Danielle Rousseau

Danielle Rousseau
Lost character
Head and shoulders of an attractive middle aged woman with long curly brown hair, wearing a brown tank top, with a sad frown on her face.
Mira Furlan as Danielle Rousseau in 2007.
First appearance"Solitary"
Last appearance"Meet Kevin Johnson" (alive)
"What They Died For" (afterlife)
Created by
Portrayed byMira Furlan
Melissa Farman (younger)
In-universe information
Full nameDanielle Rousseau
SpeciesHuman
GenderFemale
OccupationScientist
ChildrenAlex Rousseau
NationalityFrench
Former
residence		France

Danielle Rousseau 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.[1] Croatian actress Mira Furlan plays the scientist who shipwrecks on the island sixteen years prior to the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. After Rousseau is killed in the fourth season, the American actress Melissa Farman portrayed a younger version of the character in the fifth season. Furlan later reappears for one episode in the sixth season. Rousseau is a recurring on-island character who has appeared in nineteen episodes in seasons one through four, as well as one episode where her voice alone is heard, and her final episode in the sixth season.

The character, who is commonly known as "The French Woman" among the survivors on the island, is introduced early in the first season. Sixteen years prior to the plane crash, Rousseau was a member of a French research vessel, whose ship ran aground on the island. Two months after being stranded, Rousseau gave birth to her daughter Alex (Tania Raymonde); however, Alex was taken by the island's original inhabitants, a group which Rousseau called the "Others". Rousseau's primary objective is to reunite with her daughter; 16 years 253 days 21 hours 42 min 59 seconds later, which is achieved in the season three finale "Through the Looking Glass". The reunion is short-lived; Rousseau is shot and killed by a band of mercenaries in the middle of the fourth season.

Damon Lindelof later revealed that the short-lived reunion was unexplored due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, which also scrapped an episode dedicated to the character. Furlan also later denied rumors she requested to leave the series.[2] The character's death scene in "Meet Kevin Johnson" received generally negative reviews; retrospective reviews opined that the scene was "tacked on".[3]

Furlan was recast in the fifth season, partly after a salary dispute. While it was remarked that Rousseau's return in flashback form "disingenuous",[4] the character does return in Ben's flashback "Dead Is Dead", while two other appearances are accounted for through the storytelling device of time travel.

Critical reaction to the character has been generally positive; however, many have expressed disappointment in the execution of Rousseau's death scene.

  1. ^ Fordis, Jeff (2007-01-22). "ABC Studios Lost Show Description Lead Press Release Page". ABC Medianet. Archived from the original on 2007-06-28. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  2. ^ Geekadelphia interview Archived 2013-10-03 at the Wayback Machine, 2010, "I don't know where this is coming from, I loved being on the show and loved playing that role."
  3. ^ Stolworthy, Jacob, (September 21, 2019) "Lost episodes ranked from worst to best Archived 2022-12-10 at the Wayback Machine"
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference futurestory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).