Libby (Lost)

Template:Infobox Lost character Elizabeth, commonly known as "Libby," is a fictional character on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of over forty people after their plane crashes on a remote island somewhere in the South Pacific. She is played by American actress Cynthia Watros. The character is first introduced as a member of the tail section survivors in the second season episode "Everybody Hates Hugo", together with Bernard, and she ends her role as a "living character" in the episode "?". Reception towards the character is generally positive, especially after her death, although controversy exists due to a traffic violation by the actress that plays her.

Libby has appeared in twenty-one episodes so far, twenty of them in the second season and one in the first. As of the end of the third season, she is the only main character not to have a centric episode, though a flashback at the end of the episode "Dave" focuses on her, and the episode "The Other 48 Days" is mostly about her and the other tail section survivors past experiences on the island. She was suppose to have returned during the third season, but did not make an appearance. Her first appearance after the second season was in the fourth season episode, "Meet Kevin Johnson".

Story

Prior to the crash

Little is known about Libby's life prior to the island. She states in "The Other 48 Days" that she visited Vermont, where she broke her leg in a skiing accident, and that she attended medical school for a year before dropping out to become a clinical psychologist.

It was shown in "Live Together, Die Alone" that before she ends up on the island, she meets Desmond (played by Henry Ian Cusick) at a café, where she tells him that she is from Newport Beach, California, learns about his intention to join a sailing race, and decides to donate her sailboat Elizabeth, a gift given to her and named after her by her late husband David. She also stayed in the Santa Rosa Mental Institution, a place whose patients include Hurley (Jorge Garcia), as well as Emily Locke, John Locke's (Terry O'Quinn) mother. Prior to boarding the Oceanic flight, she intervenes during an argument between Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Charlotte Malkin (Brooke Mikey Anderson) in "?".

After the crash

Libby ends up in the tail-section with another twenty-one survivors. She immediately tries to help the injured, such as Donald (Glenn Lehmann), due to her background with medicine. Some, however, including Donald, die a few days later. Within days after the crash, the Others invade their camp and kidnap all the remaining survivors except her and six others: Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez), Mr. Eko, Bernard (Sam Anderson), Cindy (Kimberley Joseph), Nathan (Josh Randall), and Goodwin (Brett Cullen).

Paranoia soon afflicts Libby and the remaining tail-section survivors causing them to speculate that Nathan is not part of the flight and is an Other, which leads to his death. Eventually, she and the remaining survivors make their way to The Arrow, where they found a radio allowing them to make a brief contact with Boone (Ian Somerhalder). Goodwin, the real Other, tries to steal this radio, but Ana Lucia stops and murders him. Her group stays in The Arrow until Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Michael (Harold Perrineau), and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) arrive there in "Everybody Hates Hugo", when her group learns about other survivors.

Libby's group soon decides to leave and join the main group of survivors. But before their journey, Ana Lucia orders her and Michael to get some fruit in "...And Found". Soon, Michael finds out, through her, where the Others are and decides to leave her in search for his son, Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). Mr. Eko and Jin find Michael, leading him back to Libby and the group and allowing them to start their journey. During their trek in "Abandoned", numerous tragedies occur, including the mysterious disappearance of Cindy and the death of Shannon (Maggie Grace).

Once she joins the main camp, she and Hurley start to become romantically involved, especially when she tells him that she remembers when he stepped on her foot in the plane. Aside from Hurley, Libby also becomes friends with Claire (Emilie de Ravin), whom she helps in unlocking the memories of Claire's kidnapping in "Maternity Leave". She also tries to help out with Bernard's S.O.S. but loses interest. In "Dave", Libby helps Hurley solve his food addiction, but this fails when a food pallet coincidentally "falls from the sky" during a supply drop. Sensing something is wrong, she confronts him and eventually ends up on a cliff, where Hurley is about to jump. She tries to stop him, which leads to her profess her love for him. As their relationship grows, Hurley decides to plan dates. In "Two for the Road", he secretly plans a picnic for her but eventually confesses when he is caught with food. Once they arrive at the beach, he tells her that he forgot drinks and blankets, so she tells him to get Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) and Bernard's bottle of wine while she gets the blankets. This turns out to be a fateful mistake for her, because she is shot by Michael while getting them.

Hours later, Libby is found unconscious alongside a dead Ana Lucia, an injured Michael, and a missing "Henry Gale" (Michael Emerson). Jack (Matthew Fox) tries to save her but fails, so he decides to ease her pain with heroin. Once she has taken the drug, she tries to say her shooter's name but her whisper falls on deaf ears, and she soon dies with Hurley at her bedside. She is buried beside Ana Lucia, coincidentally during the reappearance of Desmond aboard the Elizabeth. Two weeks later, Hurley visits Libby's grave and expresses how much he misses her before leaving a flower.

