Ok, Now I'm Lost

I have to admit that I'm a little confused about Lost this week.

Usually, the flash back story elements are very good retrospectives of the featured character for that week. Usually, this flashback in his four or five segments is spliced seemlessly into the current storyline to give the audience some background to the character's actions and motivations.

The storyline last week involving Mr. Eko was, in my opinion, great. Like many other characters, he was a completely different person in his pre-crash life than his current incarnation. I would be surprised if they didn't have his entire storyline worked out from way back to where they found the drug plane in the first place. (Although, the recent TV Guide article seemed to indicate that they are making this stuff up as they go and really have no idea what the "end" of this will be doesn't fill me with great confidence.)

So this week, we learn a question that has always been floating on the edges of Jack's character. What happened to Jack's wife? We know that Sarah, his wife (and current "Boston Legal" hottie) was in a horrible accident and through a "miracle" was able to "fix" her. He went on to marry her and the storyline grew kinda cold. The current storyline involves Michael (who is quickly shaping up to be the dumbest man on the island) going "commando" as Hurley put it, assaulting Locke and stealing some guns in an effort to get Walt back. Jack, Locke and Sawyer form a posse and go after. Kate, who doesn't listen to anyone, sneaks after them.

There's a little interaction between Locke and Sawyer but not much with Jack. This is where I start to lose what the link between the backstory and current story is. A beautiful German woman named Gabriella has brought her father to the U.S. to have Jack remove a dangerous tumor. She has heard of the "miracle" that Jack performed and saved Sarah. There is immediate chemistry between Jack and Gabriella so we know there's trouble brewing. Especially when Jack (who is NOT doing anything wrong) begins coming home late because of his preperations for this surgery.

Sarah, at this point, is pretty unresponsive to Jack and there's a nice touch where Jack gets into bed as she gets out. They're on totally seperate clocks now, both literally and figuratively. Long story short, the old man dies, and Gabriella, in grief, kisses Jack who kisses her back. He then promptly goes home and in fine Captain America style, tells Sarah everything. It is then we learn that she's been sleeping around and is leaving him.

Flash forward to the current story and "Zeke" the grizzly pirate that took Walt is holding the search party at gunpoint and takes their weapons as a trade for the now-captured Kate. Kate realizes she's f'ed up and Jack is pissed. Jack goes straight to Anna-Lucia (ugh, isn't she dead yet?) and begins plotting revenge on the "Others".

So what was the point of the backstory? If it was just to answer what happened to Sarah, I think it was too long and pointless. That could have easily been summed up in a single statement. Sarah comments that Jack is always trying to "fix" things. If that was the message, this storyline could have fit in damn near every episode. Was it to compare Sarah to Kate? Don't know. I do know that after the wench confessed to cheating, Jack should have been at the airport looking for Gabriella. A thought occurred to me that perhaps we'll see Gabriella again. She DID know a lot about Jack and said that she had "done her research". It could be that the plane crash was well set up in advance.

If anyone has any opinions, let me know. I feel like I either missed a point, or there just wasn't one.