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Lost: Lighthouse

Jack: "I came back here because I was broken. And I was stupid enough to think this place could fix me."

Just once, I'd like to start one of these reviews with "I know exactly what this meant." I don't know what this episode meant. And did they really just give us a magical lighthouse?

LAX Timeline

Like our other sideways Lostaways, Jack's life is better. Not fantastically better – he's still divorced and he still has daddy issues – but he's not drinking, and he has a precocious, gifted son that he loves deeply. Being a father has made Jack a better man; he's much different than the angry angst-filled man we saw in "White Rabbit." Maybe he found it easier to forgive Christian for his failures as a father after he became a father himself.

(Who is David Shephard's mother? Since it's Lost and they pointedly didn't show her to us, I bet it's someone we know.)

There was a lot to ponder (and a lot to confuse me), but what stood out was the weird bit about Jack's appendix scar. His mother said he had it out when he was seven or eight, but Jack couldn't remember having it done – implying that the emergency appendectomy Juliet performed on Jack back on the Island showed up in the LAX timeline and was explained away, but not perfectly. Jack also couldn't remember how long David had been playing the piano. And why didn't the phone message Jack just recorded show up when Jack played David's messages?

Island stuff

After a brief flirtation with faith, punctured by Jughead's failure (so he thinks) to reset the timeline, Island Jack reverted to his angry man of science persona. He broke the looking glass because... well, why? Because he had been observed and manipulated since childhood? Because Jacob didn't show himself? That huge wheel with all of the crossed out names was freaky. So was Jack's reflection in both the pool in the Temple courtyard at the beginning of the episode, and in the Lighthouse mirrors in the end. (This week's Most Obvious Symbolism, obviously. And symbolically.)



Is Hurley Jacob's prime candidate? It's just interesting that Jacob keeps appearing to Hurley and only to Hurley. Maybe it's because Hurley does what Jacob wants him to do. I liked Hurley writing Jacob's instructions on his arm (even though they were completely illegible to us). In fact, the Hurley scenes were the highlight of this episode. Which is a shame, considering it was centered around Jack.

Jacob got Hurley and Jack away from the Temple because someone bad was coming. And he also told Hurley that someone was coming to the Island. Who's coming? Someone we know? And why can Hurley be given instructions, but not Jack? Because Jack has to come to every conclusion on his own, I suppose.

Infected Claire not only has epically bad hair; she's a killer. Good to know. The Claire/Jin segment felt like Rousseau capturing Sayid in season one, didn't it? When she brought out that axe, I started worrying about Jin's leg. But no. She's the Man in Black's buddy and they're trying to recruit Jin. And Claire was tortured in the Temple, just like Sayid. She must have failed that test.

We're getting episodes that parallel those in season one: "LA X" for the pilot, "What Kate Does"/"Tabula Rasa", and "The Substitute"/"Walkabout." This episode paralleled "White Rabbit." Will it be Sun's turn next week? I don't usually mention previews, but this one was tantalizing – because they mostly told us they couldn't show us anything without giving something away. Gee, I think I'll tune in for one more week.

What have we learned?

— The numbers are degrees, which is why they don't go above 360. And Jacob chose "candidates" using mirrors, but not smoke. As far as we know.

What I missed last week:

— The woman at the employment agency who asked Locke what sort of animal he saw himself as was also the psychic Hurley's father paid to give Hurley a fake reading in "Tricia Tanaka is Dead."

— Locke was buried next to Boone. I didn't know that the Lostaways' burial ground was called Boone Hill, but it's certainly appropriate.

— Frank said, "This is the weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to." I listened carefully to the enhanced repeat, and he definitely says the word "funeral," not "show." For what it's worth.

Character bits:

We only got a glimpse, but I don't think LAX timeline Jack has tattoos.

Jack played the piano in two previous episodes, so nice continuity, making his son a pianist.



What the hell was in that cradle Claire had in her "shelter"?

Jin told Claire that Kate had taken Aaron off the Island, but later, he took it back to protect Kate. I don't think Claire believed him the second time. Kate may be in serious Claire trouble.

What is the significance of Hurley finding Shannon's inhaler? It must mean something.

Dogen's son was also auditioning at the Williams Conservatory. He and Jack exchanged a few words. Very like Jack and Desmond in the stadium.

We still don't know where Christian's body is. Must be important. And I don't think it's in Berlin.

Bits and pieces:

— Island Tic Tac Toe. :)

— Loved the key under the white rabbit doorstop. That's happened before. When? What episode?

— It's Friday the 24th. So it's only been two days since "LA X"?

— Jack's mother poured herself a drink. It was MacCutcheon scotch.

