Something Nice Back Home SE4 EP10

Shut up Donger.

Ok folks, just so you know, my daughter had a play last night that had me arriving home at about 10 after 10, so I missed the first 10 minutes, which may have affected my observation skills. I found myself a little disoriented when the first scene I saw was Kate jumping Jack in the hallway. Never fear, I quickly watched the first ten minutes this morning, so I have the full episode under my belt. That being said, this 10pm time slot is killing me. It’s all I can do to jot down some notes before I hit the wall at 11:30. At least when we were at the 9pm slot, I could get just about the whole recap done.

But enough about me! Let’s talk about Jack

Jack is Sick
We open with Juliet trying to rouse an obviously ill Jack. The Jackies have a little conflict going with Daniel and Charlotte (Charlotte just seems to rub EVERYONE to wrong way—including the normally serene Rose: “Watch your tone, Red.”). Jack comes out to settle everyone down and also re-iterate his promise: I am going to get you off the island.” The rest of the gang insists that Charlotte and Daniel are lying to them, to which Jack replies, “I know they are lying.” What struck me about this particular episode was the overarching theme of Jack’s narcissism, which is revisited several times throughout he show. Here it is his emphasis on “I”: “I” am going to get you off the island, “I” made you a promise. “I” am the leader. Even though it’s not Jack who has access to the helicopter or their means of rescue, Jack still thinks it’s all about him—and so does everyone else.

Anyway, in the midst of Jack reminding everyone how great he is, he finally succumbs to his illness and passes out on the beach. While Kate and Juliet scramble to revive him, Bernard & Rose have an interesting little exchange: Rose: “Isn’t it odd that Jack gets a life threatening illness right before we’re about to get rescued?” Bernard brushes it off, chalking it up to bad luck. “People get sick,” he says, as if it’s no big deal. But Rose knows better. “Not here they don’t. Here they get better.” This little exchange may offer our clue as to why Rose and Bernard are not part of the Oceanic Six. Rose is starting to believe in the island again.

Juliet diagnoses Jack with appendicitis and tells everyone they need to operate or Jack will die. They cannot move him to the Medical hatch because that also can cause his appendix to rupture and in turn die. Jack wants to be awake to guide her through it. He insists Kate hold the mirror so he can see what Juliet is doing. Is this just Jack being his normal, control freak self, or does he not trust Juliet to get the job done right? I think a case can be made for either scenario, but whatever the reason, Juliet is not happy about a.) Jack being awake, and b.) Kate being in the “operating room”. It’s hard to say what she’s more pissed off about, but one thing is for certain: Juliet can no longer kid herself about Jack’s feelings for Kate.

So because she can’t move Jack, Juliet sends Sun and Jin to get medical instruments. Sun is worried that she will get the wrong things on the shopping list, so Daniel volunteers himself and Charlotte on the premise that Daniel would know what they were looking at. The rest of the Jackies protest—they don’t trust Daniel & Charlotte. Daniel pleads with Juliet to let them help and insists that they are scientists and not part of the malicious doings of the other occupants of the boat. Juliet relents, handing Jin a gun. “If they try to run, shoot them in the leg.”

When they get to the medical hatch, Sun and Jin engage in one of my pet peeves from way back: obviously conversing about the people you are with right in front of them in another language. But while they are speaking about how they don’t trust Charlotte and Daniel, and how Daniel and Charlotte have a little thing for each other, Jin is watching Charlotte closely: Charlotte understands Korean. One of the best scenes last night was Jin’s confrontation of Charlotte’s understanding of Korean, which she continues to play dumb until Jin says, “Stop lying or I will break all of Daniel’s fingers one by one.” “What do you want?” Charlotte asks in Korean. “When the helicopter comes back for you, I want you to get my wife off of this island,” Jin replies “What about your friends?” Charlotte asks. “Just get my wife off,” says Jin. And because Charlotte is herself a coldly calculating non-empathetic person who totally gets Jin’s mindset, she quietly agrees.

