Lost/Shannon Rutherford

Shannon Rutherford Lost
Actor	Maggie Grace
First Appearance	1x01 - Pilot
Last Appearance	6x18 - The End
Show Status	1x01 to 2x07 & 6x17-18: Billed 2x08: Special Guest Star 3x14: Special Guest Star
Episode Count	31
Notable Episodes	1x13 - Hearts and Minds 1x21 - The Greater Good 2x06 - Abandoned
Flashback Count	2 [including Exodus (2)]

Shannon Rutherford was traveling with her step-brother Boone Carlyle to the United States from Australia, and is one of the many Flight 815 crash survivors. Shannon lived on the beach with the rest of the mid-section survivors. She is portrayed by Maggie Grace and appeared regularly in season 1 and 2.

Basic Information

Shannon is a girly-girl who doesn't like the idea of being stuck on the island too well. She claimed to be 20 years old at the time of the crash, but was probably lying, as she was at least 22 years old. She is Boone’s step-sister, and has a love-hate relationship with him.

Before the Crash

At the age of 18, Shannon wanted to intern with the Martha Graham Dance Company, but after her father was killed, her step-mother, Sabrina, cut her off from the family money. When she was accepted, she was going to live with Boone in New York for a while until she got on her feet, but Sabrina gave Boone a job luring him away from New York just to spite Shannon. Despite that, Shannon decided to prove that she wasn’t worthless, and she refused to take Boone’s money when he offered it to her.

Shannon moved to France a few months later to work as an au pair for a French man whose daughter was in Shannon's ballet class. However, Shannon ended up having an affair with the man, who eventually left his wife and married Shannon. This was most probably another one of Shannon's schemes to get money, as the marriage didn't last very long.

Shannon swindled money from Boone several times by faking being abused by boyfriends. She did the scams because after her father died, she felt that she didn't get the money she was entitled to. After pulling her last scam in Sydney, her boyfriend took off with all the money. Boone had also found out that Shannon had been conning him every time. Shannon went to Boone’s hotel room drunk and seduced him as a form of emotional blackmail. After that night she pretended that it never happened. They were flying back to Los Angeles on Oceanic Flight 815.

On the Island

Season One

During the first few days on the island, Shannon would spend her time sunbathing and giving herself pedicures. She hardly ever helped with anything, believing that it was worthless since the rescue boats were on their way. Boone confronted Shannon about her laziness and her unwillingness to help around the beach. Out of spite, Shannon volunteered to go on a hike with Sayid Jarrah and Kate Austen, who wanted to find higher ground to get a signal on the plane's tranceiver. Boone refused to let Shannon go alone, and also went along. Charlie Pace and James Ford aka Sawyer also joined in on the hike.

After escaping from a polar bear attack, the group finally reached high enough ground and received a signal. They soon realized that another message was already transmitting - it was a distress call recorded in French by Danielle Rousseau. Due to the time Shannon had spent in France, she picked up on some French and was able to roughly translate the distress call. It was a call for help and Sayid calculated that it had been playing on a loop for over sixteen years.

Shannon suffered from asthma and had lost her asthma refills in the crash. After about a week on the island, Shannon had everyone worried when she had an asthma attack and there was no medication to help her. Jack Shephard tried everything he could to help her, but it was Sun Kwon who saved the day by finding eucalyptus leaves, which helped relieve the attack.

After Sayid returned from being captured by Danielle Rousseau in the jungle, he enlisted Shannon to translate the French words some maps and papers he stole from Rousseau’s bunker. The words turned out to be lyrics from the song "La Mer", which Shannon also knew from her time in Paris.

As Boone spent more and more time with John Locke, Shannon grew closer to Sayid. One day, Sayid planned a surprise for Shannon - a picnic on a secret beach away from the other survivors. Shannon spent that whole day and night with Sayid, and was totally unaware that Boone had had a terrible accident and eventually died from his injuries under Jack's care. Shannon cried terribly after Boone's death, but was too shocked and upset to speak at his funeral.

After Jack publicly accused Locke of lying about what happened to Boone, Shannon blamed Locke for Boone's death and asked Sayid to do something about it. However, when Sayid came back to Shannon and claimed that Locke was innocent, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She went to Jack's tent while he was passed out and stole a key from him. It was they key to the halibuton case that held all the Marshal's guns. Shannon took a gun, followed Locke into the jungle and confronted him with the gun. Jack, Kate and Sayid arrived just in time to stop her. As Shannon fired the gun, Sayid tackled her, causing the bullet to only graze Locke's head.

