On the island, in 1954, John Locke, James "Sawyer" Ford and Juliet Burke try to save Daniel Faraday, Charlotte Lewis and Miles Straume from the Others.

The episode opens with a flashback of Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick), in the Philippines, searching for a doctor to help his wife Penny Widmore (Sonya Walger), who is giving birth to their son, Charlie.

In 1954,[N 3] Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell), John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) and James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) interrogate the two men they have captured.

One of the men, who is revealed to be a young Widmore (Tom Connolly), kills the other when he agrees to lead them to Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) and flees to his campsite to warn his people.

At the same time, the freighter team, consisting of Miles Straume (Ken Leung), Charlotte Lewis (Rebecca Mader), and Daniel Faraday, are captured by another group of Others, led by Ellie (Alexandra Krosney).

"Jughead" is the first episode of Lost to be co-written by Paul Zbyszewski, who joined the writing staff prior to the start of production on season five.

Club graded the episode an A−, stating "'Jughead' went a lot more smoothly, because it was anchored to the one relationship on this show that has real gravitas: Desmond and Penny.

I firmly believe that Desmond wants to keep Penny safe, and that any choices he makes to the contrary are made with great reluctance, and only because he’s answering to a higher calling.