This episode of Lost Again brought to you by the Dear Diary Corporation. Put pen to paper and let it flow. Lock and key sold separately.
Walt is gone and Michael is trying to find him. This is an ongoing theme for these two. It starts when Michael and Walt's mother, Susan, split up, and she takes him to Amsterdam to live when he is just an infant. Michael always wanted to be a part of Walt's life, but Susan wanted to start a new life with her fiancee overseas effectively cutting Michael out of Walt's life. Because she had a well paying job whereas Michael was always struggling, she believed Walt would have a better life with her. Her boyfriend, Brian, could serve as a father figure in Michael's place. Upon her death, Walt's stepdad begs Michael to take Walt back. He never wanted to be a father in the first place, but it was what was required in order to marry Susan. Brian also seems to feel uncomfortable around Walt because of his special abilities. Strange things happen when he is around almost like he conjures things into being. Michael has been shut out for years, but now all of a sudden he has sole custody of a child that is a virtual stranger. This is the situation they find themselves in when they board Oceanic 815.
Michael finds Walt throwing knives with Locke, and he snaps. Locke doesn't see the harm in it because Walt is a mature and special kid. He shouldn't be talked down to. Michael isn't interested in parenting tips and forbids him from contact with his son. This incident serves as extra motivation for Michael to find a way off the island. He comes up with the idea to construct a raft, and has Walt help him salvage any scrap materials that might be useful from the wreckage. "This is us taking control of our destiny," he explains to Walt. And what a destiny they have ahead of them. It might end up alright for Walt in the end, but Michael becomes a tragic figure before he is blown to smithereens saving the friends he betrayed. And there is some question of whether destiny can be controlled or merely fulfilled.
While Michael is going through wreckage, Charlie is going through Claire's bags in search of her diary. Not being able to find it, Kate suggests to him that he check with the Island Hoarder. Sawyer's admits to having it, and cannot resist mocking Charlie by inferring that Claire wrote unflattering things about him. There are some punches thrown, but despite Sawyer's act, Kate knows he hasn't read the journal. He just wants people to believe he is worse than he really is. Once Charlie has the diary, he fights an overwhelming desire to read it. He gives in to temptation, and learns that Claire had been dreaming about the Black Rock. He is also pleased to see that Claire wrote about how much she liked and felt safe with him.
When Walt approaches Locke, Locke tells him that out of respect for his father's wishes they should not spend time together. Michael happens to appear at just this moment and misinterprets the situation believing Locke has disregarded his wishes. He yells at Locke, and throws Walt's polar bear comic in the fire as punishment while demanding obedience and respect. Resenting the authority of a man he thinks never cared about him, Walt runs off with Vincent yet again, and gets himself cornered by a polar bear. Locke go off in search of him, and together they hoist him out of the polar bear's reach. Maybe they should get a leash for Walt and forget about restraining the dog! After this harrowing experience, Michael and Walt bond over the letters that Michael had been consistently sending to Walt throughout his life. Susan had kept them but never given them to Walt. Michael retrieved them when he picked up Walt in Sydney, and this was proof for Walt that he had never wanted to be absent from his life.
Locke and Boone go out in the woods with the dog whistle in hopes of finding Vincent for Walt. There is some rustling, and out of the jungle stumbles a disoriented Claire.
In other island developments:
- Walt seems to be able to make the animals he reads about materialize. Don't think I want to be sitting next to him when it's time for his class to read Moby Dick.
- Shannon's major problem with the raft idea is that she gets seasick. Jack's look says it all!
