Appendectomies! Everybody's getting them — a major character in last night's episode of Lost ("Something Nice Back Home") and my brother-in-law last week. Of course, BIL had fancy-pants arthroscopic surgery in a hospital, not on a piece of airplane wreckage with Dharma-brand instruments—and I'm pretty sure he didn't want to stay conscious through the procedure. (Maybe they're both lucky the little devil wasn't pulled out through the closest possible orifice.) Lucky for me—and the rest of you who prefer action Lost to melodrama, Lost—"Something Nice Back Home" didn't turn out to be the Jack/Kate/Juliet soap opera I feared. Oh, there were some soapy/sappy moments to be sure, but on the whole it was a solid episode. More about the show, and nothing about my in-laws, after the jump.
So Jack has appendicitis, even though as Rose points out in a Dramatic Moment, people on the island don't get sick, they get better—except for everybody who's died, of course. Juliet decides to operate, and sends Sun to the medical station to get instruments. Daniel goes along because he knows what the instruments look like, Charlotte goes along ... just because ... and since nobody trusts her at all and Daniel only marginally, Juliet sends Jin along with a gun. This excursion gives Jin the opportunity to find out that Char speaks Korean—which he uses to his advantage (along with the threat of skills acquired during his hit-man past) to get her to promise to take Sun off the island when the helicopter arrives. Unlike Jin, I didn't notice that Daniel and Char have a thing going on, quite possibly because I find her so very annoying. (Loved Rose's "Just watch your tongue, Red"!) Does Char even have the authority to get Sun on that helicopter anyway?
In a flashforward, we see Jack and Kate shacked up in connubial bliss, right up until Jack catches a glimpse of his father, and then gets a call from Hurley's doctor. Hugo's institutionalized ("he's crazy," in Jack's professional opinion), and now he's refusing to take his meds, isn't sleeping, and doesn't believe his therapist exists. He does, however, have a message for Jack from Charlie, who's a regular visitor: "You're not supposed to raise him, Jack," meaning Aaron, of course. This freaks Jack out, as does Hurley's assurance that, per Charlie, Jack will soon have a visitor. Of course, it's his dad, this time in the waiting room, nicely dressed in a dark suit and white shoes. Jack immediately starts popping pills. He also gets wildly jealous of Kate, who needs to do something for Sawyer, who we find out CHOSE to stay on the island. Jack gives Kate a hard time about not being related to Aaron, but doesn't seem to know that he, in fact, is Aaron's uncle. This is clearly the beginning of Jack's furry mad man phase.
Meanwhile, Miles, Sawyer, Claire, and Aaron are still trekking through the jungle to the beach. As they pass through the site of the ambush, Miles hears Rousseau and Karl's last moments, falls to his knees, and uncovers their bodies—damn! Rousseau is really dead!—which freaks out both Sawyer and Claire. Sawyer doesn't trust Miles at all, and puts a "restraining order" on him around Claire after he catches Miles looking at Claire like he's never seen her before. But Miles isn't interested in Claire the way Sawyer thinks he is (project much, Sawyer?), but as someone "sensitive" in the psychic sense—and maybe he hears Charlie, too. I also think Miles has recognized Aaron as, well, an "individual of interest." After the four of them barely escape death at the hands of Kearny and crew (thanks to Lapidus) Claire is visited by Christian Shephard—her dad as well as Jack's—and follows him into the jungle, where she disappears, leaving Aaron behind.
This and that:
Jack reads to toddler Aaron from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), specifically from Chapter 2, "The Pool of Tears." Here's the full quote—because it's one of my childhood favorites, and because it was an excellent fit in last night's episode:
Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: "Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! 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!"
Aaron's got a toy Millennium Falcon!
Is that a piece of twine Island Kate is wearing as a headband? Surely there's a box of Dharma-logo hair ribbon somewhere on the island.
Jack picks up a newspaper with the headline "Yankees Bludgeon Red Sox in Series Sweep." Anybody got a theory on why there have been so many NY-Boston world series references? Obviously, it's an easy way to mark time, but knowing Lost, there's probably more to it than that—or is there?
Island Jack has an appendectomy but Future Jack has no scar?
Lately every time toddler Aaron pops up in an episode, his cherubic good looks combined with the storyline that seems to suggest he is Very Special make me think of the Infant Jesus of Prague—especially as the latter appears in John Waters's Multiple Maniacs.