Spoilers below!
This week on LOST, sideways Jack dealt with a new kind of daddy issue, regular Jack and Hurley visited (and destroyed!) a magical lighthouse, and Claire turned out to be a whole lot scarier than we’d predicted. We had an awful lot to say about it all, so let’s jump right in …
[REMINDER: No spoilers for unaired episodes in the comments!]
So, what did everyone think?
LAUREN: Number one, I’m spoiled. I watched the first five seasons on Netflix in under two months without commercials, so the commercial breaks and the wait between episodes is EXCRUCIATING. Number two, there were a lot of good zingers, a few answers (or pseudo-answers, re: The Numbers), and two new kids. Jack had a concert pianist and Claire had a skull baby! And they are cousins!
CARA: I really liked this episode, which due to the fact that it was a Jack episode, both surprises me and makes me a little bitter! But nevermind; I think it’s my favorite of the season so far. A simple way to win my heart is to bring the Adam and Eve skeletons back into the mix. Even if we didn’t learn anything new about them — other than, if my theory about the writers introducing fan theories into the show’s dialogue is correct, they’re not any of our Losties gone time traveling.
SALLY: The only thing I didn’t like about this episode was Adam and Eve because I’m guessing we’re not going to see them ever again and, therefore, won’t know who the heck they are. Darn! But, great episode! Loved it!
CARA: No! I’m seriously hoping that they’re just reminding viewers they’re there, so that they can bring them back again with an explanation. I’m going to be really annoyed if they brought them up and got me excited for absolutely no reason.
In the flash sideways, Jack has a kid, though with no indication of who the mother is. Is he the kind of dad we thought he’d be?
CARA: You know, this flash sideways gave whole new meaning to Miles’ Season 5 quip, “That douche is my dad.” /cheap joke.
SADY: There is no end to the relationships Jack can screw up and then throw a fit about and then make sensitive cryface speeches about not wanting to screw up any more. But he actually does seem to be somewhat more giving, in this alternate reality! Less “a little push” about it all, which lends credence to the idea that these are the characters sans-Jacob.
JILL: I like Dad Jack a lot better than Real Jack. I suspect the mother is Juliet — Kate is too obvious, and of the course the mother has to be someone we know.
SADY: Oh my god! That is perfect!
CARA: Ha! I was just assuming she was Sarah (his ex-wife from the original timeline), but there are certainly other possibilities!
SALLY: I thought it’d be Sarah too, but maybe it is one of the Losties. I’m going to throw a curveball in here and say Ana Lucia, just for funsies. Also, I’m with Jill, Dad Jack is loads better, though not any less emotional.
LAUREN: This episode made me hate sideways Jack, because, well, I’ll be real — as a custodial parent with an “arrangement,” I get really irritable with plotlines that redeem absent or nearly-absent parents with one schlocky loaded moment of understanding between absent parent and child, like one moment is totally going to erase years of your disinterest and your child’s feelings of insecurity and abandonment. Readers, here is a free lesson in parenting: if you don’t know that your child is a concert-level pianist, you either aren’t paying enough attention to your kid or you aren’t speaking with your co-parent. Also, if you’re the parent keeping important information about your child’s accomplishments from your fellow co-parent out of spite, you’re a dick, and your child is going to have a lot of questions about your behavior in the future, too. Don’t let the television tell you any different. /rant
I would have made that kid get in the car and visit his grandmother in her time of need, goddammit. Anyway. At least no one erupted in endless choruses of MY SON! WHERE IS MY SON! because I would have blown up an island.
JILL: But, Lauren, HE CRIED. That makes it all better!
In an early scene, we learn that Jack had his appendix taken out as a child in the alternate universe, and he becomes briefly focused on the scar. Is this scene a small reminder that many things in the characters’ lives would have happened no matter what? Or is it perhaps some kind of sign that Jack is remembering things from his “other” life, or that the timelines may be collapsing?
JILL: What struck me about the scar scene was that his mother told him he had his appendix taken out when he was seven — so this alternate/sideways reality doesn’t just assume that the plane never crashed and things were therefore different from the flight forward, it assumes that the plane crashing was a “meant-to-be” kind of thing that impacted the characters’ lives well before the plane crash. I think Jack’s confusion about the scar must be some sort of timeline-collapse issue…?
