Tonight’s episode of Lost, Something Nice Back Home, was very satisfying if you like things “working out” but Lost is binary and every positive has a corresponding negative. Read on for the recap:
- Something Nice Back Home
- Hurley, Charlie, Christian, Jack & Claire
- Old Habits
- Show Tropes
- Collusions, Delusions, Confusion
Bernard speaks the titular line to Jack before his Apendectomy and it certainly is a reference to Jack playing house with Kate and Aaron post-trial in the future off-island.
It’s important to note that Jack does have an Apendectomy scar in those flash-forward scenes. He’s also living in the house where we saw Kate & Aaron in the trial episode.
I’ll throw out there the possibility that the storyline in the future is just some kind of “appendix” to the rest of the story. A nice little detour farther into the future, or along some parallel and/or opposing path, than what we would have gotten otherwise. Just a thought.
Question: what do we think of Rose’s “diagnosis”? What to make of Jack’s illness? The island trying to keep him there? A punishment for some transgression/failure to commune?
This is a bit convoluted to me (what in Lost isn’t) but my wife made the observation that Charlie and Christian both appear to Hurley and Jack just on the outskirts of their homes/buildings/offices. I don’t know that there’s anything revelatory here, but maybe it’s something to do with them not being able to “enter” a place, just appear around. I don’t know. I’m just spit-balling.
I also loved that Christian made an appearance on and off island in both present and future. Important, I think, but just how is questionable.
I’m also curious whether we think Charlie and Christian are ghosts or not? And do we buy into Hurley’s admission that “We’re all dead; we never got off that island.”?
Are we meant to think Hurley is more than just crazy?
Are we meant to believe that this future is yet another afterlife/heaven/purgatory macguffin?
Does the state of the characters (alive, dead, between) ultimately affect the storyline, or is their continued interconnectedness the real story (see above macguffin point)?
While I enjoy the mystery of not knowing who/what Charlie and Christian represent, I think they’re actually just cyphers for the journey of Jack and Hurley, ultimately pulling both characters more towards their natural predilections: for Jack the drunken failure with Daddy issues and for Hurley the unlucky sad sack.
I think those “ghosts” are the albatrosses that Jack and Hurley are yoked to and unless/until they confront those fears/beings, they won’t grow. As to whether or not those “ghosts” want both back on the island or to accomplish some other task(s) I don’t know.
Hurley’s still crazy.
Kate still lies and sneaks around.
Jack still boozes it up and mixes it with pills (via prescription).
What has really changed in the future?
That people are proposing to Kate? Already been done.
That Jack is still trying to save the world through medicine and working too hard? Check.
These people want change and growth, they just can’t gain perspective because they still have one another.
Maybe Jack wasn’t “supposed to raise him [Aaron]” as Charlie tells him via Hurley.
Maybe Jack’s right that Kate isn’t even related to Aaron even though she’s the only mother the boy has.
Maybe Kate was/wasn’t doing something for Sawyer? And what was it?
Maybe Hurley is dead, at least in some way, because he isn’t on the island.
Ok, so I’m taking some liberties, but I think the point I’m trying to make is this: the future is the past. And I’m not talking time travel, but I am talking island. But not the actual island, but the lesson of the island.
The reward they received was freedom from the island but the price they paid was servitude to their old masters: themselves. And we all know just how (not) rosy that was previously.
I don’t know if I’ve got a greater point except to say that I was previously certain that their journey would involve a round trip to the island but now I’m not so sure. Give me an episode or two, I’ll flip-flop again.
What is clear is that leaving the island and having one another didn’t make everything “heaven” so Hurley is wrong in that regard. Just how “hellish” things get, that’s another story (I hope).
Alice in Wonderland (wasn’t that the book Jack read Aaron?)
Close-ups of eyes (Jack’s in the show open)
Whispers
I’m sure I’m missing a few more, but you know where Lostpedia is.
Oh, and did anyone else think that Jack heard Kate’s voice before opening his eyes to reveal Juliet or was that just me? Foreshadowing of the flash-forward and/or Juliet’s admissions about Jack or what?
Why is Sawyer so protective of Claire?
What are her visions? Are they more than just Christian?
Why didn’t Miles follow Claire?
Why did Claire leave Aaron?
How/when/why did Charlotte learn Korean?
I’m sure I’m missing a ton more, but it’s late.
Overall a really dense episode that simultaneously gave us some well-earned glimpses to the future but also left a lot of room to expand upon in upcoming seasons.
I’m really dying to know whether or not those Oceanic Six (or some subset) ever go back to the island.
Plus, I dig that we’re getting less island-centric and more about the relationships and the stories post island.
G’night!
UPDATE: I screwed up the post timing in WordPress, so I apologize if my recap has been hiding for most/all of you.
A few additional thoughts:
How/why did some/all of Keamy’s men survive the smoke monster?
When exactly does the Jack/Kate proposal fit into the future timeline? It’s post-trial but is it pre-bearded freakout?
