Friday, May 02, 2008

Lost, "Something Nice Back Home": Sister, Christian

Spoilers for tonight's "Lost" coming up just as soon as I buy my daughter a toy Millennium Falcon...

Yay! It's another hour of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle, with added doses of Jack being a drunken, bullying idiot! Season three "Lost," how I've missed you!

Look, I recognize that Jack is the show's main character, and that there are fans out there somewhere who actually care about who Kate chooses (even though I've never met any of them), and that episodes like "Something Nice Back Home" are obligatory now and then. But I find him and his love life simultaneously boring and obnoxious. Every time the show does a Jack episode, I can tell that Lindelof, Cuse and company are going for some kind of tragically flawed hero riff, but Jack is so insufferable that it never works. I shouldn't be rooting for the hero to die on the table during his appendectomy, you know?

Thankfully, this one wasn't a straight-up Jack episode, as we spent a good amount of time with Sawyer and company trekking through the jungle, and with Jin taking the measure of Dan and Charlotte on the trip to and from the medical station. Without the subplots with the supporting cast, or the chilling scene in Hurley's hospital room, "Something Nice Back Home" would have been just as tiresome as Jack; with all those scenes, I was willing to suffer through Jack again not learning to leave well enough alone, knowing that eventually the POV would shift to someone I actually care about.

Since I don't much want to dissect the past, present and future state of the triangle (or quadrangle, if you factor in Juliet and he role as Jack's beard), let's move to the bullet points and talk about all the other Craphole Island hijinx this week:
  • Christian's in Jacob's cabin (as Zapruder'ed by various fans in the season premiere), he's in the lobby of Jack's medical practice in the future, and now he's visiting with his grandson in the present. Jack's "You're not even related to him!" comment to Kate in the flash-forward implies that he'll find out that Claire is his sister, and Aaron his nephew, sometime between now and when they get off the island. While I have my issues with Jack, I like Christian enough that I'm looking forward to the inevitable Shephard family reunion. One question about Christian's appearance at the campfire: the fact that he could hold Aaron would suggest he's corporeal, but does Miles seeing him tell us anything? How do Miles' powers work? Can he automatically tell the difference between a ghost and a live person if he goes into a situation not knowing whom he'll be seeing?
  • I'm going to miss Daniel Dae Kim after Jin is (presumably) killed off, but at least we get to watch him work until then. Jin's learned his leg-breaking lessons well from Sun's dad. However, just because he forced Charlotte to admit she spoke Korean doesn't mean he has any real power to force her to uphold the agreement. We know Sun gets off the island and Jin doesn't, but for all we know, Charlotte had nothing to do with it.
  • How many commandos did Frank bring to the island in the first place? The chopper's not that big, and there were at least four guys still with Keamy (including the wounded one). How did any of them survive Smokey's rampage, let alone most (or maybe all) of them?
  • Speaking of getting off the island, we did glean some useful fragments from Jack and Kate's climactic argument -- specifically, that Sawyer chose not to leave the island (and is presumably still alive in the future), and that Jack did something that allowed Kate to leave.
  • I'll also give Matthew Fox this: he plays Jack's mania well, even if I'm tired with the ways the character tends to channel his craziness. The scene at Santa Rosa (which, for you timeline folks, obviously took place after the flashforwards in both the season premiere and "Eggtown," but before the original flashforward last season) was so nerve-wracking because Jorge Garcia did such a great job of showing how Hurley had already given up, but also because Fox did an equally good job showing the cracks starting to form in Jack that would lead him to the state he's in by "Through the Looking Glass."
  • Hurley believes he and the rest of the Oceanic Six are all dead and trapped in some kind of purgatory. Has he been reading the "Lost" message boards? That was one of the earliest and most prevalent theories about the island itself.
  • Rousseau's officially dead, for those of you holding out hope she might stagger out of the jungle seven or eight episodes from now so we could get the required Danielle/Alex flashback.
  • Rose! And Rose getting in Charlotte's face! Lovely! At first, when she started proposing a conspiracy theory to Bernard, I thought she would suggest that the freighter people somehow poisoned Jack; the notion that the island made Jack sick to prevent their rescue hadn't occurred to me, but as soon as Rose said it, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
  • Will "CLAAIIRRRRRRE!!!!!!" become the new "WAAAAAALLLLLTTTTTT!!!!!"?
What did everybody else think?

51 comments:

Adam said...

No Sayid, no Desmond, no Locke, no Benjamin ... and too much Tortured Jack. Grrr.

So what's FutureKate doing for Sawyer?

Anonymous said...

Quick thought before I read this column:

Why do your screenshots look like balls? They're all out of proportion and not very good looking. Everyone is stretched up and down like in a funhouse mirror.

Toby O'B said...

As Jack becomes more and more convinced that they should go back to the Island (by the time of "Through The Looking Glass"), I hope we see him hanging around the sanitarium to see Charlie visiting Hurley.

If Christian is just a manifestation of the Smoke Monster, similar to how it appeared as Yemi to Mr. Eko, then it shouldn't have had any problem holding Aaron. The Smoke Monster did a good job of picking up Eko!

I thought they might have been leading up to a relationship between Claire and Sawyer, which might have been interesting once the truth about her link to Jack became known. ("Hey, Doc, I'm banging your sister!") But this looks to be more interesting. Early on in the first season, everybody (I think) was convinved Claire was toast just as soon as she delivered her baby. (Well, at least I did.) Now that fear comes roaring back. They dispatched Rousseau, might Claire be next?

I keep hoping we'll find meet the Whisperers, and from their perspective at that. I thought Sawyer might be the way to go with this idea, but maybe this could be Claire's ultimate role is in the "game".....

Anonymous said...

I think it was a decent episode, not the worst the but definitely not the greatest. I'm with you on the Jack/Kate/Sawyer storyline, but this episode filled in enough holes between "Eggtown" and the S3 Finale timeline that I thought it was worthwhile.

I don't necessarily think that the "He's not even related to you" line means that Jack knows he's actually the one related to Aaron.

Yes, I too loved it when Rose called Charlotte "Red".

I too enjoy Mathew Fox's acting job even though I can't, even after a few drinks, like his character.

Even more interested in Miles now as well.

And I'm really looking forward to next week's episode based on the preview.

Anonymous said...

The one thing that didn't come up (and I thought it would) is that Sawyer met Christian in Australia, and knows that he's Jack's father. And even if Miles describes him, there's no way Sawyer's going to make that connection.

Overall, though, yeah, Jack episode, what are you going to do? Especially with the appendectomy being a complete anticlimax. Couldn't they have given him something to bite down on?

One thing about the flashforward though, Jack doesn't mess around with his self-destruction. One visit to Hurley, one sighting of his dad, and he's combining pills and alcohol.

Was I the only one who expected Kate to be doing something for Ben?

Alan Sepinwall said...

Why do your screenshots look like balls?

Because Tobias Funke is my personal director of photography.

Anonymous said...

Alan, I would have to disagree. Last episode totally felt flat to me, but I loved this week's episode. It gave me the chills numerous times....I thought the way they showed Jack coming apart at the seams to be great, it really explained the transition between last season's flashforward and this season's flashforwards. I thought Evangeline Lilly's acting was outstanding, unusually so.

Anonymous said...

I was really hoping Jack would come out of the surgery tent with not just a scar, but a meaningful new tattoo.

Anonymous said...

Anon, I'm sure he's getting the best screen caps he can immediately after the episode airs. Otherwise he uses photos given out for promos that look better. But either way, who really cares?

Anonymous said...

Ok adding another post just because I was reminded of Evangeline Lilly and she is worthy, WOW was she looking hot tonight! Love the flash forward/back scenes with her because she's actually out of those grimy jungle clothes.

Anna said...

Was I the only one who expected Kate to be doing something for Ben?

That could've been way more interesting. Although, I still don't really buy Sayid working for him after last week, so maybe it's better they didn't try to do that to Kate too.

I am amazed at how this show can make me hate Jack even more with every passing episode. I mean, I've heard of backseat driving before, but backseat surgery? And his own surgery, at that? And don't even get me started on his "you're not even related" comment. That would definitely get a punch in the face from me.

