Shapusens On TV: Lost ~ Lighthouse

Psycho survivor Claire? Check. Jears? Check. Daddy issues? Check. Jack going full retard once again? Check. If you haven’t watched this week’s episode yet, please go catch up. Everyone else feel free to hurry along to the rest of the post. Be sure to watch out for bear traps and broken glass.

Oh, did I say everyone? Sorry Kate. Maybe next time.

Sideways-verse: Double the Daddy issues

Jack arrives at his apartment and immediately checks himself out in the mirror (of course). He notices an appendectomy scar (note: in every sideways-verse storyline so far a character has had a revealing moment looking into a bathroom mirror).

His mother calls and he asks her when he had his appendix removed. She tells him it was when he was seven or eight and he collapsed at school. When she asks if he remembers, he responds with “I guess”, which clearly translates to “not at all”. If you recall, Juliet removed Jack’s appendix on the island right before the great freighter fiasco of Season 4. Anyway, Jack’s Mom asks him to come over and help her look for his father’s will.

First, Jack has to drive to Saint Mary’s Academy and pick up his son. Say what?!? Meet David Shepherd (more biblical names not possible). Courtney and I were personally very distracted by the memory of this child actor playing a kid on Grey’s Anatomy who went trick or treating for ears.

No matter how much I wanted him to have a lisp it didn’t happen. Jack brought him back to his apartment and tried to make awkward conversation with him about hooking up cable to his room and about the Annotated Alice in Wonderland he was reading for school. David says that they only see each other once a month and he just wants to get through it. Burn.

Jack heads over to help his mother look for Christian’s will. She offers him a drink, which he turns down. She says “good for you,” which implies that Sideways Jack is also known to have some drinking issues. She tells him that David was very upset at Christian’s funeral (which was sans body, as it is still missing), and Jack was completely clueless. When he says that communication isn’t David’s strong suit, his mother points out that Jack was just like that at David’s age and Christian was lucky to get two words out of him. Jack says that was only because he was terrified of his father. His mother suggests that maybe David is terrified of Jack too, and that they should talk about it. When the will is finally located, his mother flips through it and comes across something strange. She asks if Christian ever mentioned a Claire Littleton.

He heads back to the apartment with Pizza, but David is nowhere to be found. He tries his cell phone a bunch of times, and then decides to head over to David’s mother’s house. The mysterious mother is conveniently out of town, so we still don’t know who she is. He lets himself in with a key hidden under a Rabbit statue. David isn’t there, but Jack discovers sheet music and a photo both picture of them together in his room. He listens to David’s answering machine messages and learns that he has an audition at the William’s Conservatory that evening. He then hears a weepy message that he left of David’s machine when he was in Sydney and he just needed to hear David’s voice. Jears!

Jack goes to the Conservatory just in time to hear David play. A young Asian boy says that David is very good. The boy’s father turns out to be Dogen (!!!) who says the children are too young to have this kind of pressure on them. He says that David has a gift and asks how long he has been playing. Jack doesn’t know. When Jack intercepts David after the audition David tells him that he made his mother promise not to tell Jack that he was still playing. Apparently Jack got way too into it when David was younger, and he was afraid he would disappoint his father. He didn’t tell him about the audition because he didn’t want Jack to see him fail. Jack tells David that when he was young his father told him that he didn’t “have what it takes” and he carried that with him for the rest of his life. He doesn’t want David to ever feel that way. In his eyes David could never fail.

To The Lighthouse

Back in the original timeline, Dogen asks why Jack hasn’t tried to leave, to which Jack said he didn’t think leaving was an option. Everything is an option, according to Dogen, but leaving would be a pretty stupid one. Jack admits to Dogen that Kate, Jin, and Sawyer probably aren’t coming back. They appreciate each other’s honesty.

Over on the cool side of the temple, Hurley and Miles are playing a fancy game of tic-tac-toe. They keep tying each other, so Hurley takes a break in search of a snack. He comes across Jacob kneeling by the healing pool. He tells Hurley that he needs his help, but he should probably get a pen to write a few things down. Jacob tells him that someone is coming to the island, and he needs Hurley to help that someone find the island.

Outside the temple Jack is being boring with Sayid and they remind us that Dogen had tried to give Sayid a poison pill, in case we forgot. Jack says that whatever happened to Sayid has happened to someone else too. We never hear him tell Sayid that it was Claire.

