Summary

Boone Carlyle may have been forgotten by many Lost fans, but his role as an unsung hero in the first season was crucial.
Through his sacrifices and unwavering loyalty, Boone’s character highlighted the theme of selflessness and love for others on the island.
Even after his untimely demise, Boone’s legacy lived on through special appearances.

Before audiences knew him as the undead heartthrob Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries, Ian Somerhalder played a very different kind of character in the first season of the sci-fi mystery Lost. Fans of the show can be forgiven for not remembering his stint as Boone Carlyle on the cult classic show. Over six years and 121 episodes, Lost offered viewers no shortage of lovable survivors, villains you love to hate, mysteries that you were challenged to solve alongside the characters, and intense character development. It’s a lot to keep track of, and 14 years after its ending it’s also a lot to recall, even for the most dedicated fans.

Boone Carlyle was just one of 69 surviving passengers stranded on the enigmatic island who we followed throughout the series, and because he didn’t stay through the entire show it can be easy to forget he was there at all. In fact, he was one of the few characters who mostly only appeared in the very first season of the show, only making special appearances after its beginning. Even so, though he may not have become one of the central characters that the show followed throughout its entire six seasons, he was an important part of the first season and should not be easily dismissed.

Who Was Boone Carlyle?
Lost 4/5 Lost is a mystery drama series created for TV that follows a group of survivors of a plane crash and tells its story between the past, present, and future via flashbacks. When Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 crashes and lands on a mysterious island in the pacific ocean, the castaways discover their new temporary home may have a mind of its own, as strange supernatural events keep them locked to the island. From an unknown black smoke creature to dangerous islanders, the passengers must work together to survive the island’s seemingly deadly intentions.Release Date September 22, 2004 Seasons 6

During his time on the wildly popular sci-fi mystery, Somerhalder portrayed Boone Carlyle. This character will be a departure from what fans of The Vampire Diaries are used to seeing from the actor, and it is a testament to Somerhalder’s acting that he can deftly portray two such different characters.

When the audience first meet Boone just after the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, he is quickly established as someone eager to help in any way he could. Viewers watched as he desperately sought out supplies to help Jack, another passenger on the flight and a doctor by trade, tend to the wounded. As with all characters on the show, Boone’s backstory, motivations and misfortunes unravel through a combination of flashbacks to who he was before the island and concurrent stories of who he is on the island.

Fans felt for him through the memories of his troubled childhood and his tragic and unrequited love for his step-sister Shannon. They rooted for him as he found his place on the island as an apprentice of sorts to Locke, bonding with the older man through a commitment to solving the mysteries of the island. And finally, they mourned his premature death at the end of the first season.

Viewers got to know Boone as a sensitive, empathetic man who cared about the other survivors and had a strong desire to take care of others. This was shown from the very first episode through his attempts to help the injured and his mourning of those who had passed away. Throughout the first season, this trait of his is continually exhibited by his steadfast willingness to put himself at risk to save others. Viewers saw this when he stole water to help a sick Claire and when he risked his own life to try and save Johanna from drowning.

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Boone Carlyle Was the Unsung Hero of the First Season

Even through the flashbacks to his life before the island, it was evident that Boone was someone who loved hard and did anything he could to help those he cared about. It was this tendency to put those he loves first and his fervor to aid in any way possible, in fact, that lead to him being on the island. His devotion to Shannon and need to be useful to her is the reason he was in Australia in the first place, and that’s what led to him being on the disastrous flight that resulted in them all being stranded.

Because of the nature of the show — that there are so many characters to follow, with certain core members of the surviving passengers taking center stage and others being secondary characters — it can be easy to forget just how central to the plot of the first season Boone was. He helped Sayid triangulate the French signal, Locke try to open the curious hatch in the middle of the island, and played a hand in saving several other characters, including those that were central characters to the series as a whole. Without his enthusiastic assistance, it’s impossible to know if the other characters would have gotten as far as they did in that first season of Lost.

Boone’s inscrutable optimism and invaluable tendency to offer help wherever he could made his death at the end of the first season all the more heartbreaking for viewers. He died as he lived: trying to help those around him. He was attempting to aid Locke in solving the mysteries of the island and the hatch when he fell off a cliff and was fatally injured. Even in his last moments, he showed his true nature through his willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of others. He refused potentially life-saving treatment from Jack because he didn’t want the doctor to waste valuable medical supplies that the other survivors might need in the future.

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Did Ian Somerhalder Ever Return to Lost?

For a short while after Boone’s death, Somerhalder continued to appear sporadically on the show as a vision for other characters. Through these visions, he helped the others mourn his passing, accept his death and forgive themselves for their mistakes or transgressions.

He was off the show after that for the majority of the run, before returning for a special appearance in the finale. In the last two episodes of the show, fans got to see Boone one last time, watching as he was finally able to move on with the other passengers of Oceanic Flight 815.

Although Boone’s death was tragic, both within the show and for fans, it’s hard to be too upset about it in the end. After all, leaving Lost meant that he was available to eventually become the beloved bad boy and mischievous scoundrel Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries.