you don't lose when you lose fake friends...

Locke’s going through his socks… and he pulls a diamond ring out from one of the balled-up pairs. - song in the background is “I’ll change the(?) the world with you” - He goes to the kitchen to pack up a picnic basket. Helen enters and asks what she did to deserve this? “Can’t a fella take his girl out for a picnic lunch just ‘cause?”
Are his fequent anachronisms just a personality quirk, or he is actually a man out of time? Helen goes to the table to read the paper while drinking her morning coffee, and Locke slips the ring into a napkin while packing it in the basket. She enjoys reading the obituaries because it’s the “nicest part of the paper. No one ever says anything mean about someone once they’re dead.”
- is she buttering John up so he'll attend his dad's funeral, perhaps? -
Locke always thought the funnies were the nicest part (I guess he hasn’t been reading Garfield for the last 15 years). Helen looks down at the paper, and asks Locke if his dad’s name is Anthony Cooper. It is.
“He’s dead.”
I guess the picnic’s canceled.

At the breakfast nook under the hatch, we’re right where we left off last week. Jack orders Henry to draw the map again, so they can find Ana and the others. Henry says he was just making a joke, that there’s nothing out there but his balloon. It was a stupid thing to say and he’s sorry. Locke chimes in. “It’s too late, she’s already long gone, Jack.”
“So what’s done is done?”
“That’s right, Jack.”
Jack tells Locke to put Gale back in his jail and leaves. “Why do you let him talk to you like that?”
Finally, Locke grows a pair. He hauls Henry up from the table and tosses him in the armory.

It’s pouring rain and thundering loudly in the jungle. Ana, Sayid, and Charlie have been searching for three hours now. Ana wants to keep looking, but Sayid is worried that Henry sent them on a wild goose chase so he could buy himself more time to try and escape. He wants to head back right now. Charlie shouts for them to join him; he’s found the grave. It’s piled with rocks, and there’s a bamboo cross stuck in it. – it could be anyone in there. If Henry is an other, he could have been the one that killed Gale, so of course he would know about the balloon. He’d also be pretty good at drawing a map of the island, which he was. – Ana notices it’s not raining at the gravesite, and all three look up to find an enormous smiley face looking down on them from the trees above.

Ana looks smugly satisfied, Sayid looks disappointed, and Charlie is flashing back to a Happy Mondays show in Madchester.

L O S T

On the beach, Hurley tells Jack that Ana, Sayid, and Charlie took off into the jungle yesterday. He wants to know why he’s not in the loop, and Jack tells him there is no loop. Saved by the crying baby… Jack is pulled away by Claire, who wants him to check on Aaron. The baby is doing fine, and Jack gets up to leave. Claire flinches briefly as he pats her back before going on his way. Weird. Libby’s next in line at the free clinic, complaining of a sea urchin sting. Jack suggests Neosporin, and she tells him Sawyer’s asking ten loads of laundry per tube. They look over at the beach and see Kate, Hurley, and Sawyer playing cards for fruit.

Under the hatch, Henry is reading in his cell while Locke exercycles, listening to "Compared to What" (an older song; but the lyrics certainly stand the test of time), by Les McCann. Some crackly feedback starts up under the music, and there’s a woman’s voice in there (…minutes…lockdown…). Locke gets off the bike to investigate. He turns off the stereo and checks on the computer, which is idling away with 47 minutes remaining on the counter. Tracing the sound to a loudspeaker in the hall, he grabs a tool from a tool chest and starts poking around – LOUD BLAST – (…until lockdown…). Henry is startled by all the noise. “What was that?”

Flashback – Locke and Helen are sitting in his car at the cemetery. - there's a very weird headstone in the foreground with a face on it - Locke’s a little nervous, so Helen tries to lighten him up a bit, “Hey, maybe he left you his kidney!”
It works, and they get out of the car. It’s just the two of them sitting graveside, while a priest speaks and a young version of the old guy from phantasm stands to the side. Locke notices two shady fellas watching from a distance while pretending to lay flowers at another grave. He glances away from them, past the groundskeeper, to a silver benz idling nearby. He looks up at the priest somewhat suspiciously – is he wondering if this funeral is some elaborate con? – before getting up and walking to the coffin.
“I forgive you.”
The silver car drives away. What happened to the shady guys?

CRACKLE SNAP – back under the hatch. (please proceed…personnel…) Henry is shouting for Locke, wanting to know what’s going on out there. Locke, straining to hear the voice as it is, tells Gale to shut up. A countdown starts (...9...8...7...6...5)
“Maybe you should get Jack.”
(...4...3...2)
“I said shut up!”
(...1...lockdown.)
The blast doors Michael discovered rapidly descend from above, but Locke manages to slide a crowbar under one before it shuts completely.
“What happened?!?”

Sawyer, Hurley, and Kate are engaged in a poker game at the beach, using a Dharma deck, of course. Showing is a 3 of clubs, 4 of clubs, 6 of diamonds, 8 of clubs, and the jack of hearts. Jack walks over to find that “Muttonchops” Hugo doesn’t really know how to play, and Sawyer’s taking advantage of that. “Amarillo Slim” Shepherd advises Hurley to fold – he’s got a baby straight. So he’s holding a 2 and a 5. Sawyer’s got the flush. We see Kate’s hand, and she has a face card and a 4? And Sawyer’s holding 2 clubs. Sawyer’s intrigued by Jack’s poker knowledge, and goads him into staying to play a hand or two.

In the swan station, Locke can’t get the door to budge on his own. He tells Henry everything is fine.
Flashback – John’s the owner of the “Welcome Home” home inspection company, inspecting a home for Nadia, Sayid's love.

