Ilana Verdansky
Encyclopedia
Ilana Verdansky is a fictional character
on the ABC
television series Lost
played by Zuleikha Robinson
. Ilana is introduced in the sixth episode
of the fifth season of Lost
as an officer boarding Ajira Airways Flight 316, with Sayid
in her custody. However as her storyline progresses, it is revealed that she is someone deeply connected to the Island and to Jacob, the Island's highest authority figure. Ilana is killed when a bag of dynamite she is carrying explodes unexpectedly.
n hospital. She is visited by Jacob (Mark Pellegrino
), who asks her to help him by guarding six candidates to succeed him in his role on the island. Ilana travels to Los Angeles
, where she apprehends candidate Sayid Jarrah
(Naveen Andrews
), and forcibly escorts him onto Ajira Airways Flight 316. The plane crashes on Hydra Island, a short distance from the main island.
Ilana and her cohort Bram (Brad William Henke
) take leadership of the Flight 316 survivors and arm themselves. Their group transport a large metal crate which they found on the plane to the main island. They visit Jacob's cabin, and upon finding it empty, burn it to the ground. They then travel to Jacob's home in the statue of Taweret, opening the crate to reveal the body of former candidate John Locke
(Terry O'Quinn
) to Richard Alpert
(Nestor Carbonell
) and a group of Others
who had believed Locke to be their leader.
Ilana's team confront the Man in Black
—the being appearing in Locke's form—inside the statue. They learn that Jacob has been killed, and are then killed themselves by the Man in Black. After gathering Jacob's ashes and burying Locke's body, Ilana leads her fellow Flight 316 survivors Ben Linus (Michael Emerson
), Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) and Frank Lapidus
(Jeff Fahey
) to the island temple. They arrive to find the temple under attack by the Man in Black. Ilana ushers the group, joined by Miles Straume
(Ken Leung
) into a hidden room to protect them. As they escape, Ilana asks Miles, who is a medium
, how Jacob died. She learns that he was murdered by Ben, who she tells that Jacob was the closest thing she had to a father, before forcing him to dig his own grave. The Man in Black frees Ben, who escapes into the jungle and retrieves a rifle. Ilana chases and confronts him. Ben explains his motivations for killing Jacob, and Ilana forgives him, allowing him to rejoin their group.
The group are joined at their camp by Richard, and candidates Jack Shephard
(Matthew Fox
) and Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia
). Ilana tells Richard that Jacob instructed her to find him, and asks what they should do next. Richard says that they must prevent the Man in Black from leaving the island by blowing up the Ajira plane. Ilana then travels to the Black Rock, an 1800s sail ship shipwrecked on the island, which contains dynamite. She returns with four sticks of dynamite, which she places in her shoulder bag. She is reminded that the dynamite is unstable. During an argument with Hurley about whether they should go through with their plan of blowing up the plane, Ilana drops her bag to the ground. The impact triggers an explosion, killing her instantly.
(Henry Ian Cusick
) catches up with Claire Littleton
(Emilie de Ravin
) again and advises her to consult the lawyer he was about to meet before committing to the adoption agency. This turns out to be Ilana, who has already been looking for Claire. Ilana, as the family attorney for the Shephards, knew that Claire had been named in Christian Shephard
(John Terry
)'s will. She introduces Claire to her half-brother, Jack Shephard. The series finale, "The End
", revealed that the "alternate timeline" was in fact a form of purgatory
for the characters, after their respective deaths, waiting to move on. Ilana, who is credited at the beginning of the episode, does not appear in the episode; as such, she is not among those characters who "move on" to their afterlives.
for Ilana described her as "a European female in her late 20s to early 30s who possesses great intelligence, but who's also dangerous as all get out. She's alluring and apparently used to getting her own way." On September 4, 2008, Michael Ausiello
of Entertainment Weekly
reported that actress Zuleikha Robinson
had been cast in the role. Executive producer
Carlton Cuse
initially likened the character to Heath Ledger's
Joker
from The Dark Knight
, stating that; "There was something very unsettling about the way the Joker kept telling different stories about his background — something very similar to what we had planned for Ilana." On the character's introduction, fellow executive producers Edward Kitsis
and Adam Horowitz explained how the negative audience reaction to Nikki and Paulo
, introduced in Lost third season, influenced the way in which they slowly integrated Ilana into the story. Initially cast as a recurring character
, Ilana was upgraded to regular character
status for season six
.
