Who is Danielle Rousseau?
1 year, 6 months ago by AndreasRead more: Analysis, Episode Thoughts, Rousseau
After last week’s Lost episode “Enter 77″, much of the discussion has circled around Rousseau’s convenient decision to disappear when Sayid, Kate and Locke were going to confront our new Russian friend Mikhail at the Flame.
Some are even going as far as speculating that the reason why Rousseau left is that she is really an Other sent to spy on our beloved lost survivors. So who is the mysterious French woman with a Romanian accent?
Let’s take a look at the episodes Rousseau has been part of!
Solitary
We first met Rousseau in episode 9 of Lost season one. In the episode, called “Solitary”, Sayid is captured by a mysterious woman who’s name we soon find out is “Danielle Rousseau”.
Danielle, who we find out has lived on the island for over 16 years, seems convinced that Sayid is an Other and has taken her baby, Alex. This is of course not the case, but as we later discover, there is a girl living with The Others who goes by the name Alex, so while Rousseau told some weird stories, so far it appears that Alex really is her daughter.
Aside from torturing the innocent Sayid to get information about Alex, Rousseau told him how she ended up on the island after hearing a transmission of the numbers:
Rousseau: “We were part of a science team…
Our vessel was three days out of Tahiti, but our instruments malfunctioned. It was night, a storm.. the sounds.. The ship slammed into rocks. Ran aground. The hull breached beyond repair.. so, we made camp, dug out this temporary shelter… temporary. Nearly two months we survived here.
While this story could make her look like a helpless victim, she soon started to display signs of paranoia:
Sayid: “Your distress signal, the message I heard - you said “it killed them allâ€.
Rousseau: “We were coming back from the black rock. It was them, they were the carriers!â€
Sayid: “Who were the carriers?â€
Rousseau: “The othersâ€
Sayid: “What others? What is the black rock? Have you seen other people on this island?â€
Rousseau: “No, but I hear them. Out there in the jungle. They whisper.â€
Not only is Rousseau good at telling creepy stories, but later in the same episode she explains that she killed her lover Robert and the other scientists who crashed on the island with her after they were infected with “the sickness”:
Rousseau: “It took them, one after the other. I had no choice, they where already lost.â€
Sayid: “You killed themâ€
Rousseau: “What would have happened if we where rescued? I couldn’t let that happen.â€
After talking to Sayid for some time and letting him fix her music box, Danielle exits her hideout to scare away “one of the bears” and Sayid sees his chance to escape. As he leaves, he takes Rousseau’s map of the island with him.
Numbers
The next time we meet Rousseau is in the episode “Numbers”, where Hurley spots the numbers on Rousseau’s map and decides to find her.
Together with some other survivors who want Rousseau’s batteries, they head out into the jungle and finally find Rousseau, who agrees with Hurley’s idea that the numbers are cursed.
Exodus
In the episodes Exodus part 1 and 2, Rousseau approaches the Losties to warn them of a pillar of black smoke that she said meant that The Others would be attacking them that night. She then led the regular group of Jack, Kate, Locke and friends to The Black Rock, an old slaving ship stranded in the middle of the island, to find dynamite. The plan was to blow open the hatch and hide inside.
After that, Rousseau returned to the beach and kidnapped Claire’s newborn son, Aaron. Charlie and Sayid went after her and when they finally find her and bring Aaron back to safety, she confesses that she had heard whispers about The Others wanting “the child” and thought she would be able to exchange Aaron for her daughter, Alex. As it turns out, the child The Others were after was not Aaron, but Walt.
One of Them
After kidnapping Aaron, Rousseau stays away for some time but appears again in episode 14 of Lost season 2 “One of Them”.
She has captured Benjamin Linus, at the time known as “Henry Gale”, and shot him with an arrow through the shoulder. Rousseau hands him over to Sayid, telling him that “Henry” is an Other and that he will lie for a very long time.
