Rewatching the 3rd season, I really realized how many times the Others have killed or used violence, often against their own. A bunch of examples that come to mind:

Ben murders his father. The Dharma Initiative is exterminated almost like a genocide and dumped in a communal shallow grave. Richard Alpert somehow gets a bus to run over Juliette's ex-husband! Goodwin killed that dude from Canada. Ethan killed Scott(1.) Ethan kidnaps Claire and keeps her drugged for a week(2.) Ethan tried to kill Charlie--and technically, for a few minutes, he did! Ben and his henchmen brainwashed Karl old-skool/_A Clockwork Orange_-style when he could have just kept him in the cage or...hey, even TALKED to him. Juliette plotted to kill Ben. Ben forced Michael to kill AnaLucia and Libby(3.). Pickett tazered Sawyer a whole bunch o' times. Pickett beat the stuffing out of Sawyer and was about to kill him when he was interrupted. Juliette killed Pickett(4.). The Sheriff and the Others all agree that Juliette should be BRANDED as punishment, though the initial impulse was for her execution. Branding is a totally BARBARIC act for people who consider themselves enlightened and "The Good Guys." Ben and the Others force Locke and Sawyer to kill Anthony Cooper(5.). The Others orchestrate a car crash somewhere in the real world in order to kidnap Cooper and bring him to the island solely for the purpose of tempting Locke to kill him. Ben orders his henchmen to kill any Losties who get in the way of their kidnapping the pregnant women--odd considering they have canisters of gas they could use to just knock everyone out. Ben orders Greta and Bonnie to kill Mikhail. Ben orders Mikhail to kill Charlie, Greta, and Bonnie. Mikhail succeeds in killing Bonnie (shooting her in the back--oooh cowardly!) and Greta before killing himself (maybe???) and Charlie.

--PotPie


(1.) What difference does it make if he had orders or not? He's still an Other killing someone.

(2.) Why couldn't he just tell her what was going on and that her baby was at risk? He didn't have to reveal everything. He could have said that there was hazardous material dumped on the island and that she needed special shots to protect the baby. Why put a pregnant alone mother-to-be through those horrible nightmares? In fact, a whole lot of violence could have been avoided if the Others had just explained what was going on. It wouldn't have been an interesting show for us to watch then, I know, but still...

(3.) Sure, Ben might not have known exactly _which_ Lostie(s) would die once he gave Michael the ultimatum, but he certainly knew that bad stuff was gonna go down; they had whole dossiers on everyone AND they were monitoring the Losties pretty closely after the crash. Also, Ben didn't try to make sure no one got hurt because of Michael. Had Michael had 3 or 4 other Others to back him up, they could have released Ben and gotten a headstart back to the barracks without having to kill anyone.

(4.) Again, whether Juliette killed Pickett because of Ben's orders or not is immaterial. Either way it's still Others killing Others. And don't nobody make the argument that she did it to save Ben. PUH-LEEEZE!--She did it to make sure Ben was alive to get her off the island.

(5.) Yeah, Sawyer did the actual killing but Locke is culpable too, obviously. They were in a situation set up specifically to tempt them to kill him. A situation that real life outside the island would have NEVER provided. Dangling a carrot in front of a couple mules is one thing, but dangling a chocolate covered, mint chocolate chip, sprinkled, caramel carrot an inch away from their mouths is another. How could either resist that temptation??? They couldn't and it's totally ridiculous to expect that they should have. Cooper was the central figure in their lives. Not a father figure in the traditional "Let's play catch in the backyard, Tiger!"/_Father Knows Best_ sort of way, but absolutely the most powerful male figure in either of their lives and the DEFINING relationship of their identities. Everything they do and think, every relationship they have...EVERY relationship, decades later is colored by the emotional and physical abuse Cooper inflicted on them.

And anyway, with all those other minor Others standing around just waiting for Locke to kill Cooper while he was chained to the tree...well, if they are all so "good" you would think that at least one person would step in and say "Hey! Wait a minute, maybe we shouldn't encourage this...," right?

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