Danielle Rousseau

(The Actress: Mira Furlan and Melissa Farman)

Occupation: Scientist

Hails from: France

Who she is: Danielle Rousseau was a member of a six person scientific expedition. She crashed on the Island in 1988, while seven months pregnant with Alex. 16 years later, her distress signal was discovered by the survivors of Flight 815. She eventually was reunited with Alex, who was kidnapped by the Others when she was a baby. In an attempt to protect them, Ben sent her, Alex, and Karl to the Temple. However, they never made it as Rousseau was killed by Keamy and the mercenaries.

Danielle Rousseau in 1988.

On the Island (1988): Rousseau and the science expedition were three days out of Tahiti when they crashed on the Island during a storm. She was seven months pregnant at this time. During the storm they came across Jin, floating in the water. When they reached shore, they heard a transmission on the radio: 4 8 15 16 23 42. They attempted to find the source of this transmission, so they went to the radio tower. On the way, they were attacked by the smoke monster. It killed Nadine, and dragged Montand down a hole at the Temple, resulting in the loss of his arm. They went down the hole to rescue Montand, but Jin prevented her from going down with them before disappearing through time.

Around two months later, Danielle killed Brennan and Lacombe after believing the smoke monster caused them to become sick. She then killed Robert, as witnessed by Jin. She spotted Jin, and attempted to shoot at him also. He was then rescued as another flash occurred, moving him through time.

On the Island (2004):


Family issues: Had to shoot her own husband when he became “infected”; her daughter Alex was kidnapped by the Others right after she was born. From what we have seen, she's spent her island time searching for Alex. (Actually, it seems she hasn't been searching for her, at least not in hopes of a touching reunion. We see this when Kate asked Rousseau to lead her to the others camp because she has seen Alex. Rousseau didn't ask questions about Alex or even want to see her.)


Big secrets:

• Was not part of kidnapping Claire and actually helped her escape (two Rousseau attempt: Alex helped her escape too at first, although they didn't see each other).

• She won't leave the island with the rest of the Losties, stating that she has no place in the real world. But that decision may change now that she is with Alex again.

Trivia:

• There is a philosopher named Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
• In French-speaking countries, Rousseau's character was changed to be German.

Theories:

• She is actually an "Other" and misled the plane survivors for the sole purpose of getting Ben captured and to get to know the hierarchy of the survivors.and why does she want to be alone.

• The story Danielle tells is one that was implanted in her by the others through drug therapy and mind control. I think they did this because Danielle was originally a member of their group but was unhappy about their plans for her daughter. They also implanted the idea that she must search and build traps but will never harm one of them. This way they can use her for their own purposes when the need arises as in Ben getting to the survivor's camp.

Questions:

• Did she ever have a relationship with Ben, who claims to be Alex's father?
  • No, Ben admits that he stole Alex from Daniella when she was only a baby, whom he defined as an insane woman.
• How could she have been on the one island for 16 years and 1) not realized there are other islands 2) not figured out how to track and follow the "Others" 3) not been captured by the Others (she obviously knows a lot about them, like Mikhail's station was and their village-why don't they want her?) and 4 (and most importantly) why hasn't she done any and everything in her power to find and get back Alex? She has all these hunter/survival skills (sure, she had no choice but learn to survive), she knows about Mikhail's station, the village, etc. She knows there is dynamite on Black Rock...so why no rescue attempt in 16 YEARS? Possibly because she assumed her child was dead and going after the others would have been a suicide mission. Though now that she has seen her child (when Locke went to blow the sub in "The Man from Tallahassee") and actually met her in "Through the Looking Glass" things may change.
  

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