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For the orchestral piece, see "Life and Death" (composition).
3x10-death-card

The "death" Tarot card, which represents life and death. ("Tricia Tanaka Is Dead")

Many scenes in Lost have juxtaposed life and death. Links have included associating death with the show's many pregnancies and in sometimes triumphantly averting death.

Birth and death[]

Ji Yeon c

Sun brings her baby to Jin's grave. ("Ji Yeon")

On the Island, women die at around their 100th day of pregnancy, and Claire once thought the Others planned to kill her to take her baby. Off-island, Emily Linus died while giving birth to Ben. Claudia was killed right after she gave birth. Locke's birth resulted from a car accident that threatened his mother's life, and Penny's labor sent Desmond running for a doctor. ("Maternity Leave") ("The Man Behind the Curtain")  ("Cabin Fever")  ("Jughead")

Pregnancy has increased some deaths' emotional impact. Jack covered his father's drunken operation until he learned the woman he killed had been pregnant. Right before Ana killed her shooter, she announced that his attack had killed her unborn child. Rachel's pregnancy, though a happy moment, initially heightened the tragedy of her cancer, but she eventually beat the disease and successfully gave birth. ("All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues")  ("Collision")  ("Not in Portland") ("One of Us")

A young child's presence has twice saved a life. Ben avoided killing Danielle Rousseau after he saw her child. Years later, he avoided killing Penny when he saw hers. ("Dead Is Dead")

And on two occasions, though the birth doesn't cause or prevent the death, the show portrayed them together for thematic reasons. Boone, the first survivor to die, died as Aaron was born. Soon after Sun gave birth to Ji Yeon Kwon, she took her to her husband's grave, revealing his supposed death for the first time. ("Do No Harm")  ("Ji Yeon")

After death, Sun, Jin, Claire, Kate and Charlie all realized they had died when confronted with a pregnancy or birth. One of the show's final shots shows four characters we'd seen die cradling a baby. ("The End")

Averted deaths[]

Jack Kate Charlie

Kate and Jack, soon before they resuscitate Charlie. ("All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues")

Characters have often resuscitated one another from apparent deaths. The most dramatic example was Jack's resuscitating of Charlie in "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues", a scene that's revisited in "LA X, Part 1", but Jack also resuscitated Rose, and Sawyer resuscitated Michael. ("Pilot, Part 1")  ("Adrift") Charlotte Malkin similarly came back from apparent death. Jack saved Charlie and Hurley soon after the crash and operated on Ben, Locke saved Walt and Eko from polar bears, and Desmond saved Charlie from various deaths. ("Pilot, Part 1")  ("I Do") ("Further Instructions")  ("Catch-22")

The Island's healing properties have repeatedly saved characters from deaths, including stabbings and bullet wounds. ("The Beginning of the End")  ("Through the Looking Glass, Part 2") It also healed Rose's cancer. ("S.O.S.")

Many characters—Jack, Locke, Desmond, Hurley, Michael—have come close to suicide before something interrupted them. A gun not firing also saved Michael from Keamy. Claire refuses assisted suicide for her mother, who eventually recovered from her coma, and Jin twice refused to kill targets. ("Cabin Fever")  ("...In Translation")  ("The Glass Ballerina")

See also[]


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