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So Lost's going to kill off one of the characters tonight, is it? Who could it be? Could it be Sawyer, who keeps collapsing as the Tailaways trek to the other side of the island? Could it be Cindy or Libby or Abby or Gabby or whoever the hell that Tailaway is who suddenly disappears? Or could it be the character the show spends an hour makin' all sympathetic? Well, as sympathetic as you can make a spoiled princess. When Shannon's rich daddy dies and she gets no money, she stops being spoiled by her heartless stepmom, and is forced to make it on her own. And we all know how that turns out -- with her scamming her stepbrother by taking advantage of his feelings for her. Shannon, please let us know when we're supposed to feel sorry for you. Sayid's definitely on board the Love Shannon Express, having spent a few minutes making her the nicest tent on the island, and he tells Shannon he loves her. So much for Nadia, I guess. Shannon sees Walt again and goes chasing off into the jungle after him, in yet another of her You-Think-I'm-A-Joke?-Well-I'll-Show-You storylines. And she sees Walt again, and this time it appears that Sayid sees him too, although I'm not convinced that Sayid didn't just say he did, trying to calm a hysterical Shannon.
The Tailways' journey involves MacGyvering this amazing stretcher to carry Sawyer, and Michael finally asks what happened with the Others, and Ana-Lucia says the Others snatched up many of the crash survivors, which doesn't really tell us a lot, since that's kind of what we guessed, isn't it? Anyway, Ana-Lucia says the Others are dangerous, and one bullet in one gun ain't gonna stop them.
Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned the gun, because everyone knows that when you introduce a gun in the first act, it must go off in the third. And when Shannon goes running off into the bushes again, that single bullet from an on-edge Ana-Lucia is certainly enough to send a gut-shot Shannon back into the arms of her redemptive new love. Sayid no like Ana-Lucia. Sayid no like Ana-Lucia at all. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Tonight, one of the castaways will be lost forever. Looking back, maybe we should be thankful that this show didn't go the Beverly Hills, route in its little ratings-grabbing stunt. You know? Remember when we'd be told that the Hillsters deal with the death of one of their own, but when you watch the episode it turns out to be someone who was introduced just a couple of episodes ago but everyone pretended like they always knew this guy? With last week's preview, part of me worried the show might do that, what with the shot of Libby prominent as the narrator gravely spoke of impending doom, even if I thought that would be too much of a cheap fake-out, even for this show, with its wacky hallucinogenic head paste and back-from-the-abyss reviving Charlie. And I guess there wouldn't be any dramatic value in offing Libby, at least not yet, except for the actress's parents, who I pictured resignedly making up the guest room for when she moves back home again.But no, it's not Libby. On the off chance you don't actually watch the show, preferring instead to read and scroll for about the same length of time (in which case, bless you), I'll try not to give it away before it actually happens, okay? I'll just let the show do the storytelling, which it does in its usual manner, i.e. focusing on one major character for the A-plot and flashbacks. And hopefully I won't say anything that identifies who dies.
So we open with Shannon…
Oh, damn. Sorry about that.
Shannon gives water to a thirsty Vincent, and the fact that she is actually looking after the damn dog is the first clue that we're in for some emergency sympathy-generation. Water to a dog? Shannon's not selfish at all! She even kisses Vincent, who sits there, tongue lolling out, and he doesn't spoil the moment by humping her leg. This is a kind of restraint that Sayid can't exactly boast of.
Speak of the devil. Sayid strolls by, tosses her a bag or something, and cheerfully tells her to gather her things, and keeps walking, expecting her to follow. She wants to know where they're going, but she's giggling, because the last time he did this it turned out to be a romantic candlelit picnic, capped off by a night of snuggling and jokes about blue balls. And then she returned to camp to find out her brother was dead. So you can see why she'd be so eager to recreate the Sayid Magical Mystery Tour of Love.
