Thoughts on LOST - Lighthouse

OK, I'm late, so no preamble this week...let's just get to it.

Sorry, this one is going to be a little rushed...if I miss anything egregious, let me know!

- In the very first scene, we get more evidence that these two timelines are going to merge somehow, as Jack doesn't remember getting his appendix out when he was a boy. Something about that doesn't sit right with Jack, and that seems like something he would have remembered.

Remember, Juliet did his appendectomy back on the Island (in very disturbing fashion, by the way, as Jack first attempted to coach her through it by watching in the mirror, like an imbecile).

More on this in the overview...

- Jack X has a son! A very sullen, irritated, and annoying son!

- Which leads to the obvious question...who is the mother? Obviously not Kate (thank God), since they saw each other on the airplane. I really don't think it's Juliet, unless she has since left Jack to be with Sawyer, as I fully expect Juliet and Sawyer to "reunite" in the X timeline. Maybe it's just Sarah (Jack's ex in the original timeline) and we're reading too much into it by trying to make it be someone else?

Of course, that would mean that Jack and Sarah married MUCH younger than they did in the original timeline, since this kid is at least around 13 years old.

Oh, well...if it actually matters we will find out soon enough.

- Dogen tells Jack, "EVERYTHING is an option". I think this is kind of what we are going to see in all of this "Jacob as a guiding force" stuff. Yes, Jacob has been watching and "pushing" them along as they went through life, but ultimately they still options and operated under their own free will. More on that later, too...

- Hurley finds Jacob in the Temple...checking out the water, maybe? Trying to either "fix" it or figure out why it's not clear?

- Someone is coming to the Island. I can only assume this is the "They" that Jacob was referring to when he told Smocke that "They're coming". More on that later, too...

I'm beginning to think this recap may be a little "back loaded".

- Of course David (and of course that's his name...David the Shepherd) is reading "Alice in Wonderland". There have been so many references to this work along the way that this was no surprise.

One interesting thing, though...Jack reminisces that David always used to want to hear about "Kitty and Snowdrop". My first reaction was "Who? Don't you mean the Mad Hatter, or the Cheshire Cat, or the Queen of Hearts, etc...who ever heard of Kitty and Snowdrop?" Well, they were Alice's kittens...and one was white, and one was black.

I love this show.

- "We see each other, like, once a month. Can't we just....get through it?"

Ouch.

- So....when Sayid asked Jack who else this happened to, are we supposed to assume Jack answered him? Because if next week rolls around and Sayid still doesn't know, I'm going to be pretty irritated.

- Hurley wrote down all of the directions on his arm. I don't hear the liberal media tearing HIM apart the way they did Sarah Palin.

- Hurley is awesome again in this episode. "Why don't you go back to the courtyard?"

By the way, according to Lostpedia, Dogen's response was along the lines of, "You're lucky you're a candidate and I have to protect you. Otherwise I would have cut your head off".

- "I just lied to a Samurai!"

Heh.

- And then I loved his whole, "Be cool. I'm gonna leave, and then you wait ten seconds and follow me" pitch to Jack.

- Jacob sure knew which button to push with Jack, didn't he?

- More Hurley goodness...describing Jacob as a dead guy who just kind of shows up when he wants...like Obi Wan Kenobi.

- That skull and fur concoction in the cradle? Dude, Claire is bananas.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

- So, does she not remember that she wandered off and left Aaron in a tree? Has Smokey convinced her that someone really did come in and STEAL her bay-bee from her?

As many have hypothesized, did Claire die in the attack by the freighter people? Remember, her house blew up, and Sawyer ran in and pulled her out. Later, she said she felt "lucky to be alive", and Miles (the other one who has a special communication with the dead) looked at her kind of strange and said something like "I wouldn't be so sure". So maybe that is when she was claimed by Smokey and she has been "infected" ever since.

- I can't transcribe every single line Claire utters, but pretty much everything she says to Jin is about a 9.7 on the Creepymeter.

- "If there's one thing that will get you killed around here, it's an infection". She kind of shoots a look over at poor doomed Justin at this point, because it's her infection that is causing the Templar Others to try and kill her.

- "Oh no, no...I'm not by myself!"