Back to the awesomeness that is my BFF Hugo. He did indeed take a few notes down from his convo with Jacob.

He is sneaking around in a hallway, looking for a specific hieroglyphic on wall, when he is interrupted by Dogen who orders Hurley to return to the courtyard. Jacob appears to Hurley and wants him to say that he is a candidate and that he can do whatever he wants. Hurley does so, and then orders Dogen back to the temple. Dogen is pissed, but does as he is told. He says something in Japanese as he leaves which reportedly translates to:

“You’re lucky that I have to protect you. Otherwise I'd have cut your head off.”

Jacob reminds Hurley that he told him to bring Jack on the mission.

“Trying to get Jack to do something is...like impossible.”

Hurley goes to Jack with a message from Jacob. He tells him that Jacob has sent them on a secret mission, and when Jack refuses to go Hurley says that he “has what it takes.” Jacob said Jack would know what that means. Jack angrily demands to see Jacob, but Hurley tells him that he’s kind of dead, but he’ll be at their destination. Jack agrees and sets off with Hurley. Just outside of the temple the come across Kate, who almost shoots Jack.

She says that Jin was headed back to the temple and that Sawyer is on his own. Hurley tells her that there is another entrance to the temple a little while back, with a side note to Jack that Kate isn’t invited on their journey. She tells them that she’s on her way to the beach camp to look for Claire. Jack tells her that the people at the temple said something had happened to Claire. She heads off to keep looking for her, and that’s the last we see of her this episode.

Hurley and Jack continue through the jungle. Hurley thought Kate and Jack were supposed to get married and have a million babies, but Jack says he wasn’t cut out for marriage and kids. Jack steps on Shannon’s inhaler and they discover they have reached the caves. They revisit Adam and Eve, and Hurley wonders what if they were actually remains of time traveling 815 survivors (RIP Rose and Bernard *~speculation~*). Jack tells Hurley how had discovered the caves chasing his dead father through the jungle. He tells him that he smashed the coffin because Christian wasn’t inside. This should probably be a direct warning that Jack is going to smash some stuff at the end of this mission when he doesn't find what/who he is looking for.

Back on track after that trip down memory lane, Hurley reminisces about the good old time of them trekking through the jungle on their way to do something they don’t quite understand. He asks Jack why he came back the island. He tells Jack that he came because Jacob told him to come so he did (Hurley’s a pretty easy sell).

“I came back here because I was broken, and I was stupid enough to think this place could fix me.” ~ Jack

They finally arrive at their destination – a giant lighthouse that they had somehow never stumbled upon despite its close proximity to the caves. At least Jack acknowledges this, and Hurley says he guesses it was because they weren’t looking for it. Jack kicks open the door to the lighthouse, and at the top they discover a series of mirrors set on a wheel with a fire bowl in the center. The last step provided by Jacob is to turn the wheel to 108 degrees. Hurley gets to work and Jack notices the names engraved along the wheel, each of which corresponds with a degree. He sees scenes reflected in the mirror as it turns, namely a church (where Jacob came to Sawyer at his father’s funeral), a temple (where Jin and Sun were married), and a Jack’s childhood home (which we had been shown in the Sideways-verse earlier).

He makes Hurley stop the wheel, and he brings it back to 23 where he shows Hurley his parent’s house. Jack says Jacob has been watching all of them. He wants to see Jacob now, and he wants to know why Jacob has been spying on him. Hurley says he can’t just make Jacob appear, that it’s not how it works, but Jack goes crazy and smashes the mirrors to bits. Way to go, Jack.

Afterwards, Jacob appears to Hurley outside the lighthouse. Jack is sitting on rocks in the distance, staring out at the ocean. Hurley apologizes for failing the mission and says that the person trying to get to the island is totally screwed now. Jacob says they will find some other way. Hurley realizes that Jacob wanted Jack to come to the lighthouse and to see what he did.

“Jack is here because he has to do something. He can't be told what that is. He's got to find it himself. Sometimes, you can just hop in the back of someone's cab and tell them what they're supposed to do. Other times, you have to let him look out at the ocean for a while.” ~ Jacob

Jacob explains that he had to get Jack and Hurley away from the temple because someone bad is about to arrive there. Hurley wants to go back to warn everyone, but Jacob says it is already too late.

