Exodus (Lost)

Infobox Television episode | Title = Exodus
Series = Lost
Season = 1
Episode = 23 & 24
Airdate = May 18, 2005 (23), May 25, 2005 (24)
Production = 121, 122
Writer = Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
Director = Jack Bender
Guests = Fredric Lane
Mira Furlan
Daniel Roebuck
M.C. Gainey
John Walcutt
Michelle Rodriguez
Kevin E. West
Wendy Braun
Chard Hayward
Robert Frederick
Mark "Ruz" Rusden
Christian Bowman
John Dixon
Terasa Livingstone
Suzanne Turner
Michelle Arthur
Glenn Cannon
Mark "Kiwi" Kalagher
Mary Ann Taheny


Caption = The black smoke
Episode list = "Lost" (season 1)
List of "Lost" episodes
Prev = Born to Run
Next = Man of Science, Man of Faith

"Exodus" constitutes the 23rd and 24th episodes and the first season finale of "Lost". The episodes were directed by Jack Bender, and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. "Part 1" first aired on May 18, 2005 and "Part 2" on May 25, 2005 as a double-length season finale on ABC. In the United Kingdom, the feature length Part 2 was split into 2 episodes resulting in the last episode being called "Exodus: Part 3" and a 25 episode season.

Part 1

Centric Character(s): Walt, Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Shannon, Sun

Early in the morning, Rousseau arrives at the beach to warn the survivors that The Others are coming, and tells them more of her own story. She was pregnant when she came to the island sixteen years ago but The Others — their arrival heralded by a column of black smoke—came and kidnapped her baby, who she has not seen since.

As the group resumes work on the raft, Walt notices a column of black smoke in the distance. The survivors then tell Rousseau about the hatch, and their need to open it, perhaps with dynamite. Rousseau offers to take them to a wooden shipwreck, the "Black Rock", which is a British slaving ship that was found inland on the Island. Its history and reason for being on the Island are shrouded in mystery (parts of its story, however, are later revealed through the Lost Experience).

"In flashbacks, several of the survivors are shown in the final hours before the flight: Early that morning, Walt wakes up and turns on the TV. When an awakened Michael asks him to turn it off, Walt throws a tantrum and flees the room with Vincent, but Michael brings him back. Later that day, Jack meets another passenger on his flight in the airport lounge, Ana Lucia Cortez, while Sawyer is told that he is being placed on Flight 815 because he is being deported by the Australian government. Also, Kate is handcuffed and turned over to the Marshal's custody for the flight, and during a conversation with the customs guard, the Marshal reveals that he had baited Kate with Tom's toy airplane. When he denigrates Tom's memory, Kate attacks him, but is subdued. Back at the check-in, Shannon waits for Boone to get them a first-class upgrade, when Sayid asks her to watch his bag. She uninterestedly agrees, but when Boone returns without an upgrade, she leaves the bag. As Boone chastises her, she walks up to a security agent, telling them that an Arab man left his bag unattended. Meanwhile, Sun and Jin are eating in the airport restaurant, with Sun bringing Jin coffee. When Sun overhears comments from an American couple regarding Sun's apparent submissiveness to Jin, she is momentarily rattled and spills the coffee on Jin's lap."

Jack runs into Sawyer in the jungle, and hands him a pistol with ammo "just in case". They share an awkward, distant goodbye. As Jack leaves, Sawyer stops him and tells him of the details of when he met a man named Christian (Jack's father) in a bar. He tells Jack what Christian said about his son, and Jack is visibly moved. Jack moves off into the jungle.

As the hatch team heads toward the "Black Rock", Arzt, one of the survivors, is chased by The Monster, which Rousseau explains is a security system protecting the island.

As the raft prepares for launch, Sayid gives the team a radar emitter and flare gun, while Charlie gathers messages from the remaining castaways to put in a bottle, and Walt leaves Vincent with Shannon. Sun says goodbye to Jin, handing him a notebook of English nautical terms. This encourages him to speak to her and they reconcile. He says that he will still go, but because he wants to rescue her from the island. After all the goodbyes, the raft team sets off, while in the distance, the column of smoke continues to rise.

