Shocking that there’s no e-mail in the mailbag, as I’m still sick and just ready to get this recap underway so I can maybe get a little home remedy from Lost.
Previously, on Lost: No official previously shown, but there was plenty of stuff that happened to Locke, so take a look at the previous recap done by yours truly.
A blonde pulls into a second-rate motel, and then goes through her trunk, removing a false panel to reveal a license plate for every state of the Union. She screws on the correct one and as one family leaves their hotel room, the blonde woman enters, leaving a do-not-disturb sign behind her. She puts dye through her hair and then washes it out in the shower…turning around to reveal Kate in all her brunette glory. Well, I kinda figured it was Kate but it was a neat touch to do the whole license plate thing.
A now-brunette Kate enters the lobby, asking for a letter being held for a Joan Hart. Sure enough, she gets the letter, reading it in the car and quickly bursting into tears. The camera pans up and then fades to…
Kate holding a plane against the blue sky of the island, but Charlie snaps her out of her daydream with his guitar with the word “platinum”. As Charlie sees it, his death in a mysterious plane crash would likely result in a spike in Driveshaft album sales. And so when Charlie comes back from what was seemingly death at its finest, the comeback tour will surely be a riot. Kate asks if Charlie thinks the raft will work, but Charlie mentions that they actually built a “sodding boat”. So when they get spotted, the choppers or planes will come to the island and rescue everyone else and make them all famous. Kate looks over and notices a commotion.
That commotion is Some Random Survivor making a stink regarding weather problems. Despite Sawyer’s protest that we shouldn’t listen to our local weatherman on the island, the monsoon season is approaching which will make the tradewinds go south, and as far as the islanders know, the only piece of land that is definitely south of this island would be Antartica. So when SHOULD they have launched? “Yesterday.”
Michael is upset by this news and is stomping away but Kate catches up with him. She wants to make sure that everything will be ready by tomorrow, but Michael is wondering why she is so interested now. Why? Because Kate’s tagging along. On a boat that might be, in the monsoon season, as good as…
LOST.
And now, a word from our sponsors… Good opening, though I don’t care much about Kate going along for the ride, I do care about the fact that the raft trip seems already doomed by the whole monsoon thing.
Michael tells Kate the boat is full as they have the four passengers needed to ride. And that’s including Sawyer, who bought his way onto the raft because he had the material. Yeah, that was the first raft that burned down, but Michael can’t get into it with Kate right now. Kate brings up the subject of Walt, and Michael tells her flat out that he’s doing what’s best for the kid, and what’s best for Walt is to get him off the island. The boat’s full and that’s final.
Kate is carrying flowers in a hospital, as an orderly points her in the right direction of the flower delivery. It’s to a person in intensive care, and she notices a trooper sitting outside a hospital room, hiding her face as she passes–the trooper not noticing a thing.
A doctor steps into his car, but that car is also occupied by Kate. Kate tells Tom that someone at the hospital is dying of cancer, apparently someone who is rather close to her–from what I gather. Tom asks the obvious question of why Kate bothered to hide in the back of his car, and Kate admits that she needs his help.
(Quick Note: I rather enjoy how the whooshing sound effects to take us from flashback to realtime and vice-versa are missing. It really makes everything seem urgent and requiring as much time as possible to fit into the 42 minutes of airtime.)
Jin is working on Michael’s Ark II, but Sun walks up and asks if Jin is going along on the raft. He is, which seems to bum Sun out as she can’t say any more to him.
Sayid is leading Jack through the jungle, but not telling him where they’re going. Jack demands an answer or he’s turning back, and Locke tells Jack that he’s been brought here at Locke’s request. He wanted to make sure Jack would have an open mind at what he’s about to see. And with that, Locke leads Sayid and Jack around to the site of the hatch. Jack is flabbergasted by it, but none of the three men have any idea what it is.