— Christian and Margo Shephard live at 233 Bastian Drive, Beverly Hills, 90211. Their lawyers are Horowitz and Woodruff, Wilshire Blvd.

— Claire's "shelter" looked like a trash heap. No roof or sides, either, so how much protection could it be against the rains? In fact, it looked more like a piece of bad abstract sculpture than a shelter.

— Claire's beautiful hair was unbelievably horrible. Much, much worse than Kate's messy Island do. It was like she hadn't washed or brushed it in the entire three years.

Quotes:

Jack: (to David) "You always wanted to hear about Kitty and Snowdrop."
In Through the Looking Glass, Kitty is the black kitten and Snowdrop the white kitten. That may have been the most obscure reference yet to the white and black good and evil theme.

Claire: "Better get that cleaned up. If there's one thing that'll kill you around here, it's infection."

Hurley: "I think you'd make a great dad."
Jack: "I'd make a terrible dad."

Hurley: "What if these skeletons are us?"
I'm still thinking Rose and Bernard, since we don't know if they came back with the others.



Hurley: "This is cool, dude. Very old school."
Jack: "What?"
Hurley: "You know. You and me, trekking through the jungle, on our way to do something that we don't quite understand? Good times."

The standard three out of four polar bears,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

26 comments:

  1. I think that poorly-explained appendectomy scar in the alternate timeline goes along with that blood Jack found on his neck while he was still on the plane. Something's very fishy about that whole timeline.

    What if Rousseau had also been controlled/"infected" by the anti-Jacob? Maybe that's why The Others had stolen her daughter, why her husband and the rest of the Frenchies had tried to kill her ... she was pretty motivated by finding her child too.

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  2. Hi, Billie.

    Although I always read a lot about LOST by the time your review is up, it's always enjoyable to read them. My thoughts on your thoughts:

    - Jacob talks to Hurley because he can talk to the dead. Miles's ability is a little different, and there's no corpse for him to feel. Only Hurley can carry out Jacob's tasks now.

    - We saw in "Some like it Hoth" that young Miles got a key from under a white rabbit to enter the dead man's apartment

    - A running joke among the producers and hardcore fans such as myself is that they wouldn't explain everything in the last season, like "whatever happened to Shannon's inhalers?" It was much probably an inside joke.

    - The producers have already announced next week's centricity, and it's not Jin/Sun. It would have been cool, what with the episode being named "Sundown", and following the S01 order. But they would have to break the pattern on S06E07, because S01E07 was Charlie's.

    - I didn't understand why exactly Jin took it back. He could have been very straightforward and told her the baby ended up in her arms when they managed to escape. But lying ended up saving his life, because Flocke would have won the argument.

    - Theory, I thought about it but apparently somebody did first: Rousseau's team was not infected: *she* was. Claire is too similar to our favorite crazy French lady for us to dismiss this possibility. Now, if the infection turned sweet Daniele and Claire into those killing machines, imagine what it could do to Sayid, the Island's biggest badass.

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  3. Well, this episode killed my Claire is one of the ones who hasn't killed anyone theories.

    I have to watch all the episodes again On Demand. Philly is about to be hit with another blizzard (this is the best winter ever!!!!!), so I 'll be home and I'll have time to re-watch them and pay more attention this time.

    As always, your reviews are THE best around. I look forward to them quite a bit!!!

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  4. -Regarding the MIB influencing Rousseau theory, that would follow what the MIB said in the last season finale about not wanting more people brought to the island. He just makes someone crazy enough to kill them all.

    -I have a real hard time believing that Jack has a son that he's just neglected to mention all this time, especially when he said that he would make a terrible father, not he IS a terrible father.

    -Is Claire seeing someone else when Jin sees Locke? Why did she say he wasn't John but he was her friend?

    Personally, I can't decide if I'm satisfied with this season so far or not. I don't know how they could wrap up these long-drawn out mysteries in a satisfying manner to everyone but I am glad we're getting some answers, although, in typical Lost fashion, each answer is only given with three more questions.

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  5. Great review Billie!

    One thing I noticed about Jack's son was how bright blue his eyes were. Jack doesn't have blue eyes and I went and looked up a picture of his ex-wife and she doesn't have blue eyes. So maybe Juliet is possibly the mother?

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  6. I like the "Rosseau" was the one who got infected theory......

    One thing you did not mention billie is that when Hurley was moving the giant compass, Jack (and us) caught a glimpse of what looked like a Pagoda. I'm thinking the compass must have been pointing to KWON coordinate at that point.

    What's bugging me? plenty, but let me start with: 1) Jack's mother mentioned Jack's son crying at the funeral. Who's funeral? Did they have Christian's funeral already without his body? I don't get it. 2) If Claire has been on the island for the past three years, hasn't she been jumping with the rest of the crew through time as well?

