Through the looking glass

So before I get to last night’s awesome episode, something occurred to me in regard to the castaway’s “candidate” status. Could that be the reason that Richard asked young Locke (and I’m paraphrasing because I don’t want to look it up) “Which of these items belong to you already?” I know Richard claimed no knowledge of candidates when captured by MIB, but maybe he was sent on a trip by Jacob and that’s what he was told to ask Locke.

Anyway, onto ‘Lighthouse’…

Jack’s appendectomy scar – just another way these 2 worlds are colliding. No coincidence that he noticed it in the mirror (or the looking glass…) just as he noticed the cut on his neck in “LA X.”

David as proxy for Christian. Jack coming to terms with his son and working out their unresolved issues is how the sideways world will help ‘heal’ Jack. Essentially, Jack is making peace with Christian via David.

Tic Tac Toe. Miles hasn’t had a lot to do this year, but when he has, he’s brought the funny.

When David was listening to music, I immediately though that it was Driveshaft, but I guess not!

“Someone is coming to the Island. I need you to help him find it” – Jacob to Hurley. Is Jacob talking about Desmond? Pleeeeease let it be Desmond!

“Why don’t YOU go back to the courtyard?” – Hurley to Dogen. My favorite of the many funny quotes that came from Hugo, who was very funny throughout this ep.

“You have what it takes.” – originally presented to us in Jack’s flashbacks in ‘White Rabbit’ (S1, E5). Christian said that to be a successful surgeon, you have to have what it takes and Jack didn’t have what it takes. Interestingly, ‘Lighthouse’ is episode 5 of season 6 and David is reading “Alice in Wonderland” which also hearkens to ‘White Rabbit’ (not to mention all the mirror-related events in this episode).

“First my father told me, then my friend.” – My one complaint about the episode was that the Claire scenes were a bit repetitive after a while. (Though they all lead to a great end.) However, each time she said it, Emilie de Ravin delivered the words “my friend” with the perfect amount of off-kilter crazy, so it was worth it for that, plus the ending.

Everything about Jack and Hurley’s visit to the cave was intense and fantastic, from finding Shannon’s inhaler, to seeing Adam & Eve again, to Matthew Fox’s performance. Favorite scene in the episode.

“Welcome all candidates.” On the poster for David’s recital. Too on-the-nose or funny little joke? I’m leaning more towards the latter.

During the recital, I kept hoping that David didn’t look up and see Jack and thus bomb his audition. I think that means that I like the sideways technique, in that I care about a character that probably doesn’t really exist.

Dogen off Island? Say whaaaaaaaaaaa? “It's hard to watch and be unable to help.” Dogen says in reference to their kids, but could he be referring to himself and others (Desmond, maybe the dead like Charlie, Boone and Helen) watching candidates in sideways story?

Lighthouse numbers same as cave numbers with names. Only thing I clearly saw besides Jack’s house was Korea, where Sun and Jin were married.

Mirrors in lighthouse mirror mirrors in sideways world. Through the lighthouse mirrors, Jack saw a home that is the root of all his issues. Not coincidentally, in the sideways world, we saw a Jack who is overcoming those issues. If SidewaysJack is developing physical connections to IslandJack (when he looks in the mirror), might IslandJack overcome his long-standing emotional/personal issues because SidewaysJack is overcoming them?

I think Jacob knows that this is truly the end. Not only is he running out of names (obviously), but he knew that Jack would destroy the lighthouse, and he wanted it to happen. But I was damn curious what they would have seen at 108°.

Now all candidates (but Sayid) are out of the Temple, which has me worried for Miles. Especially because Jacob doesn’t want them there. (“Someone’s coming – someone bad.”) But if Sayid is “infected,” why did Jacob want him there in the first place? Were they actually too late as I postulated last week?

“That’s not John, this is my friend.” I wonder if Claire sees MIB’s true face when she looks at Locke. (Whether that’s Titus Welliver or not, I don’t know.)

Matthew Fox was really great throughout the ep, and even with his issues, I’m still feeling the Jack love this season.

Equally fantastic was Emilie de Ravin, who at times seemed lucid and normal, but did not let us forget that she’s a bit crazy with line reading like the last line of the episode. And if you need anymore proof that MIB is the real bad guy, he took poor, innocent Claire and turned her into a crazy-pants who shoves an axe in a random dude’s chest.

And also Terry O’Quinn, who really had little to do this week because he only showed up at the end, made the most of his few seconds by freaking me out just by the look in his eyes when he looked at Jin.

What this episode really did for is reinforce my thoughts on the Sideways universe. I think that is not an alternate timeline or a future timeline (I’ve read that theory in places, and it makes no sense to me) or even a chance to redo things the castaways did wrong in their lives. All of those options make the Sideways world less valid to me. Instead I think that it is completely valid and completely real, in that it will help heal the psyches of the candidates, so they can eventually defeat MIB. Much like the Island physically heals people, this world has been created by the Island to psychologically heal them.