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Dr. Linus Recap

Mar 10

metalman777Lost recap, season 6 No Comments

“Dr. Linus” is the 7th episode of Season 6 of Lost and the 110th produced hour of the series as a whole. It was originally broadcast on March 9, 2010. Ben and Ilana deal with the consequences of an uncovered lie. Meanwhile, Jack and Hurleystumble across Richard in the jungle.  (from Lostpedia.com)

1. In ”Dr. Linus,” Ben Linus was exposed as a soul who only has himself to blame for his woe-is-me bad self, whose corrupt nature is an accumulation of freely made choices. Which also means that Ben is also fully capable of resisting evil and selecting virtue, as well. His Sideways story was the proof. We were presented with a new version of Ben that was a truly decent man — a smart, idealistic teacher who cared for his students; a devoted son who cared for his ailing father, Roger Linus — but also one who yearned for a grander station in life
2. But then Ben made another choice: He bared his soul. He told the truth about killing Jacob, shared his rage over feeling betrayed by his Island god andhis shame for choosing Island power over his daughter, and then offered this heartbreaking explanation for why he was joining Mr. Evil Incarnate (Allegedly): ”Because he’s the only one that will have me!” Then Ilana did something that left Ben gobsmacked: She forgave him. ”I’ll have you,” she said, and walked away. Ben shuffled after her, as if sucked in by the undertow of her grace. He came to the outskirts of the Beach camp, then stopped and considered his options. Stay and serve in this humble little patch of heaven, or join Devil Locke and coldly play for a shot at living the ”Vida La Vida” once again. You always have a choice. This time, Ben made the right one — fulfilling, perhaps, Jacob’s dying thought hope that Ben had the capacity for change
3. Sideways Roger presented himself as a sad old soul who viewed his son as an underachieving talent but only blamed his own bad parenting choices for Ben’s fate. An improvement over Island world Roger? Yes. But I was left to wonder what it must have been like for Sideways Ben to grow up burdened by his father’s ambition for him. Regardless, we saw the result: Ben the Overeducated, Overqualified High School Teacher, dogged by enough feelings of inadequacy to deem himself a loser. I got the sense Ben saw his father clearly — clearly enough to feel a little resentment, but not so much that he hated him, or, like, wanted to drive him out into the jungle and gas him to death. In a clever flick at ”The Man Behind The Curtain,” we got a scene where the Good Son changed his ailing father’s oxygen tank and doted on his comfort. Bottom line: Sideways Ben was more like Florence Nightingale, less like Heinrich Himmler.
4. Categories: Sideways Island Sinkage; Parallel World Historical Discrepancies.
   Analysis: Until last night, it had been safe to assume that both the Island and Sideways worlds shared the same history until 1977, which is when the time-traveling castaways detonated Jughead. But the Linus men of the Sideways world blew up that thinking. I took the story to mean that Sideways Roger and Ben left the Island prior to its sinking. But Island Roger and Ben were still on the Island when Juliet banged the bomb. Implication: If the two worlds share a common history, the fork in the road is sometime before 1977. Rebooted Theory: The divergence begins on that fateful night when some phantom stranger struck John Locke’s teenage mother, causing her to give birth three months early. That phantom stranger? I’m saying it’s Charles Widmore.
5. We got a reference to Napoleon in exile on Elba, neutered by the loss of his power. Island Ben would later link himself to the reference. But CharlesWidmore and Smokey also fit into Napoleon’s pantaloons. After all, Napoleon ultimately escaped from his Island prison and reclaimed France (if only for 100 days) — and both Widmore and Smokey are exiles wanting to get back to their respective kingdoms/homes. (Something to also think about: after Napoleon got booted out of power again, he was exiled to another, less desirable island, Saint Helena, where he would die of stomach cancer/ulcer/poisoning. Foreshadowing for Smokey or Widmore’s final fate?) (I’m telling you, that knife Sayid stabbed Smokey with last week? Dogen poisoned it.) (And didn’t Alex last night mention she was nursing a stomach ache while the principal and the nurse were… you know… ”doing it”?) Dr. Linus also spoke of the East India Trading Company, the powerful British business entity that was established to execute trade with India, but wound up ruling much of it. And we recall that Ben has long alleged that all Widmore wants to do is exploit the Island for his material gain… although I personally suspect what Widmore wants most the Island is to use it to cheat death.
6. Ben’s Sideways story mirrored his entire Island arc and even suggested many possibilities for the entire saga. You might even say Ben’s parallel world yarn works as a theory of Lost
7. Shortly after Rousseau had finished off the rest of her fellow French scientists and given birth to Baby Alex, Chief Executive Other Widmore ordered Ben to ”exterminate” both of them from the Island. He coldly dismissed baby Alex as an ”it,” as if she were an animal that would just be a drain on Island resources that needed to be devoted elsewhere. Yep: definitely sounds like a guy that ain’t about ”taking care of the kids.” So Ben balked. He couldn’t bring himself to murder. Ben clearly had developed a different vision for how the Others should be managing the Island and living their lives. Widmore dismissed Ben’s ”idealism” as sentimental and self-serving — about him needing to feel needed. But he didn’t stop Ben from taking on the project of raising Alex alone. Ben’s victory inspired him to dream bigger. And when he uncovered the truth about Widmore’s off-Island slick willying, he staged his coup and forced him into exile. He also moved the nomadic Others out of the wild and into Dharmaville. But Ben’s dream of settling down and playing house — modifying Others culture in such a way to service and fulfill his own desires and needs — was surely antithetical to the Others’ true purpose, and was most likely what earned the Others’ their baby-making curse from the Island/Jacob. Richard Alpert said as much when he encouraged Locke to make a play for Ben’s job. ”Ben has been wasting our time with novelties like fertility problems,” Richard said. ”We’re looking for someone to remind us that we’re here for more important reasons.”
