Lost/Born to Run

Born to Run
Season 1, Episode 22
Airdate	May 11, 2005
Production Number	121
Written by	Javier Grillo-Marxuach (story) Edward Kitsis (teleplay) Adam Horowitz (teleplay)
Directed by	Tucker Gates
← 1x21 The Greater Good	1x23 → Exodus (1)
Lost — Season One

Born to Run is the twenty-second episode of the first season of Lost, and is the twenty-second episode overall.

With construction of the raft nearing completion, Kate has a special request for Michael - she wants to be on it when it sails. During a water break, Michael keels over in pain. Jack examines him and discovers that he was been poisoned. Jack and Locke's investigation of the crime leads to a crashing revelation about Kate's past.

Starring: Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Maggie Grace (Shannon), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Malcolm David Kelley (Walt), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Harold Perrineau, Jr. (Michael), Ian Somerhalder (Boone).

Guest Starring: MacKenzie Astin (Tom Brennan), Daniel Roebuck (Leslie Arzt), Beth Broderick (Diane Janssen).

Co-Starring: Anosh Yagoob (Sanjay), Tamara Lynch (Nurse).

Plot Overview

The Island

• With castaways gathered around Michael's raft, Arzt explains that the next time they can launch is in three to four months. They're on the cusp of monsoon season and, when it hits, the trade winds are going to begin blowing to the south. Since the raft goes with the wind, and the only land mass south of where they are is Antarctica, they need to launch the raft immediately or wait for months.
• Kate asks Michael if he's all ready to leave the next day. Michael asks her why she's suddenly so interested in the raft and she tells him she's going with them. He tells Kate that they have four people and the raft is full. Even though the first raft burned, Sawyer still bought himself a ticket onto the raft. Kate then asks if Walt is going since it's going to be dangerous, but Michael tells her he's deciding what's best for his boy and he's getting him off the island. After talking with Sawyer, Michael tells him that he might be the wrong guy to go on the raft and lets him know that Kate is vying for his spot. Sawyer confronts Kate and tells him he knows why she wants to go on the raft so badly - she was the Marshal's prisoner - and the only chance of running is getting on the raft. Kate lets him know that if she wants the spot, she'll get his spot.
• By Locke's request, Sayid brings Jack to the hatch - it's time they talked about it. Locke tells Jack that he's known about it for about three weeks. Jack asks how they're going to open it, but Sayid tells them they should bury it and that he brought Jack to talk Locke out of trying to open it.
• At the raft, Michael talks to Walt about leaving the island. He drinks some water out of a bottle and then keels over in pain, telling Walt to get Jack. Walt finds Kate and Sun in the jungle and tells them about his father. Sun heads back to Michael with Walt while Kate finds Jack in the jungle. Jack looks Michael over and tells him he needs to lie down. Locke asks Jack what he thinks it is, and Jack tells him it was something in Michael's water. Jack gives Michael a new bottle of water to drink out of and Michael believes Sawyer was the one who tried to poison him. Jack asks Kate if she did it, but Kate just asks him if he really thinks she's capable of doing such a thing. Back at the raft, Michael tells Sawyer that he's off the raft and their deal ended the minute he decided to poison him. Sawyer grabs Kate and brings her over to Michael, telling her to tell Michael who the real criminal is. He empties her backpack and picks up a passport, handing it to Michael. The passport is Joanna's, the woman who drowned, but with Kate's picture. Kate finally tells those gathered around the raft that she was on the plane with the Marshal, but she didn't poison Michael. Michael gives the passport to Sawyer and everyone disperses, leaving Kate by herself. Later that night, Sawyer lets Kate know that he's back on the raft and they're setting sail the next day. She asks him why it's so important for him to be on the raft, and he tells her it's because there's nothing on the island worth staying for.
• Out in the jungle, Walt approaches Locke who is tending to the wound from the earlier trebuchet attempt. Walt tells him that he wasn't the one who made his dad sick. Locke tells him they're friends, that he isn't going to tell on him and he knows he wouldn't do anything to hurt his dad. Locke touches Walt's wrist, but Walt pulls his arm away and draws back. Walt tells Locke to not open that thing and rushes off before Locke can question him further.
• Jack talks to Sun and asks her if Jin leaving was the reason she tried to make him sick, but with him and Michael working together all the time it was easy for them to mix up their water bottles. She tells him she didn't want to see him die out there and that she wasn't trying to hurt him. Jack tells her he sees no reason to tell the others. Afterwards, Sun tells Kate that she didn't tell Jack it was her idea.
• At night, Walt tells Michael that he was the one who burned the first raft because he didn't want to leave. Michael tells him it's okay and they can stay here and not go, but Walt tells him they do have to go.

The Flashback

• Flashback: Kate

A car drives up to a motel and Kate, as a blonde, gets out and changes the car's Nebraska plates to Ohio plates. A family leaves one of the motel rooms, leaving the door slightly ajar. A maid walks by with a cleaning cart and stops to go inside and clean the adjacent room. Kate grabs a towel and shampoo off the cart and walks into the motel room, putting out the Do Not Disturb sign. She dyes her hair and takes a shower before going to the motel office and telling the clerk that she's expecting a letter for Joan Hart. She reads the letter in her car and cries.

In Iowa, Kate shows up at a hospital carrying a large bouquet of flowers. She tells a nurse that she has a delivery for Diane Janssen and is informed she just came up from the intensive care unit and is right around the corner. Kate rounds the corner and sees an officer guarding the door to the room. She moves the bouquet to put it between herself and the officer, hiding her face, and walks by. In the parking garage, a doctor gets into his car and Kate pops up from the backseat saying "Hey, Tom". Tom asks her why she's here and Kate tells him Diane's dying of cancer and she wanted to see her. She needs his help.

