Whatever Happened to Baby Aaron

Well, it took Lost 11 episodes, but it finally referenced Back to the Future. Since Hurley and Miles have both had little to do since the Oceanic Four returned, it makes total sense to pair them up as yet another amusingly odd couple in a proud tradition of unexpected pairings. Hurley's always been a bit of a spokesperson for the audience, so here he got to ask a variety of time travel questions straight off of Lost forums. The whole scene may have been like talking to the camera, but it was a nice bit of levity in an otherwise serious episode.

On to the episode's focus: Kate. Flashbacks gave some answers, though nothing too surprising: of course Sawyer's whisper was to check up on his daughter. I would have expected a little more surprise from Kate that her road trip buddy turned out to be Sawyer's baby mama, but I guess she already figured it out (how long was that whisper anyway?) But what I liked about this story is how, in just a few scenes, the episode really established their friendship and made you buy that little Clementine would call her Aunt Kate. And we thought Kate didn't have any friends.

As for Aaron, the writers had some fun at our expense while waiting for the answer to what Kate did to him. That whole supermarket scene was only there to make us think Claire whisked Aaron away to Jacob's Ghostland (that blonde sure looked like her). In the end, it was the most logical explanation (no, Kate killing Aaron was not a logical explanation) by having Kate drop him off with his grandmother. Though do we buy Kate went back to find Claire? And will grandma be mad when she finds out Claire's a ghost?

Back on the island, Kate was using her mothering instincts in new ways: trying to save Little Ben's life. New Jack was determined to do nothing, waiting for the island to send him a sign (I don't like the New Jack either, Kate). He's like that joke about the guy on the island who turns down 3 rescue offers because God will get him off the island. Maybe that's the ultimate meaning to Lost. Not sure how, though. Kate's irritation against Jack was nothing compared to Juliet, who railed against him for coming back in one of her best scenes this season. Jack's not getting any love, is he?

As for Little Ben, of course he lives. We can't have a time paradox with one season to go. But by handing Ben over to Richard Alpert, Kate and Sawyer effectively created the scheming, manipulative Ben we know and love/hate, by allowing him to "lose his innocence." Since we last see Richard carrying him into the temple, home of Smokey, it seems Ben really got island magic from the source. So it seems Sayid is the Laius to Ben's Oedipus: in trying to rid the world of him, he turned him into what he wanted to kill.

Yet the most interesting part of the exchange with the Hostiles was the "oh it's just a throwaway"-style super important lines:

-Don't you have to run this by Charles and Ellie?
-I don't answer to them.

Now we know that in the 1970s, Charles Widmore and Ellie (guntoter in the 50s, Daniel's mom in the present) are the leaders of the Others. This makes it a hell of a lot more likely that Charles Widmore is in fact Faraday's dad. But Richard's response shows he may not be too pleased with that arrangement. Did he take Ben specifically to set him up as a challenge for Widmore? Is Richard behind the entire feud?

We'll be getting a whole lot more Ben next time when he takes the spotlight, and it looks like a whole lot more Smokey as well. Even better, we'll finally find out what happened to Penny and maybe get a Desmond sighting as well. It's about time.