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This article contains episode summaries of the American drama/adventure television series Lost.
Pilot
Original U.S. air date: Sept. 22 and Sept. 29, 2004. The two-hour pilot was originally split into two parts, each broadcast a week apart; it aired in its original format on Saturday, October 2.
The premise for the series is set forth in an indirect and incomplete manner, which has become the defining style of the series.
Jack (Matthew Fox), who is later revealed to be a doctor, awakens in a bamboo grove while a dog trots past, obviously confused to how he arrived there. He gazes about at the idyllic surroundings when his memories rush back to him: he had been on a jet when it was torn apart in mid-air while travelling from Australia to the United States. He bolts upright and runs through the jungle, emerging at a beach strewn with the wreckage of a jet airliner and almost 50 confused survivors of the crash.
The survivors gradually organize themselves, and the 14 principals are briefly introduced. The other major character is introduced that first night by a series of terrifying noises from the jungle beyond the light of their fire, punctuated by trees crashing down—the source of these noises is referred to as "The Monster". (Note: Online fan forums also refer to the Monster as "The Creature" or "Lostzilla".)
The rest of the first half of the episode revolves around retrieving the transceiver from the airplane, which would allow them to radio for help. Jack, accompanied by the enigmatic Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and rock-and-roll bass player Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), creeps into the jungle to search for the cockpit of the plane, and not only recover the transceiver but learn from the barely-alive pilot just how lost they really are. Unfortunately, before they can learn more, they encounter the Monster once again and the pilot is violently ripped from the cockpit. Jack, Kate and Charlie run for their lives, and later find the pilot's body in a tree — quite a ways off the ground.
It is Sayid (Naveen Andrews), a former communications officer with the Iraqi Republican Guard, who takes the transceiver inland in an attempt to use it to communicate with the outside world. Joined by Kate, Charlie, Boone (Ian Somerhalder), the snarky Sawyer (Josh Holloway), and Boone's sister Shannon (Maggie Grace), Sayid's effort to send a message to civilization is thwarted by a mysterious transmission in French that has been repeating for over 16 years. Meanwhile, back at camp, the others discover other mysteries about their fellow passengers.
Tabula Rasa
Original U.S. air date: Oct. 6, 2004
Beginning with this episode, the development of the ongoing story is accompanied by an explanation of the origins of one of the principal characters — in this case, Kate. At the end of the pilot, it was revealed that she is a fugitive; in this episode it is revealed through flashbacks that she has been on the run in Australia, and we learn how the federal marshal with her on the plane captured her. Meanwhile, Jack, a medical doctor, fights to save the life of her escort.
Walkabout
Original U.S. air date: Oct. 13, 2004
About four days after the crash, the survivors discover that their food is exhausted, and wonder what to do; John Locke (Terry O'Quinn), a menacing presence in the background of the previous stories, flings a combat knife at a slim palm tree, narrowly missing the head of another castaway, and announces that they should go hunting in the jungle. While the survivors deal with mundane tasks of survival, Locke's background is set forth.
Locke is revealed to have been paralyzed and wheelchair-bound prior to the plane crash. Locke had planned on participating on a walkabout tour of the Australian outback, but was turned away when the tour guide discovered that he was in a wheelchair. Locke had offered a woman who may be a phone sex worker a ticket to travel with him; this woman, Helen, rejected the offer and cut off communication with him. Locke is shown to have been a lonely, frustrated man, constantly belittled by his much-younger boss in the cubicle farm where he worked as an accountant.
In the jungle, Locke is separated from his companions, who believe the Monster is closing upon Locke; however, he returns to the camp with a slain wild pig, and the other survivors believe that he has killed it himself. Locke seems to have directly encountered the mysterious Monster, but we do not know what he saw.
White Rabbit
Original U.S. air date: Oct. 20, 2004
Delirious from a lack of sleep, Jack believes he sees his father stalking him from a distance, and forsakes the leadership role the others have thrust upon him in order to follow the apparition and determine whether he is hallucinating. While flashbacks explain why Jack was in Australia, Boone gets himself into trouble with the others. Jack's search for his father results in finding a source of fresh water for the survivors, as well as a cave that will afford shelter.
House of the Rising Sun
Original U.S. air date: Oct. 27, 2004
All are shocked when Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) attacks Michael (Harold Perrineau Jr.) without warning; Sayid is forced to handcuff him to a portion of the plane wreckage to keep the peace. While the survivors argue whether to stay on the beach — where a rescue party could see them — or move to the cave in the jungle near fresh water, the story of Jin and Sun (Yoon-jin Kim) is revealed in a series of flashbacks. Jin went to work for Sun's father in order to gain his permission to marry her. After working years for her father, Jin returns home late one night, his clothes and hands covered with blood. Horrified by the violent life that Jin apparently has taken up, Sun plotted to run away from Jin — but at the last minute decided to join Jin on the fateful flight.
