Character connections

This article is about how characters are connected. For the special feature on Disc 7 of the Season 2 DVD see: Lost Connections

Character connections refers to the "degrees of separation" between the characters in Lost. This concept describes the shortness of social distance between any two people on Earth, based on their acquaintances. The average is 6, and this has inspired many theories about human interaction, including a popular culture game called "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon". Some, if not all of the characters have one or two degrees of separation between them. The likelihood of this occurring between passengers on a jetliner is fairly astronomical. The shortness of the separation between the characters is likely a large part of the puzzle/mystery of the show.

"Have you ever sat next to someone at a bar and felt that your paths have crossed before? Has the thought ever crossed your mind that the stranger behind you at the store would become a significant part of your life?...seemingly random people. Do you know any of them? Do any of them know you? Do any of them know someone you know? Odds are that the answer to anyone of these questions is yes... Throughout the world, connections are constantly being made. Which begs the question; are chance encounters a matter of coincidence, or a matter of fate? " - Carlton Cuse, Lost Connections

Occurrences

Characters Connections prior to Australian Airport

Characters Connections through Season Two

The following connections between characters happened in locations other than the hotel, airport, or airplane during or immediately before the flight. This list is sorted according to when the connection was first noted (by the second episode, in which the 'cross' is recognized).

Season 1

• Sawyer passed Boone in the Australian police station. ("Hearts and Minds")
• Sawyer met Jack's father, Christian Shephard, in an Australian bar. ("Outlaws")
• The daughter of the man Jin was supposed to assassinate was seen watching a news piece on TV about Hurley winning the lottery. ("...In Translation")
• Mary Jo went with Sawyer to his hotel room; she was also the Lotto Girl who pulls Hurley's winning numbers. ("Outlaws")  ("Numbers")
• Ken Halperin, Hurley's financial adviser, mentioned he now owns a box company in Tustin, presumably the one Locke worked for, since when Hurley was checking the flight manifest, Locke said he resided in Tustin. ("Walkabout")  ("Raised by Another")  ("Numbers")

Season 2

• When Sarah was in the car accident, she hit Adam Rutherford, Shannon's father/Boone's stepfather; Jack opted to save Sarah, resulting in Adam Rutherford's death. ("Man of Science, Man of Faith")  ("Abandoned")
• Jack met Desmond while running up and down the steps in a stadium sometime in 2001. ("Man of Science, Man of Faith")
• Hurley's manager Randy at Mr. Cluck's was also Locke's manager at the box factory in Tustin (where Locke lives), which Hurley owns. ("Walkabout")  ("Numbers")  ("Everybody Hates Hugo")
• Hurley commented on a Drive Shaft CD in a music store. ("Everybody Hates Hugo")
• Sayid was on a television while Kate was in Sam Austen's office. ("What Kate Did")
• The Beechcraft that Locke and Boone found was the Nigerian drug plane that contained Eko's brother Yemi. Charlie and Eko find Goldie not far from there, the man Eko worked with who pushed him off the plane, took Yemi with him, and therefore saved Eko's life. ("Deus Ex Machina")  ("The 23rd Psalm")
• Sawyer met Gordy at a diner where Kate's mom, Diane, was a waitress. ("What Kate Did")  ("The Long Con")
• Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack and Widmore Labs were sponsors for Henry Gale's balloon. ("Everybody Hates Hugo")  ("Fire + Water")  ("Lockdown")
• Sayid encountered Army Sergeant Sam Austen, Kate's father, who was carrying a younger picture of Kate. ("What Kate Did")  ("One of Them")
• Locke inspected a house that Sayid's unrequited love, Nadia, was planning to buy. ("Solitary")  ("Lockdown")
• Hurley, Locke's mother (Emily Annabeth Locke), and Libby all went to Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute. ("Numbers")  ("Deus Ex Machina")  ("Dave")
• Ana Lucia traveled to Australia with Jack's father, Christian Shephard. ("Two for the Road")
• Christian Shephard hit Sawyer with the door of the car when he opened it in front of the bar where they later share drinks. ("Two for the Road")
• Richard Malkin was the psychic who Claire visited several times and forced her to take Flight 815. Later Eko went to visit Malkin's daughter Charlotte and was told by Malkin that his daughter's resurrection was a fraud, as are his psychic powers. ("Raised by Another")  ("?")
• Libby met Desmond in a cafe and gave a race boat to him. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")
• Kelvin Inman interacted with both Sayid and Sam Austen during the Gulf War. He later trained Desmond in the operation of the Swan station. ("One of Them")  ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")

