Lost Recap: Mirror, Father, Mirror

Last night’s Jack-centric episode—”Lighthouse”—was a mirror image of the first season’s Jack-centric episode—”White Rabbit”—so it makes sense that Jack spent a lot of time looking at reflective surfaces, and reflecting on himself.

With all the mirrors and daddy issues on last night’s episode, all I couldn’t help but think of “Mirror, Father, Mirror” from Ghost World.

In the opening scenes of this season’s premiere, we saw (sideways) Jack taking a good look at himself in the airplane bathroom mirror, noticing a mysterious cut on his neck. Last night, sideways Jack took a good look at himself in his own bathroom mirror, and noticed his appendectomy scar.

He didn’t remember how he got it, and had to ask his mother, who told him that he had it removed when he was around 7 or 8. Curiouser and curiouser! That’s what she said. And by “she” I mean Alice.

Much like Through the Looking Glass, is a bizarro version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, last night’s episode was a bizarro version of “White Rabbit,” the episode in the first season of Lost that focused on Jack’s fucked-up relationship with his father (the source of “You don’t have what it takes”). “Lighthouse,” however, focused on Jack’s fucked-up relationship with his own son David. Except this time, he didn’t let the emotional baggage “infect” himself or his son, and he found that he was able to finally do what he couldn’t in the original timeline: “Fix” a relationship that was broken. And this time, it was a relationship that really mattered.

So who do you think is David’s mom? My guess is that it’s not Sarah, Jack’s ex-wife in the original timeline.

Jack’s son had temporarily gone missing, and after going on a wild goose (or rabbit?) chase, he found his son auditioning for a spot in some kind of music program. Did you notice the “candidates” thing?

David’s audition piece was Chopin’s “Fantasie Impromptu.”

There are a few interesting things about this:
1.) It was published posthumously. (A clue that the sideways storyline is occurring posthumously in relation to the original timeline?)
2.) Chopin dedicated it to his friend Julian Fontana, who ultimately committed suicide. (I’ve been thinking all season that the Losties on the Island will have to kill themselves in order to enter the sideways storyline.)
3.) The right and left hands of the piece are almost playing two different songs, to create this one song. (A clue as to the idea that the original and sideways storylines are working in tandem?)
4.) According to Wikipedia, the song “ends off in an ambiguous fantasy-like ending, in a quiet and mysterious way…the piece resolves and gently ends on a C-sharp major rolled chord.” (A clue about how this season will end, with the two storylines actually ending on the same note?)
5.) This is the song that Daniel Faraday was playing as a child in one of his flashbacks, when his mother gets on his ass about quitting music to focus more time on math and science, in the hopes that he can work out a way for her to avoid shooting him dead in his future and her past. (Confusing, I know!) Jack’s encouragement of his son’s music—in contrast to Eloise’s reaction to her son’s music—is perhaps a comment on free will and the importance of good parenting, both of which are themes that continually pop up in the show.

Back on the Island, Jack is still reflecting, but it’s always much murkier.

Narcissus anyone? That guy ended up killing himself, too, not because he hated what he saw, but because he loved it. I think that once Island Jack begins to like what he sees after all of this reflection, he’ll kill himself and wind up with a much better life, in the sideways world. Like Jacob says, Jack can’t be told what he needs to do. He needs to just look out at the ocean for a while, to figure it out.

Hurley was pretty great in this episode. When he and Jack rediscovered “Adam and Eve” (which were first introduced in “White Rabbit”), he was again, the Greek chorus, wondering if these skeletons were actually two of the Losties, a theory that many fans have long held. My guess is that the fact that he brought it up means that they are not.

So, let’s talk about the Lighthouse. It was pretty clear, from what Jacob said, that they weren’t actually there to bring #108 to the Island. In fact, it’s clear that #108—”Wallace”—is already crossed out.

Additionally, Kate’s name is listed, unlike last week in the cave. But she isn’t one of the special numbers.

How great is scary Claire? (Sclairey, from here on out.) She is living in a glorified garbage dump, talking about “infection,” behaving like a lunatic, and psychotically housing a dead-animal-composite baby.

Now, my question is this: If she’s been spending time with her father and her “friend” (who turns out to be Mocke), does that mean that Smokey had not taken the form of Christian? I’m starting to believe that Christian is just as alive and not well as Sclairey, and that he, too, is infected.