian is directly responsible for Sawyer, Ana Lucia, and Jack being on the plane.
  • After hiring Ana Lucia to protect him, he leaves her alone to go drink himself to death, leaving her to fly back home on Oceanic 815.
  • Christian uses his situation with Jack to encourage Sawyer to finish whatever he started in Australia. This not only leads to Sawyer murdering an innocent man, and when Sawyer gets in a bar brawl as a result of his guilt, he's deported on flight 815.
  • Jack was on flight 815 in the first place because he had to ferry Christian's corpse back to Los Angeles. If it weren't for their terrible relationship, Jack wouldn't have fought so hard to get Christian's corpse on the plane and would've had to take a later flight.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: He has shown very little approval of Jack, despite being secretly proud of him.
• You All Share My Story: Christian turns up over and over in the flashbacks of other characters like Sawyer, Claire, and Ana-Lucia. It culminates when Christian is the one who helps all of the 815 survivors move on to the final afterlife in the flash-sideways by opening the church doors for them.

Pierre Chang

Pierre Chang

"Namaste. And... good luck."

Played By: François Chau

Centric Episodes: None

"There are rules, rules that can't be broken."

A DHARMA Initiative theoretical astrophysicist from Ann Arbor, Michigan who appeared in orientation films for the different stations on the Island.

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• An Arm and a Leg: His arm was crushed during the Incident, and shortly afterward (judging from the orientation tapes) amputated.
• Break Her Heart to Save Her: He had to be harsh to his wife Lara to get her to take baby Miles off the Island so they'd be safe from The Incident.
• Character Death: He died (presumably during the Purge) many years prior to the series.
• Disappeared Dad: To Miles, who deeply resented his father's absence until he learned why Pierre wasn't around.
• Happily Married: Or he was, to Lara Chang before The Incident.
• I Have Many Names: He uses the aliases Marvin Candle, Mark Wickmund, and Edgar Halliwax for the DHARMA orientation films.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's often short-tempered and snippy, but he's fundamentally not a bad person and shows concern for the well-being of his community. He's also drastically more level-headed than Radzinsky.
• Nice Character, Mean Actor: The orientation videos are much more welcoming than Pierre is in real life.
• Papa Wolf: To Miles.
• Posthumous Character: He's long-dead by the time the series begins, only appearing in orientation tapes and when the characters are stuck in the 1970s.
• Promoted to Opening Titles: For the last episode.
• Only Sane Man: Within the Dharma Initiative. Unlike Horace and Radzinsky, he's both level-headed and reasonable, while still having the strength to assert himself when he has to.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: More passive/lower in rank than Horace and Radzinsky, but a considerably better leader than either.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: He decides to help stop his boss, Radzinsky.

Ilana

Ilana Verdansky

"What lies in the shadow of the statue?"

Played By: Zuleikha Robinson

Centric Episodes: "The Incident, Part 1"

A survivor of Ajira Flight 316. She claimed to Sayid Jarrah to be a bounty hunter hired by the family of Peter Avellino to capture Sayid and escort him to Guam. In reality she was summoned to the Island to protect the remaining candidates by Jacob, with whom she had a previous relationship.

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• 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).
• Action Girl: Ilana is certainly handy with a gun.
• Bounty Hunter: Her cover story to nab Sayid; in reality she's an agent of Jacob.
• Character Death: Ilana blows up after mishandling dynamite.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: But it never gets to truly happen.
• Determinator: She's relentless in her mission.
• 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.
• Hello, Attorney!: She's Desmond's attorney in the flash-sideways.
• Honey Trap: The tactic she used to entrap Sayid when she was masquerading as a Bounty Hunter.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can certainly be bossy, but she's brave and has good intentions.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: When she explodes.
• Mistaken for Prostitute: Sayid briefly assumes she's a prostitute trying to solict him due to her flirtatious behaviour.
• Mysterious Past: Carlton Cuse refers to her past as, 'hard and tragic' but we never find out her backstory or why she was so badly burned when Jacob visited her in hospital.
• 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 Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Ben muses that the Island may have decided this of Ilana, leading to her 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.

Penelope

Penelope "Penny" Hume (nee Widmore)

"All we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for you always. I love you."

Played By: Sonya Walger

Centric Episodes: None

"There's no calling my father off."

The wife of Desmond Hume, the daughter of Charles Widmore, and half-sister of Daniel Faraday. Before he became stranded on the island, Penny was the long time girlfriend of Desmond. However, due to Desmond's fear of commitment, they stopped seeing each other. After Desmond went missing in 2001, Penny began searching for him hoping he was still alive.