Maternity Leave
Days later, Claire starts to remember what happened to her when she was abducted by Ethan and decides to find Rousseau who she knows is somehow involved. Together with Kate, Claire and Rousseau find the place where Claire escaped from her captors with the help of Alex. They find The Staff station, but it is abandoned and neither Claire nor Rousseau find what they were looking for.
As Claire’s memory comes back, she realizes that Rousseau saved her from Ethan and brought her back to safety. Claire also tells Rousseau about the girl who helped her escape, thinking that it might be Rousseau’s daughter.
Tricia Tanaka is Dead and Enter 77
In the last two episodes Rousseau has returned to the story as Kate has asked for her help to save Jack from the Others and told her that a 16-year old girl named Alex helped her escape.
On their way to rescue Jack and Alex, Kate, Sayid, Locke and Rousseau find The Flame station. This is where the controversy comes into the picture, because Rousseau decides to not take part in the confrontation with the mysterious inhabitant of the farmhouse. As she puts it, she has managed to stay alive on the island by staying away from that kind of encounters.
The Flame ironically ends up in flames as Locke sets of an explosion and Rousseau re-appears when Sayid calls for her.
Conclusion
I think it is a stretch to say that Rousseau is a plant sent by The Others to spy on the Losties.
As I have tried to demonstrate with the episode breakdown, Rousseau introduced us to the fact that The Others existed and tortured Sayid believing that he was one of them.
She saved Claire from Ethan when she could just have brought her back if she was one of The Others. Later, she shot Ben, who if she had been an Other would without doubt have been her superior, and told Sayid that he was an Other.
I just don’t see why Rousseau would repeatedly go against The Others if she is one of them or is somehow collaborating with them. She knows that they have taken her daughter, and her only motivation to stay alive is to get Alex back.
As for why she decided to not take part in the confrontation with “Patchy”, I believe that she was telling the truth when saying that she had managed to survive by keeping away from confrontations. Remember that several Losties have died at the hands of The Others and Charlie was left to die by Ethan. Rousseau didn’t join them to save Jack, she joined them to save her daughter, Alex. Considering that The Flame wasn’t a planned stop on their little trip I think it was a wise decision to stay away from possible danger. There is no point in saving your daughter if you end up dead before finding her.
I can’t rule out the possibility that she once was an Other, or even a member of Dharma, but in her current state, she is just a frightened woman trying to get her child back.
What is your opinion?
Comment 1, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I agree 100% with your conclusions, Andreas. Even the bit about the possibility that she was once part of Dharma or the Others - I doubt that either is true, but I don’t rule out the possibility.
This is stating the obvious, but a lot of the discussion about “who Rousseau is” is simply due to the mysteriousness of how the character is written and acted. She never seems to give clear cut or complete answers, and of course the Losties never seem to ask her enough questions. But the same is true for pretty much every other character we’ve come across. And that is one feature of the show that makes it so compelling. If they came right out in season 1 and told us everything we need to know about Rousseau (or Ben, or Mikhail, etc) and gave her a flashback or two, the show would be much less interesting. Trying to solve the puzzle is half the fun.
Comment 2, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I’m thinking she is either a banished other or it is she that has the sickness.
She does know a lot more than she is letting on. There has been a lot of speculation as to why she did not go into the Flame Station and what exactly did happen in there.
Comment 3, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
i’m party to the theory that rousseau and her science expedition is separate from both dharma and the others. if she was part of dharma, she’d know about the hatches, and would probably have forced her way into one for shelter many years earlier.
there’s also the possibility that her team of scientists -was- dharma, sent by the company to investigate a mysterious loss of contact (a la ripley in ‘aliens’), under cover of being a science team, and kept in the dark about the dharma projects on the island.
god, the writers must have some massive, comprehensive timeline somewhere.. at least, i hope they do.
Comment 4, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I keep thinking there is more to be learned of Danielle based on the Distress Signal she recorded.
“It [or he] is outside. It [or he] is outside and Brennan took the keys. Please help us. They are dead. They are all dead. Help us. They are dead.”
