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Black and white

From Lostpedia

Image from "Pilot, Part 2" of Locke holding two backgammon pieces
Locke's eyes are shown black and white in a dream during "Raised by Another"
Black and white stones found in a pouch on one of the bodies in the cave in "House of the Rising Sun".

The colors black and white are often depicted together in Lost, perhaps to show the symbolism of contrasts. If another colour is noticeably present, it is often red.

Contents

Occurrences

Every season

  • The title and credits screens are a black background with white text.
  • The DHARMA Initiative logo, and those of individual DHARMA stations, are black and white. The Staff logo also has red on it.

Season 1

Season 2

The black and white countdown timer
Clever use of cinematography to bring out the theme in "Collision"
  • The mural in the Swan was first shown, and it prominently displays a black face and a white face at the top. ("Man of Science, Man of Faith")
  • The Swan station's countdown timer was first shown, and the digits are black on white and others are white on black. When a system Failure occurs, the white is replaced with red for the hieroglyph display. ("Adrift")  ("Live Together, Die Alone")
  • Contrary to everyone's assumptions, Rose's husband Bernard is not black, heightening the black & white pairing in the situation.
  • The instant before Jack and Kate encounter Mr. Eko (carrying a wounded Sawyer) for the first time, they are playing golf. The ball is white, the club is black, and the tee is red. Jack is searching for his misshot ball when Kate spots Mr. Eko carrying half-dead Sawyer across his shoulders.
  • In the Swan station, after the encounter with Mr. Eko, Kate volunteers to fetch medical supplies for Jack so he can tend Sawyer's infected gunshot wound. Sawyer's shirt is black, Jack's is white, and Kate's is red. The next time the episode focus returns to them, Kate has to convince Sawyer to swallow the antibiotics. This is a very tense moment between Jack and Kate, as she cajoles the delirious Sawyer by whispering gently and affectionately in his ear while cradling him.
  • Jack and Ana Lucia confront one another as the respective leaders of two groups who had once met, but had walked very different paths since the crash. Ana has just killed Shannon, a member of Jack's group. She is seen wearing black, while he is wearing white, standing silently with a large divide between them, at the end. ("Collision")
  • John Locke (white) and Mr. Eko (black), watched the Swan Orientation Film together. Both characters are considered men of faith. ("What Kate Did")
  • The Monster was revealed as a moving plume of black smoke; however, Locke claims the Monster appeared to him as a bright light the first time he saw it. ("Exodus, Part 2")  ("The 23rd Psalm")  ("The Cost of Living")
  • Eko and Yemi are seen wearing black and white priest cassocks. ("The 23rd Psalm")
  • Bernard chose black volcanic rock for his S.O.S. sign, so it would contrast with the white sand. ("S.O.S.")
  • A chess game with black and white pieces was seen at the listening station. ("Live Together, Die Alone")
  • Sawyer is separating the white creme from the black cookies of Dharma Oreos

Season 3

The white bunny with a black number in "Every Man for Himself"
  • A white bunny with a black number '8' was shown to Sawyer. ("Every Man for Himself")
  • Locke states that his sighting of the monster was "a beautiful white light," whereas Eko's (and the audience's) is always of a cloud of black smoke. ("The Cost of Living")
  • A black-and-white yin/yang symbol appears on the octagon-shaped lamp beside Rachel's bed. ("Not in Portland")
  • Some speculate that the black and white stones (seen on Adam and Eve) are on the table in Desmond's flat. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes") However, these "stones" are likely the bottle caps from Desmond's beer bottles rather the rocks Jack finds on "Adam and Eve."
  • The chess pieces are black and white. ("Enter 77")
  • Claire dresses entirely in black through most of the flashbacks in "Par Avion". Her hair is black, in contrast to her blonde hair on the Island. ("Par Avion")
  • Claire has a white cast on her left arm and black bangles on her right arm during flashbacks in "Par Avion". ("Par Avion")
  • When Locke takes a plate of chicken from the refrigerator in Ben's home, Ben informs him that he has already eaten the dark meat, leaving Locke with the light meat. ("The Man from Tallahassee")
Charlie's lost shoe in "Greatest Hits"
  • Ben is often shown with his face half dark, half light, which reflects the ambiguity of his character.
  • Just before Locke talks to Kate and tells her that he's leaving with the Others, Kate is shown moving white backgammon pieces around on a backgammon game board. ("Left Behind")
  • When Locke talks to Kate and tells her that he's leaving with the Others, he has a (bruised) black eye. This recalls Claire's dream in "Raised by Another" in which Locke has one black eyeball and one white eyeball. ("Left Behind")
  • Ben's kitchen is red, white and black. ("One of Us")
  • Charlie loses his black and white shoe when he dives into the ocean. ("Greatest Hits")
  • The Looking Glass is named after a Lewis Carroll book in which the main character Alice has a black mischievous cat, which is blamed for all the chaos in her dream and a white cat, which is deemed innocent.
  • Juliet uses white coral to mark the tents of the women to take. ("Through the Looking Glass")
  • When Jack is crossing the street to the funeral home, a police car passes. ("Through the Looking Glass")
  • In Flashes Before Your Eyes, the man killed by the scaffolding is wearing black and white clothing with red shoes.

Season 4

Ben's half shadowed face while visiting Charles Widmore in the episode "The Shape of Things to Come"
Widmore's half shadowed face while speaking with Ben in the episode "The Shape of Things to Come"

Season 5

  • Dr. Pierre Chang's clock displays a black background and white numbers. ("Because You Left")
    Dr.Chang's alarm-clock with black background and white numbers
  • Dr. Chang is also seen wearing a black turtle-neck shirt on the way to the shooting of the Arrow orientation film and then puts on the white lab coat with the Swan Station logo. ("Because You Left")
  • After Kate's discussion with attorney Dan Norton, the T.V. shows a cartoon with a black cat fighting a white dog for a brief moment. ("Because You Left")
  • The time shifts on the Island occur from day to night and so on. ("Because You Left")
  • Desmond and Penny's sailboat is black and white. ("Because You Left")
  • Hurley leaves the gas-station in a black SUV, while Kate comes in a white (silver) car. ("The Lie")
  • A white rabbit with black spots appears during a magic show Jack's grandfather is watching. ("316")
  • Christian Shephard wore white shoes in his coffin, while John Locke wore black shoes in his coffin. ("316")
  • Jack wore a black shirt underneath his Dharma jumpsuit, while Roger wore a white shirt during their talk about Kate. ("Some Like It Hoth")
  • Jacob is seen wearing a white shirt, whereas his nemesis is seen wearing a black shirt. ("The Incident, Parts 1 & 2")
    Jacob and his nemesis talk on the beach.("The Incident, Parts 1 & 2")
During the time when Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate were planning to stop Jack from detonating the bomb Radzinsky returned to the Swan's construction site to continue drilling for the electromagnetic pocket. When he arrived at the site, Dr. Pierre Chang was already there and had stopped the drill because of the possibility of the drill bit melting. Dr. Pierre Chang was wearing white, while Radzinsky was wearing black "The Incident, Parts 1 & 2"
The inverted Lost logo at the end of The Incident.

Lost: Missing Pieces

ARGs

  • In the Dharma Initiative Recruiting Project, recruits were sorted at the end of the process into either of the groups "Black Swan" or "White Swan", depending on if the recruits used supplied cheats.