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• Dating What Daddy Hates: Penny's elitist father didn't consider Desmond worthy of a drink of his whiskey, much less of marrying his precious daughter. He did everything he could to sabotage their relationship, but, Determinators that they are, Penny and Desmond eventually get together despite Widmore's efforts and live a happy life together in spite of him.
• Demoted to Extra: While a recurring character throughout most of the show's run, Penny had a central part in several episodes due to her prominence in Desmond's flashbacks and storylines. In Season 6, however, her part was greatly reduced, with her only appearing in one episode prior to the finale (the Desmond-centric "Happily Ever After") and only showing up in the Flash-Sideways for all of her appearances, never in the present. Her last appearance in the show's present timeline actually occurs in Season 5's "The Variable". And while Sonya Walger was promoted to the main cast list for the series finale, even then, she wasn't given a speaking line.
• Determinator: Hunted for Desmond and never gave up.
• Happily Married: Once they finally reunite, Penny and Desmond marry, have a child, and live together happily.
• Inter-Class Romance: With Desmond.
• I Never Got Any Letters: Because her father, Charles Widmore, intercepted every single letter Desmond tried to send her.
• I Will Wait for You: For Desmond.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's one of the most morally upright characters, and has strawberry blonde hair.
• Mama Bear: For her son, who she tells to go inside when Ben confronts her.
• Meaningful Name: In The 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.
• Morality Pet: For her father, Charles.
• Promoted to Opening Titles: For the last episode.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Desmond.
• Time-Travel Romance: With Desmond, again.

Eloise Hawking

Eloise Hawking

"All right. I apologize if this is confusing, but let's pay attention, yes?"

Played By: Fionnula Flanagan, Alexandra Krosney (teenaged) & Alice Evans (middle aged)

Centric Episodes: None

"Oh, stop thinking how ridiculous it is, and start asking yourself, whether or not you believe it's going to work."

The caretaker of the L.A.-based Dharma station known as the Lamp Post, which can track the location of the island. Eloise is the mother of Daniel Faraday, the father being Charles Widmore, and like Widmore was formerly a member of the Others.

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• Abusive Mom: She crushes Daniel's dreams and pushes him into a scientific career, manipulating him his entire life so he can go to the island and die. However, she takes no happiness from this. She's merely ensuring things happen as they should, but she's devastated inside.
• Action Girl / Dark Action Girl: During the time in which the younger versions of her appear. Either way, it's exaggerated with "Ellie" in the 1954 timeline.
• Ambiguously Evil: Her motives and actions are shrouded in mystery for much of the show, and as such her ultimate goal is ambiguous. She's certainly ruthless, but ultimately her actions did settle on the side of good.
• Because Destiny Says So: Her entire mantra. She even actively aids 'destiny' by sending Daniel on the path to the island.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She seems like a kindly old lady when she's first introduced, but within a few seconds she shows how cruel she can be. She demonstrates with every appearance her capacity for ruthlessness.
• Brutal Honesty: She has no time for lies, telling people exactly what she thinks of them, such as stating that Ben is 'probably' lying when Jack asks.
• The Chessmaster: She's one of the best and most experienced players in the show.
• Deadpan Snarker: She doesn't suffer fools gladly and lets them know it.
• 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.
• Education Mama: To Daniel, who she forces along a scientific career.
• Grandfather Paradox: Inverted. Her son gets sent back in time and killed by her...while she's pregnant with him.
• Jerkass: When she was a teenager.
• Manipulative Bitch: Eloise successfully manipulates Daniel down a pre-arranged path for his entire life, ultimately culminating in his death.
• Meaningful Name: She's named after quantum physicist Stephen Hawking, author of 'A Brief History of Time'. Time is very relevant to Eloise.
• Mysterious Past: Despite seeing her in 1977, very little remains known about her. How she came to the island in the first place, exactly how her relationship with Widmore soured, how she came to know so much about being the Time Police...
• Offing the Offspring: Unknowingly shot the time-travelling adult version of her unborn son while pregnant with him, and spent the entirety of her time raising him burdened with the awful knowledge of what awaited him.
• Pregnant Badass: In 1977.
• Promoted to Opening Titles: For the last episode.
• Time Police: Per Word of God and backed up by her actions.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: To ensure everything that happened still happens, she sets her son on the path to certain death.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Her entire philosophy as she explains it to Desmond.
  Eloise: Had I warned him about the scaffolding tomorrow he'd be hit by a taxi. If I warned him about the taxi, he'd fall in the shower and break his neck. The universe, unfortunately, has a way of course correcting. That man was supposed to die. That was his path just as it's your path to go to the island. You don't do it because you choose to, Desmond. You do it because you're supposed to.

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