CINDY'S STORY

If there was ever a character who needed a real back story episode, it would be Cindy Chandler.

Cindy was a flight attendant on Flight 815. She appears to be an Aussie. She was the one who gave a nervous Jack a second bottle of vodka (on the house). She was also the person who noticed Charlie's erratic behavior. She was trying to get Charlie out of the first class restroom before the final turbulence began. However, somehow she wound up in the back of the plane when Flight 815 broke a part. (Whether this is a continuity error is unknown; or whether she was part of crash sequence from the beginning.)

Cindy wound up in the Tail Section survivors. She helped Ana Lucia and Libby take care of the wounded. She quickly became the guardian for two children, Zach and Emma (which also lead some to believe that she was an Other, who was charged with gathering any children for the collective.)

When the Others raided the Tailies camp, Zach and Emma and "other" survivors were kidnapped. We don't know if Cindy was kidnapped or voluntarily left with the children. However, we know that she quickly assimulated herself into the Others' camp. She never tried to escape the Others. 

In the final season, she went to the Temple on Ben's orders. She chose to go with Flocke (MIB) in order to protect the children from harm. We do not know what actually happened to her at the end of the series; most presume she stayed on the island under Hurley's watch.

But why would anyone want to "stay" on the island" Cindy had a life and career prior to the crash. She also would have wanted to reunite Zach and Emma with their mother, right? The only reason why Cindy would stay on the island with the children was to protect them from the truth - - - that they perished in the plane crash and they were not yet ready for heaven.

Cindy is a mysterious character that was underdeveloped in the series.

She could have been good or evil.

She could have been an Other whose mission was to kidnap the children. Ben was famous for planting spies in the enemy camp. Or perhaps, she could have been working for Jacob, who recruited off-island people to do his work.

Or she could have been a normal young woman who found it her duty to protect the people in her charge, the passengers on the plane. And she clung to the most at risk, the children.

Or, the island could have been setting her up to repeat its own history . . . . turning Cindy into Crazy Mother 2.0 and Zach and Emma as her adoptive children, Jacob and MIB, in order to reboot the island's mission cycle (whatever that truly was). 

The gaps in Cindy's story line were ripe for writer exploitation and intrigue. But alas, we will never know the true Cindy story.