BAM! A pile of mangoes is suddenly smashed to bits as a Camaro blasts through them. Many police squad cars follow, and it's a freeway chase through Los Angeles. The car slams into a dead end, and the cops close in on the driver. Out of the car steps Hurley? But this isn't the chill "Hey, dude!" Hurley we know and love. He's sweating, nervous and wild-eyed. And as the cops cuff Hurley, he shouts, "Don't you know who I am? I'm one of the Oceanic Six!"
WHOOSH to the island where we drop back in right where we left off: Naomi has a knife hilt sticking out of her back, Ben is tied to a tree, bruised and beaten, and Jack has called the freighter. His walkie squawks it's Hurley from the beach. Jack tells him the freighter people are on their way, and he hears whoops of celebration over the walkie. Jack says the group is heading back to the beach.
Kate returns and tells Jack that Locke has disappeared. She can't find any sign of him. Jack tells her if he comes back, Jack would kill him. Kate realizes Jack means it. Before the group leaves, Ben asks Rousseau for a favor. They don't have much time he wants her to take Alex and get as far away from there as possible because they're all going to die.
On the beach, Jin and Sayid finish collecting guns from the dead Others who attacked them when Desmond returns without Charlie. Desmond tells everyone they have to warn Jack that Naomi lied, that the freighter people aren't who they said they are. Hurley asks where's Charlie. Desmond's face drops, and he says he's sorry. Everyone reacts, saddened by the news, but Hurley is shocked. It crushes him.
WHOOSH to an interrogation room where Hurley is questioned by a detective. The detective plays security video of Hurley in a convenience store. We see Hurley react to someone, run out, then tear out of the parking lot, which leads to the high-speed freeway chase. The detective wants to know whom Hurley saw that made him run like that. Hurley denies seeing anyone.
The detective tries another tactic. He tells Hurley he knew someone on Oceanic flight 815. It was his old partner, Ana Lucia Cortez. Hurley becomes very uncomfortable and says sorry, he never met her. Of course we know Hurley did know Ana Lucia, so why is he lying? The detective leaves the room, and in the two-way mirror Hurley sees an aquarium and someone floating in it. It's Charlie! Hurley freaks out, terrified, and screams for help. The detective bursts back in and asks if Hurley's trying to get tossed in the nut house. Relief washes over Hurley, and he thanks the detective.
WHOOSH back to the beach, where a debate about warning Jack takes place. Sawyer is about to use his walkie when Sayid tells them that the freighter people are probably monitoring their communications. Hurley yanks the walkie out of Sawyer's hand and throws it into the ocean. He tells them they better get going. You don't wait with warnings, you warn.
As Jack's group is about to leave the radio tower, Minkowski from the freighter radios in and asks to talk to Naomi. That's when Jack notices she is gone. Kate takes off to look for her. Jack lies to Minkowski and tells him Naomi went to look for firewood. Rousseau finds Naomi's trail, and Jack leaves to track her. But Kate finds a second trail and suggests following both. Jack says no and asks her to lead everyone back down to the beach. Kate hugs Jack, intimately, and tells him to be careful.
As they trek through the jungle at night, Hurley falls behind and gets lost. It's dark and creepy. Afraid, Hurley runs to catch up and stumbles upon the clearing with the cabin. Around the cabin is a line of white ash. And there's no doubt about it it's officially spooky. Hurley approaches the cabin and peers through the window. In the darkness he sees a man sitting in a chair. But suddenly another man pops up in the window right in front of Hurley! Hurley screams and takes off running through the jungle into another clearing and the cabin is there right in front of him! Hurley backs away, muttering to himself it isn't real and runs into Locke!
WHOOSH to Hurley at Santa Rosa enjoying Connect Four with another patient. Hurley is obviously happy to be there and happy to take his meds. An orderly tells Hurley he has a visitor, and Hurley meets Matthew Abbadon. Abbadon tells Hurley he's an attorney for Oceanic Airlines and offers Hurley an "upgrade" from Santa Rosa. But Hurley gets a strange vibe from Abbadon, a sense that something is wrong. He doesn't want to talk to Abbadon, but he slams Hurley with a simple question: are they still alive? Hurley freaks out and calls for help. By the time the orderlies rush over to help, Abbadon is gone.
