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

BEWARE THE SPOILERS

This week dashed yet another of my hopeful predictions. Unless the story suddenly jumps weeks ahead, which Lost has never done, it looks like the present will not catch up to the flash forwards this season, as I’ve been hoping. That’s really a shame to me, because I was hoping to see Oceanic Six get off the island and then try to get back when they realize they shouldn’t have left in the first place. I still think this will happen, but the show is going to drag it out at least two seasons. I don’t like that at all, but so far the stories have been more gripping and the mysteries more fun to speculate than any previous season, so I’ll continue giving Lost the benefit of the doubt. However, if something screwy happens and it turns out we can’t trust this future, I’m going to feel pretty jerked around. But so much of the plot and mystery is in the flash forwards that at this point, there’s no reason not to trust them.

Aaron is at least two in the flash forwards, if not three, which means it probably isn’t just a couple of weeks that people get off the island as I originally predicted. Considering only about 100 days have passed since the initial crash so far, I really wonder how long it will take before the Six finally get off. Desmond and Sayid aren’t even at the boat yet, most likely due to whatever strange time-delay effect the island had on that rocket from last week, so it may be that it’s hard or impossible to leave the island by anything but a submarine, under the ocean. What’s especially frustrating to me is not knowing when any of the flash forwards occur, or when they happen in relationship to each other. We do know they’re presented completely out of order. Jack’s flash forward with the beard obviously happens after Hurley’s and after Kate’s, because he’s clean shaven in both and tells Hurley he’s thinking of growing a beard. That makes me think Kate’s flash forward probably happens before Hurley’s– the exchange she and Jack have after her trial probably helps to propel him into his depression. Sayid’s is harder to track because it’s the only one with no connection to any of the others, so far. My guess is that he hasn’t been working for Ben for very long by the time we see him and it’s probably very soon after he returned from the island, so maybe his is before the other three. But again, none of this is especially useful in figuring out when people get off the island because there aren’t any clues as to how long they’ve been back, at least none I’ve noticed.

Good the know Kate isn’t pregnant– that’s a plot-arc I could have done without. A lot more fun Sawyer-Kate stuff can happen if she’s not pregnant, and it makes the Aaron thing in the future especially interesting. Why is he with Kate, and more importantly, why is she pretending he’s her son? What the heck happened to Claire? Is she dead? My fiance’s theory is that Jack is somehow responsible for her death and that’s why he refuses to see Aaron, not because he thinks Aaron is Kate’s son. It’s also possible, I think, that somehow Jack doesn’t know Aaron isn’t Kate’s son, but he would have had to be out of contact with her for a full nine months to know she wasn’t pregnant, and somehow not know about whatever happened to Claire… and Kate would need some really good reason to hide this from everyone. That’s a lot of ifs and is extremely unlikely.

But there’s a third possibility, brought up by the false story Jack tells in the court room about how only eight people survived Oceanic 815’s crash. Maybe only the Six make it and everyone else on the island dies, but as I’ve said before, it’s a lot more likely that most of them are still there, on the island. If they are, then why do those who make it back to civilization pretend they died in the crash? Maybe that time-displacement thingy make it possible for only the Six (or eight and two died, or whatever) to get off. Or maybe everyone except those who leave don’t want to leave. Maybe everyone else eventually sides with Locke and swears Jack and the rest to secrecy, not wanting anyone to know they’re on the island because they don’t want to be found. Perhaps Claire is one of them (since she’s already sided with Locke) but for whatever reason decides to send her baby with Kate and asks her to raise it.

Meanwhile, back in the present, the expedition is looking even more screwy. What is with this Miles guy? Is he really just in this for 3.2 million dollars? His flashback a couple episodes ago would lead us to believe he’s telling the truth, since he seems to have gone ghost hunting in that lady’s house just to steal some money out of the bedroom. But like Ben intelligently observed, why not 3.2 or 3.4 million? This guy has gone through a whole lot for what seems to make like a pretty small amount of money, considering. That’s a little like Dr. Evil’s ransom demand in Ausin Powers. What is this guy, from the sixties?? We still don’t know why the expedition needed a ghost hunter, but it’s looking more now like he just has no idea what he’s gotten himself into. Or it’s possible we’re being faked out again and Miles is the most important part of the expedition. I do think it’s interesting to have a character on this island so interested in money since it’s worthless there. It felt kind of strange watching someone making that kind of demand when I’ve gotten so used to thinking like one of the crash survivors– the most valuable things there are food, medical supplies, and weapons.

Oh, and I have to say that Locke is getting creepier by the episode and is now definitely off the right track. He seems to be turning into Ben, though he doesn’t realize it, and I think that’s nicely presented by the fact that he’s operating out of Ben’s old neighborhood. Sticking a hand grenade without the pin in Miles’ mouth is a form of torture I have never, ever seen before, and a nice but scary piece of writing.

And while we’re talking about Miles, he did introduce a valuable piece of information: there is a mysterious HE who sent the expedition, not simply some anonymous company now. The way it was so deliberately scripted, I’d wager HE is someone we’ve met before. Josette (a frequent reader of this blog and a good friend of mine) has suggested that the man behind the expedition and probably behind Dharma originally is Sun’s father. I tend to agree with that idea. We’ve seen him in far too many flashbacks for him not to be connected, especially since Jack and Locke’s fathers have become so important to the show after all their screen time. And we don’t really know the nature of his business; the big building he works out of is probably some sort of front for what he really does. The fact that Miles mentioned this HE means that Ben has an arch nemesis, and it’s probably Sun’s father. That also means that Ben has probably frequently been off the island.

That makes me wonder if he gets off the island with the Six or if he has some other way to leave besides the submarine Locke blew up that we don’t know about…

Lastly, do we have all the Six now? We shouldn’t, because I assumed a person would have to be on flight 815 to be called a member of the Oceanic Six, but the previews said we’d have a new member this week. Was it Aaron? Surely they weren’t talking about Kate– we already knew about her. And if Aaron is a member than does that make Ben one too? Or is anyone aware of his presence?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but I’m hoping there’s at least one more. We still don’t know who that other mysterious HE is Kate mentioned to bearded Jack she had to get back home to…

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan