i'll send an s.o.s. to the world...

Rose is stocking the pantry on the beach with some D.I. green beans and carrots. Bernard is trying to help, but he just can’t understand why she’s not curious as to where the food came from. She was apparently raised never to question her blessings. “I was raised to question piles of food with weird labels that just fall out of the sky, Rose.”
As all kids should be raised, Bernard. After all, you never know when that situation might come up. He’s in culture shock, and still can’t believe how complacent everyone has become on this side of the island. He doesn’t understand why they’ve given up. “Given up? On what?”
On being rescued Rose, jeez…

Under the hatch the clock is ticking down – because that’s what this clock does. Ticks down. Then ticks down some more. Locke’s sitting at the computer desk, trying to recreate the briefly blacklit map of the hatches on the island that he saw illuminated on the inside of the blast door pinning him to the ground. He remembers the ? in the center, and is working on counting how many stations he saw as the timer begins to loudly trumpet the one minute countdown. He pays it no mind – is he so engrossed he doesn’t hear it, or has he been doing this every 108 minutes since Henry told him he didn’t press the button, daring himself to trust Henry, and to try the same (or is it more a question of talking himself out of trusting him every 108 and pressing it)? - Jack pops his head in. “Hey. You gonna get that?”

Locke does. Jack finds Ana Lucia on the couch reading an atlas. He asks about Henry, and she tells him Henry’s gone the past two days refusing food and water, and refusing to speak a word. Jack’s tired of waiting, so he and Ana go in the cell. Is Henry sleeping when they walk in or is he looking intently at something on the floor… maybe using his feet to unscrew something? He’s still not talking, which is fine with Jack, as he's never been that good at the whole bedside manner thing. He changes Henry’s bandages while talking about that idea Henry had to lure them into a trap so a trade could then be worked out.
“Pretty good idea, Henry. And since you are one of them, I thought now might be a good time to use it. I’m going out to the line that we’re not supposed to cross and telling them that we’ve got you. And if they want you back it’s gonna cost them.
And when we get Walt back, you might just have been worth all the trouble.”
Henry snorts as Jack turns to leave.

“They’ll never give you Walt.”



Flashback – Rose is stuck in some snow and Bernard approaches her car with some suggestions. This is their first meeting… and the second time in two weeks a character has said “All due respect…” You think maybe the writers have been watching the new season of the Sopranos? He gets behind the car to help her rock it out – he can do this. He does, but ends up facedown in slush. Rose gets out of the car (New York plates) and they make some smalltalk before remembering to introduce themselves. After much hesitation on both their parts, due to shyness I think, Rose gets up the nerve to ask him out for a cup of coffee. Of course he agrees. We do kinda know they end up together.

Back at the pantry, Rose is tempting Hurley with a box of Dharma Initiative Dharmalars (huh?), but Hurley’s on a strict fish and water diet. Sounds yummy. Bernard stomps up, a man on a mission. He wants Hurley and Libby to meet him in five minutes, and bring along Jin and Sun, Jenkins, and that frogurt guy, Neil. He tells Rose he has an idea and takes off, recruiting Richard, Bret and Bro? on the way.

Under the hatch, Jack is busy packing for his trip to meet the others. Ana asks to come, but after sneaking a look at Locke in the computerdome, Jack decides it would be wiser for Ana to stay there. We know what happened the last time Locke and Henry were left alone. She hands over the gun with the condition that he not go alone, he needs to find someone to bring with him. Jack agrees.
Kate and Sawyer are doing some weird shit on the beach - picking barnacles or something? - when Doctor Giggles comes over. Kate looks happy to see him. Jack asks her to come with him to talk to “our friend with the beard” about a trade. Sawyer assumes Jack wants him to come to this prisoner exchange as well, since he’s got the gun. But he’s not invited, just Kate, and Jack’s already got his own gun. (but thanks for offering.)