A ways down the beach, Sayid's got some sort of deluxe tent thing set up with canvas and palm fronds. Shannon smiles and asks if it has an inside. I'm no physicist, but…yes? They go inside, which is all Queer Eye for the Persian Guy with candles and flowers everywhere. Sayid's really putting on the full-court press here. She's amazed. "When did you do this?" she asks. During the endless hours of NOTHING TO DO you have when you're a plane crash survivor on a deserted island, is my guess. Sayid simply says, "It's all for you," and she thanks him, and he gives her a husky, "You're quite welcome," and then sees his opening and moves in, and then start kissing. Shannon slides her hand down his back, towards his ass…and turns out that is a gun in his pocket. Or waistband, anyway, and he apologizes it and removes it. She asks if he needs to carry it around all the time. "I only carry it because I have someone to protect," he says. Sayid, I like you, but relax; I think you're in there this time. And sure enough, they hit the floor of the Iraqi love shack.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, the Ana-Lucia crew is resting in the jungle darkness. Cindy risks a beating by telling Ana-Lucia that it's been an hour and they should get moving again. Ana-Lucia gruffly responds to let 'em rest a little longer. She herself does not need rest, for she is Ana-Lucia, Sneering Warrior-Woman. Cindy's all worried about the Others showing up, and Ana-Lucia has no answer to that, other than her perpetual scowl. Sawyer offers up the theory that she's lost, and you'll never believe this, but she snaps at him, and when he asks her which way to go (calling her "Ponce de Leon") her response is ask him which way he'd go. Sawyer wants to wait for Mistereko to come back. "If your friend didn't run off, Eko would still be here, now, wouldn't he? You sure didn't have any problem leaving him behind, though, huh?" Ana-Lucia's going to have to try a whole lot better than that if she's trying to make Sawyer feel bad. He says that Michael only cares about himself and his kid: "Neither's got squat to do with me." And then for some reason Robert Horry is there, and -- no, wait, that's Michael, saying, "Glad you feel this way," and you know, if a guy like Michael, whose preferred form of jungle traversal is yelling and crashing through the bush, can sneak up on the Tailaways like this, it is no wonder that the Others have been kicking their asses since the crash. Sawyer looks at Mike and at least has the decency to appear chagrined. Sawyer says he didn't expect to see Michael again. Maybe that's because you took off in the opposite direction. Jin strolls up now to say a few words in Korean, clearly admonishing Sawyer. "Yeah, yeah, Chewie, I know," sighs Sawyer.
Eko enters the picture, and Ana-Lucia sounds genuinely concerned when she asks if he's okay. He says he is, but they have to leave now, because he saw them. This prompts a flurry of questions from the Tailaways, including this one from Libby: "Did you see the kids?" She's sharply rebuked by Ana-Lucia, like she doesn't want the Tailaways to talk about it, and Eko doesn't answer Libby anyway, just repeats that they have to leave now, so Ana gives the order, and they set out again, Sawyer grunting as he struggles to his feet.
Speaking of grunting, we're back at the Iraqi Love Shack, where Shannon and Sayid are naked and in a post-coital embrace, and I'd just like to point out that by the timer on my VCR it's been about two minutes. While Sayid strokes her hair, Shannon asks if all this means that they're serious now, and I kind of want to know if the writers are serious with this dialogue. "Quite definitely not," deadpans Sayid. True in both cases! "I do this for all the girls I meet on deserted islands." He's kidding, but I hope we get a little more insight into what's happening with Sayid that his whole Nadia thing -- you know, the love he has that served as his driving motivation in both of the Sayid-centric episodes last year? -- seems to have gone by the wayside. Either he's lying to Shannon, which I don't think fits with what we've seen so far in terms of the guy's integrity, or Nadia? He's just not that into you. However, I'm willing to accept that deserted-island sex with a fellow crash survivor is both defensible and wicked awesome. Shannon giggles, then starts to get up for some water. My wife made me promise not to make a joke about what she needs that for. Sayid kisses her forehead and says he'll go for her. He pulls on his pants and zips up and says he'll be right back, and exits the tent, Shannon smiling. She leans back, and then we hear a rustling, and I swear to god the closed-captioning reads "TENT FLAPUSTLES" as the candle behind her blows out. She's startled, but apparently thinks it's Sayid returning, and she says, "That was quick," which is something men always enjoy hearing after sex, but she glances up and sees Walt. Just like the last time she saw him, he's dripping wet. I paused it on Walt, and looks like puberty's hit, because he looks older and leaner. And Shannon screams as he whispers unintelligibly, and it sounds like the first word he says is "swallow," which, um…just how long has he been standing there?
