Follow along! The episode guide for “Something Nice Back Home” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 121-131.Another great episode (season 4, for the most part, was simply fantastic). This contains the not-so-big mystery about what Kate had been doing behind Jack’s back that we discover in S5 (which I’m still baffled about), and the beginning of Jack’s downfall.
Fun things I noticed:
• Presumably it wasn’t just Sun who got the big Oceanic settlement, but all of them. So why is Jack working all these crazy hours when he’s probably a millionaire? We can probably assume Sun got twice what the others got (she would have received compensation for Jin as well as herself) but the others would have walked away with a lot of money. I’m assuming it’s just Jack’s nature: no matter how much money he’s got, he’ll still be trying to fix things.
• There’s a strange juxtaposition of Jack asking Kate to marry him right after Hurley tells him they’re living in Heaven… it’s almost as if he’s testing the theory. He sits outside the mental institution, staring at where Charlie visits Hurley, and then he offers her a ring, as if her saying “yes” might actually uphold what Hurley’s saying. Is he already starting to listen to the big guy?
• Sawyer finds Aaron in a tree, in the same spot where Danielle always put her trap dolls. Is Aaron a trap in some way? By grabbing him out of that tree, is the trap that eventually, down the road, it’ll bring them back to the island?
Things that have new meaning:
• Again, something I pointed out at the time, but notice that Jack takes the battery out of the smoke detector, so when “Smokey” appears in the form of Christian, it can’t be detected. (And I also pointed out how unlikely that a large hospital would have a tiny smoke detector and not a state-of-the-art fire prevention system, but let’s ignore that for now.)
• And… again. One more time I’ll say it: I don’t understand why Kate lied to Jack. Here she says that Sawyer wouldn’t have wanted her to tell him the truth… why? Why would Sawyer have expected her to lie? That makes zero sense. Just tell him the woman’s name is Cassidy (not Noreen) and that she was actually Sawyer’s lover and they have a child together. Would that make Jack jealous? Perhaps, but maybe knowing there was another woman out there with one significant tie to Sawyer might have made things better, not worse.
23 comments:
Nikki, I like how your mind works. For instance, noticing the similarity between Aaron and Danielle’s baby-doll-booby-traps! It’s sort of obvious, but then again, not so much. Pretty cool.
I’ll admit, there’s a LOT I don’t know about medical stuff, but I’ve managed to pick up a little just by paying attention. I’ve never understood why Juliet asked Jack if his appendix had ruptured. Because if it had, wouldn’t he be unconscious and at death’s door? Maybe she asked the question because she knows that doctors make the worst patients (which she actually says out loud at one point), and she has learned a little bit about Jack in the short time she’s known him, so she figured that saying the word “ruptured” to him would serve to remind him of the seriousness of his situation. That’s all I can figure.
And while we’re on the subject of medical procedures, Juliet sent the away team to bring back all sorts of surgical supplies, but she did the operation with no mask. Bernard and Kate should’ve been wearing masks too. Seems a glaring omission to me.
Getting engaged is supposed to REDUCE stress?! Not for the person who is faced with planning a wedding. Nikki, you mentioned this in your S4 book, and I think just about everyone in the civilized world will agree with you on that.
@ Marebabe: yeah, when the doctor brought up the engagement/stress issue, I was expecting Jack to say, "I guess you've never been engaged, lady."
Matthew Fox continues to be a stunning, stunning actor. Right after he sees his dad's ghost and he's speaking to the doctor, he's sobbing and laughing all at once. Fox is nothing short of fantastic. I really hope the guy gets an Emmy after Season 6.
Seeing Bernard & Rose play such a big part in the goings-on of the Island made me a little depressed, because I remembered that once the fifth season rolls around, they're going to disappear for a very long time.
I think there's some sort of clue in the Alice story Jack is reading. He reads, "If I am not the smae, then who am I?" He tells Kate his father read him Alice in Wonderland (just like Claire says Christian sang her Catch a Falling Star). Are these clues as well?
This whole ontological notion of being, that even if we are one thing we may be another. Especially if we are a twin. Notice how the Santa Rosa doctor tells Jack about Hurley, not taking meds, because "he doesn't think I exist." And what a shock for Jack to see his father, who shouldn't exist as he is supposed to be dead. (What if Christian is not the same, then who is he)?
I also suspect Ben will later lie to Locke about his efforts have gotten Jack on a plane. Clearly, Jack was more upset by Hurley, and it is Hurley who is the trigger that starts Jack on his downward spiral (that and seeing his father). By the time Jack meets with Locke, he's already unsteady, taking drugs and beginning to drink. Locke saying he saw Jack's father only confirms Jack's worst fears. But it's really Hurley that got Jack moving in a downward spiral.
@Question Mark: I agree with you about Matthew Fox's acting chops. When the script says he has to cry, he really gets all worked up and cries. Like Meryl Streep. Her face gets puffy, her eyes get red, and her nose gets runny, because she's really, truly, miserably crying. That's why good actors get paid the big bucks.
