heaven is just a shot away

After some catching up, we see a painting of John the Baptist doing his thing to Christ, with a dove flying out from the sun. A lil’ Charlie in bunny slippers comes down the stairs, walking pretty damn slowly for a kid on Christmas morning. Lil' Liam is opening up his presents, unwrapping a huge Voltron. (I was always more of a Grandizer/Gaiking kid myself.) Charlie can’t find any presents with his name on it, they’re all for Liam. I think anyone with a brother or sister has had this dream before. Charlie’s mom, Megan, comes in and unveils his present, a stand up piano. She tells him, “you’re special, love. (there it is again, everyone’s parents call them special… kinda like in real life, huh?) Someday you’re gonna get us out of here. All of us.”
- The family doesn’t look like they’re doing too badly though… does she mean Charlie’s gonna end up saving everyone from the island in season 8? Lil’ C takes his place at the piano, and the Liam under the tree is now all grown up and wearing a diaper, still playing with Voltron. There’s a white dove ornament hanging on the tree next to him. “You can’t save your family if you don’t play.”
Now it’s a grown up Charlie sitting at the piano (still in lil' C’s pj's) Dad the butcher is chopping meat (like Fred Flintstone driving around with bald feet), telling Charlie he’s saving no one with his music, that he needs to learn a trade. He’s standing at a butchers block, and there’s a freezer with some hacked up baby doll parts behind him. Old Liam is on the couch now, still in his bubbies, playing with his Voltron. Dad chops the head off a baby doll – he looks more Hawaiian than British, but he’s bald like Locke. Mom and Liam implore Charlie to save them, and suddenly he’s back on the island playing the piano - now with a baby crying inside it - in the surf. He tries to open it with his fate-taped fingers, but it doesn’t budge. He’s distracted by something huge moving thru the trees in the jungle, and when he turns back to the piano, it and the baby inside have washed out to sea. He wakes up and frantically starts searching for Claire and Aaron (Jack woke up kinda frantically at the start of the last episode, too). He finds them on the beach with Locke, and backs into the shadows of the jungle before they see him.

L O S T

Claire’s writing in her diary when Charlie brings over some nappies he made for Aaron. He apologizes again, but Claire tells him she needs her space for now. Telling Aaron to take care of his mum, he walks off.
Flashback to Charlie looking at a newborn baby girl in the hospital. His sister in law, Karen, greets him. She’s named the baby Megan, after their mom. Charlie is touched. He makes an excuse for Liam not being there. He gets to his place later on, where he finds Liam on the nod. He left a lit cigarette on Charlie's prized possession, the Christmas piano. The place looks a bit like the swan station, but with Driveshaft posters on the wall. The piano has a cheesy “Drive across America” tour poster above it, and there’s a gold record on the wall. Charlie wakes Liam and puts away his gear. Liam lets him know he left him some. Charlie tells him to clean himself up and get to the hospital; he’s got a daughter named Megan and he’s “a sodding father now.”

On the beach Kate is helping Sawyer with some physical therapy. (it’s a damn shame Lost isn’t on skinemax. That would have a whole ‘nother meaning.) Hurley wants to know how well Sawyer got to know the tailies, especially Libby. Sawyer asks “jabba” if he’s got a love connection brewing - Hurley stammers a bit and trudges away. Jack and Ana walk out of the jungle together. Sawyer tells Kate it’s the third time he’s seen this, “whadda ya suppose they’re doing out there?”
Kate looks a little bit jealous.

Charlie’s playing his guitar… I thought he was gonna break a string tuning it up. I wonder if he has spare sets? ‘Cause that would suck… no cats to gut on the island either. He hears the baby crying and sees Aarons crib bobbing out in the waves, then calls for help and jumps in. He gets the crib ashore and scoops Aaron out of it, looking up to see that the beach has turned into a golden painting. His mom and Claire are there, dressed as haloed angels. They tell him the baby is in danger and only he can save him, creepily speaking over each other. A prop plane buzzes in from the left, diving into the island - this happens very quickly and on the extreme far left border - at the moment of impact, there’s a golden flash as a dove flies out from the background and over Charlie’s shoulder. Hurley emerges from the jungle dressed in robes. “Charlie? What are you doing?” Charlie wakes up to find himself standing with Aaron on the beach at night, Hurley talking to him. Claire and pretty much everyone else come running over. Claire takes Aaron from Charlie, and as he tries to tell her about his dream she slaps him and turns away.

The next day Hurley’s playing blackjack with Sawyer. Sawyer’s dealing and he’s got a six of diamonds showing. Hurley’s got a two of hearts and king of clubs. Sawyer knows to assume the dealer always has at least ten not showing, Hurley doesn’t. I hope he didn’t go to Vegas with any of his money… Sawyer points out Libby walking by with her laundry, and tells Hurley to go help her. “I’m sure you got a load you need to drop in, don’t ya jethro?”
- damn, they can get away with that?!?! heh heh heh
Charlie’s waiting for Locke outside the station door. He tells Locke he was sleepwalking the night before, and asks if he could put a good word in for him with Claire. Locke asks straight up if he’s using again, and Charlie tells him about he and Eko burning the plane and the stash. Locke doesn’t look too happy about this, but he believes Charlie. He tells him that he should just leave Claire and the baby alone for a while.

Flashback- Driveshaft is on a set, and Liam is barely conscious. They’ve completely sold out; they’re shooting a commercial for “bubbies diapers” in an oversized crib, dressed in diapers with rattles and pacifiers, dancing badly. There’s a fluffy white teddy bear in one corner, and a stuffed polar bear in the other. “You All Every Butties!” groan. I wish this part was a dream. It used to seem like Driveshaft was the second coming of Oasis, but I think that was just Charlie’s interpretation of it. Hurley’s recollection of them seems more accurate. Liam falls down, apparently not for the first time, and when Charlie refuses to go on without him because he’s family, the director fires them. His assistant looks kinda like Libby. Speaking of whom… she and Hurley are doing her laundry under the hatch. She asks if the “washer and dryer are newer than everything else in here.” (so did we, libby.) Hurley’s just happy as long as it washes clothes, although you wouldn’t know that from what he’s wearing. She starts flirting with him and he gets an odd look in his eye. Is this how women would treat him when they found out what he was worth? He asks if he knows her from somewhere. She says other than the flight, no. She remembers him because he stepped on her foot. He was the last one on the plane, sweating and wearing his headphones. I get the impression from the way she looks at him when he’s not looking that she’s lying, or at least hiding something here. Not because she’s an other though, I think she knew about his money before they were even on the plane. Was she following him around trying to set up a chance encounter? Maybe she worked for the lottery (with the woman Sawyer slept with?), or is just a gold digger who saw him on TV? Was she a doctor/patient at the same mental institution as he was? Either way, she tries on a dress to distract him from trying to remember where he knows her from. It works for now; Hurley thinks she looks “awesome.”

