LOST 4.10 – "Something Nice Back Home"

Writers: Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis
Director: Stephen Williams

Cast: Matthew Fox (Jack), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Rebecca Mader (Charlotte), Jeremy Davies (Faraday), Ken Leung (Miles), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Sam Anderson (Bernard), Jeff Fahey (Frank), L. Scott Caldwell (Rose Nadler) & Kevin Durand (Keamy)

Jack is taken seriously ill and Juliet has to operate to save his life...

Jack: Why aren't you taking your meds?

Hurley: 'Cause we're dead. All of us. All the
Oceanic six. We're all dead. We never got off that island.

Remember when Jack (Matthew Fox) was the star of the show? The hero? The lead? "Our guy" as scripts referred to him? I suppose he still is, but he rarely gets the chance to prove it. As Lost roams further away from season 1's survivalist drama (remember when hunting boar was the big issue of the day?) poor Jack often gets left behind. The flashforwards at the end of season 3 hinted that Jack would regain his Alpha Male status and lead some of the plane-wrecked to salvation... but even that heroic certainty is tinged with foreknowledge that he'll only give 5 people a reprieve. And their freedom will come at a cost...

On the island, Jack collapses on the beach. Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) diagnoses him with appendicitis. Fortunately, it hasn't ruptured yet – but unless Juliet operates to remove it, Jack will die. She gives Sun (Yunjin Kim), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) and Faraday (Jeremy Davies) a list of equipment she needs retrieved from the medical station, as Jack is made comfortable in his tent.

Flashforwards reveal that Jack is living a seemingly happy existence with Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and her "son" Aaron, having settled the differences that separated them during the flashforwards seen in Eggtown. Life seems good, as Jack make a good father figure for Aaron (reading him Alice's Adventures In Wonderland), and he seems head-over-heels in love with Kate.

Elsewhere on the island, Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Claire (Emilie de Ravin), baby Aaron and Miles (Ken Leung) are making their way back to beach, having decided to leave Locke's group. For the first time in ages, Miles exhibits his paranormal abilities – picking up psychic echoes of the ambush by Keamy's men on Rousseau, Karl and Alex. Digging under the dirt, Miles discovers the buried bodies of Karl and Rousseau, much to Sawyer's astonishment. So I guess that long-awaited Rousseau flashback will have to take a left-turn at some point.

On the beach, Bernard (Sam Anderson) and Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) help sterilize the area for Jack's operation. Bernard comments about Jack's bad luck in getting ill, but Rose is convinced this island on heals people – and isn't it strange how the person who's going to lead them to rescue is suddenly struck down sick? It's almost as if the island doesn't want them to leave...

Jack wants to be awake during the operation so he can help guide Juliet through the procedure, despite the fact she's performed appendectomies before. He also wants Kate present, holding a mirror so he can see what's going on.

In another flashforward, Jack sees a ghostly flash of his dead father Christian while at work in the hospital, before he's called away to visit Hurley (Jorge Garcia) at Santa Rose. According to Dr Stillman, Hurley is refusing to take his medication, so Jack agrees to talk to his friend. In Hurley's room, Jack hears how Hurley thinks the Oceanic Six never "got off the island" and how the ghost of Charlie has been visiting him. This strikes a chord with Jack, who's been seeing ghosts himself, but it particularly spooks him when Hurley delivers a message from Charlie: "you're not supposed to raise him, Jack." Is this referring to Aaron? Jack gets angry and tells Hurley to just take his meds, before Hurley gives Jack another message from Charlie – someone is going to visit him, soon.

At home, Jack tells Kate about his visit to see Hurley, before asking for her hand in marriage. After presenting her with a diamond ring, Kate accepts and they embrace, although Jack still looks a little anxious.

On the island, Sun's party find the medical hatch and go inside. Jin and Sun both notice chemistry between Faraday and Charlotte, with the former clearly smitten. They gather Juliet's supplies, as Jin confides in Sun (speaking in Korean) about how Faraday and Charlotte aren't here to help them. At that same moment, Jin notices Charlotte eavesdropping, realizing she can speak Korean. He confronts her about it and she plays dumb for awhile, until he threatens to hurt Faraday. She then admits she understands, and Jin makes her promise to get Sun on the helicopter bound for the freighter. She agrees.

Sawyer's group are still trekking through the jungle as the bump into Frank (Jeff Fahey), leading Keamy's men to his helicopter. He tells them hide as Keamy's men are close behind. So it seems they manages to survive the smoke monster's attack in last week's episode.

Jack's surgery begins, now that Juliet has her equipment. Jack tries to cope with the pain, but Juliet isn't happy continuing under these conditions. She makes the decision to knock Jack unconscious, so Bernard anaesthetizes him with a chloroformed rag.

