Characters / Lost: Main Survivors

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.

Flight 815 Fuselage Survivors

Flight 815

Left to right: Jack, Locke, Hurley, Kate, Libby, Michael, Ana Lucia, Claire, Charlie, Jin, Eko, Sawyer, Sun, Sayid.

Played By: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Sam Anderson, Naveen Andrews, L. Scott Caldwell, Emilie de Ravin, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Maggie Grace, Josh Holloway, Malcolm David Kelley, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O'Quinn, Harold Perrineau, Rodrigo Santoro, Kiele Sanchez, Ian Somerhalder, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Watros

• Action Survivor: The vast majority of them are just people with average jobs, save for the occasional Republican Guard veteran or Nigerian warlord.
• Anti-Hero: With the possible exception of Hurley, the survivors tend to go with their own self-interests a great deal of the time.
• Anyone Can Die: The only survivors who are (technically) left at the end of the series are Kate, Sawyer, Claire, Hurley, Rose, Bernard, Walt, and Vincent.
• The Atoner: With only a few exceptions, most of the survivors are seeking redemption for things they did in their past.
• Badass Normal: Many (Kate, Sayid, Sawyer, Jin, Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko) were absolute bad-asses even before they were stranded on The Island. The ones who weren't (Jack, Locke, Hurley, Claire, Charlie, Sun) learned very quickly.
• The Chosen Many: It turns out that several passengers on the plane were candidates to replace Jacob as protector of the Island and destroy the Man in Black. Ultimately, Jack is the one who accepts the role, only to pass it on to Hurley.
• Cosmic Plaything: Life sucks a lot for these guys, and the individual cases are astoundingly tragic.
• Dark and Troubled Past: All of them have at least something horrible or traumatic in their background. It can be as tragically banal as a dead husband, or as outrageously disturbing as a father stealing a kidney from them.
• The Determinator: That they rarely if ever completely give up on each other is one of their biggest strengths.
• Dwindling Party: Flight 815 set off with 324 people on board. 72 survived the initial crash (49 in the mid-section, 22 in the tail section and the Pilot in the nose). By the end of the series there are only 11 (and Vincent) left alive.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Pretty much all of them go through absolute hell, and only a few get a happy ending.
• Fire-Forged Friends: They end up bonded together by the trauma and terrible events they endure.
• Ineffectual Loner: Nearly all of them were living lives in which they are alienated from others and isolated, leaving them somewhat incapable of fitting in with the world. Time on The Island forces them to work as a group to survive.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Some of their problems could be resolved if not for their own personal hangups getting in the way of the broader picture.
• The Protagonist: The majority of the series' main characters are survivors of Flight 815.
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: A doctor, a fugitive, a con man, a millionaire, a torturer, a hunter... the list keeps going.
• Trauma Conga Line: Every one of the survivors have lead complex lives usually full of misery and misfortune, and that's prior to a plane crash that strands them on a dangerous island where their lives are constantly at risk.
• True Companions: They gradually become this over the course of the series. It's to the point that, even in death, most of them choose to move on to the afterlife together.
• White-and-Grey Morality: Ultimately, though, the survivors all begin with Grey-and-Gray Morality.

Jack

Dr. Jack Shephard

"If we can't live together, then we're gonna die alone."

Played By: Matthew Fox & John O'Hara (child)

Voiced By: Ricardo Tejedo (Latin-American Spanish), Kazuhiko Inoue (Japanese)

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"

"Everybody wants me to be a leader, until I make a decision they don't like."

A spinal surgeon with a hero complex, Jack is the de facto leader of the survivors. Originally struggling to fill the role, Jack eventually grows into the role and helps the survivors form a functioning society, leading them all through conflicts and missions. Though his rational mind is a boon as a leader, he struggles with the mystical aspects of the Island and often conflicts with fellow survivor John Locke over their differing methods.

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• AB Negative: After trying and failing to find an exact A negative match for Boone, Jack reveals that he's a universal donor and can give Boone some of his blood. Sun eventually forces him to stop the transfusion because it's draining too much from him.
• Action Genre Hero Guy: Aside from being a doctor, Jack meets nearly every requirement for this trope and maintains that image for four seasons.
• After Action Patch Up: His first meeting with Kate is this. Following the crash, he has a wound he needs stitched but can't reach. Kate just so happens to be walking by at the time.
• Agent Scully: In Seasons 1 through 4. It reaches its ultimate point in the Season 4 finale, where the Island disappears right before his eyes and he still desperately tries to deny it happened.
• The Alcoholic: Prior to the crash (and even afterwards) Jack could take or leave a drink, but after being rescued he gradually comes apart psychologically as the Island tries to draw him back. To cope, he starts drinking heavily and abusing prescription medication, even writing prescriptions for himself.
• The Atoner: He becomes consumed with guilt over Locke's death and leaving the other survivors on the island behind. He becomes it again when his actions lead to Juliet's death.
• Badass Bookworm: Jack might be an intelligent, moralistic doctor but he's also a complete badass who doesn't show much fear and rarely backs down.
• Battle in the Rain: He has a climatic showdown in the rain three times. Firstly with Ethan, who ably kicks his ass but loses in the subsequent rain-soaked rematch. He then fights the Smoke Monster (in mortal form) on the cliffs during a storm.
• Beard of Sorrow: During his post-Island depression.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Jack started out as the man of science to Locke's man of faith, a division that drove their increasingly intense rivalry. However, after Locke dies and Jack's post-Island life falls apart, he comes to take Locke's ideals as his own; in the last two seasons, it's Jack who is the man of faith, fighting to protect the Island and standing in opposition to the nihilistic Man in Black.
• Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Sawyer's Veronica for Kate's Archie. He ultimately ends up with Kate, while Sawyer is with Juliet.
• Big Good: Jack accepts Jacob's offer to become the next guardian of the island, briefly becoming the Big Good before dying and passing the mantle to Hurley.
• Book Ends: The first shot of the show is Jack opening his eye as he wakes up on the island. The last is him closing his eye as he dies.
• Broken Ace: Jack has a variety of skills but as a person, he's messed up and borders on unstable.
• Butt-Monkey: Nothing seems to go right for him. An abusive father, deep psychological issues, a marriage which dissolves, a plane crash and a laundry list of traumatic events that ensue following the crash.
• Catchphrase: "Live together, die alone."
• The Chains of Commanding: Jack is a conflicted leader, and mostly winds up in the position initially because he's the only one who seems capable and he seriously struggles with the pressure of the role and any time he fails to save any of the survivors.
• Character Death: The Man in Black stabs Jack in the side. He manages to make it through to the Source and fixing the problem. He walks into the bamboo forest he landed in when the plane first crashed, and dies with Vincent at his side.
• Chekhov's Gun: In the flash-sideways timeline, Jack notices a cut on his neck and a scar on his side, both of which he can’t remember getting (his mother claims the wound on his side was from an appendectomy, which he also doesn’t remember). He had an appendectomy in the original timeline, while both of those wounds were given in his final fight against the Man in Black; the latter wound kills him.
• The Chessmaster: He's no Ben Linus, but he does make some very skilled moves. Perhaps because nobody expects it from him, but Jack manipulates both Ben, Juliet and Tom to save Kate and Sawyer.
• Chick Magnet: Over the course of the series, Jack is seen to be involved with, sleep with, or at least be flirted with by no fewer than seven women.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: One of his biggest flaws is his savior complex. In his first flashback, Young!Jack tries to stop some bullies from hurting another kid, and gets punched for it. Several people call him out on it and his pathological need to save everybody leads to his more extreme moments. For example, his attempt to amputate Boone's leg in what would have likely been a pointless attempt to save his life.
• Cultured Badass: He plays a mean game of chess. He also plays the piano.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, particularly when he's feeling especially confident.
  Jack: Tell me something. How come any time there's a hike into the heart of darkness, you sign up?

  Kate: Being told not to come along. Now you know what it's like to be me.
  Jack: Does that mean I should wait 20 minutes and go anyway?
• Determinator: Especially in the earlier seasons, he will stop at nothing in order to save someone's life.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Jack has a fight with The Man in Black in the series finale, and finally kicks him off a cliff.
• Dr. Jerk: His bedside manner is awful. Jack comes across as cold, clinical and uncaring to his patients. Of course, this is the way a doctor needs to be so they can cope with their job, but Jack lacks the charm his father posses. He overcompensates by marrying his patient. He becomes a lot better in the flash sideways as his interactions with John before surgery show.
• Establishing Character Moment: When we first see Jack, he awakes from the crash and instantly starts running about pulling people out of the wreckage, saving at least four people's lives in as many minutes.
• Everyone Has Standards: Jack was okay with lying to protect Christian even though his alcoholic negligence likely killed a patient until he learned that the patient was pregnant.
• Fatal Flaw: His inability to let go proves to be this tying in with his compulsive need to save everyone and come down hard on himself if he can't, which often makes him stubborn to the point where he's unreasonable. He eventually moves past this as the series moves along.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: His relationship with Sarah Wagner, his ex-wife, was based entirely on this. Deconstructed, since Sarah still idolizes him for saving her and Jack thinks he's obligated to be her caretaker. The foundations of their relationship are too shaky to build a marriage on, and it gradually dissolves.
• Genius Bruiser: He's a very skilled spinal surgeon and a capable fighter who can deliver some truly epic beatdowns when pissed off.
• Go Out with a Smile: Dying from his wounds, Jack wanders back into the bamboo growth where he first awoke on the island and, after seeing the plane taking off with his friends aboard, dies with a smile.
• Good Is Not Soft: While he's no doubt a hero, Jack is in no way a pushover. His speech while trying to convince Sawyer to give up a briefcase full of guns is a standout.
• The Hero: Of the entire series. The leader of the group, basically the main character of the cast, with the innate need to help in whatever way he can. In the end, he spends some time as the protector of the island before his passing.
• The Hero Dies: The last shot of the series is Jack closing his eye as he dies from his wounds.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the series finale when he saves the Island despite knowing he'll die in the process. Of course, he was dying from his injury anyway.
• Inconvenient Hippocratic Oath: Jack, somewhat reasonably, ignores his oath and refuses to help Ben...at first. Eventually, he gives in, but only to use Ben as leverage when he has him helpless on the operating table.
• Ivy League for Everyone: He attended Columbia University.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When a situation heats up, Jack gets snippy and short-tempered but he does have a genuine desire to help others.
• Last Kiss: With Kate, after he's mortally wounded.
• The Leader: To the 815 survivors, which he isn't always happy about.
• Long-Lost Relative: Jack and Claire are half-siblings through Christian, which Jack doesn't learn until after he leaves the Island, meeting Claire's mother at Christian's funeral.
• Love Makes You Dumb: His love for Kate and despair at having lost her leads him to detonate a hydrogen bomb in the hopes of preventing Flight 815 from having crashed in the first place. It doesn't work.
• Love Triangle: He's involved in an extremely long Love Triangle with Kate and Sawyer.
• Manly Tears: He's often seen crying in various moments. Exodus (1) is particularly memorable with one of the most emotional moments in the series, as Sawyer tells him about his meeting with his father Christian in Australia.
• The Medic: His medical expertise makes him invaluable among the survivors.
• Mirror Character: In Season 6, Jack becomes a mirror of his former ideological rival, John Locke, as he is now convinced of his destiny to protect the Island and is the most adamant about staying when the rest of the survivors plan to leave.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His attempts to "fix things" usually fail and when they don't they usually makes things worse. The most prominent example is his plan to detonate Jughead: he intends to blow it up to prevent Oceanic 815 from crashing, but Jughead’s detonation begins the chain of events that lead to the crash in the first place.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • In "Through the Looking Glass", Ben tricks Jack into thinking that he'd just executed Bernard, Jin and Sayid. Jack beats the absolute hell out of Ben, stopping just short of killing him.
  • In "The Beginning of the End", he tackles Locke to the ground for his murder of Naomi, grabs a gun, and attempts to shoot Locke, only failing to kill him because the gun was unloaded. Even after the gun doesn't work, he starts pummeling Locke relentlessly with his fists and has to be dragged off him by Sayid and Sawyer.
  • In "The Incident", Jack's fight with Sawyer sees him on the receiving end; once Sawyer gets the upper hand, he pummels Jack with his bare hands until Juliet stops the fight.
• 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 the Man in Black, but Sawyer screws it up by tampering with the bomb and thus subverting the armor.
• Rage Against the Reflection: When he realizes that Jacob has been watching him his entire life, he smashes all the Lighthouse mirrors.
• Shoot the Dog: After Sawyer's failed attempt to euthanize Edward Mars condemns the man to a slow, painful demise, Jack, despite his previous unwillingness to do so, ends Mars' suffering himself.
• Skeptic No Longer: Season 5 and beyond, when he starts believing and becomes more passive.
• Take Up My Sword: After being grievously wounded by the Man in Black, he turns over guardianship of the island to Hurley.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: It's not hard to see why the likes of Sarah, Gabriela, Achara, Ana Lucia, Kate and Juliet gravitate toward him. Even Miles calls him 'handsome' albeit in an aggressive way.
• To the Pain: Jack gives a brutal and chilling speech to Sawyer when he won't give up Kate's locked case to him.
  "That's the antibiotic I've been giving you for the knife wound in your arm. You're right in the middle of the treatment cycle now, if I keep giving you the pills you're going to be right as rain. But I'm going to stop giving you the pills. And for two days you're going to think you're all good, then it's going to start to itch. The day after that the fever's going to come and you're going to start seeing red lines running up and down your arm. A day or two after that you'll beg me to take the case, just to cut off your arm."
• Troll: One would be surprised.
  Jack: Have you ever had sex with a prostitute?
  Sawyer: What's that got to do with my headaches?
  Jack: Maybe a lot.
  Sawyer: ...yes.
  Jack: Have you ever contracted an STD? (silence) I'll take that as a yes. When was your last outbreak?
  Sawyer: Go to hell, Doc. (storms out of tent)
  Kate: I know he deserved it, but...
  Jack: He needs glasses.
• Underestimating Badassery: Most people aren't expecting a career spinal surgeon with daddy issues to be that cunning or dangerous. Whether it's his fellow castaways, the Others, the Freighter folk or the freaking Smoke Monster, they're all usually taken aback to discover that Jack is a far more formidable threat than they realized.
• We Just Need to Wait for Rescue: Initially, this is Jack's issue hence why he's set on burning the bodies from the crash.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: He has some severe issues with his father, both hating him and craving approval.
• 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.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In "The Incident", Sawyer calls him out for returning to the Island and upsetting the life he and Juliet had made together, punctuating his words with a brutal beating. When Jack's plan fails and results in Juliet's death, Sawyer calls him out again, angrily blaming Jack for what had happened.
  Sawyer: Who the hell do you think you are?! I HAD A LIFE HERE!
• When He Smiles: On the rare occasion he's not torturing himself over some failure and the universe stops dumping on him long enough for him to experience some happiness, Jack's smile is a truly wonderful sight to behold.
• Window Love: With Kate, when they're both held captive by the Others.

Kate

Katherine Anne "Kate" Austen

"I'm coming with you!"

Played By: Evangeline Lilly, Skye McCole Bartusiak (voice) & 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"

"So what, I'm your prisoner?"

A former criminal who was extradited back to America on Flight 815, Kate had spent years running from the law for killing her abusive father before ending up on the Island. Quickly proving herself a crucial member of the survivors' society, Kate's reclusiveness is only matched by her quick-wittedness and her willingness to help the others by any means necessary.