Anonymous said...

I don't think it was about the Island keeping them from leaving.

Rose: "Why did he get sick?"
Bernard: "People get sick."
Rose: "Not on this island. They get better."

Jack did get better. He got his appendix back.

I propose that in a future flashjack, we'll see that he had appendicitis before and had it removed. An appendix is a one-time only removal. For it to reappear on the island back inside of Jack, and to start causing severe pain all over again, it just shows that the island's healing properties were at work.

Evidence why this makes complete sense:
- Why was Jack, who regularly diagnoses the people of the island, clearly against it being appendicitis? He kept suggesting food poisoning, a stomach virus, hesitation to let Juliet check around, being adamant about just needing some rest and water.
- Why did Jack insist on being awake for the operation? For seeing what Juliet was doing? It wasn't because he didn't trust her. He needed to see, he needed to know, if his appendix was reallyt here again.

The only thing I'm not sure of is why it happened again. Is it because the island is on a sliding timeline? Will Rose get her cancer again and Locke his paralysis? Are they in younger, healthier bodies before things happened?

Anonymous said...

I really cannot stand the love triangle episodes. My sister and I battle it out all the time over this...what makes Lost so great to me is basically everything BUT that triangle with Jack and Kate...plus I think Evangeline Lily is kind of annoying. Plus, when you see a real love story like Desmond and Penny's, Jack and Kate's romance is just so unconvincing.

So it goes said...

I had been waiting for island smart ass vs freighter smart ass conflict so when Sawyer let loose with the "Its too early for Chinese line" I was overjoyed.


Narrim - I really don't think Jack of all people would just assume that his appendix grew back if it had already been removed. There would have been a scar there already if that was the case.


Also, he insisted on being awake because he is a stubborn jackass that likes to be in control, even when he knows better.

Michael said...

Why is it that women look so hot when they wear a man's dress shirt?

Anyway, don't forget that Christian also appeared with Vincent the dog in one of last year's LOSTisodes.

I was really surprised to see Rousseau buried (I thought they'd let her live so she could have a flashback, which of course they still could) and Keamy and the other mercs still alive.

The Lostpedia says that the baseball scores that Jack was perusing took place on August 31, 2007.

Anonymous said...

After all the time they spent on the Jack-Juliet relationship, they sure dispensed of it awfully quickly. Are we supposed to believe that Jack saw Juliet entirely as a substitute for Kate -- or that, knowing he has feelings for Kate, Juliet would stop fighting for him completely? If so, that's another plot element that's been built up endlessly only to go nowhere.

Of course, if he knew how good maternal-future Kate was going to look, there would have been no comparison.

Joan said...

I was really hoping Jack would come out of the surgery tent with not just a scar, but a meaningful new tattoo.

LOL. Really, I did.

In the flash-forward, Jack didn't have an appendectomy scar, or at least not the one he should have after that horrible suture job Juliet did on him. I knew he had appendicitis about 3 episodes ago when he started looking poorly. It was telegraphed a mile away.

So what's FutureKate doing for Sawyer?
IIRC, Maureen was the name of the woman from the long con episode who bore his daughter. I believe that Sawyer gave Kate a message to deliver to her. One reasonable thing to do would be for Sawyer's daughter to collect whatever settlement Oceanic was dispersing to the families of the victims.

Anonymous said...

This was a pretty meh episode after a good run of quality that had been the rest of the season.

Alan, I took Jack's comment to Kate as evidence that he doesn't yet know of his familial ties to Aaron. If anything, I would imagine the blood connection would compel him to be somewhat less of an @$$ in that situation.

