One important thing happened in the meantime: Jack and Kate fell in love. If the writers were living in soap opera land and just wanted to see Jack "get" Kate, then they would have made their coming together the point of the story. Instead they set up the scenario: Jack and Kate simply are together in her comfortable home to their great satisfaction. They have taken on the responsibility for Claire's son, and Jack very well knows his own part in the child's life as his uncle. Kate and Jack both are trying very hard to be successful at parenthood, which had otherwise eluded them in their former lives. Hurley called their life together "perfect, heaven." It certainly is a fulfillment of the "Tabula Rasa" action. They seem to have survived the terrors of the island and have a chance to have a normal life together on the mainland.

However, Jack and Kate continue to be unable to fully relate to one another because they have not dealt with their demons. Jack's unfinished work on the island, his unwillingness to reconcile with his father, his inability to forgive himself (and therefore anyone else), and his failure to help Locke in his quest, is dogging him right into the real world where he is a successful doctor, lover and father. He doesn't possess his own treasures because the island isn't finished with him. In the same way, Kate wants to be fully trusted without having to be fully disclosing. She looks settled, but Jack sensed she is still running back and forth between him and Sawyer, between their life and her sense of being trapped. He was right to question her about where she had been after the nanny's work day; after all he knows how quickly she can pick up and run. (She told him at the beginning of the story, "I don't want to be Eve.") She was right to deny him the information, after all he rejects her when she displeases him. He still wants to control and she still wants to be unaccountable. The fact that they are stuck in their past behavior is the stuff of drama. Their ability to reconcile these character flaws will very likely be the vehicle for them getting back to the island. Like Desmond and Penny who trust each other enough to be each other's Constant, Jack and Kate will have to steady one another emotionally for a journey which they might be able to handle physically alone but will not be fit for without one another. "Live Together, Die Alone" is not a concept just for island life. It is for all of life.

The surgery scene conducted by Juliet and involving Bernard and Kate drew a stunning parallel with the ongoing future love story of Jack and Kate. Jack insisted that he be awake for the surgery, and Kate was in agreement with him. To both of them the idea of him being unconscious was unbearable. Bernard's statement, "I'd like to tell you 'you won't feel a thing,' but you will" announced the dilemma Jack is facing on the table and in the future. The scalpel cutting through Jack's flesh was not anymore painful than the cut he received from his father's visitation and from Kate invoking Sawyer's name. Jack did get knocked out on the operating table, signaling his unawareness in his and Kate's home where he was drunk and reeling from jealousy. To Juliet Jack declared that he didn't want to be unconscious. Juliet asserted, "And I don't want you to be out of control." Jack fears losing control more than he fears death. His whole demeanor and motivation stem from a terminal need to be in control. His fear that once he lets go no one will catch and help him has turned him into the suspicious, closely-guarded, arrogant fixer he has come to be. The pill-popping drunk roaming the skies in 3x22 was born in this episode.

The answer for the man was also born in this episode: the hope of trust. "We have to go back" will not happen without the old patterns being broken. Kate will have to make the return and finally stop running from her sadness and guilt. In other words, she will have to fully trust. Jack will have to submit to the group, ask for help and humble himself. In other words, he will have to fully trust. The Constant is the one who can be trusted with their lover's whole heart. They are the one who will see them through space and time, life and death. What Desmond and Penny have, what Sun and Jin have, what Rose and Bernard have is evading Jack and Kate. The writers have interwoven the outcome of their relationship with their destinies on the island in the future. Once their crippling emotions are conquered - once they are neither unconscious nor uncontrollable - they will be free and very likely successful in their quest to return to the island. The potential outcome of the story might manage to be both profoundly romantic and triumphant.