A couple months ago I received an e-mail from one of my readers, Dan, arguing with my contention that Daniel is the “most good” out of all the freight rescuers. In Dan’s opinion, Frank was actually the most good, feeling that Dan manipulated the Desmond flashback to ensure that he had a constant.
I initially stuck to my guns, however following this past week’s episode, I want to amend my statement. While I don’t necessarily believe that Frank is “more good” than Daniel, I do believe he is just as good. More specifically, I think they’re a different kind of good.
I think the main difference between Frank and Daniel is that Frank has a backbone. As we saw in the latest episode of Lost, he IS willing to go out of his way to help the survivors of Flight 815 (which I had previously stated I did not believe he would). While I’m not so sure that Daniel would, say, defy his orders to help the survivors, I do believe that he will still go out of his way to do what he can to help. Case in point, he volunteered his services to get the medical supplies to save Jack’s life, despite Charlotte’s protests.
So, at the moment, I put these two at the same level. Speaking of which, I’d really like to see more of Frank in the upcoming episodes.
Moving onto the episode. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Shortly before getting on that fateful flight, Jack’s various obsessions — particularly with his ex-wife — were taking him down a very dangerous road. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that his obsession indirectly led to his father’s death. Jack was absolutely convinced that his father was sleeping with Sarah, and the resulting complete rejection of his father drove Christian back to drinking, ultimately killing him. Along those same lines, Christian’s death is what brought Jack to Australia, which in turn brought him onto Flight 815. And the rest is history.
In the future, Jack and Kate DO end up together. They are wonderfully happy, raising Aaron as their son, and are even getting married. It seems like Jack has everything that he ever wanted. Yet, again, his obsession, paranoia, and insecurity is destroying all of that. He simply cannot trust Kate, and as such starts drinking and taking pills to ease his anxieties. He obsesses over a simple phone call so much, though, that she finally spills the beans: She’s doing a favor for Sawyer. Jack’s insecurities go into overdrive, presumably ending their relationship under very nasty circumstances.
What I find interesting, though, is that, for the most part, Jack is completely devoid of these character faults while he’s on the island. He’s undeniably in love with Kate, yet after seeing her with Sawyer, he arranges for the two of THEM to escape. Together. With no regard for his well being. He also continues to act quite friendly towards both of them, fully aware that they’re sexually active (remember Jack and Sawyer’s chummy ping pong game?) On top of that, just moments before professing his love for Kate, he sticks up for Sawyer, insisting that he’s only being hurtful towards her because he wants to protect her. And when he does tell Kate that he loves her, it’s with such confidence. And then moves on as if nothing had happened. It’s just such a far cry from how we’ve seen him act with Sarah in the past, and Kate in the future.
Some people have theorized that Jack must return to the island because he didn’t “learn his lesson” and “change.” I disagree. He DID change. Again, consider Jack’s behavior towards Sarah following their divorce. He’s following her around in his car, desperately trying to find out who she’s dating. He’s absolutely, positively convinced that his own father is sleeping with her. In the absence of any concrete evidence, he manipulates every scenario to make this a reality. Like I said, that is absolutely nothing like how he acts on the island. Yes, he still has A LOT of character flaws (like his control issues), but he is also almost completely selfless. In fact, he is ESPECIALLY selfless when it comes to Kate. If being with Sawyer brings her happiness, or being with Sawyer puts her in a safer situation, he allows it to happen without putting up a fight. Some might argue that he’s simply repressing his emotions, but the fact remains that the Jack of old (or new, for that matter) wouldn’t have the control to make those repressions.
My long-winded point is that he has changed, and the island-version of Jack is ultimately the love of Kate’s life. However, it appears that minus the island, Jack (and presumably the rest of the Oceanic Six) regress back to their former selves. This is one reason why I thought it would be wonderful for Locke to be one of the Oceanic Six: Imagine him once again becoming a paraplegic, living a meaningless, insignificant life. Or the totally changed Jin once again succumbing to the wealth and power of his father-in-law. I mean, consider that only a few episodes ago, Sayid wanted to arrange a peaceful hostage exchange between Jack’s crew and Locke’s team. Yet we know that in the future, he’s Ben’s hired gun….not too far off from the torturous soldier he was before coming to the island. And, much like in the past, the future finds Hurley in a mental institution.
