Early in Season 1 we were told that Aaron must be raised by Claire and not by 'another'. We assumed it meant that if Aaron were raised by someone else he would turn evil or the world would end and conversely if he were raised by Claire he would save the world or cure cancer or something wonderful. Logical conclusions. Her 'goodness' was a part of that.

It seemed that there were forces that were constantly trying to separate them and forces that tried to keep them together. I Ethan kidnapping her and her escape right before they were going to take the baby. I think of Charlie and while he went off his rocker so many times deep down he did his best to keep the two of them together. He gets taken out...Claire is deceived by whatever it is Christian is appearing as (not debating who is he at the moment) and leaves Aaron. Miles just sat there and watched Claire walk off with 'someone she called dad' and let them go because he had that 'restraining order' from Sawyer.. Charlie would NEVER have let that happen. He even sent a message to Jack via Hurley that he was not supposed to raise him. Aaron is safely taken care of and by all accounts is a normal kid. He seems to be doing ok without mom but mom without the kid is...not.

What if it wasn't for Aaron's benefit that he be raised by Claire...but rather it was for Claire's benefit that she raise Aaron? That if she didn't raise him she would turn...evil/crazy/a threat/a follower of Flocke and all the things she seems to have now become. If the two of them had stayed together she would not have gone batty because of grief and despair and all the accompanying baggage of not knowing where your child is? She seems to have lost that 'goodness' that came with raising Aaron.

In other words was it more important that Claire raise Aaron to prevent her from becoming a cog in the wheel of Flocke's plans than it was to keep Aaron from being evil?

Well, if the point was for her to raise Aaron to keep her from turning evil it didn't work. She was raising Aaron and then left him alone in the middle of a jungle to go off with a vision of her Dad. The next time we see her, in Jacob's cabin, she doesn't even ask Locke if he's seen her kid or how he is. So, it doesn't seem taking care of Aaron did much to protect her.

Well, if the point was for her to raise Aaron to keep her from turning evil it didn't work. She was raising Aaron and then left him alone in the middle of a jungle to go off with a vision of her Dad. The next time we see her, in Jacob's cabin, she doesn't even ask Locke if he's seen her kid or how he is. So, it doesn't seem taking care of Aaron did much to protect her.

I think that's because he told her the Others had her baby, and supposedly would help her retrieve him when the time was right.

Maybe the psychic meant Aaron shouldn't be raised by "an other" - so Kate would be OK then!
;)

I like this idea...

Thats a very good point, Claire wouldnt have gone crazy if she still had her baby. But when Christian (aka Smoke Monster) lured her away from her baby, thats when she got claimed or infected or whatever. When we saw her in the cabin with Christian, she was already nuts. So how did he initially get her to wander off and leave Aaron? I hope we find out!

This is what Malkin said. It's pretty specific. Not only must the baby not be raised by another, it must be raised by her:

MALKIN: This child parented by anyone else, anyone other than you -- danger surrounds this baby. . .
CLAIRE: Danger?
MALKIN: Your nature, your spirit, your goodness, must be an influence in the development of this child.
CLAIRE: Look, if Thomas and I don't get back together I'm putting this baby up for adoption. I just wanted to find out what would give the baby the happiest life.
MALKIN: There is no happy life -- not for this child, not without you.
CLAIRE: I don't. . .
MALKIN: It can't be another. You mustn't allow another to raise your baby.
CLAIRE: Okay, great. Thanks for taking my 200.
MALKIN: Oh, no look, take it. Ms. Littleton, I am begging you just to consider...
CLAIRE: I can't raise this child by myself.
MALKIN: You have to listen to me.
CLAIRE: Okay, thanks for your time, and my money back.
MALKIN: Ms. Littleton, please. The baby needs your protection. Ms. Littleton, please.

How about "Christian" cradling Aaron in his arms? What was that about? If the smoke monster was with Claire, tricking her into thinking the others took Aaron, where did he leave her so he could go see Aaron? And why wouldn't she just go back to camp and ask her friends for help? Why not take Aaron and Claire both?

And why was it so easy for smokey to turn her evil anyway?

Well, if the point was for her to raise Aaron to keep her from turning evil it didn't work. She was raising Aaron and then left him alone in the middle of a jungle to go off with a vision of her Dad. The next time we see her, in Jacob's cabin, she doesn't even ask Locke if he's seen her kid or how he is. So, it doesn't seem taking care of Aaron did much to protect her.

But while she was with Aaron raising him she was ok mentally, emotionally and all that. Yes she was frightened like they all were but while she was raising him she was NOT evil. It was once she left him that the craziness started.

This is what Malkin said. It's pretty specific. Not only must the baby not be raised by another, it must be raised by her:

Exactly.

