Backstory

I recently read that in order for a blog post to really be taken seriously it needs to start with a poem. So here are some of my favorites:

I'm crazy for Lost
Watched three seasons in five weeks
Have me committed

Oceanic flight
September twenty-second
Two thousand and four

Oceanic flight
815 mysterious
Crash on magic isle

More haiku to come on next post

This post will consist of the time lines for the principal characters (who I also believe to be the Oceanic 6 ). If you haven't been watching, and you want to start without watching 3 seasons in 5 weeks hopefully this post will get you sufficiently caught up. This will be done entirely from memory so I hope I don't mess it up. I'll present the events of their life chronologically although they are not always presented this way on the show. Also, I may edit out stuff that is not critical to understand the basics of each character.

Jack: He's a spinal surgeon with a hero complex from a young age. His dad, Christian Shephard, is also a surgeon, and makes Jack believe that nothing he does is good enough or right. His dad is also an alcoholic, which allows Jack an excuse to discredit anything his dad says. Jack performs surgery on a woman who breaks her back in a car crash. She is engaged and wants to dance at her wedding but her injuries appear serious enough that she won't walk again. Jack meets her fiancee, who is rather insensitive about her condition. Before her surgery Jack tells her, "I'm going to fix you", which sums up his personality. He needs to fix things. After performing the surgery Jack goes for a run in a football stadium and meets Desmond who is training for a boat race around the world. Desmond seems wise and to have a calming disposition. Following the run he returns to check on his patient's progress and discovers a miracle has occurred because she can now move her toes. He marries that patient, but soon he is looking for the next person to fix, focuses too much on his job, and his wife leaves him (how long they're married is a little fuzzy). He obsesses over the guy she was cheating on him with, and wants to know his name but never learns it. His dad performs surgery while drunk and Jack reports this to the ethics board, which eventually takes away his medical license. At one point Jack thinks that his dad is having an affair with his ex-wife and he punches him out at an AA meeting. He goes on a vacation to Thailand where he meets a mysterious woman who has a gift of discernment, and tattoos what she sees about people on their body. She gives Jack a tattoo (only after he pressures her into doing it because she obviously sees something tragic in his future) in Chinese characters that says "though he walks among us he is not one of us" indicating that he is a natural leader but leadership makes him lonely. His father dies in Sydney and he flies there to identify the body and return home to LA for the funeral services. He crashes on Oceanic Flight 815. Too much happens on the island to mention, but suffice it to say that Jack becomes the leader of the survivors and becomes obsessed with getting them all rescued.

Kate: Kate's parents get divorced when she is 5 and her dad, who is in the military, leaves her life. Her mother gets married to a loser who drinks and beats her, but apparently not Kate. One night while her mom is working at a diner she helps her drunken step father get into bed and then blows up the house by rigging a gas leak. She tells her mom what she's done, and is surprised to learn that her mother is upset over losing her husband. Kate's mom rats her out to the police causing Kate to go on the run. Kate finds her father after learning that who she thought was her biological father (who she loved) was really her step father, and the man she blew up was her biological father. She goes to a bus station and tries to get a ticket to Tallahasee but is apprehended by a sadistic federal Marshal. While transporting her late at night the Marshal takes his eyes off the road to taunt Kate and when he looks back to the road he sees too late that there is a horse darting across. He swerves, crashes, gets knocked out and Kate escapes again. Kate returns to her small Iowa hometown in an effort to learn why her mother turned her in, but the feds have the place staked out. Luckily she runs into a downtrodden con woman who is willing to help her set up a meeting. She speaks to her mom and learns that even though her husband was an alcoholic wife beater she loved him, and his faults didn't justify his murder. She tells Kate that she'll let her go without making a scene but if she ever sees her again she'll scream for help. Kate later learns that her mother is dying of cancer and returns to see her. Kate's childhood sweetheart, Tom, is a doctor at the hospital so she looks him up so he can sneak her into the hospital. The two of them drive out to a field where they buried a time capsule years before. In the time capsule is a little toy airplane that Tom loved as a kid. It's apparent that she is still in love with him but he's married and has a child and she is a murderer. She visits her mom, who is drugged and barely coherent, but still manages to scream for help when she recognizes Kate. Kate escapes with Tom's car but he hops in hoping to convince her to stop running. Kate drives through a barricade, and the cops open fire killing Tom. The Marshal puts the toy airplane in a safe deposit box in New Mexico hoping to draw her out. Kate successfully robs the bank, retrieving the plane. Later, under a new identity Kate gets married but is forced to run when she freaks out after a pregnancy scare. Kate ends up in Australia and wanders onto a widower's farm who puts her to work. The farmer soon learns that there is a $23,000 reward for her capture and turns her in. The Marshal escorts her back to the U.S. on Oceanic 815 and dies from injuries sustained in the crash. A bunch of stuff happens on the island, but suffice it to say that Kate has an internal battle over loving Jack who she feels is too good for her and couldn't love her and Sawyer who reminds her of her deadbeat dad.