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• AB Negative: She reveals she's a universal donor when she volunteers to donate blood to young Ben Linus after Sayid shoots him.
• Action Girl: She has plenty of combat experience, and she's a pretty good shot too.
• After Action Patch Up: Her first interaction with Jack has her stitching up a wound in his side.
• Ambiguously Christian: Kate uses the names of saints as aliases while on the run, and she knows enough about Catholicism to start a habit of phoning Mars on Holy Days of Obligation, but she never admits to any specific religious beliefs of her own.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: She gives one to Jack, realizing his choice to stay behind to die, after giving him a parting kiss.
• Anti-Hero: Although genuinely well-meaning for the most part, Kate has a definite selfish streak and a bad habit of applying different standards to herself than she does to anyone else. Character Development helps soothe Kate's worse qualities, and she ends the series much closer to a straight-up hero.
• Badass in Distress: Despite her badassness, Kate gets inexplicably caught on multiple occassions, the most blatant example being on Season 2 when she gets caught by the Others and used to send the group searching for Michael back to camp.
• Betty and Veronica:
  • The Archie for Jack's Betty and Sawyer's Veronica. She ends up being Jack's "soulmate", while Sawyer ends up with Juliet.
  • The Veronica to Juliet's Betty for Sawyer's Archie. This Love Triangle doesn't last so long, as by the time Kate returns to the island, Sawyer has already become adamant that Juliet's the one for him.
• 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, by pretending to be sweet and innocent.
• Big Damn Heroes: Deals the finishing blow to the Man in Black in the series finale.
• Blatant Lies: In "Born to Run", Kate, despite admitting that she's a fugitive, remarks that she's going to jail no matter what she "supposedly" did; "What Kate Did" reveals that she absolutely did commit murder, and almost all of her flashbacks feature her committing at least one crime, ranging from fraud to assault.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She's worse than Sawyer when it comes to admitting her feelings. Most of her confessions come during times of stress.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With her friend Tom, which included a childhood marriage promise and all... unfortunately, he dies in the same flashback episode he's introduced of an Instant Death Bullet.
• Damsel in Distress: Kate might be a badass, but she's also the character who gets kidnapped the most. The Others seem to constantly kidnap her. This also corresponds to her being in custody while on the plane.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Near the end of Season 1, Kate tried to steal Sawyer's place on the raft, planning to, if they found rescue, pose as the late Joanna, who had drowned earlier in the season, thus allowing her to escape justice yet again. Sawyer puts the kibosh on this plan, revealing Kate's intentions and her criminal past to the survivors at large.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Shot The Man in Black just as he was about to kill Jack.
  Kate: I saved you a bullet!
• Establishing Character Moment: Despite being scared and initially unsure of whether she can do it, Kate sutures a wound that Jack can't reach, showing that, for all her uncertainties on the subject, Kate is a good person who wants to help others.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Kate's flashbacks in "Whatever the Case May Be" show that she was perfectly willing to stage a bank robbery for her own benefit, but she drew the line at unnecessary killing; when her partner (and lover) tried to shoot the bank manager, Kate shot him and their other two accomplices and left them for the police.
  • Kate is aghast at Jack and Sayid's willingness to torture Sawyer in "Confidence Man".
• Fatal Flaw: She suffers from an intense case of self-loathing, which often causes her to make selfish decisions that alienates the people that she cares about.
• Heel–Face Turn: She was a fugitive being taken from Australia back to the U.S. by a government agent. But after the crash, she's clearly a good guy.
• Honorary Aunt: After leaving the island for the first time she tracks down Sawyer's daughter, who happens to also be the child of Kate's friend Cassidy. Clementine eventually starts calling her "Auntie Kate".
• I Have Many Names: Kate adopts many aliases while on the run, including Annie, Maggie Ryan, Joan Hart, and Monica Callis.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kate can be self-righteous, on top of being a liar and a murderer, but, even on the run, she had a decent streak that never quite went away, and which becomes one of her defining traits on the Island.
• Kill It with Fire: How she murdered her father—causing an explosion that took the entire house.
• The Lancer: Though Kate acts as Jack's conscience for most of the show, she becomes his Lancer in Season 5 after the Oceanic Six leave the Island, as Sayid drifts away from the rest of the survivors to become Ben's hired killer. Kate is the first person to agree to Jack's proposal that the group lie about the Island when they return to civilisation, and she assures him that she will always have his back, though she does try to talk him out of some of his more reckless actions like returning to the Island, refusing to save young Ben when Sayid shoots him, and detonating the Jughead bomb to prevent the crash of Oceanic 815.
• Last Kiss: With Jack after he's mortally wounded.
• Love Triangle: She's involved in a very long lasting one with Jack and Sawyer.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: "My name's not [insert alias]".
• Mama Bear: To Aaron. She's willing to go to prison rather than let her toxic mother near him, and even kicks Jack out when his behaviour becomes too erratic.
• Moral Myopia:
  • Kate has an unfortunate tendency to do this, often taking the moral high ground despite being a fugitive and murderer who isn't above manipulating people for her own ends. At one point she lectures Locke about love while refusing to rescue a man who did love her and the real mother of her adopted son.
  • In general, Kate never seems to wrap her head around the fact that, no matter how much of a piece of garbage Wayne may have been or what her intentions were, it didn't give her the right to murder him. When she asks Sam Austen why he didn't kill Wayne, Sam replied that he "[didn't] have murder in my heart", subtly calling Kate out for what she'd done.
  • In "Born to Run", Kate is visibly downbeat when everyone gives her the cold shoulder, despite the fact that she was genuinely exposed as a criminal. Her anger at Sawyer for exposing her falls flat for much the same reason.
• Ms. Fanservice: We get our fair share of shower and sponge-bath scenes.
• My Eyes Are Up Here: To Sawyer, when he sees her getting dressed.
• Parental Substitute: After Claire disappears and doesn't get off the island with them, Kate adopts her son Aaron.
• Patricide: Upon realising that her hated and abusive stepfather was her biological father, Kate murdered him.
• Rebellious Spirit: The best way to get Kate to do something is to tell her to do the opposite.
• Save the Villain: Saves young Ben when he's shot by Sayid.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Of the original Losties, although she pales in comparison to Locke.
• Secretly Selfish: Although his abusive treatment of her mother and repulsive leering at her were contributing factors, Kate admits to what may or may not have been Wayne's ghost that she murdered him out of disgust at the knowledge that he was her biological father, hating the idea that someone so disgusting was a part of her and fearing that it meant she could never be a good person.
• Sex for Solace: She has sex with Sawyer after seeing how close Jack has become to Juliet.
• Themed Aliases: She uses the names of Saints when on the run.
• Took a Level in Badass: After killing her father, she started down the badass path.
• Toplessness from the Back: Early in Season 3. It sets off Sawyer's heartbeat monitor.

Hurley

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes

"Dude..."

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"

"Let's look death in the face and say: "Whatever, man!""

Another survivor of Oceanic 815. After a traumatic accident, Hurley was sent to recover in a mental institution. After recovering, Hurley played the lottery and won, setting him up for life; unfortunately, a series of accidents and tragic events convinced him that he was cursed by the Numbers he had used, which he had gotten from another patient. In his quest to uncover the curse of the Numbers, he crashed on the Island, where his rationality and down-to-earth nature made him a valuable member of their group.

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• All-Loving Hero: Hurley is a generally friendly person and doesn't find it hard to be friends with people he once considered enemies. In particular, he and Ben became good friends during his time as Protector (to the point that he invited Ben to move on with everyone else in the afterlife), and he's even willing to help Michael move on from the Island after he's stuck as a Whisper even though he killed Libby.
• Badass Adorable: Despite his many levels in badass, he's still a good-hearted man who takes care of people and geeks out over Star Wars.
• Bad Liar: Hurley is a terrible liar, being a naturally honest man.
• Berserk Button: He takes Swayer's cracks about his weight but he loses it when Sawyer mocks his fears that he is hallucinating.
• Beware the Honest Ones: Hurley is generally the last person you want to entrust with a secret and he's very bad at lying. However, he was able to trick Sawyer into becoming a nicer person and in Season 4, he was able to help Locke get the drop on Sayid's group by pretending to have been abandoned at the Barracks.
• Beware the Nice Ones: One particularly cruel jibe from Sawyer drives Hurley to beat him senseless (an act that no one was in any particular hurry to stop), and he mows down Pryce with a DHARMA van to save his friends in the Season 3 finale.
• Big Damn Heroes: Takes out Pryce with the DHARMA bus in the Season 3 finale, saving Jin, Sayid, and Bernard.
• Big Eater: He was one, leading to his weight problems. It was partially an act of punishment for his self-loathing and guilt over feeling he caused an accident that killed others.
• Big Fun: He's quite clearly overweight, but he's also one of the funniest characters who's capable of defusing a dramatic scene.
• Big Good: At the end of the series, he is promoted to protector of the Island after the deaths of Jacob and Jack.
• Book Dumb: Hurley doesn't have the best grammar, but he has surprising emotional intelligence and resourcefulness, which saves the group more than once.
  Hurley: What do we do about the... [sees Walt] B-O-D-Y-S?
  Michael: What are you spelling, man, "bodies"?
  Walt: B-O-D-I-E-S.
• Car Fu: In the Season 3 finale, Hurley mows down Pryce with a DHARMA van in order to save Jin, Sayid, and Bernard.
• Catchphrase: Hurley calls just about everyone "dude".
• Cosmic Plaything: At least, that's what he thinks he is. And he sort of is, the same way all the Losties are.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not quite as deadpan as some of the other characters, but he has great lines and certainly has his snarky moments.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite being perhaps the most emotionally intelligent person on the entire island, he's frequently dismissed or ignored. Nearly every time he opens up about his mental health issues, he's dismissed or deemed crazy by fellow survivors.
• Drives Like Crazy: Almost every time Hurley gets behind the wheel, screaming is somehow involved.
• Establishing Character Moment: After the chaos of the initial crash, Hurley immediately starts trying to make the other survivors comfortable by passing out food (including giving double to Claire since she's eating for two), then proceeds to misspell the word "bodies".
• Fatal Flaw: His main flaw is his lack of confidence in himself, which often causes him to underestimate himself.
• Fat and Skinny: No matter who he's teamed with. Charlie, Sawyer, Locke, Miles. Even more so in the episode Everybody Hates Hugo where his fast food coworker buddy is played by D.J. Qualls.
• Guile Hero: He manages to get Sawyer to step up as a leader for the survivors by, essentially, conning the con man (he claims that the group is voting to kick Sawyer out of the camp unless he can treat them better). Despite Sawyer calling it "the lamest con in the history of cons", it works.
• The Heart: If anyone is going to show concern for the survivors' mental wellbeing it's Hurley. He builds the golf course in the first season to give everyone something fun to do, and later pushes to fix the Dharma van for similar reasons. He always tries to encourage people to be the best versions of themselves and picks them up when they're feeling down.
• Heartbreak and Ice Cream: By his own admission, he eats when he's depressed and food became his comfort and a form of punishment for his guilt and self-loathing.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Charlie.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Although he seems like Big Fun and nothing more than comic relief, Hurley has wrestled with survivor's guilt and mental illness.
  • For all his funny moments and personal issues, deep down, Hurley is leadership material and brings out the best in other people, as he proves by conning Sawyer into becoming a better person, and, after taking Jack's place as the Island's protector, recruiting Ben as his Number Two and forming a strong friendship with the once conniving and ruthless man.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Hugo feels this way in regards to Libby. He'd forgotten to bring blankets to a picnic they were having, and she went to the hatch to get some. As a result, she died and Hurley feels responsible.
• I See Dead People: Starting once he gets off-island.
• The Lancer: In Season 6, Hurley begins to step up to take a leadership role in the group, with Jack taking a backseat to some of Hurley's decisions as he recognises that he can't control every situation anymore. In the series finale, Jack chooses Hurley to succeed him as the protector of the Island when he heads off to make a Heroic Sacrifice to save the Island and his friends.
• Living Is More than Surviving: He says as much to Jack shortly after the crash, recognising that focusing only on the nitty-gritty of survival is eventually going to drive everyone mad from stress. This leads him to come up with ways to cheer people up such as building the golf course or using the food from the Hatch for one big meal.
• My Beloved Smother: His mother is very controlling and constantly badgers him to get married: ideally to someone who can give her grandchildren.
• Nice Guy: He simply doesn't have a mean bone in his body (most of the time). Despite all the hardship he endures, he remains consistently kind-hearted and friendly to everyone around him. He even convinces Sawyer to be nicer to people.
• 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.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Hurley and Ben form a strange friendship over the course of the last few seasons. At the end of the series, they work together to protect the Island, and in the afterlife are clearly happy to see each other.
  • There are elements of this to his dynamic with Miles in Season 5. While Miles at first seems to be generally annoyed by Hurley's presence (his cynical Deadpan Snarker attitude conflicting with Hurley's comedic nature), the two strike up a rapport when talking about the implications of time travel. Hurley later helps Miles muster up the courage to speak with his father.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: To most people, though Locke and Ben call him Hugo almost exclusively.
• Only Sane Man: Regularly shown to be the only person on the Island who realizes 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.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Moreso in the early seasons, where his happy-go-lucky kindness offsets some of the more selfish mindsets of the other survivors.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: Along with Sawyer, he's the one with the most pop-culture references.
• Sad Clown: Hurley is funny, but he's had more than his fair share of tragedy.
• Stout Strength: His heavy build isn't just fat as proves to be surprisingly strong, easily overpowering and beating up Sawyer.
• Survivor's Guilt: Hurley has a great deal of this due to a deck accident. He's convinced his weight brought the deck down and he was responsible for the deaths of the other people on it, but it was far over capacity as it was.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the Season 3 finale, where he pulls a Big Damn Heroes with the Dharma van. Takes another one in the Season 6 premiere. By the end of the series, he's become the protector of the island.

Sawyer

James "Sawyer" Ford

"I'm a complex guy, sweetheart."

Played By: Josh Holloway & Gordon Hardie/Keenan Boos (child)

Centric Episodes: "Confidence Man", "Outlaws", "Exodus, Part 1", "The Long Con", "Every Man for Himself", "LaFleur", "The Incident, Part 1", "LA X", "Recon", "The Last Recruit", "What They Died For", "The End"

"Son of a bitch!"

Another survivor of flight 815. Sawyer immediately gets on everyone's nerves due to his grave robbing, leading to him hoarding a lot of the supplies for himself; this is only made worse by his racism, aggressive machismo, and past as a Con Man who scammed innocent people out of their money. However, his time on the Island unleashes a far more sensitive side, eventually becoming fiercely protective of his fellow survivors and becoming a great leader for his people. He has an intense rivalry with Jack due to their fellow affection for Kate.

