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The great big unknown about Karl is what he is doing on the Island.

— AngeloComet

When considering this series of Alex essays it was never my intention to devote much space to Karl. A few paragraphs in a piece about the males in Alex’s life was my original idea. However, comments from previous postings have generated much discussion about Karl, and the relationship he and Alex have has potentially significant bearing on what happens next. So I turn here to Karl, and his relationship with Alex, fully. I don’t promise answers, but I’ve got ideas to bounce at you.

The great big unknown about Karl is what he is doing on the Island. Was he born there? If so, who are his parents? What is his role in The Others? How did he come to be with them? Let’s try some logical deductions. First, Karl’s age. I’d say he’s no older than 17. His punishment, for me, suggests he was treated as a minor; i.e. not an adult, under 18. That’s very rigid thinking, I know, but my logic that Karl was treated as a juvenile stems from the following information.

Alex - “We’re pretty strict about killing one of our own. Eye for an eye.”

Alex tells Jack this when they are discussing the verdict of Juliet’s murder trial. As I am sure you know, “eye for an eye” is a Biblical legal idiom basically stating that the punishment should fit the crime. Karl’s punishments (first being locked in a cage on the Hydra Island, then sectioned off into Room 23) have two probable justificiations, neither of which seem equal. I assume he was placed into Room 23 as a consequence of his trying to escape from his cage. I assume he was placed into a cage on the Hydra Island at the behest of Ben (“I didn’t want him to get you pregnant. I suppose I overreacted.”). None of these appear particularly justifiable by the ‘eye for an eye’ principle, suggesting that Karl, as a minor, doesn’t qualify. Ben stated he wanted Karl in the cage (Ben’s motives for this do not concern me here) and so it was unquestionably done.

Still, the fact that Karl can be treated in this manner without apparent disagreement from any of The Others proposes one interesting notion: does Ben have some form of guardian role over Karl? What I mean is, if Karl had parents or guardians looking after him, people that took care of him and raised him, wouldn’t they be interested in what had become of their boy? So, this is just a suggestion and it takes some serious liberties with speculation, but. . .

I suggest Karl is a product of the Dharma Initiative. If we put Karl at around 17 years old then that means, at the time of ‘the purge’ (again, an event the precise timing of we don’t know; best estimates are 1988) he would have been approximately a toddler or even a baby. I suggest Karl was either born on the Island by parents together in the Dharma Initiative, or was brought to the Island as a very young child by Dharma (either by his parents, or otherwise). I am assuming that ‘the purge’ did not extend to the slaughter of children, and thus those children (if there were many - Karl could have been the only one) then fell under the custody of the hostiles/Others. So, perhaps Ben took custodial charge of Karl. This would explain to me why Karl can be caged, and why he could run away from The Others (and have them leave on a pilgrimage to the ‘temple’ without him) and have no one show concern.

Alternatively, the obvious explanation about Karl not having ‘guardian Others’ that raised him being concerned about him is because he wasn’t raised on the Island. Somehow, he ended up there not so long back and became part of The Others. It’s possible, but I lean towards him being Island-raised. We do get a sense that Karl has lived his life on the Island. He’s never heard of The Brady Bunch. He talks of a time spent gazing up at the stars from the backgarden of a home at ‘the barracks’ with Alex. Given his age, this ‘orphan’ theory about Karl’s origins is, for me, the one that feels truest. Does this mean Alex and Karl were raised like step brother and sister? I’d hope not, given their romantic relationship, but Lost has broken this precedent before with Boone and Shannon so I’m not taking it off the table!

What’s true is that by the end of season three Ben has delivered Alex over to her natural mother, and her boyfriend. “I’m delivering you to your new family,” Ben tells Alex. Quite the little set-up, and as stated from the outset, Karl’s piece in the design that Ben (potentially) has for Alex’s future is not to be underestimated. But this is where I must leave things for now, and the concepts about what Ben’s designs for Alex’s future actually are will have to be kept over for the next, and last, in this little series.

“I’ll see you real soon.” (Alex to Karl, before he is taken off the Hydra Island by Kate and Sawyer.)

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