Back from commercial, Sayid's finished searching around the tent and says there's no one there. Shannon insists she saw Walt, but Sayid gently tells her that it was a dream. She insists, but he's still skeptical. And oh good! Here comes Charlie! He asks what's going on, and Sayid says it was just a dream, so the princess herself stomps off, Sayid following. Claire comes along, carrying Turniphead, and Charlie tells her Shannon had a nightmare (even though no one but him believed Claire when she said someone attacked her), and then he acts like a complete dick about her waking Aaron up in the middle of the night like this, especially since Claire's reaction to screaming was to take her baby towards the screams. "I thought she needed help," says Claire. Well, what was Aaron supposed to do? Not that Claire needs to defend her mothering to Charlie, who starts going on about how he's going to need feeding now (are you the one feeding the child, Chucky?) and how he's going to be fussy all day. "Fussy" is preferable to "sanctimonious," if you ask me. But Claire actually apologizes to Charlie instead of kicking him in his tiny balls, and Charlie graciously says "no harm done" and then TAKES CLAIRE'S BABY FROM HER and starts soothing him.
Shannon is already packing her things at the Iraqi love shack, and I hope they haven't merged their CD collections yet, because if they have, this could take a while. In a surprise move, Shannon has decided to stomp off in a snit. Sayid wants to talk about it. "Do you believe me?" she says? And Sayid doesn't answer. Meaning, "Of course not, you silly bint." So Shannon stomps off, saying she knows what she saw.
And now we get dragged into some flashbacks that are going to attempt to show us why a nice, non-shallow ambitious person Shannon used to be and that it's not her fault at all that she turned into the self-centred manipulative prima donna that crashed on Craphole Island.
We're in a ballet studio, with several little girls doing pirouettes and that one leg thing that ballerinas do, and that other thing that ballerinas do, and there's Shannon in a pink tutu, helping "Sophie" with her form. Sophie wants to know if her "papa" saw her, and she and Shannon glance over to the other side of the room, where Papa is paying no attention whatsoever, choosing instead to flirt with one of the other instructors. So Shannon lies and says she thinks Sophie's papa did see her.
Class is over, and the little music-box dancers are going home, and the other instructor comes over so she and Shannon can have a good laugh over Papa wanting her to be his "au pair," and Shannon says "au pair my ass," which probably isn't far from what Papa had in mind. And Shannon's friend starts going off in this stereotypical French accent (saying "ze" for "the"), going on about accidentally walking in on her in "ze shower." Shannon's cell phone rings, and how nice of her not to turn it off when she's in the studio. A woman's voice tells her that her father's in the hospital, St. Sebastian's. Shannon will meet her there. St. Sebastian's, eh?
At the hospital, a doctor approaches "Mrs. Rutherford?" as a scowly Jack stomps angrily down the hall. So the doctor suggests talking elsewhere, and elsewhere turns out to mean "strolling down the corridor," as he tells them that Mr. Rutherford was in a head-on collision with an SUV, stopped breathing on the scene, unable to revive, he's dead, the decisions you make will adversely affect your stepdaughter, and she'll wind up manipulative, especially when it comes to your son, ma'am (whom she'll seduce). "May I see him?" says Mrs. Rutherford. Not "may we see him," mind. In fact, the doctor has to ask if Mrs. Rutherford's daughter would like to come too. "Stepdaughter," corrects Mrs. Rutherford. Yes, and the DEAD GUY'S ACTUAL DAUGHTER, Mrs. Rutherford. In order to make Shannon appear to have once been sweet and not self-centred, her foil in tonight's episode naturally has to have all the shades of grey of a Disney cartoon villain. "Come along, Shannon," says Mrs. Rutherford, who's taking the death an awful lot better than Shannon is.
Meanwhile, back on Craphole Island, Ana-Lucia asks Eko how much farther it is to the Lostaways' camp. "A day. Maybe more. Maybe less," he says. Well, that covers it, as Ana-Lucia dryly notes.
Farther down the line, Sawyer collapses, and a concerned Libby asks if he's okay. Sawyer snarls that he is, which is hard to sell when you're falling down every five minutes. She asks to have a look at his shoulder, and he asks if she's a doctor. "Clinical psychologist," she says. On this island, she'll have her appointment calendar full for the rest of the series. Sawyer says maybe she should try talking to his wound. Would he prefer being attended to by Ana-Lucia? ("Sawyer, does your shoulder feel better when I JAM A STICK INTO IT?") Libby asks how he got shot. "By a gun," says Sawyer. And just when you're wondering why anyone wouldn't leave Sawyer behind, Michael tells her Sawyer got shot when Walt was kidnapped. Oh, damn. I forgot about his redeeming qualities. Libby tells him the wound is bad, but not "real bad," and he'll be okay. Sawyer gets back to his feet and they continue.
