"Loop, dude, Loop." Confidence Man, Solitary and Raised by Another.

Hi Losties!
I encourage you to read my original detailed notes for each of the episodes. That is where you may find the clues to very important things that set a thread for all the other episodes and it's really where you'll find the meat of the story. After all, it's all in the details!
So click here for detailed notes on...
✈ Confidence Man
✈ Solitary
✈ Raised by Another.
I hope you find them useful.

The following are the short "Readers Digest" versions for the re-watch.

Confidence Man is not only a wonderful look into Sawyer's "life" but touches on Jack and a few other Castaways.











Question: “How do I know this is real?”
Answer: Uh, you don't!

Here on the sandy shores of depression where the Castaway's condition is that they are carrying extra emotional baggage and they are trying to heal their suffering.
We are brought right into the concept of everything coming back around. Yes, the laws of Karma as well as the "loop" concept.

Sawyer is holding on to deep heartache he suffered in childhood with losing his parents to the cunning ways of a conman. The truth of the letter he clings so tightly to is finally brought to light.
Unfortunately Sawyer becomes the man he was hunting, complete with wooing the married rich lady, Jess, and convincing her and her husband, David to blindly get involved in a shady investment.
His suspicious "mark" David wonders if there is a loophole with this "too good to be true" deal he's getting into with Sawyer.
The con progresses until confident sharpie Sawyer gets a Flash of Conscience when he sees that the couple has an innocent young fair haired son. This seems to hit too close to home for Sawyer so he literally walks out on the transaction.

The "Island" events bring us right back, deep into the rabbit hole when it is revealed Sawyer is reading the book about bunnies; Watership Down. Apparently the book really belongs to Boone. Boone claims that book was in his bag along with Shannon's asthma inhalers, which are conveniently missing and assumed to be in Sawyer's stash of acquired goods.
Sadly Shannon is in the midst of a major asthma attack.

In an effort to retrieve the much needed medicine, Jack, Sayid and Kate take to strong arming Sawyer into giving the sick girl her medicine.  Sawyer goes with the flow of this, and even admits to knowing his torturing at Sayid's hands "has to happen".   So after some deal making with Kate and being tortured by a damn spinal surgeon and a genuine Iraqi, it is revealed Sawyer doesn't have nor ever had the inhalers. This triggers a fight between Sayid and Sawyer, where subsequently Sawyer is stabbed in the bicep.

As Jack is tending to bleeding Sawyer, Sawyer says to Jack, “Let go. I know you want to.”
Sawyer feels Jack has been waiting for this to happen so he can be a hero again, “Cause that’s what you do. Fix everything up all nice.”

It's all in your head!
Hmmm...Yeah, that's what I've been saying!  But I can't help but wonder if it's just a nod to consciousness or is it also a hint to how part of their adventurous "Island" journey is literally happening.

Jack tells suffering Shannon that "It's in your head"; the asthma attack is coupled with anxiety. Jack shows total confidence and "belief" in his task of getting Shannon to breathe through her asthma attack.   It really wasn't a Jedi moment as much as it was a glimpse into not only the power of believing things can happen in this magical and mystical place, but the power to believe in "you".

Charlie playfully convinces Claire she is enjoying creamy peanut butter by playing make-believe with an empty jar and the use of imagination.

Time out!
Sayid feels such shame for what he did that he decides to set off alone and map the "Island".  Kate shows concern for him as she warns him about "what is in the jungle", but Sayid feels there are worse things to fear than what is in the jungle.  That is true.   I feel Sayid fears the deeds he is capable of toward another human, and this is indeed worse than who/what is in the jungle.

Jack has got some major bottled-up emotional issues that seem to keep him on the verge of blowing up. I was unsettled by Dr Jack, a man who took the Hippocratic Oath to never do harm to anyone, actually admits to Kate that killing Sawyer would "feel good".  That is one disturbed physician!  But he is totally hot.
Over the years anytime we had a rabbit or bunny brought into the story regardless of trying to convince us they represent "something else",   I always connected the "rabbit" to the Alice in Wonderland/down the rabbit hole metaphor and not other mumbo jumbo.

Let's not ignore the wonderful title of this episode as it is no doubt a warning to be on the lookout for cons, tricks and razzle freakin dazzle.


Solitary.

Game on!
Sayid- “This isn’t a game, Nadia.”
Nadia- “Yet you keep playing it, Sayid. Pretending to be something I know you’re not.”

But while we're at it...how about a round of golf!  Yes, the ongoing game hint presents itself yet again.  It's not the first or last time you'll get the hint to playing a game, not by a long shot!

Hurley builds a golf course so the Castaways have something else to do with their time besides sitting around waiting for the next bad thing to happen.  Good call! 
The clue to the Castaway's being involved in a loop, do-over and/or another go-around on the "Island" is again reinforced when Charlie uses and explains the golf term "Mulligan".

AC/DC!
Sayid self imposes his own "time out" or better yet, some alone time. He heads off to think about his previous actions {and to find what he's looking for}, but so he's not totally without a purpose, he will map the "Island".   As he sits on a deserted beach looking over the photographs of a beautiful woman, something sticking out of the sand catches his eye.
Ah, the discovery of the cable that powers the "Island".
Apparently electricity runs from somewhere under the water and right through the jungle to juice up other points of interest on the "Island.  While following the cable into the jungle unfortunately Sayid is snagged by a trap that leaves him injured and hanging from a tree...unconscious.

