"Lighthouse"

JANUARY 23, 2011

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 6.5
AIRED: FEBRUARY 23, 2010

Oooh, spooky – the 108th hour of Lost aired on the 23rd of the month. They DID plan this whole show out! I shouldn’t joke though, as “Lighthouse” is actually a really good episode, focusing on pretty much the last bit of Jack’s resistance to the idea that they were on the island for a reason being washed away due to a magic lighthouse. Lost being the only show that could get away with introducing a magic lighthouse, I quite liked this concept, with each bearing on the lighthouse wheel corresponding to a Candidate’s house (which seems kind of worthless though - what if they go to work?).

I also liked that it was a rare team-up between Jack and Hurley. In 6 years, I am pretty sure this was their only island adventure together without anyone else around, despite what Hurley claims is a return to “old times”. They make for a good pair, and I wish it wasn’t so rare that they got to play off of each other. It’s cute that Hurley thinks he’d be a good dad too.

And it’s a fitting line, since the flash sideways deals with Jack’s son. Whaaa? While the other changes in the sideways world were largely “well since the island isn’t there, this person is now on the mainland” based, with the basics still the same – Claire still an unfit mother, Kate on the run, Locke in a wheelchair, etc. But where the hell did Jack’s son come from? How did the lack of an island have THIS much of a change in his life? We don’t see the mother in this episode, and we find out later who it is, which makes more sense out of it (another “they didn’t have an Island to be on” explanation). Thus, knowing what all these scenes mean, Hurley’s comment takes on a new meaning – perhaps this comment was fresh in Jack’s mind as he was dying (which occurs in, what, a few days?), and part of his “letting go” process was accepting that he was never going to be a father, which is kind of depressing. Poor Jack.

But this subplot also kind of annoys me once you realize that it wasn’t real, since it was one of the few genuine moments of emotion that we got in the season prior to the big finale. Jack talking to his mom, realizing that his kid might be afraid of him the same way he was of his own father; the big teary moment after the concert, etc – these are all terrific character moments. And they’re not real. What IS real? Claire killing a guy with an axe and a guy named Dogen trying to stop Hurley from pressing magic stones.

Oh, and a reminder of Adam and Eve, with Hurley even helpfully offering a popular fan theory, that the skeletons were those of some Oceanic survivors (Rose and Bernard or Kate and Sawyer being the most popular theories, if memory serves), as the result of time travel. Of course, that wasn’t true, but just the fact that it was brought up really awkwardly was a pretty big clue that it would be one mystery they didn’t plan to leave unanswered. You know, like the one about Christian’s body. I had actually forgotten about it until Jack explained about the coffin (I guess no one mentioned it when they were LIVING there?) – why did Christian’s body disappear? If it was “taken” by the Man in Black so he could appear as Christian at various points throughout the seasons, why was Locke’s body left intact? One way is “wrong”, no matter how you slice it, and this is an instance of a time they should have just kept ignoring it, rather than remind the audience about their sloppy writing.

I also don’t get why they brought up Jack’s appendix. They went to the trouble of applying the scar makeup to Matthew Fox, but never made any sense out of it. His mom tells us that he had it out when he was 7, so there’s an explanation – but one that doesn’t make any sense when you consider the true nature of these scenes. Why does his dying “fantasy” include elaborate explanations for things that happened to him on the island? I mean, I’m sure I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: I don’t mind the concept of this being their “waiting room” before moving on in the afterlife, I just hate how needlessly confusing and inconsistent it is.

For no real reason I’d like to point out that I also (re-)watched the movie Let Me In today, and the kid who played Jack’s son also played the bully in that film, so it was kind of funny to see him playing a total jerk who picked on the type of kid he himself was playing here (especially when you consider Jack himself was bullied as a kid). LEVELS, man.

Where are we?