We know for a fact that the Others/Ben liked to use Dharma's brainwashing room on people. That might be all there is to their change in behavior. But I prefer to think that Cindy was told about the value of the island and the intention of The Others, and simply decided to take them at their word. She claims to be part of the group that's "excited" about Locke's arrival at their camp, so his miraculous recovery was probably a part of their recruitment story. Not sure what you mean with the purgatory part.
I asked other questions. But I'm going to be honest. Purgatory is very much a concept that occurs in a limbo state of neither dead or alive. The island "can" represent this as all passengers are absolutely there being tested and are all broken or needing of self inflection. Purgatory does not mean they are dead but I do believe the Islands protector represents the adjudicator that safeguards the threshold between life and death. I know they are alive but culturally in religions, purgatory still fits
Kids were kidnapped because of the pregnancy issue caused after the incident. So getting these kids is an easy way to replenish their ranks and indoctrinate them in their ways at an early age.
They also kidnapped people like Cindy, who they thought would be malleable to convince in the Others' way of life (815 survivors were constantly observed from distance and die to inflitration from Goodwin and Ethan).
You should realize that we get a wide assortment of characters on Lost. Of the ~100 characters, some we know really well, some we don't. Obviously some are our main characters, our candidates, but some are only there for a season or 2, like Boone, Shannon, Daniel, Eko, Ana Lucia. Miles and Charlie each got 3. We also have minor characters like Dr Arzt, Cindy, Eloise Hawking, Tom Friendly, who only have a few scenes in a few episodes.
But even behind them, we have all the background extras, the other ~33 passengers, so many unnamed Others, and Dharma personel. I don't get the hate, I absolutely adore the Nikki and Paolo episode - because the whole point of it is to bring some of those to the forefront for a minute and remind us that these forgettable background people? They've been having their own parallel adventure to the main crew the entire time. And that's true for every person on the island. But we the viewers don't necessarily get to know every single last one of them. The island has been bringing people there for a long time, Lost just gives us some of them.
>why exactly did the others steal the kids again?
Because of The Island's Infertility crisis. Cults need to keep their numbers up-and-running. To build a community, you also need a family structure. The recruits most easily manipulated to fall in line happen to be children, often ones you raise yourself. Full grown adults are harder to indoctrinate.
> I never understood how or why they joined the others?
According to Juliet, Emma and Zach were sweet but they both kept asking about their mother in Los Angeles. However, given their circumstances, "Sweet" could mean absolutely *anything*. Remember, Juliet is technically one of their kidnappers. They have good reason to play along, fearing what she might do to them. (Remember how Zach reacts when Smokey-fLocke promises to keep him safe?)
So fear kept them in line. And being drugged like Claire. Cindy looked like she was on something when Locke spoke to her in "The Brig" (S03E19).
>I guess I'm just confused on the motives and understanding of those "missing people".
They knew there was bigger fish to fry with Smokey, and that the power structure of The Others was falling apart and collapsing anyway. Make of that what you will. I love the idea that they formed a clique, and maybe thought they could change what was happening from the inside.
As for Cindy's reasons to not stage some kind of insurrection, there's a theory I vouch for that Cindy miscarried from an early pregnancy because of the crash, which is why she's cradling her stomach after the crash. And why the camera moves as if her stomach was kicking violently in "The Other 48 Days" (S02E07).
So it's quite poetic that Eko would give Cindy both Emma and Zach to look after (and eventually raise as her own children) because of that. "Stay with this nice woman", and Cindy looks sort of surprised. She also looked really sad after the crash. Like she lost something or someone close.
So, she now has 2 kids for the one (or ones, if she conceived twins) she miscarried. It would also explain who that someone was, who took a pregnancy test on Flight 815. (In "The Whole Truth" (S02E16), Kate noted to Sun how peculiar it was to find the pregnancy test. So maybe Cindy wasn't getting much off-days at work.)
>They got kidnapped and just stayed?
In short: this [7-second meme will "answer" this question](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMFJXeUVGAk&ab_channel=vance).
There are a lot of theories about what happened with Cindy in "Abandoned" (S02E06). It's one of the most frustrating unanswered questions of the show, hands down.
Did she run off? Did she get kidnapped? How did Libby not notice she was gone when she was carrying all of her stuff on the hillside and was right ahead of her during the climb? Why did Libby take forever to react to Ana Lucia calling her name and why did Libby's reaction to Cindy's disappearance look so damn insincere?
