Shannon Rutherford

Played by: Maggie Grace
Reason for trip: Returning with Boone from Sydney.
Profession: Con artist, previously a dance instructor.

She wanted to intern with the Martha Graham Dance Company, but after her father was killed, her step-mother Sabrina cut her off from the family money. When she was accepted, she was going to live with Boone in New York for a while until she got on her feet, but Sabrina gave Boone a job luring him away from New York just to spite Shannon. Despite that, Shannon decided to prove that she wasn’t worthless, and she refused to take Boone’s money when he offered it to her.

She swindled money from him several times by faking being abused by boyfriends. She did the scams because after her father died, she felt that she didn't get the money she was entitled to. After pulling her last scam in Sydney, her boyfriend took off with the money. Shannon went to Boone’s hotel room drunk and seduced him as a form of emotional blackmail. After that night she pretended that it never happened. They were flying back to Los Angeles on Oceanic Flight 815.

Sun has found eucalyptus leaves to help Shannon with any asthma attacks she might have. Shannon was able to roughly translate Rousseau’s distress call that the group picked up on the tranceiver, then later Sayid enlisted her to translate the French words on Rousseau’s papers, which turned out to be lyrics from the song “La Mer”.

Shannon has grown closer to Sayid, although his refusal to let her kill Locke cooled that off a bit. Shannon was busy on a day--long date with Sayid and didn’t know about Boone’s accident until after he was dead. She cried over Boone’s body.

After Jack publicly accused Locke of lying, Shannon became angry with Locke. She asked Sayid to “do something” about Locke. When Sayid indicated that he thought Locke was telling the truth about Boone’s death being an accident, she got angry and stole a gun from the Marshall's gun case. Sayid prevented her from killing Locke, although her shot grazed his head.

Walt gave Shannon Vincent to take care of her because after Boone died he thought she could use someone to talk to, and he couldn't bring him on the raft. She is still having a hard time coping, insisting on taking Boone’s stuff during the beach evacuation even though she was overburdened. In Exodus (2), after Sayid and Charlie returned with Claire's baby, she made up with Sayid.

While searching for Vincent in the jungle, Shannon heard whispers. Then she saw an image of Walt, soaking wet, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. She believes the others are real, and she told everyone about hearing the whispers and seeing Walt.

Claire showed her the bottle of messages that went with the raft crew, and Shannon thought they should give the bottle to Sun.

After Sayid built a shelter for her, they had sex. When he stepped out to get some water, Shannon had another vision of Walt soaking wet and speaking backwards. Sayid couldn't find any evidence of Walt being there and assumed she was dreaming. Shannon decided to try and find Walt on her own. She got some of Walt's clothing and tried to use Vincent to track him down. Sayid followed her into the jungle. She told him that she knew that everyone on the island thought she was worthless, and that Sayid would leave her as soon as they were rescued. Sayid told her that he would never leave her, and that he loved her.

Then they were surrounded with whispers and Sayid saw Walt. Walt said "Shh." twice, but Shannon didn't listen. She charged off into the jungle and was shot by Ana-Lucia, who mistook her for an Other. She died in Sayid's arms.

Shannon was buried near the bodies of Scott Jackson and Boone.

Misc. Facts:
Shannon knows how to tie a perfect Bowline knot.
It's described as the old rabbit (those darn rabbit insinuations again :) around the tree and down the hole method. It's a strong knot, but it comes apart easily when you need to untie it. hightrek.co.uk
found by car88