Shannon Rutherford

Shannon Rutherford
Lost character
Maggie Grace as Shannon Rutherford
First appearance	"Pilot: Part 1"
Last appearance	"The End"
Portrayed by	Maggie Grace
Centric episode(s)	"Hearts and Minds" "Exodus, Part 1" "Abandoned"
Information
Full name	Shannon Rutherford
Occupation	Ballet instructor extortionist
Former residence	Los Angeles, California, US

Shannon Rutherford was a fictional character played by Maggie Grace on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicled the lives of the survivors of a plane crash in the South Pacific. Shannon was introduced in the pilot episode as the stepsister of fellow crash survivor Boone Carlyle (Ian Somerhalder). She was a series regular until her funeral in "What Kate Did". For most of her time on the Island, she was unhelpful and spent much of her time sunbathing. She formed a relationship with another survivor from the plane crash, Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews). Shannon was accidentally shot by Ana Lucia Cortez who mistakes her for an Other.

During the casting process, she was compared to Paris Hilton. Naveen Andrews, who played the character Sayid on the show, had the idea of encouraging the writers to write a romantic relationship between his character and Shannon into the story. Critics found her to be a largely unsympathetic character until only shortly before her death. Nonetheless, Grace received a Teen Choice Award nomination for her role as Shannon.

When Shannon is eight, her father marries Sabrina Carlyle (Lindsay Frost), and she spends much of her adolescence with her stepbrother Boone. She studies ballet and, as she gets older, teaches dance classes to young girls. When she is eighteen, Shannon's father dies in a car crash. He did not have a will prepared, so all of his money and property goes to his wife. Sabrina refuses to help Shannon financially, despite Shannon winning a prestigious yet non-paying internship to the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York. Unable to come up with the money herself, Shannon moves to France for a short time to work as an au pair. Shannon later forms a plan to con her stepbrother, Boone Carlyle, into giving her some of the inheritance she rightly deserved. Playing on her knowledge of Boone's love for her, she makes it appear her boyfriend Brian abuses her. Boone pays Brian to leave her, and Shannon plans to secretly take half the money. During one con in Sydney, her "abusive boyfriend" ruins Shannon's ruse after Boone cuts him a check. Boone storms off to his hotel room and plans to return to the States. When Shannon's boyfriend takes off with all of the money, Shannon goes to Boone's hotel room in Sydney, drunk, and Boone allows her to seduce him. After they have sex, Shannon tells Boone things will go back to the way they had been before. He expresses anger because, as always, they both know she is in control of their situation/ relationship. The following morning at the Sydney airport, Sayid Jarrah approaches Shannon, asking her to watch his bag for him. She deftly obliges, but soon leaves it unattended. Before the doomed Flight 815 takes off, Shannon rummages through her hand-luggage for her asthma inhaler, which Boone casually hands to her. She smiles, the platonic love she has for Boone briefly relieving her of her misery. Six hours into the flight, only moments before the crash, Shannon and Boone are momentarily seen as Charlie Pace stumbles through their row.