Bernard is rallying the troops - "Two months we’ve been on this island…we’ve got a food pantry…people are taking showers in your hatch. Have you forgotten we all crashed on this island? It’s like none of you want to go home again.”
He asks why they’re not doing anything about it. Hurley says they have, “Dude, we like built a raft! …but it got blown up.”
Bernard’s plan is to construct a huge sign on the beach, one that could be seen by a satellite in orbit – or by a plane like the one that just dropped the food. “We want to make damn sure that they know we’re here; that they know about us.”
He has everyone in the crowd nodding in agreement, but then Rose chimes in. “Maybe we should speak to Jack about this first.”
Jack’s not the president, he’s only a doctor, Bernard points out. Rose, much to everyone’s amusement, rebuts with the fact that Bernard is a dentist. Remember to spay and neuter your husbands, people.

Ouch. He takes her aside and explains that he’s just trying to do something so they can get back to their life.
“Well the only thing you’re doing is giving these people false hope.”
Everyone looks like they’re in one of those ‘wanna get away?” commercials (most of them probably have been…).
Bernard heads back to the group; he’s got a sign to build.

Flashback to five months later (since the last flashback, not the part on the island where Rose just cut off his balls), and Rose and Bernard are having dinner at a nice restaurant overlooking Niagara Falls. Rose is amazed by the natural beauty surrounding them, but Bernard is distracted. He’s busy trying to motion someone over to the table, prompting Rose to ask what god would have to do to get his attention? I dunno, but Bernard knows how to get Rose's; all it takes is two violinists at the table and getting down on one knee. The 56 year old bachelor tells her he’d always dreamed of meeting someone like her, but had given up hope that he ever would. “I know it’s crazy, we just met five months ago…but five months is long enough because I knew after five minutes. Rose, I love you. Will you marry me?”
“Bernard, I’m dying.”
The band plays on while she tells him she’s sick and dying (did these guys play on the Titanic, too?). He has to ask them to leave, then Rose explains; her sickness had been in remission, but now it’s back and she only has a year, maybe a little longer.
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“Are you sure?”
Bernard takes her hands. “Oh, I’m sure.”
“Yes.”

Eko and Charlie ARE building a church, I knew it. Bernard shuffles over. He can’t understand why everyone is building something on the island, while he is the only one working on getting them saved. “People are saved in different ways, Bernard.”
Bernard tells Eko he liked him better when he just hit people with his stick.
“I like you just the way you are,” Charlie assures Eko.

Under the hatch, Locke is still trying to work out the map he saw. He gets up to tell Ana that he needs to talk with Henry. She tells him Jack has the gun, so the door stays closed, but they can talk through the door if he wants to. Does he want to ask about the map? I think if he got some alone time, he would. As it is, he has to shout through the door for Henry to hear, meaning that Ana can hear everything too. “Henry… did you enter the numbers? Did you push the button or not?”
Locke is getting frustrated. “Henry? I need to know, I want you to answer me. Answer me!!!”
Henry sits silently, smiling in his cell.

Craig, Frogurt, and at least a few others have already abandoned Bernard’s project. A few more disappear after he explains the black rocks they need are at a lava field about a half mile into the jungle, and while everyone is hauling the rocks from there, he’ll be busy sketching out the 40 foot letters in the sand.

Flashback – Rose and Bernard are honeymooning in the middle of the outback. She’s convinced they’re lost, but Bernard knows where he’s going. He’s set up a ten thousand dollar meeting for Rose with some kind of faith healer, Isaac of Uluru. He hands a stunned Rose the brochure. There’s a copy of the National Flash newspaper inside, touting the ‘winning lottery numbers’ and your ‘personal horoscope’. The front page story is “MIRACLE IN THE OUTBACK”