Before Michael's raft took off, Walt realized that he couldn't take his dog, Vincent, along on the raft. He gave Vincent to Shannon, claiming that he would take care of her. Walt knew what it felt like to loose a loved one and told Shannon that she could talk to Vincent about Boone's death, since Vincent was a good listener. Shannon was still having a hard time coping, and insisted on taking all Boone’s stuff during the beach evacuation, even though she was overburdened. She became concerned for Sayid's safety when he and Charlie went on a mission to get Claire's kidnapped baby back from Rousseau. When they returned, Shannon made up with Sayid.

Season Two

While searching for Vincent in the jungle, Shannon heard whispers. Then she saw an image of Walt, soaking wet, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. She believes the others are real, and she told everyone about hearing the whispers and seeing Walt.

Claire showed her the bottle of messages that went with the raft crew, and Shannon thought they should give the bottle to Sun.

After Sayid built a shelter for her, they had sex. When he stepped out to get some water, Shannon had another vision of Walt soaking wet and speaking backwards. Sayid couldn't find any evidence of Walt being there and assumed she was dreaming. Shannon decided to try and find Walt on her own. She got some of Walt's clothing and tried to use Vincent to track him down. Sayid followed her into the jungle. She told him that she knew that everyone on the island thought she was worthless, and that Sayid would leave her as soon as they were rescued. Sayid told her that he would never leave her, and that he loved her.

Then they were surrounded with whispers and Sayid saw Walt. Walt said "Shh." twice, but Shannon didn't listen. She charged off into the jungle and was shot by Ana-Lucia, who mistook her for an Other. She died in Sayid's arms.

Shannon was buried near the bodies of Boone and another crash survivor Scott Jackson.

Character History

Information is shown in chronological order.

Before the Crash

• 2x06 - Abandoned: Shannon receives news of her father's death, and upon receiving an internship at the prestigious Martha Graham Dance Company in New York, finds out that her father left no money for her. Boone offers to give her money, but she refuses, claiming that she doesn't need anyone's help and wants to become financially stable on her own.
• 1x13 - Hearts and Minds: Shannon deceives Boone in order to retrieve money from him through sympathy by pretending to be abused by boyfriends. Shannon arrives in Boone's hotel room and they have sex after Shannon seduces him. Shannon adamantly refuses that they've had sex the following day as a form of blackmail.
• 1x23 - Exodus (1): Shannon lies to a security guard about seeing an Iraqi man (Sayid) dropping a bag off near a terminal and leaving to show Boone that he doesn't know what she is capable of. This causes Sayid a minor problem with security.
• 1x24 - Exodus (2): Shannon and her brother Boone board the ill-fated Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.

On the Island

• 1x01 - Pilot (1): Shannon survives the plane crash. It is not yet known at this point what Shannon's relationship to Boone is.
• 1x20 - Do No Harm: Although Boone dies, Shannon is not aware of it at first because she is out on another part of the island with Sayid.
• 1x21 - The Greater Good: After a sudden tragedy finding out that her step-brother has died, Shannon's sense of stability is shattered and her personality changes dramatically.
• 1x23 - Exodus (1): Walt entrusts Shannon with taking care of Vincent for him.
• 2x01 - Man of Science, Man of Faith: Shannon sees a vision of Walt in the jungle at night.
• 2x06 - Abandoned: Shannon sees another vision of Walt, and decides to search for him using Vincent as her guide. Sayid follows her into the jungle, and they reconcile after she confides in Sayid that she feels abandoned, and no one believes or has trust in her. As they make up, she sees another vision of Walt, and when she chases after him, she is mistaken for one of the Others and is shot by Ana-Lucia. Shannon dies in Sayid's arms.

Memorable Moments

• 1x21 - The Greater Good: Angry and grief-stricken, Shannon tries to murder Locke.
• 2x06 - Abandoned: Shannon tells Sayid that she's afraid he's going to abandon her, like everyone else in her life.

Trivia

• Nicknames: Sawyer's nickname for Shannon is "Sticks." This came from the real nickname Josh Holloway gave her. Maggie Grace liked it so much she used "Stix" as her screen name on the-fuselage forums.
• There is some discrepancy as to what Shannon's real age is. In a flashback set in 2000, Jack meets Sarah, his future wife. She was a patient of his at St. Sebastian's Hospital. The day Jack met Sarah, was the day Shannon's father passed away. On the day of his funeral, Shannon has a conversation with Boone during which she reveals that she is 18. This means that when the plane crashed in September 2004, Shannon was at least 22 years old. Yet, when Hurley was conducting the census on the island, Shannon told him that she was 20. This is either a continuity error from the producers' side, or Shannon was simply being sarcastic and didn't give Hurley her real age.

Quotes

• 1x10 - Raised by Another: I am so not moving to the Rape Caves!
• 2x06 - Abandoned: (to Sayid) I just know that as soon as we get out of here, you're going to leave me!