Great show.

That's basically what I was trying to say. Err, except without the purgatory thing. I heard somewhere, it can't be purgatory because if you're in purgatory, you can't die again, and people have died on the island.


He was obviously a psychic. He not only did not accept Claire's money for the reading, twice, he gave her $6000 to convince her to get on the plane. He was that convinced that he had to do something to make Claire raise the baby.

It seems as though there aren't going to be any flashbacks in next week's episode (which is fine, as it looks like it's going to be amazing). Does anyone know if we'll be getting back-story episodes for Shannon/Boone, Michael/Walt, and Hurley? I'm trying as hard as I can to avoid the spoiler websites completely.

Another great episode, by the way. I'm really beginning to love all of these characters.

i'd have to see the show one more time, but I'm pretty sure the show ended just with Charlie saying to Ethan, "Where's Jack?" then Claire giving Ethan a strange look.

The came from the preview.

From the main Lost site:

"Raised by Another"
Air Date: 12/01/2004

Claire wakes to the sound of a baby crying, opens her eyes and looks down to find that she's no longer pregnant. She follows the cries to find Locke, sitting at a desk in the middle of the jungle. He relays a cryptic message to Claire—"He was your responsibility, but you gave him away. Everyone pays the price now." Then he looks up and Claire sees that one eye is light, the other dark. She runs away and stumbles upon a baby's crib, above which hangs a mobile with miniature Oceanic planes spinning in a circle. Claire reaches down to pick up the crying baby—but the crib is empty. She peels back the white blankets to discover her hands are covered in blood. Claire screams. A hand falls on her shoulder—she turns and wakes again to find Charlie, who tells her that she's having a nightmare. But his concern grows when he sees blood on her hands…

Charlie brings Claire to see Jack, who explains that she was sleepwalking and that the blood was a result of digging her fingernails into her palms. He questions her about her pregnancy—specifically about the date when she found out she was pregnant—which leads to—

A FLASHBACK—of Claire with her boyfriend Thomas. Both are panicked over the positive results of an EPT test. Claire is hesitant to accept the truth. But Thomas tells her that he loves her and convinces her that it could be a good thing for them to raise this baby together.

Back on the island, Charlie brings Claire some tea and offers to be her friend. But Claire is clearly hesitant again, unwilling to get close to him. Meanwhile, Kate tells Jack she is worried about Sayid, who has been gone for days.

Another FLASHBACK reveals Claire with a friend on a visit to see a psychic. The psychic seems legitimate when he asks Claire about her pregnancy. However, he refuses to go on with the reading when he sees something blurry in her future. With a look of panic on his face, he asks Claire to leave.

Back at the caves, Claire is sound asleep when someone sneaks up and covers her mouth. Charlie and Jack wake to her screams again and rush to her side. Though she appears to be alone, she claims that someone was trying to hurt her baby and stabbed her with some sort of needle. Charlie and Hurley immediately set out on the hunt while Jack tries to calm Claire. Hurley suggests they start to canvass, or at the very least, compile a list of names of each survivor on the island. In the meantime, Charlie volunteers to stay with Claire and look out for her.

Another FLASHBACK shows Claire and Thomas in the process of fixing up their apartment for the baby. But something is clearly wrong with Thomas, who's beginning to get cold feet and fears the responsibility of a baby. He goes as far as to suggest that Claire trapped him and walks out on her.

Back at the beach, Jack and Charlie talk to Kate. Jack expresses doubt that something actually happened to Claire -she was sleepwalking and woke up two nights in a row, screaming—her symptoms are textbook anxiety. Why would someone try to hurt her baby anyway? Jack is concerned that her stress level could trigger an early labor. He goes to Claire and offers her a sedative, suggesting that she may have been imagining things due to all the anxiety, to which Claire takes offense and packs up for the beach.

Hurley continues his census with a guy named Ethan Rom, while Claire walks toward the beach. We FLASHBACK to Claire re-visiting the psychic, offering him more money and requesting that he continue her reading -she needs to know the future now that Thomas is gone because she intends on giving up the baby for adoption. But the psychic tells her that it's crucial she raise this child herself, warning her that great danger will befall her if she gives it up. Claire runs out. But the psychic is persistent and calls her on the phone. He begins to offer an alternative solution, but Claire hangs up before he can finish.

On the island, Hurley gets registry info from Shannon & Boone. Boone suggests it might be easier if Hurley got the plane manifest from Sawyer. Hurley goes to Sawyer and doesn't even bother negotiating -he just comes out and asks. And, surprisingly, Sawyer gives it up.

Meanwhile, Charlie catches up with Claire on her way to the beach. Claire claims that the only reason Charlie wants to help her is because of his need to rescue the pregnant girl. As she tells him she doesn't need rescuing, she has a contraction. Charlie reluctantly runs to get Jack as we go into—

A FLASHBACK—to a lawyer's office, where Claire is about to sign papers giving up rights to her baby. But her pen runs out of ink and she can't bring herself to do it. She leaves and revisits the psychic, ready to take him up on his offer.

