Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 746 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
By Cindy McLennan | Season 5 | Episode 3 | Aired on 2009.01.28
Richard says, "We didn't start this, friend. Your people attacked us. You come to our island to run your tests; you fire on us and what... You expect us not to defend ourselves?" Hmmm. Daniel mumbles that he and his crew are just scientists and don't know anything about any of that. Richard wants to know if "they" sent Daniel et al there to recover "it." The final piece clicks in Daniel's mind, so he's locked, loaded, and ready to bear... falsehoods. "If you mean our hydrogen bomb, then yes." Daniel nods toward one of the guards that came in with Richard and Ellie -- the one with the bandaged hands Daniel noticed en route to Camp Richard. "And I'm guessing from this man's radiation burns that the housing has been compromised. Is that right?" Richard looks to his injured commando as Daniel continues. "You need to listen to me. You have an unstable device that's capable of destroying this entire island. And it's broken. If you don't allow me to render it inert, all of us are gonna die." Brotha! Richard wants proof they weren't sent there on a suicide mission to take out the island and all its inhabitants, so Daniel says, "I'm in love with the woman sitting next to me, and I would never... I'd never do anything to hurt her." Richard buys this rather easily. I can't decide if Daniel's telling the truth. I can't even decide if Daniel knows. He's good. Miles might be jealous though; maybe he's sweet on Daniel.
Locke walks through the jungle, looking at the compass Richard gave him last week. He's behind Jones and Nameless Commando. Juliet and Sawyer are in the lead, and he asks who taught her Latin. Juliet explains that it's part of the Others 101 curriculum, because Latin is the language of the "enlightened." Sawyer snaps, "Enlightened, my ass." Somnus, somni, somno, somnum, somno, somni, somne.
Meanwhile, Locke encourages Nameless Commando to talk to them -- threatening that the rest of the strand-aways are going to be mad at the commandos for attacking them. With flaming arrows? Um, ya think? Nameless says that the rest of the strand-aways are either captured or dead. Once he has everyone's attention, he puts the blame on Sawyer. "That idiot shouted out, 'Meet at the creek'. We knew exactly where they were headed -- sent a group after them." And I suddenly feel sick, because we haven't seen Rose and Bernard yet, have we? They're not at Camp Richard and weren't at Rendezvous Creek. Lalalala I can't hear you, Nameless. You're the tree that falls in the forest when nobody's there because they've all been eaten by a polar bear. Sawyer snarks that maybe he should have used his 'secret language' and does the You Want A Piece Of Me dance, or possibly the pee-pee dance, as he saunters towards Nameless. Juliet holds him back and Latinizes at the commandos -- making me realize that this is the first show I've watched that used Latin for anything other than exorcisms and spells. Juliet explains that the strand-aways aren't the commandos' enemies, so Nameless asks her to let him and Jones go, which seems like a reasonable good-faith request -- so don't do it, Juliet! What? I belong to the Hurley School of Strategy. Juliet counter-proposes that the commandos take the strand-aways to their camp, and asks if Richard Alpert is there. Locke catches the name, but Juliet shushes him, and keeps working Nameless, who finally decides to tell her where the camp is. "Okay, we need to head east another couple of kilometers until we hit the ridge..." Jones runs up behind Nameless and breaks his neck in a single snap, which makes me think of Angelus, which makes me reconsider whether there still couldn't be exorcisms or other spells in the island's future (or past, or whenever we are). Jones then runs off, leaving his victim-comrade's corpse in the care of our strand-aways. Sawyer hollers at Locke to shoot the fleeing Jones, but although Locke takes aim, he hesitates, and lowers his weapon. Sawyer grabs it from him, and gets off a round, but Jones is gone from sight. Sawyer yells at Locke, asking why he wouldn't shoot Jones. Locke, still staring at the spot where Jones disappeared into the thicket says, "Because... he's one of my people."