Rewatching LOST: 1.23 “Exodus, Part 1″

As the first season finale begins, Danielle Rousseau brings a warning to the survivors: the Others are coming. Jack and Locke come up with a plan to hide everyone from these mysterious island inhabitants, but it means a dangerous trek into the island’s Dark Territory. Meanwhile, the raft is finally completed and departs from the island.

• Walt awakens early the day the raft is setting sail, before anyone else is up, and spots Danielle Rousseau walking through the jungle toward the beach. Walt wakes up his dad and everyone else on the beach soon follows, as Danielle slowly enters the camp. Sayid tells everyone who she is and asks what she’s doing here. “The Others are coming,” she replies. Danielle relates her personal story to the survivors: she was seven-months pregnant when she and five other members of her team washed up on the island sixteen years ago. She delivered the baby and took care of it for one week, until the day she saw a pillar of black smoke five kilometers inland. That night, the Others came and took Alex, her daughter. Now, she claims, they’re coming for Claire’s baby.
• Jack is less than convinced of Danielle’s warnings, though Locke takes them to heart. Jack decides to focus instead on the raft, and Michael tells him they’ll need everyone’s help in order to get it launched today. Jack rallies help from every able-bodied member of the survivors to finish the raft and move it to the edge of the water, but it’s damaged during the move. Michael is angry, but his tirade is interrupted when Walt spots something on the horizon: a pillar of rising black smoke.
• Jack and several others question Danielle on how she knew the black smoke would appear. She counters with a more pressing question: where will they hide 45 people from the Others? Jack and Locke share a significant look, and it’s obvious what they’re thinking of: the Hatch. They take Danielle to see it, but she claims to have never before encountered anything like it on the island. Sayid again warns them not to pursue this, suggesting that the Hatch could even belong to the Others. Locke asks if Danielle has any more explosives like the ones she used to blow up her shelter, which they could use to blow open the Hatch. She says there’s dynamite at the black rock, in the Dark Territory, and she volunteers to take them.
• Back at camp, Jack tells the survivors that he has a plan to keep them safe, but he has to go into the jungle for some supplies. Arzt, who knows the truth thanks to Hurley, asks Jack to come along, because he knows how to handle dynamite that’s potentially old and fragile. Jack agrees.
• Sawyer feels useless while Michael and Jin conduct repairs on the raft, so he goes into the jungle to retrieve some bamboo needed for a new mast. Jack finds him there and gives him one of the 9mm pistols, “just in case,” because Sawyer is the only person on the boat who knows how to use it. Sawyer notes that since Jack’s leaving for the Dark Territory, the raft will be gone by the time he gets back. Jack wishes Sawyer luck, but before they part ways, Sawyer confesses something he’d previously held back from Jack, weeks ago: Sawyer met Jack’s dad, Christian, at a bar in Sydney. He tells Jack what Christian told him, about being proud of his son, that he was sorry for what he’d done and that he believed Jack to be a far better man than he was. Jack is hit hard by this, but appreciative of Sawyer’s admission. Sawyer later delivers his bamboo mast to Michael and Jin, who are pleasantly surprised at his sudden helpfulness.
• Kate approaches Jack at the beach and asks to come along on his trek for dynamite. He agrees. Jack says his goodbyes to everyone at the raft. Kate tries to do the same, looking for Sawyer, but unable to find him. The group led by Danielle departs, consisting of Jack, Kate, Locke, Hurley, and Arzt.
• Charlie gathers messages for loved ones from all of the survivors remaining behind on the island, to give to Michael.
• While on their hike, Locke notes four long fingernail-like scratches on Danielle’s arm, but she won’t tell him how she got them.
• They continue their walk and finally enter the foreboding-looking Dark Territory, which Danielle has marked with a dark cloth. Arzt loses his nerve and decides to head back to the beach, but later when it starts to rain, Arzt suddenly comes running out of the jungle behind them screaming “Run!” with the monster hot on his heels. Everyone runs, except for Locke, who stands his ground with Hurley watching nearby. The others hide, while Locke notes that the monster is moving away, its sounds growing faint. Realizing they’re safe, Jack and Kate ask Danielle what the monster is. She says it’s a “security system,” protecting the island. Everyone regroups and sets off for the dynamite once more.
• Before leaving on the raft, Walt gives Vincent to Shannon, because, as he puts it, the dog will take care of her. Shannon’s touched by Walt’s compassion and agrees to keep Vincent, but only until everyone is rescued.
• Sayid gives Michael the radar detector from the plane, warning him to use it sparingly to conserve power. The same goes for the radio transmitter. He gives him a flare gun as well, which contains just one flare. The implications are clear: while out on the ocean, Michael is going to look for a bigger boat as rescue, but he has to pick his moment carefully, as he may only get one shot.
• Sun gives Jin a notebook she’s filled with English words spelled out phonetically in Korean. Moved by her gift, he apologizes to her, and she reciprocates. He explains why he’s been shunning her since finding out her secret knowledge of English: he believes he’s on the island being punished for causing her to suffer. This is why he decided so suddenly to help Michael with the raft — not to get away from Sun, but to save her. They share a tender embrace, their relationship repaired to a point it hasn’t been in years.
• Danielle leads her group to a stop in the Dark Territory: they’ve arrived at the Black Rock, which is not at all what they expected. It’s an old, derelict wooden ship that’s run far inland.
• Amid emotional goodbyes and cheers from those left behind, the raft sets sail on the open sea.

• Sawyer’s last name is Ford, making his full real name James Ford.
• During the three years she spent on the run, being hunted by Marshall Edward Mars, Kate began calling him at his home, trying to convince him to give up the hunt because of her innocence, due to “mitigating circumstances.” His personal obsession with catching her wasn’t lessened by her pleas — only amplified.
• Another member of Danielle’s science team was named Montand. He lost his arm in the Dark Territory, presumably before the sickness took hold of the team.
• On the day that Oceanic 815 departed from Sydney…
  • Michael and Walt had a huge argument stemming from how little they knew about each other.
  • Jack met a woman named Ana-Lucia who flirted with him at the Sydney Airport before the flight. She was also going to be on Oceanic 815, but at the back of the plane, in seat 42F.
  • Sawyer was brought in to the Sydney police department because three nights prior, he’d been in a bar fight and head-butted an important Australian official. Because of that, the police had dug up his records, which included a list of petty conman-related crimes. Instead of incarcerating him, they chose to deport him instead.
  • Kate had been chased by Marshall Mars for three years, leading up to his extradition of her on Oceanic 815. She had to go through a special screening by airport security in Sydney, during which she got into a brief scuffle with Mars after he provoked her by telling the airport police all about her history with Tom Brennan.
  • While waiting at the airport for boarding, Shannon was approached by Sayid — then a complete stranger to her — and asked to watch his bag. When Boone came to inform her that he wasn’t able to upgrade their seats to First Class, they argued until he asserted that she wasn’t capable of doing anything. To prove him wrong, she reported Sayid and his bag to airport security, implying he could be a terrorist.
  • Sun overheard an American couple at the airport commenting on her deference to Jin when she accidentally spilled a drink on him.

• Why did the Others steal Alex from her mother, Danielle?
• How did Danielle get the scratches on her arm?
• How did Montand lose his arm in the Dark Territory?
• Why does Danielle believe the monster to be “a security system”?
• Does the monster live in the Dark Territory, and that’s why it’s such a dangerous place?
• How did the Black Rock wind up so far inland on the island?
• When did the Black Rock wash up on the island?

• Sawyer got into a bar fight in Sydney, three days before the departure of Oceanic 815.
  Question: Why was Sawyer in police custody in Sydney before the flight of Oceanic 815? 1.13
• Undoubtedly, Danielle’s traps are meant to protect her from the people she calls “the Others.”
  Question: Why does Danielle have traps set up around her home? Is she expecting to be found by someone? 1.09
• Danielle mistakenly believed Sayid to be one of the Others.
  Question: Why did Danielle assume Sayid would know the whereabouts of her daughter Alex? Who and what did she think he was? 1.09
• The Black Rock is a large ship that’s somehow run aground, far inland on the island.
  Question: What is the black rock Danielle spoke of? Is it an actual rock? 1.09

• “Exodus,” the final episode of Season 1, like “Pilot,” the first episode of Season 1 before it, split its flashbacks between multiple characters. But where the pilot episode focused on Jack, Kate, and Charlie, “Exodus” gave flashback screen time to all of the show’s major characters, revealing what they were doing the day they boarded Oceanic 815. This was used as a device to show us how much each character had changed since before the plane crash.
• “Exodus” marks the first time we ever hear the term “the Others” used to describe the indigenous inhabitants of the island. Danielle spoke these words lightly in 1.09 “Solitary,” but I prefer to think of this as the origination of it being a proper name.
• The Ana-Lucia we met in this episode was very different than the one we came to know in Season 2. She was written differently, as well. More open, friendly, even flirty. At the time, the writers mentioned in press interviews that Ana-Lucia was being introduced as a love interest for Jack, a complication to potentially come between him and Kate. But as Season 2 unfolded, of course we know now that things played out differently. I still wonder to this day why they changed their plans for the character. The version of Ana-Lucia in “Exodus, Part 1,” just from the brief time we spent with her, was already a much more likeable character than the Season 2 incarnation.
• Cursed Numbers alert: Jack’s seat on the plane was 23B. Ana-Lucia’s was 42F.
• Sawyer telling Jack about his father’s apology was, if I’m not mistaken, the first truly selfless good deed we’ve seen him perform. An important turning point in his character growth that would play out slowly but surely over the coming seasons.
• Can I just say how awesome Michael Giacchino’s score is throughout the entire finale? From the scene where the raft left the island, to the final flashback when everyone boards Oceanic 815, it remains some of his most stirring music from the entire series.

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Image credits: “Rewatching Lost” logo by Robin Parrish. Season 1 cast promotional image and Oceanic Airlines logo: American Broadcasting Company.