LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, Episode 24, Exodus part 2

On-island Events: As Sayid prepares the beach group to head to the caves, Charlie asks him for a gun to protect Claire; Sayid refuses. As Hurley marvels at the spectacle of The Black Rock, Rousseau takes her leave of the group. Inside the ship, Jack and Locke discover its background as a slave vessel and Kate finds the dynamite. Arzt explains the dangers inherent in unpacking the dynamite but suddenly explodes in the process.

Shannon becomes emotional as she attempts to bring Boone's things along to the caves; Sayid validates her worries and offers to help. Hurley admits to Kate that he's bad luck and blames himself for Arzt's death. Jack and Locke work together to carefully unpack and transport the dynamite. Rousseau returns to the beach, shouting for Sayid, but in speaking with Claire, stirs up a memory of Claire scratching her in the dark. Charlie returns with Sayid to discover that Rousseau has taken the baby from Claire. Sayid reasons that Rousseau has taken the baby to give to the others who took her own child sixteen years ago; Claire begs Charlie to bring the baby, which she has suddenly named Aaron, back to her.

When the group reaches the caves, Sun asks Shannon if she thinks they're being punished by fate, but Claire is adamant there is no such thing. While resting near the Nigerian plane on the way to the black smoke, Sayid shows Charlie the heroin inside the Virgin Mary statues. As they return to the hatch with the dynamite, Hurley asks John what he thinks is inside the hatch. "Hope," Locke replies.

The Raft: The group sails by the unexplored edge of the island and marvels at its vastness; Sawyer sings Bob Marley's "Redemption Song," which catches Michael's interest. Michael explains the transmitter and radar screen to Walt while Sawyer reads everyone's messages from the bottle. As Michael shows Walt how to sail and Walt asks important questions about his parents' relationship, the raft hits something and the rudder breaks off. Sawyer swims off to retrieve it and Michael discovers Sawyer's gun in his shirt.

Flashbacks: In the airport before the flight, Jin encounters one of Paik's spies who knows he plans to run away with Sun and who threatens him. Charlie rummages about a hotel room searching for heroin, fighting a woman for the last remnants. Michael struggles to connect with his son and calls his mother to ask her to care for Walt when they return to New York. Michael ends the call, exclaiming, "He's not supposed to be mine!"

Greater Meaning: In the middle of all the action (kidnapping, explosions, raft in peril), important ideas are being reiterated concerning the characters. While Exodus part one showed several instances of change as well as stubbornness versus adaptability through current island events compared with flashbacks, this episode seems to expand on the same concepts while adding adding an element of redemption (pinpointed in Jin's case by Sawyer's song on the raft thus providing us with a well-defined theme). Jin had formerly been a criminal under Paik's employ, but has changed significantly both personally and professionally, if fishing skills and the building of the raft are to be considered to be occupational. Charlie has successfully kicked his drug habit and continues to write songs and be musical but he's added the role of caregiver and protector of Claire and Aaron to his duties. Michael's devotion to Walt hasn't changed, he's always loved his son, but the flashbacks take us through the challenges the two have faced while also showing Michael's frustration and desperation in those moments.

Together with Exodus part one, and through all of the previous episodes we've seen, LOST has given us a group of seriously flawed characters, each in need of his or her own unique redemption. The raft group (arguably minus opportunist Sawyer) redeems itself for past ills by working together to seek rescue; Charlie redeems himself through his devotion to Claire. Sawyer is a special character as he is motivated not by redemption but instead vengeance, however the Marley song is significant as it hints he may unconsciously be seeking what he sings about eventually (despite his actions thus far) suggesting he's just not there yet. He could have chosen to sing Skynyrd or Hank Williams just as he could have chosen to solely read rifle or porn magazines on the island, but he didn't. Sawyer is flawed like the others, but with complicated criminal influences (ala Kate, Sayid, and Jin), which is a direct contrast to people like Jack, Locke, Hurley, Sun, and Claire.


