Below are the stories of the show's most influential characters, whose personal histories play a significant role in shaping decisions made on the island, including whether or not they would leave once an opportunity presented itself.
Leading Characters Who Left the Island
Jack Shephard
Being the group's doctor and all around alpha dog, Jack takes the reigns as leader once the need for one becomes apparent. Following the crash, he wakes up in the jungle and instinctively races to the aid of the survivors, performing procedures on the beach and calling people to action with chaos and carnage ensuing. Jack often feels compelled to sacrifice himself in pursuit of saving the lives of others, even to the detriment of his own health.
Jack's father, Christian, died in a car accident in Sydney, and his coffin accompanied Jack on the plane, which he finds on the island, but containing no body. Constantly haunted by memories of his father and his authoritative shadow, Jack finds it difficult to cope with the loss.
After leading the survivors through seemingly bizarre events throughout the series, Jack finds a way home via a helicopter and rescue boat, returning to Los Angeles and becoming increasingly aware over the next three years that he made a mistake leaving. Eventually, he travels back to the island, finding the friends he left behind living and working amongst the Dharma Initiative.
Hugo Reyes
Amongst an overflow of high-profile players, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes stands out as the island's cuddly pillar of comic relief, using wit and charm to forge friendships, track survivors, and ration food.
Despite his innocent nature, Hurley has personality flaws that tend to haunt his psyche, including the belief that the numbers he used to win the lottery are cursed.
After leaving the island and returning to Los Angeles, Hurley stumbles upon a disturbing talent, realizing that he can see and talk to dead people. Soon after, he becomes increasingly convinced that the island is summoning him back, and he eventually returns to find his friends working for the Dharma Initiative.
Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Jarrah is a former Iraqi military communications officer, and he becomes the island's resident intelligence expert. While Sayid desperately tries to distance himself from the life that he lived prior to the crash, as a professional torturer, he struggles to cope with the horrific memories.
He is never quite capable of straying far from his former self, and the traditional methods that he employed in the Iraqi military become useful techniques to interrogate island adversaries.
After leaving the island and losing the love of his life, Sayid briefly commits to a life of vengeful violence and murder, eventually leading to his return to the island and subsequent torture at the hands of the Dharma Initiative.
Sun-Hwa Kwon
Sun-Hwa Kwon is the heiress of a powerful Korean Automotive Manufacturer, and she is married to fellow castaway, Jin-Soo. Before the crash, Sun's relationship with her husband becomes distant and strained, with her father exerting tremendous influence over their marriage.
Sun arranges lessons to learn english from a prior love interest so that she might, someday, leave her husband and move to America. After having an affair with this suitor before the plane crash, she discovers on the island that she is pregnant, but learns that her husband is the father.
Assuming that her husband died in an explosion, Sun leaves the island and returns to South Korea, giving birth to her first child. Several years later, she learns that Jin might be alive, returning to the island only to discover that her husband allegedly died in 1977.
Kate Austen
Kate boarded Flight 815 in handcuffs, having been captured by a U.S. federal marshall in Sydney for the murder of her step-father. Her time on the run leads to a life of isolation, and bitter rejection from her parents, with Kate learning to shield herself from the trust and emotion of others.
Eventually, Kate leaves the island with Jack and Claire Littleton's son, Aaron, who she takes on as her own child upon returning to Los Angeles. Overwhelmed with guilt, though, she returns to the island three years later, vowing to find Claire, and working alongside Jack, Sawyer, and Hurley in the Dharma Initiative.
Leading Characters Who Stayed On the Island
James Ford
James "Sawyer" Ford is the group's lone-star antagonist, whose psychological scars and bad attitude stem from a lifelong pursuit to find and execute the man who conned his parents and ruined his life, a task that he bungled in Australia but finally manages to carry out successfully on the island.
While Sawyer embodies a source of constant confrontation and stubborn opposition within the group, his character takes on more responsibility as future events unfold, even sacrificing his ticket off the island for the sake of others, and eventually becoming a respected leader after Jack leaves.
Jin-Soo Kwon
The soft-spoken South Korean son of a fisherman and a prostitute, Jin is forced out of necessity to take a job with his wife's mob-connected father. On the island, he finds it difficult to control his temper, sometimes manifesting his rage in an explosive manner.
Before the crash, Jin and his wife discover that they would be incapable of bearing children, yet they miraculously conceive on the island. Given this information, he becomes determined to get Sun and his unborn baby home by any means necessary.
While Sun makes it back to South Korea, Jin gets stranded off the island's shore, leaving him unwittingly passing back and forth in time. Eventually, he meets up with other survivors, and their journey through time leads them to 1977, where Jin finds himself working alongside the Dharma Initiative for several years.
Benjamin Poyant - Ben has formal training in electronic news gathering, digital sound recording, computer-based music production, and audio post-production ...
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