Charlie runs into Ethan and sends him to get Jack while he returns to Claire, whose contractions have stopped. Claire tells Charlie about the psychic as we—

FLASHBACK to the events she retells, where the psychic offers her money and a plane ticket to Los Angeles to meet a couple with whom the baby will be safe. But the tickets are for an Oceanic flight—and Charlie deduces that the psychic may have known about the plane crash all along and was consciously sending her and her baby to their death.

Meanwhile, Sayid returns to the camp with news of the French Woman, (a callback to the very first episode, when the survivors heard the French Transmission) announcing that they're not alone on the island. Hurley confirms this information with news that one of the survivors names wasn't on the manifest. And while returning to the caves, Claire and Charlie run into that survivor—Ethan Rom. Off of their terrified expressions, we cut to black.

Thanks for the recap, johnglass - my damned recording cut off right after Hurley mentioned that one name wasn't on the manifest.

I hate this irregularly-timed shows!!!!

One website's spoilers on upcoming flashbacks in episodes goes as follows (you said you were trying to avoid spoilers, but I didn't know if you actually wanted your questions answered ):

Where is the overweight black lady? She hasn't shown up in an episode for a while. Who else has been on "vacation"?

Thank you for posting the recap Johnglass

Not to rub it in, but that last 30 seconds was the best part of the episode!

No prob, now lay off the cold medicine!

Since "wild speculation" seems to be the norm for this show, let me try this one on for size.

Ethan Rom is an anagram for "The Roman". If we're looking at biblical references, Romans 8:15 is as follows:

Adoption was obviously a key component of tonights episode, and 815 is the flight number of the Oceanic plane that crashed on the island.

It's a bit of a stretch, but if it turns out to be anything I can't take full credit-most of the theory came from another board.

None of you have caught the biggest point of the episode. Locke had a black eyeball in the dream.

He's obviously been controlled by Vorlons.

(Man, you know what would be really scary? If we knew JMS was one of the writers on this show. Just imagine how THAT little thought would ratchet up the expectations. Not that it isn't great already.)

So should we be scared of someone named "Dolan" showing up?

Well...I for one am finding Charlie very annoying...he and the preggo chick have the mentality of children. I couldn't help but laugh at the abusurdity of them actually connecting 2 and 2 together and coming up with an answer.

For some reason I see this psychic guy as a con. I know the story is leading to him being a "real" psychic but I can't shake it. If a legit adoption was going to give her 20K plus medical and some benefits...I can only wonder what a baby would bring on the black market. As for the misdirection...isn't that what cons are about? I know it's not too likely but in the realm of reality it is the more logical conclusion. Add to that, the mensa twins' theory and I can't help but to run to the conman reason.

I guess we'll never find out what kind of bad stuff this Hitler-baby was destined to become.

Don't be a jerK!!!

Charlie annoyed the piss out of me during the Jack-Kate-Charlie conversation.

Jack: "Well, Claire's under a lot of stress..."
Charlie: "YOU THINK SHE'S A RAVING LUNATIC, DON'T YOU?!?!??!!"
Jack: "Uh, Charlie, I just mean..."
Charlie: "YOU THINK SHE'S JUST A BIG PREGNANT PSYCHO ATTENTION WHORE, DON'T YOU?!?!?!?!"
Jack: "Oh, geez, forget it."

everyone keeps saying that the baby would turn evil if Claire doesn't raise it - but the psychic was merely warning that something bad would happen to the baby...it would die, or something terrible would happen to it is what i got from his warnings....I don't recall ever feeling like it was going to be named damien by adoptive parents or anything....

What a show.

I am not sure where it is all leading, but I hope the show does come to an end at the end of the season.

The guy said that the baby needed her good influence in his life. Even if he didn't come out and say it would be an Omen-kid, I think it was at least implied that if she didn't influence him toward goodness, he might "fall to the dark side," or something like that.

I was just getting to say that. nobody has posted that anagram yet. not sure about the biblical tie in. could there be anything else roman?

also...Charlie had LATE written on his knuckles.

He's had LATE written on his knuckles since early in the show... either the second part of the pilot or the following episode, I think. I was looking forward to him "changing his knuckles" more often.

he's changed it to FATE, DATE, etc..

I believe that its our solemn duty as Lost fanatics to begin NOW a e-mail campaign to ABC to NOT FUCK WITH THIS SHOW ONE BIT!

No shooting location changes...no 'Very Special Episodes' no guest appearences by Lilly Tomlin and Ed Asner...no timeslot changes...NOTHING DAMMIT!

Then we need to flood the Smallville thread taunting them for not watching this show.


BTW, a friend told me he saw or read an interview with the creators that said that

did anyone else see this interview? Is my friend totally full of shit or just incredibly high (as usual)?

EDIT: actually IMDB just confirmed the story. (and you cuco birds probably posted this a month ago.)