Raised by Another

WHY AM I WATCHING RAISED BY ANOTHER?

In which Claire celebrates her promotion to the main cast with an episode all about her!

This is pretty much the only time in the episode that she's not crying.

THE ISLAND

We actually start out with a flashdream. It's your typical TV version of a dream, in that it feels like a dream, but not quite. So it's a dream of a dream. Which is a pretty good idea for a movie. No one steal that. Anyways, Claire wakes up screaming for the first of many times this week. Jack, being the smart, wise, caring phyisician that he is, chalks it up to pregnancy stress, and not something weird happening on this Island of Insane Horrors on which they live. Women be crazy, amirite?

And then the next night basically the same thing happens, but this time when Claire wakes up, she is convinced that someone was trying to inject her uterus with something. Jack, of course, doubles down on the "you're crazy" talk and tries to give her a sedative. And with that, Claire has had enough of patronizing male bullshit and decides she's moving back to the beach. Charlie chases after her, but it turns out she's also sick of the Nice Guy nonsense he's been pulling lately. The fact that he keeps using the same phrases as her baby daddy (who we'll get to later) isn't helping. Lucky for Charlie though, Claire goes into labor right in the middle of their argument. Charlie runs down the path in a panic, where he runs into Ethan Rom (but not his brother). He tells Ethan to go get Jack, and runs back to Claire.

Hurley, like most people in the caves, is shaken up by Claire's attack. So he decides to take a census, just so that everyone knows who's who on the island and where they live. Pretty basic stuff, he talks to Boone, Shannon, Ethan, Locke, and so on. The problem comes once he compares his list to the plane's manifest. Ethan was never on the plane.

Claire is starting to think it might be a false labor and has realized she's better off in the caves where the doctor lives. And on their way back, they run into Ethan. There's your cliffhanger.

Here are Jack and Hurley looking for a Frankenstien.

THE FLASHBACK

Claire's boyfriend is very interested in her peeing on things. Specifically a pregnancy test. SPOILERS: She's pregnant. While they never come out and say it, the implication is pretty clear that she is not going to keep the baby. But her boyfriend talks her into it, and she makes plans to move in and hang curtains. Later that day (I'm assuming, Claire still isn't showing, and she weighs like 20 lbs, so a fetus would be poking out after 3 weeks, right?) Claire and her friend go to see a psychic. Her friend looks like a Native Hawaiian and has a really bad accent. There's a lot of people like that here in Australia. Funny that. Anyways, the psychic sees doom DOOOOM ahead unless vague conditions are met. Claire is having none of it, but the guy is very insistent, following her around. Calling her at all hours of the night. Just being a super creepy stalker weirdo.

Meanwhile, Claire's boyfriend has decided that he in fact does not want to be a father. He hates curtains. What about his painting? You know, all the things he should have thought about back when not having the kid was an option. So he leaves her. This sends Claire back to the psychic. He starts back up with his ancient prophecies of doom or whatever, and Claire tells him that it doesn't matter, she's giving up the baby anyway. It's basically the exact same scene as earlier, complete with the guy giving her money back to prove he's real. I'm not really sure why we couldn't just do this over the phone.

So, she goes to a fancy lawyer's office to give the baby up for adoption. But as she tries to sign the paper work, none of the pens work. She takes this to mean that the psychic was right and hightails it out of there. But when she visits the psychic for round three of vague prophecy, he's all like "lol j/k, you don't have to raise the baby. But you do have to give it to this couple in LA. And you have to leave on Oceanic flight 815, that's very important. I can't stress it enough."  But as Claire and Charlie later figure out, there was no couple. They guy knew the plane would crash, and now Claire HAS to raise the baby. Except, she doesn't. Kate does. DOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Do you like scary movies, Claire?

THE RANDOM THOUGHTS

• The producers have said that the psychic was a fraud, but there's nothing in the show that would suggest that. I kind of like it if he's legit. It means that there's weird things going on outside the island, and that will be important as we move forward. 
• Sayid's back. He has a sad eye/steely eye showdown with Sawyer. Not much to talk about there besides that. 
• There's a great bit where Jack is examining Claire and is asking about her medical history. It's very obvious that despite what she is saying, Claire hasn't been to the doctor in quite some time. Great bit of acting from Emilie de Ravin. 

And now a spot of tea, because Charlie is EXCEEDINGLY British, you see.

THE CATCHPHRASES

• MY BABY! (2x)