Season 1, Episode 23: Exodus Part 1

Now, we've reached the three-part season finale for the inaugural season of Lost. The flashbacks ripple from character to character and then back again like a wave rather than focusing on a single character as many of the preceding episodes. Finally, and officially, we also are introduced to The Others — kind of. While most of the first season centered on developing the character profiles of the survivors, The Others now take on an active role.

MAJOR PLOT POINTS

Rousseau comes to the survivors' camp to warn that The Others are coming. She says they are drawn by Claire's baby and tells a tale about delivering her own baby, Alex, then seeing a pillar of smoke rise 5 kilometers inland a week later and having The Others come and abduct her child that night. As the raft is being moved to the ocean's edge, a dark, thick spiral of smoke appears just as Rousseau predicted. Hurley and Rousseau accompany Jack, Sayid and Locke to the hatch, which could serve as a shelter from The Others' impending attack.

Just one problem, they still haven't figured out how to open the darn thing. But Rousseau suggests using dynamite from the Black Rock, which is deep in the Dark Territory and turns out to be a centuries-old shipwreck that is curiously miles into the jungle. With precious little time remaining before nightfall, Jack, Locke, Kate, Hurley and Leslie Arzt, a bit character/high school science teacher who will make sure they handle the dynamite properly, head off with Rousseau.

Upon reaching the Dark Territory, Arzt gets cold feet and retreats only to be chased back to the group by The Smoke Monster, which Rousseau tells the survivors acts as a security system for the island.

Following the raft party, meanwhile, Jack has given Sawyer a gun as a precaution. In return, Sawyer tells Jack about the chance meeting with his father: that Christian apologized, thought Jack was a better doctor, was proud of him and loves him. Unable to take Vincent on the raft, Walt gives him to Shannon, sensing she needs the companionship, before he and his father, Jin — armed with a book of simple translations from Sun — and Sawyer shove off at last.

In flashbacks, we see Walt rebelling against Michael, who doesn't know how to handle a child, and we're also introduced to Ana Lucia, who shares a drink and flirty conversation with Jack in the airport bar before both board Oceanic 815. Now divorced and transporting Christian home after he died of a heart attack, Jacks agrees to have another drink with her on the plane. She is sitting in the plane's rear, seat 42F. From seat 23B, it's Jack's job to find her.

We also learn that Sawyer, presumably in a drunken rage after shooting the wrong man, delivered a headbutt to the Australian minister of agriculture, which earns him an immediate deportation and permanent banishment from Down Under. Sayid also was detained after asking Shannon to watch his bag at the airport. Instead, she left it unguarded and reported Sayid — an Arab-looking man — for leaving it unattended.

QUOTABLE

"He'll take care of you. ... Vincent took care of me when my mom died and nobody would talk to me. They pretended like nothing happened, so I had to talk to Vincent. He's a good listener. You could talk to him about Boone if you want." — Walt to Shannon, explaining why he thinks she should look after Vincent