Unless we get future episodes (and granted that might happen) where we see Aaron leading an absolutely miserable life where grannie is a drunk or whatever (or he has some kind of PST from his foster mom Kate leaving him) he seems ok. I have no evidence for this at the moment of course but this might be the sort of misdirection we've seen all through this show. Get the person to do what you want them to do by appealing to them in an area where they are weakest. With Claire it was the health and welfare of her baby. She believed he would have a better life with an adoptive family and he was addressing the baby's well being by drumming up future events where the baby would be unhappy and surrounded by danger. Things that should and normally appeal to an expectant mother. He might not have gotten the desired effect if he has said "You will turn into an evil crazy woman if you don't raise this child!"

It just seems like what we are seeing on the screen is the opposite of what we were led to believe would happen. Aaron could not be raised by another because Claire is the one who needed to raise him. Aaron is fine (for the moment-something might happen) and Claire is not...because she is not raising Aaron.

Interesting, but I don’t agree because I think Claire is a good person and she was before she got pregnant with Aaron. This was a girl who stood up and memorialized the passengers that did not survive the crash – when no one else cared to do so, especially Jack. I don’t think she’s evil now either – that word (not directing this to you, Elf) gets thrown around too easily. Right now, Claire is disturbed and a bit unhinged, but I don’t think she’s “lost” to us.

This is what Malkin said. It's pretty specific. Not only must the baby not be raised by another, it must be raised by her:

Those quoted words definitely suggest it is Aaron, not Claire, who would suffer the consequences of being raised by someone else.

The question is then whether the warning was accurate and whether it is important enough to impact the storyline. For that to happen, considering Aaron is so young, there probably would need to be some kind of time travel scenario, where a grown Aaron travels back to the island, or something like that. Also, there is the possibility of different outcomes in the two timelines we are viewing.

Those quoted words definitely suggest it is Aaron, not Claire, who would suffer the consequences of being raised by someone else.

The question is then whether the warning was accurate and whether it is important enough to impact the storyline. For that to happen, considering Aaron is so young, there probably would need to be some kind of time travel scenario, where a grown Aaron travels back to the island, or something like that. Also, there is the possibility of different outcomes in the two timelines we are viewing.

I think that when he first read her, he was honest about his reading. I think he was also honest the second time when he told her the stuff about Aaron needing to be raised by her. Where the psychic began lying, I think, is when he tried to get her on the plane. And that was all Jacob's doing. By now, Jacob had contacted the psychic either directly or through dreams. By whatever means the warning came, Malkin became aware that if Claire was not on that plane, his daughter would die and stay dead.

I think that when he first read her, he was honest about his reading. I think he was also honest the second time when he told her the stuff about Aaron needing to be raised by her. Where the psychic began lying, I think, is when he tried to get her on the plane. And that was all Jacob's doing. By now, Jacob had contacted the psychic either directly or through dreams. By whatever means the warning came, Malkin became aware that if Claire was not on that plane, his daughter would die and stay dead.

Exactly. We did see the autopsy where his daughter is "alive". He did his job and got claire on the plane. Therefore, his daughter lives. It ties in perfectly.

We also see his daughter at the airport with Libby. Does Libby's backstory involve a person close to her dying(husband) so she has to go along with the plan of getting Desmond on the island??? I think we will see that this season if Libby comes back....

connrick, wow good thoughts. I'd never thought of that!

elfdream, I like your idea. You could very well be right about this.

Each character has a stabilizing influence that is needed to keep them on the right side of the good/evil ledger. The MIB manipulates the reliance on these factors to suit his purposes. Claire without Aaron = pawn.

Each character has a stabilizing influence that is needed to keep them on the right side of the good/evil ledger. The MIB manipulates the reliance on these factors to suit his purposes. Claire without Aaron = pawn.

What about what Jacob manipulates? Can you force people to be good or bad? There is no free will in manipulating choices so no one even has the opportunity to be good or bad. Was Michael bad because he killed Libby and Ana Lucia to save his son? Anyone can be coerced into performing good or bad acts but forced actions should not define them.

Interesting, but I don’t agree because I think Claire is a good person and she was before she got pregnant with Aaron. This was a girl who stood up and memorialized the passengers that did not survive the crash – when no one else cared to do so, especially Jack. I don’t think she’s evil now either – that word (not directing this to you, Elf) gets thrown around too easily. Right now, Claire is disturbed and a bit unhinged, but I don’t think she’s “lost” to us.

