lostrecaps_

notice

2007-01-28T21:52:41Z

EDIT: An update on how vmarsrecaps is doing: All of the key points for the episodes have been added, which means I'm going to go back and finish all of the in-depth recaps. I'm about halfway through episode 105; I have to get up to 314. However, after this week, Veronica is going on hiatus until April or May, so, hopefully, I'll be able to get them done quicker. My short-term goal for the moment is to get all or most of the recaps done by my birthday (April 1), at which time I'll come back and get lostrecaps_ caught up.

I come bearing bad news.

Seeing as Veronica Mars is in dire need of more viewers if we hope to get a fourth season, while Lost will continue to be around until the producers and writers decide it's done, I've decided to hold off on updating lostrecaps_ for the time being. I'm going to spend all of the time that was being spent on this journal on vmarsrecaps. Once I get that journal entirely caught up with every episode that's aired at that time, I'll get back to work on this one. If I get really behind, it won't make a huge difference in the scheme of things--Lost isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

I'll check back in periodically to say how far along vmarsrecaps is.

♥a

304 - Every Man for Himself (A Sawyer Episode)

2007-01-15T00:07:45Z

Major Plotpoints

-- Desmond continues to act strange and builds a structure out of some wires and a golf club, which then gets struck by lightning. Best guess: He had a vision of Charlie, Claire, and Aaron’s tent getting struck by lightning and, when they wouldn’t leave it for the night, decided to make some taller that would attract the lightning, in order to keep them safe.
-- The Others bring Colleen back from the boat and Juliet enlists Jack to help save her. He tries, but fails. Pickett, who was married to Colleen, gets very, very mad and goes to Sawyer’s cage to beat him to a bloody pulp, at least until Kate tells him to stop because she loves him.
-- Sawyer tries to come up with a plan to get he and Kate out of the cages, but it fails and Ben ends up knocking him out and taking him... somewhere. He comes to just long enough for the Others to begin some time of surgery on him. When he wakes up again, Ben tells him they put a pacemaker inside of him and that if his heart rate ever gets to be 140 (his active heart rate) his heart will explode. He also tells him that if he tells Kate anything about it, they’ll put one in her, too.
-- Back in... sometime, Sawyer was in prison in Florida. It turns out Cassidy pressed charges for his con of her (see episode 113). During his stay at the prison, Cassidy made a visit to tell him he had a baby daughter, who she named Clementine. Sawyer says it’s not his and refuses to have anything to do with her.
-- An inmate named Munson comes to the prison while Sawyer is there. Supposedly, he stole $10 million from the government, which they never found. Sawyer “befriends” Munson, telling him the warden is going to try to con the money out of him. When Sawyer’s predictions turn out true, Munson tells him where the money is and asks him for help with moving it. However, it turns out Sawyer was working with the warden the entire time. He tells him where the money is and he gets the last six years of his sentence taken off, plus a sizeable amount of money. He tells him to put the money in an account in Albuquerque in Clementine’s name, and the make sure she can’t find out who it’s from.
-- Kate discovers she can fit through the bars at the top of her cage. She gets out and tries to break the lock on Sawyer’s cage, but he tells her to just go without him. She refuses, quoting Jack again: Live together, die alone.
-- When Jack is going to the operating room to operate on Colleen, he sees x-rays of someone—someone who has a tumor growing on their spine and who, he deduces, he’s going to have to save.
-- Ben takes Sawyer out of his cage and leads him up a steep cliff, which causes Sawyer’s heart rate to get dangerously close to 140. Ben then explains that they lied—they never put a pacemaker in him; nothing’s going to happen to him. He then shows him that they’re actually on a different island than the island—he has nowhere to run to.

---

Desmond sits on the beach, watching Claire and Aaron. He approaches them and tells Claire she’s got a problem with her roof. What? Maybe they should move down the beach, just for the night. That way, he can fix it—make some improvements. That’s really nice, she says, but Aaron just fell asleep, so she should just—no, it’ll be worth it, he promises. Charlie comes up and asks Desmond what he’s doing. He was just offering to fix the roof, he says. Roof? It’s fine, Charlie says. If there’s a problem, he’ll fix it. He’s quite handy. He was building a church before Eko imploded. Right. Well, just trying to help. Claire thanks him and he leaves. She turns to Charlie. What was that all about? He doesn’t know, he answers. But they’re going to have to get that guy another button to push.

An old cartoon plays on a tv in Jack’s cell. There’s a knock on the door and Jack goes to the wall and sits down. Juliet enters with a tray of food. She asks how he’s doing. Great, he replies sarcastically. He seems frustrated, she says. Is he going to keep watching cartoons or is she going to tell him why he’s there? She hopes he likes blueberry. If not, she can—should he talk to Ben? What? Should he talk to Ben? He’s starting to think that she’s just the person that brings him his food. He can talk to Ben all he wants, she says, but he won’t tell him anything. She work for him? No, she doesn’t work for him. He’s in charge. Well, it doesn’t work that way. They make decisions together. Really? Because when he was holding that broken plate to her neck, he seemed happy to just let her die. It felt like he made that decision on his own. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, she says. She doesn’t answer to him. A door opens and Ben enters, telling Juliet he needs her. Can it wait? The sub is back, he says. They have a situation, so come with him now. Elsewhere, in the jungle, people are carrying Colleen in on a stretcher.

Pickett, complete with a bandaged nose, opens Sawyer’s cage, telling him it’s time for work. Sound a little stuffy, Sawyer says. He need to blow his nose? Just give him an excuse, Pickett says. He thought he just did, Sawyer replies. What’s he gotta do—talk about his mother? Pickett grabs Sawyer’s collar, but gets interrupted by a voice on his walkie-talkie, asking if he’s there. He answers and shoves Sawyer back. The voice says something and Pickett’s eyes get wide. What? Where are they? Ben, Juliet, and several Others come running through the area, carrying Colleen. Pickett joins them. Tom tells Juliet she’s hurt bad and Juliet tells them to keep her steady. Pickett asks if she’s going to be okay. As the Others run off, Kate asks Sawyer what happened. They happened, he answers. What? He’s been there long enough to realize they ain’t in the business of shooting each other. They did it. Their team. Slightly horrified, Kate asks if he’s smiling. Damn right he’s smiling. Because they just got their ticket out of there.

Sawyer pushes the levers and buttons in his cage to make the food drop. Kate asks what’s he doing; he doesn’t answer. He finishes and the food drops. That chick they brought in on the stretcher, he says—that’s broken nose man’s girl. They call him Pickett, Kate tells him. Water from Sawyer’s cage flows into a small pool just outside the door. Well, Pickett’s distracted at the moment, he says. So? Watch and learn. He pushes the big button twice. There’s juice pumping into this box from somewhere. Next time someone comes to pull him out, he’s going to wait until they step inside his little swimming hole, and he’ll grab ‘em. Zap! They fall back from the shock—he snags the keys. Bet the bears never thought of that. They’re both going to be electrocuted, Kate points out. Yeah, but he’s felt the jolt. He can take it. The other guy—he ain’t gonna be ready for it. What, she think he’s crazy? No, she’s actually impressed. Well, wipe the stars out of her eyes, because they’re gonna do it. So what about Jack? What about him? They don’t even know if he’s there. Hell, they don’t even know if he’s alive. They got to take care of them. It’s every man for himself, Freckles.

FLASHBACK. Sawyer is in a boxing ring. He knocks his opponent down and a man tells him (using the name Ford) that’s enough. Sawyer helps the other man up and it’s revealed they’re in prison. Later, the two of them walk down a hall in the prison. The man defends why he lost to Sawyer in the boxing ring. They stop walking a short while later and watch a fight that’s broken out below them. Who’s the punching bag? The man tells Sawyer he just got there—his name’s Munson. Rumor has it, he ripped off the government for $10 million, which they never found. Damn, Sawyer says. If his buddy the warden, the man says, didn’t keep breaking up the fights, Munson would be a dead man. The warden watches as the fight gets broken up. Sawyer eyes him angrily. That son of a bitch.

Later, Munson is sewing and Sawyer approaches with a trash can and a mop. Sawyer asks him if he gets little mints on his pillow at night, too. What? He’s there, what, a week? And he’s on tote bag duty? He’s been there nine months and he’s still pushing trash. What does that mean? Does he think the warden’s breaking up those fights because he’s cute? He’s making a play for that ten million, Sawyer explains. First step—butter him up, give him a plumb job. Step two—reach out to his wife, use her against him. Textbook con. And he’s telling him this out of the kidness of his—advice is free, Murgatroid. Last nine months, that warden’s made his life a living hell. He gets that ten mil he ain’t got? Sawyer just might have to kill himself. The warden enters the room, eating an apple. He greets Sawyer, who cheekily responds with a greeting. The warden asks Munson if Sawyer’s bothering him. Munson shakes his head. Sawyer asks the warden what brings him to the sewing shop. Don’t think he can’t extend his stay, the warden says. All it takes is one call. One call. He drops the apple on the floor. How about he gets that trash?

Ben approaches Sawyer’s cage. Sawyer whispers to Kate, excited about how he got the ring leader to fall into his trap. Ben comes up to the cage and stands just outside of the water puddle. Lunch already? Ben ignores him and asks him what he weighs. What? What does he weigh? 180, give or take. Ben takes a step closer to the water. How old is he? 32. Don’t lie. Sawyer sighs. 35. Ben steps in the water and unlocks the cage. Good. Sawyer grabs Ben’s arm and presses the button with his foot. He pushes the button several times, but nothing happens. What did he do? They turned it off, Ben tells him. He hits Sawyer in the face with a stick. Kate yells out for him as Ben enters the cage and beats Sawyer down.

Sometime later, Sawyer wakes up strapped to a table. In the background, Tom tells Ben that it’s been two days since the sky turned purple. They’ve been blind. Their comms are all down—he can’t get them back up again. And in case he forgot, Colleen’s in critical—Juliet’s taking care of her. Sawyer suddenly asks where he is. What the hell are they doing to him? Let him up! Ben ignores this and calls for an Other named Jason. Jason approaches Sawyer with a long stick and tells him to bite down. Sawyer tells him to bite down on it and Ben tells him it’s for the pain. Another Other—Matthew—approaches Sawyer with a long syringe. Sawyer begins to yell, plead, and scream. Ben tells him how much he hates needles. Sawyer continues scream. From his cell, Jack can hear Sawyer through the speaker. Jason tells Matthew he has to go through the sternum—the sternum, like in the movie. He knows, he says. Sawyer yells out again as Matthew counts down.