That would make this what, no more than ten years ago? She was working in Tustin, according to the Feds that recruited Sayid in Australia, so that's probably where we are now. LA team realtors are selling the house. Welcome Home’s phone number is 714.555.0116. The address of one of the houses on the street is 94-1007… kinda weird? Weird to me. Locke spots the car from the cemetery (CA license # 4TRI019) parked across the street and walks over to it. The window rolls down to reveal a very much alive and breathing Anthony Cooper.
They go to a bar to talk, and Dad tells Locke he knows what he did was wrong, but he was dying. “You could have just asked me."
“What do you want from me?”
He explains to Locke that if he hadn’t killed himself off, a couple of guys looking for him would have beaten him to it. “What’d ya do, steal their livers?”
Actually, he took them for $700,000.00 in a retirement scam. They seemed young for that, no? A clue that Locke’s dad is likely the man Sawyer has been searching for? Anthony needs Locke to get the money from a safe deposit box, because the two guys may not be fooled and could be watching for him at the bank. - But they know what Locke looks like from the funeral, and Tony knows they were there, right? Were they with him? Is this all a con on the far too-trusting Locke? - Dad gives him the key and offers him $200K to do the job, along with instructions to meet him at the Flightline Motel before tomorrow night, when he will be leaving, money or no.
What if Locke just kept it all for himself and Helen? Is this some kind of test?
“If I don’t see you again, I’ll understand.”

John’s checking out the ductwork in the locked-down swan station. He tells Henry they’re locked in. - It looks like there’s some kind of door in the floor of the armory – Oh Locke, don’t let him out. Jesus. And Henry’s making demands as well. If he’s going to help, he wants Locke’s assurance that he won’t let “his people” do anything to him. Things have happened and they have no one to blame except for him. “Protect me…no matter what.”
Locke opens the door and asks the prisoner who he is. “My name is Henry Gale. I’m from Minnesota, and I crashed on this island just like you.”
John believes him and gives him his word. Henry can barely conceal his delight at how easy it is to manipulate this guy.

At the makeshift card table on the beach, “Cool Hand” Jack’s pair of kings beat Sawyer’s pocket queens, cleaning him out of mangos. Sawyer wants to up the ante, and Kate wants to measure their manhood. Of course she does. She still can't choose, maybe that would be the deciding factor? From the look Locke gave Jack last episode, I'm thinking he might come up short... Sawyer’s getting serious, and he tells “Mongo” to go hit the buffet table and leave the men alone, so Kate and Hurley leave the boys to play in their sandbox. Jack wants to play for all the medicine Sawyer stole from the swan station.

Back down there, Henry and Locke are leveraging their escape. They manage to raise the door a few feet, and Locke uses some superhuman strength to hold it there while Henry slides the tool chest under to brace it. Locke starts to slide himself under the door, and before Henry can stop him, the fucking thing comes down on his legs!! Henry, with what seems agonizing slowness, stacks weights under the door to relieve the pressure on John’s legs. He tries to pull Locke out, but he’s been pinned, quite literally, to the floor. Henry tells him they can just wait until someone comes, that it’s only a matter of time.
“Yeah, but we don’t have time.”

Flashback – Locke’s in the bank vault containing Anthony’s safe deposit box. It’s number 1516, of course. He opens up the box to find the cash, and starts moving it into his bag. He comes waltzing home with a bag over his shoulder a short time later, only to find Helen and the two men from the cemetery in the kitchen. “These men say they know your father.”
Jimmy Bane introduces himself, and asks if Locke has seen his dad since he died. Locke acts dumbfounded, and Jimmy explains that they’re not sure he’s really dead. He mentions that Locke didn’t look too shook up at the funeral, and this sets Helen off. She snaps at Jimmy, telling him to leave, and he agrees – as soon as Locke shows him whats in the bag. They spill the contents over the table, and it’s just full of home inspector stuff. “Well there you go. Thanks for the coffee, miss.”
If Lost has taught me anything, it’s to always have a spare bag when you’re filling another with cash. John apologizes to Helen once the men have left, and assures her he was telling the truth.

Sawyer’s dealing the latest hand at the card table. Jack tells him he learned how to play in Phuket, and is surprised that Sawyer knows it’s in Thailand. Just cause he’s a 9th grade dropout don’t make him an idiot. “Far East, huh? I wouldn’t have taken you for a world traveler. That where you got the art on your shoulder?”
Jack just tells him to deal the hand again, this time from the top of the deck. “Well, I had to try,” smiles Sawyer.

Under the hatch, Locke is filling Henry in on the button. They have to push it every 108 minutes, but no one is sure what it does. It needs to be pushed very soon. Locke tells him to go through the vent in the pantry out to the dome so he can enter the numbers and press execute – exactly those numbers in exactly that order. – so why didn’t they just try to get out that way in the first place, instead of trying to raise the blast doors? – Henry falls from the shelves while trying to hoist himself up, and ends up knocking himself out. (or is he faking?) The four minute countdown begins.

Libby joins Hurley and Kate, who are watching the high stakes poker game from a distance. We find out Sawyer has contracted some STDs in Tallahassee, but hey, who hasn’t? Jack goes all in, forcing Sawyer’s hand. Some silvery blonde woman and bald dude join the group watching from afar.

Sawyer calls. All Jack has is a pair of 9’s, but it’s more than enough to beat Sawyer’s pair of 5’s. Doc’s got his medicine back, and Sawyer wants to know why Jack didn’t play for the guns.
“When I need the guns, I’ll get the guns.”

Back in the swan, Henry comes to and climbs back up and into the vent as the loud ten second alarm starts blaring.
Flashback – Locke gets out of his truck at the Flightline motel just as an Oceanic plane is coming in for a nearby landing.

Dad lets him in his room and starts moving the money from one bag to another. He asks about Helen, and Jack tells him he’s going to ask her to marry him tonight. He’s like a little puppy dog, so trusting. Is that why the island chose him? His dad doesn’t give a shit about him, but Locke can’t see that because he wants so badly to believe otherwise. Dad leaves John’s $200,000 on the table, telling him he can afford a nice honeymoon now. Locke tells him he didn’t do it for the money. “Then why did you do it?”
He doesn’t answer.
“Bye, John.”
As Anthony turns to leave, the motel map is prominently displayed over his shoulder. A little foreshadowing? He opens the door to find Helen standing there. She asks Anthony, “Are you him?”, then she slaps him, telling him they were moving past him. Locke is almost comically speechless in the background. Helen runs off, and John rushes after her, brushing past his dad. He catches up to her as shes getting in her car, and she tells him he’s made his choice, he chose his father’s love over hers. Locke, stammering, gets down on one knee. You idiot… He proposes, and she shakes her head no before driving off. Dad looks his way as he gets in his cab, and drives off as well, as another Oceanic plane comes in for a landing (that was quick). Everyone Locke loves leaves him. Helen’s reaction to John is going to parallel what happens to him on the island when everyone finds out he’s trusted Henry. I still think she was in on the whole thing though, and it was some kind of long con. It all seemed staged. I’m not sure what the con was, or what part everyone played, but maybe we’ll find that out when we find out how he lost the use of his legs. You know, midway through season 5.

