The Lighthouse

I mentioned last week that if season 6 follows the same pattern as the first season, this week would be a Jack episode. Or a Jack Back as they were called, only now I have to come up with a different name for it since we are flashing sideways. So far it is staying true to the season one layout and this week we do indeed get LOST with a side of Jack. Speaking of his side, Jack doesn’t seem to remember having his appendix out. At least he doesn’t remember it the way his mother describes it. We keep getting small bits of evidence that the on island time line or the MTL (main time line) is seeping into the ATL (alternate time line). In my opinion, Jack episodes, in the past, have been some of the worst episodes in the shows history, do I really have to mention “Stranger In A Strange Land”? OK then, let’s move on. With all of that being said, I have to eat those words this week, because “The Lighthouse”, delivered to us the best episode of the season so far. There was no gun play, no chases, no fires, no smoke monster, and no time jumps. There was one axe to the chest but that’s almost a footnote to the rest. This episode didn’t need any of those things because it was well acted, well scripted, and well directed. For the first time this season we have an episode that really felt “finished” to me.





Jack pulls up to St. Mary’s Academy in the same brown piece of crap jeep he has had off island for the entire run of the show. I guess spinal surgeons don’t rate BMW’s in the ATL either. Notice the numbers on Jack’s license plate add up to 8. The hands on Jack’s clock back at his home point to the numbers 51, 6, and 3. 51 - 6 - 3 = 42. OK, maybe this is a reach but pretty soon we won’t have all of this to play with so I’m getting all of the mileage out of it as I can. At St. Mary’s, Jack picks up a boy named David who calls Jack “Dad”. Jack has a son in the ATL, neat-o.





At the temple, Dogan tells Jack that he was afraid Jack had left. Jack comments that he didn’t know leaving was an option. Dogan says that everything is an option but that he would have had to stop Jack if he had tried to leave. So, no, not really an option then I guess? Jack and Dogan appreciate each others honesty and finally we have a Lostie on one side and an Other on the other side actually being honest with each other and telling each what the real deal is. Well, OK, not really the full on deal but they actually offer each other some information that a few seasons ago would have taken forever to get.





Over at the barracks, Hurley used to play horseshoes with Sawyer, but at the temple tic-tac-toe is the game of choice. Hurley sees Jacob inside the temple who tells Hurley that he needs him to write down some things. Jacob tells Hurley that someone is coming to the island and HE needs Hurley to help HIM find it. I played this part over and over again and I most definitely heard Jacob use the words HE and HIM which would infer one person is coming to the island and it is a man, or at least a male.





Jack tells David that he can watch the Red Sox on the TV since he hooked cable up to it. Jack sees that the book David is reading is “The Annotated Alice” and comments that he used to read the book to him when he was little. Did he? Or is he remembering when he used to read it to Aaron as he did in “Something Nice Back Home”. Let’s talk about this book for a minute. First of all, many of Jack’s episodes reference Alice In Wonderland, this one mirrors White Rabbit in that Jack refers to Alice’s two cats; Kitty a black cat and Snowdrop and white one. In White Rabbit, Jack chases the ghost of his father into the caves. Inside he finds the bodies of the islands “Adam and Eve” with the bodies he finds one black rock and one white rock. In the flashbacks of White Rabbit, Christian tells Jack that Jack “doesn’t have what it takes”. All of this plays out further in The Lighthouse. OK, back to the episode; David tells Jack that the two of them only see each other once a month and that he just “wants to get through it”. The two definitely seem very uncomfortable around each other. Jack leaves to go to his mothers house to look for Christian’s will.





Sayid exits the temple and doesn’t like how all the Others are staring at him. Maybe if you didn't have on the shirt with a bullet hole in it they could forget you died and were brought back to life, Sayid, I dunno, but I’m just saying! Jack tells Sayid that the pill Dogan wanted Jack to give Sayid was poison. He also tells Sayid that what happened to Sayid also happened to someone else on the island.





Claire gets Jin's leg out of the bear trap. Claire tells Jin that she has been out in the jungle ever since Jin and the rest of them left the island. I don't think Claire experienced the time jumps like the other survivors did. Maybe it was the fact that she was with Christian who might have had the MIB (man in black) inside of him at the time but I definitely think she has always been in the same time period. Jin makes it to his feet but quickly passes out from the pain of his injury.