This Line Troubles me the most. Who is Brennan, and what keys is she referring to?
The whole transmission is here.
lostpedia.com/wiki/Distress_si...
Comment 5, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
“Remember that several Losties have died at the hands of The Others…”
Which Lostie was killed by an Other?
(1)Boone died because of Locke,
(2)Shannon was killed by Ana Lucia,
(3)Ana Lucia and (4) Libby were shot by Michael (I suppose one could argue he was manipulated by the Others into doing that, but they never told him to kill, or even hurt, anyone), and
(5) Eko was killed by smoke monster (possibly created by Others, but no proof of that).
The only people killed by the Others are Pickett, killed by Juliet, and Ms. Klugh, killed by Patchy (who may or may not be an Other).
The Losties, on the other hand, have killed Ethan (shot by Charlie), Goodwin (stabbed by Ana-Lucia), and Pickett’s wife (shot by Sun).
Oh wait, Goodwin snapped that one Lostie’s neck. Even so, the score is still Losties: 3 Others killed, Others: 1 Lostie killed.
Losties are still ahead!
Comment 6, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
They killed Scott or Steve to.
Comment 7, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Crap, that’s right. So it’s
Losties: 3, Others: 2
That non-character’s death was such a non-event they didn’t even have an on-camera funeral for him.
Comment 8, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Your arguement is compelling. I am stuck on the fact that it seems everyone who preceded the plane crash is on the island for a reason…or is dead. She has stayed alive on the island for 16 years. The others know every inch of that island, yet left her alone? If they came to kill off her party, they wouldn’t have left her alive for 16 years. She’s there by design, we just don’t yet know why.
Comment 9, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Remember, Eko killed two of them in the 48 days episode
Comment 10, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Did Ana Lucia kill one before she killed Goodwin?
Comment 11, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Since we are not sure if anyone is actually Dharma does Demond killing Kelvin count as an “other”?
Comment 12, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Heck, we still don’t know if Dez in an other that killed an other…who’s on first?…LOL
Comment 13, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Great analysis Andreas. If Rousseau is one of the Others it is a stretch. I could believe that she may have intended to be part of Dharma but never made it. However, you are probably right and she simply ended up there by mistake as a result of a shipwreck. After 16 years she is probably so uncomfortable in any social situation that involves being indoors with technology so am inclined to believe her when she offers to wait by the stream. I watched again last night and two other things also strike me as odd. he explosives looked new and Patchy had gross teeth and face scabs.
Comment 14, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Lesley wrote:
Except that she “claimed” that she never saw that place before. How would she know she would be indoors with technology?
Again, she’s in a search party for Jack and more importantly Alex. After 16 years looking for her kid, she should be “all in”. And if she’s survived by avoiding confrontation, why did she coming running to Sayid’s voice after a gun battle? To be consistant with her own story…she would have run back to her hide out after hearing the shots.
(This debate is awesome.)
Comment 15, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I guess I assumed the satellite dish implied the technology and confronting Patchy meant eventually checking out the inside of the cabin. Either way, I would rather be with people than wait by the lonely stream for Smokey to appear. She is an enigma!
Comment 16, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Lesley - I hear everything you, ToeKnee and Andreas are saying. As soon as the show proves me wrong, I won’t run and hide. I’ll admit it.
I just have a feeling. Deception is huge on Lost and it’s not without precedent to lead us to believe one thing and then change direction in a heart beat. They have even used a second flashback to contradict what we thought from an original flashback. Character’s actions lead us to more info in the future. Her actions in “Enter 77″ have me waiting for what it is.
Comment 17, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Lesley wrote:
I know I’m beating a dead horse here…but if you have no reason to fear Smokey, you wouldn’t mind being alone…would you? (I love this stuff:) ).
Comment 18, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Here is a little more dialogue from the “Solitary” episode. This preceded the quotes Andreas already posted:
SAYID: What is this place? Those batteries — they wouldn’t be able to produce enough power to transmit your distress call all these years.
