[2] The episode's flash-sideways are centered on Jack Shephard, Desmond Hume, Benjamin Linus and James "Sawyer" Ford.
In the flash-sideways timeline, Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) continues his attempt to gather all the passengers of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.
Jack is notified that Oceanic Airlines have found Christian Shephard's coffin; unbeknownst to him, this is a ruse planned by Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick).
Alex's (Tania Raymonde) mother, Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan), offers the visibly injured Ben a ride home.
Desmond enters James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) and Miles Straume's (Ken Leung) police station, confesses to assaulting Locke and Ben, and is jailed alongside Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews).
The three prisoners are to be transported by van, but the driver, Ana Lucia Cortez (Michelle Rodriguez), releases them and receives a payoff from Desmond and Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia).
The Man in Black kills Zoe when it becomes clear she will not talk, then threatens to harm Penny unless Widmore reveals his purpose on the island.
The episode was shown for approximately 1800 people at UCLA's Royce Hall on May 13, 2010 as a fundraiser for scholarships for the Colburn School of Performing Arts.
[8] Both Cindy McLennan and Sam McPherson of Television Without Pity and TV Overmind, respectively, gave the episode a perfect score.
[12] Emily VanDerWerff of Los Angeles Times gave the episode a score of 90, stating, "What They Died For is a lot of things.