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Down in the hatch, Dr. Jack is tending to a still-unconscious Sawyer. Sawyer's kind of tossing and groaning a little, while Dr. Jack makes cheery banter about how impressed he is that Sawyer pulled the bullet out of his shoulder himself. Sawyer mutters something, eyes still closed. Jack can't quite make it out, and Sawyer repeats it: "Where is she?" Jack deduces that Sawyer means Kate, so he cheerfully says Kate's been looking after him for the past 24 hours, and the only way Jack could get rid of her was to send her out for food for Sawyer. Sawyer mutters something again. Again, Jack can't quite catch it, and the still-mostly-out-of-it Sawyer says it again: "I love her." Jack looks slightly chagrined, and sits down, probably trying to think of a loophole in the Hippocratic Oath that will allow him to let Sawyer die.
Kate is, as usual, up in a tree, because the only good fruit on the island is the stuff thirty feet off the ground. As she climbs down, half-sliding, she drops some from her pack. On the ground, she squats to pick it up -- and there, in the jungle, is a beautiful black horse. Kate's shocked, although after the polar bear, very little would surprise me (although, as will be revealed later, her shock at seeing the horse has a little more behind it than just its incongruity here on the island). She takes a step towards the horse, which whinnies and canters off, and is gone within seconds. The unmistakable sound of the impending flashback ratchets up on the soundtrack.
And now Kate is but a lass of -- well, she looks exactly the same, but it's safe to say this didn't happen yesterday. She's sitting on a porch, wearing a Janis Joplin T-shirt and playing with a lighter (the Zippo-brand Foreshadower model). Headlights splash against the side of the house, illuminating our apple-cheeked heroine, who looks up at the pickup jerkily making its way up to the house, country music a-blarin'. Her expression doesn't change, and she puts the lighter back in her pocket.
“ Charlie says the Tailaways seem to have had a 'rough time' of it, as opposed to themselves, for whom it's been smooth goddamn sailing, apparently. 'Looks like they went bloody Lord of the Flies out there,' he says, referencing easily the greatest novel ever to begin with 'Lord of the' ”
Down in the hatch, Kate puts on a record, and it's the incomparable Patsy Cline singing "Walkin' After Midnight." She smiles. Then she's mashing up food and talking to the still-unconscious Sawyer, telling him that he'll get a kick out of waking up to her feeding him like a baby. Then she tells him that she saw a horse. As she says it, she seems not to believe it. "That's what happens when you don't sleep," she says. Sawyer starts muttering, so Kate comes over so she can hear. It would have killed me if this time he said, "Where is he?" and "I love him," but instead he mutters "good for nothing" and then his eyes open and he grabs Kate: "You killed me. Why did you kill me!" Kate looks terrified, probably because the spirit of Wayne is now inhabiting the body of Sawyer, and this is the way we suspend our disbelief this week.
The needle on the record is skipping up against the label, and the alarm is buzzing as Locke and Jack enter the hatch. Jack starts yelling for Kate while Locke heads to the computer room, where the timer is at twenty-three seconds. Jack rushes into the makeshift long-term care unit, and finds Sawyer face down on the floor.
Meanwhile, Locke frantically enters the magic numbers into the computer, stumbling over twenty-three (entering twenty-two instead), and the timer hits 0:00 very briefly before resetting to 108.
Jack struggles to lift Sawyer back onto his bed. Locke comes in to help, asks what happened. Jack says he doesn't know. "But you said" says Locke, and Jack interrupts him with, "I don't know, John!" Yeah, really, Locke. Jack got there at the same time you did. Locke hasn't learned his lesson, though, and asks where Kate is.
Before Jack can snap at him again, we cut to Kate strolling through the jungle, and she's not so upset that a little chat with Charlie can't make her feel even worse. The little hobbit comes running up and tells her that she missed the funeral. She tells him she was with Sawyer, which he accepts. "A few of them came," says Charlie. "The new people. Not her, the one who killed Shannon. That would have been awkward." As awkward as this dialogue? Charlie says the Tailaways seem to have had a "rough time" of it, as opposed to themselves, for whom it's been smooth goddamn sailing, apparently. "Looks like they went bloody Lord of the Flies out there," he says, referencing easily the greatest novel ever to begin with "Lord of the" Then he notices that she's not paying attention to him, which you'd think he'd get used to at some point. She asks him if he thinks there are horses here, because she saw one. Charlie says he's seen polar bears and heard monsters, but no horses. Seems to me the existence of the polar bears and the monsters makes the horses a lot more plausible, but Kate just stomps off.