8. While Ben and Arzt ate lunch and griped about Reynolds, it was the Substitute who spoke up and encouraged Ben to act on his dissatisfaction. ”Maybe you should be principal. It just sounds like you care about this place,” Locke said. ”And if the man in charge doesn’t, then maybe it’s time for a change.” When Ben wondered who, if anyone, would listen to someone like him, Locke raised his hand and flashed either his warm smile or mischievous, baiting one. ”I’m listening,” he said. I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING! I have no doubt the burning question that’ll be making the rounds in the Lost fan culture is going to be this: Is Sideways Locke actually…
   THE MAN IN BLACK/SMOKEY/FAKE LOCKE…
   Throughout his Others reign, Ben insisted he was hearing the voice of Jacob and heeding his will. He justified everything by putting it all on his Island god. But the time has come to begin wondering how attuned to Jacob that Ben has been — if he’s been attuned to him at all. In our real world, there are those who claim to know God and hear God’s voice in their lives, but they could be wrong. Doesn’t mean there isn’t a God, just that God ain’t talking to them. I suspect Ben is one of those people. ”What about you?” Jacob asked Ben last season. It sounded so dismissive. But Jacob could have also been challenging Ben on his self-deception, or basically saying, ”I’m sorry. Do I know you?” Ben’s either been faking his rapport with Jacob, or (and this is my theory) the supernatural entity that’s been speaking to him all along has been the Man In Black. Ben thought he was serving Jacob the Christ, but he was most likely the victim of a long con perpetrated by a snake oil-selling false messiah, Smokenstein the Anti-Christ, who was just using Ben in his master plan to escape the Island and live anew as a man in a separate reality, one with no Island and no Jacob to trap him: the Sideways world.
9. She called Jacob the closest thing she ever had to a father. Which means only one thing for certain: Jacob wasn’t her real father. He could have been her father in the God sense of father — a supernatural entity responsible for her existence and purpose. Maybe it’s more of a Godfather thing; she could beJacob’s consigliore (like Tom Hagen, a Ben-esque stray/outsider taken off the street and groomed into a top assistant), maybe his Luca Brasi. We have a few missing years on the Island — the three years between when the castaways began time traveling (late 2004/early 2005) and 2007. We also know that Ilana spent some time in the hospital with bandages wrapped around her face and Jacob visited her and tasked her anew with a mission. How did she get injured? I’m guessing she was on the Island during those missing three years fighting a battle that went badly, possible trying to keep Smokey bottled up. She is now charged with protecting the candidates to replace Jacob. Don’t ask her what it means: she doesn’t know or isn’t telling us. She was asked how many were left, she said six. Was she counting John Locke? Fake Locke? Jin and Sun twice?
10. While Ilana brooded and nibbled on mangoes, Fake Locke appeared to Ben and made him one of his Faustian offers: future management of the Island. I couldn’t tell if Smokey was being sincere; this promise would be the easiest to keep, but I was kinda getting the sense — or maybe just making the assumption — that the Monster had no desire to see the Island continue existing. Fake Locke’s screen time here was about equal to the amount of time Sideways Locke got with Sideways Ben. He also presented to Ben as a sympathetic, supportive ally. Ben’s survival instinct — and Somebody Wants Me!! instinct — kicked in. He ran to where Smocke had said he’d find a rifle. He got the drop on Ilana, but instead of shooting her, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a desire to explain himself — as if realizing for the first time what he really wanted: to be known, understood, and not rejected, even though he was about to reveal his ugliest inner bits. His confession was part self-laceration, part rage against the Jacob/Island machine: ”I watched my daughter Alex die in front of me and it was my fault. I had a chance to save her. I chose the Island over her. All in the name of Jacob. I sacrificed everything for him, and he didn’t even care. I stabbed him. I was so angry. Confused. I was terrified I was about to lose the only thing that ever happened to me, my power. But the thing that really mattered was already gone. …I can never forgive myself.”
11. Saved, the once-lost, now-found wretch made the first of two heroic choices that represent the proper response to such a gift. The first: renouncing evil. Ben became the first person this season to turn down a FrankenLocke bargain. That’s going to have consequences. The second: sacrifice. He entered the beach camp and offered Sun his help putting up the tarp, just as his Sideways version would have easily, effortlessly offered assistance to one of his students.
12. It was hard to hear the line and not think Lost was saying something about its two-track, parallel world structure. Then Richard showed up and offered a third path. Jack followed. When Hurley asked if Richard could be trusted, Jack said, ”At least he’s not stallin’.” It was another wink at the audience in an episode full of them. Combined with the line about Napoleon’s Elba being the place where ”everything became clear,” I wondered if Lost was addressing anyone griping about the pace of ”answers” and saying, Don’t worry. Trust us. Okay?
13. Ironically, then, Richard’s path ended with… a lie. He took them to the Black Rock, which was not where he said was taking them, although it was where we’ve been wanting Alpert to go for a couple years now as we’ve wondered if the ageless Others came to the Island via the slave ship. (Another reading of Richard’s third way as a metaphor for Lost’s storytelling: We won’t lead you astray, but we’re not going the way you expect. We’ll be doing this ”answer” thing our way. ‘Kay?)
    
14. But I remain suspicious of Jack. When we last saw him, he was furious over the Lighthouse revelations. Now, after a long gaze out over the beach, it seemed Jack had thought over a few things and was totally activated to chase after all of the Island’s magic white rabbits — whether they look like his father or wear eyeliner — and see where they lead. Does Jack want to know Jacob’s purpose so he can faithfully fulfill it… or so he can angrily subvert it? He crackles with so much crazy mania, it’s hard to know if he’s a true believer or a great deceiver. Is it possible the title of the episode hints at an even more provocative possibility: that Ben, a.k.a. ”Dr. Linus,” has replaced Dr. Shephard as the story’s hero, while Jack has replaced Ben as its villain? Consider that sentimental slow-mo reunion sequence that ended the episode. We saw everyone in their huts and tents — including Miles, inspecting the diamonds he purloined from Nikki and Paulo’s grave (all $8 million of it? No going dutch on coffee with him!) — as Jack, Hurley and Richard approached. This moment was staged to deliberately echo the scene from the season 3 episode ”One Of Us,” when Jack, Kate, and Sayid returned from New Otherton, bringing Juliet with them. When the beach crew saw her, the happy-huggy moment abruptly ended, and everyone gave her the stink-eye (especially, ironically, Sawyer) — just like Jack and Ben traded suspicious looks in last night’s episode. We learned at the very end of ”One Of Us” that newbie Juliet was indeed shady; she had been sent by Ben to spy on the camp. (The moment was mirrored, I think, by having ”Dr. Linus” end with Widmore’s submarine spying on the castaways.)
15. Why might Jack be so angry? Oh, I don’t know. The same reason Sally Brown was so angry after spending all night in a pumpkin patch with Linus Van Pelt waiting for transcendent revelation to arrive. This Island thing — Jacob, Ben, everything — has made a big mess of his life, and he wants someone to take responsibility for it. He wants payback. Sally’s cry is his cry: ”YOU OWE ME RESTITUTION!”  (1-15 from Doc Jensen at EW.com)
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16. But hey, we get our first real reference to the island here – and that’s big. Roger Linus confirms what bad CGI has already told us this season: Dharma does exist (or at least did exist) in the alternate timeline. Not only that, but both Ben and his father have spent some time on the island. What made them leave is unclear, but Roger goes extra-crazy-special out of his way to pointedly wonder (aloud and for our benefit) just what life would’ve been like if they’d “stayed on the island”.
17. When Miles approaches Ben with bananas and beanpods, the subject of Jacob comes up again. Here, Ben echoes what many of us have already thought: that Jacob didn’t really care about being killed at all. Miles immediately corrects him however, telling Ben: “No, he cared. He was hoping he was wrong about you.”This is highly interesting, because it seems to go against the original theory of Jacob knowingly accepting his own demise. If what Miles says is true, Jacob’s last words to Ben about ‘having a choice’ now carry a lot more weight. At the same time however, I find it difficult to believe Jacob’s not still pushing Ben from beyond the grave. Through the use of Miles, maybe Jacob is allowing Ben to know his disappointment for a very specific reason. Perhaps Jacob is trying to appeal to the good within Benjamin Linus, because bringing that good back to the surface again is the only way to successfully recruit him.
18. Illana is as confused about ‘Kwon’ as we are. Whether the name of the candidate 42 refers to Sun or Jin, Illana explains she plans to protect them both. How she’ll do this with a single rifle is beyond me, but maybe she’s got a sick dagger buried somewhere that we don’t know about.I also found it interesting that Illana said there were “six candidates left”. She already knows John Locke is dead AND occupied by the man in black, which would leave five at most. It left me wondering if Illana knew of a sixth candidate, and whether or not that candidate was Kate.
19. From our standpoint, replacing Jacob’s role seems to be a piss-poor job. Maybe Illana doesn’t see it that way, which is why she talks about it so openly. Later on this episode, we see the MIB talking about enlisting a replacement as well. So does the island need two replacements? A ying and a yang? Or are Jacob and the MIB really just two halves of the same entity, waging an internal, Tyler Durden-like war of fate vs. free will? Great question. But sorry, not this episode
20. Perhaps it’s because Ben was so far disconnected from the island’s roots (again, the barracks), or maybe it’s because the MIB just assumes every leader of The Others is as inherently power-hungry as Charles Widmore… but it turns out the dark man doesn’t really know Benjamin Linus. Because of this, he mistakenly assumes Ben’s greatest wish is to rule the island. Just as Sawyer’s biggest desire was to leave, and Sayid’s only wish was to be with Nadia again, the dark man approached Ben offering the one thing he figured a deposed leader would certainly want most: to regain his power.
21. The beach camp is a sacred place for us, and with very good reason. It represents the origins of the show we love so much, and memories of a more mysterious yet simpler time. It makes sense that LOST would begin and end in the same place, especially with all the circle and loop references scattered throughout the show. So when everyone ended up back here, including Jack and Hurley (and even Richard?) – it wasn’t all that shocking. Cue dramatic montage, and bring on the hugging.
22. Standing just outside the circle of trust, Richard and Ben are the newcomers. They’re fallen defenders of the island who’ve finally come to the realization that everyone’s been pretty much on the same team all along. The sides are being chosen up very quickly, and they’d better be… because here comes the periscope of Widmore’s sneaky sub. What havoc will he wreak? What shenanigans will he be up to? Not really sure, but having been off-island for so long he’d better be damned good at playing catch up.
23. Okay, here’s a guess: Widmore will unknowingly end up following the wrong side. As leader of The Others, let’s assume he’d been doing Jacob’s will (or thought he was) for the entire time he was on the island. But what if he was actually listening to the MIB, without even realizing it? What if he were taking baby-killing direction not from Jacob, but from his nemesis instead?Knowing what we know now, Widmore’s words to John Locke about the upcoming war now contain a more sinister connotation: “If you’re not back there, the wrong side will win”. It’s as if he knew (or was coached) that John Locke’s body was necessary to the dark man’s ultimate plan. In a way, Widmore participated in the MIB’s long con, whether he knew it or not. (16-21 by Vozzek69 at Darkufo)