Sayid wakes up in the hole in the ground that Danielle lives in.  Sayid is strapped down with wires attached to him.  Rousseau's makeshift machine uses battery power and cables to shock/zap Sayid as a means of interrogation.
The soldier who majors in communications interrogation for his army's prisoners is now the prisoner on the receiving end of torturous interrogation.

We're shown that while in the military Sayid was responsible for the woman we see in the photographs while she was his prisoner.  He had feelings for her and now is without her. Rousseau is without her love Robert, her science team and her child. Rousseau tells a tale and we learn a little bit about why she is solo in her rat hole. The lonely lady fears the "Island sickness".
It's important to note that Sayid states Nadia is dead 7 years, with no mention of him being on Oceanic flight 815 on his way to L.A. to go and find her alive. {Remember that for an upcoming episode.}

Sayid fixes Danielle's music box containing a tiny dancing couple.   It was in this episode that I really got a supported sense that there is someone/people involved in orchestrating the "Island" experience.

Class is in session.
Walt is impressed to see Mr. Locke's talents as a "hunter" and woodsman.  He shares with Locke, “I just want to learn how to do what you do.”
Locke and Walt share something very important and I can't help but wonder if Walt will follow in Locke's "Island" footprints.

An important item to note is Michael's comment regarding his role/job "In a previous life". There are other hints to this life and "another life" and/or the next life.  Yeah, that counts as another go-around too.

This episode reinforced the matter of mental and emotional heath.  Here with Sayid there is his need to come to terms with guilt and the deeds he knows he is frighteningly capable of.   This "Island" journey forces you to confront all the things that are contributing to the causes of your own suffering.

The hints and imagery to electricity, energy, power, juice, currents and electromagnetism throughout the story will and do tell us a lot about what goes on with the mysterious "Island". But let's not forget that we always need to keep in mind the word play LOST tends to do with what we're shown. Things will have more than one meaning.

Back to the matter at hand...For Sayid it seems he himself needs to "Admit what you've done and the pain will stop".
Metaphorically for him and the Castaways it is the emotional pain and thoughts they are hanging on to that is keeping them literally trapped.

I will share with you that through the years I have presented a few ideas as far as the actual "Island" experience.  With this episode title it relates to the "Island" residents feeling alone. But I had thoughts on the possibility Jack and the gang are not random visitors to "this place" {of course} and maybe they are prison inmates or mental patients that have been put into this situation as a means of therapy and enlightenment.   Or does the possibility exist that they are "native" to the "Island"?    And then of course I have my thoughts on that they can enter the "Island" journey whenever they want to; possibly with the help of science and technology.
We'll get into more on all of that as we progress.

No matter how it is occurring it is important to remember...there are whispers to be heard on the wind in the jungle, but there's no such thing as monsters. You should only fear the monster that lives inside of you.

Raised by Another.
This is a very important and informative episode!










Alright kiddo, its nap time!
Extremely lucid dreams, sleepwalking, and text book anxiety nightmares are the topic of the day.   Mind you there is a high pitched ring associated with said "dream".
All we hear throughout the episode are things like, “You’re dreaming" or "You were sleepwalking”.
Ahem...does this kind of thing qualify as one of those "happening in your head" types of occurrences?!  Yeah, that's what I thought.
By the way Claire may be a sleepwalker but Jack has been told he's a sleep talker.

Claire experiences a bizarre phenomenon while sleeping alongside of her fellow cave squatters.  Claire is awakened by the faint cry of a baby. When Claire looks down she sees that she is not pregnant.
Well, see the rest for yourself...

Claire wakes up screaming yet she doesn't feel the weird experienced events are a dream or nightmare, but they are very real.   So is the dream visions of future events or past events or memory?
In Claire's dream-like encounter Locke is in the role of the psychic; the psychic in this story plays a direct role in getting Claire to the "Island".   We also hear Locke say “He was your responsibility but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now."
This is spoken as if it has already happened and there are consequences for this action.

In "Flash" events Claire is involved with artist Thomas. She learns that she and doubting Thomas are "pregnant".  The dialogue that the two have while taking and reviewing the "pee on a stick" pregnancy test is very important. There is also a clue to a wrong-bad diagnosis; which of course brings me right back to the "on Island" events of Claire noticing she's not pregnant.
Thomas the noble decides the two should give playing house a go.

"Flash" events take an interesting turn when Claire and her friend Rachel visit an Australian psychic, Richard Malkin. At first glance Malkin seems gifted, so much so that he aborts the reading as a means to not share that what he "sees" is blurry.

After a few months of Claire getting settled into domestic bliss, Thomas drops the bomb on her claiming he just can't do it.
Later Malkin seems genuinely concerned about Claire and her situation and even offers a few solutions. Claire makes up her own mind to put the baby up for adoption against Malkin's insistence; he feels Claire and only Claire need to raise this baby.

Make a wish on a falling star.
As pregnant Claire is in the attorney's office signing adoption papers, we learn she has an attachment to the song "Catch a Falling Star".    It is a song she claims her daddy sung to her when she was young.  Keep in mind we also learned in this episode Claire has daddy abandonment issues.
Claire happens to abandon her idea of putting the baby up for adoption only to let Malkin convince her to give the baby to a couple in L.A...  Malkin orchestrates all her arrangements to ensure the plan is brought to fruition.

While in the jungle with Charlie, Claire begins having labor pains but seems to be able to "wish" them away.

