2004

Jack Shephard arrives late to pick up his son, David, from his school. As they arrive home, David is resentful to Jack and couldn’t care less about his father when he was speaking to him. Jack receives a phone call from his mother, who asks him to come to her house right away.

When Jack comes to his mother’s house, he assists her in searching for his father’s will. Along the way, she brings up David to Jack. Apparently, David was quite upset when Christian died, but never showed it to Jack. His mother suggests to Jack that perhaps David is “terrified” of him, just like Jack was afraid of Christian as a child. Finally, they find the will, but Jack’s mother is shocked to see that Claire Littleton’s name is on it.

As Jack heads back home, he is horrified to see that David has sneaked out. Jack drives to his ex-wife, Sarah’s house, to search for him. David is gone, but on his answering machine is a message from a Music School, calling to reserve David’s place in an audition. Also in David’s room are pictures of Jack with his son, signifying that David does care for him.

Jack follows the lead to the Music School, where David performs a stunning arrangement on the piano. Jack realizes why David left and is more than thrilled to his son excelling at this. Before he leaves, Jack meets Dogen, who is watching his son perform as well.

David leaves the Music School and Jack talks to him, saying he is proud of him. David admits that he didn’t tell Jack about the piano lessons because he “didn’t want him to see me fail”. Jack sadly explains that Christian overlooked him as a child, saying that he didn’t have what it takes. But in Jack’s eyes, David can never fail.

2007

Dogen meets Jack in the Temple, by a river. He expresses his desire for Jack to remain in the Temple and not to leave like Kate Austen, James “Sawyer” Ford and Jin-Soo Kwon did. Sayid Jarrah approaches Jack in the courtyard, asking about his earlier meeting with Dogen. Jack reveals that the pill the Others wanted Sayid to take contained poison to kill him.

Meanwhile, while searching for food, Hugo Reyes is approached by Jacob near the spring. Jacob asks Hurley for his help, saying that “someone else” is coming to the Island. Hurley follows Jacob’s orders and enters a secret chamber to exit to the Temple, when he is confronted by Dogen. Dogen orders him out, but by saying what Jacob tells him to, Hurley is allowed to stay because he is a “Candidate”.

Jacob reminds Hurley that Jack is needed for this mission. Hurley goes into the courtyard and requests Jack’s assistance, who declines. Hurley then reveals that Jacob needs him to come, saying “you have what it takes”. Shocked to hear that Jacob has spoken the same words that Christian Shephard said to him, Jack agrees to come.

Along the way, Jack and Hurley encounter Kate Austen by a river. Kate says that she’s going to find Claire at the beach camp, even though Jack tells her that the Others fear something has “happened” to Claire. Jack and Hurley continue on their way, passing by the caves and finding Shannon Rutherford’s asthma inhaler on the ground and Christian Shephard’s coffin, where Jack revealed that he found the caves while chasing his dead father’s ghost. Inside the caves they notice the “Adam & Eve” skeletons on the ground. Hurley wonders that if they time jumped again to “Dinosaur times”, were killed and buried, then these skeletons could be them.

Finally, Jack and Hurley arrive at a giant Lighthouse, which was previously unknown to them. Climbing up, they notice a large dial and a series of mirrors lined up. Hurley moves the dial to 108 degrees (the sum of the Numbers), and Jack discovers that the surviving Candidate’s names are on the dial. Passing by “23-Shephard”, an image of Jack’s old home appears in the glass.

Jack angrily asks where Jacob is, demanding to know what he wants with him and why this mysterious person was watching the Oceanic survivors their whole lives. Hurley has no answers and in a rage, Jack destroys the mirrors and leaves the Lighthouse.

Jack sits on a cliff and stares out at the ocean, deep in thought. Jacob reappears to Hurley, who congratulates him on bringing Jack to the Lighthouse. Hurley realizes that Jacob never really wanted them to send a signal from the Lighthouse, but he had needed Jack to embrace the fact he’s special. Jacob needs Jack to do something important, but Jack must first find out what that is on his own. Hurley says that whoever is coming to the Island won’t be able to find it, but Jacob is confident they will. Also, Jacob needed Hurley and Jack to get out of the Temple, as “someone bad” is coming there and it was too late to warn the Temple inhabitants.

At the same time, Jin is rescued by Claire from her traps. Claire takes Jin and the injured Other, Justin, to her hideout. She sews up Jin’s leg injury and then threatens to kill Justin unless he gives her the location of Aaron Littleton, her baby. Justin helplessly says that he has no idea where Aaron is and the Others never kidnapped him.

Jin asks Claire why she is so sure that Aaron is at the Temple. Claire says that her father told her so, and her mysterious “friend” clarified this for her. Just before Claire can decapitate Justin, Jin blurts out that Kate took Aaron off the Island with her and raised the child as her own for three years. Claire still murders Justin in cold blood, regardless. Near the end of the episode, Jin says that the Kate-Aaron idea was just a lie because he wanted to save Justin’s life. He offers to lead Claire back to the Temple to take Aaron from the Others. Claire happily thanks Jin, saying that if Kate did in fact raise Aaron, she’d kill her.

In the final shot of the episode, Jin and Claire are visited by the Smoke Monster/Man in Black, under the guise of John Locke. Jin blankly asks if this is John, to which Claire replies, “That’s not John. It’s my friend.”

“Lighthouse” is the fifth television episode of the ABC’s sixth season of the serial drama television series Lost and 108th episode overall. The episode aired on February 23, 2010 on ABC in the United States

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