Further Questions:

1. Will the raft be okay?
2. Will Sawyer need the gun?
3. Will Charlie and Sayid get Aaron back?
4. Is Rousseau's daughter still on the island?
5. Will the others allow Rousseau to trade Aaron for her daughter?
6. Will the dynamite project work?
7. Will Charlie relapse after seeing the Virgin Mary statues?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 23, Exodus part 1

On-Island Events: Walt sees Rousseau lurking around the camp at the beach and alerts the rest of the survivors. Rousseau shares her history with the group; she had been seven months pregnant when her team came to the island. She delivered a baby girl that was taken a week later by others, whose presence was preceded by a pillar of black smoke. Rousseau insists the others are returning to take everyone, and the choices are to run, hide, or die.

Michael leads the group in preparing the raft for launch but Walt notices black smoke off in the distance.

Jack, Locke, and Hurley consider hiding everyone in the hatch and make plans to get dynamite in the jungle to blast it open. In the jungle, Sawyer discloses his experience with Christian Shephard to an emotional Jack and the two part ways. Charlie arranges a bottle for the survivors to write messages to give to the raft crew for when they get rescued as Jack, Kate, Locke, Hurley, and Rousseau head into the jungle for dynamite. Locke notices scratches on Rousseau's arm, which she claims to be from a bush. Rousseau leads the group through the dark territory toward their destination, the black rock, where she explains the rest of her crew was infected. Arzt decides to abandon the mission but is chased back by the island's monster. As it growls, clicks, and knocks over trees, Rousseau, Jack and Kate hide while Locke encourages Hurley to be calm and wait it out. Rousseau suggests the monster is a security system, meant to protect the island; the Black Rock is revealed to be an ancient slave
ship.

As the raft crew makes ready to depart, Walt gives Vincent to Shannon and Sun presents Jin with a book of useful English phrases for the journey. The raft proves to be seaworthy; the survivors cheer and wave goodbye to Michael, Walt, Sawyer, and Jin. The last image to be seen is the pillar of black smoke rising up from the jungle.

Flashbacks detail the survivors' last moments just before boarding Oceanic 815: Michael struggles in parenting Walt in a hotel room; Jack meets a woman named Ana Lucia in a bar. Sawyer is revealed to be an experienced criminal James Ford by Australian police and is banned from ever returning to the country. Kate, in the marshal's custody, attacks him after he taunts her attachment to Tom's toy airplane. In the airport, Sayid leaves his luggage with Shannon, who bickers with Boone and later reports Sayid to a security officer for the sake of being difficult. Sun accidentally spills coffee on Jin while an American couple look on and make rude comments.

Greater Meaning: By providing six different flashback experiences, the episode is broader than any of the previous. Focusing on multiple survivors gives a sense of big events culminating, a large conclusion in the works that will affect each survivor as well as the entire group, but the mystery of two separate narratives is also important. The raft has set sail, exposing its crew to new experiences and new dangers (in such a tiny, confined space, how will the three men who have had multiple conflicts in the past get on with each other? and what about sharks, or storms at sea?), but if Rousseau is to be believed, others are coming to the beach. The title of the episode, Exodus, is significant, but Jack or Locke seem more of a Moses character than Michael or Sawyer, might the title be referring to an into-the-jungle exodus rather than one into the sea on a raft? Are there two exoduses at play here?

Michael and Walt have come a long way since their difficulties in the flashback, so has Shannon. Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Sun, and Jin seem to be wrestling with many of the same issues they'd had before the crash, namely ghosts from their past relationships or crimes, or in Sun and Jin's case, with each other. What does this say about the needs of each of these major players in the narrative? How will the events of either getting rescued or evading attacks from others affect who these survivors are and how they interact with each other? Sawyer and Kate were both previously criminals, and so was Jin. Jack's medical skills have proven useful on the island but is he good at leading? Sun seemed to be marginalized in early episodes but has begun to emerge as more than just a controlling criminal's wife and an interesting character on her own. What part does adaptation play in these characters' successes on the island, and who's had the most trouble with it? Major changes have happened, but not necessarily to everyone in the same measure.

Further Questions:

1. Will the raft succeed in finding rescue?
2. Can Rousseau be trusted?
3. How did The Black Rock wind up in the middle of the jungle?
4. Will they succeed in blasting open the hatch?
5. Are others really coming?
6. Will Jin ever get rid of the handcuff on his wrist?
7. What happened to Ana Lucia?
8. Are there more survivors we haven't met yet?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, Episode 21, The Greater Good.