We can put the word 'evil' to the side for a moment for the moment. I could be wrong of course...we might find out that Aaron has turned into a Walt type character who can kill people with a thought...and if Claire were there with him she more than likely would have picked up on it and shown him how to 'use his powers for good' or something similar. Right at the moment though it appears that Claire is suffering more and is leaning toward the dark side from not raising him than Aaron is. Who lied to her, instead of telling her her baby was safe and cared for but was instead in the clutches of the evil others... and caused her suffering?

I'm not too hung up on who did the manipulating. It could have been Jacob...it could have been Mib. I did not notice how the psychic reacted with the near death experience of his daughter. Good catch.

Exactly. We did see the autopsy where his daughter is "alive". He did his job and got claire on the plane. Therefore, his daughter lives. It ties in perfectly.

We also see his daughter at the airport with Libby. Does Libby's backstory involve a person close to her dying(husband) so she has to go along with the plan of getting Desmond on the island??? I think we will see that this season if Libby comes back....

OOHHH! This must be why he tried so hard to get claire on that plane. His first reading he told Claire to keep the baby. He tried to scare her into keeping AAron. He gave her her money back to seem more convincing. But what if her friend, the one that came with her to Malkin, had already talked to him and paid him to try and convince Claire to keep the baby.

He gets a visit from Jacob and promises to revive his daughter and turns a 180 on Claire. This is why he told Mr. Eko he was a fake because he really is a fake. He had no visions. He was just trying to scare Claire into keeping Aaron.

Now, I believe there were whispers during Malkin's daughters autopsy. Does anyone remember them? I'll have to look this up. This might give us some more clues to this theory.

As for Libby, I could see her getting a visit from Jacob after her husband dies. She convinces a perfect stranger to take her husbands boat? I can't remember why she was on the flight in the first place. I'll go back to and try to look this up.

If Malkin had told Claire that SHE needed AARON, she would have probably disagreed. The pregnancy was not intended, she is young, single, and having a child would be hard for her, and limit her options in life. Furhtermore, she felt she was not in a position to care for the child and wanted what was best for him.
So Malkin lied and told her that it was AARON who needed HER, and that the best thing she could do for him was to raise him herself.

We can put the word 'evil' to the side for a moment for the moment. I could be wrong of course...we might find out that Aaron has turned into a Walt type character who can kill people with a thought...and if Claire were there with him she more than likely would have picked up on it and shown him how to 'use his powers for good' or something similar. Right at the moment though it appears that Claire is suffering more and is leaning toward the dark side from not raising him than Aaron is. Who lied to her, instead of telling her her baby was safe and cared for but was instead in the clutches of the evil others... and caused her suffering?

I'm not too hung up on who did the manipulating. It could have been Jacob...it could have been Mib. I did not notice how the psychic reacted with the near death experience of his daughter. Good catch.

Yes, but remember she's also apparently been tortured and lived a hellish life for 3 years. Maybe I misunderstood your post. I took it to mean that you thought perhaps the psychic meant that Claire shouldn't give up Aaron because, without his influence, Claire would turn toward the darkside (in other words, she was a dark person naturally and needed Aaron to soften her). That's the part I disagree with because I don't think Claire needed a baby to be "good". However, of course I agree that she is suffering psychic wounds from the loss of her baby (as anyone would). On the other hand, any child that doesn't grow up with his mother has suffered a loss and that could affect him into adulthood.

I hadn't thought of this in this light before, but I do like this theory. TPTB do love misdirection and as of now it seems to fit with events.

Yes, but remember she's also apparently been tortured and lived a hellish life for 3 years. Maybe I misunderstood your post. I took it to mean that you thought perhaps the psychic meant that Claire shouldn't give up Aaron because, without his influence, Claire would turn toward the darkside (in other words, she was a dark person naturally and needed Aaron to soften her). That's the part I disagree with because I don't think Claire needed a baby to be "good". However, of course I agree that she is suffering psychic wounds from the loss of her baby (as anyone would). On the other hand, any child that doesn't grow up with his mother has suffered a loss and that could affect him into adulthood.

It doesn't have to be necessarily that Claire needs Aaron because of an inner darkness though, it could just be that it was seen that Claire would be an easy target for manipulation if she wasn't the one raising Aaron. Depending on how you look at it might even point to her having an inner sweetness that is responsible for the corruption since she is naturally less cynical and negative (when she's not being crazy Claire that is) than many of the others which helps her be manipulated when someone has leverage over her (like missing Aaron).

JThree said: Maybe the psychic meant Aaron shouldn't be raised by "an other" - so Kate would be OK then!

...maybe your right, however how can we be sure that Claire's mother isn't an other? The last time we were shown Claire's mother prior to her getting off the island, she was in a coma and on life support. she was also consider brain dead. So what happen to change her situation? What makes the others , an other? The doctors was discussing taking Claire's mother off life support, than suddenly that all change, why?

