Others (Lost) - Outline

Outline

The Others are mysterious and secretive, refusing to explain themselves to outsiders. They will kill anyone whom they perceive as a threat to themselves or the island, if provoked. The Others are led by one person at a time, a "leader" (Benjamin Linus at the start of the show) who, in turn, takes orders from Jacob, a seemingly ageless man with mysterious abilities that include conferring agelessness, and directing/bringing people towards the island. Richard Alpert was granted agelessness by Jacob, in return for acting as a go-between for him and the Others via their current leader, delivering Jacob's orders when necessary and advising the leader. When the series begins, most Others seem to have been recruited from the outside world. One reason for this is that those pregnant women that specifically conceived on the island and stay there to bear out their full term die before they can give birth. The cause of this mortality is unknown, but it did not occur in earlier decades, since such characters as Ethan Rom, Miles Straume, and Charlotte Lewis were born on the island.

In their early dealings with the Flight 815 survivors, the Others take on the guise of primitive but cunning jungle-dwellers. Their disguise includes wearing primitive flax-sewn clothes and going about barefoot, which seems their trademark for a while. Richard Alpert has been able to travel to the United States since the 1950s, and seems to have formed Mittelos Laboratories by no later than the early 1970s, when he attempts to recruit John Locke while he was in high school. Former leader Charles Widmore is also cited as having left the island on occasion, and this is the stated reason for his removal from leadership of the Others. Since their victory over the Dharma Initiative, the group has become comparatively technologically advanced, and for a time acquires means of regular contact with the outside world by submarine and live televisual link.

The Others are experts in stealth. They are difficult to track, leaving virtually no trail to follow. They are also able to conceal themselves quite effectively, moving within striking distance of their victims without making a sound, as epitomized in season 5 when a group led by Erik (Sebastian Siegel) accosts Sawyer and Kate with young Ben. In the season 5 episode "LaFleur", Richard Alpert is somehow able to penetrate the Dharma Initiative sonic fence before being detected, claiming that the fence "may keep other things out, but not us." Mysterious whispers sometimes herald the appearance of the Others. It has been confirmed that the whispering is not necessarily something that is connected to the Others, though they are aware of it. In the season 5 episode "Jughead", it is revealed that the Others can speak Latin and use it to communicate in the presence of outsiders. The later episode "Across the Sea" hinted at one possible reason for this use of Latin, when it revealed that Jacob and his brother were born to a woman named Claudia whose crew were shipwrecked on the island and spoke Latin (this also indicates that the episode was set many centuries ago, when this language was still in common usage).