Later, Hurley has another visitor Charlie. Charlie asks Hurley not to run like he did in the convenience store. Charlie tells him there's something he has to do now, and Hurley knows it. They need Hurley. They need him. But Hurley doesn't want to listen. He closes his eyes and wills Charlie to disappear. When he opens them, Charlie's gone. WHOOSH back to the island. Jack and Rousseau follow Naomi's blood trail and discover that it dead ends. Rousseau realizes Naomi fooled them and doubled back. Jack reaches for the sat-phone to call the freighter and realizes it's gone. Ben tells Jack he saw Kate lift it off Jack when she hugged him. Cut to Kate following the real trail when she gets a call from Minkowski. He is impatient and senses Kate is lying. Kate hangs up on him and feels a drop of blood fall on her. She looks up into the tree and Naomi drops down right on top of her! In a flash, Naomi has the knife pressed against Kate's throat and demands the phone. Kate quickly explains what happened, that they would never do anything to hurt Naomi. Naomi talks to Minkowski and lies, covering for the survivors. She just asks him to tell her sister that she loves her, and then she dies.
Hurley catches up to his group in the clearing with the hulking shell of the cockpit behind them a memory of who they were and how they got there. Locke is with Hurley, and Sawyer is immediately on guard. Locke says he's there to do the same thing they are to warn Jack. Again. And maybe this time he'll have better luck with their support. Then Jack's group enters the clearing, and everyone is reunited. Hurley breaks the news about Charlie to Claire, and she is devastated. But before everyone can take in the tragedy --
BAM! Jack attacks Locke! Locke struggles to get his gun, but Jack torques it out of Locke's hand and he actually pulls the trigger! The suddenness of it surprises everyone. Jack is completely ready to kill Locke! But click. The gun isn't loaded. Locke maintains that everything he's done was in the best interest of them all. Kate joins the group and tells them Naomi died and that a team is coming to get them. Locke warns them that when the freighter people show up, they all better be far from here.
And then Locke gives them a choice. If they want to live, go with him to the barracks. If not, stay with Jack. Jack tells Locke no one is going with him, but then Hurley speaks up. He reminds them about Charlie. The last thing Charlie did was warn them the freighter people weren't who they said they were. Hurley tells Jack he's not listening to him. He's going to listen to his friend, and he goes to Locke's side.
Slowly everyone makes a choice. Claire joins Locke's side. And then Rousseau, Alex, Karl, and Ben. However, Rose stays with Jack. Even though she didn't want to leave the island, she isn't going anywhere with a man who threw a knife into Naomi's back and killed her. Sayid also stays with Jack, as does Juliet. Then Sawyer crosses over to Locke's group. Kate asks him why, and he says he's doing the same thing he's always done. Surviving. Kate stays with Jack. Locke tells them they know where to find them if anyone changes their mind. Locke and his group leave.
WHOOSH to the Santa Rosa gym where Hurley plays basketball, and this time he's visited by Jack. Jack saw Hurley on the news and stopped by to see if he's okay. Hurley asks if Jack has talked to anyone claiming to be from Oceanic. Jack is confused, but Hurley moves on. He knows Jack is really there to see if he went nuts and was going to tell. Jack asks point blank is he? The real question is tell what, but that is for another episode. Hurley apologizes for going with Locke and says he should've stayed with Jack. Then he says they didn't do the right thing. It wants them to go back, but Jack is insistent they are never going back.
WHOOSH to the island as Jack and Kate start back to the beach camp when they hear a helicopter overhead. A spotlight shines down on them, and they can see it. But the chopper is in trouble. It struggles to stay in the air but then someone jumps out! Jack and Kate take off running and find the jumper on the ground unbuckling his chute. He sees them and smiles. "Are you Jack?"
Welcome to season four!
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