CARA: This scene seemed a little bit too considered, and a little bit too long to just be another “lol, stuff that happened is still gonna happen!” reminder. Like the scene with Desmond on the plane, Jack seemed just a little too confused, a little bit too much like he was recognizing something but didn’t quite know what. I don’t know what it means, but I’m kind of convinced that it means something.
SALLY: Yea, I thought the scene was supposed to be Jack remembering something about the other timeline. I think it’s interesting that so far Jack is the only one who senses something is wrong – on the plane and now the scar.
Back on the island, Claire has turned even more into Rousseau than I think we originally realized — though Rousseau’s baby actually was stolen, and Claire just seems to have forgotten that she left hers on a leaf. What happened to her?
SADY: The ominousness of Claire is really a mark against my “Smokey is the good guy” theory. But can I say that Emilie de Ravin’s PERFORMANCE is a mark against all of those OTHER “Emilie de Ravin is a bad actress” theories? Everything, even her accent is different! Good show, de Ravin. GOOD SHOW.
JILL: Claire seems to have forgotten a lot. Before she killed the guy she had tied up (did he have a name?), she says that his people kidnapped her, tortured her and branded her. He denies it, and says that she’s not remembering things correctly — I actually believe him. She does seem to have become infected with something that has altered her perceptions and memory.
CARA: Her memory certainly seems altered, but at the same time her account of what the Others did is very, very similar to what they did to Sayid.
More generally, the “baby” in the crib is going to give me nightmares for a long time. And was I the only one who was really perversely satisfied when she put the axe in that guy’s stomach? I think it’s just been way too long since we’ve seen any of the women get in on the violence that is so ubiquitous in the show.
LAUREN: I loved how Claire went all Jack Torrance on Other/Hallorann, who I think is having a semantic argument with her about why she was branded. She says “torture,” he says, “no, we were just checking to see if we needed to kill you or not.” Which is TOTALLY DIFFERENT.
SALLY: I think when he said that, it was because they were doing it to get the sickness out of her, whereas she seems to think they were doing it just to torture or kill her. It really was basically a description of what they did to Sayid, so I think he meant it more as “that’s not the full story” than “that didn’t happen.” But Claire definitely kicked ass in this episode. Good show, indeed.
LAUREN: The skull baby under mosquito netting was intensely hilarious. OTOH, Claire’s statement that she will kill Kate if she finds out Kate has Aaron portends some ugliness in the near future.
It also turns out that Claire’s “friend” is Smokey. Uh, what? Is this a further sign that she really is infected?
SADY: Okay, if Smokey’s special Island Break team includes Guns and Vengeance Sawyer, New Awesome Claire, Locke’s Dead Body, and now maybe Jin? I am going to be so enthused. This is my island A-Team. Get Sun there and hand her a few stare-you-down-in-the-face-until-your-soul-withers-before-my-awesomeness monologues, and I am set.
LAUREN: (Sady, I have theories about Sun that don’t belong in this recap, but you’re totally going to high-five me when I tell you.)
SALLY: This episode only confirmed my theory from last week. I’m sticking to that until I get more evidence.
CARA: I thought it was notable that even if she is sick, she has retained some aspects of her original character. Her allegiances are still there; she loves Aaron, and she considers Jin to be her friend, and seems to genuinely have no intention of harming him. Which to me means that a) either she’s not sick at all, or b) Dogen is wrong, and being infected does not completely obliterate your soul and leave you unrecognizable. Claire is very, very different, but she seems to still be Claire in there, somewhere.
LAUREN: I really don’t know what to do with this “infected” story, but I’m with you, Cara. It seems like this can go either way: they’re infected and it’s way bad, or “infected” doesn’t mean what we or the Others think it means.
SALLY: Well, if Claire is infected, this would go with Lauren’s theory that Rousseau was also infected. Certainly, the parallels between Claire and Rousseau are only getting stronger. If Claire is infected, maybe Rousseau really was infected as well.
LAUREN: The one hitch in my Claire/Rousseau theory is that Rousseau was highly dubious of the smoke monster, while Claire and Smokey are BFFs. We’ll see how it plays out, but it seems clear that Smokey appeared to her as her father, which affected her enough to abandon Aaron and completely forget about it, and accept Smokey/Fchristian/Flocke as her new pal.
