“Tabula Rasa”

Lost season 1, episode 3
Original air date: October 06, 2004

Much of the episode focuses on Kate's background, and how she ended up handcuffed to the air marshal on the plane. She was in Australia for some unknown reason — we don't learn that — and woke up with a farmer holding a shotgun in her face as she slept in his barn. He accuses her of trespassing, but then offers to make her lunch. He explains that his wife died, and he could use help around the farm. Kate agrees to stay, although she tells him her name is Annie, and she squirrels away the money he pays her in a jar in the pantry that she's hidden behind a board.

The farmer catches her late one night taking the money out of her jar, and he confronts her about the fact that she's obviously taking off in the middle of the night without saying goodbye. He convinces her to stick around until the next morning, and promises to drive her to the train station. She agrees, but while they're on their way to the train station, the air marshal pulls up alongside them. Kate knows that the farmer is planning to turn her in for reward money, and she takes control of the wheel to run the farmer's pickup off the road. The farmer is injured, though, in the crash, and Kate can't just leave him there. She drags him back to the road, where she's captured by the air marshal. From there, they ended up on the plane and in the crash.

Jack doesn't know any of this, but he does find Kate's mug shot on the air marshal as he's trying to save his life. Hurley also comes across the mug shot as he helps Jack tend the air marshal, and Hurley wants to confront Kate. Jack tells him that it's none of their business, though. He continues tending the air marshal, but has to go into the plane to salvage antibiotics from the carry-on luggage. While in there, he encounters Sawyer, who is scavenging for anythign he can find. Apparently, Jack and Sawyer are the only ones not squeamish about being around the dead bodies in the dark. Sayid organizes the other survivors into groups to collect rainwater, salvage any electronic parts they can find, and make a plan to ration their remaining food.

Kate does tell Jack about what they encountered on their hike, but she leaves out anything about her past. He's disappointed, but doesn't pry. However, Kate enters the air marshal's tent alone, and he wakes up and lunges at her. Jack encounters her wrangling with the air marshal, who then begins gasping for breath and is obviously dying. Kate asks Jack if he can't put the air marshal out of his misery, and that's when Jack snaps and tells Kate he saw her mug shot. He tells her he's not a murderer.

Meanwhile, Walt tells Michael that Mr. Locke told him a secret: a miracle happened to him. Michael scoffs that a miracle happened to all of them, and that's why they're still alive. He tells Walt to stay away from Locke. Walt is angry and says that Locke is his friend, and also accuses Michael of not caring about his dog. Michael promises to look for the dog as soon as it stops raining — which it does as the words leave his mouth. At the same time, the Korean man also tells the Korean woman that she really needs to clean herself up, so she heads into the jungle to bathe. While Michael is searching for the dog, he hears The Thing, and as he's running from it, he comes across the Korean lady bathing. They're both very embarrassed — he assures her that he didn't see anything — and she, again, gives no indication that she can speak English. Locke makes a whistle, which he uses to call the dog. Much to Michael's further consternation, once Locke has the dog, he tells Michael where it's tied, so that Michael can be the one to bring it back to Walt.

The air marshal is dying, slowly and painfully, and Sawyer asks Kate when she's going to use the last shot in the gun to put the air marshal and everyone else out of his misery. The air marshal insists to Jack that he needs to talk to Kate alone, and Jack reluctantly allows her to face the air marshal. When she does, the air marshal reminds her that as they were about to crash, she asked him for a favor. She says she wanted to make sure that the farmer got the reward he was seeking for her capture. The air marshal laughs and says that she's one of a kind. He asks if she's going to kill him, and as Jack and Hurley stand outside the tent, they hear a shot. However, Kate's already standing outside the tent as well — she gave the gun to the Sawyer, who shot the marshal.

Unfortunately, he missed, and only punctured a lung. Jack says that it'll take several hours for him to bleed to death, and that the marshal will be in pain that whole time. Sawyer storms out and throws his cigarette and lighter after he can't get one to light. The marshal gurgles and groans, and then falls quiet as Jack exits the tent.