Maternity Leave (Lost)

"Maternity Leave (Lost)"

Maternity Leave is the 40th episode of Lost. The episode was directed by Jack Bender, and written by Dawn Lambertsen Kelly and Matt Ragghianti. It first aired on March 1, 2006 on ABC. The character of Claire Littleton is featured in the episode's flashbacks.

Plot

Aaron's fever

Aaron has become ill with a rash and fever, and Claire sets off in the night to find Jack for help. Locke intercedes and goes instead of her, while she remains behind at camp. While Locke is gone, Rousseau appears and tells Claire that Aaron is "infected." Claire has a sudden flashback where she remembers being injected with a needle while still pregnant. Kate sends Rousseau away, though Claire is now convinced that something is seriously wrong with Aaron.

Claire remembers her abduction

Jack assures Claire that Aaron is fine and the fever will soon break, but Claire is still unsure. She speaks to Libby, who helps her recall memories from the two weeks when she was abducted by an Other named Ethan Rom. Claire remembers what resembles a doctor's office (replete with muzak and pictures), and Ethan giving her injections. She was confused (apparently drugged) during this entire ordeal, and during it she believes that she's still in Australia and about to leave for the United States.

She also remembers Ethan talking to "Mr. Friendly," only without his beard and wild hair. "Mr. Friendly" tells Ethan he is unhappy that Claire was brought to the facility as the list had not been prepared, and that a higher authority (referred to only by the pronoun 'he') will not be pleased. Ethan tells "Mr. Friendly" that the survivors had a passenger manifest and knew that he (Ethan) was not on the plane.

Claire and Kate set off into the jungle

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Kate and Claire outside The Staff

Claire enlists Kate to help her find Rousseau, and to find a vaccine she remembered from her memories, believing it is the only cure for Aaron's ailment. Claire asks Sun to take care of Aaron while she is away. Sun tells her that a mother should never leave her child. Claire asks Sun if she is a mother, and Sun pauses before replying "No", agreeing to watch the baby.

Claire and Kate soon find Rousseau, who is puzzled by an increasingly irrational Claire. However, Rousseau takes Claire and Kate back to the place where Rousseau said she found Claire the night Claire returned to camp two weeks after her abduction. When she takes them there, Claire wants Rousseau to take her to the room with the vaccine and grows hysterical and accusatory when Rousseau tells her she doesn't know where the room is.

Claire suddenly notices a stump in the jungle that triggers another memory: of Ethan Rom talking to her about leaving the baby with his group, while she returns to camp. Ethan tells Claire that she does have a choice in the matter. During this conversation, Ethan gives Claire some water from a canteen (from which he is not seen drinking), and she complains of the sour taste. Ethan tells Claire that her baby is one of the good ones.

Another bunker is found

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The vaccine used on Claire's baby. Note the code number.

Investigating further, the three women find a concealed bunker with the Dharma logo on it. Unlike the swan symbol in the Dharma logo on the Facility 3 bunker, the symbol on this bunker is a caduceus, indicating it to be a medical facility. Inside, all but one of the lights are out and the bunker appears to be abandoned. Claire finds rooms familiar to her memories, while Kate investigates another part of the bunker where she discovers a set of lockers. She opens one and discovers tattered clothes inside, as well as a box containing makeup, theatrical glue and a beard. The clothes in the locker are the same as those worn by "Mr. Friendly" in Exodus: Part 2 and Hunting Party.

Claire locates the refrigerator where she remembered the vaccine being stored: it is now empty. She has a flashback of a young teenaged girl who rescues her from the bunker, telling Claire that the other members of her group plan to take the baby and kill Claire. Rousseau leaves after this flashback, telling Claire that she is "not the only one who didn't find what they were looking for"-- she was also looking for clues about her child. Claire finds a bootie she knitted last time she was here and puts it in her pack.

Alex Rousseau

Back in the jungle, Claire has one final flashback where she remembers that Rousseau aided her escape, and was not part of the group that kidnapped her. She asks Rousseau about the baby that the Others took from her sixteen years ago. Claire asks if the child was a girl to which Rousseau replies 'yes, a girl, Alex, Alexandra'. Claire then tells Rousseau that a teenaged girl with blue eyes helped her escape. "She was not like them. She was nice. One of the good ones".

Rousseau, on the verge of tears, then warns Claire that if Aaron is infected, she knows what she'll have to do, and gives a long look to Kate. Claire and Kate return to camp, where Jack tells her Aaron's fever has subsided. Claire then takes out the bootie that she found in the bunker and gives it to Aaron, who promptly puts it in his mouth.

Henry is kept prisoner

Meanwhile, Jack and Locke are trying to decide what to do about their new prisoner, Henry Gale. Locke gives Henry a copy of the Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov. Henry remarks "Dostoevsky, you don't have any Stephen King?". Locke tells Jack that Ernest Hemingway wanted to be the greatest writer in the world, but felt that he could never escape being in the shadow of Dostoyevsky.

Mr. Eko visits the bunker during this time and figures out what is going on. He asks Jack to let him visit with the prisoner, alone, and Jack agrees after Eko implies that he will tell the rest of the camp otherwise. Eko tells Henry about the two men he killed when they tried to abduct him from his camp. Henry asks why Eko is telling him, and Eko replies that he had to tell someone. Eko then cuts two knots out of his beard and leaves. It is implied that he is cutting the knots both as a sacrifice to atone for his sins, and as a warning to Henry that he will do what is necessary with faith that he may ask forgiveness later.

Locke brings dinner to Henry, who strikes up a conversation about Hemingway and Dostoyevsky. Henry has heard the earlier talk about the authors through the thin walls. Henry asks Locke who he relates to more, but Locke doesn't have an answer. He then asks Locke why he lets Jack call the shots, but Locke insists that he and Jack make decisions together. Locke locks up Henry and returns to the bunker's kitchen, where he appears to lose his temper by violently sweeping dishes off the counter.

Trivia

• The substance that Ethan injects into Claire is taken from a bottle marked with the code "CR 4-81516 23 42". This is the same code that appears on the bottles Desmond was seen taking an injection from in the episode "Man of Science, Man of Faith", and are Hurley's unlucky but winning lottery numbers.
• The planes on the mobile in the nursery bear the Oceanic logo, and is the same one which Claire sees in her dream in the first season episode Raised by Another. The song that the mobile plays is "Catch a Falling Star" by Perry Como, the same song that Claire requested of the couple who were going to adopt her baby to sing to him as a lullaby.
• Although Claire has flashbacks to when she was kidnapped, this is the second episode that does not contain any flashbacks to life before the crash (The Other 48 Days contains a recounting of the tail-section survivors' story from the crash up until the present time.)