I have no excuse for this extremely late Lost recap except to say that isn’t it something new to see a Lost recap be late instead of a Desperate Housewives recap?
Anyway, there’s nothing in the mailbag, so let’s skip ahead to the good stuff…hopefully.
Previously, on Lost: Actually, this was quite some time ago as Sayid found a tripwire leading to the Russian woman. He beats the tripwire but falls right into another trap, eventually meeting Danielle Rousseau. She is the woman who transmitted a message that has been running for sixteen years straight. And now, Sayid learns that Danielle has not seen other people on the island besides the survivors of the crash, but she has heard them. More recently, Michael makes a plan to get off the island by building a raft. The first one burns down but a second one is built that is even better. Michael is confident but another survivor is not, claiming that monsoon season is on the way, and he just figured they all didn’t want to die. So when should they have set sail? “Yesterday.”
Two Oceanic plane tickets sit by a phone as Walt looks out on Sydney, Australia. Walt can’t sleep, so he watches Power Rangers. Michael can sleep, but not anymore. It’s 5:23 in the morning, and he tells Walt to turn the show down if Walt won’t go to sleep, but Walt turns it way up instead. Michael tries to get uppity but Walt explains that Ryan lets–oops, shouldn’t have said that. Michael isn’t Walt’s step-dad, as he seizes the remote from Walt and Walt decides to make a run for it with his dog. Michael physically pulls Walt away from an open elevator, dragging him and the dog back to the room as Michael tells a eyewitness to this that he’s Walt’s father. But Walt denies this up and down…
…taking us back to the island where Walt has risen to Nature’s Call. He hears a noise in the distance…and then sees a figure. Walt zips it up quickly as we know that it’s Danielle, but Walt certainly doesn’t know that. Walt goes on the prowl, watching as Danielle arrives on the island and meets eyes with Walt. Walt makes a run for it, alerting Danielle and everyone else. Danielle is toting a rifle as Sawyer and everyone are up and chattering now, with Michael immediately assuming the worst, trying to keep Danielle calm. But here comes Sayid to call off the buzz surrounding the French chick, as Danielle gives Claire and her baby a cold stare and then gives an answer to why she’s here:
“The others are coming.”
Sweet Jesus.
And now, a word from our sponsors… A most excellent beginning, as there’s no doubt in my mind Walt/Michael is going somewhere running up against a main story of Danielle arriving to meet the other survivors.
Danielle is explaining her story to the survivors who don’t know about it. For those of you who have forgotten, a ship carrying Danielle crashed onto land six years ago–which I think is a mistake, since it has to be sixteen, otherwise the transmission time doesn’t make sense. Anyway, there were six people on Danielle’s science team, and she was seven months pregnant at the time. She delivered the infant herself but only had the baby for one week until she saw a pillar of black smoke five kilometers inland. And that night, they came. This sounds way too much like aliens. Anyway, “they” came to take Alex (a girl) away. And now they’re coming for everyone else. Danielle gives the survivors three choices: Run, hide, or die.
The Good Doctor and John Locke talk about this, with Jack suggesting that she blew up her own shelter and is now talking about black smoke and hearing whispers, suggesting that Danielle is insane. Locke reminds Jack that doesn’t mean she’s a liar. Dr. Jack wants to stay on task with the raft instead of dealing with “what ifs”, as Michael has some bad news: Things aren’t looking very well for sailing the ship today. He’d need just about everybody to get it to set sail, so Jack asks for twenty minutes to round up a crew.
Twenty minutes later, Michael’s got tons of help and he’s ready to push it to the ocean. They make a good amount of progress but they end up unable to keep it straight, and more work has to be done to get it back together again. Michael is understandably upset and points the finger at Sawyer for his failure to use the levers which do something to help the raft, but Sawyer plays the blame game as well on Michael. But before it can get out of hand, Walt gets his father to take a look at something. And since they have nothing to do right now, everyone decides to take a look…at the pillar of black smoke billowing far in the distance.
