For a moment, it really was nice to finally see “something nice back home,” but of course, we knew it wasn’t going to last. That’s the drawback to the flash-forward format. From previous forwards, we already knew that Jack and Kate don’t stay together even if there relationship looks promising for a moment. They have more chemistry here than I’ve ever seen between them– Jack and Kate both usually rub me the wrong way, Jack with his often-obnoxious hero complex and Kate who has to do the depressing, tragic and usually illegal thing, no matter what the situation. Finally, seeing them together raising Aaron, they were almost making sense. Of course, once Jack heard Hurley’s warning that someone was coming to visit him, he can’t just ignore his dead father’s ghost and try to live his life.  He has to immediately start drinking himself silly and almost become his father. *eye roll* I appreciate seeing the events leading up to his depression and growing the beard, and now I completely buy why all of that happens, but I hated suddenly liking characters I’ve been annoyed with for several seasons now, knowing that’ll all get yanked away again in twenty minutes.

Looks like Claire might finally get the big news about Jack being her step-brother. I never doubted the writers would get back to this eventually and I expected it soon, considering that if Aaron is about to get off the island, there’s a good chance she either doesn’t survive or gets left behind. But I admit, I didn’t call that she would be haunted by Jack’s father. I’m assuming there’s an important correlation to the present and future here that hasn’t been revealed yet.

I’ve speculated for a long time that Jacob has something to do with all of the “hallucinations” people have had in the show (Jack’s father, Kate’s horse, etc.). I’ve even mentioned the bizarre idea that Jacob himself is all of them. I think I’m probably wrong about the latter– the fact that Miles sees Jack’s father means he must be a ghost, since Miles has the ability to detect them. If that’s the case, he’s a far more important character than I ever expected he’d be. I still wonder if Jacob is involved with the ghosts somehow, or if he is just another ghost himself. The various ghosts we’ve seen so far could only be viewed by certain people, and Locke couldn’t see him in the cabin last season, so that’s a good clue. And this week’s coming episode focuses on Locke finding Jacob’s cabin again– hopefully this ghost idea is explored further. The one “hallucination” that isn’t a ghost, though, is Walt, as far as we know. Michael’s flashback a couple episodes ago seems to confirm that he is alive, or at least that he was the last time Locke “saw” him at the end of last season. I’m not sure what to make of that.

Why does Jack’s father’s ghost find him both in the present in the future? This episode confirms that Charlie really was a ghost and not a figment of Hurley’s imagination. So they can leave the island. I wonder why they do this. Or, is there something to what Hurley said. He claims that they never left the island, which I’ve suspected but kind of hoped wasn’t the case. If it is, it would make everything far more complicated and a little hokey– are the characters from the expedition not real? Have they been there the whole time? The creators have promised us it’s not all just in someone’s head or some lame cop-out like that, but even if the idea were clever, I’d feel a little cheated if Hurley was right.

I didn’t love the explanation that Jack just changed his mind about going to live with Kate and help raise Aaron. He seemed almost terrified of the idea when Kate suggested it during her flash-forward. I would have liked to have seen the conversation or had a little explanation of it, other than, “I’m glad you changed your mind.”

After I wrote last week’s review, I had another thought about the man in the casket from Jack’s first flash-forward last season. Could it maybe be Sayid? Maybe Jack and Kate learn he’s a traitor to them and working for Ben, and then something happens and he dies. He would be a good candidate for a character no one would attend a funeral for and that Kate might refuse to go see but Jack would. Any thoughts on this one?

The writers are doing a good job of positioning the characters where they need to be to get off the island soon, so I’m sure it will happen by the end of the season, if not in a couple of episodes. Any ideas on why Jack was able to get sick on the island while others have been cured? Will this be a trend in those that get off? Sun has to leave or she’ll die because she’s pregnant, and now Jack has proven that he can get sick on the island. Will Hurley get sick and that’s why he leaves? Or will different people have different reasons for leaving? I’d love to hear your own speculations– things are getting really interesting!

