Eyes
Eyes have been a major theme on LOST from the very first scene of the Pilot episode which began with a close up of Jack opening his eye. Several other episodes have also begun with eyes.

There have been many, many references to eyes.

Including Alex's statement in S3E9 that the Others' form of justice is an

"Eye for an Eye" S3E9 Alex to Jack

And there has been some very obvious manipulation going on with eye color.


Why all the references to eyes? Perhaps we are meant to not only notice them, but to pay attention to them. Maybe the name of the island is actually "The Eyeland" and maybe Locke was being literal in S1E5 when he said, "I looked into the Eye of this Eyeland, and what I saw was beautiful"?

Opening Eye Sequences and Close Ups of Eyes

Season 1
S1E1	Jack's eye is green with a ring of brown around the pupil
S1E3	Locke's eye is blue
S1E5	Jack as a boy, his eye is dark brown
S1E6	Sun's eye is black
S1E7	Charlie's eyes are blue
S1E9	Opens with Sayid looking at Nadia's picture, both Sayid and Nadia have brown eyes
S1E10	Claire's eye is blue
S1E13	Boone's eye is blue
S1E14	Michael's eye is very dark brown, almost black
S1E16	Sawyer as a kid, his eye is a very dark blue, almost black
S1E17	Jin's eye is black
S1E21	Opens with Sayid looking at Shannon as she is mourning Boone
S1E24	Aaron's eye is blue
Season 2
S2E1	Desmond's eye is green, every other time we see him his eyes are dark brown
Season 3
S3E1	Juliet's eye is blue
S3E3	Locke's eye is blue
S3E5	Eko's closed right eye
S3E8	There are two different occasions in this episode when Desmond is shown opening his brown eyes. The first time it is shown, it is actually, the exact same eye shown at the beginning of S2E1, note the appearance of the blinds in the pupil. The second is when he wakes up in the jungle after the implosion.
S3E12	The episode begins with Claire opening her left eye after the car crash. Then there is a shot of her opening her right eye when Charlie wakes her for the breakfast picnic.
S3E22	Locke is seen opening his left eye in the ditch with the Dharma skeletons. His eye is clearly grey, not blue
Season 4
S4E3	The episode opens with a shot of Sayid meditating with his eyes closed
S4E4	The episode begins with a close-up of Locke's right eye. It is closed. When he opens it, it is dark, not blue
S4E5	This episode focuses on lights flashing in Desmond's eyes (#1, #2, #3)
S4E8	Michael is seen opening his left eye as he wakes up in the hospital
S4E9	Ben is shown with his eyes closed and then opening them as he is lying in the Sahara Desert
S4E10	The episode opens with Jack's left eye closed and then opening
S4E11	The ER doctor opens Emily Locke's left eye Locke is shown with his left eye closed, then opening as he gets up and finds Horace Goodspeed Locke's left eye is shown opening when he is actually waking up after his dream/hallucination of meeting Horace Goodspeed
S4E12	Jack has his eyes closed as Ms. Decker approaches the Oceanic 6 to tell them they are landing

Additional References to Eyes
We have see other eye references such as the Glass Eye that was found in the Arrow Station in S2E6, Charlie's tattoo which reads "Living is Easy with Eyes Wide Open", the eye featured in the Hatch Mural in S2E1, (For the best pictures that I have seen of the changes that occur in the mural, see Mural Comparisons).

Track 2 on the LOST Season 1 soundtrack is named "The Eyeland". Click on the picture for a larger view of the tracks on the Season 1 soundtrack

S2E6 Libby holding the Glass Eye. Click on the picture to see a larger version

S2E17 There was also the reflection of the Blast Door Map in Locke's eye

S3E4 Jack watches a cartoon featuring a character with large eyes

S3E5 Patchy is seen in the monitor in The Pearl Hatch, and many believed he could be the owner of the glass eye from the Arrow Station. We next saw Patchy in S3E11 and we learned that his name is Mikhail Bakunin

S3E7 There were many pictures of eyes featured in the brainwashing film shown to Karl, including five photos of doll eyes

S3E7 There was a new Glass Eye in Karl's brainwashing film

And there were also some pictures featuring fish eyes in the brainwashing film. Click on them to see larger versions

S3E7 Additional eye photos included both Karl and DeGroot wearing goggles

S3E14 features lots of pictures of Nikki's and Paolo's eyes frozen open just before their flashback scenes

S3E16 Hurley is sent to "keep an eye on" Juliet

S3E17 There is an eye shaped opening on the stairs in Ruth's house

S3E18 Charlie says to Patchy "How about I take your other eye?"