Last night’s episode was named for the lighthouse, and with good reason! The same numbers and names from the cave also appeared on the lighthouse dial, and a scene from each candidate’s life appeared in the mirror. Why were the names/numbers on the dial? What was the lighthouse used for before Jack smashed it?
SADY: This is where the Jacob-as-Judeo-Christian-God thing got really intense – “he is always watching us! He has a special plan for our lives!” And also where I got that whole “Judeo-Christian God as total douche” thing folks were talking about in the comments last week. It is probably just a special monitoring station for the candidates, yeah? But also, Jacob can maybe see you poop, GROSS.
CARA: Interesting thought that the Lighthouse is a way to monitor the candidates. My original theory was that it was somehow used to summon the candidates to the island, since it is a lighthouse, which lights your way to somewhere you’re supposed to go. *symbolism* In any case, this was probably my favorite scene of the season so far. I was literally hanging off of my seat when we saw that the candidates’ names were on the dial, and when we saw the scenes in the mirror.
Of course, the best thing about it all was the factoid you probably had to screen cap to see – Kate is a candidate! And she’s number 51! She’s not crossed out, which means she’s still in the running. But she’s also not a part of the number sequence. What does this mean? Is the number sequence longer than we realized? Is she less important because she’s not one of the numbers? Or does that somehow make her more important?
SALLY: I was really excited when I saw the screencaps her name wasn’t crossed off!
LAUREN: I’ve seen a couple of theories about this. Some are suggesting that the numbers we know (and the cave we originally saw them in) are Smokey’s, bar-none, where the numbers in the lighthouse are Jacob’s, which means we don’t know everything about them yet. I don’t know if I buy this one but it seems to be the most plausible of all the theories.
SALLY: Wow, I hadn’t considered any of this…
I thought the mirror was a way to get them on the island, not monitor them, but I like that idea. And to Lauren’s point, I started to get a sense that the cave might be Smokey’s and the lighthouse Jacob’s, but not that the same people might mean different things to them. If so, why would they use the same numbers I wonder?
LAUREN: Someone suggested that they’re Jacob’s numbers and Smokey is just trying to figure out who is who. And I can see this — it makes sense that the resentment against Jacob that Smokey inspires in others is something he feels himself — he’s talked about being trapped, about feeling kept in the dark, about feeling helpless. It almost feels like the writers are setting up another daddy issue dynamic between Jacob and MIB, like MIB was always running around after Jacob trying to figure out what his plans were, and undermining them out of resentment. Like me at age fifteen, but with less global consequence.
SALLY: We also see Rousseau’s name and, of course, Sayid, etc. I’m interested in seeing how the names match up on the lists in the cave and the lighthouse. According to Lostpedia, there’s a Burke listed in the lighthouse as 58, but in the cave as 55 (though this could be an error).
CARA: And Ben! Don’t forget that Linus was on there, too! It’s an interesting theory about two sets of numbers, but the numbers seem to be remarkably similar. I’d have to check and see if the Faradays, Lewises, etc. line up in with each other terms of their corresponding numbers, but our 4 8 15 16 23 42 candidates certainly did, and many of the other names were aso repeated.
SALLY: Some actually think it’s his father, Roger. That would certainly throw daddy issues back into the mix, especially given Ben’s resentment of Jacob.
JILL: I think it’s gotta be Ben. But speaking of Daddy Issues, what about that blonde kid running around the jungle? Is that Baby Jacob, or am I missing something?
In order to get Hurley and Jack to go to the lighthouse, Jacob told Hurley that someone was coming to the island. Jacob was playing Hurley for the most part, but was he telling the truth when he said that someone was coming? If so, who is it?
SADY: Like I said: Jacob is coming off like a holy douchebag here. I know this is all part of his “little push” agenda, but could he not just have said, “I need you to go up to the lighthouse and I need you to watch Jack throw a fit AGAIN but this time he will BREAK THINGS and you will feel as if you are in PHYSICAL DANGER with that suddenly violent cryface coming at you, but ultimately he will have some kind of realization, so be chill?” Maybe someone is coming, though. MAYBE. I trust Jacob very little at this point.
JILL: Seriously, fuck Jack. What a big fucking baby. “I found a magical lighthouse, now I am mad and I will SMASH IT!” Can Claire please axe him now?