Eko’s marking some trees near the beach when Charlie comes over and asks what he’s doing. “I’m marking trees.” He asks why. “cause these… are the ones I like.”
Weird. I think he’s planning to build a church here. Charlie asks if he told Locke about the statue from the plane, and Eko says no, why would he do that? Charlie’s convinced the “bald wanker’ knows something. Worried about his stash? He tells Eko about his golden dream and the message of the baby needing saving. Eko asks Charlie, “What if you do need to save the baby?” Moments later, Charlie is pushing past Kate to get to Claire and Aaron. He tells Claire the baby’s in danger, and that they need to baptize it. (of course that’s how a priest would interpret the dream…) Kate's pushing Charlie away as Locke overhears him saying that they ‘need to do this, that Eko can do it.’
Very nice and creepy shot of Locke with some chill-inducing music. What is he thinking?!?

Jacks helping Ana build her shelter, and gives her a huge piece of tarp. Don’t you think it would have all been claimed by now? She wants to know why Jack did what beardo told him to do in the woods, and Jack tells her he had a gun to Kate’s head. “You hittin’ that?” She has a little more class than Sawyer, who woulda just asked if he’d a been droppin’ his load in ‘er. Still, Jack’s taken aback. Ana explains, “…plane crash, we (“we”? slip up here Ana?) both survive, nice beach. She’s hot, you’re hot, it’s what people do.” It’s what Ana wants to do.

While checking on his stash in the jungle, Charlie smashes one of the Mary full of H’s open, and holds the heroin in his hands. He flashes back to songwriting at the christmas piano as Liam walks in. (there’s a Kinks poster on the fridge – troubled rock brothers, all) Karen’s dumped him because she doesn’t trust him around the baby. After he dropped it. D'oh. Charlie tells him everything’s gonna be okay cause he’s writing a song about two brothers. 'Two brothers that should have been butchers', Liam asks?

Funny now you finally see me standing here
Funny now i'm crying in the rain
All alone I tried to be invincible
Together now (Liam joins in) we can be saved.
(yeah, sounds like a hit, Charlie...)
Liam likes it though, and needs a fix.

Back to now, and Locke catches Charlie with the H in his hand. Charlie tells him he came out there to get rid of it. I think I believe him, he knows it never would have worked out for his brother, Karen and Megan if Liam hadn’t kicked the junk, so for Charlie to get Claire and Aaron back, he knows he has to get rid of this for good. Locke doesn’t believe him though. He packs the statues away in his bag as Charlie pleads with him, telling him that the island put the statues there to test him. Locke tells him they’re there because he put them there. Charlie tells Locke he has to believe him when he says that Aaron is in danger, and Locke tells him he’s given up his right to be believed.

Later on, Locke's filling up his water bottle as Claire and Aaron come over. Locke asks “Hey, how’s our boy?” - he sounds like the creepy Terry O’Quinn stepfather of old here. Claire thinks she and Aaron would be safer if they could sleep in the hatch, but Locke tells her the alarm would keep the baby up. Does he have other reasons for not wanting her to stay down there? He offers to camp next to them on the beach for the next couple nights, and she accepts. She wants to know if he knows anything about baptisms, and tells him Charlie told her Aaron needed to be baptized, that he was in danger. He tells her baptism is a kind of spiritual insurance, so a kid can get into heaven should anything happen. Subtly working on her fears here? Locke tells her there’s no real danger (you know, besides the others, the monster, and the whole stranded on a not-so-deserted island thing), Charlie just wants to save Aaron because he cant save himself. He gets ready to go, and seems to consider telling Claire about the statues in his pack, but decides against it. That night Charlie sets a fire in the trees near the camp, apparently to distract everyone and get Sayid some screen time. Some exciting scenes of firefighting here! Charlie sneaks up behind Claire and Aaron in the camp.

Flashback- Charlie arrives home to find his christmas piano gone. Liam tells him he's sold it so he can get his family to Australia. Karen’s got an uncle there who will give him a job, and he’s gonna get into a rehab program in Sydney. He runs off to the Brixton tube station with Charlie yelling after him, “What about my family?!”
The volunteer fire brigade have gotten the flames almost completely out. Charlie snatches Aaron from the crib, but doesn’t get more than a few steps away before Claire notices and chases him down to the waters edge while crying for help. Charlie looks out of his mind (or strung out? I don’t think so, he looks more Jack/Michael crazed) telling Claire that he has to save Aaron. The bright half moon (isn't the half moon usually vertical, not horizontal?) in the distance casts no reflection on the water - reminds me of the Truman Show for some reason. Locke runs up, followed quickly by everyone else. Charlie tells Eko to tell everyone what he told him, that the baby needs to be baptized. “This is not the way.”
Locke tells him to hand the baby over, and Charlie goes off on him, telling him the baby is neither his responsibility nor his family. Locke reminds him that he’s not family either. Charlie tells Claire he’s not going to hurt Aaron and she tells him that he’s hurting her. Locke takes Aaron from Charlie's arms and hands the baby to Claire before beating the shit out of him. Everyone walks off, leaving Charlie alone and bleeding in the surf.

The next morning Jack comes by to stitch up Charlie. Charlie confesses to starting the fire, but swears he hasn’t used. Jack just wants to be sure that it wont happen again, then gets to stitching. Graphically. ow.
Eko’s checking out the charred remains from the fire, it looks like Charlie burned the area around the trees he was marking. The new church grounds, baptized by fire? Claire comes over and asks him his priestly take on baptism.
“It is said that when John the Baptist baptized Jesus the skies opened up, and a dove flew down from the sky. (the plane?) This told John something. That he had cleansed this man of all his sins; that he had freed him.”(is the island John the Baptist? - and wasn't Jesus born without sin?)
Claire hasn’t been baptized herself and is worried she and her son won’t find each other in the afterlife if Aaron is baptized. Eko’s solution is obvious, he baptizes them both. (I wonder if Walt was ever baptized?)
Under the hatch Locke is changing the combination to the armory again, after giving it to Sawyer, Jack and Kate last week. He lock(e)s the statues in there. Does he know they could come in handy at some point and is hoarding them for that, or is he being sinister? There’s no sinister music cue to say so…

That night by a fire on the beach, Charlie lifts his hood and stares alone into the distance.

L O S T

the isle of zeke

Jack and Christian Shepherd are looking over some spinal x-rays from St. Francis Medical Center West, dated November 16, 2005 (wow, a mistake). An older Italian man named Angelo and his daughter, Gabriella, are waiting expectantly. Christian says there’s no way to repair Angelo surgically, and that it would take a miracle. Which is exactly why they’re here. News of Jack’s (or Desmond's?) 'lifting it up' has spread, apparently. They’re not here so the chief of surgery can operate, they want Jack, the miracle worker. He tells them his dad is right, there’s little to no chance surgery will be successful, but he’ll try. Of course Jack will, there’s a life to be saved.

Jack wakes up in the bunk bed, in a seemingly empty swan station. He comes across Locke unconscious in the gun closet, and is surprised by a rifle toting Michael. “Stay in there, Jack!”
He’s going to get Walt, it’s a father’s right. Jack asks if he’s gonna shoot him. No, but he’ll shoot his damn computer. “That thing is not what you think it is, anyway… you don’t understand man, you don’t have any idea…”
Mike seems to have gone completely crazy by this point –like Jack was with Desmond earlier. Jack offers to help, but Michael feels he has to do this alone. (or was he told he had to come alone?)
He closes the door, locking Jack and Locke in the armory.

