International Blog Against Racism Week: 15 awesome, nonwhite Lost characters
This comes with a caveat: these are 15 awesome Lost characters who are either not white or who are played by nonwhites. People who've seen Lost all the way through know why that caveat is there. This has spoilers, so proceed with caution.
15 | Naomi Doritt
There are several Lost characters whose duty it is to be mysterious and kick ass. Naomi Dorritt is one of those characters. It's a shame we never got to see exactly what made her so competent, but this sin of omission didn't make her seem any less capable of navigating a headcase, anthropologist, ghostbuster and a drunk through the jungle. It's just John Locke came out of the blue, as he always does, with orders from the divine (or taller ghost Walt) to put a stick in Jack's plans. Unfortunately, the stick landed in Naomi's back. During her tenure on Lost, however, Naomi toed the line between benevolence and malevolence, a chatty Mancunian who left the audience unsure as to her goals. Did she really want to rescue the Oceanic 815 crash survivors, or did she have something else in mind? While most of her fellow Freighties cracked under the weight of the Losties' suspicions, Naomi pushed foward with a cool head, seemingly oblivious--or unconcerned--to the doubts concerning her objectives. Had Naomi lived she might've tricked everyone on that Island into trusting her and her crew.
14 | Carmen Reyes
Where did Hurley get his capacity for lulz? From his mother. Carmen Reyes is one of the reasons why Hurley's centric episodes are a joy to watch, dogmatically unaware of the absurdity in her life and in herself. Yet, for all that she contributes to the zany hijinks of Hurley's life off the island, there is a part of her, hinted but unexplored, who holds a great deal of understanding. How else could she put up with Hurley in his hangdog days? And how else could she possibly believe anything about the Island? Carmen is played brilliantly by Lillian Hurst, whose comic delivery brings some of the biggest laughs to Hurley's centric episodes. I can only hope that she'll hang around for season six, if only so we can find out why she's so receptive to Hurley's Island story.
13 | Ilana
Mourning the loss of Naomi? Here, have an Ilana. Ilana was and may still be in danger of following Ana Lucia in terms of rapport with fans, but, hey, I love a badass woman when I see one, and Ilana is among the best. She fooled Sayid, Lost's resident Jack Bauer, with a smile, good looks, and a boot to the face. While not much is known about her, we do know this much: whatever her agenda is, it's huge. We're talking in the shadow of the statue huge. Ilana is an intriguing mixture of cool competency and quiet compassion. Obviously she spared no compassion to Sayid, but given the way she treated her prisoner, the damn good pilot Frank Lapedus, and the way she helpfully provided the show with one of its biggest shockers at the end of season 5, she can't be all that bad. I eagerly await to see what she will do in season 6.
12 | Matthew Abaddon
There are characters on Lost who are meant to be mysterious and badass, and there are characters on Lost who are meant to be mysterious and creepy. Meet the mysterious and creepy Matthew Abaddon, who had a good run being one of Lost's recurring question marks until he was relegated to the role of Driving John Locke. But damn if he wasn't good at goading the main characters with loaded questions right until the end.
11 | Ana Lucia Cortez
Haters gonna hate, but the HBIC of the tailies was one of the best things about season two for me. Her last centric episode, "Two For the Road", was one of the better episodes meant to fatten up a character for the slaughter, and her time on the island was promising. Kate started out as a girl who could play with the boys but soon was relegated to love triangle fodder, reluctantly but obediently following Jack's orders to stay put and abstain from joining the A-Teams. Ana Lucia was as ruthless and aggressive as Jack, Sawyer and Sayid and could have grown into a character whose background in law enforcement would prove invaluable. After all, they're taking orders from either a spinal surgeon or a veteran of several crappy, low-paying jobs. Ana Lucia might have been paranoid and she might've made mistakes, but the good thing is, she doesn't make the same mistake twice.
10 | Mr. Eko
Problems? Eko's got tons of them. You got your Magical Negro and your thug from the bloody heart of black Africa. What saves him from being a failure is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's portrayal of Eko, and the fact that Eko, before being offed by the smoke monster, was on the level of John Locke when it came to initiating deeper investigations into the Island's mysteries. Eko also struggles with the same duality as the other main Lost characters: balancing one's better nature against a brutal reality that demands immoral deeds in the name of survival. Akinnuoye-Agbaje is impressive both in presence and delivery playing a character well aware of his ability to make people listen.
