Lost: Season 6, Episode 9 Review: Ab Aeterno

Ab Aeterno

Original Airdate: March 23, 2010

Writer: Melinda Hsu Taylor and Greggory Nations
Director: Tucker Gates

Richard Alpert is an interesting character as far as the evolution of his role is concerned.  Initially, he was just a plot point: he recruited Juliet and hung out in Dharmaville, the end.  However, in “The Man Behind the Curtain”, the reveal that he looked in 1977 the same as he does in the present added an intriguing layer.  Since then, the anticipation for a Richard centric episode picked up where the anticipation for a Rousseau centric episode left off.  On a show like Lost, the characters who know something always stand out, and who better than someone who has been on the island longer than almost everyone else?  Taking a break from the flash-sideways storyline, this episode consists largely of one single flashback of how Richard arrived on the island and the beginning of the current cycle of Jacob’s social experiment.  There are some long awaited answered delivered here, which as the season heads into its second half, should be coming at a much faster pace.

Richard’s story begins in 1867, the earliest flashback by a few days.  Richard, then known as Ricardo, cares for his dying wife, who desperately needs medicine.  After trying to bargain it out of the doctor, a scuffle breaks out and the doctor is killed, similar to Desmond accidentally killing Kelvin.  Of course, running away with something from a dead body (and possibly because of other social systems in place), is going to make the “it was an accident” story impossible to believe.

The death of the doctor turns out to be for nothing, as Isabella died while Richard was away.  So the first segment establishes the two things that have haunted Richard for 140 years: not getting absolution for accidentally killing the doctor and not being able to save the love of his life.  This also introduces the second important piece of Richard’s back story, his faith.  Offering the cross as payment, learning English by reading the Bible and pleading for absolution for his sins reinforce this as well.  Richard is an unquestioning believer, so when one of his fellow prisoners on the Black Rock spots Tawaret and claim it is the Devil, it’s easy for him to believe he is in hell and that any chance he can have to receive absolution or redemption would be taken.

Alpert being on the Black Rock trumps all the obvious answers of the past few seasons, from “Michael is the inside man on the freighter” and “Eloise is Daniel’s mother”.  This is just one flaw of doing a story on episodic television: the audience can get a hold of how the writers think, and while the best writers always try to stay a few steps ahead of their fans, inevitably some details get lost.

This episode answers three major questions: what was Alpert’s involvement on the Black Rock, how the ship wound up in the jungle and how the statue broke down.  For a long time, I had a huge issue with the idea that a wooden ship could somehow bring down a rock statue, but the pressure of a tidal wave would be more than enough to do it.  It probably would’ve been wrecked more when it crashed on the island, but maybe I’m making too much about it.

Another interesting detail: Richard’s arrival is the first of many groups to arrive during storms: Rousseau’s team, Desmond, the Freighties would follow.  Of those who crashed, only 815 happened during a clear day (316 landed).

Johnny sees a golden opportunity and makes Richard believe that Jacob has taken Isabella, safe to assume he was just taking her form, and wearing him down by leaving him there around his rotting comrades.  Of course, this is another parallel to The Stand, where Randall Flagg rescues a starving Lloyd from the prison where he is the sole survivor of the outbreak of Captain Tripps, only in this case the Lloyd stand in sided with the Mother Abigail stand in.

Freeing Richard made him putty in Johnny’s hands, ready to kill “the devil”.  Much like Ben in season five, Johnny manipulates Richard to do his bidding.  Knowing that Richard crashing occurred within 24 hours of Johnny & Jacob’s first encounter, it adds a context similar to Ben finding out he has a tumor within a few days before Jack crashed on the island.  It’s like if the island has some weird wish fulfillment program.

Richard comes across the statue, and much like The Dude, gets roughed up by a character played by Mark Pellegrino.  From here he realizes that he is not dead and joins with Jacob, something Johnny isn’t too pleased with.  A few interesting details here: the knife Johnny gives Richard is the same one (or looks close enough to) that Dogen gave Sayid in “Sundown” and they even give similar instructions.  They also made a point of accenting the fact that Johnny touched Richard, something other characters haven’t done or make a point of not doing.