L O S T

Locke comes to and Jack fills him in, then wants a boost. He’s thinking what we’re all thinking; climb out thru the shaft Kate fell from. Locke was thorough though, and bolted it shut when he changed the combination. He tells Jack he’d been teaching Michael how to shoot, and then it dawns on both of them that they’re locked in the armory while the computer continues its countdown. “Better hope Sawyer shows up to get his band-aid changed.” Subtle set up there.

Sawyer’s sleeping on the beach, or at least he is until Kate chucks a banana his way to wake him up. “There are nicer ways to wake a man up, Freckles.”
Kate’s there to conveniently remind Sawyer he needs his bandages changed. (hurry up, hurry up!) She helps him up and they share a little moment before heading to the station. It looks deserted when they get there, but they hear Jack yelling from the armory. Kate takes care of the beeping countdown, entering the numbers at 3:47ish, as Sawyer unlocks the armory with Locke’s help. “right two times to 25, left two times to 29, right once to 40.” Jack and Locke -Locke reluctantly- make ready to go find Michael, and Sawyer wants to come along, although Jack objects because he’s still on antibiotics... “Good thing I’m traveling with my doctor then.”

Flashback – Jack's running tests on the old man, and has been doing so for a month already. He tells Gabriella he’s just being thorough. We find out that neither of them believes in miracles, but the daughter thinks Jacks wife must, after all she was the one he saved. She’s thorough too. It’s 4:30 in the morning, and after a bit of sexual tension between the two of them, Jack decides it’s a good time to head home. He apologizes when he gets home, and Sarah says it’s okay, “That’s the price of being a miracle worker.” She says she just had a pregnancy scare, but the test was negative. Jack asks if she wants to talk about it, but Sarah just walks away.

Outside the station door Locke’s picked up a trail, and they start to head out. Kate wants to come, and Jack snaps at her, telling her she has to stay with the computer. (the key around his neck seems very prominent in this episode) Sawyer seems to like that Jack is mad at Kate, and now Kate is pissed at Jack. A while later in the jungle, Sawyer asks Jack what Kate did to him, telling him he was pretty harsh with her. Jack snaps at him, telling him to go back and check to see if her feelings were hurt, bringing up the “I love her” comment Sawyer made in his delirium. Sawyer doesn’t remember, but before he can quiz Jack about it, Locke cuts in. He can’t understand why Michael is making a beeline to the north, when they came with the tailies across the island from the east.

On the beach, Kate is telling Hurley about the hunting party. If Arzt (who i saw in my local Wendy's a few weeks ago) were alive, he’d warn her that telling the fat kid means everyone will find out. Jin watches from a distance as Sun puts a hat on him, wasn't it Claires? Kate walks away and Hurley ambles over, manages to spill the beans to Sun in record time, then heads off to the hatch. What? You mean Kate is heading after them on her own? I didn’t see that one coming! ahem. Jin feels the need to go help his friend Mike, but Sun guilts/orders him to stay with his wife.

He does. {insert cracking whip sound here}

Back in the jungle they’re still following Mike’s trail to the north. Jack wonders if Mike might be lost, but Locke assures him that they’re on the path of a man who knows where he’s going. Locke wants to know what Jack plans on doing when they catch up to Michael. “I’ll talk him into coming back.” Locke is sure Mike’s beyond reason at this point, however. Jack asks if he just wants to let him go and write him off. Locke responds by asking, “Who are we to tell anyone what they can or can’t do?”

Flashback to Jack’s office, where Gabriella is signing some final paperwork. Jack seems to have some doubts, but he’s still ready to go ahead with the surgery. She tells him that even if it isn’t successful, he’s giving them a chance, which is all they wanted. There’s another moment of sexual tension, which is interrupted by dear old dad. He can see what’s happening here, and warns Jack against it. Jack seems to accuse his dad of cheating in the past. Dad says that’s okay for some people, but not for Jack. He’s still trying to raise him to be the man he can never be. A special, perfect son.

Climbing 'Mount Vesuvius', Sawyer comes up with a new nickname for Locke. Mr. Clean.
“Why’d you pick that name?” Locke asks.
Sawyer thinks it should be obvious; all he’s missing is an earring and a mop.
“No, your name. Why’d you pick Sawyer?”
Locke tells him he knows he’s James Ford from the manifest. Locke’s interested in the name he's chosen for himself. Did he know the real Sawyer? Suddenly Vesuvius erupts with gunfire! Seven shots, to be exact. Jack goes running toward the shots, and they soon come across the area the shots were fired from. Locke is worried the others may return. He examines the casings and notes that Michael got off at least three of the seven shots. Jack can’t understand how the others could be here, aren’t they two days across the island? Sawyer points out that they stole Cindy less than a mile from camp. (how does he know this? Wasn’t he passed out? Who told him?) Jack asks if he came along to get revenge on the guy that shot him, and Sawyer asks what Jacks reason for being out there is, exactly?

Flashback, and Jack’s in a locker room, pounding the lockers in frustration. The old guy died of heart failure, 7½ hours into the surgery. Jack wants to go tell Gabriella, but Christian has already done this, and she’s left the hospital. He wants to keep temptation away from Jack. Christian sends him home, but Gabriella is in the parking lot waiting. She thanks him for trying and falls into his arms, then kisses him. Jack kisses back, then breaks away. (so is he upset because he feels Kate laid one on him out of gratitude for saving Sawyer, the man she really loves?)

It’s dark in the jungle, and Locke’s lost the trail. He wants to head back, and Jack accuses him of losing the trail on purpose. Locke’s had enough of him. “Yeah, that’s right Jack, I’ve been running through the jungle toward the sound of gunfire because I don’t care about Michael.”
Well hey, that’s not why Jack and Sawyer are doing it - but it would be Jin's reason as well, caring about a friend, were he there. Jack tells Locke that if they turn around now they’ll never see Michael again, and it will be on “…us. On you, and on me.”
“You’re exactly right Jack, but if I were you I’d listen to Mister Locke.”


It’s either Zach Galifianakis or the sonofabitch from the raft that shot Sawyer. (he was the one that fired the gun?) Sawyer raises his gun to shoot him, but Beardo uses the force to pull the gun from his hand. - well no, not really, but it was a Han Solo/Darth Vader moment.- A shot (was it a gunshot?) rings out from the trees and something hits/grazes sawyer. Beardo tells them to put the guns down and not to worry about Michael, cause he’s not gonna find them. He asks Locke (“John”) to build them a fire so they can have a palaver.

Speaking of palavers (sort of), down under the hatch Charlie and Hurley are flipping thru records, and they come across a band they’ve never heard of, “Geronimo Jackson”. Groovy album cover, with three hippie types and a strat in a field.

Charlie, an expert in all things musical, is shocked that he’s never heard of them. This really reminded me of ‘Nozz-a-la cola’ in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. The characters there are in a world that is similar to their own, but with subtle differences. Geronimo Jackson and the Apollo bars seem like the Lost versions of Nozz-a-la. Hurley hands Charlie a record to put on, Amnesia by the Pousette-Dart Band (“Fall on Me” is the song he plays). As Hurley’s flipping past 'Ooklah the Moc' he tells Charlie he thinks he might be able to score with Libby, what with the classic desert island scenario they’re in. “If I ever had a shot, this is it!”
Charlie’s not really paying attention. “Do you think Claire’s missed me yet?”
It’s only been a day. Sayid shuffles over, and complains about the depressing music. He hasn’t heard of Geronimo Jackson either. Hurley tells him Jack, Sawyer, and Locke… and oh yeah, Kate, went to find Michael.

