Libby (Lost)

Libby 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. She is played by American actress Cynthia Watros. The character is introduced as a member of the tail section survivors in the second season episode "Everybody Hates Hugo", together with Bernard, and she ends her role as a living character in the episode "?".

After one posthumous flashback appearance in the Season 2 finale “Live Together, Die Alone”, she makes three further non-standard appearances as an apparition and bardo-like entity. Her backstory remains unresolved. Watros was intended to appear in two further episodes in the fourth season designed to resolve her character's backstory (after cameoing as a ghost). Due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild Strike, those appearances were postponed to the sixth and final season, albeit in a different format.

Reception towards the character is generally positive, especially after her death. Her given name, Elizabeth, was revealed in the season 2 episode “Live Together, Die Alone”. A 2009 San Diego Comic-Con panel video listed her surname as "Smith", though this is never mentioned on-screen.

She is one of four main characters to never receive a flashback centric episode dedicated to the character (the others being Ilana Verdansky, Frank Lapidus, and Charlotte Lewis), though the character has a brief flashback at the end of the episode "Dave" shown from her point of view.

Little is known about Libby's life prior to the island. She states in "The Other 48 Days" that she visited Vermont, where she broke her leg in a skiing accident, and she attended medical school for a year before dropping out to become a clinical psychologist.

As shown in "Live Together, Die Alone", she meets Desmond (played by Henry Ian Cusick) at a café before she arrives on the island. There, she tells him that she is from Newport Beach, California, and when she learns about his intention to join a sailing race, she decides to donate her sailboat Elizabeth, a gift given to her and named after her by her late husband David. She also stayed in the Santa Rosa Mental Institution, a place whose patients include Hurley (Jorge Garcia), as well as Emily Locke, John Locke's (Terry O'Quinn) mother. Prior to boarding the Oceanic flight, she intervenes during an argument between Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Charlotte Malkin (Brooke Mikey Anderson) in "?".

Libby ends up in the tail-section with another twenty-one survivors. She immediately tries to help the injured, such as Donald (Glenn Lehmann), due to her background with medicine. Some, however, including Donald, die a few days later. The Others invade their camp and kidnap all the remaining survivors except her and six others: Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez), Mr. Eko, Bernard (Sam Anderson), Cindy (Kimberley Joseph), Nathan (Josh Randall), and Goodwin (Brett Cullen). Paranoia soon afflicts Libby and the remaining tail-section survivors causing them to speculate Nathan is not part of the flight and is an Other, which leads to his death. Eventually, she and the remaining survivors make their way to The Arrow, where they find a radio allowing them to make a brief contact with Boone (Ian Somerhalder). Goodwin, the real Other, tries to steal this radio, but Ana Lucia stops and kills him in self defense. Her group stays in The Arrow until Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Michael (Harold Perrineau), and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) arrive there in "Everybody Hates Hugo", when her group learns about other survivors.

Libby's group soon decides to leave and join the main group of survivors. Before their journey, however, Ana Lucia orders her and Michael to get some fruit ("...And Found"). Soon, Michael finds out, through her, where the Others are and decides to leave her in search for his son, Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). Mr. Eko and Jin find Michael, leading him back to Libby and the group and allowing them to start their journey. During their trek in "Abandoned", numerous tragedies occur, including the disappearance of Cindy and the death of Shannon (Maggie Grace). Once she joins the main camp, she and Hurley start to become romantically involved, especially when she tells him that she remembers when he stepped on her foot in the plane. Aside from Hurley, Libby also becomes friends with Claire (Emilie de Ravin), whom she helps in unlocking the memories of Claire's kidnapping in "Maternity Leave". She also tries to help out with Bernard's S.O.S. but loses interest. In "Dave", Libby helps Hurley solve his food addiction, but this fails when a food pallet coincidentally "falls from the sky" during a supply drop. Sensing something is wrong, she confronts him and eventually ends up on a cliff, where Hurley is about to jump. She tries to stop him, which leads to her professing her feelings for him.