Season 4, Episode 10: "Something Nice Back Home"

"Something Nice Back Home" - the title of this episode is very important. More on that later...

Once again this episode opens with a closeup of an eye opening - Jack's. As I've talked about many times before, and especially a few weeks ago with episode 5, "The Constant," I think that the significance of them showing the eye opening is just that...like an "eye-opening" experience. Remember when we saw Desmond's episodes where he would "pass out" and then his subconscious would time-travel, then he would "awaken" to the present time, to reality, and therefore giving him a better understanding of things. I think that is kind of the same thing going on when an episode opens up with someone's eye. I think it's a symbol of them "waking up" to their own reality, kind of allowing them to finally see things for what they are.

This episode had SO much going on...there is just too much new information, so many things to talk about, so I am just going to focus on my "theory" for this week. (Yeah, I know, it seems like I change my "theory" every week!)

Just before Jack went into surgery, Bernard asked him if he wanted anesthesia to knock him out. He asked him, "Wouldn't you rather be dreaming of something nice back home?" I think that Jack's whole flash-forward was just that, him dreaming of "something nice back home." Remember when he went to visit Hurley, and he seemed like he was trying to justify to Hurley the fact that he was happy. His life was finally perfect...he had Kate, they were raising Aaron together, he asks her to marry him, he was back at work, everything was great. I think this was all Jack's "dream" of this nice life back home that he hopes for. The whole time he is on the island, he just wishes that he can go home. It's what he wants more than anything. But as we have seen, what does he really have to go back to? Nothing. So this is Jack's perception of this perfect little life that he hopes to go home to. I do think there was some truth to it, of course (Kate raising Aaron, Hurley in the mental institution). But obviously this is Jack's "dream" of what his life will be like off the island...he thinks he can have it all and that everything will be great. When we all know that is not the case. Ultimately, Jack ends up so far from that dream...a complete mess, a drunk, addicted to prescription drugs, attempting suicide, and wanting nothing else but to go back to the island. So, this "dream" of something nice back home is not the FATE that lies ahead for Jack.

Speaking of fate, there was an important discussion that took place in this episode. Just before Jack's surgery, Rose and Bernard are talking when she says something about "why did Jack get sick the day before we are supposed to leave this island?" She truly believes that the island heals people, therefore cannot understand how he could get sick right when they are supposed to leave. Bernard chalks it up to bad luck, but Rose knows there is more to it. I think that the island does not want Jack (or anyone) to leave. Jack getting sick the day before their supposed "rescue" is the island's way of telling him to stay. The one common theory that I have argued over and over again is that it was in fact FATE that brought all of them to the island. They were supposed to crash on that island. And they are not supposed to leave.

Each of those people, before the crash, was going through a terrible time in their life. Jack just lost his father, Kate was on the run, Claire was not happy about getting pregnant and planned to give the baby up for adoption, Hurley had all that bad luck after winning the lottery. Then, when they crashed on the island, each of them found the things they had always been seeking. Jack was able to fill the leadership role that he so desired, something that he could never be around his father. Kate was finally free. Claire realized after becoming a mother that it was actually something she did want. On the island, they became who they were meant to be. However, when each of the people in the Oceanic Six CHOSE to leave the island (whereas clearly, others chose to stay. Locke stayed. Sawyer stayed.) they messed with fate. They thought that by going back home, they would be going back to "something nice back home," when in fact everything they ever wanted was right there on the island. (Once again going back to the whole Wizard of Oz theme - remember Dorothy at the end of the movie after "waking up" from a dream, saying how she learned that she didn't have to leave home, that she realized everything she wanted was right in her own back yard?) Anyway, the same goes for the Oceanic Six. FATE was that they were supposed to be on the island. They messed with fate by leaving. And now, once they go back, nothing goes right for them. Jack spirals out of control, Sayid is once again a murderer, Hurley ends up crazy again. Sun, although she saves her own life and gives birth to her daughter, has to leave behind the husband that she finally grew to love. Being on the island was what brought Sun and Jin their marriage back, and finally they grew to deeply love and respect one another. And even though we have not seen her whole story yet, there is obviously something going on with "future" Kate as well. She is keeping something from Jack (seems she made a promise to Sawyer - which has her sneaking around. I think it has something to do with the baby he fathered with Cassidy). I do think that despite Kate getting together with Jack, that Sawyer is really the one she loves. After leaving the island, she ended up with Jack because Sawyer wasn't there. But obviously things don't work out with her and Jack and as we've seen in a future flash-forward, it gets to the point where she wants nothing to do with him and doesn't even want to return his calls (the episode when Jack finally tracks her down and she agrees to meet him at the airport). I think that Sawyer is Kate's true love, which is why it could not work with her and Jack after they get back home. Because they messed with fate, they messed with the chance at happiness, at having it all. They had everything they ever wanted on the island, but chose to leave it all behind at the hope that something better would be waiting back home.

My basic point here is that FATE has everything to do with the futures of the Oceanic Six. They messed with fate by leaving the island. They had a choice, some stayed and some left. Those that left were not following the fate that was meant to be. And now their "dreams" of something nice back home, are just dreams. Because by leaving the island behind, they have lost all of the things that they had always hoped for, but could only attain once on the island.

One interesting thing is that Hurley said that "everyone from The Oceanic Six died." And I am starting to wonder now if they did. What if all of these "flash-forwards" that we have seen of each of their futures after they get "rescued" is actually a dream. For example, my theory of Jack tonight while he was under the anesthesia is that he "dreamt" of his life back home...at this point he still just wants off the island, so that was his dream of what his life would be like if that happened. And if perhaps the other flash-forwards we have seen are also the dreams of each person in what they think might happen once they go home. Hurley wonders if he will go back into the mental institution, Sayid wonders if he will find Nadia and marry her, Sun wonders if she will live to see her baby, Kate wonders if she will ever be a mother. I think these could just be the "dreams of something nice back home" that each person hopes in their quest to get off the island. But, perhaps something happens to them as they are trying to escape. Let's say that the Six of them truly are on their way off the island, but that they die in a helicopter crash or something (wouldn't that be ironic) - that FATE steps in when they try to leave because they truly were meant to be on that island.

Kind of heavy, I know, but it's just a thought. Especially because the producers have always sworn off the theory that everyone died in the crash and that they're all in purgatory - so this still kind of goes along with that same overall idea, not that they all die in the crash, but just that the Oceanic Six are the ones that die trying to LEAVE the island, and these flash-forwards we are seeing are not their futures at all, but their dreams (hence the "eye opening."). So, anyway, there's my theory #482 for you!!!