Returning to Michael’s Ark II, as Sawyer questions Jin bringing fish along on the raft since he thinks they can just catch fish out at sea. Michael confronts Sawyer though, asking if he knows anything about what they’re going to be doing, and Sawyer doesn’t know anything, which makes Michael realize that he’s probably going to end up useless. But then Sawyer asks who would replace him.
The same woman who seems to be burning a passport is replacing Sawyer, but here comes the man of the hour himself to protest this. Kate plays dumb but Sawyer is onto her, and he knows what she’s doing. She wanted that case from the U.S. Marshal who was on the flight for the same reason that she wants that spot on Michael’s Ark II: It’s her only chance of escape and if the helicopters come to rescue her on the island, there’ll be a nice big asterisk next to Kate’s name. Sawyer assures Kate that her secret is safe, but also confirms that he’s getting that spot on the raft, no one else. Sawyer walks away but Kate warns him that if she wants his spot, she’ll get his spot. The music is magnificent in this scene.
Michael’s Ark II is still under construction as Walt gets his father some water, and then starts to ask some questions regarding the raft. Sawyer and him were arguing because Sawyer really wants that spot, since “he knows it’s going to work.” Walt then asks the big question of coming back to find the other survivors, and Michael can only say that they will come back for them, if they can find where the island is again. Michael says there’s no guarantees, though, so the best idea–but Michael gets cut off as he gets the mother of all stomachaches, telling Walt to go find Jack as Michael is keeled over in pain. Leave it to the island to work its voodoo magic once again.
And now, a word from our sponsors… Great stuff with Michael suddenly coming down with something fierce, and Sayid/Jack/Locke gathering around the hatch is a genius thing for the writers to be doing at this point, as all the tension seems ready to burst at the seams.
Walt is running to find Jack in the jungle, but running into Sun and Kate first. Sun takes Walt back to Michael while Kate is on the run to find Jack, but it seems like she gets lost rather easily on her way.
Jack wants to know how long Locke has known about the hatch, and Locke admits to knowing about it for three weeks. Jack gets a little peeved at not knowing about it sooner, but Locke gives Jack all due respect and then tells him that he doesn’t have to report to the Good Doctor. Jack gives Locke his due respect, but then calls him a liar. Locke calls Jack out on having the case full of guns without the rest of the islanders knowing, so they’ll both use their own discretion when it comes to secrets. Jack then switches the subject to how to open the hatch, and Sayid can’t believe that Jack wants to open it as he was hoping Jack would talk Locke out of opening it. Sayid thinks opening the hatch is a bad idea based on the fact that there is no handle to open it, so perhaps it was never meant to be opened from the outside. Should make for a pretty creepy scene when it is opened from the inside, though.
Jack hears Kate’s screams and then runs to meet her, as Kate explains Michael’s ailment.
Michael still isn’t feeling too great, as he tells Jack that he only had fish to eat and 2-3 bottles of cave water. The Good Doctor tells Michael to stay back, despite Michael’s insistence that the raft has to be launched tomorrow. Walt looks uneasy at this whole scene…
And Tom asks a fellow doctor about getting some MRI results for a friend of a friend. Kate asks about Tom’s baby, and then about Tom’s wife. They still have about three hours to go until Diane’s MRI appointment, and then Kate asks Tom if that “something” is still there. She suggests there might not be another chance to find “it”.
So Tom and Kate go off to find “it”, as some moose trample by in the background. Tom and Kate start digging at a paced off spot.
Locke and The Good Doctor discuss what could be ailing Michael, as it couldn’t have been heatstroke or bad food, as Michael would’ve felt the former coming on and Jin is on the same diet as Michael. So Jack turns to the water, as he corrects Locke: It’s not the water itself but something in the water. Jesus, did Walt drug his father, too?
And now, a word from our sponsors… This Kate stuff should be pretty neat if what they’re digging up turns out to be worth finding out about. Wouldn’t that be crazy if they ended up digging the other end of the hatch out? Crazy, but non-sensical.
