Flashback, 2005 off island. Kate is sporting an unfortunate scruchie; women everywhere cringe and are appalled. She and baby Aaron go to see Cassidy, Sawyer’s ex and baby mama to their daughter Clementine. [Side note: Cassidy and Kate previously met in a Season 3 flashback during a con]. Cassidy knows that she ‘survived’ the plane crash, and Kate tells her that Sawyer sent her. As many of us assumed, Sawyer whispered that favor about taking care Clementine to Kate right before he jumped out of the helicopter last season. Kate gives her an envelope full of cash and tells her the truth about what really happened. The money is from Kate’s Oceanic settlement, and not from Sawyer. Cassidy calls Sawyer a coward and tells Kate that he jumped out to get away from her. Ouch.
Flashback, 2007 off island. Kate loses Aaron in a supermarket and she freaks out. A woman who looks exactly like Claire (from behind) is taking him toward the front door when Kate finds them. Kate goes to see Cassidy again, and Clementine refers to her as Auntie Kate. Kate tells Cassidy that she always expected someone to take Aaron. Cassidy tells her that she needed Aaron because Sawyer broke her heart.
Kate then goes to see Claire’s mom Carole at the hotel where she is staying in Los Angeles. She tells her about her grandson Aaron and that Claire is still alive. (I’m not sure what part of leave-my-baby-in-a-tree to go share some laughs with Ghost Dad in Jacob’s cabin illustrates alive & well, but apparently many still believe it to be true. I digress). Kate explains that she pretended to be Aaron’s mom to protect him after rescue, and that she is going to leave Aaron with her while she returns to the island. The goober is sleeping alone in a room two doors down. Kate gives him a very heartfelt, tearful goodbye and leaves.
Flashback, 1977 on main island. Jin is conscious again after being knocked out by Sayid. He seems Little Linus lying face down, and turns him over to see that he’s been shot. Jin puts him in the Dharma van and takes him back to the Barracks.
Meanwhile in Dharmaville, Horace is updating his people about the situation – that the prisoner (Sayid) has escaped. Jack asks questions. Horace isn’t on Team Jack just yet; he tells him that “one of us” must have let Sayid out of the jail cell because there weren’t any Hostiles breaking through the sonic fence.
Roger Linus is attempting to pull the burned Dharma van from out of the scorched house. He seeks assistance from fake mechanic Kate. They briefly bond, and when he introduces himself she definitely recognizes his last name. When Jin arrives back with the wounded Little Linus, Roger runs after his son.
Sheriff Sawyer is looking at the monitors in the security station when Kate shows up to ask what happened to Little Linus. But before he can answer, Horace arrives. Sawyer and Kate are professional con artists, which make them good actors – so they quickly alleviate any suspicion and Kate leaves. Horace and Sawyer discover a set of janitor keys in the cell door, giving them three suspects: Roger, Jack and a Dharma red shirt named Willie. Sawyer sends Security Sidekick Miles to keep Jack, Hurley and Kate under house arrest until matters are resolved.
At the infirmary, Sawyer asks to borrow Roger’s keys. Doh! He realizes that Ben must have stolen them but lies and tells Sawyer that he left them at home. Juliet is inside trying to operate on Little Linus, but she’s no surgeon.
In the house, Miles attempts to explain the time shifts to Hurley (who references Back to the Future; spot on!). It is highly amusing and informative; as if he were speaking directly to us. Thank you, Darlton. A few key elements of their conversation: Sayid shot Ben; that is what always happened and the Losties never experienced how it all turns out.
Sawyer comes to get the Doc to help save Little Linus, but Jack refuses. He’s been there, done that. Channeling Season 1 Locke, Jack talks about the island fixing things itself. Kate doesn’t like New Jack. He reminds her that she wasn’t too fond of Old Jack either. Forget Freckles, let’s call her Fickle.
Kate goes to donate blood to Little Linus. She and Juliet are working together, which is both disconcerting and odd. Roger storms in, demanding an update about his son. He and Kate bond again. When he says “a boy just needs his mother,” cue thoughts of parallels to Aaron and Claire vs. Aaron and Kate.
An exasperated Miles continues to explain their current situation to Hurley, that all of this has already happened. But Miles is stumped when Hurley asks why 2004 Ben wouldn’t remember Sayid as the man who shot him in 1977.
Little Linus’ condition is not improving. Juliet reveals that she knows the Others may be able to save him, so she and Kate quietly put him in a Dharma van and Kate drives him to the sonic fence area. Sawyer shows up and helps her, but says he is doing so for Juliet. Ouch x2.
Juliet goes to verbally slap Jack for letting a child die rather than help save him, and wants to know why he even came back to the island. Channeling Season 4 Locke, Jack says that he was supposed to come back (but has no idea why yet).
Sawyer is carrying Little Linus through the jungle with Kate. She finally tells him about Clementine, and he attempts to convince her that he would be both a horrible father and boyfriend if he had left the island. Out of nowhere the Hostiles/Others show up and Sawyer asks for Richard Alpert. Guyliner appears rather quickly and asks if the injured kid is Ben Linus. When Sawyer asks if Guyliner and Little Linus had ever met, he does not get an answer.
Guyliner tells them that if he takes Little Linus, the boy will lose his innocence, become “one of us” and not remember any of what happened to him. A random Hostile/Other whispers to Guyliner that Ellie (Eloise Hawking) and Charles (Widmore) won’t be pleased about taking Little Linus, and many of us gasp with joy to hear that they’re still on the island at that point. Guyliner points out that he doesn’t answer to them, and takes Little Linus into the jungle by himself. Suddenly he is front of The Temple. After a deep breath, he takes the kid inside. And scene.
Flashback again to 2007, Hydra Island. In the abandoned Dharma station on the smaller island where the Ajira flight crashed, Ben wakes up (presumably for the first time since being knocked out by Sun’s oar). But the man he killed before getting on that plane is sitting by his bedside; Locke welcomes Ben back “to the land of the living.”
And that is the story of Little Linus Alive.
Follow Us
