The mysterious Others were a major plot point in “Lost” starting with the first few episodes. The Oceanic Flight 815 survivors swiftly come to the realisation that they are not alone after becoming stuck on a bizarre, possibly otherworldly island. Not only are there a bunch of strange, hostile individuals living nearby, but it turns out that one of them has been lying about being a survivor the entire time. These other people, who were they? From where did they originate? Why were the survivors being taken captive? What did they actually want?
“Lost” had a reputation for not providing obvious, satisfying answers to its puzzles. Why was Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) so unique, for example? and “What’s the issue with those numbers Hurley (Jorge Garcia) keeps seeing?” either end abruptly or receive a dull, uninteresting response. However, the show was more than capable of answering the issues of the reasons behind and background of the Others. The show’s six seasons saw the writers gradually divulge important facts about this group of characters. They not only responded to the queries from the viewers, but they also did it in a way that made “Lost” a more intriguing, nuanced show moving forward.
Seasons 1-2: The Others are terrifying
The only thing we know about the Others throughout season 1 is that they are a group of inhabitants of the island who, as far as we are aware, have never made an effort to communicate with the survivors. (At least not in a pleasant manner.) The discovery that there are other people on the island during those first few episodes is not greeted with elation, but rather with all-pervasive horror and dread. The possibility of meeting an Other is a persistent source of fear for every character who is separated from the other survivors. It is simple to believe that the Others are connected to both when you consider that we still don’t know what the smoke monster is or who is responsible for the hatch.
The fact that the Others are always capturing Claire (Emilie de Ravin), Walt, or the majority of the survivors on the plane’s tail doesn’t help matters. The second season’s episode “The Other 48 Days” is essentially a 40-minute horror film that follows the last few survivors as they are slowly and mysteriously abducted one by one. The only thing we can be certain of is that these Others feel no remorse about taking kids. In fact, they appear particularly interested in taking kids.
When we encounter Benjamin Linus, we have a worsened impression of the Others (Michael Emerson). He is a well-known, beloved figure among fans and one of the most notoriously cunning and treacherous TV villains ever. Ben deftly manipulates our major protagonists while initially posing as an innocent individual who had just fallen into the island. In the season 2 finale, he shows himself to be not just a member of the Others, but their leader. Ben responds, “We’re the nice people,” when asked who they are. Initially, this appears like a deluded statement from him, but by season 3, we understand that the assertion isn’t wholly without foundation.
Season 3: The Others unmasked
In “A Tale of Two Cities,” the season 3 premiere, Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), a seemingly typical housewife in a lovely suburban area, is introduced. She hosts a reading club, bakes muffins, and appears to have an ordinary, stress-free existence. The sound of Oceanic Flight 815 exploding above them interrupts everything, and it is then revealed that what we had just witnessed had been a typical day in the life of the Others prior to the start of the main plot of the show.
Season 3 is all about giving the Others more of a personality, even though they are still very much the show’s antagonists. It turns out that they abducted the survivors’ kids so they might live happier, more comfortable lives. They abducted Claire because they wanted to make sure she would be safe because on the island, pregnancies are frequently fatal. It is made obvious why they chose the people they did: they took the ones they thought were “good” and offered them a better life.
The fact that the show chooses to feature episodes that centre on characters from their group, revealing their motivations and backstories, allows them to consistently play around with the idea that the Others are in fact in the right, even though the Others are far from being good guys (they’re revealed to have murdered the entire town of Dharma employees in “The Man Behind the Curtain”). The focus of “Through the Looking Glass,” the season 3 conclusion, is on whether or not the survivors should call a neighbouring ship for assistance. The people on the ship are going to kill everyone on the island, Ben cautions them, but Jack (Matthew Fox) decides to proceed nonetheless. The show appears to reveal that Jack eventually understands Ben was right: attempting to escape the island was the biggest mistake he ever made as the finale concludes with the famous “We have to go back!” sequence.
Seasons 4-6: The Others demystified
The Others change from being the survivors’ adversaries to a hesitant friend once the people from the ship begin meddling with the island and as their true objectives become more and more obvious. Ben is evolving into a more likeable figure as he focuses on taking down a bunch of adversaries who are even more cunning than he ever was.
Over the course of these last seasons, we discover that Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) selected a group of individuals known as the Others to guard the island and aid in their centuries-long conflict with the Man in Black (Titus Welliver). The divide between the Others and the original survivors is nearly nonexistent in the final season as the Man in Black is clearly established as the major adversary and their interactions become more cordial and cooperative.
We read that Jacob’s first hire was Richard, who received an immortal life gift from Jacob. Richard represented Jacob, but he wasn’t necessarily the group’s primary leader. Ben and Charles Widmore, two new leaders who corrupted the Others for their own personal gain, came into power. It becomes apparent that the Others have always been made-up average people, not the psychopathic monsters they initially seemed to be, despite the fact that many of their deeds throughout the series are unforgivably horrible.
Hurley succeeds Jacob as the head of the Others at the end of the series, with a repentant Ben serving as his deputy. The Others have been fully revealed with the takeover of one of the primary survivors we’ve followed since the beginning of the show. The gang is shown to be in good hands and to have what appears to be a bright, peaceful future ahead of them at the end of the show, far from the enigmatic, aggressive group of people they initially seemed to be.