Hurley and Rose are doing the laundry on the beach, and Hurley wonders why they're hanging clothes to dry when there's a dryer in "the hatch." So right off we know that there's nothing to do with the hatch again this week, and this conversation is the writers saying, "Right, we know, we'll get back there, we haven't forgotten." Rose says she doesn't like the hatch, and prefers drying clothes in sun and fresh air, but Hurley thinks it's because of the doomsday button.
Shannon comes up to contrivedly ask where the guys on the raft left all their stuff, and Hurley says, essentially, it's where they left it. As Shannon goes, Rose observes that it can't be easy losing the one person she loves on the island. Don't worry, Rose. I bet you find out at some point, possibly during sweeps.
So Shannon finds Walt's clothes, and makes Vincent sniff him. "You're always trying to run off and find him? Then find him. Find Walt!" Yeah, this is necessary. The dog might have forgotten his master's scent, after all. So Walt takes off, Shannon following, holding the leash. "Good dog! Find Walt!" They emerge from the jungle onto another section of beach, which is, unfortunately for Shannon and groaningly for the viewer, where Boone is buried, with a little cross that reads "Boone Carlyle." Once again, Vincent has proven himself to be, while quite cute, utterly useless. Maybe that's why Shannon's finally taken a shine to him.
A fussing Aaron is crying in his cradle while Claire rocks him. Since that doesn't work, she tries apologizing for waking him the night before. Still no luck. Locke strolls by. "How's that cradle treating you?" he asks, like how often does she have to thank him for the damn thing, and she says it's working great: "It's the baby that's the problem." Locke crouches by the cradle. "May I?" he says. And then he's wrapping a docile Aaron up tightly in a blanket like a little baby enchilada, while explaining that babies like feeling constricted, and it's only when we're older that we desire to be free. So this is another one of his Yoda mind tricks. A grateful Claire takes Aaron into her arms and gently rocks him. "You know, I think everyone knows more about my baby than me," she says. She explains that Charlie read her the "riot act" last night for waking Aaron, and as mad as it made her, turns out he was right. Oh, don't worry about Charlie. The only reason he knows so much about babies is because he uses them for drug mules. She bitches, not too vehemently, about her and Charlie playing Mom and Dad to Aaron, even though she doesn't remember marrying him. "For all I know, Charlie could be some religious freak." Locke laughs and says he doubts it. Claire wants to know, then, why he's always carrying around the Virgin Mary statue he says he found in the jungle. Locke looks slightly concerned, but doesn't say anything to Claire about it. "How 'bout that," is all he comes up with.
Shannon's still sitting on the beach staring at Boone's cross. We flash back to her father's funeral, with a mourning-clad Shannon having a tough time. Her dad's casket is in some sort of outdoor gazebo thing, which is nice, because the bereaved can get in some croquet while they're remembering Mr. Rutherford. She approaches the casket, and behind her, we hear Boone say, "Death sucks, doesn't it?" Well, Boone would know. She turns around, and is glad to see him, despite his hair looking like -- I don't even know what. I mean, it's a little mullety, and a little parted in the middle with these…parentheses of hair on his temples. ["We know it's a flashback; why they thought Somerhalder needed a wig to drive that home for us is a mystery, at least to me." -- Sars] She cry-laughs and hugs him, and he says, "I'm so sorry, Shan." "You came back," she says. Back from where? Something tells me any questions raised by the flashbacks this episode might never get answered. A little ways away, Cruella de Carlyle sees the two hugging and scowls.
