Name As Many LOST Characters As You Can To See If You Were A Real Fan
- by Dylan Dembrow
- – on
- in Movies and TV
The show that helped define modern TV, it’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly 15 years since Lost first debuted on ABC. The series, which ran for six seasons and 121 episodes, combined elements of drama and science-fiction to create one of the most intriguing and talked-about shows throughout its initial run.
So if you were a fan of the series during this time, there’s no doubt that you spent countless conversation with your friends theorizing over what might be in the hatch or what kind of monster it was wreaking havoc across the island.
While the later seasons of the show might have been marred down with too many plot twists and over-ambitious storylines, what kept viewers tuning in til the end were the show's intriguing characters, who -- thanks to the flashbacks sequences -- were each distinct and fully realized in their own way.
Unlike most shows on network TV that only revolve around a handful of the same characters year after year, Lost had a sprawling cast of eclectic characters that only grew as each season went on. And while some were certainly more interesting than others, by and large, each one brought something new and unique to the series.
So let's see how many of these Lost characters you can name.
This character was a spinal surgeon.
While Lost had dozens of important characters, this spinal surgeon was undoubtedly the protagonist of the show and the leader of the survivors from the front half of Oceanic Flight 815. The character was played by American actor Matthew Fox, who was on a flight from Australia to Los Angeles with the body of his father also aboard the plane. Throughout his time on and off the Island, this character developed a relationship with the female protagonist, as well as one of the Others.
This character was wanted for murder.
One of the many mysteries at the onset of the show was how did the character of Sawyer get his hands on a gun when the group becomes stranded on a deserted island. The answer was that there was a United States Marshall on board the plane, who was tasked with escorting this wanted criminal back to the United States. This female protagonist was portrayed by Evangeline Lilly, who we first meet when she helps sow Jack up shortly after the plane crashes.
This character was previously paralyzed.
One of the more enigmatic characters in the show, this character took off from Australia in a wheelchair, only to be granted the ability to walk after the plane crash. Thus, he’s one of the few who doesn’t feel an immediate need to try and get off the island, and on a number of occasions, he comes to blows with Jack and other survivors to try and attempt them to stay. The character was played by Terry O’Quinn, who had the distinct talent of making viewers lover and hate him at the same time.
This character was nicknamed Hurley.
Easily an audience favorite, this character more often went by his nickname of Hurley than his legal name — but don’t expect him to tell you how he earned that nickname anytime soon. The character may seem like nothing more than a lovable schmo, but throughout his backstory we learn that he has actually won the lottery and has struggled with severe mental health issues as a result of his extremely bad luck ever since the big win. Not to mention that he has an imaginary friend.
This character was a con man.
After immediately crash landing on the Island, this character was the primary antagonist of the group of survivors, who was revealed to be a con man back in the real world. He had a tendency to clash with Jack, as both of the men ended up developing strong feelings for Kate and later Juliet. But by the end of season one, a more sympathetic side began to reveal itself within the character, and he even decided to set sail from the island in the hopes of finding rescue.
This character was a former torturer.
Once a member of the Iraqi Republican Guard, this character once served as a torturer before he ultimately reformed his life after falling in love with someone he was tasked with interrogating. Unfortunately, his life on the island brought out a number of these negative personality traits, especially when his latest love interest was accidentally shot and killed in the jungle. The character was played by Naveen Andrews, and he was one of the most level-headed leaders of the group after Jack.
This character could secretly speak English.
Like pretty much everyone who ends up on the island, this character was also harboring a big secret of her own, which involved speaking English and planning to depart from her husband without him knowing. While on island, this character is isolated from many of the other survivors at her husband’s request, and it is also revealed in a flashback that she had been having an affair with a wealthy businessman. She later discovers that she is pregnant, but is happy to learn that her husband is still the father.
This character was born and raised in a poor fishing village.
Played by Korean American actor Daniel Dae Kim, this character was one of the surviving passengers in the middle of Oceanic Flight 815. He crash-landed with his wife and immediately kept themselves separated from the group, though he did use his lifelong skill of fishing to provide food for the other survivors. After learning that his wife had secretly learned English, the two separate for a while until he eventually came around and decided that the cultural differences should no longer prevent them from being part of the group.
This character was urged to give her child up for adoption.
While none of the survivors were particularly excited about being stranded on the island, when this character crash landed she not only had to worry about herself but her unborn child as well. The character was played by Australian actress Emilie de Ravin, who is urged by a psychic to give up her lost child for adoption which leads her to be a passenger on Flight 815. While on the island, she is briefly kidnapped by the Others, who want to study her pregnancy.
This character was the leader of the Others.
When we first meet this character, he is caught in one of Danielle Rousseau’s traps on the island, and he goes under a false name to try and convince the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 that he is a fellow survivor from Minnesota who crash-landed in a hot air balloon. However, after extensive interrogation and research, Sayid discovers that this character is not who he says he is, and he is later revealed to be the leader of the Others who has spent the majority of his life living on the island.
