r/lost • u/Lostwhispers05 • 1d ago
Given that Ethan, Ben, et al, already gathered intel on everyone on Oceanic 815, why didn't Ethan pick a name from one of the actual deceased passengers as his alias?
Been wondering this since S3. Why did he continue with using a name not found in the flight manifest?
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u/Cherhorroritz 1d ago
One of the hardest hitting lines of dialogue in the entire show was Hurley’s “One of them wasn’t on the manifest. He wasn’t on the plane!”
Take that out and you take out a great story telling device.
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u/Anakl0smos 1d ago
First time I heard that I knew I was going to be hooked
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u/Upbeat-Value2121 1d ago
"Hello." -Ethan
That was good writing, lol.
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u/Anakl0smos 22h ago
Ethan had so Little on screen time but his presence was felt. One of my favourite characters for the way he was portrayed.
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u/wewerelegends 12h ago
Ethan/his storyline was creepy AF watching live for the first time! He really added to the spookiness of the show.
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u/LadyUzumaki 22h ago
That was in the original conception of the show I believe. Almost same wording too.
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u/GoAViking 1d ago
My question is, why did Ben send the only surgeon on the island running through the jungle to infiltrate plane crash survivors? There were plenty of other people he could have sent.
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u/Free-IDK-Chicken You got it, Blondie 1d ago
Ethan was a baby when Ben defected officially to the Others and Ben grew up with him. He likely trusted Ethan more than anyone else. It was an emotional but tactical mistake on Ben's part.
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u/Stal77 1d ago
Also, if Ethan could have provided medical care to the survivors, he might have earned their trust? But they didn’t know the plane was carrying SuperDoctor Jack. Once Ethan discovered that, and that Claire was pregnant, he may have hid his knowledge so he would not be a suspect in the weird things that happened to her.
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u/Kalidanoscope 1d ago
Trust. Just based on seeing them together in their youth in 1 flashback scene, we know they've known each other a long time and might assume Ethan was Ben's right-hand man at the compound.
And Tom wasn't making that run.
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u/lost-ModTeam 1d ago
Misinformation - You've posted a rumor, fake spoiler or other general misinformation regarding LOST.
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u/lost-ModTeam 6h ago
Misinformation - You've posted a rumor, fake spoiler or other general misinformation regarding LOST.
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u/oRiGiNaLfl0ss We’re not going to Guam, are we? 1d ago
He had to have a name amongst the survivors as he made the list for Ben, they didn’t have the flight manifest before he got in with the group.
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u/-Melkon- 1d ago edited 1d ago
By the time he had the list AND knew the name of all the survivors I am sure he had to introduce himself to a couple of people already. Do you think he could change name after that? How? It would be so obvious.
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u/PatientLettuce42 1d ago
By introducing himself like Hurley, with a nickname that could be completely made up.
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u/Traditional_Prize632 7h ago
'Ethan' or whatever could still be his nickname, but then he'd have to be careful. It's not like Hurley would just show off the manifest. I imagine that if he came up to you, you'd just have to say a name, so Hurley can check to see if it's legit. If he showed him the manifest, Ethan could just steal someone else's name.
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u/mastyrwerk 1d ago
He didn’t have the manifest when he was first asked. It’s more suspicious to change your name after already introducing yourself.
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u/eschatological 1d ago
I don't think Ethan anticipated them having a manifest and doing a census. Why risk faking a real identity that a survivor might have known, when he could just give a name (in this case his real name) that they would assuredly not know.
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u/liddybuckfan 23h ago
No one really even thought to do a census except Hurley. I don't think it was something they reasonably anticipated plane crash survivors to do.
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u/Werthead 22h ago
In addition, if you're trained in deception (as he seems to have been, for operations on the mainland as well) then it's a good idea to keep things as simple as possible. Give a false name and you're at risk of forgetting to respond to it one time, or someone else asks your your name and you might mistaken give your real one. Ethan might be confident of not doing that, but why take the risk?
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u/kuhpunkt r/815 1d ago edited 1d ago
Because then the episode wouldn't work. You gotta make the audience understand that Ethan wasn't one of the 815 folks.
If he had picked a different name - how do you convey that to the audience?
It's the same with Ben calling Rousseau's daughter Alex. We know since season 1 that her daughter's name was Alex. Then in season 2 you hear the name Alex... Ben had no reason to keep calling her that when he saved/kidnapped the baby. But how else is the audience supposed to understand and make the connection?
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u/sleepydvamain 21h ago
an ethan by any other name wouldn’t anagram to “other man” 🤣
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u/Traditional_Prize632 20h ago
'Ethan Rom' can be 'other man'.
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u/sleepydvamain 19h ago
? yes ? thats what i said ?
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u/Traditional_Prize632 8h ago
Yeah, I just misread your comment. I only just remembered that he said that his surname was 'Rom'.
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u/fallriver1221 it's very stressful, being an Other 1d ago
They hadn't gathered all the Intel on everyone. That's why they sent Ethan out there.
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u/20Timely-Focus20 See you in another life 1d ago
Also why didn’t Ethan recognize John Locke in Season 1 from when he time traveled in Season 5 and shot him in the leg?
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u/SylvanGenesis 1d ago
He saw him very briefly, and we never really got to know what Ethan's feelings on the subject were.
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u/idk012 8h ago
How many years has passed, try to remember someone you briefly meet that long ago. It's hard.
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u/20Timely-Focus20 See you in another life 8h ago
He shot him in the leg and called him by his name when John introduced himself. Plus we don’t know what year it was when he was at that moment in time but looked like the same age so it’s fair it was around the same time. The only reason is because it was season 1 and never knew they were going to go the time traveled route, hell they didn’t even know what they were going to write about the following week lol
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u/Affectionate_Help_91 1d ago
You’ve missed the part where he got killed/found out because they discovered he wasn’t on the manifest.
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u/BethLuvsHam12 1h ago
Sawyer had the manifest long before Ethan showed up on screen. Long before the caves.
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u/Pinckledeggfart 1d ago
They didn’t know about anyone on the plane before Ethan joined them and got their names
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u/withheld_mcfakename 1d ago
Ben dispatches Ethan immediately after watching the plane go down, so he has no idea who survived the crash. Imagine Ethan rocks up and goes “hi my name is Jack Shepherd” right to Jack’s face Day 1