When Boone comes to, he is tied to a log. Locke tells Boone that this is an 
While Boone is tied up and on his own, Locke runs into 
Picking up right where the last episode ends, Jack has just discovered from Hurley that Ethan was not on the plane. No one has seen either Ethan or Charlie, but they were both following Claire to the beach. Time for Jack to go on another jungle adventure! Locke runs after him, and they find Claire's bag along with signs of a struggle. Jack starts yelling for Claire and Charlie, but Locke silences him with his best Elmer Fudd impression. "Shh! We're hunting wabbit!" Taking into consideration Sayid's claim that there are others on the Island, Locke believes the best thing would be to form a search party and make a plan. Jack doesn't want to plan though. He wants to take action, so he goes after Ethan alone while Locke heads back to the caves for backup.
With Kate and Boone in tow, Locke catches up with Jack, and the four of them set off to find a trail. This is the beginning of Locke and Jack's constant disagreement over pretty much everything. Locke wants to take a break, and a snippy Jack gives him lip for it. Kate gives Jack a stern talking to, and he admits this is a mission of redemption for him. He feels guilty for not believing Claire when she told him she was attacked. When two trails are discovered leading in two different directions, Jack and Locke have differing opinions in how to proceed. Locke thinks they should stay together, but Jack insists they split up and follow both trails since Kate just revealed her tracking prowess.
The episode opens with Claire's intense nightmare. No longer pregnant, she is looking in the jungle for a crying baby. She finds Locke instead with one light eye and one dark eye. He tells her, "He was your responsibility, but you gave him away. Everyone pays the price now." She sees a crib with blood covered blankets and wakes up screaming. This dream has some added meaning now. For one thing, the Island used dreams as a means of communicating with Locke and Ben. Is this the case with Claire? And which entity is behind these Island visions? It would appear that Locke's warning has come to pass as Claire did leave Aaron out in the jungle while she went off with Daddy Shephard. We know how that decision affects Kate and Jack in the future, but how that serves to doom everyone, I cannot say. 
But this was not the first time Claire had received warnings about giving Aaron away. In Australia, after a painful breakup with a boyfriend that gave her the shaft after deciding the responsibilities of fatherhood were too much for him, she gets some advice from her psychic. He has seen a "blurry thing" in her future which is not good news. He tells her that she has to raise the baby. No one else can because this child won't be happy without her good influence. There is danger surrounding the child and her protection is needed. Claire dismisses this and chooses to give her baby up to a local couple. She cannot go through with it in the end. She agrees to the psychic's alternative plan to give her baby to a couple in L.A., and he's insistent that she take Flight 815. Some points of interest. It's revealed early on that Claire's dad abandoned her, so she is following in her father's footsteps when she leaves Aaron in the jungle. But that is not all that got passed on. Apparently Christian used to sing "Catch a Falling Star" to Claire as a child, and she wants it sung to her child. Kate obliges in an episode in Season 5. This leads in to the very real question of what is so awful with Kate raising Aaron? She seemed like a good and nurturing mother. And he is now being looked after by Carole Littleton. What terrible thing is coming for Aaron since Claire was only with him the first couple months of his life?
Claire has more than bad dreams to contend with on the Island. She awoke to someone injecting her stomach, but the culprit was not caught. Jack is not convinced that the attack was anything more than another vivid and terrifying nightmare. His main concern is that the stress from the situation will trigger a premature labor. Claire takes offense when he tries to sedate her. Feeling unsafe at the caves, she leaves in a huff for the beach.
A concerned Charlie follows after her and tries to convince her to go back. He has developed an affection for her in the time since she fainted back in White Rabbit. They have even bonded over peanut butter. He has made himself available to her as a confidant and friend while serving her tea, a luxury that he hopes will comfort her and remind her of home. He worries about her and wants to ease her burdens. After her attack, he promises to look after and protect her which makes us all say, "AWW". So, when Claire goes into a false labor on her trek back to the beach, Charlie is there to help her through it. Of course, that's only after he's had a moment of panic trying to encourage Claire to breathe and time the contractions. One sugar plumb fairy. Two sugar plumb fairy. I really wish Kate had counted like that in the Pilot episode!
