by Megan Bailey, Staff Writer

I think it’s fair to say that LOST had a bit of a woman problem. There were several on the show at any given time, but the actresses weren’t always given material worthy of them. Claire (Emilie de Ravin) and Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) are effectively written out of the show for long periods of time. Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) usually have some kind of storyline, but Kate suffers from effectively only being a part in a love triangle without any actual motivation or agency for a while. And Sun is set up for interesting storylines, but they rarely come to a satisfying conclusion.

And that’s not to mention the sheer amount of times that women are killed off for male character development. I get it; it’s a story trope as old as time. But I think it gets old after the fifth or sixth time it happens. Is there any other story beat you could try instead? Seemingly not.

There’s Shannon (Maggie Grace), who, after reconciling with Sayid (Naveen Andrews), is shot by Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez). Then Ana Lucia and Libby (Cynthia Watros), the two most prominent female “tailies,” are shot by Michael (Harold Perrineau) because the Others told him to save Ben and they were in his way. The episode focused on Libby’s death gives Hurley (Jorge Garcia) a lot of character development, and then we move on fairly quickly. Ana Lucia, who had hooked up with Jack (Matthew Fox) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) before her death, gets a few moments of emotion from the men, but then they’re back to Kate to continue the love triangle.

Alex (Tania Raymonde), who Ben (Michael Emerson) steals from Danielle (Mira Furlan) as a child, is killed by Keamy (Kevin Durand), a mercenary hired by Charles Widmore (Alan Dale), and her death kicks off Ben’s attempt to kill Penny (Sonya Walger), who is Widmore’s daughter. Nothing says I love my adopted daughter like killing someone else’s daughter in revenge.

In season four, our new arrivals include Naomi (Marsha Thomason) and Charlotte (Rebecca Mader). Naomi dies after a few episodes, and Charlotte dies in season five, furthering Daniel’s (Jeremy Davies) emotional journey. Are you seeing a theme?

I haven’t mentioned her yet, but I think Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) has some really interesting character development. To go from a medical researcher, to an Other, to part of the Oceanic group is no small feat. She is multifaceted, though a good portion of her storyline in season five is spent wondering if Sawyer will leave her once Kate returns to the island. I like that a good portion of her storyline right at the end of her life is focused on doing the most good for the group—she makes Sawyer go back to the island rather than run away, and she smashes the atomic bomb in order to stop the plane from ever crashing. The bad news is that Sawyer doesn’t allow her the dignity to make her own choices and ends up blaming Jack for Juliet’s death.

For a character who spent a good portion of her time on the island wanting to get back to her sister, that stops being relevant once the time traveling starts. We never see Juliet consider her life before the island anymore. By season five, her life is Sawyer and Dharma. Why would she be motivated by anything but him?

When Kate gets a storyline of her own, it’s usually compelling to watch. I like that she’s messy but able to get herself in and out of trouble. She doesn’t always make the smart choices, but she makes choices in line with who she is—a runner, a fugitive, always trying to leave before she’s left. She runs off after Jack and Sawyer because she wants to be a part of the team, no matter how often they exclude her. It makes sense to me that she pushes so hard on this.

And all of this goes without mentioning just how much pregnancy plays into this show. Obviously, Claire is pregnant at the start, and the majority of her storyline on the show is about her pregnancy and being a mother to Aaron. Once Kate takes Aaron off the island, she’s facing motherhood as well. Sun gets pregnant later and has to leave the island in order to safely have her baby.

The most meaningful moments on the show are often moments of solidarity between the women. For all that pregnancy storylines are not my vibe, I think the scene where Kate talks Claire through giving birth is incredible (and so does the show, because we revisit it again during the time travel scenes and in the flash sideways). I also like moments when Juliet helps Sun with her pregnancy. But these scenes are too rare for a show with this many women in it.

The more I think about it, I realize that LOST is a bit of a bait and switch. At a glance, it has a lot of women in it, who should have been given weighty storylines. But when it comes down to it, most of the power players were (white) men. As the show goes on, it’s more and more noticeable who is left on the island and who gets the focus. I think the show could have been better if it’d expanded to include more women (and people of color). And if the women could have been more than just fodder for male character development.