Tom (Lost)

Infobox Lost character
Title = Tom


Caption = M.C. Gainey as Tom
First = ""
Flashback1 =
Name = Tom
Actor = M. C. Gainey

Tom is a recurring fictional character on the ABC television series "Lost" played by M. C. Gainey. A member of the antagonistic and mysterious group known as "The Others," Tom acted as a liaison to the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 throughout the first and second seasons. Before his name was revealed, he was called "Mr. Friendly" by the producers and writers to describe his demeanor. He has appeared in more episodes than any other guest star.

Character's background

Prior to the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, it is shown that Tom resides at the barracks on the island during the time of Juliet's recruitment, serving as a loyal assistant for Ben. After a brief discussion with Juliet it is also established that Tom has been a patient of therapy by Dr. Harper Stanhope and praises her expertise.

Years later, following the events of the plane crash and during the time period of Claire's kidnapping, Tom overlooks Ethan's progress at the medical station. He criticizes Ethan's actions of kidnapping Claire before making "the list". Sometime after this, Tom and Pickett discover the dead body of a fellow Other, Goodwin, and report the news back to Ben.

Meanwhile, with the crash survivor's completion of the raft, Michael, Sawyer, Jin and the ten-year old Walt Lloyd set sail from the island. That night, Tom arrives in a motorboat leading a crew of Others to kidnap Michael's son and destroy the raft they were sailing on. He wore a fake beard and old clothes to trick the survivors into thinking that the Others were primitive hillbillies and continued to do so whenever he met the survivors.

On the 52nd day, with the help of Alex, Pickett, Matthew and a few more Others, Tom captures Michael after he goes looking for his son in the jungle. Michael was followed by Jack, Locke and Sawyer, who in turn were being followed by Kate. By putting a bag over her head, gagging and putting a gun to Kate, Tom was able to persuade the hunting party to hand over their guns and turn back. He also told them that the island belongs to the Others and that Jack should respect that by not crossing the imaginary line marked that night.

The following day it is shown that Tom trekked to "Yurtville" with an angry Michael as his prisoner and handed him off to Beatrice Klugh, who interrogated him for the next ten days. A deal was made for Michael to bring Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley to the Others in exchange for his son Walt and the motorboat to return home with. When Michael successfully leads Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley to the ambush point; Tom, Klugh and various Others sedate, bag and take them to the Pala Ferry. There, Tom was called by Kate on wearing a fake beard with theatrical glue at which time he took it off and would not wear again for the rest of the series. The captives were knocked unconscious and drugged while they were transported to a small island off the coast of the main island.

When Ben learns of Desmond's sailboat, the "Elizabeth", in possession of the crash survivors, he sends Tom and Colleen to capture it from Sayid, Sun and Jin, which they do, however Colleen was shot and killed by Sun in the process.

Tom supervised Ben's operation by Jack and was blackmailed into letting Kate and Sawyer escape. It is during the surgery that Tom loses trust in Juliet when Jack tells him that she wants Ben to die on the operating table. This incident warrants an investigation to take place on the island by Isabel who hears what Tom has to say. When the investigation is complete Tom returns to the main island on a small boat.

Tom leaves the Island and tracks Michael to an alleyway in Manhattan, where Michael is currently trying to kill himself due to feeling guilt over the deaths of Ana-Lucia and Libby and being separated from Walt. When asked for Michael's help, a fight breaks out between the two of them with Tom receiving the upper hand. He tells Michael that the island won't let him commit suicide and gives him the address of his hotel penthouse. Michael eventually goes to the penthouse where Tom is revealed to be in a romantic relationship with another man (explaining the line from season 3 where Tom tells Kate she isn't his type). There, Tom convinces Michael to work for him, revealing that Charles Widmore did a coverup on Oceanic 815 by finding 324 dead bodies in a Thailand cemetery and putting a fake plane on the bottom of the Ocean. He further explains to Michael that if Widmore ever found the Island, everyone on it would be killed, including the Oceanic 815 survivors. Michael agrees to work as a spy to redeem himself from his previous actions on the island. Tom instructs him that a freighter is about to set off from a port in Fiji and they have him a job on it as a janitor. Michael agrees to work as a spy and kill the crew to protect his friends on the island under the alias, "Kevin Johnson". When Michael arrives at the port Tom contacts him on his phone and instructs him to wait a day or two before activating an explosive device that was delivered to the freighter. After their conversation, Michael is ordered to ditch the phone. Although slightly hinted at in season three, it was confirmed in season four that Tom is in fact homosexual.

Tom and Jack are later seen in the barracks, where many of the Others live including himself, happily playing football. They have formed something of a friendship, further demonstrated by Tom telling Jack to be careful on what he says to Kate because the place is bugged. After Jack's goodbye to Kate, Tom escorts him and Juliet to the Pala Ferry where Locke blows up the "Galaga" submarine.

Since then, Tom has abandoned the Barracks with Ben and the rest of the Others to make camp in the jungle on their way to a yet unseen temple. He sends Locke to visit Ben, who tries to persuade Locke to kill his father. Tom watches as Locke is unable to bring himself to do it, and the next day he leaves with the Others to make camp as they abandon Locke for his failure. When Locke arrives at their new camp with his dead father in a sack, Tom is shocked when Locke reveals that he is going with Ben to see Jacob. His faith in Ben's leadership is slightly shaken, and he and Richard look on in astonishment, ignoring Ben's calls for them to intervene as the newly empowered Locke beats Mikhail to the ground.

