2.2 Adrift

Sawyer just manages to pull the distraught and drowning Michael up onto the remains of the burning raft. But Michael is not breathing.

In slight flashback, Locke descends into the shaft to find Kate.

Sawyer is trying hard to revive Michael and eventually succeeds.

In flashback, Michael speaks to a lawyer about the situation with Walt. Walt’s mom has asked the Michael completely relinquish his paternal rights to Walt so that her boyfriend can adopt. Michael wants to file an injunction to stop her from leaving the country, but the lawyer says this will be expensive. Michael, however, insists; he does not want to lose his son.

Michael keeps shouting for Walt. Sawyer tells him to save his strength, but Michael wants Walt to hear that he is alive and is coming to get him.

In slight flashback, Locke moves through the underground world and finds the control center and Kate, bruised but okay. Desmond arrives behind them and trains a gun on them.

Stranded now on a tiny piece of the raft, Sawyer calls for the missing Jin until Michael decides to blame Sawyer for the disaster, saying that Sawyer made him fire the flare. They are interrupted by one or more large sharks pounding against the bottom of the raft. Sawyer drops the gun by accident while trying to dry out the bullets. Tired of arguing, Sawyer leaves the raft and moves to another small bundle of floating wood.

In flashback, an arrogant lawyer for the opposition berates Michael’s lack of knowledge of his son.

Sawyer pulls the bullet from his arm with his own fingers. Michael, drifting nearby on the same current, looks on, amazed and disgusted.

Locke tries to convince Desmond that he is who he thinks he is. It doesn’t work, but Locke does manage to get Kate tied up instead of him. He slips something for Kate (a knife to cut the ropes, I assume).

In mini-flashback, Jack heads off to the shaft. Claire finds Charlie’s virgin Mary statue, but does not know that it is filled with heroin.

Sawyer tells Michael that the boat that took Walt was no good for open ocean and had to have been launched from close by – like on the island itself. He pieces together that when Danielle said that the Others were coming for the child, it meant Walt. Sawyer’s raft breaks apart, so he once again joins Michael.

In flashback, Michael meets with Susan, alone, with no lawyers present. Susan presents a very flawed argument that Michael should just let Walt go.

Her arms tied behind her back, Kate starts by manuevering until they are in front. She frees her hands and turns on the light and finds herself in a storeroom stocked with all types of food. She eats a candy bar, grabs a few more, then climbs out a ceiling vent.

Locke tells Desmond about the plane crash. Desmond is amazed that there are people alive and that they have not gotten sick – he seems to think that there was an apocalypse and he was the sole survivor. He is still wary and is training a gun on Locke when an alarm sounds. Desmond gets Locke to type in Hurley’s numbers and press Execute. This resets a counter. They are interrupted by Jack calling for Kate. Jack and Desmond both point their guns at Locke in a standoff. Jack is trying to get his head aroun Desmond being here.

A pontoon floats nearby. When Sawyer tries to paddle near it, most of the raft breaks up. Sawyer swims for the pontoon despite sharks circling nearby, despite Michael’s warnings. Sawyer gives Michael the gun, and Michael manages to shoot the shark just before it eats Sawyer. They both make it to the pontoon.

In flashback, Michael says goodbye to Walt and tells him his dad will always love him.

Michael cries on the pontoon, then swears to get his son back. The current brings them back onto the island. They hear Jin’s voice. He runs toward them, tied up, speaking mostly in Korean but saying, "Others!". Behind him, a gang of motley people carrying clubs emerge from the jungle.

Comments

Saul Rubinek guest-stars as Michael’s lawyer.

Memorable Moments

• The Others, looking like Day of the Living Castaways

Quotable Quotes

"Are you him? Are you him?"
- Desmond’s first words to Locke

"You got a band-aid?"
- Sawyer to Michael, after pulling a bullet from his bleeding shoulder

Desmond: Are you – are you him?
Locke: Yes. Yes I am.
Desmond: I can’t believe it. You’re finally here.
Locke: Well…here I am.
Desmond: Who’s she?
Locke: She’s with me.
Desmond: What did one snowman say to the other snowman?
Locke: I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.
Desmond: Get rid of the knife. You’re not him!

 

2.1 Man of Science, Man of Faith

In what looks like an apartment, a man wakes up, programs a computer, does his exercises, has his breakfast. We do not see his face. An alarm sounds, he gets weapons ready and he checks for intruders using a mirror. We follow the mirror up to see Jack and Locke looking down the shaft.

Jack tells Locke that they are done for the day, that they can’t lower 40 people down the hole using a harness (the ladder is broken). Locke initially agrees, but keeps questioning Jack.

Flashback: Jack and other doctors are treating a woman and a man, victims of a car crash. As the man does, Jack saves the wowan (his future wife).

It’s night and the caves, and Charlie assures everyone that no one is coming to attack them. He believes that Danielle is crazy.

Shannon has lost Vincent. She grabs a torch and heads out to find him. Sayid jumps up to join her.

Back at the hatch, Locke is still obsessed with exploring, but he might feel differently after Kate discovers the word ‘Quarantine’ written on the inside of the hatch door.

Sayid and Shannon find Vincent, but he runs away. Shannon gets separated from Sayid and falls down, and hears the whispering of the Others. Shannon sees a dripping wet Walt whispering something unintelligible. Sayid finds her and Walt disappears.

Kate and Locke discuss whether Locke is crazy, and what Jack thinks of him.

Hurley tells Jack the full story of the numbers: how he used the numbers to win the lottery, how the numbers cursed him, and how he saw the numbers on the side of the hatch. Jacks’ reaction? They’re just numbers to him.

In flashback, Jack tells the crash victim that she will probably never have feelings in her legs again.

Shannon tells the group that she saw Walt and heard whispers. As panic ensues, Jack and gang return. Jack tells of the hatch that Locke found. Talk again turns to the Others, with an argument between Shannon and Charlie on whether they exist. Jack takes control and tells everyone to calm down – lookouts with guns will be posted at all entrances, and everyone will live to see the sunrise in three hours. He even makes a personal promise that they will be safe. But his speech is punctuated by Locke, who comes in, grabs a roll of heavy cable, and says he is going down the hatch – now.

A little later, as Jack stands watch, Kate comes by to praise him for his leadership – but then drops the bombshell that she is also going to the hatch. She says this is to ensure that if Locke is hurt, she can help him.

In flashback, Jack meets the injured woman’s fiancee (she was to be married in a few months. His main priorities are finding out if she will be able to make love and go to the bathroom by herself. In the operating room, the woman confides to Jack that she knows she will never dance again. Jack promises to fix her.

Kate joins Locke at the hatch. Locke asks her to go down first, as she is lighter and thinner. Kate agrees. Near the bottom, she sees a faint light going on and off, and asks Locke to stop. The shaft is then flooded with bright light, and Locke’s calls to Kate are unanswered.

Jack changes his mind and leaves the caves to go to the hatch. He finds the cable but no Locke or Kate. Jack descends the hatch.

In flashback, Jack is running up and down the sides of a steep stadium (a tour d’estad), along with another man, when he hurts his ankle. He talks to the man about Sarah, his patient. Jack says he promised to fix the woman but failed. His friend tells him to believe in miracles, and to ‘lift it up’ (referring to Jack’s unjured ankle.

At the bottom of the hatch, Jack finds the mirroe placed there by the sentry to spy on people coming down. There is a high-powered flashlight, metal structures, and mystery. Jack gets his gun ready. He find graffiti, paint, and a key. A lens photographs him, bright lights shine, and pop music plays ‘Make Your Own Kind of Music’. He is in a control room in front of a large computer, and a console with a blinking cursor. As he is about to press a button, Locke appears and tells him not to. Jack points his gun at Locke, and someone, off-camera, also points a gun at Locke.

In flashback, Jack has been bedside, waiting for Sarah to gain consciousness. He tells her, while crying that he was unable to repair her spine. She asks if he’s joking…because she can wiggle her toes. He performs some tests on her, all positive, as they laugh and cry together.

The man training the gun on Locke steps aside to reveal it is Desmond, the man who was giving advice to Jack at the stadium.

Comments

Did Desmond perform the ‘miracle’ that allowed Sarah to walk again? He was around at that time, and he seems to be manipulating things now.

Starting with the last couple of episodes of season one, Lost started to feel more like a scripted show, rather than natural drama between the characters. Perhaps this is because some of the events are being scripted by someone (it certainly seems to be heading down this path), but I still fear that this approach is going to be less compelling and successful than was the interaction and politics among the survivors. Along the same vein, the first season was so good that it is going to be a hard act to follow.

Nits

Desmond seemed surprised that someone is coming down the shaft. Wouldn’t the sound of the explosion when the hatch was blown a few hours ago have been an early warning that someone might be coming down soon?

Memorable Moments

• The discovery of the underground control center

Quotable Quotes

Hurley: You should go ahead, man, don’t want Locke makin’ time with your girl. Joke, dude.
Jack: Not really in the mood, Hurley.
Hurley: Really? Wow, usually you’re like Mr Ha Ha.

Hurley: What's that thing where doctors make you feel better just by talking to you?
Jack: Bedside manner?
Hurley: Yeah, that. Yours sucks, dude.

"Lower your gun, or I’ll blow his damned head off, brother!"
- Desmond

1.24 Exodus (part two)

Everyone is heading for the caves by nightfall, but Claire is having a panic attack. The baby is wet and crying and Claire doesn’t want any help from Charlie. Charlie asks Sayid for a gun to protect Claire, but Sayid reminds him that the last time he killed someone. Sayid tells him to help Claire get packed and to carry her baby.

Danielle leaves after leading the group to the ship. Jack, Locke, and Claire go inside to get the dynamite, with Arzt and Hurley waiting outside. The ship hold contains skeletons of slaves. Outside, Arzt complains to Hurley about feeling left out of the main clicqué, and how no one cares about the other survivors. Arzt also wants to know why Hurley has not lost any weight, which he assumes means Hurley is getting better and more food.

When Jack and Locke emerge carrying the crate, Arzt boisterously takes over, opening the crate gently and wrapping a piece of dynamite that has aged and is ‘sweating’ nitroglycerine. He secures it by wrapping it in Kate wet shirt, but as he is waving it around, it explodes.

The sailors are amazed at the size of the island. Sun is still on the beach, gazing at the horizon.

Shannon is struggling with a couple of big pieces of luggage, some of which is things that belonged to Boone. Shannon is also very scared, and Sayid offers to help.

Kate and Hurley reflect on the explosion of Arzt. Hurley says that his own bad luck caused it. Before trying to move more dynamite, Locke and Jack reflect on whether they need to take the risk. Locke says it is the only way, and they carefully load the three sticks of dynamite that will be required to blow the hatch.

