Mirror, Mirror, Mirror--21 years of bad luck--first lost thoughts [Spoilers]

As usual, spoilers below,



Heaps of fun, not too many "answers." 

First, one remaining thought from last week: why does Fake Locke need a backpack?  What is in the backpack?

Second, even if the alt LA stories are just pieces of longer alternative realities, it seems that there is a consistent thread--redemption.  The funny thing is that the Island was supposed to be the place for that, but:

1. Kate returns to help Claire, and gets a credit card for her good deed.
2. John stops denying, gets the women of his life and the perfect job (perfect not because I teach, but because John was a born teacher--given his thirst for learning and his love for demonstrating his smarts).
3. Jack realizes that his son fears him and may, just may, have altered the course of their relationship.  

Of course, it could be too soon to tell, as all of these storylines could go awry at any moment.

Third, some great lines, mostly but not entirely by Hurley.

• "A tie"  "What a surprise" responds Miles during their game of tic tac toe (more on that in a minute).  
• "Get a pen"
• "I was broken and I was stupid enough to think this place could fix me."
• The lighthouse: "Guess we weren't looking for it."
• "This is my friend" 

Fourth, the show was deceptively both Jack and Hurley centric.  I was expecting the latter but did not mind the former.  I loved the bit where Hurley observed that they were going old school: trekking through the jungle, not really knowing what they were doing.   That was probably the line of the show.

Fifth, the tic tac toe game was a nice link to Wargames, with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy.  The only way to win is not to play at all.  And the only way the computer learns in the movie is by playing and playing again and again.  So, is the battle between white and dark here: a) unwinnable for either side, leading to mutual destruction; or b) a learning experience where finally everyone (even F-Locke) might learn something?

Sixth, what does Jin know?  Did the folks who came back tell Jin that Locke was dead?  I am not sure, but I guess from his reaction, Jin knows/thinks Locke is dead.

Okay, enough enumeration.  Quick takes on the three plots: Hurley/Jack, Claire, Alt Jack and alt son.

It turns out we know now where the numbers come from--the lighthouse wheel is somehow attuned to the houses of the various candidates, and each setting has a number.  And the numbers add up to 108, the key button pushing number, and the setting that we were supposed to get to.  Who could that have been?  Odds are 3 to 2 that it is Desmond.  Four to one that is Penny, and fifty to one that it is Widmore.  Who else could it be?  Hmmm.  Anyway, this subplot was heaps of fun because they did hit some nice spots along the way--Hurley's relationships with Jacob, the interaction with Kate, the cave, and then the lighthouse.  I love that Hurley is most assertive with Jacob than he is with pretty much anyone else--pushing and getting answers.  Sort of. 
I find it strange that the man of free will, supposedly is pretty confident that things will turn up ok--that the mirror is not necessary to bring the new player to the island.  But that to get the right free will behavior from Jack and from Hurley, they must be manipulated.  A pretty strange take on free will.

Claire, oh Claire.  From what I understand, they went this direction because the actress playing Rousseau would not be available to film.  But then again, that might have been deception since they killed the character in that timeline.  Anyhow, Claire is nicely loony.  Jin has no clue how to play it, and goes back and forth on whether to reveal where Aaron is.  And if Kate is raising Aaron, she must kill Kate??  Perhaps ye olde prophecy is being taken too far.  That she is friends with Fake Locke makes pretty clear that she is more than just bat-poop crazy, but walking on the wild side.  Of  course, it could all end up with Fake Locke as the good guy and Jacob as the bad guy (and I still have heaps of misgivings about the Others' behaviors, which was on the orders of Jacob, or not?), but siding with Fake Locke indicates that Claire's infection goes beyond being nuts and towards evil?  Light and dark, after all, are not trivial choices.

Alt Jack and son--just a nice bit of father realizing that he was replicating his father's patterns, and found a way, at least for the moment, to break the habits.  Still don't know who Mom is, but I think she has a hit show on ABC on Wednesdays (Julie Bowen), or perhaps not since David is older than he would be if he was the product of that union.  And nice bit of reveal via the will about Claire--that Christian Shepherd gives something to her in the will, although we do not have too much info about it.

So, what do we know now?

1. Dogen is tied to Jack in both realities.  
2. Jack is divorced in both realities, with a kid in one.
3. We now know how (well, sort of) how Jacob watched the candidates.
4. The numbers come from the settings on the lighthouse wheel.  But, of course, one could write the numbers after the names, but it looks like the numbers came first and the names came second.  What a wonderfully magical/mysterious device.  Of course, Jack breaks things when he gets upset, and his effort to blackmail Hurley/Jacob does not work nearly as well as his poison pill routine did with Dogen. 
5. Jacob cares far more about Jack and Hurley than about the others, including the Others since he does not want them near the temple.  They must survive, but Miles, Sayid, and the others are disposable.  Good thing Kate and Sawyer already fled.
6. The creators of the show love to play with us--Hurley talking about the bodies in the cave and talking about time travel.  Endless mind@#$# indeed.
7. The lead is absolutely wrong.  The narrator for ABC--The time for questions is over!  It declared.  Um.  I think not.  We are still getting some more questions as we go along.  Still, we are making progress or are we?  Goes back to that conversation between Jake and the Snake at the end of last season--is progress possible or just the same thing over and over again?

 Your thoughts?