If past seasons of LOST have been all about the what (What is this place? What force brought the Losties here? What is the smoke monster? And what in the world is going on with the space/time continuum?), with the revelation earlier this season that Charles Widmore was, in 1954 at least, an “other,” a “hostile” or one of the island’s “indigenous people,” the central question seems to have shifted to who. Now that we think we know what the others are and how long they’ve been around, it would seem that we now need to figure out who they are.
If Widmore’s an other, but he no longer lives on the island, suddenly the possibility exists that there are other others living off the island. And if Widmore’s in charge of this find-the-island business, are there more off-island others somehow involved? We know that Mr. Paik, Sun’s father, has ties to Widmore. Is he one of them? Is that why Sun ended up on the plane? What about Christian Shephard? He had two kids on 815 is now acting as the same sort of “guide” Mrs. Hawking seems to be. Is he an other too? And Mrs. Hawking? We are obviously to assume that she is both Daniel’s mother and “Ellie,” the gun-wielding blonde in 1954. She’s definitely an other.
So, taking a giant leap of faith here, let’s recap:
1. Daniel Faraday’s mom is an other.
2. Penny’s dad is an other.
3. Jack’s and Claire’s dad might be an other, making Aaron an island-born possible grandson of an other.
4. Sun’s dad might be an other, making Ji Yeon the island-conceived possible granddaughter of an other.
5. Charlotte appears to have been born on the island, so there’s a possibility that one or both of her parents were others.
It also seems that we’ve got some Dharma kids in the mix. It’s a pretty safe bet that Miles will turn out to be the island-born son of Dr. Marvin Candle/Pierre Chang, the lab coat-wearing Dharma boss we saw in the season opener and in all those training videos. Ben is a Dharma brat too, although not, apparently, born on the island. Are there other Dharma connections among the characters we know? I’m willing to bet yes. We know there’s got to be more to the Annie story – she must have a kid around here somewhere.
Looking at this show as a giant equation, with a bunch of different variables to be defined in order to come up with the answer, I think the relationships being revealed this season are going to take us a long way toward defining an important variable – the nature of the current struggle for control of the island. That should get us a whole lot closer to solving the all-important question – why it is that our Losties have found themselves right smack dab in the middle of it. Even if I’m spinning my wheels and none of this matters , it’s nice to have a break from endless theorizing about the smoke monster… as long as it’s a short break.
This has been a guest post by macaroniandglue. 
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*sniff*
