Lost Rewatch: Abandoned

 

Perhaps  because I only started watching Lost in reruns or because I never pay any attention to message boards (then or now) I never understood the depth of the contempt most fans of the series felt towards Shannon during the first season. She was never one of my favorite characters during the first season and she certainly didn’t go out of her way to endear herself to me but by the end of Season 1, I had more sympathy for her than most fans of the series. When Boone died near the end of the season, I thought that this was a decision by the writers to give Shannon to grow as a character – absent Boone, maybe she mature on her own. She had barely been visible during the opening episodes but neither had Claire or Sun, and I was inclined to think as the season went on, she too would be given a chance to move forward. She’d seen Walt in the woods and that seemed to imply a connection between them that might have lead to Michael being reunited with his son.

Most of Abandoned seems to make this a direct implication: it’s the first episode in which Shannon is the central focus, we learn her backstory and develop a sympathetic portrayal of her and we come away with a clear explanation of what made her what she was on the island and in a sense what poisoned her relationship with Boone. Her relationship with Sayid is taken to the next level and though they spend most of the episode at loggerheads near the end we see a true connection between them and the fact that they both see Walt seems to indicate that there is something deeper at play.

What we don’t realize until the very last moments of the episode is that this has been all misdirection. We were told in no uncertain terms that one of the castaways was going to die in this episode but until the shocking conclusion, the writers very clearly seem to be pointing that it will be Sawyer. Indeed, given how the episode ends you wonder if the writers are going to be even more cruel and kill off two regulars in the space of an episode. (They will be that cruel but not yet.)

Sadly what happens to Shannon in this episode is part of a trend that will be carried out until the end of Season Five. At least once a season from this point forward, a major character will end up getting killed off in an episode where they are the central focus of it. You have to give credit to Lost’s writers though; this is a trick that they will be able to keep pulling off and it will never lose any of its power. Indeed, it makes the death in the episode all the more poignant because we’ve finally learned a vital secret of what makes the character tick and then BANG, the writers pull the rug out from under us and everybody else.

Shannon’s flashback is powerful because we see a completely different person from the woman we see on the island. This is a sweet eighteen year old girl who happily instructs young ballet dancers, clearly has an ambition to become a ballerina herself, loves her father and clearly has a connection with her brother. Her life is shattered when her father is killed in a hit and run. (This confirms something suspected in the season premiere when the other victim of the hit-and-run that Sarah Shephard was a part of was referred to as Adam Rutherford. Shannon is called to St. Sebastian, and in fact we see Jack walk right past Shannon, never knowing about the connection they will have.) In just a few scenes we get a very clear picture that who Shannon is has been defined by her stepmother Sabrina, who dismisses Shannon at the death of her father, and clearly leaves her alone in grief.

The episode shows a moment of pure joy on Shannon’s face that we never see any other time in the series when she realizes an ambition she never thought she could. Immediately afterward, she is confront with reality in a far worse way in which Mrs. Carlyle makes it very clear that she views Shannon with total contempt and is entirely dismissive of her ambitions. The fact that she is willing to favor Boone over Shannon demonstrates very clearly the kind of woman she is the fact that Boone is willing to instantly grab it and dismiss Shannon in the same breath takes a lot of the sympathy we’ve felt for him. We clearly understand Shannon a lot better in this flashback: why she has treated Boone with disdain on the island, why she was willing to manipulate him for money to play on her guilt, and why she feels she is useless. She may have spent her time on the island acting like a spoiled and whiny bitch, but like everyone else so far, it was a front to cover the betrayals she endured in her life.

Now on the island, she is given a moment of happiness with Sayid when the two of them seem happy in a way we haven’t seen two characters be so far on the island. And naturally, the island takes it away almost immediately. Walt’s reappearance on the island to Shannon is never explained by the writers and when his character is more or less written off at the end of Season 2, we are inclined to forget it. Is the connection between Walt and Vincent? Is he trying to reach out to his dog and since he gave her to Shannon, that’s the link between them?

From this point on Vincent will end up being labeled essentially ‘the dog of death,’ more or less responsible for so much of the carnage that many of the characters go through. I actually think that, at least when it comes to Season 2, much of the death that follows could be more accurately laid at Walt’s feet. (There’s an argument that this could also be held as late as Season 4, but I’m going to hold off until the time comes.) Because to be clear Vincent is just in the jungle when Shannon and Sayid see Walt. Shannon goes chasing after where Walt has been – and ends up taking a bullet.