Claire sends Charlie to the caves to fetch Jack. On his way, he runs into Ethan and passes the responsibility on to him. He wants to get back to Claire since she is alone. When Jack never shows up, Claire and Charlie decide to go back to the caves since Turnip Head will not be making his appearance at this time. They meet Ethan on the path, and he looks threatening! 
Thanks to Hurley's efforts at taking a census of all the survivors, he has determined that Ethan Rom was not on their plane. He goes to report his finding to Jack only to find him treating the newly returned Sayid's cuts and scrapes. Sayid informs Jack and Kate of his adventure with Rousseau in the jungle and his discovery that they are not alone on the Island. A lurking Locke seems to be very interested in this discussion, but he is being super sly in eavesdropping. Perhaps Jack & Co. don't notice him there because the realization that Claire was telling the truth is starting to dawn on them. Someone has infiltrated the camp, and has been messing with one of their own.
To open the episode, we join Sayid on the beach during his self-imposed time out as he takes a moment to reflect on what he's done. Only he doesn't seem to be concerned with Sawyer as much as he is moping over a photograph of the lovely Nadia. Moment of silence please. Okay. Flashback to Sayid as an officer in the Republican Guard whose forte includes getting suspects to talk either of their own volition or under duress. His position becomes a hardship for him when his commanding officers bring Nadia in as a person of interest and demand that Sayid get information from her. If he can't get it the easy way, he'll have to be more forceful. Nadia is unwilling to cooperate and knows the consequences of that. She has been interrogated by Saddam's henchmen before. As an old childhood friend, she is disappointed in Sayid for going against his values by aligning himself with such vicious people. Their shared past and mutual attraction cause Sayid to go soft, and he secretly takes care of her during her extended stay. But this is no hotel, and when his superiors determine that Nadia is never going to talk, they order her death. In a move that is eerily similar to Michael's rescue of Ben in Season 2, Sayid stages a prison break for Nadia in which it appears she has shot him in the leg and escaped. When Sayid's commanding officer (and friend) happens upon this hoax as it is going down, he gets taken out Libby style. Nadia leaves Sayid a picture to remember her by. Sayid's life has been dedicated to finding out if she is still alive somewhere and reuniting with her. She represents goodness to him, and the fact that she endured torture even when she was innocent opens his eyes to the nature of what he does for a living. Connecting that to his present, even if Sawyer was guilty like he and Jack believed, which he wasn't, reverting back to his old behavior as a torturer triggers painful memories and ultimately leads to self-loathing for him.
After these reflections, he gets up to move on down the shore and discovers a cable protruding from the sand. He follows it into the jungle, and gets himself caught in a trap. Rousseau has these traps set up all over the Island. She takes Sayid to her underground bunker and performs some karma in the form of electric shock on him. She think he is one of "them" and that he knows where Alex is. What he knows is that this woman is coo coo for cocoa puffs. She finds Nadia's picture and fixates on it. She strokes Sayid's face in an unsettling way, then later tranquilizes him with a very unsanitary needle so that she can move him into a position better suited to fixing her music box. Props to Sayid for actually being patient and caring. He figures out pretty quickly that she is the French woman that sent the distress call. He tells her about the crash of 815 and tries his best to get some sensible information on the Island's geography and details on what happened to her team. All the answers are foggy at best. They were stranded on the Island after a storm, but after two months her whole team was wiped out coming back from the Black Rock, whose origins and passengers have yet to be explained. Ricardus, I'm looking at you. "The Others" were the carriers of the sickness that her team contracted. Though she has never seen them she hears them whisper. Sayid manages to escape her digs after stealing some maps and a gun, but he ends up in a standoff with her. She confesses that she was the one who killed all the members of her team including her lover Robert. They were infected, and she could not risk them being rescued in that condition. Since Sayid is not sick, she lets him go but demands that he keep an eye on the other survivors. She also tells Sayid that the Alex she is looking for is her child. Sayid feels sorry for this wacky lady who has clearly gone round the bend due to excessive loneliness and trauma. Then he hears whispers in the jungle. Rousseau might be weird and crazy but not as weird and crazy as disembodied whispers in the jungle of mystery! WHAT ARE THEY??!!
