Lost - Season 3, Episode 12 - "Par Avion"

The big question going into last night’s LOST was, Can the producers keep up last week’s momentum? Can they – for the first time this season – produce two good episodes in a row? The answer, in my opinion, is Yes. Although “Par Avion” did not have the suspense like last week’s action-packed, mythology-heavy episode, this episode had enough interesting revelations and progressive plot points to really get this thing moving. (finally!)

We start with the classic Lost opening shot, an eyeball. For the first time, though, it’s not a direct overhead shot. The angle is askew, the eyeball rolls drunkedly upwards. A girl with black hair blinks a few times and then opens her eyes. There’s a faint sizzle and cackle and hints of red on the girl’s skin.

It’s Claire, a younger version with jet black hair, and she’s in the driver's seat of an upturned car. The airbags have blown, their pillow-like balls deflated already. Half the windshield is missing. Consciousness returns to her face. She starts to realize what’s happening. She whispers, “Mom?” Panicked, she tries to force open the driver’s side door. It doesn’t budge. She climbs out the hole in the windshield and runs onto the street. Her mother is lying on the asphalt, her face bloody and her body still. Claire starts to cry, as a crowd gathers.

Eyeball again. This time, from the traditional overhead angle, so we know we’re back on the Island. Claire looks to the side to see a small tray of fruit in front of her and a little note that say, “G’Day!” Sleepy-eyed, she yawns and smiles.



Charlie enters, talking to Baby Aaron in his cheery baby voice. Claire is surprised by Charlie’s sudden brightness. “What’s with you, Charlie?” she asks. He’s been all doom and gloom for days and now suddenly he’s happy and cheerful. Charlie explains that he had a revelation this morning, instead of sulking around, he could seize the day (carpe diem!) and try and make the most of his time on the Island. He has a plan: leave Aaron with Jin and Sun and go have a picnic up the beach.

On the other side of the Island, the rescue party – Locke, Sayid, Kate, Rosseau, and their prisoner, Mikhail Bakunin – have stopped to talk about their progress. Sayid is studying the map taken from the Flame station. He’s trying to get Mikhail to offer some agreement or disagreement. They’ve been following the drawing on the map of electrical cables leading from the Flame to the Barracks, where the Others supposedly live. But Locke thinks they’re not going in the right direction. “The map is not accurate, more likely just a rough estimate.” Sayid shoots back quickly with a jab about Locke and his magic stick.

The two start to argue, until Kate intercedes by approaching Mikhail and asking me questions. Mikhail doesn’t respond and Locke asks, “Why are we keeping him alive? They won’t trade him for Jack!” Sayid responds with, “So you want to shoot him, like a dog?” “No,” Locke says, “I like dogs.”



Back on the beach, Charlie leads Claire (with her eyes closed) to the site of a picnic. Claire couldn’t be happier. A calm and clear day seems to be on the horizon. They don’t even have a chance to sit down before Desmond shows up and asks Charlie to join him on a boar hunt today. Charlie immediately goes all weirdo and says, “No,” instead opting to spend time with Claire, but he’s obviously curious to Desmond’s intentions. Claire notices the weird vibes and begins to ask them… Until she notices a flock of seagulls nearby. Her eyes light up. She says, “I think I know how to get us off this island!” Happily, she skips away, back towards the rest of the survivors, while Charlie and Desmond share a perplexed look.

Claire rushes back to camp. She goes up to Jin and Sun and asks them for some net and some fish to chop off to lure seagulls. Charlie and Desmond catch up. Charlie doesn’t understand Claire’s plan. “The birds are tagged!” she says. They’re migratory birds and they’ll fly south and someone will definitely find them. Finally they’ll have a way of communicating with the outside world. Charlie is still unresponsive. “I just don’t want you to waste your time,” he says.



