The Professor dressed and walked out of his hut to sit at the table. He had the radio in his hands and planned to turn it on, to listen for more news on Kincaid's death, when he looked over into the jungle and began blinking rapidly.
Dr. Banner was stumbling towards him! David stretched his arms out, before collapsing on the ground! The Professor looked him over, then managed to get him into his hut, putting him on a cot. He then looked over at the plant.
It was time to cure Dr. Banner, once and for all. Everyone now knew about this green creature and it was imperative that David be able to prove that he was not that thing.
It was important to make the Hulk disappear once and for all.
David began to moan. The Professor, who had been setting up his beakers, stopped what he was doing to sit beside him. David blinked once in confusion.
"Professor? What happened?"
"You tell me?"
David tried to sit up, but the Professor gently pushed him back down.
"Easy. You've had quite a bad time of it."
David eyed him.
"How do you know that?"
"Just tell me the last thing you remember?" the Professor asked quietly.
"I remember Kincaid finding me...telling me that he had killed Mary Ann and you. I changed...then I woke up floating on some piece of metal or something, in the ocean. I drifted back to the island."
"Well clearly, rumors of our deaths were exaggerated." the Professor quipped.
"So Mary Ann is alright as well?" David asked.
At the mention of Mary Ann, the Professor felt a deep wave of excitement rush over him. He cleared his throat.
"She's well, physically." the Professor allowed. David now insisted on sitting up.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
"I tried to tell Kincaid that I was the creature. I was hiding in his boat when Mary Ann found me. Kincaid began firing at both of us and I felt as if we had no choice but to leave the island. We then found another island and that's where the trouble began."
The Professor then went on to tell David about Tongo and Eva, and how they related to the island and what Eva did to Mary Ann. He also told David about the other time Mary Ann thought she was 'Ginger'.
He skipped telling David about making love to Mary Ann on the other side of the island--again.
"So this woman, this Eva Grubb, looked like Ginger, left the island with the intention of posing as her and is doing porn on some island around here?"
The Professor nodded.
"And this Tongo...his only aspiration was to play an ape man?" David asked in disbelief.
"I found it a bit simple minded myself." the Professor was forced to admit.
"And when Mary Ann confronted this woman, she knocked Mary Ann out and she awoke thinking she's Ginger? According to you this happened once before?"
The Professor nodded tiredly.
"The point is I didn't feel as if Mary Ann was up to traveling with the rest of the group. She cannot go back to civilization telling people that she's Ginger Grant. Her family would be appalled, not to mention Ginger herself, who already has one impostor to deal with."
David sat up anyway.
"Where is she? Maybe I can help?"
"Exhausted. Look, you need to know something: according to the rest of the group, Kincaid drugged you as the creature and took you off of this island by helicopter. The creature must have come to and caused some kind of disturbance...the helicopter crashed in the ocean, you were the only survivor and a yacht full of people saw all of this take place." the Professor said somberly.
David slowly stood up.
"I've KILLED people?"
"You can't see it like that! David, I believe on some level, the creature...YOU...understood that you were fighting for your life! Kincaid would've kept you drugged and caged for the rest of your life!" the Professor insisted.
David nodded wearily and the Professor helped him sit down again. He stood over him.
"David, I am about to mix up a solution that hopefully, will cure you of this ailment forever. But we have to act now before the others return with help."
David nodded again. He did not bother to ask whether the other castaways would mention that he was the creature, when they brought back help. He already knew that one, or all of them, told Kincaid he was the creature.
Meanwhile, Mary Ann awoke in confusion. She was back in her own hut but...
She was also naked underneath a blanket! She never slept this way! What in the world had happened? The last thing Mary Ann remembered, she had been arguing with that God awful Eva Grubb--then nothing. And she and the Professor had been on that 'naked island'. Had she been successful and deterring Eva from destroying Ginger's career?
Mary Ann got up out of her bed and wrapped a blanket around herself. She found some clothing to wear and noted that all of Ginger's clothing seemed to be gone. That made her hurry with dressing. Something had happened...something she was not remembering.
For a brief moment, Mary Ann wondered if everyone had left the island without her?
Mary Ann ran a brush through her hair, tied it in a ponytail and hurried out of the hut! She began calling for everyone, something the Professor heard. He had just given David the cure and he was now in a deep sleep--one that the Professor did not want disturbed. He left his hut just as Mary Ann came into the area. They stood there, staring at one another.
Mary Ann finally broke the silence.
"I'm glad you're still here." was all she could think to say. The Professor closed the distance between them and rested his hands on her shoulders.
"Of course I am. Are you alright?"
"I will be when you tell me why I don't remember coming back here?"
The Professor let go of her briefly and looked in on David through his window. He then returned to her.
"I gave David the cure. Let's hope it works."
"David is still here? Oh my God! Kincaid...he didn't find him? Kincaid isn't still here, is he?"
The Professor took her hand and lead her over to the table. They both sat down. The Professor reached for her hands and squeezed them. Mary Ann squeezed them back.
"Eva Grubb hit you over the head. When you awoke...well...you thought you were Ginger."
Mary Ann blinked hard!
"Again?!"
"Yes--I brought you back here, where we found out that Kincaid had taken David, essentially drugging him. I told the others to go to the island and confront Tongo and Eva, while I saw to you. While you slept, I heard on the radio that David changed into the creature while Kincaid was flying with him, enroute over the ocean---Kincaid and the pilot were killed."
"No!" Mary Ann whispered.
"Worse yet, there was a yacht nearby. Some of the passengers spotted the creature. David somehow made his way back here. Mary Ann, we don't have long. Either Gilligan and the others will be back with help, or the authorities will track David here. David cannot change into that creature or else the consequences will be dire for him."