Flash forward-oh, look Jack has an appendix scar right above his towel!
Really, I do like this ep alot. It was interesting to see Jack and Kate finally 'together'. But in this relationship, it was wierd to see Jack doubt himself.
'Restraining order'-love it!
"Where's the power coming from?" Giant hamsters?
Go Frank!
I always love how they throw the title of the ep into a casual conversation.
Anybody know about anasthetics? Could they have shot the lidocaine into each layer as Juliet cut, or is that totally not practical?
I like how Kate is playing with her engagement ring, just like any newly engaged girl would!
When Kate asks Jack to trust her, and Jack asks again, "Where were you?", he is telling her he DOESN'T trust her...man, he blew it!
Nikki I agree with you about Kate and her lying. Even though we find out next season that she was in touch with Cassity long before she gets together with Jack, still you don't lie to the person you want to marry. She also knows that Jack has been jealous of Sawyer for a long time. It just shows how for Kate lying is a way of life, or as she put it, "Force of habit."
Rose's insistence that Jack is doing something wrong because the island doesn't let people get sick strikes me as a little strange. Sure she knows that she and Locke have been healed, but how about Boone and Shannon and Eko and Scott and... The island didn't heal any of these people, and it just seems to me that from Rose's perspective, the healings appear to be more rare than the illnesses or deaths.
In this episode we learn for the first time that Charlotte can speak Korean. Wouldn't it be cool if she learned it as a little girl in the DI from the security guy named Jin?
Where does Danielle get all those dolls from?
@Ali Bags-"Where does Danielle get all those dolls from?"
She must have gotten them from the doll shipment that was on flight 815 that Jack finds in 'White Rabbit.'
word verif-'proop'-proxy poop
@Susan: It would be EXTREMELY cool if we found out Charlotte learned to speak Korean from Jin!
@Ali Bags & crazyinlost: I also remembered when Jack first stumbled into the caves, found Christian's empty coffin, and saw the running fresh water for the first time. There was at least one doll in the water (maybe more, I forget), and I thought at the time that people can put anything on a plane. It's very likely that Danielle scooped up some of the dolls for her own use. They did make excellent bait for her traps. Considering that her baby was stolen from her, I'll bet she squeezed out a few tears when she first held one of the dolls. Poor Danielle.
Yes, the medical stuff seems wrong. Why not use fire to sterilize? No masks?
@ Nikki – Still not sure of the “why” of Jack’s illness. I think Rose is right, other people do not get sick. They may get shot and die, or fall in airplanes and die, or get buried alive and die, but those are tough to get around, and they are externally caused. No one has had an illness besides Jack and Ben.
Jack's decline was definitely accelerated with the Hurley talks, but when he saw Hurley's car chase on TV he was already pouring a little vodka into his OJ. The dry timber was there, Hurley was just a spark, Christian sighting a fan for the flames.
I concur, Mathew Fox is amazing. He does a great knocked-the-wind-out-of-me-surprised very well.
Another great bonus track on the DVD - seeing all the flashbacks in “straight time” order. It helped clear up a couple of nagging things for me, and the continuity folks did a great job, except, sadly, for the Jeard.
Yeah, Kate's lying to Jack still bugs me too. I guess we just have to chalk it up to it being in her nature to lie, just like Jack will always be trying to fix things.
I always looked at Jack's appendicitis as being a test. Who (besides Jack) or why is the question. But if you look at it as a religious tie to the show, bad things can happen to people to test their faith (maybe Rose, since she just couldn't understand why Jack was sick).
@Marebabe - About Juliet asking Jack if his appendix had ruptured - an untreated ruptured appendix could certainly cause major infection and eventually death. But there can be a time after rupture and before the peritonitis amps up that Ja patient's pain decreases, the fever decreases and he just generally feels better. But yeah, I'm sure you have a point about Juliet wanting to drive home the seriousness of the situation.
@crazyinlost - You could possibly anesthetize layer by layer, however, it would take a major amount of lidocaine (the drug they were using) and too much can have an adverse effect on the heart.
@Susan and Marebabe - Yeah, super cool if Charlotte learned her Korean from Jin. I'm presuming Charlotte left in 1977 when Chang evacuated the women and children and she was what, like five? So in order to speak and understand at the level she speaks in 2004 she must have continued to practice the language, maybe even lived and studied in Korea. So I bet JIn at least started her on the path. But wouldn't she have recognized him? Well, she didn't recognize Daniel till her deathbed so who knows! I'm rambling.
@Marebabe and JS - Yeah, weird that they didn't use masks, especially since the instruments and the tent were only kinda clean at best! But I think it was probably just for effect, so we could see the concern and fear on everyone's face. Seems like when Jack was performing Ben's surgery everyone had masks on but then when he caused Ben to start bleeding Jack ripped his mask down to let them all know he meant business!
@tiasabita: Thanks for the short course in appendicitis. It's cool having someone in this group who knows a thing or two about medical stuff. It helps the rest of us make a little sense out of this baffling show.