9 | Dr. Pierre Chang
Lost does a good job incorporating a diverse cast without drawing attention to that via ham-handed Very Special Messages. The show does deal with race (see: the first part of season 1), but in a way that feels natural. A matter of fact. That's how diversity in Lost is handled for the most part: as a matter of fact, something that's ever presently there. Dr. Pierre Chang is a good example of this. You can point and go OHMIGOSH AZN SCIENTIST whenever he shows up in those creepy DHARMA orientation videos, but the show never does. He's just there, always has been there, as quintessentially DHARMA as their octagonal logos. Of course, this being Lost, Dr. Pierre Chang is more than what he appears to be. He is the douche referred to in the thematically apt quote "That douche is my dad." He is also a character willing to make painful sacrifices to save the family he clearly loves. One would think, before we met Dr. Chang the man, that François Chau was capable only of playing Chang didactically, but he does a beautiful job adding depth to Chang as the show explores the world of DHARMA during season 5.
8 | Michael Dawson
Admittedly, an uneven character, often the butt of jokes ("WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALT", anyone?). But when the quality is on, Michael easily becomes one of Lost's most tragic characters, a victim of the dichotomy between doing right and surviving. Lost often puts its characters between a rock and a hard place, and Michael is no exception. He was separated from his son, Walt, early on in the boy's life, due to his ex-girlfriend's ambitions and frustratingly valid concerns that Michael could not support his son. The efficiency with which Walt's mother pries her son from Michael makes Michael's centric episodes painful to watch. We know it is not his fault that he is unable to visit Walt and watch, time and again, as life throws obstacle after obstacle in Michael's way as he tries to succeed and win back his son. Even John Locke's belief that the island offers second chances doesn't hold true for Michael, as he struggles to connect with his son only to have him snatched right outta his hands. Oops, sorry, had to make a Waaaaalt joke, there. Michael's fate might have been a depressingly common one for black characters, but his final centric, "Meet Kevin Johnson", is definitely one of the better episodes of season 4.
7 | Miles Straume
Who would've predicted that Miles would be one of the last Freighties standing? If you have a cynical view on race in the media, you likely would have believed he'd be the first to go; but Miles is still hanging around, surviving the Kahana's bigger-named, twitchy luminary. After his introduction as a dubious, money-grubbing medium, Miles as often been the go-to point when confusing concepts were in most desperate need of explanation. Naturally, he's been shown to be more than just a callous loudmouth. He has his issues, which he has left boiling under the surface in favor of using the world and the people in it for his own benefit. It's not that he's a jerk, at least not entirely; it's just that he's spent most of his life believing he's not wanted. So why try to make friends if you'll get rebuffed in the process? Better to make your money and forget about becoming pals.
6 | Rose Nadler
Lost characters come and go, but when Rose goes missing, people notice, and people complain. She may not be of the young and beautiful stock of characters, but people love her, anyway. I love her because she's so real. I've met black women in real life who were like Rose, and, yes, they are all this awesome. Rose tells it like it is. She might've come off as insane, insisting her husband was alive when his section of the plane was nowhere to be seen, but in the midst of all the craziness that goes down with the survivors and those who have joined them, Rose often come out looking the most sane. She's not invested in the high-stakes, emotional game played by Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, and the other Losties, and knows the best course of action at times is to let things run their course. When characters need a metaphorical bucket of cold water dumped on their heads, Rose is there to do the task with a warm smile and a hug.
5 | Jin-Soo Kwon
Yeah, he's hot, but would you marry him? Jin is the imperfect husband: protective, caring, with a strong sense of honor, he nonetheless lets his ideals of what's honorable get the better of him. From the outside looking in this makes Jin seem like an overprotective, violent thug whose temper can explode at the slightest provocation. On the inside, however, Jin is a man trying hard to do what he thinks is right for himself and his wife, worn though he is by the demands that wouldn't have been made on him had he the good luck to be born in a better class. His separation from Sun has left him with not much to do save beyond waiting for her return, but as Jin has proved himself reliable when the Losties were in a bind, count on Jin to come out swinging when the major conflicts of season six go down.
4 | Sayid Jarrah
Oh, Sayid. You started off so awesomely, only to wind up in the endless cycle of love and death the writers have stuck you in. There was a time on Lost when you could be relied on to kick ass and still be vulnerable, but the writers have insisted you do little more than feel sorry for yourself and be manipulated in the process. As you have a season left in you, perhaps things will change. Perhaps you'll go back to being that tech-savvy, torcha scrunchie wearing badass I loved in season one. You damn well better, because if I don't get season one Sayid back I'm going to cry Jears into eternity.
