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Watery chaos! Unlike the Lostaways, most of whom awoke on a beach surrounded by scrambled airliner, the passengers in the tail section were welcomed to Craphole Island with an unsolicited baptism. Bobbing to the surface is Ana-Lucia, gasping for air. There are people treading water, clinging to wreckage, debris floating everywhere. Ana-Lucia strikes out for the beach.
There's a suit-wearing, bearded Mistereko, staggering from the water. Ana-Lucia struggles to remove her water-logged jacket, while around her corpses and live (for now) people wash up, with some (like Mistereko) helping pull the more disoriented to shore. There's the stewardess presently known as Cindy! Miss, will the beverage tray be coming around soon? Ana-Lucia dives back in to help rescue some more passengers. There's Libby, almost unrecognizable without her skin all sun-blasted and covered in grime.
Mistereko carries in a young boy, who is yelling for his sister (who happens to be named Emma, like my Great Dane, who sat up and stared at the television screen when the boy was shouting for her). Mistereko sets him down on the beach, and looks back into the water, where he spots a young girl floating face down in the water. He retrieves her, and puts her down while her brother (who is now clutching a teddy bear he didn't have a moment ago) watches. Ana-Lucia, tending another passenger, sees the unconscious girl and comes over to help. "She's not breathing," Mistereko tells her, and Ana-Lucia tries mouth-to-mouth. No good. Good ol' CPR (on this island, it actually brings people back to life) is . Mistereko compassionately hustles the boy away, promising him that Emma will be fine, while Ana-Lucia pounds away on her chest. After several seconds, the girl comes to, choking up water. Ana-Lucia makes this facial expression, I have no idea what it is. It's like her usual frown, only it's upside down. Emma asks where her mother is, adding that she's meeting them in Los Angeles. Ana-Lucia looks around, presumably not confirming that this isn't in fact LAX's arrivals lounge (not unless LAX has a frantic man yelling for his wife Pam). "We're not there yet," says Ana-Lucia. "Promise, get you home soon, okay?" Jesus, why lie? And if you're going to make a promise like that, it's probably not best to look around all fearfully and doubtfully at the flaming wreckage and wounded and dead passengers all around you.
“ Wild chicken in the jungle? I know less about jungle fauna than I do about Persia vs. Arabia, apparently (and sorry about that), but doesn't that seem weird? I don't remember the Lostaways choking any chickens. ”
Some schmoe is saying that three people are missing: "The blond guy, the curly-haired guy, and the German who was helping with the injured" are all gone. Ana-Lucia deduces that the dead ones were already on the island, from the fact that they were in the jungle with no shoes, nothing in their pockets, no labels on their clothes (hey, dead guy! Who are you wearing?). While she's going on about this, Mistereko is busy uprooting a small tree to serve as a weapon.
"We need to get off the beach. We need to find a safer place," she says, but the guy who announced that three people were missing points out that there are kids and people who are seriously hurt, so where are they gonna go? And what about the signal fire? How will we be rescued? Naturally, the Lostaways had the same discussion. There is nothing I would enjoy more for this episode than seeing the exact same plotlines! "Nathan's right!" says Goodwin. "Nathan," hey? Sounds like...Ethan! Ana-Lucia argues that what with the satellites and black boxes and the modern technology, the rescuers won't need a fire to find them. Unfortunately for her optimism, Cindy reveals that the pilot was lost and turning around, so they had been flying for two hours in the wrong direction, so searchers won't know where to look. Any more good news you want to share, Cindy? Nathan and Ana-Lucia look at each other.
Day 3. The Tailaways look like they're confining their food-gathering to a ten-foot radius around themselves, gathering up clams and looking under beach rocks for anything to eat. Libby comes over to let Ana-Lucia know that Donald's infected leg is getting worse. "He'll be the fourth to go," says Libby. Ana-Lucia thinks for a moment. "What are we supposed to do about that?" she says. Seriously, Libby. You're the one with medical training, and if you don't know what to do? Donald's dead, baby. Donald's dead.
Donald dies on Day 5. Well, he's buried on Day 5, anyway. He's laid to rest in a hole that will be covered with fronds, much like the several other graves already dug and filled. Hey, know how many people are buried in the cemetery? All of them! Mistereko doesn't attend Donald's funeral. He's standing looking out to sea. I like to think he hasn't moved since Day 3.
Day 7. Some Tailaways have surrounded a chicken. Wild chicken in the jungle? I know less about jungle fauna than I do about Persia vs. Arabia, apparently (and sorry about that), but doesn't that seem weird? I don't remember the Lostaways choking any chickens. Goodwin finally tackles the bird, and snaps its neck. Peace for everyone but the poultry!
Eko's now sitting by the water, using a sharp stone to carve something into the end of his stick. Den mother Libby comes by with some chicken for him. He ignores her. Come on, dude. It tastes like chicken! She notes that he hasn't spoken in a week, and asks him why. When he, surprise, doesn't respond, she tells him that it wasn't his fault, that he was only defending himself. He seems to ponder this for a moment, then goes back to carving his club. My theory? Screw-up with the photocopier blanked out Eko's lines, and J.J. just decided to roll with it.