Under the hatch the alarms are still sounding as Locke is calling out to Henry – suddenly the noise stops and the counter shuffles as another noise starts up, the magnet? – The lights go out. Black lights turn on and illuminate the room Locke is trapped in. He is shocked when he looks up and sees what’s been drawn on the door that’s pinning him down. Is he really the chosen one on the island? Is his puppy-like trust a good thing on the island? Has his hatch decided to show him its secrets, just like the island itself did last season? I’ll get into the map of the hatches and the island in another post (it reminds me of King's Dark Tower and the wheel of Ka), but here's a cool picture.
Locke studies it, the map reflecting in his eye as he tries to commit it to memory.

The florescent lights flicker and come back on as the blast doors recede back into the ceiling. Very nasty when it pulls off of and out of Locke’s leg. Ow. – nice clear shot of the left side of the mural, for a reason? – Locke yells for Henry as he drags himself into the dome. Did Henry turn the lights on so Locke could see the map? Is this all part of the Others plan? It’s been just a minute since the clock flipped. Henry appears in the doorway, much to Locke’s surprise. “What, you thought I was gonna leave you here?”
He helps John up, and Locke thanks him for not leaving him.
“You’re welcome, John.”
Are they recruiting/slowly brainwashing him to their side?

It’s nighttime outside, and Jack is walking through the jungle back to the hatch when Kate catches up. She wants to tag along so she can take a shower. Jack says the plumbing’s busted and the water is running muddy - sounds like a personal problem to me. “I’ll let you know as soon as we get things worked out down there.”
Kate’s glad he beat Sawyer. Jack offers to walk her back to the beach and she’s about to say okay (maybe?) when she spots a light flashing though the trees. They move to investigate, and find a parachute attached to a huge bag/net/parcel with a beacon flashing atop it. Kate pulls out a box of D.I. mac n cheese…
“It’s food.”
Operation Dharma Drop. They’re startled by Sayid, Charlie, and Ana arriving at the scene. Jack looks very relived to see them alive. “What’d you find?”
Looks like Kate is in the loop now.
- This feels better, doesn’t it? Sure Sawyer was a bastard a few episodes ago, and Charlie maybe even moreso, but just to have everyone interacting again feels somehow right. Comfortable. Them against the island and the others, rather than against themselves. We’ll see how long this lasts. -

Under the hatch Henry is tending to Locke’s bloody leg. Henry tells him all he only entered the numbers and watched the counter reset. He was climbing back in the vent when the lights went out, and ten seconds later the doors went up. “I didn’t do anything.”
- I think the lockdown is automatic when Operation Dharma Drop is in effect, trapping the occupant(s) of the swan station in that room, and allowing an other someone time to bring the goods down into the station. Are the blast doors to protect the deliveryman from the quarantined occupant(s) of the swan? I think so… and to keep said occupants from finding out who is resupplying them as well? Desmond never mentioned this happening… has it not happened for more than three years? That would mean Des would have had nothing to do with the map Locke just saw. speaking of said map, a notation in it, "activity minimal during lockdown and restocking procedures", would seem to bear out my theory here. Michael found the blast doors in the corridor by the computerdome, so that area is probably sealed off too. is this so when they open up the hatch to get the supplies their living quarters aren't 'contaminated'? it would explain why there's red paint in the hallways - from this post: "there’s also what looks to be some type of red moat around the eyemsick house, and a red arrow beneath it pointing up. it looks like something is circled in red out of view behind the yellow paint canister.
the red moat is-IMPORTANT. There was red on the floor around kates shoes, and it looks like the rest of the tunnel floor is red also. Now we’re all sick." –
Locke asks Henry if he thinks it was just a random occurrence.
“Don’t look at me. It’s your hatch.”
Tell the trusting person what he wants to hear and he’ll trust you that much more. Gale is cunning… he reminds me a bit of Keyser Soze in this episode.
Jack and the others arrive, and he pulls Henry away from Locke as Sayid holds him at gunpoint. Locke tries to explain that Henry was helping him, and Henry asks if they found his balloon. Sayid tells him they found it, along with the grave.

“It was all there, your whole story, your alibi. It was true.

“But still I did not believe it to be true. So I dug up that grave, and found that there was not a woman inside, there was a man.”

He holds out Henry Gale’s Minnesota drivers license.

Henry is a smiley-faced black dude with a moustache, who was born on 8/11/61 (I think) and lived at 815 Walnut Ridge Rd in Wayzata, MN, 55391 (23). Driver’s license number M-152-996-431-000. The date next to his signature is 8/11/03.

“A man named Henry Gale.”

L O S T

those lyin' eyes

Flashback - oooh baby, the sweet sounds of sexy smooth Korean jazz… not exactly Barry White, but Jin and Sun are turned on. I like the coy, sexy Sun, and so does Jin. “Turn around.” Hot.

Their headboard looks like it was designed by Hildi from Trading Spaces. Fuuugly… They’ve been trying to get pregnant for a year. Jin thinks a kid will improve his standing with her father. He's sure that once he’s the dad of Sun’s father’s grandson, that promotion to a position that doesn’t involve beating people to a pulp will be his. “A baby will change everything. A baby will make it better.”

Now - Jin shows up at Sun’s garden on the island, where she’s planting alone. He yells at her for putting herself in danger, and she tells him she doesn’t need his protection here in her garden. Jin goes nuts and tears up the garden, so that Sun now has no reason to be there. “Shall we go now?”

