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« on: February 17, 2010, 12:05:35 AM » |
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OBS RECAP & REVIEWS: LOST S6 EPISODE 4 ‘THE SUBSTITUTE’
'Lost' abandons last week’s story line to focus on John Locke. The episode begins with Locke after he has left the airport.
Recap
Locke arrives home from the airport, and has trouble with the lift on his van and falls, wheelchair and all, onto his lawn. Helen his fiancé comes rushing out to help him. Later, Helen finds Jack Shepard’s business card in Locke’s clothes and she gets excited. She suggests to Locke that he call him, for what are the odds that he ran into a spinal surgeon at the airport. She tells him it must destiny.
We see the smoke monster’s point of view, traveling on the island, through the trees onto the Dharma housing village. Then it is in the forest and comes across a machete. We see Locke pick it up. He cuts down a trap and Richard Alpert drops out. Locke tells Richard it is time to talk.
John Locke arrives at work. He gets called out by boss, Randy, that he never attended the conference in Australia; the main reason his company flew him there. Randy asks where he went instead and Locke tells him it’s personal. Randy fires him on the spot.
Richard asks Other Locke why he looks like Locke. Other Locke tells him John Locke was a candidate and he wanted access to Jacob so he chose him. Richard asks what he means by candidate. Other Locke tells him that Jacob kept Alpert in the dark and tries to persuade him to come with him if he wants answers. Richard hesitates and says no. Other Locke sees a vision in the jungle. It’s a young boy who looks like a young Jacob with blood on his hands up to his elbows. However, Richard doesn’t see the boy at all. Locke is spooked and walks away leaving Richard in the jungle.
By the beach, Ilena is inside the cavern where Jacob was killed. She asks Ben what happened to her comrades. He tells her Other Locke killed them and Jacob too. Ben asks her why Other Locke took Richard into the jungle. Ilena tells Ben the Other Locke is recruiting, as she gathers Jacob’s ashes and puts them into a pouch.
Other Locke walks into Sawyer’s old house in the Dharma village and rock music is blaring from a record player. He finds Sawyer in a room, drinking away his troubles. When Sawyer sees him, he comments to him that he thought he was dead. Other Locke says that he is.
Sawyer pours more drinks in the kitchen, one for himself and the Other Locke. Sawyer tells him he doesn’t care why Other Locke is there or who he is and to just leave. Other Locke asks Sawyer if he wants to know why is he in the island. Sawyer asks who he is for he knows he is not John Locke, because Locke was always scared and this Locke is not. Other Locke says he is the person who can tell him why he is on the island. He tells Sawyer to come with him so he can prove it. Sawyer agrees to go with him.
John Locke is in the parking lot and someone has parked too close to his vehicle and he cannot get in with his lift. He presses his lift on the van to purposely have it hit the other car as it comes down, but the lift malfunctions. Instead, he bangs on the vehicle and the alarm goes off. Hurley comes around the corner and Locke yells at him for parking so close to him. Hurley apologizes and points to Disabled Parking and mentions he should have parked there. He formally introduces himself and tells John he owns the company. He asks what John does at the company and Locke tells him he just got fired. Hurley gives him details on a temp agency he owns, and assures him, he will get a new job.
Frank Lupidis covers real Locke’s body on the beach. Elena comes over and Sun tells her everyone left and went to the temple. Ilena suggests they all head there, but Sun is hesitant to go. Ilena tells Sun if she wants to find Jin, he will be at the temple. Before they leave, Sun wants to bury Locke’s body.
As Other Locke and Sawyer are traveling through the jungle, Other Locke asks why Sawyer is not with his friends. But before he can answer, Other Locke sees young Jacob again and this time Sawyer does too. Other Locke runs and chases him, but Sawyer remains. When Other Locke catches up, the young boy tells Other Locke he know the rules, he can’t kill him (meaning Sawyer). Other Locke tells him to not tell him what he cannot do. The young boy walks away as Other Locke yells out that no one can tell him what he cannot do.
Sawyer is calling out for Other Locke when Richard Alpert comes out from the jungle. Richard tells Sawyer he needs to come with him immediately, because the Other Locke is not who he seems and Sawyer needs to go to the temple instead. Alpert explains Other Locke wants everyone dead. Alpert hears Other Locke returning and runs off. Other Locke asks Sawyer to whom he talking to and Sawyer says no one. Sawyer asks what happen to the kid and Locke questions what kid?
Locke is at an interview and is asked a strange question. What animal would he describe himself as? The interviewer than asks him another ridiculous question and Locke gets frustrated and asks to speak to her supervisor. The office supervisor happens to be Rose (Nadler). (She is the one who sat across from Jack on the plane). She asks him what he wants to do for work. Locke is interested in site construction. In a round about way she tells him disability will be an issue. To prove her point and bring up his denial over his disability in a gentle way, she tells him she has terminal cancer and how she came to terms with what she could or could not do and just began living.
Sawyer is following Other Locke when he pulls out a gun and points it at him. Locke tests him and says go ahead and shoot. Locke tells Sawyer that he feels trapped and tries to convince Sawyer he had feelings before. His little speech appeals to Sawyer due to Sawyer’s own feelings of being trapped and this provides the extra push to have Sawyer continue on with him.
