Stripped of everything, the 48 survivors scavenge what they can from the plane for their survival. Some panic. Some pin their hopes on rescue. A few find inner strength they never knew they had-like Kate who, with no medical training, suddenly finds herself suturing the doctor's wounds. The band of friends, family, enemies and strangers must work together against the cruel weather and harsh terrain. But the intense howls of mysterious creatures stalking the jungle fill them all with fear. Fortunately, thanks to the calm leadership of quick-thinking Jack and level-headed Kate, they have hope. But even heroes have secrets, as the survivors will come to learn.

Having escaped the "creature" and retrieved the plane transceiver, a group of the survivors travel to higher ground so they can transmit a signal. En route, they receive a mysterious transmission and encounter another of the island's inhabitants. Meanwhile, back at camp, Jack tends to a wounded man who reveals a secret about Kate.

Jack and Hurley discover an alarming secret about Kate, as the marshal's life hangs in the balance and he suffers a lot of pain. Meanwhile Kate, Charlie, Sawyer, Sayid, Boone and Shannon ponder the mysteries they have begun to uncover and worry that telling the other survivors will cause panic. They decide to lie for the time being. Also, Locke's befriending of Walt disturbs Michael, but Walt is more concerned in finding his dog. Lastly, Kate flashes back to when she was arrested by the marshal in Australia.

Shannon's inhaler runs out and Boone believes Sawyer has the remaining three in his stash. When Sawyer refuses to give them up, Jack and Sayid resort to torturing Sawyer until he agrees to reveal the location of the inhalers. In flashback we hear Sawyer's story and find he is not who he says he is.

Jack, Kate and Sawyer fight over possession of a newly discovered locked metal briefcase which might contain insights into Kate's mysterious past. Meanwhile, Sayid asks a reluctant Shannon to translate notes he took from the French woman. A rising tide threatens to engulf the fuselage and the entire beach encampment, and Rose and a grieving Charlie tentatively bond over Claire's baffling kidnapping.

After the missing Claire returns with no recollection of what has happened since before she boarded the doomed Oceanic flight 815, Jack and Locke formulate a plan of defense against her kidnapper, the mysterious Ethan (guest-star William Mapother), who threatens to kill off the other survivors one by one unless Claire is returned to him. Meanwhile, the disappointment Charlie feels when Claire does not remember him triggers recollections of a woman he had let down in the past.

Locke thinks he's being sent a sign on how to get the hatch open, and he and Boone venture inland. Jack is reluctant to offer assistance when Sawyer begins to experience excruciating headaches and needs glasses.

The French woman-Danielle Rousseau-shocks the survivors by showing up to the camp with a dire warning about "the Others" who are on the island, and the black smoke that precedes them. Meanwhile, Michael and Jin ready the raft for sailing. In flashbacks, we see the survivors final moments before they boarded their fateful flight.

The castaways on the raft are surprised at sea by something unexpected. Meanwhile, remaining islanders attempt to blow open the hatch, and a visitor to the encampment might be a threat to Claire's infant son.

Jack, Locke and Kate explore the mysterious hatch but Jack decides to wait before going down into the hatch. Kate and Locke aren't so patient. When Shannon chases after Vincent the dog, she encounters a familiar face in the jungle.

Michael sets off into the jungle by himself determined to find Walt, but discovers that he is not alone. Meanwhile, Sawyer and Jin are ordered by their captors to take them to their camp, and Sun frantically searches for her missing wedding ring. In flashbacks this episode reveals more of Jin's life before ending up on the island.

The harrowing first 48 days in the lives of the tail section survivors are revealed. Flashbacks reveal the point of view of Ana-Lucia, Mr. Eko, Bernard and Libby and other survivors as they landed on the other side of the island on the beach. As the days progress danger hits their camp as well when "The Others" start taking people against their will. As the survivors race inland, trying to stay a step ahead of The Others, they realize that someone among them wasn't on Flight 815.

This episode will shed more light on why Eko took a mysterious 40-day vow of silence, and possibly information on his stick. Also, Claire begins to lose faith in Charlie after Eko begins to question him about the Virgin Mary statue, and Kate gives the recovering Sawyer a much-needed haircut.

After Sun is attacked, some of the survivors begin to think that one of the "other survivors" might be one of "The Others." When French woman Danielle Rousseau leads Sayid to a mysterious captive in the jungle, he becomes determined to find out if he is one of "The Others". Meanwhile, Sawyer discovers Hurley’s potentially devastating breach of the survivors’ trust and blackmails him into helping track an elusive island creature that won’t leave Sawyer alone.

When the hatch suddenly takes on a life of its own, Locke is forced to enlist the help of an unlikely ally to control the matter. Meanwhile, Ana Lucia, Sayid and Charlie go off into the jungle to find out the truth about Henry Gale and see if there really is balloon craft out there in the jungle that carried him and his wife to the island.

Mr. Eko has dreams about his brother leading him somewhere. He seeks Locke's help in finding a secret location, the "question mark." Meanwhile, Jack and the other survivors grapple with the horrific situation in the hatch with the death of Ana-Lucia and Libby clinging to life.

After discovering something odd just offshore, Jack and Sayid come up with a plan to confront "The Others" and hopefully get Walt back. At the same time there will be an answer to the question of where Michael has been and resolution of him and Walt. Meanwhile, Eko and Locke come to blows as Locke makes a potentially cataclysmic decision regarding the "button" and the hatch. Lastly, Desmond returns and he sheds some more light on his experience on the island in the three years prior to when Locke came down into that hatch.