Crazy Camp with Claire

Claire checks on Aldo and Justin to make sure they are dead before releasing Jin. He asks her how long she has been in the jungle by herself, and she asks how long it has been since they left the island. So, three years on both counts. Well, at least we know she remembers Jin. She springs the bear trap and helps him up. When he tries to walk on his own he passes out immediately.

Jin wakes up alone in Claire’s freaky little hut where he finds a creepy crib with a “baby” made from animal bones and fur.

He hears Claire returning and lies back down. She has brought Justin, who was pretending to be dead. She suggests she is going to torture him to find out where they are hiding her baby. She heads out to sterilize some tools to treat Jin’s wounds and to sharpen her axe. Things just got really awkward for Jin, who knows Kate had been raising Aaron off the island. Justin begs Jin to loosen his ropes so that he can snap her neck when she returns. Jin says not to worry, he knows her. Justin is not comforted.

When Claire returns she stitches up Jin’s wound and says she hasn’t been all alone in the jungle. She has a friend, who told her that the Others took Aaron, which her father also said. She asks if Jin is still her friend, which only a moron would say no to at this point (but I’m sure he believes it). Claire threatens Justin with an axe and wants to know where Aaron is. The Others didn’t help their case any when they took Claire, stuck her with needles, and branded her. Justin says they only captured her because she was killing their people. Jin tries to help matters, and tells Claire that Kate took Aaron off the island. Claire is confused, and she strikes Justin in the chest with the axe, killing him.

Whoops! Jin later tells Claire that he lied, Kate didn’t take Aaron. He was only trying to save Justin’s life. He says he saw Aaron at the temple with the Others, and that she’ll need him to get to Aaron. She says it’s a good thing he told her Kate didn’t take Aaron, because if she had she would have to kill Kate. MIB then wanders into Claire’s camp and asks if he’s interrupting. Jin is stunned. Claire tells him that he’s not John, he’s her friend.

Easter Eggs, Sidenotes, and Questions:

This was the 108th hour of Lost.

This was the fifth episode of the season, and it showed many correlations with the first season’s fifth episode, White Rabbit. In that episode, Jack chased Christian through the jungle and discovered his empty coffin and the caves. This was also the episode where Christian told a young Jack that he didn’t “have what it takes.”

Who is the mother of David in the Sideways-verse? Jack didn’t meet Sarah until 2001 in the original timeline, so it is unlikely to be her. There's some speculation that it could be Juliet, but I'm leaning towards it being someone we don't know at all or someone completely random.

Jack read Alice in Wonderland to Aaron in the fourth season episode Something Nice Back Home. This was also the episode when Jack’s appendix ruptured.

The sign at David’s audition says “Welcome all Candidates.”

When Ben took Alex from Rousseau he warned her that if she ever heard whispers she should run the other way. Would Claire have been saved by this advice?

Even though we didn’t see Kate’s name on the cave, and she was not a candidate according to MIB, her name does appear on the wheel at 51, and it is not crossed off. Perhaps the wheel includes not only candidates, but also people Jacob needed to bring to the island for another purpose.

Jacob told Hurley to turn the wheel to 108. But what name corresponds with that number. Screen captures reveal it to be “Wallace.” But who’s Wallace? David Wallace?

Oops. Wrong show.

Here are the names and numbers identified on the wheel, with a few inconsistencies from what was shown in the cave:

Rousseau crossed out at number 20.
Austen at number 51. Austen is not crossed out and was not shown in the scene in the cave in "The Substitute."
Burke crossed out at number 58.
Faraday crossed out at number 101.
Lewis crossed out at number 104, which is different from The Substitute where she has number 140.
Rutherford crossed out at number 32, which is different from The Substitute where she has number 31.
Wallace crossed out at number 108.
Friendly crossed out at number 109.
Linus crossed out at number 117.
Dawson crossed out at number 124.
Littleton crossed out at number 313.
Horton crossed out at numbers 98 and 112.
Radzinsky crossed out at 106.
Thomson crossed out at 107.
Klein crossed out at 111.
Lambert crossed out at 116.
Bargas crossed out at 115.
Worden crossed out at 113