While recruiting Richard, Jacob explains the purpose of the island with an analogy for wine.  This, where the cork is the island keeping Johnny from getting out, is a little wonky.  A better one would be that the island is the bottle, and Jacob’s magic is the cork, which makes Johnny smashing the bottle at the end possibly foreshadow what is going to happen.

The final scene between Jacob and Johnny is interesting.  While we’re supposed to believe Johnny is the bad guy (and has loads of evidence to support that), his motivations make sense.  Titus Welliver really pulls off the frustration of a guy who was betrayed and lost his “humanity”.  Of course, we still don’t know what he did to warrant this treatment from Jacob, but the second guessing adds a nice layer to what’s going on.

Certainly some people are unhappy over the explanation that Richard’s unaging came from Jacob touching him.  While I can understand not being happy over an answer (something that will surely be an issue in the final episode) what did these fans expect?  Was there a reasonable explanation for a guy not aging in 140 years?  If the Star Wars prequels taught us anything, it’s that trying to excessively explain something inherently magical destroys its magic (midichlorians anyone?)  Fantasy writers tow a thin line, and Lost generally does that balancing act well.

Richard’s flashbacks explain a lot about his current state of crazily running through the jungle trying to take up Johnny on his open door invitation to return to his side.  Through 140 years, Richard’s felt that working for Jacob was penance for accidentally killing the doctor.  Now his leader is gone and he can’t die or be reunited with his beloved.  The penance he’s been working for for over a century seems to have been lost.

As he has been all season, Hurley proves to be a valuable helper, using his gift to have Richard communicate with Isabella in a way more vivid than has been shown before.  Perhaps that was the island intervening, or maybe Johnny’s attempt to be manipulative went the other way thanks to Hurley’s intervention.  Regardless, it takes the purposeless Richard a new goal: keep Johnny from leaving, or else “[they] all go to hell”.

One thing that doesn’t fit in this episode is Ilana’s flashback.  Expanding upon her first, Jacob’s visit explains that her mission, which she has been training for her whole life, is to protect the remaining six candidates.  Besides placing her flashback close to her arrival on the island, it doesn’t add much to the episode that couldn’t have been done with the exposition that was happening at the beach.

So the Richard episode more or less lived up to the hype.  Did I enjoy it as much as most people, who compared it on the level of “The Constant”?  No, the Isabella/Richard catharsis, while good, pales to Desmond and Penny’s phone call.  Maybe I wanted too much, like the four hour back story covering all 140 years, the first time out, but upon second viewing I saw a lot more of the positive knowing what it was compared to what I wanted it to be.  It had some great character development and revealed a lot more to the long standing rivalry between Jacob and Johnny, not to mention a great performance from Nestor Carbonell, who really utilized his time in the spotlight.

Overall Score: 9/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 8 Review: Recon

Recon

Original Airdate: March 16, 2010

Writer: Elizabeth Sarnoff and Jim Galasso
Director: Jack Bender

After the best flash sideways to date in “Dr. Linus”, this episode is a step down.  Perhaps it is just the inevitable disappointment after a great episode, but also the flash sideways suffered from tackling too much for so little screen time.  It felt at best like a “Part 1” subplot and at worst like a bigger story that got hacked to pieces with a machete.  The main story is far better, setting up Widmore’s arrival and the questions that come from that.

Unlike past flash sideways, Sawyer’s LA X life is a mixed bag.  He has a more respectable career as an LAPD detective (where was Ana-Lucia?), using his overall talent at conning for undercover work.  He also must be a Jimmy McNulty sized legend in the department as his back up in the sting operation presumably were listening in as he had sex with the very attractive Jodi Lyn O’Keefe.

However, he has not gotten over his parents’ deaths and still vows revenge on Anthony Cooper.  So despite being on good terms with Locke in this reality, LA X Anthony Cooper still has a checkered past.  So does that mean he still is the man who ruined Sawyer’s life or is he mistaken?  With that and the redemption some characters have found in the LA X timeline, this could end with LA X Sawyer forgiving Cooper for what he’s done instead of exacting a brutal revenge when he finds him.