Dude, Emilie de Ravin killed it this episode...that sweet little Aussie was freaking me out.

- JIN: It's OK...I know her.

Ya think? Cause I don't think you do.

- OK, so does the fact that Kate blew Jack off and actually DOESN'T want to come along on one of his adventures mean that the whole "Jate" thing may be over? We can only hope...

- Back to the X timeline...Jack actually turned DOWN a drink? If Jughead wasn't enough to rip the time-space continuum to shreds, I can only assume this would have taken care of it.

- So the Daddy Issue Cycle is repeating between Jack and his son...OK. I know I should care, but...OK, more on that later (trust me, it's coming).

- "Did your father ever mention a Claire Littleton?"

Again, the reaction on Jack's face is very much like Kate's when she heard Aaron's name, or the look on Jack and Kate's face when they saw each other at the airport...kind of like "I should remember something, but I don't know from what".

- How does Claire know that the Templar Others took Aaron? Well first her "father" told her and then her "friend" told her. We find out later that Smocke is her "friend". Did we just get confirmation that he and Christian are one and the same?

- "You're still my friend...aren't you Jin?"

YEP. YOU BETCHA. YOU AND ME ARE BFF!!!! HEY, WHY DON'T WE PUT THAT AXE DOWN NOW?

- Jack says he'd make a terrible Dad...and remember, he has some level of experience, from trying to play Daddy back when he and Kate were a couple in the O6 days. I didn't think he was THAT bad...until he started popping pills and having drunken arguments with "Mommy".

- Now we are at the caves again...I mentioned this in my short post about this episode last week, but I'm seeing tons of people complaining about the fact that the Adam and Eve skeletons were just barely mentioned here, as if that is all we are ever going to find out about them.

Like I said last week, I would be VERY surprised (and, yeah, a little ticked off) if that's the case. I think it is more likely a case of the writers re-introducing these skeletons to the Non-Obsessive-Freak portion of the audience, who may have forgotten this one 45-second scene that happened 5 years ago.

If any of that group are actually reading this blog (unlikely, but possible), these skeletons were discovered by the Losties way back in season 1 when they first contemplated moving to the caves. Somebody (I think Hurley? Sorry...don't have time to go back and look it up, I'm late!) referred to them as "our own Adam and Eve". One of them had two stones in its hand...one white, one dark.

Darlton are on record as saying that this scene is one that we will be able to point back to and say, "See? They DID have a plan from the beginning".

I don't think we can draw that particular conclusion from what we just saw, so I don't think that's all we're going to get.

- Yeah, the key at Jack's Baby-Momma house was under a White Rabbit. Of course.

- Cool little point here...the sheet music on David's piano (and the one we see him playing later) is the same piece that Daniel Faraday was playing when his mom came in and broke the news to him that he can't keep playing the piano because it's a "distraction".

- More Hurley goodness: "This is cool, man...very old school. You know, you and me, trekking through the jungle, on our way to do something that we don't quite understand. Good times."

Hee.

- They make it to the Lighthouse, and Jack asks the very good question...how have they never seen this before?

Hurley: Guess we weren't looking for it.

And, oh, how the collective panties of the Interwebs have been knotted! I've seen several people claim that this is absurd and stupid, and how can that be possible, blah, blah, blah.

Well, allow me to retort:

1) Remember what Ben told Locke when he was describing the Island as a "Magic Box"? Whatever you need, the Island seems to find a way to provide it. Isn't that kind of what Hurley just said?

2) You have a magical time and space tripping Island, inhabited by walking dead people, a pillar of black smoke that can transform itself into human form (and maybe boar and/or horse form as well, seemingly human beings that never age no matter how many years that they live, cripples and cancer victims and sterility all being healed, etc, etc....and that was OK, perfectly acceptable. But THIS....THIS is where you draw the line. THIS is where your disbelief can no longer be suspended. THIS SHALL NOT STAND.

Whatever, dude. Seems to me that if that's your attitude, you probably should have checked out about three seasons ago.

- Remember my theory that Sayid's "test" may have been especially designed for him, since he had been a torturer himself? Well, that's another one I was wrong about...unless there's something in Claire's past that we don't know about. Because she apparently got the same test.