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan

Spoiler Alert

I think this episode was worth the wait– it gave us possibly the most important reveal of the season so far: an exact date in a flash-forward!!! The flash-forwards have driven me crazy all season because the writers have been careful not to let us know when they happen or in what order. As I’ve speculated previously, the first one (with Jack at the end of last season) is probably one of the last to actually happen chronologically and I figured Sayid’s, where it’s revealed that he is an assassin working for Ben, was probably one of the first. Ben’s flash-forwards confirm this as we’re finally told he meets Sayid in October of 2005. If you’ve been paying close attention, you’ll know that the events happening on the island in the present are December 2004 or the first week of January in 2005 (it was almost Christmas according to a calendar on the boat in “The Constant” four episodes ago). Which means Ben finds Sayid in Iraq about ten months after the current events.

I was thrown way off base by Kate’s flash-forward earlier in the season, which depicted what looked like a two-year old Aaron who she was raising as her own. There’s no way to know yet if those events happen before or after this week’s flash-forward but I always assumed it couldn’t be too long after the Oceanic Six got off the island because she was going to trial. But considering the legal system and how long things can get strung out, maybe ten months or more isn’t too far fetched. And maybe I was wrong about Aaron– maybe he was only supposed to be about one year old and I was off on the age.

This is important because I was right the first time. At the beginning of the season, I predicted that this season would depict the events leading up to the Oceanic Six getting off the island and that by the end of the season, the present would catch up with the future. But after the confusion with Aaron, I decided I was wrong and expected it to take the rest of the series for that to happen. If Sayid had time to find Nadia, marry her, and then have to bury her all within ten months, we have to assume that the Six will be getting off the island very, very soon. There’s only five episodes left in the season and taking a look at an episode guide, I discovered that the last three of the season are called “There’s No Place Like Home” Parts 1, 2, and 3. Will those episodes get the Six off and then fill in all the blanks about the flash-forwards? Or will they get the Six off and take their time off-island, leading up to the flash-forwards? And then next season, how much time will the show focus off-island in the present? Finally, is that title a double-meaning? I expect Jack and Hurley will try to convince the others that they need to get back to the island after all of their talk in the flash-forwards about how they “weren’t supposed to leave.” I wonder if the show will take its time in doing this or if that ultimately is how that three-parter will go, getting the Six off and then some of them back on the island all this season.

Personally, I think a whole season about characters simultaneously on and off island would be a really fun change. It might be interesting to see that for a while to take the place of flashbacks and flash-forwards– everything in the present but in a lot of different places. Or maybe that’s a little too Heroes…

I would assume that Ben’s threat to kill Whitmore’s daughter Penny is supposed to tell us that she’s the one that was next on Ben’s list at the end of “The Economist.” I didn’t call this– I really expected it to be one of the Six. Still, I’m glad it’s someone we know and have had some reason to care about. I’m still wondering what happens to Desmond– he’s not one of the Six but he’s on the boat. Does he killed before the others get off the island? I thought perhaps he does get off and he just isn’t considered one of the Oceanic Six because he wasn’t on the plane, but that theory is killed by the fact that Aaron is one of the Six but he wasn’t technically an Oceanic passenger. And yes, I realize Ben gets off the island, but it’s obviously not publicized.

And I’m going to have a heart attack if we don’t figure out who was in the casket Jack went to see at the end of last season pretty soon. I would have expected more clues by this episode.

Anyone else think Ben was lying about getting off the island with Desmond’s boat? It’s pretty well established that if you try to get off with a boat you’ll just go in circles (i.e. Michael’s raft in first season). I think Ben has had a way off this entire time– maybe another submarine no one knows about or something (just what exactly is in his secret room?) But as quick as he was to let himself get captured by Jack at the end of last season, and to be held captive by Locke lately, it’s obvious he has a lot up his sleeve and I can’t imagine that sub was his only means of escape.

Ben can control the smoke monster. Or at least summon it. I’m glad to know that because it means he hasn’t been blowing smoke (no pun intended) every time he’s claimed he has all the answers Locke has been searching for. He really does have some understanding of all these mysteries, though I think even he isn’t completely informed. Now I want to go back and see if there’s any clues in previous episodes that Ben may have been responsible whenever the smoke monster attacked people.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan