Get your hands off my chicken
Updated 2005-11-21 16:00:00
You'd think it might be tough to sum up the Tailaways' first forty-eight days in just one episode. But then you watch the episode and realize, "Oh yeah, we already know JUST ABOUT ALL OF THIS." From the tail section's splashdown to the shooting of Shannon Rutherford, it's all here! In point form! Ana-Lucia is the Tailaways' Jack, taking charge on the beach. Mistereko is the strong, silent type, who takes a vow of silence after killing two Others who invade the Tailaways' camp. Red herrings are thrown our way to make it seem like a guy named Nathan (should have named him "Nathan Rome" -- unscramble it!) is this side's Ethan (he's from CANADA, and he likes two-hour bathroom breaks). Most of the episode stretches out what Ana-Lucia told Michael last episode: on the first night, the others came and took three. Later, they came back and took nine more, including the kids. But the Ethan in this case is a guy named Goodwin. Given that we've met Goodwin as a stakeholder already, and the ominous "remember Goodwin?," the fact that he turned out to be the bad guy seems a little more obvious in retrospect. Ana-Lucia (and thank God Michelle Rodriguez finally displays a facial expression other than "sneer" this episode) eventually figures it out (Goodwin explains that the Others only take the "good" people, which is I guess why the Lostaways are still roaming free), and the ensuing scuffle is how he comes to have a giant pole sticking out of his torso.
The decimated Tailaways take shelter in another, crappier Dharma bunker. While the Lostaways found food, showers, weapons, computers, Mama Cass records, and a washer and dryer in theirs, the Tailaways get a bible, a radio, and a glass eye. Bernard's the one who picks up Boone's last transmission, and we can stop fighting about whether it was "there were no survivors" or "we're the survivors"; it's the latter. Unfortunately, Ana-Lucia enforces radio silence, thinking Boone's transmission was a trick by the Others to draw them out.
Then Jin washes up on the beach, which is where we came in. The extra five minutes is, naturally, bull*****; it's mostly quick flashbacks, which are really only comprehensible if you've already been watching the show, thereby wholly unnecessary.
And now you know...bits of the rest of the story.