REVIEW: Lost Season 6 Episode 4 "The Lighthouse"

Insert "Inspirational 80's movie" long clap here. I would like to thank the Lost writing crew and cast for another steller episode. In so many ways this episode answered questions but brought up whole new ones. I'm glad answers are coming, I want them quicker, but not too quick because I don't want Lost to end.

Continue past the break to read and discuss Lost theories. As well as the GameTrust recommendation>>
This episode comes highly recommended. Most of the material that you might not want your young kids to see has to do with violence and blood. There was little cursing in this episode. Jack uses H*** one time and maybe there are a few others. Nothing that wouldn't be in a PG movie.

**WARNING SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW**

If you haven't seen the episode yet please don't read anymore of this. You'll regret it.

Jack centric episodes are hit or miss. This one was a hit. The episode starts with Jack arriving home from work and changing his clothes. In any other show this would be a very mundane thing, but Lost can even turn this into a conundrum. When Jack looks at himself in the mirror he sees a scar that we know is from his appendectomy on the island, but in this flash sideways Jack seems to be confused. He doesn't remember having one. This is the start of several times we see Jack memory problems.

When talking to his mom he asks about his mystery missing appendix and apparantly he had it taken out at seven years old (A likely story, something seems fishy about that). Jack doesn't remember it. At the beginning of this season I thought Jack was having "echos" of the island, but now I feel he is has the same physical body of Jack from the island with different memories. It's obvious that things are not matching up in his head. Will this lead to Jack needing a constant in order to justify both realities? I'll be looking for a bloody nose.

The second shocker of this episode is Jack's son David Shepherd. I'm not sure if Jack was surprised by his son. Does he remember his son or was he just as surprised as we were that he had a son? Who is the mother? Obviously it's not Kate because that whole flight back to L.A. would have been really awkward. My guess is its Sarah- Jack's ex-wife in the original time line. The fact they didn't show her makes me think it may be someone more important than Sarah. Also interesting is the continued Biblical references between Christian (little Christ) Shepherd and David (King and shepherd from the Bible) Shepherd. It may be totally coincidental, but I doubt it.

In the Old testament the Israelites long for a king so God reluctantly gives them Saul. God had plans to wait another generation and make David Israel's first king, but Israel jumps the gun. Is Jack Saul? Is his son the real "Shepherd" of the island. Granted I don't know where Jack lands in the whole Biblical thing.  His name has no Biblical context. But his father does and his son does. In the Bible Jacob, David and Christ are in the same family line (see Matthew Chapter 1). A stretch, probably, but that's why Lost is fun. 

Our first encounter with Hurley happens when he sees Jacob hanging out by the pool in the temple. He's given a set of objectives to complete, but he has to do them with Jack. Hurley is told to help "Him" (Jack) find "It" (The lighthouse). Hurley doesn't want to involve Jack, because he doesn't believe he can convince him to come along on Jacob's quest. Jacob tells Hurley to tell Jack, "You have what it takes." Which is the exact opposite line Jack's dad used on him when he was a boy. How would Jacob know that? A crystal ball... lighthouse?

Jacob is a master manipulator. He manipulates Hurley to manipulate Jack. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to figure out how good Jacob is. I feel that he is the "Man in White" but that he's still not as good as our western understanding may suggest.

Claire doing her best Rousseau impression

Claire is crazy! She frees Jin from the bear trap, brings him to her hideout, and cleans up his wound. She tells Jin, "That if anything will kill you on the island, infection will." That line was quite ironic seeing as she has been infected by the black smoke that had killed the real Claire. It's interesting to see how she, just like Rousseau, thinks the Others have stolen her baby. The tension that happens in her hideout is thick. I wasn't sure if she wasn't going to kill Jin. Claire tells us she has been on the island for three years, but she hasn't been alone. She's had her dad and her friend. The latter of which turns out to be fake John Locke. This brings up two points. One, Claire is definitely evil now, and two, it appears Fake-Locke has been on the island for a while, and he didn't arrive when the second plane crashed.

The lighthouse was the biggest reveal of this episode. It seems to be Jacob's looking glass. It's how he spied on everyone. It's how he knew Jack's dad said Jack didn't have what it took. We also find out that Jacob doesn't just, "Have a thing for numbers", but that these numbers correspond with a degree mark and name on Jacob's lighthouse dial. This dial and mirror allows Jacob to point the lighthouse at a person and see into their lives. It begs he question, if he lights it does it beckon people to the Island? Hurley is told to turn the lighthouse to degree mark 108. We never see who that is. Annoying. But it does lead Jack to destroy the lighthouse mirrors. Thus rendering it useless. Apparently Jacob's plan all along.

Do these degree marks show a place and time that Jacob has no control over, or does Jacob find potential candidates and give them a number? It seems like when the lighthouse is passing through degrees it passes by the church Sawyer has his dad's funeral at. Then Jack sees his childhood home, but not his most recent residence. That seems to points to Jacob not having control over where the the Lighthouse points. Wouldn't he want to look at Jack at a more recent location or Sawyer somewhere besides that church?

This episode delivered on many levels. I'm going crazy waiting for next week. I hope they keep this streak of great episodes up. But please let me see a Richard centered episode, please?

O.E. 9.0

C.I. 8.5

New Questions to discuss:

Who is David's mother?
We saw Adam and Eve again... I think we're going to get an answer! Is it Jack and Kate?
Who is 108, Desmond?
I'm calling that the first episode of this season will match up with the last episode of this season. They are one in the same. What do you think?