A Primer on the French

I’d heard that we’d learn about Danielle Rousseau this season, but I couldn’t figure out how. Turns out, skipping through time is the perfect device, now that Keamy has killed her. But I was a little concerned, because I couldn’t remember much about what we’ve learned about Rousseau’s team. So, I did a little investigating, and found the following:

Danielle arrived on the Island in 1988 with a scientific team of six members. She was seven months pregnant by Robert, another scientist who was on the same team. In Solitary, Danielle told Sayid that her team was 3 days out of Tahiti when their instruments malfunctioned. Their ship crashed into rocks and the team made a temporary camp on the island.

In Numbers, Danielle told Hurley a different story. Her team picked up a transmission of a voice repeating the numbers and the team changed course to investigate. It took them weeks to find the radio transmission tower near the Black Rock.

The team was on the island for two months when five became “infected”. They were apparently near the Black Rock, in “The Dark Territory”, where, apparently, Montand lost his arm. Rousseau claimed that the sickness took the members of her team one by one, but she did admit to killing Robert. Maybe she killed them all. She claimed she did this because of her fears of spreading the infection should they be rescued. She told Sayid that she believed the Others infected her team. She also claimed she never met the Others, just heard their whispers.

After the sickness came on the team, Rousseau changed the transmission. In French, it says, among other things, that they are all dead, it (or he) is outside, that Brennan took the keys, and if anyone can help, she’ll try to make it to the Black Rock.

Around the same time, she gave birth to her daughter, named Alexandra. She told the survivors that she delivered the child herself. Mother and child were together for a week, when Rousseau saw a column of black smoke. That night, her baby was taken from her.

We’ve now met all the members of the team mentioned: Danielle, Robert, Montand, and Brennan. I’m hoping that we spend some time in 1988 to learn more. And I have to wonder, will their rescue of Jin change time? We’ll find out. Soon I hope.