“All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues”

Lost season 1, episode 11
Original air date: December 08, 2004

Backstory: Jack and his father are in surgery on a woman who was in a car crash, but they can't save her. Jack refuses to let her go, though, even as his father urges him to call her death. Jack forces his father to call the death instead.

It turns out that Jack was called into the surgery by a nurse who was concerned by Jack's father's actions during surgery. Jack accuses his father of drinking before going into surgery and tells his father that the nurse saw his hands shaking. Jack's father is indignant at the accusation — although he doesn't deny it — and says that he was perfectly capable of handling the surgery. He gives Jack a speech about how he was tough on Jack so that he'd learn to make hard decisions and use his talent to its fullest. He lays his hand on Jack's shoulder and tells him he's proud of him, at which point Jack agrees to sign the joint report indicating that there was nothing that could have been done to save the woman.

However, Jack learns through the hospital's review process with administrators that the woman was pregnant. He's so shaken by this revelation that he tells the administrators that he needs to revise his report before it's finalized. He tells them that he knew his father was incapacitated during the surgery and that his impairment caused him to sever one of the woman's arteries. Jack says this caused her death, even as his father tries to shut him up.

Current: After Hurley reveals that Ethan wasn't on the manifest, Jack realizes that Charlie and Claire are missing. Jack and Locke go into the jungle to find all three of them, and they come across Claire's bag. Locke finds evidence of a struggle and then two sets of drag marks. Locke urges Jack to go back to the caves to organize a search party, but Jack forges ahead by himself.

Locke gets Boone and Kate to join him to catch up with Jack. Michael offers to join the search as well, and Walt wants to take Vincent to sniff out Charlie. Locke rebuffs Michael's offer, though, and Michael decides to go out on his own in the other direction. When Locke and the rest catch up to Jack, he's been going in a circle. Locke urges Jack to return to the cave to tend to Sayid and asks that he allow Locke to be the hunter. Locke informs Jack that, having hunted with Ethan, he knows that Ethan's far more knowledgeable than he himself is. Jack refuses to go back, though, and they move ahead. Locke begins tieing strips of red fabric to trees to mark their path.

When Locke forces them to stop for a break, they find one of Charlie's finger wraps, a letter "L." Jack believes that Charlie's leaving them a trail, but Kate points out that Ethan could as easily be doing it to throw them off. Kate and Jack split off from Boone and Locke, and they go in different directions.

While they're separated, it begins to rain, and Jack falls down a slope. As he's lying there, Ethan approaches him and warns him to stop following them. He beats Jack up and says that if they don't stop, he'll kill one of his hostages. Kate finds Jack, and they continue on. They find Charlie strung up in a tree, hung from his neck. Kate cuts him down, and Jack tries to resuscitate him but is unable. After several minutes of administering CPR, Jack and Kate give up. Charlie does come around, though, and they take him back to camp. He sits wordlessly in front of the fire, though. When Jack presses him, Charlie says he doesn't remember anything, except that they only wanted Claire.

Locke and Boone are still out in the jungle, and after dark, Boone says he's heading back to camp. As Locke tosses him the flashlight, though, it falls to the ground and hits something metal. They begin digging it out as the show closes.