He also is pretty sloppy with his plans.  It turns out he did nothing to stop LA X Kate at the airport because he didn’t want anyone to know he was at the airport instead of Palm Springs (are there no video cameras in LAX?)  Then he calls up the Anthony Cooper suspects at his desk with his phone.  I’ve seen enough CSIs and Dexters to know this is going to raise a red flag when Cooper’s body shows up.

While I enjoy seeing the cameos from past cast members, I didn’t buy the romance between Charlotte and Sawyer.  It makes sense Chang would know Charlotte if her parents worked in Dharma with him, but clearly this was meant to be Juliet.  It would’ve had a bigger emotional impact had it been her getting too close to his past, but sadly Elizabeth Mitchell is busy on another show, so instead of cutting it, they replaced the woman.  They needed that bit to drive that wedge between him and Miles, but Sawyer’s lies about where he was could’ve done the trick just as well.

Charlotte rejecting Sawyer motivates Sawyer to talk to Miles, but an episode of Little House on the Prairie convinces him to apologize in the first place.  The “Previously On…” podcast, among other places, criticized this shorthand as lazy.  While there is some truth to this, Sawyer’s epiphany should’ve been rewritten when they couldn’t get Elizabeth Mitchell back, it calls back season three, where Sawyer mentioned watching it when he was sick at home as a child.  That show was a source of comfort for him during a tough time, so the connection with his past telling him to move on worked.

The end of the flash sideways, where LA X Sawyer runs into Kate, doesn’t feel like the pay off this story was heading to this episode.  It feels like something they wanted to do, so it literally crashed into the plot.  They must’ve been trying for something ambiguous, as Sawyer is out for himself despite aligning with Johnny’s group.  However, it seems like the episode would’ve been better built around LA X Sawyer finding LA X Cooper and what he would’ve done to him.

On the island, Johnny and the rest of the survivors from the Temple massacre arrive at camp.  Here he tries to comfort Zack & Emma after he tells them the Smoke Monster killed them, well aware that he and it are the same.  Despite hating Jacob, he is as manipulative as his counterpart ever was.  It seems that the siege was to get people behind him, it didn’t matter who he killed.

It turns out their plan to get off the island isn’t going to be as easy as expected, with Sawyer having to head to Hydra Island to see if the Ajira plane is still flyable and to gain the trust of the people still on there.  Considering the Smoke Monster can break off into several pieces, it may not be hard to believe that part flew over to the other island and saw what happened.  Sending Sawyer over had to be part of a contingency plan to accommodate the new arrivals.

Sawyer arrives to find the remaining survivors, or at least some of them, of Ajira 316 dead and a woman named Zoe pretending to be one of them.  It turns out she is one of the people on Widmore’s submarine, which apparently didn’t hire any mercenaries.  It’s not far fetched to believe Widmore’s people are the ones responsible for the remaining survivors’ deaths, which he denies, but admits that that will be viewed with a jaundiced eye.  In Widmore’s defense, the bodies have already begun to rot and are swarmed by flies, something that wouldn’t happen in the short time Widmore has been back.

So he strikes a deal with Widmore: lie about their presence and lead Johnny to their door.  However, as soon as he gets back to the main land, he alerts Johnny that he lied to Widmore and tells him everything.  It’s all a part of his plan to distract them while he hijacks the sub and makes a run.  Sawyer’s gotten a lot of grilling from fans who think this is a little far fetched.  Piloting a plane is hard enough assuming they can get Frank to do it, let alone forcing whoever in Widmore’s team to operate the sub and get them off the island.  Despite Holloway’s attempts to sell it, it still sounds naïve.

As Sawyer’s in it for himself, what does this mean to his promise to Jin to help him get off the island as well?  Sawyer has taken a dark turn this year, but he worked with Jin for three years during their time in Dharma.  Will he make one last redemptive action or screw over others for his rescue?  Not to mention there is the inevitable obstacle of those still unexplained people who attacked the Losties in the outrigger during the flashes.  Those people have to be a group of the people on the island now.

Back in Johnny’s camp, Kate and Claire hash out their differences and it is, to say the least, awkward.  It’s worsened with Johnny not realizing that maybe making Claire angry for three years and able to access sharp objects was a bad idea.  While intervening, there appears to be some weird father-daughter relationship going on, possibly because Christian was one of Johnny’s forms.

