Justin Cox
LOST – Something Nice Back Home
Ok, so first off, we’re playing the “where is Claire” game again? But this time, instead of being drugged and taken into the creepy Baby Hatch she goes off willingly with Christian Shepherd AND LEAVES HER BABY? Something doesn’t seem right at all about this. After all, Christian Shepherd is supposed to be dead and why would Claire leave her baby? I don’t have a clue.
But the question now is impossible to avoid: are they all dead? Did none of them actually survive the plane crash? I want to say no, and that it’s all just a nice bit of writing to throw everyone off the real path, but after tonight’s episode I’m not so sure. They’ve had dead people show up on the island before, but it was always attributed to a manifestation of the Island, perhaps even the Smoke Monster, but now they might actually be dead people. In the preview for next week the guy in the Darmha jumpsuit (was it Ben’s dad?) tell’s Locke he’s been dead for 12 years. The, “they’re all dead” idea would explain why Michael can’t kill himself and why Tom said the Island won’t let you die, because you’re already dead, but I don’t really buy it.
It isn’t something that can be explained through science/psudoscience, which is what the producers have said all along. It also seems like a cheap copout to give into the whole, “it’s all been a dream” or “they’re all dead” storylines. Almost cliché. I’m not going to believe it because the quality of the writing so far this season has been incredible, and to fall into such a cliché seems out of character. Why would they take the time to show a dead and burred CFL and Carl (which was pretty nasty) if we’re to believe that they are all already dead? My guess is we’re being set up for something big to happen for the season finale. And unless it’s a flash-forward where Jack takes off his shirt and doesn’t have an appendix scar… well I don’t even know what would prove they all died.
EDIT: Ok, so after I just read Brian’s great Instant Reactions I realized that the entire opening of the show featured a shirtless Jack in the future without a scar. Does this prove they are all dead? I still don’t think so. It gives the idea more credence, especially the idea that the six “survivors” are actually dead (see below), but I still don’t think it sells it. Maybe we’re looking at parallel universes and the crew from Sliders is going to show up at some point looking for a way home. Yeah, I’m that big a nerd.
EDIT 2: Alright, well Brian came through again and proved his instant reactions wrong by showing that Jack did have an appendix scar, although a very small/faint/nearly impossible to see. Way to go LOST crew. You had us going for a few days which was your plan all along. You’re pretty slick!
The real question from this episode is what’s the deal with Christian Shepherd? We know that he is both Jack and Claire’s father and that he had a drink with Sawyer right before he died… we also know that he may or may not have been the creepy guy sitting in the rocking chair with “Jacob” and that he seems to roam the island at will and, now the future too. His return tonight is important, and will be important for the rest of the story, but I can’t seem to figure out why. Perhaps he was a former partner of the Hanso Foundation and has inadvertently (or maybe not) brought his family to the Island and stuck them right in the middle of the Ben vs. Charles Widmore war. I don’t know. His puzzle piece just doesn’t seem to fit.
Piecing together the timeline this episode takes place somewhere after the Kate trial and before the season finale from last season. We learned that it was Hurley who sent Jack into his depressive tailspin that lead to him wanting to kill himself. We learned that Kate chose Jack, more or less, because Sawyer chose (interesting word usage) to stay on the island. We learned that Hurley’s visit from Charlie earlier this season was actually just the first of many, which lead him to deduce they never survived. Interestingly enough Hurley specifically said the Oceanic Six all died and not the people on Oceanic flight 815. So perhaps the people survived the plane crash, but somehow the six (actually eight though two died “in the water”) that left the Island actually died? Maybe that’s why Jack wanted to get back so badly. That would actually work better than the Island people are dead.
One thing I felt odd, or out of place, tonight (other than Bernard proclaiming that the medical crew was back from their mission at the precise moment the commercial ended) was that Jin and the ginger scientist had a heart to heart in Korean and that Jin want’s Sun to leave the Island without him. After all that has gone into bringing the two back together, it seems very strange that Jin doesn’t seem to want to leave the Island with Sun. Like the reappearance of Christian Shepherd, I don’t really see how this fits.
I don’t know. Overall tonight’s episode started out pretty slow, had a few building moments of suspense, but in the end didn’t really go anywhere. Perhaps next week, when Locke (seemingly) finally makes it to the Temple, we’ll get some answers. Though, I’m pretty willing to commit 100% to the season finale is the Oceanic Six leaving the Island for good… and not to the freighter, to the real world. Which means we’ll see just with whom (most likely Widmore) and why they make whatever deal they made to keep everything quiet. Mark it. I’m going all in on that one.