LOST Lighthouse, first thoughts

"Someone is coming to the Island, I need you to help them find it."

In case you haven't noticed,this season is following a very similar pattern with the first season. We have the Jack-centric two part opener, followed by a Kate is a fugitive episode, followed by a Locke in a wheelchair wanting to go on a Walkabout episode, that could describe either the first season or this, the last season.

The fifth episode/hour of season one was called White Rabbit, and it was the episode where Dr. Jack sees his dead father walking around on the Island and he follows him, to find the caves, the Adam and Eve skeletons, and the water that would save their lives. He also found his father's empty casket which he proceeded to smash up.

All of that is touched on in this episode.

White Rabbit of course refers to a character from Lewis Carrol's Alice books, and in this episode, Jack reminisces about reading Lewis Carrol to David, which is interesting, because he also read that to Aaron, which caused Kate to talk about what a great dad Jack is. This is shown throughout the LA X timeline as he interacts with David as well as discussed by Jack and Hurley on their Season 1-esque trek through the jungle to yet another new feature on the Island. More on it later.

That episode in Season One gave us our first look at an Infected by the Darkness person, Christian Shephard. Now we get some up close and personal with another, Claire Littleton, Christian's daughter, Jack's sister, Aaron's mother. She is giving a serious Rousseau vibe. Like Sayid (and Christian for that matter) Claire died and was taken over by this infection. (Making her line, "If there's one thing that will kill you out here, it's infection," nice LOSTian irony). Claire was inside one of the barracks in New Otherton that was blown up by Krazy Keamy and the mercenary tribe. Sawyer dug out what appeared to be an alive Claire, but slowly it became clear that something was different if not wrong with her. If you recall, she actually left Aaron behind to go with Christian, which makes it interesting that she is on such a search for him now. Before she left with Christian, Miles seemed very interested in her, and as someone who speaks with the dead, I'm sure his spidey-sense (or whatever the ghost-whisperer version of that is) was going crazy.

So, it isn't much of a surprise for us to hear a couple of episodes ago that Claire is infected like Sayid (and Christian), and ultimately it isn't much of a surprise that we get to learn a little more about her since this episode is connected to the episode we first saw a dead man walking.

Finally, speaking about Claire, it seems that she doesn't see Smokey as Locke like everyone else does, but perhaps sees him as he is.

Moving on to the other dimension, this episode, along with The Substitute, allows us an in your face look at some of the changes in the LA X dimension. Jack has been married, like in the Island timeline, and is now divorced, like in the Island timeline, but here he has a teenage son, named David. David, of course, is an important part of the Hebrew Bible (also referred to as the Old Testament by us Christians) and also important to the lineage of Jesus Christ. David, before becoming king was a shepherd. Jesus also often used shepherd imagery. In LOST, David and Christian both have the last name of Shephard, and both have important biblical names. You could also make the argument that the name Jack fits into this as well, since Jack can be a nickname for someone named John, and Jesus' cousin, who foretold his coming and his importance was named John (and referred to as John the Baptist). Okay, Bible lesson over for this week.

Back to the timeline differentials, last week, Locke and Helen were still together, and more importantly, Locke and his father were not estranged.

Despite the differences, the timelines still appear to be bleeding together at least in the LA X timeline. Jack examines his scar from having his appendix out, which occurred in the Island timeline in season 4 in the episode Something Nice Back Home, but apparently occurred when he was 7 or 8 in the LA X timeline. While he remembers that this surgery took place as a child, the reality of that scar and the surgery preformed by Juliet is tickling at his brain.

It is interesting that in the LA X timeline, Dogen, who has a child of his own, is at the same recital that David is at. Apparently Dogen and Jack are as connected as any of the other LOSTies.

Finally, the Lighthouse. We finally know how Jacob was able to keep an eye on his candidates, and perhaps even discover by looking in the mirror who those candidates are (and what number they correspond to). The name connected to 108, the number that they were supposed to turn the dial to, by the way is Wallace, and (sadly since that is the last name of my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew although perhaps being a candidate isn't the best thing ever) was crossed out. We haven't yet been introduced to anyone on the show with the name of Wallace.

Also of note are the crossed out names on 109, Friendly, oh how we miss you Tom Friendly, 117, Linus, being everybody's favorite bad guy Benry, and 124, Dawson, either Michael or Walt.

Jacob certainly didn't seem too dismayed that Jack destroyed the lighthouse, but then I guess Jacob doesn't really have any use for it anymore anyway.

Until Next Time, next week's episode is called Sundown, which leads one to believe it will be Sun-centric. This would also make sense since the episode after White Rabbit was a Sun-centric episode entitled House of the Rising Sun. I wonder if this will continue the week after, since that episode was a Charlie-centric one and he is dead on Island. Can't wait to find out!