RAISED BY ANOTHER
Original Airdate: 12/1/2004
Written By: Lynne E. Litt
Directed By: Marita Grabiak
Character: Claire
Days Fifteen - Sixteen
For Sayid, it's been five days; for the other Losties, it's been a week; but for you, dear readers, it's been five months. Five long months of life without these reviews. I'm sure you cried yourself to sleep nightly. Or maybe screamed bloody murder like Claire does in this episode. "Raised By Another" is really the first episode that introduces a little something else into the mix: a creepiness that isn't able to be categorized. Throughout the episode, there is a faint air of menace surrounding Claire and her pregnancy. Part of us as the audience wants to believe that it's all in Claire's head, and that nobody has been attacking her in the middle of the night. But the other part of us knows that's just wishful thinking. We see the bags under Claire's eyes get more pronounced as the episode goes on, and we see what her dreams are doing to her. Something is eating her up from within, and it's really difficult to put your finger on it. And none of the Losties get to see inside her dreams.
So let's begin there: we open on Claire's eye. Claire's closed eye. This is a first, I think. We've always come in on an open eye: Jack, Locke, Sun...So what could this closed eye mean, this closed eye that opens so forcefully into Claire's ridiculously blue eye? This closed eye that isn't even real, because she's dreaming it. She gets up from the ground and wanders into the jungle, confused, feeling the place where her baby used to be. She hears a baby crying. She finds Locke, or what looks like Locke, sitting at a table in the jungle, pulling cards from a deck with sounds like sharp metal. She asks, "What's happening?' "You know what's happening," he replies, the red lamp shining on his face. "But, I don't understand, why.." He interrupts her,"He was your responsibility, but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now." He looks up, and we see that he has one black eye and one white eye, opaque and frightening. It's about right and wrong. She leaves Locke and finds a cradle in the middle of the jungle, above it a mobile of Oceanic planes. But underneath the covers, she finds only blood, and wakes up screaming. Oh, God, the woman can scream. But this is the moment, and everything in this episode relates back to it. "He was your responsibility...everyone pays the price."
I've said before that the island gives people what they need, what they deserve. So what is it about this dream, and the revelation she makes at the end of the episode, that she needs so desperately? And what does it all have to do with Ethan Rom? First, there's Claire, who is pregnant, and her boyfriend Thomas tells her that he loves her. He tells her, when she is at her most confused and vulnerable, why can't we do this? Why can't we have this baby together? And she is relieved: she won't have to go it alone, like her mother before her. Then there is Claire, pregnant and alone after Thomas has split. Abandoned, like her mother before her. And then there is a third Claire, the Claire on the island who tried to give up her baby and failed. Who took the advice of a strange man and flew to L.A., and ended up crashed on island, with nothing in between her and her baby. She has to raise him now; she has no choice. Her life is unraveling. And Claire, who was going to abandon her baby, must now face the consequences. He is her responsibility. Her father left, Thomas, she was going to leave. They are stuck on the island and her baby is coming. It's about the stuff looming on the horizon, about the men who hide in the dark that you don't even know are there.
In her dream, she found blood in the cradle, and she wakes up the next night claiming that a man has attacked her. And nobody believes her. None of them can see what's looming on the horizon, not even Claire. She sees Locke in her dreams, but I think it's really the island, warning her of the danger that is to come, and the responsibility she needs to face. To avert the danger that is to come. The danger that the psychic told her would befall her baby if she were to let anyone else raise him. But all she feels is guilt: guilt over wanting to abandon her baby, guilt over taking this flight and listening to the psychic. She tells Jack and she tells Charlie that she's tired of people telling her what to do. Thomas, the psychic, the adoption people, Jack, even Charlie. To her, they are people who see her as nothing more than an object: somebody to be used, to be rescued. "I don't need to be rescued!" she tells Charlie. But what she's really railing against is her own guilt, and her fear that she isn't going to be a good mother. She doesn't trust herself, she doesn't trust Charlie, because she trusted her instincts once before when she listened to Richard Malkin and took Flight 815 to L.A. But he was wrong, or so she thought; they were just empty promises. This is why she won't let Charlie in; when he tells her he won't leave her, it means nothing to her, because they all said the same thing: her father, Thomas, the psychic. And they were all lying.
So when Charlie suggests that Richard Malkin knew about Flight 815's crash before it even happened, that he knew the only way he could get Claire to raise the baby herself was to take it out of her control, she is inexplicably relieved. It's not her fault after all: he knew. Everything she believed is still true, because he was lying. This adds a whole other level to the show; if in this universe it's possible for a psychic to predict a plane crash, then other, much more scary things are indeed looming on the horizon. And if he was right about the plane crash, he was right about the baby. Will we ever know what crisis was averted, if it was? Was he even lying about that? Did he have some other motivation in pestering her so desperately? "Everyone will pay the price," he said. Locke tells Hurley on the beach that he was looking for something in Australia, but that he didn't find it; it found him. Were they all destined to be on that plane? And it's Locke who questions even Hurley, "Who's checking on you?" He claims it's a joke, but it's the truth. Is Locke the only one who can see it?