Head count!
Hurley decides to start a census.  He feels keeping tabs is a good way to police their "Island" home; "The point is we gotta find out who everyone is.”
It is interesting to see that Hurley mistakes Ethan for Lance, but more importantly to me was his moments spent with Locke at the beach.
Hurley tells Locke he thought it would be a good idea to get everyone’s name and place of residence.
Locke- “And who’s checking on you?”
Hurley- “Uhhh, me.”
Locke- ”It was a joke.”
John goes on to say, “You already know my name. I lived most of my life in Tustin California.”
Hurley inquires further, “Cool. Reason for travel. The reason you were in Australia.”
John- “I was looking for something.”
Hurley, seemingly baffled by that reason asks if he found it. As John looks up toward the jungle area he says, “No. It found me. Anything else?”
Nope.
So Hurley hurries away and up to someone he already talked to because he wanted to get away that person/Locke. {Interesting, huh.}

Sayid returns back to camp with a warning, "We're not alone".
And Hurley warns Jack the camp has an interloper!

Blurry is bad.
OK, according to Malkin the psychic, when he "sees" things "blurry" that means it's bad.   But there is no doubt that its clear to see on "Island", off "Island" and here with Claire's "real dream-like incident", events all blur together.   This draws a picture for me that the Castaways are never out of the confines of the "Island" experience.
But the metaphor to need to see things clearly is very important.  One of the reasons they are on the "Island" is because they can't see things clearly.

I personally don't believe in Psychics and I feel they fall under the category of conman.  They take advantage and mislead vulnerable, desperate and hopeless people. A Psychic shouldn't be the guide in your destiny.

I'll leave you with this...
Charlie- “It’s not all in her head”
Jack- "This place. It can kinda mess with your head a little and maybe make you see things that really aren’t actually there.  Now, I know it feels very real…”

Some overall clues for you to keep in mind:
ROM
Execute
Cable
Power
Hive- A hub or center.
Hive mind- one of several forms of collective consciousness.
Hive is an abstract strategy bug-themed table-top game.
The sounds of mechanical/machines.

As with all the episodes it is important to pay attention to the Flash Whoosh as it doesn't always segue into a "Flash".

Until next time...

Love to all who are "LOST"™

Raised by Another.

Let's talk about LOST! Raised by Another.

(Click the pics!)





















An infant cries.
Claire's beautiful crystal blue right eye opens. She lays there looking around and listening; she looks confused. The very distant cry of a baby jolts her to sit up. She continues to sit there confused. Claire looks down and sees she is not pregnant. A distant baby cries again, this one motivates Claire to get up. Claire looks worried and confused as she walks in the caves.  {Note: seems to be other blanketed bodies sleeping there.}










Claire walks through the dark jungle hearing the cries of the distant baby. She doesn’t know where the cry is coming from. She stops when she sees a lit area ahead of her; someone is there. Claire walks up to see John sitting at a table with a red shade lamp, purple crystals and pulling up one black and white tarot cards at a time. {When he pulls a card it makes a metal sound.}
Claire-“What’s happening?”
John angrily answers, “You know what’s happening.”
Claire-“But I don’t understand. Why…”
John- “He was your responsibility but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now."
John lifts his head and we see he has one white eye and one black eye. A baby cries. In the distance we see Claire run through the jungle.










Claire comes upon a white crib with Oceanic planes as the mobile. The plane starts to shake and make sounds {Almost like machine creaking} this starts the mobile into spinning. She starts to peel back the many layers of baby blanket to reveal a huge puddle of blood. There is blood on both her hands.Claire screams!

Claire wakes up screaming. She is in a very deep sleep state yet she is fighting off Charlie in her hysterics. Charlie is trying to calm her while everyone else has gathered around. Finally she begins to calm and Charlie tells her it’s alright, “You’re dreaming. You were sleepwalking.”
Charlie sees her hands are bloody, “What happened? {Her shirt has blood too.}
Claire is still panicking.

Jack tends to Claire’s hands, “It must have been a hell of a nightmare.”
Claire-“Who said it was a nightmare?”
Jack feels anyone who makes a fist so tight they dig their fingernails a quarter of an inch into their palm, probably wasn’t dreaming about riding ponies. He asks if she ever sleepwalked before. Claire doesn’t think so, “How would I know?”
Jack-“It’ll get back to ya.”
Jack reveals he had a girlfriend who told him he talked in his sleep, he doesn’t know what he said but whatever it was she didn’t like it. Jack goes on to ask how her OBGYN in Sydney was. Claire said she was good.
Jack wonders, “She was okay with letting you fly in your third trimester.”
Claire went for a checkup a week before and she said it would be fine.
Jack-“Ultrasound was cool?”
Claire says yep, “Very healthy.”   She’s been feeling okay, her back’s pretty sore; probably from sleeping on the ground. She gets dizzy if she stands up too fast, she has to pee all the time and she’s eating enough boar and bananas.
Jack- “How many weeks in are you? What was the date that you found out you were pregnant?”
Claire zones somewhere else.
{Flash Whoosh}






Claire comes out of the bathroom{Pink everywhere!} “Is it pink? Did you actually pee on it? Maybe you didn’t do it right.”
Nervous Claire wants Thomas to give her a second, and yes, she can pee on a stick. Thomas asks what color it is.
Claire-“How longs it been?”
Thomas looks at his watch and tells her 66 seconds. She anxiously looks over the instructions and Thomas tells her the two pink lines look more red. Claire looks at the two pink lines. Thomas feels that these tests are not always accurate. He tells her his uncle thought he had testicular cancer. Claire said he did; he’s dead! Thomas still feels there was a wrong-bad diagnosis.
Claire declares she’s six weeks late, “That never happens. I’m pregnant.”
Thomas tells her it’s all going to be okay and if they wanted to they could “do this”, he’s not kidding.
Claire knows it’s going to be okay, but {making her bed} feels her mom would disown her.
Thomas- “She basically has already.”
Claire wonders how they would, with her five dollar an hour job at Fish and Fry. She isn’t the only one with a job, he has his painting. Claire feels it’s sweet but it isn’t what they want. Thomas suggests maybe it is; it could be the best thing ever.
Claire-“You’d really wanna try?”
Yeah, he says he loves her.








