Previously on LOST: That whole Ethan and Claire thing happened.
This week's eyeball belongs to Michael, who is searching the jungle for his son. A-Story quickly runs into B-Story when he finds Charlie looking for Claire's bags. They get nothing out of each other so Michael moves onto Jack, who wants to get an early jump on talking to everyone on the island this week. He hasn't seen Walt either. Michael asks him if he listened to his father when he was ten and Jack replies that he may have listened a little too well. A boy is missing and still these people think only of themselves. Boo hoo, I can't find Claire's clothes to smell. Boo hoo, my dad was a jerk. Anyway, Hurley makes his Kramer-like entrance with a "Yo, dudes!" that would have brought the house down had their been a studio audience. He is having a golf match (winner gets the last deodorant) but the men have already forgotten the lesson he taught them about lightening up and they blow him off. Michael goes off and Hurley comments that the guy really hates being a dad.
Michael continues the search and flashes back to ten years ago when he and Walt's mom were shopping for baby furniture. Everything he wants is expensive, but not to worry- he is giving up his art for some construction work while she finishes law school. He then casually drops in how he wants the boy's name to be Walt, after his father. She, in turn, reveals that she wants the boy to have her last name. Michael speculates that this is why she won't marry him. The mood is light, but the heavy groundwork for trouble has been laid.
Ten years later, Walter Lloyd is being taught how to throw a knife by Locke and his new best buddy, Boone. He is not doing too well until Locke tells him to picture it in his mind's eye. The next throw is perfect, but the celebration is short-lived because Michael catches them at it and sends Walt back to camp. Michael reacts with dismay and horror and even goes so far as to brandish the knife in Locke's face. Now a loyal Locke subject, Boone attacks and things look like they could get ugly. Locke calms everyone down and tells Michael that Walt likes him best because he treats him like an adult and realizes his potential. Michael doesn't seem to care about potential, he just wants Locke to stay away from him and his boy. Cue creepy LOST title screen.
You know the episode is loaded when they return from commercials in mid-flashback. Poor Michael's happy world is collapsing around him. Baby Walt's mom has accepted an international law job in Amsterdam without consulting him and furthermore, she is taking her son with her. Since they are not married and he is not steadily employed, there is nothing he can do about it. Cherry on top- she wants to break up.
Back to reality- Michael watches his son sleep and is approached by Sun. Jin must be fast asleep because she asks him if he is okay in English. He is feeling a little down about his lack of connection with Walt and resolves that the boy cannot grow up on Crazy Island.
The next day, Sayid is blah blah blabbering about the maps again to Shannon and Jack. Putting them together makes a triangle, which Sayid thinks could be the power source. Michael comes along and mocks them about settling down there and suggests that they build a raft. The cool kids think this is a pretty dumb idea, but Mike is undeterred- he will build it by himself. Elsewhere, Walt is entertaining himself by looking at the Spanish comic book again. Michael asks for his help, but pauses momentarily when he realizes that his son might have an interest in art. Walt continues to ignore him, however, so Michael gets frustrated and re-focuses on getting the boat started.
Michael then flashes back to a streetside call from a pay phone, where things have gone from "Tough Break" to "God Hates You" in an awful hurry. First, Mom won't even put the baby on the phone to hear Dad's voice- then she is forced to admit that she has been seeing someone else- the guy who hired her. This is all too much for Michael, who resolves to come to Amsterdam to fight for his son. Unfortunately, before he can make it five steps, he gets run over by a speeding car. Quick aside here- how come when Will Ferrell gets run over in Elf, it's hilarious, but when it happens on LOST, it's horrifying and disturbing? It's the same scene- what's different? Mood and tone, I suppose.
On the beach, Charlie finds out that Kate moved Claire's bags but he still can't find her diary. They immediately and correctly assume that Sawyer took it. Sawyer seizes this chance to mock and taunt Charlie over what Claire wrote about him. They each get a punch in before Kate breaks it up and gets Sawyer to admit that he really didn't read the thing. Elsewhere, Walt is bored helping his dad so when he spots Locke and Boone, he excuses himself to go and get some water.
Locke and Boone arrive back at camp where Boone is confronted by his sister about them coming back empty-handed yet again. She suggests that they help Michael build the raft, but having drank Locke's Kool-aid and being free of his sister's burden now, he not-so-politely refuses. Walt approaches Locke, but is told to respect and obey his father's wishes. Unfortunately, Michael catches them together and flips out. He does not want to hear Walt's explanation or Locke's feeble "giving him a pencil for you" cover-up. He tells Locke that if he catches him with Walt again, he'll kill him. Kill Locke, that is. I hope you got that without my explanation. Locke walks away and Walt calls his dad a jerk, asking where he's been his whole life. Michael reacts with anger and demands to be obeyed. He takes the comic book and chucks it into the fire.