    I don't know how they could possible wrap up so many loose ends in time, but here's to hoping.

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  7. Andrew, I don't think Claire jumped through time with Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Jin, Locke, Rose and Bernard. The Others didn't jump with them--I think Claire didn't jump because she'd left the Losties and joined up with Christian. (That's the best theory I can come up with.)

    Christian, I think Juliet is the mother, too. Because did Jack and his wife (Julie Bowen--I've forgotten the character's name) really know each other long enough to produce at 13 year old (or so) kid in the not-parallel universe?

    Gustavo, you've raised a really interesting point. Did Claire and Rousseau go super-crazy because they started off innocent? Maybe Sayid's numerous brushes with the dark side will help him control the infection.

    Claire desperately needs to brush her hair. That was just distracting.

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  8. Usually I don’t like Jack episodes since he’s my least favourite character but I really enjoyed this one. These flash-sideways are definitely interesting but I’m still clueless as to where they intend to go with them.

    My wild theory, which knowing my luck will be completely wrong, is that our characters are like Desmond was in the ‘The Constant’ only instead of being unstuck in time they’ve become unstuck in reality. Bit by bit everyone will realise this and they’ll all start to converge to do something. I don’t know what, haven’t speculated that far yet.

    And who’s coming to the island? At first I thought Widmore but then Hurly said they needed to change the lighthouse dial to 108 which had the name Wallace crossed out right next to it. Who the frak is Wallace?

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  9. Another great one Billie :D

    Since I´d come to dislike Jack more and more over the seasons I was surprised how much I enjoyed the episode. Maybe because there was almost non Jacke-Kate interaction. I am with the ones that think Jacks "son" is also the child of Juliet. It would kinda makes sense in that universe.

    That u all have been bothered by Claires hair so much made me laugh. I thought her tan was much more distracting that her hair *lol* .

    Im happy to hear next week isnt about Jin or Sun, becuz I dont think at this point there is much to tell there, I am excited to see who it will be focused on.

    Have a great week, y´all :)

    PS: Billie, I am at ep. 7 of Life on mars now and still enjoying is helluvalot <3

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  10. I was thinking (and hoping) that the person Jacob said was coming to the Island is Desmond. After all, he and Penny did talk last season about him going back to help his friends.

    So we know he would be trying to get back, and hey, who doesn't want more Desmond? :-)

    Of course this is Lost, so my theory could go out the window, but that's what I'll go with til proven otherwise.

    I too liked this episode despite generally disliking Jack. I think it was because he was a much healthier person in the flash sideways, and I enjoyed seeing him as a good father. You're right, Billie, being a father really did make him a better person.

    And I agree that Jacob is speaking to Hurley so much simply because he can, due to Hurley's ability to talk to the dead. I don't think it means Hurley is his preferred candidate.

    Can't wait for next week!

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  11. Probably the one coming to the Temple is MIB brought by Jin and Claire and that's why Jacob took Hurley and Jack out of there, and that's why they "made" Jin lie about Aaron. But am I wrong or did Claire said that these 3 years she was not alone but with her father and her friend (who we found out he was MIB) So does that mean that MIB has nothing to do with Christian?

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  12. Billie, I LOVE your reviews! Thank you! I NEVER thought about Rousseau being the one infected and not her team..hmmmm... I am wondering if they will explain why some of those on the island gave themselves those injections. Did they work? I LOL'd at your comment about what was in the baby carriage. Was creepy! I liked this episode. Jack finally became more than 1 dimensional for me. I love Hurley! His appearances are always a delight!! omg I can't wait until next week. Smoke and Mirrors....hmmmmm

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  13. Desmond, yes Claire said she was with Christian and the MIB - i.e. the Smoke Monster.

    The MIB used to be able to change into anyone (or maybe anyone dead), for example he turned into Yemi and spoke to Mr Eko, then back into smoke and killed him in The Cost of Living back in season 2.

    Since he took Locke's body, he is stuck either being Locke or smoke, he can no longer be other people like Christian. He used to speak to Claire in Christian's form but now has to make do with talking to her as Locke.

    At least thats what I understand. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong!

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  14. Yes I saw the episode again today and Claire said that both Christian and the MIB said that the Others had Aaron which doesn't mean that she saw them both at the same time. My mistake ;)) I remember the smoke monster turning into Yemi, Alex and many more but I missunderstood Claire's comment and tought that Christian had somenthing special.
    Anyway I can't wait for next week's episode and of course billie's review. Great job!

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  15. My thinking this season is indeed that Jacob and the MIB are looking for candidates to take their places on the island so they can finally just die already. Smloke himself told Sawyer he used to be a man like him (I don't recall the exact quote) and I think what we are headed for is Jack taking Jacob's place along with Sawyer (or Sayid - but Sawyer would be better)taking the place of the MIB. I think the two will end up doing this willingly, to save all the others and put time back on track.