When Ben returns from Jacob and orders furiously that the attack on the 815 survivors' camp will take place as soon as possible, Tom is part of the attack party sent to the beach to recover the women. Unknown to the Others, the survivors already knew of the attack because of Juliet and Karl. The women's tents have been booby-trapped with dynamite from the Black Rock, in order to ambush the Others.

Sayid, Jin and Bernard manage to detonate two of the tents, killing seven Others, but ultimately are captured. Ben radios Tom and orders that the three are to be shot unless Jack stops his attempt to contact the outside world, but unknown to Jack, Ben has previously commanded that Tom pretend to kill the three hostages over the radio in order to fool Jack somehow. Jack believes Tom has gone through with the orders and swears he will come back and kill him. Afterwards Tom expresses regret at not finishing the hostages that took out seven of their group simply due to Ben's whim.

The arrival of Hurley in a DHARMA Volkswagen van along with Sawyer and Juliet sees the rest of the Others' attack party killed. Tom admits defeat and surrenders, yet despite this, Sawyer shoots him in his heart, killing him, claiming revenge for Tom taking Walt off of the raft. This surprises both Hurley and Juliet, and Sawyer defends his actions by saying he didn't believe Tom's surrender.

Juliet later buries Tom near the jungle along with his team of deceased Others.

Position in the Others' hierarchy

While not in charge of the Others, Tom does have some authority - shown in his conversation with Ethan about his dealings with Alex and Danny and also with the party that captures Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and Michael. He also had authority over Juliet after Jack said that she wanted Ben dead. He acts as an unofficial spokesperson/enforcer for the Others, however is subordinate to Ben Linus, Richard Alpert, Isabel, and especially Jacob. According to Ben, Tom is of little importance compared to Jacob.

Behind the scenes

Tom's name is revealed by Ms. Klugh in the second season finale. Prior to that, M.C. Gainey was credited as "bearded man" or "Mr. Friendly" and nicknamed "Bluebeard" and "Zeke" by Sawyer. M.C. Gainey was only informed that Tom's beard was fake near the end of Season Two. [ [http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/podcast/ ABC - Lost Podcast] ]

In the fourth season episode titled "Meet Kevin Johnson", Tom and his New York lover Arturo (Francesco Simone) are revealed to be the only known gay "Lost" characters. In the third season premiere, Tom tells Kate that she is not his type. [Lindelof, Damon (writer) & Abrams, J.J. (writer) & Bender, Jack (director), "A Tale of Two Cities". "Lost", ABC. Episode 1, season 3. Aired on October 4, 2006.] This comment resulted in much online discussion in regard to Tom's sexual orientation [Kubicek, John, (March 21, 2008) " [http://www.buddytv.com/articles/lost/more/lost-easter-eggs-meet-kevin-jo-17821.aspx "Lost" Easter Eggs: 'Meet Kevin Johnson' #5 – Gay Tom] ", "BuddyTV". Retrieved on April 12, 2008.] [Graham, Dr. Anna, (October 5, 2006) " [http://www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin/detail/index.jsp?uuid=11587948-7222-4bf7-9b33-9b9409222842 The Morning After: "Lost" Redux!] ", "E!". Retrieved on March 24, 2008.] [Ausiello, Michael, (October 4, 2006) " [http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Ausiello/default.aspx?posting={C567C55E-0F41-4330-B24C-3CD010FCB1C2} Ask Ausiello on "Lost"] ", "TV Guide". Retrieved on March 24, 2008.] and executive producers/writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse hinted that a "Lost" character would later be outed. [Lindelof, Damon & Cuse, Carlton, (October 30, 2006) " [http://ll.media.abc.com/podcast/audio/itunes/Lostpodcast_305_abc.mp3 Official "Lost" Podcast] ", "ABC". Retrieved on March 24, 2008.] After the Internet community speculated that Tom is gay, [Matheson, Whitney, (October 6, 2006) " [http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/2006/10/lost_comments_t.html "Lost" Comments That Make You Go 'Hmm…'] ", "USA Today". Retrieved on March 24, 2008.] ["CTV", (November 14, 2006) " [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/show/CTVShows/20061103/TheOthers-Lost/20061114 The Others] ". Retrieved on March 31, 2008.] Gainey played the character as such, trying to subtly flirt with Jack and claiming that this attraction "got me through the first half of the season." [Gainey, M.C., (October 2, 2007) "Femme Fatales: Hostile Environment". "Lost: The Official Magazine", Titan Magazines. Issue #13.] After the broadcast of "Meet Kevin Johnson", Lindelof and Cuse confirmed that the line from the third season premiere is an allusion to Tom's sexuality, but felt that it needed to be explicitly confirmed in the show, although Lindelof noted that the confirmation scene in "Meet Kevin Johnson" "was not subtle, to say the least". [Lindelof, Damon & Cuse, Carlton, (March 21, 2008) " [http://ll.media.abc.com/podcast/audio/itunes/LOST_409_audio_podcast_8ea5441e-65f4-4d96-ad4d-4e2de171b95e_1604375.mp3 The Official "Lost" Audio Podcast] ", "ABC". Retrieved on March 24, 2008.]

References