Lost 6.05 The Lighthouse

[selenak]

You know, ever since the s3 finale, I have this weird moments where I sympathize with and feel for Jack Shephard, a character whom I was indifferent to and found boring in the first season and actively loathed in the second and much of the third. However, my sympathy-for-Jack moments are always bound to end sooner or later, mostly through some action of Jack's and/or the shows. I think I worked out a system for this, using this episode as an example. Broken!Jack, not being present as a Heroic Leader, but someone who screwed up badly and who in turn has been through a lot, I could like through most of the episode. His smashing the mirrors made me roll my eyes and think "well, that was useful, Jack", but no more. Then came Hurley's scene with Jacob about Jack's importance in the grand scheme of things, and sure enough, that was where I abruptly lost my sympathy for Jack again.

So, an episode which leaves me with mixed feelings, and not just about the Jack part. Rebootverse!Jack having a son was a bit of a surprise, but not that his relationship with his son is following the pattern of his relationship with his father. Jack is reliable that way. I continue to be inappropriately amused by Christian's ability to be a missing body in either universe. On that note: Christian Shephard - Jack Shephard - David Shephard. Lost writers, never change. Also, I'm starting to suspect Jack will end up as the next Jacob, guardian of the island, at the end of the show. Speaking of Christian, though, I think my question from last week is answered in that it seems to be a continuity gaffe that we had a Christian sighting after Smokey started to appear as Not!Locke last season, since Claire saying "her father" told her the Others have her son definitely does sound as if this Christian is/was Smokey. While we're sorting out reality versus hallucinations, it seems also settled that the Claire Kate dreamed of last season was not Claire. (Was she also Smokey or Jacob in disguise? Not sure. "Don't bring Aaron back to the island" could serve either of them.)

Claire's scenes are the other part I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, they really go strong with the Rousseau parallels, and you know, given the brand, it's likely the Temple Others really did give Claire the full torture examination complete with assassination attempt, so given that and her isolated state for three years, I don't really blame her for her reaction to them. I can also see why Jin concludes he doesn't trust her anymore and changes his story about Kate and Aaron. HOWEVER, that final scene smacks a bit too much of a black and white scenario, with Smokey as Team Evil and Jacob as Team Good, and Claire on Team Evil, instead of the "they - Smokey and Jacob - are both bastards" scenario I'm hoping for. Ah well, there were misleads before. (Remember back when there was a school of thinking that Charles Widmore was a nice guy after The Other Woman and Charlotte disarming the chemical weapons?) And I'm all on board with Claire NOT killing Kate, though obviously Jin's lie will be up as soon as Kate finds her and/or as soon as Claire gets to the temple. A fight between them before reconciliation is okay, though, and may I say I approve of Kate not joining Jack & Hurley and continuing her Claire quest instead. (Also, seems to be not a coincidence Kate wasn't among the names in the cave last episode. I'd say Jacob is sexist, but we don't know yet whether "Littleton" was Claire or Aaron, or whether "Kwon" is Jin or Sun.) All in all: bring on the next episode!

Comments

[vilakins]

Kate was on the lighthouse wheel, and not crossed out IIRC. She wasn't a Number though, but around 51, I think, so I'd say she was a candidate still, just way down the list. Not that I disagree at all about the sexism. :-(

And I'm so with you about Locke and Ben meeting in Rebootverse, and Locke still being alive and happier than Locke Prime (?) was. I was devastated when Ben killed him, making Locke's life an utter failure as his leadership of the Others amounted to nothing at all. Why do you think Ben killed him, given that he saved Locke's life when he was about to hang himself?

[selenak]

Ben's motives were as convoluted as the man himself, I'd say. On the one hand, you have the reasons he gives Not!Locke when the later, still pretending to be Locke, asks him: Locke's death was the galvanizing event that brought the O6 together (it was definitely the element that convinced Jack, the biggest sceptic, but when Locke was about to kill himself, he hadn't yet told Ben about Eloise, or Jin having a message for Sun, hence Ben talking him down first. On the other hand, I think those were only the surface reasons, and the ones Ben was ready to admit to himself. Beneath this you have a mixture of plain old jealousy (to Ben, it looked like the island/Jacob liked Locke better ever since Locke got healed and Ben was not), struggling with the closest Ben comes to with friendship since childhood. I don't think Ben (Prime at least, we don't know yet about the Reboot version) is particularly well equipped to handle mixed emotions, is a control freak, and he has a record of responding really badly to perceived threats (his solution to Alex dating Carl wasn't a talk about birth control and why getting pregnant on the island is dangerous but brainwashing Carl, and with Juliet he just got rid of Goedwin). So he went with the simplest solution to end it, which was killing Locke. But note that other than Alex' death, this is is the only thing we see Ben repentant about even before his eulogy - there's his "I'm going to miss you, John" directly after he killed him, which wasn't said gleefully but sadly and with no audience to hear him, his reaction when not!Locke point blank asks him about the killing, and his reaction to real Locke's dead body when Richard flings him in front of it.