L O S T

Looks like Ana Lucia is training for a race around the world. She pulls up to Locke, who’s sitting outside her tent eating a banana. He tells her about the man in the hatch who could possibly be one of “the Others.” Ana is as unhappy to learn that Jack has kept this from her as Locke is happy to be the one delivering the news. (does that make sense? It does in my head…) Locke wants her to talk to Henry, but first Ana wants to know if Jack is aware Locke's asking her to do this. He gets indignant, telling her he doesn’t need Jack’s permission, and he just wants this man out of the room in “my hatch.”. - are they all turning into three year olds? "my garden!", "my hatch!" -

On the beach, Rose and Bernard are doing their best impersonation of The Ropers, or of any older married couple guest stars taking the Love Boat to Fantasy Island. Bernard forgot Rose’s birthday, but he doesn’t think he’s at fault, as he doesn’t even know what day of the week it is (it’s Saturday). It's all just a big misunderstanding. They come across Sun moaning in pain, and tell her to go find Jack. She tells them she’ll be okay on her own, she was probably just in the sun a little too long.

Flashback – Sun back in the ol’ Seoul Gateway Hotel. She cautiously enters a room (#200?), and puts the do not disturb sign on the door before closing it behind her. Oh, shocker, it’s Jae Lee, the guy she was dating in "...and Found". I thought he was going to America? He asks her if she’s told Jin yet. "I couldn’t"
It looks like infidelity, but it may be more innocent than it seems, he’s been secretly tutoring her in English. They’re worried about what Jin will think when he finds out who she was learning from, but neither want to call it off just yet. Maybe not so innocent after all?

Under the hatch, Jack gets out of the shower to find Locke shaving at the mirror. The steam opens up his pores.

He sneaks a look at Jack’s package before telling him he thinks Ana can help them out with their "Henry Problem". Why her, Jack wants to know? “She’s the one you went to to start an army to fight those people, why not her?”
Jack agrees to talk to her about it, and Locke tells him he already has, that she’s in there with Gale right now.
In the cell (we can call it that now, right?), Henry is amazed at Ana’s tale of walking across the island. “It must have been fun.”
“It had its moments.” She wants his story, the one he’s already told to Jack, Locke, the “big black guy that cut off his beard in front of me”, and Sayid. She tells him some of hers, that she put Nathan in the pit and he ended up dead because of her. She tells him he can trust her if he’s got nothing to hide, because she won’t make the same mistake twice. (what, that someone ended up dead because she thought they were an Other? That already HAS happened twice! Three times, really, but once wasn’t a mistake. Anyway…)

On the beach Sawyer is reading “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”, when “Sunshine” asks him for a pregnancy test from his stash. You could say Auntie Flo packed up and left Sun for a while, so she could go visit Margaret for the very first time. That’s all the pregnancy test you need, right there. Sawyer’s not a Judy Blume fan. Not enough sex.

Under the hatch - is this Geronimo Jackson Locke is listening to? (that sounds like a supergroup itself, Geronimo Jackson Locke. GJL.)

“c’mon (or something similar) – you’re pushing on me
you’re pushing too hard at what you want me to do
you’re pushing too hard about (something)say?sang?
you’re pushing too hard every night and day
you’re pushing too hard – you’re pushing too hard on meeee”
(maybe the name of this song is 'the button'?)

Ana’s been in there with Henry for half an hour, long enough for him to have told her the tale of the smiley-face balloon ride. – this actor reminds me of the husband in Medium, Jake Weber, in the same way Ethan reminds me of Tom Cruise. Are they distant cousins too? – Henry seems to get some sympathy from her when he explains that he brought his wife’s body from where she died to the balloon crash site so she could be buried near the closest thing they had to a home. He tells her he thinks that no matter what he tells anyone, he’s essentially a dead man. Ana says that if he doesn’t draw her a map to the balloon, he’s going to prove himself right.

In the jungle, Hurley and Sun come across each other. Hurley doesn’t notice Sun hide the pregnancy test behind her back, and doesn’t think to do the same with the half-eaten Apollo candy bar in his hand. He does some not-so-quick explaining. “Look what I found… in the middle of the jungle and it’s not even melted or nothing. Crazy, huh?” - At first I thought he was just making a dumb excuse, but his stash was in the jungle under a log or something… do these candy bars really not melt? - Sun doesn’t say much, and they part ways. “Later, dude.”

Flashback – Jin and Sun are in a doctor’s office. He gives them the bad news, advanced endometriosis – scar tissue - is blocking Sun’s fallopian tubes, and it will be impossible for her to ever have a child. Jin gets angry and accuses Sun of knowing this before they were married. “Oh yes, I was trying to trap the son of a fisherman.”
Yowtch, Sun ...harsh. Jin throws a fit and storms off.

Under the hatch, Jack is moping while Locke is literally screwing around with something. Ana pounds on the door to be let out. She tells them she's only gotten the same story they've already heard from him, but she wants some more alone time tomorrow, after he’s had time to think. If that’s alright with Jack. “I didn’t tell anyone, Ana.”
“No worries, man.”

The Professor and Gilligan are making two big dining room tables? Is Eko building a mess hall and not a church? Christmas dinner? Ana summons up her courage to ask Sayid if she can talk to him alone. Charlie spills that he already knows about Henry, so Ana shows both of them the crude map to the balloon Gale drew for her. Nice. Sayid’s got some frigging grody thumbnails… He asks her if Jack and Locke know about this. “Jack and Locke are a little too busy worrying about Locke and Jack.”
Charlie likes that one, and the three of them head off to find the balloon. Later on in the jungle they come across one of the landmarks noted on the map. Sayid is hardly optimistic, pointing out that just because the map is accurate doesn’t mean that it’s leading them to a balloon. “Maybe not, but at least we’re on the right island,” quips Ana.
Charlie likes this one too. As they walk away, Charlie asks Ana if she’s checking out his bum… she’s not, she’s checking out his gun. She tells him he should give it to someone who knows how to use it. (hey, he knows enough to have killed Ethan with one) As Charlie recalls, the last time she had a gun she murdered someone. Sayid comes over, and Charlie starts to hand the gun to Ana… only to pull it away at the last second and hand it to Sayid. Psyche!
Charlie likes his joke the best.