Hurley is deep inside the temple trying to use the islands Dewey Decimal System of hieroglyphics to find a secret exit. Dogan stops him and tells him to go back to the courtyard. Jacob pops up and coaches Hurley on how to deal with Dogan. As Dogan turns to walk away he says to Hurley in Japanese “You’re lucky I have to protect you, otherwise I would cut your head off.”. Harsh. Hurley tells Jacob that he just made him lie to a samurai. Coincidentally, the actor that plays Dogan, Hiroyuki Samada played a samurai in the movie “The Last Samurai”. Jacob tells Hurley that he is supposed to take Jack with him. Hurley asks Jacob how he is going to get Jack to go with him. Jacob only offers a sly grin as a response.





Hurley returns to the courtyard and tells Jack about the secret exit and Jack tells Hurley he isn’t leaving. Hurley tells him that Jacob told him that Jack had to go. Turns out the magic words to get Jack to go with him was “you have what it takes”. Jack is definitely on board after Hurley says this. Does Jack maybe think Jacob is Christian?





Jin wakes up and his leg looks nasty! He is in some makeshift tent, thing that Claire has put together. What was the deal with the squirrel skeleton baby thing? Creepy! This can be seen as another reference to Lord Of The Flies as it was a boy named Simon who had a pigs head to keep him company as he lost touch with reality. Claire brings back the Other named Justin and asks him where her son is. Claire tells Jin that she is not in the jungle by herself. After Claire goes to get the things ready to tend to Jin’s wounds, Justin tells Jin that they have to get out or Claire will kill them both.





Jack finds Kate and the three of them compare notes on where everyone is and where they are all going. Jin back to the temple, Sawyer is “on his own”, Kate is looking for Claire and we know where Jack and Hurley are going. Jack asks Kate to come with them. Hurley says that she isn’t invited. It was at this point that I realized that Hurley has turned into the new Ben Linus. Just a lot nicer and way less creepy. Kate has an odd moment when she tells Jack that she hopes Jack finds what he is looking for. That seemed out of place.





Jack arrives at his mothers house; the street number is 233 - 2+3+3=8. While looking for Christian’s will the two speak about Jack’s son and their relationship. Notice the MacCutcheon's Whiskey, which is a LOST favorite, mixed in with the rest of the bottle. Jack’s mothers says “good for you” when Jack refuses a drink. Is this a reference to his drinking problem? Does this version of Jack not have a drinking problem or is well past it? What if in this reality it wasn't Christian that had the drinking problem but Jack's mother. But then what did Christian die from when he was in Australia? Not all of my theories hold water. Jack’s mom tells him that David was very upset at Christian’s funeral. She goes on to comment that Jack and David communicate as well as Jack and his father did. Jack says that he didn’t talk to Christian because he was afraid of him. Jack’s mother says that it’s possible that David is afraid of Jack. The entire reason for this scene was so we find the will and have Jack’s mother ask him who Claire Littleton is. The other reason we had to have this scene was so we could get a quick glimpse of Jack’s parents house, the house Jack grew up in. It will play a big part in a few minutes.





Jin seems about to untie Justin when Claire returns. She cleans up Jin’s wound and stitches him up. She comments that infection is one of the things that can kill you out in the jungle. A few episodes ago it was Dogan who commented that Claire was one of the “infected”. Justin continues to tell Claire that the others don’t have Aaron. She tells Jin that he is lying and that she knows this because her father told her as well as her “friend”. With axe in hand she tells Justin that it is now “his turn”.





Hurley asks Jack why things didn’t work out for him and Kate. Hurley expected them to have kids by now. Jack said he would have made a horrible father. So far the ATL seems to agree. They find Shannon's inhaler as they realize they are near the caves. This episode, as Hurley remarks, does indeed feel "old school". Here we have two of our beloved characters going out in the jungle to do something that were not really sure about. This could be the last time we see these two out in the jungle alone, no one knows for sure. One thing is for sure is this is probably the last time I refer to Jack as beloved! I feel dirty now. Hurley gives the average viewer a “voice” when they get inside the caves. Hurley takes some of the theories about “Adam and Eve” lumps them together and puts one of them out there for us. Jack tells Hurley that he wasn't looking for water when he found the caves. Jack says he was chasing the ghost of his. Jack comments that he smashed his father's coffin because “he wasn’t in it”.