Meanwhile, we are ready to operate. Jack is staying awake but he’s in obvious pain after Juliet begins operating. As Jack’s resolve collapses and the pain takes over, chaos reigns in the tent: Juliet insists he be put under, Jack is fighting, Bernard is going for the chloroform, Jack is calling for Kate, Kate is crying, Juliet is yelling for Kate to get out. Finally, they put Jack under using chloroform.

I’d like to point out here another parallel with Stephen King’s The Stand, in which the plague survivor band of Stu, Frannie, Glen and Harold are confronted with newcomer Mark’s appendicitis. There is not a trained doctor among them, so faced with the choice of letting Mark die from a burst appendix or operating, Stu steps up and begins operating in crude conditions using a book for reference and with no anesthetic. Mark eventually dies and his girl Perion kills herself in anguish.

After the operation is complete, Bernard comes out to tell Kate it’s all over and she can go in to see Jack. Kate goes back in while Juliet is stitching Jack up. Jack is (apparently) still under the anesthesia. “He kissed me,” Juliet says to Kate. “Right after you came back. It was nice. But he did it for himself, not for me. He needed to prove to himself that he wasn’t in love with someone else.” Kate is emotional. She thanks Juliet. Then she thanks her again, this time for saving his life. The first time she thanked Juliet was presumably for telling Kate, in her cryptic, singsong-y Juliet way, that Jack loves her Kate then leaves the tent while Juliet finishes up washing off the wound. “I know you’re awake, Jack.”

On the way to the Beach
Sawyer, Miles, Claire and the Baybay and trekking through the jungle on the way back to the beach. Sawyer catches Miles staring at Claire and issues a restraining order to Miles against Claire—and don’t ogle her either. Miles asks, “Who are you, her big brother?” No, that would be Jack, but an interesting choice of analogies, Miles. So they are trekking along, Sawyer all protective-like of Claire, asking how she is, if she’s still woozy, to which Claire cryptically responds, “Well at least I’m not seeing things anymore.” Before Sawyer can get her to elaborate on what exactly she means by that, Miles starts doing his ghost whisperer thing and hearing voices, asks about Danielle and Carl. In short order, he discovers Carl and Rousseau buried in shallow graves. Claire is creeped out and they leave the scene quickly.

As they progress through the jungle, they suddenly cross paths with Lapidus who tells them to hide and hide quick, since the Mercs are right behind them. Aaron almost gives them away, but it is Lapidus’s insistence to Keevey that they MUST get to the helicopter NOW before dark that keeps the Mercs from investigating Aaron’s little outburst.

They make camp and Claire wakes up in the middle of the night to find Christian Sheppard holding Aaron. “Dad?” she asks. Brrrr!!!!

Sawyer wakes up in the morning to find Miles calmly tending the fire and Claire and Aaron gone. “Where’d they go?” Sawyer asks Miles: “She just walked off into jungle.” “Alone? And you didn’t follow her?” “No, I didn’t follow her. I’m under a restraining order, remember? Anyway, she wasn’t alone.” “Who’s she go with?” Sawyer wants to know. Miles shrugs, “She called him ‘Dad’.” Sawyer begins frantically looking for Claire, only to find Aaron abandoned a little ways away.

Future Perfect
Jack is awoken in his perfect home by his perfect practice calling with a question. He gets out of bed, stumbles over a perfect pair of lace panties then a perfect Millenium Falcon toy. He makes coffee, goes to the bathroom when he says good morning to the perfect panty owner, who is showering. She steps out to reveal it’s perfect Kate. It’s actually Kate’s perfect house where he’s living.

Now since I watched this scene after I watched the rest of the entire episode (see above), I was actively looking for Jack’s appendectomy scar. It is absent, and believe me, the camera lingered on Jack’s (nicely toned) abdomen for quite some time. It could be a simple continuity error, but I think it was intentionally omitted. For what reason, I do not know.

