the decoy village

[bunnydixon]

why did the others have a decoy village and why did they dress in rags? i think i can understand the rag thing more than the decoy village but still - why?

[awsnyde]

I think the decoy village and the rags were to provide false information to the plane crash survivors, in both cases to make themselves look more primitive than they really were. Plus the decoy village made it look like they were based somewhere other than their real location, which certainly threw off Sayid's plans.

[bunnydixon]

thats what i pretty much thought but i cant really see why lol!

[awsnyde]

It's a whole "laws of war" thing. You want to misinform your enemy. For example, in this case, inspiring them to attack you because they think you're weaker than you really are. They wanted Jack, Sawyer, Kate, and Hurley to think there would be no problem going with Michael to retrieve Walt. That's my interpretation anyway.

[jacksnurse]

i agree....i was kind of dissapointed though to find them so suburban and set up in little houses and having book readings......i thought that they were more mysterious than that....

[awsnyde]

I'm not sure whether I was disappointed or not. I do remember that, even the first time I was watching those episodes, I was thinking that there was something fishy in Michael being so insistent that the Others were so backwards. So I guess you could say I wasn't surprised.
On the other hand, that made the survivors' much more successful counterattack on the Others at the end of Season 3 that much more satisfying.

[TuesdaySmith]

i agree....i was kind of dissapointed though to find them so suburban and set up in little houses and having book readings......i thought that they were more mysterious than that....

Ha! I know.. remember watching that episode for the first time?

[youalleverybody]

I kind of remember however that when Young Ben first met Richard in the forest when he was running away from his Dharma camp, Richard was in 'ragish' clothing. Richard was considered a 'hostile' . And when the hostiles came to the camp after Older Ben had released the gas and killed everyone they too were wearing rags.

Dont know if this has any point but just thought that i would share. I agree Bunny, why???

[bunnydixon]

good point youalleverybody!
wonder if thats what the hostiles genuinely wore but after the purge decided to just take the clothing of the dead dharma folks. but obviously somebody has to be doing shopping for them as they are not all walking about in 70s garb!

[youalleverybody]

haha ya, and we now know they do some shopping at Walmart (mugs ) :)

[ConfidenceMan]

Maybe the "Decoy Village" was the real home of the original hostiles, and when the hostiles took over the Dharma "suburb" they used the primitive one as a decoy.