Danielle rushes back to camp, demanding to see Sayid. Charlie leaves Claire to find him, and Danielle, acting obsessed, asks to hold Claire’s baby. Claire then sees the scratches on Danielle’s arm and has a flashback to her abduction, when she made those scratches. Danielle knocks Claire out and steals the baby. After Charlie is done blaming Sayid, they head off to try to catch her.

The group is bringing back two sets of three dynamite sticks. Kate, Locke, and Jack draw straws, and Kate and Locke ‘win’.

Michael turns the transmitter on to see if anyone picks them up, while Sawyer entertains himself by reading the personal messages in the bottle, ignoring Walt’s attempts to make him feel bad about it.

Sayid and Charlie stop to get guns, and Sayid tells Charlie that he believes Danielle is heading for the plume of smoke to trade Claire’s baby for the one she lost 16 years ago. Claire and Sun arrive. Claire is hysterical and wants to come, but Charlie manages to calm her down. Claire tells Charlie to get Aaron back (she has finally chosen a name).

Michael lets Walt steer the boat for awhile. Walt and Michael talk about how they stayed apart all those years. Walt says his mom made a mistake in keeping them apart. Their conversation is interrupted by a jarring collision. They have hit a submerged log, which has knocked the rudder off. Sawyer dives in and save the rudder. When Michael gives him his shirt back, he finds the gun but doesn’t confront Sawyer.

Carefully, Kate dons her volatile backpack and the group heads back, with 90 minutes to go before sunset.

Claire and Sun have reached the caves, along with almost all the other survivors. Sun tells Shannon that Boone died bravely, and asks if they are being punished for things they did before.

Sayid take a break from their pursuit of Danielle to let Charlie catch his breath. They stop at the plane where Boone fell. Sayid fills Charlie in on the details, and tosses him a statue, which breaks to reveal bags of heroin. Charlie stares down at the bags.

The dynamite gang encounters the security system. All flee except for Locke, who goes toward it. Jack heads back to get Locke. Locke is knocked down, then dragged away, and is about to be dragged into a hole when Jack grabs him. Jack tells Kate to get the dynamite from his pack (he switched packs with Kate, unbeknownst to her) and she throws one stick down, freeing the protesting Locke (he wanted to be let go, saying he would be okay).

Jin has finished attaching the rudder. Michael finds the phonetics prepared by Sun, and Jin shows off some of his new words. Jin gives the famous watch to Michael, the one that he fought over and that he was supposed to deliver to California. Michael is very moved by the gift.

Sun makes tea for Claire, and reassures her that Charlie will bring the baby back.

Charlie falls for a Danielle booby-trap and gets a gash above his eye. Sayid tells Charlie he is bleeding too much and must go back, but Charlie refuses. Sayid seals the wound with burning gunpowder.

Hurley and Kate discuss numbers. One of Hurley’s unlucky numbers is 23. 23,000 is also the amount of money the farmer took as the reward for turning her in.

Locke and Jack discuss why they are on the island. Locke thinks it is so much more than a plane crash – he says the island brought them all here, and that they are all a part of destiny.

It is night on the raft, and Sawyer convinces Michael to turn the transmitter. Michael has figured out that Sawyer has come on the raft to die. Their conversation is interrupted by a beeping from the receiver – something is out there in the darkness.

Locke and gang have reached the hatch and get the dynamite ready for blasting.

Sayid and Charlie reach the source of the plume of black smoke, but there are no prints and no Others. The sound of a crying baby means that Danielle is nearby. She is disappointed that she was unable to make a trade. Sayid uses charm and sympathy to get the baby back, but Charlie has to ruin the moment by hurling abuse at Danielle.

Just as Locke is about the light the fuse, Hurley reads his unlucky number stamped on the side of the container, and begs Locke not to light the fuse. Locke ignores him and lights it anyway. As they take cover, the dynamite explodes.

Sawyer and Walt convince Michael to fire their only flare just as the blip is about to head off the radar. The blip turns and heads back in their direction. The sound of an engine is heard, and a boat heads for them, turning on a light. Their joy at being found is quickly dashed when the captain of the boat demands ‘the boy’. Sawyer fires but is too slow – he is hit with a bullet and falls overboard, and Jin dives in to help him. Walt is taken, Michael is beaten, and one of the crew throws a bomb on board the raft – which goes up in flames.

Sayid and Charlie return with Aaron, bringing a bit of hope to the group. Shannon hugs Sayid. Charlie has tucked a statue into his pack.

The hatch has blown open. Locke and Jack look down at a long laddered passageway leading deep below the island.

Jin’s flashback: When Sun spills coffee on Jin, he heads to the men’s room to clean it up. There, a man tells him he works for Sun’s father. He has been following him and knows he is planning to run. He tells him he must take the watch to California, or lose his wife.

Charlie’s flashback: Charlie is about to leave Sydney, and is searching frantically through his hotel room until he finds his last remaining stash of heroin. His one-night stand awakens, wanting one more ‘bump’; when Charlie says there is no more, she doesn’t believe him, and beats him before leaving.

Michael’s flashback: At the airport, Michael asks Walt if he wants something to eat, but Walt keeps playing a video game and ignores him. Michael leaves to make a phone call to his mom, to tell her that he has to get to work at 5am and doesn’t know how he will look after Walt. His mom is unable to help. Walt overhears the whole thing.

Hurley’s flashback: Oversleep, broken cars, slow clerks, and wrong terminals all conspire to stop Hurley from making the flight that will get him home for his mother’s birthday – but he still makes it. Talk about bad luck…

Locke’s flashback: Locke has to be carried onto the plane when the special loading wheelchair is not available. He is demeaned by this, but grateful that he made the flight.

Everyone’s flashback: We see all the survivors as they file on board the plane.

Comments

Arzt’s bitching session is a funny self-referential take on the fact that the scriptwriters have chosen to concentrate on a select group of survivors, ignoring about 40 or so other people on the island. I’m not sure if Arzt is complaining about a clique or about the scripts. Likewise, Locke’s take on things also sounds like he is bowing to the scriptwriting gods, by saying that everything that is happening is fate, destiny (scripted?).

Sun’s theory about fate punishing the survivors reminds me of my theory – sometimes, it feels like the island is the afterlife – neither Heaven nor Hell – purgatory (but usually closer to hell).

In keeping with the scripting theme, just where is this island? How could there be pirates so close by? Are they actually a lot closer to inhabited land? This would seem to make sense, as the pirates had a small motor-driven boat with limited range. More and more, these scenarios are feeling like they are at the mercy of someone or something – be it scriptwriters, fate, or god.

The first time I watched this episode, I was still unsure where Danielle stood in regard to her allegiance to the Others. That's because I totally missed the truth in her statement about them: "They said they were coming for the boy." Of course, the boy she heard them whispering about was not Aaron, but Walt!

Memorable Moments

• The shock of Arzt blowing up real good

• The final shot of the hatch passageway leading deep underneath the ground

Quotable Quotes

Jack: What about you? Do you want to carry some dynamite too? What?
Hurley: You got some…Arzt on you.

Sun: Do you think we’re being punished?
Shannon: Punished for what?
Sun: Things we did before. The secrets we kept, the lies we told.
Shannon: Who do you think is punishing us?
Sun: Fate.

Hurley: So, dude, what do you think’s inside of that hatch thing?
Locke: What do you think’s inside it?
Hurley: Stacks of TV dinners, from the 50s or something, and TVs with cable, some cell phones, clean socks, soap, Twinkies, you know, for dessert, after the TV dinners. Twinkies keep for like 8000 years, man.
Locke: I like Twinkies too.
Hurley: C’mon, man, what do you think’s inside?
Locke: Hope. I think hope’s inside.

"Whoever named this place ‘Dark Territory’ – genius."
- Hurley

Locke: Boone was a sacrifice that the island demanded. What happened to him at that plane was a part of a chain of events that led us here, that led us down a path, that led you and me to this day, to right now.
Jack: And where’s that path end, John?
Locke: The path ends at the hatch. The hatch, Jack. All of it, all of it happened so that we could open the hatch.
Jack: No, no, we’re opening the hatch so that we can survive.
Locke: Survival is all relative, Jack.

Jack: I don’t believe in destiny.
Locke: Yes, you do. You just don’t know it yet.

1.23 Exodus (part one)

Walt wakes up before Michael and heads off the beach to do a wee. He spots the French woman, and she sees him too. Carrying a rifle, she tells Sayid that she is here because, "The Others are coming." Danielle tells her story to the group: how, sixteen years ago, she was shipwrecked with five others. After seven months, she gave birth to a baby. That night, she saw black smoke, and ‘they’ came and took her baby Alex. She says they are coming again.

Locke believes her story may be true, but Jack wants to focus on the here and now and help Michael launch the raft. He rounds up all available help on the island so Michael can launch today instead of tomorrow. The raft is pushed partially down the rails to the water, but stops when a lever breaks. Just then, Walt sees the black plume of smoke that Danielle had foretold. Now they need a place to hide 40 people, and that means it’s time to tell everyone about the container. Locke believes that the hatch and container leads further down and will have plenty of space. Sayid wants more intelligence on the Others and thinks that the hatch could be theirs. Locke asks Danielle if she has any more dynamite; she says it is at the Black Rock and they must leave within the hour to make it back by sunset.

Jack makes a little speech to the group before heading out. Arzt intercepts him and warns him that the dynamite may have a use-by date due to exposure to the elements. Arzt asks to come along to ensure that the dynamite is handled properly, and Jack agrees.

Michael and Jin get to work on repairing the raft. Michael politely turns down Sawyer’s request to help.

Jack stops by to give Sawyer a pistol to take on the raft, just in case. Sawyer says the raft will be on the water before Jack gets back with the dynamite, so Sawyer takes to opportunity to tell Jack about his chance meeting with Jack’s father. Jack fights back tears as he hears how proud his dad was of him.

Kate asks to accompany Jack to get the dynamite, and Jack acquiesces.

Charlie is collecting messages in a bottle to put on the raft.

Danielle, Locke, Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Arzt head out to get the dynamite. Locke questions Danielle about a set of scratches on her arm that she says she got from a bush. Arzt turns back in fear just as they reach the Black Territory, a deeper part of the jungle.

Sawyer shows up at the raft with a perfect replacement mast, impressing Michael and Jin, who even stop arguing to express their praise.

As rain drenches the dynamite gang, Arzt emerges from the jungle, panting and yelling, "Run!" He is followed by the heavy stamping of the unseen beast. The beast turns away at the last moment. Danielle says it is a security system designed to protect the island.

In a moving scene, Walt gives Vincent to Shannon, telling her that she can talk to him about Boone in the same way Walt talked to him about his mom when she died.

