Back To The Island: Why The Character of Ilana May Be The Biggest Failure of Lost

 

It took many rewatches for me to realize that the final season of Lost did work that the show was not a disappointment. I now realize that part of the problem was not the series finale but some of the problems with the final season.

I think this has less to do with the flash-sideways (though in a different set of articles I will probably deal with my issues with them) and rather the action on the island. Some of it Darlton would later acknowledge was their own fault, most notably how they chose to cut bait on the Temple after having built it up so much over the second half of the series. Other parts, most notably everything involving Widmore, may have been based on the decision to try and tie all the storylines they'd spent the series dealing with up a bow.

But the one they really don't have any excuse for, both at the time and in hindsight, was how Ilana, who the writers spent pretty close to two seasons building up as vital to the endgame, went out in a damp squib.

This is different than how other characters who the writers had plans for had long-term plans for had to be killed off to the actors demands. The most notable example was Eko but it played out with other characters such as Matthew Abadon who seemed important when first introduced in Season 4 and was killed off when Lance Reddick was cast in Fringe in late 2008. In the case of Ilana the writers really don't have any excuse because they had built her up in Season 5 as important and then moved Zuleikha Robinson to a series regular for the final season.

And the main action on The Incident seemed to imply Ilana was important in a way we hadn't seen any other character being. One of the flashbacks that we saw involved Jacob visiting a heavily bandaged Ilana in a hospital in what appeared to be Russia. This was the first episode we'd learned of Jacob's existence and in all the other flashbacks he had visited the passengers on Oceanic 815 throughout their lives at key moments without them knowing it. Ilana was the first person who knew who Jacob was and who told her that he needed her to do something for him.

We'd first seen  Ilana when she was holding Sayid in handcuffs as they boarding Ajira 316. Interestingly Jack made no effort to talk to him when they got on the plane and while everyone saw him, no one mentioned him until the survivors all flashbacked to 1977.

Chronologically after the plane crashed on the island the first words out of Ilana's mouth were 'Jarrah'. In the immediate aftermath of the crash a passenger named Caesar took charge and began to search the island. Ilana seemed willing to follow his lead and eventually brought him to a man no one remembered from the plane, calling himself John Locke. She engaged in conversation with Locke and there's no sign as to how she reacted when he told her the last thing he remembered was dying.

Later in that episode she and a group of passengers found a crate and while they talked to Ben they never told anyone what was inside it. Eventually she and another man, known only as Bram, found guns and said they were in charge. When Frank challenged them she asked: "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" When he couldn't answer the question she knocked him out.

By the time of the season finale Bram clearly answered to Ilana and said he didn't understand why they were taking him with her because he didn't know the answer to the question. Ilana said: "That doesn't mean he's not a Candidate'. That was the first time we heard that word and we had no idea what it meant. Eventually Frank went with them to take what was in the crate to a cabin where we had been led to believe Jacob had been living all this time.

But when we got there, seeing the cabin for the first time in the daylight, it was a dilapidated wreck. Ilana went in and knew immediately Jacob hadn't been living there and 'someone else had been using it." She looked at a piece of tapestry which had an image of the statue and in the opening flashback we knew Jacob was living there.

And as we all know the finale ended with Ilana, Frank and her band of followers meeting Richard and the Others outside the statue in which Ben and Locke had gone in. Ilana asked to see Ricardos ("It's Richard, actually) and once he gave the correct answer to the question (in Latin it was: "He who will save us all") Ilana relaxed. She said she needed to show Jacob something and opened the crate which revealed…

Time for a flashback (whoosh)

Earlier in the season we'd seen what had happened to Sayid. He'd been getting drunk at a bar and he met a woman dressed who we now knew was Ilana. They chatted each other up and we saw them kissing in a hotel room. Ilana then pulled a gun on Sayid and said she represented the family of Peter Avellino, the man we'd seen him kill in back in Season 4. Sayid asked if she was a bounty hunter and she didn't answer.

Then we saw the leadup to Ajira 316. Sayid saw his fellow Oceanics get on the plane and he asked to take a different flight. Ilana said: "This is the flight we're taking." Onboard he asked if she worked for Ben Linus and it was clear she had no idea who Ben was and that Sayid had worked for him.

