One Of Them: The Others Are Us, Relatively
“Jack asked me how I knew… knew for sure that this man was lying. How I knew for sure he was one of them. One of The Others. I know because I feel no guilt for what I did to him.”
The literary device of subtext is a beautiful thing. When executed properly you understand a character’s true motives even though his dialog may explain otherwise. An easy example of this you might remember from grade school when you mercilessly teased your childhood sweetheart. Saying I love you might have sufficed, but where’s the subtext in that? Imagine a story where everyone said exactly what they meant. Boring, no?
So when Sayid says “I am a torturer” are we witnessing bad writing?
Not in this case. In One Of Them we learn that a young Sayid was recruited by an American spook during Gulf War I. During this time in captivity Sayid was given the tools, both literally and figuratively, needed to obtain information. Using torture on his commanding officer he obtained information on the whereabouts of a missing US airman, but is disgusted by his own actions.
Though he’s sworn off torture Sayid is capable and good at what he does.
Sawyer is a tougher nut to crack. He claims he’s not a good person, but he’ll treat people fine when it’s in his best interests. His actions are usually those of self-preservation, and as a result people get hurt. In scheming the guns away from everyone Sawyer was at his most selfish. In that case he could be construed as a bad person.
I think Locke is similar, but I’ll revisit that soon enough…
