Lost Episode 1.23 Exodus Part 1

Walt stands before a window in a hotel room. The Oceanic Airlines tickets that will carry him to his fate sit on the nightstand beside him. He pulls open the curtains to reveal the Sydney skyline. Dawn is still a few minutes away. He looks over his shoulder at Michael sleeping soundly. This is his father. But right now, the man is a stranger to Walt. He turns on the television, waking Michael up. He asks Walt if everything is okay and when Walt tells him that he always watches this TV show, Michael does his best to be patient with him and simply requests that he turn the volume down. But Walt turns the volume up. "I said turn it down, Walt." Walt tells Michael that Brian lets him watch the show as loud as he wants. Michael is awake now. He gets up and snatches the remote. "Well, I'm not Brian."

Walt gets up and grabs Vincent he's had enough of this and bolts for the door, running down the hallway in his pajamas. Michael catches up to him at the elevator and Walt screams his protest as Michael drags him and the dog back to the room. "You're not my father! You're not my father!"

Walt snaps awake and we find ourselves back on the beach. It is pre dawn here as well and nobody else is awake yet. Walt gets up to go to the bathroom, relieved that the dream is over. While in the bushes he hears a noise and as his eyes adjust to the light he sees something moving toward the beach. It's a woman...it's Rousseau!

She moves without making a sound, but Walt sounds the alarm as he races back to his father. The racket he makes wakes up the rest of the camp and before you know it we are all watching Rousseau walk towards the fire, rifle in hand. Sayid recognizes her and tries his best to calm the rest of the camp down. He asks her what she is doing here. But her answer makes us wish he didn't ask "The Others are coming."

We FLASHBACK to see Jack sitting at an airport bar nursing a cocktail as a woman arrives on the stool next to him. She's attractive. Okay, she's downright hot. And she's definitely coming on to Jack. And here's something else we learn: Jack isn't wearing his wedding ring. In fact, he tells her that he isn't married anymore! The two of them share a cocktail, but she's outpacing him 2 to 1. We learn he name is Ana Lucia, but just as Jack is about to learn more, her cell phone rings. It's important (important enough to have a cell phone that works in Australia) and she makes her apologies, but she has to take the call. "We'll have that next drink on the plane, I'm in 42 F all the way in the back."

Back on the beach, our entire camp surrounds Rousseau as she tells her tale. She was part of a scientific mission to this part of the South Pacific when their boat ran aground on the island. Her team became stranded here sixteen years ago. She says there were six of them when they wrecked and she was already pregnant at that time. But something happened because she tells them she had to deliver the baby alone. As Claire's baby lets out a small cry Rousseau continues. She says her team was only together for a week when they saw the black smoke. It was far inland and it didn't spread. She gets even more intense here. "And that night, they came." They came and took her baby. And now they're coming again. For all of them. And they can't be stopped. She makes it crystal clear for them "You have only three choices: Run. Hide. Or die."

Jack and Locke move toward the raft and discuss how to deal with this. Is she crazy? And can they afford not to take her word for the truth? They find Michael and Jin installing the rudder. Michael makes it clear that he wants off this island today. But they still have to lay the rails that will allow them to launch the raft. Jack suggests that they do that while they finish the rudder assembly, but Michael points out the manpower shortage that prevents that. "Give me twenty minutes," Jack says.

Charlie and Claire watch Rousseau from a distance and worry. Charlie does his best to comfort the girl he cares so much for, but it's an uphill battle. Claire tells Charlie that, when she escaped from Ethan however she got away she knew they would come back for her. Charlie realizes something. "Is that why you haven't named the baby?" Claire's eyes fill with tears, but remain firmly fixed on Rousseau. She nods her answer.

Jack has rallied the troops, even Sun and Kate are pitching in and the entire camp is in position. Even with everyone pushing together, it will take a massive effort to get the raft into the water. They take their positions: Sawyer and Kate eye each other from opposite sides of the raft. Jin and Sun avoid making eye contact. Shannon and Sayid find one another. They all begin to push, giving it everything they have and it begins to slide toward the water. But the raft begins to list to one side and before they can correct the problem, the raft slides off the rails and one pontoon buries itself in the sand. Cables snap and bamboo shatters and the whole mast and rigging collapses. And if that's not enough, Hurley falls into the rudder, snapping one of the pivot points. It's a nightmare thirty feet short of the water and both rudder and mast need to be replaced before they can set sail. Accusations are hurled to and fro in the aftermath and tempers flare. In the middle of the chaos, we find Walt. He wanders away from the fracas and we notice that something has made his eyes go wide. Michael searches for Walt and when he finds him he looks to see what he is looking at and that's when his mouth drops open. We swing around into their point of view and we see what they are looking at.

Out on the jungle horizon is a pillar of black smoke. They're coming

Jack is with Rousseau, desperate for information. He asks how many of them there are, but Rousseau has already told him all she knows. Jack presses her, there must be some way to survive she has been here for sixteen years! "I can vanish into the jungle. You have forty people. Where will you hide them all?" Jack looks at Locke. And Locke knows exactly what he is thinking.

