Shannon Rutherford
Name: Shannon Rutherford
Occupation: Unknown
First Appearance: 1×01 – Pilot, Part One
At some point in her past, Shannon had been married but was divorced1. She also spent some time living with a man in St Tropez2, and had spent a year in Paris3.
In September 2004, Shannon’s step-brother Boone traveled to Sydney to save her from another bad relationship, ultimately paying her boyfriend Bryan $50,000 to leave her. However, he discovered that the whole thing was a scam and that Shannon was trying to recover what she saw as her inheritance – and this wasn’t the first time Boone had fallen for it4.
When Bryan left Shannon, she went to Boone’s hotel room, a little drunk, and confessed she knew he’d always come for her because she knew he was in love with her and the pair ended up having sex. Afterward, Shannon told him that she wanted things to go back to normal once they returned to Los Angeles5.
Shannon screamed uncontrollably amidst the wreckage of Oceanic 815, but later rebuffed Boone‘s attempts to comfort her as she was convinced that rescue would arrive soon. The next day when Hurley suggested burying the bodies in the fuselage, she again said that was something the rescuers could attend to.6
Later in the day, Shannon finally started to come to grips with their situation as she stared at the body of a man that she was mean to before the flight but Boone had little patience for her given her recent selfish behavior. To prove a point she invited herself along on a hike with Sayid and Kate, which Boone, Charlie and Sawyer subsequently joined – but regretted it when they were attacked by a polar bear.7
She proved her worth by translating a French mayday signal which Sayid picked up with the transceiver from the cockpit, which had been repeating for sixteen years.8
That night, Shannon and the others agreed not to tell the other survivors about the signal to avoid a panic.9
A few days later, irritated with Boone, Shannon conned Charlie into catching a fish for her to prove a point, regardless of his feelings.10
A few days later still, Shannon was left in charge of an antenna on the beach which was being used to triangulate the French signal. She activated it at a pre-arranged time11.
Shannon’s asthma medication ran out the next day and she began to suffer severe attacks. Boone and others suspected Sawyer of hording her spare meds, although this turned out to be untrue. Her attacks were eventually eased by a eucalyptus leaf paste that Sun made12.
Shannon and Boone were amongst the spectators at Hurley’s golf tournament a few days later, betting on Jack’s final shot13.
Shannon grew curious about Boone’s continuing absence from the camp as he and Locke went into the jungle every day, all day, and he lashed out at her by telling her that they were a joke to the rest of the survivors, but at least he was doing something. As a result, Shannon agreed to help Sayid translate the writings on Rousseau’s maps, and the pair grew closer. She realized that much of the writings were lyrics from ‘La Mer‘14.
Shannon continued flirting with Sayid15 and helping him, but soon started to realize that Boone was acting very stand-offish and strange16.
Shannon’s relationship with Sayid moved forward but just as things looked like they were going to take the next step, he pulled back. An angry Shannon realized Boone had been sticking his nose into her business and tried to find him but instead found Locke. Locke told her that if it didn’t matter what to her what Boone thought, she was only giving him attention by confronting him – and that everyone can start a new life on the island. She found Sayid later that night and kissed him, telling him that she was ready for her new life to start17.
- 1×13 [↩]
- 1×12 [↩]
- 1×02 [↩]
- 1×13 [↩]
- 1×13 [↩]
- 1×01 [↩]
- 1×02 [↩]
- 1×02 [↩]
- 1×03 [↩]
- 1×04 [↩]
- 1×07 [↩]
- 1×08 [↩]
- 1×09 [↩]
- 1×12 [↩]
- 1×13 [↩]
- 1×14 [↩]
- 1×17 [↩]
Tags: Characters, Shannon
