Themes
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Memory
Almost every episode of the series has components of flashbacks from the point of view of one of the characters on the island, made up of their memories.
In the Pilot, Rose says of the Monster, "That sound that it made, I keep thinking that there was something really familiar about it." but she can't recall where she heard them before. Kate also thinks that Charlie looks familiar, and Charlie thinks that this is because she recognized him from Driveshaft.
In "Solitary," Nadia remembers Sayid from when he was a little boy, though he does not at first recognize her.
In "Raised by Another," the castaways fear their group has been infiltrated by one of the Others, and Hurley tries to compile a list of who was on the flight. He has great difficulty keeping people apart in his head (confusing Ethan and Lance, and as always, Scott and Steve) because he is relying on his memory. The task gets much easier when they find a flight manifest.
In "Whatever the Case May Be," Shannon is helping Sayid translate the French on Danielle's map, and says, "There's something about this that is so familiar." She later remembers many of the phrases are from "La Mer," a French song from a cartoon that her ex-boyfriend's child used to watch.
In "Special," after Charlie is brought back from being left hanging to death by Ethan, he doesn't remember anything except that Claire was in danger.
Claire has amnesia for the events of her kidnapping from "Homecoming" and on, at first not recognizing any of the islanders, and does not even remember Ethan, who kidnapped her. The first thing she recalls is peanut butter, her favorite food (and Charlie tried to cheer her up with imaginary peanut butter previously). She tries to write some of it in her diary, and then gives up, saying "Some of this stuff's probably better forgotten anyway."
In "Outlaws," Claire tells Charlie, "I had some dreams last night. Actually, more like memories." When Locke asks how her memory is coming along in "Numbers," Claire says it is coming back in "bits and pieces."
In "Born to Run," Kate and Tom dig up a childhood time capsule full of memories, including an old toy plane that belonged to Tom. After he is killed, this is the only thing that Kate has to remember him by. This episode also illustrates that memories can play tricks on you--as Kate is running out of the MRI room in the hospital, the sign says "Magnetic Resonance Imagining."
In "Exodus," Marshal Mars later mocks Kate's apparent coldness by taunting her with "What's his name again?" implying that she would forget Tom easily because she doesn't care for anyone but herself.
In "Orientation," Jack remembers Desmond from his voice, back many, many years to when they met in Los Angeles. Desmond does not recognize Jack until he makes a remark about running away, which trigger's Desmond's memories of their meeting while running in the stadium.
In "Everybody Hates Hugo," Hurley says he remembers the numbers by heart.
In "...And Found," Sun cannot find her wedding ring anywhere, and forgot when the last time she saw it was, because she is so used to having it on. Various castaways try to help jog her memory, but when she stops looking, she and Kate find it in the place where they buried the bottle.
In "Abandoned," Ana-Lucia does not want to rest on their cross-island trek, and reminds her group of what happened to them. "Do you remember what happened to us? What they did to us? You remember Goodwin?" She often uses these memories to keep the tail section in fear and allow her to remain the leader of that group.
In "The 23rd Psalm," Mr. Eko tells Claire that what he is carving on his stick (the books of the Bible) are "Things I need to remember."
In "Collision," Ana-Lucia says that all she remembers when she was shot by the burglar was a pop.
In "Fire + Water," Hurley thinks Libby looks familiar, but can't remember where they met. She distracts him by making him turn around while she changes, and gives him a false story: "I cannot believe you don't remember stepping on my foot... And it was hard. I know that because I remember you were the last one on the flight, and you were all sweaty, and you had headphones on -- and crunch. You stepped on my foot." Hurley buys into this story, though we learn later that they were both at Santa Rosa at the same time.
In "The Hunting Party," Locke asks Sawyer if anything looks familiar on their route, and Sawyer smarmily replies, "Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf. How could I forget this place?"
In "One of Them," The Prisoner "Henry" is interrogated by Sayid, and recalls numerous technical details about the balloon, but says he doesn't remember details of the events surrounding his supposed wife's burial. Sayid gets angry (with his own memories of burying Shannon), and starts shouting at him: "You would remember! You would remember how deep. You would remember every shovelful, every moment. You would remember what it felt like to place her body inside. You would remember if you buried the woman you loved. You would remember -- if it were true!" Sayid also says he wishes he could erase his memory, after he tortured so many people. At the end of the episode, Sayid asks Charlie "Have you forgotten?" (refering to the lack of guilt he felt for torturing The Prisoner, because of the pain the Others have cost all of them; saying that Jack and Locke have forgotten) When Charlie asks "Forgotten what?" Sayid responds "That you were strung up by your neck and left for dead. That Claire was taken and kept for days during which god only know what happened to her. That these people -- these Others -- are merciless, and can take any one of us whenever they choose. So tell me, Charlie, have you forgotten?" (asking Charlie, because he once killed Ethan in retaliation)
In "Maternity Leave," Libby helps Claire recover of some of her memories (questionable reliability), saying "Maybe your memories aren't gone. Maybe you're blocking them." She remembers someone injecting her belly with a syringe. Her curiosity leads her to go with Kate to find Danielle, who leads them to the abandoned medical station; this in turn triggers more memories that the one drugging and trying to hurt her was Ethan. In the nursery of the medical hatch, the mobile triggers memories of childhood, since it plays "Catch a Falling Star" (which her father used to sing to her, a bizarre connection from her past). She also remembers that she scratched Danielle in a struggle where Danielle was trying to help, not hurt her, which she previously had confused.
In "The Whole Truth," Rose gets mad at Bernard for forgetting her birthday. Bernard says "I didn't forget. I don't even know what day of the week it is, Rose."
In "S.O.S.," Locke is frustrated at his inability to draw the blast door map from memory. After repeated failed attempts, he takes a break outside the hatch, and sits on the beach. When he returns, he finds that he can redraw the map with ease.
In "Two for the Road," Hurley tells Libby "Hey, maybe if I get drunk enough I'll remember where I know you from."
In "?," Locke tells Eko that the hand-copy of the blast door map Locke made: "It's a memory. It's 10 seconds of nothing."
In "Live Together, Die Alone," Kelvin tells Desmond that Radzinsky had a photographic memory, and that's why he was able to draw the blast door map blindly, remembering where he left off from.
Item Last Updated: April 22, 2006, 01:36:38 AM by Pandora
