Episode 6x05 Lighthouse

After some fans’ complaints of previous episodes being “filler”, last Tuesday’s episode, “Lighthouse” was anything but. After 5 seasons of questions and inch-by-inch answers, the mysteries surrounding the show and its characters are starting to slowly unravel (slowly being the key word here). Though the promos keep saying “the time for answers is here!” who’s to say that they can’t pose new questions?

A lot of ground was covered in Lighthouse. From character secrets and motivations to action and suspenseful locations and journeys, it was certainly a thought-provoking and entertaining bit of television.

Crazy Claire—what’s her deal?
Now that we’ve seen a bit more of her since learning of her declared “infection” it appears and though she might actually be infected (say it ain’t so!). If she’s not infected however, something else is clearly going on inside that innocence-ridden brain of hers. 3 years alone on an island will likely do that to ‘ya, though.



According to Claire, the Others have tortured her as well and taken Aaron (though he’s clearly off-island…or is he?) which was later re-affirmed by her saying that that’s what her dad told her.

Talk about a jam-packed opening. Everyone’s been yearning for Claire’s reappearance, but were they expecting a whole slur of new questions to be stapled to her? Doubt it. Though, what is going on with her? Infection? Delusional bouts of craziness? Who knows? What we do know, however, is:

- Claire believes Aaron was taken by the Temple Others, which is interesting because she left him in the jungle (but maybe it wasn’t her choice as much as Christian’s)

- Speaking of Christian, Claire repeatedly mentions him and says that he was the one who told her about Aaron. Though, where is Christian? Is he actually (somehow and mysteriously) alive? It’s possible that the-entity-formerly-known-as-Locke could’ve taken on the form of him in order to manipulate Claire, but wouldn’t she be a bit suspicious?

- Claire is aware that she’s spent time on the island alone (which is good; the first step is admitting she has a problem)

With that said, I guess we don’t really know a whole lot about Crazy Jungle Claire after all.

Dude, what are you doing here?
In other Island news, Hurley sees Jacob who tells him to go to the Lighthouse and to take Jack with him (otherwise he’d get upset because he wasn’t invited, right?). When Hurley says the key words, “You have what it takes” to convince Jack, he, as well as the audience is reminded that those are the words of Christian Shepard. Seemingly enough to convince Jack, he actually…wait for it…acknowledges seeing dead-Christian after...how many seasons? 4? 5? It's nice that the characters are starting to spill their beans and secrets as well as their reasons for coming to the island.



On the way to the lighthouse, we encounter a previous location…the caves! It was pretty cool to see them for the first time since season one, as well as Adam & Eve, and Shannon’s elusive inhaler (she doesn’t have much use for it now, does she?). Another thing that I’m sure was appreciated by other fans were Hurley’s comments regarding time travel and the skeletons, saying that they could be one of them. I’ve heard that theory before and I’d bet that Hurley’s thoughts are correct: it is someone alive and well on the island. Though we don’t know who Adam & Eve are yet or where they came from, it was still nice to know that the writers are acknowledging their existence and that they haven’t forgotten about them quite yet.

Oh! A Lighthouse!
So, it turns out that the title of the episode has a literal meaning: there is actually a lighthouse on the island. Surprised? Why? There’s a ship and polar bears on the island, so why not a lighthouse?

Per Jacob’s instructions, Hurley and Jack mess with the pile of pulleys and levers to reveal rotating mirrors at the top, as well as the names of the Losties scribbled on the dial (corresponding with the numbers in MIB’s cavern). Looking into the mirror, Jack sees his childhood house, though he knows it must be impossible. Enraged at his lack of answers and not seeing Jacob, he smashes the mirrors (there’s the old Jack we know!), leaving Jacob’s orders left unfinished.



With the discovery of the lighthouse mirrors and numbers, combined with Jacob’s orders and mysterious ways, I'm starting to get the impression that he's actually not the "good" guy. He's basically manipulated everyone and eliminated their free will to get them to the island for—what I assume to be—his own needs.

So much is still left unanswered about Jacob and his bizarre instructions and appearances, that is seems almost impossible to resolve all of them before the May series finale. Like the rest of the mysteries, we’ll be fed them bit-by-bit as they start to impact the lives of the characters and current plot situations.

Someone’s coming to the island
According to Jacob, the purpose of the lighthouse mission was to turn on/activate it so an un-named someone can find the island. That little bit of information leads to so many questions in itself. If Jacob wants this person to come to the island, why can’t he guide them there himself? Also, why does this person need help finding the island? If it's someone worthy to be on the island, finding it should be no problem.

