Season 2, Episode 15: "Maternity Leave"

The title of the episode
was "Maternity Leave."

ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS?

Sun asks Claire this which is what sparks Claire’s
memory of being in the medical hatch. She was
obviously drugged and had “agreed” to give her baby to
the Others for them to raise. They made it seem like
it was her decision, but she had been drugged. She was
clearly out of it and didn’t know what was going on.
It was an interesting contrast to see Ethan so nice to
her, when all we have seen of him before was evil and
bad. It also appeared that he had fallen for Claire.
He tells her that they are “good people. A good
family.” He says that if if they are going to take
care of her baby, she has to be sure. Then he gives
her a drink which she says tastes “sour” - he was
probably drugging her so she would “agree” on giving
it up.

VACCINE

The vaccine bottles that Ethan used were the same ones
that Desmond used in the hatch (and took with him when
he fled) They had the numbers on them: RX: 4 8 15 16
23 42. We also saw Claire being “injected” in a
similar way that Desmond injected himself when we
first saw him in the hatch. According to Ethan, the
vaccine is needed to “SAVE” her baby. He also tells
her there is not enough vaccine to save them both, and
that he will “miss her.” We later find out they are
going to cut the baby out of her and she will die. Why
would they not just let her deliver the baby
naturally? And what is it they the Others think they
need to take these injections for? If there truly is a
“sickness” or “infection” out there, why haven’t the
other survivors gotten it yet?


MOBILE PLANES

The planes on the mobile were also the same that
Claire saw in her dream in Season One. It was in the
episode "Raised by Another,” when Claire has the
nightmare about Aaron and finds the crib with blood.
The mobile is over the crib but it's a regular crib
(like the one in the medical hatch), not the one she
and Locke made. Note she dreamt about this BEFORE she
was taken to the hatch. Also, the music that was
playing from the mobile in the hatch nursery was
“Catch a Falling Star.” This is the same song that
Claire asked the potential adoptive parents when she
met with them last season if they would sing that song
to her baby.

Also, the planes on the mobile are similar to the toy
plane that Kate got from the locked metal briefcase
that belonged to her childhood sweetheart, Tom, whose
death she is responsible for.

ALEX

So we find out that Danielle’s daughter, Alex, is in
fact alive and living amongst the Others. She is the
one who helped Claire escape, and ironically Danielle
finds her and helps to save her as well. Both mother
and daughter instinctively want to help Claire.
However, BOTH of them had to hurt Claire in order to
save her (to keep her from screaming).In the first few
flashbacks we think they are hurting her (covering her
mouth, knocking her out) but they were doing it out of
GOOD. Later on, Claire realizes how they both helped
her get away, and tells Danielle that the teenage girl
was “not like the others. She was good.” Interesting
because Alex was stolen at a week old and therefore
would have no memory of her mother and the Others
could have raised her to believe whatever they
believed. How then would she have such different
beliefs than those who raised her, and want to get
Claire out of there?

WHO IS IN CHARGE?

Who is the “he” that Zeke/Ethan were talking about?
Zeke tells Ethan that “He” is going to be mad. This
implies that Zeke is not the one in charge, as it
appeared before. This may be a long shot, but an
interesting theory is that Jack's father is running
the show. He could have faked his death. That is why
the coffin was empty. Jack's father was manipulative
enough! After he lost his medical liscense he had
nowhere to go. He could have gone to work as a
“doctor” for this psychological/experimentation group.
But he knew he’s have to disappear from the real world
therefore faking his own death. Maybe Jack wasn’t
hallucinating after all when he saw him in the jungle.
It would certainly be an excellent tie in to the
“connection” with the whole Jack/Sawyer thing, and
Sawyer meeting Jack’s dad at the bar in Australia.

