Ana Lucia Cortez

Ana Lucia Cortez
Michelle Rodriguez as Ana Lucia Cortez
First appearance	"Exodus: Part 1"
Last appearance	"?"
Centric episodes	"Collision" "Two for the Road"
Information
Name	Ana Lucia Cortez
Former residence	Los Angeles, California, USA
Profession	Airport security guard, formerly police officer in the LAPD
Portrayed by	Michelle Rodriguez

Ana Lucia Cortez was a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Michelle Rodriguez. She was a survivor of Oceanic Flight 815 who led her fellow tail-section survivors to safety with the fuselage survivors. The character first appears in a flashback of Jack season one finale.

Fictional character biography

Prior to the crash

Ana Lucia was an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. She has conflicts with her captain, who is also her mother, but doesn’t ask for special treatment and gets along with her fellow officers. She has a boyfriend, Danny, and becomes pregnant, but loses the baby after being shot by a suspect at a burglary scene. She spends the next several months in physical and psychological therapy, during which time Danny leaves her. Ana Lucia returns to the force but exhibits unstable behavior on duty. When the man who shot her at the burglary scene is arrested and makes a confession she refuses to identify him in the line-up, then kills him outside a bar after his release.

Ana Lucia leaves the force and eventually finds work as an airport security guard. She meets Christian Shephard at the airport bar, who asks her to accompany him to Sydney as a "bodyguard." They purposefully create fake names for each other: "Tom" and "Sarah." In Sydney, Ana Lucia breaks up an argument when Christian visits a woman and demands to see his daughter. She later tries to convince Christian to return to the States, but he refuses and the two part ways.

Ana Lucia buys a ticket on Oceanic Flight 815 to return to Los Angeles. Prior to boarding, she calls her mother and apologizes to her, and asks to come home. She then meets and flirts with Jack at a bar at the airport. The pair arrange to get together during the flight, with Ana Lucia revealing that she has been assigned to seat 42F at the rear of the plane.

After the crash

After landing in the ocean with the tail section, Ana Lucia does her best to help anyone and everyone in need, including helping Bernard out of a tree. That night, the survivors are ambushed by the Others. Ana Lucia befriends Goodwin and Libby, going to her when seeking advice. After a few nights, the Others arrive again and kidnap nine more people. Ana Lucia kills one of them and finds a list with descriptions of the victims. Suspecting fellow survivor Nathan as a traitor, she moves everyone inland, digs a pit and throws him in it until he confesses. When he suddenly disappears, the small group head further inland, discovering the Arrow station. Ana Lucia and Goodwin trek atop a hill, where she reveals she knows Goodwin is the real traitor. After a struggle, she impales him on a broken stick. She returns to her people and tells them they're safe. Libby and Cindy bring Jin to her after discovering him washed up on shore. He breaks free, and Ana Lucia follows. After throwing Jin, Michael and Sawyer into the pit, she descends in after and learns that they are survivors from the fuselage. She releases them and decides to migrate with their camp. She constantly clashes with Sawyer, and on many occasions attempts to leave him behind.

However, upon nearing the beach, they lose Cindy and encounter strange whispering. In self-defence, Ana Lucia shoots Shannon after mistaking her for an Other. Feeling guilt, she has Sayid tied up and refuses to let the group move on. However, after some reasoning from Libby, she reluctantly lets them go. Ana Lucia bonds with Jack, particularly after returning from chasing Michael, and he asks her how to raise an army. Later, after a failed kidnap against Sun, Ana Lucia becomes involved with the ensuing conflict between herself, Jack, Locke and Kate, with the blame being placed on her. However, Sawyer reveals later that they were all conned into giving him the weapons from the armory. Later, Locke invites Ana Lucia into the hatch to interrogate "Henry Gale", to which she accepts and manages to receive a map to his crashed balloon. She takes Sayid and Charlie with her, and eventually discovers the crash site, along with the described grave. Upon their return, they reveal that Henry isn't to be trusted.

Moments before Michael shoots Ana Lucia dead.

Later, Ana Lucia attempts to speak to Henry again, but ends up being assaulted and nearly killed, had it not been for Locke's interference. Seeking revenge, she seduces Sawyer and steals his gun. She returns to the hatch and attempts to kill Henry, but is unable to bring herself to do it. She confides in Michael, who offers to kill him on her behalf, but upon handing him the gun, she is shot in the chest and dies instantly. Upon her death, she appears in a dream to Mr. Eko, telling him to help Locke. She is buried alongside the also-deceased Libby the next day.

Much later, when Jack is visited by Cindy whilst in captivity with the Others, Cindy asks about Ana Lucia's well-being, to which Jack yells at her.

Character notes

Name

Her first name is listed on the Official ABC Lost website as "Anna Lucia," and twice as "Anna-Lucia." ^{[1] [2]} It could be spelled either way; neither has been confirmed, as her name has not yet been shown on-screen.

Death and drunk driving speculation

The producers found that Ana Lucia's death would not generate enough sympathy, so they also killed Libby, who was more liked by the audience.^[3] Many people speculate she was let go due to a real-life drunk driving incident (which also happened to Cynthia Watros as well, who was also suspiciously let go from the show at the same time). This has been denied by both the producers and Rodriguez herself.^[4]

References

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