Cast note

* This episode marks the first appearance of Ana Lucia played by Michelle Rodriguez.

Part 2

Centric Character(s): Jin, Sayid, Charlie, Michael, Claire, Hurley, Locke

After Rousseau leaves them, Locke, Kate, and Jack enter the ship through a large hole in the hull of the vessel. Outside, Hurley and Arzt talk about how they were treated. Inside the ship, skeletons are found shackled together, likely remains of the slaves. Old mining equipment is also found, including the dynamite. At least two cases of highly-volatile sticks are present inside the ship's hold. According to Locke, the ship "must have been en route to a mining colony—(it) probably set off from the eastern coast of Africa—Mozambique". The Flight 815 survivors haul one of the cases out of the ship. While attempting to handle some of the volatile dynamite carefully, the unfortunate Arzt triggers one of the sticks and blows himself up.

"Jin's flashback follows Sun's from the previous episode. First we see airport security apologize to Sayid for causing him an inconvenience. When Jin goes to the bathroom, he encounters a casually dressed Caucasian man who conversationally asks him for a paper towel in English. When Jin indicates that he speaks no English, the man switches to Korean. He then reveals that he works for Sun's father, Mr. Paik, and knows that Jin was attempting to run away with Sun. He tells Jin to complete his delivery of a watch to Mr. Paik's friend in California."

Jin is on the raft, free, and from the sea the raft team remarks on how large the island is.

On the beach, Sun stares out to the ocean. Shannon is dragging an enormous amount of luggage and Vincent. Sayid comes over and notices that some items were Boone's, and he offers to help her.

At the Black Rock, Hurley confides in Kate that he is "kinda bad luck." Kate assures him it was an accident.

"Charlie's flashback is of him looking for his stash before leaving for his flight. A girl from the previous night is in his bed. As Charlie finds the drugs, she asks if he has any left. He lies and says that he's out, but she can tell that he is lying and attacks him for the drugs."

Charlie and Claire are alone on the beach when Rousseau runs up, telling Charlie that she needs to see Sayid urgently. When Charlie runs off to get Sayid, Rousseau asks Claire if she can hold her baby. Claire sees a strange scar on Rousseau's arm and has a short flashback to a struggle between Rousseau and herself. Soon Charlie and Sayid (accompanied by Shannon) return, to find Claire exclaiming that her baby has been taken, and Sayid surmises that Rousseau intends to attempt an exchange of Aaron, Claire's baby, for her own child, Alex, with the "Others".

The remaining survivors decide to continue, wrap the dynamite in wet cloth, drew straws to see who would carry it, and leave the ship with several sticks of dynamite.

"Michael's flashback is of him and Walt in the airport waiting for their flight. Michael is frustrated that they cannot connect. He gets up, claiming to need to call work, but he really calls his mother, to whom he expresses his exasperation, and asks if she can take care of Walt, eventually even offering to pay her. Locke is briefly seen, being pushed in his wheelchair while Michael is on the phone."

On the raft, the crew is sailing according to plan, and Michael bonds with Walt. Walt learns about Sawyer's long-term search for revenge. Jin gives the wristwatch which caused a fight between them earlier in the series to Michael as a gift. At one point, the rudder breaks off, and Sawyer dives into the water after it, risking his life. At this point, Michael discovers that Sawyer has a gun, but decides not to tell the others.

On their way back to the hatch, Jack and Kate see what seems to be a small cloud of smoke move through some nearby trees, and they hear the rumbling of the monster, which ensnares Locke's leg and drags him through the jungle. Jack grabs onto Locke to prevent him from being pulled into a hole, though Locke pleads with Jack to let him go. Jack then instructs Kate to drop a stick of dynamite into the tunnel, which causes an underground explosion, resulting in black smoke coming out of a nearby hole on the horizon, and disappearing. The hold on Locke slackens and they are able to extract him.

As evening approaches, Charlie and Sayid head toward the black smoke. During their journey, Charlie is injured by one of Rousseau's traps, and they also encounter the downed drug smugglers' plane, which Sayid, unaware of Charlie's past as an addict, reveals is full of heroin.