Paulo practices golf on the beach. Desmond approaches and tells him he’s going to take one of his clubs. Hurley said it would be alright. Hurley, huh? Does that mean he’s off to save the day? Desmond ignores this and asks if he can take one. Take the five iron, Paulo says. He never uses it. That way, when he dies in the jungle, doing whatever he’s doing, he doesn’t have to go looking for it. Thanks, Desmond says. He watches Paulo take a shot, then tells him he might want to square his shoulders a bit more. He plays golf? He’s Scottish, Desmond answers. Cheers.

Sawyer’s still strapped to the table. He has a bandage on his chest. He wakes up and a door opens. Tom and Ben enter the room carrying a rabbit in a cage. The rabbit has a black number eight on its back. They put the cage on Sawyer’s stomach. What the hell? Ben shushes him and starts to shake the cage quickly and forcefully. He tells the rabbit to move, come on, hurry up, move. Sawyer asks him what he’s doing, but he ignores him and continues. After a little while, the rabbit falls over. Sawyer asks Ben if he just killed the bunny. Does he know what a pacemaker is? What? They stick them in the tickers of people who’ve had by-pass work, Ben explains, whose hearts just need a little kickstart. The rabbit had a small pacemaker set to deliver its kickstart should it get too excited, anxious, or frightened—or should it try to escape. Ben puts a watch on Sawyer’s wrist. Assuming he was telling the truth about his age and weight, he says, his resting heart rate should be about 70 beats per minute. His active heart rate, however, should be about 140—which is the point at which his pacemaker will cause his heart to explode. Which is how he knows he’s going to start behaving now. The watch monitors his pulse. If he gets within 15 beats of his danger zone, it’ll start to beep. It and when it beeps, he’s going to want to relax himself—do some deep breathing, some yoga. If he wanted him dead, why didn’t he just shoot him and get it over with? Because they’re not killers, James. Oh, and one other thing. Kate—Sawyer starts to threaten him, but is interrupted by Ben. He tells her what they did, what they put in him—that they’re watching him—he tells her any of those things—they’ll put one in her, too.

The Others bring Sawyer back to his cage. Kate asks him if he’s okay, but he doesn’t say anything. Tom puts a bucket of water and a sponge in each cage, then tells them it’s so they can clean themselves. He gives Kate a bag of clothes and tells her to tell him if it doesn’t fit. He leaves and Kate asks Sawyer what happened. Nothing, he says. They just asked him questions. It ain’t important. Talk to her, she says. What happened? Look, he told her. Nothing happened. So quit asking. Kate empties the bag of clothes and tells Sawyer to turn around. He does and, while they’re not facing each other, he checks the bandage on his chest. He’s sees an incision and looks to Kate, who’s still facing away, but who’s taking off her shirt. His heart monitor starts beeping and Kate asks what it is. It’s just his watch, he says. It’s busted. When did he get a watch? Look, he doesn’t tell her everything! Just leave him alone, damn it. He dumped the water over his head. And put some clothes on.

FLASHBACK. Sawyer watches as Munson talks to a woman visitor. Suddenly, a woman says hello to Sawyer. He turns and looks at Cassidy. It’s James Ford, he tells her. And he knows she knows that because she got it right when she pressed charges. He’s mad at her? Well, look where he is. What did he want her to do? He conned her. Something she wants? Yeah, she says. Yeah, there is. She places a picture of a little girl on the table. What’s this? This is his daughter. What does she want? Well, first, she wanted him to know. Then what? She think he’s gonna take one look at that picture and turn into Father Knows Best? They’re living in this little place in Albuquerque, she says. It’s near the University—why is she telling him this? She just thought he could write her a letter. Her name’s Clementine. What the hell is he gonna write, “Dear Goo-goo ga-ga?” She’s a baby. She ain’t his. Sawyer, she is—he ain’t got no daughter.

On the island, Sawyer rubs his chest. Kate eyes the top of her cage, then tells him she’s been looking and she thinks if she climbs to the top, she can squeeze through the bars—they’re space farther up there. Don’t bother, he says. What is he talking about? He’s talking about being smart. He thinks they should chill out there a while—get the lay of the land. Kate just stares.

Jack hears something on the speaker in his cell. He gets up and goes to listen. One voice says something’s under control, and that it was a mistake bringing “those two” there. Juliet enters the room and Jack asks her what she did to Sawyer. Nothing, she tells him. He heard him yelling. She’s got blood on her clothes. What did she do to him? It’s not his blood, she explains. Then whose blood is it? It’s the blood of a woman who’s dying. Jack... she needs his help.

Back by the cages, a loud alarm sounds and the Others come out of the trees, leading Jack through the area with a bag over his head. Kate and Sawyer see him and begin calling out for him, but he can’t hear. They lead him inside and he hears Ben and Juliet speaking to each other. Ben asks Juliet if she lost her mind. He’s a doctor, she says. He can help. Well, that’s not why—does he want her to die? She leaves Ben and leads Jack to the sinks. Jack asks what happened. Juliet tells him—gunshot wound to the abdomen. Jack scrubs up, then notices some spinal x-rays hanging on a light screen. Those aren’t hers, she tells him. Come on. They enter the operating room and Pickett immediately asks what Jack’s doing there. Danny, Juliet says, he’s there to help. Tell him who did this, Pickett says angrily. He ought to know that. Danny. Jack tells Juliet he needs Pickett out of there and she tells him to leave. Tom tries to get him to go, but he’s adamant, saying Colleen’s his wife and he won’t leave her. Finally, Tom and Pickett leave and Juliet tells Jack she got the bullet out, she she’s still bleeding. Jack makes some observations and tells Juliet what to do. She struggles, telling him she’s not a surgeon. He knows, he says. But he needs her to do it. Above them, in the observation deck, Pickett, Tom, and Ben are watching. Juliet finally gets her hands dirty and they work to save Colleen. She starts to flatline on the heart monitor and Jack tells Juliet they need the crash cart—now. It’s broken, she says. They... they’ve never had anything happen before. They didn’t... they have... she doesn’t... Jack tries to do CPR on Colleen, but she’s dead. He tries to call the time of death, but there’s no clock in the room. Above them, Pickett starts to yell. They did this! They did this! He runs out despite Tom’s pleas not to.

Pickett heads to Sawyer’s cage. Sawyer tells him to take it easy, but he doesn’t listen. He drags him out of the cage and throws him down. He throws him against Kate’s cage, telling him to shut up. He looks at Kate. Does she love Sawyer? What? He starts to punch Sawyer. Does she love him?! Stop! Does she love him?!! Does she love him?!! Leave him alone!! Does she love him?! What is he doing? Stop!! Stop!! DOES SHE LOVE HIM?! YES! SHE LOVES HIM! She loves him! Please! She begins to cry and Pickett chokes back tears. He stops hitting Sawyer and Kate grabs him and pulls him as close to her as possible. Pickett leaves, telling the Others to lock Sawyer back up.

FLASHBACK. Sawyer reads Of Mice and Men while in prison. Munson approaches, saying he needs to talk to him. Sorry, he says. He’s busy. It’s important. Please. They walk down a corridor and Munson tells Sawyer he was right. He loved her. He thought she—he really thought she... 10 mil’s a lot, Killer—tends to change things. That’s why you never get attaches—because once you care, that’s when they come at you. What did his want? He saw him the other day with a woman. What did she want? Something he ain’t got. That all? He had himself a good cry? He mind if he goes back to see if George gets his farm? He needs Sawyer to move it. The money. The money he didn’t steal? They both know he did. Lila’s hired a PI, he says. She’s going to find it. Do it for him. He has to. No, Sawyer says. It’s too dangerous. He’ll be a walking target. If he doesn’t help him, Munson says, the warden will get it all. He’ll win. Please, he begs. Please.

Sawyer cleans himself up with the water and the sponge. Kate asks if he’s okay. Dandy, he says. Guy hits like a girl. No offense. Why did he do that? Hell if he knows. They ever make any sense to him? Kate climbs to the top of her cage. What is she doing? What does it look like? Sawyer tries to get her to stop, but she climbs out. He was the one who said they had to go, she reminds him. Well, that was before... Before what? She doesn’t know what they did to him. But she knows he’s scared enough to lie about it. And that scares her more than anything that they have done to them before. Wait, Sawyer says. Kate climbs down the outside of the cage and goes to Sawyer’s. She starts to hit the lock with a rock. She’s getting him out of there, she says. Don’t. She’s not leaving him. She can get it open. No. She’s already out, he says. She’s got to go. She’s got to leave him. What? Run! What did they do to him?! Go! Sawyer’s monitor starts beeping. What is that thing? Run, he says. Just go. It’s every man for himself. Why didn’t he fight back?! Tell the truth for once in his life! If she really loves him, go. She only said that so he’s stop hitting him. She walks back to her cage and climbs back up. What the hell is she doing? Kate?! Damn it, Freckles, go! Every man for himself. Kate gets back inside her cage and stares at him. Live together, die alone.

Ben and Tom have been watching the entire scene play out on their monitors. Tom tells Ben that Pickett want to kill him. He can wait, he says. Should he bring Shephard back? No, he wants him to sit with her for a while longer. In the operating room, Jack’s handcuffed to the gurney holding Colleen’s dead body. Juliet enters and apologizes for the cuffs. She’s a fertility doctor, she says. She’s not used to death. What was her name? Cole, short for Colleen. She shouldn’t have—she should have come to get him sooner. It wouldn’t have mattered. There wasn’t any more she could have done. She was—she was dead before they put her on the table. Is he just saying that to make her feel better? He doesn’t care about making her feel better. She’s going to take him back now, she says. She’s sorry for bringing him there. Whose x-rays are those? Outside? She doesn’t answer. Those are spinal x-rays, he continues. They belong to a man about 40 years old. And whoever he is, he has a very large tumor on his L-4 vertebrae. And he just happens to be a spinal surgeon. So, tell him—who is he there to save?

