The Rest - The Alive Version

I think that I've finished with all the main characters from Season Five, and a happy moment that is, as well, what with the Season Six Premiere around the corner. But I want to post on the rest of our characters, the alive ones, or presumably alive ones, who didn't warrant a "main character" credit this past season.

I try not to post anything I might learn on the internet about what will happen in future episodes - spoilers - and can confirm that I actually have little to no information that can count as spoilers. However, I do have some casting news in my head. I will try to keep some of that out of my blog, but I know that three characters will be in the credits (okay, the actors), and I consider that fair game.

Richard Alpert

Yes, Nestor Carbonell will be in the main credits this season, and that can only be a good thing. Richard is an enigma, even if a now familiar one (Richard has been in more episodes than Desmond), as an ageless man who acts as an adviser or guide to the leader of the Others. He says he doesn't answer to the leader but does answer to someone - Jacob, perhaps? We also know that he communicated with Ben on Jacob's behalf, much to Ben's distress. But with Richard, we have far more questions than answers. How did Richard end up on the Island? A number of people speculate he was on The Black Rock that we saw Jacob looking at in The Incident. Why does he never age? How come he saw nothing special in John Locke? How does he manage to get to the States so often? What is his role with the Others? How does he select the leaders?

The questions are seemingly endless.

Claire Littleton

Yes, Emilie de Ravin is back after a year's absence from Lost. The last we saw, Aaron's mother and Jack's half-sister was hanging out with her ghostly father in Jacob's cabin, making oblique statements. Well, we also saw her at Aaron's California bedside, warning Kate to never let Aaron return to the Island. Was Claire killed in the explosion that destroyed her Dharma Initiative house? Was she allowed to carry Aaron to safety? Once he was safe, did her father then collect her so she could be a ghostly adviser too? Or just a ghostly companion?

I figure Richard's role this season is fairly obvious, but I'm not sure what Claire's will be. Will Juliet's explosion of Jughead restart everything? Will we see a live Claire or a ghostly Claire? Will we finally see Desmond's vision of Claire boarding a helicopter to leave the Island come true?

Frank Lapidus

Frank has been a favorite since he first appeared in Season Four's Confirmed Dead. A drunk, he was the original pilot for Oceanic 815, but for reasons unknown, Seth Norris flew instead. He was recruited by Widmore to act as a helicopter pilot for his mission to the Island. After his rescue from the Island, Frank was employed by Ajira Airlines, and had the unlucky duty of being assigned Ajira Flight 316. When Jack asked to meet him, and Frank saw so many of the Oceanic Six on board, he noted, "We're not going to Guam, are we?"

I'm convinced that Frank's mastery as a pilot prevented Ajira 316's from causing more deaths. After the plane landed, he was a little bit all over the place, accompanying Sun to the Island, staying with her in Ben's house, then returning to the Hydra Island to try to rally the remaining Ajira survivors. Upon his return, he was confronted by an armed Ilana, who demanded to know what lay in the shadow of the statute. Frank had no answer, of course, and she knocked him unconscious.

Ilana forced her team to carry the unconscious Frank with them, and Frank overheard them talking about him, with Ilana saying Frank might be a candidate. A candidate for what? Hopefully that will be answered this season.

Ilana

I don't know if Zuleikha Robinson will be in the main credits. The remaining characters, to the best of my knowledge, are not. We don't know a lot about Ilana - we don't even know her surname. We don't know her nationality - Russian, maybe? We don't know how she knows Jacob. We don't know who she works for. Who hired her to capture Sayid? We do know she speaks and understands Latin, and believes that she is working for the good guys. I'm certain that we'll see some answers this season.

Bram

At first, I thought Bram was basically a "red shirt", a nameless Ajira survivor. We saw him listening to Frank and Caesar argue about what to do next, and working with Ilana to open a crate. It wasn't until we saw him with Ilana in her confrontation with Frank that I realized he was more than just a "red shirt." As early as 2004, he was working for "the good guys", grabbing Miles from the street in an effort to talk Miles out of taking Widmore's job. On the Island, he's clearly following Ilana's orders.

Pierre Chang

Oddly enough, Francois Chau has yet to be credited on Lost for his role as the man of many aliases. Until this season, we only saw Chang in various Dharma videos, each time with a different name, talking about some aspect of the station the watcher was assigned to. How exciting this season, then, to see Chang in the very first season of the first episode of the season. We learned a lot about him. He is Miles' father and a brilliant scientist. He has a conscience. He is able to believe some pretty unbelievable things (Daniel, Hurley, and Miles are from the future). We also know how he lost his arm.