"Hurley's flashback shows him waking up late for his flight due to a short-circuit in the wall outlet that leaves his alarm clock without power. Leaving the hotel he first tries the elevator, which is filled with people, amongst others Charlie. In a mad dash for the airport, he experiences several other problems, including a flat tire and arriving at the domestic terminal rather than international; he buys an electric scooter from an old man for $1600 and manages to get to the terminal just as they are closing the gate. When he is trying to cut a line on the way, Dr. Arzt can be seen. The boarding agent is able to get them to reopen the doors for him, and he hugs her. Ironically, the agent tells Hurley that it is his "lucky day". In the flashback we see or hear the unlucky numbers several times: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 all appear on the instrument panel of his car when it stops and they all appear on the shirts of the girls sportsteam, 8 and 15 is the flight number (Oceanic 815), the number 8 is on the old guys cap, 16 is the number of 100's of dollars he pays for the scooter, 23 is the gate number and Hurley's hotel room number is 2342 (23 and 42)."

Jack and Locke discuss the situation of the Monster, and they agree that Jack is a man of science, but that Locke is a man of faith. Locke believes everything that has occurred is to "open the hatch." Jack disagrees, and believes it is to survive.

"In Locke's flashback, the airline staff have lost the wheelchair that is normally used to load disabled passengers on to the plane, and he must be carried on by two attendants. When he drops a pamphlet from his seat, he is unable to reach it, but struggles to maintain his dignity."

When Sayid and Charlie arrive on the beach with the black smoke, there are no other people, just a pyre, but they follow the sound of the baby's crying to find Rousseau's hiding place. She tearfully tells them that she overheard them saying that they were going to go after "the boy", and she thought that if she brought him to them, they would return her child. She returns the baby.

Meanwhile, Jack, Kate, Locke, and Hurley arrive at the hatch. They manage to set the dynamite up on the hinge of the hatch, and are about to set it off when Hurley notices the appearance of the numbers on the side. He yells at them not to light the fuse, but Locke does so anyway. Hurley tries to stamp it out, repeating, "the numbers are bad", but fails, and Jack tackles him just in time to save him from the blast.

At night, their radar sweep turns up a boat in the distance. They fire their single flare, and the boat approaches them. It turns out to be a group of strangers who demand that they hand over Walt. Sawyer tries to pull his gun, but he is shot by one of the other crewmen and falls into the water. Jin jumps into the water to try and save Sawyer, while the strangers overpower Michael and kidnap Walt. As they sail off, the strangers throws an explosive on to the raft, destroying it. Michael cries out "Walt!" as he watches him disappear into the darkness.

Charlie reunites the baby with Claire. It is also revealed that Charlie has kept at least one of the statues filled with heroin in his bag. Shannon finds Sayid and they embrace, she is no longer upset with him.

"The final flashback is a montage that shows the group of strangers boarding the plane. Claire struggles in the aisle to get to her seat. Kate is led in handcuffs onto the plane. Sawyer searches for his seat. Jack puts his luggage into the overhead compartment, with Locke watching right behind him. Charlie tries to jam his guitar into storage. Sayid endures the glares of fellow passengers—because of his ethnicity—by looking at pictures of his lost love. Jin stares at the watch he is supposed to deliver, with Sun sitting next to him. Michael fastens the seatbelt of Walt as he plays his Game Boy Advance SP, ignoring his father. Shannon frantically searches for her inhaler in her purse, but Boone shows it to her, causing her to smile. Hurley makes it on to the plane, giving Walt a thumbs-up before sitting down, putting on his headphones, and reading a comic book, the same one that Walt reads on the island after the crash. Arzt helps Claire put her luggage overhead. Finally, Jack, about to sit down, catches Locke's eye, and the two politely acknowledge each other, unaware of what awaits them."

The episode ends with Jack and Locke looking down into the hatch as the camera pans down to reveal a very deep dark hole with a broken ladder near the top.

References

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=recap#t=38115&d=40655

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=recap#t=38115&d=40656