How can "the Others" heal?
Nov. 21st, 2011 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stefanie_beanSo, back to the Others @ the Temple. In late 2004, they've retreated to the Temple, where they are safe from Widmore's thugs. Those at the Barracks are killed.
They live either at the Temple, or at the old Pala camp, or perhaps in the forest, until the return of the Ajira 316 people.
Note that in this time Richard is with them - *but Ben is not.* Ben is living in our world, playing games with Widmore, getting Sayid to kill people for him, etc.
It's when they return to their roots that their healing begins: their recovery from the twin cults of Jacob and Ben. They may seem "cultlike" under Dogen, but it's under Dogen's leadership that they can combat their principal adversaries: Samael and his amanuensis, Claire, who is picking them off whenever she gets a chance.
They don't time-shift; this is important. Neither does Claire. Just as Jack becomes "like Jacob," Claire has become "like Samael," probably because she has committed herself to him. Both the Others and Samael (and those directly under his influence) are so closely integrated into the preternatural life of the Island that when Locke moves the Island, it doesn't disturb them. The Temple Others, especially, are protected because they are literally living *close to the Heart.*
In my head canon (MHC), not only are they living under protection, it's not Jacob's protection per se. Jacob is a bad and incompetent protector; he's also junketing around our world, too, doing stuff like recruiting a team (headed by Ilana) to do what he thinks the Others on the Island aren't doing. In a sense, the Others and Richard do better when he's not around.
More MHC: With Jacob ignoring them; with Ben busy elsewhere; with John Locke and his religious fanatic fervor out of the picture, the Others have a much clearer channel to the Island itself. As Joe Darnielle says in the song, "Color in Your Cheeks,"
MHC: I like to think that in those almost-three years, the Others received a beautiful and comforting message from the Island itself, perhaps through the pure waters of the Temple. What they heard was this - that someone was coming, someone who would do the job the Protector was tasked to do: to not remain hidden as a mystery, but instead to live with, work with, live among them. And part of that great promise was that he would also heal their terrible wound - the deaths of their women if the women conceived. So the healing had to be threefold: of the Others themselves as a society; of the curse of death from birth; of the damage to the land itself done by Dharma and the centuries of Jacob's neglect.
Yes, the Temple is breached, and yes, the remaining survivors among the Others go over to faux-Locke. If there's anything they need from Hugo Reyes, when they finally find him, it's love and understanding - and not blame or finger-pointing as "traitors" for their desire to survive. They're not "bonded" to f-Locke, as cult members would be.
So when the Temple is destroyed, and the remaining fragment of the Others find Hugo, what happens? The funny thing is, when he was among them before becoming protector, they were kind of mean to him - and didn't recognize anything in him at all.
They live either at the Temple, or at the old Pala camp, or perhaps in the forest, until the return of the Ajira 316 people.
Note that in this time Richard is with them - *but Ben is not.* Ben is living in our world, playing games with Widmore, getting Sayid to kill people for him, etc.
It's when they return to their roots that their healing begins: their recovery from the twin cults of Jacob and Ben. They may seem "cultlike" under Dogen, but it's under Dogen's leadership that they can combat their principal adversaries: Samael and his amanuensis, Claire, who is picking them off whenever she gets a chance.
They don't time-shift; this is important. Neither does Claire. Just as Jack becomes "like Jacob," Claire has become "like Samael," probably because she has committed herself to him. Both the Others and Samael (and those directly under his influence) are so closely integrated into the preternatural life of the Island that when Locke moves the Island, it doesn't disturb them. The Temple Others, especially, are protected because they are literally living *close to the Heart.*
In my head canon (MHC), not only are they living under protection, it's not Jacob's protection per se. Jacob is a bad and incompetent protector; he's also junketing around our world, too, doing stuff like recruiting a team (headed by Ilana) to do what he thinks the Others on the Island aren't doing. In a sense, the Others and Richard do better when he's not around.
More MHC: With Jacob ignoring them; with Ben busy elsewhere; with John Locke and his religious fanatic fervor out of the picture, the Others have a much clearer channel to the Island itself. As Joe Darnielle says in the song, "Color in Your Cheeks,"
We cleared a space for him to sleep in,
and we let the silence that's our trademark
make its presence felt.
MHC: I like to think that in those almost-three years, the Others received a beautiful and comforting message from the Island itself, perhaps through the pure waters of the Temple. What they heard was this - that someone was coming, someone who would do the job the Protector was tasked to do: to not remain hidden as a mystery, but instead to live with, work with, live among them. And part of that great promise was that he would also heal their terrible wound - the deaths of their women if the women conceived. So the healing had to be threefold: of the Others themselves as a society; of the curse of death from birth; of the damage to the land itself done by Dharma and the centuries of Jacob's neglect.
Yes, the Temple is breached, and yes, the remaining survivors among the Others go over to faux-Locke. If there's anything they need from Hugo Reyes, when they finally find him, it's love and understanding - and not blame or finger-pointing as "traitors" for their desire to survive. They're not "bonded" to f-Locke, as cult members would be.
So when the Temple is destroyed, and the remaining fragment of the Others find Hugo, what happens? The funny thing is, when he was among them before becoming protector, they were kind of mean to him - and didn't recognize anything in him at all.