- The picture in Isaac’s pamphlet is of Ayers rock, but it looks a lot like the picture hanging on the wall of the swan station. Maybe just a similar rock? A place of power… the picture in the swan station could maybe be somewhere on the island itself? either way, it's definitely there representing a 'place of power' -
Isaac was born in 1949, and has been a spiritual healer for over 25 years.
The brochure reads:
“Isaac’s Healing Powers:
Spiritual healing is effected by the act of attuning to the life force energy by meditation or prayer
so this energy can be channeled via the agency of a trained spiritual healer
to any person, place, situation, or life form, whether present or not,
via contact by the hands or by the projection of loving thoughts in order to have a beneficial effect on the whole, at all levels of being.
Distinctions of race, class, gender, customs, belief, philosophy or religions are irrelevant
No affirmation of religious faith is required.
Spiritual healing may be given to any person, place, situation, or life form for any illness, injury, problem, or circumstance, at any time.”

- well, that explains the island and why the Hanso foundation and the DeGroots were so interested; is Walt the only person born with the proper gifts to channel the energy of this island? That’s why they’ll never give him back? -

Rose is upset. She “didn’t ask for this!”, and has already made her peace with what is happening to her. Bernard hasn’t. “I can’t just do nothing Rose. That’s not me. That’s not who I am. I have to try. Will you try for us? For me.”

On the beach, Bernard, or Norma Rae (why is Sawyer always calling him a girls name? scrubs reference? Or is it his gaydar?) is lobbying unsuccessfully for Sawyers help. He gives up, and walks over to Rose at the watering hole. He wants to know what’s wrong, why she won’t support him…he’s hurt by this, all he’s trying to do is help, to just do something. Rose tells him to just let things be, he doesn’t always have to “do something.”
“If I didn’t always have to do something, you wouldn’t be here.”
So she did go to the faith healer for him?

Kate and Jack are hiking through the jungle… she finds out she was Jacks second choice, after Sayid turned him down. She shouldn’t flatter herself, he just chose her because the others already had a chance at keeping her and didn’t, so they must not want her. Or him, for that matter. They’re damaged goods. Too true? Hey, even if they don’t say it, at least they want each other. Kate sees a doll lying on the ground and moves to pick it up. Jack runs over to try and stop her, but he’s too late, and they’re both scooped up into one of the French chick’s net traps.

“Sorry.”
It’s cozy in there, and Jack is worried Danielle may not come by for a week. Kate wiggles the gun out of Jack’s pants, and takes a shot at the rope holding the net off the ground. She misses wide, and Jack gives it a try. He’s got a better angle, anyway. He surprisingly makes it on his first shot – something we don’t know about Jack and guns? – and they crash to the jungle floor below, tangled up in each other.
“Nice shot.”

At the SOS site, Bernard is nagging Jin, the only person with enough patience to have made it this far. Even he has had enough by now. Bernard just wants to get Rose home. Speaking of Rose, she’s down the beach a ways, talking with Locke. She tells him Bernard is building a big sign in the sand so a satellite will see it. “The man doesn’t know the difference between an errand and a fool’s errand.”
Our button pushing Locke can certainly relate to that. She asks him what he doing out there, and he tells her that he’s done with his hatch, his fool’s errand. She tells him he’s just frustrated. “You’ll be out of that splint and running around the island in no time.”
“And yet Jack said it’d be at least four weeks.”
“But honey, you and I both know it’s not gonna take that long.”
Rose smiles at Locke knowingly, and he takes a moment to consider before returning the grin. They both look out over the sea.
Whatthefuck?!?!?!?

Flashback – Rose is in Isaac’s ‘temple’; a graveyard of crutches, wheelchairs and walkers. The walls are covered with thank you notes and postcards, letters, and photos.

