Something Nice Back Home

I love the ride that is LOST. This week's episode has been labelled filler by some, but I disagree. I think "SNBH" has many key points of interest, underlying the fact that it was just a damn good hour of TV.

Of course, it answered the question, "Is Danielle really dead," in the affirmative. Contrary to the reasoning that we were promised a Rouseau backstory, therefore she can't be dead, she seems quite indisputably to be so. Of course we know death on this show doesn't prevent characters from reappearing, but a Danielle-centric episode does seem out of the question now. I'm going to reserve judgment on this development for the time being.

As far as the flash forward goes, it was a good episode for Jaters, at least until the end. Beyond that we filled in some gaps.

We know that between the trial and the events of "Through the Looking Glass", Jack and Kate did try to make a go of it. One can only assume Jack's jealous outburst at the end is the reason for Kate's reluctance to see him in "TTLG".

We also saw Jack's daddy issues front and center, in his desperate plea, "Am I really good at this?" This sub-plot also provided an Alice in Wonderland reference, when Jack was reading to Aaron.

But more interesting about the FF was the conversation with Hurley and the appearance of Christian Shephard. Obviously, Charlie has appeared to Hurley several times since the events of "The Beginning of the End". And he seems to be working in concert with Christian. But more on that in a minute.

There was a "No Smoking" sign in the cell where Hurley saw the vision of Charley in "TBOTE". After Jack saw Christian, he explained his actions by saying the smoke detector was malfunctioning. These would seem to be references to the smoke monster, and would seem to lend credence to the theory that Smokey is behind the "manifestations", a theory to which I have always been lukewarm.

But I'm not sure that it matters. Smokey and the manifestations/apparitions are both acting on behalf of the island, or may even be "limbs" of the island, and that connection is probably the important thing. But it does remind me that Locke saw something different once. Maybe it's only the Smoke Monster when it's in revenge mode (or recon mode). Questions about parallels to Christian and/or Hindu trinities also reemerge.

But back to Christian. He's becoming more and more significant. To recap recent appearances, we saw him sitting in Jacob's cabin during Hurley's encounter in "TBOTE", and for those of us who watched the mobisodes, we saw him instruct Vincent to wake up Jack, saying, "He's got work to do." This would have taken place immediately before the first scene in the pilot episode.

So the question is, are ghost-Christian and ghost-Charlie at all themselves? Or are they just Smokey appearing to individuals in the most persuasive form? Christian refers to Jack as "my son" in the mobisode; what does Vincent care? Is this a clue?

But the biggest OMG moment for me was when Claire woke up to see Christian holding Aaron. This was a spooky scene, but it also I think provides an alternative to Claire dying. I for one never expected anything like that, so her death was the only way I could reconcile Aaron being with Kate. Now I can see another possibility, obviously.

Not that I have any idea why Christian took Claire and not Aaron, or why Claire let him. I would guess he's taking her to Jacob, but I don't know why.

More importantly, what does this have to do with the "raised by another" thread? Charlie's message to Jack is, "You're not supposed to raise him, Jack." But Kate is? The island seems responsible for separating Aaron and Claire. Why?

I suspect we'll learn more about this next week, and I can't wait. Before then I'll try to get a part two out, but until then let's hash!