Three Reconciliations in “Lost”

Last night’s episode of ABC’s Lost gave us three incidents in which residents of the island began to come to terms with their past and to make amends for harms they had done:

1. Jin apologies to his wife, Sun for the ways in which he has harmed her and tells her that he is getting on the raft in order to find help and save her. This was a genuine and complete reconciliation.
2. Sawyer gives Jack some information about his father. Jack realized that his father wanted reconciliation with him but, because of pride, was unable call Jack before he died. This was the first unselfish act that Sawyer has made. It was an indirect amends, i.e. it did nothing to undo the harms that Sawyer has done but it undid harms between Jack and his father.
3. Shannon accepts Walt’s offer of his dog. Walt tells her that she can talk to the dog about her brother’s death. In accepting the dog, Shannon implicitly recognizes that she needs to deal with her feelings. This is an important step for her.

Everyone on the raft has taken steps towards undoing harms committed in his past. While what his all will mean is unclear. I’m still following up on a suggestion from my son, David,

”Every character that the show’s featured so far had a reason for being in Australia, and all of those reasons involved confronting demons. Most of them didn’t do a good job of it, and the island is their next chance.”

It seems that Jin, Sun, Sawyer, Michael, Walt and Shannon have all taken steps towards making amends for their past. Based on this theory, they should all fare well in the next episode.

P.S. "Who woulda thunk it?" Here I am writing about a soap opera.

Comments

[David Ely]

In addition, the people who were able to come to this reconcilliation were all able to leave the island. Jin apologized to his wife. Sawyer told Jack about his father. Michael is overcoming his failure as a father. Walt helped Shannon. Their fate remains to be seen, but their tasks on the island have been completed.