Robinson was told little about her character's background, and initially wondered if she had been to the island before. She concluded, however, that Ilana's knowledge of island locations stemmed from her training to protect the candidates. She was unaware of Ilana's surname, and in one scene carried identification which falsely identified her as 'Mary'. Robinson stated that a season six episode would reveal Ilana's surname to be similar to Radzinsky, it was later confirmed to be Verdansky in "The Last Recruit
". Commenting on Ilana's relationship with Jacob and her confrontation with Ben in "Dr. Linus
", Robinson explained: "I would think Ilana grew up without a father figure and Jacob became that for her for whatever reason. So when she has the exchange with Ben, it's very personal for her, but at the end of the day she understands she has a job to do and that's more important than the way she feels personally." Robinson later confirmed that Ilana had originally been intended to be Jacob's daughter, however this was later dropped as it was deemed that there was not enough screen time to develop the storyline further in the final season. Also, Cuse has said that there were "greater plans" for Ilana but they decided to spend more time with established characters instead. In the same interview, he also said that Ilana led a "hard and tragic life" that he could not reveal any details of yet.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television series Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
played by Zuleikha Robinson
Zuleikha Robinson
Zuleikha Robinson is an English actress, raised in Thailand and Malaysia by a Burmese-Indian mother and an English father. She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, and best known for playing Ilana in the ABC show Lost.In 2006, she played a Bengali character called...
. Ilana is introduced in the sixth episode
316 (Lost)
"316" is the sixth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 92nd episode of the show overall, "316" aired on February 18, 2009 on ABC in the United States, and was simulcast on A in Canada...
of the fifth season of Lost
Lost (season 5)
The fifth season of the American serial drama television series Lost commenced airing on the ABC network in the United States and on A in Canada in January 2009, and concluded with a two-hour season finale on May 13, 2009...
as an officer boarding Ajira Airways Flight 316, with Sayid
Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Hassan Jarrah is a character from the ABC show Lost portrayed by Naveen Andrews.-Season 1:Sayid fixes the transceiver recovered from the cockpit, and leads a group into the jungle in order to send out a distress signal. Instead, he picks up a looping message . He tries to locate the...
in her custody. However as her storyline progresses, it is revealed that she is someone deeply connected to the Island and to Jacob, the Island's highest authority figure. Ilana is killed when a bag of dynamite she is carrying explodes unexpectedly.
Arc
Prior to travelling to the island, Ilana is seen bandaged and recuperating in a RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n hospital. She is visited by Jacob (Mark Pellegrino
Mark Pellegrino
Mark Ross Pellegrino is an American actor of film and television. He is best known for his work on Lost as Jacob and for playing Lucifer on Supernatural.-Career:...
), who asks her to help him by guarding six candidates to succeed him in his role on the island. Ilana travels to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where she apprehends candidate Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Hassan Jarrah is a character from the ABC show Lost portrayed by Naveen Andrews.-Season 1:Sayid fixes the transceiver recovered from the cockpit, and leads a group into the jungle in order to send out a distress signal. Instead, he picks up a looping message . He tries to locate the...
(Naveen Andrews
Naveen Andrews
Naveen William Sidney Andrews is a British American actor. He is best known for portraying Kip in the movie The English Patient and Sayid Jarrah on the American television series Lost.-Early life:...
), and forcibly escorts him onto Ajira Airways Flight 316. The plane crashes on Hydra Island, a short distance from the main island.
