Shannon Rutherford

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Shannon Rutherford
Maggie Grace as Shannon
First appearance	"Pilot: Part 1"
Last appearance	"Exposé"
Centric episodes	"Exodus, Part 1" "Exodus, Part 2" "Abandoned"
Information
Name	Shannon Rutherford
Status	Deceased
Profession	Ballet instructor
Portrayed by	Maggie Grace

Shannon Rutherford is a fictional character on the ABC drama television series Lost. The character is played by Maggie Grace, She appears in the first season and up to episode eight of season two. She also appears in one episode of season 3.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Prior to the crash

Boone comforts Shannon over the death of her father.

Shannon spent much of her adolescence with her step-brother, Boone Carlyle. From a young age she suspected that he was in love with her, but she never returned these feelings. She studied ballet and, as she got older, taught dance classes to young girls.

Shannon was married at one point in her life, and also lived and worked in France for a short time as an Au Pair. She took care of two young children, Sophie and Laurent and may have become romantically involved with the father of the household.

When she was nineteen, Shannon's father, Adam Rutherford, died in a car crash; the same crash nearly paralysed Jack's future wife, Sarah. As often happens with such an unexpected death, Shannon's father did not have a will prepared, and so all of his money and property went to his wife, Sabrina Carlyle. Sabrina, who had always been jealous of Shannon's close relationship with her father, decided to cut Shannon off financially, even after she won a prestigious internship to the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York. In this desperate hour, Shannon turned to Boone for help, but he could do nothing to help, as he had just accepted a job offer to work for Sabrina's wedding company ("Abandoned").

Forced to make her own way, Shannon formed a plan to con some of her father's money from her step-brother. Making it appear that she was being abused by her boyfriends, Boone would "buy them out" with a large sum of money, of which Shannon would secretly take half.

It was one such con which brought both of them to Sydney, Australia. This con, however, did not go to plan. The "abusive boyfriend" took off with all of the money, forcing Shannon to reveal the truth to Boone. When faced with Boone's anger at this betrayal, she seduced him, playing on the feelings she knew he had for her. After they had slept together, Shannon told Boone that things would go back to the way they had been before. ("Hearts and Minds") The next day Shannon and Boone boarded Oceanic Flight 815.

Whilst at the airport, in "Exodus, Part 1", Shannon and Boone are still at odds. She is approached by Sayid whilst she is reading a magazine, who asks her to watch his bag for him. She deftly obliges, but soon leaves it unattended. They walk by Paulo and Nikki in the airport cafe. Boone asks to borrow chairs from their table, but Shannon loses patience and charges off ("Exposé"). During this argument, to show that she has authority, she tells security that an "Arab guy" has left his bag lying around. Before the doomed flight took off, Shannon is seen rummaging through her hand-luggage for her asthma inhaler, which Boone casually hands to her, presumably knowing that she would forget it.

[edit] After the crash

Since coming to the island, Shannon does her best to keep everyone at arm's length, frequently behaving selfishly and being manipulative to get what she wants. Shannon finds her luggage easily and instead of helping others decides to sun bathe which really bugs her brother Boone. When Boone explained to her the job of firing the bottle rocket to triangulate the power source, she appeared indifferent to the importance of the task. She also has an inferiority streak, believing that she is useless. However, her knowledge of French proved useful, as it allows her to translate Rousseau's distress signal for the benefit of other survivors.

Shannon also suffers a near-fatal asthma attack, and is sent to the caves to see Jack. However, without her asthma inhalers, believed to have been stolen by Sawyer, Jack was unable to treat her. However, Sun was able to heal her by using the eucalyptus plants she had earlier asked Michael to gather for her.

Shannon and Sayid see Walt.

When Claire escapes from being kidnapped Shannon is the one to tell her about Ethan and his threat to kill someone every day until he gets Claire back leading to the death of Ethan.

In addition, Sayid breaks through to her while attempting to decode French words on Rousseau's maps, and they begin developing a romantic relationship. She goes on a romantic walk with Sayid in which she tells him that they "need to take it slow"; when she returns to the survivor's camp she is informed that her brother Boone has died. Shannon blames John Locke for Boone's death, and when Sayid refuses to kill Locke for her and interferes with her own attempt to kill Locke, their relationship takes a turn for the worse. Walt gives her his dog when he leaves on the raft, so that she can talk to (and bond with) Vincent and work out her grief. Shannon and Sayid later rekindle their relationship when he returns from saving Aaron Littleton.

After the Others attack the rafters and kidnap Walt, Shannon sees a vision of the young boy dripping wet and speaking backwards. She soon after explains to the other survivors what she saw. Many do not believe her. In "Orientation", she is confronted by Claire, who shows her the bottle from the raft, containing the messages from the survivors. They decide to give it to Sun, knowing that Jin was on board the raft.

In a flashback in "Exposé", she and Arzt are seen arguing with Kate about the presence and location of guns in their camp.

Later, in the episode "Abandoned" she and Sayid have a romantic evening and sleep with each other. When she is left alone briefly, Walt appears to her a second time. When she tells Sayid he does not believe her and claims she has just had a nightmare. Their relationship is strained because of this. Shannon decides to track Walt down by getting Vincent to sniff through some of Walt's clothes. They go into the jungle and Sayid follows. Sayid changes his mind when both of them see Walt. As Shannon runs toward the image of Walt, she bursts in front of the Tailies. Ana Lucia mistakes her for one of the Others and shoots her in the abdomen. She suffers the same fate as her step-brother and dies. Her last breaths are taken in Sayid's arms, who in the coming weeks grows a desire for revenge against The Others. Shannon is buried next to her step-brother in "What Kate Did ". We see Sayid visit her grave at numerous occasions and Kate apologises to Sayid for not being at her funeral because she had to look after Sawyer. Sayid then told Kate that he and Shannon saw Walt before Shannon was killed. We have not seen Sayid visit Shannon's grave since, although he does mention her and their relationship occasionally.