Now for my other comment. I have generally been one of those who defends the show to those who don't think there is a plan at work. Sure, many things have changed since the show started and roles expanded (Ben) or contracted (Nikki and Paolo, but there always seems to be a fairly steady hand guiding the narrative. All that said, my knee-jerk reaction to Rousseau's death was not a good one. Sure, not knowing Vasily's fate out in the Pine Barrens allows for the randomness and uncertainty of life, but that was on a show where the viewers could expect such interesting diversions from whatever overarching themes are being explored. But Rousseau is a crucial figure in the mythology of the show as she might still be able to explain a great deal about the island that remains unknown to the audience. I hope that somehow more of her story is told, but her and Alex's death makes it less obvious as to how that could be done. If this thread is left to dangle on a show in which, to channel my inner Lester, "all the pieces matter," then it gives me less confidence in the direction of the overall narrative.

End of rambling.

Bruce Reid said...

A mixed bag for me, since I'm as tired as everyone else except the showrunners (and Caroline's sister) of the romantic triangle, but genuinely enjoy most Jack stories for the utterly wrecked, arrogant, self-righteous jerk they portray.

"Every time the show does a Jack episode, I can tell that Lindelof, Cuse and company are going for some kind of tragically flawed hero riff...." I don't think this goes far enough, Alan. Jack's been portrayed wrong, and pig-headedly so, so often I suspect we're meant to have turned on him. Certainly Juliet was correct in shutting down his egotistical surgery stunt; and while the pain and terror of encroaching madness was certainly present in his scene with Hurley, so was a callousness and indifference to his supposed friend.

Maybe I'm giving the show too much credit, maybe I'm reading between the lines of the writers' attempt at complexity and Fox's innate self-pity, but one of my favorite things about Lost has always been that it's main character was such an unmitigated ass.

But dear god, please, enough with the love story.

And while it probably wasn't plotted out this way, Jack's breakdown being precipitated by visions of his dead father plugs a nice plot hole in last season's finale, explaining why his harried, drug-frazzled mind kept referring to his dad in the present tense.

medusa said...

Joan, I thought that Cassidy was the woman who had Sawyer's kid - you know, the same Cassidy that Kate ran into and had a few adventures with while she was on the run. The question now is, if she did promise Sawyer to look out for Clementine, has she now made the connection and are she and Cassidy buddies? I want to see that flash-forward episode!

K J Gillenwater said...

Joan, I thought the same thing you did...why didn't Jack have an ugly scar on his torso when he woke up in bed? I think they made of point of him being that way to show us there was no scar.

I think Sawyer & Claire might be headed for romance. Claire used to kinda not like him, now she seems to look to him for protection and concern. He was very protective of her...in more than just a friend way.

I think Sawyer will see Christian on the island as he searches for Claire...and he will be the one to let Jack know he and Claire are brother and sister.

But why would Claire leave her baby in the jungle? That I don't understand. Does it seem to anyone else that Aaron must be special somehow? And that is why Claire will allow Kate to take him off the island...I'm not certain now that she will be dead. I think she will choose to stay. For what reason, I'm not sure, but I'll say it will have something to do with her father.

I like the eps where Jack is a mess. I don't like him happy. So this was a good one for me...to see him slipping into drunkeness and pill popping. Great meeting with Hurley. I think Jack already knows something is wrong about them being back in the real world, and when Hurley tells him about seeing Charlie and giving him messages...well, I think it is only confirming what Jack already feels.

Looking forward to next week!

Anonymous said...

They went out of their way in the beginning to show you that Jack didn't have a scar - first with the unnecessary pan of his torso and then with the closeup when he bent down to get the toy. I'm certain that Jack being naked there was done to make sure we all had a chance to see the lack of scar. So... either the island healed the scar or they really are dead, right? I'm at a loss for a third explanation.

Thought this episode had a lot of potential - there were even times I didn't hate Jack & Kate as characters - but in the end nothing really got resolved and they asked a few more questions.

Every now and then (not nearly as often anymore) it still feels like tap dancing. This show would've done well with an HBO-style 13 episode limit.

Joe said...

Appendicitis is lazy. It's the medical version of escaping through air ducts. Put a little effort in and give us something creative, interesting. Was its only purpose to slow the Losties from getting off the island? Pushing Kate and Juliet together? Watch Jack go through a miraculous recovery, kickin-ass the next day.