After discovering something odd just offshore, Jack and Sayid come up with a plan to confront "The Others" and hopefully get Walt back. Meanwhile, Eko and Locke come to blows as Locke makes a potentially cataclysmic decision regarding the "button" and the hatch.

Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are prisoners of the mysterious "Others." After their captors drug them and take blood samples, they are held in separate areas. The camp leaders--Ben (Henry Gale), Mr. Friendly and a new woman, Juliet--try to make the castaways adjust to their new circumstances.

Flashbacks reveal more about Jack's past with his father and his wife Sarah.

Jack makes a decision regarding Ben's offer. Sawyer's life is placed in danger when Pickett decides to make good on his threat. Locke discovers a hidden message that may help unlock the island's secrets. Kate recalls memories from the past, which caused her to make an important choice.

After Desmond rescues Claire from drowning, Charlie gets Hurley to help him find out why Desmond has seemed able to predict the future. Desmond recalls exactly what took place in the moments after he turns the key, where he experienced a strange vision of his life prior to his Army days.

On their mission to rescue Jack, Kate, Sayid, and Locke stumble upon a mysterious structure surrounded by farm animals and meet its strange inhabitant. Back at the camp, in order to reclaim his belongings, Sawyer plays in a ping-pong competition.

Kate and Juliet are stranded in the jungle after Kate learns that there is a traitor in the survivor's midst. Meanwhile, Sawyer's poor attitude and selfish ways towards the beach community may earn him a vote of banishment if he doesn't have a change of heart.

After abandoning the Others, Locke takes Sawyer on a trek through the jungle to help him eliminate a common enemy. Meanwhile, back at the beach, the parachutist Naomi has crucial information about flight 815.

The season 3 finale finds the castaways preparing for an invasion by the slightly less mysterious Others, while Charlie and Desmond find more than they were looking for in the underwater "Looking Glass Hatch".

The season 3 finale finds the castaways preparing for an invasion by the slightly less mysterious Others, while Charlie and Desmond find more than they were looking for in the underwater "Looking Glass Hatch".

Dr. Arzt tries to convince Jin and Sun not to move from the beach to the caves as Jack has proposed. When Hurley and Michael tell him they can't understand him, he also expresses his doubts in Jack's role as a leader to them. However he changes his mind and decides to move to the caves after all when the roaring of the monster interrupts their conversation.

Jack is searching for supplies when he meets Ethan Rom, who gives him a case full of medicine that he says he found in the jungle. Ethan mentions that Claire might have to deliver the baby on the island, and Jack thanks him for his assistance. Ethan tells Jack his own wife died in childbirth along with the baby, and they both hope that rescue is on the way.

They thought they had met the enemy. They thought they had seen evil. They thought wrong. As the new season begins, the survivors feel that rescue is close at hand, but they don't know whether or not to believe Charlie's final message that the people claiming to liberate them are not who they seem to be. As unlikely alliances are formed, those they thought could be trusted may turn against them, as the enemy of their enemy becomes their friend. But who can be trusted? Is rescue really as close as it seems?

Sayid and Desmond hit a bit of turbulence on the way to the freighter, which causes Desmond to experience some unexpected side effects.

Sayid goes back to the island to bring the rest of the people to the freighter. Ben, Locke, and Hurley go to another Dharma station in order to "move the island".

The face-off between the survivors and the freighter people continues, and the Oceanic Six find themselves closer to rescue.

The remaining island survivors start to feel the effects of the aftermath of moving the island, and Jack and Ben begin their quest to reunite the Oceanic 6 in order to return to the island with Locke's body in an attempt to save their former fellow castaways.

The members of Oceanic 6 discover how to get back to the island, but not all of them want to return.

Locke's mission off the island as Jeremy is revealed.

Kate goes to extreme measures to save Ben's life when Jack refuses to help. Meanwhile, Kate begins to tell the truth about the lie in order to protect Aaron.

Jack's decision to put a plan in action in order to set things right on the island is met with some strong resistance by those close to him, and Locke assigns Ben a difficult task.

Jack's decision to put a plan in action in order to set things right on the island is met with some strong resistance by those close to him, and Locke assigns Ben a difficult task.

Two outcomes of the detonation of the hydrogen bomb are presented. Flight 815 lands safely at LAX, where Kate escapes from the marshal and Jack learns that his father's body was lost in transit.

Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Miles and Hurley, struggling to save Sayid, face an ancient secret. Meanwhile, a fake Locke exits the chamber to everyone's awe.

On Jacob's orders, Hurley leads Jack to a lighthouse. Meanwhile, Claire questions an Other she has captured while tending to an injured Jin. In the flash sideways, Jack is a single father trying to bond with his son.

On the island, Widmore subjects Desmond to a large amount of electromagnetic energy as an experiment. In the flash sideways, Desmond, with the aid of Charlie, starts to have visions of his life in the original timeline.

Jacob and the Man in Black are revealed to be twin brothers. They are raised by a mysterious woman who is charged with protecting the island. As revenge for the murder of their adoptive mother (who killed their real mother), Jacob throws his brother into the source of electromagnetism after being made the island's guardian, which transforms the Man in Black into the smoke monster.

For different reasons, Jack and the Man in Black both use Desmond to extinguish the light at the heart of the island. The island starts disintegrating, but The Man in Black is also made mortal. Still desperate to escape, The Man in Black fights Jack and mortally wounds him, but with help from Kate, Jack kills him. Realizing his destiny, Jack sacrifices himself to relight the heart of the island, so his friends can escape on the Ajira plane. Hurley takes Jack's place as protector of the island and makes Ben the new advisor. The flash sideways is revealed to be a type of limbo, or holding pattern, for the main characters, where they reside until accepting their life and death, and are then able to "let go" and "move on" together.