Ilana and her cohort Bram (Brad William Henke
Brad William Henke
Brad William Henke is an American actor.-Biography:Henke was born in Columbus, Nebraska. He starred in October Road and in the movies Around June with Samaire Armstrong and Jon Gries, The Amateurs with Jeff Bridges and Tim Blake Nelson, In the Valley of Elah with Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize...
) take leadership of the Flight 316 survivors and arm themselves. Their group transport a large metal crate which they found on the plane to the main island. They visit Jacob's cabin, and upon finding it empty, burn it to the ground. They then travel to Jacob's home in the statue of Taweret, opening the crate to reveal the body of former candidate John Locke
John Locke (Lost)
John Locke is a fictional character played by Terry O'Quinn on the ABC television series Lost. He is named after English philosopher John Locke...
(Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn is an American actor, most famous for playing John Locke on the TV series Lost. He made his debut in a 1980 television movie called F.D.R.: The Last Year. Since then, O'Quinn has had minor supporting roles in films and TV movies such as Young Guns, All the Right Moves, Silver Bullet,...
) to Richard Alpert
Richard Alpert (Lost)
Ricardo "Richard" Alpert is a fictional character played by Nestor Carbonell in the American ABC television series Lost. Alpert is introduced in a flashback of the character Juliet Burke , where he claims to be a doctor for a bioscience company called Mittelos Bioscience; he is later revealed to...
(Nestor Carbonell
Nestor Carbonell
Nestor Gastón Carbonell is an American actor, known for portraying Richard Alpert in ABC's drama Lost and Mayor Anthony Garcia in the film The Dark Knight...
) and a group of Others
The Others (Lost)
The Others are a group of fictional characters who inhabit the mysterious island in the American television series Lost. Most serve as antagonists to the series' main characters, although more recently they seem less hostile to the survivors of Flight 815 and have become their allies to overcome...
who had believed Locke to be their leader.
Ilana's team confront the Man in Black
Man in Black (Lost)
The entity referred to most frequently as the Man in Black is a fictional character on the American ABC television series Lost, and is the main antagonist of the...
—the being appearing in Locke's form—inside the statue. They learn that Jacob has been killed, and are then killed themselves by the Man in Black. After gathering Jacob's ashes and burying Locke's body, Ilana leads her fellow Flight 316 survivors Ben Linus (Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Benjamin Linus on Lost and fictional serial killer William Hinks in The Practice.-Early life:...
), Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) and Frank Lapidus
Frank Lapidus
Frank J. Lapidus is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Jeff Fahey. Frank is introduced in the second episode of season four as a pilot hired on a mission to the island where Oceanic Flight 815 crashed. He aids the survivors of the crash against mercenary Martin Keamy ...
(Jeff Fahey
Jeff Fahey
Jeffrey David "Jeff" Fahey is an American film and television actor. He has portrayed Captain Frank Lapidus on the ABC series Lost and the title role of Deputy Marshal Winston MacBride on The Marshal.-Early life:...
) to the island temple. They arrive to find the temple under attack by the Man in Black. Ilana ushers the group, joined by Miles Straume
Miles Straume
Miles Straume is a fictional character played by Ken Leung on the ABC television series Lost. Miles is introduced early in the fourth season as a hotheaded and sarcastic medium as a crew member aboard the freighter called the Kahana that is offshore the island where most of Lost takes place...
(Ken Leung
Ken Leung
Kenneth "Ken" Leung is an American actor best known for his role as Miles Straume in the ABC television series Lost and roles in such films as Shanghai Kiss, Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Saw.-Early life:...
) into a hidden room to protect them. As they escape, Ilana asks Miles, who is a medium
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
, how Jacob died. She learns that he was murdered by Ben, who she tells that Jacob was the closest thing she had to a father, before forcing him to dig his own grave. The Man in Black frees Ben, who escapes into the jungle and retrieves a rifle. Ilana chases and confronts him. Ben explains his motivations for killing Jacob, and Ilana forgives him, allowing him to rejoin their group.
