The Most Important Moment From This Week's <i>Lost</i>

How about the reveal of Jack as a father? Eh. Interesting, but not that important. And Jack was a pretty awkward dad. He talked to his son like he would talk to his therapist.
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I love Lost. So do a lot of other people. For comprehensive coverage, go elsewhere (as I no doubt will). For one important thing to think about each week, read on.

"Lighthouse" was an entertaining, albeit meandering, episode. We got a little bit of everyone on the island and few pretty interesting glimpses of Jack's life in the flash sideways.

But as for the most important moment, I feel like this one is pretty easy. It was the scene when Jack and Hurley are at the top of the lighthouse, and more specifically, it was the three images (all buildings) that Jack saw in the mirror as it turned.

Maybe I'm crazy (probably not), but the first image looked an awful lot like the backdrop to Jin and Sun's wedding. The second, a church steeple, reminded me of the church in which Sawyer's parents' funeral was held, though it was fairly generic, and I haven't gone back to look at the Season 5 finale, so I could be wrong. But if I'm right about both, they have something pretty important in common: those are the locations where our characters, now "candidates," were touched by Jacob.

Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure what this means, because the third image Jack sees--his childhood home--is not the place where he was touched (which would be the hospital).

But there's one thing I am (somewhat) certain of: what Jack saw in the mirror were glimpses into the sideways universe.

I could absolutely be wrong, and I will admit that there was not enough evidence (actually, almost none) contained within the story of the episode to draw that conclusion. I've reached this theory based on factors outside the reality of the show: storytelling structure, cinematography, the way things have been revealed on this show in the past, the story of Alice in Wonderland, and things Damon and Carlton have recently said in interviews and on the official podcast.

The main reason? Unless I'm forgetting something, we had never seen an exterior shot of Jack's childhood home until this episode (thought it's highly possible I am forgetting). Either way, the establishing shot of the house in this episode (when Jack goes to look for his father's will) was fairly long--longer than it needed to be--and it called out for attention. Seeing it again in the mirror of the lighthouse, in the same episode, seems to be the writers' way of revealing, on purpose or by accident, that these two moments are related more than just visually or coincidentally. And since Damon and Carlton wrote this episode, I don't think it was an accident (plus, they've clearly established on the podcast that the sideways stories are related and that we'd be getting more information very soon).

In that lighthouse, Jack got a glimpse into his sideways reality (and a brief peek, perhaps, into the sideways realities of Sun, Jin, and Sawyer as well), and even though he destroyed the mirrors, we now know that it is somehow be possible for our on-island characters to see--and perhaps affect--the sideways world, and I'm sure there are other ways to do it besides those mirrors. (And perhaps it's not another world at all.)

Coming in a close second was the moment when Jack meets Dogen in his sideways story. But this only raised questions. Does Dogen have any affiliation with the island in this world? Was he meeting Jack there on purpose, or did something else draw them together? Though it may have future implications, this moment was more exciting than important.

How about the reveal of Jack as a father? Eh. Interesting, but not that important. And Jack was a pretty awkward dad. He talked to his son like he would talk to his therapist.

Perhaps you'd vote for the same scene (inside the lighthouse), but not the images in the mirror: rather, the names on the dial. Perhaps you're right. I saw some names I recognized, and I'm sure I missed a few I should've recognized. But we still don't know enough about "candidacy" and what it really means... yet.

Of course, there's the final moment of the episode, when Claire (and I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and call the new, "infected" version of Claire "Clousseau") introduces Flocke as her "friend." That's exciting, right? Great moment? Yes, yes, sure. But it's a teaser! The end of EVERY episode is pretty cool, and it's ALWAYS something surprising. But we can't just pick the final moment of every episode every week! If you haven't noticed, I have been trying to steer clear of the final scene in each episode for my pick of most important moment, and I'll continue to do that this week. If I'm going to pick the last few seconds of an episode, they'd better be REALLY important, and they'd better ANSWER some questions, not just tease future episodes.

Disagree? Comment below!

(Disclaimer: I read other Lost blogs, but not until after I write my own. Apologies if these theories are already stale by Wednesday evening.)

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