Beardo claims he comes in peace. He tells them that Walt is fine, and that he’s a very special boy. He asks Jack how long they’ve been on the island. 50 days. (Sawyer healed up that quickly in two days? It seemed like a week had gone by or something. Guess not.) Beardo implies that the losties have made themselves quite the imposing guests on his island. -Is he talking about the island in general, or is he being specific and talking about the station? When he looks at Locke mentioning doors that shouldn’t have been opened, does he mean the hatch or the armory? Is this Kelvin?- He tells them someone a lot smarter than anyone there once said, “’Since the dawn of our species, man has been blessed with curiosity.’ You know the other one about curiosity, don’t ya? This is not your island, this is OUR island, and the only reason you’re living on it is ‘cause we let you live on it.”
Jack doesn’t believe him and calls his bluff, thinking there may only be one more Other around. He tells Beardo they wouldn’t have sent Ethan as a spy if they could have just overpowered them. Beardo concedes that it’s an interesting theory, then yells, “Light em up!”


At least a dozen torches light up in the trees surrounding the fire. There’s a quick shot of what looks to be at least two people holding torches, but it could be trickery. Beardo tells them to hand over the weapons and go home, before this crosses the line from a misunderstanding into “something else.” Jack refuses, and Beardo calls for Alex (Danielle’s daughter?!) to bring out a hooded Kate. We only see a glimpse of Alex’s arm. In the background over the shoulder of Beardo is a torch, and what looks like a skull next to it. Are they just scarecrows placed around the fire? They were led there by the gunshots; Beardo could have set it all up beforehand. There's no way to find out, not now that Kate is being held at gunpoint. (It looks like an old luger, why not one of the newer pistols from the station? That explains why they want the guns. But why didn’t they just take them from the armory earlier if they knew about it? Or is he not Desmond’s partner, and he only knows about the station because they’ve been remote viewing with Walt? And then luring Michael away alone for some reason…)
Jack has a decision to make. “Do you live with the fact that I shot this woman right in front of you, when you coulda saved her life by giving up and going home? Or are you gonna give me your guns, turn around, and walk away?”
Beardo gives him to a count of three, and at about 1½, Jack throws his gun down. Locke follows suit, as does Sawyer, but not before adding, “You and me ain't done, Zeke.” “Zeke” gathers up the guns and hands Kate over. The torches extinguish as he walks off. Kate looks hurt that Jack doesn’t seem to care if she’s alright.

On the beach the next morning, Jin and Sun let each other know they don’t like being told what to do. Sun stands up for herself, and Jin approves.

During the return trip, Kate apologizes to Jack for following them. She's sorry she made a mistake. He’s still not speaking to her and she’s had enough of it. “I’m sorry!”
“Yeah, I’m sorry too.” Sorry he fixed up sawyer?

Flashback to Jacks house. He comes home as Sarah is cleaning up dishes. He tells her the patient died. “I’m sorry.” “Yeah, me too.” (sound familiar?)
He tearfully confesses, and apologizes for his “mistake” – like Kate – he wants to work it out, but wifey tells him she’d already been planning on leaving him, and is seeing someone else (christian?). Ouch. We find out these memories are most likely coming back to Jack because of the current Jack-Kate-Ana-Sawyer dynamic. Except its reversed; Kate’s apologizing to him, but it’s too late; while she was with Sawyer Jack moved on, echoing Sarah moving on while Jack was with Gabriella. Sarah tells him he’ll always need something to fix, and walks out.

The hunting party returns to the beach and Jack walks off, ignoring Kate. (how can you ignore those eyes?!?!) Locke walks off as well, “Seeya, James.”
“James” tells Freckles not to feel bad; he woulda done the same in her shoes. This probably makes her feels worse. Nature, not nurture.
Uncle Johnny stops by to check on Claire and Aaron, not knowing that Charlie is watching from a distance. If he hasn’t been snorting that shit yet, he will be soon. Further down the beach, Vincent’s mooching a mango off of Ana as Jack walks up. She asks what they were doing, and he tells her what happened on Mount Vesuvius. “Not much you can do about that, then.” She says.
Or is there?
Jack tells her Sayid told him she’s a cop. “I was a cop.”

“Can I ask you something? How long would it take to train an army?”

L O S T

...and carry a big-ass jesus stick.

read this first. (if you haven't already)

Charlie jumps down from the tree...
"Most people, when they see a creature made of swirling black smoke, they run."
"I was not afraid of it."
Maybe he would have been ‘eaten’ if he was?
Charlie spotted the plane from the tree, so the two move on in the right direction.

Under the hatch, Michael is taking Kate’s shift at the computer. He checks to make sure no one is around, then sits at the computer and starts to type… but nothing happens. He asks aloud, “where are you?”
A moment later:

Dad?

Michael begins to type.

>: Are you OK?

Yes.

He breathes a sigh of relief…

Are you alone?

>: Yes

Can’t talk long. They’re coming back soon…

>: Where are you?

You need to com

And that’s all we get to see. Mike is reading the rest of the message when Jack comes in, startling him. He sits across from Michael, and tells him that no one has forgotten about Walt, and he can’t begin to imagine what Michael is going through. Mike just wants him to leave so he can get back to Walt. That’s the shit he’s going through right now. Jack assures him that as soon as they can, they’re going to go out and find Walt. He gets up to leave, and Mike looks worried that he will see he’s been typing on the computer. But when Jack looks down at the monitor, it’s blank.

Eko and Charlie have found the wreckage. (N3785A…)
Flashback to the same plane, right side up and running. (52-GWN6)
Gold Tooth and Eko are dressed as priests, and they’re loading crates of the Mother Mary full of H statues onboard. Zombie’s on lookout. Eko’s brother, Yemi, drives up, and implores Eko to leave with him, now. “You saved my life once, now I’m here to save yours.” He’s called the military, but hasn’t told them who was involved. If Eko leaves with him now, he can start over. It’s too late… the military shows up like the Libyans in Back to the Future, and Zombie and Gold Tooth open fire. Eko pulls his brother down and out of harms way. Zombie gets hit, and Yemi jumps up to try and diffuse the situation. Eko grabs him again, but can’t pull him back in time, and Yemi is shot in the chest. Eko pushes the wounded Yemi toward the plane and Gold Tooth pulls him in, amidst a hail of automatic weapon fire. Eko tries to board the plane, but GT boots him to the tarmac, and flies off with the dying priest.

In the cabin of the downed plane, Eko finds the crusty corpse of his brother, still wearing the crucifix. He holds it close (ew.) and bawls.



Back on the tarmac, the soldiers believe Eko is the priest that called them… he realizes that this is his shot at redemption. (Does he take it? Or does he end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard?)

