Lost—Par Avion

Back story: Claire is involved in a car accident that severely injures her mother. She's left on life support, with her expenses being paid by an anonymous benefactor. The mysterious benefactor turns out to be none other than the elder Dr. Shephard. And he tells Claire he's her father. Wtf? Where did that come from? Wait a minute--I read about that in TV Guide or somewhere. Never mind. So Claire and Jack are half-siblings. Interesting. Claire doesn't appreciate Dr. Shephard's attempts to decide how her mother's condition should be dealt with. And he never tells her his name, so that would explain why she hasn't made the connection with Jack. Later, Claire visits her mother, who's still in a vegetative state in the hospital. Claire is now pregnant, so some time has passed. She breaks down at her mother's bedside, apologizing for everything she said to her mother right before the car accident.

Front story: Claire awakens from a dream to find Charlie and a fruit plate. Nobody makes me fruit plates. What's up with that? Oh, sorry, it's an aperitif not a fruit plate. Charlie has decided to quit being depressed. While they're heading out for a picnic, Desmond arrives and tells Charlie he might want to go hunting. Claire suddenly runs off, saying she knows how to get them off the island. This epiphany appears to have been precipitated by a flock of birds flying overhead. She thinks if they catch a bird that's been tagged, somebody will track them to the island and come to rescue them. Desmond scares away the birds, ostensibly by accident, but Claire things he did it on purpose. She confronts Charlie, thinking he had something to do with it. I'm not sure why. Maybe she's hormonal. Seeing Charlie and Desmond conversing, she follows Desmond. Desmond finds a bird and rescues it. Claire confronts him.Of course Desmond is trying again to keep Charlie from dying, and he tells Claire about it. Claire brings the bird, which is, indeed, tagged, back to Charlie. They attach a note to the bird and set it loose.

Jungle story: Sayid, Kate and Lock continue to explore with Mikhail and Rousseau, following the map. Kate interrogates Rousseau about her daughter, and Mikhail about his past. Mikhail tells Kate she's not on the list. Wait...does that mean Mohinder's going to show up looking for the people who are on the list? Mikhail seems to be trying to disconcert the others by revealing what he knows about them, which is rather a lot. Rousseau find a row of strange pylons. Mikhail says it was a security perimeter. John throws him through it and he dies a grisly, bloody, mouth-foamy death. Sayid confronts Locke about his motives and how much he knows, but doesn't get very far. Locke is being all closed-mouthed mysterious guy. They cut down a tree and use it to go over the top of one of the pylons. They find their way to what looks very much like a suburban neighborhood, where they see Jack playing backyard football.

I'm confused again, but that's pretty normal after an episode of this show. I thought the "book club" neighborhood was on a different island than the stowaways' island. Although that would put it on a third island, I guess, since the Others' island is definitely different from the stowaways' island. Locke's behavior in this episode--actually in several recent episodes--seems to be drifting more and more out of character from what we learned about him in earlier seasons. I find this bothersome. The thing about Claire's father seemed really out of left field. I have no idea where they're going with that and I have to wonder if they do, either. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out, and if the bird manages to accomplish anything. Birds, after all, are notoriously unreliable.