LOST: Week 3

I should note that after these episodes, I'm pretty confused and sometimes not sure about the cohesion of these notes. Still, I'll try to offer a rapid reaction to what I saw. Think of my entries as quick thoughts after episodes to ponder and debate. It's kind of like the Rapid Reactions that NFL blogs would have on ESPN.com after games (uh...yeah...you know what I mean, right?). Then, you can delve into other websites for the longer features and theories. That's what I'll be doing too. I hope to be responsive to comments this week; last week I kinda slacked off in that area.

Still, here are some thoughts I typed up before watching the episode. The focus is on John Locke today, supposedly, and man, what a character? Personally, Locke's another character that I have mixed feelings about. He's done a lot of things in the past that have really irked me, like blow up the submarine, or throw the knife into Naomi's back, or join the Others kinda, and just be kind of crazy at times. He almost got Desmond/Charlie/Mr. Eko killed with his Hatch gambit, he got Boone killed, dude's crazy!

Yet, he's so damn tragic, from his father hurting him in so many ways, to his miserable life before the island, to the way Ben toyed with him so many times before murdering him. He also was such a hopeful guy on the island too, so impressed with the magic of the place. And, like I imagine you might have felt, the realization from the season 5 finale that he wasn't resurrected on the Island was just so depressing. He's dead? Cause Ben murdered him after he decided not to hang himself? That's the miserable end to his mainly horrible life? Wow. That sucks. (If you ever watch The Wire, you will discover that yes, you can have a lot of favorite characters in a show who won't get happy endings. And it's powerful. And if you think that this is going to be the first of many attempts to randomly incorporate The Wire into a LOST blog entry, you might be right.)

So the question after that was if John Locke would just never earn redemption. If he was simply dead, then maybe the LOST writers were just trying to send a message. Sure, you might dream big, and you might think you're important; but in the end, some of you are just pawns, and you, Locke, were a sad, pathetic pawn. With the Island timeline on its own, it seemed like there was no other way around that. And now, as we all know, there's the LAX timeline, which could somehow eventually, and well, it surely must, connect back to the Island. John Locke will have his redemption in some glorious way. Right? Right? Let's hope so.

Did most of you guys already think this in your mind? Probably. But I wanted to right it all out before watching this episode.

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SPOILER ALERTS FROM HERE ON OUT IF YOU HAVEN'T REALIZED THAT BY NOW THEN MAN YOU GOTTA GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER.

This was quite an episode. Locke-centric episodes are certainly among the strongest in the series, with gems like Walkabout and The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham. Terry O'Quinn just brings it. The ending gave us a strong revelation to ponder, and yet, confuse us so much more (it's still early in this season though!). Sawyer and Fake Locke gave us a neat dynamic duo. Richard Alpert acted crazier than he's ever been.

Locke in a wheelchair in a really depressing situation.* Man this is depressing. But wait, a twist! Of course. It's like one of those moments where it's like, this couldn't get any more depressing, because it actually isn't. A sometimes-used, clever TV gimmick.

The return of Helen brings some confusing questions into play...which is sort of inevitable with this Back to the Future 2 type of timeline. If Locke actually got paralyzed, likely by his father, then he kept going after his father even after Helen told him to stop, and yet they're still together. Although, maybe in this timeline, Helen just came back to him after she left him and decided she loved him so much.

*Remember when mysterious under-utilized guy Matthew Abaddon threatened to push Locke down a flight of stairs? Yeah, that was scary. Matthew Abaddon was played by Lance Reddick, who also played an awesome character, Cedric Daniels in The Wire.

It's a little weird how at ease Sawyer is with dead Locke/Smoke Monster/Man In Black. I guess after all the sci-fi crap you go through, all you can really do is sit there and accept it and roll with it. It seems strange watching it initially, and then you think and go, well.... maybe that's the logical way to react in this WTF situation. Then yeah, it makes sense that Locke is still dead and some other dude is in his body. Yeah. Perfect sense.

Whenever someone new is popping into a scene in the LAX timeline, I always hold my breath expecting it to be someone else (as some of you noted with Claire's adoption potentials last week). This week, when I first heard the voice of the lady interviewing Locke, for some reason I thought "Libby!", probably because of Libby-Hurley. And then Rose pops in. Certainly though, the top cameo went to the intro of Ben as a teacher. Another example making us wonder what this means for the Island after the incident. Ben was...in the temple at that point? So... mark this as another point that the bomb must not have done immediate damage to the Island.

Does anyone think fake Locke actually could be on the good side? I certainly don't want it to be that way, what with the way he mercilessly took over Locke's body and manipulated that whole situation (and he did manipulate Locke going back to the real world, like when he told Richard to go confront Locke after Locke got shot in the leg). Still, what does the Island need to protect itself from? It's not like Man in Black isn't already stuck on this Island. So who would be the other opponent? The only thing I can think of, which kind of confuses me, is Charles Widmore. Widmore's mercenaries in Season 4 were the only real threat that has faced the Island. In the end, it seemed to be that the main goal was to get Benjamin Linus. Still, Locke was told by Christian Shephard to move the Island to save the Island. What does that mean? I mean, of course, who is Christian siding with? Could there be more to Widmore in the future? After all, he was forbidden from the Island. But his game with Ben seems so much less important now, especially with Ben being as confused as anyone on the Island. I still think Jacob is on the good side, and maybe Fake Locke is just doing a good job of manipulating me towards his side right now.

Also, with the scene with Fake Locke and the boy in the jungle, this episode brought back mention of the gamesmanship/rules sort of aspect the show has sometimes shown with Ben/Charles and also with Jacob/Man in Black in the Season 5 finale. And who is the boy? Could it be... yeah I got nothing.

The big revelation this episode was certainly the cave of candidates that Locke showed Sawyer. A couple thoughts. I wish I could offer some crazy brilliant theory to you here, but these are just a couple of pebbles to throw into it. First, did Locke not show Kate in the ceiling, or did I miss that? Cause Jacob definitely interacted with Kate in the finale. Second, Fake Locke crossing out real Locke's name makes me feel more confident that Locke will somehow come back to show up Fake Locke and prove himself worthy of a candidate. Third, I would be more inclined to believe that there isn't a single candidate that Jacob is eliminating himself toward. Rather, a certain combo of this group, whether it be Jack-Kate-Hurley-Locke or something. Why? I just think of the "They're coming" line that Jacob said in the season 5 finale, and I feel like there's something to it.

So that's my rapid reaction to this one. I'm confused, just as I will be perpetually confused throughout the season, especially right after episodes.


"Weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to" - LAPIDUS!