Season 2, Episode 20:
Two for the Road
"I'm sorry." "For what?"
Written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Christina M. Kim.
Directed by Paul Edwards.
In flashbacks, Ana Lucia's mother confronts her over murdering the man who shot her. Ana Lucia quits her job. Working as Airport Security at LA X, she meets Christian Shephard, who invites her to come to Sydney with him as his bodyguard. He visits a woman, who stops him from entering her house despite his insistence that he wants to see his daughter. Ana Lucia decides to stop running from her problems and return to LA.
At the Swan, Ana Lucia interrogates Henry, who attacks and nearly strangles her before she is saved by Locke. She has sex with Sawyer, and steals his gun while he is distracted. Jack and Kate bring Michael back to the Swan. He tells them that he found the Others, and that they are worse off than the survivors, and that they can rescue Walt.
Hurley asks Libby to go on a picnic date with him. He forgets to bring blankets, so Libby heads to the Swan to get them. Alone with Michael in the Swan, Ana Lucia plans to kill Henry, but is unable to go through with it. Michael offers to do it for her, but shoots her instead, and then accidentally shoot Libby when she comes across the scene. He opens the door to the armoury, releasing Henry, then shoots himself in the shoulder.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Accidental Murder: Although Michael's murder of Ana Lucia is premeditated, he shoots Libby instinctively when she stumbles across him while searching for blankets for her picnic with Hurley.
- Apologetic Attacker: Michael apologizes to Ana Lucia before he shoots her.Michael: I'm sorry.Ana Lucia: For what?
- …But He Sounds Handsome: In hindsight, "Henry's" description of the leader of the Others as a "brilliant man" is this, since he actually is their leader.
- Call-Forward: Ana Lucia drops Christian off at the same bar he meets Sawyer in in "Outlaws". Christian even bumps into him as he opens his car door.
- Continuity Nod: The fake name Christian chooses for Ana Lucia is Sarah, the name of Jack's ex-wife.
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Locke hits Henry from behind with a crutch just in time to stop him from killing Ana Lucia.
- Cut Himself Shaving: Jack notices the wound on Ana Lucia's head when "Henry" attacked her, but Locke claims she slipped after he left the tap on on the bathroom.
- Deadly Deferred Conversation: In Ana Lucia's final flashback, she arranges to meet her mother at LAX when her flight lands. Not only did the plane end up crashing on the Island instead, but her death ensures that they will never meet again.
- A Death in the Limelight: Ana Lucia dies in her own centric episode.
- Dies Wide Open: Ana Lucia dies almost instantly when she is shot by Michael, with her eyes left open.
- Face–Heel Turn: Michael betrays the survivors by shooting and killing Ana Lucia and Libby, and then shooting himself to allow Henry Gale to escape.
- Foreshadowing:
- In the flashbacks, Christian is shown arguing with a blonde woman and demanding to see his daughter, whose identity is revealed next season.
- Ana Lucia tells Libby that "the guy in the hatch" tried to kill her. Both are later killed by a guy in the hatch, albeit a different one from who she's talking about.
- Sayid gives Hurley dating advice, telling him to take Libby to the same beach where he took Shannon. Given what happened to Shannon...
- Sawyer's line, "You too, Brutus?" foreshadows Michael's betrayal.
- From a Certain Point of View: "Henry" says that the leader of the Others is going to kill him for failing and being captured by Rousseau. True enough, inasmuch as Ben assumed the Henry identity after getting captured and he's going to "kill off" the alias once he gets home.
- George Lucas Altered Version: In "Collision," the man that Ana Lucia killed was named Jason McCormick. In this episode, he is referred to as "Jason Alder." The DVD release corrected her mother's line.
- Gut Punch: Libby's death was deliberately designed as this by producers, who were concerned that audiences would not have much of an emotional response to Ana Lucia's death alone, given her unpopularity. Libby's sweetness makes her death much more shocking, and hammers home just how badly Michael has crossed the line. It is also much more surprising from a meta perspective, as most viewers assumed that Libby would be safe until she had had at least one centric episode, especially since her reasons for having spent time at the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute remained unresolved.
- Kill the Cutie: Libby, a Nice Girl and The Heart of the Tailies, is killed by Michael. Enforced by the showrunners, who specifically chose to kill off Libby because she was so likeable to ensure that the audience would have the intended emotional response.
- One Degree of Separation: Once again, Christian Shephard interacts with a survivor in flashbacks, this time Ana Lucia. Agreeing to come "protect" him is the reason she was in Australia in the first place. She also saw Sawyer right before the two met in the bar.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Hurley makes a reference to Say Anything..., but Sayid doesn't get the reference.
- Redemption Equals Death: Ana Lucia gets past her need for revenge by choosing not to kill Henry. Her death follows immediately after.
- Sex Signals Death: Ana Lucia has sex with Sawyer, and then gets fatally shot a few hours later.
- Shout-Out: In the flashbacks, Sawyer says "I'm walking here!" when Christian opens his car door and bumps into him.
- Silent Credits: The usual percussive sound that accompanies the title card at the end of the episode is absent, replaced by the sound of the gunshot as Michael shoots himself in the shoulder.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Ana Lucia tries to get Sawyer's gun — she asks him for it, tries to steal it, and gets caught. She and Sawyer fight before he pins her down and asks her what she's going to do, and she kisses him, leading to them having sex. She steals the gun after when he's too distracted to think about it.
- Wham Episode: Michael kills Ana Lucia and Libby, and releases Henry Gale from his imprisonment.