"I know when I'm being lied to,"

Events: Sayid tries to help Shannon in her grief over Boone's death but she is despondent. Jack, still sleep-deprived and enraged, looks for Locke in the jungle but returns to the beach for Boone's funeral. During the funeral, Locke returns, his clothes still stained with blood, and admits that the accident that caused Boone's death was his fault. Jack confronts and then attacks Locke but then collapses from exhaustion. In order to force Jack to rest, Kate puts crushed sleeping pills into his juice. While Jack is asleep, Sayid convinces Locke to bring him to the crashed airplane and Shannon steals the key to the gun case. While at the crashed plane site, Locke admits to Sayid he was the one who destroyed the radio when they first attempted to triangulate Rousseau's distress signal. While Locke honestly answers all of Sayid's questions, he falters when Sayid brings up the hatch, and Sayid catches it.

In flashbacks, Sayid remembers his friend, Essam Tazia, and the role the two of them played in an attempted terrorist attack in Sydney. Sayid was coerced into taking part by American and British intelligence officers after they promised to reunite him with his lost love, Nadia. Essam confesses that he doesn't want to go through with the attack and Sayid tries to convince the intelligence agents that Essam's superiors are the ones they should be targeting, but to no avail. Just before they are about to leave with explosives, Sayid tells Essam the truth; Essam dies moments later by suicide.

When Sayid realizes what Shannon has planned, he races with Jack and Kate to stop her from shooting Locke in the jungle. Shannon believes that Locke intentionally murdered Boone largely due to Jack's accusations, and attempts to kill him. Sayid tackles her; the bullet injures Locke but is not fatal. After everything calms down, Sayid demands that Locke bring him to the hatch.

Greater Meaning: Sayid's experiences manipulating Essam in order to reach Nadia seem to have made him cautious. He is not willing to simply eliminate Locke outright to please Shannon in her grief, but he does use his skills as an interrogator to attempt to learn the truth about what happened. Locke is honest about what happened, and although Sayid still doesn't trust Locke completely, he accepts that Boone's death was indeed an accident. Knowing it will damage his relationship with Shannon, Sayid does not kill Locke (as she requested) and attempts to stop her from killing him, basing his actions upon the greater good of the survivors and absolute terms of right and wrong (Locke committed no crime, so it would be wrong to kill him simply because Shannon requested it despite Sayid's feelings for her).

The greater good is also in question concerning Jack's actions in both this and the previous episode ("Do No Harm"). Jack was forced (directly by Boone and indirectly by Sun, Michael, and Hurley) to consider what was best for the entire group when his actions to save Boone became dangerous and reckless; he did not decide on his own to take the entire group's best interests into account. Sayid, a former soldier from a war-torn country, considers and applies this in a way a doctor should (but Jack does not). As Shannon attempted to kill Locke, she looked to Jack for validation, saying "You told me he was a liar!" Jack does not contradict her, and after Locke is shot, does not treat him or even check on him; he glares at him and walks away. Jack refuses to consider how his actions directly affect the group and doesn't seem to take any responsibility for any role he may have played in putting Shannon's attack on Locke into motion. Jack's focus always seems to be on the immediate, the personal, and the here-and-now, making him a unique but somewhat immature leader. Christian's previous words describing Jack, "You're just not good at letting go," ring true again and again with each situation both on and off the island, and seem to be important in understanding Jack's personal challenges and strengths. Why can't he let go?

Further Questions:
1. Will Shannon forgive Sayid?
2. Will Locke and Jack patch things up?
3. Is Nadia still in California?
4. Will Jack develop better awareness in his leadership?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, Episode 16, Outlaws

Events: After a boar repeatedly harasses Sawyer, he and Kate trek into the jungle on a quest to find it. They learn much about each other during a game of "I Never," notably that they'd both killed someone, both have baggage from having done so, and that neither of them really fit in with the rest of the group. In flashbacks, Sawyer relives the violent death of his parents as well as the misleading con that led him to Australia. In his obsession to punish the man he felt was responsible for his parents' deaths and whose letter he'd been carrying around his entire life, Sawyer kills an American shrimp truck cook, proven in his final moments to be the wrong guy. Finally, in a bizarre turn of events, Sawyer is revealed to have met Christian Shephard in an Australian bar, which Sawyer later discovers while talking to Jack after the failed boar expedition.