Eko is taking the crucifix from Yemi as Charlie peers into the plane. He tells him that it is his brother, and then pulls the fuel line out, dousing the cabin with gasoline. He gets out and hands Charlie one of the statues, “For the one I broke.” Not particularly priest-like. But then, he hasn’t put the crucifix on yet. Charlie takes the virgin, all the while avoiding looking into Eko’s eyes. They both stand back as the plane catches fire.
“So… are you a priest or aren’t you?”
Eko puts the cross around his neck.
“Yes. I am.”
He seems to be back to the (mostly) nice Eko we know. His whole tone changes when he puts it on. That sort of leads me to believe that he hadn’t really changed his ways until the crash… maybe? anyway –

He and Charlie watch the flames get higher. Eko begins:
“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”
Charlie joins in:
“Yea, though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death I fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod, thy staff, they comfort me.”

{{- their version of the 23rd psalm is a little off...
they say 'I walk through the shadow of the valley of death', rather than the valley of the shadow.
is that odd or not? i grew up protestant, and some of the prayers were worded a little differently than the ones i've heard at catholic masses, i figure maybe it's just something like that?
or is it intentional beacuse the black smoke is the shadow and the island is the valley of death? Charlie joins him right at that line; is it to draw attention to it?
does this tell us the nano smoke is evil for sure, and that Eko did not fear it because his jesus stick comforted him? -}}

Back on the beach, Ana is lighting a fire as Jin comes over to introduce Sun.
(“Thou preparest a table before thee in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.”)
Ana is taken aback at first, but she smiles, and shakes Sun’s hard. Jin hands her a fish for dinner, and she thanks them, smiling.
(“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the lord forever. Amen.”)

A soothing, Hawaiian sounding musical montage begins with Libby trying to put up a shelter on the beach. As he’s walking by, Hurley sees she needs some help, and he of course lends a hand. Libby looks up at him and smiles, as 20 million people across America instantly feel warm and fuzzy, hoping that Hurley might be getting some. Libby looks like she might just be down with that.
We see the made-over Sawyer… looks like Kate used to give haircuts to metal bands back in the 80’s. Sawyer and Kate are joking around as Jack walks up to give him his medicine, and share a smile with Kate. It looks like she’s leaning toward Sawyer at this point, though…
Charlie arrives “home” to find Claire throwing his stuff out into the proverbial front yard. –EASY WITH THE GUITAR!! yeesh…
He tries to apologize, but after his lies, she just wants him to stay away from Aaron and herself. He stomps off.

Finally, we see Charlie walking in the jungle later that night. The music slowly turns ominous as he stops and reveals his secret stash of statues… we can see six of them, but out of 300, who knows how many are still around? Or how many he’s already gone through… he looks down at the marys as it fades to

L O S T

speak softly...

I’m guessing we’re in Nigeria… a bunch of kids are playing some soccer in front of a church, and a couple truckloads of rebels(or something) pull up. They get out, gather all the children and knock out an old priest, then throw an old man to his knees. A husky kid with a cross around his neck puts a smaller kid behind him protectively. Eko and little brother, right? One of the rebels grabs the kid from behind him and puts a gun in his hands. He points him toward the old man.
“Shoot him. Now. Shoot him. Do it!” The kid can’t do it, and before the rebel can do anything, Eko takes the gun and shoots the old man dead. The rebel is impressed, and asks his name. Eko. “Look at Mister Eko! …a born killer,” he tells everyone. (like Kate?)
He tears the cross from around Eko’s neck and throws it to the ground. Little brother picks it up as the rebels drive away with Eko.

Fade into older Eko on the island(great casting). He’s carving something into his stick… what we can see is:
23 PSALM “HATETH” REVELATIONS:3 T:4 (judgment night?)
TITUS:3 PSALM 14(4) COINSIANS*
(*is this phonetic little kid version of Corinthians? or am I completely biblically ignorant? English is not his first language, he was young when he got taken away, had very little education… This would also explain the less than perfect story of Josiah he told Locke.) He’s scratching in an M when Claire interrupts. She wants to know what he’s writing. “Things to remember.”
She introduces herself and Aaron. Eko tells her Aaron was Moses’ brother, and Claire points out it must be hard to measure up to an older brother like that. Eko knowingly agrees, but assures her (and himself?) that Aaron was a great man. While on the topic of religion, Claire brings up Charlie’s statue of the virgin mary. Something immediately comes over eko… he changes. He demands that Claire take him to it, and she does. She wants to know why he’s so upset over a statue, so he smashes it and shows her the heroin.
“Where is Charlie?”

L O S T

A hand is spinning the combo lock on the gun closet. -right 25 left 29-
it’s Locke. Mike comes over (what? What happened with Walt’s IM?!?!) Locke tells him he’s changing the combo to limit access to the guns, and he assumes that’s what Mike is there for.
Jin is fishing while Charlie is “singing” a kinks song to him. He has a hell of a time trying to explain the k at the end of kinks to jin. The song was 'he’s evil'. Appropriate song to be singing as the (soon to be)machete madman himself storms up. He has the head of the mary statue and demands Charlie take him to where he found it. Charlie will, but he needs to go tell Claire first, so she doesn’t get the “wrong idea.”

Flashback to an all growed up badass eko with one of the coolest leather vests I’ve ever seen. (not that I’ve really seen many. But this one is kickass.) Two others get out of a car with him. One older junkyard dog looking guy with a gold tooth, and a scrawnier dude that looks kinda like a zombie. They’re here for a drug deal… a couple of middle eastern men with a shitload of H and a kid are waiting for them. The men send the kid to get some beers, and the adults get down to business. Eko explains that there is no market for heroin in Nigeria, and the only way to get it out of the country is to smuggle it on a plane with catholic missionaries. The guys agree to Eko's terms, and one of them tells Eko it is true what everyone says, he “has no soul.” (is he don simmons?)
then, goddamn…



Eko slashes both of their throats with one swing of a machete, just as the kid returns with beer. He tells the kid to leave and tell everyone, “…that Mister Eko let you live.”

Back on the island, Claire confronts Charlie with the H from the statue. He claims he didn’t know it was in there, and assures Claire that he’s not using. He tosses the baggies into the fire to prove it. In the jungle, Locke is teaching Michael how to use a rifle. Mike asks how he learned. “My dad used to take me hunting.”
Mike seems a little paranoid, and he’s sure that everyone is talking about him planning on taking off to find Walt. -is that what Walt IMed him about?- Locke says he hasn’t heard anyone saying that, but that it’s not a good idea. Michael agrees… then blows away a jar of dharma brand ranch dressing. nice shootin’ tex!
Charlie’s led eko to a spot at the edge of the jungle, and tells eko this is where he found the statue. Eko knows he’s lying, pushes him up against a tree, and tells him to take him to the plane. Charlie has no choice... walking thru the jungle a while later, Charlie tells Eko the plane has been there for years, and wants to know how he knows about it. Eko doesn’t answer, instead he asks Charlie why he lied to Claire about knowing what was in the statue. Charlie starts to argue, and then eko sees the ‘monster’ zip thru the jungle over Charlie's shoulder.

Flashback, and older Eko's walking up to the church we saw earlier. There’s a table full of the mary statues. I think these ones are clean… for now. A woman is selling them to raise money for polio vaccines. A priest comes outside, “hello Eko.”
“hello brother”
His brother refuses to hear his confession, telling him, “you may live far from here, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t heard of who you are and of what you have done.”
Eko pulls the cross out from around his brother’s neck, and asks if what he did that day was a sin, or if he was forgiven because his brothers life was saved? He tells him about the smuggling plan, pointing out that he’s getting the drugs out of the country, and that they can use the money to buy vaccines. His brother refuses to help.