The Moth
Original U.S. air date: Nov. 3, 2004
Charlie begins a painful journey of withdrawal from drugs, surprisingly aided by Locke, whose true motive for helping Charlie is a mystery. Meanwhile, survivors struggle to find and free Jack when he's buried alive in a cave collapse, and someone might be secretly thwarting Sayid, Kate, and Boone when they enact a plan to find the source of the French transmission.
Confidence Man
Original U.S. air date: Nov. 10, 2004
When Shannon's asthma becomes a problem, everyone becomes convinced that Sawyer is hoarding some inhalers from the wreck. Jack and Sayid torture him, but he agrees to give up the inhalers in return for a kiss from Kate. She agrees, and he says that he doesn't have the inhalers after all. Sun helps Shannon by making a eucalyptus salve to clear her bronchial passages.
In flashbacks, we learn that Sawyer is a confidence man. His parents were ruined by another grifter named Sawyer, whose name he took as an alias when he entered a similar life of crime to pay some debts. He hates himself for this, which explains why he seems to go to such great lengths to make everyone else hate him. We do not know his real name.
After the torture incident, despite a plea from Kate, Sayid sets off alone to explore the island's shoreline, disgusted with himself for breaking a vow never to do anything like that again. Charlie convinces Claire to move to the caves; they seem to be striking up a close relationship.
Solitary
Original U.S. air date: Nov. 17, 2004
On his own, Sayid finds a cable running out of the ocean and into the jungle. He follows it, is captured, and tortured by a mysterious woman who identifies herself as Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan). It is her voice on the automatically repeating distress call; she seems mentally unbalanced. She claims to have been stranded on the island when a "science expedition" ran aground there. She also claims to have killed most of the other expedition members after they became "sick"—controlled by some sort of disease or mind control (this is very vague). She also warns him to keep an eye on the others.
In his flashbacks, we learn of Sayid's career in the Republican Guard, and how he conspired to help a childhood friend escape execution.
Meanwhile, Hurley (Jorge Garcia) builds a golf course (site of "the first — and hopefully only — Island Open", in his words) to improve morale among the castaways, and Locke agrees to teach Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) some woodcraft without Michael's knowledge. Another new character, Ethan (William Mapother), helps Locke hunt.
Sayid eventually escapes from Rousseau's bunker, but he hears the whispering voices in the jungle that she spoke of.
Raised by Another
Original U.S. air date: Dec. 1, 2004
Two nights in a row, Claire (Emilie de Ravin) wakes up screaming; on the second, she insists that someone held her down and stabbed her stomach to hurt her unborn child, although no physical marks support this. Jack questions her and learns that the baby is due in just over a week; concerned that stress could trigger early labor, he says Claire is having anxiety nightmares, and that an attack would have been unlikely with so many other people around. But Charlie — who has been doting on Claire — isn't so sure, and the alleged attack prompts Hurley to begin a census of the islanders.
Angered by Jack's suggestion that she wasn't really attacked and his advice to take a mild sedative, Claire leaves the cave alone and heads for the beach. Charlie catches up to her shortly before she is overcome by contractions; on the way to get Jack, he finds Ethan and tells him to relay the message. Charlie manages to calm Claire down, and the contractions end.
In flashbacks, we learn that Claire was flying to Los Angeles on the advice of a psychic who had initially warned her not to let anyone else raise the child, but claimed he'd found a "good" couple in the U.S. to adopt the baby. After she tells Charlie her story, the two conclude the psychic's insistence that Claire take the doomed flight indicated he'd known about the crash.
An ailing Sayid returns to camp and tells the others he found the woman on the recording, and Hurley reveals that one of the island's inhabitants (apparently Ethan) was not listed on the flight manifest as one of the plane's passengers.
All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues
Original U.S. air date: Dec. 8, 2004
Haunted by flashbacks to his relationship with his alcoholic father (particularly one episode where he vainly attempts to perform CPR on a patient on the operating table after Dad fatally screws up the surgery), Jack follows Locke into the jungles in pursuit of Ethan, Claire, and Charlie. The good doctor soon splits off on his own, against Locke's suggestion to follow quietly. Eventually, Jack returns and two parties form up: Jack and Kate follow a trail left behind by Charlie, while Locke and Boone track a series of footprints.
During an episode of rain, Jack and Kate get separated. Jack stumbles down an embankment after hearing the Monster let out its unearthly bellow, and when he comes to at the bottom, Ethan is standing over him. The two men struggle, but the mysterious outsider gets the upper hand, and he warns Jack that if he continues to follow, he will kill one of the hostages.
Kate soon comes to Jack's aid, and the pair follows Ethan's path until they come across Charlie, blindfolded and hanged by his neck from a tree branch. They cut him down, and Jack furiously performs CPR — despite Kate's pleas that it's a lost cause — until Charlie coughs his way back to life.