Anyone we know?
Isaac enters and they sit, Rose asking how it works, does he chant or pray?
“There are certain places with great energy; spots on the earth like the one we’re above now. Perhaps this energy is geological… magnetic… or perhaps it’s something else. And when possible, I harness this energy and give it to others.”
Fucking awesome.
– so does Walt harness it and give it to The Others? This is a huge revelation, as we now know the actual secret of the island, we’ve been told outright twice tonight. It’s a place of power, like an ancient Micmac burial ground, or ley lines –
Isaac holds his hands open and places them on either side of Rose’s face for a minute before breaking away. He’s sorry, but he can’t do anything for her. -shades of Claire and her psychic - “It’s not that you can’t be healed. Like I said, there are different energies. This is not the right place for you.”
He doesn’t know where the right place would be, however. Isaac offers to return Bernard’s ten grand, but Rose tells him to keep it.
“I’m gonna tell him you fixed me.”

In the jungle, Jack and Kate are back on the trail. It’s raining, so they must be getting close, right? Kate confesses to her adventure with Claire and Danielle at the other hatch, the empty medical station. “I found some lockers, they had clothes inside, all worn and dirty and they were on hangers like costumes, ya know? And there was a makeup kit and a fake beard.”
Jack is aghast… “When were you gonna tell me this?”
She was gonna tell him once she was let back into the club. She and Hurley need some membership cards or something.
They come across the clearing, which is also the site of a rather large black rock. Jack stands in the middle of the clearing and starts yelling for the others. He has their man, and he’ll wait for them to come and talk to him about it. He knows they can hear him. He’s all yelly and stuff, but he’s rational, not quite the maniacal angry Jack from earlier in the season.

Bernard’s management skills have left him alone on the beach, filling out the enormous letters with lava rocks all by himself. Rose brings him some dinner, along with an apology for lying to him. She reveals that Isaac didn’t heal her. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not healed.”
She tells Bernard that when you’re sick the way she was, you can feel something inside you that doesn’t belong. After the crash, she didn’t feel it anymore. “It’s this place.”
She deceived him so that he wouldn’t spend the time they had left trying to do something. Bernard asks if it could be in remission, if maybe Isaac did heal her, how can she know it’s the island?
“I know.”

Flashback – the gate at the airport in Sydney. Bernard gets up to go take a piss or something, and Rose is shuffling through her purse. She drops a bottle of pills, and they roll up against the wheel of a wheelchair. Locke picks them up and hands them to Rose.

She thanks him as he wheels away. (that explains the look they shared that was driving me frigging crazy!)

“Trust me. I know”
Once Bernard comes to the realization that Rose doesn’t want to leave the island, that she feels she can’t without risking getting sick again, he holds her tight and starts to cry. “We won’t ever leave, Rose.”
He’d offer to take down the sign, but he didn’t get very far. They show an aerial shot of the SOS, and the stacks of rocks along with what Bernard has managed to fill in looks an awful lot like a frowny face.

Locke is back under the hatch, where Ana’s telling him that she pressed his button. “It’s not my button.”
He settles back in next to the button that is not his, and gets to work on remembering the map again. He lost his faith for a little while, but speaking with Rose reminded Locke that the island has a purpose for him, and he believes that it showed the map to him alone for a reason… it also healed him, so the least he can do for it is push a button every 108 minutes.

The return of the musical montage! Otis Redding's 'These Arms of Mine' - which was playing in the car when Bernard met Rose - we see Eko and Charlie hard at work on the church – Jin lying next to Sun, caressing her belly – Sun has a horrible look on her face, probably thinking about the whole truth – Hurley and Libby are entertaining themselves with shadow puppets (an old psych ward game, perhaps?) – Sawyer feeding Vincent (Vincent!), probably as a way of making amends to the viewers that couldn’t believe he would squish a harmless tree frog ; ladies, Sawyer loves the animals! – Rose and Bernard cuddling by a campfire.

Kate and Jack have their own campfire in the clearing. She wants to know how long Jack is gonna wait. “’til I get my voice back, then I’m gonna yell some more.”
Kate tells him she’s sorry for kissing him, and Jack tells her he’s not sorry it happened. They lean in, and just as it’s about to happen again they hear someone crashing through the nearby trees. They see a torch headed their way, but before it's bearer can reach them, he collapses facedown. They rush to the body and roll it over.



“Michael?”