Lost Season Two Episode Summaries
"The Other 48 Days" (#207):
Episode Analysis:
The tail section crashed just off the beach, which meant that those survivors had to struggle to shore before drowning.
Of the five tail section survivors that have survived up until their encounter with Jin, Ana Lucia, Cindy and Eko can be seen coming out of the water. Libby is first seen on the beach, but she is wet. Bernard was stuck in the tree in his seat.
Of those five, three are known to have been on the airplane:
Ana Lucia was seen at the airport (with Jack)
Cindy was seen on the airplane (with Charlie and Jack).
Rose talked about Bernard with Jack before the crash
Even though Eko and Libby appear to be coming out of the water with the rest of the survivors and no one later accuses them of not being on the airplane, nothing can be assumed until their back story is shown.
Zack holds the same brown teddy bear that was seen by Eko and Jin in the possession of the Others.
Eko speaks with an accent. He takes care of the bodies, perhaps out of respect for the dead. He also seems to be of deep faith. After killing the two Others, he does not speak for forty days.
For a second time (well, actually the first time chronologically), Libby tries to use her charm to distract someone in pain. She distracts the man with a smile and a story. She has already exhibited better bedside manner than Jack.
Libby later explains that she is a clinical psychologist.
On the fifth day, Donald is the fourth to be taken or die.
When Donald is buried, eight other graves can be seen, presumably those buried by Eko immediately after the crash and possibly including the two "Others" that he killed.
On the twelfth night, the Others take the two children and seven Others.
When Bernard makes his comment about the seeming absurdity of the Others infiltrating the "tailies," the camera moves to Goodwin, rather than Libby who speaks next. This shot is a foreshadowing to the reveal that Goodwin has indeed infiltrated them.
On the twelfth night, the "tailies" leave the beach and walk for three days straight until they find fresh water.
Two "tailies", Eko and Ana Lucia, each kill two people in this episode. It appears to affect them differently. Eko appears remorseful throughout and seems to fight to internalize his anger. Ana Lucia becomes vocally and physically harsher following the killing of the female Other and then even manages to ratchet it up after killing Goodwin. Although some of that might be explained by the fact that she also seems to take Goodwin's "infiltration" as a personal betrayal since he seemed to make an effort to befriend her.
Goodwin takes several steps to keep from arousing suspicion of himself (see Island Mysteries for more details)
Ana Lucia spends almost four days digging the pit alone.
On Day 27, the Tailies find a Dharma bunker which aside from electricity is sparse.
In the Dharma bunker is a chest that has a blanket, a Bible, a glass eye and a radio.
Eko takes special interest in the Bible. Either he recognized the Bible itself, or this hints at his religious background.
Goodwin doesn't seem to know about the military origin of the knife, which may indicate that it came into the possession of the Others indirectly.
Ana Lucia showed herself to be tough and skilled in the episode up to this point, having given CPR and fighting off the female Other, but in her hike with Goodwin, she shows several unique abilities:
She shows a talent for questioning and deductive reasoning.
Her knowledge of the outdated U.S. Army-issue knife
Her ability to fight off a presumably stronger and physically fit man.
Ana Lucia might have had sort of trauma in her past relating to children, based on several points in the episode. Each one by itself might not be much, but taken altogether, the writers' might be leaving a strong indicator:
Her leaving another injured passenger to administer CPR to Emma.
On the first night when they had no idea about the Others, she orders Libby to look after the children when they are awakened by the sounds of a struggle
Even though the children hadn't been targeted by the Others the first time, Ana Lucia immediately asks about them after the second attack by the Others.
When Goodwin questions her judgment concerning keeping Nathan in the pit, she seems willing to torture him in an effort to keep her promise to get Emma back to her mother.
In her hilltop talk with Goodwin, she keeps her cool until he tells her that the children are actually better off [with the Others].
Goodwin's story finally starts to unravel when he arouses Ana Lucia's suspicions by trying to take off with the radio alone and blows apart when he answers her that he heard Bernard from the beach in the first minutes after the crash.
Goodwin might have given some insights into the Others:
They may not consider taking the survivors as attacks. Perhaps they consider it liberating or recruiting excursions.
The Others start with the strongest and toughest, and who can be considered most threatening.
The Others have some sort of additional guideline, because Nathan wasn't considered "good."
Ana Lucia, Eko and Nathan all displayed a strong independence, if not rebelliousness. This could be considered to be not a "good" trait.
Bernard was the voice at the other end of the radio transmission with Boone. (see Episode 119)
Ana Lucia has grown so paranoid that she is immediately convinced that the radio transmission was the Others trying to find them.
Forty days, a number of Biblical significance occurs twice:
Eko "serves" forty days of silence apparently in penance for killing the two Others on the first night.
Eko points out that Ana Lucia waits forty days to cry.
Jin was unconscious when he washed up on the beach. The tailies found him and tied him up.
Several red herrings in the episode seem to paint Nathan as the "infiltrator:"
On Day 2, Nathan is the one that tells everyone that three of them are missing, and yet he says that he saw nothing.
Later on Day 2, Nathan insists that they need to stay on the beach because of the children, the seriously injured and the signal fire.
On Day 12, Nathan goes off alone for two hours and claims that he was going to the bathroom. That same night, the Others attack again.
On Day 15, Nathan makes a convincing argument for the group to stop moving and stay near the stream.
On Day 19, Nathan is making a snare, which parallels the hunting skills of Ethan. Later that night, he tells Ana Lucia that he's from Canada , which is where Ethan had said he was from.
In addition to all that, Na[than] and E[than] have similar names.
Immediately after the crash there are apparently twenty tail section survivors:
On the night of Day 1, three are taken. Seventeen are left.
On Day 5, Donald dies of his injuries. Sixteen are left.
On the night of Day 12, nine are taken. Seven are left.
On the night of Day 23, Nathan disappears. Six are left.
On Day 40, Ana Lucia kills Goodwin. Five are left.
On Day 48, Cindy disappears. Four are left.
There seems to be some questions over how long the plane was in the air. Considering the sources, the pilot and flight attendant would appear to be more trustworthy, but.
The Pilot had told Jack and Kate that the plane was in the air for six hours before they lost communications and turned back.
Cindy says that the pilot told her that they had lost communications and then they had flown in the wrong direction for two hours, which would indicate eight hours of flight time.
Ana Lucia, however, later says that they were in the air a total of two hours. She says it again during her interrogation of Nathan and he doesn't correct her.
