Cindy Chandler

Season: 1-3 & 6, Episodes: 16, Faction: Survivors/The Others

Overview

Cindy Chandler was an ex-Oceanic Airlines flight attendant. She was in the tail section of Flight 815 when it crashed. She went missing during the Tailies’ journey across the Island to join the beach camp and appeared to be living with the Others along with the other captured people. During her time with the Others, she acted as the caretaker of Zach and Emma, two children who also survived the Flight 815 crash. After the massacre at the Temple, she and the kids aligned with the Man in Black.

Childbirth

Fertility (Water)

Fertility (Vegetation)

Sun (Fire)

1×01 – Pilot, Part 1

   

It appears Cindy was of Australian origin. Prior to the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, Cindy had a short conversation with Jack, asking him if he was okay and later giving him a second bottle of vodka after noticing his lukewarm response to the question. (“Pilot, Part 1”)

1×02 – Pilot, Part 2

   

Minutes later, she noticed Charlie’s odd behavior, and after she alerted her colleagues, a paranoid Charlie rushed to the toilets causing Cindy to give chase. However, her pursuit of Charlie was interrupted when the plane hit some minor turbulence and Cindy left to make the announcement for passengers to fasten their seat belts. She then resumed her pursuit of Charlie, knocking on the door to the bathroom. At some point, Cindy proceeded to the back of the plane. Cindy was in the tail end of the plane when it broke apart and crashed into the sea near the mysterious Island. (“Pilot, Part 2”)

On the Island (Days 1-48)

2×07 – The Other 48 Days

   

After the crash, Cindy emerged from the water at the tail-section crash site and, like many others, tried to help the injured survivors around her. While trying herself to come to terms with the crash, Cindy was approached by Eko and asked to care for two young siblings, Emma and Zach, while Eko dealt with the bodies of the dead and Cindy developed a maternal relationship with the children, caring for them and looking out for them. That night a mysterious group of strangers invaded the camp and kidnapped three of the survivors. The group was startled and forced to decide if they should stay at the beach and await rescue at the risk of being targeted again, or they should move.

   

When Nathan tried to get the group to stay on the beach to get rescued Ana retaliated that they don’t need a fire to get help because of the black box but Cindy revealed that they were off course when Oceanic Flight 815 crashed – and they wouldn’t get rescued if they left the beach.

Several days later, Cindy attended the funeral of Donald, the fourth survivor to go, and it slowly became apparent that through various means their numbers were starting to decline.

   

Twelve days after the crash, the Others returned and took more survivors including Zach and Emma. The aftermath of the kidnapping saw Ana finding a list, making it clear that there was a mole among the group and blame initially fell onto Nathan. The group then started to trek along the Island, always moving to avoid contact with the Others, and they all gradually developed a fear of the mysterious people. When suspicions became rife, Ana threw Nathan in the tiger pit to keep him incarcerated and Cindy validated her beliefs by stating that she can’t remember him from the plane and she is usually good with remembering the faces of her passengers. However, her claims would be proven wrong when it was revealed that fellow passenger Goodwin was the infiltrator and not Nathan.

   

One morning, Cindy went to the tiger pit and discovered that Nathan had escaped and immediately alerted the rest of the group (when in reality, Nathan had been killed by Goodwin).

   

After they continued moving, the group came across The Arrow where Cindy and the rest of the group explored the structure and the radio. While trekking to higher ground to use the radio, Ana deduced that Goodwin was the real mole and killed him, returning to Cindy, Libby, Bernard and Eko telling them that they were now safe to set up a camp.

   

Some time later, Cindy and Libby trekked to the beach to catch some fish and Cindy noticed something on the shoreline – a body. On further inspection they discovered it to be an Asian man and the group quickly incarcerated him with the tail-section survivors believing him to be one of the Others, and Jin thinking the same of them. Jin eventually broke free, just as his fellow mid-section survivors Michael and Sawyer washed up on the beach, forcing Cindy to give chase. (“The Other 48 Days”)

2×02 – Adrift  |  2×03 – Orientation

   

After Jin escaped he ran to the beach to find Sawyer and Michael, but Cindy and the rest of the survivors were close behind. Cindy watched on as Eko knocked the three unconscious. 

