I’ve never been a big fan of the Jack Shepherd character (neither as the heroic leader or the depressed drunk), but tonight was probably one of my favorite Jack-centric episodes. Though it might have seemed a bit lame to give him an estranged teenage son, it was a good way of showing just how different Jack is from his own father. Sure, it may have taken him awhile to recognize just what he was doing wrong in the relationship (that kind of ignorance can rub off on somehow who hasn’t exactly had the best parenting experience), but at least he was able to mend the relationship between him and his musical prodigy son before it was too late. With that said, however, I hope we never have to see that moody brat ever again.
Of course, while that subplot took up a majority of the Earth-2 action, there were a few other tidbits that caught my attention as well. First, it’ll be interesting to see how the discovery of Claire’s name in Christian’s will is going to play out further down the road, because I don’t remember that information getting out in the Earth-1 timeline, and I’d be curious to see how Jack’s mom takes the news. I also thought it was pretty sneaky of the writers to slip that small conversation about Jack having his appendix taken out when he was kid, because he clearly doesn’t remember it. Is that scar really from a childhood operation like his mother says, or a remnant of his Earth-1 life? And if it’s the former, then why would she lie?
As we’ve all come to expect by now, the Earth-1 portion of the episode was infinitely more interesting, with Hurley playing a large part in Jack’s storyline. Let it be said that if you die on “Lost,” you’re never really dead, because even if the writers don’t bring you back in a flashback, a flashsideways, or even as a completely new character (see: Terry O’Quinn), they always have Hurley as back-up. After all, the dude can see ghosts (no wonder he gets along with Miles so well), so it’s as easy as a character visiting him from the afterlife to resurrect them – even if it’s only temporary. Hurley has been seeing quite a lot of Jacob lately (his latest appearance no doubt squashes the rumor that he’s taken over Sayid’s body), and this time around, he wants Hurley to go with Jack to a lighthouse near their old stomping grounds to help a forthcoming visitor find their way to the island.
This mysterious figure (who I’m guessing is either Desmond or Charles Widmore) isn’t going to find it any easier now that Jack has smashed the mirror inside the lighthouse. Okay, so that was probably a bit rash on his part, but seeing as how he could see a reflection of his childhood home in the mirror when the dial was turned to his personal number (yep, the names and numbers are back in play again), it wasn’t exactly out of character. Jack used to be pretty freaked out about the idea that it was destiny that brought him to the island, and now that he’s finally warming up to the possibility that it may be true, he discovers that Jacob has been spying on him all this time. Jacob in turn tells Hurley that he needed Jack to see the reflection in order for him to understand how special he is, but I can’t imagine Jack would ever agree to help Jacob after this debacle. I’m guessing he thinks it’s worth the risk, because he admits to needing Jack and Hurley away from the temple before someone bad arrives.
He’s probably referring to Smokey, but he could just as well be talking about Jungle Claire, who helps Jin out of the bear trap and sews up his leg at her camp. She also brings along the surviving Other that she just shot to interrogate him about the whereabouts of Aaron, who she believes was kidnapped by his people. Jin tries to tell her the truth (that Kate took him off the island three years ago), but she’s so far off the reservation that there doesn’t seem to be any hope of saving her. And I love it. They took the most innocent character on the show and turned her into a squirrely psycho who doesn’t so much as hesitate to swing an axe into her enemy’s torso. That’s what happens when you make friends with Smokey.