"So...the people on the yacht just saw a creature, not David? So if the authorities do question us about him, we can honestly say there is no green creature here?"
"I know we will. I can't speak for the others." the Professor said somberly.
"Meaning Gilligan, Skipper, Mr. and Mrs. Howell and Ginger, right? How did Kincaid find David anyway? I told him to run and he shot at us because he thought YOU were the creature? Did Kincaid find him?"
"Yes, with the help of the others."
"Oh Professor! We can't count on them!" Mary Ann wailed with despair. But the Professor caught her chin in his hand.
"I'm afraid there isn't much we can do about that. Either they'll keep quiet or they won't. But to be fair, apparently Mrs. Howell told Kincaid the truth only because she didn't want me harmed. It's only natural that we would be protective of one another, Mary Ann."
Mary Ann nodded but still felt despair for David. Maybe the authorities would NOT track David here. She looked up at the Professor again.
"So I returned here thinking I was Ginger, then what...took a nap? I awoke in my but with blankets around me and..." Mary Ann trailed off. But the Professor knew what she wanted to say.
"You awoke with no clothing on, right?"
"Yes, Professor! What happened? Tell me I didn't involve myself in Eva's 'movie'?" Mary Ann asked sarcastically.
"No. When we returned here, you went to your spot. On the other side of the island. I found you there."
Mary Ann backed away slightly.
"You found me on the other side of the island?"
"That is correct." the Professor said.
"Found me in my spot?"
"Yes."
"So...then what?"
The Professor smiled gently at her.
"I think you know what, Mary Ann."
"What I think, is that you made love to me when I was not at myself." Mary Ann huffed, not liking the idea of not remembering their lovemaking. But the Professor misunderstood.
"Mary Ann, I would never take advantage of you! And...well...you made love to me."
Mary Ann got huffy again!
"I made love to you? Professor, I wouldn't be so forward..."
"It had nothing to do with being forward, Mary Ann. Our feelings for one another are very real, no matter who you thought you were." the Professor smiled, touching her face. Mary Ann said nothing and removed his hand from her face.
"I still don't think it was right." she said, folding her arms. "First I find out that you were spying on me..."
The Professor raised a brow and interrupted her.
"Mary Ann, have I misjudged your feelings for me? Because if I have, please tell me."
"No...but..."
"Because what you are accusing me of is downright unseemly! And frankly I don't understand your attitude over it. Maybe I would've been better off telling you nothing about it!" he now huffed.
"Maybe you would have!" Mary Ann snapped back.
"Fine!" the Professor yelled.
"Fine!" Mary Ann agreed.
"And just for the record, our engagement is off!" the Professor informed her.
"What engagement? I haven't even been given a ring!" Mary Ann told him, then turned and flounced off! Of all the nerve! What had she ever seen in him anyway?
The Professor watched her leave and ran his hands over his face. He needed to check on David and think of a way of finding out for sure if the herbs had helped him at all.
His mind jumped back to Mary Ann, his now 'former fiancee'. Clearly, she was still bothered by the ONE TIME he had found her sunning herself on the other side of the island. Then she accused him of practically taking advantage of her while she was in a state of amnesia.
And hadn't he? In the end, the Professor knew he shouldn't have touched Mary Ann while she thought she was Ginger. How did he explain to her that he had been unable to help himself? That his love for her ruled out his common sense?
Sighing, the Professor walked back into his hut and gently closed the door.
Meanwhile, things were about to get worse.
Mary Ann was sitting on a rock by the lagoon, running her fight with the Professor, her now 'former fiancee', over in her head. Her common sense told her the Professor hadn't taken advantage of her. And wasn't it perfectly logical, that even though she might have thought she was 'Ginger', the part of her that loved the Professor, remembered that and expressed her feelings of love for him?
Now she had all but accused the Professor of forcing himself on her. Mary Ann struggled to shut out the hurt she had seen in his eyes, but couldn't. She stood up. She was going to the Professor to settle things. He had to know that she hadn't meant what she said, and that she loved him.
But as Mary Ann was about to head into the jungle, the sound of a motorboat caught her attention. She shielded her eyes and saw that it was not the other castaways, returning with help. But two other people...
Mary Ann gasped as the boat grew closer! Erika Tiffany Smith? That snobbish woman who had practically thrown herself at the Professor and the Skipper, the last time she was here? Why on earth would she come back here?
Mary Ann didn't know who the other man was, but she was about to find out. She watched as the man stopped the boat, helped Erika Tiffany Smith out, then walked up to her with the heiress.
"Hello, dahling! It's wonderful to see you again!" Erika Tiffany gushed, as if the two of them were old friends and she hadn't forgotten to help rescue them before.
Mary Ann folded her arms.
"Ms. Smith...who is your friend here?"
National Register reporter, Jack McGhee spoke.
"You're Mary Ann Summers, one of the missing castaways."
Mary Ann eyed him.
"Yes...and you are?"
But Erika Tiffany interrupted.
"Oh this is Jack McGhee, dahling. We picked him up on my yacht in the middle of the ocean. He was attacked by a green ocean creature."
Mary Ann immediately felt uneasy. Jack watched her intently. There was no way the Hulk wasn't on this island. And Ms. Summers looked very nervous.
"An ocean green creature?" Mary Ann asked casually.
"Yes, dahling. I saw him too, later on, fall out of a helicopter--oh the whole incident was simply frightful. Mr. McGhee here thinks that the man that changes into him, is the same one that robbed him of his boat."
"The man that 'changes' into him?" Mary Ann asked, trying not to gulp.
"Yes, Ms. Summers. The man that changes into this creature is the same man that hijacked my boat. And I believe he's on this island right now." Jack said firmly.