On the beach, Sun and Kate are waiting on the results. Kate tells Sun she’s taken a pregnancy test before, but doesn’t share the results. Maybe that’s why she killed her step-real-dad?? Sun thanks Kate for not asking any questions, and Kate… doesn’t ask any questions. Sun’s pregnant. They go and double check with Jack, who tells them the test is accurate. Sun asks to keep it quiet, and explains that her reasons for not wanting to tell Jin yet are complicated. “As complicated as Jin being the last person on the island to find out you spoke English?” asks Jack. He tells her he’s no expert (as in he didn’t know his wife was cheating on him?), but that she should tell Jin everything, the whole truth. I think he’s talking indirectly to Kate here as well, if she tells him the whole truth about herself, he’ll take down the wall he put up between them. He doesn’t take his own advice when Kate asks him if everything is okay, though.

Flashback – Great shot of Sun’s reflection in a window, set over the Seoul skyline at sunset. Jae appears next to her. She tells him what the doctor told her, and that she was glad for it. When she reveals her plan to leave Jin and move to America, he tells her she can’t run away from her life. “And Jin? Is he my life?”
Again it seems there’s something between these two. hmmmm...

Nighttime in the jungle, and Charlie’s sleeping while Ana and Sayid sit by the fire. This has to be tough for her. She tells Sayid that people don’t like her, – c’mon, if you’re an actress you should know not to read the message boards! – and that she’s given up trying to get people to like her. “I am what I am (and that’s all that I yam!)."
“But you, you got a good reason to hate me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I did.”
It wasn’t Ana that killed Shannon, says Sayid, it was them. “…and once we find out he is one of them, then something will have to be done.”
The next morning, Sayid is watching over a sleeping Ana, and she wakes as Charlie arrives with some mangos. It starts to rain (oh shit.) so they move out, and shortly thereafter come across the clearing on the map where the balloon supposedly crashed. There’s no large smiley balloon in sight. It looks like a trap, and it’s raining. They decide to search a little more thoroughly before condemning Henry. Possibly a tragic error in judgment here.

On the beach, under a clear blue sky, Bernard is trying to catch some oysters to find a pearl for Rose (he could give her a whole necklace of pearls without involving any oysters at all ...except maybe as an appetizer?) Total cheesy-sitcom-couple-situation-comedy-storyline here. Here comes Sawyer, calling Jin “daddy-o” and “papa-san”. Bernard catches on, as we hear he and Sawyers conversation thru Jin’s ears (it's just played backwards). It seems that to Koreans, all English speakers sound like the little man from another place from Twin Peaks. Good to know. Okay, I can usually figure out Sawyer’s nickname reasoning, but calling Bernard “Suzy”? Does anyone get that?

Awww, Jin’s replanting Sun’s garden. She finds him there, “fixing a mistake.” He needs her, he can’t talk to anyone, he can’t understand them. “I need you, Sun.”
She tells him she’s knocked up, and he’s overjoyed! She still needs to tell him something. Did she sleep with her tutor after all?

Flashback – Sun’s walkin’ the dog, and the doc from the fertility clinic pulls up next to her. He tells her that it’s not her, it’s Jin who’s infertile. He was afraid of what would have happened if he told the type of man who worked for her father he was impotent. He “…would burn my practice to the ground.” (Nice subtitling here… “you’re husband” rather than ”your husband”. D’oh!)

Back in the garden Jin wants to know how she could be pregnant if he’s been shooting blanks. Sun swears to him that she’s never been with another man, and that’s the truth. “Then it’s a miracle!” He embraces Sun, and it looks like the Eagles were right… you can’t hide those lyin’ eyes.

You poor bastard, Jin. They rebuild the garden together while discussing baby names. Jin wants to tell everyone, and she tells him Kate, Jack, and Sawyer know. “Daddy-o”, Jin gets it now, and tells her Bernard knows too. He gets up to go, but Sun wants to spend some time alone up here before she goes back to camp. Testing the new boundaries? She surprises both of them by telling him she loves him as he’s walking away, and he stops to give her a kiss and tell her, “I love you” in English. Sun holds her belly and smiles, but do I still see a little lyin’ in those eyes?

Henry’s reading The Brothers K in the cell. Jack comes in and Henry reads aloud, “Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those whom they have slain.”
So what’s the difference? Either way you end up dead, Jack tells him. “That’s the spirit!” This Henry is one creepy guy. Jack invites him out of the cell (idiot) for some Dharma Initiative Breakfast O’s. Locke’s a little stunned to see that Jack has let Henry out. He asks them what the computer is for, to which Jack replies, “nothing.” Henry is shocked that they aren’t more curious about everything around them. Jack tells him to eat his breakfast. Henry assumes he’s getting this treatment for drawing the map for Ana Lucia, and tells them so, to their amazement.

“Wow, you guys have some real trust issues, don’t you?

“Of course, if I was one of them, these people that you seem to think are your enemies, what would I do? Well, there’d be no balloon, so I’d draw a map to a real secluded place… like a cave, or some underbrush… a good place for a trap, an ambush. And when your friends got there a bunch of my people would be waiting for them. And then they’d use them to trade for me.

“I guess it’s a good thing I’m not one of them, huh?



“You guys got any milk?”

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alexandra the great?

Baby Aaron won’t stop crying, causing Claire to wake Locke up in a panic. Aaron is burning up and he has a rash. She wants to bring him to Jack, who’s taking a shift in the hatch. - so has he been pressing the button? – Locke tells Claire to stay put, she shouldn’t be walking through the jungle at night, he’ll go get Jack. Wouldn’t want Claire finding Henry down there… A short time later in the swan station, Locke wakes Jack, telling him the baby has a fever (And the only prescription is… more cowbell!). Jack tells him Henry hasn’t made a sound all night, and heads out to check on the baby. Locke settles in on the couch.