At his house at 2am that morning, Tom calls his hospital asking to get some time on the MRI as a favor. Kate takes a look at a picture of a baby on his fridge, and Tom tells her it's his 22 month old son, Connor. She tells Tom that Connor is beautiful, but Tom says it's all Rachel and not him. She asks him where Rachel is, and he tells her she's visiting her parents over in Cedar Rapids. He tells her he got Diane in for a 5am appointment for an MRI and so they have three hours to kill. The two drive out to a large tree on a farm where Kate counts off six paces and the two begin digging.

Kate and Tom unearth a New Kids on the Block lunch box that Kate opens. Tom picks up a toy plane and tells Kate he can't believe he let her talk him into putting his plane in there. Kate tells him it was his idea, pulling out a cassette tape from 1989. They play the cassette in Tom's car and the two listen to younger versions of themselves. A young Kate asks why he's putting his plane in there, and a young Tom answers that he got it when he flew to Dallas by himself and it's cool. Young Tom says they're going to dig the time capsule up in twenty years, but a young Kate asks him how he knows they'll still be together. Young Tom tells her it's because they'll be married. Young Kate tells him she doesn't think so, that as soon as she gets her license they should get in a car and drive. Young Tom replies that she always wants to run away, and young Kate tells him he knows why. The tape finishes and the two kiss. Kate apologizes and Tom tells her they should get to the hospital.

At the hospital, Diane is wheeled in on a gurney by a hospital worker for Tom. He motions the all clear to Kate and tells her he'll wait nearby in his office. Kate approaches Diane and asks her mom if she can hear her. She tells her mom that she's sorry for everything she's put her through. Diane starts calling for help, for somebody to help her, while Kate tries to calm her down. Kate rushes out of the room and into a security guard. She grabs his walkie-talkie and knocks him out as Tom arrives. She tells him she needs his car keys and the two head to the parking garage. The two get into his car and Kate tells him to get out of the passenger seat as there is a police car blocking the exit, but Tom refuses. She takes off down the parking garage exit; crashing into the police car and pushing it out of the way while the cop fires at them, and takes off down the street. But she crashes into a gold car and comes to a stop, where she discovers that Tom has been shot and killed. As another police car closes in on the accident, she's forced to leave Tom's toy airplane behind and escape on foot.

Notes

Answers

• Kate killed the man she loved when she tried to drive through a police barricade with him as a passenger. (1x12 - Whatever the Case May Be)

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The raft nears completion.
• Jack and Sayid learn about the hatch.
• Locke, Sawyer, Michael and other castaways learn that Kate was the one being escorted by the Marshal.

Characters

• By Kate's idea, Sun tries to make Jin sick so he wouldn't be able to leave on the raft.
• Walt warns Locke not to open "it", presumably the hatch.
• Walt tells Michael that he was responsible for burning the raft.

Referbacks

• Whatever the Case May Be: Kate told Jack that the model airplane she was after belonged to "the man she loved." This man was Tom Brennan, Kate's childhood sweetheart.

Trivia

The Show

• Dr. Arzt, I presume?: In German, "arzt" means "doctor".
• Katherine: We learn that Kate's real name is "Katherine".
• Gold Car: When Kate attempts to escape from the hospital in Tom's car, she crashes into a gold Pontiac. A gold Pontiac nearly hit Locke in the parking lot of his place of work in "Deux Ex Machina" and a gold Pontiac struck Michael Dawson and sent him to a hospital in "Special".

Behind the Scenes

• MRI: Tom schedules Kate's mother for an MRI so Kate can see her. MRI stands for "magnetic resonance imaging." However, a sign on the door in the hospital reads "magnetic resonance imagining." Most likely a production goof.
• Location, Location, Location: The scenes at the hospital's parking garage were filmed at the Pearlridge Center in Aiea on Oahu.
• Nielsen Ratings: On its original airing this episode scored 16.6 million viewers for ABC, being the highest rated scripted series of the night among networks.

Memorable Moments

• Charlie writes a song entitled "Monster Eats the Pilot".

Quotes

• Charlie: Platinum.
  Kate: Platinum?
  Charlie: As in platinum record. As in a million units sold. Now, Drive Shaft's albums must've... spiked... when everybody found out that I died in some catastrophic plane disaster. But when I come back? Alive! It's gonna be insane.
  Kate: So you think the raft's gonna work?
  Charlie: Of course it will work. Look at that thing. It's not a raft. They built a sodding boat. When they get picked up, the helicopters will come, making us ridiculously and eternally famous.
• Jack: How long have you known about this?
  Locke: Three weeks, give or take.
  Jack: Three weeks. You've been out here for three weeks digging this thing up and you never told me about it?
  Locke: All due respect, Jack, but since when do I report to you?
  Jack: All due respect, John, but you lied.
  Locke: How long did you have that case full of guns before you decided the rest of us needed to know? You used your best discretion. I used mine.
• Locke: We're friends, aren't we Walt? I didn't tell on you before, and I'm not gonna now. And I know you would never do anything to hurt your dad. [Touches Walt's arm and he pulls away] What's the matter?
  Walt: Don't open it.
  Locke: What did you say?
  Walt: Don't open it, Mr. Locke. Don't open that thing.
  Locke: What? What thing? What are you...?
  Walt: Just don't open it!
• Kate: Why is it so important for you to be on that raft?
  Sawyer: 'Cause there ain't anything on this island worth staying for.
• Michael: I'm gonna be on my feet soon and we'll be sailing home before you can even...
  Walt: I'm the one that burned the raft. I didn't wanna leave, and I thought I could stop you. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Dad.
  Michael: Hey, it's okay, man. We can stay here. You and me. We don't have to go.
  Walt: Yes, we do.