After “The Shape of Things to Come,” it was increasingly clear that Sawyer is becoming the De facto guardian of Claire and Aaron. Something protective has been triggered in Sawyer. Sawyer may have some reason to feel a bit parental; seeing Claire with Aaron may have sparked some latent fatherly drive he left behind for Clementine, whom his former partner Cassidy claims is his daughter. Let's break this down a bit: Clementine is of course the subject of the famous folk song, where the daughter of a gold miner is lost. One of the best films by famous Western director John Ford is a morality play about anarchy vs. civilization called My Darling Clementine (named for the song). The film was about Wyatt Earp (played by Henry Fonda) and leads up to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but rather than stuff the film with impending meaning, Ford tends to focus his film around domestic concerns—and Sawyer's real name is Ford. When Sawyer awoke and found Claire missing, Ghost hustler Miles reported that she took off with Christian in the middle of the night. Sawyer subsequently found Aaron abandoned in the bushes. Where did Claire go? As I tried to make sense of Miles' fixation with Claire a thought came to mind: What if she actually didn't survive the obliteration of her home in last week's episode? What if she died? What if the Claire we've seen since then is some kind of spectral but physically tangible manifestation of Claire generated by Island magic, just like Eko's brother Yemi, Kate's horse, and now, apparently, Christian? Could that be why Miles is so intrigued by her — because he can sense that she's no longer human? The view of Sawyer calling for Claire in the jungle was dark and shadowed in a way we've never really seen before. We could have easily been looking through the smoke monster's eyes here, or even Jacob's. It reminded me a little of when Eko was killed, and the whole scene was shot with vibrant greens and darker blacks. The smoke monster was present then, too.
With Jack out of commission, Dr. Juliet Burke steps in as the leader of the beach camp. Not long ago, she was still working to earn the trust of people like Kate and Sun, but her assertiveness under pressure gains her their full cooperation. Her decision making in this situation is both capable and efficient. Not only does she handle the crisis like a natural, but she becomes equally decisive when the time comes to resolve her involvement with Jack. In past episodes, Juliet always felt like something of a loner, both while she was working as an Other and after she joined the crash survivors. Here, she separates herself even further from personal attachments, and defines herself through actions rather than relationships. Juliet’s future status remains one of the unknowns. Three main possibilities exist for her: she could leave, she could stay alive on the island, or she could die. If she remains on the island, would she once again work for Ben, or would she join the downsized group of castaways? If she stays put, then Dr. Burke might replace Dr. Shephard permanently as the camp’s lead decision maker.
After discovering that the freighter lady can speak Korean — and intuiting a possible romantic rapport between her and Faraday — Jin threatened her, strongly intimating that if she didn't make sure Sun was on the first chopper off the Island, he was going to mess up her buddy Faraday. It was a little shocking to see Jin's underworld heavy past reasserting itself, and it made me wonder what additional lengths he'd be willing to go to save his wife. As for Charlotte's Korean, the crazy thought occurred to me that perhaps this Dharma hunting anthropologist uses it to converse with one of her secret masters, someone I suspect has more to do with the larger Lost mythology than we've been led to believe — Sun's father, Mr. Paik.
Anyway, back to Jack, I know we're supposed to all feel really sorry for Jack because he had a drunk dad. Jack learned from his dad that the best way to cope with babysitting is to drink....a LOT. It was a bit odd to see Jack, the great hero of LOST Island, reduced to a whiny, bullying drunk here on the other side of the looking glass, while back on the Island, the man who isn't there, never looked more the chivalrous knight. But, for now Jack has his own method of keeping himself on top of that pedestal he's built for himself. Self righteous bullying still works for him. As he told Kate, "I'm the one who SAVED YOU!" Possessiveness is another coping strategy. He deserves to know where Kate has been...but he doesn't have to tell her about his night runs to the insane asylum. In the great grand tradition of addicts the world over, Mr. Live Together Die Alone still prizes himself as "Exceptional". It may look like he's going bananas with zippers on them, but he still knows he's better than Kate. As he told her in no uncertain terms, she's a fraud pretending to be Aaron's mother. He may only be the nasty drunk uncle, but he's still related to Aaron. Neener neener. It was an ugly scene. But it did have a certain air of familiarity about it. Jack raging. Kate crying. Ahhh, it seemed like old times. That's the Jack and Kate we all know and love. It turns out that the invisible man Jack is most afraid of is Sawyer. Because it seems Kate didn't leave Sawyer behind on that island the way we thought she did. There's something she's doing for him, that she didn't let Jack bully out of her. She's keeping a promise and she's keeping a secret between her and Sawyer.
Kate isn't the only one carrying promises. Promises were important in this episode. Brave Juliet promised to save Jack's life, and she did. Noble Jin promised to get Sun off the Island, and we know that he did. Sawyer, the newly minted White Knight, promised to get Claire and Aaron back to the beach, and damn he was trying. Jack also promised, before collapsing with the appendicitis we already knew he'd survive, that he'd get everyone off the island - "All of us." And that was the promise, as we know, that was not kept. A promise distills down to trust. Kate is honoring Sawyer's trust by fulfilling a promise even though he'll probably never know she did. And Kate was trusting Jack to somehow become Aaron's good dad even though he's a domestic nightmare. But Jack doesn't trust. He didn't trust Juliet, who knew she'd always be second best in Jack's heart. He doesn't trust Kate, who he knows will never let him be first in hers. At the end of the episode, Kate decided she wasn't going to hold up any more mirrors for Jack's self indulgent inner journeys. It was a good thing too. The last thing Aaron needs is to have the sins of the Family Shephard revisited on his little blond head. Of course, there's still that inconvenient glitch that apparently being "raised by another" will bring about great cosmic catastrophe of some kind. Aaron is important in the mythology in ways none of us know yet. He is The Ring in this story. The Precious. It was important to note which two characters were shown protecting The Precious in the final moments of the story. In the future, Aaron is safe with a woman who finally loves someone more than she loves herself.
But the only reason he's there at all is because on the island there was a man who was learning that same lesson. There's one thing I do love about Lost and it's clues and with those clues, there's no such thing as coincidence.
How did I get here?
This is not my beautiful house.
This is not my beautiful wife. - Talking Heads
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