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 20, Do No Harm

Events: As Jack tries to triage Boone in the caves, the survivors scramble to assist where they can. Jack ends up donating his own blood to Boone and becomes exhausted from the effort. While this is happening, Claire goes into labor in the jungle with Kate.

Flashbacks show Jack preparing to marry Sarah, a woman who had formerly been his surgical patient, with some trepidations he discusses with Christian the night before the wedding. When Jack suggests that he asked Sarah to marry him simply because he saved her, Christian assures him that commitment is what makes him tick, he agrees that Jack is not good at letting go. Unable to write any of his own vows for the wedding, Jack counters Sarah's vows with what seems to be a heartfelt, honest explanation: "I didn't fix you, you fixed me."

On the island, Jack considers amputating Boone's leg but allows Boone to talk him out of it. As Boone breathes his last breaths, Kate assists Claire in delivering a healthy baby boy. Later, after giving Shannon the news about Boone's death, Jack tells Kate that Boone was murdered by John Locke and vows to find him.

Greater Meaning: As Jack has more or less been appointed leader of the survivors, it's concerning how he puts his own health at risk in order to save Boone. Jack's flashbacks seem at first to be simply backstory to his marriage (which he's already disclosed has ended) but as he continues caring for Boone and stubbornly trying to save him despite knowing his medical situation is hopeless, the flashbacks suggest Jack married Sarah because he continued to feel responsible for her and couldn't let go, just as he feels as Boone's doctor.

Putting this situation into philosophical terms, we'd expect a leader to operate as a utilitarian, basing decisions on what benefits the greatest number of people. This would also make sense for a doctor on a deserted island (saving or rationing medicine for the living, quarantining the sick to keep illness from spreading, delegating triage, etc.), and Jack does this to a point. Where his actions get ethically blurry are in refusing to let go, as he's done with both Sarah and Boone, he is in fact, doing harm. Jack believes in his ability to save others, to fix them, but seems unable to give up. This makes Jack a very unique doctor, and suggests he'd sacrifice pretty much anything for a patient's care--a very noble character trait but one that could also bring about exploitation and division moving forward. While it's true that Boone's death was facilitated by John's actions, John Locke did not murder Boone. Jack is so concerned about having based medical treatment on a mistake and blaming Locke that he doesn't take the time to consider what making such an accusation toward another of the island's most important people might do in the long run. Locke was reckless but not murderous; despite the suspicious way Locke behaved by leaving Boone in the caves, Jack is still starting a big issue before he has all the facts.

Hurley did not factor in as a major player in this episode but worth mentioning is the fact that as the entire beach is celebrating Claire and the new baby, it's Hurley who draws Jack's attention to Shannon as she returns with Sayid. Hurley's empathy continues to be a major presence among the survivors.



Further Questions:

1. What will Claire name her son?
2. How will Shannon cope with losing Boone?
3. Will Shannon's relationship with Sayid change?
4. What has Locke been doing all this time?
5. What eventually ended Jack and Sarah's marriage?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 15, Homecoming

Events: On the island, Locke and Boone return Claire to the caves, having apparently just escaped from Ethan. Locke, Sayid, and Jack discuss what to do about Ethan and Charlie is suspicious of their abilities to protect Claire and the baby. Ethan assaults Jin and threatens Charlie, demanding that they return Claire to him. When the men decide to offer Claire up as bait to trap Ethan, Jack arms Locke and Sawyer from the cache of guns he'd been hiding; after Jack forbids Kate from getting involved, Sawyer offers her one of his guns and invites her along. Charlie, shown in flashbacks to have taken advantage of a young woman named Lucy during his post-Drive Shaft drug days, increasingly frustrated over the group's inability to protect Claire and refusal to listen to him, shoots and kills Ethan after he'd already surrendered to Jack and Sawyer.

Greater Meaning: Charlie and Claire's budding relationship becomes suspended after Claire loses
her memory of all events after the crash, so in order to maintain any sort of exchange with her, Charlie appoints himself Claire's protector. Charlie's decision to shoot Ethan technically makes sense when considered with the flashbacks of Charlie's humiliation and poor choices regarding Lucy ("you'll never take care of anyone"), but still seems a little forced and unnecessary unless the writers are laying the groundwork to develop Charlie further as an egotistical and unstable person. The episode title is "Homecoming," after all, and Claire is the person who's just come home, but the events largely concern Charlie, Charlie's decisions, and Charlie's reactions. The episode ultimately works as it is, but seems a little disjointed and unsatisfying compared with the neatness and balance of all the previous ones.

Further Questions: 
1. Are Claire and the baby really all right?
2. Where did Ethan come from?
3. Are there more people like Ethan?
4. Why does Ethan want Claire?
5. Is Charlie violent?

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?