Lost Season 1 Episode 05 - White Rabbit

White Rabbit is the Episode #5 of Lost Season 1.
Featured character: Jack.
This episode aired on October 20, 2004.

As the eye opens, we see a trickle of blood beginning to flow from a cut just above it. We pull back to see a boy laying flat on his back. Beside him another boy is being ruthlessly beaten against a school yard fence. “Walk away now and you won’t get your ass kicked,” says the bully. And the truth of it is, walking away would definitely be the smart thing for him to do - the bully is much bigger than he is. But the boy against the fence is in real trouble and, mixed in with the pain and the terror there is something else written on his face - written so clearly you’d have to be blind not to see it. Please, help me! The first boy is up in a flash and goes to help his friend, but he’s grabbed from behind by the bully and spun around, the bully’s fist already cocked and ready to fire. “Should’ve stayed down Jack.” WHAP! Lights out.

That was a Young Jack. Back in real time, Charlie races down the beach towards him, rousing Adult Jack from his FLASHBACK. “Jack! JACK! There’s someone out there!” Charlie points out to the ocean - And oh my God, there IS someone out there yelling for help and struggling to stay afloat. Before Charlie can explain that he doesn’t know how to swim, Jack is in the water, pounding through the surf towards the target. When he gets there, he scans the surface and finds nothing but open water. He dives under. Nothing. He dives again and he’s down there a long time until he’s up and he’s got someone with him. It’s Boone! And just as we’re about to breathe a sigh of relief, Boone asks a terrible question: “Did you get her?” Did he get who? “That woman, did you get her?” Jack turns around and, sure enough, there is someone else further out, calling for help and about to go under. Kate and Charlie take an exhausted Boone from Jack at the breakwater and Jack turns around and dives right back in. But we widen out we see the awful truth laid out before us. Jack can swim as hard as he wants, but there is no one left to save.

Back on the beach, while Kate is trying to prevent Jack from beating himself up for the life he didn’t save, Jack sees the man in the suit standing in the water. When he asks Kate if she saw him too, Kate recognizes that Jack’s exhausted and asks how long it’s been since he slept.

Meanwhile, Sawyer has begun his own business, providing luxuries to the survivors from the stash of goodies he collected from the wreckage and as the prices reflect, he’s got the market cornered in that department. “But don’t worry”, he tells Shannon; he’ll take a check.

Hurley and Charlie tell Jack that they are dangerously low on water. It hasn’t rained in a few days and there are 47 people to take care of. Jack has to point out the mathematical error. Better make that 46. They want Jack to decide what should be done, but he wants no part of it.

In FLASHBACK we see young Jack in his father’s study receiving a very important lesson on what it takes to be a leader. He tells Jack he doesn’t have it. And while that might not be the easiest lesson to learn, Jack needs to know there are consequences for getting involved in other people’s business. Consequences like that shiner on his eye.

Back in real time, Jack is speaking with Boone when he sees the man in the suit again. This time, he’s not going to let him get away. He races off into the woods and sees the man standing there with his back turned. When he turns around, the shock knocks Jack right off his feet because the man in the suit looks an awful lot like his FATHER!

On the beach, the heat and the lack of water are taking their toll. When Claire faints, the others rally to her side, but when they go to give her some of the precious water, they make a frightening discovery; it’s all gone - stolen! Locke offers to go into the jungle to find more - just enough to keep Claire going.

IN FLASHBACK, we see Jack back in the same study, but he’s older now - the Jack we know on the Island. His mother tells him that his father is missing and that it’s Jack’s fault. She tells him to go and bring his father back home. Jack asks his mother where he is. She answers, Australia.

In the jungle, Jack races after the man in the suit. Just as he is getting close, he trips and falls down an incline, barely catching himself on a vine before falling off a cliff. He hangs there, slowly losing his grip on the vine. But just before he falls to the rocks below, a hand comes over and pulls him up. It’s Locke! He tells Jack that the others are all looking to him to tell them what to do. Jack doesn’t want the job and tells Locke about his hallucinations. Locke tells Jack that he should consider the possibility he is not hallucinating. But that’s impossible. Locke tells him that possible is a relative term, especially on this Island.

Back at the beach, Sayid and Kate catch Sun with a bottle of water. When they learn she got it from Sawyer, they confront him about stealing their supply. Turns out he didn’t do it and he can prove it - he made a trade with Jin, “cave-man style”. As Charlie does his best to comfort Claire, we wonder how long she can hang on.

In FLASHBACK, Jack finally catches up with his father in Australia - in the morgue. Back in reality, Jack wipes away his tears as he sits alone in the jungle struggling with the loss all over again. Suddenly, the man in the suit crosses by again. Jack follows him through the dark and into an undiscovered part of the Island where Jack discovers fresh water and a COFFIN.

In the final FLASHBACK, we learn that Jack put his father’s coffin on the plane to fly back to California for the funeral. In real time, Jack finds that the coffin is EMPTY. In a fit of frustration at not being able to bury his father and the pure exhaustion that may be causing him to hallucinate, he destroys the coffin.

Back at the beach the water thief is caught. It was Boone! And just as the mob is about to have at him, Jack returns to the scene. He tells them they can’t go on like this. It’s been six days and rescue hasn’t come, they have to start accepting the idea that it may never come. He tells them about the water he found in the jungle and explains to them all that things have to change or more people are going to die. “If we can’t live together, we’re going to die alone.”

This entry is from Oceanic Flight 815 episode guide.