Season 2, Episode 11:
The Hunting Party
In flashbacks, a woman named Gabriela Busoni convinces Jack to operate on her father, Angelo, who has a spine tumor, despite Christian's objections that the surgery will not be successful. Unfortunately, Angelo's heart gives out and he dies during the surgery. While comforting Gabriela, Jack kisses her. He apologises to Sarah for his infidelity, but she tells him that she has already met somebody else and is leaving him.
At the Swan, Michael steals a gun to go after Walt and locks Jack and Locke in a storage cupboard. He insists on going alone, even though Jack offers to help. Sawyer and Kate show up to let them out, and Jack, Sawyer and Locke go after Michael, with Jack telling Kate to stay behind and push the button. As night falls, they encounter Mr. Friendly and a group of Others. He reveals that they have captured Kate, who followed the group, and warns them to back off. The four return in defeat, and Jack approaches Ana Lucia to ask how long it would take to turn the survivors into an army.
Tropes in this episode include:
- And Then What?: Locke questions what Jack plans to do when he finds Michael.Locke: Well, let's say we catch up with him — Michael. What are you going to do?Jack: I'm going to bring him back.Locke: What if he doesn't want to come back?Jack: I'll talk him into coming back.Locke: This is the second time he's gone after Walt. He knocked me out, he locked us both up. Something tells me he might be past listening to reason.Jack: What? You think we should just let him go — write him off?Locke: Who are we to tell anyone what they can or can't do?
- Anger Born of Worry: Sun flips out at Jin when he tries to go after Michael.(In Korean) "Don't go! Don't walk away from me! While you were on that raft do you know how worried I was? I didn't know if you were dead or alive. I was out of my head. I won't go through that again."
- Ask a Stupid Question...: While trying to see where Michael's going compared to where the Tailies came from, Locke asks Sawyer if the clearing they're in is familiar. Sawyer dryly comments that they're standing on his favorite leaf, never mind that he was unconscious for half the journey.
- Awful Wedded Life:
- Jack and Sarah are cold and distant from each other in their first scene. He barely reacts when she says that her pregnancy test was negative.
- Jin and Sun have a call-back to when their marriage was this.Jin: Honey... I don't like being told what to do.
Sun: "Being told what to do" was my life for four years. I didn't like it much either.
- Character Development: In the first season, Jin was the one who wanted him and Sun to isolate, dominated her at every turn, hated Michael in particular, and didn't want to be involved in camp politics. Now, it's Sun who has to effectively pull rank to stop him from running into the jungle after Michael, who Jin now considers a friend, and demands that he stay behind with her.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Sarah calls Jack out for this in the flashbacks, telling him he "will always need something to fix."
- Didn't Think This Through: Locke bolted the air vent in the gun vault so that no one could just sneak in, but didn't consider if someone was actually trapped in there.
- Foreshadowing: Mr. Friendly calls for someone named Alex to bring Kate out.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Michael insists on going after Walt by himself with no real plan for how to take on the Others when he finds them, even after Jack offers to help him.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kate gets captured by the Others while tracking Jack, Locke and Sawyer, forcing them to give up on their hunt for Michael when the Others use her to make them back off.
- Poor Communication Kills: It's obvious from events in the next few episodes that the real reason Jack tells Kate to stay behind at the Swan is because he doesn't trust Locke or Sawyer to be alone with the guns. However, since he can't explain this in front of them, she gets the wrong idea, thinking that he doesn't think she can handle herself on the hunt for Michael, and goes after them to prove him wrong.
- Underestimating Badassery: Jack seriously underestimates the Others, and Mr. Friendly shows him just how wrong he is.Jack: I think you've got one guy up there with a gun. I think there's more of us than there are of you. I think if you had any real strength, you wouldn't have had to send a spy — Ethan.Mr. Friendly: That's an interesting theory. Light 'em up!(A load of torches are light, showing that the group are completely surrounded)