Jack, Locke, Sayid, Rousseau and Hurley stare at the hatch. Hurley and Rousseau for the first time. Rousseau asks Jack what it is. Jack tells her he hoped she could tell them. She's never seen anything like it. Hurley asks a very practical question: "How do you know we can all fit in there?" Locke says that no handle means there must be another door somewhere. Another entrance means more space. But Sayid can't hold his tongue any longer. This hatch might even belong to the Others they could be walking right into a trap. Jack asks Rousseau if she has any more of the explosives she used to blow up her shelter. "You mean the dynamite," she says. "At the Black Rock. In the Dark Territory." And thank God for Hurley because he says what they're all thinking: "Well, there's three reasons to go right there."

Jin and Michael "talk" in their invented shorthand. They need new bamboo for the mast and the rudder. Sawyer arrives and offers his help, but they aren't interested. He is about to protest further when he sees a commotion further up the beach and goes to check it out. Jack is packing his things up and he is addressing the camp. Like it or not (not) he is their leader. He tells them that he knows they are frightened, but he has a plan. He and a small team are going to go to the jungle to get "supplies" and they will return in a few hours. He tells them to do whatever they can to help with the raft and when it is in the water, they should all go to the caves. "Look after each other. We'll be back as soon as we can. I promise." And as they leave, Jack is pulled aside by the increasingly annoying Dr. Arzt. He knows about the dynamite (don't tell Hurley anything if you want it to stay a secret) and he is coming with them. He knows more about dynamite than any of them. If they don't want to blow themselves up, he has to come along. With no time to argue, Jack agrees.

Sawyer is in the bamboo fields using a makeshift machete to hack through some bamboo. As he chops away we FLASHBACK to a police station back in Sydney. He looks beat down as the inspector spells it out for him: Sawyer got into a bar fight with the wrong guy the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Agriculture to be exact. And there's one more thing. They know who he really is: James Ford from Memphis with a rap sheet as long as a city block. Australia has had just about enough of James and of Sawyer and they mean to throw out the trash. Sawyer is being deported back to America. And he's leaving on Oceanic Flight 815 leaving tomorrow.

Sawyer is still chopping when Jack arrives. These two haven't exactly seen eye to eye, so you can forgive Sawyer for wondering what he wants. Jack hands Sawyer one of the pistols and a clip of ammo to take with him on the raft, "just in case." Sawyer wasn't prepared for this. But it dawns on them both that this will probably be the last time they see each other. "Good luck, Sawyer," Jack says. And he turns to go, but Sawyer does something unbelievable. He tells Jack the story of that day in the bar in Sydney when he shared a bender with an American doctor. Turns out this doctor was hiding out in Australia after a big falling out with his son, who happened to be a doctor too. Jack can't believe what he's hearing, but Sawyer isn't finished. He tells Jack that his father knew the trouble in their relationship was all his fault even though his son was back in the USA thinking the same thing. And more than anything he wishes he could pick up the phone in that bar and call his son tell him he's sorry. He's a better doctor than he'll ever be. That he's proud of him. That he loves him. And Sawyer says he had to take off, but something tells him that the doc never got around to making that call. "Small world, huh?" And this is the most intense thing that has ever landed on Jack, but no matter how much it means to him Jack will not let himself cry in front of Sawyer. "Good luck, Jack."

In FLASHBACK we see Kate handcuffed and waiting in a security room as the Marshal goes through the process of informing the airline that he will be armed during the flight. When the Australian security officer opens the Halliburton case and asks why it's necessary to bring five guns along he refers the question to Kate, but she just continues to fume in silence. "She's shy," the Marshal says. But when the security officer asks him what the toy plane is in there for, the Marshal is only too happy to explain how Kate murdered her childhood love, and how he tried to use it to catch her over the years. And the next part of this happens in a FLASH. Kate bolts out of her chair and has the Marshal's throat in her hands. The Marshal reacts with an elbow to her face and Kate goes down. The Marshal looks to a stunned security officer who never even had time to get out of his chair. "That," the Marshal says, "is why I need five guns."

Back on the beach, Kate asks Jack if she can come along on the dynamite mission and he knows her well enough to realize that this is something she really needs to do. So he allows it. Meanwhile, Charlie is collecting brief messages from the castaways to be placed in a bottle for the raft team to take along with them. As the dynamite team passes by the raft they are forced to hurry their goodbyes neither team has a moment to spare and Jack's team disappears into the jungle. Back at the beach, Sayid and Shannon lock eyes and we...

FLASHBACK to the Sydney airport where Sayid asks a Shannon he has never met if she would be kind enough to watch his bag for a moment. "Sure. Whatever." And as Sayid goes off, Boone arrives with some bad news he couldn't get them bumped into first class. She doesn't take the news well and throws a tantrum that Boone is not in the mood for. He tells her to stop threatening him, there is nothing she can do anyway she's helpless. But Shannon decides to show Boone exactly what she's capable of and flags down a passing police officer. She tells him that an Arab man left his bag unattended and headed for the shops.