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• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played straight in flashbacks where he seduces women with his bad boy persona. Subverted on the island, since Kate and Juliet only start to fall for him when he exhibits his selfless, considerate side.
• And This Is for...: Invoked when he shoots and kills Tom in the Season 3 finale, saying that it was for his role in abducting Walt at the end of Season 1.
  Sawyer: That's for taking the kid off the raft.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: After a fashion, his killing of Anthony Cooper qualifies as this. Locke couldn't bring himself to kill his father, and after learning that Cooper had ruined Sawyer's life as well, gave Sawyer the opportunity to take his revenge.
• Badass Bookworm: Loves reading almost as much as Ben.
• Battle in the Rain: A short-lived one, with Pickett.
• Becoming the Mask: A pivotal part of his backstory. In pursuit of "Sawyer", the con man who destroyed his family, young James Ford had to travel in the same circles and eventually became a con man himself to survive. This is the reason he calls himself "Sawyer", and the source of his self-loathing.
• Beneath the Mask: Within his Hidden Heart of Gold, Sawyer is deeply self-loathing and regretful of his actions.
• Best Served Cold: Sawyer has been plotting revenge since he was a small boy.
• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Jack's Betty for Kate's Archie. He's also the Archie for Kate's Veronica and Juliet's Betty.
• Book Dumb: He's poorly educated but highly intelligent, very charismatic and well-read.
• Catchphrase: Sawyer's go-to curse is "son of a bitch". Jack borrows it after Sawyer tells him that Hurley is with Ben, who has Keamy and his men on his trail.
• The Chew Toy: He's endured a lot of physical abuse, particularly in the first three seasons (where Sawyer is beaten, shot, and even tortured!).
• Con Man: A large part of his back story, and the reason he was able to form a life in the Dharma Initiative for himself, Juliet, Miles, and Jin.
• Consummate Liar: As a con man, his ability to lie is vital. The only better liar than Sawyer is probably Ben.
• Cowboy Cop: In the alternate reality. It probably isn't necessary to sleep with your target.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His father killed his mother, then killed himself...which a then eight-year-old Sawyer witnessed. From there on, he became a con man and became a self-loathing directionless mess obsessing over his revenge.
• Deadpan Snarker: The premier source of snarking on Lost, although Ben and Miles compete admirably. His number of snarky lines are too vast to list.
• Death Seeker: Michael notices it, and Sawyer vaguely confirms.
  Michael: Since the day you told me you wanted on this raft, I couldn't figure it out. Why does a guy who only cares about himself want to risk his life to save everyone else? Yeah... way I see it, there's only two choices. You're either a hero, or you want to die.
  Sawyer: Well... I ain't no hero, Mike.
• Disappeared Dad: Is this to his daughter Clementine. He initially refused to believe she was his and avoided contacting her beyond putting some money aside for her. When Kate gets the opportunity to leave the Island Sawyer asks her to look Clementine up and check on her for him.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: After telling his backstory to Kate, Sawyer becomes angry at the look of sorrow and sympathy on her face and demands that she leave him alone.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After Juliet's death, he gets drunk in his old DHARMA home.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • While conning a couple out of their life savings after seducing the wife, Sawyer immediately abandons the entire con when he sees the couple's young son; Sawyer may have become what he hated by taking up the life of a confidence man, but he was not willing to subject an innocent child to what he went through as a boy.
  • For all his hard edges and bad attitude, Sawyer is not a cold-blooded man; his failure to properly euthanize Mars leaves him badly shaken, inadvertently murdering the innocent Frank Duckett haunts him deeply, and even in murdering Anthony Cooper, the man who destroyed his family, Sawyer is physically ill from the shock of his actions and remains shaken for days afterward.
• Fatal Flaw: He lacks trust in others, and his jerkass behavior often tends to push people away from him because, as Kate points out, he hates himself.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Once he begins to put more trust into people, he develops a friendship with most of of his fellow survivors, such as Jin, Sun, Charlie, Hurley, and Claire. He even begins to show a level of protectiveness around Hurley and Claire, who aren't fighters.
  • When he and the other survivors get transported to 1974, he also develops this with Miles and Daniel.
• Freak Out: He loses it when he finally confronts the first Sawyer, Anthony Cooper, quickly going from Tranquil Fury to Unstoppable Rage. Especially when Cooper destroys the letter he wrote to Mr. Sawyer as a boy. And Sawyer is pretty messed up for a while after violently killing him.
• Freudian Excuse: Seeing his dad murder his mother then turn the gun on himself.
• Friend to All Children: Friend is pushing it, but he's less abrasive and rude to Alex and Karl, such as telling Karl that if he loves Alex, then she's worth saving, and shows some friendliness and compassion to Walt and Aaron.
  • When Charlie discovers Sawyer's voice actually calms Aaron down, Sawyer protests being babysitter. But then later he relents and begins reading magazines while Aaron sleeps. He even provides extra food and blankets for Claire and Aaron (though at Hurley's suggestion). In "Left Behind" Claire allows Sawyer to hold him, which Sawyer grins slightly while doing.
• Guile Hero: After he grows out of his jerkass behaviour, Sawyer starts using his con man talents for the betterment of the survivors, managing to get them an in with the DHARMA Initiative after being trapped in the 1970's.
• Heartbroken Badass: In Season 6, following Juliet's death and the complete destruction of the life he'd built with her.
• He Who Fights Monsters: He became a conman while trying to find a conman. That said, he does prove that he isn't without scruples, abandoning a con (at risk of physical harm) rather than risk an innocent child losing his family the way Sawyer himself did.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Miles. It's more prominent in Purgatory but they are quite close in both universes.
• Hidden Depths: Despite his brash exterior, Sawyer is a well-read and highly intelligent man.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Sawyer is filled with self-loathing; Kate hits the nail on the head when she accuses him of wanting to be hated by people. At his core, Sawyer is a good man. He eventually tosses off his jerkass facade to reveal himself as a caring, considerate and observant man. He also starts to become fiercely protective of his fellow survivors.
• Hot-Blooded: Sawyer's almost always ready for a fight and will freely instigate problems where there weren't any.
• Hyper-Awareness: Sawyer instantly realizes that "Locke" isn't who he appears to be.
• It's All About Me: Immensely so at first. Sawyer makes repeatedly clear that he cares about one person: Sawyer. It takes two and a half seasons, but he grows out of it.
• Jerkass: Big-time, when we first meet him. Sawyer starts a fight, throws racist accusations, behaves with smug derision to his fellow survivors and robs from the dead. Early on, he was incredibly hated due to his opportunistic ways and general lack of co-operation.
• Jerk With A Heartof Gold: Sawyer isn't a very nice man, and he isn't always a good man either. But he proves to be a good man at heart as he begins to take a more responsible and caring attitude towards his fellow survivors.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Some of his nicknames cross into this territory, particularly his frequent jabs at Hurley's weight.
  • His first centric episode is basically one long dog kicking session; instead of simply telling Boone that he didn't have Shannon's inhaler, Sawyer beats him up, then maintains the illusion that he does have it, even trying to manipulate Kate into kissing him in exchange for it. When she finally gives in (after Sawyer has been tied up and tortured by Sayid), Sawyer admits he never had the inhaler at all. Kate later surmises that Sawyer's motive wasn't simple cruelty, however; having deduced his backstory, she realizes that he's wracked with self-loathing and is punishing himself by making other people hate him.
  • After Hurley helps him find a treefrog that had been annoying Sawyer with its croaking, Sawyer responds to Hurley's suggestion of releasing the frog into the jungle somewhere far from Sawyer's tent by crushing the frog in his fist.
  • When Hurley asks about Sawyer having heard voices in the jungle, Sawyer slickly talks him into admitting that he's been seeing someone who isn't there. Sawyer then pretends to see said person as a particularly mean joke on Hurley, laughing in his face about it. Hurley doesn't let him laugh for long.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch:
  • Upon realizing that Anthony Cooper is the "Mr. Sawyer" he's been after for nearly 30 years, Sawyer tries to make him own up to his crimes, but when Cooper only mocks him and tears up the letter Sawyer had written for "Mr. Sawyer", Sawyer snaps and strangles the unarmed and shackled Cooper with his own chains. Although Sawyer was shaken by what he'd done, Cooper, who had destroyed many other lives apart from Sawyer's, definitely deserved his fate.
  • At the end of Season 3, Sawyer shoots an unarmed and surrendering Tom, reminding him that Tom had kidnapped Walt from the raft.
• Ladykiller in Love: With Juliet.
• The Lancer:
  • Though Sawyer often plays Commander Contrarian to Jack's decisions in the first two seasons, he becomes his Lancer in Season 3 after Locke leaves the survivors to join the Others. Sawyer clashes with Jack over whether or not to trust Juliet, but he is ultimately in his most supportive role to Jack in the entire show during this period. As always, Sawyer's rough Con Man personality contrasts with Jack being an esteemed doctor.
  • In Seasons 4 and 5, after they split from the main survivors and when the Oceanic Six leave the Island, Locke becomes The Leader of his own faction with Sawyer as his Lancer. Locke is a straight-talking mystic who is searching for answers to the Island's mysteries, while Sawyer is a duplicitous Con Man who only cares about surviving and regards Locke's faith in the Island and its powers with skepticism. However, Sawyer grows to gain respect and Undying Loyalty for Locke, promising to wait "as long as it takes" for Locke to return when he leaves the Island to bring back the Oceanic Six.
• Last-Name Basis: His fake name Jim LaFleur among the 1970s DHARMA Initiative is generally referred to as simply LaFleur.
• Manipulative Bastard: He is manipulative of his fellow survivors in early seasons. For example, he claimed to be in possession of Shannon's asthma medication and promised to hand it over for a kiss from Kate: it is revealed after the kiss that he never had the medication in the first place.
• Meaningful Name: Both in-universe and out. Sawyer is commonly associated with Mark Twain's cocky trickster Tom Sawyer, which certainly fits with him. In-universe, it's the alias of the man indirectly responsible for the deaths of Sawyer's parents. When he came to realize he'd become what he hated by conning people out of money, James Ford took the name Sawyer to reflect his disgust with himself.
• Mr. Fanservice: Sawyer gets more than his fair share of shirtless scenes.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • After killing Frank Duckett and realizing that he'd been manipulated by Hibbs.
  • After he realises that he failed to euthanize Mars, Sawyer is horrified as he realises that all he did was worsen the man's suffering.
  • When his refusal to listen to Jack and tampering of the bomb leads to the deaths of Sayid, Jin, and Sun. Even when Jack would rather blame the Man in Black than him, Sawyer remains unconvinced.
• My Parents Are Dead: In a Murder-Suicide.
• Nerd Glasses: Part of his charm.
• Never My Fault: He spends most of Season 1 bitching and moaning about how people hate him and accuse him of lying and stealing. It seemingly never occurred to him that that was because he usually was lying and stealing and people didn't like him because he treated everyone around him horribly at every opportunity.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When the Man in Black slips a bomb onto the sub, Sawyer tampers with the bomb, and the resulting explosion leads to the deaths of Sayid, Jin, and Sun.
• The Nicknamer: Compulsively. For a period in Season 3, he's forbidden from using nicknames (he lost a bet) and clearly struggles with it.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Until the later seasons, when he's called James almost exclusively.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the situation calls for it, he will drop his usual persona and take action. When Kate comes rushing to Sawyer in search of alcohol for Boone (who has been gravely injured), he is about to drop a snarky comment before realizing how serious she is and wastes no time giving up his entire stash of alcohol before apologizing for not having enough. He even offers to come help, but Kate declines.
• Out of Focus: He goes thirty-eight episodes and nearly two full seasons without a centric episode, starting with the fourth episode of Season 3 and finally getting another Day in the Limelight in the eight episode of Season 5. Somewhat downplayed however, as despite the complete void of centric episodes in the middle of the series, he very much remains an important character.
• Perma-Stubble: He never grows more than a five o'clock shadow on the Island and very rarely shaves it down cleanly.
• Pet the Dog: Even pre-Character Development, Sawyer had a few moments of sincere good intent:
  • Abandoning a con rather than risk traumatizing a young child.
  • Setting aside a trust fund for his daughter Clementine despite refusing to admit to being her father when Cassidy told him about her.
  • Trying to euthanize the suffering Mars when it was clear that Jack wasn't willing to do so.
  • Intervening, along with Sayid, when Jin attacks Michael.
  • He helps Aaron sleep when he realizes he likes the sound of his voice by reading old car magazines to him.
  • When he thinks he and Jack are parting for the last time, he tells Jack of his encounter with Christian in Australia and passes on the message that Christian couldn't: that he's proud of Jack in spite of their relationship degrading and that he loves him even though he turned Christian in. It brings Jack to tears.
• Personal Hate Before Common Goals: As a Con Man, Sawyer has the reasons and skillset to make everyone on the Island like him and potentially become one of the most useful survivors of the crash. However, because he instead chooses to be a massive Jerkass, everyone on the Island hates his guts, which causes a lot more problems for everyone than it solves.
• Playing Both Sides: In Season 6, with the Man in Black and Charles Widmore.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: While he plays up some racist attitudes early on as part of his desire to be hated, time reveals Sawyer to be a downplayed version of this trope; he doesn't seem to actually be racist, but some of the nicknames he uses are racially or culturally based, he makes some mildly racist jokes, and he initially assumes that Miles (who is Chinese-American) can translate for Jin (who is Korean), as well as frequently mocking Hurley's weight and (in one particularly cruel moment) making fun of his concerns about his mental health. Character Development helps ease this quality of Sawyer's; his politically incorrect humor slowly dies out as he gets closer to the other survivors, and by the final season, it's gone entirely.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: Half of his nicknames come from pop culture.
• Rage Breaking Point: Sawyer is clearly boiling with rage when he finally confronts Anthony Cooper, but he manages to restrain himself... until Cooper rips up the letter that a young James wrote to "Mr. Sawyer". Snapping entirely, Sawyer violently strangles Cooper with his chains, snarling at him to go to hell.
• Revenge: Seeks it against "Mr. Sawyer". Thanks to Locke, Sawyer discovers that Anthony Cooper is the man he seeks, and Sawyer soon takes his long-awaited revenge.
• The Rival: Sawyer and Jack spend most of their time together at each others' throats over various things (Sawyer's behaviour, Jack's authority, Kate's affections, Jack's return to the Island endangering Sawyer and Juliet's new life), culminating in a brutal fistfight in the Season 5 finale. They don't truly bury the hatchet until Jack's about to die, but they greet each other warmly in the afterlife.
• Southern-Fried Genius: Some people assume he's an 'idiot redneck', but Sawyer is a highly observant, well-read and intelligent man.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Starting in Season 3. Hurley cons him into being nice to people, and the lesson sticks. Mostly.
• What You Are in the Dark: In the Season 3 finale, Sawyer guns down a surrendering Tom Friendly, growling "that's for taking the kid off the raft". When Hurley asks why he did it, Sawyer claims that he just didn't believe Tom's surrender.
• Why Am I Ticking?: Subverted. During his captivity with the Others in Season 3, Sawyer wakes up after having been sedated and is being told that a pacemaker – which is set to kill him if his heart frequency reaches a critical level, or will be activated remotely by the Others if he tells Kate anything about the surgery – has been surgically implanted into his heart. At the end of the episode Ben Linus reveals to him that the surgery never happened as it was merely a con to demonstrate the Others' superior position.
• Wild Card: As of Season 6, he refuses to openly work with Widmore, Ilana, or the Man in Black, preferring instead to strike out on his own and just focus on escaping. Widmore eventually forces him to work for him by essentially kidnapping him at gunpoint.
  • He was also openly this in Season 1.
  Sawyer: You're still back in civilization.
  Jack: And where are you?
  Sawyer: Me? I'm in the wild.
• You Are What You Hate: After conning a woman and her husband in order to get out of a tight spot, a young James Ford started calling himself "Sawyer", acknowledging that he'd become like the man who destroyed his family.

Locke

John Locke

"I've looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw...was beautiful."

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"

"Don't tell me what I can't do!"

A survivor of Oceanic Flight 815, Locke is a deeply faithful man who is convinced that he is destined for a special purpose. Having previously endured as series of tragic events that eventually left him paralyzed from the waist down, Locke found himself able to walk again after the crash, giving him a deep love for the Island and a fierce need to protect it. Eventually, his faithful belief system begins clashing with Jack's rationality, as Locke decides that he doesn't want to leave the Island and will sabotage escape attempts if he believes it will protect the others.