Jin leaves, and Michael asks Locke what's up with the blast doors. Locke's all, "'Blast doors'?" "Like in the case of an explosion, they'll come down from the ceiling," says Michael. Locke looks up and examines what looks like a line of interlocking T's in the ceiling. Michael asks if Desmond didn't say anything about them. "No, he didn't. But he did leave a movie," says Locke. That one that's the all about Karen Carpenter's life but acted out with Barbie dolls? I heard about that shit! Locke asks Michael if he wants to see it, and Michael gives an assenting shrug. And Eko, who for a big huge guy manages to suddenly show up without anyone noticing pretty easily, says he'd like to see it too, "if you don't mind." "Why not? The more the merrier," says Locke.
Out in the jungle, Kate is sitting down, feeling sorry for herself. Her mood can only be improved by Jack showing up to give her shit for leaving the hatch and leaving Sawyer lying on the floor. "Is he okay?" asks Kate, genuinely concerned. "Yes, Kate, he's fine," says Jack, the "no thanks to you" unspoken. Kate gets up to leave and says she's sorry, and Jack's all "are you?" so Kate turns back and spits out, "I'm sorry I'm not as perfect as you. I'm sorry I'm not as good!" Jack's all, whoa, and he asks what's going on with her. She tells him to forget it and turns to leave again, but he grabs her and hugs her, and she fights him and then starts to cry while he tells her it's okay in his big Jack doctor arms and she burbles about this place driving her crazy, and Jack tells her again that it's all right, and then they gaze into each other's eyes, and then they're kissing while the strings swell, and they suck face for about five hours before coming up for air. Kate steps back, looking kind of remorseful, and she turns around and walks away. She's halfway back to the beach before Jack can muster up a half-hearted "Kate."
We're in the special screening of Orientation, and Dr. Candle is explaining about entering the code into the computer. Michael and Eko sit on the couch watching. Locke's over to the side, all, "Oh, I love this part! Watch what happens here!"
The film ends, and Locke shuts off the projector. Michael's perplexed. "All right, so you've been pushing that button every two hours since you got down here?" Locke says that's right, and explains about the shifts. The camera zooms in on Eko while Michael asks if the other Lostaways don't want to know why they have to push the button. "I think the film's pretty self-explanatory," says Locke. Well, you're the only one, Locke. Michael calls him on it: "All I heard was something about electromagnets and an incident." He asks Locke about the missing sections on the film, which Locke figures is just a frame here or there, nothing important. Then he asks Eko what he thinks about the movie. Eko has been silent the entire time, and now he just gets up and leaves. Dude, it wasn't that bad.
“ Locke's smiling like he wants to say, 'Well, that's a great story, but you should know that over here, I'm the mystic.' ”
In the hatch's computer room, Michael is still asking questions about the button, like, this is the most inquisitive anyone has ever been on this show about anything. He wants to know why Locke can't just put the numbers in any old time. "It doesn't work that way. The alarm goes off at four minutes; you can't type anything until then," says Locke, who taps on the keyboard to demonstrate. Michael asks if Locke minds if he checks out some of this hardware, like it's Locke's hardware. Locke says sure, advising Mike not to break it. Well, that was the plan, Locke.
Locke walks into the kitchen, sees Eko sitting at the table. They both say hello, Eko looking very solemn. "I have something you should see," says Eko, and Locke sits down across from him, and Eko continues. "If you don't mind, I will begin at the beginning." Locke gives him a "go ahead" gesture. "Long before Christ, the king of Judah was a man named Josiah," he starts, and Locke has to interrupt to crack: "Boy, when you say 'beginning,' you mean beginning." Heh. Eko spins a tale about the temple where people worshipped falling into ruin, so the people worshipped false gods and idols, and the kingdom was in disarray and whatnot. Josiah, "since he was a good king," sent the secretary to the treasury so they could rebuild the temple, telling the secretary to give the gold to the workers to make it happen. "But when the secretary returned, he had no gold. And when Josiah asked why this was, the secretary replied, 'We found a book.'" Shot of the canvas-wrapped parcel in front of Eko on the table. Eko pauses to ask Locke if he knows this story. Locke says he doesn't.