CARA: There was a second where I was seriously concerned that Jack might throw Hurley over the side of the lighthouse. Thankfully that didn’t happen! In any case, my first thought was that the person coming was Desmond. And I really want Desmond to come back into this story! This also makes sense, because Desmond lives on a boat. But it could also be Aaron. As for whether or not anyone is coming? Who knows! Jacob seems to have about the same level of truthfulness as Ben.
It struck me as interesting that Jacob wanted Hurley to turn the dial to 108 — a very significant number in the show — but that 108 didn’t turn out to be anyone we knew. I was really hoping it would say “Hume.” Or “Austen” (though of course Kate showed up anyway).
SALLY: I think somebody’s coming and that somebody is Desmond. I initially thought Widmore, but looking back on the way Desmond said “why would I ever go back” to Penny, I’m not liking his odds. Besides, we know he’s important and we haven’t really seen him yet this season.
LAUREN: Unless this was all just a red herring for Jack’s verra important realization about his purpose.
Lastly, the real reason that Jacob wanted Jack to go to the lighthouse was so that he could learn he is important, and “has to do something.” Any predictions?
SADY: And Hurley asked, “but what of the times when I only saw one set of footsteps, oh my Jacob?” And Jacob said, “that is the time when I was carrying you. Also, looking out at the ocean is important, so it is a good thing you are on an island where that is basically what you do all the time.” Jack is totally going to be the Savior of the Island, and I am going to be sour.
LAUREN: I so hope for a Alien type of ending, where someone unexpected suddenly emerges as leader at the end, because Jack is so loathsome. Or, like, Jack dies so the rest can live.
JILL: Or Claire’s goat-baby kills them all. The end. (Seriously, I hated ALL of them by the end of this episode).
CARA: By “he has to do something,” I’d really like to think that Jacob means “die in a fire.” That’s probably not true, I’m sad to say. Though I’m optimistic, based on the fact that the last time someone was told they were “important” and had to complete a very special task, he ended up in a coffin and had his likeness taken on by a big black cloud of smoke. Even if the special thing he has to do is “save the island,” that’s not necessarily going to end well for him.
SALLY: I think the “something” will be an attempt to take MIB’s life – assuming he can die. And, yeah, not gonna end well for Hurley… well, unless he’s got a hot pocket handy..
Huh. I actually related to Jack smashing the mirrors. He and the other Losties have been jerked around so much that I can’t blame him for going ballistic. I might have set the frakking thing on fire if it were me.
I liked Sideways Jack, though I’m with you regarding the coparenting issue, Lauren. TV does a crappy job of that stuff. Dude, if you want to be in his life, it will take more than dumping him in your house and buying pizza, FFS.
I wanted to hug Claire. She’s very ill, I think, and scared, and she had a point: the Others aren’t particularly trustworthy. They kidnapped her when she was pregnant and tried to take her baby. Ethan tried to kill Charlie and threatened to kill the Losties unless they handed over Claire. The others kidnapped Walt and tried to kill Michael (and Sawyer and Jin) for having the gall to try and stop them, instead of writing them thank-you notes on scented floral paper. They did torture Sayid, and instead of trying to help him, they wanted Jack to kill him. They tortured Claire in the same way, and then, what? Cast her out into the jungle for the MIB to take?
Can you tell I despise the Others? They remind me of fundie douchebags.
I don’t think Rousseau was infected. She wasn’t touched by smokey–she was only justifiably angry at the Others for babynapping. She didn’t see things in the jungle, and she wasn’t claimed. She also helped the others when it came to keeping her daughter safe, and helped the Losties. I think the producers are throwing a red herring by making Claire the New Rousseau.
I think Jacob is a passive-aggressive douche. Then again, maybe I’m biased b/c he plays Lucifer on Supernatural.
My thought was that it may be the other way around. Locke and Sawyer climb down a ridiculously long series of ladders (“Jacob’s Ladder”) to enter a cave (“Cave of the Patriarchs”) with the candidates’ names scrawled on the surfaces. Suddenly Jacob is interested in getting both Hurley and Jack into a parallel device, the lighthouse, with the apparent goal of having Jack smash the mirrors that allow the user of the lighthouse to see into the lives of candidates. It seems to me that Jacob could have been using Jack to smash Smokey’s toy, not his own. These guys operate under rules about what they can directly do to each other or to various players, but it’s clear that they can manipulate others into doing certain otherwise forbidden acts.