Topside, the baby is still crying… and Rousseau is there behind Claire. Claire backs off with Aaron, telling Danielle to stay away. “He’s infected, isn’t he?”
Danielle tells her the baby is sick, and then a look of understanding crosses her face. “You don’t remember, do you?”

Flashback – an alarm is sounding – an airplane mobile spins above a crib – small stainless steel fridge – it’s full of vials – Claire’s knitting a blue baby bootie (say that five times fast) – someone taking the cap off a canteen – teenage girl with dark hair and blue eyes (Alex?) – syringe – injecting into a pregnant belly – Claire and Rousseau fighting – the scratches on Danielle’s arm –

Back to the present – Kate rushes up and chases off Danielle. She asks Claire what she said to her.
“She said there’s something wrong with him.”

L O S T

Jack makes a diagnosis of roseola, a typical baby virus Aaron should get over soon. Claire tells him Danielle told her he was infected. There’s no infection, Jack replies, they’ve been on the island for two months and no one’s gotten sick. “Rousseau is crazy.”
He breaks out some bedside manner to try and make her feel better, and tells her he’ll be back soon to check on him. After being played for a fool by Sawyer, it looks like Kate is back into Jack now. She tells Claire, “If something was wrong, Jack would know.”
Claire’s not convinced, so the next morning she and Kate find Hurley and Libby on the beach playing with Vincent. Claire asks if Libby’s a shrink, and if she could help people remember things. “It depends on what you need to remember.” – does it really? Weird talk for a shrink. maybe it really depends on what Libby doesn’t want her to remember? – Kate and Claire tell Libby what happened to Claire and Charlie, and about Ethan. Kate says, “When Jack and I found Charlie he was hanging from a tree… by his neck!”
That line really cracked me up for some reason… Claire wants Libby to help her regain her lost memories in the hopes that it will reveal the cause of Aaron’s sickness.

Under the hatch, Locke and Jack are looking in on Henry. Jack asks if he has to go to the bathroom. He doesn’t, but he’s looking forward to telling Jack when he does have to. Locke tosses a copy of The Brothers Karamazov on the makeshift bed. “Dostoevsky – you don’t have any Stephen King?” – who is probably tickled pink right now… they’ve gotta have him write an episode. Locke lets him know their library is a little outdated. (but it ain’t.) Back in the kitchen, Locke starts to do the dishes and asks Jack if he knew that Hemingway was jealous of Dostoevsky? Hemingway didn’t think he could get out of Dostoevsky’s shadow. “Kinda sad, really.”
He asks what their long term plan is for the war in Iraq… Henry. I meant Henry. Jack gets all bitchy and snippy, and says they don’t have a long term plan for the button but they keep pushing it (well, isn’t that the long term plan for the button?). Until they know the truth from Gale they have to keep doing what they’re doing. But if Locke has a better idea, let’s hear it.
“You guys could let me go”, Henry yells from the armory. Heh heh heh…thin walls.

On the beach Sun is watching Aaron as Libby puts Claire into a trance, using a weird accent. She tells Claire to visualize herself when she was pregnant and think about what she sees.

Flashback – voiceover “we don’t want him to get sick” – alarm – fridge – vials of CR 4-81516-23 42 – Alex? – Mobile with a pooh pillow under it – someone behind a door – needle – an ultrasound being performed, the monitor showing a baby in the womb – Alex saying “wake up” – injecting belly – flash from the “dream” last season when she thought someone poked her (so Ethan was doing it all along, and she just woke once? He must have been drugging her too) –

Now it’s back to normal and Claire’s in a doctor’s office looking room getting an exam. She tells him she’s going to L.A. and he tells her that third trimester air travel isn’t usually recommended. He understands when she explains that she’s going there to give the baby up for adoption. The doc heads toward the fridge/medicine cabinet we’ve seen in the flashes. It’s locked, but he’s got the key on his handy Dharma keychain. There’s also a Dharma bottle on top of the ultrasound machine, and a painting on the wall behind it that looks an awful lot like an abstract version of something you’d normally find in an OB/GYN office… He opens up the fridge to get the medicine for the baby then turns around… and it’s Ethan!

He tells her not to worry, that she’s just going to feel a little pinch.

– alarms – inject – Alex? – Claire drinking from a canteen – knitting the bootie – fridge – CR 4-81516-23 42 vials – belly injecting – log in the jungle – mobile (are they little oceanic planes?) – ethan smiling –

Claire snaps out of the trance and freaks out.
“I saw Ethan! It was Ethan!” She tells Kate and Libby that Ethan drugged her and was giving her an exam. She asks Kate to help her find the room they had her in so she can find the medicine they were using for Aaron. Kate agrees while Eko chops down trees.

Under the hatch we get a good view of the entire mural as Eko enters. - At the very top there’s a black face with a white face to the left of it, and what’s either the black rock or whatever Desmond was racing around the world on under them. Some type of ship with a sail. Under that is what looks like a typhoon, or a wormhole, or maybe just scribbly circles. Next to it are a few upside down stick figures, and the one on the bottom is surrounded by red. The same red that the floor of the corridor Eko is walking in on is painted. The “wormhole” looks like it turns into a net over a house at the bottom of the mural. There’s a blue arrow pointing up from that house past another house to a white fish with black stripes(?) in a blue patch next to the white head. - Henry is washing up in the bathroom, and Jack joins him when he hears Eko calling, pulling the door closed behind them. He tells Henry to keep silent. Eko finds Locke replacing a light bulb, and asks if he can borrow a saw (He’s gotta be building a church). He glances over and sees the bedding and book in the gun closet. Eko knows something’s up.

On the beach, Kate is all business as she tries to get a gun from Sawyer. She tells him what they need it for, and is having none of his small talk. Kate, or “Thelma”, doesn’t really believe Claire, but she wants to protect her. Awwww. “Alright, whadda ya want: 9MM or a rifle?”
Sun, while trying to talk Claire out of going, asks if she’s sure she wants to do this, and that phrase triggers more memories for Claire.