    My reason for why Jacob is appearing so much to Hurley is that our pal Hugo will become the new "Richard". Chew on that one!

    I see the final scene of our show being an exact replica of the opening scene from last season's finale, with Jack (all in white) and Sawyer (all in black) arguing , and a new ship on the horizon.........

    -MMM6075

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  16. So someone needs to accept to take jacobs and MIB's place...to become the new Michael and Lucif...I mean sam and dean..I mean jacob and MIb.. weird how my two favorite shows seem to be going the exact same direction

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  17. Hello,

    I am fairly new to your blog, Billie, but I am really enjoying it!

    I like all of the theories I am reading, but I really hope that the show doesn't end with Jack and Sawyer (or Jack and someone else) taking the place of Jacob and MIB. Instead, I am hoping for a Babylon 5 style situation in which all of the Oceanic characters and possibly some of the other characters like Miles, Frank, and possibly even Ben, band together and decide it is time for a third way. I hope they decide that the will not allow these two control freaks (MIB and Jacob, both of whom remind me a lot of The Shadows and The Vorlons) to dictate their destiny any longer and that they will bring about a change.

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  18. you have been talking about who jacob wanted to bring to the island, but i was thinking that there is no one actually comming to the island and jacob was just trying to get them away from the temple and claire, MIB, and jin, who i assumed were the bad people comming.

    P.S. love your lost reviews Billie!

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  19. So, any theories on "Wallace"?

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  20. Billie, love your reviews. Been reading faithfully for the last few seasons and finally had to respond.

    I just hope the ending is a satisfying one for us. I have a funny feeling that the writers are going to outsmart themselves and end up with a stinker in the end.

    I remember reading about "The Prisoner" and how fans actually mobbed Patrick McGoohan's home when the final episode was aired and there was no clear indication of who Number One was.

    I can only recall maybe two TV shows in history that actually ended to one's satisfaction. The first was "The Mary Tyler Moore" show, which had a nice heartfelt ending. The second was "The Bob Newhart Show" (when Bob was the owner of the inn in Vermont with those goofy brothers) and Bob woke up from "a dream" with Suzanne Pleshette (wife from his previous sitcom) in bed with him.

    I dunno....I thought this Season's Lost was supposed to answer our questions, not add 3 or so more...

    Oh well.....waiting for next week like everyone else!

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  21. I saw some familiar names on the mirror wheel thing. 112 was Dawson, 54 was Austen and 20 was Rousaeuu. Dawson and Rouseauu were both crossed out but Austen wasn't. Pretty cool

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  22. Billie, well-done again. I only consider an episode watched fully after I`ve read your review!
    It was so cool that the skeletons appeared again, I continue to believe they`re Rose and Bernard. But the best so far are Hurley and Jacob`s interactions - hurley is the most adorable character in the series and I don`t believe he`s the next richard, but THE candidate. Who`s Wallace? Can`t wait till next episode...

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  23. Austen was actually 51...the mirror of Ford's 15...Fishbiscuitland has stills that make the numbers easy to see. Also he compared a still from Juliet's Otherville house when the book club was meeting to one of the inside of David Shepard's house. Both had mirrors on the wall with large ladies' hats hanging around them...hmmmm.

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  24. Can I just say, I am becoming a huge fan of Dylan Minnette's. Arguably, he is playing a similar character here as he does in Awake (a son with troubles trying to connect with his dad), but he does it so well that I just yearn to give him a cuddle and tell him everything will be all right.

    I am really, really enjoying this season. I love, love, love the flash sideways and even the Island stories are not bugging me as much as they did last season. I'm also really glad we are spending time with the core characters. It feels right as we begin to approach the end of the story.

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  25. Chris, I agree. He's not even a little bit annoying, which is so rare with teenage actors.

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  26. I’d hoped that on the rewatch I would like this season a bit more than I did previously. I’m definitely keeping an open mind, and I am loving the Sideways story line as much as I did the first time, but once again, the mystical hokum on the island is a bit much and I still cannot pinpoint exactly why.

    In previous seasons I’ve been able to suspend disbelief on everything that has occurred without any issue, but for some reason the temples, lighthouses, and caves of the early part of season 6 seemed almost silly by comparison of what’s happened prior to this point. I think we all hit a point in certain shows or movies where, despite the impossible-ness of what we have seen before, we just can’t get there with something we witness at some point in s show we love.

    Luckily, our main characters are still able to rise above this in both the Sideways and the Island story lines, and I know from previous viewings that the overall story improves again going forward. But, this was a low point for me, up there with the beginning of season 3.

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