Ethan is Claire's doctor at the hospital, Kate seems to recognize the name Aaron

Back the "alternate" timeline, Kate rushes Claire to the hospital where she is quickly taken inside. Kate is clearly paranoid about the police presence in the vicinity.

Once inside, Kate gets impatient waiting for a doctor and goes to find one herself. The first one she comes across is none other than Ethan Rom, who is going by Ethan Goodspeed here (since he is Horace Goodspeed's son). Once he gets inside with Claire, the scene is reminiscent of their scenes in the season 2 episode "Maternity Leave."

Ethan says that she can have the baby now or he can give her some drugs to slow the process down. He drops the line "I don't want to stick you with needles if I don't have to," which if you recall he did regularly at the medical station. Once she chooses to wait, an alarm sounds and in her panicked state, she says "Is Aaron okay?!" When Kate hears the name Aaron, her eyes widen and she looks stunned as if something in her mind briefly clicked with the original timeline (check out photo 8).

Everything then calms down and Claire can see Aaron on the screen once he's moved back into position. Kate is holding Claire's hand and that moment together is reminiscent of the moment they shared when Aaron was born on the island, but just slightly. The scene seems to solidify the bond these two have, no matter what events occur.

Kate tells Carole Littleton about Aaron, leaves him with her

Back off the island, Kate goes to Carole Littleton's hotel and tells her that Aaron is her grandson. She also tells her that Claire is alive on the island and they left other people behind too. She tells her that Claire disappeared and left Aaron behind which is why she took him. Carole asks why she lied and why she didn't come to her in the first place. Kate tells her that she need Aaron and she apologizes. She shows Carole a picture of Aaron and tells him that he is in a room two doors down. Kate tells Carole that she told Aaron about his grandmother and that Carole will take care of him while Kate is gone. Kate tells her that she's going back to the island to find Claire.

In the other hotel room with Aaron, Kate weeps over him for a moment before kissing him on the forehead and leaving him there. Her next stop is presumably Jack's place when he finds her crying in his bed.

So after all of the misdirection, Kate does leave Aaron with the most obvious person, his grandmother. Kate spent this episode telling the truth to both Cassidy and Carole. The question is, will either of them tell anyone else the truth? If so, what happens next?

Kate and Aaron go to Cassidy's house, we see Clementine

Kate and Aaron go back to Cassidy's house shortly after the grocery store incident. There is a no soliciting sign above Cassidy's doorbell much like the one Locke had on his door when he lived in the apartment. We finally get to see Sawyer's daughter Clementine who answers the door and calls Kate "Auntie Kate." She goes to get her mom and that's last we see of her.

Kate tells Cassidy about Jack and the others going back to the island. Kate tells her that Jack said they were not supposed to leave the island and Cassidy replies "Well Jack sounds like a piece of work." Kate then tells Cassidy how she lost Aaron in the grocery store and she says that she wasn't surprised and it was about time that it happened. Kate asks "Why would I expect him to be taken?" Cassidy replies "Because you took him Kate." Kate defends herself saying that Claire left Aaron and that she had to take him because he needed her. Cassidy tells Kate that "You needed him" because Sawyer broke her heart and Aaron helped fix it.

Cassidy tells Kate what's what in this scene, though the emotional reasons for Kate needing Aaron is just speculation. We finally see Clementine but for only a few seconds. I wonder if she'll show up again. Clearly Kate and Aaron had been to see Cassidy and Clementine somewhat regularly because Clementine immediately recognized Kate.

Kate loses Aaron in grocery store, woman resembling Claire finds him

After Kate leaves the others at slip 23, Aaron wants some milk. Kate stops at Tim's Grocery Store to get him some milk but he decides he wants a juice box. When Kate stops because Jack is calling her phone, she loses Aaron. She rushes through the store looking for him and as she's telling the manager to seal off the store, she sees Aaron. He is being led to the front of the store by a woman who looks like Claire from behind. Kate freaks out and grabs Aaron. The woman tells her that she found Aaron in the fruit section was taking him to make an announcement. Kate is freaked out and barely says thanks.

