Season 1, Episode 14: Special

We know Michael didn't raise Walt — and, so far, he's seemed like a predominantly hot-headed and over-bearing character — but now we get some context for the father-son relationship and Michael's intensity. He's an extremist and strong-willed but also not very easily daunted.

MAJOR PLOT POINTS

As the episode opens, Michael is once again searching for Walt, who has a tendency to wander off and pal around with John Locke much to the ire of his father. Walt, indeed, is with Locke learning to throw a knife. When Locke suggests he try a visualization technique, Walt finally sticks a knot in the tree with the 8-inch blade. The implication is that Walt has visions either of the future or that somehow influence the future. Upon finding his son, Boone is also there with Locke and Walt, Michael again threatens Locke not to spend time with Walt.

When Walt wanders off the next day and again seeks out Locke, Michael issues his most dire threat yet — that he will kill Locke — if he catches Locke with Walt again. It's almost as if Michael found Locke on the island's sex-predator list.

Michael and Walt were separated early in Walt's life when his wife, Susan, took a job in Amsterdam and took Walt with her to Europe. Eventually adopted by Susan's husband/boss (... incidentally, Michael never married Walt's mom, which smacks of racism just a tad, but I digress ...), Walt spends time in Italy and Australia as his corporate-lawyer parents chase the good life. Michael, meanwhile, struggles to find work and is severely injured when a car hits him. When Walt's mom dies from a blood disorder, though, Brian decides he can no longer be responsible for Walt and dumps him back in Michael's lap.

Michael went to Australia to bring Walt back to New York. He's adamant that Walt not grow up on the island at the very least, which prompts him to begin building a raft. The episode is rife with irony and the not-so-subtle undertones that dog parent-child relationships. The parent wants a batter life for the child; the child wants his own and very often a different life from the parent. Michael burns a possibly prophetic Spanish comic book Walt is enjoying; Walt later burns his raft. Michael insists his son must get off the island; Walt, tired of moving around all his life, is content to stay put.

Michael and Locke reconcile when Walt goes missing. Vincent breaks his leash and scampers into the jungle, Walt gives chase and eventually gets pinned in a grove of trees by a polar bear. With help from Locke, Michael saves Walt. Later, he gives his son the letters and drawings he'd sent throughout his childhood that Susan had always kept secret.

The episode ends with Claire, whose diary Charlie has been scouring, wandering out of the jungle all scratched up and haggard but still very much pregnant.