This character sacrificed himself to save others.
Another audience favorite, many people felt the epic sci-fi drama started to go downhill once this character was killed off at the end of season three. This character was played by British actor Dominic Monaghan, who had previously appeared in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. When the character first arrived on the island he was a heroin addict and the former bassist of the rock band Drive Shaft. He develops strong feelings for Claire, which aren’t returned at first, and before the relationship turns into anything significant this character sacrifices himself to save others.
This character would do anything to protect his son.
One of the most divisive characters in the series, this survivor crash lands on the island with his son, who he has been recently reunited with after spending his entire childhood apart. While the character may struggle to be a father, he quickly proves himself as a competent survivor, putting his former construction skills to good use to build shelters and eventually a raft so they can try to escape the island. However, the character’s willingness to do anything for his son eventually finds him committing horrible acts.
This character was a fertility specialist.
This character first appeared in the season three opener of the show, and would go on to be a regular throughout the second half of the series. This character was at first a major antagonist, who looked over Jack while he was kept prisoner at the Other’s basecamp. She was the fertility specialist on the island, who was tasked with trying to discover why the women on the island couldn’t give birth. She later defected from the Others and aligned herself with the survivors.
This character was accidentally shot by a fellow survivor.
When this character first crash-landed on the island she came of as a spoiled brat who had little interest in contributing to the survival of the group. She was often at odds with her step-brother, who she had previously exploited for money and protection, knowing full well that he has long had a crush on her. She eventually fired up an unlikely romance with Sayid, which was cut short when she was accidentally killed by Anna Lucia when mistaken for one of the Others.
This character met an early demise.
One of the earliest casualties on the island, this character quickly tried to contribute to the survival of his fellow passengers, which ultimately led him to an unlikely partnership with Locke. Seeing that Lock was a competent outdoorsman, this character accompanied the mysterious man on wild boar hunts, where the two eventually stumbled upon the hatch door out in the jungle. Boone would latter fall of a cliff’s edge, shattering his leg before dying toward the end of season one.
This character was a scientific genius.
One of the more enigmatic characters to join the show in the later seasons, this character is a bonafide genius who arrived on the island via the freighter Kahana. This character was the son of the former leaders of the others, who desires to get back to the island to study its mysterious properties, particularly its relationships to space-time. The character is played by American actor Jeremy Davies, who had previously appeared as the cowardly Pvt. Upham in Saving Private Ryan.
This character was a former drug lord.
When the audience was first introduced to this character, he is mistaken as one of the Others, who helps kidnap Michael, Swayer, and Jin after the raft capsizes off the coast of the island. We later learn that he was a survivor at the tail-end of Oceanic Flight 815, as well as a former African drug lord who eventually reformed his life and found religion after contributing to his brother’s death. The character arc was seemingly cut short when actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje wanted off the show.
This character was a former cop.
Before crash-landed on the island, this character was a former officer of the Los Angeles Police Department. She was shot during the line of duty, which resulted in a lost child who she was newly pregnant with, and as a form of revenge she sought out her assailant and murdered him. On the island, she became the de facto leader of the tail-end survivors. She was originally mistaken as an Other upon running into those from the front half of the plane, but Jack immediately recognized her from the airport.
This character was one of the tail-end survivors.
Another survivor aboard Oceanic Flight 815, this character’s backstory had a number of surprising intersections with other characters who would come to be stranded on the island. For instance, the character was once admitted to the same mental health hospital of Hurley, who would go on to be her love interest on the island. She would also go on to give her deceased husbands boat to Desmond, so he could embark on his adventure around the world before ultimately crash landing on the island as well.
This character had terminal cancer.
One of the most underrated love stories of the series involved this character, who was in the mid-section of the plane sitting across from Jack when the fuselage ripped apart in mid-air. The character was on a flight with her husband, who just so happened to be in the bathroom when the plane broke about. Much like John Locke, this character was mysteriously held upon arriving at the island, and when every other character sought to get off, the couple remained so she could keep her cancer at bay.
This character lived in the hatch.
There was a lot of speculation about what could possibly be in the hatch. While some people suspected there were deadly diseases being stored down there, other’s though it might contain some kind of alien entity. But what it ultimately ended up being was a single man who was tasked with pushing a button every 108 minutes in an attempt to save the world. That is when we were first introduced to this character, who would later go on to have premonition about the future.
This character sometimes wore a fake beard.
The first time we met this character, he came off a serious creep. He showed up when Sawyer, Jin, Michael and his son were making their way away from the island on a raft and demanded that the survivors hand over the boy. When Michael and the others didn’t comply, Walt was taken by force and their raft was blowup with a homemade explosive. It was later revealed that this character was a member of the Others, who was far less threatening without his fake beard and raggedy clothes.
This character thought she was Benjamin’s daughter.
Benjamin may have been able to control his group of survivors, but he could never seem to be in charge of the relationship with his daughter. However, this character wasn’t Benjamin’s daughter at all, but rather the long lost child of the French woman who had been surviving in the jungle wilderness all these years. The character is eventually reunited with her mother, but she is later killed by one of the mercenaries who travels to the island looking to kill Ben.