Season 3

• Charlie and Hurley discovered an LP by an obscure band called Geronimo Jackson while browsing the record collection in the Swan station; Eddie Colburn wore a shirt with the same album cover while with Locke, and claimed it was his father's. ("The Hunting Party")  ("Further Instructions")
• Sawyer referred to the Tampa Job in his conversation with Hibbs, saying "what could possibly make us even for the Tampa Job?" Kevin Callis, Kate's former husband, mentioned completing Police IRs on "that fugitive recovery in Tampa," which may refer to the Tampa Job and Sawyer. ("Outlaws")  ("I Do")
• Rachel Carlson, Juliet's sister, used a Widmore Labs pregnancy test, the same brand used by Kate and Sun. ("Not in Portland")
• Edmund Burke, Juliet's ex-husband, was hit by a bus with an Apollo Candy advertisement on its side. Apollo Bars were found in the Swan Station pantry and consumed by numerous characters including Hurley and Kate. An advertisement for Apollo Candy was also seen during the football match Desmond predicted the outcome of. ("Adrift") ("Not in Portland") ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")
• Desmond recognized Charlie performing on the street in London. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")
• Desmond attempted to purchase an engagement ring for Penny Widmore from Eloise Hawking, who refused to sell it to him because he was meant to end up on the island. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")
• In Charles Widmore's Office hangs a painting by Claire's ex-boyfriend Thomas, though Thomas still has the painting years later when he and Claire are together during her pregnancy. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")
• Advertisements viewed during the football match Desmond watched included Apollo Candy, The Hanso Foundation, Oceanic Airlines, Gannon Car Rentals, Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack and Expose. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")
• Christian Shephard was both Claire and Jack's father. ("Par Avion")
• Locke, his father, and Sawyer end up on the same island. ("The Man from Tallahassee")
• Locke and Hurley watched Exposé, which Nikki guest starred in. ("The Man from Tallahassee")  ("Exposé")
• Kate saved Sawyer's former lover, Cassidy, from being caught practicing the jewelry con Sawyer had taught her; Cassidy, in turn, helped Kate visit her mother, Diane Janssen, at the diner. ("Left Behind")
• Locke's father is the original con man that conned Sawyer's parents. ("The Brig")
• Emily gave birth to Ben just outside of Portland, which is also the supposed location of Mittelos Bioscience, the company Richard hired Juliet to work for. ("Not in Portland")  ("The Man Behind the Curtain")
• "Emily" is the name of both Locke and Bens' mothers. ("The Man Behind the Curtain")
• Charlie stops a mugger from attacking Nadia, Sayid's old love. ("Greatest Hits")

Season 4

• After escaping the island, Hurley is chased by the police on the streets of Los Angeles; this is recorded by Randy Nations, Hurley's former manager/employee at Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack and John Locke's supervisor at the Box company.
• Hurley is taken into custody and questioned by Mike Walton, Ana Lucia's former policing partner. Mike, in fact, questions Hurley whether he had met Ana at the airport or aboard the plane but Hurley lies and denies having ever met her.
• Hurley is visited by a man named Matthew Abaddon after the crash, who is later revealed to have recruited Naomi, Miles, Charlotte, Daniel and Frank sometime before they came to the island. Abaddon is also the one who talked Locke into trying to go on the walkabout ("The Beginning of the End") ("Confirmed Dead") ("Cabin Fever")
• When Desmond is time shifting he goes to see Daniel at Oxford University in 1996 after Daniel told him to find him there. ("The Constant")
• Sun appears to be watching an episode of Exposé, with Nikki, dubbed over in Korean ("Ji Yeon")
• Richard Alpert was at the hospital where Locke was born and saw him when he was 5. ("Cabin Fever")
• Locke has a Geronimo Jackson poster in the locker he was trapped in at high school. ("Cabin Fever")