Jack wants to know how many others exist, but Danielle doesn’t know anything more. The bigger concern is where to hide forty people besides Danielle herself. Jack and Locke give each other a look…
And Hurley gets his first look at the hatch. “Dude.” Danielle takes a look at it herself, having never seen anything like that before. Locke figures there’s another entrance, which means space to answer Hurley’s concerns about room for 40 people. Sayid thinks that “the others” might be in control of the hatch, and it might mean nothing anyway. Danielle reassures Sayid that the others are coming because of the black smoke. Locke wants to know if Danielle has any more explosives, and Danielle says that there are some at the black rock in the dark territory. Danielle suggests leaving within the hour if they want to make it back by sunset.
And now, a word from our sponsors… Things are just chugging along, and I’m pumped to see these others. Could it be an alternate reality version of the survivors, or what?
The sound of a plane takes us into another flashback, but this time with Jack as it’s clear we’re not having a Walt/Michael-centric episode. Jack is sipping on a little bit of the sauce as a rather attractive woman joins Jack at the bar. She wants to know why Jack was yelling at the check-in counter lady. But she was just being polite, she already knew what Jack was talking about. She wants to know how, and Jack says it was a heart attack. She notices Jack isn’t much of a drinker, and then wonders if Jack doesn’t wear a ring because he doesn’t want to or if he’s actually single. And alas, Jack isn’t married anymore. Jack orders himself another drink as the woman comes closer, as Anna Lucille introduces herself. She’s drinking tequilia before noon because she hates flying and she’s in the back of the plane. Jack, of course, is sitting in a completely different spot. Anna Lucille gets a phone call and has to take it, but invites Jack to another drink on the plane, but before leaving tells Jack that the worst part is over. Definitely not true.
Back to the island, as Jack gathers the survivors for a pep talk. Jack wants to go into the jungle to get supplies, and he’ll be back in a few hours. In the meantime, the other survivors need to focus on getting the raft on the water and then going into the caves. The science teacher joins Jack after the speech and reveals he knows everything about the plan, and reminds Jack not to tell “the fat guy” if he wants to keep a secret. Now, the thing about that dynamite is that it’s probably been sitting around for quite some time and Danielle seems pretty uncaring about the whole thing. So unless Jack wants to die, the science teacher is tagging along. Jack is down with that, and the science teacher seems somewhat surprised that he’s getting a chance to tag along.
Michael is surveying the damage done to Michael’s Ark II, as he discusses with Jin what they’ll need to do to fix it. Sawyer wants to help but Michael personally feels that the work will go faster if Sawyer is not involved. Sawyer looks a little peeved…
But he looks even more peeved as Sawyer sits down at a Sydney police station across the desk from a police officer. They met three nights previous, when Sawyer was thrashing and screaming about. Of course, Sawyer kicked the officer’s desk…and broke the officer’s mug. Sawyer makes a snide comment about his kids. But it turns out that Sawyer made a bigger mistake that night than breaking his mug. At a local bar, he headbutted the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests. What that man was doing at a bar was anyone’s guess, but Sawyer swears the Minister headbutted him. Witnesses say “no, no”. The officer then opens up a file on one James Ford, who has been arrested for a slew of crimes. The officer wonders how Sawyer manages to go on living a life, but Sawyer gets by. The man dismisses Sawyer as not even being worth the money it would cost to throw him in prison, and thus he’s being deported to Los Angeles later that afternoon. The officer warns him not to set foot in Australia again, and Sawyer assures him he won’t have to worry about that.
Sawyer is whacking away at bamboo, and looking intense while doing so. After cutting down the bamboo, Dr. Jack joins him and hands over a gun, as Sawyer is the only one who knows how to use one on the raft. The gun is “just in case” something should happen, as Jack is ready to take off for the dynamite. Sawyer tells Jack that he’ll be in the water by the time Jack gets back, so we might as well say our goodbyes to these two now. Jack wishes Sawyer luck, but Sawyer has something else to say. And thus Sawyer begins his story of running into Jack’s father at a bar one week before the fateful flight. Jack learns that his father was sorry all along for what happened, even though Jack was the one who felt guilty most of the time. Jack goes to tears over this, as Sawyer assumes that Christian never got around to giving his son that call of apology. “Small world, huh?” Sawyer wishes Jack good luck as well, and now Jack is ready to leave.