Sayid gives Michael a radar device for tracking nearby ships, and a flare gun with a single flare.

The dynamite gang has reached their destination – the overgrown remains of a ship by the name of Black Rock.

Sun brings Jin a list of English words spelled phonetically, to help him on his voyage. Jin breaks down and says he is sorry.

People hug and say goodbye to those who are about to set sail. The raft launches without incident, and the four sailors are on their way.

Various flashback backstories:

Walt wakes up early on what may be the first night that he has spent with his dad. He looks out from his hotel room window at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, then turns on the television really loud to watch his favorite exercise show, waking his dad at 5.23am. When Michael asks him to turn the TV down, Walt gets angry and tries to take Vincent for a walk. Michael drags him back to the room, listening to the words, "You’re not my father."

Jack speaks to a very forward woman in the airport bar named Anna Lucia who overheard his argument about the casket. She says she is on the same flight, but is in the ill-fated back of the plane.

Sawyer is in trouble in a Sydney police station. The other combatant in his bar fight was an Australian politician. Sawyer gets deported and is told never to set foot in Australia again.

Kate is in handcuffs at the airport while the Marshall is checking his guns and taunting her quite with cruelty about her past mistakes.

Shannon is stretched out on a couple of chairs at the airport. A stranger (Sayid) asks her to watch his bag. When Boone comes back with the bad news that he couldn’t get them into first class (because Shannon had yelled at a clerk), she gets up and leaves. To impress Boone, she tells the first security guard she sees that some Arab left his bad unattended and headed for the shops.

Sun brings Jin some airport food and promptly spills the coffee on him. A nearby couple makes snide comments about Asian stereotypical relationships, thinking that Sun does not understand.

Comments

We finally get to see more of the survivors when they come out of the woodwork to help with the raft.

Is Danielle lying? Did those scratches come from a person, not a bush? How does she know that the Others are going to attack?

The Hawaiian rainforest scenery on the dynamite walk is quite beautiful.

Although I hadn’t noticed it before, Jin is still wearing the handcuff that Michael lopped off when Jin was being held prisoner for attacking Michael.

Memorable Moments

• Sawyer deciding to tell Jack of the words spoken to him by Jack’s father

• Walt’s touching explanation of how Vincent will take care of Shannon

• The launch of the raft

Quotable Quotes

"You have only three choices: run; hide; or die."
- Danielle

"C’mon, doctor! I got into a bar fight. Isn’t that a badge of honor in this country?"
- Sawyer in Australia

Sawyer: Jack! About a week before we all got on the plane, got to talkin’ to this man in a bar in Sydney. He was an American, too. Doctor. I’ve been on some benders in my time, but this guy, he was goin’ for an all-time record. It turns out this guy has a son – son’s a doctor, too. They’d had some kind of big-time fallin’ out. The guy knew it was his fault, even though his son was back in the states, thinkin’ the same damn thing. See kids are like dogs; you knock ‘em around enough, they’ll think they did something to deserve it. Anyway, pay phone in this bar, and this guy – Christian – tells me he wishes he had stones to pick up the phone and call his kid. Tell him he was sorry – he’s a better doctor than he’ll ever be. He’s proud, and he loves him. I had to take off, but something tells me he never got around to makin’ that call. Small world, huh?
Jack: Yeah.
Sawyer: Good luck, Jack.

Walt: I think you should take Vincent.
Shannon: Are you serious?
Walt: He’ll take care of you.
Shannon: What makes you think I need a dog to take care of me?
Walt: Vincent took care of me when my mom died. And nobody would talk to me. They pretended like nothing happened. So I had to talk to Vincent. He’s a good listener. You could talk to him about Boone if you want.
Shannon: Alright. But only ‘til you get us rescued, okay?

1.22 Born to Run

Charlie approaches Kate, strumming his guitar, excited that when he gets rescued, DriveShaft is going to be extremely popular. Kate seems less excited about getting rescued.

Arzt, a teacher and self-appointed expert on wind and monsoons, tells the raft people that they have basically missed the chance to leave with the winds blowing north. If they leave now, not only will it be the dangerous monsoon season, but they will be blown south to Antarctica.

Kate tells Michael that she is coming on the raft, but Michael says it is full. Kate tries to convince Michael that she is a better sailor than Sawyer. When that doesn’t work, she intimates that Walt should stay behind because of the dangers. Michael is having none of it, however.

Sun asks Jin if he is going on the raft. Jin says he is, and Sun, disappointed, walks away.

Sayid has brought Jack out into the jungle without telling him why. They meet Locke there, and Locke leads them to the hatch. Locke (and Boone) have excavated around it, revealing more of the structure and shape.

Apparently, Kate’s needling has gotten to Michael. When Sawyer asks some pointless questions about the salted fish that Jin is bringing, Michael tells him that maybe he is the wrong person to go. Sawyer finds out his replacement is Kate and confronts her. Sawyer tells her he knows she was the Marshall’s prisoner, but the secret is safe with him. Kate tells him that she will take his spot on the raft if she really wants it.

Jin and Michael are putting the finishing touches on the raft. Michael looks ill and suddenly doubles over with abdominal pain. Walt finds Kate who tries to find Jack.

Jack questions Locke as to why he knew about it for three weeks without telling someone. Locke throws it back at Jack, asking him why he withheld knowledge of the guns. Jack wants to open the hatch, believing that it will provide shelter and possibly supplies. Sayid is against it, suggesting that because of the lack of a handle, it was not meant to be opened from the outside.

Despite Michael’s need to launch the raft tomorrow, he is in severe pain and is ordered by Jack to lie down. Jack finds that someone has put something in Michael’s water to make him sick.

Hurley, Jack, and Locke are discussing who might have poisoned Michael, when Hurley lets slip that Kate was a fugitive.

Charlie plays the guitar and the baby sleeps in its cot. Claire tries to cut Charlie’s bobbing head. He asks her what she will do first when she is rescued, and tells her she can stay with him in L.A.

Jack asks Kate if she poisoned Michael. Kate is appalled that Jack would think she is capable of something like that.

Walt visits Locke to tell him that he did not poison Michael. When Locke touches him, Walt senses something, and tells Locke not to open ‘that thing’.

Michael believes that Sawyer poisoned him. When he kicks Sawyer off the raft, Sawyer retaliates by exposing Kate as a criminal. He grabs her backpack and empties the contents in front of a group of people and finds the partially burned passport of Joanna, the woman who drowned. Kate admits that she was the prisoner of the Marshall and says that she will be going to jail when she gets back. Michael gives back her passport, and everyone walks away, leaving her alone on the beach to gather up the contents of her backpack.

Jack confronts Sun, realizing that she was the one who poisoned Michael, in a misguided attempt to poison Jin and stop him from possibly dieing on the raft.

Walt tells Michael that he burned the original raft. When Michael says that he and Walt can stay on the island, Walt is convinced that they cannot.

Kate and Sun lament about their shared and shattered dream of finding the man they love and being happy forever.

Kate’s backstory flashback:

Somewhere in a midwestern setting, a blonde woman stops at a motel and checks the numerous license plates in the trunk of her car. She steals a towel and some shampoo from the cleaning lady, and grabs a free room for a shower. In the shower, her hair color and body dirt washes away; now we see it is Kate. She gets a letter she was expecting, goes back to her car, and cries.

Kate is at a hospital to visit her friend Diane, who is dieing of cancer. But the room is guarded by a cop. Kate asks a doctor friend Tom for help. He arranges to get an MRI for Diane. Kate convinces Tom to drive to an obscure location and dig up something they buried a long time ago – a time capsule from about 15 years ago, when they were teenagers in love and thought they had a future together. They share one kiss, and then drive away.

Kate gets a chance to spend a few moments in the hospital with Diane, who we find out is her mother. But when her mother recognizes her, she cries for help. Kate backs away and when a security guard tries to detain her, she knocks him out. Her friend Tom pursues her and jumps in the car with her, trying to convince her not to run. But she leaves at high speed, and, when she crashes the car, Tom is killed.

Comments

The raft is ready to go now, with Michael, Walt, Jin, and Sawyer the scheduled passengers, unless something happens to change that.

We keep learning more and more about Kate’s backstory, yet we are going to need to go back even further to find out why her own mother was so fearful of her.

Is there a correlation between Kate and Tom’s buried time capsule, and the contents of the buried container on the island?

Memorable Moments

• Jack and Locke’s discussions about who told what to who and when

Quotable Quotes

Jack: My god! What is this thing?
Locke: Exactly.

Sawyer: But just so you know: no way in hell you’re getting my spot on that raft.
Kate: Hey Sawyer! I want your spot…I’ll get your spot.

Locke: What did she do?
Jack: I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her?
Locke: And you didn’t think the others should know about this, Jack?
Jack: Discretion, John.

Walt: I’m the one that burnt the raft. I didn’t want to leave, and I thought I could stop you. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, dad.
Michael: Hey, it’s okay, man. We can stay here, you and me. We do have to go.
Walt: Yes we do.

1.21 The Greater Good

Sayid tries to comfort Shannon as she grieves over Boone’s body by telling her how brave Boone was in his last moments, how he sacrificed any chance he may have had to save the needless use of antibiotics in what he felt was a lost cause.

Kate finds Jack deep in the forest and convinces him to come back, to join with the group and help them through a difficult period. In the next scene, Jack is helping to bury Boone. At the ceremony, Shannon has no words to say, but Sayid makes a short, effective speech about Boone’s courage. The ceremony is interrupted by the arrival of Locke, who claims that Boone’s death is his fault. Boone tells the truth about the plane, but, tellingly, never mentions the hatch. Jack explodes, attacking Boone, barraging him repeatedly with the shouted question, "Where were you?" until he is restrained by the group. Jack tells Sayid, Kate and Sun about Boone’s mention of the hatch, but they ask him to please rest and attend to his own health as he is the only doctor on the island. Meanwhile, Sayid is eyeing Locke.

Claire has been taking care of her baby day and night. She is afraid to sleep for fear of losing it. But Sun and Charlie manage to convince her that she must rest, so she hands over ‘turnip-head’ to Charlie.

Shannon sits alone on the beach, grieving, and is approached by Locke, who gives her Boone’s backpack, and hopes that someday, she can forgive him.

Shannon asks Sayid to do something about the fact that Locke killed her brother.

Kate gets Jack to take a break in his quest to get the truth from Locke by crushing sleeping pills in his drink.

Locke is washing out the bloody shirt that he has been wearing since he emerged from the jungle. Sayid notices a large scar on Locke’s side and enquires about it. Locke says it is a war wound, but Sayid says it looks like a surgical scar. Sayid believes that parts from the radio could be useful to him for the transmitter he is building, and he asks Locke to lead him there. Locke agrees and leads him there.

