Jack's kite was in the shape of what I thought might be a bird or maybe a moth.... if it is indeed a bird shape, do you think this might be related to the weird bird Hurley saw in the jungle or the bird that swooped in during Charlie's nativity dream/hallucination??

Jack's kite was in the shape of what I thought might be a bird or maybe a moth.... if it is indeed a bird shape, do you think this might be related to the weird bird Hurley saw in the jungle or the bird that swooped in during Charlie's nativity dream/hallucination??
It looked like a bird, to me.

I think that the kite scene was a nod to Matthew Fox's actual tattoos. The characters supposedly translate to "eagle soars high in the sky" (paraphrasing).

So it was a way of acknowledging the actual meaning of the actor's tattoos, since in the epi, the translation was (paraphrasing) "he walks among us, but is not one of us". And Jack actually said "that's what they say, but that's not what they mean".

A little LOST inside joke.;) And perhaps yet another hint that everything is not what it seems, and perhaps even deception (we're not seeing what's really happening).

ETA

So maybe the symbolism of the scene was that Achara would go on to mark Jack with the tattoo, leading to him actually becoming a leader (and soaring, being free, like the kite they flew).

I definitely thought of the Hurleybird when I saw this.

i think the bird kite represents freedom on a certain level. and the fact that jack couldnt fly it shows his soul is not free (he has many demons to battle).

Weird holidays Jack takes...a whole month of kite flying?

And why was Bai ling always dressed like a hooker?

Why were we lead to believe she's a hooker? I think that's just Bai Ling. It was probably in her contract. She's like, "I'm not doing Lost unless I dress like a hooker." She always dresses like that, even to award shows.

I took it as a Phoenix rising, symbolic of Jack trying to get his life back together after his failed marriage ( of course, I realize that I'm assuming a time frame that wasn't confirmed). Anyway it also reminded me of the bird artwork that was on Desmond's shirt when he spoke to Jack in the stadium(Man of Science, Man of Faith), which is funny because Desmond said to Jack, "You have to lift it up." or something like that.

I got that feeling too. I remember thinking "dont they have bras in Thailand?". Not that I was complaining. I also mentioned to my friend "Its good to be the doctor". A month long vacation like that is definitely sweeeet. And he left because he got his butt kicked. I wonder if he was planning on staying longer...

Who knows. His mind was in a severely different place right now.

What bother is that, even though most of us can intuit that he took this trip after the fallout with his ex-wife and father, they didn't give any kind of indication to the more casual viewing audience.

Jack's kite was designed by Buteo Huang and is known as the Starbird (http://www.newtechkites.com/ntk_product_profile.php?PSKU=57613).


so ,another star reference..in this particular episode,we had a few too many!