Back at the beach, Desmond’s built a tower in the sand, with the golf club on top, sticking straight up. It’s near Claire’s shelter. Hurley chops some fruit, watching Desmond. Is that—art? Nope. Just an experiment, he says. Okay. He want some fruit salad? He’s not hungry. Hurley starts to leave. He might want to wait a minute, Desmond says. Why’s that? Suddenly, it begins to pour down rain. Claire gets Aaron out of his crib and Charlie puts his arms around them. Suddenly, there’s a lightning strike, which hits the tallest thing in the area—Desmond’s tower.

Ben wakes Sawyer up inside his cage and asks him to go for a walk. FLASHBACK. Sawyer is being escorted by guards to a meeting with the warden. The warden tells him that, when they first brought him there, he thought he was nothing more than a dumb hick. Now he knows better. He’s a dumb hick who knows how to steal. Can they just get it over with? Yeah. He remember Agent Freedman from the Treasury Department? Freedman asks him what he’s got. 10 million’s in a red bronco parked in a Stor-Quik facility in Sawgrass, right off 441, unit 23C. That’s where his money is. As agreed, the last six years of his sentence have been commuted, the warden tells him. As soon as the truck is recovered and the funds confirmed, Freedman says, Sawyer’s commission will be processed. Now, how would he like that? Set up a new account, he says. It don’t matter what back, just make it in Albuquerque. Okay. Put it in the name of Clementine Phillips. Okay, Freedman says. And he wants it so there’s no way she can ever find out who the money’s from. The warden asks who Clementine Phillips is. Sawyer ignores him. They done? The warden nods. Congratulations, he says. He just lied and cheated his way out of prison. He’s a free man.

Back on the island, Ben is leading Sawyer up a steep incline. Not much further, he says—just to the top of the next rise. What’s up there? Something he wants him to see. That little place he always wanted, George? Sorry? What, doesn’t he read? It’s from Of Mice and Men. Ben would like it—puppies get killed. They continue hiking and Sawyer’s monitor starts beeping. Did he bring him up there to kill him? Make that thing he put inside of him blow up his damn heart? His heart’s not going to blow up, Ben says. The only thing they put inside of him was doubt. Oh, the watch is a heart rate monitor, but nothing more. He pulls a bunny out of a bag—it has a number eight painted on its back. They gave him a sedative, he says, not a pacemaker. How does he know that’s the same bunny? That he didn’t just paint an eight on another one? He doesn’t. Sawyer punches Ben in the face. The rabbit wasn’t the thing he wanted to show him, Ben says. They continue up the hill and Sawyer stares. Across a fairly large amount of water is an island. Ben asks if he’s ever been to Alcatraz—take the tour? Right now, he’s standing on a small island roughly twice the size of Alcatraz. And that over there—that’s his island—the one he’s come to know and love. He just wanted him to know that there’s nowhere to run. He did all of that just to keep him in a damn cage? They did all that because the only way to gain a con man’s respect is to con him. And Sawyer’s pretty good. They’re just a lot better. Funny thing is, telling him about the pacemaker wasn’t what kept him in line. It was when he threatened Kate. He works so hard to make her think he doesn’t care—that he doesn’t need her—but... A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. It don’t make no difference who the guy is, long as he’s with you. I tell you... I tell you a guy gets too lonely and he gets sick. What the hell is he talking about? It’s from Of Mice and Men, Ben says. Doesn’t he read? Come one—let’s get him back to his cage.

Every Man for Himself was written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.

303 - Further Instructions (A Locke Episode)

2006-11-20T00:38:29Z

Major Plotpoints

-- Locke wakes up and finds that he’s mute after the hatch implosion. He “asks” Charlie to guard a sweat lodge while Locke goes inside and... does something. Inside the sweat lodge, Locke eats the wacky paste stuff he put in Boone’s head back in the day and has a trippy dream/vision/thing involving Boone, his wheelchair, and the airport. Afterwards, he realizes he has to safe Eko from a polar bear. He and Charlie go off to go find him immediately.
-- Back in the real world (around 1995, if you want to be precise) Locke picked up a hitchhiker one day—a young man named Eddie. He brought Eddie to the commune he was living at at the time and Eddie lived there for about six months. It turns out, though, that the commune was growing heaps of marijuana and Eddie was the cop assigned to bust them. The leaders of the place fled and blamed Locke, who tried to “fix it” by killing Eddie, but he couldn’t do it.
-- Hurley comes back to camp and tells Locke and Charlie about what happened to Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. As he continues going back to camp, he runs into a naked Desmond, who he also tells about what happened to the trio. Desmond tells him that Locke will go after them—he said so in his speech. Hurley tells him that all Locke said was he was going after Eko and killing bears, and Desmond apologizes and says he’s just a bit out of it.
-- Charlie and Locke eventually find Eko and, while Charlie’s getting some water, Locke apologizes to an unconscious Eko about... everything. Eko in turn tells him that he’ll save Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. When Charlie comes back, Locke tells him that Eko’s awake—but it turns out he’s still completely unconscious, confusing Locke (and the rest of us).
-- Once they get back to the camp, they come across two completely useless new characters (Nikki and Paulo) who bombard them with questions (and so does Claire, but whatever). Hurley tells them about Jack, Kate, and Sawyer and Locke goes into a speech about how they’re going to go after them once Eko is better. Hurley looks to Desmond, who’s throwing rocks into the ocean, and tells Charlie he just got hit with some déjà vu. Apparently, instead of turning into the Hulk, Desmond turned into that painter guy from Heroes. Spooky.

---

Locke opens his eyes. He is lying on the dirt somewhere in the jungle. He hears rustling and sees Desmond run by. He tries to call out, but finds that he can’t—his voice is gone. He slowly stands, then hears something above him. He gets out of the way just as Eko’s stick falls to the ground.

Charlie and Claire look on as Locke takes his shelter apart. Claire asks when he got back, but Charlie says nothing. What’s he doing? Where’s he been? Where’s everyone else? Doesn’t he think he should go find out? Charlie later approaches Locke at the church site, where he’s brought the pieces of his shelter. So, he says, he’s gone for a whole day after a massive hatch detonation. He doesn’t call, he doesn’t write. Locke doesn’t say anything. Sorry, is he interrupting something? Locke looks like he wants to talk and gestures to his throat. What, he can’t speak? He’s mute? Locke nods. He is sorry about that. So, where are Eko and Desmond? Are they off being muter and building structures as well? Locke gestures to his throat again and Charlie tells him he knows he can’t speak. Locke continues gesturing and Charlie starts to guess what he’s saying, as if they’re playing charades. He needs to speak? To Charlie? Locke grabs a handful of sand. Sand? He needs to speak to the sand? Locke gestures to the tree line. The trees? Locke gets angry and goes at him, but Charlie tells him he doesn’t understand. Who does he need to speak to? Locke opens his arms and spins around wildly. Church? Sky? He draws a circle on the ground. Island? Locke points at him happily. The island? Charlie looks at him oddly. He needs to speak to the island?

Back at the beach, Locke approaches Charlie, carrying a pen and a pad of paper. He shows it to Charlie, who reads “I need your help.” Since when does he need his help? Locke writes something else. “I need you stand guard?” Oh, yeah, so he can talk to the island. Dangerous. Well, amusing as the mute game is, he is aware that Charlie detests him, isn’t he? He does remember repeatedly punching him in the face and accusing him of using heroin when he wasn’t. Locke writes “@ the sweat lodge” on the paper. What the sodding hell is a sweat lodge?

FLASHBACK. Locke drives down a rural road in the rain. He stops when he sees a hitchhiker—a young, somewhat shady-looking man. Locke asks him where he’s going. Eureka, he says. He can get him as far as Bridgeville. Come on, hop in. Come on. The kid gets in and they start driving. Locke tells him his name is John. Eddie, the kid says. Hi, Eddie. Hey. Nasty day to be hitching. That’s for sure. If he doesn’t mind—what’s in Eureka? He heard there was some work there, cutting timber. Is that what he does? It might be. He doesn’t know. He just had to get out of where he came from. Mom’s dead, dad’s a drunk. Locke doesn’t reply. The cloud disappear and the sun shines down. Hey, look, the rain’s passing. Suddenly, the sound of a cop siren fills the air and Locke pulls over. What did he do, rob a bank? Locke smiles. ‘Fraid so. A sheriff approaches the truck and asks for license and registration. Was he speeding? Tail light’s out. Can they both step out of the car, please? Locke and Eddie obey. The sheriff points to the truck bed. What’s back there? Guns and groceries, Locke says. The sheriff uncovers the guns, seeing a few rifles and handguns. The transaction logs and the paper for all of them is in the red notebook in the duffle, Locke says. The sheriff looks at the logs. Are they free to go? He could still take him in for picking up a hitchhiker. Eddie suddenly speak up, saying that Locke’s his uncle. He called him. He picked him up. The sheriff, clearly annoyed that he can’t take Locke in, tells them to get out of there. Eddie looks at Locke. So, what is with all the guns, uncle?

On the island, Locke’s built a sweat lodge inside the frame of the church. He’s mixing what seems to be the paste he put on Boone’s head all those weeks ago. Charlie looks on, asking him what it is. He’s not taking drugs, is he? He only asks because of the strict zero tolerance policy he’s enacted, and he wouldn’t want him to have to start punching himself in the face. Locke holds up the notebook, which reads, “I need u 2 stand guard.” Yeah, he knows. He’s going to go in his little magic hut and he’s going to stand out there in case he devolves into a monkey. Locke writes on the pad again and Charlie reads it: “Don’t come in.” Locke points at it. Okay, Charlie says. Locke again points at it, indicating he really, really wants Charlie to obey. Charlie agrees again.

