Danielle Rousseau - Reception

Reception

In a review of the first season episode "Solitary", Chris Carabott of IGN commented that Rousseau appeared to be more emotionally fragile than in later seasons, and was like a "loose cannon". Carabott found that as the series progressed and the mystery around the character was lessened, Rousseau was unable to deliver the same impact she made in her first appearance. In his review of "Numbers", in which Rousseau makes her second appearance, Carabott described Hurley and Rousseau's encounter as "the episode's best moment", as "Hurley finds comfort with someone who we would least expect." Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams commended Furlan for giving the character "heart and soul", and managed to make her "identifiable and complex".

Rousseau's unknown fate in "Meet Kevin Johnson" was heavily discussed among critics. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger felt that the relationship between Rousseau and Alex after their reunion remained unexplored, which made Rousseau's death a wasted opportunity for a powerful death scene. BuddyTV's Don Williams believed that Rousseau would survive, mainly because he had been waiting to see her flashback for four seasons, and thought her death would ensure it would not happen. Dan Compora from SyFy Portal was disappointed in her death scene, noting, "I wasn't shocked to see Danielle get killed, but the scene felt like it was tossed in just in case this had to serve as the season finale." Compora felt that Rousseau deserved more screen time in the episode leading up to her death. The San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman described it as "a rude and lazy way to get rid of Rousseau". John Kubicek, also of BuddyTV, found her death scene unsatisfactory, commenting, "Then we have that entirely tacked on scene at the end which felt so artificial, like I accidentally flipped over to a different show. While I agree Danielle Rousseau being shot with an arrow is shocking, is this really what the show has come to? Arbitrarily putting a recurring character's life in peril to pose as a cliffhanger?"