Back at camp, Hurley decides to lighten the mood by designing a golf course and kicking off the first Island Open. Jack is humbled that Hurley has managed to do what he could not. Everyone finally feels safe and happy for the time being.
This episode was rich in Island mythology with the introduction of the Black Rock, the Others and the Whispers. But more importantly it was a portrait of a man who needs absolution. His life on and off the Island seems to revolve around violence and murder. Let's hope that Sayid can hang on long enough to get a chance at redemption.
Sawyer embraces his role as most hated on the Island. So, he is not surprised that suspicion falls on him for having Shannon's inhaler. That does not keep him from laying the smack down on Boone for going through his stuff, however. Due to some clever manipulation by Locke and an already existing tension, Sayid believes Sawyer is also responsible for knocking him out and preventing the triangulation of the signal. (He is innocent of both of these allegations, but it's easy to understand why he is suspected. Plus, he never denies the accusations.) After two bloody patients in one morning and the threat of an asthmatic girl looming in the afternoon, the good doctor heads to the beach for a confrontation with Sawyer. Of course this is a wasted trip. Sawyer's not giving anything up, and Kate interrupts before it comes to blows. Kate tries her hand at getting the medicine, but gets to read a revenge letter instead. Led to believe that it was written to Sawyer rather than by him, she is disgusted by the description of "Mr. Sawyer" as an adulterous scam artist that is ultimately responsible for the death of the author's parents. This letter is so pivotal in understanding Sawyer. The death of his mom and dad and the subsequent revenge he sought are the guiding forces in his life, and it was so awesome to discover that Jacob was present when young James Ford was writing that letter in the Season 5 finale. James was actually penning his own future as he went on to take the name Sawyer and run scams of his own. He is even responsible for taking a life in Australia before the crash. Some would question the benevolence of Jacob since he provided young James with a pen to finish the letter. I am not convinced this was anything other than giving him the option to finish the letter. Free will seems to be important to Jacob. It was Sawyer's choice ultimately, and he was encouraged to let it go by his uncle. He did not.
When Shannon gets worse, there is a mini boxing match in which Jack hits Sawyer about the face and head a couple times, but we all know this is just a preview of the main event in Season 5. There is a lot more nurturing of this competition to come before then. At the center of the resentment they share for one another is Kate, but they butt heads over any number of issues that arise. The basic conflict here is capitalism and private property versus socialism and communal sharing. Sawyer is adhering to the laws of the jungle where it is survival of the fittest by piling up assets to use to his advantage. Jack is all about pooling assets to further the good of the group. Those who need something the most are the ones who get it. Sawyer has no interest in participating in the "commie share fest". It's not in his nature. He's been hustling people and making his way in the world at the expense of others for a long time now. If Sawyer had Shannon's inhaler, of course I think he would have given it up, but I think he is pissed that it's expected of him to just hand out the things he's taken the time and energy to scavenge.
When these two philosophies clash in an instance that could very well be life and death, the criminal justice system of the Island is put to the test. Since Sayid has experience in the torture department and reasoning with Sawyer does not prove productive, a decision has to be made on whether or not torture is acceptable in extraneous circumstances. Kate seems troubled that things have deteriorated to this level, but Jack Bauer, I mean Shephard, and Sayid decide there is no alternative. So, Sawyer is hauled off to Guantanamo Jungle where Sayid works his magic.