   

The Tailies dragged them through the jungle and imprisoned them in the tiger pit. Cindy and Bernard returned to The Arrow while Libby, Eko and Ana remained behind. Ana Lucia, however, soon discovered that the three were also Oceanic Flight 815 survivors and the tail-section survivors let them out of the pit. (“Adrift”) (“Orientation”)

2×04 – Everybody Hates Hugo

   

The group then trekked back to The Arrow where they met Cindy and Bernard and the tail-section survivors attempted to decide what to do next. (“Everybody Hates Hugo”)

2×05 – …And Found

   

After Ana Lucia decided they should trek across the Island and join with their captives, Cindy dutifully followed. Before they began their journey, Michael tried to inquire as to what happened to make the tail-section survivors so on edge. This prompted Ana Lucia to order Cindy and Eko to scout the area to ensure the Others weren’t in the vicinity. (“…And Found”)

2×06 – Abandoned

   

During the trek to the camp, the group stopped for a rest. After an hour, an anxious Cindy tried to persuade Ana to continue, worried that they would find them again. Much to Cindy’s relief, their trek continued when Eko, Jin and Michael reunited with the group. Eko brought news that he had seen The Others. Despite the frightening news, the group was forced to go inland, something which they had tried to avoid to prevent contact with the Others, when the coastline became uncrossable because they were caring for an injured Sawyer who didn’t have the strength to make such a difficult crossing across treacherous terrain. Despite Ana Lucia’s complaints, Eko convinced the group to travel inland. During the trek, Sawyer grew weak from his gunshot wound and collapsed, and the group were forced to make an improvised stretcher for him.

   

After approaching a steep hill, the group all had to work together to get Sawyer up, and Cindy was at the foot of the group. Upon reaching the top, however, Ana noticed that Cindy was missing, and as they climbed, she had seemingly and silently been taken by the Others. Ana initially wanted to find Cindy, but when the Whispers were heard, the group was forced to flee. (“Abandoned”) (“The Other 48 Days”)

Days 74-88

3×09 – Stranger in a Strange Land

   

About a month later, as Jack was being held in one of the animal cages at the Hydra, he woke up to see Cindy standing with a group of strangers looking at him. He recognized her from the plane and asked her how she had ended up with the Others. Cindy told him it was “not that simple,” and Jack became angry. He asked her what she was doing there and she said she was there “to watch.” Emma whispered in Cindy’s ear and Cindy said Emma wanted to know how Ana Lucia was doing. Jack, remembering Ana Lucia’s tragic death, shouted that if she had something to watch that she should go watch it. Abashed, Cindy led the group away from the cages. She later attended Juliet’s trial. (“Stranger in a Strange Land”)

3×19 – The Brig

   

Later, on the main Island, Cindy left the the Barracks with the rest of the Others. Locke helped her assemble her tent on their first night at the ruins and she thanked him. She told him not to mind the stares he was getting from some of the Others; they were just excited he was finally there with them, as they had been waiting for him for a long time. She later watched with Zach and Emma as Locke refused to kill his father, who was tied to a pillar amongst the ruins. (“The Brig”)

2007

6×02 – LA X, Part 2

   

Cindy was at the Temple with the group of Others being led by Dogen. She recognized Jack and his friends as being fellow plane crash survivors and told Dogen as much. When Dogen ordered the survivors to be shot, she did not seem flustered.

   

After Sayid’s apparent death, she, Zach, and Emma brought the survivors some food. She was also present for the rest of the events at the Temple. (“LA X, Part 2”)

6×06 – Sundown

   

Cindy was present when Sayid came back to the Temple and delivered Locke’s message, officially declaring Jacob dead and that there was no reason for them to stay at the temple any more. He told them that they had until sundown to decide on what to do. When Cindy asked Sayid what would happen at sundown if they stayed, he said that they would die. The message that Sayid sent to the Others seriously frightened most of them. Lennon tried to convince Cindy not to leave and that this was only a bluff. However, she realized that it was pointless to stay after Jacob’s death, and she wouldn’t risk staying. Cindy decided to leave the Temple with Zach and Emma and join the Man in Black. (“Sundown”)

6×08 – Recon

   

Cindy, Zach and Emma followed the Man in Black to Claire’s hut. Once there, Cindy inquired what happened to the people who did not leave the Temple. The Man in Black responded that they were all dead, killed by the Black Smoke. This seemed to disturb Zach, and Emma and Cindy comforted him as he began to cry. The Man in Black promised the children that he would take care of them. The group soon left Claire’s hut. Cindy, Zach and Emma arrived with the rest of the group at a clearing, where the Man in Black declared they would be staying for a few days. (“Recon”)

6×13 – The Last Recruit

   

A few days later, Cindy left the clearing along with the rest of the Man in Black’s recruits, heading towards the beach to make a rendezvous with Sawyer. When the Man in Black suddenly decided to leave the group, Cindy inquired as to what he was doing. He responded that he was going to find Sayid. Later, the Others were heavily bombed by Charles Widmore’s team, killing many of them. (“The Last Recruit”)

6×14 – The Candidate

Sayid later mentioned to Jack that some members of the Others survived, scattering into the jungle. (“The Candidate”)

LOST Encyclopedia

Cindy (along with Zach and Emma) survived the mortar attack launched by Widmore’s team and continued living on the island under Hurley’s reign. (“Lost Encyclopedia”)