Kate stands staring out to the ocean. Jack approaches her and says, “Well this is a first, you standing still, middle of the day, doing nothin'. Amazing.”
Kate smiles, “I’m doing something.”
She reveals she’s “sinking”.
The water goes out and takes the sand with it and you sink; she used to do this with her mom when she was a kid. {What kind of look is that?!}
Jack, “Ah, new plan. You’re gonna just sink your way right off of the island. Sayid’d be proud.”
Kate mentions he’s been gone almost a week. Something tells Jack he’ll be okay. Jack is down this far from the caves because he’s bringing water down and fish back.
Jack -“Claire’s gonna have the baby soon.”
{What kind of looks are those?!}








Claire sits in the middle of the jungle writing in her diary. Charlie, with two cups, {Finger tape- L * * E. } sees the diary and narrates- “Dear Diary. Still on the bloody island. Today I swallowed a bug. Love Claire.”
He gives her a cup and say, “What separates us from these savage yanks if we can’t drink tea.” He asks if she’s feeling better.
Claire-“It was just a dream.”
Charlie has this dream of driving a bus and my teeth start falling out. "My mum is in the back eating biscuits, everything smells of bacon. It’s weird." Of course he doesn’t wake up screaming.
Claire tells him she’s alright.
Charlie- “Of course you are. It’s just…I think about you, this place. How hard it must be for you…without your family and your friends. And I think we can be friends. I could be your friend.”
They don’t have to do each other's hair or anything, but if she anyone to talk to about anything, he’s here.
Claire just says, “Charlie”, but she looks as if she drifted off somewhere. Charlie takes that as a non answer and says, “Okay.”
Claire-“I didn’t mean that I …”
Charlie gets up to leave; tells her it’s cool.
{Flash Whoosh}
Happy Claire tells her girlfriend Rachel that awesome Thomas cleaned out his whole loft; she’s officially moving in on Tuesday. Claire seems to have second thoughts about where the girls are headed.
Rachel tells her she’s not backing out now, “He’s just a psychic, Claire. I thought you were really into this. All your astrology stuff.”
Claire doesn’t really need somebody telling what is gonna happen or how to live her life. Rachel feels it’s not about what you need, it’s about what’s fun.









Inside, Claire sits at a table across from the psychic. {He has many globes, the red shade lamp and crystals on the table.} Rachel sits on the couch and watches. Richard will need Claire’s hands for this; he goes into his “state of trance/connecting”, eyes closed. After a few seconds he makes like he hears something and asks Claire, “Huh? So when did you find out?...About the baby.”
Claire looks over at Rachel, but she doesn’t seem to know how he’d know this info either.
Claire admits, “Two days ago.”
Malkin sits, eyes closed, still holding on to Claire’s hands, he appears to be “listening”.
Rachel interjects with, “She hasn’t told her mum yet. We’re afraid she…”
Claire cuts her off, “Shhhhh!”
Malkin opens his eyes and looks down at Claire’s hands. Claire wonders, should she not tell her, “What? What is it?”
Malkin abruptly lets go of her hands, gives her back her money and tells her he can’t, “I’m not doing this reading. You’ll have to leave. Now.”
Although Claire wanted to hear what he wanted to say, she and Rachel leave. What a freak.

We get a shot of the dark jungle.

Pregnant Claire sleeps. {On a pillow!} There’s a high pitched ring. Her mouth is covered by a hand. "Flashes" of her belly, knife, scalpel, needle.

Jack sleeps. He wakes to Claire screaming, “Help me! Somebody’s trying to hurt me, please!”
She is still screaming, yet Charlie is right there with her.   Charlie tells Jack someone attacked her.
Claire-“He held me down…”  She doesn’t know which way he went because she couldn’t see, “Just now! Just now! He just ran away.”
Hurley, Michael and "Ethan" gather round hysterical Claire.
Charlie- “We should find out. Check the surrounding caves.”    He recruits Hurley to go with him. Jack wants him to wait, but they go.
Jack sits Claire down and has "Ethan" get her some water.
Jack-“Claire, look at me. You’re safe now.”
Michael asks her if she got a look at him. Nope, it was dark, she couldn’t see. In hysterics she tells Jack it happened right here, “I was sleeping and I woke up. He was trying to hurt my baby! He had this, this thing, like a needle. He stabbed me with it.” {Points to her belly.} She insists he was trying to hurt her baby.