Charlie and Hurley are having no success in trying to get the baby to stop crying; even Hurley’s Ray Charles imitation falls flat.

Sayid and Locke discuss ‘trust’. Sayid confronts Locke about his concealed weapon, which Locke hands over. Then, in an effort to build trust, Locke tells Sayid that he, Locke, was the one that hit Sayid from behind when he was just about to triangulate the signal. Sayid comes close to killing him. Locke said he did it because it was the right thing to do – the bad news about the signal would have been detrimental to the group. Sayid asks Locke about the hatch and gets a lie concerning plane hatches. This seems to placate Sayid, and he lowers the gun.

Sayid tells Shannon that he believes Boone’s death was an accident and was not caused by Locke. This does not placate Shannon; she wants an eye for an eye.

Michael has to deal with a series of questions from Walt about the dangers that face them on the raft. Boone’s death has set Walt a little on edge. Charlie arrives with the crying baby, looking for help, but neither Walt nor Jin can help. But every time Sawyer talks, the baby stops crying – so Charlie starts following Sawyer around.

Jack wakes up from his forced sleep to find the key to the gun case missing from around his neck. He suspects it was Locke, but Sayid tells him it was Shannon.

Sayid finds Shannon, training a gun on Locke. He tries to convince her that she is not thinking rationally. She shoots at Locke just as Sayid knocks her over. Locke is winged, nothing more, and he and Jack exchange looks to kill.

Locke thanks Sayid for saving his life, and, in return, Sayid says that John will take him to the hatch.

Sayid’s flashback backstory:

Sayid is at Melbourne airport, where the CIA and ASIS have detained him to help them get back a large quantity of explosives that have been stolen by a terrorist cell containing Sayid’s college roommate. The reward: the location of Nadia, the girl that Sayid loves – the girl he has been trying to find for years.

Sayid attends an Islamic prayer service where he (purposefully, you would think) runs into his old roommate Hassam. Sayid learns that Hassam’s wife died when a stray bomb hit her. Did this cause Hassam to become a terrorist? Hassam invites him back to his place to catch up; there, they play a shoot-em-up video game. Sayid meets Hassam two male roommates. He becomes suspicious of a smoke alarm that is not working even though one of the guys is smoking. When Sayid silently finds and deactivates a bugging device, he is accepted into the group.

Sayid learns that Hassam is going to be the martyr, but that he has second thoughts. When Sayid tries to get Hassam out, the agents are not interested in saving Hassam – they only want to find the explosives. When Sayid then tries to quit, they threaten to arrest Nadia as an enemy combatant. Sayid has to choose between condemning Nadia and killing Hassam. Sayid chooses to convince Hassam to go through with it, and in doing so, agrees to join Hassam and do it together.

The day has come. Sayid and Hassam sit in the back of an unmarked van, ready to die for the cause. They will drive a truckload of explosives. Sayid tells Hassam to leave now, and reveals his reasons for working with the CIA. Hassam is devastated, and first threatens to kill Sayid, then shoots himself.

Sayid insists on claiming the body of Hassam so it can be buried, even though it means changing his flight to the ill-fated one.

Comments

The episode starts with an unusually long series of clips from previous episodes, including a few shots of Boone, young, vibrant, and very alive, and it made me shocked to realize that he is dead.

If Sayid truly can tell when he is being lied to, then he knows that Locke lied about the hatch. I hoped that Sayid decided not to push for more information now, and to bide his time instead. Sure enough, he did know Locke was lying, and, at the end of the episode, he asks once more for the truth about the hatch.

Jin is learning a little English and starting to relax more. And has everyone noticed how helpful Sawyer has become? When Jack collapsed on the beach, it was Sawyer who was the first to yell for water.

Memorable Moments

• Sawyer reading to the baby, wearing his now-famous glasses

• The end of the episode, where Sayid reveals that he knows Locke was lying about the hatch

Quotable Quotes

Shannon: You asked if you could do anything for me.
Sayid: Anything.
Shannon: John Locke killed my brother. Will you do something about that?

Sayid: Why would I interrogate you, John?
Locke: Jack called me a liar in front of every man, woman, and child I’ve come to know over the past month. Maybe there’s a part of you that thinks maybe there isn’t a plane out here at all.
Sayid: I know when I’m being lied to. There’s a plane.

Charlie: Eeency weency spider, went up the water spout. Down came the rain, and drowned the spider out.
Hurley: Dude, it’s washed. Washed the spider out. Unless there’s some kind of British version.

Sayid: How’s your head?
Locke: It’ll heal.
Sayid: Another war wound.
Locke: I know what it cost you to do what you did. Thank you.
Sayid: I did it because I sense you may be our best hope of surviving here. But I don’t forgive what you did. And I certainly don’t trust you. And now, you’re going to take me to the hatch.
Locke: Hatch? I already showed you -
Sayid: John – no more lies.

1.20 Do No Harm

Boone is severely injured, and Jack treats him while asking for help from various other grossed out and shocked castaways. Kate is sent to run down to the beach to get all of Sawyer’s alcohol. For once, he hands it over without demanding anything or making any cute jokes.

Claire visits Michael to check on the raft progress. Michael tells her it will be finished in a week, and she walks off quickly.

Jack says Boone needs a transfusion but hasn’t figured out how he is going to facilitate one. Sun offers to take over for a little while, so Jack slips outside and gives some short testy answers to Charlie’s questions about what happened and the whereabouts of Shannon. Back at the operating table, Sun holds Boone’s shoulders while Jack sets his leg, and they both absorb Boone’s cries of pain.

On her way back from the beach, Kate falls and breaks some of the alcohol bottles in her backpack. While she is assessing the damage, she hears a whimpering sound and discovers Claire, wandering around, about to have the baby. Claire doesn’t want to, or can’t, get back to camp. Kate’s cries for help are heard by Jin on the beach. He sprints inland and finds Kate and Claire. Kate gives him the backpack of alcohol and tells him to find and bring Jack.

Sun is repeatedly asking the in-shock Boone for his blood type. Somehow, Boone is able to choke out "A negative". Jack sends Sun to ask everyone what their blood type is – and to find Shannon.

Shannon is off with Sayid, who has prepared a surprise torch-lit banquet for her on a secluded beach.

Charlie has been unable to find anyone who knows their blood type or is A negative, leaving Jack – with his O negative blood – as the only possible donor. Jack says that O negative is a universal transfusion type that is a close match, but it may send Boone into naphthylacetic shock. Sun has brought back a sea urchin with sharp hollow spikes perfect for use as a needle for a transfusion.

Jin arrives and tells Jack and Sun about Claire. Jack is now mid-transfusion and cannot leave to deliver the baby. Instead, he gives instructions to Charlie that must be relayed to Kate. As evening falls, Claire’s water breaks – and no one else has arrived.

When Boone comes to, he tells Jack that he hurt himself when the plane fell – and that he and Locke found a hatch but that Locke said not to tell.

Shannon stops kissing Sayid to tell him that Boone is in love with her, but she is not in love with him – and yet she wants to take it slow.

Charlie and Jin join Claire and Kate. Claire is terrified of giving birth on and island, and tormented by what ‘they’ may have done to the baby during her unremembered captivity, but Kate assures her that they will get through it together. Claire is reluctant to give birth, fearing that the baby will sense that she had meant to give it away and will reject her, but Kate is able to cajole her into pushing.

Boone has lost consciousness, and Jack is distraught. Sun rips the tube from Jack’s arm, telling him that he has given enough. Jack asks Hurley to get Michael, but will not tell him why. When Michael arrives, Sun finds out why – Boone’s leg is filling with blood, and the only way to save him is to amputate it. Sun sees that Boone is bleeding internally and believes that Jack cannot save him, but is unable to let go. Just as he is about to amputate the leg, Boone regains consciousness and asks Jack to let him die. With Shannon’s name on his lips, Boone passes on.

Claire gives birth to a healthy baby boy, and Charlie hugs and dances with Jin. The next morning, everyone gathers on the beach to look at the baby. As they celebrate, Sayid and Shannon return from their overnight, and Jack meets them on the beach and imparts the sad news. Later, Shannon cries as she views Boone’s body.

Jack sits alone on the beach, and Kate joins him to talk, but finds out that Jack blames Locke for Boone’s murder, and is heading out into the jungle to find him.

Jack’s backstory flashback:

At his own wedding, Jack is talking to his best man, then listening to an impassioned speech by his bride to be about how she was told she would never walk after a car accident at his own wedding. Jack fixed her, and she fell in love with him.

We now flashback to before Jack’s wedding, as he discusses with his bride to be the vows he will take, and he expresses concern that his father may not show up for the wedding.

Fully clothed, but with his pants-covered legs dangling in the pool, Jack sits, sipping from an almost empty bottle of vodka, trying to write wedding vows. His father arrives, and they discuss why the words will not come. Jack asked Sarah to marry him because he saved her life, not because they are soul-mates – but he only has realized this now.

During the wedding ceremony, when it is Jack’s turn to say his vows, he seems to be backing down, but instead he has crafted – or ad-libbed, a beautiful, heart-felt response.

Comments

The tension in this episode comes when Boone tells of the plane and the hatch – when he is well, will he stick to his story, or recant and say that he was delirious?

There is great tension also as we wait for Jack to respond to Sarah’s vows. Will he back out? The writing is good here, leading us in all the wrong directions.

The twin storylines focus directly on Jack’s strength of commitment, but also on his difficulty in knowing when he needs to let go.

I may be a tough, macho man, but when Claire gave birth, a few tears came to the corners of my eyes, the result of a well-filmed and acted scene.

Although Locke’s involvement in Boone’s death is one of the focal points of this episode, Locke is not on-screen at all, other than a brief opening flashback to the discovery of the hatch.

It must be more than coincidence that when Sun tells Jack that Boone is a lost cause and he can't amputate, Jack says, "Don’t tell me what I can't do!" This is the exact same line that Locke uses a number of times in Episode 1.4 (Walkabout).

Nits

Jin is working on the raft, on the beach, in the wind, just a couple of yards from crashing waves. There is no possible way that he should be able to hear Kate calling for help, and yet, he does.

Memorable Moments

• The cliffhanger ending as Jack heads out to confront Locke for the murder of Boone

Quotable Quotes

Shannon: Are you lost?
Sayid: No. Absolutely not.

"I didn’t write any vows. I’ve been trying to for a month, but – I couldn’t. So I started to wonder why that was. And as time went on, it only got worse. Because – because I’m not good at letting go. Or maybe I’m afraid of what will happen if I fail. But I know one thing – I would have never been able to write anything as beautiful as what you just said. And last night, Sarah, when you were talking about the accident, you got it all wrong. I didn’t fix you; you fixed me. I love you, Sarah, and I always will."
- Jack’s vows

"Tell Shannon – tell Shannon…tell…"
- Boone’s last words

Jack: Beautiful healthy baby.
Kate: Wanna talk about it?
Jack: Talk about what?
Kate: Boone died, Jack.
Jack: He didn’t die. He was murdered.
Kate: Jack. Where are you going?
Jack: To find John Locke.

