Episode Review & Speculation 6.05 LightHouse

KatesFate’s Episode Review & Speculation
Episode 6.05
“Lighthouse”

Wow! Can you believe that there are only 13 more episodes of Lost to go and although we are finally getting answers, we still have no idea what is going on. I have been savoring each and every moment of Lost this season, knowing they will be the last. Something has felt off to me though and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. Something just feels like it is missing. I figured out what it is though. It’s Juliet. I miss Juliet’s character. I like Kate, but in all reality with Juliet gone, there is no strong female lead anymore. She was always such a fascinating character to watch. I really wish they would have made her a candidate too.

As with the last four episodes and until one timeline is no more, I will split my review into on island and off island events. Let’s start with the off island timeline first.

Off Island Timeline

It’s A Boy!

In the beginning of the episode we see Jack arriving at his apartment and getting cleaned up after work. He walks past a full length mirror *(1) and heads to the bathroom to wash his face and sees his reflection in the mirror. * (2) Well looky there, its Jack’s appendix scar. At first I thought he was surprised to see it and would start freaking out, but it turns out he had it removed when he was 7 or 8 as confirmed by his mom. What was strange was that he called his mom to find out when it was removed because he had seemingly forgotten. Is Jack losing past memories because he never really lived them? I think this means that as they slowly remember being on the island, they will also slowly start to lose past memories they’ve never really lived anyway. In other words, he doesn’t remember because it never really happened. This tells me that these two timelines will converge into one and that in the end they will be on the island where they have always belonged.

After speaking with his mom, Jack rushes out the door and ends up at St. Mary’s Academy. Jack approaches the steps to the Academy and we see a young, brown haired boy sitting alone on the stairs. This is a moment where I can say, I saw this coming but at the same time I didn’t. In other words, I knew the minute I saw the boy that it had to be Jack’s son, however I was also very surprised by the fact that Jack has a son. Again, the casting director did a great job, because the boy really does look like Jack. We learn that Jack’s son is named David and that they do not have the greatest relationship. It is also established right away that Jack is no longer married to David’s mother and only gets visitation once a month.

We have another book reference here as well. Jack picks up a copy of Alice Annotations and tells David he use to read it to him as a child. This is the very same book he use to read to Aaron as well. Did Jack really read the book to David as a child or is he remembering reading it to Aaron and projecting those memories?

Since Jack’s past is obviously different, I immediately wondered if David’s mother is Sarah. It is quite possible that it is someone else. This really wouldn’t matter either unless it turns out to be another Lostie like Juliet or something. Go ahead, laugh all you want, but I am allowed to dream. I don’t really think it is Juliet, but I don’t think it is Sarah either. Maybe Ana-Lucia? Libby? Oh well, it’s fun to guess all the same.

Jack’s mom is frantic because Christian’s Will cannot be found and Jack heads to his mom’s to help find the lost documents, leaving David home alone with the promise of dinner when Jack gets back. When he arrives at his moms, she is frustrated about the lost Will. It would seem Christian’s Will is harder to find that the island itself. While looking for the Will, they discuss David and his inability to communicate with his dad. Jack’s mom reminds Jack that he felt the very same way about his father and suggests that Jack try communicating with David first. If only Christian had been given that advice.

I really liked Jack in this episode. He is so much more laid back and stress-free in this timeline. He doesn’t seem to feel the need to fix things anymore, instead he has more of an open mind and opts to try to set things right. He has a calming effect on his mother who is stressed out when normally Jack would be freaking out over something like this. I also noticed that Jack refused a drink from his mom and in response she said, “Good for you”. Does this imply that Jack had a drinking problem but doesn’t anymore? Or is his mom just happy he chooses not to drink like she does. I’m betting it’s the later of the two, because I am pretty sure Jack is drinking on Flight 815 this time around too. After all, we saw Cindy hand him one bottle of vodka instead of two. Maybe this time around Jack’s mom and dad are both alcoholics or just his mother is and Christian died of other causes. Just a thought.

Jack’s mother finds the will and starts to read it, she immediately asks Jack if his father ever mentioned Claire Littleton. For a moment Jack looked as if the name rang a bell. What really interests me though is that Christian left something for Claire in this timeline because I am pretty certain he didn’t leave her anything in the original timeline or Jack’s mother surely would have mentioned it to him when he escaped the island and went back home. I was happy to see that he and Claire are still related in this timeline too.

Jack arrives back home and David is gone. He calls his ex-wife’s house and leaves a message for David that he is coming there to look for him. When he arrives the address is 23 something, I couldn’t quite catch the rest. David is not there, but Jack finds pictures of he and David together stuck to David’s mirror. *(3) Jack decides to listen to the answering machine and learns that David is at an audition so of course he heads there.