DANIELLE: I broadcast from somewhere else. But they control it now.
SAYID: They?
DANIELLE: You. And the others like you.
And that exchange occurred after a scene where Rousseau is torturing Sayid and asking him “Where’s Alex?” (Note that this episode is where the term “the Others” originated, and Rousseau was the first to use it.)
It’s possible that these scenes are part of a very elaborate deception by Rousseau, as Hammer and other people have stated. But the way she tortured Sayid and accused him of being one of the Others and of knowing where Alex is, I just find it very difficult to believe she is one of the Others. Maybe she is a “banished Other”, as downthehatch said in Comment #2, but I’d say now she has no ties to them at all.
Comment 19, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Again, strong points. I’m still waiting for a good explanation of her current behavior. I’m not buying that she’s “just weird” until the writers prove it to me. And it’s too conevenient that she’s been able to survive 16 years ALONE on this island just hoping Alex ends up in one of her traps.
Comment 20, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
“Some are even going as far as speculating that the reason why Rousseau left is that she is really an Other sent to spy on our beloved lost survivors. So who is the mysterious French woman with a Romanian accent?”
This reminds about a question I had about last week’s episode. The “Russia” has a poster of Nadia Comaneci (1976 Olympics) on the wall, saying that she was the greatest gymnast of all time. While this may be true, I found it pretty strange that a Russian would have a poster of a ROMANIAN gymnast on the wall instead of the (equaly impresive) Russian gymnast Olga Korbut (1972 Olympics).
Anyway, I don’t know if that meant anything, but I found it a little odd to point that out.
Comment 21, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I think the reason for using Nadia Comaneci instead of Olga Korbut was simply that Nadia is the name of the woman Sayid loves.
Comment 22, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
There is one aspect of Rousseau that has troubled me for some time, and that is her connection with Ben. Let me see if I understand my biology here. If Alex is Rousseau’s daughter, and as we have seen this season, she is Ben’s daughter, then there needs to be some definition of Ben and Rousseau’s “relationship”. It could have been an abduction, kidnap, rape return then steal Alex, or they could have actually had a relationship. I find it very difficult to believe that Rousseau has no knowledge whatsoever of who the child’s father is. The only other option is that when Alex was abducted Ben was identified as her father, and that is what she has believed. I find the other option much more interesting.
If Ben and Rousseau actually had a realtionship, and Alex is the result, this is information that has not been passed on to the Losties, given that she first trapped and then shot Ben with an arrow in Season 2. She only identified Ben as “one of them”, not a former lover. If they did have a realationship, then it might be easy to accept that Rousseau truly is a spy, sent to gain the confidence of the Losties, to some sinister end, which may play itself out soon, as they are searching for Jack.
It will be interesting to see how this all comes together.
Comment 23, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
There has been no indications that Ben is Alex’s biological father. She believes he is her father because that’s what she has been told. For all we know Alex was kidnapped like Rousseau said and her real father was Robert, Rousseau’s lover who she shot.
Comment 24, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I dunno, I think it’s pretty clear that Ben is Alex’s father. Yeah, the producers like to throw red herrings in there once in a while but that seemed a pretty clear “big reveal”. Let me just say, banking on Ben NOT being Alex’s father would be foolish. If anything, keep it as a possibility along with all these others you’ve got going on here.
Comment 25, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Yo, we know that Jin is infertile (not impotent as another poster mistakenly said). Yet, she is now pregnant with some unknown source of male chromosomes.
What if the same thing happened to Frenchie, and she got hooked up with the Benster?
Why was she spared when all her companions were “lost”? Because she was on the list.
Locke is also on the list. Maybe he is Jin’s xy-contributor.
While I don’t think Frenchie is lying, she knows more than what she is willing to tell the Losties.
In the preview to Par Avion (I’m not giving away any spoilers) she appears to interrupt Patchy when he’s right in the middle of revealing some important information. I think she knows that the Losties, at least the ones not on the list, are better off by now knowing certain things.