And now, a word from our sponsors… The multiple flashbacks and not making this episode -centric to any one person is genius, as everything feels like it’s moving at high speed even though the episode is not even half over yet.
The Marshal is packing heat, but the inspector of his briefcase is wondering why the Marshal would need five guns. Marshal thinks that Kate could answer that, but Kate’s shy. The inspector then brings out the toy plane as the Marshal launches into the story about Kate killing her childhood sweetheart by accident when she was on the run. And during this period Kate calls the Marshal about her mitigating circumstances but the Marshal sees it as taunting, which is pretty much what he’s doing to Kate right now. In fact, he did it even further by explaining that he was the one who hid the airplane in a safe deposit box in New Mexico, but Kate went out of her way to find out exactly where it was and then convince a boy toy to break into it and take the plane before killing the tool. That’s the only thing that Kate cares about, she has no other emotional attachments. And she needs that plane as an atonement for killing her sweetheart. The Marshal continues to taunt Kate until Kate finally reveals the name of her sweetheart as she rushes the Marshal, pinning him up against the window. The Marshal throws a back elbow, though, knocking Kate to the ground and explaining that that’s why he needs five guns, kicking the toy plane out of Kate’s reach.
And here’s Kate on the beach, meeting up with Jack as he prepares for departure. Kate wants to tag along for ol’ times sakes, plus she’s not very good at goodbyes so she doesn’t want to see the raft launching. So Jack is cool with that.
Now the party splits in two, with everyone saying their goodbyes who will be going for the dynamite. Charlie gathers messages in a bottle for the raft people to deliver on behalf of those who stayed behind, as Locke has nothing to add, and Hurley has something to add but he doesn’t want it read by Charlie, despite Charlie’s best attempt. Jack says goodbye to Michael, Walt and Jin, and then Kate wants to know where Sawyer is. Charlie doesn’t have a clue, and Jack is ready to go, but Kate really wants to say goodbye to Sawyer apparently.
The Party of Six: Danielle Rousseau, John Locke, Jack Shepard, Kate Ryan, Hurley Reyes and Leslie Arzt go along the beach and take a break where Danielle takes off her jacket to reveal scratches on her left arm. Locke asks about it, and Danielle claims it was a bush. “Mean bush.” Danielle wants to keep moving, as Arzt seems to be slacking behind quite a bit. Further along, Hurley says Arzt’s last name wrong, as Arzt keeps trying to correct him, saying that a bunch of ninth graders can say it just fine. Hurley suggests calling him by his first name, but Arzt is fine, no matter how Hurley butchers it.
The Party of Six walks along a stream, but someone is watching. Ominous music plays as Danielle arrives at the Dark Territory. The black rock isn’t far, as Danielle explains that bad stuff happens here, so they gotta move quickly. Arzt wants to go back, scared out of his mind, and can only say about the dynamite that one should be very careful with it. But Arzt has to go, he doesn’t want to help anymore.
Back at Michael’s Ark II, Sawyer arrives with a perfect mast, handing it over to Michael and Jin as they continue to have problems repairing the raft. Michael appreciates the help as Sawyer feels like he’s done something right.
In the Dark Territory, The Party of Six continues along as they hear noises in the distance the noises don’t stop, and they seem to sound like repeated screams of a man. The screams keep coming…and there’s Arzt, telling them to run. AND THERE’S THE METALLIC ROAR! SOME KIND OF MONSTURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
And now, a word from our sponsors… Holy crap at the Monster returning, as I was expecting a bunch of booby traps leading to Arzt’s demise. Good timing though.