Now of course, I must go to the other side of the island where the viewer is just as certain that Sawyer is going to be the one to die. By now the infection from Sawyer’s wound has gotten to that point where even he knows how bad it is. He’s doing his best to soldier on, in his snarly raging way, and its fitting that he shrugs off help from Jin and Michael, takes a few defiant steps forward, and then collapses in a heap. The fact that in delirium he’s mentioning to Michael that they should have left him behind and that he would have in their case would actually have been fitting last words for Sawyer – as he faces the end, he seems to acknowledge what a prick he’s been.

While this is going on the march to the beach is continuing and as Sawyer worsens Ana Lucia’s dictatorial leadership is already beginning to fragment. We still don’t know the story between Eko and Ana Lucia, but considering his compassion and her rage, it’s amazing that she’s actually listening to him. When he decides to go inland in order to try and save Sawyer, she is immediately repellant – she hasn’t liked him from the start and is now so mercenary that she is essentially considers him dead weight. Sawyer’s collapse is shocking, but not nearly stunning as her cold-blooded decision to initially leave him behind. For all Jack’s flaws, this is never a decision he would have made.

Halfway through the episode Michael finally demands an answer to the question that both he and the audience have wanted to know since we encountered the Tailies: “What happened to you people?” Rodriguez’s monologue is absolutely perfect as we see that beneath the harsh and brutal façade, she is terrified. And it’s hard to blame when she tells us that the reason there are now only five Tailies is that the Others have basically raided  the rest. We’ve considered her actions built on paranoia; this speech tells us its grounded in reality. When Michael reacts by telling her: “They took my son,” her answer: “They took a lot of things” is a rejoinder that silences Michael.

And in one of the last scenes of the episode, we realize that their terror is justified. The scene where the group combines to help move Sawyer and his stretcher up what seems an insurmountable hill is clearly a call back to a scene from the Pilot when the first group of castaways when on their trek across the jungle to see if they could get the transceiver to work. (The same theme music is used at one point.) It’s a tense, gripping moment and incredibly well filmed and its not until its over that the camera takes an overhead shot and we see that Cindy is gone. Cindy has essentially been the Tailies background character; she didn’t utter a word of dialogue until this episode and no doubt the writers have essentially been preparing us for the fact that she’s a ‘red shirt.’ But it doesn’t make it any less powerful when it happens, and it certainly doesn’t make the terror and self-recriminations any less real. Ana Lucia continues to crack under the pressure, immediately turning on Eko. “You did this to save him. And he’s already dead.” Immediately afterwards the whispers begin, and the strings that have holding the group together snap – Ana Lucia shouts “Run!” and everybody scatters. And it is because of that panic, Shannon is shot.

Lost’s history with female characters is not incredibly good and it is demonstrated to an extreme with Shannon’s death. She is the only character in the series who is killed off-screen. I don’t deny that it’s a powerful see and Naveen Andrews’ reactions in the final minute is exceptional as we see his face contort between despair, shock and finally rage. But it sends a very bad message from the writers overall when it comes to many of the female characters overall, especially in the first half of the series. I’m not entirely certain how much of this is the writers fault and how much has to do with the behavior of some of the actors (this is a trend that will end up being the center of all of the Tailies, not just the women) but it seems a shameful way to get rid of Shannon. Naveen Andrews would be quoted as disturbed by the murder of Shannon in interviews after the fact, and you can’t really argue with him. After she dies Shannon will be forgotten by most of the characters quickly and by the series almost entirely. Being dead on Lost won’t mean that you won’t reappear in future seasons (Boone’s appearance in Shannon’s flashback has confirmed as much) but Shannon is the exception that proves the rule. With one minor exception, we don’t see here again – and that may have been one of the key factors as to why so many of us were troubled by the series finale. (It certainly was for me.)

Maybe that’s the reason I grieve Shannon’s death more than most fans do. It’s clear that she had potential in her that nobody on the island saw, and she was cut down before she could truly realize it. I’m pretty sure that given the choice, fans would have preferred that Boone had lived and Shannon had died in Season 1. I honestly think Boone’s loss was mourned far more by the fans, which is just another burden for this character to bear. Like everything else regarding Shannon Rutherford, that wasn’t fair.