Rose Nadler (née Henderson) is one of the middle section survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. She was on the plane with her husband Bernard, but was separated from him for 48 days following the crash. Rose is a well-meaning, caring woman who was supposedly healed from her fatal illness after arriving on the Island, similar to Locke.
Before the Island
Meeting Bernard
Rose introduces herself to Bernard. ("S.O.S.")
Born Rose Henderson on November 20th in the Bronx, New York City, little is known about Rose's early life before the crash, but it is understood from a deleted Season 2 scene that she had a daughter who had recently passed away. (Though it is questionable whether the scene still counts as "true," since it was never included.) We also know that at some point in her past, Rose developed a terminal form of cancer. It is possibly due to the realization that there is little time left in her life, that she took the leap to ask Bernard Nadler if he wanted to go for a cup of coffee when she first met him. Bernard was a stranger who helped Rose get her car out of snow. After knowing each other for only 5 months, Bernard proposed in a restaurant at Niagara Falls. Rose admitted her cancer, but Bernard insisted it didn't matter to him, and Rose accepted the proposal.
Supposed recovery
Rose at Sydney Airport. ("S.O.S.")
Rose had made her peace with what was going to happen to her, though Bernard had not. While honeymooning in Australia, Bernard took Rose to see Isaac of Uluru, a faith healer. After attempting to heal her, Isaac admitted he couldn't, as the location they were in wasn't "the right place." Isaac offered to refund Bernard's donation. Rose told Isaac to keep the money, revealing that she was going to lie to Bernard that she had been healed in order for the two of them to enjoy the little time they had left together, without his constantly trying to save her.
Flight 815
At a Sydney Airport gate, Rose dropped a bottle of pills and John Locke retrieved them for her from his wheelchair. Inside Flight 815 after take-off, Rose noticed that a man sitting near her (Jack) was almost knocked over by another man (Charlie) running down the aisle to the bathroom being chased by members of the cabin crew. Rose and Jack started chatting while Bernard was using the bathroom in the tail section of the plane. (Rose and Jack and Bernard all had seats in row 23. Bernard in Seat E, Rose in Seat D, and Jack in Seat C, though he originally sat in Seat A.) It was Bernard and Rose's custom that she always hold Bernard's wedding ring in her possession when traveling, because his fingers swell when flying. Jack reassured Rose about the turbulence. Oceanic Flight 815 began to shake harder and be ripped apart. ("Pilot, Part 1") ("S.O.S.")
On the Island
Season 1 (Days 1-22)
Jack revives Rose. ("Pilot, Part 1")
After the crash, Jack found Boone standing over Rose. Her heart had stopped beating, and Jack took over administering CPR, since Boone was doing it incorrectly. Boone suggests they make a hole in Rose's trachea and insert a pen to help her breathe. Jack agrees, telling Boone to find a pen so that Boone will be out of the way. Jack managed to revive Rose. On her first night on the Island, like many of the survivors, Rose heard the sound of the "Monster" in the jungle. She notably mentioned that it sounded "awfully familiar." ("Pilot, Part 1")
She was also present during Jack's speech after the cockpit trek to find the transceiver. She asked Jack to look at "the man with the shrapnel". ("Pilot, Part 2")
Rose comforts Charlie. ("Whatever the Case May Be")
After the crash Rose sat on the beach away from the camp staring out into the sea holding Bernard's wedding ring. Boone suggests that Jack check on her. Jack does and expresses his grief that her husband died in the tail section. Rose replies "They're probably thinking the same thing about us," showing herself to be a character of great faith and emotional strength. She also believed that her husband wasn't dead, in which she was correct. Bernard returned 48 days later with the other Tailies. ("Walkabout") ("Collision")
Later, when the camp is packing to move down the beach, Rose sees that Charlie is upset about Claire's kidnapping and his own near death by hanging, both acts being committed by Ethan Rom. Rose says hello to Charlie; however, Charlie doesn't reply. Rose tells him that there's no need to be rude, that everyone else is helping to move the camp up the beach but him. Charlie asks why Rose is smiling despite all the bad things the Losties have faced on the Island. Rose tells Charlie "Nobody blames you" and comforts Charlie. Rose becomes a maternal figure amongst the survivors, helping Charlie come to terms with Claire's kidnapping, telling him that her husband was still alive, and that "There’s a fine line between denial and faith. It's much better on my side." Charlie begins to cry. Rose comforts him, and begins to say a prayer for them both. ("Whatever the Case May Be")