Inside Rutherford House, Boone's helping himself to some teacups and asking Shannon where her Marky Mark poster is. "I'm 18, Boone," she says, and so I guess we're seeing a little timeline-fudging going on. Since Island Shannon has said she's 20, that would make the car crash only two years ago, but Jack supposedly met his wife before that. I'm willing to accept Shannon lying about her age…if only she had ever demonstrated vanity! Boone complains about the lack of booze at the wake -- fortunately he brought his own scotch, which he puts in the cups. They toast Shannon's dad, and she almost starts crying at Boone's fugly haircut. He invites her to visit him in New York when "all this" is over, which is a nice way to refer to her father's death. She says she'll be living in New York herself if she gets the job with the Martha Graham dance company. And despite me knowing less about ballet than, well, anything, I've heard that name before. Although I suppose it could be I'm thinking of Martha Stewart. Shannon says the internship is a one in three thousand chance, but she might get it. Too bad we know how that turns out. And in case we can't decode Mama Rutherford's frosty glare, Boone has to ask if Shannon's been getting along with her. "She hates me," she says softly. "Just try to talk to her," says Boone, which ain't exactly a denial. Shannon says that Mama Rutherford resented Shannon's relationship with her father from day one. Awww, poor Shannon. She was really sweet, right? It's only because of Mama Rutherford that Shannon became so self-involved, right? Give me a break.
Back on Mystery Friggin' Island, the Tailaways have made their way to the coast and are moving across the rocks. Eko watches Sawyer hobbling painfully along and tells Ana-Lucia that they need a break, so she tells everyone to take five. "We have to cut inland," he tells her, much to her surprise; the Lostaways are on the beach, so she figured they'd follow the coast. "The beach curves into a peninsula ahead. It may not be passable," he says. "'May not'?" she asks. He looks at her and says "may not" again. She guesses that he's doing this to get the "cowboy" back to the camp faster. "You would risk our lives to help him?" she says, and he says, simply, "It's the only way I know." He brushes past her to rejoin the group. "I liked you better when you weren't talking," she says after him. Now you know how EVERYONE ELSE feels, Ana-Lucia.
Back on the beach, Claire is still thrilled about Aaron still being asleep, like maybe this kid has been awake since he was BORN or something, and Locke says that swaddling works every time. She asks Locke if he wants to hold Aaron, and he's reluctant, but she insists, so Locke takes him. And now maybe Claire can have a mother/grandfather relationship with a stranger on the island instead of husband/wife, hey? Locke sniffs at the baby. "He smells good," he says, and Claire agrees. This is some kind of miracle baby.
Charlie strolls up, seems nonplussed to see Locke there, holding Aaron, and is even less impressed when Claire starts extolling the virtues of swaddling, taught to her by Grampa Locke there. Charlie says he just came over to take Turniphead so Claire can go on one of those walks where she leaves the baby behind for hours while Charlie watches him and then later she can complain about him. Locke looks at Claire, Claire doesn't say anything, and Locke decides he doesn't want to get in the middle of Charlie's sick obsession thing. He cheerfully says Charlie's got good timing, because he should get going. Yeah, maybe he's due at "the hatch," whatever that is. Claire looks bothered that Locke is leaving, but doesn't say anything. Charlie takes Aaron into his arms, and looks at Claire. "What?" she says. Claire, if only there was some way for you to tell Charlie to back off a little…oh yeah! How about with your mouth?
The Tailaways trek through the jungle as quietly as possible. Libby steps on a stick, and then everybody shushes her, and they are much louder than her stupid twig snapping. And then Jin is babbling away, so Ana-Lucia goes stomping on back to the end of the line to shush them like a super-pissed-off librarian. "What, they can't talk at all?" says Michael, and since no one else there speaks Korean, I'm not sure why Jin would even be bothering, but Ana-Lucia says if he keeps talking he'll get them all killed. "By what? Them? I thought they lived a day back that way!" says Michael. And Ana-Lucia is all, "Shut up! That's why!" and tells him to get his buddy moving. "What happened to you people?" asks Michael. Michael, who a few days ago was almost shot and blown up by people took his son from a raft that they built to escape from an island with rampaging boars and polar bears and some crazy hatch thing and an "island security system" and psycho Canadians and crazy Frenchwomen, wants to know what could possibly have these people so scared. Not that he shouldn't be asking some questions, but still. He says that if Ana-Lucia wants them to take the Tailaways back with them, that's fine (although I thought it was kind of the other way around here?), but if she wants him to keep quiet, she's going to have to tell him why. Ana-Lucia looks at him hard, glances at the other Tailaways, and reluctantly starts to talk. "They came the first night that we got here. They took three of us. Nothing happened for two weeks. Then they came back, and took nine more." Michael's already looking like, Sorry I asked. "They're smart. And they're animals," continues Ana-Lucia. "And they could be anywhere at any time." Jin glances around, but it must be for some other reason, because he doesn't speak English, right? Ana-Lucia says that now they're moving through the jungle so they can save "your little hick friend." But if Michael thinks that one gun and one bullet will stop them? Think again. "So shut your mouth and keep moving," she says, and turns to go. "They took my son," says Michael, quietly. "They took a lot of things," says Ana-Lucia. "Like the big book of Sudoku puzzles I was doing on the plane." The horror never ends.
