LOST Recap: Season 6, Episode 4: “Lighthouse”

Hey everyone, thanks for coming back by!  While last night’s episode wasn’t nearly as packed full of mythological goodness as “The Substitute”, it was still solid, and gave us some interesting insights.  I have a feeling that next week is going to be a real humdinger of an episode, if all of the signs we’ve seen come to pass.  But that’s next week; this is this week!  Let’s recap what went on.

“Lighthouse”

This week, I was paying close attention to the episode title, and how it could be meaningful in both the main timeline and the alternate timeline.  Well, it was a no-brainer for the main timeline.  But what about the alternate timeline?  I think the fact that the article “the” was not in the title is meaningful.  But while that could certainly mean “a” lighthouse, or even a light house (like the color of the house), I still couldn’t find a significant meaning in the alternate timeline.  Maybe it refers to Jack’s house being “light” because his son only visits once a month, and his significant other doesn’t live with him?  I feel like I must be missing something easy, but I’m not making the connection.  If any of you faithful readers have an idea, please leave a message in the comments.

Jack’s appendicitis scar

Quite an odd sequence here, with Jack seeing his scar, and then asking his mother about it.  He doesn’t remember having the surgery, but then it comes back to him after his mother reminds him.  Here’s what I want to say about this: it would be very, very easy to make an association here regarding the main timeline and the alternate timeline.  You could say that perhaps there is some memory transference happening between the two.  And, in fact, this may be the case.  But I would be careful about making such a leap.  This sequence could certainly be nothing more than Jack not remembering something from his youth.  Personally, I think we’re going to get some type of unclear conclusion at the end of this: did the LOSTies “cross over” somehow, or didn’t they?  Are the 2 timelines fully isolated, or aren’t they?  I have a feeling that it won’t be clear-cut.  In any event, I know what the obvious conclusion here is.  And I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t make that conclusion.  I’m just warning you to be a bit careful.  I’m sure the writers have something clever in store for folks that perhaps take too much for granted.

Jack has a son

Jack and his son David

Well, if you had any doubts before, they’re completely wiped out now.  This timeline is significantly different than the one we know.  Jack has a son, and that makes for a pretty big shocker.  I think at this point we have to start making some educated guesses about when the fork in the timelines happened, and I would say that the best guess is the detonation of Jughead on the island.  Perhaps that one event not happening (I’m assuming the bomb *did* go off in the main timeline) has caused all of these ripples.  With all of the things happening on-island right now, I’m not sure how they’re going to explain exactly what did happen.  But I sure hope they work it in somehow.

“You should probably get a pen, you’re gonna have to write a few things down.”

Jacob appears to Hurley

Interesting how Jacob continues to show himself to Hurley when he wants to achieve things.  I don’t think he’s shown himself to any of the other LOSTies, including any of the other “candidates”.  And, I’m thinking it’s more about nobody else being able to see Jacob than it is him not wanting to show himself.  But it is interesting to ponder whether or not there’s anything more going on here.

What we have here is a failure to communicate

Clearly, Jack and his son David have a strained relationship.  While we don’t see any issues from Jack’s perspective, David certainly wants little to nothing to do with his father.  It’s as if Jack is destined to make the same mistakes as his dad…

“You shouldn’t be here!  Go back to the courtyard.”

Two things that intrigue me about this scene.  First, we have reinforcement that Hurley is the only one that can see Jacob…not even Dogen, the supposed leader of the Others, gets that privilege.  Next, you have to be somewhat surprised about how Jacob is countermanding Dogen.  Sure, Jacob has a very specific plan in mind, and Dogen doesn’t know about it, but why not let him in on it through Hurley?  Jacob seems more than content to allow Hurley to confront Dogen and allow Hurley to take the upper hand.  Something to keep in mind as you think about alliances, and who is looking out for who.

“Follow you where?”

Alright, is it me, or is this the new favorite line for Season 6?  I think we’ve heard this now in every hour so far.  Jack says it Hurley here, I’m pretty sure that Sawyer said it to Locke last episode, Jack said it to Dogen a couple of episodes back, and one other instance that is not at the top of my head right now.  My bet is that we’ll hear it again next episode prior to the 40-minute mark.

All kidding aside, it’s interesting that Jacob uses the line, “you have what it takes” to get Jack to go.  If you’ve been re-watching Season 1 episodes in sequence with the new Season 6 episodes, you’d know that Jack’s dad told him that he didn’t want Jack to try to be a hero because he knew that he’d fail.  He told Jack that he didn’t have what it takes.  Definitely an interesting foil there.  If you have the time, I would highly recommend re-watching “House of the Rising Sun” from Season 1 before next week’s new episode, “Sundown”.  I’d be willing to bet that you’re going to get a solid refresher that will have meaningful ties to the upcoming episode.

“If there’s one thing that’ll kill you around here, it’s infection”

Crazy like a fox, or just plain crazy?

“I’ll be right back, don’t move, OK?”  Well Claire sure is a bundle of laughs in her return, isn’t she?  But the comment about the infection, which I’m interpreting as “the sickness”, is intriguing.  While this episode plays out with the audience wondering whether or not Claire’s got the disease from that new movie “The Crazies”, I’m wondering just how much of what she’s doing is a show for Jin.  In other words, she’s either crazy, or crazy like a fox.  I guess time will tell us which.

