TUIW Conversation: Lost – “Lighthouse”

Each week, after taking a couple days to digest the episode and read what the blogs are says, we’re going to have a TUIW Conversation about Lost to try and unpack the episode, bounce theories off each other, and see if we can’t figure out what’s going on with our favorite group of TV castaways (sorry Gilligan!)

Jonah: All right, Michael, we’re a couple days removed from “Lighthouse,” which has been surprisingly controversial within the Lost community. I’m sympathetic to the notion, especially following last week’s mindblowing episode, that not as much was going on this week, especially for a Cuse/Lindelof episode. But I think that those people are kind of missing the point. This is still a season of Lost, even if its the last one, and they still need to take their time and put the pieces into place (and then immediately smash those pieces with a stick). Unlike Battlestar, which kind of lost the plot towards the end, what’s happening with these early episodes of Lost doesn’t make me think the writers are stalling or have no idea where its going…rather they’re positioning the dominos so it will be all the more satisfying when they’re knocked down. This week we saw just how wide-reaching the effects of the alternate timeline are (from changing when and where Jack got appendicitis to bringing Dogen, of all people, to the same LA recital as Jack to ensuring that there would be another Shepard with daddy issues in the world), got some more insight into what Jacob’s deal is, and caught up with Claire; not to mention the fact that, as an hour of television, it was affecting and funny. Were you satisfied by “Lighthouse” or am I going too easy on it? Are people pulling the ripchord just when things are getting interesting?

Michael: I was pretty satisfied. I think the big issue fans are running into has to do with ABC promoting every episode as “the final episodes!” We still have 13 hours of Lost left to go, and “Lighthouse” moved us towards the end, but didn’t put us immediately there. I think this is an episode that will seem much more significant when you go back and watch the season as a whole. It was about Jack starting to believe that he was on that Island for a reason. He had to be broken down to the lowest possible state before he could go back to the Island, and it’s going to take something more than Hurley being messenger for the ghost of Jacob to convince him of what he’ll need to do. Noel Murray had a good suggestion that Jack smashing the mirrors in the Lighthouse had less to do with Jack turning into the Hulk, and more Jack resisting the truth that there is a bigger reason as to why he’s there other than coincidence. I’ve always found it strange that Jack just wanted to go home and forget about everything that has happened. Of the Oceanic Six, he’s the only one who went back and did exactly what he did before. He’s resisted that there is something bigger there, and Lighthouse was about him starting to realize that. Moving on, what do you make of crazy Claire? Is she Rousseau 2.0 or a completely different beast?

J: Another interesting point about Jack smashing the mirrors raised by the AV Club comments section: it signifies even more that Jacob’s endgame is at hand. If his plan was for Jack to smash the mirrors, he must not be planning on bringing any more candidates to the island, so this is it. An interesting thought, for sure. As for crazy Claire, I’m intrigued by these first insights into the Infection. Claire remembers who she was and has the same basic objective as old-Claire (her bayybee), but she’s obviously way more violent and nuts. I’m still curious what the relationship is between Smokey and the Sickness. Is it related to Smokey’s nature? Another manifestation of the light/dark duality? Or are the infected just easier for Smokey to manipulate? Either way, with her, Smokey, and Sawyer headed for the Temple (which Sayid is also inside), I’m a little worried for the people still inside. What I can’t figure out is whether or not the Rousseau allusions (crazy Jungle lady, looking for her child, convinced the Others have the kid) are simply another sly way of tying season 6 back with season 1 or if there’s greater significance to it. Is there something more to the Claire/Rousseau connection? And what did you think about AlternaJack, his AlternaSon, and the super-random Dogen cameo?

M: I think we need maybe one more episode with Claire to see if there’s a definite Rousseau connection past the craziness, so we’ll see. As for AlternaJack, I actually thought that was a great storyline. If that kid is 13-15 in 2004, that means he was born way before Jack married Claire Dunphy, so that means there was a past for Jack that is completely different than the one we know. I’m excited to see where that goes. I think the Dogen interaction was meant to be more than a random connection. All of the other meetings of the characters in the FlashSideways have been similar to the relationships on the Island, so I’m thinking it’s more than chance that Dogen and Jack were in the same place. I keep coming back to the thing with Jack’s appendicitis. He seemed completely confused by the scar, almost in the same way he thought he recognized Desmond on the plane. Do you think this is Jack starting to have vague recollections of the Island? Are we getting closer to a convergence of timelines? What else stood out for you in “Lighthouse.”

J: I think the convergence may be approaching, and I’d bet it’ll be Jack who is the first one to actually become aware of it. The appendicitis was a big clue (and how weird is it that the island can affect when he has his appendix taken out?) and remember that Jack and Kate shared a moment in the airport too (which didn’t really happen with Kate and Sawyer or Claire). What else stood out for me? Well, probably the Lighthouse itself. Upon further examination, it turns out that the mirrors also showed the place where Jin and Sun got married and the church where Sawyer’s parents’ funeral took place. Note that those are both where Jacob touched them, so why Jack’s childhood home and not a hospital vending machine? I’ll go out on a limb and say that’s where Jacob touches AlternaJack, hastening the combination of the two timelines! Then there’s the fact that we learned that the Kate has a number (51) and isn’t crossed off. Also that 108 is “Wallace” (and, let’s get this out of the way: WHERE’S WALLACE, STRING????) which could mean that the whole 108 thing is misdirection from Jacob, or that Wallace is someone important we haven’t met, or (my new favorite crazy theory) Wallace=Smokey. Either way, do you think Jacob was serious when he said he was bringing someone else to the island? Who could it be? And what else did you notice?

M: Well I think the leading contender is definitely Desmond. Not only did we get a glimpse of him in “LA X,” but we had Eloise Hawking’s cryptic “the Island’s not done with you yet” comment from last year. Is it also too crazy to suggest her or Widmore, or even Aaron? Those are the only three people that have actually be on the Island that are still on the mainland that we know of, and it seems strange to just drop them and move on. There’s also Ji Yeon, but she seems a little more distantly connected than the others. What about Sawyer’s daughter? That seems like another thread that is too significant to drop, but maybe it isn’t. Perhaps it’s also a ruse by Jacob to get Jack and Hurley to the Lighthouse, a scenario that wouldn’t surprise me either. As far as anything else, we haven’t even mentioned the fact that Claire has vowed to kill Kate, who is actively looking for Claire. We know Claire is on Smokey’s side, so I’m interested to see Sawyer’s reaction to Claire’s desire to kill ol’ Freckles. Thanks to a super lame promo from ABC, it’s hard to tell what we’re going to get next week, but it’s a Sayid episode, so expect something big. Until then though, avoid infection, because if there’s one thing that will kill you on that Island, it’s infection.