So Shannon is still sitting by Boone's grave. So much for her finding-Walt mission, I guess. Although, to be fair, I keep forgetting that in show time, Boone didn't die all that long ago. Sayid walks up, sits down to her. "I know what it is to lose someone you care deeply about," he says. She stares at him for a moment. "You really think that this is all about Boone?" she says. Well, considering you've been sitting there for hours now… "I saw Walt, Sayid," she says. 'Then why are we sitting at Boone's grave?" he asks. Good question. But she looks at him like he's an idiot, and stands up. He asks where she's going, and she says, "To find him." Well, I don't want to come off all Sayid on you, Shannon, but I agree that actively looking for him is more likely to bear fruit than sitting by your brother's grave.
Flashback to Shannon at her apartment with her ballerina roommate bringing in the mail and telling Shannon that "it came." She hands Shannon the envelope, and Shannon says, "Oh my god," and says she can't open it. She asks her friend to do it. "You have been waiting six months for this letter. No way I'm opening it," she says, so Shannon takes it, opens it and reads. "I got it," she says softly, and there is much "Oh my god!" and hopping and hugging. Sweet. You know I'm all about the LesYay! No? No good? I come off like a drunken frat boy? Fine.
Before the clothes get peeled off, however, there's a ringing phone to answer. Shannon answers. "Um, that's impossible," she says, and asks if the caller's sure. "Of course. I will certainly do that. Sorry," she says, and hangs up. "My rent cheque bounced," she tells her still-clothed roommate. "But you're, like, rich," the roommate says. Quite helpful, she is.
Over at Rutherford House, Mama Rutherford is all business apologizing for not offering Shannon something to drink but she has to be at a meeting in ten minutes. "My cheques are bouncing," says Shannon, and Cruella de Carlyle says that's what happens when you make withdrawals and don't make any deposits. Shannon asks when she gets the money her dad left her. Her stepmom just looks at her blankly, like she has no idea what she's talking about, like, so far removed from understanding what Shannon's saying that she doesn't even know who this "dad" is that Shannon's talking about. "The money from the will?" prompts Shannon. Stepmonster tells her there was no will; she and Shannon's dead dad entered into a "living trust," and everything passed to her when he died, and there was no money in there specifically for Shannon. Seems to me that I wouldn't take the stepmom's word for it, but Shannon apparently does, and wants to know why her dad would do that to her. Cruella says that perhaps he wanted Shannon to find her own way. Yeah, that makes sense. He apparently had been giving her money up until his death. His plan was to make sure she was dependent on him while he was alive, but when he died, he wanted to be certain she didn't get any more money, right? "We all have to work, Shannon. Most of us are the better for it," she says, snidely. I suppose she already owned a chain of bridal shops when she was 18, right? Shannon starts telling her about the prestigious internship she landed, and she'll be working "like, sixteen hours a day," but Cruella says the only thing she's seen Shannon do sixteen hours straight a day is sleep. Shannon tries asking for a loan just so she can get to New York, and she'll pay her back. "This week it's an internship. Last year, it was what, interior design?" My god, Shannon's eighteen. I'm thirty and I have friends who still aren't sure what they're going to do. "You'll never pay me back. And you'll hate yourself even more," continues Cruella. Shannon starts pleading with "Sabrina," who shakes her head and says she's sorry. "You're on your own." She walks away, so we can all feel sorry for Shannon. Or maybe wonder if we're supposed to accept this as an excuse for all the selfish behaviour we've seen from her since the show started.
