Theory of the Day: The Others are Descendents of the Black Rock

Since we're without Lost for a month, I figure a decent way of keeping our eyes on the ball is to do some theory spitballing. You most likely won't find a theory as large as the time loop theory on these pages, but it'll give you some things to think about.

Let's start off with something I've been toying around with for a while: the origin of the Others. We still know barely anything about them: just that they consider themselves the good guys, were hostile to the Dharma Initiative, and have been conducting experiments.

So where did they come from? If you believe that they were on the island before the Dharma Initiative (as seen in Ben's flashback episode), one possibility is that they're descendents of the Black Rock slave-trading ship. According to the Swan's blast door map, Magnus Hanso is buried at the Black Rock site, and thus was presumably a member of the ship; in the auction scene in "The Constant," we know that his ancestors tracked down the fist mate's ship log, which possibly helped them locate the island in order to finance the Dharma Initiative's trips there. Thus, if the Others were descendents of Magnus, it would be satisfyingly ironic that they then went to war with the Hanso-financed Dharma people.

The gigantic argument against this theory is that since women who conceive on the island die before giving birth, a line of on-island descendents would be impossible. Still, if that were so, it doesn't explain how they've been able to keep living there since pre-Dharma days. One possibility is that the conception problem is a relatively new development; another, more popular theory, is that the Others simply don't age. But that's worth another day's discussion.

More evidence for: the Black Rock was a slave trading ship, and the Others are all white except Klugh (who was likely recruited later); if they're not descendents, then what happened to the original crew?

More evidence against: except for Mikael, they all have American accents, while the Black Rock set sail from Portsmouth, England (as described by the auctioneer in "The Constant").

TAGS: Black Rock, Hanso Foundation, Others, Theories
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