ATL Jack comes back to an empty home with pizza and drinks in hand. Jack calls his son but only gets voice mail. Jack looks for David at David’s mothers house. Jack finds this house also empty. The key to the house is underneath a rabbit statue. Jack finds sheet music in David’s room. We see a poster in the room that mentions a group named Meat Coat which was the band Charlie told his brother that Driveshaft had a chance of opening for in LA. There is a “Tommy” poster on the wall. On the album is a song titled “Smash the Mirror”. In the song, Tommy is awakened from a state of catatonia by his mother when she smashes a mirror that he is staring intently into. David gives his phone number as 734-235-6787 which contains the numbers 42 and 23. Also it is worth noting that 734 is the area code for Ann Arbor Michigan which is where Faraday went to do research for the DHARMA Initiative back in the 1970’s. David isn’t a Red Sox fan; it would seem he prefers the Dodgers. What about that sheet music? Fantaisie Impromptu in C-sharp minor by Chopin is the same piece that Faraday played in “The Variable” episode. Also, The Lighthouse aired on the eve of Chopins' 200th birthday. Jack learns from the message on David’s voice mail (or is that more like an answering machine?) that his son has an appointment at the Williams Conservatory. Jack then hears a message he left David while he was in Australia getting Christian’s body. Jack gets emotional.





Hurley and Jack continue their trek through the jungle. Hurley asks Jack why he came back to the island. Hurley says that he came back because Jacob told him he was supposed to. Jack tells Hurley that he came back because he was broken and he thought the island could “fix” him. Jack says he was wrong. Give the island a little more time Jack. The two exit the jungle and come out to a clearing near a cliff. Jack asks where the lighthouse came from and why they didn’t see it before. Hurley says because they weren’t looking for it. It’s there because it’s supposed to be there now. It is a matter of convenience for the island. The island needs for them to see it or find it so they can and they do. This has happened many times before. Want a few instances? How about Locke’s knives, Christian’s coffin, the Halliburton with Kate’s plane inside, Cooper, and other things that someone was looking for or needed to be there and suddenly, they were there. Magic box.





Crazy Claire keeps asking Justin where her son is. He says he doesn't know and that the Others don't have him and she keeps telling him that he is lying. We find out that Claire was taken to the temple and she was tortured similarly to how Sayid was tortured. Justin says they did it because Claire was picking them off left and right. Jin tells Claire that Kate took Aaron when they left the island. Jin used the word “took”? As RobZ points out this is not a good choice of words around Crazy Claire. We can tell that Claire has been to the Black Rock because we can see some of the dynamite from the shipwreck. Claire is acting more like Rousseau than some want to admit here. Claire, like Rousseau, takes someone hostage (Rousseau caught Sayid)who she thinks is an Other and goes on to question them about their missing child. Justin begs Claire one last time for her to let him go but he gets an axe to the chest for his troubles. Here we see Claire, who up until now has never had violent tendencies, but now apparently, she is capable of committing murder in cold blood. She is definitely under some sort of dark influence.





Jack gets to the auditorium and you had to notice the banner hanging up that read “Welcome Candidates”, right? David is quite good at tinkling the ivories. A boy asks Jack if David is his son, Jack confirms that he is. Jack seems to be very proud of his son. The boy leaves and goes to talk to his own father who turns out to be Dogan. He tells Jack that his son has a gift. He then asks Jack how long David has been playing and Jack admits that he doesn’t know. Oh, and I don’t have to point out that a piano has black and white keys do I? OK, now check this out: Jack’s son is named David, in the Bible, David is a shepherd and he is also a musician. It was David that wrote the 23rd Psalm which begins with the line “The Lord is my shepherd”. 23