Jack and his team follow Rousseau through deep jungle until they arrive at two trees marked with faded black sashes. "La Territoire Fonce The Dark Territory." Rousseau tells them that this is where her team became infected... where one member lost his arm. They must move silently and quickly. Dr. Arzt has heard enough and suddenly isn't real interested in helping out with the dynamite anymore. "Just be real careful with it." And he turns and runs, leaving our team to watch him go.

Jin and Michael are arguing about the thickness of the bamboo they are going to need for the mast when Sawyer arrives behind them with two gigantic stalks cut and measured to length. Michael thanks him sincerely, and from the look on Sawyer's face that may have been all he needed.

Back in the jungle, our team is walking as fast as they can considering Hurley is with them when Kate thinks she hears something. And suddenly Dr. Arzt comes running right past them, screaming at them to run. And before they have time to wonder what the hell is going on things get a whole lot worse. MGGGRRRWWWRRRRRRRR! The monster is coming! The whole group begins to bolt and Hurley is struggling mightily when Locke grabs his wrist and tells him to be still. Hurley looks at him like he's speaking Chinese, but he really can't run anymore so he does just that. Kate and Jack follow Rousseau into the thick stalks of a bamboo field.

The Monster's growl grows increasingly fainter and Locke tells Hurley it is headed the other way, much to his relief. They walk along together, not seeing the rest of the team. Hurley fears one of them might have been eaten, but then they catch up with Jack, Kate and Rousseau. There is just one question: "Where is Arzt?" But he answers the question himself with he emerges from the brush, muddy, shaken, but alive.

Sayid delivers something special to the raft. He managed to salvage the radar system from the Beechcraft that Locke and Boone found in the jungle. If they mount it to the mast and use it sparingly, it will let them know if any ships are on the horizon and where they are. And there's something else: A flare gun, but with only one flare. And Sayid states the obvious when he hands it over to Michael. "Choose wisely when you use it."

Shannon is back at the beach and she is folding her clothes when she hesitates on a simple leather necklace Boone's. Walt shows up with Vincent. He asks her why she doesn't look scared and Shannon tells him that if they are all going to get massacred there really isn't anything she can do about it. "Is there something you want, Walt?" And Walt says this very much like a 12 year old completely unaware of the magnitude of his gesture. He tells Shannon that she should take Vincent after Walt leaves on the raft. "He'll take care of you," Walt says. And Shannon tries her best to keep her defenses up by asking Walt why he thinks she needs a dog to take care of her. "Because he took care of me when my mom died." He tells her that nobody would talk to him about her, so he spoke to Vincent. "He's a good listener. You can talk to him about Boone if you want." And that does it, Shannon is crying now. "All right," she says, "But just until you get us rescued."

The Jungle team suddenly stops behind Rousseau. Locke asks her why they have stopped "Because we're here," Rousseau replies. She gently pushes through the foliage we see The Black Rock and it's not what we expected

In FLASHBACK we see Jin sitting in an airport cafe waiting for their flight. Sun arrives with some food for them both. Across the cafe, two Americans the kind that give them a bad name around the world comment snidely, completely unaware that Sun can understand every word they say. As Sun cuts the food in half for her husband they continue to insult them both. And off of this we return to the island to find

Michael and Jin making the final preparations for launch again. Sun steps in front of Jin forcing him to stop work. He is surprised by her assertiveness as she hands him a folder. Jin opens it to reveal a sheaf of papers with several words written in Hangul with their English translations. She has made him a dictionary. Jin's eyes are still on the pages, but he's not reading he just can't look up. And the weight of what is happening finally lands on him. He may never see his wife again. And he does the very last thing we expect he starts to cry. "I'm sorry," he says. "I am too," replies his wife. Jin tells her to stay with Jack he will keep her safe. They fall into an embrace, holding each other fiercely. And then Sun speaks so softly it's almost a whisper: "I love you." And they kiss. And it's a kiss between people who might never share another.

And now we go all around the beach: Shannon gives Charlie a message for the bottle. He puts a cork on it, kisses it for luck and ties it to the raft. Sawyer looks for Kate as he ties some banana bunches to the raft, but she's gone. And then the entire camp works as a team and pushes the raft down the beach and into the water. Michael, Walt Sawyer and Jin rush in and scramble aboard as the raft begins to make its way past the crashing waves.

Suddenly, Vincent breaks free from Shannon's grasp and runs into the water to begin a desperate swim to Walt. And it takes a lot of doing for Walt to convince his dog to turn back, breaking both of their hearts in the process. Walt is crying now as the sails are raised and fill with wind, carrying them further away from this island and into the unknown. Michael and Jin turn and wave to the castaways on the beach. Jin locks eyes with his wife and they share a smile the connection between them complete once more. And then they turn around and their focus shifts from what is behind them to what is in front.

And as we pull up and away, with the island slipping into the distance, we stay with the raft and all the hope it represents. We watch it cut through the sparkling ocean, its journey just beginning