Act 1, Scene 9
Locke moves through the jungle, one of his three hundred knives in his hand. Every few seconds he bends down to peer at the ground, then straightens and renews his progress. He's tracking. Eventually he reaches a clearing and stops.
LOCKE: It's alright. I won't hurt you.
TED: Is he with you?
LOCKE: The man you're afraid of? No. Just me.
Ted emerges from the trees, looking as forlorn and world-beaten as ever.
LOCKE: Aren't you hungry?
TED: Am I?
LOCKE: Don't you know?
TED: What do you think?
Locke tilts his head to look at Ted. Finally he smiles.
LOCKE: I think you need to come back to camp.
TED: Is he there?
LOCKE: Yes. But there are others. You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to.
TED: (miserably) He'll find me. He always does.
LOCKE: I don't think he's the person you think he is. He's the brother of the man you fear.
TED: No, it's him. He's just saying that so he can get me.
Locke considers his options for a moment, and then approaches Ted and sits down on a branch beside him. He motions with his hand to indicate the island around them.
LOCKE: This is a special place. Whatever…whatever anyone did to you before you came here, whoever you were, that's not who you have to be anymore. You can start over. Ask the island to help you. Ask it for something that you want. There must be something.
TED: Oblivion?
LOCKE: Something else?
TED: My bush hat.
Locke smiles.
LOCKE: Look above you.
Ted does so and lo and behold, his bust hat is suspended from vines no more than two feet above his head.
TED: My hat!
He removes it from the vines and puts it on his head. There is a distinct squelching noise. We see Ted's happy expression freeze and then slowly melt back to misery. He had forgotten that this is the same hat used by the Todd as a deposit box for his air-sickness…
TED: I have puke head.
Locke removes the hat, sniffs it, and tosses it aside. He produces a water bottle and rinses Ted's head clean, then ties a piece of cloth around it. He then hands Ted a knife. We can see Ted looking at it in awe.
LOCKE: Now you're a hunter. Do you think you can kill?
TED: Oh yes…
LOCKE: Let me rephrase that. Do you think you can kill boar?
TED: I…could try.
LOCKE: Good. And then…then let's have a talk about your friend in the forest…
Act 1, Scene 10
Waves lap gently against the shoreline. Dr. Cox sits on the sand, his fingers scrabbling restlessly for pebbles, which he then hurls into the waters. We see Jack approaching him.
DR. COX: Newbie, I don-
JACK: Wrong guess.
He sits down beside the other doctor. They both take in the moonlit beach scene. There is a short pause.
DR. COX: I thought he was sure to…
JACK: He wanted to. But Carla – it's Carla, isn't it? – she's hurt.
DR. COX: Carla's hurt? I should-
Jack stops him from getting up.
JACK: She's fine. Splinter in the ankle. Her husband's removing it now. He's a pretty good surgeon.
DR. COX: (snorts) He couldn't remove snow from a Yeti's ass with a blowtorch.
JACK: You don't really think that.
DR. COX: No, I actually have witnessed him try. There were Yeti witnesses present. We had the WWF up our asses for weeks. Of course I don't think that but if you tell him I don't think that-
JACK: Relax. Your secret's safe.
DR. COX: You're a bigshot surgeon.
JACK: Is that a question?
DR. COX: I saw you working today on the beach. Ghandi and Repressed-Tendencies Boy are good and I remind you once again of the embargo upon mentioning that I said so but they're not in your league, I saw that earlier. You're gonna make a good leader.
JACK:Me? Lead? No. Besides I think the consensus from everyone has someone else in mind for leader…
DR. COX: Yeah well it's like I keep saying about democracy – it's a crock. I'm noisier than you sure and easier to notice – hell I've been working on that for enough years now so I'd like to think so – but lead? No thanks.
JACK: I don't want it. That's not why I came over here.
DR. COX: Why did you?
JACK: To ask why you did.
DR. COX: (points out over the ocean) You see somewhere in that direction? My son is asleep. He's two. It was his birthday today.
Jack registers this. He nods.
JACK: I'm sorry.
DR. COX: I'm good at my job, Jack. I bounce around that damn hospital like a sanitised pinball healing as I go and whipping that bunch of losers back there on the beach into something resembling doctors if you don't look too close or ask awkward questions or mind if you get better and I can handle the times you lose and the patient just goes and dies on you because God knows you have to but I'm not a nice person. I'm not the gruff guy with the heart of gold. I'm just a jackass because hell, it's fun to be. And now…now it's come back to bite me in the ass.
JACK: I don't understand.
DR. COX: Don't you get it? This – this island – it's my reward. I finally found something I could love and boom – it's taken away from me.
JACK: The rescue planes…
DR. COX: …might come. And then they might not. And that's what you're going to have to get across to those people around the fire. Oh and while you're at it, you might wanna start thinking about what we're gonna eat once the airplane food runs out. And if you don't want us all coming down with verrrry interesting diseases, you might want to tell everyone it's time to break out the matches and have us a rootin' tootin' roast corpse hootenanny. That's just sure to go down well with the friends and family.
Jack is speechless. Dr. Cox stands up and pats him on the shoulder.
DR. COX: It's not cos I couldn't lead these people. I just don't want to. Like I said – jackass.
He walks off, leaving Jack to stare out over the waters alone.
JACK: No arguments here.