LOST character of the week

Obey my beard

Tom, aka the WeirdBeard, was one of my favorite LOST characters. He was just so likable. Like Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. Every island needs a Boo Radley. If Tom had kidnapped me, I would have surely succumbed to Stokholm Syndrome and become and Other because he was just that awesome. And he looks like my PawPaw only younger and with a longer beard.

Tom's first appearance on the show was in the Season One finale. In a scene that was cut from Deliverance, probably because of the lack of banjo music, a dirty, bearded Tom approached the raft and told Michael "we're gonna haf to take yer boy." Tom's boat ninjas then shot up Michael, Sawyer, and Jin and exploded the raft. Tom and crew then rode off into the dark with Walt in tow. I remember declaring the scene "freaking sweet" after it was over.

Tom was also present when Ethan kidnapped Claire and took her to the medical station. He told Tom Cruise's cousin that he had no business kidnapping Claire as she was not on Jacob's list yet. He's always there, hovering just in the background in scenes involving the Others. He welcomed Juliet when she first came to the island.

In Season Two, Michael goes out in search for Walt and Tom captures him. Then he builds a huge circle of torches and toys with the survivors searching for Michael, telling them not to cross the line getting any closer to the Others. He's still wearing his funk nasty Jerry Garcia beard while this is going on. Tom takes Michael to Mrs. Klugh who reveals that Tom's name is Tom. Up until this point I had just referred to him as WeirdBeard. Then Michael is released and promised Walt if he can bring Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley to the Others. He does and they take Sawyer, Kate, and Jack and tell Hurley to go back and warn the others to stay away, proving that the producers of this show have a thing for torturing the pretty people.

The Others take the pretty trio to their second island, because they're nothing if not prepared. Tom tells Kate to take a shower because she is stank nasty. Kate immediately thinks this mean that Tom's in love with her, but he's not like all of the Other moronic men on the island and pretty much laughs in her face while telling her she's not his type. Turns out that Sawyer is more Tom's type. Moving on. After Kate gets dressed he sends her to the beach to have a loverly breakfast with Ben. Ben wants Kate to bat her eyelashes at Jack and seduce him into doing surgery on his back. Tom locks her in the cage across from Sawyer who is exhausted after his whole fish biscuit escapade. Tom then makes her go shovel gigantic rocks into a wheelbarrow in the heat, because, let's face it, Kate needs some character building, am I right?

Tom then goes to oversee Ben's surgery. He kicks Juliet out of the operating room because she told Jack to kill Ben. Jack cuts something he's not supposed to cut and yells at Tom to bring him the walkie talkie or he won't fix the cut and Ben will bleed to death. Here we see Tom have a major level freak out when Pickett won't give his walkie to Kate. Jack finishes the surgery. Awhile later Tom goes to get Jack out of his room and Jack thinks they're going to kill him. Tom's feelings are hurt and he asks Jack why he thinks they're going to kill him. They will never kill off the beautiful man candies or the hateful shrews on the island. They just kill off the likable people. He takes Jack back to live in Otherland and he and Jack play football because they're bros now, yo.

Later we find out that the others captured Kate and Sayid while they were trying to rescue Jack and they've been locked in Tom's house. Dream come true, am I right? I bet he has lots of board games. He and some other Others go to the beach to kidnap all the preggos from the tents, but the tents have been rigged with explosives! OH NOES! They are captured. Tom tells Sawyer that he gives up and Sawyer shoots him, saying he was doing it for Walt. Tom dies. *sobbing*

Tom appears in a flashback in Episode 4. He finds Michael in Manhattan and tells him that his attempts to kill himself won't work as the island won't let it happen until he finishes his work. Michael goes looking for Tom and finds him entertaining a man friend in a lavish hotel suite. Cause that's how Tom rolls, y'all. Tom tells him that Charles Widmore is dangerously close to finding the island and Ben wants Michael to go undercover on the freighter and blow the whole thing up. And that's the last we see of Tom. Farewell, good friend.

Connections: Contacted Michael off of the island after Michael was released.

Sawyer nicknames: Bluebeard, Zeke

I know I promised a sombrero picture but I can't find where I saved it. Because I'm stupid. Sorry. Here's a picture of M.C. Gainey with a dog, though. It's a peace offering.


Sources: Wikipedia, lost.about.com, my brain