I like this episode better for the simple reason that it was light on time travel/leaving the island through Ben's magic closet. That just plays with reality too much for my tastes. Some sci/fi fantasy is great, but when there are no rules, it borders on soap opera logic where people come back from the dead. The human interaction is more interesting than the fantasy.

Stef said...

I still hate Jack, and just about every moment of his screen time is painful. I would've enjoyed seeing his appendix burst and having him die on the beach. But, since we all know he lives, I am trying to be patient to see how he helps bring the on-Island and future-6 storylines together.

I think Sawyer will see Christian on the island as he searches for Claire...and he will be the one to let Jack know he and Claire are brother and sister.

I kinda like this idea, which makes Sawyer Han Solo to Jack and Claire's Luke and Leia.

I had been waiting for island smart ass vs freighter smart ass conflict so when Sawyer let loose with the "Its too early for Chinese line" I was overjoyed.

I snorted out loud near the beginning of the ep, cuz I *swear* Sawyer called Miles "Donger." !!!

Anonymous said...

Chalk it up to the romantic in me, but I enjoy the Jack/Kate story. I don't want non-stop Jate but it's nice to see on occasion. I think they have great chemistry.

I think Sawyer asked FutureKate to communicate something from him to Clementine, his daughter.

Michelle

Alan Sepinwall said...

I snorted out loud near the beginning of the ep, cuz I *swear* Sawyer called Miles "Donger." !!!

He totally did, and I totally forgot to note it in the review. "Sixteen Candles" fans, unite!

Anonymous said...

If it's 2007 in the flash forwards and the rest of the series is about them getting back to the island, etc (a guess, not a spoiler), then that means Walt can come back into the cast, right?

I'm starting to wonder if we are going to be all caught up by the end of the season... and what that will mean for the flash-forwards, backwards, sideways, etc.

Eric said...

I actually liked seeing the Jack and Kate relationship without Sawyer in the picture. Even when Jack started getting paranoid and drinking I liked how exactly it paralleled what happened with his wife. It wasn't until Kate said Sawyer's name that I got annoyed with the plotline and felt jerked around.

I don't think appendicitis was lazy. This ain't House. It is a bit of a trope, but it presents an easy to identify and understand problem that's totally curable in civilization and almost certainly fatal outside of it.

And damn, but that visit with Hurley was sad and depressing. (Has he lost all his money? He could certainly afford a better institution, or even round-the-clock home care if he hasn't. Or does he just want to be where he was before?)

Anonymous said...

Is it good when the audience is rooting for the hero to die on the operating table? The Sawyer/Kate/Jack/Juliet love quadrangle is even less compelling of a story than Battlestar Galactica's Anders/Starbuck/Apollo/Dualla story, which never quite worked as well as the writers' hoped. Maybe Jack would be a more interesting character if he turns out to be a Cylon...

Anonymous said...

When Jack was on the table trying to be lead surgeon on his own appendectomy, I wanted them to put him out with a bullet to the forehead.

Maybe Lapidus made several trips?

I didn't get the impression that Sawyer was still alive. Just because Kate promised to do something for him doesn't mean he isn't dead. At this point, I wish all three of them were. Well, Kate can live if she promises to keep her pants off.

Poor Rousseau! I was one of the ones who was hoping for a comeback. They never did figure out what to do with her.

Rose only shows up every 4-5 episodes, and she always says something that makes sense. The latter explains the former. Can't have too much of that on THIS show.

Anonymous said...

I don't think appendicitis was lazy. This ain't House. It is a bit of a trope, but it presents an easy to identify and understand problem that's totally curable in civilization and almost certainly fatal outside of it.

Except we already know it wasn't fatal. We know Jack gets off the island. They've only got 3-4 more episodes to go this season, and they're wasting time telling us stuff we've already been told about him ad nauseam. Yes, Jack is an angry, paranoid control freak with serious daddy issues, we get it.

AyPNancy said...

My friend just said mentioned a theory that I'm totally jumping on board with. Does anyone else think Claire died of her injuries from the explosion and her father came to "collect" her? That would explain why Miles kept looking at her and didn't stop her when she walked off into the jungle. What do you guys think?

Susan said...