Greater Meaning: The episode is centered around Sawyer in terms of flashbacks and major reveals, but the events on-island depend on Sawyer's connection with Kate (and is named "Outlaws," plural). Important also are the past and present connections between other characters, and this episode seems to delight in pointing them out: Kate is connected to Sawyer through both secret events and their own personal perceptions; Kate defends her decision to approach Sawyer to retrieve the gun Jack lent out saying, "I speak his language." Charlie is connected to both Locke and Sayid through unpleasant events, his detoxification from heroin and his ambivalence over having killed Ethan, which Sayid attempts to discuss with him. In addition to his connection with Kate, Sawyer is somewhat surprisingly also connected to Jack through his interactions with Christian at the bar, and as the knower of how Christian truly felt about the falling-out he had with his son. One gets the impression that these connections, both on and off the island, are becoming just as important as the threat of the island monster or the existence of others in the group's midst. These three puzzles (supernatural villain, the human threat, and the interrelationships between the survivors), together with the continued idea of rescue/escape from the island make for several further questions and possibilities moving forward.

Further Questions:
1. What were the whispers in the jungle, and why have only Sayid and Sawyer heart them?
2. Is Sawyer's name really James?
3. Is Charlie hiding PTSD?
4. Who did Kate kill?
5. What happened to the real Sawyer?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 12, Whatever the Case May Be

What's inside, Freckles?

Events: On the island, Kate and Sawyer find a hidden waterfall and underneath it, the bodies of several passengers of Flight 815. Under one of the airline seats is a metal case, which Kate asks Sawyer to help her retrieve. When they are unable to open it, Kate blows off the suitcase, pretending she has no interest in it any longer but Sawyer knows she's bluffing. In flashbacks we see that Kate was involved in a bank robbery, where she used a hot-headed love interest to get inside the bank's vault in order to obtain . . . the very contents that are locked in the case. After trying on two separate occasions to get the case out of Sawyer's hands and failing, Kate recruits Jack's help yet does not disclose why she wants the case, claiming interest in the guns and ammunition that are locked inside, instead. Like Sawyer, Jack sees through Kate's ruse, and becomes disgusted when she repeatedly refuses to tell him the truth about what's in the case, which ends up being a small toy airplane.

Charlie continues to worry about Claire and blame himself, but Rose, who has also lost someone on the island, encourages him to have faith. After being deemed, "useless," by Boone, Shannon attempts to translate Rousseau's markings in French on the documents Sayid took from her hideaway.

Greater Meaning: Kate and Sawyer's swim in the waterfall suggests an escape from the rest of the island, or could even have some Garden of Eden connotations, but nothing evil happens, they just find more dead people and the hidden case. Sawyer doesn't care exactly about the contents of the case, but rather the contents' significance to Kate and furthermore, her desire to lay her hands on them. Jack shares this interest but only because he wants the truth from Kate, and in this way, Sawyer and Jack's mutual desire of Kate seems to be equally strong but for opposite reasons. Sawyer wants the case to prove Kate's badness (to match his own therefore proving them equally matched) while Jack wants the case (or Kate's honesty about it) to prove her virtue. Jack already knows Kate is flawed, criminal even, after the business with the marshal became known, but he holds her to higher moral standards nonetheless, like Sawyer, on equal footing with himself. In the end Kate provides both men with what they're seeking---the toy plane belonged to a man she "killed," which she admitted honestly to Jack, who didn't believe her. Who this man is, how he died, and why all have yet
to be revealed.

It belonged to the man I killed!

In addition to Kate's obsession over the toy plane, two other mysteries continue to build throughout the episode: Sayid's attempts with Shannon to decipher Rousseau's papers and John and Boone's daily digs in the jungle under the guise of looking for Claire. Where will these mysteries lead? Both relate directly to the island, itself, but what do they mean?

