It only makes sense that following last week’s awesome episode, tonight’s show would be comparably worse. Them’s the rules of “Lost,” I’m afraid, and though we got some more insight into the events leading up to Jack’s eventual post-rescue breakdown, the action on the island was considerably tame.
I mean, does Jack’s appendicitis really qualify for that level of dramatic tension? Hardly, but when Juliet announces that she’s going to have to operate, everyone freaks out, including Jack, who becomes so unruly during the actual surgery that Bernard eventually just knocks him out with some chloroform. Before all that, however, Faraday and Charlotte head to the medical hatch to pick up some supplies for the surgery, and since everyone has decided that they’re no longer to be trusted following Bernard’s Morse code trickery last week, Jin and Sun tag along with orders that if they try to run away, they’re to shoot them in the legs. That’s always a nice way to make someone feel at home, no?
Of course, I honestly believe that none of the original freighter folk (Faraday, Charlotte, Lapidus and Miles) are bad people, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’ve been placed in an incredibly awkward and high-tension position. For all the hoo-hah caused about their possible disloyalty, however, it seems like the only reason that entire subplot was written was so that Jin could approach Charlotte about her ability to speak Korean. Charlotte denies it at first, but when Jin threatens (in Korean, of course) to break Daniel’s fingers, she gives in. And what exactly does Jin want in trade for keeping Charlotte’s secret? A promise that when the helicopter arrives, she’ll take Sun away from the island.
Meanwhile, Sawyer, Claire and Miles are still making their way back to camp, and with the exception of their discovery of Danielle and Karl’s bodies half-buried in the ground, it was a pretty pointless subplot. Sure, we got to see Sawyer verbally attack Miles like he was the second coming of Hurley, but it wasn’t really going anywhere until Claire mysteriously wandered into the jungle, supposedly with her father. Sawyer goes looking for her, but all he finds is evidence of bad parenting at its absolute worst – poor Aaron all alone underneath a tree.
Claire wasn’t the only one seeing visions of Dr. Christian Shepherd, though. In Jack’s flash-forward, the good doctor discovered that not all good things last forever, and after a brief romantic stint with Kate, he eventually breaks things off following her admission that she went behind his back in order make good on a promise to Sawyer. Was Jack jumping to conclusions perhaps a little too quickly? You bet, but wouldn’t you too if you were seeing your dead father walking around your workplace? Of course, and though Jack gets some happy pills from a friend of his (cue bushy beard and mental breakdown), he’s still understandably freaked out by a recent visit from Hurley who claims that all of the Oceanic Six are really dead. I’m not exactly sure how to react to this sudden increase in the supernatural (Miles can talk to dead people, Hurley can see Charlie, Jack and Claire can see their father), but I’m definitely looking forward to finding out.
– The expression on Sawyer’s face when Ben handed him the shotgun was priceless. He went from “Holy shit, Ben’s going to shoot me” to “Holy shit, Ben’s my ally” in a matter of milliseconds.
