Back near the end of war, there is a small Others-Castaways encounter overshadowed by the big explosions of the final attack. Desmond, Charlie, Hurley and Jin encounter Mikhail in the jungle. They are looking for the just parachuted in Naomi and Mikhail is searching for the Others’ new camp after his first near death experience. Charlie is the hawk not wanting to trust Mikhail who has offered to help treat Naomi’s injuries. Desmond is the dove. These roles make sense as Charlie and Desmond are on opposite ends of the personally affected by the Others’ dastardly deeds scale. Desmond, getting all enlightened on us, says that the survivors have actually killed more of the Others than vice-versa.[1] That’s what this post is about. Tallying up the butcher’s bill.
At the moment Desmond makes his pronouncement, the castaways have killed seven Others. Charlie killed the first one. He shot Ethan while Ethan kneeled on the ground weaponless, post Jack’s ass-kicking.[2] We know Ethan is not a good person. Ethan drew first blood across the board: he kidnapped Claire and almost killed Charlie. He also helped Ben kidnap Alex and was eager to do more.[3] Most importantly, he did kill Scott. So they’re 1-1.
Actually, if the tailies are properly counted, the survivors were already ahead. Mr. Eko killed the two Others trying to drag him into the jungle and Ana Lucia killed another when they came back for the children.[4] Charlie is right though; the Others started it. Goodwin gets them back by murdering Nathan.[5] Ever wonder if Juliet knew her boyfriend was capable of cold-bloodedly snapping another man’s neck? Then Goodwin goes down. Rewatching the tape, I cannot decide who started the fight between Goodwin and Ana Lucia. They get to the point where they both know Goodwin has been exposed as an Other. They stare at each awkwardly for a moment and then lunge at each other. Then Goodwin dies by jumping into her spear.[6] That makes the count 5-2. But that doesn’t count all people the Others’ kidnapped: 13 people including two children. The only ones we have seen since are the children. It’s possible the Others simply exterminated the other 11.
Sawyer kills an unnamed Other in the jungle while following Michael into the ambush.[7] The Other is fleeing when Sawyer shoots in a futile attempt to prevent the Others from learning the survivors are on their way. Sun kills another one very soon after that. She shoots Colleen when the Others sneak onto Desmond’s boat and Sun is caught alone facing a gang of armed Others.[8] That makes the count 7-2. One could put Ana Lucia and Libby in the Others’ column since Michael shot them while working for Ben, but I am going to accept Ben’s argument that he never ordered Michael to kill them and there were other, non-lethal ways for Michael to free Ben and save Walt.
Ironically, after Desmond and Charlie’s conversation, the survivors’ total shoots up even more and the Others’ add only one name to their column: Charlie. The survivors kill all 10 Others who raid their camp.[9] Five or 6 are killed by the dynamite, one or two are shot by Jin, Ryan is run down by Hurley, Jason gets his neck snapped by Sayid and Sawyer shoots Tom Friendly.[10] The last death is the most illuminative. Sometimes, it does seem like the Others are playing by different rules. Sometimes the war reminds me of an old Humphrey Bogart film where people take turns holding guns like a game of tag, forgetting that a gun is only good if one intends to use it. The Others’ rarely intend to use their guns on the survivors. They just went the survivors to freeze, be held prisoner, be searched, etc. The survivors take it all deadly serious. So when they have guns, they use them. The Others keep screwing with survivors’ heads, making themselves scarier and jumping out of shadows, and then whining when they get shot.
[1] “D.O.C.”
[2] “Homecoming”
[3] “Dead is Dead”
[4] “The Other 48 Days”
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] “Live Together, Die Alone”
[8] “The Glass Ballerina”
[9] “Through the Looking Glass”
[10] Id.
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