Last week’s Ben episode was excellent. The creators are doing a wonderful job in readjusting their plans to the changing demands of the TV industry and ABC, first cutting the season from 16 episodes to 8, then stretching it to 14 and the latest reports say it will have 15 episodes. The way they’re doing this while still being able to fit everything into their original plan is just amazing. So what do they have in store for us this week?
On the Island: Jack’s not doing well at all. Whatever he had last week with his back is getting worse. How ironic is it that the backs specialist is having problems with his back?
As Jack’s trying to calm things down with the Lostaways (Here’s Rose with Bernard. I love them) who are pissed off about being lied to, again, but Widmore’s people, he collapses. That’s not good, not good at all. And I think this is going to be a Jack episode as we fade to the next flashback or flash forward.
Flashback/forward: Yes, it’s a Jack episode. I may have missed something in the past, but I don’t remember seeing some of the tattoos he has here. Looks like he’s waking up at a fancy home, after a passionate night (Nice pink undies on the floor). There’s a kid in the house who left a toy on the floor and the Red Sox lost the World Series, but this doesn’t give us any timeline indication. I guess we’ll get some information by seeing who he he’s talking to in the shower.
Damn, it’s Kate! So it’s a flash forward. I guess this is before the third season finale because a. Jack is well and b. He’s obviously in very (very) good relations with Kate. The kid must be Aaron.
That’s one hell of a kiss between these two, but I think she had more passion on the island with Sawyer.
So Jack and Kate are playing house. It’s so lovely the way Jack reads a bedtime story to Aaron. This living arrangement seems to be Kate’s idea. SO either Sawyer never left the island (alive) or that they had a major falling out. And they’re off for another night of passion.
On the island: Jack is back on his feet and he won’t stay down.
In the mean time Sawyer, Claire, Aaron and Miles are on their way to the beach. Seems like Miles is being visited by the bad vibes invisible monster and he finds the bodies of Danielle and Carl. They had a very shallow burial. Yuck. They waste no time in getting out of there.
Back on the beach Juliet finds out what’s really up with Jack and it’s not his back or food poisoning. It’s his appendix, hasn’t ruptured yet but is about to. So she wants to take it out. How the heck did it happen and why isn’t the island fixing this?
Jin and Sun are headed to the medical station with a shopping list from Juliet. Dan and Charlotte have talked their way into joining Jin and Sun. I don’t believe the dissention between Dan and Charlotte; I think they’re faking it as part of the bigger plan. I so hope Jin will get to shoot them, even if it’s only in the leg.
In another place, Sawyer is scaring Miles into staying away from Claire. Sawyer is DA MAN!!!
Have I mentioned yet that I love Rose? In a conversation with Bernard (Whom I also love) she asks the same question that I did – how come Jack got sick? People don’t get sick on the island – they get better there.
Jack wants to be awake for the surgery and talk Juliet through it. Nice move Jack, telling the person about to slice you open that you don’t trust them. He also moves quickly to blatantly offending Juliet when he insists that Kate should be there to assist.
Flash Forward: And here’s where Jack’s meltdown starts – he sees his father.
Hurly! He’s in the asylum and Jack is visiting. Hurly is insisting that their all dead. That jack’s happy life with Kate and Aaron is like being in heaven. That Charlie is visiting him and he has a message for Jack – Jack is not supposed to raise him (Aaron?). This message shakes Jack up but not as much as the next one – Jack will get a visitor soon also (His dad?). You know, with everything that we’ve seen on Lost, I’m not sure Hurly is insane.
On the island: The “away team” reached the medical station. As Dan and Charlotte get the supplies, Jin promises he’ll get Sun and the baby off the Island. That promise will almost come true. I suspect that Charlotte speaks Korean, because every time they talk she looks at them.
As Sawyer’s group is headed to the beach, they run into the pilot from the boat. Apparently he’s on the run from Martin and his men and they all hide. I wonder how they survived Smokey. At least Martin and his men are headed back to the chopper on their way to the boat, so Sawyer and his team will be safe for now.
Flash Forward: Jack is very distraught after his talk with Hurly. Holy hell, he’s asking Kate to marry him. He doesn’t seem drunk, but he’s not all together also. I take that back. He had a ring ready and of course she says yes.
On the island: HA! Remember when I said that I think Charlotte speaks Korean, just a few lines up? Jin is also on to her. He threatens her (in a very badass way, I must say) into admitting it. She promises to get Sun on the helicopter when it arrives. No word on the others, though, but since Sun was mentioned as one of the Oceanic Six, I guess she won’t be alone.
Juliet, Bernard and Kate are about to start the appendectomy. Jack is awake, just like he wanted, but the lidocaine is not helping with the pain. Finally they have no choice and Bernard puts him out.
Flash forward: It appears that Jack’s mystery visitor is about to arrive. Yes, it’s his dad!
No, it’s his imagination, as one of his colleagues brings him back to the real world. And he starts his downward spiral by asking her to write him a prescription for some sleeping pills.
Back at home, Jack is showing even harder signs of stress and starts popping pills. I wonder if Jack is realizing he’s turning into his father, with the bedtime stories and drinking or is he completely oblivious.
On the island: Suddenly Claire is also seeing Christian Shephard and he’s holding Aaron. I guess it wouldn’t have been nice of him to only haunt one of his kids.
Jack’s surgery is over and Bernard says it went well. But we knew it would be this way. Juliet is doing what at first seems like marking her territory – telling Kate that Jack kissed her, but then she adds that he did that for himself, to prove to himself that he doesn’t love someone else (Other than Kate, I assume). That was a very nice move on her part, and Kate realizes that.
Damn, Jack was awake for that conversation.
Flash forward: Jack’s going downhill fast, drinking a lot and going all stalker/jealous on Kate. He’s a mean drunk and he’s very aggressive towards her. She says she was doing something for “him” and I get my own private flashback to the second season finale where she was with someone else whose name was not disclosed. Is that the same “him”?
Yes Yes Yes!! It’s Sawyer! He made it off the island!
WTF? He stayed? He chose to stay? Is he still on the island and able to communicate with Kate from there?
And we learn that Jack saved Kate there. Okay, that makes sense.
That was quick, and very painful. But if Sawyer stayed, I guess he was not the one with whom Kate was in the first flash forward. That’s confusing.
On the island: And things are even more confusing as Miles also saw Christian in the middle of the night. Again, WTF? Claire just took Aaron and followed Christian into the woods.
Thank god Aaron can cry his lungs out – Sawyer follows his voice and finds him. Claire is nowhere to be found though.
And we’re out.
Compared to last week, this was a slower and perhaps less eventful episode. But what we lacked in “holy sh!t” moments we got in some advancements to stories that were in the background – how Jack went from being “normal” to borderline suicidal and how Sun got off the island. They could not keep up the pace they had last week in Ben’s episode, but I love the fact that even the slower episodes are taking us forward. Sweeps starts this week, so I guess this was the calm before the storm, and I can’t wait for that storm.
