Something Nice Back Home

Lost season four continued to pump out a top notch episode this past week with "Something Nice Back Home." This episode takes place after Kate's trial, but before the season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass." Jack's flashforward future starts to get pieced together, and we find out a little more about our freighter folks and see a familiar character visit our island mom.

Jack Chooses his Love
Off island in the future, Jack and Kate are playing house and raising Aaron. In the opening scene in the bathroom, the producers kept the audience guessing as to who Jack was with. They had Kate's lines sound a bit like Juliette's voice. But alas the rouse was up when Kate stepped out of the shower, and we learn more about Kate and Jack's future.

Throughout the episode, things are going great for the new couple. Jack's reading "Alice in Wonderland" to Aaron. Kate's all about Jack's storytelling skills. Later, Jack give Kate an engagement ring and everything seems to be going great for them. Except one small thing. Jack's on a downward spiral that will lead him to be the crazy, bearded guy we saw in last year's finale. We all questioned how he got to that point, but we got to see those origins later in this episode.

Emergency Surgery
On island, the focus is all about Jack being sick. After fainting, he tries to tell Juliette that his illness is just food poisoning, but she knows better. She checks his side and discovers that it's his appendix. He'll require emergency surgery, or he's going to die. So why/how did Jack get sick? As Rose said, people don't get sick here, they get better. Has Jack moved to Ben territory now that he's gotten sick and moved away from the good side of the island like Locke and Rose?

As always with Dr. Jack, he wants to do the surgery himself, or at least talk Juliette through it. In some of the more graphic scenes we have seen so far on Lost, we get a makeshift ER, and Juliette performs the surgery. Jack insists that Kate be present, but she is asked to leave when the pain is too great and Juliette and Bernard decide to knock Jack out.

Once the surgery is successful, Kate comes in to check on her man. Juliette decides to kiss and tell about the peck she and Jack shared outside The Tempest. But all is good and there's no cat fight over the mad doctor. Juliette tells her that the kiss was more for Jack to decide and make sure that he was truly in love with Kate. This confirms Kate's feeling for Jack as well, and we see how they relationship develops in the future.

So Are They Really Dead?
I still have my doubts by it looks like the producers are trying to say that Karl and Rousseau are really dead. Sawyer, Claire/Aaron and Miles come across their bodies covered in dirt. Miles heard their voices and saw a vision of their deaths. There's a lot more to Miles that I want to see and as many have speculated online, I can't wait until he meets up with Jacob.

So can we get some confirmation on this, are Karl and Rousseau really dead?

Hurley's on to Something or on Something
Jack gets a call about Hurley, and goes to see him at the mental institution. Hurley has quit his medication, and he doesn't think his doctor is real. He has decided that they (Oceanic 6) all died, and they're in heaven (or maybe hell). He asks Jack what he did today and tells him that its all too perfect. The entire time, Hurley doesn't make eye contact with Jack.

Hurley tells Jack about his visits with Charlie and that he told him Jack would come to see him. Charlie gave him a message to give to Jack, which Hurley wrote down so he wouldn't mess it up, "You're not supposed to raise him, Jack." Hurley asks if he means Aaron. Jack gets angry and tells him to take his meds and tries to leave. Hurley stops him and tells him that Charlie said someone would be visiting him too, soon.

This is the start of Jack's spiral. He knows Hurley is right, from a certain point of view. He doesn't believe that they all died, but this is probably the beginning of Jack knowing that they have to go back to the island. Hurley said as much in the season 4 premiere, but now the seeds are planted for Jack to believe it too. If only he had someone visit him like Charlie is doing for Hurley.

Jack's Visitor
Jack's working late one night when the smoke detector starts beeping. He comes out to inspect it and removes the battery. He then sees his dad sitting in the waiting area. This freaks Jack out, as another doctor walks in and Christian is gone. Jacks tells his colleague about the broken smoke detector and then asks her to write him a prescription because he's have trouble sleeping.

So Jack sees his dad off island and his pill popping days start. It funny that the smoke detector was going off when Christian was in the room. Smoke monster anyone? I'm not sure if these off island vision will turn out to be the smoke monster, but that's definately the way the show is leading us. Are they doing that to trick the audience since that's the mostly widely thought of theory or are they really giving us clues? That's the problem with Lost, even when they give and answer or a clue, the audience doubts it because so many things that we thought we knew get shot down the next week.