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• Aerosol Flamethrower: Against a polar bear.
• Agent Mulder: To Jack's Scully. Particularly when he believes he has to push a button every 108 minutes to save the world.
• Anti-Hero: To the point where he comes over as an outright villain to his fellow castaways at certain points. Destroying the submarine and killing Naomi were major times when his actions stunned them.
• Back from the Dead: Subverted. We thought he'd been resurrected, but really it was just the Man in Black impersonating him.
• Bait-and-Switch: In the few episodes, Locke is teased as some sort of serial killer. He's quietly enigmatic and revealed to have a suitcase full of knives. The slash across his eye makes him look dangerous, and one episode ends with him appearing to glare menacingly at Walt. Upon his first flashback episode, we get a better view of his character, and some of his unusual behavior is explained.
• Because Destiny Says So: Locke's default motivation when following the island's 'commands'.
• Big Damn Heroes: During the time-traveling arc early in Season 5, Locke comes out of nowhere to save Sawyer and Juliet from being maimed by the 1950s version of the Others.
• Blade Enthusiast: Locke boarded the plane for a survivalist adventure in spite of his handicap and brought a bag filled to bursting with various knives. When Locke shows off his collection, the other survivors are creeped out, which goes along with the way the first few episodes tease Locke as some sort of psycho-killer. He later proves adept at hunting and butchering wild boar with only his knives.
• Broken Ace: Locke is brilliant and dangerous, being a competent tracker, combatant, and leader who repeatedly causes massive damage to his opposition. He's also a psychological mess who's so desperate to be special that he'll latch on to any purpose in life he thinks he's found, and his inability to find his purpose ends up putting him in an early grave.
• Butt-Monkey: Played so straight he's almost a deconstruction of the trope.
• Character Death: Locke is about to commit suicide in his motel room, but is interrupted by Ben who talks him out of it. However, as soon as Ben gets the information he wanted out of John, he strangles him out of jealousy and stages it to look like the original suicide.
• Chekhov's Skill: Locke's knife-throwing ability is noted a few times early in season one, with his hunting declaration and teaching Walt the skill. It doesn't really come up again until a few seasons later, when Locke uses this talent to kill two people.
• The Chew Toy: John's life. The man has survived an airplane crash and the Hatch imploding, been beaten and shot, and let's not forget how he was shoved out an 8th story window. He also was hit by a car in the flash sideways.
• Cool Old Guy: Zigzagged. On one hand, he’s a fairly old man who hunts boar for fun, was planning on going on an outback walkabout before the crash, and is not to be underestimated in a fight. On the other, he was paralyzed before the crash, tends to receive debilitating injuries to his legs, and manages to hinder the other survivors as much as he helps them.
• Cradle To Grave Character: Locke's birth is depicted in Season 4's "Cabin Fever", and his death is shown in Season 5's "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham".
• Dead All Along: John Locke dies in the events of seasons 4-5 and is revived midway through the fifth season. Then it turns out that Locke actually was never brought back and is still dead; the person that's appeared to be Locke walking around for the remainder of the series has actually been The Man in Black assuming his form.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not as overt as other members of the cast, but certainly present.
  Walt: [My mother and I] move a lot. She got sick. She died a couple of weeks ago.
  Locke: You're having a bad month.
• Death by Irony: Locke is murdered by Ben, the very man who talked him out of suicide. Adding insult to injury, Ben then stages Locke's body to make his death look like it really was a suicide.
• Death Equals Redemption: His staged suicide at Ben's hand renders any conflict Jack had with him moot; if anything, Locke's death outright breaks Jack, especially because he thinks he might have pushed him to it. From then on, it's made clear that as much as Locke went about his goals in the wrong way, the goals were heroic, with Locke's memory being a driving force for the remaining survivors in their conflict against the Man in Black.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Butt-Monkey and Messianic Archetype tropes. John has been through a lot throughout his life, and it never seems that life can cut Locke a break. As a result, he's left as a very insecure and emotionally wrecked man who's constantly trying to convince other people of his beliefs. He fails, and eventually he is killed by Ben out of jealousy. He also is shown to be genuinely special and is aware of the island's mystical properties. But his tendency to be opaque ultimately dooms him from convincing people of his beliefs, and he ultimately fails...until his death.
• Despair Event Horizon: After he fails to convince a single one of the Oceanic Six to return to the Island.
• Destination Defenestration: How he was crippled.
• Determinator: When Locke feels he has a purpose he is unquestionably this, as seen when opening the hatch or pressing the button (and then not pressing the button). Even from birth, Locke was a fighter; he was born three months early, but managed to fight off a number of infections that should've killed him to the point that he was outright called a "miracle".
• Doomed Moral Victor: In the end, all of John's goals come to fruition; the Oceanic Six return to the Island, which will be protected, and Jack finally becomes a believer. Sadly, John doesn't live to see any of it, and it's only in the afterlife that he gets a reward for all of his suffering and strife.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • After spending two days lying in a mass grave badly wounded, Locke is ready to end his suffering with a nearby pistol. A vision of Walt convinces John not to take his own life and to find the strength to get out of the pit.
  • After failing to convince any of the Oceanic 6 to return to the Island with him, a despairing Locke decides to kill himself. Ben "helps", talking Locke out of hanging himself, only to then finish the job and make it look like a suicide.
• Easily Forgiven: Locke is an incredibly forgiving man who holds no grudges towards anyone who does him wrong, even to the point where he completely shrugs off Ben shooting him point blank and leaving him for dead. His inability to hold any grudges is to his own detriment at times, as it leads to Anthony Cooper and Ben being able to repeatedly manipulate and take advantage of him, though it's played heartwarmingly when he forgives Ben for murdering him in the afterlife.
• Establishing Character Moment: Locke gets two in the pilot. In the opening scene, before he receives any introduction, he's one of the random passengers who help Jack save a man's life from the plane's wreckage. Later, while everyone rushes to find shelter during a sudden rainstorm, Locke doesn't move, instead smiling and embracing the rain with open arms.
• Exact Words: When he meets Walt again in season five and Walt asks about Michael's whereabouts, Locke tells him that the last he heard, Michael was on a freighter near the Island. It's technically correct, but Locke knows that the freighter was blown up and that Michael was on it, so it's clearly his way of not having to break the news to him.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His desire for acceptance and desperate need to believe that he's been chosen for a special destiny, and his inability to trust himself unless he's sure that a higher power is guiding him.
  • His tendency of being opaque to his fellow survivors about why he believes the island is special tends to bite him and earns distrust from the other survivors. If he had been honest and forthright from the start, he might have had an easier time convincing the survivors that something more was going on.
• Freudian Excuse: A rare heroic example. Locke is someone who's been abandoned, isolated and tread on his entire life.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Not at first. He starts off as perhaps the most useful survivor due to his skills at tracking and hunting, not to mention his ability to help others see into themselves. As the series progresses, however, and his violent, impulsive, and reckless side becomes more pronounced, it begins to cause frequent tensions with his fellow survivors. Namely, he has had conflicts with Shannon, Charlie, Eko, Sayid, Kate, Sawyer, and especially Jack. After Locke warns the rest of the group about the freighter and tries to convince them to come with him to the Barracks, Rose firmly tells Bernard, "I'm not going anywhere with that man," despite Rose herself being among the few survivors who never wanted to be rescued. After the Oceanic Six leave the Island, Locke is unsuccessful in convincing any of them to come back, and Jack and Kate in particular are openly hostile to Locke upon seeing him again.
• Friend to All Children: While he never had any of his own, Locke is quite good with kids, once working in the toy section of a department store (where he's shown encouraging a young boy's interest in Mouse Trap), quickly forming a bond with Walt, and acting as a surrogate uncle to Aaron.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: A rather sad and lonely old man in a wheelchair who worked for a box company. On the Island, John regains the ability to walk and becomes a hunter, adventurer, leader and Messianic Archetype who is not to be underestimated.
• Great White Hunter: His role in the beginning of the series. Charlie even calls him this outright at one point.
• Handicapped Badass: Locke was in a wheelchair but was still prepared to go on an outback walkabout. Deconstructed, as Locke's attempts to be a badass despite his condition, although admirable, don't get him anywhere; he's denied the chance to go on the walkabout because of his condition.
• Hidden Depths: He's one of the oldest survivors of the crash and fancies himself a mystical guru, yet he's also the only one to actually recognize Charlie as the bassist for Drive Shaft, even noting that he believes their first album was a better effort than their second. He humorously notes that just because he's old doesn't mean he has bad taste.
• 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.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Zig-zagged. Early on, he seems to understand his fellow survivors on a deep and intuitive level and helps them overcome a lot of their personal issues before his own messiah complex hits a reef, triggering a string of absolutely horrible decisions. Although in fairness, his life had been littered with bad decision after bad decision even before he arrived on the island. The one thing he excelled at above all else was being brutally manipulated by those around him.
• I Just Want to Be Special: It's why he's desperate to believe Ben so often, or really anyone who will tell him he has a higher purpose. In the finale, just before Locke moves on with his friends, Ben admits that Locke always was special, shamefully admitting to killing him because Ben knew that he wasn't.
• Improbable Weapon User: He uses an Aerosol Flamethrower to fight off a polar bear and his own crutches to stop "Henry" from strangling Ana Lucia.
• Irony:
  • Locke ends up being Jack's main rival as leader of the survivors' camp, which is ironic considering that Locke was the one who originally encouraged Jack to accept his role as de facto leader.
  • John is murdered immediately after being talked out of committing suicide. For extra irony, his killer was the same man who talked him out of hanging himself. His killer then proceeds to use John’s death to manipulate the Oceanic Six to return to the Island, which was John’s goal in the first place.
  • When the survivors learn that the Freighter isn’t there to save them, Locke leads the people who would rather stay on the Island than risk encountering the new people and takes them to the Barracks. The mercenaries then attack the Barracks and not the beach, where Jack’s group is, and almost all of Locke’s group dies.
  • After he's dead, the identity and legacy he'd built for himself over the course of the series end up being hijacked by an evil bastard who desperately wants to escape to the outside world, destroy the Island (which he hates) and kill all of the survivors. Basically, appearing exactly like Locke while being his complete opposite.
• It's All My Fault: He accepts blame entirely for the destruction of the hatch.
• Karmic Death: In a depressing turn, Locke is murdered in almost the exact same way as his father, whose death he orchestrated.
• Knight Templar: At the height of his fanatical faith, he's murdered people for the island.
• The Lancer: Locke is Jack's ideological rival as the man of faith to Jack's man of science, but also frequently serves as Jack's Number Two when making important decisions about the fate of the group. When Jack is captured by the Others at the end of Season 2, Locke is the leader that the survivors turn to and he is the one who leads their rescue mission. When the freighter team arrive on the Island in Season 4, causing a rift between the survivors who believe that the freighter has come to rescue them and those that believe they need to prepare to fight them, Locke leads the latter faction in opposition to Jack leading the former. Though they butt heads throughout the series, it's clear that Locke has enormous respect for Jack as a leader and is frustrated that Jack rarely heeds his advice or returns that respect.
• Last-Name Basis: Many characters know him as 'Locke'. Only Ben consistently calls him John. This changes somewhat after his death; with the Man in Black assuming John's appearance, the other characters refer to the dark entity as "Locke" for lack of anything else to call him, but whenever someone refers to the Man in Black as "John", there's always a reply of "this/that is not John".
• Like Father, Like Son: Subverted. Locke really wants to be like his dad at first, this being the start of his interest in hunting. But this quickly changes when his father shows his true colors. While Locke does prove that he is capable of being as deceptive and subtly manipulative as his father, he is ultimately not an evil or malicious person like Anthony Cooper.
• Meaningful Name: He is named after a British philosopher who is one of the founding fathers of natural law theory, among other things. Locke also postulated that the mind was a blank slate and that knowledge is determined by experience determined from sense perception. Given what happens to the character during the course of the show, this is all very fitting. The alias Widmore gives Locke in season four, Jeremy Bentham (also the name of a British philosopher), is something of a Historical In-Joke because Bentham's utilitarianism is quite at odds with Locke's natural law theory. Widmore lampshades this by saying that “if [Locke’s] parents can have a sense of humor, why can’t I?”
• The Mentor: Especially in the first season, and especially to Boone. He spends several episodes helping the other survivors deal with their personal issues. He also served this to Jack, although Jack wouldn't realize it until after Locke's death.
• Messianic Archetype: A subversion. Locke initially seems to definitely fit this role. A whole race of people awaiting his arrival? Suffering a lot and eventually dying to save everyone? Having a resurrection?. Cruelly subverted in season five when it is revealed Locke was never brought back to life at all.
• Mirror Character: In Season 6, Jack becomes a mirror of his former ideological rival, John Locke, as he is now convinced of his destiny to protect the Island and is the most adamant about staying when the rest of the survivors plan to leave.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He is devastated when Boone dies as a result of his influence, blaming himself and thinking the Island has betrayed his faith. Of course, when he appears to receive a sign that he's on the right path, Locke recovers and claims Boone was "a sacrifice the Island demanded." He later goes back to how he originally felt; while he and Desmond are waiting for the Swan countdown to reach zero, he tells Desmond about what happened and his somber tone indicates he is genuinely remorseful about it, and when a vision of Boone repeats the phrase back to him, he looks deeply ashamed for having ever said that.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: There are a couple of times when Locke feels provoked to very suddenly and surprisingly beat someone senseless. The first time is when Charlie's erratic behavior ends up endangering Claire and Aaron. The second is when Mikhail stands in the way of him meeting Jacob.
• Organ Dodge: After years of anger and regret, Locke's missing kidney ends up saving his life when he is shot by Ben. The bullet passes right through his abdomen, and he even says to Sawyer that he would be dead if he still had a kidney there.
• Papa Wolf: He is rather protective of Claire and her baby, as well as Walt.
• Parental Abandonment: Locke's father wanted nothing to do with him until he needed a kidney, and his mother, who was a teenager when John was born, panicked after his birth and abandoned her son. Adding insult to injury, Locke's maternal grandmother coldly asked about putting him up for adoption immediately after John's mother had second thoughts about raising him.
• Parental Substitute: Serves as father figure to many of the younger passengers including Charlie, Claire, Walt and especially Boone.
• Patricide: Indirectly; although unwilling to kill Anthony Cooper himself, Locke, with Richard's help, figures out that he can lead Sawyer into doing it for him. Sawyer does kill Cooper, but Locke still bears some responsibility for his father's death.
• Perma-Shave: He usually sports stubble on the island, but never a full beard.
• Pet the Dog: He goes out of his way to endear himself to the other survivors in the first season. This includes finding Vincent for Walt and letting Michael take credit for it, helping Charlie overcome his heroin addiction, compelling Boone to overcome his fixation with Shannon, building Claire a baby cradle for her birthday, and encouraging Jack to seek out his "white rabbit" and embrace his role as a leader. Unfortunately, almost none of these relationships turn out well due to Locke's later actions.
• Posthumous Character: Even when it turns out that Locke wasn't resurrected by returning to the Island (and that it was truly the Man in Black taking his form), Jack is particularly motivated by honoring Locke's memory and desire to protect the Island that he loved so dearly. Jack's antipathy with the MIB is in part because he dishonors Locke by taking his form and trying to act like he's anything like Locke.
• Premature Birth Drama: He was born three months early after his mother was hit by a car and sent into early labour. In an early sign of his Determinator nature, he fought off multiple infections that would have killed him causing the nurses to declare him a "miracle".
• Prefers Proper Names: After learning their real names, Locke prefers to address both Sawyer and Hurley by their actual first names (James and Hugo), rather than their more commonly used nicknames. He also often refers to Ben by 'Benjamin' until their final conversation in the afterlife.
• Properly Paranoid: Locke turned out to be right not to trust the Freighter's arrival, although his warnings didn't manage to save many people.
• Secret Test of Character: He has a habit of coming up with these for his fellow castaways early on, usually as a way of testing their faith and resolve.
• Self-Made Orphan: With help from Sawyer.
• Tragic Hero: He's very gifted but throughout his life he's unwilling to accept the actual gifts or the blessings in his life instead being focused on what he wants or how he's been wronged. This starts with him denying his genius in favor of sports and violence. He also could have been the Chosen One if he'd been more patient.
• Undignified Death: John dies scared and confused (according to the Man in Black, his last thought was "I don't understand") when the very man who talked him out of suicide suddenly strangled him to death with the very noose John intended to use to hang himself, then staged the death as a suicide anyway.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Ben and the Man in Black.
• Waistcoat of Style: He wears a hunting vest when they venture into the jungle for much of Season 1.
• Warrior Therapist: He's perhaps at his happiest and most useful during Season 1, partly due to this trope. He helps the survivors cope with their issues (Charlie and Boone of note) and hunts down boars.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: A complicated issue. Locke has an obsessive need to gain fulfillment through his long-lost father, even after Cooper reveals exactly how despicable he is and how little he cares for John. Perhaps especially after this.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Locke isn't a hateful man, and does want to protect the island... but he does so at the expense of his fellow survivors, bringing him into conflict with them multiple times. Locke often has an especially antagonistic relationship with Jack because of this.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Locke regaining the use of his legs is, obviously, a big deal for his character. Naturally, most of the major injuries he sustains are to his legs, and he loses the ability to walk once or twice when he seriously loses faith in his destiny.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Ben talks him down from suicide to get the information he needs from him, and then murders him instantly afterwards.
• Zen Survivor: At first, when he's an extremely calm, quiet and contemplative presence among the survivors. At events progress, Locke gradually becomes more short-tempered and impulsive.

Sayid

Sayid Jarrah

"My name is Sayid Jarrah, and I am a torturer."

Played By: Naveen Andrews & Anthony Keyvan (child)

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"

"I have no life. They took it from me."

A middle-section survivor of Oceanic Flight 815, Sayid is a former member of the Iraqi Republican Guard who hides a dark past filled with blood and death. In the army, Sayid served as a torturer, and despite his best efforts to leave the life behind him he simply can't stop himself from going back; however, underneath all of this lies a deeply intelligent and courageous man who becomes a leader among the survivors. Sayid's main contribution comes from his technology, as his inventions prove invaluable to the survivors on multiple occasions.