– log - Ethan saying “You need to be sure” – alarms – mobile, and the thing the planes are circling looks like the shape from threshold, or the thing DeGroot was playing with in the orientation video – Alex says “you need to get out of here” – exam room full of surgeons (six of them, 2 women and 4 men?) – Alex chloroforming Claire – syringe - belly – canteen – drinking from the canteen –

Now it’s back to normal and Claire’s all fucked up on the exam table. Ethan injects her with the CR 4-81516-23 42 juice and then leads her to a surprise down the hall. They pass an escape hatch, and the dharma logo with a caduceus in it painted on the wall.

It’s the Dharma hospital, the real St. Elsewhere. (uh oh… snowglobe?) Ethan opens the door to a baby blue nursery, fully stocked with stuffed animals and toys. And an abacus. Claire looks around in doped up amazement, then gets serious and asks about Charlie. Ethan says he’s fine; he let him go back to the camp. She melts back into wonder, and asks where everything came from. Ethan gets the line of the night, “Well, I’d love to explain everything to you Claire, but I’m afraid it would be a little overwhelming right now.”
She turns on the mobile, and yep, its four little Oceanic planes with a silver star type thing in the center. So Oceanic is connected with Dharma for sure? I’m not sure what the song is, (now I am, thanks Cax and Peggy - 'catch a falling star'; the same song that Claire had asked the adopting couple to sing to the baby. It was special because her dad sang it to her growing up. or it was the only lullaby the person in charge of implanting memories knew? obviously a big clue there.) but the mobile is really reminding me of the St. Elsewhere snowglobe here. A familiar gruff voice calls Ethan out to the hallway. The voice asks what happened, Ethan was supposed to make the list then bring her in. He tells the voice he had no choice, they knew he wasn’t a passenger on the plane. We see the owner of the voice, and it looks like a clean-shaven Zeke to me. Huh? Shot of the shadow cast by the mobile looks almost Tim Burton-ish.
“What am I supposed to tell him?” hmmm… Zeke’s not in charge? Is 'him' Henry? “You know what he’s gonna do when he finds out. Damnit, Ethan.” It sounds like this isn’t the first time Ethan has fucked up. Zeke looks in at Claire and pulls the door shut.



- alarm – fridge – vials – mobile – canteen – drinking canteen – bootie – belly – injection – Alex – log – hand on knee – ethan –

is part of this a metaphor for what the losties have really been thru? Claires “real” memories trying to break through? is this giving us a rough timeline of the sequence of events leading up to the plane "crash"?

here's the order in which claire sees the 'flashes':

- alarm – fridge – vials – mobile – canteen – drinking canteen – bootie – belly – injection – Alex – log – hand on knee – ethan –

what i'm trying to say is that each of these visions/sounds represents a stage in our losties 'evolution':

the alarm sounds due to 'the incident', or something like a biological WWIII

the fridge represents the losties cryogenically frozen; maybe years before the incident, or possibly some kind of failsafe measure at the time of the 'incident'

the vials are part of the life extension project, which i think has to do with the crionics above. some type of serum (not necessarily CR 4-81516-23 42) is used to revive the popsicle people

the plane mobile represents the implanted memories of the cryo subjects, the reason behind them all appearing on the island is the 'plane crash'. the silver star in the center represents a kind of collective conciousness, maybe the mind of the programmer responsible for implanting their memories; the reason for the character overlap - six degrees of separation style - in the flashbacks. do four planes mean anything? if it is all part of some scientific plan to repopulate the world after a catastrophe, it would make sense to have more than one project running. four sets of clones... the others can train and replace at will. okay... i'm getting out there.

the canteen is the islands water supply

claire drinking from the canteen, she said it tasted sour and this was most likely how ethan was drugging her - so the islands water supply is tainted, what for, i don't know - maybe it's just tainted from the incident, maybe something else to keep them healthy?

the baby bootie represents hope that the world will live on

the pregnant belly is, well, a kid. an uncontaminated test subject. a successful healthy pregnancy (ultrasound), may be very rare now? so would having to give up your child have something to do with this as well? i don't know why, but we have michael with walt, claire with aaron, kate and her dad, locke and his, etc...

the injection is the others search for a cure, at any cost

and alex is the first (or only?) successful result. they need a male now?

I’m not sure about the rest, maybe it’s not important? Or is it? I'm probably way off base anyway... but it's fun.

Claire snaps to as Kate arrives and says goodbye to Aaron before they head out. While tracking Rousseau, Kate tells Claire Rousseau’s story, which Danielle had told her on the hike to the back rock. Claire asks what happened to the rest of the people that were with the French chick, and Kate hesitates, not wanting Claire to worry more about Aaron’s “infection”. Danielle herself pops up and lays it on the line. She killed them all because they were infected (infected with the disease that destroyed the rest of the world?) Claire tells Danielle that she is remembering what happened, that she was the one that scratched Danielle, and she remembers a teenage girl where she was being held captive. She wants Rousseau to lead her there, and Danielle agrees to take her to the scene of their struggle. The mention of someone that could be Alex seems to have given her some hope.

On the beach, Eko and Jack are talking over the water supply. You notice a lot of conversations in this show take place by the “water cooler”? Eko knows about Henry – Locke didn’t have to tell him – and in exchange for keeping Jack’s secret, he wants some alone time with Mr. Gale. Pretty slick, Eko.

The women arrive at the clearing where Danielle and Claire tussled. Claire wants to continue to St. Elsewhere, and so does Danielle. Unfortunately neither of them knows where it is. Rousseau is desperate to find Alex, and gets rough with Claire when she realizes she isn’t sure where the place is. Kate pulls the gun on her. The crazy French chick lets Claire go, and walks right into the pistol. “Go ahead. Please. Do it.”
Kate puts the gun down and runs after Claire. Danielle slowly follows and further ahead Claire comes across the log she’s been seeing in the flashes.

