Lost/Recap/S01/E05 White Rabbit

Season 1, Episode 5:

White Rabbit
Flash Back! As a young boy, Jack tries to stop some bullies from hurting another kid, and gets punched for it.

It's been six days since Oceanic 815 crashed. When he sees someone drowning, Jack swims out into the ocean and saves Boone, but Boone says that he only swam out to save a woman who was drowning. By the time Jack gets Boone back to the beach and swims out again, the woman has drowned. Later, as Jack angsts over not being able to save her, he again sees the older man in a black suit and tennis shoes (see the previous episode) standing in the ocean. He asks Kate, but she claims not to have seen him. Sun asks Jin what they should be doing, since it appears no one is coming to rescue them, but Jin insists that they don't need the other survivors. While reading Watership Down on the beach, Sawyer is approached by Shannon, who wants some insect repellent from his stash. He demands $5,000 for it, or at least an IOU, and she refuses. Hurley and Charlie tell Jack that their supply is water is almost completely gone; they keep asking Jack what to do, but Jack refuses to take on any kind of leadership role.

Flash Back! Young!Jack, his face covered with bruises, gets scolded by his father, Christian, for trying to help the other kid. Christian tells Jack that he shouldn't make any decisions.

"Christian: You don't want to be a hero, you don't try and save everyone, because when you fail you just don't have what it takes."

On the beach, Boone gets angry at Jack for saving him instead of the woman, and asks why Jack has somehow been appointed leader. Jack is distracted when he sees the man in the black suit and tennis shoes walking into the jungle and runs after him. When he gets close enough, he recognises the man as his own father, Christian. Stunned, Jack lets Christian wander off into the jungle.

Flash Back! As an adult, Jack is told by his mother, Margo, that Christian has gone to Australia after losing his job, which was apparently Jack's fault. Margo tells Jack to go and bring Christian back.

Determined, Jack sets off into the jungle. On the beach, Claire collapses and they carry her into Jack's tent. Charlie goes to bring her water and discovers that their supply is gone. Kate suggests searching for a freshwater source. Locke reminds them that things will get "ugly" when the other survivors discover someone has stolen the last of the water, and volunteers to look for Jack and/or another water source. In the jungle, Jack is wandering about aimlessly, looking for Christian.

Flash Back! In Sydney, Jack searches his father's hotel room and finds alcohol, pills and Christian's wallet. The hotel manager tells him that Christian hasn't been back in several days and when last seen, he was in a state of extreme drunkenness.

Christian seems to appear and disappear randomly, and Jack attempts to follow. While running after him, Jack trips over, falls down a hill and almost goes over the edge of a cliff, barely hanging onto a loose tree root. Locke arrives moments later and pulls him to safety. On the beach, Charlie brings Claire what little water he's been able to scrape together, and assures her that Jack will return soon and Locke will find water. He jokes around with her, and Claire thanks him for talking with her and not being intimidated by her pregnancy. Hurley discovers that Jin and Sun have some water; Sayid and Kate suspect them of having stolen it, but Jin indicates that he got the water from Sawyer. They follow him to his stash of goods but don't find any water; Sawyer says he traded the water to Jin for a fish. In the jungle, Jack and Locke discuss the survivors' situation: everyone is treating Jack like their leader, but he doesn't want the job because he believes he'll fail and that he "doesn't have what it takes". When Jack admits that he's chasing something, something he knows can't really be there, Locke compares it to the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

"Locke: If I came to you and said the same thing, then what would your explanation be, as a doctor?

Jack: I'd call it a hallucination. A result of dehydration, post traumatic stress, not getting more than two hours of sleep a night for the past week. All of the above.

Locke: All right, then. You're hallucinating. But what if you're not?

Jack: Then we're all in a lot of trouble.

Locke: I'm an ordinary man, Jack, meat and potatoes, I live in the real world. I'm not a big believer in magic. But this place is different. It's special. The others don't want to talk about it because it scares them. But we all know it. We all feel it. Is your white rabbit a hallucination? Probably. But what if everything that happened here, happened for a reason? What if this person that you're chasing is really here?

Jack: That's impossible.

Locke: Even if it is, let's say it's not.

Jack: Then what happens when I catch him?

Locke: I don't know. But I've looked into the eye of this island. And what I saw was beautiful."

Locke leaves to search for water, and tells Jack to keep searching for his "white rabbit".

Flash Back! At a morgue in Sydney, Jack identifies Christian's dead body. He's told that Christian's extremely high blood-alcohol level brought about a massive heart attack.

Later that night, Jack hears a sound in the jungle and follows it to a set of caves with a freshwater stream. He finds luggage from the plane, including a coffin.

Flash Back! At Sydney Airport, Jack argues with the woman behind the counter over whether he can check his father's body, already in a coffin and ready for the funeral, onto his flight.

"Jack: I'm standing in front of you in the same suit that I'm wearing to my father's funeral and I'm asking you a favor. In sixteen hours I need to land at LAX, and I need that coffin to clear customs because there's going to be a hearse waiting there. And I need that hearse to take me and that coffin to a cemetery. Why? Chrissy, why can't I just bring him to a funeral home and make all the arrangements? Why can't I really take my time with it? Because... because I need it to be done. I need it to be over. I just--I need to bury my father."

At the caves, Jack opens his father's coffin, only to discover that Christian's body isn't inside. In anger, he takes a large stick and smashes the coffin to pieces. On the beach, the survivors discover that Boone stole the water. He claims he was trying to take responsibility but the others don't listen until Jack returns and berates the survivors for their "every man for himself" attitude. He tells them about the water in the caves and starts trying to organise everyone, taking up the leadership mantle.

"Jack: Last week most of us were strangers, but we're all here now. And God knows how long we're going to be here. But if we can't live together, we're going to die alone."