On This Day in 2007 ‘Lost’ Killed Off Its Most Hated Characters
The ABC drama Lost kept fans and critics hooked for six seasons. It wasn’t always positive. Not everyone was satisfied with the show’s answers to its own mysteries, but they kept watching to the end and many were. One development that did not go over well was the characters of Nikki and Paolo.
On March 28, 2007, Lost listened to fans and killed off Nikki and Paolo. Ironically, “Expose” turned out to be the best Nikki and Paolo episode. Here’s what happened:
The introduction of Nikki and Paolo on ‘Lost’
Lost was about the survivors of a plane crash on a mysterious island. The plane already included a large ensemble cast of survivors. Each week, Lost would focus on a different character and flash back to their lives before the island, informing some of the action on the island.
By season 2, Lost still found ways to introduce new cast members. The survivors of the tail section of the plane came and mostly went in the second season. Then the survivors opened the hatch and discovered The Others, led by Ben (Michael Emerson) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) who’d been living on the island long before the plane arrived.
But in season 3, Lost decided there were some survivors of the original flight we hadn’t met yet. Nikki (Kiele Sanchez) and Paolo (Rodrigo Santoro) showed up and started chiming in with Jack (Matthew Fox) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) et. al. Fans on The Fuselage message board were asking about the other survivors who weren’t among the 15 stars of the show, but perhaps season 3 was too late to introduce new ones.
‘Lost’ killed off Nikki and Paolo dramatically
In the March 28 episode, “Expose,” Lost finally revealed what Nikki and Paolo were up to. They weren’t necessarily trying to help escape the island or defeat The Others. Nikki and Paolo were con artists who had stolen diamonds. They were looking for their stash.
Paolo found them first and hid them, so Nikki retaliated. She unleashed a poisonous spider on Paolo whose bite paralyzed him. Unfortunately, another spider bit Nikki. Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and the gang presumed Nikki and Paolo dead by the spider bites, not knowing that the paralysis wears off.
Nikki even tried to say the word “paralyzed” in her final breaths, but the venom’s effects led to macabre misunderstandings. The Lost survivors ended up burying Nikki and Paolo alive and they were never to be seen again.
Why Nikki and Paolo didn’t work
Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof spoke to Entertainment Weekly a few weeks after “Expose” aired. Lindelof revealed that the original plan for Nikki and Paolo was to poke fun at the ultra serious flashbacks of the rest of the characters. But Lindelof realized that by season 3, fans were getting antsy about the delayed payoff to many questions, so they couldn’t afford Nikki and Paolo as originally intended.
”Back when we had more good faith with the audience, we could have gotten away with these shenanigans,” Lindelof told EW. “Given the backlash against them, we had to clean up the mess. We’re now judged on an episode-by-episode basis. There’s not a lot of room for error.”
