LOST Season 6 Episode 5 “Lighthouse”

Interesting parrallel: Season 1’s first and second episodes were the two-hour premiere regarding the crash of Oceanic 815 and began the introduction of the characters to us. The second episode of Season 1 was a Kate-centric episode (Tabula Rosa). The third ep of Season 1, Walkabout, focused on Locke. The fourth episode was mostly about Jack (White Rabbit), and the fifthm House of the Rising Sun, focused on Sun and Jin.

Now, on to Season 6, which the producers said before it started would be told more in-line with the Season 1’s storytelling. Episode 1&2 of Season 6 made up the two-hour premiere that dealt with the Oceanic 815 flight as it existed in the Flash Sideways (yes, it dealt with more, but bear with me). Episode 3, What Kate Does, was a Kate-centric episode, just as Episode 3 in Season 1 was. Last week’s episode was a Locke (or FLocke, as the case were) focused-story in the same way that the debut season's Walkabout was its fourth episode. This week’s tale, wrapped-up below, was Jack-centric, just as the fifth episode of Season 1 was Jack-centric (White Rabbit). See a pattern here? I know I do.

Good stuff. Now, on with the show.

Jack: On the Island, Jack is still trying to figure out what’s going on, and Hurley’s trip with him to the Lighthouse moved Jack closer to understanding what he’s been called upon to do. What will he be doing? Well, one could speculate that he’ll be taking over for Jacob. We’ll have to see. Flash-sideways Jack is a father with a son named David (14 or 15 years old, perhaps?), and...SURPRISE!...David has daddy issues. Jack attempts to reconcile whatever it is that drove them apart by giving David the “you could never disappoint me and I’ll always love you no matter what” speech. But Jack seems to mean it. However, this whole thing with the son seemed to me like a long, drawn-out reason to make us wonder who David’s mom, Jack’s wife (soon to be ex?) is. It is not revealed here why Jack and his wife aren’t together, but it seems a separation, or possibly divorce, is the current situation between them. Jack, however, is definitely a proud father watching David during the audition.

David: Appearing only in the Flash Sideways as he does not exist in the Island timeline. Jack’s son David, who is a great pianist for his age, wants to be accepted by his father. Not feeling that he is has driven a wedge between them, but David seems as happy about resolving their rift as Jack is. His audition at St Marys Academy for possible acceptance into the Williams Conservatory is seen by Jack, who was not told by David of his performance but finds out after hearing a phone message. The performance, a song by Chopin I think because of the Chopin poster seen in David’s room, is great and Jack is definitely proud of him.

Hurley: As Jacob’s current mouthpiece, Hurley has shown some pretty good courage to take on the role of telling people Jacob’s wishes. Always the peacemaker, Hugo is called upon to bring Jack the Lighthouse. Seeing this as a tough challenge, Hurley tells Jack “you have what it takes” as per Jacob’s request. Since Jack’s dad, Christian, noticeably missing this season so far, always told Jack that he didn’t have what it takes. Ultimately, Hurley will be an important piece to this whole puzzle we call Lost. And I’ll be okay with that.

Dogen: As seen on the Island, he is the leader of the people inside the Temple. He is realizing that Hurley will play a big (haha! pun intended) role in what goes on when he approaches him and asks what he’s doing in a section of the Temple and Hurley tells him that he is a candidate and he can do what he wants. What Dogen couldn’t see was Jacob telling Hurley what to say. In the Flash Sideways, Dogen and his son are also at the St Marys Academy recital and Dogen talks to Jack. Dogen’s son also tells Jack how good of a piano player David is. This reveals to us that Dogen was also brought to the Island at some point in time in the other timeline and is not part of the Island contingent that people like Richard and Jacob and Man in Black are. So, he was brought to the Island to......lead the Temple people? I had to look this up so I can't confirm 100% if this is correct: apparently, when Dogen spoke to Hurley in Japanese, he said "You are lucky you are protected. If you were not protected, I would cut off your head."

Sayid: Not much screen-time in this episode, but enough to acknowledge with Jack that something is wrong with him, and for Jack to acknowledge that someone else has also been claimed.

Claire: Psycho killer, qu’est-ce que c’est. Claire is full-blown mad after three years alone on the Island, in a Rousseau kind of way. Clairesseau assists Jin with his messed up ankle, caused by her trap, and also kills the guy from the Temple when he tells her that they do not have Aaron. While this is true, Claire decides to bury an axe into the guy’s chest, killing him. I’m sure she’ll say later that it was all an....axe-ident. HEY NOW! She tells Jin that she has a friend who said that Aaron was taken by the Temple crew. That friend, we learn at the end of the episode, is FLocke. She also mentions that her father told her this. You’ll remember from last season when Claire and Christian were in the cabin. Side note: what does she need all the dynamite for? After Jin lies and says it was not Kate, but the Temple people, who took Aaron, she says if Kate had taken him, she would kill her. Side note 2: Why didn’t Claire think it was strange that Jin could speak English (they were separated by the time-hops)?

Jin: Zoinks. That was one messed up ankle. But Claire does her own version of Jack on it and stitches it up. While it was likely the fastest stitch job in history, he tells her that the Temple dude is correct and that they did not take Aaron, but that Kate did three years earlier when she left the Island. After killing the Temple guy, Jin then retracts his statement, saying he was lying and that Aaron is indeed in the Temple. This, however, is the real lie as we all know. He tells Claire he can get her into the Temple, but I think he’s more interested in getting back there himself. Remember, he is still trying to re-connect with Sun and has yet to find her since they've all time-hopped back to 2004.