1.19 Deux Ex Machina

Locke and Boone have built a trebuchet device in an attempt to break the glass on the capsule, but it bounces off the glass and falls to pieces. A piece of the splintered trebuchet rams itself deeply into Locke’s leg, but he doesn’t even realize it is there until Boone tells him. Later, Locke pinches and burns his legs and feet and realizes that he has no sensation there.

Sawyer holds two similar leaves and asks Sun: which one? She confirms it is the one he has been taking. He slinks away as Kate arrives. Sun says that Sawyer has headaches that his stash of aspirin did not help. Kate tells the headache story to Jack, but Jack has no interest in trying to help Sawyer just to get more abuse.

Boone and Locke argue over whether they will ever open the capsule (with Boone taking the ‘never’ argument). Locke says the island will send them a sign. Just then, a small plane heads for the island, smoke puffing from it, and crashes somewhere. Locke asks Boone if he saw it, and suddenly, Locke is having a strange dream. Boone, injured and bloody, keeps repeating, "Theresa falls up the stairs; Theresa falls down the stairs"; Locke’s mother is pointing at the plane (and is wearing a fur coat); Locke is in a wheelchair, stumbles out, and awakens.

Locke, inspired and/or obsessed, wakes Boone before dawn, heads toward the jungle,  and tells Boone to follow. Locke tells Boone how his dream has told him where to look for what he needs to open the capsule. Boone is skeptical until Locke mentions Theresa – then Boone, who must know or have known someone by that name, starts to believe. They head out to find the crashed plane.

Jack stops by the raft, to check on progress, and notices Sawyer leaning against a tree, holding a cloth over his forehead and eyes, and obviously in pain. Jack gets the typical smart answers, but Sawyer does manage to get civil enough for Jack to determine that it probably isn’t a brain tumor.

Deep in the jungle, Locke and Boone find the long-dead remains of a priest. They determine that the corpse is somewhere between two and ten years old. They also find Nigerian money and a gun.

When Sawyer starts yelling at nearby castaways to shut up, Kate tells him to get up and literally pushes him toward Jack. Jack does a thorough investigation which ends abruptly when Sawyer deems that the questions are getting too personal – but not before Jack determines that Sawyer needs glasses.

Locke’s legs are getting worse and worse, and, finally, he collapses. He explains to Boone that he was in a wheelchair and paralyzed for four years – until they crashed. He emerged whole. Despite his state, Locke convinces Boone that they must keep going. Boone drags Locke to his feet and supports him as they continue. Boone explains to Locke that Theresa was his nanny who he abused as a little boy by making her climb up and down the stairs – until one day, when she slipped and broke her neck. Locke laughs, not at the story, but at the plane that he sees over Boone’s shoulder. The plane is suspended at the edge of a cliff, supported only by vines and treetops. Locke tells Boone that something is important is inside it.

Jack visits Sawyer with a diagnosis and a box full of prescription glasses for him to try. Sayid cleverly melts two pairs to make a pair that works for Sawyer.

Boone finds a map of Nigeria in the plane, along with another corpse, and hollow statues loaded with heroin. But there is something else: Boone discovers that the radio still works. He sends a message, and is received. Boone races to give details of who they are as the plane creaks and shakes ominously, and then falls with a thud deep into the valley below. Locke crawls to the plane, drags the bloody and unconscious Boone out, and somehow, despite his recent crippled state, hoists Boone over his shoulders and limps through the jungle.

Kate thanks Jack for helping Sawyer; Jack says he didn’t do it for Sawyer. They are interrupted by Locke, who carries the badly injured Boone to Jack. When Jack turns to ask Locke exactly what happened, he has disappeared.

Back at the capsule, Locke is yelling at the window, asking why. Suddenly, a light appears from within.

Locke’s backstory flashback:

A much younger Locke is working in a toy store, demonstrating the game Mouse Trap to a boy. A middle-aged woman is staring at him. She asks a generic question about where to find footballs, but seems to have something else on her mind.

The next day, Locke sees the woman staring at him in the parking lot. When she moves away, he follows her and is hit by a car – but just gets up and keeps going. He catches her and she says she is his mother. She tells him that he was immaculately conceived and is special.

Locke has confirmed with a DNA test that the woman who visited him is his mother. He finds out from a PI that she has been institutionalized for schizophrenia. Locke also wants to find out about his father, even though the PI warns him it will not have a happy ending. Locke visits Anthony Cooper, his father. His dad is embarrassed but friendly, and invites Locke to go hunting with him on the weekend.

Locke returns for another hunting expedition a little early and finds his father receiving dialysis. Later, they hunt and bond, with both accepting that they are father and son.

Locke has agreed to donate a kidney to his father.

After the operation, Locke discovers that his father has already checked out. His mother arrives to tell him that it wasn’t really his father, just a man who needed a kidney and had agreed to pay Locke’s mother to get one. Locke cannot believe what has happened and goes to visit Anthony but is turned away at the gate.

Comments

Swoosie Kurtz guest-stars as Locke’s mother.

They did a great job with Locke’s makeup to make him look 15 years younger.

Is there some parallel being drawn between the Mouse Trap game and the capsule?

Key point: Locke doesn’t tell Jack and Kate anything about the plane – he just says Boone fell off a cliff.

I think one of my guilty pleasures with Lost is that I really enjoy women who don’t wear a lot of makeup – and because they are stuck on an island, Kate and Sun look great. Shannon still looks like she just stepped away from her makeup mirror, however.

Memorable Moments

• Sawyer trying on women’s glasses

Quotable Quotes

Boone: I don’t think that glass is gonna break, man. Whatever it’s made of -
Locke: Everything breaks if you apply the right force.
Boone: So we’re just gonna build another one of your inventions, hope it works this time.
Locke: That’s right.
Boone: What if it doesn’t?
Locke: Then the island will tell us what to do.

"Look, Kate, I’d love nothing more than to check the guy out and make sure he’s okay, but we both know all I’m going to get for my trouble is a snappy one-liner – and if I’m real lucky, a brand new nickname."
- Jack

Jack: Pickin’ up on a little Korean there, Michael?
Michael: Yeah, pretty sure I know how to say ‘faster’ and ‘idiot’.

1.18 Numbers

Michael is near to completing the raft, but needs some way to send an SOS to passing ships. He believes Sayid could build something like that, if he had a power source: the batteries kept by Danielle. Jack asks Sayid to tell him how to find Danielle, but Sayid is not very helpful (while not completely refusing to help). While Jack and Sayid bicker, Hurley studies the numbers written by Danielle and appears to have an idea of what they mean.

Sayid wakes up from mid-sleep to see Hurley staring at him, grilling him for information on where Danielle is located. Hurley is intrigued that the six numbers that Danielle wrote repeatedly on the paper are the same six numbers from his winning lottery ticket. He gets as much info as he can, and steals the map.

Hurley packs a number of water bottles for an extended walk, and fends off questions from Charlie, who wants to come.

Locke asks Claire to help him with a project.

Sayid, Jack, and Charlie piece together that Hurley has gone to find Danielle. They head out to find him, starting a couple of hours behind.

Hurley has found the rope that leads near Danielle’s lair.

Sawyer sits near the raft, reading a book and complaining that the hammering is bothering him. Walt asks him to help, which gets a snide remark from Sawyer about how he is helping by keeping guard for arsonists. A large bundle of bamboo, tied by Jin, breaks apart, and Michael unloads on Jin verbally for not tieing it correctly.

Within earshot, Sun tells Kate that Jin will never talk to her again because she humiliated him. She wonders if Jin will leave on the raft.

The three trackers find Hurley just in time to warn him that he is standing on a booby trap. While they search for a replacement rock so he can move, Hurley risks it and moves off the trap, dodging an ugly tangle of sharp sticks. Jack asks why Hurley is really here, but gets no information.

The four guys have literally reached the end of the rope – it disappears into the ground. A little further on, a flimsy rope bridge spans a deep, narrow canyon. Hurley, who seems to have no fear, begins to walk over the bridge, despite the pleas from Jack to come back. The bridge creaks and moans, but Hurley makes it. Charlie is next to go, again, ignoring Jack’s warnings. The bridge collapses, but Charlie is able to dive and make it to Hurley’s side. With the party now split, Jack tells them to wait while he and Sayid find a way around. Hurley wants to keep going, but Charlie tells him to be quiet.

Claire now believes she is helping Locke build a trap.

Sayid and Jack discover Danielle’s booby-trapped hideout. She has left, sensing that Sayid might come back.

Hurley is about to tell Charlie why he is so obsessed with finding Danielle when two shots hit a nearby tree. Charlie and Hurley run in opposite directions. Hurley runs into Danielle, who holds him at gunpoint. Hurley asks her what the numbers mean, but she says she doesn’t know. Hurley, frustrated, demands answers. Danielle tells him that her ship picked up the transmission of the numbers. They found the radio tower by the black rock. Some of the crew searched for the meaning of the numbers, became sick, and died. Hurley tells her that the numbers are cursed. Danielle, who has lost everything, agrees. Hurley hugs her, grateful that someone believes him.

Charlie stumbles upon Jack and Sayid, and, soon after, Hurley walks in, and looks cool as he nonchalantly pulls a battery from his backpack. Back at camp, no words are spoken as Sayid hands the battery to Michael.

Claire tells Locke that she has not selected a name for the baby. She tells Locke that she was going to give the baby away, and that it is her birthday. Locke has finished building the structure, and now turns it over – it is a cradle, a birthday present for Claire.

Back at camp, Charlie once again asks Hurley what his big secret is. Charlie tells Hurley about his own heroin addiction, and Hurley reciprocates, telling Charlie that he is worth 156 million dollars. But Charlie just thinks he is joking.

Finally, the camera zooms in slowly to a series of numbers stamped on the side of the capsule discovered by Locke and Boone: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.

Hurley’s backstory flashbacks:

Hurley is at home, having just moved back in with his mother. It is Saturday night and he is watching TV, ignoring his mother’s prodding to go out, find a girl or at least stop eating so much. He catches the broadcast of the Lotto jackpot, and his ticket exactly matches all six lottery numbers. He faints, disappearing from view; we hear glass breaking.

At his press conference, Hurley says the numbers "…just came to me". He introduces his family and says he is going to use the money to help them – in particular, his hard-working, 72-year-old grandfather. As the press conference continues, however, his grandfather grabs his arm and falls to ground after apparently suffering a heart attack.