And unfortunately, I have to cut this post a little short.  Only 9 more episodes left!

Sundown Recap

Mar 03

metalman777Lost recap, season 6 No Comments

[note...not a whole lot of talk in the blog-o-sphere as of yet about this episode!!  very odd!]

“Sundown” is the 6th episode in Season 6 of Lost and the 109th produced hour of the series as a whole. It was originally broadcast on March 2, 2010. Sayid is faced with a difficult decision, and Claire sends a warning to the Temple inhabitants.  (Lostpedia.com)

1. And what’s really interesting — and perhaps hints at the future of the flash-sideways segments — is that unlike the last two weeks, when Alt Jack and Alt Locke found a measure of redemption, Alt Sayid finds no such thing. He tries to reject violence. He even goes so far as to physically remove himself from a violent situation. But the violence still tracks him down. It drags him back in. So does that mean the “fallen” characters are beyond saving, even in the alternate universe?
2. Instead of retribution, Flocke tempts Sayid with the possibility of “seeing” the departed love of his life, Nadia, once again. He’s a little fuzzy on the details, though. Does this mean Sayid could actually reunite with Nadia? Or is this a mere glimpse? Also unclear is whether Flocke’s proposal is the catalyst for Sayid’s slide into full-fledged evil. I’m thinking it may have been a little push, but Sayid was already well on his way.
3. Ilana, Frank, Sun — Can someone please explain to me how Ilana et al got into the Temple? They just appear as Smokey lays waste to the place? And now they’re … what exactly? The anti-Flockes? If this is the cavalry, my money’s on Flocke.
4. Ben — Ben is technically part of Ilana’s group, but the moment he shares with Sayid deserves special notice. It was the first time Ben has ever looked genuinely scared. Think about that. This is the guy who endured interrogation at the hands of Sayid but never flinched. And now, with one look from Sayid’s evil, evil eyes, Ben squirms away? That’s a huge shift
5. As I mentioned up top, the most intriguing aspect of this episode’s alt timeline is that Sayid doesn’t find happiness or clarity or personal fulfillment. He doesn’t ride off with Nadia (even though she’s married to Sayid’s brother in the Happyverse, I’m sure she’d be up for a divorce if Sayid forced the issue). He doesn’t forgive himself for past sins (he’s actually got a wicked martyr complex). And when push comes to shove, he can’t help but shove back. This almost makes me want to see how Alt Claire plays out. Is there a connection between a character’s state in 2007 and their alternate timeline? If you go evil on the island, are you doomed in the Happyverse? We’ll see, I suppose.
6. What I’m interested in seeing is how the castaways come together in the alt timeline. I’m assuming Alt Sayid will release Alt Jin, and perhaps they’ll tag team in some way. Combine the “knowing mirror looks” we’ve seen from the likes of Jack and Kate with all the path-crossing (Claire and Kate, Jack and Locke, Hurley and Locke, Locke and Rose, Sayid and Jin, etc.), and I get the sense the Alt Timeline is driven by some sort of gravitational pull. (1-7 from The Lost Blog)
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7. So what’s Smokey’s overall plan and what will happen to all his recruits?Now that the Temple dwellers have either been recruited or killed, one would imagine that the only thing left for Smokey to do is to go home, wherever that is. But how simple is that going to be? I imagine there’s probably only one way Smokey is allowed to leave and I strongly suspect it involves killing more people. Dogan said Smokey once killed every living thing on the Island which certainly doesn’t bode well for his recruits and I’m sure he has no intention whatsoever in granting them “anything they ever wanted.”My guess is if there is a literal “magic box” on the Island, Smokey’s going to want to use it to go home. But I also suspect that he can’t use it directly – he needs one of his recruits to use it for him. Now this is a scenario where I can see Sawyer totally pulling the Long Con on him.
8. How did Dogan’s presence in the Temple keep Smokey out? Wasn’t that the ash ring’s job?So what exactly kept Smokey out of the Temple? In LA X, we saw the Temple dwellers pouring ash around the Temple perimeter, but Lennon said that Dogan himself was the only thing that was keeping Smokey out.
9. Is Dogan’s “scale” the same one used in the Weighing of the Heart ceremony?I’ve long thought that the Island’s purpose was the ground for the Weighing of the Heart ceremony in Eygptian Mythology, with Jacob as Osiris, the Nemesis as Set and Smokey as Ammit. I discarded this theory after Smokey and the Nemesis were revealed to be one and the same, but Dogan’s scale analogy makes me rethink this. The reason I discarded the theory is that Ammit really isn’t on the same level as Osiris, more of a servant (or a pet) to the gods rather than a god himself.  Didn’t Dogan say that once Sayid’s infection reaches his heart he will be gone? Perhaps the reason Smokey is trapped on the Island is that he’s a servant of Jacob rather than a true rival. That’s why he could be summoned to protect the Island and that’s why he judged people – it was his job when Jacob was around. But now that Jacob’s gone, he’s free to devour all the hearts his little black heart desires. And I imagine in the Alt verse he’s been feasting for decades.
10. Where the heck were Sawyer and Jin during all this?Claire mentioned Sawyer and Jin before she went into the Temple, but where were they? Off on some super-secret Smokey mission? I’m looking forward to Kate’s reaction when she sees Sawyer again, provided Sayid or Claire don’t kill her first. Assuming she survives though, I do wonder if she’ll pick up on the fact that Sawyer’s probably conning Smokey and play along.The fact Jin is with Smokey and Sun is with the rebels makes me think Smokey’s going to eventually use him as leverage to recruit her. After all, you have to think Smokey will be taking out every potential candidate he can
11. Are all the Alt storylines starting to converge?Given the cliffhanger for this week’s Alt installment (Sayid finding Jin in his brother’s restaurant’s cold room), I have to imagine we’ll be seeing some of the Alt storylines come together since I can’t imagine they’d leave this one dangling. And if next week’s episode is as Ben-centric as the preview suggested, I have to imagine we’ll see some more of Alt Locke in his flashes.But now it seems to me that outside of Flight 815, the lives of all the people on the flight would have been connected even if they hadn’t crashed on the Island. Here’s a list of the familiar faces we’ve seen in the Alt verse storylines so far:

    Kate – Claire, Sawyer, Ethan
    Locke – Jack, Hurley, Rose, Ben
    Jack – Dogan, and likely Jack’s mystery wife
    Sayid – Jack (in a background cameo), Keamy, Jin