While trying to console the shaken Kate, Johnny reveals a little bit about himself when he recalls that he, like Aaron, had a crazy mother and that her behavior caused “growing pains”.  This could further add to the theory that Johnny and Jacob are brothers, with Johnny’s mother favoring Jacob.  There is an odd feeling like he expects Kate to do something about Claire so Aaron won’t have to live with the problems Johnny did or if Johnny is Aaron thanks to time loops and other island magic.  Regardless, Claire is convinced Kate was acting in Aaron’s best interest (tell her he’s with her mother already) and they make nice, but its pat nature feels forced or hiding a more malicious agenda.

So for Sawyer’s presumed last episode, we get a mixed bag.  The flash sideways were too expansive to get full coverage, possibly to deal with the fact that this is probably the last episode of it.  The main island storyline is a lot better, and luckily this episode is just a speed bump on the road to the finale.

Overall Score: 7/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 7 Review: Dr. Linus

Dr. Linus

Original Airdate: March 9, 2010

Writers: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz

Director: Mario Van Peebles

Ben’s story since “The Shape of Things to Come” has involved him reevaluating his values. Seeing the only person he truly loved get gunned down before his eyes was more than enough for him to wonder if all he’s done for the island was worth it. It lead him to lash out, having Sayid kill a bunch of guys and killing Locke personally as a last ditch effort to reunite the Oceanic 6. Despite all that he lost and what he did, he felt unappreciated and ignored by the man he served (which if Miles’ claim that Jacob still believed in Ben up to dying is true, was a serious misunderstanding) and in that frustration came the war. So Ben has a lot to atone for, and that growing burden becomes a key issue in this episode. Clearly, LA X Ben’s lecture on Napoleon was pretty spot on for himself and this episode is all about his “greatest test”. After the dark turn last week, here is the other side to a bad man and if he’ll seek redemption. In fact, it’s appropriate Ben be the one to see Sayid, who he’s partially responsible for turning dark, over the pool in the last episode. Seeing that darkness informs much his choices and perhaps the remainder of his arc.

In the strongest flash sideways to date, LA X Ben faces a moral dilemma: should he choose to advance his career and possibly help the struggling school by forcing the philandering principal out or stay quiet and ensure Alex gets a recommendation for Yale from said principal? LA X Ben has the same ambitions 815 Ben has, but instead of belief in an island he believes in taking care of his students. However, as with those on Jacob’s side, LA X Ben puts Alex over his ambitions, giving her the future 815 Ben didn’t when he had to choose between protecting himself and his daughter.

A valid argument against LA X Ben backing down is the fact that Reynolds has no bargaining chip against Ben. Ben has the e-mails and more than enough proof to bring him down and keep him from not destroying Alex’s future. However, the episode is all about proving that Ben is capable of redemption, and not playing dirtier for the sake of someone he cares about is a strong indicator of that. Arzt could use it later though.

Things are also better between Ben & his father. Roger, who ironically is being kept alive by gas Ben gives him in this reality, is more open with his regrets that he didn’t do enough to ensure a better future for his son. He also says the island was still there when they left, so if Jughead sunk the island, it took enough time for them to reunite and leave.

Back on the island, Ben’s biggest lie about Jacob comes out when Miles reads Jacob’s ashes, leaving Ben to face serious consequences. He faces a tough judge in Ilana, who doesn’t go too far from being deadly serious, especially regarding a man she considered like a father. As punishment, she tethers him and forces him at gunpoint to dig his grave. Since Ben didn’t aggressively stop the reading or hurt anyone to avoid this punishment, he may be ready to accept judgment for what he’s done.

As Ben finishes digging, Johnny shows up and offers him a deal: he’s free of Ilana’s bondage, and when he leaves with his people, Ben will get control of the island. Again, this adds to Johnny’s lies. When trying to get Sawyer on board, he dismisses the island as just a rock, but here he claims it’s still important to protect. Of course, each version is meant to sway their listener, and further points to Johnny being a bad guy.