In the dark jungle, the gang with their torches search. Hurley tells Jack they have to round the entire perimeter. Jack says nobody saw or heard anything.
Hurley confirms this, as everyone was asleep.
Hurley- “So, I had an idea. I’m out here looking for some psycho with Scott and Steve, right? And I’m realizing…Who the hell are Scott and Steve?”
Jack- “I’m not following ya.”
Hurley- “If I was a cop and some woman got attacked, we’d canvas, right? Knock on doors, find witnesses. But we don’t even have doors.”
Jack feels Hurley’s not helping him to understand. Hurley doesn’t know whose living here and whose still at the beach; they didn’t even know each other, “My name isn’t Hurley. It’s Hugo Reyes. Hurley’s just a nickname I have, alright. Why? I’m not telling. The point is we gotta find out who everyone is.”
Jack- “You want to start a census.”
Hurley- “A registry. You know names, what people look like, who’s related to who. I mean, we start laying down the law maybe people stop attacking each other. It seems like someone’s getting punched or stabbed or something every other day here. We gotta find out who did this to her.”


Charlie drapes a Native American Indian or Alaskan motif blanket on shook up/staring Claire.
He tells her don’t worry, “If you want to close your eyes I’ll be here all night. I won’t let anyone get to you…I won’t leave you, Claire. Promise.”



(Flash Whoosh}
A few months pregnant Claire is threading drapes on a pole to hang up. Thomas, who carrying a bag of groceries and seems unimpressed, comes in and sees the changes in the place, “Wow. We have drapes now.”
Proud Claire says she feels all grown up now, “I don’t know why drapes represent age for me. I guess it just feels like something my mum would do.”
She also shares that Sasha called and wanted to know if they wanted to go out tonight. Thomas has something on his mind.
He tells Claire, “I can’t do this.”   He feels this isn’t working and that she knew that, yet this takes Claire by surprise.
Claire calmly asks him, just so she isn’t over reacting, “Are you breaking up with me?”
For the past three months Thomas has been troubled by having plans and responsibility, “Somewhere that we have to be, someone that you have to talk to.”
Claire starts to get upset, “Yeah. I’m trying to make sure that when the baby comes…”
He cuts her off, “Oh! And the baby. Yeah. I mean that is just not… It’s like this now. What’s it gonna be like when the baby comes?” {His baby remark seems to come as an afterthought.}
Claire reminds him that he said “we should do this.”
Thomas- “Yeah. Well. Now it’s real.”
She tells him he can’t just change his mind.
Thomas wonders how he’s supposed to be a dad; what about his painting and his life. Claire knew this would happen. {He opens a beer.}  This pisses off Thomas and he sarcastically says, “I told you so. Perfect. Now I get all your daddy abandonment crap...”
Claire very defensively tells him not to try and justify what he’s doing. Awesome Thomas feels he’s done nothing, “You don’t think I’ve seen what you’ve done…You were supposed to be on the pill”
Does he think Claire got pregnant on purpose or this was some kind of plan?
Claire yells, “You are out of your mind!...No, it’s not over!”
Thomas is outta there.














{Flash Whoosh}
Claire is just sitting, staring. The light from the campfire burns.
Daylight:
Hurley is on the beach with a pad and pen.
He walks up to John Locke; says his name, verifying it.
Locke, whose working on something asks, “Is this about your census?” {He’s using aloe and a blue sneaker filled with sand.}
Hurley thought it would be a good idea to get everyone’s name and place of residence.
Locke- “And who’s checking on you?”
Hurley- “Uhhh, me.”
Locke- ”It was a joke.”
John goes on to say, “You already know my name. I lived most of my life in Tustin California.”
Hurley inquires further, “Cool. Reason for travel. The reason you were in Australia.”
John- “I was looking for something.”
Hurley, seemingly baffled by that reason asks if he found it. As John looks up toward the jungle area he says, “No. It found me. Anything else?”
Nope.
So Hurley hurries away and up to someone he already talked to because he wanted to get away that person/Locke. {Interesting, huh.}

Charlie questions Kate about seeing anyone at the beach last night. Kate doesn’t know because people come and go. {They do?!}  Jack shares with the two that he isn’t sure anything actually happened. “Claire told Michael and I that this attacker tried to inject her with something, but there was no mark on her stomach. She wakes up two nights in a row screaming. The first time she was sleepwalking.”
Charlie wonders if Jack thinks she was making this up, “She was terrified, man.”
Jack wonders why someone would want to attack and hurt her baby now with all of them sleeping twenty feet away.
Jack doesn’t think she’s lying; “Pregnant woman have extremely lucid…these are text book anxiety nightmares.”
Charlie is annoyed, “You know everything that’s going on with everyone.”
Jack feels with Claire due in a little over a week, maybe two, “but if she stays stressed out like this or has another panic attack it can trigger an early labor. And out here with no instruments, no monitors, no anesthetic, that would not be good.”
Charlie states, “It’s not all in her head”, and walks away.

Hurley walks up to a dude shaking fruit out of the tree, “Hey, Lance.”
This guy's name isn’t Lance, its Ethan.
Hurley realizes his mistake because Lance is the little skinny guy with glasses and the red hair. Ethan smiles and says “I can see how you’d confuse us.”
Hurley apologizes, “lots of names and faces.”
He mentions to Ethan that you’d think a couple of weeks on the island with the same people we’d all know each other. Ethan agrees.
Hurley tells him about the list; names, home addresses, stuff like that. Ethan tells him is last name is Rom and he’s from Ontario. Hurley says he likes Canada.
Ethan wonders, “What’s this for?”
Hurley-“Nothing. It’s just… I thought it’d be a good idea.”
Ethan takes his handmade basket and fruit and leaves.