Jin's Proposition
Back on the island, Jin, Sun, Daniel and Charlotte go to the medical hatch for supplies for Jack's surgery. Jin notices that Charlotte is listening to them when they talk Korean and figures out that she can understand them. As it turns out, she's fluent in Korean and Jin gives her a proposition. You take Sun and their baby off the island, or Jin will hurt Daniel. It's interesting because we learn in this episode that Daniel fancies Charlotte, and the feeling may be mutual. It's also interesting because Jin is returning to his roots of a using force to get what he wants. He isn't afraid to get his hands dirty when he needs to, but with the way his character has changed, having him go back to his hitman days shows how desperate they are to get off the island now.

An Errand for Sawyer leads to Crazy, Bearded Jack
Jack comes home to find Kate on the phone with "one of the moms from the park." Yeah sure, Jack's buying that. He doesn't press it at the time, but when he later comes home and Kate's not there, he's ready for some answers. Jack's been drinking and popping pills and is aggressive, borderline crazy Jack. He asks Kate where she was today and Kate asks him to drop it. He presses on and she finally admits that she was doing something him, for Sawyer.

The errand that Sawyer asked Kate to do definately involves his daughter Clementine. Sawyer doesn't have any other family to go back to, so she's the only logical choice. Now what Kate was doing for her, whether it was just checking up on her or actually meeting her and letting her know that her daddy loved her, is still something we'll find out. But the information that Kate is doing something for Sawyer drives Jack over the edge.

Jack tells her that he's the one that saved her, and Sawyer's not here. He says that Sawyer made his choice and chose to stay. So is this confirmation that Sawyer is still alive and on the island? Or does Sawyer never make it back to the beach, and Jack's just talking about Sawyer choosing to stay and going with Locke's camp. Many will speculate that Sawyer ultimately chose to stay on the island, but given what we already know, Jack may only be talking about Sawyer going with Locke.

Kate tells Jack that she can't be around her son like this (drunk/stoned). Jack tells Kate that she's not even related to Aaron. So did he find out that Aaron was his nephew and Claire his half-sister? Or was it just a line to shoot Kate down even farther by saying she's calling him her son when there's really no blood relation? I think it's the former and that Jack knows that he's related to Aaron. But how did he find out, how did he and Claire put two-and-two together? That leads to:

The Disappearing Mom
Sawyer, Miles and Claire/Aaron are making their way to meet up with Jack's group at the beach. Sawyer catches Miles looking at Claire and puts a restraining order on him. Does Miles sense something going on with Claire? There's speculation that she didn't really survive the explosion of her house last week, so could she be an island manifestation. I don't think she is, but she did have an interesting line about not seeing things anymore. What did she see? Supposedly, there was a scene cut from last week's episode where she saw a vision of Charlie...hmm.

Back to this episode. During the night, Claire wakes up and sees Christian Sheppard holding Aaron by the campfire. She immediately recognizes him and says, "Dad?" The next morning, Claire is nowhere to be found, and Miles said that she left with someone who she called dad. So Miles saw Christian too? Sawyer then hears Aaron crying and finds him left by a tree not far from camp. Claire and Christian aren't anywhere around, and Sawyer's left holding Aaron and screaming for Claire.

There's no way Claire willingly left Aaron behind. With the stuff she's been through to make sure that her baby is safe, it just doesn't fit her character. What did the Smoke Monster/Christian ghost do to her, and where has he taken her? Will we see Claire in a rocking chair at Jacob's cabin when Ben, Locke and Hurley find it? Was this how Kate ultimately ends up with Aaron? Did Claire just disappear? As always, this episode raises a ton of new questions.

Extras

• Great shout out to Star Wars fans when Jack steps on the toy Millennium Falcon on the kitchen floor.
• Did anyone else think that the Coffee pot sounded like 108 minute countdown on the hatch button? Guess it was just me.
• Jack said that his dad was a good story teller. From what we've seen so far in Jack's flashbacks, we get no indication that Christian is a good story teller. Will we now get a flashback of Christian reading Alice in Wonderland to Jack?
  

Next on Lost: Cabin Fever

*Photos from Lost-Media.com