Recap 2x23 - Live Together, Die Alone

Live Together, Die Alone
Air Date: 05/24/2006

As Jack, Sayid and Sawyer swim out to meet the sailboat bobbing just offshore, we almost feel relieved to discover that this is definitely NOT the way off the island. After coming this far, you knew it wasn't going to be that easy now, didn't you?

But in addition to returning Desmond to the island, that boat just may have just brought Sayid the advantage he needs to put his own plan into action. And as he and Jack form a very important secret, Michael leads his "team" into the jungle, towards a now very uncertain fate.

Speaking of Desmond, in FLASHBACKS we finally learn the answers to how he ended up in this spot in the first place. And they are more shocking and tragic than we could have ever imagined. Beginning with his exit from a British military stockade and dishonorable discharge from his regiment, and winding all the way to the day he first pressed the button himself, we see a much different Desmond. And the man we assumed held all the answers turns out to be as LOST as anyone else on this island.

But he still knows a trick or two, and as Jack follows a man he knows to be a traitor deeper and deeper into the unknown, it is Locke who forges an alliance with Desmond in the hopes of answering his own questions (and ours) once and for all. What's he willing to risk in order to find out? Just the future survival of the entire world, is all.

In the jungle, Jack is forced to expose Michael for what he is, and after a few horrible moments, even Michael is unable to continue his charade. As he breaks down and admits what he has done, Hurley realizes that he's looking at the man who killed the woman he loved -- perhaps the only one who would ever love him. And as he realizes that he is being led into a trap Hurley turns to leave -- preferring to go back and mourn rather than try to exact some futile attempt at revenge. But Jack has one more bomb to drop which stops Hurley in his tracks. Turns out Michael isn't the only one who can keep a secret…

As Sayid and his "crew" sail the ship around the point of the island, passing ever more mysterious landmarks on their way, we are left to worry about who is outsmarting whom? How many double crosses can there possibly be before you end on with the short side of the stick again?

We don't have to wait long to find out the answer. And, as usual, the answers hold no comfort. And we all learn a lesson about the depths of treachery. About the lengths to which someone will go to do what they think is right.

But that's the thing about committing. There's no going back. What if you're wrong? Where do you go from there? And what happens to the rest of us? As the season comes to close, we all get to find out. And THESE answers are more explosive and ever-changing than any we have seen before.