Inside the sweat lodge, Locke eats some of the paste and ladles some water onto hot stones. Suddenly, someone grabs his shoulder and he turns to see a long-haired Boone beside him. Hi, John, he says. It’s good to see him again. Locke tries to speak, but still can’t. What’s that, John? Locke mouths “I’m sorry.” Oh, he’s sorry. That’s okay. Boone was a sacrifice the island demanded. Locke mouths something else. Don’t worry; he’ll speak when he has something worth saying. He’s there to help him find his way again. So he can bring the family back together. Come on, he wants to show him something. Locke tries to move, but finds his legs don’t work. He stares at Boone, horrified. Boone points to the other side of the lodge at a wheelchair. He’s going to need that.

A trippy sort of dream sequence ensues. Boone pushes Locke through the Sydney airport. He tells him that someone in the airport is in serious danger. And he’s the only one who can save them. They see Charlie and Claire coosing over Aaron and Locke points at them. Not them; they’ll be fine—for a while. Locke spots Sayid, Sun, and Jin. He points to them as Sun and Jin argue. Sayid pats Jin’s back. Boone tells him he thinks Sayid’s got it. Locke sees Hurley working at the Oceanic counter, inputting the numbers into the computer. Not Hurley, Boone says. They see Desmond, dressed as a pilot, walking and laughing with some pretty flight attendants. Forget it, Boone says. He’s helping himself. Locke sees Kate and Sawyer in the metal detector line, acting very friendly. Jack goes through the metal detector and gets wanded by Ben. Locke waves his arms frantically at them all, but Boone tells him there’s nothing he can do for them. Not yet. First, he has to clean up his own mess. Boone stares at Locke, then disappears. Suddenly, Locke is alone and without a wheelchair, sitting at the bottom of three escalators. Boone appears at the top. Come up there, he says. Locke drags himself up the escalator with his arms. At the top, he puts his hand in a pool of blood, then sees Eko’s bloodied stick. Clean it up, John, Boone says. Suddenly, Boone is bloody and his shirt is torn—reminiscent of the dream Locke had just before Boone died. They’ve got him, Boone says. He doesn’t have much time. Locke is suddenly back in the sweat lodge. He starts to leave, then sees a flash of a snarling polar bear. He stumbles out of the lodge, clearly frightened. Charlie gets up and asks what happened. Is he alright? Locke picks up his knife and pulls it out of the sheath. Charlie eyes him and asks what he’s doing. Locke stares from him to the knife. He’s going to save Mr. Eko’s life.

Locke and Charlie walk through the jungle. Locke finds some Eko’s cross in some bushes. He points ahead, saying he was dragged that way. Dragged? By what? By a polar bear. Sawyer killed the polar bear, Charlie reminds him. He killed a polar bear, Locke corrects. They continue on. Locke spots a wet spot on the ground and sticks his fingers in it. Charlie asks if it’s blood. Locke tells him he’s going on alone. He can go back to Claire. Well, he’ll take his chances. He doesn’t want to come with him, Locke says. Bad things happen to people who hang around with him.

FLASHBACK. Locke and Eddie pull up a dirt road. A boy opens the gate and Locke hands him a bag, smiling and greeting him as they pass. They park next to a tent and exit. Eddie points at the tent and asks what it is. That’s their sweat lodge, Locke says. Their what? Anybody who wants can go in there, light a fire, get it nice and hot, and meditate, he explains. Then what? And then you’re supposed to figure out what to do with your life—what direction to take—go in there and figure out if you’re a hunter or a farmer. Which is John? Locke smiles.

Locke and Eddie walk up to a large group of people sitting at a picnic table full of food. Locke introduces Eddie to Mike and Jan, telling them he’s looking for some logging work, but he convinced him to come home and have some supper with them first. They greet him fondly, saying that any friend of John’s is a friend of theirs. John’s a very special guy, Mike adds. They start to take their seats and Mike gestures toward Eddie’s shirt. He like Geronimo Jackson? Uh, yeah, they’re alright. It’s one of his dad’s old shirts. His dad has excellent taste, Mike says. He stands and tells everyone to listen. John brought a guest, he says. So, everyone, this is Eddie. Everyone greets him. Eddie, this is everyone. He greets them all as well and Mike asks John to say grace. Locke stands and begins. Thank you, Lord, he says. Thanks for the food and the friends. And thanks for the rain today so that Adam will stop grumbling about the drought. And for him, thanks for helping him stop being so angry. And for helping him find a real family—because they’re a hell of a lot better than the one he used to have. So, let’s eat. Amen. Everyone agrees and starts to dig in. Eddie looks and Locke and quietly thanks him.

Back on the island, Locke and Charlie continue walking through the jungle. They come to a huge hole in the ground. Is that the hatch? What’s left of it, Locke says. What happened? Looks like it imploded. They continue on. Locke finds a dead boar on the ground. What’s that? It’s an active kill—meaning that whatever was eating it is going to be back for more. If he wants to say polar bear, Charlie says, he can just say it. Locke picks a tuft of white fur off the ground. Alright, polar bear. They hear growling and Locke yells for Charlie to run. They run for a short while, then stop. They hear rustling in the bushes and Locke draws his knife and throws it in the direction of the noise. They hear a cry and Locke carefully approaches the area to find a terrified Hurley holding a canteen in front of him, Locke’s knife buried right in the middle. Dude.

Hurley starts walking with Locke and Charlie. They kept Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, he tells them. And they sent him back to tell everyone else that they can’t ever go over there. Oh, and that dude they had in the hatch, Henry—he was there. He’s, like, their leader. Locke stops and looks around. So, what do they do? Do what they told him, Locke says. Go back to camp and tell the others. He’s not going to do anything? He is going to do something. Go back to the beach, Hugo. Wait, where are they going? The island told Locke he has to save Eko, Charlie says. Save him from what? Well, apparently, a bear’s got him. It’s just made an active kill. Hurley may want to hustle. Hurley’s eyes get wide. Bear? What bear?

Locke and Charlie continue. Locke finds another tuft of fur. What’s that? More fur? This way, Locke says. Charlie tells him that when he used to get high, he’d watch nature programs on tv. Polar bears are meant to be quite clever. Very clever. They’re like the Einsteins of the bear community. Locke doesn’t respond. He stops walking and looks ahead; they’ve found the entrance to the bear’s cave.

FLASHBACK. Locke and Eddie are walking together. They pass a pretty girl. Eddie tells Locke she likes him. She does not, Locke says. Oh, yeah, she does. She does not. Yeah, she does. She’s, like, half his age, Locke says. Eddie’d be better off with her. Uh-uh, no. Lizzy’s too granola for him. What she really wants is a daddy—like everyone else there. Locke should take advantage of that. That’s not funny, Locke says. It was a joke, he says. Sorry. They grab some peach-gathering baskets. How come Locke never talks about his dad? Nothing worth talking about. Eddie spots some people carrying fertilizer into a greenhouse. What’s going on in that greenhouse? Maybe they need a hand? He starts to go to them, but Locke stops him. No, they’re okay. Come on, they’ve got orchard duty. They go off and pick their peaches, then come back. Eddie asks Locke what the big secret is. Sorry? The greenhouse—what have they got in there? What are they hiding? Because every time he does near it, they all act weird. Look, Locke says, he’s a guest. These things take time. He’s been there for six weeks! Nothing’s—he’s not blind, man. Did he forget he had a duffle full of guns when he brought him there? Mike and Jan welcomed him there with open arms, Locke says. They feed him. They give him a place to say. And Mike and Jan fold their hands every night before dinner and talk about how they’re family, Eddie adds. But their family’s got too many secrets. Now, he sees the fertilizer going into that greenhouse. He knows what’s going on, and he wants in. In on what? Whatever they’re trying to blow up. Locke starts to laugh. What’s so funny? Locke stops laughing, but smiles. He’ll talk to Mike and Jan.

Locke prepares to enter the cave. Charlie asks him if he really thinks Eko’s in there. Locke doesn’t answer. Charlie tells him they’d better hurry up and do it; maybe the bear’s out finishing his lunch. Charlie’s not going in there, Locke says. What? Locke’s doing this alone. He doesn’t get to tell Charlie what he can’t do. If he wants to go in there, he’ll go in there. Why? What? Why does he want to go in there? He doesn’t need a reason! Then go back. Charlie tells him to go back; he doesn’t have a good reason either. He’s going in there because he’s supposed to go in there. Locke starts putting mud on his arms and face. If it all goes to plan, they probably won’t even see the bear, will they? And, hopefully, he won’t smell them. Locke grabs a spray can and puts it in his pocket. Hairspray? Now, Charlie hates to be the one to point this out, but... Locke smiles. It’s not for him. He lights a torch and steps into the cave.

Hurley’s walking through the jungle. He stops at the sound of rustling in the bushes. Bear? Is that you? Who’s there? A voice comes out, asking him if he’s alone. Uh, yeah. Desmond comes out of the bushes and Hurley sees that he’s naked. Woah! Dude, he’s not alone! Beach camp’s right over there, Desmond points out. Can he give him some clothes? What happened to his? He woke up in the jungle like that. So, like, the hatch blew off his underwear? Desmond walks closer. Fine, he want to discuss this in great detail right now? No, no, that’s okay. He’s got something in there. He reaches into his backpack and pulls out a shirt. How does Desmond feel about tie-dye?

Locke walks in the cave. He bumps into something on the ground and finds a toy dump truck. FLASHBACK. Locke approaches the greenhouse, which is being guarded. Hey, Kim! Mike and Jan in? Yeah, they were looking for him. Good timing then, huh? Kim opens the door and Locke goes inside. The greenhouse is full of marijuana. Mike and Jan are hurriedly boxing up files and bags of pot. They’re arguing with each other about money and bank records. Locke asks what’s going on. What does it look like? He doesn’t—he screwed up, Mike tells him. Locke blew it—big time. Locke looks at them, confused. What are they—what? What are they doing? Are they leaving? Why? Jan shoves a folder at Locke. That’s why, idiot. Mike tells him that his friend’s a cop. Locke opens the folder and sees a picture of a badge with Eddie’s picture on it. Mike asks if he knows how much jail time they’d get for that much weed. Nice picture, huh? Got him fresh out of the academy, Jan says. No, Locke says. He was hitchhiking. He told him he was going to Eureka. How could he possibly—he was waiting for him, Jan says. He’s been there for six weeks gathering evidence because Locke brought him there. That’s impossible, Locke says. He played him for a sucker, Mike tells him. Now it’s over. No, wait, Locke pleads. Stop! They don’t know what he’s told them. He hasn’t even been in there yet. If he’s still gathering evidence and trying to make a case, then it’s not too late. Not too late for what? To protect them, to protect all of them. It’s not too late to fix it. He can fix it. Mike stares at him. How is he going to do that? Huh?