Claire writes in her diary. {Astrology book nearby}
Jack tells Claire they didn’t find him;  she’s worried about him coming back.
Jack- “Claire. This situation that we’re in, the crash, that no one’s coming, this place. It can kinda mess with your head a little and maybe make you see things that really aren’t actually there. Now, I know it feels very real…” 
He goes on to be compassionate about her baby coming soon and how scared she must be. But the more upset she is the more dangerous it is for her and her baby. So Jack wants her to take a mild sedative; commonly used in situations like hers. He promises it won’t harm the baby. Claire feels Jack doesn’t believe her, “I get attacked and you want to give me sleeping pills.”
Insulted Claire packs her stuff and will go to the “safe beach” because it’s not safe there.   Jack tried to stop her. Claire is sick of everyone telling her what to do. She storms out of the cave; right passed Charlie.
Charles asks Jack, “What did you say to her?”

Claire walks quickly through the jungle.
{Flash Whoosh}
Claire knocks on the screen door. Malkin answers. {In a dirty white tee shirt} He remembers her. Claire was hoping for a reading.
Sitting at the table, Claire hands him cash and he counts it. She wonders if he’s a psychic why he has to count it.
Malkin tells her, “That’s not how it works.” {Note the cash}
She was just joking. Malkin holds out his hands for her to go into his whole psychic mumbo jumbo.
Claire asks him, “So. How does it work?”
Richard-“I don’t know.”
Malkin, looking concerned, asks when he left her.
Claire-“Last week...Is that why you didn’t wanna do my reading last time.”
He says no; he saw some sort of a blurry thing.
Claire- “And blurry’s bad?”
Malkin confirms that blurry is bad. Even though she looks very concerned Claire is sure she wants to continue this reading. As Malkin begins, there are very interesting sounds happening. {Mixed machine-like, hum, like a plane fly over, } Malkin makes with the quivers and shit and tells her this is important, “It is crucial that you, yourself, raise this child.”
Claire- “You mean with Thomas...”
Malkin shares the father of this child will play no part in its life, nor hers. {Its!! What is it?} He reveals this child parented by anyone else, anyone other than Claire, “Danger surrounds this baby…Your nature, your spirit, your goodness must be an influence in the development of this child.”
Claire admits to him if she and Thomas don’t get back together she is putting this baby up for adoption. She just wanted to find out what would give the baby the happiest life. This troubles Malkin and he tells her, “There is no happy life. Not for this child. Not without you.”
Claire is getting frustrated but Malkin insists there can’t be another, “you mustn’t allow another to raise your baby!’
Claire thanks him for taking her two hundred and hurries away.
Malkin gives her the money and begs her to consider listening to him.
Claire runs out of there while Malkin is still dramatically telling her the baby needs her protection.







The telephone rings. Sleeping Claire wakes to answer it. {Note how loud the damn crickets are! Lol!} It’s Richard Malkin calling her about his plan; something that will make this all better. Apparently he’s been calling her often.
Claire tells him it’s too late; she’s going to see adoptive services tomorrow. Malikin’s been telling her for months she cannot do that. What she does with her baby is none of his business. He again insists if she doesn’t do what he suggests, great danger will befall… He also says he knows what she’s feeling inside; that she is doubting her decision to give up the baby. He begs her not to do it; to please hear his plan first.
Claire is unimpressed and ends the call.
{Flash Whoosh}
Claire, looking really shitty and distant, walks through the jungle. Charlie appears out of nowhere and asks her where she’s going. 
She’s going back to the beach because Jack tried to dope her, “He thinks I’m making all this up. That none of it really happened.”
Charlie- “Right. So to prove your sanity you go tromping through the jungle alone. Well done.”
Claire tells him she is not crazy.










Shannon angrily packs her bag{including a crossword puzzle}.
Hurley wants her info.
Shannon- “Name. Shannon Rutherford. Age. 20. Address. Craphole Island.”
Hurley asks where were you guys last night.
Shannon- “Umm. The beach.”
Boone asks Hurley, “Why the interrogation?”
Hurley mentions Boone’s like the 20^th person to ask him that. He wonders why everyone is so uptight about answering a few questions. {Boone is wearing the shirt he wore in Locke’s vision from Deus Ex Machina. Except here it is a short sleeve shirt. The sleeves are cut off in the vision.}
Boone- “Well. Maybe we’re just not cool with you setting up your own little patriot act, man.”
Shannon says Boone’s a liberal.
Boone asks Hurley, “Seriously. Why the list?”
Hurley tells them it's nothing; they just had a little incident in the valley last night.
Shannon- “An incident?”
Hurley informs them the pregnant girl got attacked. Shannon announces she is so not moving to the rape caves and drops her bag.
Boone feels Hurley’s life would be much easier if he just had the manifest, “Cause we crossed out all the names of the dead after we burned the fuselage. So, should be a full roster of the rest of us.”
Hurley’s surprised by this. Guess who has the manifest.

Hurley heads over to shirtless Sawyer sitting pretty, resting with sunglasses on. {Glasses have smiley faces and "rosie" colored lens.} Hurley lays it out straight for Sawyer; he hears he has the manifest, he needs it and he wants Sawyer to give it to him. Hurley tells him they can play it the Sawyer way or Sawyer could just give it to him. After all Sawyer could use the points.
Sawyer-"Gosh. You sure know how to butter a man up, Staypuff."
Hurley- "It's a gift."
Adorable Sawyer tells Hurley the manifest is in the brown suitcase.

