Imagine that: Jack is a crappy father! Yes, in his flash-sideways he has a kid who hates him. Who would have ever guessed that Jack is a selfish douche bag? Oh, that’s right … anyone who has ever watched Lost before. I didn’t find Jack’s story nearly as compelling as Locke’s last week, but at least we didn’t have to learn more about his tattoos.
One of the things I did take from the flashsideways was the presence of Dogen. With the Other popping up in Jack’s life and Ben popping up in Locke’s last week, I’m wondering if the Others are still in play in the alternate timeline. If the timelines truly split in 1977, then Ben would have had been on the island as a child and still been with the Others when the bomb went off. I’m guessing that even though the island ended up on the bottom of the ocean, the battle that was to be waged there is still occurring. Was Dogen still with the Others, checking in on one of their candidates? Or was his presence at Jack’s son’s school merely a coincidence?
The island present was where the real action was happening in this episode. We got a little more insight into the numbers and why certain people had them assigned to them. When Jack and Hurley visited the previously unmentioned lighthouse, on Obi-Wan Jacob’s orders, we learned that the numbers corresponded to degrees. In a weird “Through the Looking Glass” sort of way, the mirrors in the lighthouse reflected the candidate in question when settled on their number. In that way, Jack was able to see his childhood home and promptly, in complete Jack fashion, freak the hell out.
Jacob informed Hurley that someone was coming to the island and needed help getting there in order to lure him (and more importantly, Jack) to the lighthouse. This could have just been a complete ruse, but that would be a little bit of a letdown. The question is who could be coming to the island? Desmond? It seems like the most logical choice, but what would his motivation be? Who else would it be? Jacob certainly wouldn’t be helping Widmore find the island. I can’t think of anyone else who would need to be there.
Jack and Hurley weren’t the only ones getting into trouble tonight. It was a little sad seeing Claire in crazy island lady mode. She’s so broken at this point, that I can’t see her ever being the Claire that we remember. I suppose the moral of the story is not to steal other people’s babies, it drives them insane, but it does dramatically increase their accuracy with a rifle. Poor Claire may be completely off her rocker, but at least she has a friend, if you can call Smokey a friend. It’s going to be interesting seeing what happens to Sayid if he somehow is destined to end up like Claire. Perhaps there is some way to save him before Smokey becomes his “friend” too.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Feb 23, 2010 @ 22:21 EST5EDT
I wonder why Hurley can see Jacob. Do you think it’s because Hurley is kind of innocent (“pure in heart”)?
I think Hurley, like Miles and Walt, has a particular special ability. Miles hears dead people, Walt affects things with his mind and knows things, and Hurley sees dead people. Not sure if it’s because of his personality, but that seems entirely possible.
It seems to be somewhat tied into his mental instability. If you remember, it all started when he returned from the island and started seeing Charlie, Ana Lucia, etc and was recomitted to the mental hospital.
A few things:
-I don’t know who Jacob was talking about bringing to the island, but I doubt it was a ruse as “They’re coming” were his last words in life.
-Jack married a different woman in the alternate timeline (a brunette, not Julie Bowen, from the photo) and had a son with her. From this, we can probably infer that Sarah wasn’t on his operating table, and Shannon’s father/Boone’s stepfather is quite possibly alive (though I doubt we’ll see any of this).
-Claire is Really Messed Up. Smokey is not a very good friend. What’s going to happen when Kate finds her? Kate confesses, Claire kills her and then turns on Jin for DOUBLE lying?
-I’m starting to put some stock into Sebastian’s Donnie Darko theory. It seems like things in the alternate timeline (flashsideways, I guess I should say) are better for the Oceanic Six so far. Jack ended up being a good father by the end of tonight’s episode, and isn’t an alcoholic. Locke has Helen and a good relationship with his father (as opposed to his current state of being deadsies). Kate made what so far appears to be a clean getaway. Hurley is happy-go-lucky and more confident. We don’t know what’s going on with Jin and Sun, but judging by the episode order following the first season’s, I trust they’re next. Or maybe we’ll be breaking that, since Wikipedia says Sayid is next, I don’t know. We still don’t know much about “alternate” Sawyer, either. All in all, maybe the whole idea is that things are better for these ‘important’ survivors in the flashsideways – maybe even all the Oceanic 815 passengers. Things looked rough for Charlie, but at least he’s still alive. There’s a lot to be said for that. But why does Jack keep noticing more damage on his body??
I forgot to add something about Jack and his appendix scar. I think it was another example of the two timelines crossing. There seemed to be a couple moments of odd recognition from Jack when he was on the plane. Then tonight, there was the fuzzy memory about the appendix scar (which we saw he had removed on the island in the first timeline). Most of the mixing seems to be happening to Jack.
Maybe the alternate timeline folks are the people who are coming to the island? That might be a little too trippy.
Well he could still have had appendicitis even without going to the island and had it taken out in this alternate time. But yeah, there are weird “deja-vu” looks from Jack.
Right, he asked his mom about it and reminded him that he got it taken out when he was 8. You have to pay better attention while running those chats! ;-)
The way Clair said ‘that’s not john locke, that’s my friend’ – kinda caught my attention.
does she see him as ‘locke’ but know that he’s actually ‘Fake locke’, or maybe she sees him as someone else?
just sounded strange to me…
She probably just knows it is her friend by default. Probably over the time she was “gone” Smokey revealed some of his tricks to her.
What I’m confused about is if Smocke/Smokey the Body Slammin Smoke/MIB was the one who took the form of her father or her father was resurrected by Jacob. I honestly forget if this was answered in a previous season.
I don’t think it was explicitly answered, but based on the actions of “Christian” on the island, I’m assuming that at the very least he was working with Smokey, if he wasn’t Smokey himself just appearing as Christian.
it’s not much different than Sawyer saying “you ain’t locke” because he knew right away also.
I think Jacob might want Aaron back on the island because he is special, but I have no clue what’s gonig on.
I still love the “The time for answers are over” when all we get are 20 more questions an episode.
I think Widmore is coming to the island. We need him there to make the rest of the story interesting until the final showdown.
I’m also wondering about your theory – if the Hydrogen Bomb really did go off and Ben was still on the island in the new timeline I wonder how he could’ve survived that. I mean the island is now at the bottom of the ocean, the bomb seems to have had some effect on it. I think Sharky with the Dharma Logo on it, Claire calling her newborn Aaron and the scar are easter-eggs to keep us thinking that the new timeline will be affected. Once in the end we know that “this is it” people will retroactively change everything in their minds to those things being eery resemblances of things that happen in other timelines. Just like in “Mirror Mirror” or every “Sliders” episode when you notice something familiar and then find out that the Raiders suddenly play in Oakland and think that that could never happen in the universe you came from ^^;
I like how Claire’s gone all Rousseau on us after she lost Aaron. Didn’t Danielle go bonkers when she lost her daughter to the Dharma people? I still keep hoping she’ll show up at some point (especially since it’s been hinted that someone we would never expect to see back is coming back – my two least likely to return characters are Danielle and Mr. Eko).