Your Voice: The End of the Socks?
Submitted by Eric S.
There is no doubt that the season four finale this year was a doozy, especially with regards to deaths. We learn that 3 main characters from the first season are dead: Michael, Locke and potentially Jin (some think that he may have had time to escape the Kahana before it went kablooey). The thing that strikes me is what the plot of the finale implies without directly showing the audience: the majority of the background characters are dead!
Daniel Faraday comes to collect Juliet on what he feels will be his last ferrying to and from the island due to the fact that he has presumably gotten everyone else off the island and his seemingly knowing sense that circumstances will keep him from coming back. I’m assuming that this excludes the not-so-background Rose and Bernard, considering they’ve made a commitment to stay, along with Miles and Charlotte. What this means is, all of the survivors, with the aforementioned exceptions (and those who were on the Zodiac when the island moved and those who we explicitly see either still on the island or on their way to rescue) have perished.
Earlier in this season in "The Shape of Things to Come," three background characters, or Socks as the producers have affectionately named them, were taken out in rapid succession by Widmore’s Death Squad led by Keamy. This was just a taste of the later carnage we would see with regards to the oft-neglected crowd of folks who rarely got their screen time like Dr. Arzt (Exodous), Nikki and Paulo (Exposé), Neil Frogurt (Missing Pieces: The Adventures of Hurley and Frogurt), and even "The Rash Guy" himself, Sullivan (Solitary).
I know that this theory may be going out on a limb because we never actually see the Red Shirts– I mean Socks bite the dust in the C4 explosion, but from what we are shown, I believe this is the most likely fate for the underdog 815 survivors.
Is this really the end for the poor, neglected background characters?
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I’m not sure I understand what the big mystery here is–Jack comes right out and tells John he got most of their people killed. It’s explicitly stated: Most of the background characters are dead.
Comment by Tim — June 9, 2008 @ 6:44 am
I think they will now have an opportunity to introduce some of the redshirts as actual characters (like Arzt etc …) now that their numbers have been reduced.
Comment by Bob3 — June 9, 2008 @ 6:50 am
I think Jin is alive, and hanging out with Frogurt and Scott (or maybe Steve).
In fact, finding out they swam back from the wreck of the Kahana is probably the excuse the writers were looking for to finally introduce us to Steve (or maybe Scott) in Season 5.
Comment by Ed Holden — June 9, 2008 @ 8:25 am
Tim,
There’s no mystery here, and I know it’s barely a revelation, but what I’m talking about aren’t the socks that got killed while John Locke was leading them, but the ones that Ben/Keamy killed via the explosion device, considering that we’re led to believe that almost all of the survivors who didn’t die at the Barracks attack, who were on the beach with Jack, died.
Comment by Eric S. — June 9, 2008 @ 9:42 am
It is a fair assumption that most of them are dead….If nothing more
than to make room for all of the “others” socks that we see (for a split second) following Richard around all of the time.
Comment by dustyt — June 9, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
Maybe I’m way out to lunch here but my understanding was that Daniel made just two trips - the first one was with Jin and Sun et al and the second trip he never completed. He knew he wasn’t coming back because he thought he didn’t have time due to the copter flying toward the orchid station. He secretly tells Charlotte that she _needs_ to be on the zodiac for this trip implying that the other losties believe there are more trips to come. Daniel is letting Charlotte in on his secret - he’s not coming back.
Comment by Nick — June 9, 2008 @ 2:10 pm
Not sure about Jin. Realistically, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that he’s already on board for next season. I believe Claire is the only main character that we won’t see until season 6 when they get back to the island. Emilie de Ravin said she’s signed a holding contract for S5 and has agreed for a return to LOST the following year.
Regarding Jin, if you pause the scene showing the ship exploding just prior to that initial explosion you can see very clearly someone stood upon the deck of the ship. In reality a person would still be blown to pieces, but in LOST I think it’s a pretty safe bet he was blow clear of the main explosion.
Comment by Van — June 9, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
Check out this page on LOSTPEDIA: List of Oceanic Flight 815 survivors
Looks like there might be 11(?) socks left on the beach and in the raft.
I wonder if the plane crash survivors would join “The Others” after Hurley, Sayid and Sawyer killed their best fighters?
Sorry I don’t know how to create links to internet pages (any help?).
Comment by Uncle Beaver — June 10, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
The reason I think that Daniel got the rest of the survivors is this line of dialogue:
JULIET: I promised I wouldn’t leave until I got everyone here safely off this island. Relax. I’ll still be here when you get back.
DANIEL: Right, right… when I get back.
But I could be wrong. I thought Juliet was implying that would leave on the next trip because that would be the last one with the remainder of the survivors? Thoughts?
Comment by Eric S. — June 11, 2008 @ 8:52 am