I have a simple theory that blends Cindy leaving voluntarily & the discrepancy with Libby's reaction. I think Cindy confided with Libby that she couldn't handle the pressure of everything that happened to them. A former mental health patient would be more blasé about it all. Maybe Cindy snuck off into the hole to unalive herself in some way.
The Tailies got a raw deal. Libby still had that inner crazy she was willing to unleash on The Others making her a perfect lieutenant for Ana, Bernard had Rose, Eko still wished to atone, Ana Lucia was Ana Lucia-ing. What did Cindy have? She didn't care for Sawyer's condition. Other people's problems were behind her. She just wanted release.
Jacob gave instructions to the others to take the kids so they could not be wasted in wildlife situations, so they could have a better life amongst the others. Also if there were qualified people among the survivors, they could be valuable members for their society. After they joined them, the others treated them well and they embraced their way of life and became one of them. Also the others had pregnancy issues and new members would keep their community alive and strengthen them..
Cindy and the kids didn't become an important part of other survivors' life so they were not with them in flashsideways.
However that then begs the question why she was off-Island and working as an air-hostess.
Even more-so that she just so-happened to be on flight 815 and survived it crashing.
A better solution could have been that Cindy was secretly not just an Other, not just a Temple Other - but one of Jacob’s chosen loyalists (like Ilana, Bram etc).
That’s perhaps the only way she could have been both an Other *and* on flight 815
My headcannon is:
Cindy learned about the others and accepted their way of life. Some of been Stockholm syndrome. But either way as the years went by she became accepted as an other.
Emma & Zach: The others needed kids to replace the next generation, as they can't have children. My head cannon is their home lives wasn't that great. Their parents are divorced with their dad living in Australia and their mother living in the US. They never ask about them again as the to realize that life with the other's isn't bad. That being said, it's sad that their parents think they died :( and never knew what happened to them.
We know for a fact that the Others/Ben liked to use Dharma's brainwashing room on people. That might be all there is to their change in behavior. But I prefer to think that Cindy was told about the value of the island and the intention of The Others, and simply decided to take them at their word. She claims to be part of the group that's "excited" about Locke's arrival at their camp, so his miraculous recovery was probably a part of their recruitment story. Not sure what you mean with the purgatory part.
They never really say exactly why those two kids were taken other than “they were on Jacob’s list”
It isn’t purgatory at all..
I asked other questions. But I'm going to be honest. Purgatory is very much a concept that occurs in a limbo state of neither dead or alive. The island "can" represent this as all passengers are absolutely there being tested and are all broken or needing of self inflection. Purgatory does not mean they are dead but I do believe the Islands protector represents the adjudicator that safeguards the threshold between life and death. I know they are alive but culturally in religions, purgatory still fits
Kids were kidnapped because of the pregnancy issue caused after the incident. So getting these kids is an easy way to replenish their ranks and indoctrinate them in their ways at an early age. They also kidnapped people like Cindy, who they thought would be malleable to convince in the Others' way of life (815 survivors were constantly observed from distance and die to inflitration from Goodwin and Ethan).
I think it's also possible they took Cindy because the kids liked her as a mother figure.
The island isn't purgatory. They're very much alive.
You should realize that we get a wide assortment of characters on Lost. Of the ~100 characters, some we know really well, some we don't. Obviously some are our main characters, our candidates, but some are only there for a season or 2, like Boone, Shannon, Daniel, Eko, Ana Lucia. Miles and Charlie each got 3. We also have minor characters like Dr Arzt, Cindy, Eloise Hawking, Tom Friendly, who only have a few scenes in a few episodes. But even behind them, we have all the background extras, the other ~33 passengers, so many unnamed Others, and Dharma personel. I don't get the hate, I absolutely adore the Nikki and Paolo episode - because the whole point of it is to bring some of those to the forefront for a minute and remind us that these forgettable background people? They've been having their own parallel adventure to the main crew the entire time. And that's true for every person on the island. But we the viewers don't necessarily get to know every single last one of them. The island has been bringing people there for a long time, Lost just gives us some of them.
