This past week’s episode of LOST may not have had as startlingly obvious revelations as the episode immediately before it, but what it did reveal, and the hints that were subtly placed, are worth noting.
Someone has said rather woefully that this might be the happiest we’ll ever see Kate and Jack. Presumably we witnessed the start of Jack’s downward spiral into medication and alcohol before the episode was over, but seeing Jack and Kate together, striving for a bit of normalcy, and even getting engaged was delightful, although I think we all knew from the very earliest flash-forward that it wouldn’t last.
Hurley at one point suggested that they never got off the island. Perhaps in an ironic allusion to the early speculation that the “survivors” on the island weren’t survivors at all but were in fact dead. In this episode, Hurley speculates that they were not really alive since everything was working out so perfectly for Jack and Kate. Jack’s response is worth pondering further: Just because we’re happy doesn’t mean it isn’t real.
Charlie apparently had a message for Jack: “You’re not supposed to raise him.” Given that Hurley specifically asks whether this refers to Aaron, my guess is that we’re not supposed to understand it in that obvious way. But whom else could Jack raise, and in what sense? Raise in poker? Raise someone (perhaps his dad) from the dead? Any other possibilities? Then again, perhaps the hint that the reference might be to something less obvious is intended to make us wonder. Jack’s feelings about Aaron (which apparently changed after Kate’s trial) are still shrouded in mystery, and so perhaps Jack already has a sense that he is not supposed to raise him. And what if anything does this have to do with Claire’s disappearance? Will we ever see her again on the show, and if so under what circumstances?
Charlie also said that Jack would have a visitor of his own. Before the episode is over, Jack will see his father. In the scene from next week, Locke is shown encountering someone who has been dead for more than a decade. Encountering the deceased is a key theme. Christian Shepherd, Ben’s mother, Eko’s brother Yemi, Libby – the only exception to the rule that it is as the dead that the island manifests itself is Walt, but we’ve already learned that Walt is “special” and so perhaps when people see Walt, they are indeed seeing Walt; or perhaps his specialness explains why he is seen when other living people are not.
Other clues and hints from this episode include Sawyer having chosen to stay on the island while Jack chose to leave and saved Kate. Sawyer, however, asked Kate to do something for him. My guess is he asked her to contact the woman he pretended to love and left pregnant after swindling her out of money. The island leads people to make amends.
Jack isn’t the only one who saw his dad. So did Claire. Miles apparently witnessed it too, but that doesn’t tell us whether Christian Shepherd is alive or dead, and presumably it was intentional that Miles be the one to see Claire leave with her dad, since Miles can sense the presence of the dead. This ability laid to rest any hope that Rousseau and Karl had somehow survived. Of course, being dead on the island, we may see more of them than before!
Finally, we are led to ask why Jack has appendicitis. Rose draws attention to the oddness of the situation – the island makes people well, as a rule. Ben’s cancer and Jack’s appendix raise questions. Theologically, we can think about this in terms of providence. If these things happen to these individuals to serve a higher purpose, a greater good, does that justify these things being caused?
Reflecting on providence, we remember Ms. Hawking’s statement that the universe has a way of course-correcting. But Charlie was supposed to die earlier, before switching off the jammer. And so are there two forces providentially at work here, one opposing the other?
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