I hope we see Chang again this season. The assumption is that he died in the Purge in 1992, so I'm not sure whether he belongs in this post or the next, on dead people. However, if the producers want him back, I'm certain Chang will be there.

I'm now going to organize things a bit. First, I'll start with the parents of the Oceanic 815 survivors and those associated with them.

Eloise Hawking

Until this season, we'd only seen the unnamed Eloise Hawking twice: once in Flashes Before Your Eyes, and in a picture on Catch-22. Both times were associated with Desmond (her picture was on a monk's desk - you know, when Desmond was a monk). This time, we saw her as a young woman, a confident leader, and a controlling and manipulative mother. A strong believer in destiny, she also seems to be an accomplished scientist in her own right. From Flashes Before Your Eyes, she appeared to be able to see the future in the same way Desmond did for a while, but it seems from her conversation with Penny that she no longer does so. You could argue that her knowledge of the future came from Daniel's journal, but that doesn't explain how she knew a man in red shoes would die. But now, she's on her own. Like all the rest of us.

I really hope we see Eloise this season. I'm not sure what if any role she has to play with the Jacob-notLocke battle, but it would seem odd without her.

Charles Widmore

Until this season, Widmore was the ying to Ben's yang. We were given the impression that the battle over the Island was between those two men, and all we had to do was figure out which was more evil. There is no doubt that Widmore is evil. He sent a freighter to the Island with orders to kill everyone on the Island. That's pretty evil. He also controlled his daughter Penny's life, and apparently abandoned his son. We also learned this season that he was the man who placed the fake Oceanic 815 in the ocean.

This season, we also saw Widmore in a more favorable light. Oh, it was clear as a young man that he was an arrogant son of a bitch, and his decision to snap the neck of his colleague was stunning. But he was kind to Ben when the boy work up after his treatment at the Temple. At some point, presumably after Eloise left the Island, Widmore became the leader of the Others, but his decision to spend so much time off-Island, and his fathering of Penny with a woman off-Island, gave Ben his opening to have Widmore deposed and exiled from the Island.

Widmore lost control once again, when his daughter Penny decided to follow her heart and marry Desmond. Widmore has not seen Penny for three years, though it appears that he tried to find her. However, he felt somewhat comforted by her disappearance - if he couldn't find her, Ben couldn't either. When we last saw him, he knew Penny was safe and that Desmond would survive. However, he still knew how to piss people off.

I have to wonder about his plotting with Sun. Is Sun's agreement to return to the Island not just an attempt to find Jin but also to get even with Ben? If so, it would actually make Sun more interesting. Time will tell.

I would be completely surprised if we didn't see Widmore again.

Carmen Reyes

If Hurley is one of the nicest people on the Island, his mother is one of the reasons why. Yes, she pressured Hurley through the years to better himself and lose weight, but she was a good and loving mother to Hurley. She helped Hurley cope when his father abandoned the family, and most importantly, believed in Hurley, even with the seemingly unbelievable.

We've seen Carmen at least once every season. We really need to see her again this season - it would just be wrong not to.

David Reyes

Hurley's decision to forgive his father after abandoning the family is nothing short of proof that Hurley is a saint. David only returned after finding out his son had won the lottery. However, David still did what he could to help his son, giving him a car after Hurley returned from the Island, and helping his son after his escape from Santa Rosa. He even warned Jack to leave his son alone. I guess later is better than never, hunh?

If we see Carmen, David can't be far behind. Unless the explosion of the bomb resets beyond the crash of Oceanic 815, where Hurley didn't win the lottery, but I find that unlikely.

Carole Littleton

The producers did an excellent job of making us believe that Carole was behind the attempt to get Aaron from Kate. Instead, she was in town to get her settlement check from Oceanic 815. Carole was in a coma when her daughter left Australia, so I doubt that she knew Claire was pregnant. How surprised she must have been then to learn that Aaron was Claire's son, not Kate's. I suspect she took little Aaron back to Australia.

If Claire is coming back, I feel safe in assuming we will see her mother at some point, especially now that her mother has custody of Aaron. Of course, the explosion of Jughead might mean the change of everything. However, I still expect to see Carole.

