Blogging Lost, Season 6: Episode 5 – The Lighthouse.

Another brother bites the dust.

Normally, I’d spend much, much more time on this than I’ll spend today (… and than is actually necessary, ever), but because I didn’t pay very close attention to Lost last night and because I don’t have time to rewatch it, I’ll leave unpacking this week’s hidden and obvious revelations to you.

In ParalleLA, Jack has a pre-teen, piano prodigy son—and like everyone else in Jack’s life, the boy kind of hates him. Because the boy seems to predate both Jack’s marriage to formerly-paralyzed Julie Bowen and his engagement to Kate, it’s safe to say we don’t know who this kid’s mom is.

But what this reveal tells us is that the differences in the characters’ ParalleLA lives predate their flight to Australia. So what will we learn next? Hurley’s married to Libby? Sayid isn’t a torturer? Boone was never in love with Shannon?

Hmm.

Also worth noting, before we move away from What If, California: Dogen is there! He’s got a son, too, and he and Jack meet at an audition for preternaturally gifted piano children.

Now. At the Temple, Dead Jacob revisits Hurley and gives him another secret mission and insists that Jack must accompany him. Of course, Jacob is super-cryptic about it, giving Hurley just enough info to lure Jack to their destination.

What Jacob doesn’t say is that, when they get there, and Jack finds a dial with most of the Losties’ (and many other) names listed along its perimeter, he’ll demand the dial be turned to his own name, shudder at the image the dial projects on a series of mirrors (the image is his childhood house), and destroy all the mirrors at once, effectively deading anyone else’s shot at seeing what voyeuristic shenanigans have been afoot regarding their own lives.

Typical Jack. Maybe Hurley wanted/needed to see something from his past, too. Ever think of that, jerk?

Anyway, Hurley’s pissed at Dead Jacob for not filling him in on Jack’s freak-out. Jacob says it was all a part of the plan: some people can just be told they’re important; other people have to be shown and then, apparently, allowed to lose their shit over it, then wander off alone to gaze out at the Pacific.

Speaking of losing one’s shit, hellllooo, Claire! It must be said: I’ve never been much of an Emilie de Ravin fan, but she amped up the the crazy last night in some pretty spectacular ways.

First, she pries Jin out of the bear trap in which we last saw his leg clamped. She takes him back to her little lair, then trails off for a sec. While she’s gone, Jin, unearths Aaron’s crib and in it, the partial carcasses of several furred creatures she’s fashioned into the general shape of a human infant.

Just as Jin is about ready to wig out over that, Claire returns with the presumed-dead Justin of two weeks ago. If you recall, Justin and Aldo were the Temple stooges assigned to Kate and Jin, when they went off in search of Sawyer.

Aldo’s definitely dead, but it turned out Justin was just faking. Claire has tied him up and shoved him down directly across from Jin, in order to wander off one more time.

While she’s gone, Justin tries to talk sense to Jin. He asks to be untied so he can kill Claire, who he’s certain intends to kill them both. Jin, in light of recent discoveries is kind of considering it, but Claire returns before he can act.

While she’s stitching up his leg (telling a gruesome tale about having to stitch herself up once, after being shot in the leg), she asks him if he’s “still her friend.” Reluctantly, he says yes.

Soon, an interrogation ensues. It’s the typical Lost kind of interrogation, where no matter what you answer, if you’re not a series regular, you’ll probably end up dead.

Claire wants Justin to admit the Others stole her kid. He keeps denying it. Then, Jin confesses that Kate’s been raising Aaron. Justin confirms this and Claire momentarily calms, but only long enough to coolly impale ol’ Justin with an axe to the heart.

Now that Jin knows the exact depths of insanity he’s dealing with, he tells Claire he lied about Kate having Aaron. Claire says that’s good, because if it were true, she would kill Kate.

Anyway, there’s one last thing that happens in that storyline: when Jin asks Claire how she could be so sure the Others had taken her kid, she says “her father” told her… and then “her friend” told her.

Jin finds out that Claire’s wonderfully informative “friend” is actually Fake Locke/Smoke Monster Dude. And her eerie sense of calm in dude’s presence prompts a serious, silent freakout inside Jin’s overworked brain.

I’m sure I’m forgetting things, so have it.

slb

slb (aka Stacia L. Brown) is a writer, mother, and college instructor in Baltimore, MD. Check her out here: http://stacialbrown.com and here: http://beyondbabymamas.com.
  • Stank.

    I hate to be so Comic Book Guy about it but I expected a lot more from the return of Claire. Bad-Hair Claire didn’t do anything notable except bury an axe in the chest of a 1) Random 2) Black 3) day player… You didn’t have to be a genius to figure out where that dude was headed: I cannot tell a lie.

    Points for inverting the overbearing-Japanese- father-of-a-music-prodigy stereotype. Other than that? Meh.

    • slb

      i didn’t like the ep, either. but i’m trying not to go full critic on these episodes, b/c i find that readers don’t particularly care for my full-on complaint mode.

      you’re right, though. no one’s being given much to do and a LOT more should be happening, five episodes into the final season of such an overburdened show.

  • Boone was no tin love with Shannon, remember she was his sister (incest ewww). The episode didn’t really answer any questions that it promised to other than the fact it confirmed that the smoke monster got Claire when she disappeared. I thought her creepiness was pretty good. She played crazy well. The alternate LA is kinda confusing me because I thought this we would what happened to them if they landed. I am thinking that this is what would have happened had they never met Jacob to if the island never existed.

    Tiffany
    http://liferequiresmorechocolate.blogspot.com/

    • slb

      Shannon was Boone’s stepsister. They almost slept together in an episode. He was totally into her. It was the predominant creep factor (and every main character has one) in their storyline.

  • cole

    au contraire slb… i fully enjoy your full on critic mode – your post on the kate episode was what made me take note of this blog. i do agree that returned claire is NOT living up to expectations and that jack is a self-centered a-hole for smashing the mirrors. but i do look forward to the kate-claire celebrity death match when they do meet again… til next week…

  • distance88

    I’ve been a pretty die hard fan of the show throughout–but slb, as a reader, I want full-on complaint mode, we can take it! (And if you can’t complain on the internet, where can you?)

    But yeah, this final season has been a lot shakier than I was expecting/hoping. I’m willing (and trying) to be patient since the show has been able to keep my attention longer than any other primetime network tv show (which I guess isn’t saying too much)..

  • slb

    I’m delighted to know that we PB Lost recappers are free to be as critical as we feel while watching!

    I really loved seasons 4 and 5, so I was expecting utter greatness in every single episode of the series’ final season. We’re five eps in and I am NOT pleased. Not even the Locke episode everyone raved about did anything for me.