Still on their trek back to the beach, Charlie, "Please let me carry your bag."
Claire, who is looking very shitty, can handle it, but she wants to know why he came after her.
Charlie- "It's probably because I like you."
Claire feels he doesn't like her, "You just want to rescue me. Because I'm...Because of this." {She points to her belly.} She doesn't need rescuing. Just then she gets "pains". {tape-LATE}
Charlie says they need to time the contractions, "One sugar plum fairy, two sugar plum..." He's getting anxious and yells at her to calm down, "Big deep breaths."
He takes a few and makes himself dizzy.
Claire needs him to go get Jack; she feels Charlie doesn't know how to deliver a baby.
Charlie may not know what he's doing but he'll figure it out, "If I can kick drugs I can deliver a baby."
Claire's a bit stunned by what he just said.
He explains, "I'm a drug addict..I was a drug addict. I'm clean now."
Claire yells, "Get Jack!"
Charlie takes off running through the jungle.

The attorney tells very pregnant Claire, "Arlene and Joseph will bring you to Melbourne. They'll pay your living and medical expenses. Arlene informs Claire they found her a really nice two bedroom apartment. {Claire is wearing the Chinese character symbol necklace that she has on with Charlie.}
It's been agreed that once the baby is born she will hand the child over to the Stuarts and she has no right to see the child again; no right to correspond with the child and it will be up to the Stuarts if they tell the child anything about her. Claire understands.
The attorney tells her upon her discharge from the hospital she will be given an additional payment of $20,000. Claire wants to make sure that they're going to take really good care of the baby.
Claire is given a gold pen to sign and date the papers. The Stuart's look anxious waiting for her to sign.
Claire asks them, "Do you know Catch a Falling Star? It's a song, like a lullaby."
Arlene-"Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket."
Claire mentions her dad used to sing that to her when she was little. Claire would like her to sing it to the baby once in a while. The gold pen isn't working.
The attorney gives her a red pen; that doesn't work.
Arlene gives her a silver and gold pen; Claire apologizes and says, "I can't do this."
She runs out of the room.










Claire knocks on Malkin's door and asks, "What is it? What's your offer?"

Charlie runs through the jungle and right into Ethan; who is gathering wood.
Charlie instructs Ethan to run to the caves and get Jack; Claire's having the baby.
Ethan seems concerned. Charlie tells Ethan to go fast and he'll be on the path with Claire, "GO!"
They both take off.

Charlie runs back to Claire and tells her Jack's coming. She is in pain. He takes her hand and coaches her with breathing.
Claire blurts out, "I'm not supposed to be here." Someone promised her it would be different.
Charlie- "Well, he was wrong."
Claire- "Yeah. He was wrong."
{Flash Whoosh}
Claire tells Malkin, "You spent the last four months telling me I have to raise the baby myself. Now you're giving me money and saying I don't have to."
Malkin found a couple in L.A. who are very eager to adopt, "The baby will be safe in their care."
Claire {with large yellow envelope} doesn't even know why she's there.
Malkin knows this sounds ridiculous, all this psychic business, and he appreciates that she must think he's a raving mad man, "But this is what must happen."
Claire confirms he's giving her $6,000 to give her baby to a couple of strangers in L.A... Malkin,"$12,000. The other six when you arrive in Los Angeles. And they're no strangers, Claire. They're good people."

Charlie-"A psychic?"
Claire's embarrassed by it, "After everything...he was just full of it."
Charlie contemplates and says, "Or not." All he wanted was no one else raise her baby, "Maybe he knew. I mean, if he wanted it bad enough...You know if he had the gift, and I believe some people do. Maybe he knew, Claire."
Claire drifts off in thought.
Claire takes her Oceanic ticket from Malkin. The ticket is for tomorrow and it has to be this flight; it can't be any other, "They're already scheduled to meet you when you arrive. Flight 815. Flight 815."

Claire tells Charlie, "There was no couple in Los Angeles. He knew. He knew about the plane, how it was gonna happen. Oh my god he knew.

Injured Sayid uses a stick to help him run through the jungle.

Charlie asks Claire if she feels another one coming. She doesn't think so. Charlie wonders where the hell Jack is. Claire is fine; she thinks that was the last one, "Please let it be the last one."
Charlie mentions Jack said stress can cause a false labor. She has no pain. Charlie is pleased, "Birthing emergency averted. I told you I'd take care of you."
She thanks him. Charlie asks if she thinks she can make it back to the caves; he won't let anything happen to her.
OK.

Sayid rushes into the caves to Jack and Kate. He stumbles, "Listen to me. I found her...The French woman...The woman on the island...I had to come back...I had to come back."   All the while Locke stands there quietly, arms folded, watching and listening to them. As Jack tends to Sayid's leg,
Sayid tells him, "We're not alone."

Charlie carries Claire bag on their trek back to the caves. She lets him feel the baby kick. Hurley runs with the manifest to tell Jack they got a problem; the manifest, "Jack the census." { Jack is focused on Sayid's leg} The names of everyone who survived all 46 of us. I interviewed everyone. Here, at the beach, got their names. One of them, one of them isn't, Jack!...One of them isn't in the manifest. He wasn't on the plane."

"Hello there.", Ethan says to Claire and Charlie. He looks droid-like; zoned, starring at Claire. Charlie asks him where Jack is. Claire is afraid.



Raised by Another is a great episode! Apparently Claire’s job is to "carry" the baby. Is it also her job to "protect" the baby?