Season 5

• Ms. Hawking, the woman who tells Desmond that the universe has a way of course-correcting itself ("Flashes Before Your Eyes"), warns Ben that he only has 70 hours to get the Oceanic Six back to the Island, or "God help us all." ("The Lie")
  • Ms. Hawking is also Daniel Faraday's mother.
• Hurley's father starts to watch Exposé before Hurley comes in with an unconscious Sayid. ("The Lie")
• Dan Norton is the lawyer for both Ben and Carole Littleton. ("The Little Prince")
• While struggling to maintain her grasp on a single time/space during the time shifts, Charlotte Lewis announces that she loves Geronimo Jackson. She also tells Daniel Faraday that she met him on the Island when she was a child. ("This Place Is Death")
  • She says the Faraday told her to leave the island and never come back. We saw this event from Daniel perspective in "The Variable".
• Jacob approaches many of the characters off island, though they do not know of their connection. Kate as a child in the store, James as a child at his parents' funeral, Jin and Sun at their wedding, Locke when he is pushed from the window, Jack at the hospital, Sayid at the moment when Nadia was killed by a hit-and-run driver, and Hurley as he leaves prison. ("The Incident, Parts 1 & 2")

Season 6

• Rose is a manager at the temp agency where Locke was sent by Hurley. ("The Substitute")
• At St. Sebastian Hospital, Dr. Shephard passes by Sayid and Nadia. ("Sundown")
• Detective Ford passes by Liam Pace at the police station. Liam was the brother of a person who was arrested aboard Oceanic flight 815, which James was also on. ("Recon")
• Sayid finds Jin tied up in a refrigerator at Keamy's restaurant. ("The Package")
• Pierre Chang is the MC for a benefit dinner honoring Hurley. ("Everybody Loves Hugo")
• Desmond sits down with Hurley briefly while he waits for his order at a Mr. Cluck's restaurant. ("Everybody Loves Hugo")
• Sayid is seen on a video surveillance tape by James at the police station. ("The Last Recruit")
• Jack preps for surgery and realizes that Locke, whom he met at the airport after flight 815, is on the table. ("The Last Recruit")
• Jack goes to visit Locke's dentist, which turns out to be another passenger of flight 815. ("The Candidate")

Direct connections

• Boone Carlyle and Shannon Rutherford are step-siblings.
• Jin-Soo Kwon and Sun-Hwa Kwon are married.
• Rose Nadler and Bernard Nadler are married.
• Michael Dawson is Walt Lloyd's father.
• Claire Littleton is Aaron Littleton's mother.
• Jack Shephard and Claire Littleton are half-siblings.
• Jack Shephard is Aaron Littleton's half-uncle.
• Danielle Rousseau is Alex Rousseau's mother
• Nikki Fernandez and Paulo are lovers.
• Amy and Horace Goodspeed are Ethan Rom's parents.
• Pierre Chang is Miles Straume's father.
• Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore are Daniel Faraday's parents.
• Penelope Widmore-Hume is Daniel Faraday's half-sister.
• Desmond Hume is Daniel Faraday's brother in-law.

Encounters or joint sightings at the hotel, airport or airplane

The following connections happened immediately before, or during the flight, and do not count as a notable connection.

Season 1

• Jack sat next to Rose on the plane. ("Pilot, Part 1")
• Charlie ran past Jack, Rose, Boone and Shannon on the plane. ("Pilot, Part 2")
• Jin waited in line behind Jack. ("White Rabbit") ("House of the Rising Sun")
• Jack met Ana Lucia in the airport lounge before they boarded the plane. ("Exodus, Part 1")
• At the airport, Sayid asked Shannon to watch his bags for a moment. ("Exodus, Part 1")
• The fight Michael and Walt have at a hotel the night before the flight wakes up Steve. ("Exodus, Part 1")
• When Hurley was running late to catch his flight, he tried to enter a crowded elevator occupied by Charlie. ("Exodus, Part 2")
• At the airport, Locke passed near Michael who was on the phone with his mom. ("Exodus, Part 2")
• At the airport, while Jin was walking to the bathroom, he walked in front of Sayid. ("Exodus, Part 2")
• Hurley attempted to jump ahead of Arzt at customs. ("Exodus, Part 2")
• On the plane, Arzt helped Claire put her luggage in the overhead compartment. ("Exodus, Part 2")
• Hurley gave Walt thumbs up as he walked past him on the plane. ("Exodus, Part 2")

Season 2

• Rose accidentally dropped her pills at the airport and Locke, still in his wheelchair, picked them up for her. ("S.O.S.")
• Ana Lucia was in line behind Jack and Jin when Jack was pleading with the airline employee about his father's coffin. ("Two for the Road")
• At the airport, Libby interrupted a conversation Eko was having with Charlotte Malkin. ("?")