Sawyer (aka James Ford): His mom has an affair with a con man who steals their life savings. His father finds out and commits a murder/suicide. Sawyer drafts a letter, which is his most prized possession, that explains the pain the con man caused him and hopes to deliver it to him someday. When he becomes an adult he runs into some cash problems and turns to a life of conning/crime taking the name of his mother's con man, Sawyer. Sawyer runs a con on a recent divorcee, but she soon figures out his angle. She convinces him to teach her how to con. They work as a team for a while, and the only thing left to teach her is the long con. Soon Sawyer's partner gets upset that he hasn't stolen her money yet and threatens their lives. Sawyer lets her know of the danger, tells her to run, and where they'll rendezvous. Only he steals her money and never meets up, successfully completing the long con. She turns him in and he ends up in jail. While in jail he learns that the woman he conned is carrying his baby. He strikes a deal with the IRS to learn the whereabouts of some money that one of his fellow inmates has stolen in return for a shortened sentence and a small piece of the action. He sets up an account for his unborn daughter with the money he earned. Later a business associate of his tells Sawyer that he knows the whereabouts, Sydney Australia, of the man that conned his parents. Sawyer goes to Sydney, confronts the man and kills him. Just before he dies Sawyer gives the man the letter he wrote as a child and discovers that his victim has no idea what he's talking about. So, Sawyer was conned into killing an enemy of his old business partner. Sawyer tries to return to LA on Oceanic Flight 815.


Locke: He is raised in foster care after his mom gives him up. While working at a toy store his mom contacts him and tells him that he was immaculately conceived. Locke hires a PI to investigate her and find his biological father. He learns his mom is sligthly off her rocker and discovers the whereabouts of his father. He contacts his father and they start to build a relationship. Locke "accidentally" finds out that his father is on dialysis and needs a kidney transplant. Locke gives his father a kidney, and when he wakes from the surgery his father is gone, and and doesn't want to be part of his life anymore. Locke meets a women, Helen, during a group counselling session and falls in love, but he can't stop stalking his dad. Eventually Helen tells Locke he's got to choose his dad or her and Locke chooses the old man. Later Locke joins a commune near the Oregon/California border where he's able to find some degree of peace. One day he picks up a hitchhiker and introduces him to the group which he considers his first real family. After living with them for 6 weeks Locke learns that the hitchhiker is really an undercover cop trying to learn if the commune is planning a terrorist attack (what they're really doing is growing massive quantities of the Hippie Lettuce). So Locke loses another family. Later Locke learns that his dad is conning a rich old widow into marrying him. Locke confronts him and is promptly thrown out the window and down about 8 floors. He breaks his back and loses the use of his legs. Locke decides that he wants to go on a walkabout tour in Australia, flies to Sydney and is told when he arrives that because he is in a wheelchair he is not eligible for the tour. He's forced to fly home on Oceanic 815. After the crash he miraculously regains the use of his legs, and feels that it was his destiny to come to the island. Locke considers himself a man of faith.


Hurley: His dad takes off when he's a kid, and leaves before they ever get their Camaro up and running. Hurley punishes himself with food and becomes quite rotund. He attends a party where several people get killed when a balcony he is standing on collapses. This event sends him into a catatonic state, and lands him in a psychiatric facility. While in the facility he meets a man who repeats the numbers "4,8,15,16,23,42" over and over again. Once Hurley is released from the hospital he plays the lottery using those same 6 numbers. He wins, $157 million (I think) and then his life begins to fall apart. He loses his friends, his grandfather dies, the house he buys for his mom burns down, the Chicken restaurant he owns gets struck by a meteor killing reporter Tricia Tanaka, and then his dad returns primarily for a cash grab. Hurley learns that the numbers were discovered by an old sailor who is now living in Australia. He tracks down the sailor only to learn that the sailor killed himself and also believed the numbers to be cursed. Hurley barely gets to his flight on time only to crash on Oceanic 815. Once on the island he learns those 6 numbers are printed on a mysterious hatch, and need to be entered into a mysterious computer.


