The Aaron Issue - Part 1

A little pre-Lost discussion:

The hot button issue among Lost fans seems to be whether or not Aaron is considered one of the Oceanic Six. The main argument for his inclusion is that the creators have evidently stated that all six rescuees will be revealed by last week's episode. To be honest, I think that's a tad weak. First of all, I haven't personally read/heard the creators state that, only critics and advertisements, both of which could have easily misunderstood the twist at the end of last week's episode. And even if the creators did say that, I can easily see them saying that as a red herring, to further accentuate the shock of the aforementioned twist.

Anybody who has read my columns knows that I am a firm believer that Aaron is not a part of this sextet. The strongest argument I can make I made last week: At Kate's trial, Jack clearly states that eight people survived the crash, and that two later died. That means that six people who were on the flight survived, and those six people got off of the island. Having not been born yet (and not being on the manifest), Aaron obviously cannot be considered a part of this group.

In response, my Prime Time Pulse cohort Mathan Erhardt had this to say:

But what if Jack is Pro-Life and think that Aaron was actually on the plane, thus making Aaron one of the Six?

And is it cool to think that Claire was one of the 8?

I think that's a stretch. And a big one at that. Considering that Jack and crew have apparently put so much thought and detail into this lie, I doubt that they'd use language that could be so easily misconstrued. Besides which, as far as I remember, during the first few episodes when Jack (and others) would spew off the number of crash survivors, Claire counted as one person.

Over at EW.com, Jeff "Doc" Jensen has been arguing that Aaron IS one of the six, basically accusing any nay-sayers of taking the whole "Oceanic Six" moniker too literally.

In response, I wrote Jeff an e-mail bringing up the point about Jack's trial testimony, and how that seems to explicitly state that the survivors were six people who were on the flight. He has yet to respond, but when he does, consider that Part 2 of this argument.

As far as my prediction as to who the sixth person DOES refer to, I favor one of the following scenarios:

1) The sixth survivor has appeared, in the background, during a past flash forward episode.

2) Ben, who was obviously not on the flight, somehow stole the identity of one of the passengers that had perished. Perhaps Scott or Steve.

3) Michael or Walt had previously returned from the island, and was essentially "outed" as a survivor before the other five were rescued.

4) The sixth person has not been revealed yet, and will not happen until a future episode.

Anyway, that's it for now. Enjoy tonight's episode.