S3E20 Someone in Jacob's cabin is seen for a moment (it could be Jacob)

S3E22 There are a number of scenes that focus on Patchy's eyes

S3E22 There is a close up of Locke's left eye opening. It is grey, not blue. Click for a lager view

S3E22 Jack knocks over a rack of eyeglasses in the pharmacy

S3E22 And this great view of Greta and Bonnie in the Looking Glass

S4E1 When Hurley stares into Jacob's cabin, an eye stares back at him

S4E2 There are business cards on the bulletin board behind Mrs. Gardner (click on image to see a larger view)

S4E2 There are several shots of Naomi with her eyes open after she is dead

S4E4 There is a scene where Kate's is looking through the door to the boat house

S4E5 The entire episode revolves around what happens when lights are flashed in Desmond's eyes

The Blinking Eyes
Watch the background of the scene very carefully in S3E8 as Desmond throws his tie to the ground. The signs on the news stand change from reading News Agent to News. The fonts also change. But there is also a poster on the kiosk behind him.

And the woman in the poster blinks! Her eyes are open and then they are closed. It happens very quickly and can be difficult to spot.

Eyes and Eye Color
The release of the Season 3 Promo Poster in Fall 2006 brought up the subject of eyes and eye color again. It is obvious that all of the characters on the poster have had the color of their eyes altered. Jack's are the most obvious since they are two different colors. But all of them have been changed in the photos. For example, Sawyer's eyes should be blue and Kate's should be green.

There is a second promo poster that was been released for the Season 3 episodes that began on February 7, 2007. Juliet, Nikki and Paolo have been added to the second version of the poster. Eko is now missing.

Once again all of their eye colors have been altered. It is interesting to note that while Jack's eyes are still not the right color, at least both of them are the same color in this version of the poster. But look at Locke's eyes, in this second poster, they are now two different colors.

Click on the individual posters to see larger versions of them

Why Change Their Eye Color?
I have received much criticism for my opinion that there is a good deal of deliberate manipulation going on with eye color on LOST. I agree that it is often difficult to discern what is actually happening with their eye color.

My response is always the same. Go back and watch S1E2 when Locke is introducing Walt to backgammon, he holds up the backgammon pieces and says " 2 players. 2 sides. One is light. One is dark. "

Look at Locke's eyes. They are brown, not blue. No doubt about it. BROWN. This can also be seen in the "Previously On LOST" segment of S1E5, it occurs at 30 seconds.

There is further proof that it is not just in my imagination, because there is a great quote from Terry O' Quinn in a thread on the Fuselage about having to wear colored contacts in some episodes of LOST. He refers to wearing the black and white contacts for S1E10 and he also refers to having worn blue-green colored contacts for another episode.

So, the question is not if their eye color is being manipulated, but why is it being done?

And the answer is not simply color correcting scenes, as might be indicated on the S2 DVD in the discussion by Randy Coonfield where he talks about color correcting a scene in S2E12 and the effect it had on Charlie's eyes which became bluer. That type of color correcting to a scene could not result in a character having two completely different colored eyes.

After going back and looking at some of the episodes, I found a few interesting things about the characters' eyes that seem to have slipped by the majority of the audience.

As a word of caution, pull out your DVD's. The examples below are much easier to see in the episodes on the DVD's than they are in any screen captures I have seen. In fact, it actually helps to view the episodes on a large screen HDTV to actually see the color changes.

And, as a final note, on the S2 DVD when referring to the scene in S2E12 where Charlie has his dream, it is noted that the drug plane was only visible to people who saw the episode in HDTV or who see it on the DVD. So it is entirely possible that other things might also be more clearly indicated on the DVD's. Which would be a big reason to buy the DVD's instead of downloading episodes over the internet. It amounts to being a very clever way to drive DVD sales.

All Characters Have Had Eye Color Changes
Each one of the main characters have had their eyes appear to be a slightly different color than usual in numerous scenes. Their eyes have also been black in a number of instances. This is more than just lighting or shifts in eye positions. There are also many times when just one of their eyes is deliberately in shadow. A prime example of this can be found toward the end of S1E11 where Jack is in the scene where he is talking to Charlie about what he remembers.

