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Sunday, February 28, 2010

Lighthouse- Episode 6.05

This past week’s episode, “Lighthouse” was an overall interesting and story moving episode, but it does not provide much to talk about. Let’s jump on into it!

I’m going to tackle the Flash-sideways first. In my opinion, this was the most compelling flash-sideways yet. I now know that this timeline has more to do than just the bomb going off, at least we are pretty sure. The reason why, Jack has a son, that happened way before the crash. Now unless people’s lives kept interacting over and over with each other since the incident that lead Jack to meet his wife and allowed them to have a kid, we can say that something else is the source of why things are different in this timeline. Plus, they could never set the bomb off in the flash-sideways because they never crashed on the Island in the first place to go back in time to detonate the bomb. It’s a circle. (I’m getting a nosebleed, like Charlotte and Desmond.)

So, Jack has a son (interesting), and his name is David (very interesting.) David Shepherd… Can’t you just hear the biblical metaphor screaming at you? Not to mention his grandfather’s name is Christian. This family is seeping religious overtones. Things to think about. One of biblical David’s most famous songs is Psalm 23. 23 is one of the infamous numbers and Jack is numbered 23 according to Jacob’s cave writings and on the Lighthouse dial. Also, biblical David, who was a shepherd, was also known for his musical abilities, just like Jack’s son David. Now, this doesn’t mean much to the story (most likely), but things like this are what make Lost even more enjoyable, making the connections.

Did anyone else see that Jack has been acting weird since the not-crash happened? (I don’t know what to call that) He was a little weird on the plane and now he can’t remember getting his appendix taken out. I called that his little appendectomy would be important back in my third blog post, second to last paragraph. I was a little off in my prediction, but still called that the appendectomy would certainly come back up.

Not a whole lot happens in the flash-sideways other than Jack finds out about Claire (minimally interesting) and we see Dogen at the recital. I was expecting to see Faraday since we knew that he was a stud at the piano as a child. Still, seeing Dogen means a lot, not sure what though. Perhaps the two biggest things (other than seeing Dogen) we should take away from the flash-sideways was how Jack handles being a father (as off-handedly joked about to Hurley later in the episode’s original timeline) and that we don’t know who the mother is. I like Jack in the flash-sideways, he’s a little calmer, friendlier and more mild-mannered. Was Jack married to Sarah in this timeline? He did only meet her because she crashed into Shannon’s dad. Did that happen in the flash-sideways? Maybe he never met her. Maybe he was married to someone else, another character from the show perhaps?

Basically, this episode killed a lot of time until the end. We see that our people can now start playing the “I’m a candidate” card to get away with stuff. A dead Jacob meets with Hurley to get him to perform a task, get Jack and yourself out of the temple and go to the Lighthouse. We run back into Kate and see that she is still stubborn as ever and wants to be alone (shocker). Let her go I say. Smoke-Locke can have her! She’s not even a candidate! Speaking of which, why isn’t she?

As Jack and Hurley continue on their quest to the Lighthouse, they run into their old stomping grounds, the Caves. I have no doubt the producers put them their just so they could readdress the Adam and Eve skeletons and get us thinking about that again if we had forgotten about it. Now some might be frustrated with them bringing in something as big as the Lighthouse this late into the game. I’m ok with it. I think it is a very cool aspect. I hope to see more ancient “footprints” all over the Island. Maybe these will start to show us more answers.

One quick thing I want to note about the Lighthouse. They specifically said:

JACK: I don't understand. How is it that we've never seen it [the Lighthouse] before?

HURLEY: Guess we weren't lookin’ for it.

Is this similar to the Room of Requirement in the Harry Potter series? It seems to be very close to the caves, their old stomping ground. Surely they would have seen it back in season one. I have faith that the producers have known that they wanted to have that there. I think it only appears when they need it. Some claim that it sparkled when you first saw it. I’m not sure if that is true or not, but maybe that was the first time our people were able to see it, because they were told about it and/or needed it. Invite only to the Lighthouse.

In the Lighthouse, we see that it appears that Jacob has been able to watch the candidates for a long time. Seeing the numbers lineup with degrees on the Lighthouse “mirror-table” was very cool. I’m glad to see the numbers making a comeback, especially so recently. However, as usual, Jack goes crazy and acts without thinking. NEWSFLASH: It’s not your lighthouse! You don’t know what the ramifications are for breaking it! I really can’t stand it when people don’t think before they act, so needless to say this scene did not make we want to become a Jack fan. However, with Jacob saying, “He has what it takes,” it can only mean that he will probably be the next Jacob. After all, he is the main character, and it will have been a total character redemption arc to get him there. I guess that makes for a compelling story.