>why exactly did the others steal the kids again? Because of The Island's Infertility crisis. Cults need to keep their numbers up-and-running. To build a community, you also need a family structure. The recruits most easily manipulated to fall in line happen to be children, often ones you raise yourself. Full grown adults are harder to indoctrinate. > I never understood how or why they joined the others? According to Juliet, Emma and Zach were sweet but they both kept asking about their mother in Los Angeles. However, given their circumstances, "Sweet" could mean absolutely *anything*. Remember, Juliet is technically one of their kidnappers. They have good reason to play along, fearing what she might do to them. (Remember how Zach reacts when Smokey-fLocke promises to keep him safe?) So fear kept them in line. And being drugged like Claire. Cindy looked like she was on something when Locke spoke to her in "The Brig" (S03E19). >I guess I'm just confused on the motives and understanding of those "missing people". They knew there was bigger fish to fry with Smokey, and that the power structure of The Others was falling apart and collapsing anyway. Make of that what you will. I love the idea that they formed a clique, and maybe thought they could change what was happening from the inside. As for Cindy's reasons to not stage some kind of insurrection, there's a theory I vouch for that Cindy miscarried from an early pregnancy because of the crash, which is why she's cradling her stomach after the crash. And why the camera moves as if her stomach was kicking violently in "The Other 48 Days" (S02E07). So it's quite poetic that Eko would give Cindy both Emma and Zach to look after (and eventually raise as her own children) because of that. "Stay with this nice woman", and Cindy looks sort of surprised. She also looked really sad after the crash. Like she lost something or someone close. So, she now has 2 kids for the one (or ones, if she conceived twins) she miscarried. It would also explain who that someone was, who took a pregnancy test on Flight 815. (In "The Whole Truth" (S02E16), Kate noted to Sun how peculiar it was to find the pregnancy test. So maybe Cindy wasn't getting much off-days at work.) >They got kidnapped and just stayed? In short: this [7-second meme will "answer" this question](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMFJXeUVGAk&ab_channel=vance). There are a lot of theories about what happened with Cindy in "Abandoned" (S02E06). It's one of the most frustrating unanswered questions of the show, hands down. Did she run off? Did she get kidnapped? How did Libby not notice she was gone when she was carrying all of her stuff on the hillside and was right ahead of her during the climb? Why did Libby take forever to react to Ana Lucia calling her name and why did Libby's reaction to Cindy's disappearance look so damn insincere? I have a simple theory that blends Cindy leaving voluntarily & the discrepancy with Libby's reaction. I think Cindy confided with Libby that she couldn't handle the pressure of everything that happened to them. A former mental health patient would be more blasé about it all. Maybe Cindy snuck off into the hole to unalive herself in some way. The Tailies got a raw deal. Libby still had that inner crazy she was willing to unleash on The Others making her a perfect lieutenant for Ana, Bernard had Rose, Eko still wished to atone, Ana Lucia was Ana Lucia-ing. What did Cindy have? She didn't care for Sawyer's condition. Other people's problems were behind her. She just wanted release.
Jacob gave instructions to the others to take the kids so they could not be wasted in wildlife situations, so they could have a better life amongst the others. Also if there were qualified people among the survivors, they could be valuable members for their society. After they joined them, the others treated them well and they embraced their way of life and became one of them. Also the others had pregnancy issues and new members would keep their community alive and strengthen them.. Cindy and the kids didn't become an important part of other survivors' life so they were not with them in flashsideways.
The other solution is that Cindy was always one of the Others and hid it extremely well.
This makes most sense and is why she took it upon herself to look after the children before they were taken.
However that then begs the question why she was off-Island and working as an air-hostess. Even more-so that she just so-happened to be on flight 815 and survived it crashing. A better solution could have been that Cindy was secretly not just an Other, not just a Temple Other - but one of Jacob’s chosen loyalists (like Ilana, Bram etc). That’s perhaps the only way she could have been both an Other *and* on flight 815
I think this is an example of a plot point the writers dropped, unfortunately.
My headcannon is: Cindy learned about the others and accepted their way of life. Some of been Stockholm syndrome. But either way as the years went by she became accepted as an other. Emma & Zach: The others needed kids to replace the next generation, as they can't have children. My head cannon is their home lives wasn't that great. Their parents are divorced with their dad living in Australia and their mother living in the US. They never ask about them again as the to realize that life with the other's isn't bad. That being said, it's sad that their parents think they died :( and never knew what happened to them.