The episode ends at nightfall, with Jack, Kate, and Charlie back at the caves (where Charlie reveals that it was Claire that Ethan wanted all along) and with Boone and Locke somewhere in the jungle, where they discover a piece of metal embedded in the ground — and it's not shrapnel from the plane.
Whatever the Case May Be
Original U.S. air date: Jan. 5, 2005
Kate takes an interest in a metal suitcase she and Sawyer find while swimming; she tries twice to steal it from him before going to Jack, claiming the case contains weapons and money and belonged to the U.S. Marshal (who was buried with the key). Kate and Jack open the case to find the items, along with a small metal airplane; when pressured, Kate says it belonged to the man she loved and the man she killed. Flashbacks show a New Mexico bank robbery orchestrated by Kate to get into a safe deposit box containing the envelope.
Meanwhile, the tide moves further inland, and passengers scramble to move belongings from the beach; Rose, who maintains faith that her husband is still alive, coaxes Charlie out of his funk and gets him to help. Also, Sayid seeks Shannons help in translating some of Rousseaus apparently random notes, which she later recognizes as lyrics to the song played over the credits of "a cartoon fish movie." (The song is "La Mer", the French original of Bobby Darin's classic "Beyond the Sea".)
Hearts and Minds
Original U.S. air date: Jan. 12, 2005
Boone mentions to Locke that others are suspicious of their apparently fruitless boar hunting trips — actually excursions to the mysterious metal object — and says he wants to tell Shannon; Locke responds by knocking him unconscious. Boone finds himself tied up by Locke, who treats his head wound and leaves a knife so he'll be able to free himself, given "the proper motivation" — Shannon's screams and the sound of the Monster approaching. Despite attempts to hide, the Monster kills Shannon, and Boone find her corpse lying along a stream. However, Boone realizes upon returning to camp that this never happened — it was a sort of vision quest Locke felt was crucial to his survival. When asked how he felt seeing Shannon die, Boone replies relieved.
Flashbacks reveal that Boone went to Sydney, Australia to rescue Shannon — his stepsister — from an abusive boyfriend, only to realize he had been set up by Shannon to get some of his mothers money. Boone is later approached by a drunken Shannon, who says she knows hes always been in love with her; their kisses apparently lead to sex, and Shannons claim that things will go back to normal. (Point of interest: In one flashback, Boone is in a police station in Sydney, where his conversation with one of the officers is interrupted by a handcuffed Sawyer, dragged in kicking and snarling.)
Meanwhile, Hurley turns to Jin for help with fishing; Kate discovers a garden Sun is planting in the jungle, and figures out that she can speak English; and Locke gives his compass to Sayid, who figures it must be faulty because its magnetic north does not align with true north.
Special
Original U.S. air date: Jan. 19, 2005
An annoyed Michael confronts Walt, who has been studying knife skills under Locke, and enlists his help in scavenging parts from the wreck to build a raft. Eventually, Walt tells his dad he's going to get some water and runs off with his dog. Michael initially accuses Locke of contributing to his son's delinquency despite his repeated warnings, but when he sees that the boy isn't with Locke, the two men track Walt into the jungle, where they eventually help him escape the wrath of one of the island's unlikely predators.
Flashbacks show that Michael and Susan (Walt's mother) were unmarried, and when Walt was only a few months old, Susan, an ambitious young lawyer, accepted a job in Amsterdam and took her child with her. She married a white co-worker when Walt was two, and their work eventually brought them to Australia. Michael didn't see his son again until after Susan's death from a blood disorder, and it was her wish that he be given custody.
(Two incidents in the episode suggest that Walt has some sort of supernatural power over his immediate surroundings. In the first instance, Locke is teaching him to throw a knife, and when he tells the boy to visualize hitting the target, Walt fires and embeds the blade in the bark of a tree. The second occurrence is in one of the flashbacks, when Walt opens one of his books to a picture of an Australian bird—and within a minute, a bird fatally slams into a nearby window. A possible third example is the appearance of a polar bear after Walt reads a comic book featuring an appearance by a polar bear.)
Meanwhile, Charlie finds Claire's diary, with some help from Sawyer and Kate. As he reads it, hoping to find some mention of him in her musings, he spots something that corresponds with a location on Sayid's stolen map, thinking that it could lead them to Claire.
Homecoming
This episode will focus on Charlie, and is due to air on February 9, 2005. Please replace this placeholder with an episode summary after the air date.
Outlaws
This episode will focus on Sawyer, and is due to air on February 16, 2005. Please replace this placeholder with an episode summary after the air date.
... In Translation
This episode will focus on Jin, and is due to air on February 23, 2005. Please replace this placeholder with an episode summary after the air date.
Numbers
This episode will focus on Hurley, and is due to air on March 2, 2005. Please replace this placeholder with an episode summary after the air date.
Deux Ex Machina
This episode will focus on Locke, and is due to air after March 2, 2005. Please replace this placeholder with an episode summary after the air date.
Note: as of this writing, further episodes have not yet been aired, although spoilers exist.
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