Season 1, Episode 14:

Special

Michael looks around for Walt, who has taken Vincent for a walk and wandered off. Jack and Charlie both haven't seen him. Hurley comments that Michael seems to hate being a dad, but Jack is more sympathetic.

Michael and his girlfriend, Susan, are picking out a crib for their soon-to-be-born child. Michael insists on getting the best crib he can find, while Susan balks at the price. Michael plans to give up his art career for a short while, until Susan finishes law school, to help support his new family. He suggests naming the baby Walt, after his father. Susan agrees, but since they are unmarried, wants Walt to have her last name: Lloyd.

Walt is with Locke and Boone, practicing throwing knives at a tree. His first attempt glances off the side. Locke encourages him to visualize his target before throwing. Walt concentrates hard... then perfectly impales the knife in the tree. Michael shows up, agitated, takes the knife and orders him to take Vincent back to camp. Michael is furious at Locke for letting Walt have a knife, and points it at him threateningly. Boone tackles Michael, and they have a minor scuffle. Locke criticizes Michael's parenting, saying that the reason Walt looks up to him and not Michael is because he treats him like an adult. Michael orders Locke to stay away from Walt and him.

Susan has gotten a new job offer in Amsterdam, and wants to take Walt with her against Michael's wishes. Susan also suggests taking a break from their relationship. Michael protests, but Susan has already taken the job, and she points out that as an unmarried couple, and with Michael being out of work, any court would like give custody of Walt to her.

Sun notices Michael's emotional turmoil and asks if he is alright. Michael confides his difficulty relating to Walt to her. He admits he's afraid of Walt having to grow up on the Island. Sayid and Shannon discuss Rousseau's maps with Jack. Sayid believes they point to the location of her transmission signal. Michael interrupts, and argues that they need to make greater progress in getting off the Island instead of taking more missions in the jungle. He suggests they build a raft from parts of the fuselage and bamboo trees. The others are unenthusiastic, but Michael says he's doing it with or without their help. Walt struggles to read a comic book that's written in Spanish, featuring a polar bear. Michael tries to relate to Walt by talking about his time as an artist, but Walt is uninterested. Michael angrily snatches the comic and tells Walt he needs his help with something.

Michael is on the phone to Susan. He overhears her talking to another man on the other end. Susan admits that she's seeing Brian, the man who hired her. Michael declares that he's coming to Amsterdam to get Walt, but after he hangs up, he steps into the street and is hit by a car.

At the beach, Charlie is looking through Claire's things for her diary, but Kate tells him somebody's already taken it. Michael and Walt are working through parts of the plane to found out what materials they have, which Walt treats as a punishment. Kate and Charlie approach Sawyer to ask for Claire's diary. Charlie demands he hand it over. Sawyer taunts him about wanting to know what she wrote about him, but Charlie insists he wouldn't read it. Sawyer pushes Charlie too far, and gets a punch in the stomach for his trouble. He punches Charlie back in the face, but Charlie shrugs it off and Kate steps between them.

Walt sees Locke and Boone heading into the jungle, and follows them, telling Michael he's getting water. Shannon quizzes Boone on what he's been up to with Locke, and Boone harshly insults her. Shannon says she plans to help Michael with the raft, and asks for Boone's help, but he rebuffs her. Locke tells Walt that Michael doesn't want them spending time together, and that he needs to show him more respect. However, Michael comes across them at the wrong moment, and snaps at Locke. Locke offers Michael a pencil as a peace offering, but Michael threatens to kill him if he sees him with Walt again. Walt gets angry at Michael, and accuses him of never caring about him because he wasn't around for his whole life. He tells Michael that he is not his father. Michael retaliates by burning Walt's comic book. Several survivors watch on, concerned.

Michael is recovering in the hospital. He draws a picture for Walt and makes small talk with a doctor. Susan shows up, and apologizes for how their last call went. She tells Michael that she and Brian are getting married and moving to Italy. She asks Michael to allow Brian to adopt Walt, saying that it's what's best for him.

Hurley tells Michael that Walt has run off. Michael confronts Locke, but he has no idea where Walt is. The two of them set off to look for him together. At the caves, Kate talks to Charlie about Claire. When Kate leaves, Charlie comically fumbles around with Claire's diary for a minute before putting it away. In the jungle, Walt wanders aimlessly before realizing something is wrong when Vincent starts barking and runs off.

