The episode begins with Jack’s eye, a recall to the very first LOST episode at the beginning, when Jack wakes up in the jungle in his funeral suit. There have also been lots of other eye close-ups, the one that comes to mind is Jacob’s eye that Hurley sees in the shack.

Our first clue that this is a flash forward is the Millennium Falcon toy – we’ve never seen Jack around a kid before. Then a baseball reference (specifically “A Rod”) in the paper that didn’t clinch it for me, but I’m sure it did for Amon! Then the proof positive: Kate in the shower. A further clue about when this is, she jokes about buying him a razor. So we know this flash forward is after Kate’s trial, but before bearded crazy Jack. Jack reads to Aaron – from Alice in Wonderland. And the white rabbits just keep hopping about. Remember: the episode in the first season where Jack first sees his father on the Island and discovers his empty coffin is entitled The White Rabbit. Jack begins his descent into crazy bearded Jack when he sees his father at the hospital. It must be strange for our Man of Science to go from the supernatural Island to a normal place again. If he’d never had his Island experiences, he might have reacted completely differently when he saw his dead father. Now, he knows that it might be a real thing; not just a hallucination.

Seeing Hurley certainly doesn’t help Jack’s descent. He is grasping at his hold on reality it seems. “Take your meds, Hurley.” But we know better when we see Jack idly waiting in his car, staring at the bench Hurley said he saw Charlie.

Jack’s descent continues as his suspicions of Kate rise. His previous wife’s infidelities probably don’t help his paranoia. Well, that plus the drugs and booze. We find Kate is doing something for Sawyer. I think this might have to do with Sawyer’s daughter, Clementine. Remember that Kate has actually met the mother, Cassidy, in one of her own flash backs. This is hurtful to Jack, and might have been the worst thing he could have heard from her. We discover that Sawyer has chosen to stay on the Island. Jack’s frustrations and desperations rear their ugly heads again: “I am here. I am the one who saved you.” The seeds have already been planted in his desperation to get back to the Island. And let’s not forget this tidbit: “You’re not even related to him!” Jack must know he’s Aaron’s uncle.

Back on the beach, in the ‘present’, Jack continues to make his promises to our Losties. He almost seems desperate, and this manifests itself in his flash forward, too. His promises make us question again, why only 6 of the Oceanic flight get off the Island? We find out Jack’s got appendicitis. We don’t care. We know he won’t die. But it is apparent that Jack doesn’t trust Juliet. He wants Kate in the surgery and to talk Juliet through it. Jack’s control is slipping! He can’t control this, or those pesky freighter people.

The scene with Rose and Bernard was significant, I think. She reminds us that people on this Island don’t get sick. Why did Jack get sick? Why did Ben get sick? Did they do something to ‘anger the gods’, as Bernard laughingly suggests?

Now on to Claire and her dad: We know Miles has got some ghostbuster-y qualities. We don’t know if he can see Christian Shepherd like Claire could. Maybe he just senses him. He never tells Sawyer he “saw” him, just that Claire “went” with someone she called dad. Claire would have never left Aaron like that. What’s happened to her? I think it might be possible that Claire is a ghost… like Christian, and that she died in that explosion. At first it seems unlikely, why is she walking around holding Aaron? But we see Christian holding him by the fire, too.

Neat things:
• Daniel calling Charlotte out on her “bad attitude”.
• Daniel: “Where does all this power come from?” Charlotte: “Add that one to the list, Dan.”
• Kate’s headband.
• Jin figuring out Charlotte spoke Korean.
• Jin in general.
• The bittersweet proposal: we know it won’t work out!
• Juliet to Jack: “I know you’re awake.”
• Sawyer: “It’s too early for Chinese.”

Questions:

• Is that a new tattoo we see on his back?

• Why can Hurley see Charlie? Will everyone start to see dead people? Can Hurley get flashes of the future?

• Why wasn’t Keamy dead? Or at least more of his men? How did they escape the wrath of Ben and smoke monster?

• Has Jin found the way to get Sun and baby off the Island? Is this how she becomes one of the Oceanic 6?

• What would have Jack’s dad said to him if they hadn’t been interrupted?

• Is everyone dead as Hurley suggested?!