SPECIAL

Or, The Father and Son Episode

[Originally Aired January 19, 2005]

Michael and Walter get their flashback on, and we find out that Michael and the boy's mother were not married. He gave up his art career (shades of Claire's relationship here) and found work in construction. Meanwhile she's become a high-powered lawyer and is eventually offered a job in Amsterdam. She leaves with infant Walt, and Michael is devastated. Later Michael and Susan argue on the phone and a distracted Michael gets hit by a cab. Ouch. He spends a year in rehab. Susan comes to visit him, alone, and tells him she's getting married. On the island, Locke teaches Walt how to throw knives. Michael is again annoyed with Locke and tells him to stay away from his boy. Michael waves a knife in Locke's face and so Boone wrassles him to the ground. Boone is very protective of Locke. Michael decides he's gonna build a raft to escape the island. Most everyone thinks that's a foolish idea. Walt doesn't want to help, he'd rather read his Spanish comic book. Note, there's a oso polar in the comic. In frustration, Michael throws the comic into the fire. In flashback, Susan and her husband and Walt have moved to Australia, but on this afternoon she's feeling a little ill. Walt is reading about birds and while doing so a bird smacks into the window and dies. On the island Walt goes missing. Michael gets in Locke's face and asks where the boy is. Locke doesn't know, he told Walt to stop hanging around him. Charlie gets Claire's diary from Sawyer and starts reading it. He finds passages about a recurring dream of a black rock. Sayid mentions there is a black rock on the maps he took from Rousseau. Maybe it means something. Michael and Locke head into the jungle to find Walt. They hear him screaming and they hear some growling. Another polar bear! The beast has Walt trapped. Susan dies, and her husband tells Michael he can have the kid. Michael figures out the husband doesn't want Walt because he's "different." Michael gets in his face and says he's the only father the boy has ever known. Despite wanting to be in the boy's life, Michael knows that losing both his mother and surrogate father is too much for the boy. Nonetheless, Michael heads to Australia to pick him up. Walt's nanny gives Michael a small box. Michael opens it and discovers all the letters and cards he sent to his son. Susan never gave them to Walt, but kept them. Meanwhile Michael is able to save Walt from the polar bear. He is grateful for Locke having helped him find his boy. Later, Michael give Walt the box of letters. Boone and Locke head into the jungle to look for Walt's dog. While on their search they instead find Claire.