I just had to give Alan props for the post title. "Sister, Christian." Brilliant.

Anonymous said...

The scar was most certainly there in the future. Go to losteastereggs.blospot.com. There are a few screencaps of the scar from both the bathroom and kitchen scenes.

Also, my guess is that Miles was staring at Claire because he knows she is doomed for death.

I like Jack's episodes. Usually they're the most revealing and plot-pushing, as he is the "main character." I put that in quotes because I think it's pretty unfortunate the writers essentially abandoned him for so long. Not that I don't love seeing Ben, Locke, or Desmond, but Jack is unbalanced now. We didn't see much of him in the second part of last season, and he's been placed in the backseat for most of this season. He's losing depth, is what it comes down to.

I would have much rathered the writers save the Jack-centric episode for this season's finale. Then again, as a lot of this season has been about the science of it all, maybe we'll end on a faith-based episode involving Locke. (Both he and Jack stand for the two major themes of the show -- faith and science -- so I consider him a main character as well. Could be a great finale.)

So all in all, I agree this episode was a bit subpar. Or it started that way, at least. When we finally get to Jack seeing Christian, it picked up a bit and felt like Lost. But, the writing and editing for the Claire/Sawyer/Miles scenes felt very sloppy. Did not like.

Anonymous said...

That would explain why Miles kept looking at her and didn't stop her when she walked off into the jungle.

I think a more plausible explanation is that Miles is a spiteful dick, and when given the choice between doing the right thing and getting back at Sawyer by taking him so literally, he chose the douche path.

Anonymous said...

OK, this episode wasn't as good as the last but it was still pretty good. I kind of like the fact that Jack as the self-appointed leader/hero who is an insufferable, crazed, junkie doctor makes him a good foil in the love triangle. I don't have the negative reaction everyone else has to him, maybe cuz he still seems like Charlie from Party of Five.

JMC said...

I really thought that as soon as Jack went under the chloroform that all sorts of shit was going to break loose and his paranoid fear of not being aware of all aspects of everything was to going to finally come true. It's also funny.

Kate is damn sexy.

Anonymous said...

Before Kate revealed that she was doing something for Sawyer, I also had the thought that she was secretly working for Ben. But then I quickly had another thought: what if she was working for Widmore? Thing about it: the Oceanic 6 make it off the island onto Widmore's freighter and he just let's them go back to normal life. Somehow, he makes them promise not to reveal anything about the island. What if Kate had also made a deal to work with him in exchange for their safety (or at least Aaron's safety). That would have been a lot more interesting than her just doing something for Sawyer...

Darren

Anonymous said...

Isn't Kate still married to the cop in Florida? I don't recall seeing anything about a divorce. Also, she was on the lam between the time she left him up to when she crashed on the island. Because she used a false name, she never was actually married?

Steve B said...

My big problem with last night's episode is the fact that Jack's Appendix problem created absolutely no tension at all. We all knew that he turns out all right, and nothing at all happened while he was knocked out. There was no discernible reason why this happened to him. It doesn't seem to relate to anything in the past, present, or future, so why include it? It made no sense. After last week's action packed episode, we got filler this week. I don't have a huge problem with filler, as it makes the good episodes that much better, but I really wish they would have picked something different on the island.

I must say though, the Hurley-Jack scene was very, very good.

Anonymous said...

I also definitely saw the scar. I watched the episode again on DVR and paused during the FutureJack shirtless scenes. You can see the scar after he picks up the toy, after he drops the newspaper and while he's looking in the mirror while Kate is in the shower. Pretty clean scar for surgery performed in the jungle, but it's there.

Anonymous said...

Every time the show does a Jack episode, I can tell that Lindelof, Cuse and company are going for some kind of tragically flawed hero riff

Every time they make him more insufferable, it makes me believe the rumors that Matthew Fox is a prima donna on the set and everyone hates him. Guhhh.

The ep was saved by the Sawyer/Claire/Miles trek, the Sun/Jin and Bernard/Rose awesomeness, and Jeff Fahey's beautiful blue eyes. I could have done without most of the Jack/Kate crap (although Hurley/Jack was indeed good stuff, as others have noted).