Now, we can’t overlook why Jacob sent them to the Lighthouse. One reason was to get them out of harm’s way. Someone bad is going to the temple. My first guess, Claire and then after that Smoke-Locke. Possibly both. The other reason was that someone is coming to the Island. They were moving the dial to 108 degrees (the sum of the Numbers, the amount on the timer for the Swan, and the number of suitors seeking Penelope’s hand in marriage in the Odyssey (Desmond was a slave to the timer and he represents Odysseus and his longing to return home to his Penelope) Maybe you didn’t catch that the first time around). I’m told that the name “Wallace” was on the 108 spot. Now either that is a new character, or it was just a dummy name to hold the spot. I’m going to go with the second idea. I have a hunch it could be Widmore. Or it could be someone else like Ilana. Who knows, but I sure hope it is Widmore. It would be really cool to see him back on the Island, all the major players in position for this war we keep hearing about.

We have been hearing about a war coming for some time now. We now see sides being taken. I think all of this must be happening now because it appears that almost all of Jacob’s candidates have been eliminated. The next Jacob, Island protector, will be chosen soon. Smoke-Locke realizes he is so close to stopping Jacob, it’s the final push!

Last but not least (although maybe it should be least). We finally get to see and hear from Claire. Apparently she did not flash through time. I say that because she knew the Other that was with Jin and talked about how she had been taken to the Temple. Something is certainly wrong with her. She doesn’t remember just leaving her baby behind. She feels that it was stolen from her, and thinks the Others did it. Similar to Rousseau, hmmm. I do not think Rousseau is inhabiting Claire, as I once speculated based on another’s comment, but she is definitely acting a lot like Rousseau. Although, I guess we would all act similar if we had been basically alone in the jungle for years on end. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a twist or not that Smoke-Locke was Claire’s “friend,” but either way, it was kind of creepy for her to call him that. (It was also creepy that Claire had a freaky baby-like doll in a crib in her tent.) It seems that Locke now has Sawyer and Claire (possibly even Sayid). Jacob hasn’t really gained anyone but Hurley’s trust (out of our crash people, of course he has the Others and Ilana, but are we in trouble? He doesn’t seem to be too worried).

Once again, I’m still confused as to what role Christian Shepherd is playing. I no longer think he is a manifestation of Smoke-Locke, since Claire says that her father and her “friend” have been helping her. I wonder if they have been helping her together or have just had a similar agenda. Claire said that her father, Christian, told her that the Others had Aaron. Are Christian and Smoke-Locke in the same league? Do they know about each other? Maybe I’m wrong and Smoke-Locke sometimes appears in Christian’s form to gain her trust and further manipulate her. However, I’m pretty sure he is something else yet to be determined. This is based on how he has acted in the past. I’m sure he will be a major component for this show’s resolution.

By the way, please feel free to leave comments below. I would love to hear what you have to say about the show, theories or reactions to anything I say.

In the words of Jacob, “Jack is here because he has to do something. He can't be told what that is. He's got to find it himself. Sometimes you can just...hop in the back of someone's cab and tell them what they're supposed to do. Other times...you have to let them look out at the ocean for a while.”

Here are the sneak peeks ABC has put out for this week’s episode. Watch at your own risk!





Until next week when we have seen a little bit more Lost, Namaste.

Steven

1 comment:

  1. As there has been a lot of revelation in the more recent episodes, I’ll refrain from referencing the events of Sundown and Dr. Linus and stick with the theoretical.

    The Biblical themes in character names were something that my brother and I have been discussing from very early on. (My personal favorite: Benjamin, whose mother died giving birth to him, becomes the “son,” so to speak, of Jacob when he was the leader of the Others.) Like you said, I doubt that the names will have a heavy role in the plot, though I appreciate these allusions, assuming we are not reading too much into things.

    I am very interested in Jack’s strange behavior. Obviously, the sideways flashes are serving a greater purpose than just showing us what life would be like without the crash and giving us further character development. I believe it was Matthew Fox who said that the story lines would be eventually consolidated into one dynamic plot, so it is not beyond speculation that Jack’s strange behavior is going to materialize into something that is connected with the timeline on the island.

    I do like the Claire/Rousseau parallel. Although it was not the most subtle thing Lost has done, it was a neat way to give Claire’s character more dimension, which she desperately needed, in my opinion.

    While there is a lot of ambiguity about the nature of Christian Shepherd, I am going to stick with him being a manifestation of the Smoke Monster. Christian hasn’t appeared since Locke fixed the broken wheel beneath the well; additionally, Ilana (I think) said that Jacob’s nemesis can no longer change form. This leads me to believe that before Jacob was killed, the Smoke Monster could take several different shapes, including Christian, but for whatever reason he is stuck being Locke now. I think this is supported by the fact that, just before Ben kills Jacob, “Locke” says, “you have no idea what I have done to get here.” In order to get there, the nemesis in the form of Christian had to convince the real Locke to return to the mainland, die, and so on. (Honestly, the man in black did work pretty hard to find his loophole. Credit where credit is due.)

    Looking forward to reading more of your thoughts.

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