On the beach, Sawyers getting a trim from Kate. She tells him he can stop being so belligerent, ‘cause Everybody Loves Sawyer. He doesn’t believe her, but both Hurley and Michael prove him wrong in short order. Deep in the jungle Eko and Charlie come across the body of the priest Locke and Boone had found the gun and money on. Eko checks for the cross and doesn’t find it, but the corpse has a gold tooth. He tells Charlie, “this man saved my life.”

Flashback, again at the church, and Eko has a new plan. His brother ordains Eko and his friends, and they do the dirty work. The real priest’s hands are clean, and they get the money for the medicine. His brother still won’t do it. Eko tells him, “I understand you live in a world where righteousness and evil seem very far apart. That is not the real world.” Gold Tooth and Zombie threaten to burn the church to the ground if he doesn’t sign them into the priesthood. He does it- “my signature does not make you a priest.” he tells Eko. “you will never be a priest.” Eko reminds him they are both sinners now. “…god will forgive me, eko.”

Charlie’s lost in the jungle. Eko tells him to climb a tree to get his bearings, or maybe spot the plane (where’s Kate when you need her?). Charlie refuses at first, and asks Eko if he will “beat him with his jesus stick?” he finds it a little odd that the ‘scripture stick’ has dried blood on it. “What kind of priest are you anyway?” but he eventually backs down, and starts up the tree. Eko senses something in the jungle…
BOOM! BOOOM! The monster's back!



Point of view from the monster as it approaches eko thru the jungle (nice Sam Raimi-evil dead shot) and looks down on him, like it did to Locke oh so long ago. Didn’t Locke call it the eye of the island? Probably because it sees all… It sounds like a synthesizer purring… we sort of bullet time around eko and take a trip thru the monsters brain…or something. Flashes of light (electromagnetism?)illuminate Eko’s memories as it scans/reads/remote views him:

~ The church ~ little brother ~ him as a boy ~ a woman with a badu head dress and a man in a suit (his parents?) ~ the old man on his knees? (i'm not sure about this one)~ the rebel separating Eko from his brother with the gun ~ that same rebel's face ~ Eko in the water after the crash (upside down) ~ a woman in a floral print dress (his wife/girlfriend?) ~ his brother getting shot ~ his reacting to it ~ Christ on the cross ~

Did the creature see into the soul of the man who supposedly has none? and did the creature(God of the island?) then grant him the forgiveness that his brother and his god were could not? i wonder, can the creature replicate him now? or anyone it picked out of his memories? maybe the "incident" was this 'nanosmoke' becoming sentient?
kates horse, sawyers pig, jack's dad, everyone is kind of experiencing their personal walkabout/vision quest... is the creature/island security system/godsmoke behind all of them? did shannon fail this test somehow? cause it seems to be a test of some kind, seeing whether someone can (or has) overcome their past(nature v. nurture?) to become a better person.

either way, that was some cool shit.


I gotta finish this up tomorrow after work. i'm beat...

dad?

Jin's ripped… damn. He and Sun are reunited... and it feels so good Hurley’s gotta take his shirt off. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see it, cause the camera pans to Sayid, digging Shannon a grave. “sorry man, I know this hurts.” Jack’s talking to Sawyer under the hatch, but he could just as well be talking to Sayid above. He’s impressed with Sawyers improvised surgery. What kind of cheap-ass med school did jack go to anyway, without the ‘whispering sweet nothings bedside manner’ and ‘pulling out the bullet with the bare hands’ classes? Fever dreaming sawyer tells Jack he loves “her”. Hard to read Jacks reaction to this…
Kate’s up in a tree picking some fruit. I hear she loves to climb stuff in real life… which is kinda weird. And kinda sexy. Speaking of which, what’s up with this big black horse she’s seeing?

Flashback to a younger Kate in a Janis Joplin t-shirt, sitting on a stoop flicking a bic. A beat up pickup with some bad country music about moving to Montana (gonna raise up a crop of some dental floss?) pulls up, and drunky mcdrunk stumbles out… Kate's step dad. She’s disgusted, but helps him up to bed. We see a shelf with some stuff on it, a little brown horse, a trophy, a couple of family pictures. as they walk thru the kitchen he asks Kate, “what the hell is that smell?”
“probably your breath.” She plops him into bed. He tells her she’s beautiful a few times. this guy is creepy as hell, but hey, he does have a point there. Kate says goodnight, runs outside and hops on her bike. She gives the house an inscrutable looks before she pulls away, and… KABOOOM!

L O S T

Young Kate walks into a diner, and sees Diane behind the counter. Momma. Mom makes some excuses for her injured wrist, but Kate’s having none of it. Mom tells her, “I made my bed Katherine.”
Kate tells her her bed is gone, and hands over an insurance policy on the house she took out in her moms name. Diane asks if Wayne knows about this… and sees something scary in her daughters eyes.
“what did you do?”
but Kate’s gotta go, and mommas not gonna see her for a while.

Back on the island, Kate brings her booty, and a bag of fruit, down under the hatch. My damn tivo screws up for a minute here, but the idea is that there’s a service for Shannon on the beach, and jack wants to watch sawyer while Kate attends.(jealous much?) Kate tells him he’s needed up there, so he reminds her she’s gotta push the button and reluctantly heads up. The person responsible for said funeral is on the beach, pounding sand. Eko comes over to tell her he’s going to the funeral. Ana doesn’t think she’s gonna make it. “I think most of them realize it was an accident, Ana.”
Ana just pounds the sand harder.

Charlie comes running up to the funeral, brushing at himself. Is he tidying up, or sweeping off some heroin induced cockroach hallucinations? It looks like everyone but Ana, Kate and Sawyer are there. Sayid says a few words, about he and Shannon being strangers, and if it weren’t for the… he can’t bring himself to say crash, but he does tell everyone he loved her, before walking away in agony. (I played this back in slo-mo, and you can actually see the exact moment where Sayid’s heart breaks after the speech. D’oh!)
Jack throws the first handful of dirt, and the rest follow.



Kate puts on some walking after midnight (we get it, she’s a country gal) and seems happy, mashing up some food for sawyer and talking to him, even though he’s unconscious. She tells him about the horse, chalking it up to a lack of sleep. Sawyer stirs, and starts mumbling something under his breath. Kate leans in closer to hear him, and he grabs her by the neck suddenly, asking, “why did you kill me?”

Jack and Locke come down some time later to find the counter at 23, alarms blaring, and Sawyer facedown on the floor next to the bed. No Kate. She’s up walking through the jungle, and Charlie (what’s he doing out in the jungle alone?) strolls up next to her, trying to make some small talk. Tells her it seems the tailenders had a rough time of it and went all lord of the flies over there. Kate asks Charlie if he thinks there are horses on the island, and tells him about the one she saw. (Kate’s horse is sawyers pig?)
“seen polar bears, seen monsters… well, heard monsters, but horses, no.”
Kate walks away.