In the past, dark-haired Claire is lying in a hospital bed. A police officer comes to ask her some questions. He asks her who was driving and Claire says she was. He asks her how fast she was going. Claire is offended. “We were hit by a truck!” She gets defensive, saying, “Don’t blame me!” The police officer explains he’s not assigning blame, but it’s procedure to ask these questions when there’s been a fatality. Claire gets even more offended. “My mom is not dead!” she shouts before the officer excuses himself.

In the jungle, the rescue party is walking through overgrown paths. Kate starts to ask Mikhail some questions. Rosseau tells her to save her breathe, that everything he says will be a lie. But, surprisingly, Mikhail starts to talk, to answer questions. He says he was recruited at the age of 24 and that he arrived on the Island by submarine. Kate asks him if they use the submarine to go back and forth off the Island. Mikhail says, “Yes, but not anymore. There was ‘an event.’ An electromagnetic pulse that has silenced the underwater beacon near the Island.” He speaks briefly about "The List" and how some people are on the list, and some people aren’t. Sayid accuses him of not knowing them and not able to judge whether they belong on any list or not. Mikhail shoots back with everyone’s real name. He even starts to talk about Locke, how he use to be “para-“

Rosseau cuts him off. “Look here!” she says.

The rescue party move away from underneath the trees and onto a huge clearing, dotted with metal pylons. There are round sensors at the top of each pylon and the pylons seem to stretch far in both directions. Hmm.



On the beach, Claire is working with Jin on their bird-catching net. Jin’s getting good with his English. When Claire asks him if this is going to work, Jin reassures her, “Yes. Work.” He then asks her to help Sun, who is carrying two large buckets of fish. They’re going to chop up the fish to create chum for the birds. Sun, smiling, says this is her mother’s worst nightmare, that she would end up with fish guts on her hands, married to the son of a fisherman. But then again, Sun says, “she never worked a day in her life.” Claire, sadness in her voice, says, “My mother was a librarian.” Sun is surprised by the comment, especially the past tense. But she doesn’t ask any more questions.

Back in the hospital, young Claire (she never actually gives her age, but I’m going to guess she’s suppose to be about 17) goes to see her mother. Her aunt is there and immediately challenges her, “Where have you been?” Claire says she went home to take a shower. “Oh good for you,” says the aunt. She obviously blames Claire for the accident. A doctor comes in and gives a diagnosis. It’s not good. Claire’s mother is in a coma and they won’t know the extent of the brain damage until she wakes up. “When will that be?” Claire’s aunt asks. The doctor shakes his head. “Could be a day, could be years.” Claire looks worried. “We can’t afford to keep her here,” she says. The doctor tells her not to worry, that all her mother’s medical bills have been taken care of. When Claire asks him by whom, he says he’s been asked to keep that confidential. Hmm.



Back on the Island, Claire, Jin, and Sun watch from a distance as a segull falls for their trap. Jin counts to three and is about to close the trap when a loud report sounds from the jungle. “Oh man!” Claire shouts. She jumps out of the jungle to find Desmond holding a rifle. He’s confused. He shot at a boar. “Oh yeah?” Claire asks, “Where is the boar?” Demsond doesn’t have an answer.

Near the pylons, the rescue party is locked in thought. They try to ask Mikhail what this is, but Mikhail asks Sayid what he thinks it is. Sayid says, “It seems to be a security perimeter.” They’re afraid to go near it. The round sensors will be able to pick up any movement and, well, they’re not sure what will happen next. There’s an easy way to find out, though. Locke takes off his pack and quietly walks behind Mikhail. He then shoves him forward into the security fence. Mikhail smiles and then turns around. He starts to make choking sounds and a white foam comes out of his mouth. His ears start to bleed and he collapses, dead.

Locke grinds his teeth and says, “Sorry.”



After a commercial break, Sayid and Kate start to accuse Locke of sabotaging their mission. “Why are you really here?” Sayid asks him. They start to look through Locke’s stuff and find some C4 taken from the Flame. More suspicions arise. Earlier, Locke had said he hadn’t known about the C4, otherwise he may have been more careful with the computer. Sayid and Kate are worried, what else could he be lying about?