Kate at this point is incredibly paranoid about someone taking Aaron. This event seems to be the precursor to her leaving Aaron and going back to the island.

Kate visits Cassidy Phillps for Sawyer, gets an earful

Back in 2005, Kate goes to visit Cassidy Phillips, Sawyer's ex and the mother of his child Clementine. Presumably she still lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has baby Aaron with her. She knocks on the door and Cassidy recognizes her from their previous experience back before the crash of 815. Kate tells Cassidy that Sawyer sent her, finally confirming what we've all known he told Kate before jumping off the helicopter.

Kate gives Cassidy an envelope full of cash that is from Kate's settlement with Oceanic. Kate also tells her the truth about what happened after the crash. Sawyer told Kate where to find Cassidy and to take care of Clementine, who's apparently asleep in her crib. That would place Sawyer's relationship with Cassidy not long before the crash and not long after he was released from prison. Kate tells Cassidy that she told her the truth because she though Clementine deserved to know that her father cared about her. Kate then tells her about Sawyer jumping from the helicopter and Cassidy calls him a coward for it. Cassidy says that he jumped to get away from Kate. Cassidy goes on to ask if Aaron is Sawyer's son. Kate tells her that she was pregnant before she met Sawyer. Cassidy quickly realizes she's lying and that the baby is not hers. Kate says she's lying about Aaron "because she has to."

Nothing too deep to delve into here. The biggest thing of interest is how close the timeline in which Sawyer meets Cassidy and gets her pregnant, when she turns him in and he goes to prison and when 815 crashed. If in 2005, Clementine is still a baby, all of those events happened pretty close together. Sawyer was a busy guy.

Kate no longer has Aaron, Jack explains Christian's white sneakers

Jack goes back to his apartment and immediately goes to make himself a drink. Once again, he doesn't even take a single sip before he is interrupted again. He hears a noise and when he goes to investigate, he finds Kate lying on his bed. She has clearly been crying and is now prepared to go back to the island with Jack. When he asks where Aaron is, Kate says "Don't ask questions. If you want me to go with you, you'll never ask me that question again. You will never ask me about Aaron, do you understand Jack?" She kisses Jack and the scene ends, but they presumably had sex.

The next day, Jack makes Kate coffee and pours her orange juice but Kate is acting incredibly distant. Jack moves Christian's shoes which he got from Ray to from the table prompting Kate to question their practicality for the island. Jack tells her that they're Christian's, but when he was in Australia, he told the people preparing Christian's body for transport to just put a ratty pair of white sneakers on him because no one would see his shoes. He also says that "he wasn't worth a nice pair of shoes to me or the time it would take to go out and get them." Kate then asks him "Why hold onto something that makes you so sad?" This from the woman who kept a toy plane for years that reminded her of the mistakes she had made. The phone rings and Kate sees an opportunity to make her exit.

So what happened to Aaron? Did she give him to someone or was he taken from her? What happened in that 24 hours or so that made her do a 180 on going back to the island? Why does she act so strange and distant the next day? One answer we got was why Christian has been wandering around the island and elsewhere wearing his suit with white sneakers. It was an interesting answer that reiterates the sad relationship between Jack and Christian.

Most of the Oceanic 6 and Ben meet at slip 23

Jack and Kate arrive at slip 23 first. Jack shows Kate the address from Tony's (the operative that posed as a nurse) pocket and tells her what happened. That's when Sayid and Ben show up in the van which in turn causes a stand-off between Ben and Kate. Kate accuses Ben of being the one trying to take Aaron and Ben confesses that he did do it. Meanwhile, Sun is in a car watching what's going on. Aaron is in the back seat. Sun has the surveillance photos and the gun in the passenger seat. She takes the gun and gets out of the car.

Will Ben be able to convince Sun not to kill him? During this scene, all of the Oceanic 6 except Hurley are together. It would seem that Ben's plan is falling into place.

There's a mistake with the address. If you look at the original slip of paper when Sayid takes it out of Tony's wallet, it's written in a different handwriting and with a different pen.