Lighthouse (Lost)

"Lighthouse" is the fifth television episode of the American Broadcasting Company's sixth season of the serial drama television series Lost and 108th episode overall. The episode aired on February 23, 2010, on ABC in the United States and 2 hours earlier on A in Canada due to the 2010 Winter Olympics.^[1] The episode was written by showrunners and executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and was directed by Jack Bender.^[1] Jack Shephard is the character centered on this episode.

In 2007, instructed by Jacob (Mark Pellegrino), Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) brings Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) to an unspecified place. Meanwhile, Jin-Soo Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim) finds Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin) after 3 years of disappearance, but begins to question her sanity. In the "flash-sideways", Jack deals with the issues of parenthood.

Plot

2004 (flash-sideways timeline)

Following the events of the season premiere, "LA X", Jack Shephard arrives late to pick up his son, David (Dylan Minnette), from school. Returning home, Jack is asked by his mother (Veronica Hamel) to visit her house and help her find his father's will, leaving David alone. While there, they discuss David, who was quite upset when his grandfather died, but never showed it to Jack. She suggests that perhaps David is "terrified" of Jack, just as Jack was afraid of his father as a child. Finally, they find the will, but Jack's mother is surprised to see that Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin) is included in it. Jack returns home to find that David has snuck out. Jack goes to David's mother's house, where he learns that David is at an important piano recital. Jack goes to the school, where David performs a stunning interpretation of Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu on the piano. Jack also runs into Dogen (Hiroyuki Sanada), another parent at the event, who praises David's skill and believes he has a gift. Afterward, David admits that he didn't tell Jack about the recital for fear of disappointing him. Jack explains his complicated relationship with his father and reassures his son that he can never be a disappointment to him.

2007 (original timeline)

Following the events of the episode "What Kate Does", at the Others' temple, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) is approached by the deceased Jacob (Mark Pellegrino), who sends Hurley on a mission: Someone is coming to the Island; he and Jack must travel somewhere in order to aid their arrival. Hurley has free rein to complete the mission because he is a candidate and even Dogen cannot stop him. Hurley uses the phrase "you have what it takes" to recruit Jack. Along the way, Jack and Hurley encounter Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly), who tells them that she will neither return to the temple nor go with them, but continue her search for Claire. Jack and Hurley eventually pass through the caves, encountering Jack's father's coffin and the "Adam & Eve" skeletons. Hurley speculates that due to time travel, the skeletons could be someone they know in the present.

Jack and Hurley arrive at a lighthouse, at the top of which is a large dial and a series of mirrors lined up. Each notch on the dial has a name listed next to it, corresponding to the surnames and numbers seen in "The Substitute". Hurley begins to move the dial to 108 degrees as instructed by Jacob, but Jack turns the dial to the 23 mark, where his own surname is listed, revealing Jack's childhood home in the reflection, causing Jack to become extremely upset. He angrily interrogates Hurley, who is unable to answer any of his questions, leading Jack to destroy the mirrors. Outside, Jacob reappears to Hurley, congratulating him on bringing Jack to the lighthouse. Hurley realizes that Jacob did not want them to send a signal from the lighthouse, but instead needed Jack to see into the mirror and realize that he is important to the Island. Jacob also divulges that he needed to get Jack and Hurley away from the temple because "someone bad" was coming there.

At the same time, Jin-Soo Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim) is rescued by Claire from her trap, taking him and an injured Other, Justin, to her hideout. She treats Jin's leg injury and then threatens to kill Justin unless he tells her the location of her son Aaron. Justin helplessly says that he has no idea where Aaron is and the Others never kidnapped him. Claire believes that the Others have her baby because both her father and "her friend" told her so. Jin informs her that Kate has been raising Aaron off the island. Claire murders Justin, regardless, claiming he would do the same to her given the chance. Jin then claims that he was lying about Aaron earlier, leading Claire to say she would have killed Kate if it were true (Kate really did take Aaron, Jin lied saying that he lied). Later, Claire's "friend", who turns out to be the Man in Black (Terry O'Quinn), shows up as Jin and Claire discuss how to return to the temple.

Reception

The episode received positive reviews. Metacritic awarded a score of 71 out of 100. This was down on the previous week's episode, which scored an 88 out of 100.^[2] Chris Carbot of IGN gave the episode a positive review, saying "Lighthouse isn’t filled with the wall-to-wall excitement of last week’s Locke-centric story but it still has plenty of great moments and surprising revelations." Overall, he gave the episode a score of 8.8.^[3] Noel Murray of The A.V. Club praised the episode, and gave the episode a grade of A-.^[4] Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly gave the episode a positive review as well, stating "tonight’s episode, “Lighthouse,” was not as awesome as last week’s episode, “The Substitute,” nor was it as mind-melting as the season premiere, “LA X.” But it was certainly better than “What Kate Does" … [and] the more I sit with this episode, the more I’m digging it."^[5] James Poniewozik of Time gave the episode a positive review as well, stating the episode "moved the endgame forward."^[6] Variety's Cynthia Littleton praised "Lighthouse" for having "a heavy old-school "Lost" vibe" and the flash-forwards starting to make more sense.^[7]

However, some critics gave the episode mixed reviews. Maureen Ryan of Chicago Tribune thought, "If I have any recurring complaint this season, it’s this: A great episode of 'Lost' works as an hour of TV. It may leave you with questions but it doesn’t leave you thinking you have to wait three or four or six more weeks to figure out certain basic facts about what’s going on".^[8] Also, Eric Deggans of St. Petersburg Times gave the episode a negative review, criticizing Jack's storylines while praising Claire's, "this is the new rhythm for Lost’s final season; one groundbreaking episode filled with revelations and amazing characterizations, followed by an episode so static it feels as if the show is running in place … interesting moments came when it turned to the story of Claire in the post-crash timeline."^[9] IGN ranked the episode 41st out of the 115 Lost episodes, noting that "the answers still weren't coming this early in Season 6, much to the confusion of fans everywhere",^[10] while the Los Angeles Times ranked "Lighthouse" as the 91st, saying it was "a hotly divisive episode" but "improves the more the show fills in the gaps around it and the more the show makes Jack the center of its final season."^[11]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Lighthouse

• "Lighthouse" at ABC
• "Lighthouse" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Lighthouse" at TV.com