Free, Ben high tails it to the jungle, where he comes across the rifle placed for him. He confronts Ilana and the burdens he’s been carrying spill out. This is definitely stuff Emmy reels are made for, and while people can criticize these moments for baiting, Emerson destroys in this scene. He continues to deserve all the praise he gets for giving Ben so many layers. Ben isn’t an easy character to sympathize with, but his case for redemption is convincing: no matter how well he redeems himself, it can never take back those he betrayed and lost and that knowledge has broken him.

Elsewhere Jack & Hurley, the latter of whom clearly doesn’t want to return to the ravished Temple, encounter the disheveled Richard roaming the jungle. It is an interesting direction for Richard, who previously has always been cool and in control. However, after Jacob’s death he is left without direction and wondering if his decades in service of the island were for nothing and that without said purpose he is ready to die.

Richard’s comment that those touched by Jacob can’t kill themselves puts several past events in a new context. Both Jack & Locke were stopped from killing themselves off island, and Michael’s multiple attempts in “Meet Kevin Johnson” were attributed to the island not being done with him. We haven’t seen Jacob touch Michael, but it can be assumed that it happened off camera, which explains how no measure he took worked until he was told he could go. This will probably be the closest we get to a definitive answer and I’m OK with that. Magic to some degree will answer most of these questions, but there is some reason behind a wizard like Jacob’s giving people a gift by his touch that it makes it better than a deus ex machina.

Jack completes his transformation to leader of faith in his confrontation with Richard over the dynamite. After seeing that Jacob had been watching him, he now believes he had bigger plans for Jack than getting Arzted. It’s a refreshing change from the non-involved lovelorn Jack who needed to man up last year, and necessary if he’s going to be the man Jacob needs in the war.

The nice reunion on the beach is quickly undercut with the shocking return of Widmore to the island. He hasn’t been mentioned since last season, and his absence this year was noticeable, even if they wanted to set up this twist (still cool though). It may be safe to assume Widmore is the person Jacob wanted to bring to the island, but why?

Recalling one of Lost’s influences, The Stand, the people on the island are split into two factions: Team Johnny & Team Jacob. Unfortunately Team Jacob is seriously outnumbered, outgunned and doesn’t have someone who can turn into a giant cloud of smoke and lay dozens to waste. Again, I’m inclined to think the good guys side with Jacob. While Jacob has manipulated, Johnny is giving out false promises everywhere to get people on his side. Also going into the big showdown, Randall Flagg’s team was the dominant side as well (Flagg has also been referred to as “The Man in Black”).

In the odds and ends of the episode, it’s revealed Frank slept late and missed piloting 815 (I still hope there’s time for his flashback), Sun now knows she’s a candidate and the favorite miscellaneous bit, the “shout out” to everyone’s least favorite redshirts Nikki & Paolo. Miles apparently dug up the grave, something no one else seemed to notice, and took those 8 million dollar MacGuffins for himself. There’s probably not going to be any blowback for this, but it’s just one of those callbacks for the hardcore fans.

Michael Emerson once again proves to be one of the finest actors working on TV. Of course, it helps that he gets such great material to work with. As the last episode darkly showed Sayid forsaking redemption, it was nice to see a character try so hard to claim it, even if no rewards would reclaim what he lost.

Overall Score: 9/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 6 Review: Sundown

Sundown

Original Airdate: March 2, 2010

Writer: Paul Zbyszewski and Graham Roland

Director: Bobby Roth

Note: I’ve grown tired of referring to the person occupying Locke’s body by the nickname Man in Locke. So until he is given a name, I will refer to him as Johnny, both because he has the form of John Locke, and Man in Black, what he’s referred to officially, is best known as the nickname for legendary country singer Johnny Cash. For reviews I’m behind on, I will not incorporate any real name given until the episode that happens in.

Playing off our expectations of following season one’s centric episodes and the word play of the title, this episode instead focuses on Sayid (100 episodes after his first one). The characters lives are falling into two categories, and LA X Sayid’s life is closer to LA X Kate’s than LA X Jack & Locke. While Sayid at first seems to have a fine life, he doesn’t feel he deserves the love of his life Nadia, who married his brother Omer despite the lingering feelings between her and Sayid. Then when he is called upon to help Omer when he falls into debt with mobsters, he returns to his nature to act brutally and more with his emotions than reason.