The group are joined at their camp by Richard, and candidates Jack Shephard
Jack Shephard
Dr. Jack Shephard is a fictional character and protagonist of the ABC television series Lost played by Matthew Fox. Lost follows the journey of the survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 on a mysterious island and their attempts to survive and escape, slowly uncovering more of the much broader...
(Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox (actor)
Matthew Chandler Fox is an American actor. He is mostly known for his role as Charlie Salinger on Party of Five, and for portraying Jack Shephard on the supernatural drama television series Lost.- Early life :...
) and Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia
Jorge Garcia
Jorge García is a U.S. actor and comedian. He first came to public attention with his performance as Hector Lopez on the television show Becker and later for his portrayal of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the television series Lost. Garcia also performs as a stand-up comedian.-Early life:García was born...
). Ilana tells Richard that Jacob instructed her to find him, and asks what they should do next. Richard says that they must prevent the Man in Black from leaving the island by blowing up the Ajira plane. Ilana then travels to the Black Rock, an 1800s sail ship shipwrecked on the island, which contains dynamite. She returns with four sticks of dynamite, which she places in her shoulder bag. She is reminded that the dynamite is unstable. During an argument with Hurley about whether they should go through with their plan of blowing up the plane, Ilana drops her bag to the ground. The impact triggers an explosion, killing her instantly.
Afterlife
In the alternate 2004 timeline, Ilana is an attorney. Desmond HumeDesmond Hume
Desmond David Hume is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick. Desmond's name is a tribute to David Hume, the famous empiricist author and philosopher. Desmond was not a passenger of Flight 815. He had been stranded on the island three years prior to...
(Henry Ian Cusick
Henry Ian Cusick
Henry Ian Cusick is a Scottish-Peruvian actor of stage, television, and film. He is well-known for his role as Desmond Hume on the United States television series Lost, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination....
) catches up with Claire Littleton
Claire Littleton
Claire Littleton is a fictional character played by Emilie de Ravin on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of the survivors of a plane crash in the South Pacific. Claire is introduced in the pilot episode as a pregnant crash survivor. She is a series regular until her...
(Emilie de Ravin
Emilie de Ravin
Emilie de Ravin born 27 December 1981)is an Australian actress. She is commonly associated with her roles as Tess Harding on Roswell and Claire Littleton on the ABC drama Lost....
) again and advises her to consult the lawyer he was about to meet before committing to the adoption agency. This turns out to be Ilana, who has already been looking for Claire. Ilana, as the family attorney for the Shephards, knew that Claire had been named in Christian Shephard
Christian Shephard
Dr. Christian Shephard is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by John Terry. He is the father of lead characters Jack Shephard , who becomes the de facto leader of the survivors of Oceanic 815 after it crashes on an island, and Claire Littleton , another of the survivors...
(John Terry
John Terry (actor)
John Terry is an American film, television, and stage actor.-Early life:Terry was born in Florida, where he attended Vero Beach High School. He was also educated at the prestigious Loomis Chaffee prep school in Windsor, Connecticut, and began a career building original custom log homes in North...
)'s will. She introduces Claire to her half-brother, Jack Shephard. The series finale, "The End
The End (Lost)
"The End" is the series finale of the ABC television series Lost, consisting of the 17th and 18th episodes of season 6. It is also the 120th and 121st episodes overall...
", revealed that the "alternate timeline" was in fact a form of purgatory
Purgatory
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...
for the characters, after their respective deaths, waiting to move on. Ilana, who is credited at the beginning of the episode, does not appear in the episode; as such, she is not among those characters who "move on" to their afterlives.