    So should we have an Alt Jin episode, we’ll probably get more of Alt Sayid. Alt Sawyer might bring more of Alt Kate, Alt Hurley might bring us more Alt Locke, etc. And the fact the lives of these people are so involved without Jacob’s influcence makes me think that might be the reason he chose them – since they were all going to be linked anyway, why not just bring them all along? Regardless I’m greatly looking forward to next week – I just hope present day Ben doesn’t die – we really haven’t seen much of him this season and his absence is felt.  (7-11 from Mistaking Coincidence for Fate)
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12. ”Locke” was stuck on the Island because Jacob was alive, now that Jacob is dead he’s free.  Not exactly news, but it’s nice that it was spelled out.
13. Dogen says “Locke” wants to destroy every living thing on the Island.  He seems content to leave his followers alive.  This is where we get into the old Lost hearsay conundrum.  What do we want to believe?  This guy was probably just trying to get Sayid to anger “Locke” into killing him.  So he might have just said these things to give Sayid a reason to plunge that knife in his chest.  Or maybe he’s saying that because it’s true.  Or maybe he’s saying it because that is what he was led to believe.  Every episode we face this same thing.  What do we want to believe?  “He is evil incarnate”.  Again, I tend to believe that, but it’s coming from a very biased and unreliable source.
14. Dogen’s death was very confusing.  “He was the only thing keeping (Smokey) out”.  I could have sworn that the ash was the only think keeping it out.  I guess Sayid might have messed up the ash, or Smokey managed to do it himself with all of his tree ripping.  But if Dogen was powerful enough to keep Smokey out then why was he afraid of getting killed by him if he left the Temple?  I think Dogen’s death was important in that it meant that Jacob’s power is crumbling, “Locke” is winning.
15. “Locke” promised Sayid that he could resurrect Nadia if Sayid would deliver a message.  He didn’t say that directly, but I think we all agree that that was what he meant.

16. Jacob promised Dogen that he would resurrect his dead son if Dogen would serve Jacob at the Temple or at least on the Island. This sounded a lot like the promise made to Juliet about her sisters cancer. Except that a resurrection is a lot crazier. I get why they had Dogen tell that story, they wanted to show the similarities between Jacob and “Locke” but I still really didn’t like that story. It makes things very complicated. I’m very tempted to not even believe that Jacob resurrected Dogen’s kid. But what’s worse, lying to a guy to get him to serve you or holding someones dead loved one over a persons head so that they have not choice but to serve you?

17. Here’s the thing, I know there are a few people that are slowly boarding the “Locke” train, but I think we should stop and take a step back. Here’s what we’ve seen him do so far. He’s held three different carrots in front of three different people. He told Sawyer that he would tell him why he was on the Island and he promised to get him off the Island, he promised Claire that he would get Aaron back from the Others, and he promised Sayid that he would resurrect Nadia. If you ask me all of those promises are lies. Maybe he’ll get off the Island, but it’s just as likely that he’ll stab Sawyer in the back in order to get off. It was a straight up lie that he would get Aaron back. He knew that Kate had Aaron, he has all the memories that Locke had. And if he could resurrect Nadia, then why didn’t he offer to resurrect Charlie and Juliet too? That would have been great incentive for Claire and Sawyer. He’s lying and you’re falling for it.

18. Here are the facts. Sayid was dead, and he miraculously came back to life. Since he came back to life he’s been through a lot, but at the moment he’s very evil. There’s no doubt about that.

    Claire was in a building that blew up. she may have died in that explosion, we don’t know. All we know is that after that she’s been acting odd. She is currently bat-shit crazy and also pretty evil (remember the axe? yeah).

    Dogen told us about the Infection, and although it’s easy not to believe him, I think we should believe him about this. These two were probably Infected and it seems as though both of them are now lost causes.

    In the last scene of this episode I wondered whether or not all The Others were infected too. That group was just very robotic and unquestioning. I wonder if the Infection can be spread like that. If so then I really worry about Sawyer, Jin and Kate. (12-18 from Not Confused Just Lost)

Lighthouse Recap

Feb 24

metalman777Lost recap, season 6 No Comments

“Lighthouse” is the 5th episode of Season 6 of Lost and the 108th produced hour of the series as a whole. It was first broadcast on February 23, 2010.  (Lostpedia.com)

