Previously on LOST: Boone died, Michael ran off and Jin and Mr. Eko saw The Others.
It is night and Shannon is looking after Vincent when Sayid tells her to grab her things and come along. He leads her onto the beach where he has built her a new tent. It is this sweet gesture that allows him to finally score a blonde.
Elsewhere, most of the Tail Gang is asleep and Ana-Lucia is uncharacteristically reluctant to wake them up and move out. Sawyer accuses her of being lost. Hey, that's the name of the show! Just as Sawyer starts badmouthing Michael, Michael shows up to hear it. Mr. Eko informs them that he saw Them and this is the motivation the gang needs to get up and move out.
Back in the love tent, all the action has made Shannon thirsty, so Sayid leaves to get her some water. Right after he makes his exit, the wind blows out the candles and Walt appears in the doorway. Shannon screams, which cues the creepy LOST title screen. You know, he's psychic and sopping wet and Shannon was thirsty, so maybe he was offering to drip in her mouth. No need to scream really.
Sayid assures her that the whole thing was just a dream, but Shannon is convinced otherwise. She stalks off, upset that her new boyfriend doesn't believe her. All the commotion has brought Charlie, Claire and Aaron over to see what's wrong. Charlie scolds Claire for waking the baby. She does not look too happy as he takes him out of her arms.
As Shannon walks off, she flashes back to a ballet class where she is teaching a class of young girls. After class, she is giggling with her friend when she gets a cell phone call bearing some bad news. Her father was just in a car accident. Later at the hospital, a doctor informs Shannon and her stepmother that Dad died. Dr. Jack Shepherd walks by just to make sure it's drilled into our heads that this was the same man he let die to save his future wife. Even in this time of great crisis, Stepmom is sure to correct the doctor when he mistakenly refers to Shannon as her daughter.
As the jungle trek continues, Sawyer falls down and is tended to by Libby, who is most qualified as a clinical psychologist. Sawyer tells her to talk to his shoulder.
At the beach, Hurley and Rose are hanging wet laundry, which Hurley thinks issilly since there is a dryer in the hatch. Rose says she doesn't like the hatch. Shannon comes by to ask if they have seen the stuff Michael and Walt didn't take with them. They point her in the right direction and Shannon finds what she is looking for. A shirt for Vincent to pick up the scent on. The dog bounds off, dragging Shannon with him into the jungle. Shannon stops in her tracks when she comes across Boone's grave.
Elsewhere, Claire is having problems with her gigantic crying baby until Locke stumbles onto one of the only people he hasn't solved a problem for yet. He wraps Aaron up tight in a blanket and the crying stops instantly. Claire complains to Locke that Charlie has become Aaron's dad without her agreeing to it. She thinks he might be a religious freak since he carries around a statue of the Virgin Mary. Locke, the only person on the island who knows of both Charlie's habit and the contents of the statues, looks intrigued.
Over at Boone's grave, Shannon flashes back to the last funeral she attended in the real world. Shannon is sad and alone at her father's wake until she is reunited with her beloved stepbrother. They share a drink in her bedroom and talk about how she might beat the odds and get an internship at a prestigious dance school in New York. They also discuss how Boone's mom hates her so Boone encourages her to keep trying.
On a distant and rocky shoreline, Mr. Eko tells Ana-Lucia that they have to cut inland into the jungle. She is skeptical that he is just doing it to get Sawyer home faster- a claim he does not deny. Ana-Lucia says she liked him better when he didn't talk.
At the beach, Claire expresses shock and gratitude to Locke that Aaron is still asleep. Then she forces Locke to hold the baby and we can clearly see that he is awake. Even my mother caught that continuity error. Just then, Charlie stops by to take the baby so Claire can go for her walk. Locke dutifully hands the kid over and Claire glares at the rock star.
Back in the jungle, Jin and Sawyer are making too much noise for the Tail Gang's liking so Michael puts his foot down and demands to know what happened to these paranoid freaks. Ana-Lucia coldly explains that on their first night, The Others took three of them. Two weeks later, they took nine. They are ruthless animals. Michael says they took his kid. Ana-Lucia responds that they took a lot of things.
Elsewhere, Sayid finds Shannon at her brother's grave and tries to sympathize, but she will not hear it, saying this is not all about Boone. As she goes off to find Walt, she thinks back to the moment of truth about the dance school. She got in! The good times don't last, however, as she soon after gets a call that her rent check bounced. At Stepmom's house, she learns that there was no will, Stepmom got all the money and she is cutting Shannon out. Shannon asks for at least the money to get to New York, but Stepmom is a particularly wicked Stepmom and denies the request.
At the beach, Charlie and Locke are playing backgammon and talking about Claire, who Charlie thinks needs to learn more responsibility. Locke thinks that's an interesting thing for a heroin addict to say. A surprised Charlie reminds him that he is a recovering addict. Locke stands corrected and they have a minor little stare down before going back to the game.
Back in the deep, dark jungle, Sawyer's body finally gives out from fever and injury and he collapses. Michael tries to snap him out of it, but Sawyer treats this like a deathbed scene and rolls his eyes back. Ana-Lucia says they have to keep moving, a decision which is universally panned. The rest of the Tail Gang agree to help Michael build a stretcher for the unconscious con man as Ana-Lucia can only look on with disgust.
In a different part of the deep, dark jungle, Sayid is following close to Shannon and trying to talk her out of her wild goose chase. Shannon says she is not crazy because they found the bottle of messages that were on the raft so Walt very well could be out there.
And so after making a phenomenally impressive make-shift stretcher, the Tail Gang hits their next challenge- a big, steep hill/borderline cliff. They manage to get the stretcher up with some teamwork but in the process, Cindy somehow vanishes into thin air. Ana-Lucia wants to look for her, but Mr. Eko reminds her that is just what the Others want. Just then, the Whispers start up so Ana-Lucia pulls out the gun and tells everyone to run.
Meanwhile, Shannon flashes back to some more bad news. 1) Boone couldn't get any money from his mom because she seemed to know what it was for. 2) Shannon can't crash at his place in New York because he is leaving to take a job with his mother. He tries to offer his sister all the money he has with promises of more, but she is so betrayed that she refuses. He urges her, but this only makes her more angry and determined to make it on her own. When she asks if Boone believes she can do it, he can't answer so she kicks him and his money out.
It is pouring rain now and Shannon's search for Walt has gotten more frantic. After she trips, she has a break down and tells Sayid that she needs him to believe in her because no one else does. She thinks he is going to leave her as soon as they get rescued. He counters this by saying he believes her about Walt and that he loves her. Their romantic embrace is interrupted by the Whispers and the reappearance of Soggy Walt. He presses his finger to his lips, but Shannon does not heed this advice, getting up and running toward him, shouting his name. Sayid realizes this is foolish and chases after her in a panic. And that's when the off-camera gun goes off. Then a stunned and bleeding from the gut Shannon falls into Sayid's arms. Sayid is in shock, but his shock turns to anger when he looks up and sees Ana-Lucia holding the literally smoking gun. The End.
Next week: an especially awesome and extended awesome episode that will take us way back to the beginning- it's the Tail Gang origin story!