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• Anti-Hero/Anti-Villain: Sayid is constantly straddling the line between hero and villain. He's ruthless but well-intentioned, and while he hates the part of himself that's good at inflicting pain he can't fully put it behind him.
• The Atoner: On and off, with a final stint toward the end.
• Ax-Crazy: When he comes back to life after drowning in season 6.
• Back from the Dead: In season 6, he dies after being shot by Roger Linus and subsequently drowned in the healing water of the temple by the Others. However, he awakens after being dead for a few hours, much to everyone's shock.
• Badass Bookworm: Sayid is very well-read and cultured.
• Came Back Wrong: When he returns from the dead, Dogen declares that he's 'infected'. He switches to the Man in Black's side, and becomes an emotionless shell. With help from Desmond, however, Sayid manages to come back to himself, and ultimately dies a hero.
• Cartwright Curse: Nadia, Shannon, Elsa, and Ilana.
• Character Death: On the submarine, Sayid takes the bomb that the Man in Black planted and runs deeper into the sub to minimize the instant damage of the explosion. In doing so, he saved the lives of Jack, Hurley, Frank, Kate and Sawyer.
• Co-Dragons: With Claire, to the Man in Black in Season 6.
• Create Your Own Villain: By shooting a 12-year old Ben, he instead sets off the events that turn Ben into the person he wanted to kill.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Sayid usually wears dark or black clothing, and, despite his own harsher qualities and Heel–Face Revolving Door, he goes out as a hero.
• Deal with the Devil: Sayid has an unfortunate tendency to make these, be it with Ben or The Man in Black.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In season 2, he beats up Ben when he asks what happens to Sayid's loved one and says that he doesn't know how deep he "buried his wife". While Ben's story wasn't true in any way, beating someone up just because that person can't answer a question that no one can really answer is extreme.
• The Dragon: To Ben, for a while after they leave the Island, and then to the Man in Black on the Island.
• Dying as Yourself: Sayid heroically sacrifices himself after betraying the Man in Black.
• Establishing Character Moment: Sayid immediately begins getting a signal fire going once the crash has settled, including roping in Charlie for help. This not only shows his desperation to get off the Island, but also his leadership material.
• Face–Heel Turn: He goes rogue midway through Season 5, assaulting Jin and shooting a 12-year old Ben in cold blood, which blows the cover of the other survivors. He briefly allies with Jack again during the plan to set off the bomb, before defecting to the Man in Black in Season 6.
• Fatal Flaw: His self-loathing, and his belief that he will be unable to move on from his violent past or become a better person.
• Genius Bruiser: His military training makes him a tough opponent that few can stand to (only Keamy has really bested him in a straight-up fight) and he's highly knowledgable on a variety of subjects.
• Heartbroken Badass: After the deaths of Shannon, Nadia and to a lesser degree Elsa.
• Heroic BSoD: After Shannon's death, and again later after Nadia's death.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: After Nadia's death, Sayid can't decide whose side he's on. He goes from Ben, to the survivors, to himself, to the survivors again, then to the Man in Black, then the survivors.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sayid is fully prepared to give his life for his friends, and does so when the Man in Black stows a bomb away on the submarine.
• I Am a Monster: Under the influence of truth serum in Season 5, Sayid sadly admits that he is "a bad man".
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: He was a torturer, and tends to resort to these methods.
• The Lancer: Though he's arguably a Co-Lancer to Jack with Locke and Sawyer throughout the show, Sayid becomes a sole Lancer during Season 4 when Locke and Sawyer have split from the main survivors, having the technological knowledge to support Jack's natural leadership skills.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After shooting the twelve-year-old Ben, Sayid is himself shot by Ben's father, Roger.
• Love Makes You Evil: The Man in Black manages to snag him as The Dragon by promising him he could bring Nadia (or possibly Shannon) back from the dead.
• Loving a Shadow: It's implied that his love for Nadia is mainly based on his guilt for torturing her and need for forgiveness. In the finale, Shannon, not Nadia, is confirmed to be his true soulmate in the flash-sideways.
• Majorly Awesome: Flashbacks show him as a Major in the Iraqi Army.
• Mr. Fanservice: He sure likes his tank-tops.
• Not So Stoic: Sayid has an almost unflappable demeanour, but by virtue of the sheer amount of horrible situations thrown at him, he does break down at times.
• The Professor: Sayid is the most technologically adept of the survivors. This allows him to construct radio transmitters and other gizmos from salvaged parts.
• Properly Paranoid: When telling Hurley about Locke's death, Sayid says "they said it was suicide"; Locke was, indeed, murdered, though it's unclear if Sayid ever realized that it was Ben who was responsible.
• Psychotic Smirk: Post-infection Sayid flashes one that terrifies even BENJAMIN LINUS.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Following Nadia's death, Sayid murders members of Widmore's inner circle on Ben's instruction.
• Redemption Equals Death: Due to his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: When Sayid time travels to the 1970s, Sayid takes initiative and shoots a young Ben Linus, trying to kill him before he becomes a problem later. When DHARMA won’t heal him, though, Kate is forced to hand him over to the Others to save his life, beginning Ben’s path to becoming the man Sayid wanted to kill in the first place.
• The Smart Guy: Of the survivors. Sayid is highly intelligent and has a vast knowledge of technology and survival techniques.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Late in Season Five, Sayid seems to more or less give up on any hope of redemption, shooting a twelve-year old Ben in the chest. His infection in Season Six only makes it worse, with Sayid being almost completely apathetic as he sees Claire try to cut Kate's throat. In the end, though, a talk with Desmond manages to reawaken Sayid's better nature, and he dies as a hero.
• Torture Technician: A huge part of his character is his past as an interrogator for the Republican Guard.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His shooting young Ben not only creates the enemy he was trying to kill, but ends up blowing the cover of his friends in DHARMA, which sets off the chain of events leading to the plan to erase the timeline by detonating Jughead, which ends up causing the Incident and gets Juliet killed.
• Would Hurt a Child: After travelling back to the 1970's, Sayid shoots a twelve-year-old Ben, hoping to avert the damage that Ben would cause as an adult. Ironically, this only results in Ben growing up to become the very man that Sayid was hoping to prevent from existing.

Jin

Jin-Soo Kwon

"No...English."

Played By: Daniel Dae Kim

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"

"Honey... I don't like being told what to do."

One of the middle section survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, Jin is Sun's husband. Due to his poor upbringing, Sun's father forced him to work for him in exchange for marrying Sun, turning him into his personal hitman in the process. His final mission for Mr. Paik led to him and Sun crashing on the Island, where Jin originally isolated himself from the others due to not speaking English. Over time, Jin became less controlling and more loving of his wife and began integrating himself to the other survivors, using his previously-shameful fishing skillset to provide food for the others.

Though he was previously infertile, Jin and Sun conceive on the Island, leaving him desperate to ensure her escape to save her life.

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• Awesomeness by Analysis: For most of the series, he knows very little English, yet he was able to navigate the dynamics of the castaways' group in a fairly short amount of time.
• The Brute: For his father-in-law.
• Character Death: Drowns in the submarine with Sun.
• Defiant to the End: When Pryce was ready to execute him, Jin just glared at him and told Pryce to go to hell.
• Determinator: Has his moments, especially when it comes to protecting Sun.
• Easily Forgiven: He forgives the fact that Sun cheated on him pretty much instantly, recognizing that it was during a period where he wasn't a good husband and that they've been through so much since then that there's no point dwelling on it.
• Fatal Flaw: His lack of trust in others, which drove the wedge between him and Sun in the first place. He does eventually move past this though.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Despite starting out at each other's throats, by the end of Season 1, Jin and Michael have become good friends. Come Season 4, Jin is the only survivor who meets Michael again who is genuinely happy to see him, even telling him about Sun's pregnancy.
• Freak Out: Has an epic one in a webisode in which he loses a game of golf to Michael and Hurley. Jin loses it, going on a furious tirade about all the humiliations he's suffered before breaking down and crying over how alone he feels.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Stays on the submarine to die with his trapped wife rather than escape with the others.
• Honor Before Reason: In "House of the Rising Sun", when he beats up Michael upon discovering him with Mr. Paik's watch.
• Irony: Jin gave Locke his wedding ring to prove to Sun that he was dead, but Ben (who killed Locke and took the ring off his corpse) used it to prove to Sun that he was still alive.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: To the point that he is willing to let Sun believe that he's dead rather than have her return to the Island.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: 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.
• Kick the Dog: When he destroys Sun's garden. He makes up for it toward the end of the episode by helping her replant it.
• Language Barrier: Naturally encountered this problem since he initially knew very little English. By Season 5, he has become fluent. (His actor Daniel Dae Kim who emigrated to the United States at the age of two actually knew very little Korean at the time.)
• Love at First Sight: "...And Found" certainly leaves the viewer with the impression that this is the case, what with him and Sun bumping into each other, doing a double take, and smiling.
• Made of Iron: Impressively, Jin managed to survive the destruction of the Freighter and spending at least two days adrift at sea without food or water.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Jin's mother was a prostitute who dropped him off at his father's doorstep, claiming that he was his. Jin's father never knew for sure whether Jin was biologically his or not, but he raised Jin as his own all the same.
• Missing Mom: And he himself becomes a Disappeared Dad, but not by his own choice.
• Mr. Fanservice: Downplayed; Jin is a very handsome and fit man, but, outside of a post-coital Shirtless Scene (albeit one which shows off an impressively toned upper body), his looks don't get a great deal of attention.
• Necessarily Evil: Viciously beats men to a pulp for cheating or insulting his father-in-law. Usually to prevent Mr. Paik from having them killed.
• Never Found the Body: After the explosion of the ship, and his subsequent return.
• Nice Guy: He eventually loses his jerk part completely and becomes a great husband and friend to the rest of survivors.
• Odd Friendship: With Michael, considering their first meeting was Jin straight up trying to murder him over a watch. By the end of season one, the two are genuine friends; in season four, Jin is the only one who's happy to see him again despite his betrayal, and Michael sacrifices his life in part to ensure Jin gets back to his wife, with Jin being the last (living) person he sees.
• 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.
• Together in Death: With Sun.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: After some Character Development, Jin becomes much more lively and enthusiastic while having fun with the other survivors.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After certain events in Season 1, Jin loosens up and becomes less possessive of Sun (although such traits do surface every now and then), becoming a much more affectionate husband and being much more social with the other survivors.

Sun

Sun-Hwa Kwon

"Where is my husband?"

Played By: Yunjin Kim & Sophie Kim (child)

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"

"Being told what to do was my life for four years... I didn't like it much either."

One of the middle section survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, Sun is Jin's wife. When their marriage began deteriorating due to his controlling nature, Sun secretly learned English and made a plan to escape to America; unfortunately for them, they crashed on the Island instead. As time goes on, Sun begins breaking out of Jin's shadow, becoming more independent and willing to socialize with the other survivors.

Although Jin was previously infertile, the two of them conceive a child on the Island, leaving both of them desperate to get her off the Island to save her life.

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• Beware the Nice Ones: Starting in Season 3 when her ruthless streak gradually surfaces.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: After saying she'd not harm Ben she knocks him out with an oar and is challenged about it.
  "I lied."
• Break the Cutie: You see it happen when she thinks Jin dies in the freighter explosion.
• 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 crashing on the Island. It's not.
• Calling the Old Man Out: In a scene reeking of satisfaction and badassery, she finally calls out her ruthless father on how he's hurt Jin.
  Mr. Paik: Who do you think you are? I am your father. You will respect me!
  Sun: Oceanic paid us our settlement for the crash. It was very significant. This morning, I bought a controlling interest in your company. So you will now respect me.
  Mr. Paik: Why... would you do this?
  Sun: You ruined my husband's life. It is because of you we were on that plane. Two people are responsible for his death. You are one of them. I am going to have my baby. And then we shall discuss the plans for the future of the company. Our company.
• Character Death: Drowns in the submarine with Jin.
• Consummate Liar: The episode "The Glass Ballerina" showcases this side of her personality, where it is revealed that she cheated on Jin (and she even lied to him later on the island when she found out she was pregnant and swore to him she hadn't been with any other man) and that even as a child she would lie to avoid facing consequences for her acts (blaming a maid for breaking the titular glass ballerina and getting her fired).
• Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments.
• Determinator: Like Jin, her will is strong.
• Fatal Flaw: Insecurity, as well as the fact that she finds herself unable to communicate her feelings or express herself to others.
• Love at First Sight: "...And Found" certainly leaves the viewer with the impression that this is the case, what with her and Jin bumping into each other, doing a double take, and smiling.
• Mafia Princess: Her father, Woo-Jung Paik, is not a man to cross.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: When Sun realizes that she's pregnant, she initially believes that Jae Lee is the father, as Jin was believed to be infertile before coming to the Island. Juliet later informs her that the Island could have cured Jin's infertility and, with her help, Sun learns that Jin is the baby's father, much to Sun's joy.
• 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.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: For years she pretended that she had no idea about her status as a Mafia Princess and that her father was a Corrupt Corporate Executive. She only broke the facade so that her father would help Jin. There's also Season 1 when she pretended that she didn't speak English.
• Revenge Before Reason: She blames Ben for the destruction of the Freighter and Jin's apparent death, rather than Charles Widmore, the man who sent the Freighter in the first place. Sun even allies herself with Widmore in the hopes of killing Ben, though true to form, Ben manages to talk his way out of trouble.
• Irony:
  • Claire asks Sun to mind Aaron while she finds a vaccine for him. She agrees but tells her, "A mother should never leave her child". Later, Sun abandons her daughter Ji Yeon to return to the Island. As a result, the child becomes an orphan.
  • Sun is also pregnant with Ji Yeon during this moment, which she learns in the next episode.
• Together in Death: With Jin.
• 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. She also conspires with Widmore to kill Ben. Basically, off-Island Sun is not someone to be messed with.

Claire

Claire Littleton

"I'm pregnant, single, and on an island in the middle of nowhere."

Played By: Emilie de Ravin

Centric Episodes: "Raised by Another", "Maternity Leave", "Par Avion", "The Last Recruit", "The End"

"Peanut butter... *Why* do I remember peanut butter?"

One of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, Claire is a single mother. In an attempt to give the baby up for adoption in LA, Claire flew on Flight 815, crashing on the Island where she would eventually give birth to a son, Aaron. Developing a close relationship with fellow survivor Charlie, Claire becomes a frequent target of the Others, who try to kidnap her and her baby on several occasions.

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• Ax-Crazy: Quite literally in the final season.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: In the first four seasons, Claire is a good-natured, sweet young woman who wouldn't hurt a fly. After three years alone, becoming infected, and befriending the Man in Black, she's become murderous and insane, willing to cut the throat of her former friend Kate because she believed Kate stole her child.
• Beware the Nice Ones: In Season 6. She kills two Others without flinching.
• Brainwashed and Crazy / Corrupt the Cutie: In-between seasons, she was corrupted by the Man in Black who turned her into a rifle-toting jungle-dwelling loon.
• Break the Cutie: She was an outspoken but sweet and good-natured girl. She lost that sweetness sometime before the final season.
• But We Used a Condom!: Aaron was conceived even though she was taking the pill.
• Co-Dragons: With Sayid, to the Man in Black in Season 6.
• Dark Action Girl: In Season 6. She becomes unpredictable, ruthless and dangerously handy with a gun.
• Everyone's Baby Sister: The other survivors are very protective of her. Sawyer was so protective Miles even asked "What are you, her big brother?" Interesting because one of the survivors actually WAS her big brother, although they didn't realize it until Season 4 and 6, respectively.
• Face–Heel Turn: Between Seasons 4 and 6, when she's alone on the island with only the Man in Black for company. His suggestions turn her.
  • Heel–Face Turn: After learning of the Man in Black's intentions of killing her friends and being abandoned by him when she refuses to help him.
• Fatal Flaw: Her fear of being abandoned.
• Good Girl Gone Bad: Claire was easily the sweetest and kindest survivor, but after the Man in Black gets his hooks into her, she becomes ruthless and insane.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Spending three years on the Island with only the Man in Black for consistent company did not do wonders for Claire's sanity.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: See The Heart below.
• The Heart: Enhanced episodes stated that she was considered the heart and soul of the 815 survivors.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: Claire is not only involved in a plane crash, but kidnapped while she's pregnant.
• Kubrick Stare: Develops one in Season 6 after going mad, mainly towards Kate.
• Long-Lost Relative: Claire and Jack are half-siblings; their father Christian had an affair with Claire's mother, resulting in Claire. Claire herself doesn't learn Christian's name nor her relation to Jack until the final season, where she is informed by the Man in Black.
• Mama Bear: To Aaron, especially in season six when she learns that Kate was raising Aaron.
• Mirror Character: In Season 6, Claire is noted in-universe to have become exactly like Danielle Rousseau, having been separated from her baby and left alone on the Island for years, resulting in her undergoing a significant Sanity Slippage while also taking a level in badass, living wild and making booby traps for the Others in the jungle.
• Never My Fault: In Season 6, Claire blames Kate for "taking" Aaron, disregarding that she wandered off with the Man in Black in the middle of the night and left her son alone. Justified, as Claire is very clearly not in her right mind and has been manipulated by the Man in Black for three years.
• Pregnant Hostage: Averted. Ethan nabs her, but she isn't a hostage, she's the goal.
• Put on a Bus: After wandering off into the jungle and vanishing near the end of Season 4, she is entirely absent from Season 5.
  • The Bus Came Back: In Season 6, though much worse for wear.
• Sanity Slippage: Three years alone on an island with only an Eldritch Abomination for company did not do wonders for her sanity. Although she seemed to be recovering somewhat by the Grand Finale.
• Secret Other Family: She and her mother were this to Christian Shepherd. He mentions that he paid the mortgage on Carole's house and covered her medical bills during her coma.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In season 6 she is basically the new Danielle Rousseau.
• Took a Level in Badass: After three years alone on the Island, Claire has become a Rousseau clone.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: However, she's also become psychotic and abrasive, even around her friends.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: When Ethan kidnaps her and administers her drugs to keep her passive, she blocks out the memory and only later recalls what happened with help from Libby.
• Trauma Conga Line: 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. And is "infected" by the Man in Black.
• Wild Hair: In Season six.

Charlie

Charlie Pace

"Guys... where are we?"

Played By: Dominic Monaghan & Jeremy Shada (child)

Centric Episodes: "Pilot, Part 2", "The Moth", "Homecoming", "Exodus, Part 2", "Fire + Water", "Greatest Hits"

[singing] "You All Everybody!"

A survivor from the middle section of Oceanic Flight 815. Charlie is a musician, specifically the bass player for the one-hit wonder band Drive Shaft. The life of a rock star led to him becoming a heroin addict, which gradually wrecked his relationships and his life before he crashed on the Island. There, he kicks his habit and becomes a more responsible figure, beginning a romance with Claire and becoming a pseudo-father figure to her son Aaron, but he struggles with his own insecurities and his inherent desire to be seen as a hero.

