SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't yet seen this episode of Lost, you should avoid reading this article and the user comments, as they will discuss events that happened during the episode.
| 71 |
| Episode 4 88 |
| Episode 3: 64 |
| Episode 1/2: 89 |
Season 6, Episode 5: "Lighthouse"
Ah, there's nothing like taking a break from all of the developments in Lost mythology to catch up with Jack and his piano-playing son. What's that, you say? Jack doesn't have a son? That changed in "Lighthouse," a Jack-centric episode that also gave us relatively big doses of Hurley, Claire and Jin -- not to mention some awfully cryptic (even by Lost standards) coming attractions for next week's episode.
Did this week's installment have what it takes? What did the critics think of the final season's fifth hour? Were they satisfied with the lack of revelations and plot developments? We have their responses below.
As always, remember that the individual critic scores should be considered very approximate, since assigning scores to episode reviews -- which tend to be 99% recap and 1% opinion -- is far from an exact science.
| Score | Publication | Reviewer |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | TV Overmind | Sam McPherson |
| All in all, the episode was a solid one for both character development and mythology, though it didn't pack quite the punch that last week's "The Substitute" did, which is disappointing for a Damon- and Carlton-penned episode. But it left me wanting more (in a good way). | ||
| 91 | The Onion A.V. Club | Noel Murray |
| Like the show itself, Jack and Kate and Hurley seem to be moving with a sense of purpose that they didn’t have when they got sidetracked into Dharma Times, and I love that fact that in any given week now, we have no idea where the characters on The Island are going to go next. [Grade: A-] | ||
| 88 | IGN | Chris Carabott |
| "Lighthouse" isn't filled with the wall-to-wall excitement of last week's Locke-centric story but it still has plenty of great moments and surprising revelations. | ||
| 86 | TV Fanatic | M.L. House |
| Everything about the Claire storyline was fascinating and kudos to Emile de Ravin for playing this wild version of the character so well. | ||
| 80 | HitFix | Drew McWeeny |
| It seems to me like real progress is being made now. | ||
| 80 | Zap2It | Ryan McGee |
| It's hard to contextualize the overall quality of these episodes in the grand scheme of things, but I feel safe saying that the events in both timelines this week were equally compelling, equally eye-opening, and offered up the first note of grace for the long-maligned, long-suffering Jack Shephard. | ||
| 70 | Cultural Learnings | Myles McNutt |
| I’d be annoyed that the [flash-sideways] story was so predictable if it wasn’t the first time in a while that Jack has really seen the world around him clearly, and if Matthew Fox wasn’t so great throughout. | ||
| 70 | Entertainment Weekly | Jeff Jensen |
| Tonight’s episode, “Lighthouse,” was not as awesome as last week’s episode, “The Substitute,” nor was it as mind-melting as the season premiere, “LA X.” But it was certainly better than “What Kate Does" ... [and] the more I sit with this episode, the more I'm digging it. [Full recap here] | ||
| 70 | Los Angeles Times | Todd VanDerWerff |
| "Lighthouse" isn't nearly close to "The Substitute" in terms of "Lost" quality, but it does what it does well enough for me to enjoy it. | ||
| 70 | Time | James Poniewozik |
| "The Lighthouse" moved the endgame forward, but it also reinforced some of my concerns about how this is playing out, and about Jacob and Smokey's godlike roles in the story. | ||
| 50 | Chicago Tribune | Maureen Ryan |
| If I have any recurring complaint this season, it's this: A great episode of "Lost" works as an hour of TV. It may leave you with questions but it doesn't leave you thinking you have to wait three or four or six more weeks to figure out certain basic facts about what's going on. | ||
| 40 | What's Alan Watching | Alan Sepinwall |
| If last week's "The Substitute" evoked great past episodes like "Walkabout," "Orientation" and "The Brig," "Lighthouse" mainly reminded me of those pre-"Through the Looking Glass" episodes of the show where characters would wander around aimlessly for most of the running time and fail to ask any good questions when given the opportunity, only for things to be saved by a really good cliffhanger. | ||
| 30 | St. Petersburg Times | Eric Deggans |
| This is the new rhythm for Lost's final season; one groundbreaking episode filled with revelations and amazing characterizations, followed by an episode so static it feels as if the show is running in place. | ||
What did you think?
Did you enjoy this episode of Lost? Let us know in the comments section below. As a courtesy to other users, please do not include spoilers of any kind in your posts, although you are welcome to discuss all events shown in this particular episode of the show.