Hurley has found that the money he won in the lottery has brought him bad luck. His grandfather died, and the priest that performed the funeral ceremony was struck by lightning and killed. His brother broke up with his wife. And when he brings his mother to show her the huge new house he has bought for her, she slips and breaks her ankle, the house catches fire, and cops arrive and arrest Hurley.

Hurley visits his accountant, who tells him that he has doubled his net worth in a few months. Some of the ways it has doubled (like an over-insured factory burning down, or the windfall from his false arrest) still are convincing Hurley that the money is cursed. Then Hurley reaches the conclusion that the numbers he picked, and not the money, is what carries the curse. The accountant says that is ridiculous, just as a body hurtles by outside the glass windows behind him.

Hurley has come back to the mental institution where he spent some time. It was here that he talked to a patient named Lenny. Lenny gave him the numbers he used to win the lottery. Lenny repeats the numbers all the time. Hurley returns to ask what they mean. When Hurley tells Lenny that he used those numbers to win the lottery, Lenny gets agitated, telling Hurley that now he has opened the box, and that he needs to get away from the numbers because it will not stop. As he is dragged away, Lenny says that Sam Toomey heard the numbers in Kalgoorlie (Australia).

Hurley visits an isolated shack in Kalgoorlie and meets Sam Toomey’s wife. Sam has been dead for four years. He and Lenny met in the U.S. Navy. She tells that Sam and Lenny got the numbers while at a listening post, picking up radio transmissions from the Pacific. The numbers bring good luck to the bearer (they were used to win 50 thousand dollars at a fair) but bad luck to those around them (on the way home, Sam’s wife lost her leg in a car accident). Hurley asks if there’s a way to make the bad luck stop. Sam’s wife says there is no curse.

Comments

I love the expression Jack makes in reaction to seeing the flimsy suspension bridge. He kind of simultaneously rolls his head and eyes, and arches his eyebrows. He looks truly worried and frustrated. It’s not the first time he has pulled that face – and it probably won’t be the last.

Hurley gives Charlie a look to kill when Charlie tells him he is acting like a lunatic – I suppose this is because of Hurley’s mental history.

Ironies or ironies, or more? The numbers that Hurley used to win the lottery were broadcast from the island he is now stranded on.

Terry O’Quinn (Locke) is the best actor on the show, in my humble opinion. He combines sincerity with mystery in equal doses to create an intriguing personality. His act of kindness to Claire may lull some viewers into thinking he’s a nice guy, but let’s all remember that he has also discovered a sealed capsule and has decided to hide this knowledge from all but the almost hypnotized Boone.

Nits

Sawyer’s sarcastic comment to Walt about arsonists seems to indicate that he knows Walt burned the boat. How does he know this? We know the Locke figured it out, but there has been no indication that Sawyer knew about it.

Sam Toomey’s wife says that, on the way home from the fair, a ‘pickup truck’ blew a tire. In Australia, a pickup truck is referred to as a ‘ute’ (short for ‘utility vehicle’). The term ‘pickup truck’ is not used.

Are we really supposed to believe that Claire did not flip the structure Locke was building in her mind and realize that it was a cradle? It was my first thought on what he was building, and that was before he even started.

Quotable Quotes

Hurley: Hi. You awake?
Sayid: I was just wondering that myself.

"Yo! French chick!"
- Hurley

"Need a battery? She says, ‘Hey’."
- Hurley, understated about his meeting with Danielle

Locke: That should do it.
Claire: Okay, I give up. What is it? It’s a cradle.
Locke: Happy birthday, Claire.

1.17 ...In Translation

When Jin sees Sun going for a swim in a revealing two-piece bikini, he yells at her and covers her up. When they continue to argue, Michael intervenes. Just as Jin and Michael are about to fight, Sun steps in, slaps Michael, and averts a major fight. Michael is shocked.

Jin confronts Sun with the suspicion that something is going on between her and Michael, and she denies it.

Sun sneaks off to apologize to Michael, saying that she slapped him to protect him from what her husband would have done to him. Michael is cold now, saying that it is not his problem.

Jin is at the golf course, whacking rock after rock as hard as he can. Hurley arrives with two fishing poles and the notion that some relaxing angling would cure Jin’s angst, but Jin keeps whacking the rocks.

Shannon is helping tie knots for the raft, and she and Sayid flirt about knots, ropes, and Saturday nights.

Michael tries to get Walt interested in seeing New York’s great architecture, but Walt wants to go throw the ball with Vincent.

Jack comes by to tell Michael that people are talking about who is going to go on the raft. Michael says the raft can carry four people and one spot is still available – Sawyer traded needed goods for a spot.

Kate asks Sun how long she is going to let Jin treat her this way. They are interrupted by a commotion and news that the raft is on fire. Typically, Michael assumes that Jin is the culprit, and confronts Sun. When Michael gets distracted by Walt, Sun gets away. Sun finds Jin, who is injured, and asks why he destroyed Michael’s raft. Jin is incensed by Sun using Michael’s name, and storms away.

Sayid pays a courtesy call to Boone to let him know that he and Shannon are going to be more than friends. Boone is cold and badmouths Shannon, saying the she likes older men that can protect her, and that she will initially make Sayid feel great while he provides whatever it is she desires – the she’ll move on.

Jin has escaped into the jungle to meditate and heal his wounds. While he is leaning down in a creek to wash his hands, Sawyer kicks him to the ground for burning the raft.

Sayid expresses misgivings to Shannon about being friends with her, and Shannon immediately suspects Boone. She goes off to confront him and instead finds Locke and unloads on him. Locke tells her if she likes Sayid, then Boone has nothing to do with it and she should ignore him and get on with her life.

Sawyer is roughly bringing Jin back to camp, taking time out to knock him to the ground and threaten him with a knife. When they arrive at the beach, Sawyer yells for Michael. As Michael rushes over, others also are arriving to try to avert violence. It is decided to let Michael and Jin fight, but Jin is not fighting back, and Michael is pummeling him. Finally, unable to take any more, Sun cries out in English for them to stop, pleading that Jin did not burn the raft. Michael and Sawyer are not so easily convinced, but Locke eases the tensions somewhat by saying that there was no reason for Jin to destroy their best chance to get off the island. The raft, Locke reasons, was sabotaged by the other people who are sharing the island.

Michael gets over his frustration and tells Walt that he will build a new and better raft. Walt volunteers to help.

Jin is packing, apparently leaving for the beach. Sun pleads with him to start all over together, but Jin says it is too late.

Shannon and Sayid kiss in front of the fire.

Locke stops by to play backgammon with Walt, and asks him why he burned the raft. Walt says it is because he likes it on the island and doesn’t want to move again, after moving all of his life.

Jin arrives at Michael’s place with strips of bamboo, ready to help rebuild the raft.

A music video montage shows Sayid and Shannon sitting together; Sun, standing on the beach, releasing her cloak to reveal her bathing suit underneath. She enters the surf, smiling. Charlie brings Claire a treat, and Hurley sits alone. His walkman has just run out of batteries and he looks depressed.

Jin’s backstory flashback:

We see the meeting Jin had with Sun’s father to ask for her hand in marriage. At the meeting, Jin agrees to work for the man. He does not know yet what this will entail.

Sun is dressing for her wedding ceremony when Jin asks to speak to her. Sun is happy to be getting married, but is disappointed that Jin will not honeymoon for six months, in order to show Sun’s father that he is committed to his work.

Jin is promoted to doing strong arm work for Sun’s father, Mr Paik. It starts innocently, as he visits a government official to express that Paik is ‘displeased’ with him.

Sun makes a special dinner for Jin, obviously because he has been working all the time. When his mobile phone rings, he ignores it, which pleases Sun. But soon after, the house phone rings, and Jin is summoned before Paik. Paik is angry that Jin did not deliver his message of displeasure in the way he wanted. He tells Jin to drive Paik’s associate back to the house to learn how to deliver the message properly. As they drive to the house, the associate is checking a gun with silencer and telling Jin that he will only be inside the house for 3 minutes, and they will ditch the car afterward. When they arrive, Jin jumps out and beats the official brutally, whispering to him that he saved his life.

In a scene first aired in House of the Rising Sun, Jin arrives home covered with blood. When Sun confronts him and asks what he does, he will not say, and she slaps him when he is rough with her. His look is mean as he says he does whatever her father tells him to do.

Jin has been lying about his father being dead. He visits him on a fishing boat. His father is overjoyed to see him. Jin apologized to his father for being ashamed of him. When Jin says that he is locked into doing bad things and that his marriage is failing, his father tells him to walk away.

Comments

This is a highly charged, emotional episode that, despite it’s lack of a cliffhanger ending, is a notch above the others. We get the dual reveals of Sun’s ability to speak English, and Walt’s admission that he burned the boat.

How did Locke become so sure that Walt burned the boat?

When Jin visit’s Han’s house for the first time, the daughter is watching television, and one of the images on TV is a shot of Hurley getting into a car!

I am impressed by the detail used in even the briefest scenes, such as the scene between Jin and his father. The traditional fishing boat is strung with tens of drying fish, and the scenery does look like they did a location shot in Asia somewhere.

It seems that Locke is able to hypnotize people on the island. At least, he has had a major influence on Boone and Shannon so far.

At the end of the episode, there’s a funny parallel drawn between the sitting shapes of Claire, in the distance, and Hurley, in the foreground. The very pregnant Claire and the obese Hurley share the exact same body shape, and are facing in the same direction.

Nits

It’s a little unbelievable (but not impossible) that Jin could have gotten away with what he did – beating a guy up to keep the guy from getting killed. You would think that Paik would want things done the way he specified the second time, and that involved a killing, not a beating.

Memorable Moments

• All the shots of Sun in a bikini, with the big surf in the background

• The ‘shock and irony’ music riff when Sun cries out in English

• The closing music video segment ends abruptly when Hurley’s walkman runs out of batteries (this was set up a few episodes earlier, when Hurley’s walkman music was used to end the episode uneventfully)

Quotable Quotes

"Maybe we should get some rope, spend a Saturday night alone together…and see what happens."
- Shannon to Sayid

"Everyone gets a new life on this island, Shannon. Maybe it’s time you start yours."
- Locke

Sun: What were you doing? What happened?
Jin: I was working.
Sun: Doing what? What do you do for my father? Look at me. Answer me. Look at me!
Jin: I do whatever your father tells me. I do it for us.

"Stop it! Leave him alone! He didn’t burn your raft."
- Sun

Jin: (about Sun) In a good world... she would hate her father, not me.
Jin's father: It is a good world.

(Shannon kisses Sayid)
Sayid: What was that for?
Shannon: Everyone gets a new life on this island. I’d like to start now.