6×01 – LA X, Part 1

   

Aboard Oceanic Flight 815, Cindy was once again a flight attendant and asked Jack how his drink was, in an exchange mirroring their previous lives. Later, she helped as Jack resuscitated Charlie, and comforted him when Charlie expressed disdain at having been revived. (“LA X, Part 1”)

Images Source | Source 

Associated LOST Themes & DHARMA Stations

      

   

Decoded Family Members

Emma (Adoptive Daughter)

Zach (Adoptive Son)

Decoded Season 1 Characters

Jack Shephard

Jin-Soo Kwon

John Locke

Sayid Jarrah

Charlie Pace

JD

Hunter

Decoded Season 2 Characters

Libby Smith

Mr. Eko

Ana Lucia Cortez

Bernard Nadler

Decoded Season 5 & 6 Characters

Man In Black

Jacob

Dogen

Lennon

Key Episode(s) to Decoding the Character

2x07 "The Other 48 Days" 3x09 "Stranger In A Strange Land" 6x02 "LA X, Part 2"

6x08 "Recon"

(Heket) A Goddess depicted either as a frog-headed woman or as a frog, Heqet is associated with the development of the fetus in the womb, with birth and with resurrection. Some of these associations may have come from witnessing frogs emerging from the mud after prolonged hibernation, an image evoking the idea of spontaneous generation in a manner somewhat akin to the life cycle of the scarab beetle as interpreted through the God Khepri.

In an ‘ascension’ spell from the Pyramid Texts (utterance 539), the “hinder-parts” of the king are identified with Heqet, perhaps because of the frog’s talent for jumping. In CT spell 175, the operator affirms that “I am the Great One whom Heqet created, who gathered together these bones of Osiris,” identifying the formation of the body prior to birth with the reconstitution of Osiris, which takes place in a marshy setting. In spell 234, reference is made to the “four basins of Khepri and Heqet,” to which breads are offered which symbolize “the mooring-post, the bow-warp and the stern-warp.” These basins have been identified with sacred lakes in the area of Saqqara and Abusir, across which the funerary procession would have crossed on the way to the cemetery. In spell 258, a spell for “not perishing forever,” Heqet is pluralized: “the Ennead [the nine Gods of Heliopolis] conduct to him [the deceased] the Heqets who bore Re, they serve for you your great ka‘s [spirits] in the midst of the horizon.” The eastern horizon, where Re is born, is conceived as a marsh and as the vulva of Nut, hence as places to which Heqet is appropriate both as frog and as divine midwife. Heqet is also referred to in the plural as a group of frog-Goddesses who attend Hapy, the God of the Nile’s inundation. She is paired with Khnum, for he shares both her association with the formation of the body and with the Nile, and with Haroeris (the ‘elder’ Horus), either as consort or as mother. A spell for the divinization of the members of the body (CT 945) identifies Heqet with the anus, for reasons which are obscure. In addition to amulets for protection during childbirth, Heqet appears frequently on ivory magical wands, indicating that she is a protector of health and home in general.

In the Westcar Papyrus, Heqet is one of the deities (the others being Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet and Khnum) who are sent by Re to hasten the delivery of the royal mother Ruddedet. The Goddesses disguise themselves as dancing girls, Khum as their porter. Arriving at Ruddedet’s bedside, they assist her in giving birth to triplets, who are to be the first three kings of the fifth dynasty. Heqet’s specific role is to hasten the births, while Isis names the children, Meskhenet prophesies in regard to them, and Khnum grants health to their bodies (Lichtheim vol. 1, p. 220).

The biographical inscription of Petosiris (4th-3rd c. BCE) refers to an incident in which Petosiris, a high priest of Thoth, witnessed a festival of Heqet in which the statue of the Goddess being taken on procession halted at a spot outside of town where a temple of Heqet had formerly stood but had been washed away entirely by the Nile’s annual flood. Interpreting the behavior of the statue as a desire on the part of the Goddess that her temple be rebuilt, Petosiris recounts that he financed the reconstruction and rededication of the temple, this time with a rampart around it to protect it from the waters (Lichtheim vol. 3, pp. 47-8).

Heqet is depicted in reliefs from the temple of Hathor at Dendera participating in the resurrection of Osiris, and from dynasty 18 or 19 on a frog ideogram is sometimes added to the phrase wehem ankh, ‘repeating life’, i.e. born again or resurrected (Gardiner p. 475). The association of the frog with resurrection persisted even among the Christians of Egypt, a lamp having been found with the figure of a frog on it which proclaims, in Greek, “I am the resurrection,” (Budge, vol. 2, p. 137).

Image Source | Source

Further Info

Heqet (Heket) was a goddess of childbirth, creation and grain germination. She was depicted as a frog, or a woman with the head of a frog, betraying her connection with water. As a water goddess, she was also a goddess of fertility where she was particularly associated with the later stages of labour. In this way, the title of “Servants of Heqet” may have been a title applied to her priestesses who were trained as midwives.

