The Lighthouse - 6.4

Another interesting episode tonight... though any ep would pale in comparison to last week's. I pity any of the actors who have their eps follow a Terry O'Quinn showcase. But, especially considering this was a Jack-centric ep - never my faves - I did really like this one. Lots of stuff happening to set us up for the eventual roller coaster of the last half of the season, though at the moment I don't feel much closer to knowing what the heck's going on.

So, here are my thoughts for now....

Alt-Jack:
This was a really intriguing alt-storyline - because like Locke's ep last week, we see that Jack's alt-life is pretty darn different. Alt-Jack has a SON?!?!?

Until that little reveal, I was musing on the idea that the alt-storylines might have one thing in common... that they show our characters without their usual daddy issues. I was largely basing this on now 2 weeks in a row of seeing happy photos of our characters and their Dads - not something we'd expect in the normal storyline.

But I think I've ruled that out now, since the alt-Jack and David storyline was all about how, despite his best intentions, Jack is repeating some of the same mistakes his own father made. Christian was a jerk who had ridiculous standards and put huge pressures on his son, which made Jack into the character we know so well. He's trying not to repeat that with his own kid, and even though David was still hiding his obvious piano talents (the kid's a prodigy!) and I'm sure many other things, just the fact that alt-Jack was able to have a conversation with him about trying to be a good Dad shows that he has improved upon his own role model. It's a struggle, but he gets credit for trying. (Bonus: Alt-Dogen has a kid prodigy, too!)

My burning question.... WHO is David's mother???

I also loved the moment when alt-Jack seemed to see his appendix scar for the first time. Clearly, when his Mom told him the story, he didn't really remember it. Curiouser and curiouser... I still believe these alt-storylines somehow have to come after the characters have lived through the Island, whether they remember it or not.

Hurley and Jack, Old School
I loved the pairing of these 2, hiking around to the major sites of the Island. Hey look, the caves! Adam and Eve! Loved Hurley theorizing that they themselves could be the bodies, if they all start time traveling again. And a little shout-out to Shannon, which feels like a million years ago. It was nice to get a little Hurley humor mixed in with his real efforts to be a leader and understand what the heck is happening.

Their conversation about why they came back to the Island was great. Jack was more honest in this ep than I remember him being in long time - he really seems different than his pre-Oceanic 6 days. Why did he come back? "Because I was broken, and I was stupid enough to think this place could fix me." My advice: don't give up on that yet, Doc.

The Lighthouse
The Lighthouse was cool, too! So again we see all the candidates' names - lots and lots of them from over the years - with corresponding numbers. But here the numbers are degrees? Interesting. I think the first flash Jack saw in the mirrors may have been the church where Sawyer's parents' funeral took place - but that could be way off. Is Jack right, is this how Jacob has been watching them for years? Fascinating!

Again, Jacob showed that he managed to get Jack to do exactly what he wanted... using the trigger of "You have what it takes" -- those daddy issues again. I still think it's looking likely for Jack to be the one to volunteer or somehow end up being the final candidate to take Jacob's place. Whether that works or not, or how it relates to the alt-storyline, who knows.

Jin and Claire, aka Rousseau Part Deux
Okay, Claire is so very creepy. I wonder if she modeled herself on Rousseau on purpose, or if the similarities all just happened naturally. But you know what's not natural? That bassinet with the crazy fake animal baby in it! Ick!

I was getting frustrated with Jin in these scenes, thinking "Hey, wait a minute, he knows what happened to Aaron!" I kept replaying the timeline in my head, and thinking Jin of course knew they took the baby when the Oceanic 6 left, and guessing it was pretty likely that he learned more about Aaron once Kate came back and joined Dharma in 1977. But he must have been trying to feel out what was going on with Claire - when he finally told the truth, I thought "hooray!" But Jin was much smarter than me (at least in dealing with crazy child-deprived feral jungle women), cuz he knew he had to play Claire with the lie that the Others really did take the baby.

Claire: "If Kate was raising Aaron, I'd kill her."

How crazy would it be if Claire really does kill Kate??? I think we're finally seeing the psychic's prediction come true.... very bad things will happen if someone raises Aaron - but not necessarily to Aaron himself. I think the psychic just may have seen that Claire goes crazy-whack.

And her new bff??? Well, it's none other than Flocke. But, she knew quite well it wasn't John. If he's only been able to inhabit John's body since the Ajira flight cancelled... then Claire must've known him in another form, if they've been friends all these years. Interesting that when she said she wasn't alone, she named TWO companions... "my father, and my friend." So, does that mean Christian Shepherd was inhabited by someone else? Jacob? I've seen that theory somewhere - very interesting.

So, there we have it. As I always am at this point in a season, I'm very eager for all these Island storylines to converge. They have to split up the groups in order to set up stories... but it's always so much more fun to have all of our characters in the same place. Remember? Live together, die alone.


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