I hadn't thought of this in this light before, but I do like this theory. TPTB do love misdirection and as of now it seems to fit with events.



It doesn't have to be necessarily that Claire needs Aaron because of an inner darkness though, it could just be that it was seen that Claire would be an easy target for manipulation if she wasn't the one raising Aaron. Depending on how you look at it might even point to her having an inner sweetness that is responsible for the corruption since she is naturally less cynical and negative (when she's not being crazy Claire that is) than many of the others which helps her be manipulated when someone has leverage over her (like missing Aaron).


True, but that psychic would have to be one heck of a psychic to be able to predictl that all this would happen on the island.

Early in Season 1 we were told that Aaron must be raised by Claire and not by 'another'. We assumed it meant that if Aaron were raised by someone else he would turn evil or the world would end and conversely if he were raised by Claire he would save the world or cure cancer or something wonderful. Logical conclusions. Her 'goodness' was a part of that.

It seemed that there were forces that were constantly trying to separate them and forces that tried to keep them together. I Ethan kidnapping her and her escape right before they were going to take the baby. I think of Charlie and while he went off his rocker so many times deep down he did his best to keep the two of them together. He gets taken out...Claire is deceived by whatever it is Christian is appearing as (not debating who is he at the moment) and leaves Aaron. Miles just sat there and watched Claire walk off with 'someone she called dad' and let them go because he had that 'restraining order' from Sawyer.. Charlie would NEVER have let that happen. He even sent a message to Jack via Hurley that he was not supposed to raise him. Aaron is safely taken care of and by all accounts is a normal kid. He seems to be doing ok without mom but mom without the kid is...not.

What if it wasn't for Aaron's benefit that he be raised by Claire...but rather it was for Claire's benefit that she raise Aaron? That if she didn't raise him she would turn...evil/crazy/a threat/a follower of Flocke and all the things she seems to have now become. If the two of them had stayed together she would not have gone batty because of grief and despair and all the accompanying baggage of not knowing where your child is? She seems to have lost that 'goodness' that came with raising Aaron.

In other words was it more important that Claire raise Aaron to prevent her from becoming a cog in the wheel of Flocke's plans than it was to keep Aaron from being evil?

We were just talking about this idea too. We also noted that in Par Avion, before Claire becomes pregnant with Aaron she had that dark bent. Maybe Malkin read it wrong. It was Claire who needed Aaron's protection.

Now, I believe there were whispers during Malkin's daughters autopsy. Does anyone remember them? I'll have to look this up. This might give us some more clues to this theory.



WAIT! Didn't either she or the whispers say, "JOHN LOCKE"?

True, but that psychic would have to be one heck of a psychic to be able to predictl that all this would happen on the island.

Unless Jacob was somehow manipulated the psychic's prediction (yes, there are a lot of ifs and manipulations in this theory :rolleyes:)

Oh yes..like a lot of theories with this show it all depends on a lot of things. Was the psychic lying? Was he stuck between a rock and a hard place and manipulated into telling Claire what he did because he wanted his daughter to live. Will we see Aaron display some kind of strange tendencies that only her 'goodness' would help?

Claire was like the rest of the losties. She had a good and bad side. Remember 'Goth' Claire? Not evil necessarily but rebellious and angry. When she was with Aaron the goodness came through stronger.

WAIT! Didn't either she or the whispers say, "JOHN LOCKE"?

Yes, when she woke up she said John Locke, at least two times if I remember correctly. I went back and read the transcripts of the whispers but now I forgot what they were. I don't remember them being openly related to any of these theories.

I think that when he first read her, he was honest about his reading. I think he was also honest the second time when he told her the stuff about Aaron needing to be raised by her. Where the psychic began lying, I think, is when he tried to get her on the plane. And that was all Jacob's doing. By now, Jacob had contacted the psychic either directly or through dreams. By whatever means the warning came, Malkin became aware that if Claire was not on that plane, his daughter would die and stay dead.

I've been toying with that same thought for some time... it's the only one that seems to make sense in regard to the psychic. Whatever he saw in that first reading with Claire immediately after mentioning her pregnancy, it scared the hell out of him. So much so that he panicked, stopped the reading then and there and kicked her out with no explanation whatsoever.

The next time 'round, he did Claire's reading and delivered his epic warning- the first of many, many repeats. He seemed genuinely sincere in his efforts to convince her that she must keep her child and raise him herself. I personally think he was already under the influence of somebody else by that time, having no better reason to concern himself with Claire or her unborn child on such a personal level. That somebody- most likely Jacob- probably recruited the psychic to aid him in making sure Claire wound up on the island with Aaron, and in exchange whatever horrible future he'd encounter in the first reading he gave Claire would never happen.