3 | Richard Alpert
The reason why this list is for characters either not white or played by actors who are not white. Granted, we have no clue if Richard Alpert is white or Egyptian, as is a popular fan theory, and that's why Alpert is on this list: because we know fuck-all about him. Next to Jacob and his nemesis, Richard Alpert is the mac daddy of mysterious Lost characters. He came out of nowhere and steadily caught the audience's attention by virtue of always being there: on island, off island, in the barracks, in the jungle, in 2007 and 2004 and 1977 and 1974 and 1954, and never does he look a day older than "Not In Portland", the episode he first appeared in. We may know the why behind his looks (it's not Maybelline), and we may kind of know what he does with the Others, but there's still a lot unknown about Alpert, and the Lost writers have teased us to the point of being ravenously hungry to find out. Whatever it is, it's got to be good.
2 | Hugo "Hurley" Reyes
It's always wonderful when a character type otherwise denied meaningful characterization suddenly becomes human. In any other show, Hurley would've been the comic relief and nothing else. In Lost, he's one of the show's most human characters, whose role as the good old fun time guy stems from a deep fear of rejection and mental chaos. Jorge Garcia is another one of Lost's many cast members who can swing effortlessly between comedy and drama. It's in part because of his acting that the audience can see themselves in Hurley, often the audience's representative in the show. If we don't understand what's going on, chances are Hurley doesn't, either.
1 | Sun-Hwa Kwon
Sure, if you want to get technical about it, Hurley should be #1. He's universally adored, unlike Sun, who many people find boring or, le gasp, too cold. But remember what I said about Ana Lucia? Haters gonna hate? Yeah, haters gonna hate, and Sun is my #1. She has drastically changed from season 1. For the better. The quiet, docile but quietly seething Sun is no more. She can scheme and plot with the best of them, and woe be to you if you get on her bad side. She's taken on some of the show's most powerful men without fear, and while she might've been smooth talked out of killing Ben Linus, that didn't stop her from tricking him into trusting her long enough for her to apply an oar to his head and go on her merry way, and thanks for showing us the boats. One wishes that her plot didn't hinge so much on her husband, but vengeance is going around like the flu on Lost these days and it's unsurprising she caught the disease. Here's to hoping she can still be as cunning and badass in season six as she has been of late!
15 | Naomi Doritt
There are several Lost characters whose duty it is to be mysterious and kick ass. Naomi Dorritt is one of those characters. It's a shame we never got to see exactly what made her so competent, but this sin of omission didn't make her seem any less capable of navigating a headcase, anthropologist, ghostbuster and a drunk through the jungle. It's just John Locke came out of the blue, as he always does, with orders from the divine (or taller ghost Walt) to put a stick in Jack's plans. Unfortunately, the stick landed in Naomi's back. During her tenure on Lost, however, Naomi toed the line between benevolence and malevolence, a chatty Mancunian who left the audience unsure as to her goals. Did she really want to rescue the Oceanic 815 crash survivors, or did she have something else in mind? While most of her fellow Freighties cracked under the weight of the Losties' suspicions, Naomi pushed foward with a cool head, seemingly oblivious--or unconcerned--to the doubts concerning her objectives. Had Naomi lived she might've tricked everyone on that Island into trusting her and her crew.
14 | Carmen Reyes
Where did Hurley get his capacity for lulz? From his mother. Carmen Reyes is one of the reasons why Hurley's centric episodes are a joy to watch, dogmatically unaware of the absurdity in her life and in herself. Yet, for all that she contributes to the zany hijinks of Hurley's life off the island, there is a part of her, hinted but unexplored, who holds a great deal of understanding. How else could she put up with Hurley in his hangdog days? And how else could she possibly believe anything about the Island? Carmen is played brilliantly by Lillian Hurst, whose comic delivery brings some of the biggest laughs to Hurley's centric episodes. I can only hope that she'll hang around for season six, if only so we can find out why she's so receptive to Hurley's Island story.
13 | Ilana
Mourning the loss of Naomi? Here, have an Ilana. Ilana was and may still be in danger of following Ana Lucia in terms of rapport with fans, but, hey, I love a badass woman when I see one, and Ilana is among the best. She fooled Sayid, Lost's resident Jack Bauer, with a smile, good looks, and a boot to the face. While not much is known about her, we do know this much: whatever her agenda is, it's huge. We're talking in the shadow of the statue huge. Ilana is an intriguing mixture of cool competency and quiet compassion. Obviously she spared no compassion to Sayid, but given the way she treated her prisoner, the damn good pilot Frank Lapedus, and the way she helpfully provided the show with one of its biggest shockers at the end of season 5, she can't be all that bad. I eagerly await to see what she will do in season 6.