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• The Atoner: First for his drug addiction, and then for his unstable behavior in Season 2.
• Back for the Finale: Like everyone else.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Shooting a disarmed and helpless Ethan six times in the chest definitely counts.
  Charlie: I wasn't gonna let that animal near her again.
• British Rock Star: Charlie considers himself a 'bloody rock God' but he's more of a one-hit wonder than he perhaps realizes.
• Celebrity Survivor: A very loose definition of 'celebrity', but he was the bass player for a semi-successful band.
• Dead Person Conversation: With Hurley.
• Deadpan Snarker: Along with Sawyer, he was the primary source of snark in the first season.
  Eko: Charlie! Do you know how they got the hatch door open?
  Charlie: [strumming on his guitar] No, but if you hum a few bars, I could probably play it.
• Disney Death: In Season one. Jack and Kate found Charlie hanging lifeless on bamboo. But Jack, despite Kate stating that he's not coming back to life (even briefly stopping him from trying to save his life), miraculously resuscitates him.
• Dogged Nice Guy: To Claire.
• Establishing Character Moment: Charlie is introduced wandering around the crash site high off his ass with no clue what's going on - but after things have calmed down, he happily helps Sayid build his signal fire.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: For a while Desmond couldn't take his eyes off of Charlie for a second or something might kill him.
• Expy: Drive Shaft, being a Manchester alt rock band founded by two brothers who struggled with drug problems, is a pretty obvious expy of Oasis. This is even lampshaded by a flashback where Charlie is busking by performing "Wonderwall".
• Face Death with Dignity: He locks the Looking Glass door to save Desmond, gives him a final message and does the sign of the cross before drowning.
• Going Cold Turkey: Is forced to do this during the first season after throwing the last of his heroin stash in the fire. He handles the process pretty well possibly due to the island's healing properties. At the end of the first season he learns about the smugglers' plane full of heroin and while he's tempted he doesn't use again.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Whatever flaws he may have, Charlie is, at heart, a good person.
• Heroic Sacrifice: To stop the Looking Glass blocking the satellite phone signal, he swims down despite knowing he wouldn't make it back up.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Hurley.
• Nice Guy: Before Season 2, he was possibly the most likeable character on the show, and, after managing to overcome the issues that bubbled up during Season 2, he finds his way back to likability.
• Odd Friendship: With Mr. Eko in season 2
• Oop North: Hails from Manchester.
• Plucky Comic Relief: In particular for the early seasons, when he's paired with Hurley often and has some of the snarkiest lines.
• Real Men Love Jesus: His first flashback scene is a confession in Church, and he's seen several times struggling to reconcile his religious beliefs with his rock and roll lifestyle.
• Sanity Slippage: Heroin withdrawal and jealousy over Locke's close relationship with Claire does a number on Charlie's mental state in Season 2, but after a while, he pulls himself together.
• Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: Before he came to the island.
• 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.
• Took a Level in Badass: See also Shoot the Dog.
• Wham Line: Charlie has several:
  • From Pilot Pt. 1, after finding the pilot’s body: “Guys, what could do something like that?”
  • From Pilot Pt. 2: “Guys, where are we?”
  • From Through the Looking Glass: (written on his hand in marker) “Not Penny’s Boat”.
• What the Hell, Hero?: When Claire returns from her captivity with Ethan and appears to have amnesia, Jack, Sayid, and Locke start discussing theories about what could have happened. Charlie calls them out for not bothering to check on her once she was awake.
  Charlie: You boys talk about Claire all you want, I'm gonna go talk to her. I get the impression that she might still be a tad upset.
• You Can't Fight Fate: In Season 3, Desmond reveals that Death not only wants him, but is a persistent bastard. Charlie fights it until he’s given the chance to go out like a hero and save the others, wherein he accepts his fate with dignity while warning Desmond of danger.

Michael

Michael Dawson

"They took my son."

Played By: Harold Perrineau

Centric Episodes: "Special", "Exodus, Part 2", "Adrift", "Three Minutes", "Meet Kevin Johnson"

"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."

A survivor of flight 815. Michael is a former artist and current construction worker; he's also the father of Walt Lloyd. Before the crash, Walt's mother Susan forced Michael out of Walt's life, but her sudden death left him with the responsibility to raise a child on a deserted Island. Michael is the most proactive of the group in trying to escape, including leading the construction of a raft, but his need to protect his son soon drives him to desperate measures.

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• All for Nothing: All the strife and moral compromise Michael undergoes to reunite with his son and escape from the Island ends up destroying his and Walt's relationship, and Michael ends up spending the last weeks of his life as a suicidal wreck, returning to the Island to die.
• Apologetic Attacker: After Ana Lucia gives him her gun to murder "Henry", Michael says "I'm sorry"; when Ana asks what he's sorry for, Michael shoots her dead.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Is on the receiving end of one when Hurley asks him if he would've let Libby live if she hadn't scared him into shooting her, given that she had already seen him kill Ana Lucia. He's not given the chance to respond, but he clearly has no idea what to say.
• The Atoner: The guilt of killing Ana Lucia and Libby combined with the loss of Walt results in Michael returning to the Island to atone for his sins (specifically intending to die for them).
• Back for the Dead: He returns in Season 4 for a few episodes before dying onboard the Kahana. It's lampshaded.
• Bad Liar: When he has to bring only a certain group of survivors to the Others, Michael proves he can't tell a lie under pressure to save his life; his desperation, lack of logic, and insistence on including Hurley of all people, yet not Sayid who has actual combat experience, tips his hand too far. Jack and Sayid are on to him almost immediately and only go along with it because they think doing so gives them the upper hand
• The Bus Came Back: For Season 4, Michael returns as Ben's inside man on the freighter.
• Butt-Monkey: Poor guy never can catch a break. His girlfriend's pregnancy means he has to give up his art (which is his real passion), she subsequently cheats on him, leaves him, practically steals his son from him, moves to Australia with her boss/lover, then she dies and the stepfather foists him off on Michael who's estranged from him, they crash on an island with monsters, his son is kidnapped by the Others, Michael falls apart mentally, gets taken by the Others himself, Forced into Evil, has to live under the radar with his son, is consumed with guilt to the point of becoming suicidal, loses his son to estrangement, dies and then he can't even move on to the afterlife because the guilt is too much!
• Catchphrase: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALT!!!
• Cosmic Plaything: His girlfriend left him and took their son, despite Michael actually being a good and loving partner and dad; it doesn't really get any better for him after that.
• Death by Irony: Ben sent Michael to blow up the Freighter; Michael's death comes about after his heroic attempts to prevent the Freighter from blowing up finally fail.
• Death Seeker: When he returns to the island, he tells Sayid and Desmond that he's 'here to die'. He's well aware that he can't walk back the damage he's caused so he's just there to die in a manner that may grant him some redemption.
• Despair Event Horizon: After killing Ana and Libby, he started to lose his mind. Attempting to kill himself, first with a car and then with a gun, also count.
• Disappeared Dad: Was one himself before the start of the show, though involuntary. Walt's mother took Walt to Europe with her and ended up starting a new life, never giving Michael an opportunity to connect with his son.
• Driven to Suicide: Michael's overwhelming guilt over what he'd done to save Walt pushes him to attempt suicide several times after leaving the Island, either by ramming his car into a wall or trying to shoot himself in the head. No attempt works because, as Tom tells him, the Island isn't done with Michael yet.
• The Everyman: His past doesn't involve fame, crime, murder, destiny or incest. He's the closest to 'ordinary' the cast gets. Naturally, his life is horrible.
• Fatal Flaw: Insecurity, and eventually his desperate need to protect his son prove to be his downfall. The Others exploit this second flaw in order to make him free Ben, which breaks him psychologically and has him riddled with guilt.
• Fate Worse than Death: Tragically, even after his death, Michael's spirit is forced to remain on the island as part of the whispers and cannot move on. In the epilogue of the series, it is hinted that Walt returning to the island might save his father's spirit.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Michael eventually becomes friends with Locke, Jin and Sawyer despite their initial clashes: Michael's suspicion of Locke spending time with Walt, Jin's seemingly unprompted attack of Michael and Sawyer's general jerkishness.
• Forced into Evil: By the Others. Ben dodges responsibility later, saying that his orders didn't involve killing anyone, just freeing him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sent to blow up a freighter, gets blown up in the freighter, though he manages to save some lives before that happens, most notably Desmond and Jin.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: The Island refuses to allow Michael to kill himself, forcing him to return. When he finally does die, it's from a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Love Makes You Evil: Michael's love for his son is the driving force behind his murders of Ana Lucia and Libby and his betrayal of the other survivors.
• The Mole: On Widmore's freighter. He's employed as a deckhand while secretly working for Ben.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Michael is riddled with guilt over killing Ana Lucia and Libby (especially for Libby, since he never intended to kill her and only did so because she called out his name, causing him to panic), even going so far as to confess his crimes to Walt, who is horrified by his father's actions and subsequently stays with Michael's mother.
• Nice Guy: Not to the point of being a doormat, and he certainly has his temperamental moments, but on the whole Michael was a decent man who was considerate of others. He had big opportunities to tear down Susan and Brian in Walt's eyes, but didn't take them, choosing to let Walt think they were good people instead of jerks. Even his most heinous actions were done to save his son and left him with crippling regret.
• Odd Friendship: With Jin, considering how they started. Notably, Jin is the last physical person that Michael interacts with while he is alive, and his last words are for Jin to escape and reunite with Sun while he stays behind and keeps the boat bomb at bay.
• Papa Wolf: Michael would do absolutely anything for Walt, even murder two innocent women and lure several others into a trap. The guilt eats him up inside, but he does it anyway if it means saving Walt.
• Parents as People: Michael loves his son more than anything, but he's also human, and as a result, he makes some dumb decisions along the way. It takes quite some time for him and Walt to have a positive relationship because Michael's desperation to leave clashes with Walt's desire to stay, and in the end Michael blows up that relationship anyway because he confesses his sins to him without considering the guilt and trauma it would give him.
• Put on a Bus: At the end of Season 2, the Others live up to their end of the bargain and allow him and Walt to leave the island on a boat. See The Boat Came Back for what happens in Season 4.
• Redemption Equals Death: He saves the lives of Jin, Desmond, Sun, Aaron, Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Faraday and Hurley by staying behind on the boat to keep the bomb frozen. It does explode anyway, but he buys them enough time to get the helicopter in the air. Jack himself, one of the people most personally affected by Michael's betrayal, even seems to forgive him by citing Michael as an example of the people they've lost, and Hurley does what he can to help his spirit move on after he's stuck as a Whisper.
• Secret-Keeper: He's the first person on the Island to learn that Sun speaks English and keeps this information a secret until she reveals it to the camp on her own.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Walt is brought to the island to help Michael eventually move on in the epilogue.
• Tragic Villain: Michael was just a good-hearted man dealt a very bad hand, and made some dumb decisions along the way. He killed Ana Lucia and Libby to save his son, and the guilt subsequently destroys him.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His attempt to leave the Island via raft leads to his group meeting the Tailies, kickstarting the chain of events that ends with Shannon's death.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: After he shoots Ana Lucia and Libby and frees Ben, he shoots himself in the shoulder to make it look like Ben escaped and shot him, along with Ana Lucia and Libby, to gain sympathy from the survivors.

Walt

Walter "Walt" Lloyd

"You're not looking!"

Played By: Malcolm David Kelley

Centric Episodes: "Special", "Exodus, Part 1"

"Vincent took care of me when my mom died, and nobody would talk to me. They'd pretend like nothing happened. So I'd talk to Vincent."

The son of fellow Flight 815 survivor Michael Dawson. Walt grew up with his mother Susan and stepfather Brian until Susan's sudden death left him in Michael's care. On the Island, it becomes clear that Walt is not an ordinary child, something that Brian had noticed before; he has some kind of psychic connection to animals that he is unaware of. Walt soon becomes friends with John Locke, which creates plenty of conflict for his overprotective father; nevertheless, the two manage to mend their relationship over time as Michael does everything he can to get Walt off the Island.

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• Aborted Arc: Walt's arc was planned around him having some kind of psychic connection with the island but due in large part to the actor aging much faster than how time was passing in the series, the storyline was cut short, with Walt effectively being Put on a Bus.
• Back for the Finale: In the epilogue, Hurley and Ben bring him back to the Island, presumably to help his father move on.
• Break the Cutie: Michael eventually confessed to Walt that he murdered Ana Lucia and Libby, which horrified Walt and ruined their relationship for the remainder of Michael's life.
• Creepy Child: If only because of his Psychic Powers.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Walt ends up becoming fast friends with Locke, even being the first person Locke lets in on the secret of his paralysis. Walt is genuinely excited to see him again in 2007, and Walt is the only person Locke doesn't try to bring back to the Island since the kid's already been through enough.
• Nice Guy: Creepy though he may be, Walt is kind-hearted and caring, even leaving Vincent with Shannon so that she can have someone to comfort her over Boone's death.
• Out of Focus: From Season 3 onwards, he largely disappears from the story, only making brief and sporadic appearances. The epilogue does give his character arc some closure, though.
• Psychic Powers: It's never explored to any real extent, but Walt has the ability to 'make things happen' and has premonitions about the hatch.
• Put on a Bus: Or a boat rather. The Others let Walt leave with Michael, and he never returns to the island on-screen. He's seen sparingly throughout the rest of the series.
• 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 (when the producers were developing the character of Walt, they initially intended for him to display supernatural powers by summoning animals).
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The fact that a year was passing in real life but only a couple of months on-screen each season meant that Walt had to be shipped off fairly quickly.
• Sanity Slippage: He ends up in the same asylum as Hurley due to his experiences on the island.
• Tagalong Kid: The only child character besides Aaron who is a main cast member.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: A vision of Walt (which may or may not have truly been him) appeared to a wounded Locke as he was ready to take his own life, convincing John to summon the will to get up and keep going.
• Trauma Conga Line: Locke refuses to bring Walt back to the island because he knows the boy has had a hard time. His parents divorced when he was little, his mother died, his stepfather threw him off to his estranged biological father, his flight crashes on an island with monsters, he gets kidnapped by weird scientists, and becomes estranged from his father a second time after finding out about the horrible things he did to be reunited with him.
  Walt: [My mother and I] move a lot. She got sick. She died a couple of weeks ago.
  Locke: You're having a bad month.

Shannon

Shannon Rutherford

"I've just been through a trauma here, okay?"

Played By: Maggie Grace

Centric Episodes: "Exodus, Part 1", "Abandoned"

"I need you to believe in me. No one does; they think I'm some kind of joke."

A middle section survivor of Oceanic Flight 815, Shannon is the stepsister of Boone Carlyle. When her father died, her stepmother took the opportunity to cut her off financially, which drove Shannon to scam Boone with a series of abusive boyfriends just to get enough money to survive. When one of these scams goes wrong, she and Boone end up on the Island. Though she originally could not care less about her fellow survivors and is not above manipulating others for her own ends, Shannon gradually softens to the others, begins a romantic relationship with Sayid, and uses her knowledge of French to help him through understanding Danielle Rousseau's notes.

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• Accidental Murder: The victim of a particularly senseless case; following an apparition of Walt, Shannon charges through the jungle amidst heavy rain, spooking an already shaken Ana Lucia, who shoots her dead on reflex.
• Alpha Bitch: If the island was high school, there's no doubt Shannon would be the head of the popular clique.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Shannon may manipulate and snark at Boone, but when push comes to shove, she does show that she cares about him, being worried when he and Locke don't return from the search for Ethan before dark, and being devastated by Boone's death.
• Back for the Finale: Like everyone else.
• Beneath the Mask: Beneath her bad attitude and selfishness, Shannon is insecure, undervalues herself, and comes to resent her own feelings of uselessness.
• Character Development: Shannon gradually moves past her selfishness and self-imposed isolation to become a more valued member of the survivors.
• Cryptic Background Reference: In "Hearts and Minds", Boone mentions that Shannon was married at one point; Shannon's only centric episode focuses on a different part of her past, and her brief marriage is never brought up again.
• Deadpan Snarker: Particular with regard to Boone, who she engages in Snark-to-Snark Combat from time to time.
  Shannon: What's a four letter word for I don't care?

