Yeah, I miss Claire, too.
I also can't wait for them to bring back Desmond, but for very different reasons. Obviously.
I also think that Juliet wants Jack and Kate GONE. She has a good thing going with Sawyer, and she doesn't want Kate tugging at the poor schmuck's heart strings. She obviously wants to help her friends, but probably feels conflicted about whether or not they should stay.
I didn't think much about their hugging out in the open - it was later at night, and obviously they don't have any reason to think that anyone suspects anything weird... although two DHARMA guys obviously do suspect something (the one who couldn't find Kate on the roster, and the one who was manning the Flame Station while building a model of the Swan).
Tidbit of note: when Christian showed Sun the picture of the DHARMA Initiative in 1977, it's obvious that Jin, et al., are no longer with the DI in 1978. When he's looking for the photo, he says, "1972, 1978, aha, here it is: 1977." If they were still there in 1978, he wouldn't skip over that one to get to 1977.
Another talking point: where the hell is Farraday?