After Claire is attacked, Hurley approaches Jack with a scary thought: who are all these people they are living with? This new civilization they're living in not only doesn't have rules, it doesn't have doors. Everything is open and unprotected. "People come and go," says Kate. There are no borders or regulations. Who knows what menace is lurking, invisible in the light. And then we know: Ethan Rom, not on the manifest. Ethan Rom, with his creepy-ass eyes, standing in front of Charlie and Claire. Ethan Rom, cut to black. It's about the menace within, the things we don't know.
Some quick, final thoughts. Thomas is a turd. I loved Kate sinking in the sand. "Dear Diary, still on the bloody island. Today I swallowed a bug. Love, Claire." Hurley being freaked out by Locke: "I know I already talked to you, but I just wanted to get away from him for a second." I loved Charlie's panicked behavior: counting with "one sugar plum fairy," his accidental confession. Those pens not working for Claire? Destiny. $6,000 is a lot of money. What could have possibly been so scary for a stranger to just give it to you? Why did he care so much? This episode raises more questions than I can even keep track of.
Questions Raised
1. Did the psychic know that the plane was going to crash? If he did, how did he know? Had he met another Lostie and seen the plane crash in their future?
2. Why is Claire's baby a danger if she does not raise it herself?
3. Where did Ethan come from and why has he been infiltrating their camp?
4. Why is Hurley's nickname "Hurley"?
Questions Answered
1. Hurley's real name is Hugo Reyes.
2. Claire was on the plane on the advice of her psychic, who had supposedly arranged an adoption in L.A. for Claire's baby. He paid for the ticket and promised her $12,000--$6,000 upon arriving in L.A.
3. Locke is from California.
Mythology
1. Pregnancy--why is Ethan obsessed with Claire?
2. Where did Ethan come from?
3. Claire's dream.
Motifs/Themes
1. Eyes
2. Black and White
3. Responsibility
4. Destiny
5. Abandonment
6. Danger From Within
7. The Unknown
Death Count
n/a
Sawyerisms
1. To Hurley: "Well, gosh. You sure know how to butter a man up, Stay Puft."
Character Connections
1. Did the psychic Richard Malkin meet another Lostie previously and foresee the plane crash?
Songs
1. "Catch a Falling Star"--
Living is easy with eyes closed.
Lines of the Week
"He was your responsibility, but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now." Dream Locke, hitting Claire where it hurts and hinting some really creepy shit.
"Look, if I was a cop and some woman got attacked, we'd canvas, right? Knock on doors, find witnesses. But, we don't even have doors." Hurley, making a good point.
"Reason for travel? The reason you were in Australia?
"I was looking for something."
"Looking. Uh huh. Right on. So, did you find it?"
"No, it found me." Hurley and Locke, with some revealing information about destiny.
"You don’t like me Charlie, okay? You just want to rescue me, because I’m – because of this. But I’m fine, okay. I don’t need rescuing." Claire, to Charlie, revealing more than she knows.
"There is no happy life. Not for this child - not without you." Richard the psychic, to Claire, being really creepy.
"It's just, I think about you...in this place. How hard it must be for you without your family here and your friends. And I think, we could be friends. I could be your friend. We don't have to do each other's hair or anything. I just mean, that, you know, if you needed someone to talk to about anything, I'm here." Charlie trying to reach out to Claire.
"Name: Shannon Rutherford. Age: twenty. Address: Craphole Island." You have to love Shannon at least sometimes.
"If I can kick drugs, I can deliver a baby. (Claire looks at him.) Let me explain! I'm a drug addict. I was a drug addict. I, I'm clean now." Awkward, emergency confessions ala Charlie Pace.
"I mean, all he wanted was that no one else was to raise your baby, right? Maybe he knew. I mean, if he wanted it bad enough, if, you know, if he had the gift, and I believe some people do, maybe he knew, Claire." Charlie, being really right, and taking a huge burden off of Claire's shoulders.
"We're not alone." Sayid, scaring the bejeesus out of everyone, but too late for Claire and Charlie.
Written By: Lynne E. Litt
Directed By: Marita Grabiak
Character: Claire
Days Fifteen - Sixteen
For Sayid, it's been five days; for the other Losties, it's been a week; but for you, dear readers, it's been five months. Five long months of life without these reviews. I'm sure you cried yourself to sleep nightly. Or maybe screamed bloody murder like Claire does in this episode. "Raised By Another" is really the first episode that introduces a little something else into the mix: a creepiness that isn't able to be categorized. Throughout the episode, there is a faint air of menace surrounding Claire and her pregnancy. Part of us as the audience wants to believe that it's all in Claire's head, and that nobody has been attacking her in the middle of the night. But the other part of us knows that's just wishful thinking. We see the bags under Claire's eyes get more pronounced as the episode goes on, and we see what her dreams are doing to her. Something is eating her up from within, and it's really difficult to put your finger on it. And none of the Losties get to see inside her dreams.