Aaron
• S4E2 Aaron has blue eyes, but his eyes are brown as Charlotte questions Claire about him
• S4E4 Aaron's eyes are dark as he sits in Claire's lap

Alex
• On several occasions, Alex's eyes have appeared to be an un-naturally bright blue. This was very noticeable in S3E7
• S4E8 Many people noticed something strange happening with one of Alex's eyes during the scene where Danielle and Karl are shot. But it is more than just one contact slipping as many people have written about in various chat rooms. If you watch it very carefully, both eyes are affected. First her right eye appears to have uneven coloration, then her left eye appears the same way. I believe it is just simply that they did a very obvious job of changing her eye color due to the Role change from Star Crossed Lover to Fugitive.
• S4E9 There was a great deal of discussion about the appearance of Alex's brown eyes in S4E8. Yet, is this episode Alex clearly has blue eyes (#1, #2)

Ben (aka Fake Henry Gale and Benjamin Linus)
• S2E16 Ben's eyes are blue, but when he says to Ana Lucia "I'm dead already" his eyes are bright green
• S2E17 and S2E18 The iris on Fake Henry's right eye is shaped funny. It is almost as if there is a tab of color that has been added to it
• S3E2 Ben has one black eye (right eye) and one light eye when he sits to talk to Jack. When he gets up and walks across the room he has two light eyes again
• S3E4 Ben has one dark eye and one light eye when he cons Sawyer into thinking he has a pace maker inserted in him
• S3E13 Ben's eyes appear black in several scenes, especially when he is in bed
• S3E19 Ben's eyes are black as he is trying to convince Locke to kill Anthony Cooper
• S3E13 Ben's eyes appear black in several scenes, especially when he is in bed
• S3E20 Ben's eyes appear black in many of the scenes in this episode and in a few scenes he has one light eye and one dark eye
• S3E22 Ben has one light and one dark eye when he realizes that Alex told Karl to warn the LOSTies
• S4E3 Ben's eyes are brown when he is treating Sayid's wound, then they are blue again
• S4E6 Ben has one light eye and one dark eye when he lies to Juliet about Goodwin coming back soon, and again when he comes to get Juliet to take her to see Goodwin's dead body and then when he is standing on the hillside
• S4E9 Both Ben and Widmore are seen with one eye in the light and one in shadow during their discussion in Widmore's bedroom
• S4E9 Ben eyes switch back and forth throughout most of this episode between pale grey and blue under the same lighting conditions, it is not a just a factor of the light

Cassidy
• S3E15 Cassidy's eyes are blue but appear brown in several scenes with Kate

Charlie
• S2E12 Charlie's eyes go from being blue to brown and then back to blue again when Locke is questioning him about using heroin
• S3E22 Charlie's right eye changes to black as he drowns

Charles Widmore
• S3E8 Charles Widmore's change from being blue to black when he tells Desmond that he is not good enough for Penny

Claire
• S4E4 Claire's eyes are dark when she is in the living room speaking to Kate about Aaron being asleep
• S4E11 Claire's eyes are dark when she is in Jacob's cabin

Desmond
• S2E1 Opens on Desmond's eye which is green. Every other time they show his eyes they are brown
• S3E8 Desmond's eyes are blue when he tells Charlie that he is going to die
• S4E5 The entire episode revolves around what happens to Desmond when lights are flashed in his eyes. Dr. Ray says I just want to check your eyes" when he approaches Desmond with a flash light
• S4E5 Desmond has one eye visible and one light in shadow when he discovers Minkowski
• S4E5 Desmond's eyes are very dark, almost black when he wakes up in the barracks and is speaking with the Sergeant

Detective
• S1E13 When Boone is speaking to the detective, as the detective asks Boone if he wants to buy his wife's wedding gown, the detective's eyes are two different colors. One is light. One is dark.

Elsa
• S4E3 Elsa's eyes are briefly dark when she asks about Sayid's job before they go to the opera

Emily Locke
• S1E19 Emily Locke has blue eyes, but her license says that her eyes are brown
• S4E11 Emily has dark eyes

Eko
• S2E10 Eko's eyes are dark brown, yet they appear to be an unusual amber color in many scenes

