I have been wondering this for a while now and I think it would be helpful to start thinking along these lines with respect to 'The Others.'

The Others obviously have the means to leave the island if they wished, since they have a working boat. This implies that they want to be on the island. Why do they stay? What are their motivations?

It seems as thought they have been on the island for some time. Again, it would seem that since they have a boat, a means to leave, that they arrived on the island by choice. If they didn't arrive by choice, against their will, then they would have left once they had the means.

The Others are somehow linked to the DHARMA Initiative, be it that they actually are members of DHARMA or that they are unrelated but were the cause of 'the incident.' Anything else would be absolutely too messy to explain by the writers, they would have to introduce crazy plot elements that just wouldn't fit into the Lost world that they have built for the past 1.5 seasons.

I don't really have any crazy theories, I just wanted to open up this line of reasoning because it will go a long way into explaining what they want with Walt, why they are taking members of the survivors, etc etc. Please feel free to speculate; I'd love to discuss this further.

According to many posters on these boards, the boat that the Others use is not sea-worthy enough for open water.

Again, if a group of survivors who want to leave the island can build a seaworthy sailboat out of bamboo, then I'd certainly like to imagine that if The Others wanted off the island, they'd try with that boat of theirs. I'd even imagine they would even be capable of making modifications to it to make it seaworthy. I really want to think about the motivation of The Others. If they badly wanted off the island, I imagine that they would be off it. They seem to be resourceful enough. So the question is still out there, why are The Others still on the island? And what the heck do they want with Walt?!

Since Javi is one of my favourites ill use one of his answers on the boat others from exodus. Im sure this is not a spoiler just interpretation of a scene already shown, but ill spoiler font anyway:
The thing about others is their otherness - their methods and motives are frightening and inscrutable. do they have a plan? yes. do they treasure their secrecy? yes. why did they blow up the raft? maybe to preserve that secrecy... think about it.

Love the term otherness lol. I think we were meant to get this. Id hate to think they decide to tone back because they think the majority arent getting it.

Since Javi is one of my favourites ill use one of his answers on the boat others from exodus. Im sure this is not a spoiler just interpretation of a scene already shown, but ill spoiler font anyway:
The thing about others is their otherness - their methods and motives are frightening and inscrutable. do they have a plan? yes. do they treasure their secrecy? yes. why did they blow up the raft? maybe to preserve that secrecy... think about it.

Love the term otherness lol. I think we were meant to get this. Id hate to think they decide to tone back because they think the majority arent getting it.

So from Javi's remarks, now I'm really scared of what The Others have in store for our Losties. I didn't really think of it that way. Not only do they want members of the survivors for some scary reason, they don't even want any of the survivors to leave the island! Can anyone throw out a good theory as to what they want?!?

Hmmm.
You've made some excellent points, but I'm not quite willing to give up the idea that the others can't build a boat that would leave the island. Here's what I'm stuck on:
The others showed up to take walt in a shoddy raft/motorboat. If they had the technology to build a boat that could survive the ocean(remember, that's thousands of years of technology), then why did they show up to the party in such a clunker? Did the others' raft have a bumper sticker which read, "My other boat is ocean-ready?"


Can anyone throw out a good theory as to what they want?!?


I can think of two:
1. The others don't want their island/them to be discovered. Naturally, If people get rescued, they will immediately send out a bunch of planes to find the remaining survivors.
2. This is slightly less plausible. The others are doing an experiment on the Losties(as suggested in numerous threads). For the others to leave the island, or even explore outside their sector, it would compromise the integrity of the experiment. Since human subjects are hard to come by, the Others will do anything to keep the experiment running smoothly.

Well I dont think we should misinterpret what Javi says. He always talks from a "this is what I perceived the episode was saying."
For example, we knew by season ones end the others had kidnapped, killed, shot and blown up things. What Javi says coincides with what they have done up to that point, not what may be the truth behind things we havent seen. Hes very good like that, and asks us to think about what we have seen so far and question those things.

I can think of two:
1. The others don't want their island/them to be discovered. Naturally, If people get rescued, they will immediately send out a bunch of planes to find the remaining survivors.
2. This is slightly less plausible. The others are doing an experiment on the Losties(as suggested in numerous threads). For the others to leave the island, or even explore outside their sector, it would compromise the integrity of the experiment. Since human subjects are hard to come by, the Others will do anything to keep the experiment running smoothly.

Actually, from what we know so far, I think we can definitely agree that The Others don't want to be discovered. I would go so far as to say that is a fact. So the next logical question is, "Why don't they want to be discovered?"

I'm not convinced that The Others are actually members of the DHARMA Initiative yet. The sea-billies seem so angry, malevolent, militant, etc. From what we saw of the DHARMA people from the film were that they were progressive, free-thinking, experimental, 'woodstocky.' I'm not sure one can go from Geronimo Jackson to angry Zeke just like that.

Maybe they just wanna be left alone in a place that has no taxes, no keeping up with the Jones. A place where bathing is optional and BO is a given as there is no soap anyway. Amish run amok!! A place where there are no lights, no phones, no motorcars..not a single luxury!

If anyone get's outta there and blabs, there will be a land development group there faster than you can say "Oh, no, Jack's gonna cry again".

Actually, from what we know so far, I think we can definitely agree that The Others don't want to be discovered. I would go so far as to say that is a fact. So the next logical question is, "Why don't they want to be discovered?"


