[We see Shannon and Sayid working on the translation.]
SHANNON: A des reflets d'argent. La mer des reflets changeants -- the sea of sparkles? No, wait, um, the sea of silver sparkles that change. [Sort of laughing] It's the same as the last one.
SAYID: Are you sure? [Slightly annoyed.] But the equation is completely different. It doesn't relate. What you're saying doesn't make any sense.
SHANNON: Okay?
SAYID: What about this one? It should say something about latitude or longitude, something about the stars...
SHANNON: Okay, just give me some room, okay? Um, next to the pond, blue, um, blue eternity, blue eternity? No, wait, no, blue infinity.
SAYID: Blue infinity?
SHANNON: Blue infinity. There's something about this that is so familiar.
SAYID: You've been telling me what sounds very much like nonsense for the past hour and now it seems to me...
SHANNON: Okay, a) I told you that my French sucks, and b) this isn't my nonsense, okay? Did you ever think that after 16 years on Mystery *****in' Island your friend might not be quite adjusted?
SAYID: [picking up the papers] This was a mistake.
SHANNON: Yeah, haven't you heard? I'm completely useless.
[Shannon walks off, upset]
She's finally applying herself to the task at hand, finally mustering up the courage to do something, and even to the best of her ability, it seems she's completely screwed up and failed the only person who has come to her for help. It has to be devastating.
And yet, later that night, she finally realizes what it all meant. Instead of hiding and never trying again in fear of another failure, she goes to that person and explains what it was. She sings. She just lets herself and her hangups go for this one moment just to tell the person what they needed to know.
I got a bit long on that, because what I really wanted to talk about was the set-up for her eventual character.
In "Outlaws," Locke shows up and tells a random story to Sawyer and Kate about a dog his foster mother or sister had that she felt was an old dead loved one come back to comfort and guide her. It was like five minutes long and had nothing to do with anything.
At some point, either that episode or another, she goes up bugging Locke about Boone, but he turns it around on her and makes a pointed statement about her wants and desires. I don't remember it clearly, but it was a strongly inquistive and introspective question that Locke was fond of making and Shannon, who easily absorbs what other people say about her, would have given lots of pause to think about.
And then her brother died. While she's off having a wonderful date with her new beau, her brother dies in her absence. The one time since the crash she's not around on the beach waiting for something, whether it's rescue or her brother to need her for once or anything, something devastating happens in her life. This is the first time she's really involved with something that affects a lot of other castaways because Boone was a part of people's lives. Not as mcuh as others, but he was always there to try and help. And now he's dead. Shannon grieves and tries to kill the man she thinks responsible; she lashes out. She can't deal with the loss. She is all alone again and she is deathly afraid, maybe because she doesn't trust herself to take care of herself. She loves her brother, but she also needs her brother and is afraid to face a world without him there to get her out of a jam.