Season 2 (Days 46-63)
Rose helps Hurley do inventory in the Swan. ("Everybody Hates Hugo")
After the Hatch is blown open and the Swan station is investigated, Hurley sees Rose doing laundry on the beach. Hurley chooses to reveal the Swan station and its washer/dryer and stocked pantry to Rose above all other survivors. Inside the Swan Rose once again makes her feelings clear that she is sure her husband, Bernard, is alive and well. Rose sympathizes with Hurley's worries he will lose friends on the Island by not sharing the food in the pantry that Jack told him to inventory and guard. Rose wisely convinces Hurley not to use the dynamite to blow up the pantry. During the inventory, Rose takes an Apollo Candy Bar for her husband, commenting that Bernard has "a mouth full of sweet teeth". ("Everybody Hates Hugo")
She is later seen briefly with Hurley, hanging up washing, when Shannon asks after Walt and Michael's luggage, commenting how terrible it must be to "lose the one person you love on the Island," implying again that her husband is not dead. ("Abandoned")
The next day, while Jack is getting water, Rose approaches him and tells him that she's pleased he's not in the hatch, when suddenly a golf ball falls into the water. Eventually, Bernard, Jin and Libby make it to the camp, with Rose and Bernard reunited after 50 days apart.
Bernard and Rose are reunited after almost 50 days apart. ("Collision")
Rose and Bernard later attend Shannon's funeral, and pour a handful of sand into her grave with the other Losties. ("Collision") ("What Kate Did")
Later on in the season, Rose and Bernard bicker about Bernard's forgetting Rose's birthday. Bernard claims he doesnt even know what day of the week it is. During the argument, the couple stumble upon a sick Sun, who is later revealed to be suffering from morning sickness. Bernard and Rose ask if she's ok; however, Sun tells them she is just light-headed. ("The Whole Truth")
Rose and Bernard are worried about Sun. ("The Whole Truth")
Following the DHARMA food drop, Rose took control by organizing the food. Bernard even commented that she was acting like she had "just got back from the store." Bernard comes up with an idea of making an S.O.S. sign and gets the group together for a meeting about building it. In the meeting, Bernard tells them that they have given up in getting rescued. Rose interrupts Bernard and tells him he should ask Jack before getting started. Bernard begins to get angry, and tells her Jack's only a doctor. Rose tells Bernard he's only a dentist, embarrassing him in front of the group. ("S.O.S.")
Despite Bernard's attempts to build the SOS sign, Rose shows little interest in being rescued, s do most other Losties. Later Bernard approaches Rose at the water trough. He tells her that people are not helping him and asks why she isn't supporting him. Rose criticizes Bernard by saying "You always have to do something!" Bernard replies that "If I didn't always have to do something you wouldn't be here!," implying that his idea to take her to Isaac of Uluuru saved her life. Rose walks away, and Bernard seems to realize that he was out of line. Later Rose approaches John, and they begin to discuss Bernard’s S.O.S. sign. At the time, Locke's leg is injured, and Rose tells him that they both know John’s injury will heal faster than normal. (The earlier moment between Rose and Locke at the airport gate had been kept secret between them, as had the fact that each knew the other had been healed by the island.) Later Rose approaches Bernard, who is struggling to build the sign by himself. Rose apologizes to Bernard, and reveals that Isaac didn't heal her, the Island did with the same properties that also revived John Locke's legs. Rose guesses that if she left the Island, the cancer might return. Bernard tells her then that they’ll never leave; then the two embrace lovingly. ("S.O.S.")
Season 3 (Days 90-91)
Rose waits for Jack to call the Freighter ("Through the Looking Glass, Part 1").
Following the implosion of the Swan station and the capture of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, Bernard and Rose were not seen on-screen until Greatest Hits, so little is known about what they did.
