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