1.16 Outlaws

Sawyer awakens in his tent, sweating, from a dream of his mother and father’s death – a dream he must have had many times. A growling noise brings him back to reality. When a huge boar enters his tent, he bashes it once with a pipe, making it run. He pursues it unsuccessfully into the jungle fringe, and it is there he hears the whispered voices that Sayid heard.

When Sayid comes by to tease Sawyer about the boar who stole his tarp, Sawyer asks Sayid for more info on what he heard, without revealing explicitly that he heard anything himself.

Jack and Kate return 4 of the 5 guns to the case. Sawyer still has the other one. Kate offers to ask for it back, but Jack says she should leave it – he doesn’t want her to owe Sawyer anything.

Claire had some pleasant dreams about Charlie. While he messes with some piece of equipment, she asks him if he wants to go for a walk, but he says he has to do something.

Deep in the jungle, Sawyer finds his tarp. Soon after, he again hears the whispers, and then the boar reappears, chasing him until he knocks him down in a mud puddle. He tells the story to Kate, then heads off with his loaded gun to get revenge.

Charlie had been fashioning a digging tool so he could bury Ethan. Hurley volunteers to help him. Hurley becomes concerned about Charlie’s state of mind, believing he has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, so he asks Sayid, a veteran of war, to talk to him.

Kate has been following Sawyer’s four hour hunt for the boar, during which time she tells him he has been following tracks made by Boone, a rockslide, and himself. She offers to help him track the boar in exchange for ‘carte blanche’ – any item in his stash, at any time, no questions asked. He agrees. In the evening, they share a campfire together. For a mini bottle of liquor, Sawyer insists they play ‘I never’.

Sawyer dreams the dream, but this time his father is replaced by the boar. In the morning, a boar has invaded their campsite, scattering Sawyer’s clothes and eating his food, but, strangely, leaving Kate’s things intact. When the bushes rustle, Sawyer draws his gun, but it is only Locke. Locke tells a story about an animal that took the place of a dead sibling.

Sayid pays a little visit to Charlie to assure him he is not alone with the trauma oif what he did.

Kate discovers the boar wallow. Sawyer finds and waves around the baby boar. Kate finds this disgusting and stalks off, leaving Sawyer alone. He ends up face to face with the boar, but spares him as a way of alleviating the fatal mistake he once made.

Charlie is finally ready to take that walk with Claire.

When Sawyer gives the gun back to Jack, some innocent words make Sawyer piece together that it was Jack’s father whom Sawyer was talking to in that bar in Sydney.

Sawyer’s backstory flashback: A mother tells her young son to hide under the bed and not come out no matter what, as a madman, his father, bangs at the door of the house. Soon after the boy hides, the man breaks in, shoots the mother, and then enters the young boy’s room. We see it from the boy’s perspective as the man sits on the boy’s bed. Only his legs and boots are showing as he pulls the trigger and kills himself.

As an adult, Sawyer carries a laughing woman onto a bed as they flirt together. They are interrupted by an intruder in Sawyer’s apartment, a man who once double-crossed Sawyer but has now returned to make things right. He does this by providing the whereabouts of the real Frank Sawyer – the man who seduced Sawyer’s wife and caused the downfall of his family.

Sawyer is in Sydney (the location of the real Frank Sawyer). There, he buys a gun expressly made for killing. He visits the shrimp truck where Frank works alone. Sawyer gets the gun out but, shaking, cannot make the kill. He retreats to the bar, where he drinks with Jack’s dad. Jack’s dad says he is proud that Jack turned him in. Jack’s dad says he is too weak to phone Jack and set things right by telling him how he feels. His story, and the alcohol, spur Sawyer to return to the shrimp truck, where he kills the man – but it is the wrong man.

Comments

Though he is haunted by a few ghosts from his own past, Sawyer seems to be the quintessential pragmatist. So it will be interesting to see what he thinks about – and who he tells about – the whispering jungle voices.

Now it is Sawyer who knows that Jack’s father forgave him and praised him for his strength of character in turning him in.

Amazingly, Sawyer's character arc has seen him change from someone who is unappealing and has no moral values, to someone who has many strengths, and whose morality could be saved.

Nits

In Australia, ‘prawn’ is used to describe those edible crustaceans that Frank Sawyer is serving in his ‘Shrimp’ truck.

Quotable Quotes

Hurley: Did you ever get that ‘Gulf War Syndrome’?
Sayid: That was the other side.
Hurley: Oh, right.

"Over the last few hours, you have managed to follow the tracks of humans, birds, a rockslide, yourself – basically everything except boar. You have no idea what you’re doing."
- Kate to Sawyer

Kate: Got any more of those [liquor bottles]?
Sawyer: I got a lot more of everything, but you ain’t got carte blanche yet.

Sawyer: I never killed a man.
[Kate and Sawyer both drink, meaning they each killed a man]
Sawyer: Well, looks like we got something in common after all.

1.15 Homecoming

Claire faints, is brought back to camp, wakes up, and is terrified, as she is greeted by the concerned faces of the survivors, but remembers no one. She and Charlie begin to get to know each other again.

Jin asks Sun if the girl and the baby are alright, and Sun says she thinks so. Jin might be starting to realize that Sun can understand English.

Boone asks Locke if he thinks Ethan is still around, and Locke says he hopes not.

Sayid suggests to Jack, Charlie, and Locke that Ethan has manipulated Claire in some way, and that her amnesia may not be real.

Charlie heads back to the caves with Jin. Suddenly, Jin is hit and knocked out by a slingshot rock. Ethan emerges and tells Charlie that he must return Claire to him, or he will kill one person a day.

Jin blames his attack on something that the other people have done.

Claire tells Charlie that everyone is avoiding her. She realizes something is going on, but Charlie doesn’t tell her anything.

Upon hearing about what happened to Charlie, Locke suggests that they set up rotating sentries and a series of booby traps, and coordinates with Sayid and Boone.

Charlie wants to hide Kate away in another cave, but Jack assures him that she is safer with the group.

Kate suggests to Jack that he break out the guns and ammo, but Jack thinks if he puts guns in untrained hands, they will most likely shoot each other.

It is night, and Boone, Locke, and Sayid are keeping watch over the camp while fires burn to light the darkness.  Before long, Boone, mesmerized by the campfire, nods off. He is awakened in daylight by the sound of the booby trap triggering, and runs into the jungle, pursuing an unseen intruder. When he trips a different alarm, he is discovered by Locke and Sayid. A scream brings the three men back to camp, where a castaway (Scott) is dead. The killer came in from the water and evaded the perimeter defenses.

Shannon tells Claire everything that is going on, and Claire confronts Charlie.

Faced with another night and another loss of life, Jack confides in Locke and opens the case, revealing the handguns.

The plan is to use Claire as bait. Charlie objects, but Claire says she has no memory of what Ethan did, and she wants to help save the lives of the castaways.

When Locke suggests that they should use all four guns, Jack asks Sawyer to come along. Kate is there, and wants to go too, but Jack says only armed people can come. So Sawyer pulls out another gun – the one he took from the Marshall.

The trap is set on a rainy night. Claire stands in a designated area, surrounded by five armed and hidden sentries. Ethan swoops, and Jack tackles him, and, after a long fight, triumphs. Perhaps now some answers can be found. But Charlie arrives unseen, picks up Jack’s discarded gun, and shoots Ethan numerous times.

Charlie’s backstory flashback:

Out of money and drugs, his friend hooks him up to seduce a girl whose dad has plenty of cash. They head back to Lucy’s place.

A day later, Charlie has accepted a dinner reservation with Lucy and her dad. Finding Lucy and the situation appealing, and facing the fact that his band Driveshaft is dead, Charlie takes a job selling copiers, which greatly upsets his scammer druggie friend.

It’s Charlie’s first day of work, and he is coming down from heroin, too – he’s nervous, sweating, and stealing, even as Lucy is giving him special presents. Nervous, Charlie makes a mess of selling the copier, and then vomits on it. At

At Lucy’s door, Charlie tries to say he is sorry, and explains that he took the job to prove he could take care of her.

Comments

Charlie seems to have valid emotional reasons for killing Ethan, but could it be based on something more? Could Charlie be protecting the knowledge that Ethan could have been forced to give?

Memorable Moments

• Sentries Boone, Locke, and Sayid keep watch, while numerous fires dance in the background

Quotable Quotes

Claire: Who’s Ethan?
Charlie: Ethan…Ethan’s the bad guy.

Sawyer: So Steve drew the short straw.
Hurley: Dude, that was Scott.

Jack: Do you know how to use a gun?
Sawyer: Well, there's one polar bear that seems to think so.

Jack: Why did you do it, Charlie?
Charlie: ‘cause he deserved to die.
Jack: He could have told us where he came from, what he wanted with Claire, why he -
Charlie: Do you really think he would have told us anything, Jack? I wasn’t gonna let that animal anywhere near her again…ever!

1.14 Special

Walt has gone missing and Michael is searching for him. Charlie is looking for Claire’s luggage, which has also gone missing.

Walt is with Locke and Boone, practicing his knife throwing. Michael is quite unhappy when he arrives and sees what is going on. He sends Walt back and waves the knife at Locke, telling him to stay away from them. Boone tackles him to protect Locke and gets a punch in the face. Locke tells Michael that he needs to treat Walt like an adult and nurture his potential.

Michael tells Sun that he doesn’t know how to talk to Walt, and he expresses concern that Walt might have to grow up on the island.

Sayid tells Shannon and Jack that he may have deciphered the maps – they point to a location on the island that could have some significance. Michael bursts in to say that he is building a raft, and that he will leave and take his son with him.

Charlie finds Claire’s bags but tells Kate that her diary is missing. They ask Sawyer and, after taunting Charlie about the contents (which he later admits he hasn’t actually read), he gives up the diary after getting punched in his sore arm.

Michael and Walt start work on the boat, but Walt takes off when he sees Locke and Boone go off into the jungle.

Shannon asks Boone when they are going to start bringing back some food. She asks him to join her and Michael to build a raft. But Boone is no longer controlled by Shannon, and he says no.

Locke tells Walt that he must listen to his father and not hang around any more. But before Walt leaves, Michael catches them together. He whispers a death threat to Locke, then throws Walt’s comic in the fire and tells him he must listen to him.

Hurley tells Michael that Walt and his dog are ‘gone’. Michael confronts Locke and finally accepts Locke’s story that he told Walt to stay away. Locke offers to help Michael find Walt.

Charlie shares his feelings of loss for Claire with Kate. After Kate leaves, Charlie successfully fights the urge to read her diary.

