"Par Avion" (Season 3, Episode 12)

Claire, who's your daddy? Oh, it's Jack's daddy. What some of us suspected since Ana's flashback last season when the elder Dr. Shephard tried to see his daughter in Australia was confirmed last night. Conveniently, Claire never learned his name. Otherwise, we may have heard the following: "Jack, your name is Dr. Shephard? My dad's name is Dr. Shephard!" And how about that last scene with Jack playing football with big Tom? Has Jack crossed over or is he playing the Others?

Best Line

• "Well, it's certainly not as infallible as the magical carvings on your stick." Sayid responding sarcastically to Locke's dismissal of the map.
  

Did You Notice?

• The episode was appropriately titled "Par Avion" which is the French phrase used on the label of airmail packages.
• A number of common "Lost" themes were used. 1. The close-up of an eye - not one, but two. First, flashback Claire's, then island Claire's. 2. Car accidents. We can add Claire and her mom to the list: Jack's wife and Shannon's dad were in the same car crash, Michael was hit by a car, Kate's friend was shot in her car, and Sun's lover fell on Jin's car. 3. Father issues. Get in line, Claire, right behind your half-brother Jack, Kate, Jin, Sun, Locke, and all the rest.
• So is the list Mikhail said Kate, Sayid, and Locke were too flawed to be on the same one as Jacob's list? Is Jacob then the magnificent man? Or is that a reference to Charles Widmore or Alvar Hanso?
• The scenes with the sonic pylon security system reminded me of something from the movie, "Jurassic Park". I expected a raptor or a T-Rex to come out of the jungle. Not coincidentally, "Lost" is filmed on the same Hawaiian island as "Jurassic Park" was.
• Is Locke becoming the island's loose cannon? Last week, he blows up the Flame station. This week, he kills Mikhail. And next week, he looks like he uses the C-4 explosive to go all Apocalypse Now on the Barracks.
• The towel baby Aaron was on had the name Bondi Beach, which is one of Australia's most famous beaches.
• Desmond has gone from punching a button every 108 minutes to saving Charlie's life every day. Is this an improvement? And why do all of Charlie's "deaths" revolve around Claire?
• Sawyer was reading Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead", which examines the life of an idealistic architect who prefers to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic vision.

The Numbers - 4 8 15 16 23 42 (sometimes 108) and more and more 2 & 6

• The mileage on Claire's car read 108.
• Sayid calculated that Mikhail's people were "2 miles in that direction."
• Claire believed her father died when she was 2.
• When asked about her daughter Alex, Rousseau suggested that Kate imagine 16 years from now and whether Jack would remember her.
• Mikhail said their underwater beacon stopped emitting 2 weeks ago.
• One of the Sydney hospital P.A. announcements was for a doctor to take a call on line 4. (It was in fact a message for a Dr. Addison, which happens to be the first name of Kate Walsh's character on "Grey's Anatomy". Her last name on that show? Shephard. Inside joke?)
• Jin counted to 2 before Desmond's "boar hunting" interrupted the bird capture.
• According to Claire's message, the passengers were 6 hours into the flight before the pilot attempted to change course.

Red Buttons

• Seat belt light in Claire's car
• Blood (Claire's and Mikhail's)
• Claire's red-striped shirt
• The surgical scrubs worn by the doctors at Claire's mom's hospital
• Jungle flowers
• The walls at the Sydney hospital featured a waist-high stripe
• Medical cart in Claire's mom's room
• Painted walls at Claire's tattoo parlor

Crazy Theory of the Moment

• The entire show is taking place in Claire's comatose mom's head. Think about it. She was in a car accident. There are a number of car accidents in the flashbacks. She was a librarian. There are a lot of book references. Claire kept the television on since the doctor thought she could hear what's going on around her and this is influencing her thoughts. And Dr. Christian Shephard is really Claire's father and only Jack's dad in mom's imagination.

Previews - Next week's "The Man from Tallahassee" finally answers the question of how Locke became para- Sorry, I thought Rousseau was going to interrupt me -lyzed. Tallahassee, huh? Where Sawyer was in jail and one of the places Kate went to while on the run. Coincidence or crossover? And the week after that? "Expose" gives us flashbacks from the two latest survivors, Nikki and Paulo. We will see some familiar faces we haven't seen in a while. Plus, a special guest star. Hint: He was baron administrator of Cloud City.