This show is getting SCARy

I gladly accept my shot at the completion of our first rotation, and apparently I'm going to need the whole bottle to get through this season.

Call me a giant wuss, but Lost has had two moments that have just scared the hell out of me so far. There was the creepy bloody child apparition from "The Substitute" last week, and then Claire's "baby" from this week. I kind of alluded to in my entry about last week's episode, but the scariest movie in the world to me is The Shining. I've seen it about a dozen times, and it just rattles me. If that mysterious boy is the equivalent of the twin girls from The Shining, then Claire's "baby" is like the scene when Jack's wife discovers that all of her husband's work has been to maniacally type "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" on hundreds of pieces of paper. It's the moment when it's officially established that somebody's lost their damn mind. And of course, Lost has been no stranger to Stephen King references.

Truth be told, I LOVED this episode. Enough so that it warrants EXTREME CAPITALIZATION. I've seen on various websites where this episode scored very average, but I honestly thought it was the best non-finale since Season 4's "The Constant." This episode earned high marks in my book on all fronts: LAX Timeline, the lighthouse, and Claire.

And part of it is because I think we got one of our answers Tuesday. Swan, I LOLed when you wrote last week "Someone said to me 'I'm so glad we finally know what the numbers mean!' and I almost punched them in the face. No, we don't." I agreed with that statement whole-heartedly, but I think that this week we do know what the answer to that question is. If at the end of the series it's explained to us that the numbers are important because they correspond to Jacob's list of candidates to replace him, and that those six survivors are the most important people on the island then I'm cool with that. Maybe there's a fuller explanation upcoming, but I'm content with the explanation on the numbers that we've been given. As long as they complement it with why those six are so important and the fulfillment of their story.

I think it's important to remember that there's always going to be some amiguity with the answers this season. Think of it this way: at the end of Season 1 the big mystery was "What's in the hatch?" Well, if I were to answer that question I would say "It's a man working for the Dharma Initiative that has to press a button every 108 minutes to contain a pocket of electromagnetic energy from destroying the island, and perhaps the world." The answer to the original question then opens up a dozen new questions: "Who's the man? Where's he from? What's the Dharma Initiative? What happens if the button's not pressed?...." I think it's the biggest obstacle the show has to overcome this season. How do you answer these in-depth questions in a way that doesn't leave us with even more questions? And I think it's important for us, the viewers, to sort of meet them half-way on this. Otherwise the finale is going to be a man sitting in a chair just answering questions and explaining things, and that would infinitely suck.

Ok, I realize that I'm rambling and haven't really said much about the actual episode.

The lighthouse scene I loved. It confirmed the idea we've had all along that they've been sort of "led" to this island. Swan, I love your comment about free will on the island and how the survivors have free will...as long as they do what Jacob and the Others want. It's for this reason that I'm still going to maintain that Jacob is evil as well.

But the lighthouse scene served another purpose other than to kick ass. Remember when Jacob said that he needed to get Hurley and Jack away from the Temple because it's about to get real? Well let's just say for grins that the "Kwon" at 42 is Jin and do an analysis on where the six candidates are:

4 - Locke - Dead, body claimed by Monster
8 - Hurley - Alive, at the Lighthouse
15 - Sawyer - Drunk, last seen joining forces with the Monster
16 - Sayid - Infected, at the Temple
23 - Jack - Depressed, staring at the ocean
42 - Jin - FREAKED OUT, headed to the Temple with Claire and Monster

If you're keeping score at home (and I think they are on the island as well), the Monster is doing pretty well for itself if this is in fact a game of recruiting these six. Jacob had to lure Hurley and Jack away from the Temple in order to avoid being shut out. I'm really anxious to see how this chess game plays out, particularly with those six.

Aside from Claire being genuinely scary (and not sexy), I enjoyed that storyline as well. You have to feel bad for Jin, who I think is bringing very bad things to the people of the Temple.

And the LAX timeline. And most importantly, that scar. Jack remembered getting his appendix taken out (in this story, as a child), but seemed genuinely shocked that he had a scar. Almost as though that scar just appeared. My thought was that this crossed the line of tee-hee moment and got weird. We've seen things play out similar to how they have on the island, but this was almost like that moment happened even though it didn't. If that makes any sense (it doesn't). Almost like if Boone were to drop dead from internal injuries...even if nothing caused them (just because that's what happened).

As for Jack's baby mama, I agree that it was left a mystery for a reason. My first inclination was - don't laugh - Claire. It would be just another in the long line of Star Wars references for this show. But given the fact that their ages don't mesh up, Claire lives in Australia, and the fact that Jack's mom didn't seem to know who Claire was in the will that's probably far-fetched. Oh, and it's incest. My guess....Juliet. Just because that would be AWESOME!

Let the speculation begin on who Wallace is. My guess is David Wallace, the former CFO of Dunder-Mifflin.

- The Arrow