- Claire unconscious in the clearing – Alex, “wake up” – ultrasound – belly – inject – canteen – log – exam room with surgeons –

Ethan walks in as Claire finishes knitting her first blue baby bootie. He offers to take her out for a walk. Outside, Claire’s tripping, both metaphorically and physically… they take a seat on the log. Ethan hands the Dharma canteen to Claire, and she takes a drink. “It’s really sour!”
He tells Claire he’s going to miss her. She needs to go back to the camp once the baby is born because there’s not enough vaccine for the both of them. She asks what if she wants to see her baby later, and he tells her she can go back to the camp now if she wants to, that it has to be her choice to give them the baby. “We’re good people, Claire, we’re a good family.”
Creepy. Another cool matrix shot to reveal present Claire watching flashback Claire and Ethan on the log. She knows she’s close now. Kate and Danielle catch up, and Claire uncovers the entrance after a bit of searching. They open it up, and it looks deserted down there. They descend, and find it is deserted down there.
Kate finds a convenient utility box with some dharma flashlights, and heads off to find the fuse box. Claire and Danielle make their way down to the nursery, which looks to have been cleaned out in a hurry. There are still some boxes and a rocking chair in there. Kate gets the lights working, and explores a nearby locker room. She opens up a locker to find “Other” clothes and Zeke’s hat. (there’s writing on the inside of the locker door – I can make out 342 0716 ROM F-the rest I’m not sure- ool? oot?) At the bottom of the locker she finds a box containing Dharma theatrical glue (these guys had all their bases covered, no?) and Zeke’s beardo beard! He must have some extras. In the nursery, Claire finds the bootie she knitted.

- alarm – wake up – knitting – “dr” ethan injecting – the ultrasound being performed, but this time the monitor is blank (like when jack looked at Michael and Walts IM?) – vials – injection -

“Wake up.”

Alex wakes Claire from her drug-induced stupor. She gets her out of bed and shows her the exam room down the hall, which is now filled with the Others in surgical garb. Alex tells Claire she has to quietly get out of there now, because they’re planning on cutting the baby out of her shortly, killing her in the process. Claire doesn’t believe this and starts to call to Ethan, so Alex is forced to knock her out with some chloroform.
“You’ll thank me for this one day.”

- alarm – Claire coming to in the jungle clearing – fridge – vials – ethan feeling the baby kick – ethan – syringe – belly – injection – aaron

Claire snaps out of it in the nursery, and races down the hall to the fridge in the exam room. She finds it empty, and demands answers from Danielle, who has none. Claire flashes back to waking up in the jungle clearing. The alarm is blaring in the distance – quarantine breach? – as Claire groggily gets to her feet and starts shouting for Ethan, telling him that she’s sure she wants them to take the baby. This is the second time she has betrayed Aaron. Will she do it a third time before the cock crows twice? Danielle emerges from the jungle and tries to shush Claire as a few Other torches start heading their way. They struggle, and Claire scratches the shit out of Danielle’s arm, giving her no choice but to knock her out with the butt of her rifle. Back in the exam room now, things finally come into focus for Claire. Rousseau tells her that she carried her on her back to the camp, and left her where the losties could find her. She tells Claire that she’s not the only one who didn’t find what she was looking for, and turns to leave.

A while later the three women are marching back through the jungle. Danielle starts to go her separate way, but Claire has something to tell her first. She asks if her baby was a girl, and Danielle says yes, she her name was Alexandra. Claire tells her it was a girl with blue eyes that saved her – just like Rousseau did herself. “She wasn’t like the others, she was… good.”
A teary Danielle tells Claire that she’s sorry Claire didn’t find what she was looking for, and that she hopes the baby isn’t infected. “But if it is… I hope you know what must be done.”
Yep, always leave ‘em laughing, Danielle. She’s awesome.

In the swan station, Locke is doing the dishes again. There are some Dharma water bottles there that remind me of the one that Desmond handed Jack during their talk in the stadium – shades of the canteen from this episode. Jack shows up with Eko and tells Locke that he knows about Henry. Locke’s not too surprised. Before letting him in with the prisoner, Jack warns Eko to watch what he says; Henry is smart and curious. Locke reminds him not to tell Gale what the alarm is for.
“What is it for?” asks Eko.
Locke is stymied and Jack chuckles in the background, sipping from the water bottle.
Henry just about shits himself when this huge black dude is locked in the closet with him, but Eko just gently introduces himself and asks permission to sit. He asks a few questions and seems to be playing good cop/bad cop all by himself. Great acting. He abruptly switches tones and tells Henry the story of his first night on the beach, when two others tried to snatch him and he crushed their skulls with a rock. He tells Gale that he needs him to know “…how sorry I am for this. I need you to know that I am on a righteous path now, and that I regret my actions. I ask you for your forgiveness.” (is there some religious significance to him confessing his mortal sins to this man? A necessary part of redemption, like a 12 step program or something?)
Henry asks why he is telling him all this, and Eko says he needed to tell someone, while drawing his knife. Is he going to kill Henry now? Holy shit - is he going to kill himself? Is that why he confessed?

Nope… just chopping off the last reminder of the men he killed, two little dreads from his goatee. I wonder if Eko’s wallet says “bad motherfucker” on it?
Henry certainly believes it does.

On the beach Aaron is recovering. Claire has a heart to heart with him (I admit, I was afraid the baby was gonna start speaking perfect English here or something. “Mother, this show has jumped the shark.” Thank god he didn’t) She confesses to him that she was willing to give him up. She doesn’t mention that she did this twice… but now she realizes that the two of them were meant to be together, and she loves him so much.

In the armory/cell Locke is getting played by Henry. He tells Locke he overheard him talking to Jack about Hemingway living in the shadow of Dostoyevsky’s genius, and asks which Locke thinks he is, the genius or the one in the shadows of the genius.
“I just don’t understand why you let the doctor call the shots.”
(Oh come on, Locke, you’re smarter than this.)
“No one calls the shots. Jack and I make decisions together.”
(Okay, maybe you’re not.)
Gale dismissively agrees, and Locke leaves to do the dishes again. He flips out and slides everything on the counter to the floor with a crash. Henry hears this in the cell and smiles to himself, as Locke stews alone in the kitchen.



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