1. In the Sideways world, Doc Shephard spotted his appendix scar in the mirror and struggled to recall the forgotten/suppressed memory of when the ruptured organ was removed. Again, he wondered: How did that get there? Again we wondered: What does it mean? This story ended with Jack looking into the episode’s most unusual and most miraculous of mirrors — the eyes of his son, David. What he saw in them was the very thing his Island self should have recognized in the Lighthouse: an invitation to let go of the past and move into the future.
2. You don’t have what it takes, Christian told Young Jack during a boozy stupor. That one left a mark. Father Shephard was actually trying to teach his son a lesson — that being a hero isn’t something you choose to be, but rather something that you just are, and that when you try to be a hero, and you fail, then what you become is a failure, at least in your own eyes, and that’s a mighty hard thing to live with, if you can live with it at all. If you’ve watched all of Lost, then you know the great irony of Christian’s harsh wisdom: Jack has pretty much proven his father correct. But did Christian correctly identify Jack’s fundamentally flawed nature — or did he nurture it with his problematic brand of parenting?
3. Anyway, this is all to say that the Sideways Jack that we got to know in ”Lighthouse” was a lot like the Castaway Jack we’ve come to know over the past five season, but also very different, in ways both obvious and not so obvious. (Has there ever been a less helpful sentence ever written than that last one?) We met him as he was washing a hard day’s work off himself and talking with his mother about the mystery of Christian’s missing coffin. Yep: still missing. Probably in Berlin, according to the airline, but nobody knew for sure. The Widow Shephard was flummoxed. How could someone possibly lose a dead body? The lack of resolution had left her proverbially paralyzed; she needed Jack’s help in settling Christian’s affairs. (In more ways than one.) It would be wrong to say Jack was unfazed by his father’s Lost-in-the-system corpse (he certainly seemed moved by his mother’s need), but at the same time I didn’t get the sense he was haunted by it, either.
4. But I wonder if the perplexing puzzle of Jack’s appendix scar told the real story of Jack’s seemingly mature serenity. Eyeballing the blemish, Jack suddenly realized he couldn’t recall when the damn thing has been cut out of him. His mother reminded him that it had happened when he was 7 or 8 years old, that he had collapsed at school and his father had wanted to perform the surgery himself but was denied. Now, we all know that the castaway version of Jack had his appendix removed on the Island back in season 4 (more on that episode in a sec), and I think Lost wanted us to once again wonder if these Sideways characters are psychically linked to their Island counterparts or possess their memories somewhere the backs of their fogged-up minds. Consider this: If we assume that Jack is about as old as Sawyer, then that means it’s very likely that Sideways Jack had his school collapse/appendix episode the very same year that a certain group of time traveling castaways were blowing up Jughead on the Island. What if Young Jack’s collapse was caused by Castaway Jack’s mind/soul getting blown into him? What if Young Jack’s appendicitis was reflexive a psychosomatic response to the appendix-free Castaway Jack’s sudden psychic migration into his mind? What if Castaway Jack’s mind/soul has lain dormant within Sideways Jack ever since, but now is starting to stir and take hold? What if Sideways’ Jack’s appendix confusion and other instances of spotty memory manifested in this episode are symptoms of an identity crisis caused by this trippy-tricky of mental operating systems?
5. For now, I’m going to say that the answer to every single one of those preceding ”What if…?” questions is a big fat NO. Instead, I’m going to say that Sideways Jack is a man who’s dangerously out of touch with his emotions and with others, because he’s a self-absorbed jerk, or because of pain he’s been spending most of his life trying to avoid, or both. As ”Lighthouse” progressed, we learned that Sideways Jack’s relationship with his father was also marked by fear and hurt; and so I wonder if a simple explanation for his fuzzy recall of the appendix drama was that he had suppressed the memory. The only psychic entity lurking within Sideway Jack is his own wounded child, and for his entire life, he’s kept him heavily tranquilized. His story in ”Lighthouse” was about choosing to recall and feel childhood pain, about rousing that sleeping, hurting kid… and then letting him go.
6. BURNING QUESTION: Who’s David’s Mom? Who’s the female participant in the creation of this inexplicably conceived Sideways child? Who’s this phantom woman that Sideways Jack was once with and now isn’t? Wouldn’t if be totally ironic and fitting if she was the Sideways iteration of Lost’s resident fertility doc/Jack dumpette, better known to us as Juliet? And you wanna know why she wasn’t home last night? That’s right, kids: Going dutch on coffee with new boyfriend Sawyer. (Your goosebumps? That’s right, I did that.)
7. Christian Shephard left something for Claire. My thought: Well, that answered that question. Sideways Dad was an intercontinental horndog, too
8. Jack arrived at the audition. He followed the sign directing ”the candidates” to the auditorium. Inside, Father Jack bore witness to his piano prodigy son exercising his awesome gift. It took his breath away. It was all very end-of-Billy Elliot. Jack swelled with pride, with joy, with selfless happiness for his son — with life. The piece: ”Fantasia Impromptu in C-sharp minor” by Chopin. Last season on Lost, another child prodigy played the same number for us. I am referring to Master Daniel Faraday in ”The Variable.” We remember his fate: how his mother cut him off his from art; how she redirected his brilliance toward physics in a doomed bid to save him from her future bullet; how she drove him and rode him and smothered him. He died, anyway. A failure, anyway. I felt Lost was offering a belated toast to the late Faraday in Sideways Jack’s surprising cross with Sideways Dogen, whose son was also auditioning for Williams. ”They are too young to have this kind of pressure,” Dogen said. ”It’s hard to watch and be unable to help.” Rest In Peace, Daniel. Sorry your Mom sucked. (I look forward to getting Island Dogen’s backstory and seeing how much of it ironically synchs with this small peek into his Sideways world.)
9. There was more to the statement, but let’s just begin with that phrase, an extraordinary admission of humility from a once-proud man of science who spent years arguing for the strength and supremacy of his own agency. But Jack’s full statement was: ”I came back here because I was broken, and I was stupid enough to think this place could fix me.” Jacob would later suggest to Hurley that Jack couldn’t be more wrong, but the good news was that Jack had grown enough in his journey to summon a magical beacon, one that could to light the way to the his journey’s homestretch. Literally.
10. Hurley thought — or hoped — that he could summon Jacob by cranking on a chain and turning the dial to its 108 setting. (Though I didn’t see it, the Web consensus seems to be that the name attached to this number was ”Wallace.”) But before the contraption could reach 108, Jack saw something in the mirrors — images of buildings that shouldn’t be there. He then got a scary thought: What would he see if he turned the dial to his number, 23. He pushed Hurley out of the way and changed the ”channel” and there on the ‘’screen” was a live shot of his childhood home. Jack then came to some conclusions. He concluded that the Lighthouse was a mystical surveillance device. He concluded that Jacob had used it to spy on him all his life. He concluded that Jacob wanted something from him, and he angrily demanded that Hurley summon Jacob ASAP to explain himself. Hurley explained that it didn’t work that way, that Jacob was a ghost — a sometimes there, sometimes not non-entity.
11. Meanwhile, Hurley and Jacob debriefed. Jacob seemed to suggest that contrary to Hurley’s panic (and armful of inky instructions), everything had gone according to plan. Jack was supposed to look in the magic mirrors. Jack was supposed to see what he saw. And maybe most importantly, Jack was supposed to have the response that he had, even at the expense of his magical mirror, mirrors on the Lighthouse walls. The purpose, I think, was to correct Jack of one misconception: He was not stupid to believe that the Island holds redemptive purpose for him. It does. Jack just needs to keep his eyes open and look for it. He also needs to do one thing more, and I think it’s the thing that Lighthouse mirrors were designed to show him. Hurley and Jack got it wrong. The Lighthouse doesn’t cast light outward. It casts light inward, and reveals the state of your heart. For Jack Shephard, his heart is still locked up in his childhood home, his father’s house, his past, and he won’t be free and realized until he leaves all of it behind.  (1-11 from Doc Jensen at EW.com)