I'm a fan of the theorizing that the Others don't want to be discovered because they are almost done researching and perfecting the secret to eternal life for humans.

The Others are hiding a secret for sure. However, I don't see any evidence that it's the secret to eternal life. There are no references to Ponce de Leon :ohwell:. Everything seems to be pointing to the fact that they are hiding something about the island itself. What secret does the island hold that The Others are willing to kidnap and kill to keep safe? The secret has to do with Walt and his special abilities. Lurkers, let's discuss this!

There are no references to Ponce de Leon :ohwell:.

Actually, I think Sawyer DID refer to Ana in one eppy as....Ponce de Leon :)

Actually, I think Sawyer DID refer to Ana in one eppy as....Ponce de Leon :)

I stand corrected :biggrin:! However, other than that reference from Sawyer, are there any other clues an eternal life plot? This just seems as hokey as the Bermuda triangle/Atlantis theories. Remember, this is ABC, not the SciFi Channel!!!

I think The Others don't leave because they can't. Yes, they got far enough to intercept the raft but I am not so sure they could go much further. The boat thay use was not a sea-going vessel for one and I also believe there is some sort of barrier that keeps them relatively close to the island. Whether this is because they are keeping the secret of the island or someone else is I'm not sure. :undecide:

The eternal life theory springs from:

Joop the monkey
Referenced not on the show, but by both TPTB and the actually official www.thehansofoundation.org (http://www.thehansofoundation.org) website.

Perhaps it was originally DHARMA who wanted to keep the island secret, and it was the Others that stumbled onto what DHARMA was doing. It could then follow that the Others wiped out the DHARMA representatives and turned their work in a far more sinister direction. Wouldn't that help to explain why so much of the DHARMA work appears abandoned? Perhaps those things going on in the Arrow and Swan stations weren't of interest to the Others.

Just a thought. I agree with warrengpd that two groups just don't seem to mix.

I support the multiple groups of Others. I also point out that someone is getting supplies onto the island. Even though we saw the boaties on a boat that couldn't stand a long ocean voyage doesn't mean they don't have ships further off the coast. We know the one we saw wasn't good enough: we didn't call them shippies now did we.

Further evidence: Medical supplies, like the vials that Desmond used and took, don't have a shelf life of 16 years and the closet was full of food.

There's more to the story. We need more information from more episodes. I wish they didn't skip so many weeks.

I support the multiple groups of Others. I also point out that someone is getting supplies onto the island. Even though we saw the boaties on a boat that couldn't stand a long ocean voyage doesn't mean they don't have ships further off the coast. We know the one we saw wasn't good enough: we didn't call them shippies now did we.

Further evidence: Medical supplies, like the vials that Desmond used and took, don't have a shelf life of 16 years and the closet was full of food.

There's more to the story. We need more information from more episodes. I wish they didn't skip so many weeks.

Herk, have you considered possibly a submarine?

Herk, have you considered possibly a submarine?

I am interested in where that cable goes under the ocean.

Has anyone yet considered the others to be not entirely malicious? Even Enlightened?

i'm not sure i even believe this- but i'll throw it out there for the sake of brainstorming:

--there have been many debates as to who the skeletons found on the black rock were. a lot of people say slaves- some say prisoners. if the "others" are survivors of that ship wreck- and the skeletons were actually prisoners (making the "others" prisoners) then it would make sense that they do not want to be found, and it would also explain their violent nature.

but like i said- i'm not really buying into that- but it's just something else to think about :")

I am reminded of the Odessey here. Odysseus was captain of a Black Ship, and it crashed on Calypso's island where he spent nearly 10 years. I like the idea that the Lost Island is Calypso's island. Calypso means covered, or concealed. Apocalypse means uncovered, or revealed. Just wait until they stop pressing that damned button.

Stop pressing the button.

Some scholars interpret the Odessey as a story of home coming. Odysseus longs for Ithaca. He is trapped in a strange world of 'otherness.' Everything from the food, to the people reminds him that this is not home. Every step, from the trojan horse, to his travels through Hades, sets up identifiable differences between his homeland Ithaca and the strange world which he finds himself trying to flee. It is a very old story.

I don't believe the others came on that Black Ship. Nor their ancestors. To quote: 'This is our island.' They move about it comfortably. They know her secrets.

Has anyone yet considered the others to be not entirely malicious? Even Enlightened?

I think there will be 2 schools of thought. Some lostaways, like Locke, will agree with Enlightened and Jack the other.

I support the multiple groups of Others. I also point out that someone is getting supplies onto the island.


I also thought the Swan hatch looked well-stocked. I guess it could be argued that there were only two people for an unknown period of time, and then one person for less than 3 years (Kelvin died, Desmond alone). But it still looked mighty well-stocked. However, after seeing the Arrow hatch it seemed more likely that there was no contact with Dharma for quite some time.

At this point, I think I am in favor of more than one group of Others. I would think that the people originally appointed to each hatch were placed there for a reason - due to their own unique abilities. If communication broke down somehow, and all the groups were stranded there, it seems likely that each group would react differently to their predicament. Maybe there was a shifting of the groups, maybe there were fights. Maybe "Zeke" and his group don't want to leave. They seem to have some power and influence on the island - why give that up?