Sawyer breaks and tells Jack that he will only tell Kate where the inhalers are. He tells Kate that he wants his kiss first. And in one of the hottest kisses on t.v., the birth of one of the greatest rivalries ever is born. Skaters vs. Jaters. Jack and Sawyer aren't as invested in who Kate chooses to settle down with as these people are, and Jack blew up an H-bomb! Sawyer keeps his end of the bargain and admits that he doesn't have the inhalers. This sets Sayid off, and things get out of hand when he accidentally stabs Sawyer in the arm sending Jack into Dr. Fix It mode. After waking up to a freshly bandaged wound in his tent, Sawyer shares his sordid past with Kate after she figures out that he wrote the letter he carries around with him. Sayid, ashamed of what he's done to Sawyer, decides to go into self-imposed exile. This is the introduction into the conflicted and tortured *wink* soul of Sayid as he comes to grips with his natural inclination to inflict violence. 
The rivalry between Jack and Sawyer is starting to grow some teeth in this episode. Sawyer seems to make it a personal mission to annoy Jack and invade his territory both figuratively and literally. He moves into Jack's shelter on the beach once Jack moves to the caves. He also makes plain his appreciation for Kate's charms when Jack is around. When he's not, Sawyer seeks to undermine him with Kate. Kate goes to Sawyer for electronic equipment he has salvaged from the wreckage to assist Sayid with his ongoing attempt to discover the source of Rousseau's distress signal. Sayid and Kate head off into the jungle to triangulate the signal in conjunction with Boone back at the beach. When news of Jack being trapped in a cave-in reaches the beach camp, Sawyer volunteers to go tell Kate since he knows where she is. When he finds her, he opts not to tell her since she is insulting and short with him. After a conversation liberally peppered with what's Jack got that I haven't machismo, he lets slip the life-threatening situation Jack currently finds himself in.
By the time Kate arrives, Charlie has already gone in after Jack. Once he unpins Jack from the rocky rubble, he has the unenviable task of popping Jack's dislocated shoulder back into place. Ew. If only this was the last time we had to watch this painful procedure. Juliet and Kate will reenact this later. Charlie comes clean with Jack on his withdrawal, and Jack treats it as a medical problem rather than a moral failing. Charlie then sees their salvation in the form of a moth that leads him to an opening through which they escape. When Kate, who has very nearly worked herself to the verge of collapse trying to dig Jack out, sees him safe and sound, the relief on her face is evident. Enjoy this Jack. She'll be swapping spit with Sawyer soon.
Charlie, after receiving a hero's welcome from the rest of the group makes the decision to burn his stash. The decision to quit is his and not a consequence of running out. Locke proclaims his pride. What a great guy Locke is turning out to be! A real friend to lean on when conquering substance abuse problems!
This episode is a peek into Sun and Jin's life in Korea prior to the crash from her perspective. The flashbacks reveal the sweet and loving early days of Jin and Sun's courtship. They are desperate to marry, but need the approval of Sun's intimidating and powerful father, Mr. Paik. Jin and Desmond have something in common. Unlike Desmond, Jin obtains permission by agreeing to work for Paik. This eventually puts a strain on Jin and Sun's marriage when Jin becomes too busy with work that not only keeps him from spending time with Sun but brings him home bloodied one night. And it was not his blood. Fearing the cruel streak that is emerging in Jin, Sun makes plans to escape to America.
She backs out at the last minute because of the loving gesture Jin makes by giving her a flower. There is a glimmer of hope for her that they can reclaim what they had in the beginning. This turbulent marriage will have more to overcome than just Jin's occupational hazards. Understanding now that Jin is not the complete jerk he appears to be, there is not a lot to suggest that Sun isn't as innocent as she appears yet. We find that out in Season 3. Although if her flirtations with Michael were a hint at her propensity to stray, we probably should have figured it out earlier!
While all this drama is going down Jack, Kate, Charlie and Locke hike out to the caves to bring back fresh water to the group. There is some serious Jate flirting throughout the episode that seems to really disgust Charlie. Chill out Dominic. Evie will be coming home to you...it's just acting! LOL. This outing provides more than just an opportunity for Jack and Kate to ogle one another. It leads to one of the most important discoveries on the Island.
