Aaron's Motel Bed: The beautiful little boy who is just the age my own was when he escaped, and who is blond, just like mine, looks too much like my little one in this shot. I'll be right back after I take a crazy pill. Ahhhhh. This is a hard scene, and despite the fact that I've been prickly about Kate this episode, she breaks me, here. If you've raised a baby for three years, he's in your heart. Her tears fall and she tries to stifle her sobs so as not to wake Aaron. The longer she looks at him, the harder it gets, so with a great, snotty sniffle, she summons her courage and leaves his bedside. She opens the door and stops to look back just once more, and now he looks exactly like my youngest did at three, and I can't take another crazy pill 'til tomorrow, so I don't know what I'm going to do here. No, it's way too early to drink, you alkies. Kate looks over her shoulder at the boy and cries, "Bye-bye, baby," and shuts the door behind him. Gah. Luckily, I can get mad at Carole Littleton for not standing right there and pushing her way in, like any self-respecting grandmother would. Even the camera is crying as we jump to...

The Jungle; 1977: As Sawyer carries dying wee Ben through the bush, Kate never takes her eyes off the boy (the little one). Sawyer says, "Don't worry, we've got 'em right where we want 'em." A nameless Other tells him to shut up and keep moving, and then Richard appears. "Hello there, James." Well, hello there yourself, handsome. After Sawyer expresses his shock at Richard's sudden way of coming and going, Richard asks if the boy is Benjamin Linus. Sawyer says, "You two know each other?" Hmmm, perhaps Doc was right about not saving the kid, but I'll never admit that, not even under pains of death. Kate, trying to be Mistress of the Obvious (since she's having no luck with any of the more corporeal guys in town) adds that Ben was shot. Richard wants to know who she is, but Sawyer just says, "She's with me." They need Richard to save Ben's life and want to know if he can. Richard looks at Kate and ponders it all for a moment. "If I take him, he's not ever gonna be the same again. [...] What I mean is that he'll forget this ever happened, and that... his innocence will be gone." What the hell are you going to do to the child, Richard? He doesn't hear me, and I'm too disturbed right now to go looking for the wee Richard that's probably around here, somewhere. [If you've been talking to your Lost action figures this whole time, you'll never find him. - Z] "He will always be one of us." There's a sort of buzzing sound that almost sounds like the warm-up to a jump, but it dies down. Richard adds, "You still want me to take him?" Kate nods at him. "Yes." Richard looks to Sawyer, who then transfers the boy to Richard's arms." A nameless Other steps up to Richard. "You shouldn't do this without asking Ellie. And if Charles finds out?" Richard scowls. "Let 'em find out. I don't answer to either of them." As Richard walks off, carrying Ben, Kate cries out, "Where are you taking him?" When Richard ignores her, Kate makes to follow him into the thicket, but Sawyer grabs her arm and says, "Come on." Uneasily, he and Kate make their way past all the armed Others -- back towards Dharmaville. Alone, Richard carries Benjamin as tenderly as any father would. Right into THE TEMPLE! They disappear from view and we jump to...