12 | Matthew Abaddon
There are characters on Lost who are meant to be mysterious and badass, and there are characters on Lost who are meant to be mysterious and creepy. Meet the mysterious and creepy Matthew Abaddon, who had a good run being one of Lost's recurring question marks until he was relegated to the role of Driving John Locke. But damn if he wasn't good at goading the main characters with loaded questions right until the end.
11 | Ana Lucia Cortez
Haters gonna hate, but the HBIC of the tailies was one of the best things about season two for me. Her last centric episode, "Two For the Road", was one of the better episodes meant to fatten up a character for the slaughter, and her time on the island was promising. Kate started out as a girl who could play with the boys but soon was relegated to love triangle fodder, reluctantly but obediently following Jack's orders to stay put and abstain from joining the A-Teams. Ana Lucia was as ruthless and aggressive as Jack, Sawyer and Sayid and could have grown into a character whose background in law enforcement would prove invaluable. After all, they're taking orders from either a spinal surgeon or a veteran of several crappy, low-paying jobs. Ana Lucia might have been paranoid and she might've made mistakes, but the good thing is, she doesn't make the same mistake twice.
10 | Mr. Eko
Problems? Eko's got tons of them. You got your Magical Negro and your thug from the bloody heart of black Africa. What saves him from being a failure is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's portrayal of Eko, and the fact that Eko, before being offed by the smoke monster, was on the level of John Locke when it came to initiating deeper investigations into the Island's mysteries. Eko also struggles with the same duality as the other main Lost characters: balancing one's better nature against a brutal reality that demands immoral deeds in the name of survival. Akinnuoye-Agbaje is impressive both in presence and delivery playing a character well aware of his ability to make people listen.
9 | Dr. Pierre Chang
Lost does a good job incorporating a diverse cast without drawing attention to that via ham-handed Very Special Messages. The show does deal with race (see: the first part of season 1), but in a way that feels natural. A matter of fact. That's how diversity in Lost is handled for the most part: as a matter of fact, something that's ever presently there. Dr. Pierre Chang is a good example of this. You can point and go OHMIGOSH AZN SCIENTIST whenever he shows up in those creepy DHARMA orientation videos, but the show never does. He's just there, always has been there, as quintessentially DHARMA as their octagonal logos. Of course, this being Lost, Dr. Pierre Chang is more than what he appears to be. He is the douche referred to in the thematically apt quote "That douche is my dad." He is also a character willing to make painful sacrifices to save the family he clearly loves. One would think, before we met Dr. Chang the man, that François Chau was capable only of playing Chang didactically, but he does a beautiful job adding depth to Chang as the show explores the world of DHARMA during season 5.
8 | Michael Dawson
Admittedly, an uneven character, often the butt of jokes ("WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALT", anyone?). But when the quality is on, Michael easily becomes one of Lost's most tragic characters, a victim of the dichotomy between doing right and surviving. Lost often puts its characters between a rock and a hard place, and Michael is no exception. He was separated from his son, Walt, early on in the boy's life, due to his ex-girlfriend's ambitions and frustratingly valid concerns that Michael could not support his son. The efficiency with which Walt's mother pries her son from Michael makes Michael's centric episodes painful to watch. We know it is not his fault that he is unable to visit Walt and watch, time and again, as life throws obstacle after obstacle in Michael's way as he tries to succeed and win back his son. Even John Locke's belief that the island offers second chances doesn't hold true for Michael, as he struggles to connect with his son only to have him snatched right outta his hands. Oops, sorry, had to make a Waaaaalt joke, there. Michael's fate might have been a depressingly common one for black characters, but his final centric, "Meet Kevin Johnson", is definitely one of the better episodes of season 4.
7 | Miles Straume
Who would've predicted that Miles would be one of the last Freighties standing? If you have a cynical view on race in the media, you likely would have believed he'd be the first to go; but Miles is still hanging around, surviving the Kahana's bigger-named, twitchy luminary. After his introduction as a dubious, money-grubbing medium, Miles as often been the go-to point when confusing concepts were in most desperate need of explanation. Naturally, he's been shown to be more than just a callous loudmouth. He has his issues, which he has left boiling under the surface in favor of using the world and the people in it for his own benefit. It's not that he's a jerk, at least not entirely; it's just that he's spent most of his life believing he's not wanted. So why try to make friends if you'll get rebuffed in the process? Better to make your money and forget about becoming pals.
