The most recent episode of “Lost” let everybody see how Jack Shepherd, M.D. turned into Jack Shepherd, Jim Morrison impersonator. While the tenth episode of season four didn’t quite live up the last week (how could it?), it was still filled with information about “Lost”’s main man, Jack. As usual, I will start with on Island events then move to the flash forwards.

We start out with Jack’s eye, which has happened so many times that I can’t count. He is awoken by Juliet (who killed in this episode) because she knows that he is struggling. It turns out that not only does Jack have the largest set of daddy issues ever, he’s got appendicitis. To top it off, the poor bastard was in a plane crash, he’s stranded on an Island, and the main hot chick there got it on with the long haired redneck. Jack totally has the worst luck.

This episode harkened (is that a word?) back to days of season one “Lost”. It really found a way to get numerous characters involved that didn’t feel like shoehorning. Not only did we get to see many characters we love, they all did and said things that just strengthen why we love them. Bernard and Rose helped out with the faux operating room and wondered why Jack got sick on the Island since we and Rose knows that people get better on the Island. I do have an idea to this…which I will get into later. How is that for a literary tease?

Interestingly enough, when Jack is ill and can no longer tell Camp Boredom what to do, Juliet takes over the show. She diagnoses Jack’s appendicitis and her and Jack agree that that bad boy has got to come out. She enlists Sun, Jin, Daniel, and Charlotte and sends them off to the Medical Hatch to get supplies.

While at the Medical Hatch, Sun and Jin have a discussion about how Daniel obviously wants to get some Island love with Charlotte. Jin notices that Charlotte looked at them when he said her name in Korean. While inside the Hatch, Sun has a moment with Jin that shows us why we all love her as she told Jin about her ultrasound. Then, moments later, Jin tells Sun that he is going to get her and the baby off the Island, which we all know is in fact a true statement. When they go back to Camp ER, Jin confronts Charlotte about the fact that she can speak Korean and makes her promise to get Sun and the baby off the Island. We love Jin because of his undying love of Sun.

Juliet, Kate, and Bernard quickly read their “DHARMA: Appendicitis For Dummies” book and commenced to operate on Jack. This sequence almost made me throw up. I don’t do well with knives and incisions so I was quite happy when this intense scene was over. Juliet successfully yanks out Jack’s appendix and has a nice chat with Kate. She tells Kate about the kiss that Jack and her shared. My first reaction was “Damn, Juliet just scoreboarded Kate!“. Nope. In a really sweet act that made Ms. Cinematically Correct “aww”, Juliet told Kate that she knows Jack loves Kate.

Now that Jack’s belly is okay, let’s talk about the Army Ranger crew of Sawyer, Claire, Aaron, and Miles. While walking through the jungle on their way to the beach, Miles has a psychic freakout. The four of them walked by the place where Rousseau and Karl met their demise. In fact, that big musclebound scumbag Keamy and his crew buried them. I don’t mean to sound bossy or like a know it all but when people die on “Lost”, they really die.

They then run into Frank and his awesome goatee in the jungle. In yet another move that shows Frank is a good guy, he tells our travelers to hide. I think Frank is interested in finding out what is going there. Frank is a solid dude, however, his goatee cannot be trusted. We learn that sonofabitch #1, Keamy, is interested in getting to Frank’s chopper since Smokie kicked their mercenary asses all over the Island.

The gang decides to camp out for the night and we see Claire wake up without Aaron. She looks around quickly, assesses there aren’t any dingos nearby, and voila, baby Aaron is in the arms of Christian Shepherd, a.k.a. Smokie. Again, Christian Shepherd (Claire & Jack’s dad) is totally dead. I really don’t think it’s debatable. Smokie can look like whatever it wants and that night, it wanted to look like Claire’s dad.

The actual end of the episode left Sawyer finding Aaron alone in the jungle and Claire missing. Right before Sawyer started yelling “Claire!”, you can hear Claire’s voice. I still don’t know what she was saying. Dad? Charlie? Baaaaybeee? Bee Gees lyrics? Regardless, Smokie has nabbed Claire and is just not interested in Aaron so much.

So what did we learn? Not much really. Now the Jack/Kate flash-forwards? We learned a bit. It turns out that Jack decided that he wanted to move in with Kate after her trial. It also turns out that Kate wears lacy panties. Is that important to the story? No. Is it worth mentioning? Yep.

Jack visits Hurley at the mental ward. It turns out that Hurley has completely lost it and is in solitary confinement because he ate his last two roommates. Too harsh? I apologize. Anyway, Hurley tells Jack about his talks with Charlie. Charlie (Smokie?) made Hurley tell Jack that someone would be visiting him as well.

Who to visit Jack then none other than his deceased daddy. Jack didn’t get to sit and chat with him but he saw him for long enough that he immediately turned to booze and pills. We can only assume that eventually, Jack is going to have a chat with his dead father and then he will really go off the deep end.

Jack goes home and learns that Kate has been doing something behind his back for Sawyer. What could she be doing? Honestly, I can’t even speculate. I could assume it has something to do for Sawyer’s daughter but who knows? If it was for Sawyer’s daughter, why would Jack care? That wouldn’t be something Kate would need to keep secret. I think Kate loves Sawyer and is talking to Ben about getting him off the Island. Actually…I don’t think that…I just want Kate and Sawyer to be together.

Kate asks Jack to trust her and that doesn’t float with Jack. After all his trouble and all this potential to learn the right things, he still doesn’t listen. Jack needs to be in control. Jack has to be in charge. Jack was going to learn how to overcome those problems of his. Jack was going to become a better man. Jack was going to learn these things…while he was on the Island. Again, the words of Jack in “Through The Looking Glass” ring true. “We made a mistake and we have to go back”. The Island gave Jack appendicitis. The Island won’t let Jack kill himself. The Island knows that the only way Jack can be truly happy is by being on the Island. Jack is the classic troubled hero…and that is why we love him.

I also love sleep so I am going to bed.