Ana Lucia Cortez leader and survivor from Lost – Honorary Oakley

Thanks to a bit of feedback in the Honorary Oakley thread we’ve had a few suggestions for the Oakley this month, and, after some thought and deliberation, it has been decided that the Honorary Oakley for October goes to yet another ‘character’ as opposed to a ‘real’ woman.

Why? Well, the Oakley thread is there so our members can submit their ideas for people they’d like to see posted and honored here, so it would somewhat of an injustice to ignore those suggestions in favor of what many may see as ‘more worthy’ recipients.

Let’s digress a moment….
This month in particular was tough, especially as Safia Ahmed-jan (or Ama Jan) was shot and killed in front of her home (and she is someone we need to highlight, for her work and life). So, if you’ll forgive us, we mention her here briefly—though that’s not to say she won’t feature at a later date—despite this Oakley being about someone else. Please take the time to read about Safia. In essence she was an Afghan women’s rights leader who spoke out against the Taliban’s treatment of women. When assassinated last week (aged 65) she held the position of provincial director of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Kandahar Province. She was leaving her home to go to work when she was shot multiple times. The Taliban later claimed responsibility for her killing. Prior to Safia’s position at the Ministry for Women’s Affairs she was a teacher and school head mistress.

This month’s Oakley is not a ‘real’ hero—which Safia clearly was—but, in the world our Oakley inhabits she was just that, despite rather dubious beginnings. She worked on the side of the law and suffered personal tragedy; contrary to her vigilante actions (which we’ll consider momentarily) she remained a ‘good’ person and a survivor. That’s why this month Ana Lucia Cortez is the ThumbBandits.com Honorary Oakley for October.
Thanks to Danielle and Ruth for the suggestion.

Spoiler Alert: This article will cover Season One and Two of the TV series LOST.

Ana Who?
Ana Lucia Cortez, or just plain Ana Lucia is/was a character in the hit American television show Lost (played by Michelle Rodriguez). Ana Lucia entered the show during the closing episodes of Season One, in a flashback scene where she flirts/chats to one of the show’s central characters (Jack) in an airport departures lounge. When Season Two kicked off, viewers finally got to see the survivors from the tail end of the plane, led by the forthright Ana Lucia, who had taken charge to try to rescue as many people as possible from the wreckage and the water. Prior to the doomed flight of Oceanic 815, Ana Lucia was a Los Angeles police officer.

I am the Law!
Ana Lucia is a character not without flaws, and her story throws up an interesting moral dilemma within the framework of the Lost storyline. As a police officer, it is Ana Lucia’s sworn duty to ‘serve and protect’, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Whilst on a call to a burglary, Ana Lucia is shot, saved only by her flack vest. Her unborn child to boyfriend Danny isn’t so lucky, however. The resulting trauma and months of both physical and psychological therapy are hard for Ana Lucia and her boyfriend Danny leaves her during that period (whatta guy!). When Ana Lucia returns to duty she has trouble fitting back in and has clashes with colleagues, including her boss, the captain of the police precinct, who also happens to be her mother. Ana Lucia’s moral conflicts come to a head when the man who shot her and killed her unborn child is brought in as a suspect. Ana is asked to identify him in a line-up, but she doesn’t, instead letting him walk. She then tracks his movements and later waits for him to leave a bar, at which time she shoots him in cold blood.

The Missing Link
Ana Lucia is linked to the survivors of Lost in more ways than purely being on the plane. It is the show’s main protagonist Jack that makes up this link, for it is Jack’s father that hires Ana Lucia and takes her to Australia as his personal security guard. You see, Ana has since left the police force and is working in airport security when she meets Jack’s father in the airport bar. He propositions her to join him on a trip to Australia as his personal security and she accepts. Despite Ana Lucia killing the burglar who had initially shot her, she’s still portrayed as a ‘goodie’ albeit with a dark edge, and this is shown in her first job for Jack’s father, when he becomes aggressive towards a woman he claims is the mother of his daughter. Ana Lucia steps in and breaks it up and tries to talk sense into him. However, this fails and they go their separate ways; Jack’s father to the nearest bar and Ana Lucia home to her mother—or so she thinks. The final scenes prior to the crash of Oceanic 815 consist of Ana phoning her mother from the airport in tears and apologetic, telling her mother, “I made a mistake, Mom. You knew, so I got as far away from you as I could. But now, I want to come home, Mom.” This brief exchange shows Ana Lucia’s sorrow concerning prior events in her life, and also her mother’s forgiveness as she states she’ll meet her at the airport upon her arrival.