The ancient Egyptians saw thousands of frogs appear all along the Nile at certain times of the year. This appearance of the reptile came to symbolise fruitfulness and coming life.

She was thought to be the wife of Khnum, the god who creates men on his potter’s wheel, and she gave the newly created being the breath of life before the child was placed to grow in the mother’s womb.

In the story of the triplets who would be pharaohs, she was the goddess of magically “hastens the birth”, in an unspecified manner.

In Hatshepsut’s birth colonnade, it is Heqet, with Khnum, who led Ahmose to the birthing room. She also was depicted as the goddess who held the ankh sign of life to Hatshepsut and her ka, fulfilling her job as the giver of life to the newly created child.

She originally appears in the pyramid texts where she helps the pharaoh ascend into the sky. She is also connected with the Osiris myth in the “Funeral of Osiris” at Dendera:

Osiris, ithyphallic and bearded, in mummied form, lying upon his bier; over his feet and his body hover the hawks. At the head kneels Hathor, “Mistress of Amentet, who weepeth for ‘her brother’,” and at the foot is a frog symbol of the goddess Heqet, beneath the bier are an ibis-headed god holding the Utchat, two serpents, and the god Bes.

As such, she was not only a goddess of birth, but of rebirth, because of her life-giving powers.

Amulets of Heqet were worn by women to protect them while they gave birth. During the Middle Kingdom ritual ivory knives and clappers (a type of percussional musical instrument) bore her name or image as protection for inside the home.

There was a Ptolemaic temple to Heqet at Qus, of which only a pylon remains. She was also known as “Lady of Her-wer”: A tomb at Tuna el-Gebel has text speaks about a procession in her honour where she asks that the temple of Heqet at Her-wer be restored and protected from inundation, but this temple has not been found, yet.

Image Source | Image Source | Source

Wiki Info

To the Egyptians, the frog was a symbol of life and fertility, since millions of them were born after the annual inundation of the Nile, which brought fertility to the otherwise barren lands. Consequently, in Egyptian mythology, there began to be a frog-goddess, who represented fertility, referred to by Egyptologists as Heqet (also Heqat, Hekit, Heket etc, more rarely Hegit, Heget etc.)’, written with the determinative frog. Her name was probably pronounced more like *Ḥaqā́tat in Middle Egyptian, hence her later Greek counterpart Ἑκάτη (see Hecate). Heqet was usually depicted as a frog, or a woman with a frog’s head, or more rarely as a frog on the end of a phallus to explicitly indicate her association with fertility. She was often referred to as the wife of Khnum.

The beginning of her cult dates to the early dynastic period at least. Her name was part of the names of some high-born Second Dynasty individuals buried at Helwan and was mentioned on a stela of Wepemnofret and in the Pyramid Texts. Early frog statuettes are often thought to be depictions of her.

She was worshipped in the areas where the Ogdoad cosmogony had gained favour, and so, like most deities belonging to this world view, except for the eight members of the Ogdoad themselves, she was considered a child of Ra. After Ra became Atum-Ra, it was sometimes said that as the bringer of life to the newborn, she had to be the wife of Shu, who had fathered Nut and Geb, and his first wife was Tefnut.

Later, as a fertility goddess, associated explicitly with the last stages of the flooding of the Nile, and so with the germination of corn, she became associated with the final stages of childbirth. This association, which appears to have arisen during the Middle Kingdom, gained her the title She who hastens the birth. Some claim that—even though no ancient Egyptian term for “midwife” is known for certain—midwives often called themselves the Servants of Heqet, and that her priestesses were trained in midwifery. Women often wore amulets of her during childbirth, which depicted Heqet as a frog, sitting in a lotus. As goddess of the last stages of birth, she was considered the wife of Khnum, who formed the bodies of new children on his potter’s wheel.

When the Legend of Osiris and Isis developed, it was said that it was Heqet who breathed life into the new body of Horus at birth, as she was the goddess of the last moments of birth. As the birth of Horus became more intimately associated with the resurrection of Osiris, so Heqet’s role became one more closely associated with resurrection. Eventually, this association lead to her amulets gaining the phrase I am the resurrection, and consequently the amulets were used by early Christians. Finally, as the legend of Osiris’ resurrection grew increasingly stronger, she became ever more aligned with Isis, and eventually becoming an aspect of her.

Image Source | Source  

Mythological Family Members & Associated Deities

RA (Father)	KHNUM (Consort)	KHEPRI	OSIRIS	GEB	NUT	ATUM
SHU	TEFNUT	HORUS	ISIS	NEPHTHYS	HATHOR	MESKHENET
THOTH	AMENTET