Episode 10: Raised By Another

Yet another great episode title here. Most of them are, but I love the ones that can be interpreted in more ways than one. ‘Raised by Another’ refers of course to Claire’s psychic telling her in her flashback that she cannot let her unborn child be raised by anyone other than herself.

When Charlie hears of Claire’s back story and how the psychic (Malkin) changed his mind from originally insisting that she raise the child herself, to then suddenly setting her up with a foster family in L.A. under the condition that she had to be on Oceanic flight 815, he theorizes that somehow Malkin knew that Oceanic flight 815 was going to crash on the island, therefore leaving Claire no choice but to raise the child herself. This plan of Malkin’s would make it so that the baby could not be ‘raised by another’. 

That being said, we will later find out that ‘the others’ are very interested in Claire’s baby and intend on convincing Claire to live amongst them with her child. Though we wont find this out until much later in the series, we’ll learn that Ethan is ‘the other’ that will eventually pursue Claire and her baby, and the end of this episode is the first time that it is implied that Ethan is definitively one of ‘the others’. So you could interpret ‘Raised by Another’ as ‘Raised By An Other’. I love when the writers do stuff like that!

I’m kind of going in reverse of the actual order of the episode, but it’ll work since I am not trying to avoid spoiling anyone who is not current with the show. Ethan is officially revealed as an ‘other’ when he appears in front of Claire and Charlie creepy-looking and alone when Charlie and Claire had been expecting Ethan to get Jack to come to Claire’s aid. This happens near simultaneously with Hurley coming to the conclusion that Ethan’s name was not on the flight manifest that Hurley was using to cross reference his census that he was making.

Fun other little sidenote, perhaps common knowledge to many ‘Losties’ but Ethan Rom can rearrange the letters in his name to create the words ‘other man’. hmmm

Hurley created the census because of Claire’s claims that she was attacked in her sleep. The first incident seemed like a nightmare, but Claire awoke with bloody palms because she dug her own fingernails deep into her own hands out of fear of her nightmare.

However, Claire isn’t convinced that it was completely a nightmare. In her dream sequence she experiences the feeling of having lost her baby. She was not pregnant anymore and heard it screaming in the jungle. When attempting to find her child, she stumbled upon Locke who was sitting at a desk that appears to be the same as her psychic’s desk. This ‘dream-version’ of Locke has one eye that is completely white with no pupil and one that is completely black with no pupil. This is the recurring theme of black vs. white / dark vs. light / perhaps good vs. evil that we have seen many times before and will see again. Locke also says in the dream that Claire had been warned, and that this all happened because she didn’t raise the baby herself. 

**THEORY ALERT**

This dream sequence as well as Malkin’s warning to Claire actually triggered a theory for me. I just couldn’t help thinking that Aaron is going to grow up to be an evil person. It seems reasonable. After all, you would think there would be repercussions for Aaron being raised by another, otherwise why was it of such importance that the baby’s development be influenced by Claire’s kindness and goodness? Perhaps Aaron is a new dictator or evil leader for the islands future? Perhaps it is setting up a battle between Aaron and Walt over the future of the island? I definitely believe Aaron will be important to the overall plot, but that makes it even more curious that he was not on Ajira flight 316.

Back to Claire’s dream, her claim that it could have been real may have been false, but she did see the Oceanic plane mobile during her dream state, which she will see for the first time several days later when she is kidnapped. This isn’t the first or last time that premonition has come to a character via dream. 

Fate is most certainly a major theme in this episode, especially as it pertains to Claire and her pregnancy, but really this episode is just an example of how fate has had its impact on just one of the survivors on 815. It has its impact on everyone at some point, but this is a prime example because of how directly connected actions or events coincide with the idea of someone’s destiny.

If Claire doesn’t get pregnant her encounter with Malkin never happens. Not to mention, if her boyfriend didn’t leave her during the pregnancy there wouldn’t have been a question as to who is going to raise the baby. She only wants to put it up for adoption because she feels that she cannot handle being a single mother. Claire wanting to put the baby up for adoption may also be a result of her ‘daddy abandonment’ issues as her compassionate boyfriend so kindly refers to it. Which at the time we may not have thought too deeply into, but now know that the daddy that abandoned her is in fact Jack’s daddy too!

Perhaps the biggest sign of destiny and fate comes at the hands of one of our very favorite promotional products: the promotional pen. When Claire is trying to sign the contract to officially give up her baby, the first pen she tries to use does not work. Have no fear, lawyers always carry promotional pens on them. Even if they’re fancy executive pens, I’d be willing to bet that if it is coming from a lawyer, it has an elegant looking imprint on it with their firm’s name and contact information. Alas, this lawyer must have gotten his custom printed pens from a place other than Motivators because this one doesn’t work either. This was enough to deter Claire from giving up the baby and she returned to Malkin to hear him out. Next thing you know she is on a plane to the island and the rest is history.

The funny thing about fate as it specifically pertains to Claire, is that despite these very convincing examples, Claire herself says that ‘there is no such thing as fate’ when she is talking to Sun and Shannon in ‘Exodus’, the finale episode of season one. 

Part of the problem with going backwards in this post is that I feel it necessary to explain that Claire’s ‘attacks’ come in the beginning of the episode. This may seem somewhat irrelevant, but it allows there to be a big build-up to what is a really great cliffhanger ending. So to recap, throughout the duration of the episode Jack maintains that Claire is experiencing stress induced hallucinations and not actually being attacked. However, to be safe Hurley creates a census so that they can keep track of what has turned into their little island society. The end of the episode is an exciting culmination of Hurley discovering that Ethan is not on the census, Sayid stumbling back into camp disoriented and assuredly claiming that the survivors are not alone on the island, meanwhile the mysterious Ethan has positioned himself to kidnap Claire and her baby.

Questions answered but plenty of new ones have arisen. I think the real question is: Is it possible for anyone that’s been watching every episode so far, to not be completely hooked in at this time? I remember knowing that I needed to go to bed because I had to get up in a few hours, but watched the next episode anyway!