Sayid: He grows up in Iraq and fights in the first Gulf War. His initial responsibilities are unknown. He is captured by American G.I.'s and because of his English skills he is required to interrogate his commanding officer to learn the whereabouts of an American pilot who crashed. When he can't get the information he needs a CIA agent, Calvin, teaches him the art of torture. Sayid is then enlisted by the Iraqi army as an intelligence officer/torturer. While performing his duties he is reunited with Nadia, a childhood friend, who is now a political prisoner. Eventually he helps her escape, and he never sees her again. Later he finds himself in Australia, doing who knows what, and is arrested by American and Australian intelligence agencies. Some C4 has gone missing and they want him to infiltrate a terrorist cell and return the C4. Turns out another friend from Iraq who lost his family to an American bomb is a low level member of the cell. Sayid successfully locates and delivers the C4, but not before his friend kills himself. In return for his efforts Sayid is given a plane ticket to L.A. where he can once again be reunited with Nadia. He decides to delay his flight one day so he can give his friend a proper Muslim burial; and he ends up a passenger on Oceanic Flight 815.


I realize now that I must also include brief descriptions of several characters that are critical to understand the plotline.


Ben: He is the leader of the Others (pre-crash island inhabitants). His mother died in labor and he came to the island with his father as a child. His father worked as a general laborer for the Dharma initiative, which is a group of enigmatic scientists that seemed to be performing complex experiments. He is creepy, lies incessently, claims to be good, claims to be protecting the island from outside forces. He appears to be all knowing, but claims to take orders from Jacob (some sort of supernatural being).


Desmond: He crashed on the island during a boat race around the world. He entered the race to earn the respect of his girlfriend's rich Dad. He's been on the island for 3 years living in hatch constructed by the Dharma Initiative, where his primary responsibility consisted of pushing a button that he was told would save the world. It should be noted that he was brought into the hatch and trained on the importance of the button by Calvin, an ex CIA agent who is now dead. Locke, Jack, and Kate break into the hatch and discover Desmond who is now part of their group.

Juliette: She's a fertility specialist that was brought onto the island 3 years ago by Ben, to research why all women who get pregnant on the island die. While on the island she has morphed from a mousy research type, to the female version of Jack Bauer. She betrayed Ben and is now part of the crash survivor group, although she is sketchy. She might be a double or even a triple agent. Who knows?



Michael/Walt: Father and son crash survivors. Walt appears to have some special abilities (can affect flight paths of birds, can appear random places) and early on in the show it was hinted that he may have caused the crash. Walt was kidnapped by the Others, rescued by his dad, and at the end of season 2 Ben gives them a boat and they appear to escape. But we've been told by producers that they will show up again during season 4.



Sun/Jin: Married couple from Korea. Jin comes from a poor fisherman background, was raised by his father and never knew his mother (she was a prostitute). Sun is the daughter of a wealthy and vicious businessman. Once married Jin goes to work for Sun's father and starts as a floor manager but when Sun bribes Jin's mother to not reveal his true origin, Jin is forced to work as an enforcer for Sun's father. Both are disgusted by what Jin is required to do and are trying to run away when they board Oceanic 815. Jin was sterile until he crashed on the island, and now Sun is pregnant. According to Juliet's calculations Sun only has a few more weeks to live, so it's imperative she gets off the island.



Claire: Her boyfriend leaves her shortly after getting pregnant. She decides to put the baby up for adoption, but the warning of a psychic prevents her from pulling the trigger. Later the same pyschic convinces her to take a flight to LA where he has found a good adoptive family that will pay her hansomely. She has her baby, Aaron, on the island. We have learned through flashbacks that Christian Shephard is father to both her and Jack, but they don't know this.

R.I.P. Charlie

This summary is super abreviated but should get a novice viewer somewhat caught up. If you have questions about any characters fire away.