Lost - Raised by Another [Claire]

I was actually looking forward to Claire’s own back story introduction if just so she could get some attention. I thoroughly like her and if the show had done anyone a disservice (I wouldn’t even go that far, really, as she has been kept relevant throughout but I had felt that her character was deserved of further attention), perhaps the Claire character was necessarily (her being pregnant and “relocated” to the island does beg to question what would happen once a baby was born…) kept in small doses until the right time came along in the first season. Lost, during the first season, at the beginning, saw fit to character develop, even dedicating a majority of episodes to back story and “current story” for each principle cast member. If we are to spend so much time with these characters, it is imperative we get to know them a bit, but perhaps the writer’s room would keep a little of each one to themselves…the viewer does need to be surprised every now and then. Claire was dating a painter, getting pregnant by him. He talked a big game about the two of them raising the child as a family, but as Claire became more pregnant he realized that instead he wanted no part of it. So Claire decides she’ll put the child up for adoption, but a psychic she visits insists to keep it. It is revealed the psychic encourages Claire to get on the plane that would eventually strand her on the island! Charlie posits that perhaps the psychic knew about the island which is why he demanded her get on their specific plane. Fear of someone threatening her baby begins when the psychic tells her not to give it up (“You must raise this child!”), then an intense nightmare involving a crib in the middle of the jungle full of blood and what appeared to be a near attack on her by an unknown assailant in the night with a needle seems to indicate real danger on the island. Are these premonitions? Were the psychic’s demands for a greater purpose that Claire has yet to realize?

Emilie de Ravin immediately charmed right at the start. Very pregnant is her Claire, and she does feel the anxiety around others regarding the scary thought of a baby being born on the island before rescue arrives. Almost obviously a single mother, quite pregnant and alone, Claire had a story readymade and tailored for an exclusive episode (well, for the most part…). That the painter would abandon her because he was still too immature and selfish isn’t a surprise. The surprise is the emphatic intensity in the psychic, and how he seems desperate to convince Claire to keep the baby for herself and get on the plane that would eventually crashland on the island. With Jack doubting that someone with a needle meant to harm Claire’s baby (the opening of the episode seeming to prove as a harbinger of doom waiting to befall Claire if she isn’t careful), the question to ask is if it was really all in her head. Charlie never wavers in his support for her. Unlike the painter, Charlie does seem to be legit in his claim that he would serve as a protector and watchful eye for Claire. That she would be hesitant to believe that I don’t think many could blame Claire for being skeptical of it. But Charlie does appear genuine. And admitting to her he had been an addict, just recently kicking it, is a big step for Charlie towards further achieving redemption. If he can help Claire, supporting her through the remainder of her pregnancy and beyond, it would be quite a rehab for Charlie. Not just a pretty, cherubic face, de Ravin imbues Claire with a pleasant presence and appealing personality. You can embrace her. And with the episode giving her back story sympathetic touches, “Raised by Another” enriches the character further because her struggle is identifiable and relatable.