Michael watches the page with the polar bear on it burn and thinks back to his stay in the hospital where things went from "God Hates You" to "God Hates You and Amuses Himself by Repeatedly Kicking You in the Groin". A nurse watches him draw a picture for his son and suggests that he should put in a lame penguin joke since he doesn't know what to write. What's black and white and red all over? A penguin with a sunburn. Oh, how I long for the sophisticated humor of Hurley needing someone to pee on his foot! Anyway, Walt's mom stops by without even having the decency to bring the kid. The good news is, she's paying for Michael's hospital stay. The bad news is, she's doing it out of guilt because she is marrying Brian and he wants to adopt Walt. Michael wakes from this happy memory to be told by Hurley that Walt has run off.
Michael makes his way over to Suspect #1- Locke, only to learn that Walt is not there. Locke, never the kind to hold a grudge, suggests that they go look for him. Michael, now aware that Locke was respecting the man's wishes earlier by telling the kid to buzz off, reluctantly accepts the help.
Back in Cavetown, Charlie thanks Kate for her help with Sawyer and they share a little heart to heart. Charlie is so enamored with Claire now, (absence makes the heart grow fonder) that he doesn't even care that Kate touched his leg when she got up. After she's gone, Charlie humorously struggles with the temptation to read Claire's diary and finally has to hide it and walk off.
In the jungle, Walt is walking along peacefully until Vincent the dog begins barking furiously at a disturbance in the brush. The leash breaks and Vincent runs off. As Walt gives chase, he flashes back to the time when he was living in Australia with Mom and Brian. He would like them to pay attention to his bird project, but the adults are too busy foreshadowing Mom's death to notice him. The tension of no one paying attention to Walt builds until it is broken by a bird slamming into the glass on the back door. Brian looks disturbed by the dead bird, but more disturbed by Walt, who just happens to be studying the exact same bird in his schoolbook. Back in the jungle, Walt calls for Vincent and looks frightened when he hears some non-doglike growling.
The flashbacks just keep on coming now as Michael is visited by Brian, who comes bearing the bad news of Susan's blood disorder and death. He tries to pull a fast one by telling Mike that Susan wanted Walt to be with his real father, but Michael knows a lowlife when he sees one and confirms that this is really Brian trying to unload the kid. Brian admits that he only loved Susan, not Walt. Plus, the kid is just downright creepy. Sometimes when he's around, things happen. (Could it be that he is Special?)
The search continues in the jungle- Michael finds the leash Walt dropped. They hear Walt cry for help and go running toward his voice. Michael flashes back one more time, this time to his first encounter with his son in ten years. The nanny gives Michael the box of secrets he was seen looking into last week. He looks through it sadly, then steps outside to meet Walt.
Back in the jungle, Walt is hiding inside a cluster of trees while a polar bear paws at him. Locke stops Michael from yelling and points to a nearby tree they can climb to get a better view of the mauling. Michael allows himself to be led because he is too busy thinking back to that awkward reunion again. Michael kindly covers for Brian by saying that it was Michael's own idea to take the boy home with him. As payback, when he finds out that Vincent belongs to Brian, he allows Walt to take him anyway.
Back to where the action is, Michael and Locke are precariously walking across a branch to get directly above Walt. Michael, coming full circle in his position on knives, drops one down to his son for protection. Locke then grabs some vines and Michael climbs down to get Walt. Michael secures his son in the vines and Locke hoists the boy up. Just before a commercial break, the bear strikes harder and closer and Mike looks like a goner.
My wife thinks this is a terrible ending, but I remind her about the extra three or four minutes. During this overrun, Michael stabs Polar Bear Part 2 and it runs away. Walt apologizes but Michael is just glad he is safe. When Walt expresses concern that Vincent ran off, Locke reminds him that the dog came back once and will do it again. Michael and Locke smile and nod at each other like two mental patients passing in the hall.
Night has fallen and Michael comes over to his son to finally give to him the contents of the box of mysteries. It's every letter, card, and drawing he ever sent but Walt never got because of his mom's strange and unfounded anti-dad agenda. Mike points out that while she didn't let Walt see them, she also didn't throw them away. Walt doesn't care for the penguin joke either.
Elsewhere, Charlie has given in and is happily reading Claire's private innermost thoughts. He is especially happy to see that she really likes him because he is adorable and sweet. His mood changes when he realizes that Claire had a dream about a black rock just like Sayid talked about Rousseau mentioning. He brings this to Jack and Sayid's attention, even if it earns him a rep as a bloody scum diary-reader. Charlie and Sayid speculate that the black rock could be where Claire was taken, but Jack dismisses the notion of running out into the dark jungle at night to find her.
He's barely done saying how foolish that is before we see Locke and Boone out looking for Vincent with Locke's makeshift dog whistle. *ALERT* Seemingly Throwaway Dialogue, but Probably Not Really....
Boone: I don't think that whistle is working, John.
Locke: You can't hear everything, Boone. The sooner you learn that, the better.
Anyway, they hear some rustling in front of them and it doesn't look like a dog...it's bigger...it looks human...it's ....
CLAIRE! Claire is back, looking a little worse for wear, but okay enough to walk. Too dark to tell if she is still pregnant, though. Fade out to the title screen...
Next week on LOST: a repeat of Episode 9: Solitary which, if it has to be a repeat, at least it's one of the two I haven't written up yet.
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