Since coming back from the dead, John Locke hasn’t been quite right, and all signs pointed to him going off the deep end on tonight’s episode of Lost, Follow The Leader.
First of all, there’s the very fact that he came back from the dead, which seemingly goes against the laws of nature (which may or may not apply on Lost Island). Secondly, he’s had a higher-than-usual rapport with the island- knowing what to do and where to go, and as we saw tonight, knowing exactly when he was.
And finally, tonight, we heard of Locke’s plan, which made me think he’s lost it.Locke, for some reason, has it in his head that he’s going to kill an invisible man.
Throughout the past five seasons, generally, I’ve been in Locke’s corner. From wanting to open the hatch to his obsession with the button to rescuing his friends, I’ve been behind his plans. But killing someone he’s never even seen?
That’s crazy.
And I have a feeling if Richard were to find out what Locke really has in store, he’d think so too.
From his reactions by the end of the episode, Richard (the eternal advisor) gave off the vibe that he thought Locke may not have been the best choice for leader all along. Sure he’s been tied to the island his whole life. And he’s been healed in a way that makes him special. But there’s such a thing as causing too many waves, and that just won’t fly.
If Locke’s main plan isn’t to re-unite with the losties trapped back in the DHARMA days, I’m interested in finding out what it is (and I’m sure there’s more to it than just killing Jacob). But like the accusation he pinned on Ben, he’s never seen Jacob. And the most concrete guidance he got from Jacob actually came from Christian, who’s motives we have yet to learn.
Locke is freelancing. And whatever he does will tie into the series’ end, whether it has to do with the rest of the castaways or whether he’s doing something in the island’s best interest. I’m guessing Richard and Ben team up to try and stop them, and unfortunately (for them), they won’t succeed. So all-in-all, with a final episode within a year away, this series is going somewhere unpredictable, and whatever it is, I’m looking forward to it.
Also factoring into the whole end game is Jack’s plan to bring Faraday’s theories to life by detonating a hydrogen bomb to stop “The Incident,” hopefully creating a time loop to cancel out everything that has happened to him in the last four years, which, in his conversation with Kate, we found out caused him to be miserable.
Well, for the rest of us, just those parts involving Kate were miserable.
I like Jack when he’s on his own. But when Kate’s around, he turns into this blubbering idiot who’s all about the relationship, and that’s not the reason that I watch this show.
Similarly, in that last scene in the submarine between Sawyer and Juliet, I found myself thinking “I really like them as a couple.” And even though I knew it wouldn’t happen, I wanted things to turn out well for them. But then Kate was brought on board, and all I could think was how all she does is mess things up. Sawyer and Juliet are compelling characters. Even though their destiny is on the island, from their little conversation on the way to the sub, I thought it might even be interesting to see them off-island. But Kate had to come on board and mess up everything. For the first time, I found myself hoping that if there’s a “shocking death” for this year’s finale, I hope it’s her.
I need to get out of this rage that’s taken over my mind (thanks, Kate!), so let’s discuss the other castaways trapped in the 70s.
Sayid’s back, and it’s nice to see he’s survived a few days in the jungle on his own. The guy who hoped to change the future by shooting a not-yet-evil teenager has joined Jack in his journey underwater to find Jughead. The underwater caves are interesting, and could explain how the Others got around the island. But was I the only one wondering in that last scene with Sayid, Jack, Richard and Eloise staring at Jughead, which one of these people knows how to detonate an Atomic Bomb?
Somehow, next week, they may find a way. Jack, who’s life was just peachy before Oceanic 815 crashed, will find a way to make sure that never happens. But I have a feeling that won’t stop it from happening. As we’ve heard before, the universe has a way of course-correcting. Certain people have to end up on the island. Some may even have to die. And even if the Swan is never built, the Island/Jacob will find a way to get his pieces into place.
Finally, this week saw another awesome scene involving a combination of Hurley, Miles and Doctor Chang.
In an effort to find out whether Faraday was genius insane or crazy insane, Chang attacked the weakest link of the group while looking for information. Sadly, Hurley was confronted with the one question he feared the most:
Who is the president of the United States?