After Rousseau retrieved dynamite from the Black Rock, Rose (with a different hairstyle) and Bernard searched through the plane wreckage to find wire in order to detonate the dynamite. The pieces of wire had to be strongly knotted together into longer lengths, something Bernard seemed to have trouble doing well. Rose, who was much more adept at the task, showed Bernard how to knot them correctly. She was later concerned for Bernard as he planned to be a shooter of the explosives during the Others' beach raid, but didn't stop him doing so. ("Greatest Hits")
Before leaving with the others for the radio tower, Rose reminded Bernard that he was "not Rambo" and warned him that he should be careful. At night, after leaving the beach, Rose and the other survivors heard only two of the three expected explosions, and Rose grew deeply concerned, and angry at Jack, saying "If you say 'Live together, die alone' to me, Jack, I'm gonna punch you in your face." Before reaching the radio tower, Rose and Sun were delighted to hear that their husbands were alive and well. She reached the tower with everyone else and was overjoyed when Jack finally made contact with Naomi's ship. ("Through the Looking Glass, Part 1")
Season 4 (Days 91-100)
Bernard and Rose wash the table down. ("Something Nice Back Home")
Rose celebrates with the other survivors, while waiting for rescue. She even jokingly tells Claire to have sex with Charlie in return for his heroic deeds. After journeying to the cockpit, she reunites with Bernard. When Locke showed up to recruit people for his side, Bernard offered to go with Rose, because they had vowed never to leave the island. However, Rose's contempt for Locke made her stay with Jack, along with Bernard. ("The Beginning of the End")
Rose with Miles ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2").
A week later, Rose and Bernard hassle Charlotte and Daniel, wanting to know about the freighter. The bickering is interrupted by Jack, who needs emergency surgery to remove his infected appendix. While washing down a table for the surgery, Bernard sees that Rose looks unsettled. Rose asks him why Jack got sick. Bernard chalks up Jack's illness to bad luck, but Rose thinks that it isn't a coincidence that Jack is ill because people do not get sick on the island. "Not here," she replies when Bernard tells her that people simply get sick. "Here, they get better." ("Something Nice Back Home")
The next day Rose with some other survivors discuss what to do following the discovery of the satellite phone, just dropped from the helicopter. Later that day Rose watches other survivors leave in the Zodiac. ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 1")
Later, she berates Miles for taking food from the survivors' supply without permission. Miles belatedly asks, and she warns him that she'll be watching him. Rose did not leave for the Kahana on either of Daniel's raft trips; she was still on the island when it was moved. ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2")
Trivia
- Rose was the nineteenth character to ever have a flashback.
- Rose is one of the only characters to have met all the main characters of Lost. She did not meet Ben formally but she has seen him and knows who he is.
- Rose's episode count so far is 16 (as of "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3").
- Rose along with Bernard, Desmond, Frank, and Naomi are the only recurring characters that received flashback episodes other than the characters comprising the official main cast. Desmond later joined the main cast.
- During the DVD audio commentary on "The 23rd Psalm", the producers talk about the moment in the pilot where Rose says the "Monster" sounds familiar. They reveal that while searching for monster sounds for "Pilot, Part 1", they came across the sound of a New York City taxi fare printer, and decided to use the sound for the "Monster." This sound would obviously be familiar to Rose, as a habitant of the Bronx.
- The flight manifest from the German 108minuten.de website states Rose's full name as "Rose Bernstein". However, that manifest is an expanded and partially corrected version of the manifest from the Lost: The Untold website, and since both versions of the manifest contain numerous details that contradict information stated on the show itself, they're to be considered non-canonical.
- In the 05/21/07 podcast, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse joked that Rose & Bernard would later have their own romance-themed spinoff show entitled "Rose & Bernard's Love Island", with Charlie as a pool boy.
Unanswered questions
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- For fan theories about these unanswered questions, see: Rose Nadler/Theories
- Is she special -- or as Ben puts it, "important", like Locke, because she is healed too?
- How did Rose know that the tail section people were alive?
- Did she really know or just believed it?
- If Rose leaves the island, will her cancer return?
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