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<\/a>Someone has said rather woefully that this might be the happiest we\u2019ll ever see Kate and Jack. Presumably we witnessed the start of Jack\u2019s 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\u2019t last.<\/p>\nHurley at one point suggested that they never got off the island. Perhaps in an ironic allusion to the early speculation that the \u201csurvivors\u201d on the island weren\u2019t 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\u2019s response is worth pondering further: Just because we\u2019re happy doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t real.<\/p>\n
Charlie apparently had a message for Jack: \u201cYou\u2019re not supposed to raise him.\u201d Given that Hurley specifically asks whether this refers to Aaron, my guess is that we\u2019re not<\/em> 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\u2019s feelings about Aaron (which apparently changed after Kate\u2019s 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\u2019s disappearance? Will we ever see her again on the show, and if so under what circumstances?<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, Ben\u2019s mother, Eko\u2019s brother Yemi, Libby \u2013 the only exception to the rule that it is as the dead that the island manifests itself is Walt<\/em>, but we\u2019ve already learned that Walt is \u201cspecial\u201d 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.<\/p>\n