“ 'Maybe they're watching us,' says Nathan. Think so? Thanks, genius. ”
Day 12. The Lostaways have their golf course, and, judging from what Ana-Lucia's making, the Tailaways have made a field-hockey pitch to pass the time. "That'll work," says Goodwin, and it turns out that it's a hunting weapon, since Ana says she heard a "pig or something" out there, and "maybe [they'll] have bacon tomorrow." Day twelve, still smiling. She watches Emma and Emma's Brother (whose name is, apparently, Zach, but I don't remember that being established in the show) play, and she starts frowning, I guess feeling bad about the stranded kids (even though they look like they're having a great time). She notices Goodwin smiling at her, and she kind of snaps at him, but just then Nathan stumbles out of the bushes, where he apparently went to the bathroom. Ana angrily reminds him that they have a system for that, which is going in pairs. Nathan looks like he wants to tell her to bite him, but he holds his tongue and apologizes.
It's night again. Everyone's sleeping again. And you know that when they show everybody sleeping, that something is going to happen to wake them up. With deadly results!
Sure enough, there are some barefoot burlap-wearers standing by the fire. And then, more chaos, of the kidnapping variety. The Tailaways are being dragged and carried and the commotion wakes everyone up. Libby yells that they took the kids, and Ana-Lucia is running around and gets tackled by an Other, so she resorts to Eko-Fu and grabs a convenient nearby rock and smacks the Other in the coconut. Libby tells Cindy that Nancy's gone -- maybe this is another child? Ana-Lucia wants to know which way the Others went, but no one really knows. So she grabs the body -- actually, corpse -- of the woman she beaned and starts yelling at her. "Who are you! Talk to me!" and Goodwin has to point out that she's dead. Ana-Lucia starts searching the body, and finds a knife and piece of paper that she unfolds while everyone watches. "It's a list," she says. A list of what, asks Libby. "Nine. Of us," says Ana. Shopping list, then.
Eko's turned up nothing looking for the Others' trail, and Ana-Lucia can't believe it. "They drag nine people into the jungle -- the kids -- and there's no sign of them?" Eko doesn't say anything, which makes Ana-Lucia really lose it: "Now's not a good time to talk? What needs to happen to make you say something?" Nathan tells her to calm down, but she's got his "calm down" right here, pal, and starts waving around the list of names of the nine people taken, what they were wearing and what they looked like. "They could have gotten our names from the people they already took," suggests Nathan, but Ana points out that nobody knew anybody's names the first night. "Maybe they're watching us," says Nathan. Think so? Thanks, genius.
“ Ana pauses a moment. 'Why do you think I'm digging this hole?' she says. Your own personal Lord of the Flies / Apocalypse Now descent into madness? But that's just a theory. ”
Ana-Lucia points out that he was gone for two hours yesterday, and Nathan says that he was going to the bathroom. Was it really two hours he was gone? Because if it was, shouldn't there be a little more to it than that? I mean, I'm as likely as anyone to bring a Sports Illustrated in there with me, but...two hours? You read the letters, check out that gossip section where it tells you what Anna Kournikova is doing these days, skip the weekly book excerpt/inspirational feature on athlete overcoming adversity, and then you're cruising through "The Week In..." and skim Life of Reilly and you're good. Two hours? Oh, I know! He's supposed to appear suspicious! Goodwin interrupts the impromptu interrogation by pointing out that everyone's scared, but there's no need to get paranoid, as they don't know anything. Hey, don't sweat it; twelve people have been kidnapped, but LET'S NOT GET PARANOID. Bernard thinks it's crazy they would try to infiltrate the group, which is true, but -- given that we've seen the results, are the motives that important right now? Libby says they have to leave the beach, since the Others know they are there. Ana-Lucia looks at Goodwin. "You said we needed to keep the signal fire burning." He quietly says he thinks it's time they let it go out. She ponders this, while at the same time managing to glare at Nathan all I'm not done with you yet.
It looks like Ana-Lucia agrees with Libby and Goodwin (Eko presumably not offering his opinion), but she's probably thrilled that she gets to lead one of her Bataan death marches through the jungle. They come across a stream, so she lets everyone break for five minutes. "We've been walking for three days straight, Ana," complains Bernard, who looks like he's already lost thirty pounds. "And you're still here. Five minutes," says Ana-Lucia, in some nice post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacious reasoning. But Nathan has other ideas: "You want to keep walking? Go ahead. Fresh water, rock wall at our back, lots of fruit trees -- right here looks pretty good to me." He unshoulders his pack, and he and Ana-Lucia look at each other, with the rest of them looking at her to see what her reaction will be, before she finally says, "Fine, okay. This'll work," the way you might pretend to give permission to someone who's already made up his own mind.
Day 17. Ana-Lucia is hard at work digging a giant hole in the ground. Hiding place? Boar trap? Wine cellar? Close, but you're way off. Libby comes in and asks about what Ana-Lucia said about Nathan being gone for two hours. "He creeps me out, Ana. Do you really think it's possible that one of us is...one of them?" Ana pauses a moment. "Why do you think I'm digging this hole?" she says. Your own personal Lord of the Flies/Apocalypse Now descent into madness? But that's just a theory.