Further Questions:

1. Is Claire safe (again!)?
2. Is Rose's husband alive, and if so, why is Rose so certain?
3. Who did Kate kill?
4. What is the significance of the toy plane?
5. Is Rousseau crazy?
6. Is Kate dangerous?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 10, Raised by Another

Raised by Another

"They want to hurt my baby!"

Events: Claire's backstory reveals that she became unexpectedly pregnant and that her boyfriend, Thomas, suggested they give parenthood a try. Claire, being into astrology, goes to a psychic just after this decision, who begins her palm reading but abruptly stops. Thomas changes his mind about commitment and fatherhood a few months later and Claire goes back to the psychic to find out what the deal was the first time. The psychic explains that Claire must raise the baby herself. Convinced she won't be able to provide for her baby alone, Claire meets with a prospective family but is stopped from signing adoption papers when three pens fail to work. Claire's presence on Oceanic flight 815 is to get her to a different adoptive family in Los Angeles and was arranged by the psychic, who claimed his initial position about the baby's upbringing was wrong.

HE WAS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

On the island, Claire dreams of a baby crying but after searching through the jungle, only finds a
strange John Locke with black and white eyes, flipping cards. He informs her, "Everyone pays the price, now, Claire." She wakes, screaming, after she experiences a presence of someone trying to physically harm her and the baby. Charlie leads a group to pursue the assailant who fled but they find no one. Claire wakes a second time after having the same experience of someone trying to harm her in her sleep, but again, no one is found. Jack assumes stress is to blame but Charlie is adamant that Claire must be telling the truth. Hurley, concerned that the survivors really don't know anything about each other, decides to create a census of residents with Sawyer's help using the flight manifest. Sayid returns from his island exploration and shares what he learned; eventually Hurley discovers that the one person not on the flight manifest is Ethan Rom.

Greater Meaning: There are several implications at play in this episode. First, Claire's dream shows John Locke at a table, flipping over cards with one black eye and one white, suggesting the game we've seen him play with Walt, backgammon ("Two players, two sides. One is light, one is dark."). Why the pieces in Locke's eyes, is he playing a game? Is he both light and dark as a character? What interest does he have in Claire or her baby? Locke's words echo those of the psychic, so Claire might just be projecting the psychic's vision and insistence that she raise the baby herself onto John, but in the end Charlie suggests that the psychic may have been right---Claire's seat on Oceanic flight 815 ensured that no one else would raise the baby; he knew all along that the plane would crash. Does John Locke possess "knowing" as well? Jack seems totally convinced that Claire is hallucinating her attacker, and in all other instances Jack's knowledge has been respected and expected. Here, he's wrong and Charlie was right, with Claire's dream of Locke suggesting that Locke may also know things that Jack can't or won't accept: things, events, feelings that don't coincide with his doctor's evidence-based values.

Second, Ethan Rom tried to attack Claire twice and wasn't on the flight manifest. Where did he come from? If he is one of the island's "Others," then Rousseau also was telling the truth and must be given at least partial credibility (which Sayid shares with the other survivors). If there are Others on the island, where are they, what are they doing there, and why do they want to hurt Claire?

Further Questions:

1. Will Claire safely deliver her baby on the island?
2. Is it a boy or a girl?
3. Why must Claire be the one to raise the baby herself?
4. Did the psychic know other things about the plane crash or the island?
5. How many "Others" are there?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 9, Solitary

Solitary 

"No one calls her Noor,"

Events: Following a cable in the sand, Sayid treks into the jungle alone to investigate unexplored regions of the island. He is snared in a trap and tortured by the French woman, Rousseau. After transporting Sayid to her hideout she asks several times, "Where is Alex?" in multiple languages. Sayid assumes Alex is a man but knows nothing of Alex's whereabouts or who he is. Eventually Rousseau, whose first name is Danielle, explains she was part of a science team that came to the island from Tahiti but that now she is the only one left alive. She admits to recording her distress signal sixteen years ago but seems surprised to hear so much time has passed. They discuss Nadia, someone Sayid cared about but lost; through flashbacks we see that Sayid was meant to torture Nadia while serving in the Iraqi Republican Guard but allowed her to escape, instead. The photo he carries is all he has left of her just as an old music box is all Danielle has left of Robert, her former partner and team member. She gives vague answers when Sayid asks about others in the jungle yet she seems to respond with confidence to a sudden roaring outside her lair ("If we're lucky, it's one of the bears.") After Sayid escapes he asks about Alex; Danielle explains Alex was her child.