Ethan
• S1E11 as Ethan is telling Jack to go back, his eyes change to blue

Hurley
• S1E18 Hurley's eye are blue throughout the episode. This is especially noticeable when he steps on the booby trap, when he is trying to get the receptionist to let him in to see Lenny Sims and when he asks Lenny about the numbers. Curiously,his eyes quickly change from looking blue, to clearly being brown when he and Charlie are being shot at.
• S2E18 Hurley's eyes turn from dark brown, to blue to amber as he tells Dave he realizes that he's imaginary. In S3E3 Hurley's eyes are blue when he says "Dude" right after the knife lands in the canteen and appear blue in many scenes At the end of S3E3 when Hurley says he is experiencing Deja Vu there is a shot of him with one brown eye and one blue eye.
• S3E19 Hurley's eyes are blue throughout most of the episode
• S3E15 Hurley's eyes are blue as he is talking to Sawyer about banishment
• S3E18 Hurley's eyes are green as he talks with Naomi
• S3E22 Hurley's eyes are blue as he holds Aaron and reassures Claire that Charlie will be okay
• S4E1 Hurley's eyes are blue when he talks about Charlie's death"The last he did was to warn us..."
• S4E1 Hurley's eyes are two different colors as he tells Claire about Charlie being dead
• S4E2 Hurley's eyes are blue when he lies about which cabin he was referring to
• S4E2 Hurley's has one light eye and one dark eye as he is speaking with Locke
• S4E3 Hurley's eyes are blue when he says "Nah, this is not what I signed up for"
• S4E3 Hurley has one light eye and one dark eye when he tells Sayid & Kate what happened with Locke and then they are blue

Isaac of Uluru
• S2E19 he has one light eye and one dark eye when he pulls away from Rose and he says "Can't do anything for you Rose"

Jack
• S1E1 when Jack opens his eye at the beginning, it is blue with a ring of brown around the pupil. We are so busy watching the pupil contract as the light hits it, that it is easy to miss what happens next. As Jack turns his head to look in the direction of the noise coming from the jungle (Vincent), his eye is absolutely brown.
• S1E5 opens with a shot of young Jack's eye which is dark brown, but in other parts of the episode they are clearly bright blue. They are almost an unnatural blue when he is begging Chrissie to let him take his father's coffin on the plane (this occurs at about 35 minutes into the episode). I can't seem to find any screen shots that show just how blue his eyes are in this scene. You'll just have to watch the episode on the DVD to see it.
• S1E11 there is an instance when Jack's eyes are two different colors. During the inquiry into what happened in the operating room with Christian Shephard in , as Jack decides to change his story, his eyes are clearly two different colors.
• S3E1 Jack and Sarah's eyes appear to be blue in many of the scenes from.
• S3E1 at the Board of Directors' meeting with Christian Shephard, as Jack decides to change his story, his eyes are clearly two different colors.
• S3E7 Jack's eyes change to blue when he tells Kate to promise not to come back for him and he is now saving Ben's life instead of threatening to kill him
• S3E9 Jack's eyes are blue just before he is beat up by Chet and his buddies
• S3E21 Jack's eyes are blue in at least two scenes when he is talking about the LOSTies plan
• S3E22 Jack's eyes are blue as Sayid tells him to "keep moving for that radio tower"
• S3E22 Jack's eyes are blue when he begins talking to Sarah in the emergency room
• S3E22 Jack's eyes are dark when he tells Kate "I love you"
• S3E22 Jack has one light eye and one dark eye when they meet up with Ben/Fake Henry and Alex
• S4E1 Jack's eyes are blue as Kate hugs him
• S4E1 Jack's eyes are blue as he is beating Locke
• S4E3 Jack's eyes are blue as he is speaking with Frank
• S4E6 Jack has one blue eye and one brown eye when he is comforting Juliet
• S4E10 Jack has one light eye and one dark eye when he proposes to Kate
• S4E12 Jack has one eye in shadow and one is in the light as he transitions from the Patient role to the Leader role while speaking with Juliet
• S4e12 Jack's eyes are blue when he is talking with Sawyer about Claire being lost

Juliet
• S3E7 Juliet's eyes become bright blue when she is letting Sawyer, Kate and Karl leave Alcatraz
• S3E8 Juliet's eyes turn brown just as she stops being Ed's prisoner and tells him "No" about publishing
• S3E16 Juliet has one light eye and one dark eye when she is telling Kate and Jack about Claire's kidnapping
• S4E10 Juliet has one light eye and one dark eye when she convinces Jack it is his appendix

Karl
• S2E7 Poor Karl, his eyes were so distorted by the goggles during the brainwashing film
• S3E21 Karl's eyes are bluish green when he is telling the LOSTies that the Others are coming


Kate
• S3E12 Kate has one light eye and one dark eye when she is talking to Danielle by the water
• S3E12 Kate's eyes are brown when they are working on building the tree bridge over the perimeter fence pylon
• S3E13 Kate's eyes are strange throughout this episode, especially the right eye. In several scenes the right eye is dark and the left eye is light. In other scenes, her eyes appear brown
• S3E14 Kate has bright blue eyes as she is speaking with Shannon, Arzt and Nikki on the beach about the guns
• S3E15 Kate has one light eye and one dark eye as she is speaking to her mom in the bathroom
• S3E15 when Kate wakes up, one eye appears light and one is dark
• S3E15 Kate's eyes appear brown in several scenes
• S3E16 Kate's eyes are brown when Juliet is talking about Claire's kidnapping
• S3E17 Kate has one light eye and one dark eye as she is watching Jack and Juliet
• S4E2 Kate has one light eye and one dark eye when Miles asks her where Naomi is and she is changing from a tracker to a prisoner
• S4E4 Kate's eyes change color throughout this entire episode, it is especially notable in the scene with her mother . Each time the camera comes back to Kate, her eyes are a different color. They are sometimes brown, then green, then blue, then one light and one dark.
• S4E4 She has one light eye and one dark eye as she talks with Sawyer on the porch. Then Kate's eyes are brown as she is hanging the laundry
• S4E10 Kate has one light eye and one dark eye when Jack proposes