This also brings up the issue of alternate plans for guiding the person to the island, being that Jack smashed the mirrors to pieces. Through Jacob’s calm response and demeanor, it almost seems like Jacob wanted Jack to look into and break the mirrors.

This is my friend…
Lastly, it’s revealed that Claire’s “friend” that she talked about is actually Flocke and she’s been talking to him for some time now. How does this all fit into the Lost equation? I have no idea. If Claire is, in fact, infected, than Flocke was probably the thing that caused it.



All in all, a great episode and a lot of interesting points and plot pieces to be pondered to hold everyone over until Tuesday.

The next episode of Lost, “Sundown” aires Tuesday, March 2nd.

Namaste

What Kate Did

After last week’s episode, it seemed hard for the next one to disappoint. Fan reception of last night’s What Kate Does wasn’t as great as one might have hoped and the episode as a whole left something to be desired.

The alternate timeline picks up where it left off in the premiere, with (a very violent) Kate hi-jacking Claire’s taxi. She eventually feels remorse regarding her actions, and finding that Claire was going into labor, drives her to the hospital. While Claire is waiting, a familiar-faced doctor comes in to check on her, Ethan Rom. The parallels between the nice, good-natured Ethan in this “when” with Ethan on the island, kidnapping Claire were great choices by the writers, providing a great mini-twist as well as showing the extreme contrasting nature of both situations.

Ironically, while Claire is having her sonogram, she blurts out of nowhere that she wants to name her baby Aaron. This is an interesting scenario due to the fact that Claire deliberated over baby names on the island for quite some time, while this alt. Claire just blurted it out as if she already knew it, possibly showing that both realities are starting to merge. If so, it would explain other occurrences involving characters recognizing other people and things from their on-island time (i.e. noticing Jack, Charlie “supposed to die, etc.).

Many fans aren’t too keen on Kate-centric episodes, but the Kate-Claire interactions proved to be crucial to the plot off the island and-- I’m sure later in the season—on the island as well. Regardless, the Kate nature of the episode was interesting character-wise, though not in plot advancements.

Back in the Temple, it looks like Sayid is “infected” with something and didn’t pass the Others’ “test”. Though Sayid seems a little off in this episode, he, like Jack said, “isn’t even running a fever.” The way everything is said about the sickness and how everyone reacts, it appears to be the same “infection” that plagued Rousseau’s science team. If we look back to the flash last season to Rousseau’s beach camp, it can be inferred that the sickness has some relation to exposure to the smoke monster. Here’s the weird part though: Sayid never was near the smoke monster, right? He’s been pretty sedentary ever since he was shot last season. It looks like we’ll have to wait until next episode to find out what’s going on though.



In relation to Sayid’s infection, the Others seem to be dodging questions quite seriously. Whether it’s about what’s really going on with Sayid, the Ajira 316 flight, or Rousseau, everything is kept under wraps. Why, though? Because they can? Or do they have a good reason for not sharing their information and giving vague answers about everything? This is the main reason why the episode seems to have failed as a whole. The characters have the same questions we do and they’re not getting answered, just being disregarded. The unnecessary violence of the Others and lack of question answering has gotten many irritated with the Others’ presence as a whole. Until this season, we had a pretty good idea of who they were. Now, they’re back to the ragged clothes and yet another person is claiming to be the “leader”. So how many leaders does that make now? Let’s see: Ben, Richard, Jacob, Locke, Dogan…hmm…four leaders too many?

Though, the episode did have one good thing going for it: for the first time since season 4, Claire showed up on the island in new footage (and actually seen by another character!) But she’s not exactly the innocent-looking Claire we last saw. She looks rather rugged and paranoid kind of like Rousseau when her team was infected. If the excitement is to last by this revelation, Claire’s got some explaining to do about where she’s been and what’s been going on. Maybe a flashback of her disappearance is in store?



Yet, by this unveiling comes another mystery: apparently, Claire was (or is) sick/infected. Clearly, the Temple Others know something about it, so if they choose to start answering some questions, they could have interesting bits of information to share.

From the look of the promo for the next episode, entitled The Substitute, we’re going to get some nice MIB action and island revelations. It’s also going to be interesting to see how everyone else reacts when they realize that “Locke” isn’t Locke anymore. Hopefully the plot next week will be a nice break from the vague nature of the Temple dwelling Others.

Until next time, stay Lost, and Namaste.