@crazyinlost: "Where's the power coming from?" Giant hamsters? Ha ha! That is exactly what I thought :D
I want to know what it was Claire saw!
Why did they take the time to bury Danielle and Karl? Who buried them? It just doesn't seem like something Keamey and his crew would have done. Unless they were under instructions to bury anyone they killed so the bodies couldn't be inhabited?
Extremely bizarre thought. When Hurley delivered Charlie's message to Jack, my brain made a strange connection. The message is "You're not supposed to raise him, Jack." The obvious answer (and therefore most likely wrong) is that it refers to Aaron, but what if we're looking at raise in the wrong way. What if it means he's not supposed to "raise" Locke! Like raise him from the dead! Because Jack is instrumental in getting Locke's body back to the Island and it seems like that was needed for the MiB to be able to impersonate him. I don't know. Does that make any sense to anybody else?
Juliet yelled at Kate during the appendectomy in exactly the same way Jack has yelled at her during every medical emergency they've had.
Maybe I'm the only one, but I totally understand why Kate lies to Jack about Cassidy. How could she really explain it to him, especially since it seems that she keeps up a friendship with her. You know he would eventually forbid her to go, because it would be a constant reminder of Sawyer. Jack is the one that gets to me in this scene. I especially hate his self-righteous attitude about being the one who saved her and who is with her now. because if Sawyer hadn't jumped out of the helicopter they wouldn't have made it to the freighter or off the Island at all. Grrrrr.
Sonshine, Jack did kind of save Kate because she wanted to go get Jin and he stopped her. I liked your idea about John being the one that Jack is not supposed to raise. It would be especially interesting because Jack assumed it was Aaron and that probably helped him on his downward spiral.
re the surgical masks-- I think it's just something you have to put up with for tv & movies. Directors want us to be able to see the actors' faces. If you've seen the Lord of the Rings movies, the star actors rarely wear helmets or face masks during battle so we can identify them by their faces.
@SonshineMusic
Interesting. I had the same thought. Not specifically re: Locke, although it does make the most sense, but about anybody who might be 'raised' on the island. I also wonder if it wasn't some sort of ominous warning having something to do with dead daddy?
Interesting…
@SonshineMusic-yeah, I heard a theory once that Charlie was referring to "not suppose to raise
him" as being not raise Locke from the dead. Also, just got done watching the S4 finale (awsome!) and Claire tells Kate "Don't you dare bring him back" as in don't bring Lock back to the island.
I also wondered about Keemy burying Danielle and Karl. Seems totally out of character for him, but I like the idea you had that he was under instructions from Witmore, which would explain why they weren't buried very deep.
What if it means he's not supposed to "raise" Locke! Like raise him from the dead!
Then the REAL question becomes if it's so important that Jack doesn't raise Locke from the dead, why does Charlie/whatever force is using dead people to communicate w/Hurley tell him this so cryptically.
"You're not supposed to raise him Jack...and I don't mean Aaron, like you think. What I mean, and this will sound crazy, I know, is, you're not supposed to raise Locke from the dead. Yeah, at some point, Locke is going to show up off the island and then die. Whatever you do, Jack, don't go back to the island, and if you do, DO NOT bring Locke's body. I'm serious. When I say 'You're not supposed to raise him, THIS is what I mean. It's important, so I want to make sure we're clear. This isn't the kind of thing that should be screwed up due to the varying meanings of some verbs and the use of pronouns."
:)
@Teebore: Oh, but what's the fun in that? The Island and its inhabitants excel at cryptical speech, especially and particularly when it is vitally important that they not be misunderstood. :P
verification: PaLit: Fiction about fathers in the nineteenth century
Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz's episodes seem to get better and better each time the season progresses.
A great, great episode!
The way Miles stares at Claire is very spooky and he certainly is suspecting something spooky!
I also found it strange that Miles could see Christian - or is that because he can see dead people - and just stay totally relaxed and stay put.
We all know Rose and Bernards time on screen is always meaty for the plot. What do you think of his line "Jack has offended the gods, this is why he is sick"?
Bernard asks Jack why he wants to be conscious and says "wouldn't you rather be dreaming of 'Something Nice Back Home'" - peach of a line to drop the episode title card in :)
Maybe I'm the only one, but I totally understand why Kate lies to Jack about Cassidy. How could she really explain it to him, especially since it seems that she keeps up a friendship with her. You know he would eventually forbid her to go, because it would be a constant reminder of Sawyer.
Jack would have never been successful in forbading Kate from seeing Cassidy. She would have ignored him and gone, anyway.
But the real problems with Jack and Kate was that they were living a lie with Aaron. Neither of them had no business raising Aaron. And while Hurley's words reminded Jack of this, Kate refused to believe that it was wrong to keep Aaron. That's why she could not deal with Jack's reminder that Aaron was not her son.
Jack and Kate's off-island existence was nothing but an illusion fed by a lie. And honestly, I can say the same about Sawyer, Juliet, Miles and Daniel's existence with the Dharma Initiative.
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