Libby
• S2E20 Libby's eyes change from brown to blue when Hurley starts to try to remember where he knows her from

Locke
• S1E2 when Locke is introducing Walt to backgammon, he holds up the backgammon pieces and says " 2 players. 2 sides. One is light. One is dark." Look at Locke's eyes. They are brown, not blue.
• S1E10 Locke has one black eye and one white eye in Claire's dream.
• S2E17 when Locke says to Fake Henry "I trusted you Henry, now you've got to trust me", Locke has one brown eye and one blue eye. And then, there is also this familiar shot of the Blast Door map reflected in Locke's eye
• S3E13 Locke's eyes appear to change to brown in several parts of this episode
• S4E2 Locke has one dark eye and one light eye as he is speaking to Sawyer
• S4E2 Locke's eyes are dark when they discover Charlotte
• S4E9 Locke has one grey eye and the other eye is in shadow when he answers the phone in Ben's house

Mikhail/Patchy
• S3E22 had a number of scenes that focused on Mikhail/Patchy's eyes. We first see him with goggles on (light), then we see his eye socket for the first time, then he has the patch on, and in the view of him as he sets off the grenade he has the patch on under the goggles (one light and one dark eye).
• In S3E22, the view of Mikhail/Patchy's eye socket fused shut makes it quite obvious that the glass eye that was found in the Arrow Hatch most likely does not belong to him.

Naomi
• S3E19 Naomi has one light eye and one dark eye when she says "Remind me not to rescue you Sayid"


Nikki & Paolo
• S3E14 Nikki is shown with bright blue eyes in several scenes and green eyes in other scenes
• S3E14 Paolo is shown with blue eyes as he is laying on the ground

Penny
• S3E8 Penny has one blue eye and one brown eye just as Desmond starts to break up with her

Richard Alpert
• S3E16 Richard Alpert's eyes are brown when he is talking to Juliet in the airport terminal

Sarah Shepherd
• S2E11 Sarah has one light eye and one dark eye when she tells Jack she has been "seeing someone else"
• S3E22 Sarah's eyes are blue when she first starts talking to Jack in the emergency room

Sawyer
• S1E16- Sawyer has one blue eye and one black eye when Christian says "Of course it is"
• S3E22 Sawyer's eyes are dark when he kills Tom/Mr. Friendly
• S4E3 Sawyer's eyes are brown when Kate asks him "So am I your prisoner?"

Sayid
• S4E3 Sayid's eyes are black when he shoots Elsa

Shannon
• S1E13 when Boone finds Shannon's body in the stream, he lifts her. One eye is visible, it is black

Sun
• Sun's eyes are black when she tells her father about buying a controlling interest in Paik Industries

Tom/Mr. Friendly
• S3E7 Tom's eye switch from brown to blue when he is helping Jack operate on Ben
• S4E8 Tom's eyes are almost black when he is speaking with Michael in the alley

Eye Color and the LOST Action Figures
An eagle-eyed fan spotted something interesting about the Kate LOST Action Figure. It seems that while most of the Kate Action Figures available do have the correct green colored eyes for Kate, there are some figures of Kate out there that have brown eyes. See Official Games and Toys for pictures of the Action Figures, both boxed and un-boxed.

So, What Does It All Mean?
I believe that the changes in their eye color are associated with a change in their game roles. And that the changes occur when they change from a 'good' role to a 'bad' role, or vice versa, from a 'bad' role to a 'good' role.

There are several examples that illustrate this:
• S1E13 The Detective's eyes change when he changes from being the Sheriff (arresting Sawyer)to being the Daddy (talking about his kids)
• S2E10 Eko's eyes change when he goes from being the Rock God (drug dealer) to being the Man of Faith (papers identifying him as a priest)
• S2E20 Libby's eyes change when she changes from being the Shrink (helping Hurley) to being the Con Man (when Hurley says he is trying to remember where he knows her from)