Later that season in Miles flashbacks in Some Like it Hoth he was kidnapped off the street by Bram, who said he knew what he was planning on doing, asked him the same question Ilana did and Miles had no idea of the answer. They told Miles he wasn't ready yet and that he was 'playing for the wrong team'. When Miles asked which team they were on Bram said: "The one that's going to win."

That flashback, it's worth noting, took place a full three years before the events in Season 5 and since Bram was taking orders from Ilana by The Incident, it's clear they knew about the island and that they were planning to get there. That part was never clarified but let's leave that for now.

Bram would go out of his way to tell Frank that he was with 'the good guys'. Frank didn't buy it and considering that was the exact phrase Ben had used to refer to the Others way back in Season 2, the viewer took it with a PILLAR of salt. And considering by this point Ilana had already forced Sayid to come to the island at gunpoint (a place he absolutely did not want to return to) and was essentially doing the same thing to Frank, when he told Sun later "I'm not buying it either," neither did we.

Considering that by this point in the series the only person on the island who had seen Jacob on a regular basis was Richard it seemed significant that Ilana had seen him and that he chose to trust her. But as Nikki Stafford pointed out in Finding Lost: Season Five there was a critical difference between his visit to the survivors in the past and his recent visit to Ilana. In that visit he was wearing black gloves as if he could not or would not touch her. That seemed to signify that she was less important to him than the survivors.

Now we would learn later that he had come to see her because he had six names for her, the names of the remaining Candidates. It was her job to get them to the island and for her to protect them when she got there.  That would explain why she chatted up Sayid and brought him on the plane. And it would seem to explain why she cared so much for John Locke and when she found his body in the baggage compartment of the plane, she knew that they were going after "something a lot scarier then what was in that box."

So during Season 5 its clear that Ilana and her followers seemed vital to the show's endgame. In a deleted scene from the Season 6 premiere that is built up. Ilana has realized that something has gone horribly wrong and wants to go into the statue to check on Jacob. Bram stops her and says he and the rest will go in. "It'll be daylight in 20 minutes. You have to get everyone to the Temple. You're too important."

So the three of them go in knowing something about what they're about to face but not enough. They shoot 'Locke' in the chest and he disappears. They find the bullet and then we realize the truth of something only theorized: the Man in Black is the smoke monster. He kills two of the bodyguards immediately. Bram picks up ash and uses it as a protective circle. This provides him with momentary protection – until the Monster brings down the ceiling and leads to Bram's death.

Now its worth noting 'Locke' identifies Bram – and by extension Ilana – as Jacob's bodyguards, not the Candidates. And later that season we know that Richard doesn't know who the Candidates are but Ilana does. Clearly Ilana has been completely off the radar of everyone on the island including the Monster. Combined with everything we've already seen it seems Ilana may never have been on the island but she knows more of its secrets then anyone we've met before. And this would seem to be confirmed as Season 6 progresses.

Throughout the first half of Season 6 Ilana seems more aware of 'the rules' then most of the people we've met to this point, certainly any new arrival. She knew about Richard's importance, she knew about the cabin and where to find Jacob based on his clue. When she enters Jacob's sanctuary  - and she's clearly broken by it – she asks an equally shattered Ben what happened. When he tells her "you probably won't believe me" she does believe him when he tells about the monster, and when she learns Jacob was pushed onto the fire she takes his ashes and puts them in a bag. She tells them that the Man in Black is now stuck in Locke's body and that they have to go to the Temple.

When they get to the Temple and all hell is breaking loose (courtesy of Smokey) she moves in a direct pattern until she finds a hieroglyph that tells them where to find a panic room, a move that saves everyone in her party. And she also knows about Dogen the people who work at the Temple and certain details about everyone who's been here. She knows Miles can speak to the dead, for one thing.

And what drives all of this home is how Robinson manages to imbue Ilana with more then a bit of humanity we've gotten from everyone else who 'knows the answers'. She breaks down sobbing when she sees the bodies of her friends and what has happened to Jacob for a moment and when Ben comes in, she does her best to cover it. She insists on a burial for Locke and that somebody should say something. Indeed she seems astonished that no one knew him well enough to talk about him – which actually leads to Ben's crazy but heartfelt eulogy.

And when she learns that Ben murdered Jacob, though she tries to hide it has clearly cut her. She holds it in until they get back to the beach and then she pulls Ben aside at gunpoint and tells him he is going to have to dig his own grave and when he finishes she intends to kill him. Ben has spent the last four seasons able to talk himself out of every horrible thing he has done – and killing Jacob was honestly one of the most understandable actions he's taken – and now he is face to face an enemy who knows the consequences of his actions and people who know all too well what he's capable of.

