If you're Lost, you need a lighthouse.... ZING!

While shoveling tonight I felt like Desmond in the hatch. Meticulously I shoveled small areas of my driveway. Bit by heavy bit I got rid of the snow that had been piling up for half the day. Yet even as I cleared one patch, an older patch became covered in the continuously amassing white mass. The whole thing was depressing, like a clock that keeps flipping back to 108 minutes…
But that’s neither here nor there, since Desmond, his magical button and snow are absent from this episode. Instead, LIGHTHOUSE offers us a whole bunch of crazy, Jack’s sideways offspring and Hurley continuing to play leader.

In terms of mythology this episode was merely transitional work towards something else. Claire’s setup established that she’s crazy and Jack’s reflection revealed his larger purpose. We’ll get to all of that later, but for now I want to talk about a pitiful excuse for a flashsideways.
In Jack’s flashsideways he is alone, except he does have an offspring. Christian is still dead and a bad dad. Claire is still probably his half-sister. After all of that, what are we supposed to take away from the flashsideways?
For starters, it appears that Jack is not the same fixer as he is on the island. Here he accepts that there’s “nothing we can do,” in one instance, whereas island Jack would pound Charlie or Sayid’s chest until they either came back to life or became a zombie. We’re not sure why this version of Jack is so relaxed, or for that matter how he was able to slip one past the goalie and father a child with a not present ex. This version of Jack, though, is able to break the cycle of bad parenting, as he reaches out to his son and they connect.
I found this whole dynamic very contrived and not well established. Oh, little David wears his ear buds instead of listening to me! Walt was out killing birds and becoming a ghost. I think you’re a better father Jack. Oh no, you’re not best buds. Get over yourself. You turned out fine and you’re dad told you “you haven’t got what it takes (or something like that).”
Ultimately, this was just a transitional piece establishing the kind of guy that sideways Jack is. He can change. He’s flexible. He’s got a scar on his stomach from an appendectomy that Juliet did on the island. Wait, a second, one of those things isn’t like the other…
It appears that flashsideways Jack doesn’t have a good grasp on his whole life. He doesn’t remember when he got his appendix taken out (season four on the island)? He looked at his scar with the same kind of déjà vu that we’ve seen in Desmond’s flash from season three, which I maintain is the same vein as what we’re seeing now. There’s got to be some payoff here, especially since it is not separate from the island story. We’ve had flashbacks that impacted our characters. We’ve had flashsideways that were the product of our island stories. And now we have flashsideways that can’t just be isolated events. They’re not parallel or alternate realities.
Speaking of which, does Sensei’s appearance at the concert mean he isn’t a thousand years old on the island either? Does Dogen know who sideways Jack is? Why did he say his “son has a gift?” Was he just being nice?
My only other takeaways from this story was that I loved David’s tie. That’s the same color tie I wanted for Christmas and it’s the tie I actually tried to steal from my dad this morning before ripping the thing on the back that snags the other end (shhhh. Jim hasn’t seen that yet). Also, this David is not a real baseball fan. Jack says the kid likes the Red Sox, but he’s wearing a Dodgers hat in a picture. Plus, the Shepards are traditionally winners, so they should like the Yankees. This flashsideways is trippy, like a bad night of drinking. A bad night that Jack apparentlty hasn’t had in a while, since it seems like this Jack has overcome his drinking problems. But I think that plays into him breaking this cycle his dad started. Did you notice the expensive liquor?
Let’s go back to the island, where nothing actually happened. We uncovered a few fun nuggets, but this part was pretty pointless. I will concede this, though, that Hurley was amazing in this episode.
So Claire is nuts. No way around that. She’s got an infection all right, and it’s syphilis that drove her crazy. I’ll assume she had sex with Mac/Aldo’s corpse or the Man in Locke banged her and that’s how she got it. Mix a little Dharma beer and a thirty year old Dharma condom and that’s a recipe for spreading disease.
I didn’t think Claire could survive on her own, especially the way she sterilized the instruments she used. I think we all remember what an idiot Claire was in the first four seasons.
