Smoke & Mirrors

Quick Hits

• Staying with the Lighthouse, the compass up top appears to contain all of the names scrawled on the ocean cave walls Evil Locke took Sawyer to last week. As with the cave, those candidates who didn’t make the grade (i.e.: dead) are crossed off. What we didn’t see last week was Kate’s name — odd since she was one of the seven individuals touched by Jacob. Now we know she’s #51.

  

  So what should we take that to mean, if anything right now? Substituting Kate’s 51 for Locke’s 4, the enigmatic Numbers would now look as follows: 8 15 16 23 42 51, which add up to 155.

  I dunno – what do YOU think it means?

• Other names of note on the compass:
  15 – Ford (Sawyer)
  16 – Jarrah
  20 – Rousseau (Danielle)
  23 – Shephard (Jack, David?)
  32 – Rutherford (Shannon)
  42 – Kwon (Sun, Jin, Ji Yeon?)
  101 – Faraday
  102 – Montand (French dude from Rousseau’s crew who had his arm borrowed by Smokey)
  104 – Lewis (Charlotte)
  117 – Linus (Ben)

  This could be nothing more than a production issue, but the “Shephard” and “Jarrah” appear to have been written more recently than the other names. Is it just me?

  

• Jack figures out Jacob was watching all of the candidates over the course of their lives through the lighthouse mirrors, seeing various other locations before settling on his childhood home at 23 degrees.

  

  We also catch a glimpse what I assume may be related to the Kwon name at 42:

  

  and what looks like it could have been a church (recall Desmond’s stint as a monk) or maybe Oxford University (Faraday).

  

• Anytime we get a new character on Lost, my first inclination is to look for historical references to the name. While there’s plenty in the Bible about David, nothing really stands out to me for the moment, aside from the musical references.
  

  David Hebrew: דָּוִד, Modern David Tiberian dɔwið, “beloved”; Arabic: دَاوُۥدَ‎, Dāwud; Greek: Δαβιδ was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Bible. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet, traditionally credited for composing many of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms.

  David’s life is particularly important to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic culture. In Islam, David (Dawood) is a prophet and the king of a nation, as well as the young warrior who slew Goliath before gaining power and ruling his kingdom. He is remembered for his eloquent speech and the beautiful recitation of God’s word.

  In various biblical passages, David is referred to as “the favorite of the songs of Israel,” the one who soothed Saul with music, and the founder of Temple singing. A Psalms scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls attributes 3600 tehilim (songs of praise) plus other compositions to David. Seventy-three of the 150 Psalms in the Bible are attributed to David. The supreme kingship of Yahweh is the most pervasive theological concept in the book of Psalms, and many psalms attributed to David are directed to Yahweh by name, whether in praise or petition, suggesting a relationship. According to the Midrash Tehillim, King David was prompted to the Psalms by the Holy Spirit that rested upon him [Wikipedia]

• David reminded me a bit of Faraday playing the piano as a child in some of the flashbacks we saw last season.

  

• Jacob tells Hurley someone is coming to the Island, and also that someone bad is heading to the Temple. The latter presumably Esau/Smokey/Evil Locke; the former? Charles Widmore? Could Widmore actually be on the light side of things after all? More evidence needed.

  

• Jack tells his mother the airline said his father’s coffin may have been through Berlin at some point. Wasn’t Sayid in Berlin while an assassin for Ben? His mission was to kill the man known as “The Economist,” as I recall, whose identity I’m not sure we ever confirmed (Widmore?).

  

• Aside from evoking a fair bit of nostalgia, our visit to the Caves accomplished a couple of things, the first giving the 1.0 storyline some ties to the 2.0 events with the missing coffin. The second to remind us Adam & Eve are still rotting away there, prompting Hurley to wonder who they are — could they be our own castaways, having traveled back in time? Everything’s an option at this point.

  

• Jack finds Shannon’s asthma inhaler near the Caves as well.

  

  I have a feeling this shoehorned-in reference is foreshadowing an appearance by Ms. Rutherford later in the season. While we’re on Shannon (ahem), #32 on the lighthouse compass was RUTHERFORD.

• Maybe we have Sarah Palin to thank for Hurley’s ability to track down the Lighthouse.

  

  Jacob told Hurley to tell Jack to set the compass to 108 degrees. Why 108? Or was the real purpose just to get Jack up in the tower to continue pushing him toward his destiny? 108 on the dial was WALLACE. No previous references to that name that I can find, so perhaps it’s irrelevant. We’ll see.

• Claire continues to give her best Danielle Rousseau impression, though she appears to have taken it a step farther with her demon wolverine baby.

  

  All signs point to Claire being infected/insane, and she appears to have gone through the same “test” Sayid underwent a few weeks back, having been branded by a hot poker to the shoulder. It might be too early to assume she’s infected/insane, however, if this show has taught us anything.

  

  Okay, nevermind; she’s batshit insane. She’s also made a “friend” in Esau/Smokey, whom she indicates she knows isn’t Locke, despite his outward appearance.

  

  I’ve always thought that the “infection” was analogous to some piece of Smokey having made its way into the sick ones. Then again, let’s flip things and assume Jacob’s actually on the evil side of the equation. Did he taint the Spring somehow to infect Sayid and Claire? What was he doing there when Hurley comes upon him?

  

  It looked like he was dipping a stick or something into the water. Perhaps fishing for pirahna; I have no idea yet, but I’d like to see “dipping the stick” become a popular Lost-related catchphrase.

• Dogen’s conversations with Jack in both the 1.0 and 2.0 worlds both seem to hint at the themes of choice – “everything is an option.” Jack’s never believed in destiny, never wanting to give up his control.

  

  Perhaps he can still achieve the destiny through the choices he makes, rather than obeying those that are dictated to him.

• Through the course of Hurley’s clandestine meetings with Jacob, we confirm only he can see the now-dead man of light.

  

  I’ve no idea yet what to make of the symbol on the wall symbolizing the location of the secret passageway out of the Temple.

  

  What I found more interesting about that scene was the revelation candidates can give orders as they see fit — Dogen was required to allow Hurley free reign to do what he wanted within the Temple walls.

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