Lost: Adrift

"Adrift" is the second episode of the second season of Lost and the 27th episode overall. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams and written by Steven Maeda and Leonard Dick. It first aired on September 28, 2005, on the American Broadcasting Company. In the episode, flashbacks depict Michael Dawson's struggles for the custody of his son Walt Lloyd. The realtime events show Michael and Sawyer, who have just had their raft destroyed, becoming hostile towards each other as they drift back to shore, while Kate Austen and John Locke enter the mysterious hatch and encounter Desmond Hume. The storyline picks up the raft storyline which was left hanging after season one's finale, "Exodus", and also revisits the events seen in the previous episode, "Man of Science, Man of Faith". Originally envisioned as a Sawyer episode, the episode was rewritten to focus on Michael. The sea scenes were shot on the Hawaiian shoreline. "Adrift" had 23.17 million American viewers and stands as the second largest audience on the series' run, but received negative reviews, which focused criticism on the flashbacks, the raft scenes, and the lack of plot advancement.