Russ McBee

As I do every week, I watch "Lost" online a day or two after it airs on TV. In the meantime, I deliberately avoid reading any reviews or commentary online about that episode. Before writing this post, I've maintained that practice, so I still haven't seen what anyone else has to say about this week's episode, "Something Nice Back Home."

This episode wasn't a barn-burner like last week's cascade of revelations; instead, the story advanced in a more "Lost"-like slow trickle of suggestions and innuendo, with a few shockers thrown in.

Betrayal or redemption?

First, in a flash-forward, we discover that Jack and Kate move in together, sometime after Kate's trial has concluded. Jack has apparently changed his mind about being with her and raising Aaron with her -- in fact, Kate says to Jack at one point, "I'm glad you changed your mind." Jack says to Hurley in the mental hospital, "I changed my mind after the trial." Throughout the first four seasons of the show, Jack has seldom changed his mind about much of anything, so I think it's significant that this particular phrase is used twice in the episode to describe his feelings for Kate. Does the fact that he changed his mind indicate that Jack really has become a different person after being rescued, and that he's now willing to learn from his mistakes, or does the fact that he changed his mind about Kate represent some kind of momentary weakness on his part?

In the flash-forward in last season's finale, drug-addicted Jack said to Kate, "We have to go back." That exchange seems to have taken place after Jack and Kate's budding home life (as shown in this week's episode) collapsed, since Jack was shown in that episode living apart from Kate, in a shabby, unkempt apartment. Does the line "I changed my mind" then represent a momentary lapse of Jack's concern about those left behind on the island (made even more intense by Jack's proposal of marriage and Kate's acceptance), and does his statement to Kate about "going back" to the island represent some kind of redemption of that lapse?

We're starting to see how the Oceanic Six carry significant psychological baggage back to civilization with them; I'm beginning to think that, after their rescue, the six of them are wracked with guilt over betraying the survivors of Flight 815 they left behind. Perhaps Jack changing his mind about Kate is merely an internal struggle to try and forget about the other Losties he and the other five may well have betrayed.

About Jack's appendectomy

My appendix ruptured when I was two years and nine months old, and I remember it like it happened yesterday. The whole experience (and especially the sickness and pain) are blazoned so strongly in my memory, that to this day, I get phantom pains in my lower right side (and sometimes strong nausea) whenever someone even mentions the word "appendicitis." It makes me a bit woozy and sick-feeling to even type the word.

Folks, please do me a favor: if "Lost" ever again features anything related to the human appendix, please warn me ahead of time.

Jack had appendicitis in this week's episode, and Juliet performed the (rudimentary) surgery on the beach, with scavenged medical equipment. I knew what was coming up (since she'd already diagnosed the condition), so I just turned down the volume, minimized the window, and played a game of Solitaire until the scene was over. I could not have watched the appendectomy scene without throwing up, so if there were any startling revelations in that scene, I will always remain ignorant of them. I know Kate and Bernard were somehow involved in that scene, but I really don't think I want to know any more than that. Let's just not talk about it.

Even listening to that scene played at low volume with the window minimized, I started to feel a little nauseous and dizzy. Yes, I'm a wuss. I can't help it.

And I could have lived my entire life without accidentally seeing even one second of the scene where Juliet was stitching up Jack's side. I feel a bit dizzy. I'm going to go lie down for a minute.

Christian Shepard -- alive or not?

Jack's allegedly dead father was referenced in three different contexts in this episode. Near the beginning, after the scene of Jack reading to Aaron in the flash-forward, Jack makes a statement to Kate about his father: "Well, he was a good storyteller; I'll give him that." The use of the past tense was curious, since Christian Shepard shows up seemingly in the flesh later in the episode (three times -- twice to Jack and once to Claire). I think Jack may have simply been saying "He told good stories when I was a kid," rather than "He was a good storyteller, but he's dead now." I don't think Jack's use of the past tense was meant to imply that future Jack knows for certain his father is dead.

Later in the episode, and still in the flash-forward, Jack sees his father in the lobby of the hospital. Although we only see Christian from behind, it is most definitely him. Jack looks shocked. In a later scene, he and Jack make eye contact, and Christian even calls out Jack's name. Jack is then interrupted by another doctor, and when he turns back to where his father was, Christian is gone. The scene would work with Christian either being an apparition or a real, corporeal, living person. It was deliberately ambiguous.

Christian's third appearance was back on the island. Sawyer, Miles, Claire, and Aaron are making their way back to the beach to rejoin the other Losties. During the middle of the night, while they're camping on the way back, Claire awakes to find Aaron missing from her side. She looks up, and on the other side of the campfire, sees Christian Shepard holding Aaron. This, of course, would be the first time Christian had ever seen his grandson. Claire looks at him with a puzzled expression and says, "Dad?"

The next morning, Miles admits to Sawyer that Claire got up in the middle of the night and wandered off, following someone she referred to as her father. Sawyer then finds Aaron placed carefully at the base of a tree. (As an aside, this could be how Aaron manages to get off the island without his mother, although I'd hate to see Claire's separation from Aaron handled in such a squishy, ambiguous way. Are we really going to be told that Claire gives up her son so she can go off into the jungle chasing a ghost? That rings false and contrived to me.)

Since Miles is a ghost hunter, he could have simply keyed in on Christian's presence as a ghost. On the other hand, he could have actually seen Christian as a living person. So, there's another ambiguity about whether Christian is alive or not; however, Miles is fully capable of distinguishing the dead from the living, so it strikes me as unlikely that he would have mistaken the ghost of Christian for a living person.

However, Hurley said something to Jack in the mental hospital (in the flash-forward) that seems to suggest Christian really is dead. Jack and Hurley discussed the fact that (dead) Charlie had visited Hurley and spoken to him. Hurley even said that Charlie wanted Hurley to deliver a message to Jack ("You're not supposed to raise him."). After Charlie's warning about Aaron, Hurley said that Charlie had another message for Jack: "He says someone's going to be visiting you, too. Soon."

Is that a reference to Jack's father, whom Jack sees right after that scene? If (dead) Charlie is visiting Hurley, and (dead) Charlie relays a message to Jack that he's also going to get a visit from beyond the grave, the juxtaposition of Jack's seeing Christian right after that would strongly imply that Christian Shepard is in fact dead.

I still think he's alive, though.

Some surprises

A few plot developments in this episode surprised me.

I totally missed any hint or clue that Charlotte spoke Korean. That slipped right past me.

Keamy and at least three of his men survived the encounter with the smoke monster. To date, isn't Locke the only other person we've seen survive an attack from Smokey?

In the mental hospital, this exchange happens:

Jack: "Why aren't you taking your meds?"
Hurley: "Because we're dead. All of us. All of the Oceanic Six. We're all dead. We never got off that island."

I think that exchange is a red herring, and I think it's merely a reference by the writers to the Purgatory theory so prevalent among fans during the first two seasons of the show.

Jack said to Kate (of Sawyer): "He made his choice. He chose to stay. I'm the one who came back." and "I'm the one who saved you." I don't think this means the Oceanic Six are the only ones who chose to leave the island; I think this dialog is in reference to something else we haven't seen yet. "Chose to stay"? "Came back" from where? And what did Jack save Kate from? We haven't seen any of those things yet.