Michael’s cramps are quieting down, so long as he doesn’t move or breathe, as Dr. Jack goes to give him some water and then changes his mind, switching bottles as Walt looks on in the distance. Michael picks up the hint, and immediately begins to think that Sawyer was the one who poisoned his water.
Hurley is on bamboo duty, but he thinks someone should be taking care of the water. Locke asks how Jin and Michael are getting along, doing some investigating into the poisoning. Jack arrives with Michael’s theory of Sawyer having done it, and Hurley knows all about the Kate/Sawyer tension. Of course, it could’ve been Kate because of the whole fugitive thing. Locke didn’t know about that, of course, and Hurley gets upset since it’s hard for anyone to know who knows what on the island. “Steve didn’t know about the polar bear!” Jack tells Locke he doesn’t know what Kate did but he didn’t tell the others because of the whole discretion thing.
Claire is cutting Charlie’s hair as the baby sleeps in Locke’s crib, with Charlie playing music all the while and getting some songwriting done. When asked, Claire doesn’t know what the first thing is that she’s going to do when she gets rescued, but Charlie invites her to come hang out with him in LA. Charlie then begins to perform his second track off the new album, Monster Eats The Pilot. Gold. Platinum?
Jack is at his Doctor Station in the caves as Kate arrives to ask about Michael and then questions whether or not he will be replaced on the raft. So Jack just cuts right to the chase and asks Kate if she poisoned Michael, and Kate asks Jack if he thinks she’s even capable of doing such a thing. Jack doesn’t know what she’s capable of, so Kate just walks away.
But now she’s digging, and Tom is busy drinking beer, as “no self-respecting man in Iowa goes anywhere without beer”. Aha, so they ARE in Iowa. IOWANS REPRAZENT YO! Kate gets a beer of her own, as Tom complains over the unfair tactic of Kate coming back home like this. Kate keeps digging, but Tom can only stare at her as she hits the treaure at the bottom of the ditch. She digs it up, and there’s a rather small box not even bigger than a shoebox. Kate cracks it open, and it seems to be a time capsule with Tom’s plane inside. There’s also a cassette tape of Kate and Tom dedicating the time capsule in 1989. Turns out that Tom and Kate were once an item, as little Kate says that she always runs away, and Tom knows why. Tom seems kinda dejected by the whole thing, but they eventually lean in to have a hedonistic kiss. Tom seems to have enjoyed that, but is now ready to go to the hospital. I suppose they’re cattle, not moose.
Walt walks up on Locke as he’s had a little accident with the fire. Walt then pleads not guilty to poisoning Michael’s water in front of Locke. Locke assures Walt that he doesn’t believe Walt poisoned his father just because he knows for a fact that Walt burned down the first Michael’s Ark. They’re friends, and friends keep secrets. But then Locke touches Walt’s arm and Walt goes all Johnny Smith on us, warning Locke not to open “that thing”, despite Locke playing dumb and not understanding, Walt just repeats to him to not open it.
And now, a word from our sponsors… Ah, our lovely little Walt is a shiner. Imagine that. Once again, the flashbacks in this episode seem to just be tying up loose ends, like how Kate got that plane. The only thing that can even be a little shocking is perhaps how Tom manages to bite the dust in the end.
Sawyer throws Michael some Pepto-Bismol, recommending that he takes a dose. But despite Sawyer’s best intentions Michael kicks him off the raft, suspecting him off the poisoning. Michael then points out that Sawyer does do a lot of shady things that he wouldn’t want rubbing off on Walt. Sawyer gets a little out of control when he’s called a criminal, but Jin pushes Sawyer away to create a little distance. “Get your hands off me, boy.” Sawyer is getting antsy, and then turns to Kate as he drags her over to Michael, wanting her to confess to poisoning Michael. Charlie arrives to try and snap some sense into Sawyer, as Sawyer grabs Kate’s bag when she doesn’t come forward with the confessing. Michael is on Kate’s side, but Sawyer empties the backpack and finds Joanna’s ID. Of course, Joanna is the woman who drowned on the island. Kate tells Sawyer to shut up while he rambles, and then Sawyer tells Michael that Kate is selfish.
