Anyone else notice the whale Claire had in her suitcase was the one Aaron was holding in season four when Jack and Kate have him off island?

Good catch! I was going to check on that. I know it really affected Kate when she saw it.

Yea i remembered...I wonder if Kate feels a connection to it ?

I thought that's where I knew it. Couldn't remember if it was that or the toy store guy tried to sell it to Jin instead of the panda in Ji Yeon.

The return of the ORCA / killer whale toy (less commonly known as the blackfish). I thought that was an excellent moment.

Good catch! I was going to check on that. I know it really affected Kate when she saw it.

Wasn't he holding it when Jack said, "You're not even related to him."?

Trippy.
Did Jacob put it there?
In either timeline or both.
or neither.

Characters in AltTimeLine, appear to me anyway, that they are remembering links to things but they don't know why. This is one of them, when Claire said her baby's name in the hospital, that was another.

Wasn't he holding it when Jack said, "You're not even related to him."?

Trippy.
Did Jacob put it there?
In either timeline or both.
or neither.

Yes that's when he was holding it..I think the episode was called "Something Nice Back Home"

Of course, Aaron's name kind of came to Claire out of the blue in the first place, eh? I half expected the toy to be Walt's stuffed Polar Bear...