The only thing of note from Claire’s ridiculous scenes was the introduction of her “friend,” who turns out to be MiL. This merely raised questions for me, like when did they become friends? What happened to the ghost of Christian that was guiding her? I think that answer is sort of the same, since to me, both Christian and MiL are versions of the ghost monster/Man in Black. I think this nutter has been showing private nutso the ropes for three years. I don’t really want to speculate more, yet, except that to say that her backstory will be fascinating.
When was Claire infected, if she was infected? Before the others kidnapped her, like when she decided to go with Christian? Do you not need to die and go in murky water to get infected?
I did enjoy the zen version of Kate, who calmly brushes off Jacks’ invitation. When she says, “I hope you find what you’re looking for,” to Jack, I did a double take. Normally she’s like Jack-lite, sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong or joining any posse that seems to be heading for trouble. Not this Kate.
I also liked shades of Jack during this episode, which had him in WTF mode for most of the episode until the end. He was very revealing to Hurley, in a way that was sharply contrasted by his tight lipped persona during the first five seasons. Traditionally he keeps everything bottled up until he can yell, but now it just sort of rambles out. Sure, I blew things with Kate. Yeah, I’d be a terrible dad.
I think this all stems from what he now views as the futility of his life, and this mission more specifically. He came to the island to escape the troubled feelings in the real world. “[He] came back here because [he] was broken, and [he] was stupid enough to think this place could fix [him] (Imagine it in first person, and it’s really good).”
He still feels mixed up inside, and I think he feels that salvation will forever be denied. I think it’s coming, though, and he just needs to fulfill his purpose. His purpose stemming from the fact that he is a candidate, one of three hundred sixty if you’re into degrees.
Speaking of the gears, does the Jacob have a thing for turning them? One will operate a lighthouse and one operates an escape hatch of sorts. Does another one get you espresso?
The mirrors were interesting, and I liked the idea that it actually could lead someone there. I’m not sure if that’s how it actually worked, since Jacob danced around the issue when talking to Hurley. The mirrors themselves seemed like more of an introspective tool than anything relating to a lighthouse. It’s also possible it was a way for Jacob to look out at the lives of his candidates, but that seems farfetched for someone who appears to be a supernatural being to some degree.
Let’s assume that the lighthouse was signaling someone, then who was it? Widmore? Desmond? The sideways castaways?????? Those are the only three guesses I have, and I’m leaning toward Desmond. Widmore appears to have speculated correctly about the upcoming battle, which originally seemed like it would be between him and Ben, but it never seemed like he planned on coming back to the island. It could be the sideways castaways, but Jacob implied a singular person (not that I trust him all that much). So I think it’s Desmond.
Finally, I’d like to give a nod of congratulations to Hugo in this episode. He was great. I’ve never liked Hurley, in fact I’ve disliked/hated him. Never found him charming, resented the fact he couldn’t lose weight and thought he should have died (Can’t fault him for going after Libby, even if the implausibility of it all drove me crazy).
Here are Hurley’s highlights in the episode:
• “I’m a big fan of temples, and history. Indiana Jones stuff.”
• “I’m a candidate and I can do what I want.”
• “You made me write too much stuff, and I just lied to a samurai.”
Great, right?!??!?!
So that’s my LOST reaction and contemplative thoughts in the aftermath of the third episode. It wasn’t great, or really that good, but it wasn’t bad. We got a little tease, but generally some unsatisfying payoffs (especially by just abandoning the lighthouse).
I’m not sure I like the gradual escalation that has been mounting this season. A big payoff is insanely hard to pull off, because you have to wrap up all your loose ends at once. I’d like to kill off some characters and finish some threads early on, before we have the battle of epic proportions. This needs to be done like The Wire, which almost took glee in killing off characters during its final season. There was still a big finale, but it was more manageable that way.
I know, I know, I shouldn’t doubt the LOST writers. And I won’t. I’m confident it will be great. I hope it will be great. I will lose my s@*t if it isn’t perfect.
Your thoughts on the episode and this season????