Lost 6.05: "Lighthouse"

“Okay, it’s bad enough you already made me write down way too much stuff, and I just lied to a Samurai.”

-Hurley

I think that “Lighthouse” may just be the first Jack-centric episode of Lost that I actually liked. It’s not really because of the Jack that we already know in the 2007 timeline. He’s still as insufferable, self-centered, and petulant as ever. I liked this episode because sideways-verse Jack actually seemed to show some character growth. Another possible reason for my liking this episode was that a great deal of the on-Island action took place away from the Temple. Something about the temple just feels forced to me. The set design is sub-par, and I haven’t connected to the new characters yet. Not to mention that I kind of resent new characters being introduced this late in the game.

Anyway, once again, I preferred the sideways-verse story to the on-Island story in this episode. Sideways!Jack’s story begins with a quite shocking reveal. Jack enters his apartment, heads into the bathroom, and looks curiously at his appendectomy scar. He is interrupted by a call from his mother, who is still in disarray after Christian’s death. Jack offers to come over to house to help look for Christian’s will, but at the last second, he realizes he had another errand he was supposed to run. He pulls up to a school, and the first big reveal of the episode takes place. Jack is at the school to pick up his son, David.

Jack and David clearly have a rocky relationship. David spends most of his time with his mother (the identity of whom has not yet been revealed, but there are many intriguing possibilities), and he only visits Jack about once a month. Jack seems to be trying to connect with David, desperately trying to make conversation, but David, who seems to be a typical young teenager, isn’t having any of it. He just wants to get through his time with Jack and not really have any type of conversation. Jack has to run off to help his mother, so that doesn’t really help things. Jack’s mom does indeed find Christian’s will, and she wants to know if Jack has any idea who “Claire Littleton” is.

Jack arrives back home to a really scary situation- David is missing. David isn’t at his mother’s house, either. On David’s answering machine, Jack finds a clue to the whereabouts of his missing son. There’s a message from a local music conservatory telling David that his audition is at 7:00. Jack arrives just in time to see David perform beautifully. The only complaint I have about the sideways-verse story in this episode is that there was only one fun character connection, and it’s a character that I care nothing about. Dogan and his son are at the audition, too, and they compliment Jack on David’s performance.

Jack finds David outside at the bike rack, and David isn’t happy that Jack saw the audition- David thinks he missed a few notes. Jack thought it was perfect. It turns out that David had been so distant recently because he didn’t want Jack to see him fail the audition. He knew Jack loved the fact that he played the piano. Showing a lot more maturity and depth than the Jack we know ever did, Jack tells David that in his eyes, David can never fail- he’ll love David no matter what. Instead of making him petty and petulant, Christian’s emotional abuse of Jack in the sideways-verse has made him a wonderful father. Who would have thought.

On the Island, Jack, Hurley, Miles, and Sayid are still hanging at the Temple. They’re not being at all productive, in fact Hurley and Miles are passing the time playing tic tac toe. All this changes when Hurley gets another Jacob vision. Jacob wants Hurley and Jack to take a secret passage out of the Temple. Dogan catches Hurley checking out hieroglyphics looking for the secret passage and wants Hurley to go back outside. Jacob appears again and tells Hurley to say he’s a “Candidate.” Hurley doesn’t quite understand, but he does what he’s told, and Dogan leaves him alone. Hurley finds the secret passage, but now there’s a bigger challenge- get Jack on board with the plan. Thankfully, Jacob has a suggestion for that, too. All Hurley has to do is tell Jack that Jacob said Jack “has what it takes,” and Jack is ready and raring to go, all with angry undertones, of course. He wants to talk to Jacob, and he wants to talk to him NOW. Of course.

When Jack and Hurley arrive at Jacob’s intended destination, they see a very old lighthouse. There’s a fun little bit of meta humor where Jack and Hurley wonder why they never saw the lighthouse before. The lighthouse utilizes a large mirror, and Hurley instructs Jack that it needs to be turned to 108 degrees. As Hurley begins to turn the mirror, Jack notices various buildings passing by in the reflection. He also notices that names are written next to every degree marker on the dial in front of the mirror, including his own, next to 23 degrees. Jack immediately demands that Hurley turn the mirror to 23 degrees (wouldn’t want to just follow Jacob’s direction when he’s got a chance to make this all about himself). Hurley does as he’s told, and Jack sees his childhood home reflected in the mirror.

Jack wants to talk to Jacob right NOW even more than he did before, and when Hurley tells him it doesn’t work like that, Jack throws the mother of all tantrums. It’s obnoxious, even on a Jack scale. He picks up the lighthouse’s telescope and smashes all the mirrors. Later, Jack just sits and looks out at the ocean while Hurley has another conversation with Jacob. Hurley is worried that the person Jacob says “is coming” (Desmond…I wish…alas, we probably won’t see him much for the rest of the series) won’t be able to find the Island now that the lighthouse is broken, but Jacob says it’s okay. Everything will work out somehow. I kind of like Jacob’s worldview. He’s very chill.

The C story of the episode is Jin’s adventures with feral Claire. Claire lets Jin out of the painful looking trap, and Jin passes out from the pain as soon as he tries to walk. He wakes up in what could best be described as Claire’s “burrow.” Claire drags in one of the Others, who had just been pretending to be dead. She wants to interrogate the Other on Aaron’s whereabouts. While Claire is outside sharpening her axe, the Other warns Jin that Claire is going to kill them both. Claire certainly does seem interested in killing the Other when he continues to say that he doesn’t know where Aaron is. She’s about to swing her axe when Jin says that Kate took Aaron. Claire doesn’t believe him, and she kills the Other anyway. Claire tells Jin that both her father and her “friend” told her that the Others had Aaron at the Temple. At the end of the episode, we see just what Claire’s friend is. The Smokemonster/Man in Black/Locke.