Boone's Death In Lost: Effects & Reasons It Had To Happen
Boone Carlyle ( Ian Somerhalder) was the first of many key characters in ABC's Lost to die off. The show tracked a group of survivors from Oceanic Flight 815 on an apparently deserted island full of secrets. Although not everyone survived the first crash, a basic ensemble was developed in the first series whose exploits followed on the island. Though he did continue to show up in flashbacks of the show, Boone, a former lifeguard on the flight with his stepsister Shannon (Maggie Grace), was the first of that ensemble to be killed off.
Boone's Death: A Key Event in Lost
Only one member of the core group not surviving past season 1 was the former lifeguard. Shannon among several more important deaths followed in season 2 and beyond. Boone's passing is sometimes regarded as one of the most significant of the series, though the character has some of the least screen time among the other major deaths in the show.
Boone's Death in Lost
Boone's last scene in Lost season 1, episode 20, "Do No Harm," His untimely death came from a covert trip he went on with Locke ( Terry O'Quinn ). Boone tried to ascend alone after discovering a small plane caught on a cliffside. Boone was gravely hurt when the plane dropped with him inside. Jack (Matthew Fox) battled desperately to save him, but all of his efforts came back useless.
The Flight 815 survivors mourned Boone's death in the following years. Boone turned out to be the first of many tragedies to strike the program. Well over a dozen primary characters had perished trying to survive on the island by the time Lost finished. The show's unusual structure allowed many of the characters to resurange even after their deaths. The show developed character personalities and highlighted startling relationships between people using flashbacks.
Thoughts of Leaving Lost by Ian Somerhalder
Lost had set many characters in perilous circumstances before Boone's death on the show, but they all came out rather unharmed. Still, promotional materials, showrunner interviews, and the overall mood of the stories suggested that any character could be killed at any moment. Someone in the major cast would inevitably be dropped.
Lost had positioned itself such that killing a significant character was now absolutely required. Somerhalder said himself that promises of a character's death "boxed Lost into a corner" and that all the talk about no one being safe does [via New York Post]. Previous fakeouts involving other characters aggravated the issue and drove the writers to eliminate a Jack's Lost group member. Boone was selected based on the impact his death would have on the plot of season one.
Somerhalder joined The Vampire Diaries four years after first showing on Lost, and his convention appearances since clearly show he lacks any ill will about being killed off in the first season. He made it abundantly evident that his experience informed his work. He talked about his time as Boone at Wizard World 2015 and expressed the sole regret he had about performing the role in Hawaii: he didn't smile more while playing Boone. (via Chicago Tribune) He addressed the audience as follows:
"I wonder sometimes why they killed me on Lost. People enjoy seeing conflicted people, but through humor. One medication for pain is humor. This is a Band-Aid. Boone, sadly, and this was my fault as an actor; Boone was a little (expletive). Rich little bastard Boone was spoiled and incapable of smiling to save his life.
As far as my friends are concerned, I'm rather funny. I supposedly am usually a rather funny person. Why on earth, living in Hawaii, having so much fun, skinny dipping with our cast three days a week, why not Boone (expletive) smile more?
Somerhalder came clean at the same convention about being motivated by Josh Holloway's portrayal of Sawyer as Damon. With his part in The Vampire Diaries, he resolved to have more fun, and it paid off; Damon became among his most unforgettable performances.
Boone had to die for what?
Some have questioned why Lost had to eliminate Boone first (or at all) among all the choices that were at hand. Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse said at the time that Boone's passing was a "narrative imperative." He said that the emotional impact Boone had on Jack and Locke determined his destiny.
Cuse continued, saying Boone's death was necessary to create a "chain of events" closely related to the season 1 finale. Given how this moment motivated most of the conflict between the two characters—especially in the first two seasons—this justification makes sense. Their arguments over Locke's decision-making, method of approaching Lost's several riddles, and ideological differences between the two characters started with Boone's death.
Boone's accident heightened their conflict and gave the group's problems much more drama. Jack, for logical grounds, blamed Locke for Boone's death. Jack thought Locke's omission of disclosing Boone's injury's specifics would prevent him from acting to save him in the right way. Jack hated Locke's covert actions and the fact he kept the hatch from him for so long.
This was a major consideration throughout the last episodes of season 1 when Jack and Locke had to cooperate to open the hatch to the Dharma facility. It also prepared the ground for later on in Lost other problems they encountered.
Death: Impact and Legacy of Boone
Boone's death stayed among the most significant and powerful in Lost until the very last episode. As the first named character with a large amount of screen time to die in the series, Boone’s death was bound to make an impact regardless of how it happened, but there is a kind of poetry to him surviving the massive plane crash only to fall from another downed plane on the same island.
Not only was his death poetic, but it also gave the show an odd sort of balance. Boone passed away amid another significant event on the show, Aaron's birth. The first season made abundantly evident that it would be almost impossible for a very pregnant woman to have an easy birth on an island devoid of resources, and it seemed as though Claire (Emilie de Ravin) was counting down to birth.
That countdown clock turned out to be headed for death also. As it did with Jacob and the Man in Black, or Jack and Locke, or between the survivors of both halves of the plane crash, it was among the first to emphasize the balance the show examined so often. Lost had always another side to the coin. That was Aaron living for Boone's death.
Boone's passing also demonstrated that death didn't have to be the result of violence or the unidentified monster the first season hadn't explored in great detail. Rather, it might result from a basic, human error. Though fans would gamble on who would survive every season following Boone's death, his passing was erratic.
It’s also interesting to note that Boone’s death is the only one of the major characters that isn’t, essentially, immediate. Other major character deaths in the show occur swiftly, like Shannon being shot or Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) deciding to stay with Sun (Yunjin Kim) as she drowns. Unlike Boone, there is no hope for saving them.
Jack tries his best to help Boone recover from his injuries and being unable to help him makes Jack even more determined to help everyone else. Jack doesn’t care if others don’t like his decisions or his methods, but he’s determined to help those depending on him.
Boone’s death also helped to usher in character arcs for Locke, Shannon, and more. Boone dying put so many things in motion that set the series on a specific path. Shannon slowly tried to become a better person, only to die herself, and set in motion a new conflict. Locke and Jack never recovered from the tension between them, and that tension helped to tear the survivors apart. If Boone hadn’t died at the end of Lost season 1, the show would have had a different trajectory.
