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Lost Trivia
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Lost Ethan Rom Biography
Dr. Ethan Rom is a recurring fictional character portrayed by William Mapother on the ABC television show Lost, which chronicles the lives of over forty people after their plane crashes on a remote tropical island somewhere in the south Pacific. Introduced in the first season", Ethan is the surgeon for the antagonistic and mysterious group known as the "Others". He infiltrated the fuselage survivors, posing as one of them, until they discovered his true identity at which point he kidnapped Charlie Pace and the pregnant Claire Littleton, disposing of the former soon after. Ethan is also one of the few characters to have made more episode appearances while his character was dead rather than alive.
Before the crash
Ethan was born on the island in 1977 to Horace Goodspeed and Amy. Ethan
lives in Ontario, Canada for some time and works as a surgeon for
Mittelos Bioscience, a front company for the Others. Prior to the crash
of Oceanic Flight 815, Ethan encounters a time traveling John Locke the
day that Yemi's drug smuggling plane crash landed on the island. Ethan
shoots him in the leg and nearly kills John before a time jump moves
John forward in time, though Ethan apparently doesn't recall the
encounter in the present. Around three years before the crash he also
travels from the island to Florida by submarine to recruit Juliet
Burke, with the help of Richard Alpert. Ethan's wife dies in childbirth
and his baby also does not survive.
After the crash
When Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on the island on September 22, 2004
where Ethan and the rest of the Others live, he is sent by his superior
Ben Linus to pose as a fuselage survivor and make a list of the
survivors. Ethan generally keeps to himself, however he takes blood
samples to determine if Claire is encountering pregnancy issues and
goes on hunting trips with John Locke. Hugo "Hurley" Reyes asks Ethan
his information for a census. Knowing that he will be exposed before he
can complete a list of the survivors, Ethan frantically kidnaps the
pregnant Claire Littleton for scientific research and Charlie. Ethan
finds the survivors' leader Jack Shephard following him and beats him
up, warning Jack that he will kill either Claire or Charlie if Jack
continues to follow him. Charlie is later found hanging from a tree and
Jack saves him.
Ethan examines Claire in a
Dharma
Initiative station called The Staff. He asks her questions about
her pregnancy and injects her with Juliet's serum. Ethan also inserts a
remote-activated implant that is later used to trigger nausea and
bleeding. He drugs her and tries to convince her to give up her child
to him and the Others, stating that they are "good people". During this
segment, Ethan is accosted by Tom, who is visibly upset with Ethan for
failing to complete his list, which seems to be very important to the
Others. As Ethan is preparing to perform a Cesarean section, Alex frees
her, and even though he leads a search party, Ethan is unable to find
her.
Having lost Claire, Ethan attempts to bring her back by telling Charlie
he will kill one survivor for each night Claire is not returned to him.
Scott Jackson is killed the next morning. The survivors assume he was
killed by Ethan although this has not been established. The next day,
Claire offers to use herself as bait, luring Ethan out of the jungle.
Locke, Jack,
Kate
Austen,
Sayid
Jarrah and
James
"Sawyer" Ford proceed to run in and tackle him down. Before they
are able to extract any answers from him, Charlie
shoots Ethan six times, killing him.
Casting
William Mapother did not audition for the part; he was picked by
co-creator/executive producer J. J. Abrams on September 22, 2004—the
day that Lost premiered—who recognized him from the film, In the
Bedroom. Mapother was originally contracted for two episodes and his
contract was later extended to a total of four episodes in the first
season. Mapother has since appeared in the flashbacks of five episodes
throughout the second, third and fifth seasons, for a total of ten
episodes. Ethan also appears in the Lost: Missing Pieces mobisode
titled "Jack, Meet Ethan. Ethan? Jack". As Mapother himself points out,
Ethan has now appeared in more episodes after his death than he did
when he was alive. Mapother described playing Ethan as "fun". The
character's name is an anagram of "Other Man". Mapother is a fan of
Lost and has never missed an episode.
Characterization
In the first season, Ethan was portrayed as a "brooding villain", "cold
and evil" and "creepy" and after as a "swell, neighborly guy". Mapother
felt that he was not evil and that Ethan had his reasons for acting the
way that he did.