In the cave, Locke comes across the bones of several different animals, including some human ones. He finds a skull and some cloth with a Dharma logo on it. He looks up and sees Eko lying on the ground, barely conscious. He goes to him. There’s a noise from the other end of the cave and suddenly Eko is dragged away. Locke grabs Eko’s arm and throws a rock at the polar bear’s head to make it let ho. He makes a flamethrower out of the hairspray and the torch and the bear runs. He drags Eko out of the cave to Charlie, who immediately asks if he’s okay. He’s alive, Locke says. Turn him over. Turn him over. Locke tells him they’ve got to get out of there.

Desmond and Hurley walk through the jungle. So, Hurley says, when Desmond says “turn the key,” he means like, key, key? It was a failsafe key. That seems kind of convenient. Sorry? He’s just saying, if he had this magic key the whole time, why didn’t he use it? He didn’t know what would happen. So what did happen? The failsafe key must have detonated the electromagnetic anomaly—made the hatch implode. He didn’t implode, Hurley points out. No. He’s not going to, like, turn into the Hulk or something, is he? Desmond chuckles. So, is that what made the blender noise? And the sky turn purple? Afraid he missed that, brother. Right, he was failsafing. Well, FYI, the whole island vibrated. And Kate, Jack, and Sawyer saw it, too, right before they got bags pulled over their heads. Don’t worry, Desmond says. Locke’s going to go after them. He said so in his speech. What? What speech? All he said was he was going to save Eko and kill bears. Right, Desmond says. Of course. Sorry. He’s just a bit shook up.

Charlie and Locke drag Eko through the jungle. Locke tells Charlie he burned the bear pretty good; he’s not going to be coming after them. Now that they’ve survived this suicide mission, Charlie says, is he going to tell him what he saw? What he saw? In the spirit tent. He saw Boone, he says simply. Boone? What did he have to say for himself? He told him he needed to clean up his own mess. Well, dead as he may be, Charlie says, he agrees with Boone. If Locke had kept pushing that button like Eko told him to—they wouldn’t have had to save him in the first place. Yeah, Charlie, that’s what cleaning up your own mess means. Spoken like someone who’s had a few too many messes to clean, Charlie adds.

FLASHBACK. Locke and Eddie are walking through the forest, carrying rifles. No, deer, huh? Nope, Locke says. He talk to Mike and Jan yet? Yeah, he did. What did they say? They said that he should bring Eddie by the greenhouse after supper, and that they’d explain everything. Cool, Eddie says. That’s great. Locke points in the distance and Eddie turns to look, lifting his rifle. What, did he see something? Locke aims his rifle at Eddie, who asks him what he’s doing. Did he know it would be Locke? What? In the truck? Did he know it would be him driving? Did they choose him? They? Eddie tells him he has no idea what he’s talking about and raises his rifle. He didn’t load that one, Locke says. So how about he answers the question? Yeah, Eddie says, they chose him. Why? Because he hadn’t been there long, didn’t have a criminal record, and psyche profiles said he would be amenable for coercion. Amenable for coercion?! Lower the gun, John. Okay? It isn’t personal. What’s not personal?! Locke’s eyes start to tear up and he continues pointing the gun at Eddie, trying to shoot. Eddie starts to back away and Locke tells him to stop. Sorry, John, but he’s not going to shoot him. He’s not a murderer. He’s a good man. He’s a farmer. Nope, Locke says. Not a farmer. He was a hunter. He is a hunter. He’s going to walk away now, John. Eddie turns and walks away. Slowly, Locke lowers the rifle.

Locke and Charlie continue carrying Eko through the jungle. Charlie stops and asks Locke if he hears something. Locke tells him it sounds like a stream. They put Eko down. Locke says they should get some water in him. Charlie tells Locke to stay; he’ll go. He leaves. Locke sits next to Eko, who’s still unconscious, and apologizes. Sorry he ever doubted him, he says. Sorry he gave up his faith in the island. He messed up. Now their people are captured—if he’d just listened to him—if he’s just let him keep pushing the button. He could have gone with them, protected them. He could have saved them. Eko opens his eyes and tells Locke he can still protect them. He can still save them. He doesn’t even know where they are, Locke points out. He will find them. After all, he is a hunter. Charlie comes over and Locke looks to him. Charlie asks him if he said something. Locke tells him Eko’s awake and looks back at him, but finds that Eko is unconscious. He tries to give him some water, but he doesn’t respond. Maybe they should get him back, Charlie says. Locke continues to stare at Eko. Yeah.

Claire does some laundry at the beach. Charlie and Locke enter the camp, dragging Eko. Charlie asks Locke if he’s alright. He tells him he is. Charlie greets Claire, who comes up to them, confused. Another survivor, Paulo, asks what happened. Charlie tells him they got Eko. Hurley comes over and asks if he’s alive. Nikki, another survivor, says that they need Jack. Locke tells Charlie to take Eko to a nearby shelter. Hurley answers Nikki by saying Jack’s not coming back. They’ve got him. What? Claire asks him what he’s talking about. Jack’s gone? Nikki says she doesn’t understand. When was Hurley planning on telling them this? Paulo asks who “they” is. They are the Others, Locke answers. And, yes, they’ve taken Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. How? What happened? What about Sun and Jin and Sayid? Are they okay? He doesn’t know. He’s going to find their friends. He doesn’t know how yet, but he will. They’re going to find them. All of them. And then they’re going to bring them home. But first things first—they’ve got to look out for Mr. Eko. So, Paulo and Nikki, bring towels and water. Claire, get all the first aid supplies. He leaves and Hurley eyes Desmond, who’s at the shore, throwing walks into the ocean. Not a bad speech, Charlie says. Whoa, says Hurley. Whoa, what? He just got his with, like, déjà vu. He looks at Desmond again. Charlie looks from Desmond to Hurley, then tells Hurley to get the bandages from the kitchen. Hurley continues to stare at Desmond, who continues throwing the rocks into the sea, a worried and slightly crazed expression on his face.

Further Instructions was written by Carlton Cuse and Elizabeth Sarnoff.

302 - The Glass Ballerina (A Sun/Jin Episode)

2006-10-23T01:45:17Z

Major Plotpoints

-- Sun and Jin fight, bicker, and argue, as usual. Don’t you love the continuity on this show?
-- Sayid realizes that their friends are captured, so he decides to burn the black smoke to alert the Others to their arrival, and then kill Them and keep two hostage in exchange for their friends. However, his plans are foiled when an Other named Ryan spots their sailboat and tells Colleen, who in turn tells Ben (fka Henry Gale) who tells Colleen to tell some more Others to go take the boat. While Sayid and Jin are on the beach, the Others ambush the boat. Colleen comes underneath and finds Sun, who promptly shots her in the gut and runs off into the water to reconnect with her husband.
-- Pickett and a group of Others force Sawyer and Kate to work on, um, something. Kate (still in her pretty little sundress) gets to use a pickaxe and break up some rocks while Sawyer moves the rocks somewhere in a wheelbarrow. While this is going on, Sawyer marches up to Kate and kisses her, causing the Others to attack. At the time, it looked like Sawyer just professing his love to Kate, but later that night, in the cages, we realize he was trying to see which of the Others are actual threats. Sadly, Ben is watching and listening to this exchange of escape plans.
-- Sun was indeed having an affair with Jae and Mr. Paik, her father, found out about it. He told Jin to kill Jae for “stealing from him” but Jin couldn’t do it. When he told Jae to leave the country, Jae responded by jumping out a window.
-- Ben comes into Jack’s cell and proves to him that the Others have contact with the outside world (he tells him the date, that Bush got reelected, Christopher Reeve died, and that the Red Sox won the Series) and makes him an offer: if he cooperates and does everything they ask when they ask it, Jack can go home.

---

A beautiful figurine of a glass ballerina tumbles through the air. It crashes to the ground and shatters into a million little pieces. A small Asian girl stares at the pieces and runs out of the room and sits down at a piano, to practice. Sometime later, Mr. Paik enters holding a bag. He drops it at the girl’s feet and it makes a crunching noise—the remains of the ballerina are inside. Mr. Paik asks Sun if she broke the ballerina. She shakes her head no. Then who did? The maid, she says calmly. If she tells him the maid did it, he says, he will be forced to fire her. Does Sun understand? She nods her head. Who broke it? The maid did. Mr. Paik looks disappointed. Very well.

On the island, Sun splashes some water on her face in the bathroom on the boar. Jin knocks on the door. She’s okay, she tells him. It’s just morning sickness. Jin leaves hurriedly and Sun calls after him. They head back to the deck of the sailboat, which is just offshore of the signal fire they built sometime before. Sayid adds a notation to one of Danielle’s maps and Jin says something in Korean to him. Sun translates, saying that Jin says it’s time to leave. He doesn’t think Jack and the others are coming. It’s been over a day since they lit the fire—they should have come. Jack knows they’re out there, Sayid says. He’s counting on their signal. Maybe he just can’t see the smoke. If he’s north of them, the mountains would block the view. Sun tells Jin this in Korean. They need to sail forward, Sayid says, along the coast, clear the mountains, and start another fire. Sun translates again and Jin yells no to Sayid. Sayid tells him he told Jack he would light a fire. He’s not abandoning him. Sun starts to translate, but Jin interrupts, telling her that they’re not sailing anywhere. Sayid’s not her husband! Defiant, Sun tells Sayid that Jin thinks they have to do what he says because he’s the only one who can sail. But he’s wrong. She can help him sail the boat.