"What did you bring me?"

In other island events, Hurley, in the interest of boosting morale, builds a golf course.

Greater Meaning: Sayid is off on his own in the midst of a hostile environment just as Danielle Rousseau has been for the last sixteen years. Sayid's flashbacks show he was a competent soldier and well-respected by his superiors, but that he jeopardized his own career (and life) by shooting an officer and allowing Nadia to escape. He obviously loved her. Sayid explains that Nadia died regardless, just as Danielle lost Robert, but in the current situation, Sayid has chosen to leave the community and go it alone whereas Danielle did not get a choice in the matter (according to her distress signal, something, which we can only assume is the island's "monster" killed the members of her team). Sayid either wants to keep exploring the island or wishes to return to the rest of the survivors, which Danielle allows him to do, but overall her actions suggest the solitude has not been good for her and though she's not officially an enemy, she still seems a bit suspect. Rousseau seems to have adapted fully to the island and its dangers (bears, the monster, "others" who whisper) but has not been fully embraced by them and is not immune, despite her years of experience. She seems to know more than she's letting on and Sayid is aware of this.

"Have you seen others on this island?"
"No, but I've heard them. Whispering."

Further Questions: 

1. What is the cable in the sand?

2. Who is Ethan, apparently skilled in hunting?

3. What is "The Black Rock?"

4. Who are the whispering "others?"

5. Can Rousseau be trusted?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 8, Confidence Man

Confidence Man

"Hold on!"

Events: Sawyer and Boone have a confrontation over Shannon's missing asthma inhalers. Jack gets involved but Kate intervenes, explaining that she might have better luck as Sawyer says they have "a connection." He doesn't give her the inhalers but when Kate asks about the mysterious letter he's been reading, and insists she believes that he still has human emotions, somewhere, Sawyer invites Kate to read the letter aloud. Written by an angry young boy, it implicates him in a murder/suicide after a con gone wrong,

As Sayid attempts to find out who hit him during the transceiver incident, Locke suggests Sawyer and gives Sayid his hunting knife. After Jack saves Shannon without medication he demands that Sawyer give up the inhalers, which Sawyer refuses to do. Sayid, who has experience with torture, can't get Sawyer to admit where the inhalers are so Kate agrees to kiss him instead but it turns out he knows nothing about them anyway. Convinced that Sawyer is lying, Sayid charges him with Locke's knife and inflicts a serious stab wound on his arm. After Jack treats the wound, Kate confronts Sawyer's self-destructive behavior, asking why he brings such anger and hatred upon himself. Sawyer admits he was the boy who wrote the letter and explains that he ironically became just like the confidence man who ruined his own family (which is illustrated in multiple flashbacks although he neglects to tell Kate that the sight of a young blonde boy seeking his mother's attention was enough to make him walk off a con job).

Unprompted, Sayid decides to leave the beach camp, disgusted with himself for having committed violence against Sawyer after he vowed never to do so again. He says goodbye to Kate and sets off up the unexplored area of the beach, alone.

"I know who you are and I know what you done."

Greater Meaning: Kate is specifically interesting for Sawyer in two ways: she's a criminal, like him, and she pays attention to him. It's clear that he desires her, having made suggestive comments several times before this, but after his letter is explained, we learn that it was Sawyer's mother who was conned and killed; he is a boy who grew up without a mother. Despite the fact that Sawyer went on to con women, it was the questioning little boy that drove him from the phony investment deal, which along with his obsession over the letter he wrote to the original "Mr. Sawyer" proves Kate was right in thinking he still had humanity. The exterior is of utmost importance for Sawyer, making people think of him a certain way, but Kate is really the only one who gets to learn the truth about him.

Further Questions: 

1. Did Sawyer's boss come after him for the money he left on Jess and David's floor, as he promised he would?

2. Will Jin find out that Sun speaks English?

3. Will Shannon's asthma come up again?

4. Is Jack jealous that Sawyer and Kate made out?

5. Where will Sayid go?