  Shannon: I am so not moving to the rape caves!
• A Death in the Limelight: Her centric episode had a lot of people pitying her, when finally her goals and motivations were put into the spotlight instead of Boone's and rendering her a truly sympathetic character. Then Ana Lucia kills her.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Due to Sayid's actions.
• Fatal Flaw: Her lack of belief in herself, which she manages to overcome with help from Sayid.
• Flirty Stepsiblings: With Boone, to the point where they have a one night stand with each other. It's pretty clear initially, to the point where Claire mistakes them for lovers at first.
  Claire: Is that your boyfriend?
  Shannon: My brother, Boone. God's freakin' gift to humanity.
• Heroic BSoD: Shannon is a wreck after Boone's death, not saying a word to anyone for some time or speaking at Boone's funeral, and after her misguided attempt to kill Locke, she remains withdrawn until Walt entrusts her with Vincent.
• Hidden Depths: She appears to be just a shallow, manipulative Alpha Bitch, but she's much smarter than she lets on. She also speaks French, has a wonderful singing voice, and was a talented dance teacher.
• It's All About Me: She tends to concern herself with her own problems first, resulting in everything else being secondary. As time goes on, however, Shannon starts growing out of this, becoming more willing to contribute to the group and even adopting Vincent for a time after Walt leaves on the raft.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Shannon may give off the impression of an Alpha Bitch, but she does try and do the right thing when it comes down to it. She isn't entirely selfish, she just has a very low opinion of her abilities. The reality is that people have been underestimating her for her entire life, her stepmother was a true bitch who clearly hated her, and she dealt with the unwanted romantic affections of her own stepbrother. She believed that everyone abandoned her.
• Leg Focus: Sawyer nicknames her "Sticks" in reference to her long legs.
• The Load: What everyone else (particularly Boone) accuse her of being. Boone thinks that she's lazy and useless, and she tries to prove otherwise. Shannon grows to resent her status as this with time; after losing track of Vincent, whom Walt had entrusted to her care before leaving on the raft, Shannon bitterly laments that she's failing at the one of the few things anyone had actually asked of her.
• Manipulative Bitch: Although Boone did eventually wise up to her game, Shannon had been manipulating him for a long time. She does the same thing to Charlie.
• Ms. Fanservice: Hence all the bikini shots.
• Not Blood Siblings: With Boone.
• Pretty Freeloader: She starts to get resentful of her status of this as time goes on, though.
• Screaming Woman: The pilot episode introduces her screaming her lungs out, but considering she's standing in the middle of the plane wreckage her reaction is understandable.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: Shannon uses her beauty to get by in life and on the island, manipulating Charlie into catching fish for her.
• Second Love: For Sayid.
• Took a Level in Kindness: She starts to shed her selfish attitude as the first season progresses, growing a lot through her relationship with Sayid and desire to actually contribute.
• Wicked Stepmother: Has one in the form of Sabrina Carlyle.

Boone

Boone Carlyle

"You're not the only one who knows what to do around here, you know that? Who appointed you our saviour?"

Played By: Ian Somerhalder

Centric Episodes: "Hearts and Minds"

"I went down to get my sister out of a bad relationship. Turns out she didn't want to get out of it so here I am."

A middle section survivor of Oceanic Flight 815, Boone is Shannon Rutherford's stepbrother. Secretly harboring romantic feelings for her for years, Boone continually paid off her abusive boyfriends, unaware that she was scamming him. One of those scams going wrong led to the two having a one-night stand and ending up trapped on the Island. Boone takes to Island survival naturally and does his best to be the hero; the only problem is that he tends to make the situation worse. He becomes close to Locke overtime when the two discover a Hatch buried in the ground and dedicate themselves to opening it.

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• All for Nothing: His attempt to send out a rescue signal ends with his death and the receivers of the signal (which didn't even make it off the Island) disregarding it as a trap.
• All Love Is Unrequited: He's in love with Shannon, who understandably doesn't return it.
• Ambiguously Bi: In "Exposé", Shannon interrupts a conversation between Boone and Paulo by telling the former to "stop flirting with random guys", implying that Boone might be in the habit of doing so, and in "Whatever the Case May Be", she asks if Locke is his "new boyfriend" (although given that the source of both comments is Shannon, they should likely be taken with a grain of salt).
• Back for the Finale: Like other dead characters.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: It's the tragedy of his character. He wants to be a hero, he tries to be a hero, but he always manages to screw up in some way... but he never stops trying.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Boone suffers catastrophic injuries after the Beechcraft falls from a cliff with him inside of it. Jack's struggles to save his life just make matters worse, and he's nearly forced to amputate Boone's leg before being convinced (by Boone himself) to let him go. To his credit, Boone manages to Face Death with Dignity despite his situation.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has his moments, mostly when with Shannon.
  Boone: We've all been through a trauma. The only difference is, you're the only one who's given herself a pedicure since we crashed.
• Determinator: No matter how often people (i.e Shannon) tell him not to bother, he still does his best to be a hero.
• Didn't Think This Through: A tragic flaw of Boone's; his attempt to rescue Joanna from drowning failed because he didn't take his own lack of ability as a swimmer into account, and his attempt to take charge of rationing the water failed because he didn't think to tell anyone what he was doing. The latter error nearly got him mobbed by the other survivors before Jack calmed everyone down.
• The Dutiful Son: Ends up being the CEO of his mother's business, despite being in his early 20s.
• Establishing Character Moment: Boone is first seen trying to revive Rose with CPR... and botching it.
• The Everyman: In spite of the fact that he runs his own company while in his 20s.
• Face Death with Dignity: In the end, Boone simply tells Jack that it's okay to let him go, dying peacefully shortly after.
• Failure Hero: Despite his best efforts, Boone never manages to be the hero; he bungles the CPR while trying to revive Rose, nearly drowns trying to save Joanna (who dies anyway), his attempt to ration the survivors' remaining water fails miserably, he falls asleep while trying to guard the camp against Ethan (who slips in undetected and kills someone through no fault of Boone's), and he sustains fatal injuries trying to send an SOS from the Beechcraft (adding insult to injury, the signal didn't even make it off the Island and was dismissed when the Tailies received it).
• Fallen Princess: Averted. He takes to island survival and teamwork a lot easier than most.
• Fatal Flaw: Boone's naivety and overwhelming desire to help others drive his ill-fated efforts at heroism, which eventually put Boone in an early grave.
• Flirty Stepsiblings: With Shannon, to the point where they have a one night stand with each other. It's pretty clear initially, to the point where Claire mistakes them for lovers at first.
  Claire: Is that your boyfriend?
  Shannon: My brother, Boone. God's freakin' gift to humanity.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Zigzagged. Boone stays in a falling plane in an attempt to use its radio to call for help, sustaining mortal injuries in the process. While it turns out the signal doesn't make it off the Island, his death leads to Locke banging on the Hatch door loud enough for Desmond to hear, stopping the latter from committing suicide and ensuring the Button would be pushed until the survivors took it over. He'll never know it, but Boone's sacrifice did indeed save the world.
• Heroic Wannabe: A tragic case; Boone wants to be a hero so badly that he's willing to risk his life to do it. This nearly gets him killed early on, and near the end of the first season, he ends up being catastrophically injured trying to radio for help and dies in the following episode.
• Honor Before Reason: Nearly drowns trying to save someone in the fifth episode despite not being a strong swimmer.
• Irony
  • Kate tells a concerned Shannon, ”If there's anyone on the island your brother's safe with, it's Locke.” Being left alone with Locke leads to his death, and he is the first main character to get killed off in the show.
  • The call for help he sent out that led to his death only gets heard by the Tailies, who disregard it as a trap from the Others.
  • The man he had the most adversarial relationship with, Sayid, is the only person to speak at his funeral.
• 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.
• The Lancer: In Season 1, Boone is Locke's Lancer, being a young, idealistic Heroic Wannabe Pretty Boy who contrasts the older Locke and his Zen Survivor persona, while also getting caught up in Locke's attempts to explore the Island, with the two secretly trying to open the Hatch together. Locke develops a mentor-student relationship with Boone and is clearly devasted by his death.
• Like a Son to Me: Boone is like the son Locke never had, even informally calling him "Son" at one point. Boone's death weighs heavily on Locke, bringing him to the brink of a Despair Event Horizon, and, despite justifying his fate as "a sacrifice the Island demanded", Locke is often saddened when reminded of Boone's death.
• Nepotism: Implied heavily to be the reason he was elevated to the position of CEO at a company his mother owned.
• Nice Guy: Probably the most likeable character on the show as he seems to spend most of his time trying to help others and do his part. Though he can be very impatient and irritable toward Shannon.
• Non-Idle Rich: Boone might be a wealthy yuppie type, but he's happiest when he's being active and helping out.
• Not Blood Siblings: With Shannon.
• Posthumous Character: Despite dying in the first season, he appears no less than 10 times after his death, among the most of any deceased character.
• Pretty Boy: Boone stands out in a cast full of handsome males for his boyish good looks.
• Sacrificial Lion: His death serves to hammer home that Anyone Can Die. Boone's demise greatly impacts the other survivors and leads to several events to come.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Boone's fatal attempt to radio the outside world for rescue only reached the Tailies, who disregarded it as a trick by the Others.
• Tragic Hero: All Boone wanted was to help others, but his best efforts never made much of an impact, and one final attempt to get everyone rescued resulted in his death. Even more tragic, his sacrifice proved to be in vain; the transmission he sent from the Beechcraft only got as far as the Tailies, where Ana Lucia dismissed it as a trick by the Others, believing her group to be the only survivors of Flight 815.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The first main character to be killed off of the show (all the way back to Season 1).
• What Beautiful Eyes!: He's played by Ian Somerhalder. This is pretty much a given.

Rose

Rose Nadler (nee Henderson)

"If you say "live together, die alone" to me, Jack, I'm gonna punch you in your face."

Played By: L. Scott Caldwell

Centric Episodes: "S.O.S."

Jack: Rose, you shouldn't be out here alone. You're suffering from post-traumatic shock.

Rose: Aren't we all?

One of the middle section survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. Alongside her husband Bernard, Rose was on the plane after visiting a spiritual healer in Australia in a desperate attempt to heal her terminal cancer. While this failed, crashing on the Island healed her cancer, driving her to decide to stay instead of leave. Rose refuses to take part in any of the conflicts if she can help it, though she always remains a considering and grounding force for the survivors.

---

• Armour-Piercing Question: Delivers a frankly epic one during the Season 5 finale.
  Rose: We travelled back 30 years in time and you're still trying to find ways to shoot each other?
• Cool Old Lady: From the very beginning, unlike her bumbling husband who's nice but not 'cool'.
• Deadpan Snarker: Moreso in the later seasons, but also in the first. See the above quotes.
• Everyone Has Standards: Rose may have no desire to leave the Island, but she's repulsed by Locke being willing to kill to prevent any of the survivors from leaving, bluntly refusing to follow Locke when the group is split over the Freighter issue.
• Gut Feeling: Rose is utterly convinced that Bernard is alive, despite the low odds of survival for the tail section. Everyone thinks she's in denial, but Bernard does turn up alive and...not 'well', but alive!
• Happily Married: To Bernard.
• I Choose to Stay: Due to the island keeping her cancer at bay, she makes this choice.
• Magical Negro: Blatantly in Season 1. She leads Charlie in prayer after his Disney Death. She mystically "knows" her husband is alive elsewhere on the island. In general, if she believes a character is good, she's correct.
  • However, Rose later grew a bit, becoming a character in her own right in season 2 with a back story and her own side plot. And by season 4, she's actively snarking at Jack. And then she decides to just give up and just live in "retirement" with Bernard.
• Nice Girl: Although her sassy side kicks in once Bernard is back, Rose is a sweet, good-intentioned woman who does everything she can to help her fellow survivors.
• Not Afraid to Die: She and Bernard eventually reach this point.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Refuses to help at the end of Season 5 because she's retired.
• Promoted to Opening Titles: For the last episode.
• Ring on a Necklace: She puts Bernard's wedding ring on her necklace whnever they fly somewhere because his fingers swell in altitude. After Flight 815 crashes she sits on the beach holding on to the ring while insisting that he survived. She's eventually able to return it to him in season two.
• Sassy Black Woman: Moreso in the later seasons when her snarky moments kick in.
• Secret-Keeper: "SOS" reveals that she saw Locke in his wheelchair at Sydney airport and thus knew that the island had cured his paralysis which she never revealed to anyone. As Locke never mentions the meeting, and may have forgotten about it, Rose could count as a Secret Secret-Keeper.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the final season, Rose stands up very firmly to the Man in Black.
• Zen Survivor: She's remarkably calm following the crash; so much so that Jack believes she's in shock.

Nikki & Paulo

Nikki Fernandez and Paulo

"Nikki and Paulo. I guess we didn't really know you very well. And it appears, you killed each other for diamonds."

Played By: Kiele Sanchez & Rodrigo Santoro

Centric Episodes: "Exposé"

A pair of survivors who existed only in the background until the show's third season, when they were introduced as a way to deal with complaints that the show never focused on the other survivors.

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• Affably Evil: Nikki is reasonably friendly with her fellow survivors, forming a friendship with Arzt and being willing to help Hurley repair a DHARMA van he found in the jungle.
• Asshole Victim: Nikki, moreso than Paulo.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Nikki actually seems quite sweet and nice in contrast to the more abrasive Paulo. In reality, Nikki is a Manipulative Bitch and Paulo is pretty much her pawn.
• Buried Alive: Both are then buried alive because they looked dead.
• Character Death: Nikki paralyses Paulo with a species of spider that lives on the island, but then a dozen spiders come out of the woodwork and paralyse her. They're both buried alive with the survivors presuming they're dead.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Being paralysed and then buried alive by your acquaintances who think you're dead can't be pleasant.
• Death by Materialism: Nikki moreso than Paulo. She paralyses Paulo so she can have the diamonds, but ends up meeting the same fate.
• A Death In The Lime Light: In their first and last flashback episode, they are both killed.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Despite Nikki's gold-digging ways, Paulo still loved her, although it didn't save him.
• Faux Death: Both of them are paralysed, but mistaken for dead and subsequently Buried Alive.
• Gold Digger: Nikki. Before the crash, she pretended to love a film director from Sydney long enough for her to poison him, and then get a bunch of diamonds worth millions of dollars. They didn't help her much on the island, though.
• Karmic Death: The diamonds they killed for tore their relationship apart and ultimately killed them. Nikki gets it in particular; after paralyzing Paulo with a Medusa spider, she herself gets bitten by one, dooming her to the same fate as her mistreated boyfriend.
• Love Makes You Evil: Paulo. He commits murder under Nikki's guidance.
• Love Makes You Stupid: Again, Paulo, who's so blinded by his love for Nikki that he can't see how self-centered she is.
• Manipulative Bitch: Nikki, of Paulo.
• Ms. Fanservice: Nikki in her last episode. The writers seem to have decided to make the most of Kiele Sanchez while they could, so she appears in lots of cleavagely tops, a bikini, and has an extended stripper sequence.
• Not Quite Dead: The other survivors find them seemingly dead, not realizing that they were simply paralyzed. Nikki and Paulo don't recover from the paralysis in time to alert anyone to this fact before being buried alive, which actually kills them.
• Only One Name: Paulo is never given a surname.
• Phrase Catcher: On two separate occasions (by Sawyer in "Exposé" and Miles in "Dr. Linus"), they're posthumously referred to as a couple of "Jabronis".
• Remember the New Guy?: Introduced out of nowhere at the beginning of season three, the dynamic duo were apparently survivors of the crash. While random Redshirt characters regularly pop in and out, Nikki and Paulo began chumming with the main characters, going on adventures, and in general trying to fit in when they had obviously never been there before. One of the reasons they became a collective case of The Scrappy.
• Shoo Out the New Guy: Nikki and Paulo lasted a grand total of half a season before being killed, due to being hated by absolutely everyone.
• The Sociopath: Nikki. She's perfectly willing to ruthlessly kill for her diamonds.
• Stripperific: Nikki in her acting role due to playing a...stripper.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: All in all, their appearance was short. They died in their only centric episode.

The Tailies

The Tailies

• Butt-Monkey: They suffer even more than the survivors we met initially. They're targeted by the Others frequently and they don't have the benefit of a highly competent surgeon crash-landing with them, so most of the Tailies died quickly.
• Crazy Survivalist: Spending the first two months on the Island living in constant fear of the Others will do that.
• Despair Event Horizon: Most of them have gone through this.
• Dwindling Party: They suffer badly from this; they start out with 23 people, but lose many to injuries and abduction by the Others. By the time Season 2 begins, they're down to five people (Ana, Eko, Libby, Bernard, and Cindy), losing three more before the season ends (Cindy is abducted while Ana and Libby are killed by Michael), with only Eko and Bernard making it to Season 3. With Eko's death, Bernard becomes the group's Sole Survivor.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Ana Lucia.
• Hufflepuff House: The Tailies have much less relevance to the plot than the other survivors.
• Sacrificial Lion: Ana Lucia, Libby, and Eko.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Cindy and the other Tailies who were abducted and converted by the Others. They are presumably still somewhere on the Island by the end of the series.

Bernard

Bernard Nadler

"I am a dentist. I am not Rambo."

Played By: Sam Anderson

Centric Episodes: "S.O.S."

A tail section survivor of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Bernard is Rose's husband who is separated from her when the plane crashes while he happens to be going to the bathroom, leaving him among the tail section survivors. Bernard focuses on reuniting with his wife as soon as he can, but his natural goodness leads him to participate in several vital missions for his fellow survivors over time.