Over in a corridor of the hospital, Kate meets up with this Diane lady, who is actually her mother. Her mother seems to come to, as Kate breaks down and tries to reach her mother, as her mother is able to recognize Kate. She apologizes to her mother for all she’s done, and they both shed a tear, but then Kate’s mother begins to cry out for help. An orderly hears the yells and tries to get Kate, and then a security guard stops her but Kate wallops the guard with his own walkie, and then Kate asks Tom for his car keys. Kate and Tom both go for a daring escape…as the police are on their way, blocking off the exit to the hospital. Kate tells Tom to get out of the car, but Tom refuses and with no other choice, Kate guns it through the exit gates, the trooper opening fire as a few shots pierce the windshield and she ends up t-boning a car anyway. Stuck with nowhere to go, Kate realizes what happened to Tom: Shot by a trooper. Kate makes a run for it.
Back at the beach with the gathering of people, as Sawyer wants the truth from Kate. So Kate admits to being on that plane with the U.S. Marshal and says no matter what, she’s going to jail. She insists that she didn’t poison Michael, but that’s not good enough as Michael hands the seat over to Sawyer after all. And people start to walk away now, distancing themselves from Kate as she is left alone by the Ark. She looks through her things, finding the plane nose down in the sand.
And now, a word from our sponsors… It’s about time Kate stopped trying to make herself the center of attention. I’m a big fan of Michael, mostly because of his work on Oz but also because he does a hell of a job here. Nice to see Sawyer get a bigger role back with this episode, as I’ve been missing him lately.
Workers lift a piece of the raft in place as Sun watches from a distance and the Good Doctor joins her, knowing that she doesn’t want Jin to leave. Jack then finds out the solution to the puzzle, with Sun having been the one to poison Michael. Of course, they worked together so much that Jin and Michael’s water bottles were mixed up and it was Jin who ended up not getting poisoned. Sun knows that the jig is up, but admits that she didn’t want him to die out there, but didn’t know what else to do. Sun wasn’t trying to hurt Jin, and then asks if Jack is going to spread the word. Jack doesn’t think it’s something they need to know, but tells Sun to let Jin go and tell him goodbye now before it’s too late.
Kate is stoking a fire as Sawyer joins her, informing her that he’s back on the raft, and Michael will be “cowboying up” to set sail tomorrow. Sawyer isn’t here to say sorry, as Kate cornered him into reacting. And that’s that. Sawyer has some packing to do, but Kate asks him why it’s important for him to be on that raft. Sawyer doesn’t have anything on the island worth staying for, however. Kate wishes Sawyer luck, and THAT’S that.
To Michael’s Ark II, as Walt rushes up to Michael and Michael keeps assuring Walt that everything is going to be great with the sailing…but then Walt blurts out that he burnt down the raft. Walt didn’t want to leave, and he thought he could stop his father. He apologizes, but Michael is fine with it, and then offers Walt a chance to stay on the island. But Walt then tells Michael that they DO have to leave. Oh my.
Sun joins Kate in Kate’s tent, telling Kate that Jack knows Sun did the poisoning…but that it was Kate’s idea. Kate shouldn’t be punished for trying to help Sun, right? And he’s not going to tell the others. Jack is good at keeping secrets, but Sun segues into something about thinking that she would be happy forever once she found the love of her life. Kate thought she would be, too.
LOST
END SHOW! Err…did those last two scenes seem out of order to anyone else? Episode should’ve definitely ended with Walt warning his father that they were going to have to leave, not with Kate being a sentimental harlot. Oh well, this episode was just as so-so as the Sayid one, as they both were severely lacking in the flashback department except in the way that they’re tying up loose ends. I guess if you’ve got to tie up loose ends before the season finale, you might as well do it now while we’re still thirsting for a really knock down drag out awesome episode from start to finish.
