In the flash-sideways timeline, Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) tries to find out how John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) was paralyzed.

After being successfully operated on by Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox), John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) awakens at the hospital.

Jack says that Locke may be a candidate for a new surgical treatment to repair his pre-existing paralysis and asks how he wound up in his paraplegic state.

Bernard refuses to breach confidentiality, but says that someone named Anthony Cooper (Kevin Tighe) was brought in along with Locke that day.

Locke reveals that the accident that made him paralyzed was a plane crash; he had just qualified for his pilot's license and Cooper was his first passenger.

[a] The Man in Black arrives and says that James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway), Claire, Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly), Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey), Hugo Reyes (Jorge Garcia), Sun Kwon (Yunjin Kim) and Jin Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim) have been taken prisoner by Charles Widmore (Alan Dale).

The Man in Black plans to help them escape, run for the Ajira plane and leave the island before Widmore knows what is happening.

Sayid turns off the camp's generator, bringing down the sonar fences which had been keeping the Man in Black at bay.

Jack theorizes that the Man in Black united the candidates because he needed them all dead in order to leave the island, and is trying to trick them into killing one another by mistrusting each other.

Jack, Sawyer, Kate, and Hurley regroup at a nearby beach, and mourn the deaths of Sayid, Sun and Jin.

[5] Maureen Ryan of Chicago Tribune gave a perfect score, stating "Not only were the island events compelling, they neatly tied into the Sideways themes of trust and penance.

"[6] James Poniewozik of Time also rated the episode perfect, calling it "heartbreaking, and horrifying, and breathtaking, and in some ways maddening.

Alan Sepinwall of Star Ledger thought the episode "drastically accelerated the pace of the unhappy endings.

He had been on course to redeem himself ever since switching over to Team Smokie and was thankfully given the opportunity to go out in grand fashion ... Jin and Sun's demise came as a total shock.