---

• Action Survivor: He's the only Tailie to not die or get kidnapped by the Others.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Bernard turns out to be a crack shot with a rifle, taking part in the survivors' trap at the end of Season 3, successfully killing several of Pryce's men.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Bernard offhandedly mentions that he knows Morse Code, which comes in handy when the freighter can only communicate with Daniel through Morse Code and he can determine that Daniel is lying about what they’re saying.
• Cool Old Guy: Maybe not at first, but he becomes one by the series finale along with Rose: neither of them fear death anymore and are living a happy life in a tropical setting.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He might appear to be a bumbler, but Bernard is actually very competent, particularly when it comes to defending the people he loves.
• Deconfirmed Bachelor: Spent 56 years happily single, then he met Rose and proposed five months later. Even learning that she had terminal cancer and a year left to live didn't deter him.
• Determinator: When it comes down to it, Bernard will not give up. When he finds out Rose has cancer, he pulls out all the stops, even taking her to a faith healer. He's also frustrated to find that most survivors have given up on rescue, and takes it on himself to create an Island Help Message.
• The Everyman: Bernard's a dentist; no secret life, no big tragedy in his backstory, he's just a dentist in his later years happily married. He's easily the most normal survivor.
• Happily Married: To Rose.
• I Choose to Stay: When he discovers that Rose's cancer is kept at bay by the island's healing properties, Bernard decides he wants to stay with her.
• Irony: Bernard is a dentist who, according to Rose, "has a whole mouth of sweet teeth".
• Island Help Message: He makes one saying 'S.O.S' for overhead planes, but ultimately gives up after Rose confesses that her cancer is gone thanks to the island.
• Nice Guy: At heart, Bernard is just a basically decent human being who enjoys helping others.
• Not Afraid to Die: By the time Desmond meets up with him and Rose, they've both settled down and no longer fear death. They only care about being together.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Refuses to help the "A Team" at the end of Season 5, since he and Rose are retired.
• Promoted to Opening Titles: For the last episode.
• Sweet Tooth: A whole mouth of them, according to Rose.
• Time-Passage Beard: Grows a beard during the three years he and Rose spend living in the jungle during the 1970s.

Ana Lucia

Ana Lucia Cortez

"If I were a savage I would have cut off his finger already. That's tomorrow."

Played By: Michelle Rodriguez

Centric Episodes: "Collision", "Two for the Road"

"Are you going to try to convince me that everyone here doesn't hate me?"

The leader of the tail section survivors, Ana Lucia is an ex-police officer whose training and skillset led to her quickly taking control of the group. Before the crash, Ana Lucia lost her unborn child in a shooting, driving her to murder the perpetrator and beginning the circumstances that eventually led her to the Island. After her arrival, her group was targeted consistently by the Others until only a few remained, leaving her deeply paranoid and trigger-happy against any perceived opposition.

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• Accidental Murder: Seemingly surrounded by the Others and their whispers in the pouring rain shortly after one of their own had been taken, Ana shoots without thinking and kills Shannon by accident.
• Action Girl: Aside from being a cop, when the plane crashes, Ana goes straight to work pulling people out of the wreckage. She kills Goodwin in a one-on-one fight.
• Anti-Hero Substitute: For Jack, as The Leader of the Tailies. Like Jack, she uses her off-Island authoritative job to take charge of the survivors after the crash. However, while Jack is a compassionate doctor with Chronic Hero Syndrome and usually accepts advice from other trusted A-Team members when making important decisions, Ana Lucia is an aggressive and cynical Cowboy Cop who rules over the Tailies with an iron fist.
• Blood from the Mouth: After being shot in the stomach by Michael.
• Character Death: Michael, having been Forced into Evil by the Others, convinces Ana to give him her gun so he can kill the imprisoned Ben. He subsequently shoots her in the stomach, killing her.
• Cowboy Cop: Ana straight-up lies about the identity of her attacker during an investigation, so that when he goes free she has the opportunity to personally kill the man.
• Dead Person Conversation: With Hurley.
• Dirty Cop: She's seen taking bribes in the flash-sideways.
• Dramatic Irony: It's Ana Lucia who, hearing Boone's radio call for help, dismissed it as a trick, believing her group to Flight 815's only survivors.
• Fatal Flaw: Like Sawyer, she struggles with self-loathing and often pushes people away with her jerkass behavior.
• Fair Cop: The likes of Sawyer and her partner Mike have noticed how attractive she is.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: As a result of her murder of Shannon and general aggressiveness, nobody at the camp particularly likes her. The Tailies she once led all abandon her and while Jack keeps her on the A-Team, no one tends to actually hang out with her. Even in the afterlife, Desmond and Hurley, who are actively working to make everyone remember their lives, effectively leave her behind to sort her issues out.
• Good is Not Nice: Ana has a strong moral compass but she's also aggressive, short-tempered and stand-offish. It's part of what makes her so unpopular.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She can fly off the handle with little warning.
• Heroic BSoD: She completely loses her shit after shooting Shannon, holding everyone around her at gunpoint and threatening Sawyer's life in the process. It leads to just about everyone abandoning her.
• Hot-Blooded: Her blood is always up.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: Ana suffered a shooting in the line of duty while she was pregnant, suffering a miscarriage as a result. She explicitly mentions this before gunning down the man who shot her.
• The Lancer: In Season 2, after the tail section survivors join the main group, Ana Lucia, The Leader of the Tailies, often plays the role of Jack's second in command. She contrasts Jack by being a much harsher and more authoritarian leader, but Jack's clearly values her input and is close to the only member of the camp who trusts her, even proposing that she train and lead an army of the survivors to fight the Others, although this idea is unfortunately rendered moot by Ana Lucia's death.
• Limited Wardrobe: While none of the survivors have a lot of outfits available, Ana Lucia stands out; she never changes out of her black tank top and jeans while she's on the Island.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She still remains a jerk, but it isn't intentional. She just seems to have a natural inability to endear herself to others.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Her face screams this after she shoots Shannon.
• No Social Skills: Ana suffers pretty badly from this; she's blunt, irritable and has no idea how to make people like her, something she laments.
  "People don't like me. I tried to get them to most of my life. I guess I just gave up a while back. I mean, I am what I am."
• Perpetual Frowner: Life hasn't been kind to Ana, and it shows in her sour disposition.
• Properly Paranoid: Ana turns out to have been right that her camp had been infiltrated by the Others. She just got the spy's identity wrong, assuming that it was Nathan instead of Goodwin.
• Revenge: Her motivation for killing the man who shot her.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Ana was absolutely correct that there was a spy in her group. She just didn't realise that it was Goodwin, not Nathan, until it was too late.
• Sanity Slippage: Undergoes a bit of this during her first 48 days on the island, what with the paranoia of the Others and her (correct) belief that they have a spy amongst them. It culminates in her Thousand-Yard Stare after shooting Shannon.
• Sex Signals Death: Ana dies in the same episode she has sex with Sawyer.
• Spicy Latina: Ana is certainly emotional at times.

Libby

Elizabeth 'Libby' Smith

"I buried a lot of people, Hurley. So don't tell me that that wasn't real. And don't tell me you made me up. It's insulting."

Played By: Cynthia Watros

Centric Episodes: None

"Okay, hey, hey, how about no one's in charge, okay? I'm sure everyone can manage to just take what they need."

One of the tail-section survivors of Flight 815. Libby is an overall mysterious woman who doesn't tend to answer any questions about her past and lies if she does answer, though we do know that she has medical training and once gave Desmond her sailboat. On the Island, Libby acts as a voice of reason for the tail section, balancing out Ana Lucia's aggression with sympathy and peace. She later begins a relationship with Hurley, never revealing to him that they were once in the same mental institution.

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• Accidental Murder: Downplayed; Michael shot her on reflex, but given that she'd seen him murder Ana Lucia, it's unlikely he would have let her live anyway. He claims afterwards that killing Libby was a mistake, but Hurley himself pointedly asks Michael if he would have still killed her. Regardless, it doesn't lessen Michael's guilt over her death.
• Back for the Finale: Like most of the other main characters, she returns for the finale.
• Character Death: When Michael shoots Ana Lucia to free Ben, Libby walks in and startles him. He swings around and fires in a panic, shooting her twice in the gut. She's still alive when Jack and the others find her, but quickly succumbs to her injuries.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Described by Dave as a 'hot blonde' and is easily one of the most good-hearted characters on the show.
• The Heart: Of the tail-end survivors. She's often the calm, sympathetic voice of reason that balances out the more aggressive and paranoid Ana Lucia.
• The Medic: For the tail section survivors. She might not be a medical doctor (she dropped out of medical school), but she does have some medical training. Despite doing her absolute best, many of the people she tends to end up dying. It's a harsh acknowledgement of how lucky the front section survivors were to have a supremely talented doctor crash with them.
• Mysterious Past: Everything about Libby is a straight-up mystery that's never answered. We didn't get to learn her surname until years after her death. It's also never explained why she was in a mental hospital with Hurley, what happened with her 'sick' husband David or if the meeting with Desmond was pure coincidence.
• Nice Girl: From her first appearance, she's good-natured and considerate of others.
• The Lancer: To Ana Lucia before they found the other survivors.
• The Shrink: Libby was a psychologist before the crash, and she uses those skills to help Hurley as he suffers from hallucinations.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: One of the few main characters to never get a centric episode, though she had a brief flashback at the end of the Hurley-centric "Dave". It took four years for the creators to reveal her surname!

Mr Eko

Mr. Eko

"Don't mistake coincidence for fate."

Played By: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje & Kolawolfe Obileye, Jr. (child)

Centric Episodes: "The 23rd Psalm", "?", "The Cost of Living"

"I did not ask for the life that I was given. But it was given, nonetheless. And with it...I did my best."

A former Nigerian drug lord turned priest who crashes on the island with the tail section survivors. After killing two of the others who were trying to kidnap him he does not speak for 40 days. Upon joining the fuselage survivors' camp, Eko becomes part of the group involved in pressing a button in a hatch.

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• Aborted Arc: There was a huge plan for Mr Eko's character spanning multiple seasons, but when the actor left much of his arc was shifted to Locke and Ben, where it wasn't cut altogether. After his death, he never appears in-person once, despite virtually every other character returning for cameos in flashbacks, as ghosts, hallucinations and so on.
• Anti-Villain: Eko was a ruthless drug lord, but he didn't seek out such a life, never stopped caring for his brother and was visibly horrified when one of his men was gunned down by the military.
• As the Good Book Says...: Eko carves Bible verses into what Charlie refers to as his "Jesus Stick".
• The Atoner: Subverted. He seems to be a very clear-cut example of the trope: he's a brooding, largely silent man with a blood-soaked past who scratches Bible verses into his weapon and took a forty-day vow of silence after killing two attacking Others, indicating that he feels he needs to atone. As it turns out, he's utterly unrepentant of his past. He believes he only did what he needed to in order to survive and save his brother, who would have wound up in his position had he not made that first choice which set him down a dark path.
• Baritone of Strength: Eko has a very deep voice, and he was a dangerous crime lord in the past. On the Island, he is clearly one of the toughest survivors.
• Badass Preacher: Except he's only a priest in the technical sense since he forced his brother to sign papers making him a priest. Still, he becomes a spiritual leader of sorts among the survivors.
• Becoming the Mask: Initially, Eko was using his priesthood as a disguise, but after Yemi's death, he slowly becomes a genuine man of God.
• Berserk Button: During a flashback in "The 23rd Psalm", a criminal with whom Eko is doing business brings up something that "they" say about Eko, that he has no soul. In response, Eko slashes the throats of both the man and his associate.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Eko doesn't say much most of the time, usually reacting to what others say to him. Taken to the extreme with his 40-day vow of silence. That said, as his beatdown of Jin, Michael, and Sawyer proves, and his flashbacks further demonstrate, Eko is no one to be taken lightly.
• Character Death: The Smoke Monster beats him to death after he refuses to atone for his 'sins'. It's been theorized that the Smoke Monster saw that Eko couldn't be manipulated, so it killed him out of frustration and moved on to manipulate Locke.
• Children Forced to Kill: Eko got his start when a violent militia tried to force his brother to kill an innocent old man. Eko took the gun and did it instead to spare his brother a life of violence.
• The Comically Serious: Eko's reserved demeanor is occasionally put up against more light-hearted and humorous characters, like Sawyer or Charlie.
  Eko: [My name is] Mr. Eko.
  Sawyer: Mr. Eko.
  Eko: Yes.
  Sawyer: Is that like "Mr. Ed"?
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Eko's death stands out for how brutal it is; the Monster grabs him, then violently slams him into nearby trees and into the ground before leaving him to die of his injuries.
• Dies Wide Open: Locke shuts his eyes for him.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Despite being one of the most popular characters on the show, he dies rather suddenly near the start of Season 3, killed by the Monster and rarely mentioned again. It's a case of Real Life Writes the Plot, and in a series where most dead characters turn up in flashbacks or even the flash-sideways, Eko never makes a physical appearance following his death. This is due to the actor wanting too much money.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even as a ruthless drug lord, Eko loved his brother. Yemi's death proved to be the start of Eko's Heel–Face Turn.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even when he was only pretending to be a priest, he shows strong remorse when his actions lead to a village closing their church.
• Everyone Has Standards: Eko is clearly just as horrified by Ana Lucia's actions after she kills Shannon as anyone else, even if he doesn't verbalize it. While he does subdue Sayid, he refuses Ana's order to tie him up with a look of disgust, and by the end of the episode, while he does convince Jack to not kill her, he otherwise completely abandons her.
• Fingertip Drug Analysis: He knows how to do this, since he'd be a pretty poor drug lord if he didn't.
• Foreshadowing: Eko's death is the first hint for the audience that the Smoke Monster is both intelligent and actively malevolent; in hindsight, the Man in Black was trying to manipulate Eko as he would later manipulate John and Ben, then killed him when the attempt failed.
• Heel–Face Turn: Subtly, at some point after Yemi's death.
• I Did What I Had to Do: His justification for his past actions.
• I Regret Nothing: When Yemi/The Monster tries to get him to 'confess' his sins, Eko refuses. This wasn't what the Man in Black wanted to hear, however; "Yemi" becomes cold to Eko, then turns back into the Monster and murders him.
  "I ask for no forgiveness, Father. For I have not sinned. I have only done what I needed to do to survive. A small boy once asked me if I was a bad man. If I could answer him now, I would tell him that... when I was a young boy, I killed a man to save my brother's life. I am not sorry for this. I am proud of this. I did not ask for the life that I was given. But it was given, nonetheless. And with it... I did my best."
• Jerkass Has a Point: While Yemi wasn't wrong to call Eko out for his criminal activities, Eko was equally correct to remind Yemi that the first of those activities saved Yemi from ending up on the very path that Eko wound up on.
• The Lancer: In Season 2 and early Season 3, Eko becomes Locke's Lancer. Both have a deep faith in the Island, though Locke's faith is secular while Eko's is religious. Eko is also a powerhouse in a fight, where Locke is more of a stealthy hunter. The two disagree and fight over whether or not to push the button in the Hatch, but Eko is always Locke's go-to partner when he goes mystery hunting.
• Nerves of Steel: The first time he sees the Monster, Eko just stares it down, and the Monster backs off. The next time he faces it, however, the Monster kills Eko.
• No Sense of Humor: Unlike the rest of the main cast, Eko doesn't make jokes or sarcastic comments, and he barely responds to the humor of others.
• Not So Stoic: Eko seldom shows much emotion, usually maintaining a calm, quiet demeanor. His placid demeanour noticeably cracks when he finds Yemi's body, and in his final episode he's completely erratic as he goes through his Trauma Conga Line.
• Only One Name: He's largely known as Eko or Mister Eko. As a priest, he goes by the last name "Tunde", which may or may not be an alias.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The actor wanted to leave the show, the reasons being somewhat varied depending on who's talking. Some say that he was difficult to work with, particularly not getting along with Terry O'Quinn. Others say he was frustrated about being in the dark about his own character (as is standard on Lost). The most likely explanation is the one that was given: he disliked living in Hawaii and with the tragic loss of both his parents, wanted to move back home.
• Religious Bruiser: Most ably demonstrated by his main weapon, a club with scripture carved into it. Charlie calls it his 'Jesus stick'.
• Scary Black Man: Standing at an impressive height, heavily muscled and usually dressed in rags, Eko is a very frightening man even when he's calm.
• Staring Down Cthulhu: Does so both times he faces the monster. The first time, it leaves him alone, but Eko's not so lucky the second time.
• The Stoic: For most of his time on the Island, Eko is very calm and quiet.
• Together in Death: After his death there's a brief scene of him and Yemi as children walking down a road with their arms around each other. While this initially seems like a standard flashback, the revelations of the series finale mean this could be Eko and Yemi's version of the Flash Sideways and that they're reunited in death.
• Trauma Conga Line: In the episode "The Cost of Living" the Monster puts him through this. Eko is still badly wounded from the Hatch explosion and spends the episode being tortured with hallucinations of his brother. Eventually, he's murdered by the Smoke Monster.
• The Quiet One: Even after his forty day vow of silence, Eko is hardly the loquacious type.