Jack sits in the corner of his cell. Juliet enters carrying a tray of good. She asks if he’s feeling any better and Jack says nothing. She made the soup herself, she says, but she won’t take it the wrong way if he doesn’t like it. She leaves the tray and exits, going to another door and knocking. Ben opens the door, revealing screens inside the room that are used to monitor locations like Jack’s cell. She never made soup for him, Ben says. A woman suddenly climbs down a ladder and enters the room where Juliet and Ben are. Is she interrupting something? Would it really matter if she was? They have a situation, the woman says. Ryan radioed in—the Iraqi found the decoy village. Good, says Ben. That’s what they wanted. Ryan followed him back to shore and they have a sailboat. How? She has no idea. So they have a boat, Juliet says. Sailing in circles will keep them busy. They could find them, the woman says. Ben? He’s thinking. How quickly can she put a team together? Within the hour. Then don’t waste time talking to them. She turns to leave. Hey, Colleen? He wants that boat.

Sawyer works the lever game and gets a fish biscuit and some food. The music plays and wakes Kate up. Nice alarm clock, she says. He’s woken up to worse. Pickett and some Others enter. Sawyer holds out the fish biscuit. Want half? Picket and the Others open the cage doors and Pickett hands Sawyer a lunch box. What’s this? Lunch—they’re going to need him to keep up his strength. Is that right? Kate and Sawyer are led along a path. Colleen approaches with a small group of Others. Danny, wait, she says. Picket tells them to stop and he goes to Colleen. They whisper frantically to each other for a few seconds before Pickett tells her to be careful and gives her a kiss on the cheek. Sawyer stares at them and Pickett gives him a dirty look. What’s he looking at?

Sayid loads a gun on the boat while Jin looks toward shore with binoculars. Jin starts to leave, saying he has to adjust the sails. Sun stops him. She’s sorry, she says. She shouldn’t have disagreed with him. Not in front of Sayid. She shouldn’t have disagreed with him, period, he replies. Why did she come with them? He knows why she came. She didn’t want to be without him.

FLASHBACK. Sun lies in bed, looking depressed. The man beside her sits up, but it’s not Jin—it’s Jae, the man who was teaching her English in Korea. He asks her what’s wrong and she tells him she’s married. Right. That. They kiss. Sun tells Jae she can’t. She’s sorry. She starts to get out of bed, but he calls her back. He opens a box, revealing a beautiful pearl necklace. She tells him it’s beautiful, but she can’t wear it. Jin will ask where it came from—he doesn’t want to share her anymore. Her English is excellent now. She can go to America. There is a knock at the door. Does anyone know she’s—no! Jae answers the door to find a hotel employee. What is he doing there? Get out of his—he stops when Mr. Paik comes into the room. Jae bows and starts to apologize. Mr. Paik walks into the bedroom and sees Sun. She looks ashamed and closes her eyes. Mr. Paik just stares at her, disappointed. Get dressed.

Back on the island, several Others (or at least people) are working to clear an area—digging holes, moving rocks, etc. The Others lead Kate and Sawyer to the area. Pickett starts to explain the task. He points to some rocks. That’s where they come in, he says. He points to Kate. She’s going to chop them loose. He points to Sawyer. He’s going to haul them out of there. He expects her to work in this dress? Well, that’s up to her, he replies. She can take it off if she wants. Sawyer looks her up and down and Kate gives him a dirty look. Sawyer turns to Pickett—how dare he! If they need anything, they raise their hand. They get ten minutes for lunch. Sawyer raises his hand. He’s got a question. No questions. She got to ask a question! If they try to run off, they’ll be shocked. If they talk to each other, they’ll be shocked. If they touch each other, they’ll be shocked. If they’re slacking, they’ll be shocked. As a matter of fact, if they do anything at all that pisses him off, they’re going to get shocked. Okay? Time to get to work. Kate tells him she’s not doing anything until she sees Jack. Pickett walks toward her, then whips out a taser and shocks Sawyer, who falls to the ground. Now, that was a quarter charge. Anymore questions? He walks over and grabs Sawyer by his hair. As soon as he’s able to walk, he says, the wheelbarrow’s right over there.

FLASHBACK. Jin is in Mr. Paik’s office. He wanted to see him? Mr. Paik tells Jin to sit down. He slides a file across his desk, saying they have a problem. Jin opens the file and sees a picture of Jae. That man, Mr. Paik says, has been stealing from him, and he needs Jin to put an end to it. What did he steal? That’s not important! Of course. He’ll deliver a message, Jin says. A message won’t suffice! He needs Jin to put an end to it. He can’t do that. Of course he can. It’s not his job to—his job is whatever Mr. Paik says it is! Then he can’t work for him anymore. He quits. Jin starts to leave. He doesn’t get to quit! This man shamed Mr. Paik! He stops Jin. He married his daughter, he tells him. That makes Jin his son. His shame is Jin’s shame. He needs him to restore their family’s honor.

Back on the island, Jin’s in the galley, chopping up a fish. Sun calls down to him and he comes up on deck. She and Sayid show him the dock the Others brought Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley to. Sun asks why there would be a dock all the way out there. Others, Jin says. The dock’s decaying, Sayid tells them. It’s overgrown. It hasn’t been used in quite some time. Whoever built it—they’re not there now. Sun tells this to Jin. Sayid says they should bring the boat in. They’ll tie it to the dock and build a fire on the beach—the visibility’s excellent. Jack will be able to see them for miles around. Jin asks if it’s safe. Yes, Jin. Of course it’s safe.

Kate breaks the rocks using a pickaxe. Sawyer stops moving the rocks and stares up her skirt, which is blowing in the wind. A ways off, Pickett and Juliet are looking over some plans. Pickett notices Sawyer watching Kate and yells at him to get back to work. Whatever he says, boss. Suddenly, a rock comes out of the bushes near Kate. She looks around and sees Alex crouching in the bushes. Alex tells her not to let them see her talking to her. Are they keeping them in the cages? Kate nods. Did she see another guy in there—about her age, named Karl? No. Just Sawyer and her. She’s not even supposed to be in that cage, Alex whispers. What is she talking about? Who is she? Where’d she get that dress? They gave it to her. It’s Alex’s. Kate can keep it. It looks better on her anyway. Sawyer approaches them and Alex disappears. He asks Kate if she’s having fun yet. Quit staring at her ass, she says. Give him something else to stare at. Pickett yells at him to shut up. Yes sir, boss.

Sun walks along the deck carrying a gas can. Sayid’s stacking wood for a fire. He thanks her for the gas. What else can she do? Help her husband. They need as much wood as they can find. They’re building quite a large fire, Sun says. They need to make sure Jack will see the smoke. Why is he lying to her? And what would she know about lying? He’s putting their lives in danger! She starts to leave. He’s fairly certain their friends have been captured, he calls out. There are tracks all over the dock. They’re fresh, as recent as yesterday. He said the dock was abandoned. That would be part of the lying she mentioned. He’s not building the fire for their people, she realizes. He’s building it for the Others. He suspects that when they see the smoke they’ll send a scout party to investigate. By then it will be night. When they arrive, he’ll ambush them. He’ll take two of them hostage, and kill the rest. Two? One to make the other cooperate. What does he need her to do? He’s sorry, but he’s going to have to ask her to lie to Jin for another twenty minutes. Why? Because once the fire is lit, it will be too late to go back.

FLASHBACK. Jin arrives home and Sun acknowledges him. He says nothing and sits down at the dinner table. How was her day? Fine. He saw her father today. Oh? He called him “son” for the first time. Why? He wants him to deliver a message. Is he going to? He has to. No, he doesn’t. She thinks it’s that simple? They can start a new life. They’ll go away—a new life? If they ran away, her father would—he won’t know where they are. And he won’t have to do this anymore—he won’t have to—Jin bangs his fist on the table. He does this for her! He does this because her father expects it! He does this because it’s what it takes to be married to her. And what does it take to be married to him? Jin gets up to leave. Where is he going? To deliver the message.

Jin watches Sayid start the fire. He approaches him. Gun, he says. Sayid tells him he doesn’t understand. Jin says something in Korean and Sun tells Sayid that Jin knows what they’re doing. He knows it’s a trap. He understands English better than she thinks he does. He knows she betrayed him. Gun, he repeats. Sayid hands his a pistol and starts to ask if he knows how to handle it, but he immediately starts checking it out like an expert. Jin motions toward the boat and says something in Korean. Sayid tells Sun he thinks she’d be safer on the boat. Sun starts to leave and he tells her that, if they get past them, there’s another gun inside the blue tarp under the galley counter. If they get part them, that means her husband is dead, she says. And she won’t care anymore. As he said, the gun is inside the tarp.

Juliet drinks from a canteen and chats with another Other. Sawyer unloads the wheelbarrow and watches them. Juliet notices and throws him the canteen. He catches it and empties it. He sees Kate hacking away at the rocks and pauses briefly before marching up to her, spinning her around, and kissing her. Pickett and another guy run over, yelling at them. Pickett smashes Sawyer in the head with the butt of his rifle. A fight begins between Sawyer and three of the Others. He gets a taser away from one guy, but it doesn’t work when he tries it. He gets a gun from the ground and tells everyone to back off. James! He looks around and sees Juliet holding a gun to Kate. Put the gun down, she says. Right now. Put the gun down. Sawyer drops the gun and Pickett walks up and taser’s him.

That night, Sayid and Jin hide on the beach, waiting to ambush the Others. Sun makes tea in the galley. On top of the boat, the Others attempt to sneak on, bypassing Sayid and Jin on the beach. Sun hears and immediately grabs the gun.

FLASHBACK. Jin sits in his car, looking at a picture of Jae. He finally sees him and follows him into the hotel, carrying a gun. As Jae goes to enter his room, Jin smashes his head into the door, takes him into the room, and starts throwing him around. He asks Jae if he knows who Jin is. Does he know why he’s there? He’s sorry. Then he knows what he has to do. Jin puts a pillow on Jae’s head and sticks the gun inside the pillow. Jae starts to cry. He’s sorry, he repeats. Jin finds himself unable to pull the trigger and he pulls the gun away. Jae will leave the country, he says. Does he understand? He’ll leave and never come back. Start a new life. And if he hears he’s returned—if he has any contact at all—he will finish it. Is he clear? Jae doesn’t exist. Jin gets in his car and sits there for a moment, gathering himself. Suddenly there is a crashing sound as something hits Jin’s hood. He gets out of the car and finds a dead Jae on the hood, clutching the pearls he tried to give to Sun.

