Raised by Another (S01E10)
Airdate: December 1st 2004
Written by: Lynne E. Litt
Directed by: Marita Sabiak
Running Time: 42 minutes
Even the most ambitiously conceived and lavishly funded television series is not immune to the chaotic realities of production, which can lead to creative missteps. Lost’s first season, for all its pioneering serialised storytelling and network-breaking budget, provides a case in point with its tenth episode, Raised by Another. Originally envisioned to air before the ninth episode, Solitary, the order was wisely switched by producers who sensed a tonal clash. While this decision avoided a more jarring discontinuity, the episode as aired nevertheless bears the scars of its reconception and suffers from a disappointingly conventional, tension-diffusing cliffhanger that undermines its more intriguing philosophical ambitions.
The main storyline of Raised by Another performs the now-familiar Lost dance of intertwining present-day island mystery with character-defining flashback. This time, the focus is Claire Littleton, a young woman achingly close to term. Her pregnancy becomes a conduit for terror when she experiences a series of violently vivid dreams, culminating in a wakeful scream and the claim that a mysterious man tried to stab her unborn child with a syringe. Dr. Jack Shephard’s rational scepticism is predictably dismissive, but it is Hugo “Hurley” Reyes who provides the episode’s narrative engine. Believing Claire, he seizes upon her fear as a pretext to conduct a census of the survivors. This is a neat, economical piece of scripting that serves dual purposes: it advances the plot by uncovering a crucial anomaly, and it provides organic, much-needed character exposition, finally attaching last names like Rutherford (Shannon) and Reyes (Hurley) to faces. The flight manifest, surprisingly easily relinquished by the typically possessive Sawyer, becomes the key. Hurley’s cross-referencing reveals the terrifying truth that one man among them, who gave his name as Ethan Rom, is not listed as a passenger on Oceanic Flight 815. This revelation converges neatly—too neatly—with Sayid Jarrah’s battered return to camp, bearing news from his encounter with the frenzied Danielle Rousseau that “we are not alone”. The episode culminates with Claire and Charlie, unaware of the discovery, encountering the now-sinister-seeming Ethan in the jungle.
Claire’s flashback, which details how she came to be on the fateful flight, is where the episode introduces its most compelling philosophical weight. We see her as a struggling waitress in Sydney, left by her boyfriend Thomas upon learning of her pregnancy. Desperate and alone, she visits a psychic, Richard Malkin. His initial reading is dire: she must raise this child herself, as great danger will befall it otherwise. Claire, naturally sceptical, is later harassed by a now-obsessive Malkin who insists she not give the baby up for adoption. When she finally decides to keep the child, Malkin performs a bewildering volte-face. He now urgently instructs her to give the baby to a “nice couple in Los Angeles”, presses a large sum of money into her hand, and emphatically books her ticket on Flight 815. Back on the island, discussing these events with Charlie, Claire arrives at the chilling realisation: Malkin wasn’t just predicting the future; he was actively, desperately working to ensure his specific vision came to pass. Written by Lynne E. Litt, this thread deftly introduces a central, gnawing theme for the entire series: the contest between free will and predestination. Malkin is not a passive oracle but an active agent of fate, his manipulations raising profound questions about destiny and choice that would resonate throughout Lost’s run.
Yet, for all the good work done in the flashback and the cleverness of the census device, much of Raised by Another’s impact is compromised by its ending. The revelation of Ethan Rom as a dangerous outsider is ultimately a standard, almost clichéd thriller beat. The subtle unease that could have simmered is traded for a blunt, unambiguous threat. This is compounded by the all-too-convenient timing of Sayid’s return, which feels less like organic narrative convergence and more like a heavy-handed scripted device designed to underline Hurley’s point with a dramatic exclamation mark. The episode’s title, while a clever play on “Raised by an Other” and a reference to Claire’s predicament, tips into being too clever by half, especially when paired with the overly symbolic anagram of “Ethan Rom” = “Other Man”. The symbolism feels heavy, imposed rather than earned.
It is worth noting that the episode could have been significantly worse. Had it aired before Solitary as initially planned, the jarring transition from Claire’s visceral terror and Ethan’s threat to the light-hearted subplot of Hurley building a golf course would have been tonally disastrous. The switched order was a salvage operation. Furthermore, the episode was spared another potential misstep by the producers’ veto of director Marita Grabiak’s request to shoot Claire’s nightmarish cold open in black-and-white—a stylistic flourish that would likely have felt arch and out of place. This creative conflict ended Grabiak’s involvement with the series, but the decision ultimately served the episode’s grounded, visceral tone.
Raised by Another is a solid, if flawed, piece of television. Its strengths lie in its thoughtful exploration of predestination, its efficient use of the census for world-building, and particularly in a superb, vulnerable performance from Emilie de Ravin, who renders Claire’s fear and confusion utterly believable. It is an episode that deftly advances the series mythology but stumbles in its execution of suspense, opting for a conventional cliffhanger over sustained, psychological dread.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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