User Reviews

Claire had not been presented as one of the most significant characters up to this point (she was mostly just the sweetly pretty pregnant lady that everyone wanted to help), but "Raised By Another", her first "centric" episode, is perhaps the first major turning point in the series, in a variety of ways: her flashbacks, which include her visits to a psychic, also pose the question "How much of our future is fixed?". Was Claire's crashing on the the island her destiny, or was it the result of the psychic's actions who manipulated her destiny? Four seasons later, the question still stands. The presence of other people on the island, apart from the survivors, most likely with hostile intentions (unlike Danielle, who was introduced in "Solitary" as a potential villain but turned out to be more of a tragic figure), is confirmed. And it is strongly suggested that both Claire and her still-unborn child are more important than they appear - that these unknown "others" have targeted them for a reason. The episode's dark mood is lightened up a bit by a very funny Hurley-Locke exchange. *** out of 4.

Lost is such a character driven show and at this stage in particular even all of the mythology is attached to character, so this is why I have started each review mostly talking about the character at the center of the episode and what they are defined by.

For certain characters the problem has been that they are overly defined by one singular quality/concept, in the case of Claire I think you could argue that she is overly defined by her imminent motherhood but actually it might be more on point to say that Claire is really just not that defined.

This isn't to say that she lacks characterization completely and I actually think that Claire episodes tend to be steady, but Claire is certainly less explained as a person than the likes of Sawyer and Locke. This is partially because Claire just hasn't been in it that much at this stage, but also because Claire is maybe a little less essential to Lost on a thematic level.

Where the likes of Sawyer and Kate fit into Lost's main concern, duality and where Locke and Jack act as a linchpin for Lost's discussion about religion, Claire isn't really a piece of any of these jigsaws. Thus why she is kind of always on the character bench, coming in midway through a season.

Nonetheless even at this early stage Lost is a pretty well oiled machine when it comes to story-telling. The Claire flashbacks her are unspectacular but are well constructed and told. Lost is and would continue to be very assured when it came to telling a little vignette across 45 minutes of television.

I don't know about the need for a psychic. I get that the story doesn't work without one, but in a show like Lost, the presence of a psychic seems to be laying it on a bit thick. We kind of get that are these supernatural, mystical overtones to the show without someone coming in for just one episode to help along these aspects of the show.

There is plenty of great stuff on the island though. Hurley and his census, at least initially, shows the lighter side of Lost. It is worth mentioning here how Hurley really provides this meta commentary for the show, particularly at this stage. Not only does he basically just say what the audience are thinking (his exchange with Locke is hilarious) but his referencing of Stan/Steve (a running gag about the nature of red-shirting in these sorts of shows) and his paraphrasing of Sawyer ("Screw Off" here Hurley and the show are making light of network TV standards) builds this nice sense of its not just the audience who thinks this is all a bit mental.

The twist at the end is really the first example of Lost ending on a cliffhanger (technically the pilot ends on one but it is the sort of cliffhanger that isn't resolved in the opening minutes of episode 2) and really is the first instance of them building an arc within a season which will take center stage in the next couple of episodes.

A strong episode, that furthers the season along sufficiently and tells the sort of well designed short story Lost mastered pretty early in its run.

Calm down. 7/10 is a good score, especially by my standards.

The problem with this episode is this: It is unoriginal. Now, that isn't a huge problem. There are less than fifty episodes of television that are truly original, and most of them aren't that good. The only flaw this piece of television encountered was a somewhat dismal realism factor. Good news is, most of the rest was just fine.

I had a problem with the idea that a woman like Claire would go to see a psychic, then not believe anything he says, then turn around and believe him again. You either do or you don't with that kind of thing.

The show needs to expand from its "No plot, lots of backstory" theme, and here's why. It is unrealistic that there are so many people on this island and that every single one has a tragic and dark backstory. Is no one just a regular person? Furthermore, I hate to say it, but none of these actors are strong enough to be solely featured for an entire episode.

Claire's character is quite boring. She's claiming sb is trying to hurt her while she's sleeping. The psychic didn't want him to give her child up for adoption because he knew about the crash. One of those in the island isn't on the passenger list and that's Ethan I guess.