THE MONSTER IS COMING, and Arzt, Kate and Jack are on the run, with Danielle grabbing Jack and pulling him into the Bamboo Cage and Locke telling Hurley to be still as the monster crunches his way towards everyone. Eventually it heads off in the other direction, with Jack, Kate and Danielle in the bamboo cage as Kate wants to know what it is. “It” is a security system, designed to protect something worth protecting. Like the island. Jack, Kate and Danielle leave the cage and meet up with Hurley and Locke, as Arzt is nowhere to be found until he bumbles back into the party. Arzt wants the dynamite now, and Jack is trying to think of a way to get to the Black Rock without disrupting the security system.
Back at the beach, Walt runs up to Shannon, standing there dumbfounded for a moment and then asking Shannon to take Vincent. Shannon wonders why Walt thinks Shannon needs a dog to take care of her, and Walt explains that the dog was there for him when Walt’s mother died. He would talk to Vincent, who’s a good listener. If Shannon wants, she can talk to Vincent about Boone. Shannon tears up and agrees to take Vincent, but only until Walt gets them rescued. Right.
Here comes the plane and another flashback as Sayid walks up to Shannon, asking her to watch the bag for a moment as Shannon doesn’t even realize what she’s saying by agreeing to it. Sayid walks away as Boone arrives, breaking the bad news that they can’t get in first class. Boone reminds Shannon that she’ll come to a day when she’ll appreciate everything Boone does for her, but Shannon doubts that. The time comes closer to get on the plane as Boone tells Shannon there’s no way to get into first class. Shannon thinks that she’s capable of anything, and she proves it by walking up to a security officer and telling him about an Arab guy leaving his bag on the chairs downstairs. She describes Sayid as “Arab” and the security officer takes off running. Oh man. Boone looks less than impressed…
…as we return to Michael’s Ark II with Sayid handing over some supplies…a radar and a flare gun with only one flare. They have to conserve power if they want to make it, so the radar can only be turned on once an hour.
Back in the Dark Territory, the Party of Six is lurking towards the Black Rock as Danielle reveals that they’ve come to the Black Rock. The camera pans over to reveal…a wrecked ship…by the name of the Black Rock. WOW.
And now, a word from our sponsors… Totally didn’t expect the Black Rock to be a goddamn ship. This episode is one of the best in quite a long time, by the way, and it’s almost over, unfortunately.
In the airport terminal, Sun arrives with food and drink for Jin, as Sun makes sure Jin is comfortable before he eats. A couple watches on from a distance as the wife tells her husband that if she ever gets caught doing that for him to shoot her, but the husband says that their divorce rate is 20 times lower. Sun accidentally knocks over coffee on Jin and Jin takes off to get cleaned up, as the wife feels like it’s Memoirs of a Geisha come to life. Her husband tells her to watch the volume, but it’s okay. Korean ladies like Sun don’t speak English.
And now Sun arrives at Michael’s Ark II, handing over a list of simple English words spelled out phonetically to help out Jin as he sails on the ship. Jin begins to tear up and then apologizes as Sun tears up and apologizes as well. Sun tells Jin he doesn’t have to go, but Jin thinks he’s being punished by being in this position. Jin made Sun suffer, and she doesn’t deserve that. Jin has to go to save Sun, and tells Sun to stay with Jack so she’ll be safe, but Sun wants to know who will keep Jin safe. They embrace, both crying. And then they kiss, and hooray for love.
Fast forward to more messages in a bottle, and the survivors gathering by the raft as Walt says goodbye to Vincent, Claire says goodbye to Jin, Michael says goodbye to Sun–and then share an awkward hug. Hugs all around, as Charlie delivers the message in a bottle to Sawyer, and he looks back on the beach he’ll hopefully be leaving behind. The team effort plays out, and the raft finally reaches the water, with the raft people setting sail and Vincent barking for his master. Walt wants Vincent to go back to Shannon, but Vincent continues through the water before finally listening to Walt and heading back. Shannon meets Vincent halfway, as the survivors celebrate a job well done and the mast is raised on the raft. The raftpeople celebrate a job well done, as Sawyer, Walt, Michael and Jin make way for the great beyond.
Will they make it? Or are they as good as
LOST.
End show!