Flashback to a bus station, where Kate’s buying a one way ticket to Tallahassee. The marshall from the plane is behind her in line, harassing her. She gets paranoid, thinking it’s a sting. She’s not paranoid, it is. “Kate Austen, you’re under arrest.”
Looks like momma gave her up.

On the beach, Charlie’s playing guitar. (sounds like the chords to the melancholy lost theme) Jack asks if he’s seen Kate, and Charlie tells him she was in the jungle, acting kinda balmy (?), asking about horses on the island. He tells Jack she was on the path heading to the caves.
How does Jin spell relief? B-o-l-t-c-u-t-t-e-r-s. Locke snaps off his handcuffs with them, and he is free at last, thank god almighty. Jin walks out, flashing the snapped cuffs at Michael (who put them on him in the first place) as he’s inspecting the corridor. He finds blast doors, and asks Locke if Desmond had told him about them. Locke says he hadn’t, then offers to show Michael the orientation movie. Eko wants in, too.
“why not? The more the merrier.”

Kate’s sitting alone in the jungle, looking scared, and Jack comes along. He rips into her for leaving sawyer, and she gives it right back. Jack sees she’s not herself, asks what’s wrong, and she breaks down. Her holds her tight, comforts her, and she plants the mother of all MTV movie award winning kisses on him.



Jack looks kinda confused when she pulls away… Kate comes to her senses and realizes what she did, then walks away.

Eko, Michael and Locke are watching the filmstrip. There’s a slow zoom into eko's face as mike and Locke debate what they just saw. He's just staring straight ahead intensely. Something he saw sparked something in him, has he seen this before? Does he know candle, hanso, the degroots? Locke tells Michael that he set up shifts to enter the numbers, and mike asks if anyone wanted to know why? When Locke tells him, “I think the film’s pretty self explanatory”, eko glances at him for a second before returning to staring straight ahead. Locke doesn’t think the splices mike points out are important. He asks eko what he thinks, and eko just stares at him for a moment before getting up and walking away.
Kate’s sitting by Shannon’s grave as sayid walks up. She tells him she’s sorry for missing the funeral, and that she is going crazy. She asks if he believes in ghosts, and he tells her about seeing Wet Walt just before Shannon was killed.
Does that make him crazy?

Flashback to handcuffed Kate in the marshalls car, on a dark and stormy night. He wants to know why a straight A student with nothing but a couple speeding tickets on her record picked now to off her step dad. He knows her story, white trash mom divorces dad, starts up with a drunk. Marries him, gets beat up by him, and defends him. He understands the why, just not the when. (Did something set her off?)
“why after all these years did you just decide to blow poor Wayne up?” he thinks it was molestation, but Kate tells him Wayne never touched her. Suddenly there’s a deer in the road, and they crash into a tree while swerving to avoid it. –what are the odds of being in a car AND a plane crash with the same person? One of them is baaad luck- Kate grabs the handcuff keys while he’s stunned, and kicks him out of the car after a bit of a struggle. She backs into the road, and hey, there’s a big black horse there!



She drives away.

Under the hatch, Locke shows mike (and us) that you can’t enter anything into the computer until the four minute warning. Locke joins eko in the dining nook while Michael examines the computer hardware. Eko has something he thinks Locke should see, but he wants to begin at the beginning. “Long before Christ, the king of Judea was a man called Josiah.”
“When you say beginning, you mean… beginning.”
He tells Locke a story about a ruined temple (the incomplete filmstrip). Because their temple is ruined, the people worship false gods (the spliced together filmstrip, pressing the button). Josiah tells his secretary of the treasury to give gold to the people to rebuild the temple (are the numbers the gold? they were worth a lot of gold… or is the swan station the gold? the numbers were on the hatch… is Josiah Locke, or is josiah the old transmission? The secretary, is he eko?), but the secretary comes back with a book, the book of law, (the reconstructed filmstrip) the old testament, and they rebuild the temple with that. He hands over the bible they found in the arrow bunker to Locke. It’s hollowed out and inside are, presumably, the missing pieces of the filmstrip.
I guess that explains all of eko’s staring and glancing earlier.

Jack's chopping up some wood, kinda like ana pounding the sand, and hurley comes by with the line of the night (at least until sawyer wakes up)
“So… roses husband is white. Didn’t see that one coming.” He then proceeds to psychoanalyze jack, seeing his chopping at sawyers woodpile as, like, transference. Just a little something he picked up in the mental hospital. Sun’s taking care of sawyer when Kate comes back. Kate asks if she knows where jack is, or if sawyers talked. No on both counts. Sun leaves to get back to Jin, and Kate sits down with sawyer.

Flashback to a recruiting station. We see Sayid, briefly, on a TV in the station, and we meet Kate’s dad, Sam Austen. He wants to know why she came, while the police and us marshals are looking for her. She wants to know why he didn’t tell her. “tell you what?”
It turns out Kate was making a scrapbook for her dads birthday, and asked one of his c.o.’s to send her some pics of him in uniform. There were dates on the back of them, proving that her “dad” was still stationed in Korea at least four months before she was born.
“why didn’t you tell me that Wayne was my father?”
he didn’t tell her cause he knew she would kill him, and knew her mom would then turn her in for it. He loves her even though she’s not his biologically, and he wanted to take her when they divorced, but momma wouldn’t let him. Kate wants to know why he didn’t kill Wayne…
“because I don’t have murder in my heart.”
But Kate does. Nature, not nurture. They tearfully embrace, and he promises to give her an hour before he calls the cops. “Bye, daddy”

Back under the island, Kate starts talking to sawyer/Wayne. (So sawyer is sawyers pig?) she tells him she killed him not cause of chasing her dad away, or the way he looked at her, or because he beat momma. It was because she hated that he was a part of her. “…every time I look at sawyer, every time I feel something for him… I see you Wayne… it makes me sick.”
Sawyer wakes. “that’s about the sweetest thing I ever heard. Who the hell is Wayne? …am I in a bunk bed?”
He wants to know if they are saved, and Kate tells him they aren’t. Not yet.

Eko and Locke are pasting the film back together. What are the odds, Locke asks? someone made this film, someone else cut this piece out. Two halves of the same plane crash on different parts of the island, you there, me here, and now this missing piece is back where it belongs. Eko has to remind him not to go confusing coincidence with fate.
Kate takes sawyer outside, where he sees the big ass horse standing in the middle of the jungle. “you know that horse freckles?”
yeah, she does. Hi daddy. nurture, not nature.
Down on the beach jack is drinking with ana. She actually smiles a few times.
Under the hatch, Michaels fiddling with the computer while Locke and eko are watching the restored film in the other room. Here’s what was reinserted:
“do not attempt to use the computer for anything else other than the entry of the code. This is its only function. The isolation that attends the duties associated with station three may tempt you to try and utilize the computer for communication with the outside world. This is strictly forbidden. Attempting to use the computer in this manner will compromise the integrity of the project and worse, could lead to another incident. I repeat, do not use the computer for anything other than entering the code.”

In the computer room, something is beeping. Michael looks for the source, and sees this on the computer:

hello?
>:

after hesitating for a second, he starts typing.

>:hello?

Who is this?
>:this is Michael. Who is this?



dad?