Deep in the Jungle, Walt and Vincent are stalked by something. Vincent breaks free and, barking, pursues it, with Walt following at high speed. Walk, alone, hears growling coming from an unseen beast. Locke and Michael find Vincent’s discarded leash and take off in the direction of Walt’s cries. A polar bear has trapped Walt in t tree thicket. Michael climbs down from above and Locke pulls Walt to safety. Michael stabs the bear, who runs off. Michael finally acknowledges Locke’s help.

The box contains every card and letter that Michael sent to Walt and that Walt had never seen.

Charlie has giving in to reading Claire’s diary. After finding some nice comments about himself, he tells Jack and Sayid about Claire’s dream she wrote down – something about a ‘black rock’.

Locke and Boone are out in the middle of the jungle. Locke is blowing his dog whistle, but it is Claire who emerges from the bushes, bleeding and scared.

Michael’s backstory flashbacks:

• Michael and his pregnant partner Susan shopping for cots.
• Walt as a toddler, watching Michael and Susan argue. She wants some time apart and is moving to Amsterdam, with Walt, to take advantage of a job opportunity. Despite Michael’s complaints and his obvious love for Walt, they are separated.
• Michael on a payphone, speaking to Susan and finding out that she is involved with the man who hired her. He yells that he is coming to Amsterdam to get his son back, then walks across the street and is hit by a car.
• Michael in the hospital, where he is visited by Susan, who is getting married. In return for covering all his medical costs, Susan wants Michael to allow Susan and new partner Brian to adopt Walt.
• Walt, Susan and Brian. Susan is not feeling well. Walt is studying birds, and, ironically, a bird flies into the glass doors and dies.
• Brian arrives unannounced at Michael’s apartment, to tell Michael that Susan is dead and that her dieing wish was that Michael take custody of Walt after nine years of being separated from him. But that story is a lie – Brian made it up to unload Walt. Brian says that Michael is ‘different’ – that ‘things’ happen when he is around. Michael travels to Australia to take custody of Walt. The woman who is minding him gives him a box with letters. Michael has to carefully explain to Walt that he is now his legal guardian.

Comments

I liked the dialogue between Michael and Susan. With a minimum of words, it is apparent that communication has broken down and that Michael doesn’t really understand or listen to what she wants.

Perhaps now Michael can stop being such an angry person. I wonder also if this incident will make him friends with Locke, or if he will go back to despising him. Either choice will fit into his current character arc.

Memorable Moments

• Michael and Walt bonding

Quotable Quotes

Hurley: He [Michael] seems to hate it, being a dad.
Jack: No, it’s just a lot of hard work.
Hurley: No…he hates it.

Susan: We’ve talked about taking some time apart.
Michael: I thought that was - hey, we said a lot of things! You said you wanted to live on a boat! (laughs)

Walt: A penguin with a sunburn? That’s dumb.
Michael: I know. That’s what I said.

1.13 Hearts and Minds

Boone is watching the blossoming friendship between his sister Shannon and Sayid, but is distracted by Hurley asking him why he and Locke have not been bringing back any much-needed meat for the camp.

We see Boone and Locke in the jungle, still working on the ‘something’ they found. It is a metal door leading down into the ground. They have hidden this discovery from everyone else.

Hurley shares his digestive problems with Jack. They seem to be caused by a lack of protein in his diet. Hurley believes that Jin has not been sharing his catch with him because Hurley offended him early on by not accepting sea urchin sushi.

Jack discovers Sun and Kate’s herb garden. Kate puts forward the idea that perhaps Locke is purposefully holding off from catching any boar.

Hurley asks Jin where to find the fish, but gets a Korean answer.

Boone tells Locke that he wants to tell Shannon about the doorway. When he turns his back Locke knocks him out with the blunt end of a knife. When Boone wakes up, he is tied up. Locke treats his head wound, leaves him a knife so he can work himself free, and tells his camp is four miles due west.

Kate is blabbing to Sun in English and realizes that Sun understood her. Sun asks her not to tell anyone.

Hurley, fishing unsuccessfully near Jin, steps on an urchin and begs Jin to pee on his foot to eradicate the poison.

Locke gives Sayid a compass to help with his orienteering.

Boone, motivated by cries of help from Shannon, frees himself and finds Shannon tied to a tree. He frees her just before the monster reaches them. They hide in a thicket of trees. Shannon asks Boone what he did to anger Locke, but Boone gives no information.

Sayid tells Jack that the compass Locke gave to him is defective.

Locke tells Jack that he hasn’t seen Boone all day. He also says he believes the boar have migrated out of their valley to avoid "…the most dangerous predator of all."

Sun tells Kate that only Michael knows that she speaks English.

Jin gives Hurley another sea urchin. Hurley promptly throws it up.

Charlie expresses his utmost trust in Locke to Jack.

Jin gives a beautiful cleaned fish to Hurley.

Jack gives a handful of guava seeds to Kate.

Boone tells Shannon about the hatch. Soon after, she is caught and carried away by the monster.

Boone finds Shannon’s lifeless, half-devoured body in a stream flowing red with her blood. Boone makes it back to camp and jumps Locke, blaming him for Shannon’s death. But Locke tells him that Shannon is fine. Locke had put a drug in the ointment he used to treat his head wound, and it was all a hallucination meant to make Boone let go of the strange protective/love relationship he has with his step-sister.

Boone and Shannon’s backstory flashbacks:

Shannon rings Boone to ask for his help, while an abusive boyfriend screams things at her in the background. Back in the present, Boone tells Sayid to stay away from Shannon.

Boone visiting Shannon in Sydney, Australia. Boone discovers that Shannon is being beaten, but she sends him away, too scared to say anything in front of her boyfriend.

Boone, sitting in a Sydney police station, trying to convince a cop to take action for Shannon. While they speak, Sawyer is dragged through, protesting about his arrest. Boone pays off the boyfriend to leave, saying it is the third time he has done so.

We find out that Shannon hustled her step-brother to get money for her and her boyfriend, and it isn’t the first time it has happened.

Shannon telling Boone that he is in love with her. They kiss, and fall to the bed. Later that night, Shannon asks Boone to forget about the whole thing.

Comments

This is an exciting episode, focusing on the psychological aspects to build tension from a variety of plot threads.

Kate states that the castaways have been on the island for over three weeks.

Nits

The Sydney cop whom Boone talks to has a British accent, not an Australian one.

Memorable Moments

• Shannon’s death

Quotable Quotes

Locke: Hi.
Sayid: I didn't hear you.
Locke: Sorry. I'm sneakier than I give myself credit for.

"You sure you don’t speak English? Because there’s a rumor that you do….you’re wife’s hot."
- Hurley, testing Jin

1.12 Whatever the Case May Be

Kate’s foray for fruit deep in the jungle is interrupted by an intruder. She picks them off with a rock and finds out it is Sawyer, there, he says, to protect her. When they discover a waterfall and deep pool, they go for a frolicking swim together. But their fun ends when they discover a couple of bodies at the bottom of the pool. Sawyer salvages a wallet, while Kate is interested in a metal case. This appears to be the case that her captor was holding. But Sawyer takes it from her, and Kate acts as if she does not care.

With the tides rising, Sayid and Jack plan to move people down the beach. Jack would like people to move to the caves, but people are wary of the jungle, especially after Claire’s disappearance. Jack asks Sayid for information about the French woman, but Sayid has little to share.

Boone and Locke have been searching for Claire for four days. Boone berates Shannon for doing nothing to help.

Sayid asks a reluctant sunbathing Shannon to help him decipher the French notations.

Sawyer is trying to pick the lock on the case. Michael tells him the only way he will get into a Halliburton case is with brute force, and suggests using the axe.

Charlie comes out of his lifeless funk to help Rose move her stuff up the beach.

Sawyer moves to the jungle to try bashing the case on rocks. When he throws it down off a drop-off, not only does it still not open, but Kate runs through and steals it. Sawyer tracks her down and wrestles it away.

Kate tells Jack that the case has guns and ammo in it, and that Sawyer has it. Kate knows that the key is in the back pocket of the ranger (whom Jack buried). Jack agrees to help on the condition that he and Kate open the case together. Sun is nearby and hears this, because no one suspects that she can speak or understand English.

Rose tells Charlie that he is not to blame for Claire’s disappearance.

Jack and Kate exhume the body, but the key is not in the wallet where Kate said it would be. Or is it? Jack realizes that Kate palmed the key while dropping the wallet to distract him.

Shannon is working with Sayid but she is getting nowhere.

Jack gets the case from Sawyer by threatening to stop his antibiotic treatments, even if it means Sawyer loses his arm.

Kate and Jack open the case together, and Kate gets back the trinket that she says belonged to the man she loved, to the man she killed.

The beach group has moved camp. Rose, who still has faith that her husband is alive, comforts the weeping Charlie with a prayer.

Shannon tells Sayid that the French woman’s notations were the lyrics from a song. She then sings, ‘Beyond the Sea’ in French.

Kate’s backstory flashbacks:

Kate is in a bank where, as she was applying for a loan, two masked gunman broke in a robbed the place. In the real world, she sneaks into Sawyer’s tent and tries to get her case back, but he wakes up and is able to fight her off, even after sustaining a head butt.

Kate at the bank robbery, where it is revealed that she is in on the whole thing, not a victim as it seemed before.

The bank, where we learn that Kate was there not to help the robbers, but to get the contents of a safety deposit box.

Comments

It was blatantly obvious that Shannon was going to make a contribution by translating the French notes that Sayid mentions to Jack.

Shannon looks really nice in a bikini, and Kate looks even better viewed from above than she does when swimming in her underwear.

It is interesting to see how Jack’s ‘caring physician’ personality has begun to evolve into more of a doctor who is trying to survive on an island among partial savages like Sawyer.

Nits

In the previous episode All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues, Boone and Locke found a metal ‘something’ in the ground. We didn’t find out anything else about that in this episode – it seems like this plot thread has been dropped.

Memorable Moments

• The emotional moment when Kate breaks down

Quotable Quotes

Sawyer: I’m just gonna give it [the case] to you. Why would I do that?
Jack: Cefelexin.
Sawyer: Yeah, go on.
Jack: That’s the antibiotic I’ve been giving you for the knife wound in your arm. You’re right in the middle of a treatment cycle. Now if I keep giving you the pills, you’re gonna be as right as rain. But I’m gonna stop giving you the pills. And for two days, you’re gonna think you’re all good. Then it’s gonna start to inch. Day after that, the fever’s gonna come, and you’re gonna start seein’ red lines running up and down your arm. Day or two after that, you’ll beg me to take the case, just to cut off your arm.
Sawyer: That’s a nice story, Jack, and even if it were true, I don’t think you could do it.
Jack: You’re wrong.

"It’s a fine line between denial and faith. It’s much better on my side."
- Rose to Charlie