Back on the beach, Locke and Charlie are playing backgammon, and Locke seems to have inherited Walt's luck, as he's kicking Charlie's ass. Locke says he hopes Charlie didn't get the wrong idea, seeing him with Aaron back there. Can anyone explain to me why everyone feels the need to apologize to Charlie when it comes to the baby? "What idea would that be?" asks Charlie. Locke says that Charlie and Claire are close, and he spends a lot of time with Aaron. "I wouldn't want to overstep my bounds," says Locke. Oh, don't worry. Charlie does that all the time. "Overstepping Our Bounds" was a B-side from Driveshaft's first album. Charlie asks if Claire told him they had a fight. Locke says she didn't call it a fight. "She was gonna give it up, you know. For adoption. She tell you that?" asks Charlie. Lucky for Charlie she did, because if she didn't, that's not Charlie's secret to spill, now, is it? Locke tells him she did tell him that, when he built her the cradle. "Why do you ask?" Charlie has the audacity to say she's got a bit to learn about being a "mum." I'd wager that every first-time mother does, wouldn't you? "Responsibility and all," says Charlie. "Hmm. Now that's an interesting thing to say, for a heroin addict," says Locke. Heh. Charlie looks pissed. "Recovering addict," he says. "Recovering," says Locke, amiably, and points at the board. "It's your turn."
Back in the jungle, Jin is helping Sawyer and rebuffing any offers to spell him, from Bernard (awww) and then from Michael. "What, you suddenly give a damn about me?" is how Sawyer responds to Michael. And then he tells both Jin and Sawyer to leave him alone. This proves unwise, because he takes two steps without assistance and then pitches forward onto the ground again. Michael cradles Sawyer's head, while Sawyer struggles to stay conscious. "I would've left you behind," wheezes Sawyer. "Shut up, man. Don't try that." "I did leave you behind," whispers Sawyer. "Yeah, well, good thing I ain't you," says Michael, and they both smile, at least for a moment, until Sawyer passes out.
Libby comes rushing back with some water for him. Michael wants to know what's wrong with him. What isn't wrong with him? He's got an infection, he's dehydrated, he won't shut up… Compassion queen Ana-Lucia wants to keep moving, despite Jin's vigorous protests. "You want to stay, that's fine. But we're rolling out." Bernard is now speaking up for Sawyer, saying that they can't just leave him there. Libby says if they rest, maybe he'll regain consciousness. "Rest? Here? Do you remember what happened to us? What they did to us? You remember Goodwin?" Everyone looks uncomfortable, and Cindy finally speaks up and says that Ana-Lucia's right and they should just keep going. Michael, though, he don't remember Goodwin, and he don't care. He asks Eko to help him make a stretcher. After a moment, Eko nods. And Bernard's helping too. It's a project the whole group can enjoy! "You're going to carry your friend," snarls Ana-Lucia, and Michael's all, damn right we will.
Meanwhile, Sayid is chasing Shannon through the grass as we get yet another storyline in which Shannon has to act all bitchy while she tries to prove someone wrong about her. Maybe it'll actually work one of these times. "Walt is not out here! You're following a Labrador, not a bloodhound, in an effort to find a boy who's on a raft on the middle of the ocean." She says Walt's not out on the ocean, and breaks it to Sayid that they found the bottle. "The bottle with the messages that they brought with them?" says Sayid. Love that sparkling dialogue. "I know he's out here. I saw Walt. And the raft is gone and he's all alone," she says, and keeps going. Sayid follows, looking a little more sympathetic.
Having rigged up a rather impressive-looking stretcher for a still-unconscious Sawyer, the Tailaways now come to a foreboding hill that they're going to have to climb up. Worse luck, we hear the rumble of thunder. The camera pans over the discouraged survivors faces, each of them kind of looking like, "I don't want to be the first one to suggest we leave Sawyer behind."
So up the hill they go, passing Sawyer in a cello-accompanied portage up the hillside. Even Ana-Lucia helps, and they presently make the summit and pause to rest. Only, where's Cindy? Beats me, she was just here, wasn't she? They call her name, look over the hillside. Libby wonders if "they" took her. Ana-Lucia says she's going after Cindy. Eko tries to stop her, and Ana-Lucia gives him a faceful of "this is your fault" and "this one's on you," and Eko knows she's got a point. "You risked our lives to save him. He's already dead."
And then, the whispering starts. Everyone hears it. "What the hell is that?" asks Michael. A terrified Libby says, "Oh god!" and Ana-Lucia yells, "Run!" And we break for commercial.