We later see Jack reading an “Alice in Wonderland” to Aaron:

"Dear, dear! How queer everything is today! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!" (H/T: Sig)

Isn’t it just? And don’t you get the feeling that Jack could just as easily be talking about the Oceanic Six as Alice? Kate compliments Jack on his parenting skills and Jack tells her that his Old Man used to read him that story. Kate is pleasantly surprised, “I’ve never heard you say anything nice about your father.” “Haven’t I?” Jack counters. “Well, he was a helluva storyteller.”

Jack is working in his perfect busy practice at his perfect upscale medical office, when he catches a glimpse of his father. As he goes to pursue him, a call comes in at the front desk; there’s doctor that wants to talk to Jack about his friend. It turns out, Hurley is not taking his meds, can Jack come down and talk with him?

So Jack shows up at the looney bin where a dejected Hurley is sitting in his room. He doesn’t even look up when Jack enters. Hurley: “We’re all dead.” Jack: “We’re not dead. You need to get back on your meds.” Hurley disagrees, “All of the Oceanic Six. We’re all dead. Jack, you’re living with Kate after the trial. Raising Aaron. It’s too perfect. It’s kinda like Heaven, isn’t it?” “You think we’re dead because I’m happy?” Jack asks. Hurley ignores this and tells him about his visits from Charlie. “He gave me a message for you. I wrote it down so I wouldn’t screw it up.” He unfolds a piece of paper. “Charlie said you’re not supposed to be raising him. Ya think he means Aaron? Charlie says you’re going to get a visitor, too. Soon.” Meanwhile, Jack is totally freaking out.

A shaken Jack lingers outside the mental health institute, perhaps looking for Charlie. Later that night, Jack asks Kate: “You said I was a natural. Do you really think I’m good at this?” Kate says yes. Jack asks Kate to marry him and Kate says yes again.

Later Jack is alone in his office and the smoke detector starts beeping. He goes to take battery out and Christian Sheppard sitting there, saying his name in a creepy way. Then his partner Erica comes out to find Jack again visibly shaken, but Christian Sheppard has disappeared. He then asks for the script from Erica for sleeping pills and thus it begins. He returns home to find Kate on the phone, engaged in a somewhat private and suspicious conversation, which she ends immediately upon seeing Jack.

He comes home early the next day and when Kate gets there he is suspicious of her and drunk. Jack tells Kate he went to see Hurley and that Hurley is crazy and he didn’t tell Kate because he didn’t want to upset her. Turnabout is NOT fairplay, where Jack is concerned. Jack can keep his secrets, but Kate is not allowed to keep hers. “Where were you?” He demands. “Who were you talking to on the phone?” Kate asks him to trust her. “Don’t do this,” she pleads. And of course Jack doesn’t listen—he is just like he was when his first wife left him, and he insists Kate tell him where she was. “I was doing something for HIM. For Sawyer. I made a promise.” “Well he’s not here.” Jack sputters “He made his choice. He stayed behind. I’m the one that saved you.” Kate is distraught, “I won’t have you upsetting my son.” “Your son?” Jack counters. “You’re not even related!”

Two intriguing thoughts about this exchange: First, is Kate doing something for Cassie or Clementine as a promise to Sawyer? Probably. Remember, Kate knows Cassie. Second: Can we assume from Jack’s retort about Aaaron not being related to Kate that he knows that he is in fact related to Aaron? Is this what made him “change his mind” about having contact with Aaron, or is it why he wanted to stay away in the first place?

Bonus observations/questions from Sig:
Why didn't the smoke monster kill Kearney and the other men?
What did Claire mean by "not seeing things anymore" after Sawyer asked her if she was feeling any better?
Anyone catch the reference to Sixteen Candles? Star Wars? Alice in Wonderland?
Remember the psychic that told Claire to give her baybee up to a couple in Los Angeles? Are Jack and Kate the couple?
Hurley and Jack are on the same meds and the same paper cut-outs from the mental hospital are on the fridge in Kate's house. Is Jack in the nut house also, living in his own little world?
Smoke detector....smoke monster? Are the apparitions of these dead people really just the smoke monster? Or are these visions of dead people really the 'constants' that everyone needs in order to move back and forth from the island?

Next Week:
Locke! Locke! Locke! What more needs to be said?