Season 3

• Nikki and Paulo bumped into Shannon and Boone in the waiting room. ("Exposé")

Season 6 (flash sideways)

• Kate tries to jump in front of Frogurt at the cab line. ("LA X, Part 1")
• Hurley points Desmond towards their flight's luggage carousel. ("Happily Ever After")
• Desmond helps Claire with her bags after the flight. ("Happily Ever After")

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

The game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" is based on the idea that every working actor can be connected to Kevin Bacon within six degrees of separation. Although unrelated to the character connections, it's interesting to note that every one of the cast members of Lost can be connected to Kevin Bacon by either 2 or 3 degrees, although none of them have worked with him directly, as yet.

Storyteller connections

Like the past and present connections between the castaways as well as other Island inhabitants and flashback characters, many of the people who create the stories and characters of Lost have also worked on other projects together in the past. Also, many of these people have also worked on some of the same projects, though they might not have appeared together or interacted in these projects, similar to how the lives of the castaways have sometimes nearly touched or indirectly influenced each other. Perhaps in some cases, the Lost producers did this knowingly or as Easter eggs, paralleling the interconnectedness of the storytellers and their ties to pop culture to the story itself. Many of these projects share themes, genres, references, actors, writers, producers, and directors with Lost. It's interesting to note how some of these connections parallel things on the show and also reflect the meta-narrative and post-modern qualities of it.

• Many of the actors on Lost have appeared together in other television shows and movies. Sometimes their characters have interacted with each other, sometimes they appeared in the same episodes or films, other times they have appeared at different times in a show's run and sometimes they are characters whose storylines are related but who may not have interacted. Some shows (like most procedurals) often have characters that only appear for that show's mystery of the week, and many of the Losties have popped up on these shows. In Lost's case, some flashback of the week characters have strong connections to certain Lost characters, and have also appeared and are currently appearing together in other shows and films with other Lost actors. To a second degree, there are many actors who have appeared in different projects with many of the actors who have appeared on Lost, though they themselves have not appeared on the show (yet). The most significant actor connection is the tv show Oz, which starred Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje and Harold Perrineau and which included appearances by Ken Leung and Lance Reddick.

• Many of the producers and writers on the show have also worked together in the past, and usually on many of the shows featuring Lost actors. Many of them have since gone on to other projects, most of which also have connections to Lost.

Actor connections

Many actors on the show have connections to some of the other actors in projects outside of Lost. Sometimes, their characters interacted directly with each other, though most hadn't appeared together before Lost started. There are also instances where their characters were in the same movie, series, or episode but did not share any scenes together. Some of these times there are indirect connections between the characters of those shows. In a way, it shows that people who play the characters on Lost have lives that are as connected to each other as their fictional alter egos, and may reflect an intent on the part of the show's creators to make these existing connections also tell the story. This is not to say that these connections are all the producers look at when casting, but the sheer number of them suggest that the producers of Lost are splicing in bits and pieces and ideas of other television and film works into its story, much as it has the numerous literary references, and some of the actors as well as the characters they play and the projects they are in closely parallel and inform the story of the show.

Also, it shows that people in real-life (the actors) have the same kinds of connections to each other that the characters in the story do (granted, they do all work in the Entertainment industry, but there are a handful of projects that seem to have an extremely high number of Losties). It also shows that the fictional characters an actor has interpreted may inform their story and character somehow, and that sometimes the relationships of characters that are paralleled, contrasted, or repeated in Lost lends new insight into them and the plot or offers up more evidence of the interrelatedness between Lost, pop culture, and real people. In this way, Lost takes on the nature of a meta-narrative, and blurs the line between the story, the storytellers, and the audience even more.