I mentioned earlier how the island version of Jack IS the love of Kate’s life. When I saw Kate come out of the shower and kiss Jack, I was thrilled. It honestly put a big smile on my face. I am, without a doubt, a huge advocate of Kate ending up with Jack, not Sawyer. I was equally happy when I saw them raising Aaron together, and I was grinning from ear to ear when Jack proposed and Kate said yes. But when their relationship started falling apart — as I knew it had to — I started getting really disappointed. Almost wishing like they never brought them together in the first place. A big reason why I’ve tolerated Kate spending the past couple seasons with Sawyer is because I felt like the writers needed to get it out of their systems — before she ultimately ends up with Jack. I began to fear that this is what they were doing with Jack and Kate. They were saying “here you go. Here it is. They’re even freakin’ engaged. But sorry, it doesn’t work out. She’s still doing stuff for Sawyer.” It seems inevitable that the series will end with them, in some form or fashion, ending up back on the island. As such, I’m worried that it’ll end not with Jack and Kate finally ending up together, but with Kate having a tearful and emotional reunion with Sawyer.
Oh, and for what it’s worth…..another reason why I think Kate is meant to be with Jack and not Sawyer is that I don’t think she’d ever say yes to Sawyer’s proposal.
A big question everybody is wondering is whether — at the time of the flash forward — Jack knows that Aaron is his nephew. His vague “you’re not even related to him” line seems to suggest so, with quite committing to it. I feel like between Ben, who supposedly knows everything about everybody (The Others knew that Locke’s father was responsible for Sawyers’ parents’ deaths), and Miles, who can communicate with ghosts (and, in turn, Christian), Jack and/or Claire can easily find this out by the end of the season. There’s also a possibility that Juliet knows (since she did seem to have an awful lot of info on him when the two first met), but I feel like she would have divulged that by now.
By the way, last week I commended the show for having Locke bring up the fact that Ben supposedly lied about not knowing what the Smoke Monster is. This week, they did it again, with having Rose bring up the very excellent point that everybody seems to be healing, yet Jack — the most “important” person there — gets deathly ill the day before they are to be rescued.
Well, it’s confirmed: Rousseau IS dead. I’m disappointed, since I would have loved seeing her have a flashback episode, but I also suppose that, short of that, her character has served her purpose. I also thought that Sawyer’s reaction to Karl’s death was a nice moment.
I’ve heard some wonderful theories, many of which I advocate, that I thought I’d include.
One theory is that Claire actually WAS killed in the explosion, and she has been some sort of tangible ghost for the past two episodes. This explains why Miles was suddenly so intrigued by her, and why he continually offered to carry Aaron for her. The whole idea of a corporeal ghost seems a bit out there, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility. After all, the episode concluded with the confirmed dead Christian Shephard holding Aaron. We’ve also seen manifestations take a physical, touchable form in the past, such as Kate’s horse. This may also explain the strange reunion between father and daughter at the conclusion of the episode. Perhaps Christian was taking Claire to the “other side.” I recall an episode of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction where a woman believes she had avoided hitting a boulder. Yet she is continually being bothered by this army of children. Finally she relents, and joins the children. It is later discovered that the woman’s car — as well as a school bus — were struck by the boulder and killed. The woman was dead, but did not realize it. The children had to take her to the other side. Perhaps the same thing is happening with Claire and Christian.
It should also be noted that Christian was not in his typical black suit with white sneakers when he appeared to Claire.
Another idea revolves around the smoke alarm going off moments before Jack is confronted by his father’s ghost. This theory proposes that the ghost is actually the Smoke Monster (which many may have assumed to begin with), and that the ghost arrived in its smokey form, hence setting off the alarm. If that’s the case, what a wonderful touch! However, it’s not without its flaws. Didn’t Christian’s ghost appear, albeit briefly, in the hospital earlier in the day? Yet the alarm didn’t go off then. I guess a counter argument could be that it was already in ghost — and not smoke — form at the time that it arrived.
So what favor was Kate doing for Sawyer? To me the answer is fairly obvious: Sawyer had asked her to look in on his daughter, Clementine. While I’m not sure why this would be such a government secret, I think that’s where the safe money is at.
