Alex (Lost)

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Alex
First appearance	"Maternity Leave"
Information
Name	Alexandra
Age	16
Former residence	The Island
Portrayed by	Tania Raymonde

Alexandra, commonly known as "Alex," is a recurring fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Tania Raymonde. She was born 16 years prior to the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, but was taken from her mother, Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan) by the Others. She was raised among them, believing her mother to be dead. She has helped the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 on many occasions, and is reunited with her mother at the end of the third season. Not long after however, she is shot and killed by Keamy (Kevin Durand) after her adoptive father, Ben (Michael Emerson), would not listen to his demands. Her death scene was received positively by critics, earning it a spot on multiple "top moments of the season" lists (see Reception.)

Alex's episode count as of "The Shape of Things to Come" is 15.

Arc

Before the crash

A heavily pregnant Danielle Rousseau and her husband Robert shipwreck on the island, 16 years before the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, during a French scientific expedition. Rousseau's team becomes sick, so she kills them all, and later gives birth to Alexandra.^[1] Rousseau claims she saw a column of black smoke on the island a week later and Alex was taken from her by the Others. A significant member of the Others named Ben adopts Alex and tells her that her mother died.

After the crash

Season 2

Sixteen years later, Alex meets the pregnant woman Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin), whom the Other, Ethan Rom (William Mapother), had kidnapped to take her baby. Alex tells her that the Others will kill Claire once they get her baby. She knocks Claire unconscious and leaves her in the jungle to find her way safely back to her camp.^[2] Alex later asks Michael (Harold Perrineau) if she is alright, when the Others capture him. They send him back to the beach camp with a mission to bring to them other survivors of the plane crash: Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Hurley (Jorge Garcia).^[3] Alex helps in their capture and transport to a smaller island nearby.^[4]

Season 3

Armed with a slingshot, Alex attempts to break Kate and Sawyer out of where they are being held captive, but stops and gives up when another Other, Danny Pickett (Michael Bowen) pulls a gun on her.^[5] In a later rescue attempt, Alex is successful in helping Kate and Sawyer escape. She agrees to let them back to the main island so long as they help rescue her boyfriend, Karl (Blake Bashoff). After finding where he is, they break him out of a mysterious room where he has been undergoing brainwashing. Alex, Kate, Sawyer, and Karl are about to leave when Danny turns up intending to kill Kate and Sawyer. Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) steps in, shooting Danny dead. Juliet allows Sawyer, Kate, and Karl to leave, but insists Alex stays. Later Alex helps Jack escape from his cell to stop Juliet's execution. Thanks to their interference, Juliet is not executed, only "marked."^[6]

Alex, along with the rest of the Others and Jack, returns to her home in Barracks. She is surprised when Sayid (Naveen Andrews), part of the rescue party that has arrived to get Jack, says that he knows her thought-to-be deceased mother. She later unknowingly walks past Danielle Rousseau, her mother, while taking Locke (Terry O'Quinn) to the Other's submarine at Ben's request.^[7]

The Others leave the Barracks and begin travelling to the Temple with Locke, as he wishes to join them.^[8] After he is initiated^[9], Alex approaches Locke, and gives him a pistol, claiming he'll need it if he was planning to meet the leader of the Others, Jacob.^[10] However, when Ben returns alone the next day, he bitterly returns the gun to her, and reveals his plan for a group of Others to go to the survivor's camp that night and kidnap the pregnant women. Sensing trouble, Alex flees into the jungle in search of Karl, who has been living in hiding since his escape. She gives him her gun and tells him he must warn the survivors. The two kiss before Karl heads off.^[11] Ben goes to confront the survivors, bringing Alex with him. On the way there, Ben tells her that he is taking her to her new family, explaining the reason he locked Karl up was he didn't want him getting Alex pregnant. Once they meet the survivors, Ben reunites Alex with her mother.^[12]

Season 4

She joins Locke's group who head to the Barracks, fearing people on an incoming freighter.^[13] Ben sends Alex, Karl and Danielle to the Temple for extra safety, but on the way they are ambushed by mercenaries from the freighter who are looking for Ben, resulting in Karl and Danielle being shot. Alex surrenders shouting that she was Ben's daughter.^[14] She is used as a hostage to try and have Ben surrender. Alex sets off a distress signal at the electric fence surrounding the Barracks to warn Ben and the others that the mercenaries were coming. They threaten to kill her if Ben will not surrender himself. Ben refuses, and the lead mercenary, Keamy, kills Alex with one gunshot to the head. Later, Ben goes to Alex's body to say goodbye.^[15]

When Ben meets Charles Widmore (Alan Dale), the man who sent the freighter, he blames him for Alex's death, and in revenge vows to kill Charles' daughter Penelope (Sonya Walger).^[15]

Characteristics

Alex is a renegade Other that often turns her back on her group in order to help the crash survivors.^[2][6][11] Sawyer nicknames her "Sheena"^[6], a reference to Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, a girl raised in the jungle who is an expert in fighting with makeshift weapons.

Development

Tania Raymonde was told her character would be called "Jessica" when first cast in the role. Furthermore, her character was promoted as a survivor who would be introduced in Maternity Leave.^[16] Cast members often read fake lines with a different name in their audition to limit potential spoilers from leaking.^[17] In her first appearance, Raymonde was credited as "young girl", preventing viewers knowing in advance that Alex would be introduced.

Furlan met Raymonde for the first time just minutes before shooting their reunion scene in the season three finale.^[18] The actors believed the scene to be a "huge moment" for their characters, which Furlan described as a "basic human moment".^[18] Furlan was glad to have "such a beautiful partner", and noted their physical resemblance.^[18]

Reception

Jeff Jensen from Entertainment Weekly described Alex's death scene as "hardcore", commenting that it will be "sitting very high on this ranking of all-time pivotal Lost moments" by the end of the series.^[19] Before the season finale aired, Jensen ranked this as the second best moment of the season^[20] IGN's Chris Carabott also considered it "one of the more pivotal scenes in the entire series" due to it being "phenomenally shot, edited and acted"^[21] Oscar Dahl described it as "perfectly paced … and provided a huge shock … and some of the best acting you'll ever see" ranking it the fifth best moment of the season.^[22] Daniel from TMZ loved Alex's execution scene, giving it an "A+".^[23]

References