If you haven't seen the finale for this season of LOST, this is your warning that this post includes MAJOR spoilers.

So, you know the guy who plays Michael on LOST? The father of Walt who couldn't seem to say much besides screaming the boy's name 24/7? The one who sacrificed everyone on the island just so he and his son could get back to civilization? Yeah, that guy! Well, the actor has apparently decided to go on a diatribe about how the decision to kill Michael off in the season finale is... Racist. Yes, you heard that right: Racist.

He thinks it's racist that Sayid got to meet his girlfriend again (who, I might add, are both portrayed as middle-eastern muslims) and that Desmond got to meet his girlfriend again, but that Michael was killed off and didn't get to meet his son again. You know, I REALLY hate to break it to you, Michael, but... You're not nearly the first one to die on LOST. In fact, I think you're merely the second black guy to die. (Don't forget Mister Eko.) All the rest have been white, and you don't hear anyone crying racism about that, now, do you?

I don't know what Perrineau was thinking, but character deaths are a common occurrence on LOST. You can barely go a single episode without someone dying, and you definitely can't go an entire season without a major character getting chucked out. Face it. The Michael character wasn't exactly the most lovable character. You don't have any complaint about the fact that he betrayed everyone?

You're crying racism when LOST is probably the least racist TV show there is! There's Europeans and Americans and Middle-Easterners and Australians and Koreans and French... Heck, there's even a white American married to a black American. (Bernard and Rose, anyone?) People are certainly more enjoyable than other characters, but that's just their personality! Not their race... Hurley and Rose and Sun, for example. I don't think there's anyone who doesn't like them, and they're Caucasian, African and Oriental, respectively.

Of course, he comes back after his initial whining and claims that he should have probably thought through what he said before screaming racism... But the damage is already done. Personally, I don't see LOST at fault here. I see HIM at fault. Harold Perrineau, who once was a good actor who portrayed a father obsessed with getting his son back home has now managed to come off as another over-sensitive, over-reacting guy who goes out of his way to claim that a great injustice has been done to him simply because of his race.

I admit that I had mixed emotions about Michael's death. On the one hand, I felt like cheering, because I personally have a strong sense of loyalty to my friends and expect an equally strong sense of loyalty from my friends in return. Once someone breaks that trust, I have an incredibly difficult time trusting anything they say from that point on, and I treat fictional characters the same way. I wanted to cheer because Michael had what was coming to him for leaving everyone on the island to die. Did I cheer his death because he was black? NO! I cheered his death because of what his character did. On the other hand, I realized he was trying to atone for what he did and I felt an equal sense of sadness for the fact that he'll never see his son again and a sense of remorse for wanting to cheer. Did I feel this way because of his race? NO! His race had absolutely NOTHING to do with how I felt. To prove it, I almost cried when Jin was killed. I mean, seriously, which "race" is more polarized at the moment? African Americans or Koreans? We've got North Korean communists on the threshold of nuclear technology, for crying out loud... The honest fact of the matter is that race has absolutely nothing to do with how I feel about characters. I was upset because I knew how much Jin and Sun meant to each other. I'm willing to bet that this applies to the vast majority of viewers (and Americans in general) and for someone to interpret storyline decisions as reactions to race is simply ludicrous and arrogant.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 1:22 am and is filed under General.