Season 2, Episode 3: Orientation

The mysteries of the hatch begin to be revealed as do the mysteries of the Dharma Initiative, which will become a central fixture in the series moving forward. The name Alvar Hanso is dropped for the first time. The backstory focuses on Locke in a series of flashbacks that reveal Locke's relationship with Helen.

MAJOR PLOT POINTS

Mr. Eko recaptures Jin and also takes Michael and Sawyer into custody, tossing them into a pit. Ana Lucia is added to the mix as well and claims to be from the tail section. Sawyer tells her that he plans to shoot Eko, but Ana Lucia takes the gun from Sawyer and reveals herself as a double agent. She one of the tail-section survivors.

At the hatch, Kate finds the armory and takes down Desmond with a shotgun butt to the face, ending a standoff between Jack and Dez. But Desmond, who crashed on the island three years ago and was brought to the hatch by the unknown Calvin, gets off a shot that hits the computer — the computer that is saving the world. Kate races back to the beach and gets Sayid to help fix the computer. If it's not fixed, everyone will die, Desmond warns. He then fries the mother board again trying to fix it and decides to pack and get as far from the hatch as possible.

Still unconvinced the computer does anything special, Jack follows Desmond, leaving Locke alone at the hatch. When Jack catches up with Desmond and expresses his anger that he pushes a button on faith alone. Suddenly remembering the chance meeting on the stadium stairs, Desmond eases Jack's fear and anger. Meanwhile, when Kate returns with Sayid and Hurley, they find Locke crying. Sayid gets to work fixing the computer — and he doesn't need to know why, which mystifies Locke. Sayid is merely a man of action. But when Locke goes to enter the code, he misremembers the sequence, thinking it ends with a 32. Jack returns and insists it is 42 and then, prompted by Locke, hits the execute button. That is Jack's leap of faith. Oh yeah, and Hurley discovers the food.

To prove it, Desmond directs Jack and Locke to a video behind Turn of the Screw, an orientation video for the Dharma Initiative's final initiative, which is the brainchild of Gerald and Karen DeGroot from Michigan. The hatch is actually The Swan, or station 3, and its protocols were created, according to the film, which stars Dr. Pierre Chang, after an incident involving the electromagnetic field contained in the cement bunker.

During flashbacks, Locke blows up at a group meeting and chastises the others in group for whining. He also meets Helen (played by Katey Segal of Married With Children fame) and taps that. Of course, he never spends the night because he's obsessed with getting answers from Anthony Cooper, his estranged con-man father who stole his kidney. Cooper tells Locke not to come back and that he's not wanted.

Helen gave Locke a key to her place, but only on the condition he actually stays over rather than going over to his father's house, which he promises to do. Of course, he goes to Cooper's anyone. Helen follows her and tells Locke he must choose between his dad and her, asking her to take a leap of faith.

QUOTABLE

"There's no why. You think you're the first person that ever got conned? You needed a father figure and I needed a kidney. And that's what happened. Get over it." — Anthony Cooper upon confronting Locke and telling him to stop making his uninvited visits

Locke: "Why do you find it so hard to believe?"
Jack: "Why do you find it so easy?"
Locke: "It's never been easy."
— discussing whether or not to continue entering the code into the hatch computer