Boone Carlyle was a middle section survivor of Oceanic Flight 815 and was Shannon's stepbrother. Boone was on the Island for 41 days before he died of injuries sustained in a fall. According to Locke, Boone was a sacrifice the Island demanded.
Before the crash
Boone Carlyle was the son of Sabrina Carlyle and stepson of Adam Rutherford, who were married when Boone was 10. He was the stepbrother of Shannon Rutherford, who was two years younger than him. When Boone was six years old, he had a nanny named Theresa, who fell down the stairs and broke her neck when responding to his summons. At some point in his teens, Boone worked as a lifeguard. According to Shannon, he doesn't believe in guns and goes on marches, although he denies it. She also tells Hurley that he is a political Liberal.
By the time he was 20, Boone was living in New York. After flying back to Los Angeles for Adam Rutherford's funeral, Boone was offered a job by his mother Sabrina Carlyle. He accepted the job as the COO (Chief Operating Officer) of the wedding clothing subsidiary of his mother's company, Carlyle Weddings. Boone offered Shannon money to get her started in New York, but she refused because she wanted to prove herself.
Although he would not openly admit it, Boone was in love with Shannon, even though he was in a relationship with Nicole, and often rescued her from abusive relationships.
Boone at an Australian police station
While he paid off at least 3 men to leave Shannon, the latest of which was a man named Bryan she was living with in Sydney, Australia.
When Shannon showed Boone a bruise on her forehead, he headed to the Sydney police station to report the crime. However, the detective was unwilling to help, leading Boone to take matters into his own hands. After writing a check to Bryan for $50,000, he revealed that Shannon had actually lied to Boone, pretending that she was in abusive relationships in order to get money. However, on this occasion, the plan backfired as Bryan dumped Shannon and took the money, leaving her with nothing. Later that night, Shannon appeared at Boone's hotel room and told him what happened. Intoxicated, she seduced Boone while suggesting that they return to Los Angeles and act like nothing had happened. After boarding Flight 815, Boone sat in Business Class seat of 9E, next to Shannon.
On the Island
After the crash of Flight 815, Boone, now 22 years old, helped Jack in getting many of the passengers away from the exploding wreckage. While he was willing to help, Boone did several things wrong in the panic of the moment. He incorrectly applied CPR to Rose, blowing air into her stomach, before Jack stopped him and sent him to get pens to perform a tracheotomy.
Boone and the Transceiver Party hear the oncoming Polar Bear.
Eager to redeem himself, Boone was put in charge of watching the injured survivors while Jack set out to the cockpit. The next day, he went out with Sayid, Kate, Charlie, Shannon, and Sawyer to get to high ground and send out a distress call. They were walking through the jungle when they were attacked by a polar bear. Sawyer shot and killed it, and they were left to ponder where it could have possibly come from. They were ultimately unsuccessful in acquiring a signal.
On day 6, Boone saw Joanna struggling to stay afloat in the ocean. Boone was the first one to enter the water in an attempt to save her but soon was pulled underwater by the same riptide that took Joanna. Jack, who entered the water shortly after Boone, saved him but was unable to get back in time to save Joanna.
Boone was despondent and bitter for a while after this, and blamed himself for Joanna's death. He grew angry at Jack for going after him rather than Joanna, and tried to establish himself as useful and attempted to ration the camp's remaining water supply on his own. The other survivors mistook this as an attempt by him to steal all the water for himself. He was about to be attacked and harmed when Jack intervened on his behalf.
While he was treated as an outsider briefly, he was quickly accepted back into the fold after he proved himself to have a helpful and friendly attitude after all. He assisted the survivors on several projects, including Sayid's attempts to triangulate the French signal, helping the survivors to move to the caves, and Claire's memorial service.
Boone, Claire, and Hurley holding the memorial service for the deceased crash survivors.
As Boone regularly went on hunting trips with Locke into the jungle, Locke began to notice his feelings toward Shannon. Boone was a part of the search party that went looking for Claire after she was taken. Afterwards, Boone and Locke split up, and during their search stumbled onto the top of the Hatch.
Boone and Locke unearthing the mysterious "Hatch".
Boone continued to work with John to break into the Hatch, using the trebuchet that ultimately failed. He told Locke that the survivors were getting suspicious since they were not bringing back boar, but Locke replied, "What we're doing here is far more important." When Boone told him that he was going to tell Shannon about the Hatch, Locke drugged him and tied him up to a tree 4 miles east of camp. While tied up, he experienced a hallucination of being chased by the "Monster" and having his sister die. The experience helped Boone learn to let go of Shannon. He was also the first person who Locke confided in about his paralysis and healing.
On day 40, Locke took Boone to the drug smugglers' plane he saw in his dream. Because Locke was having difficulty walking, he told Boone that he had to climb into the plane to investigate. Boone discovered that the Beechcraft was really a Nigerian Drug Runner Plane, as inside the plane were a number of Virgin Mary statuettes all filled with heroin. He then tried the plane's radio and made contact with Bernard, although he didn't know that he too was on the Island. The plane then began to fall with Boone still inside of it, and he was crushed. Locke carried the badly injured Boone back to the caves.
Locke's premonition of Boone's death.
Boone, guiding Locke in his vision
When Locke reached the caves, Jack asked Locke what happened, and Locke replied that Boone fell off a cliff, before leaving for The Hatch. Jack battled desperately, with the aid of Sun, to save Boone, but because of Locke's lie, Jack could not save him, despite Jack giving Boone some of his own blood. Boone died the following day. His last words were "Tell Shannon..." Boone was buried along with the other deceased survivors in the graveyard.
In "Further Instructions", Boone appeared in Locke's sweat lodge, and guided him during his vision. When Locke tried to apologize to Boone, Boone acknowledged that he was a "sacrifice the Island demanded". Boone told him that he must "clean up his own mess" by saving Eko, before he could help Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. When Locke asked if he must help Charlie and Claire, Boone responded they are "fine, for awhile".
Name Reference to Philosopher Thomas Carlyle
Trivia
- The Chinese figure on Boone's singlet means the number 84, which is a reference to Yin & Yang - a central symbol in Taoism.
- While searching for Claire, Boone declares "In Star Trek, the guys that went down, they always wore red, and they always got killed" in reference to the torn red shirt slung over his shoulder.
- Boone is described as liberal
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