Something Nice Back Home is the tenth episode of Lost this season. It was, as far as I am concerned, one of those set up episodes that is much more filler than substance. We get very very very little action in this episode. I usually hate these soap opera Lost episodes, and this one was really no different. There were a few interesting points in this episode, we only get a couple hints in the flash forward that are important, the bulk of this episode was boring and pretty much meaningless. Here is what I mean...
Jack is pretty much invincible on the island
We know this because he's on the Oceanic Six, since no matter what happens we know he's going to make it off the island. So it should come to a surprise to no one that Jack's appendix doesn't kill him. ZOMG SHOCK! For this being a Jack centric episode, he didn't do a whole lot on the island. He didn't do anything actually, aside from bitch about wanting to watch his appendix get taken out.
We get to see the Staff again this episode when Jin, Sun, Charlotte and Faraday go there to retrieve some medical junk so Juliet can cut Jack open. The only real important point about this trip is Jin noticing Charlotte understands Korean. He later reveals this to Charlotte and basically gives her an ultimatum, get Sun off of the island or Faraday dies. Throughout the Sun/Jun section of this episode its eluded to that Jin has a plan for getting Sun off the island, never mentioning himself. Are we to believe he's content with staying on the island? Yes, we already saw Jin's tombstone in Korea, why would we be surprised if he stays on the island? ZOMG ANOTHER SHOCK!
On With the Important Stuff
In the flash forward we see Jack and Kate living together. Jack has buried the hatchet with Aaron apparently, although we still don't know what their beef was in the first place. We learn that this all takes place after Kate's trial, probably in 2007 (going off of the newspaper). This is important because for the second episode in a row we're given precise dates to work with. We know Sayid starts working with Ben around the first of November, 2005. And now we know Jack starts spiraling toward his Season Three finale self around mid 2007. What is the significance of having the Oceanic Six back home for the better part of two years? Well, a lot can happen in twenty four months... a crap load has happened on the island in less than four months. If twenty more months pass on the island that we don't get to see it'd be insane. Which is exactly why I think no time at all will have passed between the time the Oceanic Six leave the island and when they return. Imagine, everyone leaves the island via helicopter and the next morning they return to the island, a couple years older and crazier in the case of Hurley and Jack.
I don't care at all about the relationship triangles between Jack, Kate, Juliet and Sawyer. The only point I found interesting about their relationships in this episode was that it was Kate's (ongoing?) relationship with Sawyer that causes Jack to leave/go crazy. That, coupled with his visit with Hurley, lead him to the first rate boozing-up we saw in last season's finale. Hurley has convinced himself that everyone who left the island is really dead. Partly because Charlie keeps visiting him with coded messages, one of which is for Jack. Charlie seems to think Jack shouldn't raise Aaron. We don't know why, other than the psychic, Malkin, in Australia said that no one other than Claire should raise the child. Could this somehow figure in to why they have to go back to the island? Probably, at least it better. Is Aaron another Walt? The only way to prevent bad things from happening around him could be to reunite him with Claire. We'll have to wait and see.
Bring on Cabin Fever
The best part of this episode, in my opinion, was the reintroduction of Christian Shephard as Claire's dad. We see Claire wander off into the jungle following Dirtier Ghost Christian. Claire takes off after Christian, leaving Aaron behind with Sawyer and Miles. Miles, by the way, seems to be channeling Charlie, which should be cool. The next episode coming up is Cabin Fever, a Locke centric which should give us some answers about Jacob/Ben/the Cabin and how they all relate. My guess is that Claire has followed Christian to the cabin and will later be found by Locke, Ben and Hurley. One interesting point from the preview is that Horace Goodspeed shows up again. He's got a wicked nosebleed and says he's been dead for twelve years. So we'll get some good old fashioned apparition interaction. I can't wait.