Comment 26, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
HurleysButtcrack wrote:
Comment 27, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I got the names mixed up. Jin is infertile, but Sun is pregnant, and the father might be Locke.
Comment 28, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Rousseau’s transmission said “They are dead. They are all dead. Help us. They are dead.” Seems like “The Purge” to me.
Also, recall that Rousseau tortured Sayid because she *thought* he might know where Alex was. And yet when she had captured Ben (whom she *knew* was an Other), she didn’t try to get any info out of him; she merely passed him over to Sayid, because she thought Sayid might get some of *his* questions answered.
Odd behavior indeed.
Comment 29, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
You know…we haven’t seen other children on the island. I mean we have, but just because they say Ben is her father doesn’t mean it’s her dad. Do they say dad or father? You know like sometimes when you follow someone…you call them Father…like God for instance. So maybe Everyone calls him Father. Like all the young people. They will be his followers. Is that a stretch.
I am aslo thinking on the lines that maybe they did something to do the baby in the womb. I mean…do we really know they gave Laire’s baby a vaccine? Maybe they did something to put Ben’s genes in there. THey may take her baby eventually but for now they let Aaron stay with his mom.
Yes these are far fetched too but they are possiblities.
Comment 30, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Sorry for the typos…I am sure you know what I meant.
Comment 31, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Again, I think y’all are trying to look to far into things. If they say “Father”, they’re probably gonna mean “father.”
Rousseau has just too many convenient butt-ins and lucky timings to be just a survivor, in my opinion. I think it’s pretty clear she’s a kind of backup mole, sent to watch the passengers and instill in them the appropriate sense of dread of the Others. When that didn’t work, she’s now pretty much winging it.
Comment 32, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
What I find incredibly fascinating is that, while she’s been on the island alone for 16 years, she told Sayid that she had never seen other people and had only heard them whispering. Yet in the 80 days since flight 815 crashed she has had at least three encounters with the Others. First, helping Claire escape from the Staff. Second, capturing Ben in her net. Third, finding the flame and wanting to kill Mikhail. In addition, she tortured Sayid, brought Losties to the Black Rock, stole Aaron away from Claire before attempting to contact the Others, and went back to the Staff with the Losties. Now she’s trekking to Otherville with our A-team. How is it that she would go 16 years supposedly without seeing a single person and claim she has stayed alive by avoiding confrontations, but now all she seems to do is get involved? What made her change?
Comment 33, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Well it seems that the writers knew this debate would arise as they have Kate wondering why Danielle doesn’t seem to have any questions about Alex.
It also seems Danielle has suddenly gotten over her fear of technology and confrontations, just hopped right over that security system and straight for Otherville.
Comment 34, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
In last night’s episode I couldn’t help but see a resemblence in Danielle and Kate…maybe even Alex. Alex and Daneielle have been on an island and are pretty tan and Kate is turning out that way. I know we know Kate’s backstory, it just seemed like something obvious to me.
Comment 35, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Stormclouds13- Maybe Rousseau changed how she does things now because she’s no longer alone. Before she had only herself to save her, but now she has Sayid, and with him the other losties. Maybe thats why she handed over Ben to him. She thought Sayid could help. She doesn’t have to do everything alone anymore.
Comment 36, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Last nights episode only furthers the mystery surrounding Russo. I could understand her supposed reasoning for not asking questions about Alex, but then she wasn’t afraid to torture Sayeed for information anbout her? Hmmm. Somethings are just not making sense. Maybe her “scientific” team was simply a team of scientists recuited much like Juliet was, and there was some sort of an uprising for a change that led to her exile from the others.
Did she ever mention what type of a scientist she was?
Comment 37, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I think Roussea, Dharma, others, losties are all separate “groups,”–but connected by something.
Comment 38, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Tasha wrote:
Comment 39, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
mikki wrote:
Sorry for messing up that last post. I think Tasha is onto something. Juliet enabled her sister to become pregnant..she was recruited to the island after being shown an x-ray of a young woman whose reproductive organs were aged. Ethan was there at the time, and involved with pregnant Claire’s abduction.Rousseau had a baby on the island that was stolen.All the children were stolen. Now Sun is pregnant.
