A History of the Others

Here's a summary of my understanding of the history of the Others on Lost.

The Others were originally brought to the island by Jacob, probably on the Black Rock in the 19^th century. One of the men on that ship, Richard Alpert, is granted immortality by Jacob. From there they lived in peace and harmony with the environment until the US army comes to the island in the 1950’s . Then the army finds the others and attacks them unprovoked. Forced to defend themselves, they fight and become militant, killing eighteen soldiers and taking some of the army’s fatigues and other equipment, especially weapons.

Question: if Jacob brought the Black Rock, who brought the army? I thought no one could find the island. What if the army was also brought – by “Esau”? Jacob brought the Black Rock to prove “Esau” wrong – did “Esau” bring the army to prove himself right? “They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.” The army’s arrival and its consequences certainly seem to tip the argument in Esau’s favor.

By the way, whether The Man In Black’s name is Esau or not, consider this: Jacob in the Bible favors the domestic life as does Lost’s Jacob, Esau in the Bible was a hunter. So is “Esau” a hunter, too? If so, notice how he took the form of Locke, the “hunter” par excellence among the survivors. Ah, but then again, was Locke really a hunter? That is, was he meant to be a hunter? Well, I'll write more about that another time.

So anyway, back to Others history. So the Others/Hostiles became militant and well armed. Eventually the army leaves, but the Others remain militant. One in particular, Charles Widmore, becomes outstandingly ruthless and Machiavellian about defending the island. He comes to be their leader and perhaps gives orders that claim to be from Jacob, but aren’t really.

Now it’s as a young man that Charles Widmore first meets Ben Linus, freshly shot by Sayid Jarah. Ben goes back to live with his dad and the Dharma Initiative, but in his heart he’s with the Others all the way. But something else is in Ben’s heart: a cold calculated rage and a kind of sociopathy that covers his whole soul except…Ben’s sociopathy has one hole: he has a soft spot for babies and small children left motherless as he was. So he can’t kill Danielle Rousseau and leave her baby Alex motherless, much less kill Alex. So he goes against Widmore’s orders and brings Alex to the Others’ camp, adopting her as his own daughter. But that soft spot doesn’t stop Ben from slaughtering the entire Dharma Initiative for the Others.

Ben then led the Others to the Dharma compound where they changed from a live-off-the-land back-to-nature-lifestyle to a suburban American lifestyle. Widmore was eventually banished (by Ben’s maneuvering? Widmore’s corruption? A combination of both?) Ben began recruiting people, lots of people, who shared his sociopathy and would be brainlessly loyal and completely controllable by him. He adapted all the facilities of the Dharma Initiative to keep complete surveillance and complete control over everyone on the island. Ben ingeniously wove together the people of the Others with the resources and facilities of Dharma to turn the island into his own private universe over which he is God.

Except…

Except that Jacob is still in charge of the island. And it’s a fair bet that he was not too happy with what Ben (and Widmore) had made of his happy little society. No wonder Jacob never showed himself to Ben.

The picture I get from all this is that between Charles Widmore and Ben Linus, the Others are turned from a benign community into the monsterous cult-like controllers and oppressors that Lost fans loved to hate.