Season 2, Episode 7:
The Other 48 Days
The events of the Tailies' first 48 days on the Island are revealed. Ana Lucia wakes up in the ocean, and starts to help any survivors she can. She saves a young girl named Emma from drowning, and promises to reunite her and her brother, Zach, with their parents in Los Angeles. Goodwin runs out of the jungle, and brings Ana Lucia to help rescue Bernard, whose seat is stuck at the top of a tree. On the first night, several Tailies are kidnapped by the Others, although Eko kills the ones who try to take him. Afterwards, he stops talking. Ana Lucia proposes moving off the beach, but Nathan argues against doing so.
On Night 12, another group is kidnapped, including Zach and Emma. One of the Others is killed in the struggle, and Ana Lucia finds a list of names in her pocket. Ana Lucia accuses Nathan of being a spy for the Others, and throws him in the pit. On Night 23, Goodwin frees Nathan from the pit, then kills him, revealing himself to be the real spy. On Day 27, the Tailies find the abandoned DHARMA Station, the Arrow, with a working radio transmitter inside. Ana Lucia confronts Goodwin, having deduced that he is the real spy, and kills him.
On Day 41, Bernard uses the radio, and hears a voice on the other end claiming to be a survivor of Flight 815, but Ana Lucia makes him turn it off, believing it to be a trick by the Others. A montage covers the events since the Tailies met Michael, Jin and Sawyer, ending with Ana Lucia shooting Shannon.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Closest Thing We Got: Libby acts as The Medic for the Tailies, with her one year in Medical School making her the closest thing they have to a doctor. Unfortunately, she's nowhere near as skilled as Jack, so many of the Tailies die within the first two weeks after the crash. She's also at a disadvantage because the tail section hit the water and sank, so they have absolutely no medical supplies, unlike the fuselage survivors.
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Eko and Ana-Lucia have to perform CPR on Emma who ended up face-down in the ocean after the crash. It takes a few minutes for her to start breathing, and she's a little groggy afterwards, but is otherwise okay.
- Doomed by Canon:
- We already know that the Tailies have been reduced to just Ana Lucia, Libby, Bernard, Cindy and Eko by the time they meet Michael, Jin and Sawyer. Every other survivor either dies or is captured by the Others before that point.
- Goodwin is stabbed with a wooden spear and killed by Ana Lucia, who leaves his body at the bottom of the hill where it is found by Jin in "...and Found".
- Dwindling Party: The Tailies start out with 23 people. By the time Michael, Jin and Sawyer meet them they're down to five people and then Cindy disappears reducing them to four.
- Failed a Spot Check: It takes weeks before anyone notices that Goodwin wasn't wet in his first encounter with the other survivors even though they crashed in the water. This is especially egregious because, unlike the fuselage survivors, the Tailies have a crew member with them, and she neither notices that Goodwin wasn't on the plane nor that Nathan actually was.
- Fingore: Ana Lucia plans to cut off Nathan's finger to make him talk about the Others. Goodwin kills him before she gets the chance, reasoning that Ana Lucia might realize she has the wrong man if she goes that far and Nathan still insists he was on the plane.
- Foregone Conclusion: Eko's vow of silence is over by the end of the episode, since the audience already knows that he is talking again by the time of "Adrift".
- Foreshadowing:
- Ana Lucia partly bases her suspicions of Nathan on the fact that it was his idea for the Tailies to stay at the beach, where they were an easy target for the Others. The real spy, Goodwin, is the first person to agree with him.
- Ana Lucia visibly hesitates before saying no when Goodwin asks her if she has any kids.
- The glass eye in the Arrow foreshadows an important character with one eye who appears in Season 3.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: The things Ana Lucia endures over the course of the episode ensure that by the time of the fatal encounter with Shannon, she's ready to shoot at literally anything that might be a threat.
- He Knows Too Much: Inverted. Goodwin kills Nathan because he doesn't know anything about the Others. While he's been a convenient scapegoat to that point, Goodwin knows that Ana Lucia might start to realize that he's telling the truth about having been on the plane if he continues to stick to his story after she cuts off his finger.
- Jerkass: Nathan is rude and belligerent to everyone, which is why the group finds it so easy to believe he is one of the Others. Goodwin even says that the reason the Others didn't kidnap him is because he wasn't a good person.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Ana Lucia is frequently right: for instance, there's nothing they can do for Donald; the group is under siege by the Others, meaning they need to be security conscious and need to find a safer place. But her angry manner and harsh leadership style make her very hard to get along with.
- Lower-Deck Episode: The episode focuses on the Tailies' first 48 days on the Island, with the show's usual main characters only appearing in a brief retread of the events that occurred after the Tailies met them.
- The Mole: Goodwin pretends to be one of the Tailies to spy on them for the Others, just as Ethan did with the main survivors.
- Mood Whiplash: The sombre scene of Donald's burial cuts to the Tailies comically chasing after a chicken to catch for dinner.
- Neck Snap: Goodwin kills Nathan this way after helping him out of the hole.
- Once More, with Clarity:
- The other side of Boone's radio call from the beechcraft in "Deus Ex Machina" is shown, revealing that Bernard was the voice on the other end who said "We're the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815."
- Jin, Michael and Sawyer's first encounter with the Tailies in "Adrift" is shown from the Tailies' point of view.
- Red Herring: Nathan has a similar name to Ethan, claims to be from Canada like Ethan did, is a Jerkass, and generally behaves suspiciously, leading both Ana Lucia and the audience to believe that he is a spy for the Others. It turns out that he's innocent, and Goodwin is the real spy.
- Red Shirt: Donald, a man who breaks his leg in the crash and dies from an infection a few days later to highlight how the Tailies were worse off than the main survivors due to not having an actual doctor like Jack for medical expertise.
- The Reveal: This episode finally clarifies whether Goodwin was an Other or was killed by the Others with the reveal that he was a spy.
- Shown Their Work: Although Ana-Lucia's use of CPR on Emma is a pretty standard case of Clean Pretty Reliable, she uses only one arm, which is the recommended method for administering CPR to a young child in real life.