Now to another crazy idea…is everyone related to everyone else on this island somehow?
Comment 40, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
The only thing that makes me think that Danielle is not a mole/plant is that Sayid found her and not vice-versa. Also the Others tend to send eloquent spies with good lies. Danielle is shy and awkward and would be a bad choice on the part of the Others. Still, she knows more than she lets on.
Comment 41, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Why did the others have costumes in the confrontation with losites? Fake beards, makeup and wigs. Is Russeau wearing make-up and a costume to appear she has been in the jungle for 16 years?
Comment 42, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I think it is obvious the others are all part of a cult. They may all have medical conditions and are seeking out private lives on the island that has mysterious healing powers. Locke was paralyzed from the waist down. How did the scientist know he was paralyzed from the waist down? Has he been on the island before?
Maybe they know much about people that can or can’t be cured by medical advancements by doctors. Faith has played a role and nature in curing things in the show. Take a look at how fast people have been healed. I think the island is some sort of power like the healing powers of the iron ore in Sedona AZ or the mysterious magnetic poles of the Bermuda triangle. Perhaps children are being taken for science. They need new blood, bone marrow, etc. for experiments. They are trying to live out their lives in solitude to heal. (M night Shyamalan “The Village Theoryâ€)
Comment 43, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Yeah what’s up with Locke? Is he one of the others? Does he know them? How did the “eye patch” Russian know about Locke being “Para…”. He was going to say paralysis.
Remember when Ben had a file of Jack and some losties? What’s up with all the secret info. into their personal lives?
Comment 44, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
What do we know about Russeau? She has been on the island for 16 years. She has a daughter on the island. She is a scientist from an explorer ship that crashed there. (We haven’t seen the ship) She knows about voices of others but up until the losties hasn’t seen them. She claims to never have seen what I call “The Microwave Frying Gate”. She is an explorer you would think she had seen that. And you would think she knew about the hatch if she was Darmah. I believe she may even be a “Other Castaway” and brain washed to forget things.
By the way I thought Jack and the others were on another island? Did Syid, Locke and Kate travel on the boat back to the other island?
Comment 45, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
bobcat wrote:
Jack went via boat with Ben from the other island for Ben’s recuperation stay on the main island.
Comment 46, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
SP wrote:
I like the Sedona AZ parallel.
Comment 47, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Russeau had explosives in her hut (season one) Also, the others wired their hut “the Fire” with explosives”. Seems too similar to me.
Did Reusesau get the explosives from the old slave ship? Or did she have c-four? If so how did she know about the slave ship and not the “Microwave Frying Fence”? She had a map once of the island didn’t she? I would be interested to see the map of the Russian and the season 1 map by Russeau.
Comment 48, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Rousseau=Kate in the future?
Comment 49, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
mikey wrote:
Nah, American people don’t become French when the get old…ha ha.
Comment 50, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
lol
Comment 51, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I honestly still don’t like that Danielle didnt ask any questions about Alex. I certainly don’t buy her explanation when Kate asks about it either. So what if its been 16 years….her whole determination this entire 16 years has been to get Alex back, but suddenly she doesn’t even want to know how she is? She didn’t ask if she was well taken care of or anything. She kidnapped Claire’s baby in a desperate attempt to trade for Alex…tortures Sayid to know Alex’s whereabouts…yet doesn’t ask if she is healthy, or happy or anything when she is face to face with Kate.
Oh, and her explanation of ‘avoiding confrontations’ when she heads for the stream…is weak also. She has been so determined and driven to get Alex yet when it comes down to being face to face with Others, she turns away? The only Other that we have seen her face to face with is Ben, the leader. Maybe she knew she could rely on Ben’s deceptive nature to backup her “disguise” but worried that Patchy and Ms. Klugh might accidentally give up her real identity.