In one of the best sideways appearances, Keamy shows up as the man to whom Omer owes money. Keamy’s core personality, ruthless and out for money, makes him a good fit for a gangster. Like every gangster in recent memory, he has an affinity for cooking (when did this become a thing for TV and movie mobsters?) Kevin Durand is having a lot of fun here, channeling Christopher Walken way more than he was in the fourth season.

A pattern has emerged in the flash sideways: those who have sided with Jacob found redemption in their flash sideways, while those who side with Johnny find themselves falling back on old habits. Sayid reverts to his violent past as he ambushes LA X Keamy’s men and doesn’t forgive Keamy when he promises to forget Omer’s debt.

No sooner are the guys dispatched does Sayid hear Jin banging on the side of the refrigerator door. This encounter really boosts the flash-sideways standing. It reminds me of season one where these collisions would spark hours of discussion and debate. It’s a step in the right direction.

In the master timeline, Sayid is also asked to intervene in the growing island conflict by killing Johnny. Ever since his resurrection, The Others have been wary of Sayid, and failing Dogen’s test isn’t helping either. After a well choreographed fight scene and brief banishment, Dogen sends Sayid on this mission to prove that there’s still good in him. It is up for debate whether Dogen meant this as a redemptive measure or if Johnny was right that Dogen assumed that Sayid would’ve been killed on sight. Johnny did speak before Sayid stabbed him, but how that affects the potency of the knife is weird. Also Dogen isn’t above manipulating events so he doesn’t dirty his hands.

Considering his history with Dogen, Sayid believes the latter. Many people assume that being “claimed” means that Johnny has you on his side. While I’ve stated my issues with possession and character development, it’d make sense that Sayid would go against Dogen considering he’s tried to kill him. Thankfully the writers aren’t using possession as a shortcut.

Johnny also lures Sayid with the promise of bringing Nadia back to him. This is another promise to someone on his side that uses what they value most against them. He’s already lied to Claire about Aaron, so are we to believe he is the necromancer he claims?

Sayid returns with the warning Claire was unable to give: choose Johnny or be killed and they have to make a choice by sundown. Johnny seems to have a great knack for planning, as no sooner does Sayid kill Dogen & Lennon does he come roaring in. This may point to “claiming” allowing Johnny to have some access into what Sayid is going through, and therefore was able to get Sayid to do what he wanted them to do.

Before drowning, Dogen reveals his backstory: after partying with co-workers following a promotion, he gets in an accident leaving his son in a grave condition. He makes a deal with Jacob to save his son but he must come to the island and he can never see his son again. Ultimately his story is a lot like Juliet’s, although she didn’t know that she would never see Rachel again. Dogen’s baseball is like “Downtown” in that they are the only reminders they have of those they left behind. To illustrate the concept of Team Jacob having a better life in the LA X world, we see Dogen with his son in LA, presumably happy.

As Dogen is drowned in the pond and Lennon’s body is thrown in shortly after, some have wondered if they can return the way Sayid did. If they did, odds are they would wind up on Johnny’s side. Besides the show not needing more characters, they served their purpose: Lennon was a supporting character at best, and Dogen, while interesting, told his story and any loose ends can be told in a flashback. Besides, him dying allowed the massacre to take place.

The massacre itself was an amazing capper to the episode. Seeing the Monster tear apart the Temple and everyone unfortunate to cross his path really felt like the first major battle of the war that’s been teased since last season, with the Jacob side brutally defeated. Closing the first third of the season, things look really bad. Redemption is forgone, bodies are strewn about the Temple and creepy Claire sings “Catch a Falling Star”. If Johnny is supposed to be the side of good, it’s going to be a hard sell to make us think otherwise.

During the chaos, Ilana, Ben, Frank & Sun wind up at the Temple, and quickly decide to hightail it out with Miles in tow. While it makes sense for them to head to the Temple, this appearance felt a little out of place, or at least the staging, like if the Scooby gang showed up in the Mystery Machine van. However, a little goofy amidst an awesome climax is pretty forgivable.