More and more, I’m led to believe that it was Hurley’s coffin we saw in the season finale last year, and that it’s his death that drives Jack (and…?) back to the island.
The producers have said (Spoiler?) that next season is about getting back to the island, I believe.
Also, let us remember that Jack, weirdly, IS related to Aaron: Jack’s father is Aaron’s grandfather.
Both excellent points, Will.
Jack’s little drunken outburst last night is telling. Kate isn’t biologically related to Aaron, but she’s more a parent than he is.
He’s trying, but he doesn’t believe in it himself (Daddy issues on Lost. Again.) Plus Hurley/Charlie say he shouldn’t raise Aaron.
And I think there’s reason to believe they won’t get back to the island. A season spent trying doesn’t mean success is a given.
not sure where I land on this yet, but…
1. I’m shocked that Rousseau is dead and buried. This upsets me greatly, as I feel completely robbed by the loss of her flashback. Simply inexcusable, as her time from her shipwreck to the arrival of the Lostaways was a crucial period of lost time for us. Delenn, we hardly knew ye.
2. We are all agreed that the flash forwards at the end of last season occur AFTER everything we’ve seen thus far this season.
3. I know Miles is all Haley Joel Osment, but he really saw a corporeal Christian Shepherd last night…right?
4. My assumption is that by the time Jack and Kate are off-island, they KNOW that Aaron is Jack’s nephew. Obvously not verifiable, yet, but that seems to be the implication of Jack’s pointing out Kate and Aaron aren’t “even” related.
@Hunter:
1. I think the plans are to have some of her story revealed in the future, but her death does seem odd. Have we heard that Mira Furlan wanted off the show?
2. Again, I think you’re right, but my head spins sometimes thinking about laying a linear timeline onto the narrative.
3. I’m becoming one-note but I think he did. The casket was empty back at Adam & Eve’s cave way back in Season 1.
4. Agreed. Either Jack OR Claire know their half-siblings at this point, I just can’t recall which. Claire, I think. Anyhow, I’m of the opinion that family reunion that is soon upcoming will reveal all of this.
I do not believe that – using the Island timeline as present – Claire or Jack do know this. If either did, it would be odd they haven’t addressed this.
My feeling is that this “big reveal” is coming and is very much tied into my next point…
I’m of the opinion that Claire must die between now and Island Jack, Island Kate, and Island Aaron leave the island, which would go a long way to explaining the guilt LA Future Jack seems to have regardig LA Future Aaron. Not sure if this is just “I couldn’t save everyone guilt” or due to some specific course of action (or lack thereof) that Jack takes between now and then.
I also forgot to mention this before…re: Kate’s secret Sawyer-centric activities last night. Could Noreen (Kate’s mysterious playground mom friend) be Cassidy…the (supposed, probable?) mother of Sawyers’ baby way back from (I believe) the Long Con? Could Kate simply be fulfilling some wish of Sawyer’s regarding HIS child?
Also, Jack indicates at the end there that Sawyer CHOSE to stay when the O-6 left. I’m not sure how many had this choice, or why, but this seems significant.
And…if I’m not mistaken, Kate and Cassidy “know” each other, from a season 3 Kate flashback (Left Behind, maybe).
Maybe I’m losing my mind but isn’t there a storyline in the Island/present timeline where Jack OR Claire realizes they’re related to the other?
Par Avion maybe? (http://lostpedia.com/wiki/Par_Avion)
And I’m thinking Kate did something sinister, not helpful, like maybe put a hit on someone or hired someone to do it. But I’m alone in that regard. My wife thought the same as you, Hunter.
I still don’t think it’s one of the Oceanic 6 in the coffin. There would be some sort of media attention and press at the funeral for an Oceanic 6 survivor. Plus, Jack said he wasn’t a friend or family at the funeral home.
Still doesn’t answer who it is…
Jack’s transition from post-trial happiness to bearded pill popper is somewhat similar to the way he handled his previous wife leaving him and finding someone new. The combination of suspecting Kate, seeing ghosts, and guilt over him making it off the island and others left behind (alive or dead) make a pretty solid combination to push him over the edge.
Forgot: me and the wife are both agreeing that Kate is trying to find or help Sawyer’s kid, maybe to get make sure the money Sawyer got from the feds is taken care of…
did anyone else get the feeling that Jack only proposed to see if Hurley’s too good to be true theory was right? Maybe his disappointment with Claire can be attributed to the fact that he now knows he’s seeing things and his guilt can’t be forgotten?
So, I had a thought last night that I felt could not wait until AFTER tonights festivities…
Why would Charles Widmore want Faraday, Lupidas, Charlotte, and Miles on that boat? Why would he want them on that island? What do they actually offer him that he couldn’t get from him “own” people?
And then it struck me…they are all threats to him. They all know that the crash was a fake (Miles, Lupidas) about the Dharma Initiative (CS Lewis) and…what, time travel (Faraday).
Could Widmore be setting them up to die with the Lostaways?