Comment 52, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
That sums up what I’ve been saying.
Comment 53, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Did Rousseau ever say that Alex was a girl? The best spy is the spy no one would believe to be a spy
Comment 54, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Reading the prior posts and reflecting on the episode, it seems pretty likely that Rousseau is going to be a big part of a twist in the plot. There are some unanswered questions with her, and when they get to the others’ camp things will probably take a hard left turn.
The thing that always bugged me with her was the whole ‘I shot ben with an arrow’ bit. That has always struck me as very strange, considering how she seems to be a card carrying member of the NRA. I get the feeling that she is in bed with the others. To what degree, I am not sure.
Comment 55, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Agreed, Kate brought her on the search party for her help. So far she hasn’t done anything to help. They used Eko’s stick and Mikhail’s map to find Otherville. So the writers have her in Otherville for a different reason.
Comment 56, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
I don’t think she is an “Other” but maybe part of whatever group of folks the others are trying to keep out with the crazy fence. Mikhail did say something about having a treaty with some group of folks to not cross the line, and I don’t think he was referring to the agreement the Losties had with the Others about leaving each other alone. Maybe the Others have some kind of makeshift agreement with another group on the island of which Rousseau is a part?
As far as not asking about her daughter: I find it odd but not totally out of character. I mean the woman has proven to be a little, well, off. Something is wrong with her. I mean if what she says is true and she has lived in isolation of some kind for 16 years, then she’s a wee bit addlepated to say the least. Maybe she’s afraid that there’s something hideously wrong with Alex and can’t bear the thought of knowing it. Perhaps she fears that her daughter is “infected” and can’t help but imagine that she’ll have to put her down the way she did with Alex’s father Robert and the rest of her scientific crew.
OR maybe its like I said before about the post regarding Alex’s parentage-MAYBE BEN IS HER REAL FATHER!! (Cue eerie music)
What if Ben is Robert and Danielle didn’t atually kill him? Maybe what she refers to as infection is whatever happens to the Others on that island that makes them “Others” i.e. brainwashing, purging, the injections we saw ethan giving claire and claire giving to aaron? there a multitude of possible interpretations for the disease/sickness Rousseau refers to and she never tells any of the Losties what the symptoms of the sickness are, but instead she tells them that they’ll start to see it in the survivors (if I remember correctly).
I don’t know, but she is definitely NOT an Other like Ben and Juliet. If she’s an other, she’s another kind of Other altogether.
Comment 57, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Jake: Yes, in the Maternity Leave episode from season 2, Rousseau says her child was a girl.
Regarding the fact that Rousseau didn’t ask many questions about Alex….I thought it was a bit strange that she wouldn’t be more inquisitive, but I did buy her explanation. I, personally, would not have acted that way, and most people I know wouldn’t act that way either. But it seems to be consistent with what we’ve seen of her. All along she hasn’t been very forthcoming with information, and she hasn’t sought out a lot of information. For example, when she originally caught Sayid, she didn’t ask much information about the plane crash, how they survived, or even ask some questions about the outside world. I know I’d want to spend as much time with possible with these newcomers to find out what’s going on in world news, politics, entertainment, sports, scientific discoveries (being a scientist, you’d expect Rousseau to be intrested in that), etc. Also, a minor point about scottc13’s comment #36, when torturing Sayid, Rousseau only asked him where Alex was, she didn’t try to find out other information about her, so she has stayed consistent in that regard. She has always been interested in finding Alex and has taken drastic measures to find out where she is, and she has never asked anyone (not Sayid, not Claire, not Kate) for particular information about her.
I guess what some people here are saying is that because she didn’t ask about Alex, that means that she is one of the Others? Or is acting as a spy for the Others? I would think that if that were the case, she’d want to act as “normal” as possible, and in most people’s minds, that would include asking as many questions as she could about Alex. To me, asking a lot of questions would have been a key part of the deception, if she were an other. So being that she has not done that, I find that to be consistent with her character, and I found her explanation to be sincere and believable.