Development
The casting callCasting (performing arts)
In the performing arts, casting is a pre-production process for selecting a cast of actors, dancers, singers, models and other talent for a live or recorded performance.-Casting process:...
for Ilana described her as "a European female in her late 20s to early 30s who possesses great intelligence, but who's also dangerous as all get out. She's alluring and apparently used to getting her own way." On September 4, 2008, Michael Ausiello
Michael Ausiello
Michael Ausiello is an American television industry journalist and actor. He was a Senior Writer at TV Guide and its companion website, TVGuide.com. On May 28, 2008, Ausiello left TV Guide for Entertainment Weekly and posted his first blog for Entertainment Weekly on July 2, 2008...
of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
reported that actress Zuleikha Robinson
Zuleikha Robinson
Zuleikha Robinson is an English actress, raised in Thailand and Malaysia by a Burmese-Indian mother and an English father. She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, and best known for playing Ilana in the ABC show Lost.In 2006, she played a Bengali character called...
had been cast in the role. Executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse is an AmericanEmmy Award winning screenwriter and producer, most famous as executive producer andscreenwriter for the American television series Lost for...
initially likened the character to Heath Ledger's
Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...
Joker
Joker (comics)
The Joker is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain published by DC Comics. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon and the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin...
from The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...
, stating that; "There was something very unsettling about the way the Joker kept telling different stories about his background — something very similar to what we had planned for Ilana." On the character's introduction, fellow executive producers Edward Kitsis
Edward Kitsis
Edward Lawrence Kitsis, also sometimes credited as Eddy Kitsis, is an American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on the popular American television series, Lost and Once Upon a Time.-Life and career:...
and Adam Horowitz explained how the negative audience reaction to Nikki and Paulo
Nikki and Paulo
Nikki Fernandez and Paulo are fictional characters 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...
, introduced in Lost third season, influenced the way in which they slowly integrated Ilana into the story. Initially cast as a recurring character
Recurring character
A recurring character is a fictional character, usually in a prime time TV series, who appears from time to time during the series' run. Recurring characters often play major roles in an episode, sometimes being the main focus...
, Ilana was upgraded to regular character
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
status for season six
Lost (season 6)
The sixth and final season of the American serial drama television series Lost commenced airing in the United States and Canada on February 2, 2010. The sixth-season premiere was the first to climb in the ratings year-over-year since the second season, drawing 12.1 million viewers. The season...
.
Robinson was told little about her character's background, and initially wondered if she had been to the island before. She concluded, however, that Ilana's knowledge of island locations stemmed from her training to protect the candidates. She was unaware of Ilana's surname, and in one scene carried identification which falsely identified her as 'Mary'. Robinson stated that a season six episode would reveal Ilana's surname to be similar to Radzinsky, it was later confirmed to be Verdansky in "The Last Recruit
The Last Recruit
"The Last Recruit" is the 13th television episode of the American Broadcasting Company's sixth season of the serial drama television series Lost and 116th episode overall. The episode was aired on April 20, 2010 on ABC in the United States. The episode was written by producer Paul Zbyszewski and...
". Commenting on Ilana's relationship with Jacob and her confrontation with Ben in "Dr. Linus
Dr. Linus
"Dr. Linus" is the seventh episode of the sixth season of ABC's drama television series Lost. It is the 110th episode overall. The episode was written by executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by actor Mario Van Peebles...
", Robinson explained: "I would think Ilana grew up without a father figure and Jacob became that for her for whatever reason. So when she has the exchange with Ben, it's very personal for her, but at the end of the day she understands she has a job to do and that's more important than the way she feels personally." Robinson later confirmed that Ilana had originally been intended to be Jacob's daughter, however this was later dropped as it was deemed that there was not enough screen time to develop the storyline further in the final season. Also, Cuse has said that there were "greater plans" for Ilana but they decided to spend more time with established characters instead. In the same interview, he also said that Ilana led a "hard and tragic life" that he could not reveal any details of yet.
External links
- Ilana at ABC.comAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...