There's this scene in a relatively bad Buffy episode where Xander notes how funny it is that nobody ever noticed a Transylvanian castle in the middle of Sunnydale before. It was good humor and hung a lantern, so to speak, on how the show continually added locations to an otherwise vanilla California suburb.
In The Lighthouse, Jack wonders out loud how it is that nobody noticed a tall stone building before. Hurley responds with a rather deadpan, "Maybe we weren't looking for it."
Like Buffy, Lost has continually added new locations and for the most part has used the jungle foilage as a rationale for characters stumbling onto them. What I can't tell is if Hurley's response is the direct opposite of the intent in Buffy - not to dismiss the oddness by giving it a bit of recognition, but to specifically call it out. The island has been home to a lot of oddy placed things, some with potential explanations (genetically altered polar bears to survive the tropical climate) and some without (Kate's horse). Did people not see The Lighthouse because they just weren't looking, or was it actually not there because they just weren't looking?
The episode also pointedly reminded us of two important season one plot points - that Jack's dad wasn't in the coffin, and the corpses Adam & Eve. Hurley brings up the fan theory that Adam & Eve are, in fact, Losties ... which could be simply a fan nod or near confirmation. Either way, it's good to know the writers haven't forgotten about these points.
The end result of the episode seems to be a line in the sand and opposing teams. Anti-Jacob has Sawyer, Claire and possibly Jin and/or Sayid. Jacob has Jack and Hurley. The Temple is stuck in the middle, though Jacob doesn't seem capable of defending it any more (possibly because of his being dead and all). Winner seems to get control of the island, and hence be a protector or He Who Runneth Amoks (assumingly).
All in all I though this was a pretty good episode, but I do have one point of order I can't quite figure out (I know, how weird for this show). Claire disappears after seeing Christian Shepherd and leaves Aaron behind. She isn't seen again until she appears mysteriously in Jacob's Cabin, and hence we can't be sure if that was her or an apparition. Now she's CFL following SmokeLocke around, knowing that it is SmokeLocke ( or at least not Locke ). She thinks The Others have Aaron and threatens to kill Kate if she is the one who took her.
But - let's track that backwards. If Claire is in the company of SmokeLocke, then does that mean Christian's appearances signify SmokeLocke? And if Aaron was left behind after Claire followed him - why does she think The Others have Aaron?
I bring this up as an example of when Lost fans might have to take a deep breath and realize - that probably isn't going to get sorted out. It's chaff in a long and complicated storyline with a lot of noise in the signal. I'll be happy if the final explanation even keeps the Smoke Monster / dead people sightings marginally consistent.
Anyway, good episode.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
TV Watch: Lost, The Lighthouse
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2 comments:
What I found really interesting about this episode is that it explained the numbers. The numbers correspond to points on the compass. Jack is at 23 degrees, etc. To go back to the previous list:
4 - Locke
8 - Reyes
15 - Ford
16 - Jarrah
23 - Shephard
42 - Kwon
Total that up: 108 which is the direction Jacob said to point the mirror. Of course this is one of those many Lost moments where I figure something out but have no f'ing idea what it means :).
The reflections in the mirror all appear to relate to the where the person is from and as the mirror rotated there was a distinctly asian building. That would be for Kwon because the mirror is rotating from a higher number. Notably this means that Hurley was rotating it the wrong way the whole time since he was supposed to be going to 108 :)
Very curious if there's a name written at 108...
I continue to be pleased with this season giving an overall sense of progress towards some kind of conclusion. There's a couple unexplained mysterious things happening, but we are finally getting more answers than questions.
Wow, I was sleepy last night - all of that passed me by :) I think this is what we're going to get as an explanation for the numbers, which goes along with the Valenzetti Equation from the Lost ARG, that they're some kind of marker that Jacob uses to track things in the real/outside world. So when those things get brought together on the island, you see a preponderance of the numbers.
Curious, though, if/how it ties into the "escape degrees" that allow boats to enter/leave the island's general vicinity.
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