When Jack and Hurley reach the top of the lighthouse Jack asks where Jacob is. Hurley explains that Jacob isn’t there yet. Hurley is to turn the wheel until the compass (that’s what I’m calling it anyway) is on 108 degrees. I want to point out that this episode was the 108th hour of the show to be televised. Jack sees some images in the mirrors most notably the church where a young Sawyer went for his parents funeral as well as the pagoda that Jin and Sun were married in. He makes Hurley stop and tells him to turn it to 23 degrees which coincides with his own name. Hurley balks so Jack does it himself. For a moment we can see that the name at 108 is Wallace. What does that mean? William Wallace was a Scottish warrior and leader. That's who Mel Gibson played in Braveheart. Who do we know in the history of LOST that is Scottish? Yeah I think we are going to be seeing Desmond pretty soon and of course he will be arriving by boat just like he did the first time he arrived onto the island. Back to Jack and Hurley; the thing that puts Jack over the edge is when he sees the house that he grew up in. He realizes that Jacob has been watching all of them for a very long time. Jack presses Hurley for some answers but Hurley is unable to give them to him. For once someone says they don’t know something and he really doesn’t. In his frustration, Jack destroys the mirrors. Bad thing or exactly what he was supposed to do? Some of the names and numbers we can make out this week include Rousseau - 20, Stanhope - 48, Rutherford - 32, Faraday - 101, Littleton - 313, Dawson - 124, Linus - 117, Friendly - 109, Burke - 58, Lewis - 104 (in The Substitute it was number 140), Austen - 51 (and not crossed out). So Kate's name is there after all.





Jack tells David he was great. David points out he missed a couple of notes. David didn’t want Jack to know he was still playing piano. He didn’t tell Jack about the tryout because he didn’t want Jack to see him fail. Jack tells him that Christian always was sure to point out that Jack didn’t “have what it takes”. Jack tells David that in his eyes he can never fail and all Jack wants is to be a part of David’s life. Definitely looks like the two of them have crying down to a science. Casting hit this one out of the park when they got this kid to play Jack’s son, that’s for sure! Unlike MTL Jack it's possible that ATL Jack could actually be a good father.





Hurley tells off Jacob a bit. All Jacob can offer in response is “You have ink on your forehead”. “Jack broke your lighthouse dude, mission unaccomplished!”. Jacob says that whoever is coming to the island will have to find another way to get there. Seems Jack was the point of this exercise. Jacob remarks that Jack seeing into the mirrors was the only way for him to realize how important he really is. Jack is there “to do something” but Jacob cannot tell him what it is. Jack must figure it out on his own. Jacob finishes the discussion with Hurley by telling him that he had to get the two of them away from the temple as quickly as he could because someone bad was coming. Hurley wants to go back and warn those back at the temple. Jacob tells Hurley that is is too late to save them.





Claire tells Jin that she had to kill Justin or he would have killed her. She tells Jin she is glad he didn’t untie him. She was able to hear that? Jin tells Claire that he was lying that Kate really doesn’t have Aaron. He tells her that Aaron is at the temple and he will take her there and get her in because he knows a secret entrance. Jin is really scratching to stay alive now. Claire tells him that she is glad he was lying about Kate having Aaron because if it was true and she did have Aaron, Claire would have to kill her. Unlocke arrives and Jin thinks he is still John Locke. Claire tells Jin that Unlocke is her “friend”. Claire and Unlocke share a smile. Aw how cute.





I guess the reason that I liked this episode so much is it had an “old school” feel to it as Hurley pointed out to Jack when the two of them were trekking through the jungle. We went back to the caves; which we haven’t seen since season two. They found Shannon’s inhaler. Jack talked about chasing his father’s ghost into the caves and then trashing his coffin. We saw all of this, but it's been awhile. I guess it made me feel nostalgic for a time when things were more innocent. Back when the Others were scary and not dropping like flies. Has any of them ever died of natural causes by the way? Bach when we only knew the smoke monster as something that roared and made weird clicking noises. We’ve come a long way since then and all of us have changed in one way or another. Hurley is giving orders and making decisions on who gets to go on the A-team missions. Sure he’s still there for a little comic relief but he’s more than that now. This episode made me sad that the show will be coming to an end in a dozen or so more episodes. We won’t be able to click on the TV for an hour and watch our favorite Losties to see what they are up to this week ever again. While some of us might have questions left after the show is over we won’t have any new mysteries to look forward to. The show will continue living on DVDs and we can go back to the island whenever we want but it will never be the same. It can’t be. Remember back to the first time when you saw the smoke monster staring down Mr. Eko? You can only see something like that once and have the same effect. Watching parts of LOST is kind of like your first good kiss, it’s something you will never forget. The first one is the one by which all of the rest are judged, and for some, are found to be lacking.