This character pretended to be a passenger aboard Flight 815.
One of the creepier characters in season one, audiences were disturbed to discover that this survivor of Flight 815 wasn’t on the plane at all, but rather an inhabitant of the island who had secretly infiltrated the group. He takes a particular liking to the pregnant Claire and eventually kidnaps her and takes her to a medical station on the island. He even strings Charlie up to die, but it is Charlie who finally has his revenge when he shoots this character to death.
This character is older than he looks.
Fans of the show were largely divided over the mythology that the writers began to explore in the later seasons of Lost — many of which revolved around this mysterious character who had inhabited the island for thousands of years. This character represented the good side that is inherently in people, and he was in constant conflict with his adopted brother, The Man in Black. He is largely the reason that the survivors crash land on the island in the first place.
This character was searching for her long lost love.
This character may not have appeared in a ton of episode of the series, but she played a prominent role in the life of Desmond Hume as well as helping to locate the mysterious island and help rescue the survivors. The character is the daughter of Charles, a wealthy industrialist who previously lived on the island and lead the Others. He disapproved of his daughter's relationship with Desmond and he kept the two apart for a number of years until she rescues him from the island.
This character couldn’t wait to reunite with his wife.
Of course, every great love story needs a second half, which is exactly where this character came in to play. Although it seemed like his wife was semi-delusional by thinking her husband was still alive, this character showed up in season two as a fellow survivor of the plane crash who ended up with the tail-end passengers after taking a trip to the bathroom at an inopportune time. He was played by Sam Anderson, and he eventually decided to remain on the island with his wife and live together in harmony.
This character was kidnapped by the Others at the end of season one.
For most characters, nothing supernatural happened in their lives until they actually arrived on the island. However, this character exhibited special abilities before he ever boarded Oceanic Flight 815, displaying psychic powers that were never fully explored in the show. After Lost became a massive hit, this character may have proved a bit of a problem for the writers, as he was visibly aging faster than the storyline progressed, resulted in him being written out of the show's later seasons.
This character was stranded on the island for over a decade.
This character first appeared in episode nine of season one, when she kidnaps Sayid while he is wandering through the jungle. He quickly deduces that the woman is the voice of the strange recording that they picked up coming through the island, and it is later revealed that she shipwrecked on the island back in 1988 when she was seven months pregnant with her daughter, Alex. Her daughter has since been kidnapped by the Others and adopted by Benjamin Linus.
This character appears to not age.
This mysterious character first came to the island back in 1967 as a slave on the Black Rock, the same ship which Jack and his fellow survivors extract dynamite from. He was given the ability to remain ageless by Jacob in exchange for servitude, and he even shows in a number of flashbacks, visiting the characters before they ever arrive on the island. The character is played by Nestor Carbonell, who has also appeared as Mayor Anthony Garcia in The Dark Knight.
This character can extract information from dead bodies.
This character arrived on the Island via the freighter Kahana, who is part of a research team whose sole mission is to capture Benjamin Linus at the behest of Charles Widmore. He is eventually passed through time like a number of the other survivors before eventually ended up in the 1950s where he joins the DHARMA Initiative. He is portrayed by American actor Ken Leung, who has starred in a number of action films, including Rush Hour and X-Men: The Last Stand.
This couple was largely greeted with backlash from fans of the show.
Despite many fans questions why the show never introduced the audience to other survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, ironically, when the character of Nikki and Paulo were eventually introduced, the new characters were met with negative reception. This couple was aboard the midsection of the plan, though they weren’t introduced until the show's mid-season. Much like Swayer, they were con artists in their part life, and the negative response most likely resulted in them getting killed off the same season they were introduced.
This character was originally supposed to pilot Oceanic Flight 815.
This character first showed up in the second episode of season four — a season which largely focused on the new character aboard the freighter Kahana. He is an accomplished pilot who was originally supposed to fly the ill-fated Flight 815 that broke apart in the sky over the island. Before discovering that their were survivors from the crash, Frank already believes that the underwater wreckage of the plane is a fake, which eventually leads him on an adventure to the island.
This character is a longtime rival of Benjamin Linus.
This character was originally the leader of the Others before he was dethroned by Benjamin Linus, setting the stage for the later conflict between the inhabitants of the island and the crew aboard the freighter Kahana. This character is also the father of Daniel Faraday and Penelope Windmore. He is eventually killed by Benjamin in the episode "What They Died For", despite the two having a packed that they can never physically attack each other. He is played New Zealand actor Alan Dale.
This character is the alcoholic father of Jack.
One of the central motifs of the sci-fi drama was always about bad fathers, and how your past will continue to have a profound impact on your future. This character has a deep impact on his son, leading Jack to pursue a similar career path and eventually falling victim to the same vices that brought down his father before him. In the final episode, it is this character that helps bring the series full circle when he greets his son into the afterlife.