Back at camp, a furious Claire approaches her tent and starts to ask Charlie where’s he been. He wasn’t with Desmond trying to sabotage her plan? Charlie says he was with Aaron the whole morning. Claire doesn’t believe her. And she doesn’t want her son to be near a liar. Once again, she tells Charlie to get lost.

In the past, Claire is walking through the hospital. A nurse informs her that a new doctor is with her mother, an American. Claire goes into her room. She sees a familiar face (to us, anyway). Claire’s aunt comes in and sees the man and tells him he doesn’t belong here. Claire starts to piece it all together. He’s the man who’s paying the bills. But, why? Claire’s aunt starts to throw a hissy fit. But the man says, “Claire has a right to know!” The man says, “Claire, I’m your father.”


Meanwhile, Locke and Sayid are chopping down a tree. At first, I thought they were going to try to jump over the barrier, but instead they use the tree as a makeshift ladder to climb over the barrier. It’s a risk, of course, that it won’t work or that they’ll fall off. But, Kate goes first and has a pretty easy time with it. Locke and others follow.

Back in Australia, Claire is working in a piercing shop. Mr. Shepard walks in and asks her out for a cup of coffee. Claire refuses, saying she doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. But, he begs her, saying, “one cup of coffee and I’ll be out of your life forever.” So she agrees. They talk over a cup in a busy shopping mall. He says that he and Claire’s mother had a “fling,” but that he visited her often when she was a baby. He brought her toys and sang to her. But Claire’s aunt didn’t like the fact that he had another family and he stopped visiting.

He starts to talk to her about her mother, about how they shouldn’t keep her alive “for the wrong reasons.” How pulling the plug would be illegal, but he knows other ways to relieve her pain. Claire is disgusted. She yells at him, “You’re suppose to be my father, but I don’t even know your name. And I don’t want to know!” She storms away.



On the Island, Claire is following Desmond across some rocky crags. He seems intent on his destination. Finally he reaches the end of a trail and starts to climb over a rock. Claire reveals herself, but Desmond says, “shh!” He reaches down and picks up a seagull. Claire is happy for a moment (just a moment!), before turning into her untrusting self again. She starts to badger Desmond with questions. “You knew exactly where you going! How did you know the bird would be here?” etc. Desmond plays the fool at first, but Claire doesn’t give up. Finally, Desmond glances at a nearby rock. “That is where Charlie falls, gets hit by a rock, and dies.”



In the final flashback scene, a blond, pregnant, Claire goes to see her mother. “There’s something I been meaning to tell you,” she says, “I’m pregnant.” She then breaks out in tears, apologizing for everything. Apparently, her and her mother were arguing in the car on the day of the crash. Claire had told her she wanted her to die. That must have been why she took the blame for the crash when it seemed like her mother was in the driver’s side. She cries for awhile, hopeful her mother might stir and wake up, but she doesn’t.

Back at camp, an apologetic Claire, with a seagull in her hands, goes to find Charlie. She says, “Desmond told me everything.” Together, they write a note to tie to the seagull’s leg, explaining about the crash, the heading they had been on, and the fact that they’ve been stranded for 78 days. They release the bird. Claire takes Charlie’s hand and says they will work together and that she has not given up hope on him. She’s not the lose hope type, apparently.

In another section of heavy brush, Locke, Sayid, Kate, and Rosseau are quietly searching an area. Sayid whispers, “We’re here.” They move into a small patch of ground behind some bushes. Ahead, they can see Otherville, ramshackle huts and people plowing and mowing. There’s a child running and a woman on a bicycle.

From between two bushes, they see a sweating Jack running towards them. Kate almost jumps up, but the others hold her down. Jack continues to run until he cocks his head to the side, stretches his arms, and catches a football. Smiling, he throws it back to an equally joyous Mr. Friendly. Jack makes a few exaggerated gestures as if he’s having the time of his life. The rescue party stare in astonishment.




Next week, Locke vs. Ben!