Ben and Ilena are carrying Locke’s body in a tarp, walking with Frank and Sun on the beach. They bury Locke at a makeshift burial area where others have also been laid to rest. Ben says a few words before they cover him with dirt. In his few words, he apologizes for murdering him.
John Locke is awaked by his alarm. He calls Jack Shepard’s office and decides to not go through with the call and tells the receptionist she can’t help him. Helen overhears him on the phone and asks he was speaking to. He tells her it was Dr. Shepard’s office. She asks when he will see the doctor. He tells her he got fired and at that moment the doorbell rings; it’s Oceanic Courier with his lost luggage. Helen asked how he got fired. He tells her he lied and didn’t go to the conference in Sydney. He tells her to open his luggage case. When she does, it’s filled with all kind of knives. He tells her he wanted to go on a walk-about but they refused him, telling him he could not do it. Locke tells Helen he has realized his shortcomings and there is no such thing as miracles and if she’s waiting for him to get out of his chair she should stop. Helen tells him the only thing she ever waited for was him and she rips up Jack Shepard’s business card.
Other Locke and Sawyer arrive at a cliff and Other Locke instructs Sawyer to climb down with him. Locke climbs down a ladder that going all the way down the cliff. Sawyer follows. Sawyer snaps one of the rungs and hangs on for dear life as Locke helps him and pulls him onto an adjacent ladder. They reach the bottom ledge by the water and enter a cave.
Scales are on a desk inside the cave. On one side is one black stone and on the other is a white stone. Locke picks up the white stone and throws it out of the cave and into the ocean. Sawyer asks why he did that and Other Locke tells him it is an inside joke. They walk deeper inside the cliff and Other Locke shows him why he brought him there. All over the ceiling and walls of the cave, scratched into the rock, are names. Some have been crossed out, some have not. Next to each name is a number. Other Locke tells him these are all the people Jacob had been recruiting to watch over the island. Other Locke then crossed out John Locke’s name and the number 4, on the ceiling. Other Locke shows Sawyer’s name, Hugo Reyes’s name with the number 8 in front of it, then Shepard’s and the number 23, (Sayid) Jarrah with number 16, Kwon with number 42, his own (Ford) with the number 15.
Locke has gotten a job as a substitute teacher. After teaching a Science class he heads to the teacher lounge. He enters the lounge and Ben is speaking out loud about making coffee. Ben turns around and sees Locke who says he’d prefer Earl Grey. Ben introduces himself and tells Locke he teaches European history.
Other Locke tells Sawyer that this cave was Jacob’s and he died yesterday. He tells Sawyer at some point in his life Jacob visited him and has influenced his choices and pushing him to the island, because he is a candidate. Other Locke tells him he has three choices. Do nothing, accept the job of being the new Jacob and protect the island. He tells him there is nothing to protect, it’s just an island. The third being…just go, leave the island and don’t look back. Sawyer asks how to do that. Other Locke says ‘together’. Sawyer agrees to take the third option and leave the island.
Review
John Locke’s character ruled this episode aptly named ‘The Substitute’. The substitute meant many things. The smoke monster, and it being the substitute for the real Locke. John Locke as a substitute teacher. Other Locke telling Sawyer that he was chosen to be the candidate or possible substitute for being the Island’s protector. To push that thought even further...is the life we see John Locke living now simply a substitute for his actual life? For we really don’t know what reality is real anymore.
I felt that even though this episode has a clear purpose and focus, not much was answered. The only thing we’ve come closer to finding out is the reasons and meanings behind ‘the numbers’. 4, 8, 15,16, 23, 42. Those famous numbers which allowed Hurley to win the lottery. But that was in the original reality. Did he use them in the new one? We don’t know. What does each number represent for each character it is assigned to?
How long has Jacob been bringing people to the island? There are so many names on the walls of the cave. And still so many questions. Where is Kate’s name and number? That was not shown, nor is it part of the numbers sequence. That seems to be a clue as to why she is there. If she is not one chosen to protect the island per se, then what is her role? If what Other Locke is saying is not true and it is not to protect the island, still, she is missing from the number sequence.
Did you notice the stones on the scale were one black and one white? Black for The Man in Black (The smoke monster, presuming both are one and the same) and white for Jacob. By take the white stone and throwing it into the ocean, the scale is now tipped to the smoke monster’s favor. A metaphor for what is currently transpiring.
Coincidentally when young Jacob told Other Locke he couldn’t kill Sawyer, he yelled out exactly what real Locke did when they told him he couldn’t do his walkabout. “Don’t tell me what I cannot do”. What do you think of this not so coincidence?
Is the young Jacob actually Jacob’s spirit? We have seen other dead people roam the island, like Jack’s father. What was the reason Ilena collected Jacob’s ashes? Will she be using them for something?
Did John Locke have a fiancé pre-original Oceanic Flight 615? I don't recall that he did.
Even though I love this show, I was slightly disappointed with the lack anything really meaty happening in this episode.
Items Noticed:
Locke’s fiancé, Helen, was wearing a shirt that read Peace and Karma.
What did you notice in this episode worth mentioning? What other questions do have? What did you think of this week's episode? Let’s discuss!
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