“I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

Kate points her gun at Jack

Only some limited dialog here between Jack and Kate, but even with the brevity of the scene, and Jack’s later insistance that “there’s nothing left to wreck”, you have to believe that the Jack/Kate story has a bit more to be told.  Despite all of the obstacles and flame-outs, there’s still something going on between those two.  Some of you could probably care less about how that turns out, but you’ve got to believe that there’s going to be more with them mixed in with all of the mythological answers yet to come.

The inhaler and Adam & Eve

Not that the writers gave us much to go on here, but you certainly chalk these two incidents up to some advanced foreshadowing.  The writers have said for a long time that they placed Adam & Eve in the caves way back in Season 1 just to show the audience that they knew what they had planned very early on.  I have to believe that their placement here was just a way to remind everyone that their story will still be told.  And I think the same thing goes for Shannon’s inhaler.  We’ve probably got a little bit of story left to see there as well, and the writers are simply letting us know that it’s coming at some point in the future…

“I don’t understand…how is it that we’ve never seen it before?”

There’s a certain blogger out there that I used to read that believed that Ben’s idea of the box was to be taken literally.  You know, the one where Ben tells Locke that the island is a box, and that if you imagined something and opened the box, “poof”, there it would be?  Well, I’m at a loss to explain the lighthouse scene in any other fashion.  I’m not sure just how much of it is literally true, and just how much is metaphor, but after a huge lighthouse suddenly appears, you’d have to think that there’s at least some legitimacy to the idea.

“Tell me when it gets to 108 degrees.”

Jack finds the same names and numbers that Sawyer did

Regardless of how the lighthouse got there, we get a very interesting scene within it.  Names are attached to numbers, seemingly identical to last week’s list in MIB’s cave.  I’m curious as to why MIB took Sawyer to the cave, whereas Jacob sent Hurley and Jack to the lighthouse, but perhaps that will be answered another day.  For now, it seems as though we’re getting some confirmation that what MIB showed Sawyer last week is not something made up solely for the purpose of recruiting Mr. Ford.  In fact, it seems as though the names & numbers are very legitimate, and indeed a critical part of this conflict.

Jack breaks the cycle

Jack corrects things with his son

Alright, so I’ll fully admit that I’m still unsure how to process the alternate timeline.  Is it going to merge back with the main one?  Are levels of consciousness traveling between the two?  I have my doubts with that, and many other theories regarding the flash-sideways.  But here’s one thing I think I do know about it: we’re meant to compare our LOSTies lives in one timeline against the other.  Two weeks ago, Kate stopped running long enough to befriend Claire.  Last week, Locke cam to grips with his life in the wheelchair and stopped trying to be something he isn’t.  This week, Jack manages to break the cycle with his son.  In other words, Jack manages to relate to his son in a way that his father never could, and turns a major rift and misunderstanding into a renewed and re-spirited relationship.

It seems as though legitimate transformations are happening all across the alternate timeline.  And that answers a very specific question for me: would our LOSTies lives’ been better or worse had they not crashed on the island?  Prior to this season, you could argue that our characters had learned incredible life lessons from the island.  Charlie kicked his drug habit.  Sawyer gave up being a con man.  Sun and Jin resolved the differences in their marriage.  It seemed as though the island was a place of redemption; that those that came there got a second chance to be transformed in such a way that wouldn’t have happened had they not come to this strange place.

But now the argument is losing its luster.  It seems as though all of the characters were designed to rise above their issues regardless of whether or not they visited the island.  In fact, you could argue that their lives in the alternate timeline are better than the main timeline.  Of course, we still have Eloise Hawking’s warning that Desmond’s pushing of the button effectively saved the world, and we know that he didn’t do so in this timeline.  So perhaps something tragic is yet to happen.  But as we see it now, it’s hard to say with any conviction that the LOSTies on-island lessons and journeys are any better than what they would have experienced had the plane never crashed.

“I had to get you and Jack as far away from that temple as I possibly could.”

Jack's deep in thought as Hurley and Jacob discuss the situation

The last scene with Hurley and Jacob is interesting, although mostly straightforward.  I think the one exception could be this line, for two reasons.  First, Jacob initially said that the Temple was a place where the LOSTies would be safe.  Now he wants them to get as far away as possible?  What changed in the time in-between?  Secondly, why is he only trying to rescue Hurley and Jack?  Why not the rest of the Others?  Why not Dogen and Lennon?  And especially why not Sayid, who was so important to save just a couple of episodes ago?  I’m not sure what Jacob’s up to here, but just as he didn’t provide the whole story to Hurley at the temple to start the episode, I think he’s got some more things up his sleeve.

“You were right.  The Others have your baby.  Aaron is at the Temple.”

Speaking of not telling the whole truth, what is up with Jin here?  He’s going all-in with his Aaron story, hoping that Claire doesn’t call him.  I’m not sure how he thinks this will help him, but what it should do is put some questions into your head as a member of the audience.  Clearly, if Jin can lie this well, and he’s someone that we trust, then any of the other characters we’ve seen can be giving us untruths at any time.  It’s important not to take anything anyone says at face value right now, as the stakes are as high as they have ever been…

Post-episode questions:

1. Does Claire really have “The Sickness”, or is she just obsessed with getting Aaron back?

2. Are Jack and Kate really done, or is there more to come?

3. Why is Jacob uninterested in protecting the Temple dwellers?

4. What is Jack’s ultimate reason for being on the island?

5. Are we in for a showdown at the Temple next week?

That’s all I’ve got for now…see you all next week!