So Shannon's packing her things up in boxes. I'm going to presume she got evicted. Boone strolls in through the open door, and flips around a chair so he can sit backwards on it. They exchange "hey"s and then are silent for a moment. Shannon finally looks at him. "She said no," says Boone. "I guess she knew why I asked for the money." Boone and Shannon must think Cruella is as dumb as they are. Shannon asks if she can crash at his place in New York until she gets on her feet, as though Boone wouldn't mind if she were off her feet for a good long while. But as Joey Tribbiani would say, it's a moo point, because he's leaving New York. "She offered me a job," he says. Is it me, or is it weird the way he keeps referring to his mom as "she" and "her" and never "my mom"? Shannon can't believe that he's going to work for his mother. "It's a really good job, Shannon," he says. He looks mildly embarrassed, although I can't imagine why he needs to apologize to Shannon for going into the family business. He withdraws an envelope from his back pocket, and says this is all he has right now. But then his trust fund "kicks in" at the end of the month, and then he'll "absolutely" be able to keep her afloat. She thanks him, but says she'll figure out a way to make her own money. "But who knows when that's going to be?" says Boone. We do! Never! He implores her to take the money, which she takes to mean that he doesn't believe in her. So even her FLASHBACKS now are the same old plotline of nobody believing Shannon can do anything.
And she spazzes, and tells him to take his money and go work for his mom. I have to confess that I'm somewhat confused here; she's willing to take money from her arch-enemy Cruella, even goes so far as to enlist the aid of her stepbrother to try to trick Cruella out of money -- but she won't accept the help of the relative who actually cares about her? The stepbrother who she then goes on to con out of thousands of dollars, apparently several times? And we're all supposed to sympathize with Shannon in this, the eleventh hour, and forgive her behaviour because her stepmom hated her and Daddy didn't leave her a trust fund? Thanks for the invitation to the pity party, but I have other plans. As Boone leaves, Shannon makes this really tortured face like she's really sorry for going off on him, or she's feeling ultra-sorry for herself. Given the series up till now, I'm going with the latter.
Back on Craphole Island, Shannon's running in the rain, and she trips and falls. Sayid tries to help her, but Shannon refuses him: "Do not help me up!" she says through gritted teeth. Yeah, Sayid! Are you now saying you don't believe that Shannon can stand up on her own? She'll show you! She glares at him. "Why don't you believe me?" she asks. Sayid says nothing. "I need you to believe in me!" she whines, and apparently that "in" makes all the difference, as Sayid says he does, in fact, believe in her. But she says he doesn't, and that no one does. "They think that I'm some kind of joke. They think I'm worthless." Yeah, you whine an awful lot about that, but it's been a season and a half now, and you've only got a few minutes left to prove everyone wrong. Better get going. "You're just gonna leave me," says Shannon, starting to cry, adding that he'll leave her as soon as they get off this island. "They"? "I will never leave you," says Sayid, who can't even carry a torch for Nadia for two months. "I love you. And I believe you," he says. Anybody else not buying this? Shannon buys it. The hug, in the downpour.
Then the whispering starts. Shannon glances around, nervous. Sayid looks around too, but he's heard the whispering before. And Shannon sees, a short distance away, Walt, standing in the bushes, raising a finger to his lips (the "shhhh" is audible even over the monsoon). She turns back to Sayid: "Do you see him?" Sayid looks at her and nods his head. He'd been looking in the same direction, but I'm going to reserve judgment on whether he actually did see Walt or was just trying to placate Shannon until we hear a little more (I'm leaning towards the latter).
Shannon goes chasing after Walt, who turns and runs away. Sayid just stays there for about two hours, looking completely zoned out, before yelling "Shannon!" and giving chase. ["That zoned look made me think he had in fact seen Walt." -- Sars] He trips and falls, then gets up -- and the clap of a gunshot reverberates. "Shannon?" he yells again, and starts running.
He sees Shannon, who turns around, with a bloody abdomen. She collapses in his arms, they sink to the ground, and Sayid starts to wail while Shannon checks out.. He looks up. Standing there is Ana-Lucia, gun drawn, slide back, looking aghast. She lowers the gun. Shot of Jin looking stunned. Shot of Michael looking absolutely horrified. Shot of Ana-Lucia, who looks more nauseous than sneering.