Also, not surprisingly, Jacob’s level of veracity and penchant for manipulation is very much reminiscent of what we saw from his followers – Smokey’s no better, but is he actually any worse? Jacob is a lot of things, but he’s not a manifestation of “all that is good.”
It’s possible that there’s some variation in the two lists because (a) Smokey and Jacob have ruled out a candidate as both being qualified and likely to serve their goals for the island, or (b) the goal is to find two candidates, one to succeed Jacob and the other Smokey.
Here’s something to think about, although possibly not too hard – the producers love red herrings. In the “Lost Supper” pictures, Locke is in the middle. We can infer now that he represents Smokey. In both pictures, Sayid is in the “Judas” position. In one picture, Clair is to Locke’s left; in the other, she’s to his right – that is, she switches sides. I suspect we’re going to learn that Smokey needs to be more careful about how he chooses his friends….
Red herring, quite possibly. Living in the woods for three years, alone, constantly hunted, missing your baby, with only your dead father and(?) “the monster” to keep you company – and whisper lies into your ear? I suspect that, more than Smokey, is what’s turned her into neo-Rousseau.
I still harken back to the “more than one infection” model of the Island’s resurrections. Ben was resurrected at the temple and “infected” by Jacob, losing his innocence and becoming irrevocably tied to Jacob and the Others. Sayid was “infected” after Jacob’s death, when Smokey apparently controlled the temple’s pool – now he’s tied to Smokey instead of Jacob. (This raises an interesting question – is it always “hit or miss”, with each person who is resurrected hit with the hot iron to see which spirit entered them, or did something happen at the time Claire was presumably resurrected that weakened Jacob’s control over the temple?)
But Jacob wanted Sayid resurrected, and Jacob should have known what would happen, so we can assume that this is somehow part of Jacob’s plan.
(“Thank goodness,” he said sarcastically, “the producers are finally giving us answers instead of more questions.” ;-) )
I like to think they are slightly different lists. Yes, the number mismatches could be production errors, but I kind of prefer the idea they are either two lists of overlapping candidates or Smokey is trying to figure out Jacob’s list and didn’t quite have it right.
The “infection” thing remains mysterious. I, like others here, have not forgotten that the Others are kind of total douchbags who suck and do terrible things. I haven’t forgotten that early seasons had Smokey seem more like he was testing for redemption or something, and partially under the control of the others/ben. This is not an equal rivalry going on here, and there is some kind of backstory that they need to retrofit on the seasons where they didn’t know Smokey was a force unto himself. I’m not sure what infection does or who gets it.
I think Rousseau wasn’t infected, and Claire is sort of the anti-Rousseau or Dark Mirror Rousseau.
I got the impression from “My Dad and my friend” that Christian may not have just been a manifestation of Smokey (although he sometimes was) and that we may see dear old dad show up one more time.
I am convinced, btw, that Jack’s injuries are bleed through from the other reality. (The wound on his neck from the original pilot, the appendix scar from season 4, etc.) I actually wonder if the lighthouse isn’t seeing into the other reality in some way. I absolutely expect the convergence/implosion of the two realities at some point, although I am not yet sure for what purpose. A mix of Losties from both universes might be an interesting final situation.
I also want Jack to die in a fire if he must “do something”. Jack dying so Kate and Hurley can step to the fore would make me happy. I suspect it may end up though that he may end up astride the realities. He is the only one noticing bleed through so far, so maybe he ends up in some special flux position.
Lighthouses are warnings as well as beacons; smashing it could be like not pushing the button in The Swan, which is what brought the Losties to the Island. It’s also a very passive-aggressive act, which is par for the course, Jacob-wise.
Despite Flocke showing up as evil dude at the end, I still think that the conflict between Jacob and Smokey cannot be defined in terms of good and evil, it seems that it’s the old yin and yang, persuasion and force.