Direct connections

OZ

• Harold Perrineau and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje played Augustus Hill (40 episodes) and Simon Adebisi (27 epsiodes) respectively as regulars on HBO's prison drama. They shared many scenes together and both appeared in almost every single episode until their characters' deaths. Augustus Hill was also the narrator of OZ. It is interesting to note that Eko first appears after the Raft survivors come aground and is with Michael (even going off to look for him) until the Tailies reunite with the other castaways.
• Ken Leung plays Miles Straume in Lost, but in OZ played a Chinese immigrant who briefly stayed in Emerald City in Season 4, episode 10, "Conversions".
• Zeljko Ivanek (Edmund Burke) was recurring in 25 episodes playing Governor James Devlin, a corrupt and sneaky politician. His storylines intersected with both Adebisi's and Augustus Hill's. Edmund Burke shares this sleaziness and wanting to take credit for others' successes with Governor Devlin (OZ creator/writer/producer Tom Fontana stated that "there is the devil in Devlin"). Ivanek has guest starred on many shows that have also featured Lost actors.
• Frederick Koehler played in a few episodes in Lost as Seamus, one of the men from the submarine in the last season. He was also on Oz, playing Andrew Schillinger-- who was the main character Vern Schillinger's son.
• Augustus is in a wheelchair, like Michael for some time during his recovery after being hit by a car and like Locke before the crash, after being thrown off a building for killing a police officer. He is also a recovering drug addict, like Charlie.
• Adebisi is similar to Mr. Eko in that they were African gangsters involved in the drug trade. In a way, Adebisi could be Eko if he had never become a priest.
• One of the main characters and the on-and-off leader of the Muslims is named Kareem Said (pronounced exactly like "Sayid").
• We see how the many characters came to OZ through flashbacks of the crime they were convicted for. These flashbacks sometimes appear a long time after we have been introduced to a character.
• There are many "tribes" in the prison, usually based on ethnic background or religious beliefs, whose leaders often change. These men manipulate and ally themselves with others, though the allegiances and leaders tend to change constantly. This is similar to what has happened to Ben and the Others in Season 3, and has been happening to the castaways since Jack returned.
• Many characters con each other to get what they want or to get someone else to do what they want.
• "Oz" is a nickname for Australia.
• "Oz", short for Oswald State Penitentiary and later Oswald Correctional Facility, is also a reference to "The Wizard of Oz", also alluded to on Lost. The experimental wing where most of the stories take place is referred to as "Emerald City".
• Shares the themes of imprisonment, cons and deceptions, isolation, psychology, good and bad people, black and white, faith, revenge, coincidences, rivalries, secrets, fate and free will, parent issues, and character connections with Lost.

24

• The following actors have appeared on both "Lost" and "24".
  • Alan Dale - Charles Widmore / Vice President Jim Prescott
  • Anthony Azizi - Omar / Mamud Rasheed Faheen (AKA Rafique)
  • Daniel Dae Kim - Jin-Soo Kwon / Tom Baker
  • Evan Handler - Dave / David Weiss
  • Francois Chau - Pierre Chang / Consul Koo Yin
  • Henry Ian Cusick - Desmond Hume / Theo Stoller
  • Jon Gries - Roger Linus / Joseph Wald
  • Michael Cudlitz - Mike Walton / Rick Phillips
  • Reiko Aylesworth - Amy / Michelle Dessler
  • Roxanne Day - Diane / Jen Slater
  • Brian Goodman - Ryan Pryce / Raymond O'Hara
  • Tracy Middendorf - Bonnie / Carla Matheson
  • Lana Parrilla - Greta / Sarah Gavin
  • Zeljko Ivanek - Edmund Burke / Andre Drazen
  • Nick Jameson - Richard Malkin / President Yuri Suvarov
  • John Terry - Christian Shephard / Bob Warner
  • Donnie Keshawarz - Essam Tasir / Yusuf Auda
  • George Alan - Male flight attendant / Dr. Joyner
  • Gabrielle Fitzpatrick - Lindsey / Diana White
  • Marc Casabani - Tariq / Omar
  • Tony Lee - Jae Lee / Deng
  • Sammy Sheik - Bedouin #2 / Masheer
  • Shawn Doyle - Duncan Forrester / Ronnie Lobell
  • Michelle Forbes - Karen Decker / Lynne Kresge
  • Jenny Gago - Alyssa Cole / Principal
  • Faran Tahir - Ishmael Bakir / Tomas Sherak
  • Scott Paulin - Sullivan / Brian Jacobs

Party of Five

• Matthew Fox starred as Charlie in Party of Five. At one point his character dates Grace Wilcox, played by Tamara Taylor. Tamara plays Susan Lloyd (Walt's mother and Michael's ex-girlfriend).

Trivia

• On the April 20, 2007 podcast, show-runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse clarified and implied that there's no character connection through Charles Widmore's Office that hangs a painting ("Flashes Before Your Eyes") by Claire's ex-boyfriend Thomas ("Raised by Another"). They explained Jack Bender, the producing director in Hawaii, likes to add his own paintings to the show.

See also

• Coincidence
• Crossover (disambiguation)
• Family Trees
• Lost Connections
• Regularly spoken phrases

External links

• Interactive graphic with connections and biographies at the end of 5th season
• .pdf file of Lost Connections Flow Chart at larger size
• ABC.com's Lost Connections