Off the island and as a ghost/vision, Libby's presence continues to haunt Michael after her death. In one scene in "Meet Kevin Johnson", she appears to Michael in the hospital as a nurse with blankets on her stomach, representing the position she was in when she was shot. This turns out to be a dream. She even follows him in the freighter Kahana, where she tries to trick Michael into not pushing a button, which he pushes anyway.

Personality

Libby at the Santa Rosa Mental Institution, shown at the end of the episode "Dave".

Libby is seen by some as a beautiful blonde "Tailie" and Hurley's true love. She is often described as "mysterious", especially since much of her backstory is yet to be revealed. IGN has described her as a "loose end" in the storyline due to the contradictions between what she tells other characters and the flashbacks that viewers see about her, such as her profession as a clinical psychologist and her stay at a mental institution.

On the show, she is often seen as helpful to other people, such as Donald, Jin, Claire, Bernard, and Desmond. One example of her exhibiting this virtue is when she assists Hurley in resolving his mental problems. Characters have often described her as a "shrink" or as a "mega cute blonde chick" due to her profession and appearance. Sawyer, meanwhile, has used the nickname moonbeam on her due to her upbeat hippie-like personality.

Development

Creation

Libby is a mysterious character, supposedly seated at the tail-section of the plane. Her character was written to be in her late forties to early fifties, easy on the eyes, amicably maladjusted, and a compulsive liar so good at what she does, most people will not know she is not what she seems. Damon Lindelof was quoted in Variety saying that the character "is going to bring a flavor to the show that doesn't exist right now. She's not as intense as some of the other characters. She's that person you want in the trenches with you who can take lemons and make lemonade."

Casting

American actress Cynthia Watros portrays Libby in around twenty-one episodes of the series. Veteran actress Jennifer Jason Leigh was originally approached to play the character, but Watros ended up playing the role instead. During her audition, Watros did not think she would be cast, but when she learned she had been, she was excited since she was a fan of the show and immediately uprooted her and her twin daughter's lives in Los Angeles to move to Hawaii where Lost is filmed. Prior to Lost, she also starred in television shows such as Guiding Light, Titus, and The Drew Carey Show.

Death

Originally, Libby was not going to be killed off, but since Ana Lucia Cortez was considered an unpopular character, the producers thought her death would not generate enough sympathy from fans. They decided that Libby, who is well liked, should also be killed for emotional impact. Additionally the producers and writers ran out of ideas for a compelling storyline for the character. According to Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, the writers did try to develop her story through her romance with Hurley but they ran out of possible avenues for the character. The writers also thought that her story was not as dramatic when juxtaposed with the other characters and considered killing her so that her backstory could be told in a mysterious and posthumous way. In September 2007, Cuse and Lindelof stated that Libby "won't be coming back from the dead".

Backstory

After Libby's death, the question about how to tell her backstory appeared because she is the only main character not to have a centric episode while living. The producers said that Libby's backstory would be explored through a flashback in the show's third season, although her character did not appear. They later confirmed that the missing pieces of Libby's backstory will be revealed in the fourth season. According to the producers, she may appear in multiple episodes and will probably appear in more of Desmond's flashbacks. It is revealed in a deleted scene that Libby had been married three times prior to the plane crash and that she specializes in marriage counseling. Theories about unknown aspects of her life exist, including assumptions that she was once a DHARMA Initiative employee, an Other, a person planted by Desmond's flashback characters Mrs. Hawking and Brother Campbell, or The Lost Experience character Liddy Wales. Her name is also a topic of speculation and is assumed to have appeared on an official website of the show.

Reception

Praise

Libby is a well liked character. After her death, her popularity increased due to the added mystery to her character. In a poll conducted by BuddyTV about five characters seldom seen on the show, she received the highest votes. Meanwhile, her romantic fling with Hurley was described by Entertainment Weekly as "well-played" and "charming". Cynthia Watros co-won the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Award for "Best Ensemble - Drama Series. When she returned to the show in 2008, Watros was praised by the producers who said that she "is a smart and engaging actor".

Controversy

A few weeks before Libby was written out of the show, Cynthia Watros and fellow actress Michelle Rodriguez were arrested for driving under the influence in Kailua, Hawaii in two separate incidents. This led fans to speculate that this was the cause of the two characters' deaths in the episode "Two for the Road". The producers, though, have denied this claim, citing other reasons why the actresses were let go. Rodriguez has confirmed the producers comments and denies the relation between their arrests and their characters' deaths. Watros took the news of the death of her character badly and was sad about the decision. The producers felt sorry for her and tried to help her get a new job. She was cast in a pilot for a show on CBS called My Ex-Life, although it was not picked up by the network.

External links

• Articles Libby at the Lost Wiki
• Seasonal promotional photographs for Libby at Lost-Media
• Lostpedia article on Libby
• The Elizabeth, Libby's sailboat and a real-life ship in Hawaii. Registered in Newport Beach, California.