Comment 58, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
ToeKnee - What are you thoughts on why the writers would have Kate start to doubt Danielle’s story? Thoughts on why the writers have her on this mission to help find Jack and Alex, but have her claim she know nothing about the Flame or Othersville? Why she didn’t want to confront the Others at the flame but when they find the barrier, then hop over it without question, and has really has been of no help at all?
I also degree that she has taken drastic measures to find Alex. On the contrary, it appears that she has been a hermit for 16 years hoping to trap Alex close to her own hideout.
Comment 59, posted 1 year, 6 months ago - Quote and reply
Hammer - surely you don’t want another of my long-winded attempts to shoot down all of your theories, do you? :) Well, I do enjoy these debates, so here it goes…..
“What are you thoughts on why the writers would have Kate start to doubt Danielle’s story?”
Maybe this is a cop-out but I think the writers were anticipating criticism from viewers asking the same question. Like I said, most people would probably ask as many questions as they could about their long lost daughter. Perhaps as they were writing these episodes, someone working on the show asked that precise question, and by now I’m sure the writers/producers/directors are well aware of the criticism of the show that has been plastered all over the media (e.g., why don’t they answer more questions, why don’t the characters share information among each other), so they may be trying to pre-empt the anticipated criticism. I think there’s been several instances of that in these last few episodes. (Just a couple examples: in Tricia Tanaka… Hurley’s speech at Libby’s grave was an indication that Hurley did tell everyone what happened to Jack, Kate and Sawyer, even though we never saw those conversations on-screen, which was a common complaint earlier in the season. And Sawyer’s quick “Who the hell are you?” to Nikki was an acknowledgement of the complaints about the sudden appearance of her and Paolo).
“Thoughts on why the writers have her on this mission to help find Jack and Alex, but have her claim she know nothing about the Flame or Othersville?”
I had said on one of the other threads here that I bought her explanation that she survived for 16 years precisely by avoiding those types of confrontations. There’s some related info in my response to your next question.
“Why she didn’t want to confront the Others at the flame but when they find the barrier, then hop over it without question, and has really has been of no help at all?”
On another thread I had said that as far as Kate (and therefore, Rousseau) knew (prior seeing Jack playing football), Jack and Alex are not on this island, but are on the other island, and I believe Kate’s plan is to find the Other’s camp (which Karl mentioned to her and Sawyer), and then threaten the people there into getting Jack released. And I think it was clear to the 4 of them in the search party that the Flame station was not the Other’s camp, so Rousseau didn’t see the point of investigating it - she just wanted to get to the Other’s camp. From the map, it was clear that the barrier surrounded the Other’s camp, and that was their stated objective.
“I also degree that she has taken drastic measures to find Alex. On the contrary, it appears that she has been a hermit for 16 years hoping to trap Alex close to her own hideout.”
The drastic measures were torturing Sayid and kidnapping Aaron. We don’t know for sure what she’s been doing for the last 16 years. She may not have explored every inch of the island, but she was at least familiar with the Black Rock (ship), the radio tower, the monster, and the whispers. She’s done what she had to do to survive, and in her mind, that includes not exploring too much. It also includes setting traps, which serve three purposes - primarily to catch boars or other animals she could eat, equally important to catch anyone who may be a threat to her (Sayid, Ben, and who knows who else in the past), and of lesser importance to catch Alex (although even if she did, how would Rousseau be able to determine if Alex was her daughter, and why on earth would Alex believe this crazy woman?).
As I’ve said before, I don’t completely rule out the possibility that Rousseau is part of the Others, but I think it’s far more likely that she’s not (although I am prepared for all of my theories about her to be shot to hell). I agree that there is a lot more to her story than we’ve been led to believe, and I particularly agree with Tina who said Rousseau “a wee bit addlepated”, not that I know what that means but I agree nonetheless. I think that is a big part of the explanation for why she acts as she does.
Comment 60, posted 1 year, 6 months ago -