Margo Shephard

I had almost forgotten that Margo even existed. Jack's mother and Christian's widow, she was a rather cold-hearted woman that Christian regretted marrying. I doubt we'll see her again.

Ray Shephard

At least we had seen Margo in the past before. Ray's existence was a complete surprise. Jack's grandfather and Christian's father agreed that Christian shouldn't have married Margo (she's very unpopular, isn't she?). He spent his time trying to escape from his retirement home. For some reason, he also saved Christian's shoes. That seemed odd. I doubt we'll see him again, but who knows? Maybe he'll show up at Christian's funeral if everything is restarted again.

Diane Janssen

Kate's mother was hard to like. She had an affair with Wayne while still with Sam, and let her daughter believe Sam was her father. She left Sam for the alcoholic and abusive Wayne, and didn't seem to care that he was overly close to Kate. When Kate killed Wayne, and told her mother what she had done, Diane decided her daughter needed to be prosecuted. Essentially, she turned her own daughter into a fugitive. She only softened when Kate returned from the Island with her "grandson", but Kate, who had since given up trying to have a relationship with her mother, refused to be blackmailed by her mother. Diane then decided to do the right thing and didn't testify at Kate's murder trial.

If things are reset, to some extent, we might see Diane again. However, she only seemed interested in meeting with Kate because of Aaron, so she might decide to continue her prosecution of her daughter.

The Paiks

It appears that Sun left little Ji-Yeon with her mother and presumably her father. This is despite the fact that Sun managed a hostile takeover of Paik Industries. It is possible that her father is now dead, but we don't know. However, I suspect that we will see the Paiks, one or both, this season.

Enough of the parental drama! Let's move on to drama related to lovers!

Cassidy Phillips

Sawyer's former lover and target somehow stabilized her life, perhaps for the sake of their daughter. For good reason, she didn't have a high opinion of Sawyer, and had no compunctions against telling Kate what she thought. Eventually, she became friends with Kate, and they became a good support system for each other.

I'm sure we'll see Cassidy, too. If time has been reset (which I don't think is likely) then perhaps Sawyer will want to see his daughter. Otherwise, Kate will want to see her friend. We'll see.

Theresa Spencer

Daniel's former lover, lab assistant, and lab rat is currently supported by Widmore as her brain slips around through time. I suppose she is lucky that she is not dead of time sickness like Charlotte, but her life still seems sad. I don't think we'll see her again.

Before I get to the children, let me talk about a sibling:

Rachel Carlson

Juliet's sister has apparently survived cancer twice, and is raising her son, Julian, possibly believing her sister has disappeared from the face of the earth. Ben promised Juliet that Jacob would heal Rachel's cancer himself. I wonder - did they meet? I hope we see Rachel again, but if Juliet has a minor role this season, I doubt we will.

And now, the children:

Aaron Littleton

I suspect I could have a whole post on the importance of Aaron Littleton to the Island, but I will just now summarize by saying we will surely see this child again, one way or another.

Ji-Yeon Kwon

Ji-Yeon is now living with her grandmother, not knowing that her mother has returned to the Island where she was conceived to find the father she never knew. If time is reset, Ji-Yeon will have never been conceived. I hope that doesn't happen, though, as I'd like to see more of her.

Charlie Hume

The son of Desmond and Penny excited a lot of theorizing on various blogs about whether Charlie Hume will somehow grow up to be Charlie Pace. I'm on record as saying that I hope the only relationship between the two is that Hume was named after Pace. If it weren't for the young Charlie, Penny would have probably been killed. See - already he's a hero! I hope we see him again too.

Walt Lloyd

The problem with Walt Lloyd is that the actor who plays him, Malcolm David Kelley, grew up! That alone makes it unlikely that the timeline can be restarted to the very beginning. But somehow Walt has to be involved, because of his unique qualities and relationship to the Island. I'm on record with my disappointment in how he was used in Season Five, and the producers have only one season to make it right. I hope they are listening!

Clementine Phillips (Ford)

Sawyer's daughter has never met her father, and has probably gained a less than favorable impression of him. It is noble that Sawyer asked Kate to look after her, but I think he assessed his weaknesses three years later very well - he would not have made a good father in 2004. My hope is that Sawyer doesn't start at the very beginning this season, and that the growth we saw last season continues. If it does, and he somehow makes it back to the mainland, perhaps he'll met with Clementine. Time will tell.