The Lost Census

Waaaaayyyy back towards the beginning of Lost, Hurley decided to take an island census, using the flight manifesto for reference. He made a discovery. One of the island inhabitants was not on the plane. Cue the creepy music and Ethan Rom's obsessed glassy gaze at Claire's round pregnant belly. Ethan was the second fascinating supporting character to be introduced on the show in as many episodes. Just one episode earlier, Sayid discovers a crazed French woman (who speaks with an Eastern European accent) who has been living on the island for years. Danielle Rousseau, one of my all-time favorite Lost characters. That was episode 9 of the first season, and tonight we have episode 9 of the final season. It is fitting, in this season of mirroring storylines, that the episode focuses on Richard Alpert, another richly written mysterious character in the Lost mythology.

There are so many reasons to love Lost. High at the top of the list are the characters. I would contend that no other show has created such an extensive roster of characters. But with quantity, the quality does not suffer. In fact, the additional characters always serve the storyline. To sum it up, Lost has made us care about and has intrigued us with more characters than any show has ever attempted. Look at the photo below. 26 people and a dog. And that's just the surface.

So if Hurley were to do his census today, what would it look like? Because we certainly can't forget about all the supporting characters like Rousseau and Ethan that have added to the mystery of this series. The Survivors. The Tailies. The Others. The Dharma Institute. The Freighter Folk. So many layers of enigma. Not to mention all the family members and friends and foes back home that have given layers to all our main characters. This website creates a gallery of 108 Lost characters you should know. Some are certainly less important than others, but most have left an indeliable mark on the plot. Who are your favorites?

My Top 10 from the main characters would be...

Okay, I just wasted 5 minutes trying to enumerate an impossible task. Each character serves a purpose that is integral to the story. Even Anna Lucia. So somewhere in my top 10 (in no particular order) would be Eko, Juliet, Sun, Faraday, Desmond, Sawyer, Sayid, Rose, Miles, of course Ben, thank goodness for Hurley lending much needed heart and comic relief to the show, Charlie's final episode was so heroic and good, and Locke is always amazing, and Crazy Claire has been very entertaining lately, and I can't include Sun without Jin, and Jack is the bedrock of the show, and...do you see where where I run into trouble?

Even more intriguing are the peripheral characters. Sometimes a character only needs an episode or two to leave A. their mark and B. you wanting more. Such as Richard Malkin, the creepy psychic that convinced Claire the board the train. Or Mikhail Bakunin, the Russian eye-patched Other that would not die. Nadia, Goodwin, Keamy, Anthony Cooper, Matthew Abaddon and Eloise Hawking have all made an impression in less than 10 episodes out of the 116 so far.

What I find particularly fun about this season's sideways flashes is how those supporting characters, and especially previously-dead characters, are popping up in unexpected, very interesting ways. So far we've seen Ethan, Ben, Alex, Dogen, Miles, Charlotte, and Keamy show up off the island in very different roles. These people are going to be drawn together despite the circumstances. With eight more episodes until the series finale, what other characters do you hope will make a cameo appearance in this parallel world?

I'll leave you with some music from Michael Giacchino, the (now Oscar-winning) composer of Lost (and quite possibly one of the top 3 modern composers of our time) and some art from the recent Lost Underground Art Show.  "Showdowns I and II" by Scott Campbell.