In flashforward, Jack is working late at the hospital but is disturbed by a bleeping smoke detector in reception. He takes out its battery, then sees his dead father sitting in a chair close by. He approaches slowly, the ghost refusing to disappear, but then a colleague interrupts him and Christian vanishes. Jack asks his colleague for some clonazepam to help him sleep, and she obliges. Later, at home, Jack catches Kate talking to someone on the phone (as if she's planning something), but claims it's a friend.

In the present, the operation has gone well. Juliet tells Kate that Jack should make a good recovery... before confessing that Jack kisses her awhile back, but it was clearly an act designed to prove he didn't love someone else: Kate. Grateful for Juliet's honesty, Kate leaves. Then Juliet tells Jack she knows he's awake, and he opens his eyes.

The last flashforward finds Kate coming home, surprised to see Jack home early. He confronts her about her absence, and she asks him to trust her. He can't. He demands to know what's going on, and Kate admits she promised Sawyer she'd do something for him. They have an argument, with Jack making it clear Sawyer decided to stay and he was the one who got them off the island. Finally, he yells about how Aaron isn't even related to her, after Aaron appears in the doorway. Kate sees to her son as Jack leaves.

Back on the island, Sawyer, Claire and Miles are sleeping in a camp. Claire wakes up and sees her dad Christian (also Jack's dad, but she doesn't know this) holding baby Aaron in his arms. The next morning, Sawyer wakes up and finds that Claire has gone. Miles informs him that she left with someone she called "dad" last night, and Sawyer goes off in search. He hears a baby crying and eventually finds Aaron abandoned in a blanket – but there's no sign of Claire, or her mysterious visitor...

I still like Jack, but his days as the centre of island activity is long gone. I'm sure he'll stage a comeback of sorts when the Oceanic Six make their escape, but for now he's stuck in a rut. The appendicitis idea was pretty good (love the idea the island's made him sick as a punishment for trying to escape) and the resulting operation held my interest, even if the visit to the medical hatch for equipment didn't add much – beyond knowledge Charlotte can speak Korean and has an admirer in Faraday.

The flashforwards were solid fare, even if the sudden pre-marital bliss of Jack and Kate tied-up the intriguing dangling thread from Eggtown without any answer for why Jack changed his mind about seeing Aaron. And it seems increasingly likely future-Jack knows Kate's adopted child is his half-nephew, and consequently that Claire is/was his half-sister. Matthew Fox is very good at playing Jack as the slightly-unhinged hero, and this episode gave him plenty of opportunities to look perturbed, bitter and angry.

It was also great to see Christian back, albeit in spectral form both on and off the island. It looks like the writers are about to tackle the fact Jack and Claire unwittingly share the same father, so that should be fun to see. And mythology geeks will be chewing over the fact ghost-Christian could hold baby Aaron, suggesting these apparitions have corporeal physicality.

Miles' psychic abilities made a welcome return (it's surely a matter of time before weirdness like the whispers is answered via Miles' gift), but I thought it strange he didn't bat an eyelid at Claire leaving camp with her ghost-dad. Did he know Christian wasn't real? Elsewhere, it was a bit odd that Keamy's and most of his men survived their encounter with the enraged smoke monster – particularly as the creature effortlessly picked off Mr Eko last season. Maybe the beast can't kill indiscriminately, and could only rattle them into fleeing? Whatever the reason for their survival, I don't blame them for beating a hasty retreat to Frank's chopper! Speaking of Frank, it seems he's the only freighter guy who's trustworthy, doesn't it?

Overall, good but unremarkable is how I'd summarised Something Nice Back Home. It's far from terrible, but it's a bit meandering, and it didn't help that it comes hot on the heels of The Shape Of Things To Come (a season highlight). As usual, there are a few titbits of information and intriguing moments to keep you watching, just don't expect to be blown away.

Burning Questions

-- What did Kate promise Sawyer she'd do for him off-island, and why can't she tell Jack about it?

-- Why did Sawyer decide to stay on the island? Was it because, as he's mentioned earlier this season, he's a nobody off-island?

-- Why was Jack told "you're not supposed to raise him, Jack?" by ghost-Charlie, via Hurley? And why didn't ghost-Charlie tell Jack himself? Or doesn't it work that way?

-- Why did Jack change his mind about seeing Aaron, enabling a relationship to develop with Kate?

-- Why is ghost-Christian appearing to Claire on the island, and haunting Jack off the island?

-- Where has Claire gone? Did she go with Christian willingly? Why did she leave Aaron behind? That was uncharacteristically negligent of her, unless she was forced to.

-- Did Miles know Christian was a ghost? If so, why didn't he help Claire?


11 May 2008
Sky One, 9.00 pm