Eko continues: "What the secretary had found was an ancient book, the Book of Law. You may know it as the Old Testament. And it was with that ancient book, not with the gold, that Josiah rebuilt the temple." Locke's smiling like he wants to say, "Well, that's a great story, but you should know that over here, I'm the mystic." But Eko still isn't done, and he unwraps the parcel as he tells Locke that on the other side of the island they found a place much like this. "And in this place, we found a book," he says. In front of them is the Holy Bible, which Eko slides across the table to Locke. "I believe what's inside there will be of great value to you," says Eko. Locke's like, great, we got ourselves an evangelical, but he opens the Bible anyway, rifles through the pages, and is surprised to discover that a hole has been cut through the middle of most of the pages for a little secret hiding space. Inside is a spool of film that Locke takes out, holds to the light. And what he sees -- frame after frame of Dr. Marvin Candle -- actually makes him open his mouth in surprise. He looks at Eko, who smiles. Your move, Locke.
“ Okay, what? Why would Sgt. Dad kill Wayne? Are we supposed to take that to mean Kate's mom cheated on Sgt. Dad with Wayne? Or that Sgt. Dad knows that Wayne beats Kate's mom? Maybe his answer will clear everything up. 'Because I don't have murder in my heart,' he says. Okay, what the hell? ”
Jack's chopping wood. Hurley approaches, so it looks like we're going to get one of those scenes where Hurley awkwardly broaches the subjects that no one else wants to talk about. I think Jack's annoyed by it too, as he doesn't even respond when Hurley says "hey." Hurley tries, "So, Rose's husband's white. Didn't see that one coming." Jack snaps at Hurley to ask if there's something he needs. Hurley says he was just taking a walk, figured he'd say "hey." Then he asks who's taking care of Sawyer. Sun is, says Jack, and Hurley guesses that Jack's mad at Sawyer, prompting one of those insufferable "you're way off" Jack chuckles that way he likes to do when people pin him down exactly. He asks why he would be mad at Sawyer. "Maybe because he's the one that always comes down here and chops wood, and now you are? It's, like, transference." Waiting here for Jack to say, "Is it like transference, or is it transference?" Anyway, Jack denies that he's mad at anyone, like he's fooling anybody.
Sure enough, there's Sun, whom I guess Jack managed to talk to in the five minutes she wasn't having sex with Jin since he's been back, and she's looking after Sawyer. Kate strolls in, asks where Jack is. Sun says she doesn't know. Kate asks if Sawyer's said anything. "Sawyer? No, he's still sleeping," says Sun, kind of surprised by the question. Then she asks if Kate can watch Sawyer now. Kate doesn't answer right away, so Sun kind of awkwardly withdraws the request, but Kate assents. And Sun tries not to look too excited as she leaves right away. Hope Jin didn't go to the trouble of putting his pants back on.
Flashback! Kate enters a U.S. Army recruiting office, glancing around as she does so. She approaches the desk of Sgt. Sam Austen. Blink and you'll miss it, but in the corner of the office is a television, and for a split-second as Kate approaches her presumably birth-father's desk, we can see Sayid on it.