It's understandable that when Smokey shows up and offers to give him the island if he kills Ilana that he jumps at the chance. It's not clear if the Man In Black knows how much of a threat Ilana is or if he's recruiting as Ilana herself put it. Whatever the reason Ben has no options.

Ben escapes and what follows is one of the highpoints of Season 6, if not the entire series. Ben looks at Ilana and sees himself, someone who has sacrificed their lives in the name of Jacob, a man who has never even spoken up for him. He admits responsibility for his role in Alex's death and that he gave up the only thing that mattered to him for the island.  Emerson is magnificent, in tears and agony in a way he's never come close to playing in his previous four seasons, with a rawness and honesty that we've never associated. The prince of lies is telling the truth.

So when he begs Ilana to let him go to the Man in Black "Because he's the only one who'll have me" we feel the pain in our guts. It's not a performance and Ilana recognizes it. So when she walks over to Ben and says simply: "I'll have you," it's an emotional highpoint.

At the end of the episode we have one of those moments we've seen so many times before on Lost a reunion of characters who've been apart for an eternity if not longer. But it guts us for multiple reasons. There is the fact there are so few people left on the beach to unite and there's a group of characters – Richard, Ben and Ilana – who aren't smiling. They were the disciples of Jacob and now that he's gone they have no future.

In the opening of Ab Aeterno, the first flashback is to Ilana's in 'The Incident'. We see both that moment and the aftermath. The bandages are gone with Ilana's face (the implication is he healed her by touching her) and he tells here that he has six names, the last remaining candidates and he needs for her to find them and to protect them. Once she's brought them to the island she has to bring them to Richard, who according to Jacob will know what to do.

But the thing is Richard makes it clear he has absolutely no idea what to do and storms off to try and have his meeting with the Man in Black. Hurley goes after him but Ilana stays behind, certain that Richard will come back solely because Jacob said he would. Everyone else is incredulous and when Richard comes back with Hurley and tells them that they have to stop the Man in Black from leaving the island, they have to blow up the plane everyone is astonished. Sun holds it in the most and Jack promises her that he'll try to get her and Jin off the island. But when he says this Richard makes it clear he shouldn't have because that's the only way forward.

It's worth noting that as important as Ilana seemed to be throughout this entire period the viewer still wondered just how much Jacob let her into his confidence. He'd given her the names of the remaining candidates but he hadn't told her what had happened to Locke. She brought Locke's body to Richard and the Others but didn't bother to tell anyone else that he was dead, which might have helped avoid a massive tragedy.  She didn't tell her followers that they couldn't kill him and that led to them all dying. And while she knew she had to protect a Kwon Jacob didn't tell her (or anyone) whether it was Sun or Jin.

And all of the knowledge he had he gave to other people but it was selective. He never told any of the Others why the names on the list were important at any point but he seemed more than willing to tell those who were off the island. Everybody had complete faith in Jacob even though as Richard himself said "He never tells us what to do."  Ilana had blind faith that Jacob was right.

And then…BOOM!

I've argued that Lost's reputation with female characters isn't entirely deserved but in the second half of the series it keeps getting harder to make that argument. Charlotte is the first freighter folk to die. Juliet is killed in the fifth season finale. Kate isn't a Candidate. We're not sure if Sun ever was. The writers could have at least partially atoned for that with Ilana and then she's killed off when she drops unstable dynamite right before the endgame of the series officially begins. We never even learned her last name.

I've tried to make an argument in my own writings that Ilana might work if you understand her as a symbolic character, the ultimate example of blind faith and another pawn in Jacob's war. Yet even then I think I'm grasping at straws. Nikki Stafford pointed out in her final volume of Finding Lost just how badly the writers screwed up with the decision and considering just how much she was willing to defend practically every other choice Darlton made from start to finish of the series that speaks volumes. And considering that nobody even bothers to mourn her death, it just makes it leave an even worse taste in the mouth.

Everything involving Ilana honestly speaks to all the bad things people say about Lost all at once. The writers never knew what they were doing; they built up plot threads and then cast them aside, they were horrible with female characters; they had no plan for the final season. The writers did a disservice to Robinson with Ilana's fate and they didn't do much better by the viewer.