Sayid and Jin are still hiding in the bushes, unaware of the Others on the boat. Sayid says he doesn’t think they’re coming. Back on the boat, Colleen enters the galley. Sun comes out of hiding, pointing her gun. She tells Colleen she wants off the boat. Colleen says she can’t do that. Why not? It’s not her decision to make. They hear a noise coming from above. Does Sun realize there are five of Colleen’s friends up there? Sun tells her to lower her voice. Okay. Colleen starts to move. Stop, or she’ll shoot. No, she won’t. She knows her. Sun-Hwa Kwon. And she knows she’s not a killer. But despite what she may think, she is not the enemy. They are not the enemy. But if she shoots her, that’s exactly what they’ll become. She moves toward Sun, who tells her again to stop or she’ll shoot. The engine starts up and Sun fires the gun, hitting Colleen in the gut. Colleen falls and Sun runs the other way as an Other comes down and fires at her. Sayid and Jin hear the gunfire and head to the boat, but when they make it to the dock, the Others start shooting at them. The boat starts to pull away as Sun gets on deck. Jin jumps into the water. Tom takes a shot at Sun and she falls into the water. The boat continues moving away. Jin calls for Sun and they reunite and hug in the water.

FLASHBACK. Sun stands a ways off at Jae’s funeral. Mr. Paik approaches from behind. She shouldn’t be there, he says. What is he doing there? He does business with Jae’s father. He’s told Jae jumped from a balcony. He must have felt great shame. Now, go home to Jin. Will he ever tell Jin? It’s not his place to.

Jin puts a blanket around Sun’s shoulders on the beach. He kisses her cheek. He doesn’t know what he’d do without her. He touches her belly. Both of them. Sayid enters and apologizes for dragging them into this. And please communicate to Jin that next time he will listen to him. They should go. They have a long walk ahead of them.

Sawyer and Kate are back in their cages. Sawyer is coughing and in pain. Kate asks him if he’s okay. Never better, he says. What the hell was he thinking? He couldn’t help himself—she just looked so damn cute swinging that pickaxe. Sawyer, she says. Two of those guards got some real fight in them, he explains. The rest of them, he’s not so worried about. That heavy-set guy—he packs a hell of a punch. The shaggy-haired kid’s got some kind of martial arts training, but he could take him if he had to. Oh, FYI—those tasers got a safety on them. Kate smiles. Did he see the look on their faces when he got that rifle? He’s guessing most of them have never seen any real action. But that blond who pointed a gun at her? She would have shot her, no problem. Why’d she call him James? Because that’s his name. He notices something else, too. She tastes like strawberries. Kate smiles. He tastes like fish biscuits. So what do they do now? Well, Shortcake, now they wait for them to make a mistake. Sooner or later, they’re going to let their guard down. And when they do, they’re going to be there to put them in their place. From the control room, Ben is watching and listening to the entire conversation.

Jack is in his cell with his back against the wall. Ben is also in his cell. He greets Jack and pops out a small chair he brought in with him. He sits down. Know what’s crazy? A week ago, they were in exactly the opposite situation. He was the one locked up and Jack was the one coming in for visits. And Ben knows what Jack was angry that he lied to him about who he was, but, hell, does he blame him? Let’s face it—if he had told him he was one of those people they’re been calling Others all this time, it would have been right back to Sayid and his fists, wouldn’t it? What does he want from Jack? He wants for him to change his—perspective. And, the first step in doing that would be for him to be decent enough to introduce himself honestly, so—he crouches down and extends his hand—his name is Benjamin Linus and he’s lived on the island all his life. Jack doesn’t shake. Ben walks to the door and someone starts to roll a cart into the other room. Where are Kate and Sawyer? They’re fine, and they’re close. That’s all he’s able to tell him right now. He could tell him if he wanted, Jack says. Fair enough, Ben replies. It’s all he wants to tell him. He’s going to make this really simple. If he cooperates, they’ll send him home. Cooperate with what? When the time is right, he’ll tell him. Tell him now. Patience, Jack. Patience. Home—is that where he sent Walt and Michael? Yes. Jack laughs. If they could leave the island, why would they still be there? Yes, Jack, why would they be? He’s lying. They’re stuck there just like the others are. They don’t have any—the plane crashed on September 22nd, 2004. Today is November 29th. That means Jack’s been on their island for 69 days. Yes, they do have contact with the outside world, Jack. That’s how they know that during those 69 days, his fellow Americans re-elected George W. Bush. Christopher Reeve has passed away. The Boston Red Sox won the World Series. Jack starts laughing. What? If he wanted Jack to believe him, he probably should have picked someone else besides the Red Sox. No, they were down three games to none against the Yankees in the league championship, and then they won eight straight. Sure, Jack says. Sure they did. Ben turns toward the cart that was rolled in, upon which is a TV. It begins to play the final minutes of the final game of the ’04 World Series, showing the Red Sox finally winning. Jack goes to the glass and watches the game in awe. Ben turns the tv off. That’s home, Jack, he says. Right there, on the other side of the glass. And if he listens—if he trusts him—if he does what he tells him when the time comes—he’ll take him there. He will take him home.

The Glass Ballerina was written by Jeff Pinkner and Drew Goddard.

301 - A Tale of Two Cities (A Jack Episode)

2006-10-08T19:12:25Z

Major Plotpoints

-- The Others are very civilized and live in a community of houses on the island. They even hold book clubs. “Henry Gale’s” real name is Ben. It is implied that he and Juliet, another Other, have a colorful past together.
-- While he and Sarah were going through their divorce, Jack became obsessive about finding out whom she was with. He even got the idea that Sarah and Christian were having an affair, but this wasn’t true (or was it?).
-- Jack is in a small cell/room and interacts with Juliet. Juliet asks him questions about himself and gives him food and water.
-- Sawyer is in a cage with a lever puzzle that ends with a reward of food and water.
-- Kate is, at first, in a locker room with Tom, fka Mr. Friendly. After showering, Kate, clad in a sundress, has breakfast with Ben. After this, she is taken to a cage across from Sawyer’s cage and the two share Sawyer’s food reward.
-- The Others appear to have files on everyone—and everyone that they were ever connected with.

---

On the island, Jack wakes up and finds himself lying on a metal platform. He peels off a band-aid and cotton ball covering a puncture room in the crook of his arm. He goes to a door and tries to open it, but it doesn’t work. He starts to walk to the other side of the room, but runs into a wall of glass instead. He starts yelling for Kate.

Water from a shower hits the ground. Kate opens her eyes and sees Tom, fka Mr. Friendly, standing there. They’re in a locker room type of place with lots of lockers and showers. Kate asks where she is and Tom asks her if she really thinks he’s going to answer that. Where are Sawyer and Jack? He ignores this and tells her to take a nice, hot shower—wake herself up—wash the day off of her and start fresh. He motions toward a towel, soap, and shampoo. Defiantly, Kate tells him she’s not showering in front of him. Tom laughs and tells her she’s not his type. He leaves and Kate removes a band-aid and cotton ball from her arm, just like Jack.

Sawyer comes to somewhere outside, where he’s lying on the ground. He stands up and realizes he’s in a cage. There’s a building nearby with a long walkway with a Dharma logo stenciled on it. There’s another cage across from Sawyer’s, also containing a man. Sawyer asks him who he is and where they are, but the man doesn’t respond. Sawyer starts examining the cage and sees a large circular button with a fork and a knife, as well as some levers and a chute. He pushes the button once and a voice says “Warning.” He pushes it again and the voice repeats itself. He goes to push it a third time and the boy in the other cage tells him not to. Sawyer ignores this and pushes the button again and is shocked with electricity, flinging him across the cage. He told him.

Jack starts pulling on a long metal chain attached to the ceiling of the cell. He pulls on it with all of his might, hoping to find a way out. A voice tells him to stop. He looks through the glass and sees Julie on the other side. She smiles. Hi, Jack. She’s Juliet.

FLASHBACK. Jack enters an office building and goes to a reception desk, telling her his name. From behind him, Sarah asks him where his lawyer is. He sits down next to her and tells her she looks pretty. Where’s his lawyer? He fired him. Sarah, he’s sorry, for pushing them there. He knows that he—Sarah’s cell phone rings and she excuses herself and stands a ways away from Jack. She laughs with the person on the other end, then hangs up and goes back to the couch. She’s going to say this as simply as she can—what’s his name? Stop it. He’s not going to stop it. He’s going to keep asking until she tells him. No. She doesn’t ask him what he does in his—just tell him what his name is! He wants to know who he is. She can have everything—the cars, the house—he doesn’t care. He just wants to know the name of the man that is with his wife. Sarah stares up, but says nothing. She leaves.

Jack continues pulling on the chain in his cell. Julie turns up the volume on a sound board, asking Jack if he can hear her. He doesn’t answer. Is that a yes? Where are his friends? Come down from the table first. She wants him to come down—come in there and get him down. If he wants to talk, she’s happy to—tell him where his friends are! She will—if he lets go of the chain. She think he’s stupid?! She doesn’t think he’s stupid, no. She thinks he’s stubborn. Jack looks at her for a moment, then continues pulling on the chain.

Kate finishes her shower and exits the stall in a towel. She goes to one of the lockers and opens it, but it’s empty—her clothes are missing. She yells out, asking where her clothes are. She notices an open locker and finds a note that says “Wear this.” She pulls out a flowery sundress and puts it on. Tom suddenly appears, whistling to show how nice she looks. Come on, he says. He’s waiting.

Tom and three armed guards escort Kate through a walkway and to a beach where Ben is waiting under a thatch-roofed structure at a table laden with breakfast foods. He pulls out a chair for Kate and she sits down. She notices a pair of handcuffs lying beside her plate. He’s going to have to ask her to put those on, he says. And if she doesn’t? Then she doesn’t get any coffee. Kate puts the cuffs on. A little tighter. Please. Kate makes them tighter. What did he do with Sawyer and Jack? Now why Sawyer? Why Sawyer what? He’s the first one she asked about. “What did you do with Sawyer and Jack?” He doesn’t know her. Of course he doesn’t. She wants her clothes back. They burned them. Why did he bring her there? Why did he make her put on that dress? Why is her feeding her breakfast? He brought her there so she’d look out at the water and feel comforted—comforted that her friends were looking out at the same ocean. He gave her the dress so she’d feel like a lady. And he wanted her to eat her food with a real fork and feel civilized. He did all those things so she’d have something nice to hold on to. Because, Kate, the next two weeks are going to be very unpleasant.

