PUNISHMENT

One of the most glossed over but irritating topics of LOST was punishment.

The series moral compass was pretty much lost and malfunctioning if you look at the character's crimes and their resolutions.

Sayid was a torturer and murderer. If one believes that he would have got out of Iraq alive after the war, he received no punishment for any of his war crimes. Further, Sayid was never punished for any of the crimes he did when he was Ben's off-island assassin. And the island pain, torture or killings had no effect on Sayid allegedly going on in the after life in a happy state.

Kate was a murderer, thief and insurance fraudster. If one believes that she had a "trial" for her crimes (which was legally impossible and incorrect), Kate received less than a slap on the wrist: probation without major restrictions for cold blooded murder, insurance fraud, robbing a bank and stealing cars?

Ben was a mass murderer. He killed dozens of Dharma people during his purge. He killed his own father with poison gas. On the island he kidnapped people (Juliet, Walt, Zach, Emma). He tortured people (Jack, Sawyer). But in the end, Ben is not punished for any of his transgressions.

Even good guy Jack was never punished for his role in his father's drunken malpractice death. If Jack was part of the cover-up of his father's mistake, changing medical records, etc., Jack should have lost his medical license and faced criminal and civil penalties. But nothing happened to Jack (except for his own self-abuse of guilt).

So why was LOST so devoid of punishment for the characters blatant crimes? Some believe that the LOST saga was a series of personal redemptions, but it is hard to say any character could be redeemed without some moral punishment for their gruesome sins against their fellow man.

The lack of a moral barometer is a support for those who believe that the island was not a purgatory. There was no need for punishment of the characters because they were all victims of Jacob and MIB. But that does not absolve the off-island issues.

The only suffering the characters had was the "fear" of the unknown, the smoke monster, the Others and their own self-worth. But fear is an introspective, mental condition.

One could argue that the lack of any punishment for anyone's crimes is because a sociopath, in their own mind, does not punish himself for his actions. If the series was contained in the imagination of a sociopath, that would partially explain why the "punishment" factor is lacking throughout the series.  A sociopath does not believe he has done anything wrong.  In some respects, such a person lives in a fantasy world.

So it is an odd hole in the series that punishment was not a bigger event.