As Jack enters the Conservatory where the auditions are being held, he views a sign that says, “Welcome all Candidates”. I love when the writers do little things like this. He arrives in the middle of David’s audition in what I felt was a very beautiful moment. Matthew Fox did an outstanding job in this scene. You could see the pride and love he felt for David in his eyes and facial expressions. Giacchino’s music in the background makes the scene that much better. Note while David is playing we see his reflection in the top of the piano. *(4) As Jack turns to leave, he is approached by the father of another child and it turns out to be Dogen The Temple Master. Dogen tells Jack, “It’s hard to watch and be unable to help.” I got the feeling that Dogen was not only referring to their children, but also his inability to answer Jack’s questions on the island.

After the audition Jack sits down and talks to David and in one heartfelt conversation he fixes their relationship. Jack figured out a way to make it work by facing his own fears about his father. This ties in nicely with on island Jack. He has to learn to let go and face his fears and understand that he can’t fix everything, but he can fix the one thing he was meant too. I am not exactly sure what that is yet, but I believe Jack is on the cusp of figuring it out.

Black and White All Over

This episode was loaded with tons of black and white images starting with Jack’s apartment. The pictures were black and white, some of the photo frames, the piano keys, the décor and Jack’s office were all done in black and white. We all know these colors play a role in Lost somehow, but why display them so prominently in a Jack centric episode? Maybe it is because Jack needs to realize things aren’t always black and white and that there is a grey area as well.

Reflective surfaces were also scattered throughout the episode and I am numbering them throughout this review. I will talk about these surfaces at the end of the review once I have covered the on island issues which I will do right now.

On Island Events

Girl, you so crazy!

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am beginning to think Claire may have found Charlie’s old heroin stash or learned to harvest some “special” island herbs because she is off her rocker. I thought the “infection” was suppose to make you dark, not crazy! Is this how Sayid will start behaving? Will he make some sort of animal version of Nadia and give it a pair of sunglasses? Don’t get me wrong, I like this side of Claire, it is just odd to watch her behave that way, but on the plus side she has suddenly become a much more interesting person than she ever was before. The only things that made her interesting before were Aaron and Charlie.

Claire has Jin and Justin tied up in her house of horrors and she questions them about the whereabouts of Aaron. Here we learn that Claire was taken to The Temple by the others where she was tortured and branded just as Sayid was. All of this branding reminds me of Juliet and the way the others branded her as punishment for killing old what’s his name. Oh ya, Pickett. Is there a connection to the two brandings? Although Juliet’s was an obvious symbol and Claire and Sayids’ are just hot poker marks. Anyway, back to Claire who keeps making mention of a friend and we learn later that her friend is Flocke. That was no surprise. When Claire doesn’t get any answers that she likes, she decides to kill Justin by putting her ax right through his chest. Claire is scary!!! With Justin now dead, Jin changes his story and says that the others do have Aaron and Kate didn’t take him, like he had originally told her. Claire responds to this with the following, “I’m so glad to know that you were lying, because if what you said was the truth, if Kate was raising Aaron, I’d kill her.” Did you hear that Kate, Claire is going to get you and this time you have nowhere to run. So we have Locke, Claire, Jin and presumably Sawyer all together on the island heading for the Temple and Kate off on her own. Let’s see what the rest of the losties are up to.

You Have What It Takes

The second group of losties consists of Sun, Ben, Frank, Ilana and Richard and they are on their way to the temple. The third group is Sayid and Miles who are currently at the Temple. The fourth and final group is Jack and Hurley who are now at the lighthouse and may or may not be heading back to the Temple. Let’s finish up this review by only discussing the fourth group, Jack and Hurley.

The first on island scene begins with Jack’s face reflected in the pond. *(5) We then see Dogen approach Jack and they have an extremely brief conversation that allows us to see that Jack and Dogen are coming to trust one another. I am sure this will come into play later.

Hurley and Miles play a very innovative game of tic-tac-toe. Tic-tac-toe is a game that rarely sees a winner or a loser and most often ends in a tie. Is someone trying to tell us something here? Hungry from all that banana leaf and vine tossing, Hurley sets off to find food and finds Jacob alone inside of the Temple. What was Jacob doing hunched over the water like that? I’ve read that some people believe he was pouring something into the water, but I can’t really tell while watching it. Does anyone have their own theories about what he was doing? If so, please let me know.

Jacob is there because he needs Hurley’s help. Per Jacob, “Someone is coming to the island and I need you to help them find it.” He tells Hurley he will need a pen to write this down. I thought this was funny because I can’t imagine the others using a pen and I wondered where Hurley would find one. It also reminded of me Boone in The Pilot and of the time in the mental hospital when Charlie’s ghost tells Hurley to write a message down for Jack in case he forgets it. Then I got to wondering if all of the ghosts that Hurley has seen are actually Jacob in the form of these people. Me thinks so.