Jacob: Still visiting Hurley, and Hurley only, he sends him on a mission to get Jack to the Lighthouse. In the same way that FLocke/Man-in-Black is manipulating Sawyer (and Claire and FLocke’s body), Jacob continues to manipulate Hurley. But to what end? Also, what if Jacob is the name of a person that was taken over by an entity similar to the way Locke’s body was taken over by the Man-in-Black thing. So, the blond guy we know as Jacob may in fact have been a man named Jacob in the same way that Fake-Locke was once a man named John Locke, but is now taken over by something. So, Jacob may well have been brought to the Island long ago (when people used looms) and went through a similar experience that the Losties are going through. Jacob may have at one time been a candidate.

The Lighthouse: A tall, mystical looking-glass that can peer into the lives of people off the Island. When Hurley and Jack reach it, they climb the tower to find a massive compass-like wheel with 360 degrees marked off around the edge. Per Jacob’s instructions, Hurley starts turning the wheel to get it to 108 degrees, but Jack notices hundreds of names written around the wheel, one on each degree. While most of the names are crossed off, he sees that his name, along with the names of Jarrah, Reyes, Kwon, Ford, and Locke, are not. When he puts the gauge of the Lighthouse compass wheel on his #23, he sees in the Lighthouse’s mirrors his childhood home. Realizing that they’ve all been watched their whole lives, Jack smashes the mirrors. Side note: how did they never find the Lighthouse previously? Other names seen on the degree marks: #51 Austen (Kate perhaps? Note that Austen’s name has NOT been crossed off), #117 Linus, #61 Davis, #44 Martinez, #43 Barnes, #40 Dorsett, #39 Morton, #37 Torres, #34 Grimaldi, #22 Moorehead, #20 Rousseau,#195 Pace (Charley?), and #108 Wallace. Again, with the exception of Kate and the other 6 Losties, all other names were crossed off. The Lighthouse trip, as Jacob told Hurley later, was about Jack realizing that he has a bigger purpose.

Funny lines:

--Not a line so much as the scene where Miles and Hurley were playing tic-tac-toe with roped vines and leaves as the Xs and Os.

--”I just lied to a samuri”, Hurley to Jacob, regarding Dogen.

--”Anything on your arm about the door being jammed?”, Jack to Hurley about the door of the Lighthouse. (Hurley wrote Jacob’s instructions on his forearm)

--”Thanks for the seven years of bad luck, by the way”, Hurley to Jacob regarding Jack smashing all the mirrors in the Lighthouse.

Interesting:

--Jack’s son is wearing a LA Dodgers hat, but Jack says he can watch the Red Sox if he wants. C’mon Jack..you gotta raise you kid to be a Red Sox fan!

--In LA, Jack’s mom finding the will of Christian, and while reading it asks Jack if he knows of a Claire Littleton, someone mentioned in the will that neither of them know.

--Hurley and Jack back at the caves, and Hurley speculating that the skeletons in the cave are actually them from a previous time hop. My guess? We’ll not find out who the skeletons were.

--Jack admitting he came back to the Island because he was ‘broken’ and thought the Island could fix him. Hurley admitting to Jack that he came back because Jacob got in the taxi with him in LA.

--The coincidences that the Flash Sideways folks are experiencing, including Jack not knowing his appendix scar (on the Island, Juliet did that surgery), the Claire Littleton connection, etc.

--Walking into the piano audition of his son David, Jack passes a sign that says “Welcome all Candidates” for the kids there to audition. There’s that word Candidates again. Also, Dogen saying that “your son has a gift” regarding David’s piano talents was interesting.

--Claire admitting that the Temple people branded her, stuck her with needles. This would’ve been when Dogen realized that she had been claimed (infected).

--”Sometimes you can hop in the back of someone’s cab and tell them what to do. Other times, you have to let them look out at the ocean for a while”, Jacob to Hurley regarding the reason Jacob had Hurley bring Jack to the Lighthouse.

--More references to Alice in Wonderland: Jack's son David reading "The Annotated Alice", and Jack finding the key to his wife's (?) house under a fake rabbit on the house's doorstep.

Answered:

--The numbers represent where each person's name was listed on the Lighthouse's compass wheel.

Questions:

--Who is Jack’s Flash Sideways wife? We’re probably supposed to think Kate (especially since Hurley says he thought Kate and Jack would marry and have dozens of kids), but I’m not going there. Not sure, but how about Juliet?

--Has Claire also been recruited by FLocke in the same way that Sawyer was (although Sawyer could still be pulling a con)?

--Who’s coming to the Temple that is bad? Why did Jacob want Hurley and Jack away from the Temple? Is it Desmond? Widmore? Someone else? Or someTHING else?

--What is Jack’s role going to be? Does he take over for Jacob? Dogen?

--The name that was #108 was listed as Wallace. Could Jacob's last name have been Wallace?

Tune in next Tuesday night for episode 6, Sundown. Will this episode focus on Sun and Jin? I'm not sure but I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that the sixth episode of Season 1 was also a Sun/Jin episode.

Share your thoughts. Until next week, you’ve got some ink on your forehead.