6 | Rose Nadler
Lost characters come and go, but when Rose goes missing, people notice, and people complain. She may not be of the young and beautiful stock of characters, but people love her, anyway. I love her because she's so real. I've met black women in real life who were like Rose, and, yes, they are all this awesome. Rose tells it like it is. She might've come off as insane, insisting her husband was alive when his section of the plane was nowhere to be seen, but in the midst of all the craziness that goes down with the survivors and those who have joined them, Rose often come out looking the most sane. She's not invested in the high-stakes, emotional game played by Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, and the other Losties, and knows the best course of action at times is to let things run their course. When characters need a metaphorical bucket of cold water dumped on their heads, Rose is there to do the task with a warm smile and a hug.
5 | Jin-Soo Kwon
Yeah, he's hot, but would you marry him? Jin is the imperfect husband: protective, caring, with a strong sense of honor, he nonetheless lets his ideals of what's honorable get the better of him. From the outside looking in this makes Jin seem like an overprotective, violent thug whose temper can explode at the slightest provocation. On the inside, however, Jin is a man trying hard to do what he thinks is right for himself and his wife, worn though he is by the demands that wouldn't have been made on him had he the good luck to be born in a better class. His separation from Sun has left him with not much to do save beyond waiting for her return, but as Jin has proved himself reliable when the Losties were in a bind, count on Jin to come out swinging when the major conflicts of season six go down.
4 | Sayid Jarrah
Oh, Sayid. You started off so awesomely, only to wind up in the endless cycle of love and death the writers have stuck you in. There was a time on Lost when you could be relied on to kick ass and still be vulnerable, but the writers have insisted you do little more than feel sorry for yourself and be manipulated in the process. As you have a season left in you, perhaps things will change. Perhaps you'll go back to being that tech-savvy, torcha scrunchie wearing badass I loved in season one. You damn well better, because if I don't get season one Sayid back I'm going to cry Jears into eternity.
3 | Richard Alpert
The reason why this list is for characters either not white or played by actors who are not white. Granted, we have no clue if Richard Alpert is white or Egyptian, as is a popular fan theory, and that's why Alpert is on this list: because we know fuck-all about him. Next to Jacob and his nemesis, Richard Alpert is the mac daddy of mysterious Lost characters. He came out of nowhere and steadily caught the audience's attention by virtue of always being there: on island, off island, in the barracks, in the jungle, in 2007 and 2004 and 1977 and 1974 and 1954, and never does he look a day older than "Not In Portland", the episode he first appeared in. We may know the why behind his looks (it's not Maybelline), and we may kind of know what he does with the Others, but there's still a lot unknown about Alpert, and the Lost writers have teased us to the point of being ravenously hungry to find out. Whatever it is, it's got to be good.
2 | Hugo "Hurley" Reyes
It's always wonderful when a character type otherwise denied meaningful characterization suddenly becomes human. In any other show, Hurley would've been the comic relief and nothing else. In Lost, he's one of the show's most human characters, whose role as the good old fun time guy stems from a deep fear of rejection and mental chaos. Jorge Garcia is another one of Lost's many cast members who can swing effortlessly between comedy and drama. It's in part because of his acting that the audience can see themselves in Hurley, often the audience's representative in the show. If we don't understand what's going on, chances are Hurley doesn't, either.
1 | Sun-Hwa Kwon
Sure, if you want to get technical about it, Hurley should be #1. He's universally adored, unlike Sun, who many people find boring or, le gasp, too cold. But remember what I said about Ana Lucia? Haters gonna hate? Yeah, haters gonna hate, and Sun is my #1. She has drastically changed from season 1. For the better. The quiet, docile but quietly seething Sun is no more. She can scheme and plot with the best of them, and woe be to you if you get on her bad side. She's taken on some of the show's most powerful men without fear, and while she might've been smooth talked out of killing Ben Linus, that didn't stop her from tricking him into trusting her long enough for her to apply an oar to his head and go on her merry way, and thanks for showing us the boats. One wishes that her plot didn't hinge so much on her husband, but vengeance is going around like the flu on Lost these days and it's unsurprising she caught the disease. Here's to hoping she can still be as cunning and badass in season six as she has been of late!