Anyway, bringing back Adam and Eve served to remind me of the point that Christian’s body is missing in both timelines. It’s not like with the other characters who died and then Smokey took their form – you see the bodies of Locke, of Eko’s brother, and of Alex – but you never see Christian’s body, it was missing from the coffin. This leads me to contemplate, maybe it wasn’t Fchristian at all, but was actually Christian, like Christian was Smokey all along, so that Jack and Claire are the son and daughter of Smokey.
Linoleum – that’s a good point. Lighthouses have a double role. Sometimes they guide, sometimes they warn off. It’s not clear which this was.
Is length of a comment likely to trigger moderation? I’m wondering why my first post was flagged and the others not and whether I should break it up into smaller posts.
I’m really conflicted about Claire here and I’ve been having trouble unpacking my thoughts on it. For me it played into an ableist lunatic stereotype, whereas Russeau was given a complexity and subtlety that moved her beyond a stereotype or trope.
ME. TOO. I am also with Sady re: Jacob is a douche. Hate that guy so much by now.
I like Sideways Jack, for personal reasons that admittedly mean my standards are set really low in this situation. Also, I liked Matthew Fox’s performance in this episode a lot.
wait don’t hold out on us, I want to hear this too!
I’m totally with Linoleum here about light houses. I think it was Jacob’s intent to get Jack pissed off and ruin something. Perhaps it was Smokey’s lighthouse and he was using it to keep people AWAY from the island, while Jacob was luring them there some other way. And now someone is coming and Jacob wants to ensure that they arrive. I don’t think it’s Desmond. Too cliche. I think it’s going to be a bombshell – like Mr. Eko or something.
I love Claire’s little skull baby. Her kid was stolen! She’s super lonely and pissed off! She’s got a little skull baby! Back off.
It does distress me that Kate’s number wasn’t in Hurley’s sequence, or on the hatch, or in the hatch. I like that they are points on the compass in the lighthouse, but it worries me that the writers just came across an easy explanation of the numbers and are trying to fit it into the plot.
it worries me that the writers just came across an easy explanation of the numbers and are trying to fit it into the plot.
That’s what I expect is the case. And then they had more people than numbers. Hopefully they have come up with something interesting concerning that.
(I want to hear the Sun theory as well.)
See, I’m surprised that some feel unsatisfied with the explanation for the numbers. I don’t know whether the writers had it planned all along or not, but as far as what they’ve shown us so far, I really like it. I gave up a long time ago on trying to figure out for myself what the numbers might mean, so I had no real expectations that were averted, but I’ve also been obsessed with them giving us an explanation. Personally, I think this meaning really ties up a lot of loose ends regarding how it is that our Losties’ lives were always so entwined, how it seemed that it was their destiny to end up there, and how a lot of the island’s other oddities might be in any way tied into that.
What do others thing about what this season has done with the numbers?
I always end up getting rage headaches after Jack-centric episodes. Such an ass! And he spends a good 80% of his time in tears. For frak sake, he cried at his OWN answer phone message! And maybe Hurley would have liked to see what was at his number before you smashed up the mirror, douche. He was marginally less annoying in the flash-sideways though. That kid looked at least 12/13, so there’s no way Kate could be his mother, and I think that pretty much rules out Ana-Lucia too. I’m voting for Sarah or Juliet. I think it’s Sarah but I would love it to be Juliet. I always found Jack the least irritating when he was with Juliet. And then her coffee invitation can be an attempt to reconcile with her ex. Please?
Oh, and I’m also thinking that Claire is infected, but Rousseau wasn’t – it’s just misleading because of the stolen baby thing. And also that I love the new Kate/Jack dynamic. Going off on separate missions happily, without Kate desperately trying to follow him, and Jack emotionally blackmailing her about it? Incredible. I know most people don’t agree, but I think Kate’s been awesome so far this season.
kate can’t be the mother of sideways jack’s son, right? they saw each other on the airplane and didn’t seem to know each other. plus it didn’t sound like david’s mother was on the run.
and it seems unlikely that sarah (his ex-wife in the original timeline) is the mother. they didn’t meet until 2001 and the david was clearly born before then. maybe in the sideways line jack and sarah met earlier, but i’d wager the mother is a different woman altogether. juliet seems to be a good guess.
an interesting long shot theory is that gabriela busoni is the mother. she was the patient’s daughter that jack had shared a kiss with. she, like david, has blue eyes and busoni was a famous italian pianist.