Jack Dreams of Something Nice Back Home on "Lost"

Another great episode of Lost last night ("Something Nice Back Home"), but were you expecting anything else really? While I knew that they would intentionally keep us hanging about the Locke/Ben/Hurley/Jacob storyline until next week, I was happy to see everyone back on the beach as well as Claire and Sawyer. All in all it really reminded me--in the best possible way--of an episode from Season One: taut, gripping, and character-driven, with an ominous quality to every on-screen moment.

Lovers. I was absolutely stunned to see Kate step out of the shower and kiss a completely waxed Jack, though it was of course nicely set up moments before with the Millennium Falcon toy (obviously Aaron's) on the floor and the Yankee-Red Sox news (whoa, it's 2007!); still, that and the marriage proposal were nice twists, especially given what we've seen of their future together, when Kate has to be persuaded to meet a suicidal, painkiller-addicted Jack at the airport. We begin to see the genesis of his rock-bottom point last night. Suffering from lack of sleep, he begins to see a vision of Christian at the hospital and gets his coworker Erika to write him a prescription for clonazepam... which he promptly washes down with beer. (Incidentally, it's the same medication, an anti-anxiety known generically as Klonopin, which Hurley was on in Santa Rosa.)

And the paranoia is setting in as he angrily confronts Kate about who she was speaking to on the phone and where she had been; she finally breaks down and sadly admits it was a favor for Sawyer. Personally, I am of the view that the favor relates to Sawyer's daughter, the one he had with Cassidy. We know that Kate and Cassidy have crossed paths before in the past and I do think that Sawyer, after his experiences on the island (and possibly ones we've yet to see involving Aaron), would want Kate to do right by his own child. That's my guess, anyway, and I'm sticking with it. Still, it wasn't right at all the way Jack threw the fact that Kate isn't "even related" to Aaron back in her face... with the kid standing right there. So does he know that Aaron is his nephew? Or is he just making a comment about Aaron being Claire's son? And is it this fight that ends their relationship?

Jack. Back on the island, I'm not sure quite what to make of Jack's appendicitis, though it depends on if you want to be as paranoid as Rose, who claims that Jack's ailment must be the work of the island. After all, Rose is proof that people don't get sick on the island, they get better, so why is Jack suddenly stricken with stomach pain? First off, I don't think that it was sudden. As we saw from last week's episode, Jack has been sneaking antibiotics to fend off what he claimed was stomach flu. I don't necessarily think that his appendix swelled because possible rescue off of the island was imminent. Secondly, it's not as though medical ailments haven't occurred on the island before. Remember Shannon's asthma attack?

Juliet. In any event, it was great to see Juliet and Bernard working together to perform surgery on Jack, though I did think he was out of his gourd for wanting to remain awake and watch the procedure via a hand mirror Kate was holding. While I understand that he's a driven surgeon with a God complex, I do think it was a slap in the face to Juliet. She's no novice and has performed this surgery many times in the past... but it's clear that the person to whom Jack would trust is life isn't Juliet but Kate. The scene between the two of them as Juliet sews Jack up post-surgery was one of the most understated scenes in the series to date, with everything not said--between Kate and Juliet and Juliet and Jack--hanging in the air between them like smoke. That Juliet calmly tells Kate about the kiss she shared with Jack and what it really meant and then tells Jack she knows he's conscious made me love her all the more. Juliet is one tough broad and I hope that the writers continue to mine her character further. Knowing what we do now about her relationship with Goodwin only makes this scene hum with sincerity; she's used to being the other woman.

Hurley. While this week didn't bring us any furtherance of the Jacob's cabin storyline, we were able to take a glimpse into Hurley's future. Hurley's in the mental hospital and doing worse than when Jack last saw him. He's refusing to take his medication and claims that he spends time out on the bench sitting with poor, dead Charlie. We know that Charlie isn't a figment of Hurley's fractured imagination (this is Lost, after all) but even after everything Jack has seen and experienced, he doesn't believe his friend... even after Hurley gives him a message from Charlie ("You're not supposed to raise him, Jack.") and tells him that he'll be getting a visitor of his own (Christian). Poor Hurley, for his part, thinks they never left the island and are all dead; he says that everything in Jack's life right now--his relationship with Kate, his decision to go back to her after the trial, Aaron--is all too good to be true, almost like Heaven. Hmmm.

Miles. I am really intrigued by Miles' character; he's seeming less and less like a villain to me after his initial appearance, in which he seemed as mad as a hatter and with a personality bypass to match. Now, I think he might just be the castaways' best chance at understanding some of the island's most perplexing mysteries and he's able to understand the whispers in the jungle. This time around, he is able to make out two names--Danielle and Karl--and then is led to the shallow graves that Keamy's men prepared for them. Sadly, anyone hoping that Rousseau would somehow miraculously make it out of that firefight alive must be really disappointed: the French woman is dead. Long live the French woman. Miles' comprehension of the whispers make me wonder if all along they have been the voices of the dead manifesting themselves; we know that Miles can communicate with the dead so can he actually ask them for answers?

Charlotte. Speaking of the freighter team, how cool was it that Charlotte (who I actually ran into the other night) could speak Hangul? She is full of surprises; I had an inkling when she involuntarily smiled at Jin and Sun's conversation about Faraday being in love with her ("Women always know," offered Sun), revealing that she understood what they were saying. Oh, she tried to play it close to the vest and pretend she had no idea what Jin was saying later, until he threated to hurt Faraday and break every one of his fingers until Charlotte cracked. Still, I was taken by surprise at her expression when Jin said that, no matter what happens, she has to get Sun on the helicopter and get her off the island. Could Charlotte have understood the depth of his love for Sun?

Claire. I'm very intrigued by what's going to happen to Claire. We know that she doesn't make it off the island (though her baby Aaron does) but it doesn't necessarily mean that she's dead. (Or does it?) Still, her nighttime vision of Christian feeding Aaron revealed that she does know that he's her father... but not that she realizes that she's Jack's half-sister. But where does Christian lead her and why does he send her off into the jungle alone in the middle of the night? And why does she leave Aaron behind when she was told that only she can raise him? Very curious. Still, it begs the question if Claire really did see Charlie appear to her when she was nearly killed in the cabin explosion as she claimed. And the fact that Miles also saw Christian? Means that he is definitely very, very dead. So why are the dead roaming the island? I think we might just find out next week.

Lost Literary Allusion of the Week. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," which Jack reads to Aaron as a bedtime story. The book's sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There," relates to the series' episodic title "Through the Looking Glass," and both novels provide a nice parallel for the castaways' experiences on the island.

Final thought. While we've seen evidence that, while the freighter folk may be lying through their teeth, they might not be as evil as they've appeared. Miles genuinely seems to care about Claire and Aaron; Charlotte and Daniel Faraday shut down the Tempest station, possibly saving everyone on the island (though I think that Keamy was meant to use it, rather than Ben); and Frank saved Sawyer, Miles, Claire and Aaron from imminent death at the hands of Keamy when he made them hide and then distracted Keamy when Aaron cried out. Are they just pawns of Widmore? Or do they have a greater purpose altogether? Thoughts or theories?

Next week on Lost ("Cabin Fever"), Locke discovers the location of Jacob's cabin and comes face to face with a Dharma Initiative staffer who claims to have been dead for the last twelve years; life aboard the Kahana becomes fraught with peril; danger closes in on the castaways from every corner of the island. I cannot wait!