FLASHBACK. Jack’s in his office, talking on the phone. He tells the person on the other line that he met a woman—Sarah—on the train and that she dropped her cell phone, and he was wondering who the person was... forget it. Christian enters the office and Jack tells him to give him a minute. Christian ignores this and goes toward Jack’s desk. He points to a list of phone numbers Jack has. Why is he dialing all the numbers on Sarah’s cell? Because one of them is him. Christian stops Jack from calling the next number. He’s got to stop, he says. It’s over. Not until he knows his name—where he works, where he lives, when they first kissed. He wants to know what it is about him. He calls the number and Christian’s cell phone rings. Jack stares at him. Why is Sarah calling him? It’s time he let it go, Christian says. Why is she calling him?! Because she was afraid—for Jack. He wants to know exactly why she was calling—she could see that he was slipping, that he was losing his grip. His grip is not the problem! Which is exactly what’s happening, Jack. He thinks he knows something about being obsessive. No, Jack says. Being a drunk is not obsessive. Christian leaves. Let it go, Jack.

Jack lets some water from the ceiling drip into his mouth. He spits it out immediately. From the corner, a speaker gives off a lot of static and Jack tells the speaker he can’t hear it. He suddenly hears Christian’s voice say “Let it go, Jack.” A light comes on and Julie enters the other room with a tray of food and water. She tells Jack she knows he’s hungry. She brought it for him. Here’s how it will work: He’ll sit across from the door, back against the wall. She’ll open the door and leave the tray. Can she trust him to do that? He doesn’t want her food. Well, it’s a delicious sandwich—he wants her to tell the guy who’s trying to talk to him through that intercom that he can give it up. Maybe he’s hungrier than he thinks, Julie says. That intercom hasn’t worked in years. Jack points to a button behind Julie. What’s that for? Emergencies. Who’s watching him? Is he going to sit against the wall so she can open the door? She looks to the grilled cheese on the plate. It’s just off the frying pan, she tells him. She can have it. Julie asks him what he does. What’s his profession? He’s a repo man, Jack says. When people don’t pay their bills, he goes into the bank and collects their possessions. He’s a people person, so he really loves it. Is he married? No. He never saw the point. What about her? What’s her job, besides making sandwiches? Oh, she didn’t make it. She just put the toothpicks in. When the plane crashed, where was he flying from? Sydney. What was he doing there? He was bringing his father home. Why would he go all the way to Australia to—because he was dead. She’s sorry. Jack laughs. Yeah, he’s sure she is. Thanks. He can trust her, she says. She’s not going to hurt her. What the hell is going on? Julie ignores him and leaves the room, taking a bite of the sandwich before she does so.

Sawyer tries to work out the lever-puzzle inside the cage. The boy asks him how long it would take to get to his camp. What, he’s talking to him now? From where They got him, how long a walk was it? A day? Two days? What are the people from his plane like? Oh, they’re just awesome. The boy starts picking the lock on his cage while Sawyer works on the puzzle. Last one of you who came for a visit, Sawyer says, got tortured by an Iraqi. He tortured Sawyer, too. But, hell. He don’t know any better. Sawyer turns around and finds the boy’s cage empty. A loudspeaker says “Subject escaped” over and over. The boy suddenly appears in front of Sawyer and starts picking the lock on Sawyer’s cage. He gets it open and tells Sawyer to run in one direction while he runs in the other. Sawyer runs for a while, before stopping to get his bearings. Julie appears and smiles at him, then pulls out a taser-like device and shoots Sawyer in the next with one of the convulsion-inducing darts. Tom and another man drag Sawyer back to his cage. Once Sawyer’s back inside, Tom drags the boy to Sawyer’s cage and shoves his face up to the bars. Say it, he says. Say it, Karl. He’s sorry, Karl says. Sorry he involved Sawyer in his break out attempt.

Jack sits in his cell and Julie enters the other room with a tray of food and water. The drugs They gave him, she says, have a pretty serious side-effect: dehydration. His head is probably sore, his throat is raw. If he doesn’t eat or drink something soon, he’s going to hallucinate. So she’s a doctor, huh? No, she’s a repo woman. Jack chuckles and Julie smiles. No strings attached, she says. He doesn’t have to answer her questions. He doesn’t have to do anything but sit with his back up against the far wall. Let her open that door, put the plate down, and leave. She knows it feels like he’s giving up, like he’s losing, if he does anything she asks. But he’s not. He needs to eat. What does he say? Jack slowly moves to the far wall and sits. She thanks him and leaves the room.

FLASHBACK. Jack’s in a patient’s room in the hospital with a nurse. His father is in the hall in the background. Jack tells the nurse what to do, then sees Christian take a cell call. The nurse asks him a question, but Jack doesn’t respond; he’s too interested on who Christian is talking and laughing to.

Christian pulls up in front of a hotel and Jack pulls up aright behind him and follows him into a room. He enters and finds Christian getting some coffee in a small conference room. Jack? Jack tells his father to give him his cell phone. What? He wants to see it. Now. Look where he is, please. Give him the phone. This is not the place. The moderator of the meeting greets Jack and asks him to grab a chair and join them. She knows him? Yes, his father’s told them all about him. Yeah, what’s he told them about him? That he never really had it—not like Christian? He didn’t have the will to make it work? His life, his job, his marriage? What did he tell them about his marriage? He looks at the group. Know how he manages his marriage? A bottle of scotch every night before dinner. The moderator tells Jack Christian’s been sober 50 days now. They’re proud of that. Jack laughs. Wow! What helped him turn the corner? Maybe it was a new lady friend? Maybe that’s what—he won’t let him talk to him—he will not let him speak to his wife! He is Jack’s father. Please, just let it go. Jack suddenly runs at Christian and tackles him.

Julie enters the cell and Jack runs at her. He takes the dart weapon and puts a piece of the broken plate to her throat. Which way out? Don’t do this, Jack. Don’t. Don’t. He drags her to a hatch-like door with a wheel lock. Open the door, he says. No. She can’t. She does that—they die. Open the door! She can’t! Ben appears and tells Jack she’s telling the truth. He will kill her, Jack says. Okay. Have her open the door and she dies anyway. They all do. Jack shoves Julie away and starts to open the door. Ben and Julie start to run, but Ben runs out a door and closes it behind him, locking Julie out. Jack finishes turning the wheel and the door bursts open—a huge gush of water pushes the door and throws Jack backward. Julie grabs onto a pipe and grabs Jack. Together, they manage to get the door closed. Julie yells at Jack to push the button and he does. When he turns around, Julie hits him in the head, knocking him out.

In the cage, Sawyer continues trying to work out the puzzle. He finally figures it out. A congratulatory song plays through a speaker and a voice repeats “Reward” over and over. A large fish-shaped cracker drops down the chute. He picks up. Unbelievable. A pile of food pellets comes down the chute as well. Sawyer takes a bite out of the crackers. Water starts coming out of a pipe. Sawyer drinks it. From afar, Tom tells someone to keep moving. He leads Kate to the cage formerly occupied by Karl and sticks her in it. He has her put her arms through the bars so he can take off the cuffs. They scratched her up pretty bad, didn’t they? He’ll bring some anti-septic later. Sawyer asks Tom to bring him an ottoman and blow dryer. Hey, he got himself a fish biscuit! How’d he do that? He figured out Their complicated gizmo, that’s how. Only took the bears two hours, Tom says, leaving. How many of them were there? He turns to Kate. She okay? Kate looks terrified, but puts on her tough girl face. Yeah. Him? Just swell. He requested that cage, but whatever. She laughs. Nice dress. They made her wear it. She hungry? He tosses her the fish biscuit and she takes a bite. He smiles.

Jack wakes up on the table in his cell. Julie is sitting a desk, looking at some papers in a file. It’s an aquarium, Jack says. What? It’s for what—sharks? Dolphins, too. They’re underwater, aren’t they? Yes. Is this one of their stations—the Dharma Initiative? They called it the Hydra. So They’re just what’s leftover of them? That was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter who They were. It only matters who They are. They know exactly who he is. She doesn’t know anything about him, he says. They know he’s a spinal surgeon based out of St. Sebastian’s Hospital in LA. She knows that he went to Columbia and graduated med school a year faster than anyone else. She knows he was married only once and that he contested the divorce. She knows his farther died in Sydney. She knows this because she has a copy of his autopsy report. How did she get—They got it. Jack looks to the file. What is that? That’s his file. Is it just about him, or is it about his family, too? His friends? It’s pretty much about everything. Does she know about his ex-wife? Sarah. Yes, Jack, They know all about her. What would he like to know?

FLASHBACK. Jack’s in his scrubs in a prison cell. A guard opens the door and tells him someone posted his bail. Jack walks around a corner in the jail, putting his wedding ring back on. He sees Sarah waiting. How’d she—his dad told her he was there. She called him a cab. Goodbye. She leaves and Jack follows her out. Sarah! What? He looks to a man waiting across the street. Is that him? What difference does it make? It just does. It’s not going to change anything. He wants to know! He needs to know who he is. It doesn’t matter who he is. It matters who Jack’s not. His father—he called her to help him. He was so drunk he could hardly understand him. Look at the bright side, she says. Now he has something to fix.

Julie pulls Jack out of his flashback. What would he like to find out? Is she—is she happy? Yes, Jack, she’s very happy. Now, she’d like to bring him some food and water. But this time, she needs to know that he’ll behave. Can she trust him? She tells him to put his back against the wall. Slowly, Jack moves to the wall and sits down. Julie exits the room. Ben is waiting for her. Good work, Juliet, he says. Thank you, Ben.

A Tale of Two Cities was written by JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof.