The Mysteries: The Others (as zombies)

The ending of Lost may be anticlimactic because until the very end we often fail to appreciate many of unanswered questions have been answered. Case in point, the Others. Who are the Others? They are people like Juliet who have come to the island under diverse but earthly circumstances and as others in relation to the survivors of Oceanic 815. But the Others label still packs a punch because they were so scary for so long. I don’t think the Others ever had special powers. But it’s worth remembering when they were monsters because I am not convinced all the earlier encounters can be packed back into the Others were always human explanation.

The Others as otherworldly began with Ethan Rom’s kidnapping Claire. We never see him take Claire and Charlie, but I think the question left hanging in the air is one asked by Locke: how did one man carry off two people, dragging one?[1] That the Others are in great shape and trained fighters is an answer but wouldn’t have satisfied anyone at the time and shouldn’t satisfy us now. The idea that Ethan is more than mere human is reinforced by how easily he kicks Jack’s ass when the hunting party catches up to him.[2] But sure, Juliet and Ben have both kicked more ass than their form would suggest possible, so fine, that can explain Jack’s beating. Lastly, after Charlie is saved he still has no memory of what happened, like his memory had been erased.

Ethan’s return for Claire is also scary. He appears in the jungle, knocking out Jin and holding Charlie against a tree in a Darth Vader chokehold. Ethan appears blood, an open wound on his cheek and dirty clothes. (On a quick side note, Ethan’s appearance is preceded by the sound of footsteps not whispers.) The survivors huddle to protect Claire but Ethan still slips into camp at night like a ghost to kill Scott. Of course, now we know the Others just came over in one of their boats. The best wrap up of Ethan’s initial story arch is provided by frequent onscreen narrator Hurley. As he helps Charlie bury Ethan’s body, Hurley warns about him rising from the dead to take his revenge on Charlie for shooting him. The Others are zombies.

In the second season, the Others remain unseen and inhuman, alternatively ghosts or animals. This is the beginning of the real Others vs. castaways war, a war brought home by the survivors of the flight 815’s tail section who have been fighting the Others since day 1. Mr. Eko says the Others do not leave tracks.[3] You don’t know what they’re capable of, he warns, and says they won’t be found if they don’t want to be.[4] Ana Lucia describes them as smart, animals and can be anywhere at anytime.[5] But again, maybe they are just talented. The Others themselves are cocky about their abilities. Senior Other Mr. Tom Friendly promises Jack that Michael won’t be able to find the Others camp.[6] At the time, though, Michael is the Others’ prisoner. His capture supports the just plain talented theory. Mr. Friendly does appear behind Michael seemingly out of nowhere, impressive for a man of Tom’s size and age. But Michael is distracted by another Other pretending to pee and that Other does signal for Tom to approach.[7]

Harper appears and disappears out of nowhere but as discussed the Whispers post, maybe that wasn’t Harper. The Others’ do double back on Kate and Sayid later in the series, but even Naomi created a fake trail while she had a knife in her back. Like I said, I am sure the Others spend a lot of time practicing and that Richard knows the island like the back of his hand. And they still need Kate and Sayid’s help to ambush the mercenary team.

The incident that is so tough to explain though is the Others’ kidnapping Cindy. She is taken while walking through a relatively clear section of the jungle with Ana Lucia, Eko, and the other Tailies and Michael, Jin and Sawyer. They turn around for only a few moments and she is gone. Adding confusion, the Whispers are heard just after she disappears.[8] I have a theory about that occurrence of the Whispers but either way, it doesn’t seem like Cindy could have been kidnapped by anyone except some tribe of jungle mutants who can move at greater than human speed and agility.

I don’t think the creators are making it up as they go. I think they just walking a very tight rope. They put the audience in the castaways point of view and then present images they make all of us jump to unwarranted conclusions. They are very talented showman, but I think sometimes they step off and they pretend they didn’t. That’s my meta view of the series in a paragraph.

[1] “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues?”
[2] Id.
[3] “…And Found”
[4] Id.
[5] “Abandoned”
[6] “The Hunting Party”
[7] “Three Minutes”
[8] “Abandoned”