LOST Something Nice Back Home, first thoughts

Very mixed bag episode.

The flash forwards stuff was awesome, and the Island stuff not involving Dr. Jack was amazing as well, but the Dr. Jack Island story line seemed beyond pointless.

I mean, after the flash forward phenomena, any "danger" the Oceanic 6 face isn't going to be very suspenseful.

Not only that, but we're in the midst of a Dr. Jack flashforward in the very episode.  We know that he's going to be fine in the future, because we're seeing it before he ever goes under the knife.

Very poorly plotted to be the main Island storyline.

It did give Rose the opportunity to comment on how the Island was making Dr. Jack sick just when they needed him the most, but that was really the only way that the impact of Dr. Jack's health on the survivors was looked at at all.  I think that should have been the point, how their leader getting sick was effecting the other LOSTies.  The actual surgery and such should have been greatly downplayed and the effect said surgery was having on everyone else should have been the focus.

If that had been the case, this would have gone from a so-so episode to one of the best, because everything else in the episode was brilliant.

Let's stay on the Island, but go to the other side where Sawyer was leading Claire, Aaron, and Miles back to the beach.

There definitely seems to be some Sawyer/Claire romantic foreshadowing going on.  Sawyer got all jealous when Miles watches Claire from a distance and imposed a restraining order on him, which caused Miles to do nothing when Claire up and left their camp site to follow none other then Christian Shephard, her and Dr. Jack's father.

Do you all remember my prediction as to why Dr. Jack seemed to be wary of hanging with Aaron in the Kate episode Eggtown?

I said that I thought Sawyer and Claire would see Christian, Claire would say "That's my dad" and Sawyer would say, "That's Dr. Jack's dad" and then Dr. Jack and Claire would know that they were brother and sister.

Well, it looks like I might have been pretty close.  If Sawyer goes after Claire and finds her with Christian, then realization happens, but another possibility is that Miles sees Christian somewhere and tells Sawyer (and or Dr. Jack) that it is Claire's father, causing realization to happen.  Either way, by the flash forward future, Dr. Jack knows, because he says to Kate, "You're not even related to him," which implies that he himself is.

Apparently, the mercenary baddies escaped Smokey more or less intact, giving us the opportunity to know that we can at least trust Frank the pilot, as he protected our merry little band from the Freighter Mercenaries.

I'm beginning to think that the four on the Island (C.S. Lewis, Faraday, Miles, and Frank) and Michael on the boat are the only Freighties that we can trust.

Alright, let's head to the future.

A whole lot was given to us in this flash forward.

We got to see how Dr. Jack goes from happy Island survivor to bearded, suicidal, drug addicted Dr. Jack.

We know now why drunk (and drugged up) Dr. Jack told the doctor to go upstairs and fetch his father in last season's finale, because by that point he'll probably have had quite a few conversations with Christian.  As of yet, Dr. Daddy has only gotten to say "Hello, Jack," but I'm sure it won't be long before we get to "You've got to go back to the Island, Jack".  (Leading to Dr. Jack's plaintive cry, "We've got to go back!" from last year's season finale.)

It's nice to know that Charlie is still visiting Hurley.

Okay, let's talk about the phone call that got Dr. Jack all riled up.  I have no doubt that Kate was talking to Cassidy, Sawyer's ex and the mother of his child.  If you'll recall, he got a large amount of money while in prison working on a con with the warden and used that money to set up a bank account for his daughter Clementine.  Kate and Cassidy already know each other as well.  I think that Sawyer wanted Kate to check on his daughter and make sure that Cassidy and Clementine were doing well and were provided for and Kate is honoring that request.

You know Sawyer would never want Dr. Jack knowing that he was a concerned father.  Can you imagine what that would do to his reputation?

Anyway, it is nice to know that Sawyer stuck on the Island still fraks with the Dr. Jake/Kate relationship.  Even displaced in time and space, this love triangle stays strong.

Did you notice what Dr. Jack said about Sawyer though?  He said that our favorite con man chose to stay behind, chose.  Very interesting.

Until Next Time, I wish that the "Dr. Jack has surgery" storyline hadn't dominated the episode, because then this episode would have been brilliant.