The other plot point of the episode is Kate finding Claire, thrown in the “Silence of the Lambs” hole in the Temple. Like Jin last week, why is Kate holding back valuable information? It’s four simple words: Aaron’s with your mother. No one has bothered to tell her that her mother is awake and her precious son is under her care. Of course, Kate doesn’t do herself any favors by playing up the hero card like Jack did last season and as Sawyer did in that scenario, Claire isn’t buying it. While characters withholding is a fact of Lost, there’s a limit on that.

Regardless, in Kate’s pursuit of Claire she sides with Johnny, something he apparently didn’t account for, judging by his expression. So ultimately he has way more people along for the ride than he does believers in his cause. Most of the Others now on his side switched presumably out of fear of death, Jin is prisoner and Kate is there because she wants to reunite Claire with her son. Ultimately Johnny probably doesn’t care too much about any of them so long as he gets what he wants, but is Kate a big enough x factor to cause him to tinker with that plan?

This is easily the darkest episode of Lost, with the huge body count, the open dismissal of redemption in selfish pursuits with the presumed good side decimated. No wonder Jacob got Hurley & Jack as far away from that as possible. The war is here and its impact makes an indelible impression.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 5 Review: Lighthouse

Lighthouse

Original Airdate: February 23, 2010

Writer: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof

Director: Jack Bender

I’m far from alone when I say that Lost episodes written by showrunners Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof and directed by Jack Bender are among the series best. They’re behind many of the series’ great episodes: their work on “The Constant” is more than enough to warrant a lot of good will, but with that comes high expectations. When I first saw this episode, I couldn’t help but feel let down that it wasn’t a masterpiece. However, upon seeing it again I found a lot more to like and while it isn’t on the level of the all time greats, it’s more than solid.

The episode begins with LA X Jack noticing a scar from having his appendix removed, something he doesn’t remember having happened. Although his mother claims it was removed when he was a boy, they want us to connect this with the mysterious mark on his neck in “LA X”. Some have theorized that these flashsideways are actually flashforwards, making them an epilogue for these characters. While this theory doesn’t explain the appearance of dead characters in them, it is interesting, and I’d be curious to see how such a theory can be explained if it’s true.

Contrasting 815 Jack’s pursuit of his father’s last lost weekend in “White Rabbit”, LA X Jack is struggling to be a part of his son’s life. The ingredients are there for the daddy issues: separated parents, a stubborn teenager & and a stressful situation dealing with Christian’s passing and the outing of secrets. However, despite LA X Jack’s character being similar to 815 Jack, LA X Jack uses that uncompromising nature to stay a part of his son’s life, sneaking into his ex’s house to find out about his son’s piano recital (something the mother apparently did not attend).

Keeping the mother a secret created an expectedly large amount of speculation (is this woman the same one Ted Mosby is waiting for on How I Met Your Mother). This could possibly be as simple as “she’s not important to Jack’s flashsideways story”, but that is not enough for most fans. It seems the likeliest candidate is Juliet, who was briefly involved with Jack in season four before that angle was jettisoned. Of course, Elizabeth Mitchell is tied to V, which can make getting her to Hawaii difficult if not impossible.

In the 815 timeline, Jacob shows up to give Hurley and important mission: take Jack with him to the lighthouse, where they will light the way for an important visitor. Jacob wants to help Jack become the leader he was meant to be. Unfortunately, Jack has been bogged in failure, from guilt over Locke’s death and the failure to protect most of the 815 survivors and the lie concocted during their rescue to his belief that his plan to change the future failed. On top of that, he is reminded of his troublesome relationship with his father when he comes across his coffin again.

During their quest through the jungle Jack & Hurley return to the caves, which haven’t been seen since the second season. This is a particularly nice tie to the beginning of the show. They never gave a good reason for everyone to pack up and return to the beach camp, but I’ve always assumed that the stigma of the soundstage the caves were filmed on, which was the site of a tragic massacre, was too much to deal with. Regardless, returning there Jack sees his father’s coffin, and that old pain comes back.