This, after bungling questions about his age and the Korean War proved too much for Hurley to handle and he spilled the beans about being from the future.
(I would have been suspicious a few days earlier after sampling some of his culinary creations. Dipping sauces for waffles? Garlic Mayo? did they even have such things in the 70’s?)
Anyway, this scene between the four was great, not just from a dialogue standpoint, but also because of the visual contact and facial expressions. Hurley knew the gig was up, and Miles and Jin expressed a combination of pity and disbelief in Hurley’s lack of knowledge/cool. (And Jin may have been a little sensitive about the whole Korean War thing).
Meanwhile, Chang seemed somewhat relieved yet anxious about what to do next. Hopefully, next week, we’ll see the story behind his video broadcast to the future.
The other effect of the conversation was Miles telling the truth to his father, just before seeing his father force his mother and baby him on the sub. For Miles, who believed his father wanted no part of him, this must have been hard. But as an audience member, it was great to see.
Who knows what’s next for the inhabitants of Lost Island? The season finale is seven days away.
What did you think?
I know the hatred of Kate, but I came up with a realization, Kate is the constant with the Losties. She is the one who is making everything happen in the future. Everyone is trying to change things yet she takes the dying Ben to the others, she is some how going to make Sawyer and Juliet return, she didn’t want to blow up the island to make everything “better.” I think for the remainder she will either survive and make everything continue on course or she will die and everyone goes back to their old lives. Where oddly enough Kate will go to jail.
You didn’t mention Hurley’s best line. “There wasn’t a Korean war.”
I have seen all the episodes as they came (no repeat viewing, no dvds), so maybe I remember things wrongly, but didn’t Jacob ASK Locke to kill him? When Locke first went to the cabin, I could have sworn that Jacob hoarsely whispered/hollered to Locke, “Kill me!” So in that sense, as I watched last night, in all the seeming insanity of Locke, he has maintained perfect clarity, and is completing his purpose. Thus, it is only natural that the island/Jacob? is telling him all that he needs to know… Maybe I am the insane one though as my wife said she didn’t recall Jacob asking Locke to kill him. Sure makes a different interpretation of everything. It is hard to keep track of all of these storylines.
I think Kate is a troublemaker, too. I don’t get the appeal. Water does seek its own level, and Sawyer and Kate are both of the same ilk. Juliette is just flat out dreamy and it surprises me that she is with Sawyer to begin with, but for him to have doubts… Ick. Also, at least Jack thinks he is doing the greater good–the only rationale I see from Kate for not changing the future is the few good times she has had as well as avoiding prison.
That conversation between Hurley and Dr. Candle was great, if not for the fact they’ve been building up to it all year.
I’m sick and tired of Radinsky. He can’t blow his brains out soon enough.
And it’s nice of the Others to stash the bomb in the island sewer system.
J-Dog: My initial reaction was to say the only thing Kate is a constant for is making me angry. But I do think that since everyone got teleported to the past, the Losties have been the ones making sure things happen (course-correcting and all). Unless, and this has been my feeling, what we’re seeing is the way things always happened.
Rich- Jacob asked Locke to help him. But helping and killing could be the same thing. There’s that random circle of ash around the cabin–maybe that’s what Ben, Richard et. al have been using to keep him trapped there. And the only way out is death. So by killing him, Locke would be helping. But for some reason, I don’t get the vibe that Richard’s the bad guy. He’s been helping out the time travelers and guiding Locke along the way.
As for Juliet and Sawyer, I think that Sawyer does have some redeeming qualities- and has possibly reformed. Juliet’s much more interesting than Kate, who, as you point out, only has prison to look forward to should Jack detonate the bomb, which, as Ed points out, has been kept in the ‘island sewer system’ for the past 20 years.
Thanks for the clarification. My bad–“Help Me” and “Kill Me” are definitely not the same, but perhaps in my mind it is pretty much as you spelled it out here–I am thinking this is what Jacob wants.