Lost Spirituality, Part 2

[SPOILER ALERT: If you have not yet seen this week's episode of Lost, be forewarned that the following comments reveal important plot points. Proceed at your own risk.]
This week's episode of Lost effectively revealed the double edge of the title. The poor souls stranded on this island are not so much lost geographically as they are lost spiritually. All of the crash survivors have dark secrets, character flaws, or difficult struggles from their past that they need either to atone for or overcome. They appear to have lost their way in some form or another.

Previous episodes have hinted at the idea that these people are on the island in order to find some measure of redemption or healing (literal or figurative as the case may be). As Sara noted in an earlier comment, it is interesting that the mysterious "Others" only kidnap those survivors who they deem to be "good" -- in whatever way they define the term.

The most recent episode made me think about the function of death on the show. I wonder if, whenever a main character dies on the show, they do so after first achieving some form of redemption. For instance, Shannon, whose primary flaw was a deep and abiding self-centeredness died shortly after genuinely learning to care for others in a selfless way. The apparent death of Ana Lucia in this past week's episode (assuming the death holds true) follows a similar pattern. Henry Gale, one of the Others, informed her earlier in the episode that one of his number saw in her the potential to become one of the "good" ones they seek. Ana Lucia's dark secret was that she had once killed a man in cold blood who had early tried to kill her. After Henry Gale attempts to kill her, she finds herself reliving the past. With a gun in her hand, she stands prepared to kill another man in cold blood in retaliation for his atttempt on her life. This time she chooses not to kill. Shortly after, she dies. I don't know if this pattern holds true for Boone (I haven't thought enough about him), but I find it intriguing food for thought.