The Mysteries: The Others (as a modern community)

The Others are not only not zombies, they are a modern community. They are never more Civilized than their book club at the beginning of Season 3.[1]

At the end of Season 5, Entertainment Weekly’s resident Lost guru Doc Jensen asked fans to submit their “Top 3 Lost Mysteries You Absolutely Need to See Resolved in Season 6.” The resulting Top 15 List[2] is overly broad and mostly unsurprising but that reflects the clear consensus among fans as to what the Lost mysteries are. I may use that list more in the future to organize this blog’s mysteries discussion: the Whispers and the Others are both on the list.

It does not, however, contain at item on my Top 3 list: whatever happened to the old lady from the book club? Her name is Amelia and there theories online about her origin, some primarily based on her name. I understand that the island’s healing properties may give kept her healthy beyond her years, she’s still elderly. I imagine she’s with the group of Others at the Temple. But even if the Temple is a series of Cocoon like hot tubs, I can’t imagine her making the day and a half hike it takes from the Barracks.

But suppose I grant that Amelia is a very spry senior citizen and try to ignore the comparisons to Dick Van Dyke from A Night at the Museum, that still leaves me wondering how Adam, the middle aged guy from the book club who is all pissy and snarky about Juliet’s choice of book, survived on the island. Amelia may be old, but Adam is just a tool.

I think the show overshot itself. The book club is the pre-title scene from the first episode of the 3rd season. It is a tease. The audience is supposed to think all of this happening during an off-island flashback. The payoff shot of the civilized Barracks in the middle of the island’s jungle is a provocation shot. We had previously seen the Others with modern medical technology,[3] but we still weren’t prepared for the Others to be so modern as to have, well, a book club. But in order to show that the Others are not the hut-dwelling jungle tribe we were led to believe, the book club loads the Others’ community with dependents. It’s just too much overhead for a people that can still melt into the jungle at a day’s notice.

At least the book club’s other revelation evolved into a cohesive narrative: Juliet burns food when she’s stressed.[4]

[1] “A Tale of Two Cities”
[2] http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20209564_20209584_20291928,00.html)
[3] “Maternity Leave”
[4] See “He’s Our You”