So let's begin there: we open on Claire's eye. Claire's closed eye. This is a first, I think. We've always come in on an open eye: Jack, Locke, Sun...So what could this closed eye mean, this closed eye that opens so forcefully into Claire's ridiculously blue eye? This closed eye that isn't even real, because she's dreaming it. She gets up from the ground and wanders into the jungle, confused, feeling the place where her baby used to be. She hears a baby crying. She finds Locke, or what looks like Locke, sitting at a table in the jungle, pulling cards from a deck with sounds like sharp metal. She asks, "What's happening?' "You know what's happening," he replies, the red lamp shining on his face. "But, I don't understand, why.." He interrupts her,"He was your responsibility, but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now." He looks up, and we see that he has one black eye and one white eye, opaque and frightening. It's about right and wrong. She leaves Locke and finds a cradle in the middle of the jungle, above it a mobile of Oceanic planes. But underneath the covers, she finds only blood, and wakes up screaming. Oh, God, the woman can scream. But this is the moment, and everything in this episode relates back to it. "He was your responsibility...everyone pays the price."
I've said before that the island gives people what they need, what they deserve. So what is it about this dream, and the revelation she makes at the end of the episode, that she needs so desperately? And what does it all have to do with Ethan Rom? First, there's Claire, who is pregnant, and her boyfriend Thomas tells her that he loves her. He tells her, when she is at her most confused and vulnerable, why can't we do this? Why can't we have this baby together? And she is relieved: she won't have to go it alone, like her mother before her. Then there is Claire, pregnant and alone after Thomas has split. Abandoned, like her mother before her. And then there is a third Claire, the Claire on the island who tried to give up her baby and failed. Who took the advice of a strange man and flew to L.A., and ended up crashed on island, with nothing in between her and her baby. She has to raise him now; she has no choice. Her life is unraveling. And Claire, who was going to abandon her baby, must now face the consequences. He is her responsibility. Her father left, Thomas, she was going to leave. They are stuck on the island and her baby is coming. It's about the stuff looming on the horizon, about the men who hide in the dark that you don't even know are there.
In her dream, she found blood in the cradle, and she wakes up the next night claiming that a man has attacked her. And nobody believes her. None of them can see what's looming on the horizon, not even Claire. She sees Locke in her dreams, but I think it's really the island, warning her of the danger that is to come, and the responsibility she needs to face. To avert the danger that is to come. The danger that the psychic told her would befall her baby if she were to let anyone else raise him. But all she feels is guilt: guilt over wanting to abandon her baby, guilt over taking this flight and listening to the psychic. She tells Jack and she tells Charlie that she's tired of people telling her what to do. Thomas, the psychic, the adoption people, Jack, even Charlie. To her, they are people who see her as nothing more than an object: somebody to be used, to be rescued. "I don't need to be rescued!" she tells Charlie. But what she's really railing against is her own guilt, and her fear that she isn't going to be a good mother. She doesn't trust herself, she doesn't trust Charlie, because she trusted her instincts once before when she listened to Richard Malkin and took Flight 815 to L.A. But he was wrong, or so she thought; they were just empty promises. This is why she won't let Charlie in; when he tells her he won't leave her, it means nothing to her, because they all said the same thing: her father, Thomas, the psychic. And they were all lying.
So when Charlie suggests that Richard Malkin knew about Flight 815's crash before it even happened, that he knew the only way he could get Claire to raise the baby herself was to take it out of her control, she is inexplicably relieved. It's not her fault after all: he knew. Everything she believed is still true, because he was lying. This adds a whole other level to the show; if in this universe it's possible for a psychic to predict a plane crash, then other, much more scary things are indeed looming on the horizon. And if he was right about the plane crash, he was right about the baby. Will we ever know what crisis was averted, if it was? Was he even lying about that? Did he have some other motivation in pestering her so desperately? "Everyone will pay the price," he said. Locke tells Hurley on the beach that he was looking for something in Australia, but that he didn't find it; it found him. Were they all destined to be on that plane? And it's Locke who questions even Hurley, "Who's checking on you?" He claims it's a joke, but it's the truth. Is Locke the only one who can see it?
After Claire is attacked, Hurley approaches Jack with a scary thought: who are all these people they are living with? This new civilization they're living in not only doesn't have rules, it doesn't have doors. Everything is open and unprotected. "People come and go," says Kate. There are no borders or regulations. Who knows what menace is lurking, invisible in the light. And then we know: Ethan Rom, not on the manifest. Ethan Rom, with his creepy-ass eyes, standing in front of Charlie and Claire. Ethan Rom, cut to black. It's about the menace within, the things we don't know.