Sgt. Sam sees Kate and hastily gets off the phone. Kate sits down and says, "Hi, Dad." Sgt. Dad says the police and the U.S. Marshals are looking for her. "I've been waiting outside for two hours. They're not here," she says. So Sgt. Dad asks her if it's true what they're saying. Strangely, Kate looks like she's thinking about the question. "Katie, what'd you come here for?" says Sgt. Dad sternly. "Why didn't you tell me, Dad?" Tell you what? asks Sgt. Dad. Kate says she was making a scrapbook for him for his birthday. "So I called one of your COs to get some pictures of you in uniform. The pictures that he sent me had dates on the back. Photos of you in Korea up until four months before I was born." Sgt. Dad's looking like, oh, shit. "Why didn't you tell me that Wayne was my father? Why?" She's attracting the attention of others in the office. Sgt. Dad says, "I didn't tell you because I knew you'd kill him." Wow, that makes absolutely no sense. "And your motherloved him," he continues. "You were five years old. I wanted to take you along with me. She wouldn't let me." So if I understand this correctly, Wayne put a baby in Kate's mom, that baby was Kate, Kate's mom got with Sgt. Dad, they broke up when Kate was five, Kate's mom got back with Wayne. Check. But nobody told Kate that Wayne was her real birth father; we don't know why neither Wayne nor Kate's mom told her, and apparently Sgt. Dad figured that if Kate, the corn-fed Iowa straight-A student, knew Wayne was her real dad, she'd kill him for some reason. What is this, Alias? "So why didn't you kill him?" says Kate. Okay, what? Why would Sgt. Dad kill Wayne? Are we supposed to take that to mean Kate's mom cheated on Sgt. Dad with Wayne? Or that Sgt. Dad knows that Wayne beats Kate's mom? Maybe his answer will clear everything up. "Because I don't have murder in my heart," he says. Okay, what the hell? What exactly did Kate do as a child that Sgt. Dad sees her as a cold-blooded murderer? She gets up. So does he. He says he's going to have to call the police. "Can I have an hour?" asks Kate. He nods, and he looks like he's trying to smile, the kind of smile you'd get if you were simultaneously passing a kidney stone. They hug, and Kate says, "Bye, Daddy." And he's getting choked up, and she leaves the office.
“ 'You need a haircut,' she says. Does he ever. He's about a bottle of shampoo and conditioner away from playing bass for Def Leppard (while Jack still has a Marines-worthy haircut). ”
Anyway, back in the hatch, Kate sits by Sawyer's side and asks if he can hear her. Sawyer doesn't stir. She leans forward, and says, "Wayne?" And Sawyer stirs, says something like "son of a" And can I request that the writers of this show stop smoking crack, because then maybe we wouldn't get scenes like this one where apparently Wayne is still inhabiting Sawyer's body and Kate tells him why she killed him, especially if something ridiculous like "It's because I hated that you were a part of me, that I would never be good." Like she says, it's not because he drove Sgt. Dad away, or the way he looked at her, or because he beat her mom. Kate was so distraught about being Wayne's kid that she killed him for it (like Sgt. Dad knew she would, somehow). Oh, and the kicker is that every time she looks at Sawyer, every time she feels something for him, she sees Wayne, and it makes her sick. If it makes her feel better, she's not the only one feeling sick.
This is when Sawyer comes to: "That's about the sweetest thing I've ever heard," he says, eyes still closed. Kate's thrilled Sawyer's waking up. "Who the hell's Wayne?" he asks. Then he looks around, blinking. "I'm in a bunk bed?" he says. Yeah, says Kate, laughing. "Are we saved?" he says. "No, Sawyer. Not yet," she says, half-smiling.
Eko and Locke are having a little film-splicin' party, with Locke all, "What are the odds?" Eko's looking at Locke like he has two heads, as Locke babbles thusly: "I mean, think about it. Somebody made this film. Someone else cut this piece out. We crash -- two halves of the same plane fall in different parts of the island. You're over there, I'm over here. And now, here's the missing piece right back where it belongs. What are the odds?" Eko pierces his bubble with a well-put "Don't mistake coincidence for fate." Eko, have a go at the pennies-from-heaven people too, if you like.
Kate's giving Sawyer the grand tour of the hatch-hole, and Sawyer just wants her to admit that they've been rescued. She takes him to the "air lock" as she jokingly calls it, and takes him outside into that ol' familiar jungle to prove to him that they're still stranded on Mystery Friggin' Island. "Son of a bitch," growls Sawyer. They sit down. "I really thought you were yankin' my chain," he says, then asks why Kate keeps smiling. "You need a haircut," she says. Does he ever. He's about a bottle of shampoo and conditioner away from playing bass for Def Leppard (while Jack still has a Marines-worthy haircut). Something catches Sawyer's eye. "Maybe you ought to take me back inside," he says. Kate turns around, spots the black horse. She's stunned. She and Sawyer slowly get to their feet. "You see that?" she whispers. "If you mean the big-ass horse standing in the middle of the jungle, then yeah." Nice to have you back, Sawyer. Kate approaches the horse, and it nuzzles her for a moment before turning and walking away, off to join the moth and the polar bear at the symbolic-yet-real animal clubhouse. "You know that horse, Freckles?" asks Sawyer. "Yeah, I do," she says, kind of smiling.