Damn, there was no filler in that episode.
new one tonight!!! finally!!!

the dog ate my homework!

i swear!

anyway... way belated recap of collision here.

Ana seems so at home at the firing range. Ah, counseling. She could use that dude on the island. Danny left her, but thats okay, cause she’s one of those people that are better off alone. Whatever happened happened 4 months ago, but the shrink thinks shes good to go now, and gives her badge (# 68631) back. I knew she was LAPD.

Back in the jungle, sayid whips out his piece – eko charges him and they scuffle until ana clocks sayid on the back of the head. Shes in total freakout mode here -I wouldn’t ever want to be near this girl with a gun in her hand– she’s holding everyone at gunpoint now.



L O S T

Michael tries to reason with her, and she fires a warning shot. Psycho. She wants eko to tie up sayid, but he’s having none of it. “he tried to kill you”, she says, and eko just answers “no.” no, I won’t tie him up, and no, he tried to kill you, lady, not me.

Back on the force: ana’s mom is captain (promoted a few times since falling down, I guess). She wants her riding a desk after being part of an officer involved shooting, but ana won’t go for that. Mom signs off on whatever baby wants, and “rags” pops in to set up a surprise party for ana, which her mom tells her about after he leaves. Probably worried (rightly so) that if a bunch of people were to jump out at her, she’d start shooting before asking any questions.

On the beach, kate, hurley and Charlie are betting on bird/jordan mcdonalds commercial type golf shots. "off boones grave, over the black rock, through the hole in shannon, nothing but net!" okay, not really. Charlie jokingly tells kate about hugos $$, and hurley just tells kate to ignore him. Jack walks over… now there’s a doctor in the house, and golf is of course his game. No pun intended.
Back in the jungle, sawyers stretcher is dismantled per ana, so they can tie up sayid. Ekos had enough, and he slings sawyer over his shoulder to carry him to the camp. He’s not doing this for sawyer, he’s doing it for himself. Still got some atoning to do, I guess.

Flashback to ana on the beat, with a super-generic cop partner. The numbers don’t fit if you use 1-adam-12, so their callsign is 8-adam-16. nice. Ana wants some action, and they head over to check out a domestic disturbance call. Guy and his woman are having an argument, nothing physical. Ana sees a baby cradled in the womans arms, and flips the fuck out, pulling her gun on the guy, who was hardly threatening. Her partner has to talk her down.

Back in the jungle, Michael finally calls anas bluff and walks over to give sayid some water and bring him up to speed on their situation. -A side note here: thank god someone finally does this. I was so sick of everyone kowtowing to her. I know she had a gun, but still... arrgh. My least favorite moment in the series so far was when sawyer went along with them after he got taken out of the pit. It was so out of character. He should have just run (or walked) toward the beach. Just walk away from her!!!!!–
Playing some golf now, and of course jacks as shitty as he is cocky. He’s trying to play his ball out of the rough while kates picking on him. She freezes up as she sees eko, with sawyer over his shoulder, emerge from the jungle behind jack.



“where is the doctor?”

locke is working on a crossword puzzle while monitoring the execute computer. It looks like hes having a tough time with it.





42 down should be Gilgamesh, but it’s not fitting with all the other answers he has down. Ghent is a Belgian port, ransacked is robbed… the whole thing is a little strange looking though.
it must have been down there in the hatch, so is it a coinsidence that the correct answer to number 42 seems to throw the whole thing off? is it a mind game, just like the execute button might be? I’ve been away from forums for the past couple of months, so I’m sure there’s wayyy more on this if you want to dig a little deeper (i know i do). anyway, jack, carrying sawyer, and kate come rushing through and put sawyer in the tub. The mug in there has the swan logo.
Eko, locke. Locke, eko.
In the jungle, Ana has decided the only way out of this for her is to be on her own. Some people are better off that way, right? Libby tells her she can’t live on her own. Ana tells her that shes already alone, and sayid files that little tidbit away for the interrogation later. Ana sends mike back to the caves to get her some supplies, when he gets back she’ll go her way, and the rest can go theirs.

Back in LA, ana and her partner pull into the garage. The number on the door of the cruiser is either 41888 or 41688. not that it matters in the least. And it just says “dedicated to serve”. What happened to protecting? The cops have a guy named Jason McCormick, who they have linked to anas 'incident', but she tells them it’s not the guy. Her mom can’t understand what’s going on, why ana would want him back on the street? and we find out she was shot four times with hollow tipped bullets. They do a great job with the slow reveal of what actually happened to ana throughout this episode. In the present, ana walks over to shannons body, which is getting pretty pasty.

Under the hatch, ekos checking out the rack of guns. He knows; more guns = more problems. Locke asks him what happened, and eko fills him in. locke wants to go out there, but eko refuses to take him. Jack tells kate that sawyer is septic. It looks like there’s a pair of baby booties, or a ruffled garter or something, at the head of the bed near a candle? Jack can’t get sawyer to swallow the medicine he needs - dude, just roll it up in some bologna! (Works for my cat.) Or hey, whisper sweet nothings in his ear… that works too. (I’ll have to try that next time with the cat.)
“I never learned the whole whisper in the ear thing in med school”
jack leaves kate cradling the septic sawyer.

Mutiny in the jungle: Bernard and libby have had enough, and are leaving ana. Sayid gives jim the okay to leave with them. He knows he’s got control of this situation, even if he is tied up. Libby has the understatement of the night, to ana. “I just don’t think you’re the best judge of character” Sun’s tending her garden when Michael comes crashing through. He lets her know that jin is okay, but he really needs to find jack. Insane With Barely Controlled Rage Jack&trade is back in action under the hatch, questioning eko.
“anything I say will only make you angrier”
you got that right, mister eko.
Mike shows up, and jacks ready to head out there armed to the teeth… eko stops him, and tells him that ana lucia made a mistake – jack recognizes the name. he agrees to go back sans firearms.

Back to ana and sayid, and she’s asking him if he has kids. Bad sign there, and sayid knows it. He asks the question back at her. He knows shes pondering killing him, and she asks him outright if she should. Sayid tells her hes not a nice person, and that maybe she was meant to kill him. This bit of reverse psychology opens her up, and she tells her story, the ghist of it being that she trusted some guy and he shot her four times. By the time she hit the ground she thought she was dead. “I feel dead.”
“what happened to him?” sayid wants to know.

Flashback to a dive in LA. Anas stalking the guy the cops caught and released earlier. She confronts him in the parking lot… and tells him she was pregnant before shooting him 3 times. Then she walks over and puts 3 more in his head for good measure. You think she might have had some kind of a psychotic break there that she hasn’t yet recovered from? damn.

She tells sayid they never found him, then cuts him loose and gives back the gun.
“what good would it be if I kill you, if we’re both already dead?” hmmmmmmmm
kate n sawyer, she tells him hes gonna be alright, he's home. reminds me of when he called the island home after being adrift. maybe all of them were actually born here, and all of them will die here.
Vincent and mike are reunited, followed in short order with everyone else. Jin and sun, rose and Bernard. Not as touching as it could have been, but nice nonetheless.



Eko and jack get to ana and sayid. Jack and ana recognize each other, and sayid is holding shannons body. The music here sounds almost twin peakish; "She’s dead…" but not wrapped in plastic this time.