- Oooo....Claire ain't happy. Notice how she emphasized the word "took", talking about Kate. "What do you mean she took him?" Maybe Jin could have elaborated...you know, the part where Claire wondered off and abandoned her bay-bee in the jungle, and he only ended up with Kate because she saved his life?

- THOCK.

(that was the sound of an axe embedding itself in poor doomed Justin's chest)

- Sideways timeline...was it just me, or did Dogen seem to know more than he let on? Kind of like Rose in LA X? Of course, when John X visited Rose at the temp agency, she seemed normal, so who knows?

- The Lighthouse was pretty freaking awesome. Lostpedia has the list of all of the names listed, and one of them is Austen (as in Kate) at 51. So she was a candidate, but not one of the Numbers...so what does that mean?

And another thing...looked to me like Shephard had been written, crossed out, and then rewritten. Maybe Christian and then Jack?

- Jeez, Jack...did you ever stop to think that maybe that Lighthouse could also be the way OFF the Island, as well as to the Island?

- I know I'm blowing over a lot of this scene, but really most of what was revealed was not news to us, only to the characters. Jacob has been watching them for years, and even giving them a little "push" every now and then. Jack is obviously pretty ticked, because he thinks it means he's been a pawn all along, with no way of determining his own destiny...I don't think that's the case, however.

- Great scene between Jack and his son as Jack resolves the Daddy issues that have plagued him for 5+ seasons.

Well....kind of. I mean, THIS Jack did. But this isn't the Jack we've been watching all this time, is it? He's still stuck on Craphole Island, convinced that he would be a crappy Dad, busting up ancient lighthouses, pitching fits. So while I enjoyed this scene, there was part of me that felt a little...cheated, I guess.

More on that (you guessed it)...later.

- As usual, Hurley is kind of the Voice of the Fan, as he voices his frustrations to Jacob. Dude, no more secret plans. Just tell us where we're going.

- But then Jacob hits on what I think is a very big deal. Yes, he has plans. Yes, he has chosen specific people. But those people are NOT being moved around on the board with no control over their own actions.

It's not fate VERSUS free will....it's fate PLUS free will.

- And guess who's coming to the Temple? Claire and her Friend. And I guess Jin and Sawyer, as well.

- "That's not JOHN....that's my FRIEND."

B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

Final thoughts:
This was a very solid episode...some humor, some good "old school" Island exploring, crazy Claire, and some mythology reveals with the Lighthouse.

OK, now for the "later" I keep promising...

There has been a lot of..."restlessness", I guess is the right word, among a lot of the people I read on the Interwebz. I fall strongly in the "Trust the Writers" camp.

Having said that....

I have a problem with both timelines, and it is essentially the same problem for both.

What are the stakes?

On the Island, what are Jack and everybody else supposed to be "doing?" Or, as James Poniewozik of Time put it, what are we supposed to be rooting for?

In Seasons 1-3, it was for them to get off the Island. In Seasons 4-5, it was get back to the Island and save lives. So...now what? They don't seem to be trying to get off the Island anymore, and seem content to just sit around and do as they are told.

This one may see a little more movement this week, as we hopefully get more information about what is going to happen when Smocke and Claire get back to the temple.

In the X timeline, on the other hand, I am actually a little more concerned. I can't get fully invested in seeing Locke, Jack, etc. seemingly resolve issues that have plagued them this whole time, because I am not emotionally invested in THESE characters the way I am the versions on the Island. If we are just seeing "what-if" scenarios, I'm honestly not interested. I mean, I will still enjoy them, due to the writing and acting and the cool little moments of seeing people from the Island popping up in their life...but I'm not going to CARE. I am trusting that we are going to see SOME kind of connection between the two at some point, and I just hope it happens sooner rather than later.

***EDITED WITH THEORY I FORGOT TO MENTION EARLIER: How about THIS theory...the number that Jacob asked Hurley to turn the dial to was 108, and he said "They" are coming. Maybe somehow he's calling all of the numbers 4,8,15,16,23, and 42 (Locke, Hurley, Sawyer, Sayid, Jack, and Jin/Sun) from the X timeline?

OK...I could say more, but if I want to get this posted before the next episode starts, it's time to wrap it up!

Sorry about the late posting...it should be better this week!

Namaste.