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He’d never had much faith in things he couldn’t explain. When people speak of their life flashing before their eyes, a moment before their death, it is just poetic license or maybe an expression of their regrets.
Nathan still doesn’t believe in god or any higher power, but stepping inside the chamber before Jack clarifies his personal regrets, scouring away the shadows and half-truths he uses to shroud the truth from even himself.
He loved Allison but isn’t in love with her. Marrying her is a way to cling to his past and avoid living the rest of his life single and alone. He’d come back to Eureka feeling as if he’d been chased away by her hurt feelings, but it had been his home first before it had been hers.
What was that saying? You can’t go home again once you’ve left it behind?
Allison was a facade—a disguise he wore to appease his ego. He wasn’t used to failing, and a failed marriage had stung badly.
Nathan Stark wasn’t a man who failed. That’s what he told himself, and that’s what everyone said about him both in and outside Eureka.
So he’d pursued Allison again and won her a second time. It was even better because he’d had a rival this time… Jack.
Jack.
His Jack… his brain latches on, the primitive part of him attracted to the Sheriff’s street smarts and ability to problem solve claiming ownership even though he has no right to do so, and he shakes his head to clear it.
Jack… isn’t his. He doesn’t belong to Nathan. If Jack wants to belong to anyone, it’s Allison.
He has to save Jack. The timing has to be exactly right when he resets the nuclear clock.
Nathan can see the moment Jack realizes what he’s doing. The panic that overshadows the competent professional to show the man underneath who’s all too human and whose heart is true. At the last possible moment, Nathan tries to soothe the pain he’s causing, knowing that Jack will blame himself for what Nathan’s about to do. “Take care of Allison for me. See you around, Jack,” he says as the world dissolves around him in a shower of light.