Billy Liggett

Initially, I thought Lost’s 10th episode of its fourth season was a bit boring. The more I got to thinking about it that night, and the more I read about it this morning … the more I realize that this episode, titled “Something Nice Back Home” was essential.
It was a set-up episode … much like “Empire Strikes Back” for Star Wars or “The Two Towers” for Lord of the Rings.
It also introduced one potential bombshell that I didn’t catch on my first viewing. More on that later.

Flash forward
This episode features a Jack flash-forward, after his testimony for Kate’s trial, and he and Kate are now shacking up, and he’s overcome whatever Aaron issues he had in the past. Things seem to be going great — too great — until Jack visits Hurley in the mental hospital.
Hurley has long been off the meds, and he’s stuck on the idea that he’s dead and the mental institute is his afterlife. He suggests that Jack’s “nirvana” of life with Kate and Aaron isn’t reality, it’s heaven. He tells Jack about his conversations with Charlie (who’s dead) and passes on the message from Charlie that Jack shouldn’t be raising “him.” We assume Aaron, since Charlie looked after the tyke on the island.
Hurley also tells Jack that he’ll be visited (felt like A Christmas Carol), and sure enough, Jack starts getting freaked out by visions of his dead father, Dr. Christian Shephard. The visions freak him out, and he starts his downhill slide (sleeping pills, alcohol, etc.) that leads him to that bridge and suicide attempt at the end of Season 3. He’s also developed paranoia that Kate (who he proposed to) is cheating on him. When he confronts her about this, she admits she’s leaving the house at odd times to do things for former love interest Sawyer (who’s still on the island). What she’s doing, we’re not sure of … but my guess is it has something to do with Sawyer’s former mate (who befriended Kate pre-island as well) and their daughter.
Control-freak Jack can’t take all of this and he bursts out the door. End of flash forward.

On the island
Just before they’re supposed to be “rescued,” Jack comes down with appendicitis. But control-freak Jack wants to be awake for the surgery, conducted by semi-love interest Juliet … but he starts freaking out after he’s cut open, and they knock him out with chloroform. The surgery’s a success, and during the stitching up, Juliet tells Kate that Jack kissed her … but only to prove to himself that he didn’t love Kate. It wasn’t much of a kiss, she implies.
A side plot consisted of Jin making a deal with Charlotte that no matter what, Sun (who’s pregnant) gets off the island. If she doesn’t, Jin will hurt Charlotte’s fellow scientist, Daniel. She agrees.
Elsewhere, Sawyer, Claire, Claire’s child Aaron and ghost hunter Miles are trodging through the woods to get back to Jack’s camp, all while trying to avoid the captain and his army (which tried to kill them at the compound).
Miles starts his ghost-whisperer tremors and discovers the bodies of Karl and Rousseau, who were killed when the captain kidnapped Ben’s daughter (before he ended up killing her, too). The four set up camp and in the middle of the night, Claire has a vision of her father at the campfire (she and Jack are half brother and sister, with the same dad … though they don’t know it on the island). Her father is holding Aaron, and when Miles and Sawyer wake up, they discover Claire is missing. A few hundred yards from the campfire, they find the baby. But no Claire.
The episode ends with Sawyer yelling for Claire.

The bombshell
Like I said, I didn’t catch this last night, and I probably would have had it not been for my dog (also named Miles) and his insistent barking in our backyard. I kept having to get up to make him be quiet.
In the previous episode, Claire was in one of the compound houses that was hit with a rocket, but she miraculously survived. Sawyer ran in and saved her, and that led us into this decision to head back to Jack’s camp.
We noticed as they walked, Miles (a ghosthunter … remember) took a fond interest in Claire. Sawyer was getting the idea Miles was just attracted to her, but … drumroll … many are speculating he was amazed by her because she was dead.
Gosh, why didn’t this cross my MIND????
It explains he sudden disappearance. It explains the line “at least I’m not seeing things anymore.” It explains Miles’ fascination with her. It also explains how she could have possibly “survived” a house blowing up.
Very intriguing.

Like I said, this wasn’t an action-packed episode, but it will do a lot to set things up for the next few episodes (one of them is the two-hour season finale). I’m looking forward to it.

From Lostpedia
• By virtue of the Yankees/Red Sox and Indians/Mariners scores in the newspaper article, only one date is viable for the publication of the paper: August 31, 2007. Article states Yankees finish their sweep of the Red Sox with winning pitcher Chien-Ming Wang beating Curt Schilling 5-0. The only occurrence of this game is the date above. However, the newspaper also lists “Angels 8 - Astros 4″ but the Astros were playing the St. Louis Cardinals over these dates. As such, the newspaper most likely isn’t able to indicate the correct date.
• Early in the episode Claire mentions her relief at not “seeing things anymore”. This is a reference to a scene cut out of the previous episode where Claire has a prophetic vision. [source needed]
• This is the first time in the series that, while the mysterious whispers are heard, the listener doesn’t get startled — Miles is a psychic and consciously tries to extract information from what he hears. It is implied that his approach might have its merits, since he gets Danielle’s and Karl’s names and burial sites from the whispers.
• The ladybug picture that was hanging on the wall behind Abbadon when he visits Hurley at the metal institution in episode 1 of Season 4 makes a reappearance on the refrigerator in Kate’s home. In ancient times, the ladybug (or ladybird) was symbolic of the Virgin Mary (the red color symbolic of Mary’s robes and the ladybug’s spots signify the seven sorrows Mary experienced).