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12. But at least somebody at the Temple is making productive use of time. Hurley and Miles are playing X’s and O’s! There’s no ambiguity in X’s and O’s. Two sides: one is X, one is O. And their game plays out in a similar manner as the one being played between the Man in Black and Jacob – endless ties, one always blocking the other’s “three in a row”. Of course, if you play X’s and O’s enough times, someone wins a game, often out of sheer carelessness on the part of the other player. Is this what’s happened between Jacob and MIB?
13. Speaking of which, what was Jacob doing? I’ve rewatched it a dozen times, and he appears to be swirling a piece of string or a thin stick in the waters of the Spring. Honestly, it looks like he’s fishing. I’m not sure what to make of that, although if I was pressed to make some comparison, the first thing that comes to my mind mind is Jesus Christ, not just a fisherman but a “fisher of men”, who recruits his followers and gives them tasks that they often don’t understand and end up failing at.
14. From Justin and Claire we’re given two slightly different accounts of what’s happened to Claire over the last three years. I think it’s fair to say at this point that Claire didn’t do any time-traveling during the season 5 flashes, as the group from Dharma times only arrived in 2007 a day or so ago, which wouldn’t have been enough time for Claire and the Temple Others to establish their current relationship (nor would Claire have had ample time to build a shelter and set traps if she had only recently flashed to 2007). I can only assume that Claire wasn’t subject to the time traveling because of some sort of interference from the Christian Shephard apparition, which I’m 99% sure was actually the Man in Black.
15. So for the last three years, Claire has lived from 2004 to 2007, running from the Others and was at one point captured by them. She tells Jin that they tortured her, even showing him the scars. Based on this and what Dogen said about Claire being infected, it seems that she underwent a similar test as Sayid. I have no doubt that she failed, too, but I’m less sure that that means either of them are actually infected, as I have yet to see them become corrupted by the Smoke Monster the way that the French Team was (though it’s certainly possible that this did happen to Claire – we now know who she’s been buddy-buddy with lately.
16. For the record, I don’t think Claire recalls it happening that way. Remember her emotionless, zombie-like appearance with Christian in “Cabin Fever”? Christian must have brainwashed her or altered her memory somehow (which could very well be a side effect of becoming infected – Sayid doesn’t really understand what’s going on, either). If apparitions of Christian are indeed the Man in Black, it makes sense what he was doing. By brainwashing Claire into thinking that the Others had her baby, he turned her against them permanently, thwarting any future attempts on the part of Dogen to gather all the Losties at the Temple for the forces of good. This is why he continued to appear to her as her “friend”, deliberately feeding her lies, recruiting her in his efforts against Jacob and the Temple.
17. Last but not least in this story thread, Flocke shows up at Claire’s camp and is heralded as a friend of hers. A quick tally: Sawyer is with Flocke, Claire is with Flocke, Kate is heading to her doom, the Temple is probably about to be destroyed and Sayid is infected. Whoever Jacob wants Hurley to guide to the island better be pretty vital for the forces of good.
18. Anyway, Wallace could turn out to be no one. Last week I made a huge fuss about Kate not being a candidate and this week, there she is – not crossed off, no important number, just kind of there. My point is that there might be less rhyme and reason to these names and numbers than we suspect. Then again, Damon and Carlton know we’d be on the lookout for 108, so I have a hard time believing it says “Wallace” for no reason  (12-18 by Robz888 on DarkUFO.com)
19. I’m starting to think that all the candidates are pieces of a Jacob-constructed Rube Goldberg machine, one where if everyone is placed in the correct spot at the correct time Smokey will be defeated and a new Jacob will take the Island’s helm. The side-effect of all this is that all the candidates’ lives will have been made miserable up to that point because of Jacob’s machinations in getting them there; Jacob essentially sacrificing the good of the few or the one for the sake of the world. That’s why, without Jacob’s influence, everyone’s lives are better in the Alt universe (except for Kate, perhaps).
20. So let’s say that’s true – that Jacob essentially made everyone’s lives miserable because it was necessary to defeat Smokey. In that case, I can see Jacob being responsible for Jack fixing Sarah, Locke having issues with his Dad, Hurley thinking he’s cursed, etc… all these awful things that Jacob was actually responsible for in order to get them to the Island. Now with Jacob’s influence gone in the Alt, everyone is actually a lot happier, but the Island is destroyed. What the ramifications of that are for the world we just don’t know yet
21. Another nice nugget of info this provides, though, is that if totally all of the candidates were written on the lighthouse turntable, then there are only 360 total. Lostpedia has an updated list of all the candidate numbers from Jacob (or Smokey’s) Wall. Looking it over, there’s only one number above 360: Daniel Faraday. And even that could be wrong, given how illegible some parts of the wall were. Also note: Kate’s name is in the lighthouse at #51 and is NOT crossed out. Interesting, eh?
22. I really, really liked Claire this episode and props to Emilie de Raven for playing crazy as well as anyone on the show. The sickness has turned out to be one of the most interesting things about this season. Smokey’s appearance and the fact Infected Claire knew that he wasn’t the real Locke certainly suggests the sickness is something caused by Smokey.But what exactly does it do? In Sayid’s case, he definitely died and came back to life infected. In Claire’s case, we’re really not sure. It certainly seemed she died from wounds inflicted in the attacks on the Barracks, after all, the Claire Locke saw with Smokey in Jacob’s cabin seemed eerily calm – much different from this Claire. And Sayid certainly seems normal so far as well. Whatever is does there’s a definite progression. But are they really dead, zombie-like creatures or merely corrupted souls (something like a Ringwraith perhaps, an evil servant of Smokey)? (19-22 from Mistaking Confidence for Fate)
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23. The first time I watched this episode I was pretty sure that Claire revealed that Christian and “Locke” are the same people.  But when I watched it again she clearly says that first Christian told her that The Others took Aaron and then her friend told her.  Her friend was revealed to be “Locke” so if we’re going to believe Claire then they are still separate people.  I don’t know what to think.  If there was ever a time to reveal that Christian was “Locke” then that was it.
24. Jacob was watching Jack’s old house.  It was a white house so it was a light house.  Get it?   HA HA HA… anyways.  Jack was enraged when he found out Jacob was watching him.  But the truth is that he might not have been watching Jack.  Doesn’t it seem more likely that he was watching Christian?  Jack only lived there as a kid.  For Jack’s sake I hope I’m wrong about that.  (23-24 from Not Confused Just Lost)
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25. The Annotated Alice: Jack says he read it to David, and we saw him reading it to Aaron when he was living with Kate.
26. Claire isn’t just kinda crazy… she’s totally batshit bonkers creepy-skeleton-head-baby-lovin’ super crazy
27. Jack found the key under the rabbit, just like Miles reached under a rabbit in “Some Like It Hoth” to get into that apartment with the dead man when he was a kid.
28. Jacob says that Jack is here because he has to do something, and that he needs to look at the ocean for a while… Locke looked at the ocean for a long time before he sensed his destiny on the island. We also saw the Man in Black staring at the ocean when he returned looking like Locke.  (25-28 from Nik at Nite)
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29. There was an amazing number of black and white references this episode, and most of them were in LAX_Jack’s world. All throughout his home we saw black and white, especially amongst the paintings, photos, frames, and wall hangings. Ditto for Jack’s black and white office. And the icing on the cake? All those various shots of piano keys.
30. Figuring out Jack’s color is tough right now. Like Sawyer, he’s walked both sides of the fence. He’s been a man of science and a man of faith, and he’s also someone who walks “among us but is not one of us”. I suppose all of these references could be pointing out that Jack’s final role has yet to be determined, or that maybe he’s being played by both sides of LOST’s game.
31. We’re seeing a very distinct pattern in the LAX timeline, and here it is in a nutshell: the circle can be broken. People can change. Mistakes don’t need to be repeated, over and over again. Some examples so far:

    * Kate Austin is a fugitive on the run, only looking out for herself. She glances into a garage mirror and… BANG! Kate heads back to bring pregnant Claire her stuff, help her through false labor, and befriend her during a major crisis… all at great risk to her personal safety. Cue Claire’s credit cards and a makeover shopping spree.

    * John Locke is the same angry and defiant cripple he’s always been. Still struggling against his paralysis he calls Jack’s number, looks into a mirror and… BANG! Locke suddenly hangs up the phone and embraces his condition. Helen loves and accepts him for who he is, there’s a nice tearful hug, and everything is unicorns and rainbows.

    * Jack Shephard is a workaholic surgeon neglecting a son he only sees once a month. He looks in the mirror and… well, you get the picture. With some help from his mother Jack realizes the error of his ways, eases up on young David, and opens his loving arms to his son. Time for ice cream and some hair-rumpling.

    This is some exciting news, actually. It may be proof that Jacob is right. People don’t always have to fight, corrupt, and destroy. By stopping to take a good look at what they’ve become, people can actually reverse bad behavior and start making positive changes to their lives. Maybe broken people can be fixed after all.

32. Here’s a phrase you’ve heard me say before: “placed into being by requirement”. Charlie’s guitar, Locke’s knives, Jack’s sewing kit, Rose’s husband, Yemi’s crashed plane, the black rock’s dynamite, a shitload of heroin, the Swan’s washer/dryer, Christian’s coffin, the food drop, Sun’s pregnancy test, the marshal’s Haliburton case, Anthony Cooper, Jacob’s cabin, IM chats with Walt, batteries, radios, guns, canoes, explosives, medicine, a spinal surgeon, Aaron himself… and now, a giant stone lighthouse.

    The end of LOST is near. Answers are bigger, and they’re right in front of our eyes. The reason we never saw the lighthouse until now is because our characters never needed the lighthouse until now. So was it always there? Shoot me, but I say NO.

33. Listen to Dogen talk to Jack about his son David, and how it’s unfair that he’s under such a tremendous amount of pressure. “It’s hard to watch, and not be able to help”. This simple statement is one of the fundamental principals of LOST. It’s almost as if Jacob is speaking through Dogen here, looking on helplessly but hopefully. Jack and the other candidates are like his children: he can only sit back and watch as they walk their paths in life, unable to do much of anything to help. He can only push or nudge them in the right direction, but he cannot directly interfere.

    Dogen’s final statement, “How long has he been playing?”, is much more than an innocent throwaway line of dialogue. It’s a direct reference to just how long LOST’s game has gone on, and how many times Jack himself has been through the loop. Iteration after iteration, Jack has been playing damned near forever. Yet perhaps this time through, maybe he’s come further than ever before. As the dark man told Sawyer last episode, “it would be a shame to turn back now after coming so far”.

    David is Jack’s direct reflection. To say what’s real or unreal is getting irrelevant at this late stage in the game. Suffice it to say that the Jack of this timeline – much like Kate and Locke – is finally learning. My guess is he’s gaining the important knowledge needed to go back to the island, where he’ll eventually win the war against Flocke and his recruits.

34. It was interesting to note Kate’s name on the wheel, at number 51. Even more interesting, her name was not crossed out. This reinforces my opinion from last recap: that although she’s not assigned one of the big six numbers, Kate is still a candidate. In fact, she’s a secret candidate, because the dark man knows only about Locke, Reyes, Jarrah, Shephard, Ford, and Kwon.

    So who’s coming to the island? Who’s number 108? The name on the wheel reads Wallace. Before I’d even seen the name, my money was on Desmond. Even afterward, I still like the idea that Desmond is on his way. He’ll arrive by boat, just as he did the last time he came to the island, just as the Oceanic six had to return by way of an airplane.  (29-34 by Vozzek69 at DarkUFO.com)
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35. In 6×05, The Lighthouse, we got to see… a lighthouse. The numbers corresponding in degrees to the heading of the lighthouse were affiliated with names… many familiar, some not. This seems to be a match with the numbers seen in the cave in the last episode. Of course, we also see that a person’s number can be dialed into and be observed from the lighthouse. Does it make any sense at all? Hmmmm…. no.  Click here to see close up pictures of the dial at Sledgeweb’s Lost Stuff