Hurley sets off to run Jacob’s errand and gets caught by Dogen. No worries though because Jacob shows up to run interference telling Hurley exactly what to say. It turns out that if you are a candidate, you have complete run of The Temple and can do whatever you want. I loved Hurley in the scene, “Why don’t you go back to the Temple?” I’d really love to know what Dogen said to him in response. When Dogen leaves, Jacob informs Hurley that he needs to take Jack with him and Hurley wants to know how to do that. Jacob tells Hurley to tell Jack, “You have what it takes.” These five words set Jack off immediately and off he and Hurley went to presumably find Jacob. These words are the exact opposite of what Christian use to tell Jack as a child, “You will never have what it takes.”

While on route, Jack and Hurley run into Kate and blah, blah, blah Kate is off again to do her thing. I don’t mean to sound bothered by this part but Kate seemed just a bit to happy to me during this scene. It was kind of strange. She won’t look that happy when she runs into Craz…I mean Claire.

Hurley and Jack finally arrive at their destination, a giant lighthouse. Jack asks the exact question I wanted to ask, “How have we never seen this before?” and Hurley responds, “Maybe we didn’t need to before.” That explanation is good enough for me. Inside and at the top of the lighthouse, they find a wheel that Hurley has been instructed to turn to 108 degrees and as he is doing so Jack sees his reflection *(6) in the mirrors used to guide the ships in. Not only does he see his own reflection, he also begins to see images. He sees the building where Sun and Jin were married, the church Sawyer saw Jacob at as a child, and his own childhood home. It turns out that the wheel is marked with names and each name has a number. When the wheel is aligned at a specific name and number you see an image of that persons past in the reflective mirrors.

I really loved this and it made me change my mind about the cave Flocke took Sawyer too. I believed it was Jacob’s cave, but the lighthouse proved to me that it wasn’t. Why would Jacob need that cold dark cave to keep track of the losties when he had that beautiful lighthouse and wheel to keep track of them. Upon seeing his own home in the mirrors, Jack becomes very angry and demands answers from Hurley that Hurley just doesn’t have. When Jack doesn’t get any answers he smashes the mirrors into pieces. Although I can understand why Jack did it, it still bothered me because he had no way of knowing if that lighthouse could be useful to them somehow and he smashed it anyway.

The Man In The Mirror

After smashing the mirrors, Jack takes to a cliff side and does some thinking while Jacob pays Hurley another visit. We learn that Jack needs to figure out what his purpose is on his own and cannot be told what it is by anyone else. The trip to the lighthouse was a way for Jacob to show Jack how important he really is. There is something he must do, but he must do it on his own. Jacob also informs Hurley that someone bad is going to the Temple and Hurley wants to warn them but Jacob says it’s too late. My theory on this is that Flocke will get there and kill every other and lostie that is within that temple. Like I said earlier, only Sayid and Miles are there now. I think Flocke will kill them all and all of the other Losties will arrive at the Temple in a montage scene to find everyone dead.

I love Jacob, I really do. I enjoy watching him speak to Hurley and he seems so sincere. It seems pretty obvious to me now that Jacob is the good one here. When Jacob tells Hurley, “Someone is coming to the island. I need you to help them find it.” I believe that statement had two meanings. He was speaking about Jack’s need to realize why he is important but I also feel that someone is still coming to the island. The name Wallace at 108 was not crossed off. I don’t want to see a new character at this point, so I am hoping that Wallace will end up being Desmond or Faraday. I also wonder if Wallace might be Ilana’s last name as she is probably a candidate as well so her name should be on that wheel also.

I am sure you noticed the numbers I posted above certain sentences throughout my review. These numbers indicate everytime that Jack looked into a reflective surface. Jack also stared into a mirror when looking at his son. David served as a mirror for Jack and allowed him to look into himself and fix himself. Now that Jack has done this in the alternate timeline, I think he will also be fixed on the island, so to say. Meaning that Jack is going to figure out what he must do soon and I believe it will happen in the next episode. While he stares at the ocean and does some soul searching, he will finally come to realize that yes, he was brought to this island for a reason.

Things I Noticed

*Claire’s new baby is very, very ugly!
*I have always liked Jack but this episode made me love him.
*Hurley is still wearing a red shirt.

Best Lines

*Dogen – Go back to the courtyard.
Hurley – I’m a candidate and I can do what I want.
Dogen – Who told you that?
Hurley – It doesn’t matter. Why don’t you go back to the courtyard?
Dogen - #$&*(%@^%&$$&

*Jack – Jacob, where is he?
Hurley – He’s kind of dead. He just turns up whenever he wants like Obi Wan Kenobi.

*Claire – We gotta get that cleaned up. One thing that’ll kill you around here is an infection.

*Hurley – What if we time travled to like dinosaur times and then we died and got buried here. What if these skeletons are us? (referring to Adam & Eve at the caves). I think the writers are trying to tell us something here.