Island Life and Paranoia…
After the plane’s tail section crashes on the island, Ana Lucia takes up a role of leadership within the small group of survivors. She promises two children that they’ll be okay, but they’re subsequently kidnapped by the ‘Others’. This again shows that Ana Lucia has a softer side than the aggressive persona utilized throughout most of her time on screen. She’s not only fighting with true enemies, she is also, to some degree, at war with herself, because of the guilt she feels over the shooting and the difficulties of having let the children down. In a sense, these events harden Ana Lucia’s character, because she wants to ensure that the small group of survivors stay alive. If Ana Lucia were truly a bad person, she would not care what happened to the other survivors. But she does, and deeply. As if the poor woman hasn’t gone through enough, she then makes the error in judgement of imprisoning one of the survivors that she believes to be an ‘Other’. Although Nathan (the one imprisoned) turns out not to be an ‘Other’ and his eventual death is little to do with Ana Lucia, she takes the guilt of what’s happened, blaming herself for essentially not being good enough to spot the real culprit. Though she eventually uncovers and dispatches the true ‘Other’ in the end, it is only through self-defense.

Think Before You Shoot…
Ana Lucia’s first meeting with the rest of the doomed flight’s survivors is when Sawyer, Michael, and Jin are captured by the tail section survivors and placed into the very pit that held Nathan. Not wanting to make the same mistake again, Ana Lucia poses as another innocent captive and is flung into the pit to try to glean the truth surrounding the three strange new arrivals. Though an unpleasant truce is formed, Ana Lucia’s luck is about to take a turn for the worse. As the original three survivors lead the tail section survivors back towards the larger camp, Ana Lucia accidentally shoots Shannon (one of Season One’s main characters), who comes running through the jungle like a mad woman. Ana Lucia mistakes her for an Other, and before either of them realize what’s happened Ana Lucia has drawn a gun and fired, killing her. Needless to say this puts her somewhat on the outer edge when both the tail section group and original survivors are reunited.

Following the death of Shannon, those survivors loyal to Ana Lucia (who has thus far saved all of them to some degree or another) leave to find the original survivors. Ana is left alone with Sayid, Shannon’s lover. This is an important juncture in the character’s growth as she eventually imparts her story to Sayid about how she was a cop and this ‘kid’ had shot her because she’d let him reach for what she thought was ID. She says, “I thought I was dead. I feel dead.” She then urges Sayid to kill her for what she did to his lover, to which he responds, “What good would it be to kill you, if we’re both already dead?”

The End of Ana Lucia
It has to be said, that as a viewer of Lost, the death of Ana Lucia was both unexpected and shocking. Just as she was beginning to find some form of redemption, as she was beginning to find her place in the world, she was gone. More depth was found in this character via her interactions with captured ‘Other’ Henry Gale, when she saves him from execution and makes a comment about “needing to be sure” based on her previous experience with the innocent Nathan and, to some degree, Shannon too. These instances of moral fibre must be taken into account when looking at the character of Ana Lucia, because despite the darkness of the character, she clearly was a good person, trying to do good by others, and only events out of her control push her to commit the unthinkable.

Although these acts are, indeed, contrary to what the Oakley stands for, her leadership, compassion, and strength are exactly what it stands for. So, in the same way that we can honor someone such as Battlestar Galactica’s Number Six, so too we can honor Ana Lucia. Her leadership in the face of adversity, her strength given to help others survive, and her tenacity in the face of peril should all be commended. It’s just a shame the character was wiped out before she was seen returning to true self, the smiling, friendly character first seen in the airport bar. Looking forward to returning to her mother, to face her crimes and once more find herself.

Ana Lucia Cortez we salute you!

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