The episode opens with a Claire
flashback. She wakes up with blood trickling from an open gash on the
side of her forehead. It starts to become clear that she has been in a
car accident, as the windshield
is shattered, the airbags are deployed, and pieces of glass are in her
hair (which happens to be jet black instead of her usual blonde). She
begins to panic when she sees a woman lying in the middle of the street
in front of the car, not moving, clearly a passenger in the accident.
Claire tries to open up the door, but it is stuck, so she climbs
through the broken windshield and runs to the woman. She kneels down
and begins screaming out, as she shakes the woman trying to wake her
up. This woman is Claire's mother.
Claire wakes up to a day on the island, begun by a picnic set up by Charlie. As the two arrive at the picnic site, Desmond
arrives and suggests that Charlie go boar hunting, which he says would
be a better way to spend the day. Claire is initially upset, but she
looks up and sees a glint in a flock of sea birds. Claire realizes that
the birds migrate, and that they may be tagged. She decides to capture
a bird, write a note about the crash of Flight 815 and the survivors,
hoping that someone will read it.
Elsewhere on the island, Sayid, Kate, Locke, Rousseau and the captured Mikhail Bakunin
trek through the jungle. They learn from Mikhail that since the
implosion at the hatch an EMP wiped out an underwater beacon, making it
impossible for the island to be accurately located and, therefore, for
anyone to return to the island. Kate asks Mikhail why the Others stay
on the island if they have a way off of it. Mikhail says they would not
understand because they are flawed. They are not on the "list" because
they are angry (looking at Locke), weak and frightened (looking at
Sayid). The list was made by a "magnificent man" who brought all the
Others there. When Kate tells Mikhail that Ben is not all that great,
Mikhail replies that he is not talking about Ben. Mikhail also reveals
he knows their full names and begins to reveal his knowledge of Locke’s
paraplegic condition when Rousseau interrupts him when she spots an
endless ring of cement pylons that disappear into the jungle as far as
the eye can see. Sayid believes that this is a security perimeter. Kate
starts to walk through, but Sayid stops her, as he believes the sensors
would be triggered. Mikhail claims the system has not worked for years,
just like everything else on the island, but Locke simply grabs Mikhail
and shoves him between two of the pylons. Then an odd, electronic sound
rings out, trapping Mikhail, who says "Thank you" to Locke. The
amplitude of the sound jumps up and Mikhail begins twitching and
trembling, blood drips out of his ears and saliva foams at the corners
of his mouth. He falls over and spasms violently, clearly incapacitated
from cerebral hemorrhaging.
After explaining her plan, Jin and Sun
help Claire try to capture one of the birds when gun shots ring out and
scare the birds away. Desmond emerges from the jungle, stating he was
on the trail of a boar. Claire is incensed and immediately suspicious;
she knows it somehow involves Charlie. She confronts Charlie about his
and Desmond's strange behavior. Although Charlie appears to struggle
whether to tell Claire about Desmond's prediction, he instead says her
plan is a crazy scheme and that he will not support it because he
doesn't want to advocate false hope. Claire is angry that he will not
stand by her and asks Charlie to leave her alone.
Back in Sydney, Claire discovers her mother has a familiar visitor, Dr. Christian Shephard.
However, Claire does not know him, and is about to ask who he is when
her aunt Lindsey walks in. Lindsey and Christian immediately start
arguing. Lindsey does not want him there and tells him to leave.
Christian says Claire deserves to know the truth, but Lindsey will not
hear of it. Claire shouts for them to stop arguing. She realizes he is
the one paying the hospital bills, and asks who he is. Reluctantly,
Christian admits that he is her father, meaning Jack and Claire are
half siblings.
On the island, Sayid angrily confronts Locke about pushing Bakunin
through the pylons. Locke replies that he had no way of knowing that
the Others had a “sonic weapon
fence.� They argue about Locke’s decision to enter 7-7 resulting in the
destruction of the Flame station. Locke retorts that he might not have
done it if Sayid had bothered to mention that the entire station was
rigged with C-4.
Kate intervenes, as the argument is getting nowhere, and asks for the
ax so they can climb a tree and avoid the sonic trigger. Sayid gets the
ax out of Locke's bag and discovers inside a brick of C-4 from the
Flame station. Sayid immediately questions Locke's motives, asking if
he really came to rescue Jack. Locke states there is no other reason
for him to be there than to rescue Jack. They finish the tree bridge
and Kate volunteers to climb up first. She climbs over the Pylon and
reaches the other side safely. She checks Mikhail, and confirms he is
dead.
While Claire works at her tattoo
parlor, Christian comes in and asks, that as he is leaving that day, he
wants to have coffee and talk with her. Over coffee, he explains that
he had a fling with her mother which resulted in Claire’s birth.
Christian visited a couple times when he could, brought her toys and
sang to her. However, Lindsey did not like him and they both did not
like that he had another family and told him to stay away. He reveals
that the reason he wanted to talk with her is because her mother is
alive but not living and he wants Claire to think about taking her off life support.
Christian pleads for Claire not to keep her alive for the wrong
reasons. Claire gets angry, believing that Christian is there to
"correct a mistake" he made by having Claire with her mother. She tells
him paying the bill does not make him noble and leaves, after telling
him she does not even know his name, and does not want to know it.
Back in Sydney, a once again blond and pregnant Claire visits her mother, who is still in a persistent vegetative state.
Although still in a coma, Claire reveals to her mother she is pregnant
but giving away the baby (it is unknown exactly when this occurs, but
it appears to be after her boyfriend Thomas left her but before she
agreed to take the flight to Los Angeles). She tearfully apologizes for
the accident and for all the terrible things she said to her in the car
before it happened.
On the island, after watching Desmond argue with Charlie about
something, Claire decides to follow Desmond and find out what is going
on. Desmond goes to a rocky enclave on the ocean and finds one of the
birds trapped, and simply picks the bird up. Claire confronts him and
asks him how he knew the bird was there. Desmond relents and tells her
about his visions. He then points out a spot on the cliffs where he
foresaw that Charlie would fall off the cliffs and die. Claire takes
the rescued bird back to Charlie. She tells him Desmond explained
everything to her and asks him to release the bird with her.
Charlie reads Claire's note which says that they are survivors of
the crash but that they have not given up hope of rescue. They attach
it to the bird and release it and watch as it joins the flock and flies
away. Back on the Island, Kate, Sayid, Locke and Rousseau reach the
Others' barracks and immediately they see Jack
running towards them. Kate is about to call out to him, but Sayid stops
her. Jack suddenly stops, turns, and catches a football that was thrown
by Tom. Kate looks horrified as Jack smiles, spikes the football and goes off to continue socializing with the Others.