Joan said...

Pretty clean scar for surgery performed in the jungle, but it's there.

There is no way that the sutures that Jack had would heal to give him such a slight scar. I had minor surgery about 5 years ago with much smaller sutures, and the scar is still way worse than his. The scar that Jack is sporting is the kind that you get when it was closed with steri-strips, not sutures (I have some of those, too.) So I'll stand by my original assertion that Jack doesn't have the scar he should have from the surgery. The folks in the makeup department blew it.

Anonymous said...

I sincerely hope they are not going for a Sawyer/Claire 'ship. Have they learned nothing from horrible audience reaction to Kate and Jack? Don't force romance where there is absolutely NO CHEMISTRY.

"Plus, when you see a real love story like Desmond and Penny's, Jack and Kate's romance is just so unconvincing."

Not enough "word" in the world for that comment from above. I like Matthew Fox, hate hate HATE the character of Jack. And watching Jack and Kate mack on each other really did make me queasy; like watching a brother and sister make out. It was awful, truly awful. I cheered when their lovey-doviness began to disintegrate.

"Is it good when the audience is rooting for the hero to die on the operating table?" No, not really. And yet that's what I was doing too. I think it would be so damn brave of the writers/creators of the show to kill off Jack; to kind of admit that they really didn't create a good hero out of the guy and just let him go. Every single other character on the show, even boring Kate, is more compelling than Jack.

Anonymous said...

What about this, "You're not supposed to raise him" bit from Hurley / dead Charlie? I'm wondering if there is a connection here to the psychic from season one that sent Claire to the US to put the baby up for adoption? I don't remember the details... any juice to this?

Anonymous said...

Not only is Jack's scar too healed and too small, but the off-island Jack we saw in this episode also has no chest hair. Previously when we saw Jack, he had a hairy chest.

Anonymous said...

Claire's not dying. We have the "This baby can't be raised by anyone else," admonition from the psychic in Season One and the follow-up, "You're not supposed to raise him," from dead Charlie in this episode. Claire's probably back on the Island, and a reuniting of Aaron and Claire must be part of the series resolution.

Other evidence Claire's still alive: they kept her around all through the first three seasons (and Season 4, so far) despite the fact that she's an essentially pointless character (never really does much of anything). Every other character that has stopped moving the story forward in some way has been eliminated, so they must have long-term plans for her or she'd be in the graveyard on the beach by now.

Anonymous said...

Not only is Jack's scar too healed and too small, but the off-island Jack we saw in this episode also has no chest hair. Previously when we saw Jack, he had a hairy chest.

Season 5 will introduce a heretofore unseen Dharma station, the Root, a day spa/waxing parlor.

AyPNancy said...

My big problem with last night's episode is the fact that Jack's Appendix problem created absolutely no tension at all. We all knew that he turns out all right, and nothing at all happened while he was knocked out. There was no discernible reason why this happened to him.

Maybe it wasn't his appendix at all! Maybe Juliet and Bernard are in cahoots to operate on him and plant some sort of tracking device in Jack's body! It's far fetched but at least it would create a non-annoying storyline for Jack. :)

@jim treacher: LMAO re: the
heretofore unseen Dharma station, the Root. :D

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to Desmond's vision about Claire getting into a helicopter with Aaron? Is that the whole reason Charlie was willing to sacrifice himself at the Looking Glass Station? If Claire gets in a helicopter, but isn't saved -- that is, dies before reaching safety or gets sent back to the island -- doesn't that make Charlie's death pointless? Well, not completely pointless, since Aaron is okay, but still....

Plus, what does that mean about Desmond's visions?

Anonymous said...

I find the episode average level. It was an episode designed to close the gaps between the rescue and "Through the Looking Glass". I felt sad for Jack after the episode. And for Hurley too. Matthew Fox and Jorge Garcia were fantastic. Evangeline Lilly really annoys me. Her character destroyed the stories of Jack and Sawyer and just turned Lost a soap opera. I'm fed up with hearing Jack/Sawyer names from her. Jaack! Sawyer! boo hoo.