Lost: Something Nice Back Home
Kate and Jack Share a Very Short Engagement
Photo Courtesy of ABC.com
*SPOILER WARNING*
May 2nd, 2008 - I wasn’t shy about my misgivings about the start of Season Four, but the first two episodes back after the hiatus have both been very strong, adding mystery to what’s happening to our Losties but in a non-frustrating way, and doling out new chunks of information without us being force-fed answers. The balance that was missing for the first eight episodes has returned, and I couldn’t be happier.
On the beach, Jack was sick, but there is absolutely zero question over “will he make it,” because we know that he will. What the appendicitis does show however, is that Jack still has strong feelings for Kate, and that everyone, including Juliet, seems to know it. The most interesting tidbit surrounding Jack’s illness is Rose’s point that it seems odd that Jack, the group’s de facto leader, would get sick before their rescue on an island that typically cures people. This again calls into question the Island’s powers: Why would it make Jack’s appendix go bad? If “It” doesn’t want him to leave, how is he able to do so? If the Island is able to prevent a loaded gun from going off, why can’t it keep certain people on the Island when it needs them? There are elements of fate vs. free will here, of course, but sometimes it seems to allow for choice, and others not.
I did appreciate that the rest of the gang on the beach were ready to revolt against Dan and Charlotte after they admitted that they had no plans to rescue them. They still seem to be decent people, more interested in studying the Island then hurting or saving anyone, but it’s not surprising that they are not trusted when they have lied to the Losties so many times. Jin catches Charlotte in one of her lies, and tells her that no matter what, she had better make sure Sun gets rescued. Perhaps Jin isn’t really dead in the flash-forward future, just still trapped on the Island. After “Ji Yeon,” I was convinced that he wouldn’t allow Sun to leave his sight unless he was dead, but it does make sense that he would sacrifice his own rescue for hers.
Speaking of flash-forwards, let’s explore Jack’s domestic bliss with Kate and Aaron, shall we? It seems that since Kate’s trial, Jack got over whatever was bugging him about being around Aaron. We don’t get answers as to what kept him away or what brought him to them, but it seems likely that it has to do with the fact that he knows that he is Aaron’s uncle. The way Jack sneers at Kate that she isn’t even related to Aaron further indicates that he knows that he is related to the little bugger. As soon as Jack proposed to Kate, we knew it wasn’t meant to last, but seeing it all unravel was pure torture, and I mean that in a good way from a story-telling perspective. We see the genesis of Bearded Jack here – the pills, the booze, the pressure of the Island’s pulls getting to be too much. His father is haunting him, and it makes more sense that he would refer to his father as still being alive in a later time as he further loses his grip on what’s happening around him, and presumably, has more and more visions of the late Dr. Shephard. It’s painful to watch his trust in Kate deteriorate, but in his defense, his ex-wife was cheating on him, and Kate wasn’t being totally honest about how she filled her days.
When Jack pays Hurley a visit, he is informed that Charlie has been paying Hugo lots of visits. I don’t think that Hurley is right in his belief that they’re all dead, but I do like that the “crazy” one is the closest to accepting that all is not well in their post-rescue lives. It’s also nice to see that even from beyond the grave, Charlie is still looking out for Claire and Aaron. Charlie’s message for Jack, that he’s “not supposed to raise him,” seems to be a warning echoing the sentiments of Claire’s psychic way back in Season One: That only Claire was to raise her child. Aaron seems to be doing all right in Kate’s care, but for how long? What is his destiny? And what happened to Claire?
Well, she left her camp in the jungle with Sawyer and Miles after seeing Christian. What did he want with her? Where is she now? And why did she leave Aaron behind? Perhaps Christian was trying to separate Aaron from Claire for some reason. I’m truly hoping that we get a Claire-centric episode soon, because there are so many questions now swirling around her and Aaron.
And if all that wasn’t enough, here are some more miscellaneous questions posed by this episode:
- Is Christian the smoke monster? The hospital’s smoke alarm going off when Jack saw him seems to be a pretty big clue.
- And speaking of Smokey, how did Kearny and any of his men survive its attack last week? Only one man seemed to be injured. That smoke train didn’t seem like it was interested in leaving survivors; was it not “allowed” to kill them for some reason?
- Was Kate on the phone with Sawyer himself, or perhaps his ex and her old friend, Cassidy? It’s kind of hard to believe that the remaining castaways can make long-distance phone calls to the mainland all of a sudden, but it does stand to reason that Sawyer would ask Kate to look after his daughter.
After last week’s “Island conspiracy” heavy episode, it was a nice touch to get back to some old-fashioned character-driven stories. And, for good measure, there were still plenty of great questions posed this week about the bigger mysteries of the Island, but it was the slice-of-life of two-thirds of the Oceanic Six that made this episode great.
Alan’s Score: 9.2 out of 10
For more information visit the Official Lost Website.