Season 6 Premiere - LA X Parts 1 & 2

After the near 8-month hiatus since last years season finale, the final season of Lost premiered last Tuesday. The torturous wait concluded with the opening scene of the 2-hour event, curiously showing Jack aboard Oceanic 815, though with somewhat reversed circumstances.



As the dialogue plays out on 815, the view drops below the plane, into the ocean and the viewer begins to see some fairly familiar items: some houses strangely resembling those in Dharmaville, a branded shark, and, surprisingly of all, the four-toed foot statue, fully immersed by the water and covered in seaweed.

It appears as if we're being shown an alternate timeline in which 815 safely lands in Los Angeles, though the island is submerged with the passengers far from it. Though, what exactly caused the alt-timeline? Or was it caused at all? Maybe it always was. If it was a result of the Jughead detonation, than the Losties have certainly, unknown to them, caused a world of trouble. Considering their own wants and desires that led to the bomb going off, it seems like no one thought of any possible repercussions for committing the act. All they thought of was alleviating all the stress caused by their time on the island, and failed to consider anything outside of their own lives that would be affected.

Back on the island in the present, it seems that Faraday was correct in his theory that the bomb worked. However, instead of those of 815 having their island memories erased and lives re-set to be in L.A., an alt-timeline was created instead, where the island is uninhabited and submerged. The irony here is that their desire to have to bomb work was fulfilled, though the circumstances that followed were anything but.

Following up from last season, Jacob seems to actually be dead (hence the appearance to Hurley) though this leads to the ever-popular fan question that ironically Ben Linus shares, "Why didn't he put up a fight?" If Jacob is supposed to be this great and powerful leader, why would he just give in like that and let the MIB run amuck on the island? Does he have something left up his sleeve so he'll get the last laugh? Hmm...



Speaking of the MIB, confirming some fan beliefs, he is actually the smoke monster. Probably the most intriguing mystery of the show since the Pilot is finally solved. Well, to a point at least. The look on Ben's face when he attacks Bram and followers inside the statue pretty much sums up the faces and minds of all the people watching. What's going on here?

While the action goes on inside the statue, Jack & Co. at the destructed Swan site find Juliet still alive at the bottom of the wreck, still enough breath left to mutter, "It worked." It can be inferred that she's referencing Jughead, but you never know for sure.



When a dead Jacob appears to Hurley and insists that he take Sayid to the Temple, viewers are suprised to find that we're actually going to see the Temple (not the perimeter) for the first time after countless mentioning of this somewhat secret place. Inside, we see Cindy, Zach and Emma from 815 for the first time since season 3, showing that they've acclimated to life with the Others and are quite comfortable living there (and not too excited to see Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sawyer).

Oddly enough, there's a murky pool of water inside the Temple, strangely resembling the water that Ben drains to summon the smoke monster in season 4. Connection? Regardless, it seems to have lost its healing effects, but strangely enough, Sayid is brought back with no recollection of what had happened. I've read some theories that Sayid's body is Jacob's "loophole" to kill the MIB, but I think it's still too early to tell. Possibly an even stronger question: if Sayid is still Sayid, how was he healed if the water is contaminated?

It's safe to assume that many of the answers that viewers seek are rooted deep within the mythological aspects and origins of the island. Being that he's spent centuries on the island, the MIB must certainly possess many of the answers that the characters and viewers alike are searching for. Though, I’m sure those are questions that, if answered, will be thinly spread throughout the course of the entire season (they’ve got to keep us watching, right?).

As if your head wasn't spinning enough, during the last moments of the episode, the MIB knocks out Richard after mentioning, "It’s nice to see you out of those chains." So, was Richard a prisoner of sorts, or was MIB speaking of metaphorical chains? I think the former. I think it fits well that Richard was a prisoner on the Black Rock, and has remained on the island since, alongside Jacob and doing his bidding.

Lastly, MIB remarks that he is disappointed in “all of you”, pointing to those in the area of the statue. Who is he referring to exactly? The Others? People in general? Seems like we can add another mind-boggling question to the ever-growing list.

Concluding the premiere, the alternate timeline proves to be interesting as well as risky. Hopefully Damon and Carlton are able to realistically pull everything together in the end in a satisfying way. Seeing old faces again was satisfying enough, but I think I speak for the majority of the fan community when I say that everyone is looking for some scenes of old regulars on the island in real-time. *cough, cough* Claire (Hopefully she’s not only back for the alt-timeline).

With the amount of ground covered and questions answered and posed, Tuesday’s episode is sure to be interesting, to say the least.