They also come upon the Adam & Even skeletons (much like Montand, none of the Losties buried these two in the month plus they lived there). Hurley, with all the time travel knowledge learned last season, hypothesizes that maybe these skeletons are some of the Losties who died after another jump “to dinosaur times”. As he is the voice of the audience, this theory is incredibly popular. Thanks to time travel, theories of their identity have ranged from Kate & Jack or Sawyer, Jin & Sun, Desmond & Penny and Rose & Bernard (my pick as they may not have flashed to 2007 with the rest of the 77 Losties). The writers have promised that the answer to their identities will be proof that there was always a bigger plan, and hopefully this appearance is to assure the viewers that they haven’t forgotten about this loose thread.

Not to say there isn’t a little winking about the desire for closure. As they find the caves, they stumble upon Shannon’s inhaler, the MacGuffin behind Sawyer’s first flashback episode. The location of Shannon’s inhaler is hardly a pressing question on anybody’s “Must answer before end of series” list (it was even jokingly referenced at Comic Con), so throwing that in there must be a light jab to hardcore fans who irrationally want every question answered.

They arrive at the lighthouse, which apparently no one has seen or referenced in 6 years. While I usually give Lost a pass, the “we weren’t looking for it” excuse Hurley gave just doesn’t fly. Granted, I’m happy they’re focusing on the story and not getting bogged in geography but this and the close proximity of the statue to the main beach don’t ring true. As far as it being unknown is concerned, the location scouts really help as this section of jungle doesn’t resemble anything we’ve seen so far.

At the top they find on the compass rose used to point the mirror names corresponding with each degree. Much like Man in Locke’s cave, most are crossed off except for those remaining candidates. Since most are similar, I wonder if the list in the cave is cribbed from this one, or vice versa (the former seeming more likely as the cave is far sloppier). When the compass turns to one of the numbers of active candidates, you can see something from their past, like the temple where Jin & Sun were married and Jack’s childhood home.

After not getting an audience with Jacob as to why he’s been watched his whole life, Jack flips out and destroys the lighthouse mirrors. I was a little frustrated when this happened, like to say openly “no answers right now”, but it does tie into Jack’s larger story. 815 Jack doesn’t get the moment of clarity that LA X Jack does, but has to “look out at the ocean for a little while”. It was more about getting him to this point on the road than what he was expected to do.

Despite no longer having the lighthouse, Jacob isn’t worried about the person coming to the island or Jack’s leadership, believing both will find a way of happening. His ulterior motive was to get Jack & Hurley out of the Temple because someone is coming and bad things will happen. This recalls Dogen’s comment to Jack about his choice to leave The Temple, “Everything is an option. But I would have to stop you.” Despite his clinging to the notion of free will, Jacob & The Others still intervene in some way to protect their interests, ie, the candidates at the Temple who haven’t been “claimed”.

Elsewhere, Claire’s turn as the new Rousseau (or Clousseau, despite having little to do with the Pink Panther and yes, I know that one is spelt with one s) shows the woman we knew from the first four seasons has been driven to madness far more extreme than anything we saw from Rousseau, from burying an axe into Justin’s chest to the bizarre baby made from sticks and a polar bear skull. Of course, she had a little help getting crazy.

Claire claims that she was with her “friend”, Man in Locke, for the past three years in the jungle. This may add further credence to the idea that Christian was Man in Locke the whole time. He is also the one who lied to her about who held Aaron, taking what she most valued and using it against her (a time tested Ben manipulative device). Through this deception comes a querulous relationship with The Others, who presumably burned her and stuck her with needles as they did with Sayid. Hopefully the series has time for one more centric story to fill in this last significant story of the three year gap, since this is just foundation.

What I don’t get is why Jin isn’t more forthcoming with information. He may not know that Aaron is with Claire’s mother, fair enough, but he can’t illuminate a little bit on the chaos the Island 7 and Oceanic 6 dealt with around the point she went missing. Sure he could believe she’s too mad to believe him and the episode doesn’t need unnecessary exposition, but I think he would believe knowing the truth may bring Claire from the brink.

So ultimately this episode’s biggest problem is high expectations. We want a “The Constant” every time out, but that is hard to live up to. While I may have been disappointed the first time around, the second viewing was much better, as Jack’s character got a redemptive moment in the flashsideways that he needed in this reality. What that still means is up for debate.

Overall Score: 8/10