Lost - Something Nice Back Home

*** / ****

When Claire vanishes at the end of the episode, Something Nice Back Home, I just had chills. That, along with Christian’s appearance in the hospital as Jack spots him after fixing a smoke detector, I just thought were particularly creepy. Christian’s presence also appears to Claire before she goes missing in the woods, with only a crying Aaron found by a [obviously] worried Sawyer while Miles mocks him for the “restraining order” posed upon him (not to go near Claire). Sawyer had rescued Claire from an exploded barracks house, previously, and was very protective of her but sleep took his eyes away during the night when she noticed Christian holding Aaron. Where did she go? Sawyer with a crying Aaron in his arms, a bird’s eye view from above peering down at him, was one hell of a cliffhanger at the end of the episode!

The episode ever so briefly gives us a glimpse into a flash ahead off-island at Jack and Kate together, in love, and happy. Alas, it doesn’t last long. An ill-fated visit to Hurley at the mental hospital where he’s so devolved into a cell-dwelling isolation, Jack is told that Charlie appeared to him, that he would have a visitor, too. And later Christian appears to Jack, alarming him. A request from a fellow doctor for stress-relief medication (and a steady diet of booze after overhearing Kate talking to someone and later comes home to her missing and a babysitter watching Aaron) will contribute to Jack’s decline. Claire’s adultery continued to haunt Jack and so Kate’s admittance to “taking care of things out of a promise to Sawyer” (who stayed behind) didn’t do any favors for his state of mind. We already know how far Jack will fall but proclaiming how Aaron isn’t her child (and Aaron across the room hearing it) seems to be the camel-breaking straw.

The flash ahead alternates with the present on-island preparations for Jack’s own appendectomy, performed by Juliet (with help from dentist, Bernard, and attempted mirror-holding assistance from Kate), after devices are confiscated from the abandoned Dharma medical station. Sun shows Jin where Juliet performed the sonogram and Jin realizes Charlotte understood Korean when they were talking. Daniel secures the medical devices, understanding what Juliet needs because he performed on lab animals due to his time experiments. Jin urges Charlotte to speak to him in Korean, warning her to take Sun off the island through the helicopter trip or else he’d break Daniel’s fingers! During a key conversation between Rose and Bernard, they discuss how puzzling it is that Jack is sick on an island where most don’t fall ill but recover instead. It is a valid question…perhaps Jack isn’t on “the list”. And Juliet realized the kiss from Jack was to test whether or not he loved someone else [Kate]. I liked how Juliet is understanding of where she seems to place in Jack’s eyes (and heart). I do think Jack cares about Juliet,  but love for  Kate perhaps trumps it. Kate’s  tug-o-war feelings for Jack and Sawyer just seem to continue even after leaving the island. And that Jack and Kate seemed prepared for marriage adds greater heaviness to the downward spiral of the spinal surgeon.