Some quick, final thoughts. Thomas is a turd. I loved Kate sinking in the sand. "Dear Diary, still on the bloody island. Today I swallowed a bug. Love, Claire." Hurley being freaked out by Locke: "I know I already talked to you, but I just wanted to get away from him for a second." I loved Charlie's panicked behavior: counting with "one sugar plum fairy," his accidental confession. Those pens not working for Claire? Destiny. $6,000 is a lot of money. What could have possibly been so scary for a stranger to just give it to you? Why did he care so much? This episode raises more questions than I can even keep track of.
Questions Raised
1. Did the psychic know that the plane was going to crash? If he did, how did he know? Had he met another Lostie and seen the plane crash in their future?
2. Why is Claire's baby a danger if she does not raise it herself?
3. Where did Ethan come from and why has he been infiltrating their camp?
4. Why is Hurley's nickname "Hurley"?
Questions Answered
1. Hurley's real name is Hugo Reyes.
2. Claire was on the plane on the advice of her psychic, who had supposedly arranged an adoption in L.A. for Claire's baby. He paid for the ticket and promised her $12,000--$6,000 upon arriving in L.A.
3. Locke is from California.
Mythology
1. Pregnancy--why is Ethan obsessed with Claire?
2. Where did Ethan come from?
3. Claire's dream.
Motifs/Themes
1. Eyes
2. Black and White
3. Responsibility
4. Destiny
5. Abandonment
6. Danger From Within
7. The Unknown
Death Count
n/a
Sawyerisms
1. To Hurley: "Well, gosh. You sure know how to butter a man up, Stay Puft."
Character Connections
1. Did the psychic Richard Malkin meet another Lostie previously and foresee the plane crash?
Songs
1. "Catch a Falling Star"--
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Save it for a rainy dayFor love may come and tap you on the shoulder
Some starless night
Just in case you feel you wanna hold her
You’ll have a pocketful of starlightCatch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Save it for a rainy dayFor love may come and tap you on the shoulder
Some starless night
And just in case you feel you wanna hold her
You’ll have a pocketful of starlightCatch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Save it for a rainy dayFor when your troubles start multiplyin’
And they just might
It’s easy to forget them without tryin’
With just a pocketful of starlightCatch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Save it for a rainy day
Never let it fade away
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Save it for a rainy day
Living is easy with eyes closed.
It's about good and evil. It's about Locke and his crazy eyes.
Claire--about to learn she's not in control of her own destiny.
The island is really doing a number on poor Claire. Look at those bags forming under her eyes!
Claire--about to learn she's not in control of her own destiny.
The island is really doing a number on poor Claire. Look at those bags forming under her eyes!
Our very own Beach Bunny.
Signing away her destiny.
Sitting in the jungle...
...while Ethan approaches.
Signing away her destiny.
Sitting in the jungle...
...while Ethan approaches.
Lines of the Week
"He was your responsibility, but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now." Dream Locke, hitting Claire where it hurts and hinting some really creepy shit.
"Look, if I was a cop and some woman got attacked, we'd canvas, right? Knock on doors, find witnesses. But, we don't even have doors." Hurley, making a good point.
"Reason for travel? The reason you were in Australia?
"I was looking for something."
"Looking. Uh huh. Right on. So, did you find it?"
"No, it found me." Hurley and Locke, with some revealing information about destiny.
"You don’t like me Charlie, okay? You just want to rescue me, because I’m – because of this. But I’m fine, okay. I don’t need rescuing." Claire, to Charlie, revealing more than she knows.
"There is no happy life. Not for this child - not without you." Richard the psychic, to Claire, being really creepy.
"It's just, I think about you...in this place. How hard it must be for you without your family here and your friends. And I think, we could be friends. I could be your friend. We don't have to do each other's hair or anything. I just mean, that, you know, if you needed someone to talk to about anything, I'm here." Charlie trying to reach out to Claire.
"Name: Shannon Rutherford. Age: twenty. Address: Craphole Island." You have to love Shannon at least sometimes.
"If I can kick drugs, I can deliver a baby. (Claire looks at him.) Let me explain! I'm a drug addict. I was a drug addict. I, I'm clean now." Awkward, emergency confessions ala Charlie Pace.
"I mean, all he wanted was that no one else was to raise your baby, right? Maybe he knew. I mean, if he wanted it bad enough, if, you know, if he had the gift, and I believe some people do, maybe he knew, Claire." Charlie, being really right, and taking a huge burden off of Claire's shoulders.
"We're not alone." Sayid, scaring the bejeesus out of everyone, but too late for Claire and Charlie.