Susan and Brian are discussing work while Walt does his homework. Susan is feeling unwell. Walt talks about the birds in his book, but neither of them are listening. Walt grows increasingly annoyed, until a bird suddenly crashes into the window. Brian is surprised to see that it's the same species as the bird Walt was pointing out in his book.

Walt runs after Vincent. Something growls in the bushes, and moves towards him.

Brian comes to see Michael. He tells him that Susan is dead, from a blood disorder. He claims that Susan wanted Michael to have custody of Walt. Michael points out that he hasn't been part of Walt's life for nine years, but Brian says that he never wanted to be a father and only agreed to adopt Walt for Susan. Michael sees through Brian's lies, and figures out that this was his idea. Brian says that Walt is "different somehow".

Locke and Michael hear Walt screaming for help.

Michael is at Brian and Susan's house. Walt's nanny gives him a box of all the letters he sent Walt over the years, that Susan never gave him.

Walt is hiding in a bamboo thicket from a polar bear that is trying to break through to him. Locke climbs a tree and tells Michael to follow him.

Michael meets Walt for the first time that Walt can remember.

Locke and Michael cross a branch connecting the tree they climbed to where Walt is. Michael nearly falls, but Locke catches him. Locke throws his knife to Michael, who throws it to Walt and tells him to use it if he has to. Walt stabs the bear in the eye. Michael climbs down and grabs Walt, and Locke pulls Walt up. Michael stabs the polar bear in the throat and it runs off. Walt hugs his dad and apologizes. Vincent has disappeared, but Locke is confident he'll find his way back to Walt again. Michael and Locke exchange friendly nods. At night, Michael gives Walt the box of his letters. The two of them bond over his drawings. Charlie has given into temptation and is reading Claire's diary. He smiles when he reads what she's written about him:

Then he notices something interesting and runs to tell Jack and Sayid. He tells them Claire mentioned having dreams about a black rock, which was a landmark Rousseau had also mentioned visiting. Sayid theorizes that this could be what the map points to, while Charlie thinks it may be where Claire was taken, but Jack is skeptical. Locke and Boone look for Vincent, but instead find someone stumbling out of the jungle... it's Claire!

Tropes in this episode include:

• Arc Words: Although the word is never used in the episode itself, the episode title, "special", will be used frequently to describe Walt and other characters who have important destinies connected to the Island in the rest of the series.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Susan seems nice enough at first but quickly proves to be incredibly selfish with no regard for how Michael feels about her dragging Walt all over the world. She throws the fact that Michael isn't working in his face even though he only took construction work to support her through law school. Her husband Brian isn't much better, showing no concern for Walt after Susan dies and trying to palm the kid off on anyone who'll take him.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Susan claims that her job in Amsterdam, where she wants to move with a baby Walt, is an "offer"; when Michael presses the issue, she admits that she already took the job. She also claims that she wants to discuss the matter with Michael, but she ignores his attempts at compromise, throws his lack of available work in his face to make it clear that a court would likely grant her custody of Walt.
  • After Susan's death, Brian tells Michael that she wanted him to have custody of Walt. Michael, deeply bitter over Susan denying his parental rights, doesn't buy it, and Brian quickly fesses up that he only adopted Walt because Susan insisted.
  • Michael telling Walt that Brian still wants to be a part of Walt's life and that bringing Walt to the States is Michael's decision, not Brian's. Unlike Susan's selfishness and Brian's cowardice, Michael's lies are intended to spare Walt from finding out that the only father he's known never wanted to raise him and is fine with palming him off.
• Commonality Connection: Subverted; when Michael finds out Walt likes the comic's pictures, Michael tries to relate to him by talking about how he got his start as an artist by looking at comic pictures, but Walt's not interested in the technical aspects like he is and loses interest quickly.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Shannon mentions "the fish song" on Rousseau's maps, much to Jack's confusion.
  • Rousseau previously mentioned "bears", implying what this episode confirms: that the polar bear Sawyer killed wasn't the only one on the Island.
• Creepy Child: Brian claims that there's "something about" Walt, calling him "different" and saying that "things happen" around him, implicitly including the bird incident listed under Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite disagreeing with Michael's parenting methods, Locke respects his insistence that Locke stay away from Walt, even telling Walt not to hang around him anymore and to show Michael more respect.
• Fire-Forged Friends:
  • Michael gets over his antagonism with Locke when the two work together to save Walt from a polar bear.
  • Michael and Walt's relationship improves drastically after Michael and Locke rescue Walt from the polar bear, driving home for Walt that Michael truly does care about him.
• Hollywood Law: Because Michael is not Walt's legal guardian, having forfeited his parental rights years earlier, he would be unable to fly with him unless he had a Child Travel Consent letter.
• Hypocrite: Despite being angry when Sawyer implies that he's read Claire's diary, Charlie can't manage to resist the temptation to read a bit of it himself, though this is treated as a heartwarming moment (as Claire included her feelings for Charlie in the diary), and Charlie acknowledges that he's "bloody scum" for reading it.
• Hypocritical Humor: Sawyer acts mildly insulted that Kate and Charlie would assume he took Claire's diary... then takes out the diary, having obviously not expected either of them to believe him.
• I Never Got Any Letters: After Susan dies Michael learns that she didn't give Walt any of the letters Michael sent him over the years, leaving the boy to think his father didn't care about him.
• I'll Kill You!: Michael angrily threatens Locke for ignoring his demand to stay away from Walt, promising to kill him if he sees Locke near him again. Ironically, he does this scant seconds after Locke has told Walt to stop hanging around him and respect Michael.
• It's All About Me: Brian and Susan are both incredibly selfish and focused on themselves. Susan strings Michael along so she can focus on her career and cheat on him with Brian (as well as being arrogant enough to assume that Michael's declaration that he's coming to Amsterdam is about her, not Walt). After her death Brian immediately tries to offload Walt onto Michael because he doesn't actually want to be a parent.
• It Began with a Twist of Fate: If Susan hadn't suddenly died, then Walt would still be in Australia and Michael would still be in New York.
• Kick the Dog: Susan, in addition to denying Michael any parental rights with Walt, refused to give Walt any of the letters Michael sent him over the years, though Michael reasons (possibly just to let Walt continue thinking well of his mother) that her keeping the letters instead of discarding them indicates that, somewhere deep down, she did want Walt to have them eventually.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Making fun of Charlie and Claire's relationship earns Sawyer a quick punch to the still-healing knife wound from the former.
  • After Brian gutlessly foists Walt onto Michael, Michael steals Brian's dog for Walt.
• Look Both Ways: Michael yells into a pay phone that he's coming to Amsterdam to get Walt. He runs into the street and is hit by a car.
• Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Rather than tell Walt that Brian effectively abandoned him and never wanted to be his father, Michael claims that Walt's new home arrangements are his decision, and that Brian loves Walt very much.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
  • After Walt gets annoyed at Brian for not looking at a picture of a bird in his textbook, a bird of the same breed flies into their window and dies on impact. Brian is clearly disturbed, but it's never proven that the event wasn't a coincidence.
  • Michael destroys Walt's comic book which prominently shows a polar bear. Not long after, a real polar bear shows up to menace Walt. Granted that we have seen one polar bear on the island already, it's still a huge coincidence.
• "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Michael's flashbacks reveal that Walt was named after Michael's father Walter.
• Papa Wolf: Michael is outraged when Susan first tells him she wants to take Walt to Amsterdam, insisting that she can't take his son away. After she dies he chews Brian out for neglecting the boy when he's grieving his mother. On the island he gets angry at Locke for teaching Walt to throw knives without getting Michael's approval first.
• Pet the Dog: Susan visits Michael in the hospital and covers the cost of his treatment and physical therapy... as a bribe to get Michael to give up his parental rights.
• Troll: Sawyer implies that he read Claire's diary to get a rise out of Charlie. Given that Charlie punches his knife wound, it works a little too well.
• Wham Shot: While Locke and Boone are looking for Vincent, they hear some rustling ahead of them...only to find Claire stumbling out of the jungle.
• You're Not My Father: Walt says this to Michael during an argument after pointing out that Michael was never around when he was growing up.