THE DISGUISE

Kate finds lockers in the medical hatch with the
“ragged” clothes that we have seen the Others wearing,
as well as a fake beard and theatrical glue. Also,
when we see Zeke talking to Ethan in the hatch, he is
clean shaven. Not the “pirate” beared guy we have seen
before. The only time we have seen him dressed that
way was when he took Walt and when he met up with
Jack/Locke in the jungle. He is purposely disguising
himself when he meets up with the survivors, like he
doesn’t want to be recognized. Probably he just
doesn’t want them to know that he is clean-shaven,
well-dressed, etc. because then they would wonder how
he is able to live on the island like that. He is
tricking them into thinking he is savage-like, almost
to SCARE them so they will stay away from him and the
rest of the Others. The Others don’t want the
survivors to find them or their hatches. Every time
they have found one of their hatches, they abandon it
(Desmond abandoned his hatch, the tail-section
survivors found a hatch that had been abandoned, and
after Claire escaped they abandoned the medical hatch
and took everything with them.) Why, though, when they
abandoned the medical hatch, did they leave the
lockers full of clothes and the beard disguise? Was
that an accident or did they want it to be found?
Where did they go? We know from the film there are six
hatches on the island. So far we have seen three. The
swan, the arrow, and now the medical hatch. The Dharma
logo on this latest hatch looks like a universal
medical logo.


HENRY GALE

He has been locked up in the vault for two days now.
According to him, he doesn’t know why, but he seems to
know alot about the survivors and I don’t think it’s
because the walls are thin like he said.(He is in a
combination lock vault, it is unlikely he could “hear”
everything going on outside). He has been watching
them for some time and I definitely think he is one of
the Others. Also, remember the story he told them
about how he got there (crashed in a balloon). That is
similar to Desmond’s “story” (he said he was on a race
around the world and “crashed” on the island). I think
all of the Others have a similar story as a backup
plan if they get “caught.” Soldiers when they are
captured lie about their names and take up the names
of fictional characters. Henry Gale is from The Wizard
of Oz (and that’s how the “balloon” connection ties
in.) But he definitely knows more than he is leading
on. Also, he knows how to push Locke’s buttons, and
that is exactly what he is trying to do. He asked him
if he was the genius or if he was the guy living in
the shadow of the genius (referring to Locke’s comment
about Hemingway) - this clearly made Locke very mad
because he knows that Jack truly is the one calling
the shots. This kind of goes back to his “Don’t tell
me what I can’t do” days from when he was first
paralyzed. He doesn’t like being in the shadow. Henry
was smart to know to try and get between Locke and
Jack, that will help his chances of getting out of the
vault if he can get Locke on “his side.” This is not
the first time Locke has been manipulated (his father
conned him out of a kidney, Sawyer conned him into
changing the locks to the guns, etc.) Locke is not as
smart as we think he is.I think he TRUSTS people too
easily, and that is going to hurt him.

THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV

Locke gave Henry Gale the book, “The Brothers
Karamazov.” (It is the story of a patricide and of the
four sons who each had a motive for murder: Dmitry,
the sensualist, Ivan, the intellectual; Alyosha, the
mystic; and twisted, cunning Smerdyakov, the bastard
child. Dostoevsky searhes for the truth--about man,
about life, about the existence of God.) Sounds just
like the survivors...bastard child, sensualist,
intellectual, mystic, twisted and cunning ...searching
for truth and God. Also interesting to note that the
book is about patricide- many of them have "father
issues", and quite a few of them are murderers too.

MR. EKO

Mr. Eko confesses to Henry Gale for killing the two
Others. I think he KNOWS that Henry is an Other and
was trying to get inside his mind (keep your friends
close, but your enemies closer). Then he puts the
knife to his throat and cuts off his little beard. I
think he does this as a way to scare Henry. The look
on Henry’s face after he did this was definitely of
fear. Eko knows that Henry is messing with Locke/Jack
and this was kind of a warning, because Eko could take
him down, and that was just a way to show him what he
is capable of. He knows that the Others wanted him. I
think this is his way of telling him not to mess with
him or try to take him again or he will kill them. I
think he “confessed” because he truly is religious and
is trying to redeem himself to be “good” but knows
that he had to kill in order to save himself.