Things to note...Questions to ask...
* Raised by Another. An 'Other'. Pretty obvious title.
* Black. White. Red. Gold. Silver.
* Sleeping, Sleepwalking. Dreams. Hallucinations. Visions and Memory. Lucid.
* Bug. Monitor. Instruments. Rom.
* Writing. Reading.
* Look. Listen.
* Drugs. Sedatives. Pill. Inject. Sleeping pills. Dope.
* Out of your mind. Abandonment. Hysterical. Crazy. Stress, Panic attack. Sanity.Fear. Doubt.
* Freak. Psycho. Raving mad man.
* Timer-seconds- hour-weeks-trimester-date-Late-times up.
* "Could use the points". Timer = Game.
* Perimeter is a circle.
* Hurley makes a list. Registry. Census. Manifest. Roster.
* “Patriot Act" Note- the patriot act was signed into law Oct 24, 2001.
* Hurley wants to lay down the law. Clair is surrounded by law books in her lawyers office.
* Tarot cards are a tool used by psychic's to tell the future. Why would Locke have them? He tells us Claire already knows what's happening!
* You’re gonna just sink your way right off of the island. Sayid would be proud.” Why? Does it have something to do with electronics and computers?
* Claire tells the guys she “He held me down”.    In White Rabbit, young Jack’s bully tells him “You should have stayed down, Jack.” Very similar dialog about being “held down”.
* Important: Charlie tells Claire- it’s alright, “You’re dreaming. You were sleepwalking.” Well I can’t help but question…Which part is really the “dream”. Is it then when Charlie says that or other parts?
* With all of them sleeping twenty feet away. Hmmm.
* Is the beach their someplace safe; their "safe" spot?
* What is real and what is not real?
* Family. Child Grown up. Development.
* Protection.
* Manifest. 
* Raised-Rose
* Hurley admits his name isn’t Hurley. I wonder who else is going by a name that really isn’t theirs.
* Hurley claims to Sawyer, "It's a gift." Then Charlie's whole bit with Claire in the jungle about what if "he had the gift..."   WHO?

Vocabulary and Research..
* Drapes- AKA curtain.In religion known as veil.
* Sink - A plant sink is a storage center in plants to hold sugars, normally the roots of the plant. Sinks also occur at the growing tips of roots and stems and in developing fruits>.
- Sink (geography), an area of dry land below sea-level, for example the Salton Sink.
- In electromagnetic theory sink and source are respectively the termination or supply of current flow.
- Synch or Sync- is commonly abbreviated as. Synchronization
- Harmony
- Synch (Everett Thomas) is a character, a Marvel Comics mutant superhero.
- Sync, an enemy character in the console game Tales of the Abyss.
- File synchronization (or 'syncing') in computing is the process of making sure that files in two or more locations are updated through certain rules.
- Sync, short for synchronization, is a signal used in video systems to coordinate the timings of lines, fields and frame
* Rom- READ ONLY MEMORY. A class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. This tells the computer how to load the operating system.
- ROM Image- a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip.
- ROM (MUD) a popular MUD codebase.

- Red in Buddhism: Life force, preservation, the sacred, blood, fire.
It evokes emotion/action-subjugation and summoning.   
Transforms: Delusion of attachment into the wisdom of discernment.
Body part it represents-Tongue.
Element-Fire.



In this episode I found Locke to be in the seat/role of the psychic in Claire's vision. This episode also showed Claire is afraid of Locke and Ethan.
Charlie tells Claire; maybe the psychic knew the plane was going to crash.   In my opinion psychics are fakes. Isn't the fact Richard Malkin basically forced Claire's hand getting her on that plane proof of manipulation.  I feel all the Lostie's flight plans were manipulated to get them all on flight 815.

Again, Locke is put right in the middle of the goings on. Just who is this man and what is his role, really? {Wink, wink!}
I don't think Locke is the only key player in the Island; I keep Jack close at hand.  I take Hurley's role in this episode as something to keep in our minds for the future.  As a matter of fact, I'm sure of it.

What the hell is Ethan’s deal? What's the hell is with his droid zombie stare? What kind of name is Rom, anyway? It seems more as a hint to computers not a man. I'm just fucking saying!!

Claire doesn't feel these events are a dream, but they are very real. Are they visions of future events or past events or  memory?   Claire gives “him” away; when does she do this?
Claire is disconnected from the "baby".    Maybe Claire is not actually pregnant.

Events seem out of order or disjointed. Things are fucking BLURRED! It could be that "Island" and "Flash" events are blurred together.

This place messes with your head, making you see things that aren’t actually there. Making experiences "feel" very real.  So that means they are not real.

Someone asked me if I really thought Locke was part of the Island?....My answer is still YES {and much, much more. Monster.}

Love to all who are "LOST"™




Michael at the attorney office that we assume is in New York.







Claire's Attorney's office





Posted at MySpace July 1, 2007.


Disclaimer: I never claim to know everything about the show and my thoughts by no means make me right. The things I share here are my views and/or opinions. I don't claim to catch every single detail either. You all know I hate spoilers, and I stand clear of reading certain sites as to not take me off my own course of research. The one thing I don't need to do here is rehash all of the obvious clues from an episode, we all know what they are. Understood? Good. Let the fun begin!I'll only note things that I know come up as clues later, but need to be noted when they first show up and things I find that will be of importance. It will get very exciting as we progress into the story.