Lower Decks

Going back to his first episode in season one, Locke-centric episodes have always made me sad.  From his problems with his father to his issues with Helen (not to mention his injury), Locke’s story always had a way of making me feel sorry for the old man.  But the addition of the “flash-sideways” gives a glimpse into the life of a John Locke who doesn’t seem as unhappy.  And with a couple changes, he actually has a bit of hope.

We’ve already been shown that a couple minor things have been altered by the change in the timeline.  Hurley’s luck and Shannon’s relationship status were both changed in the alternate timeline, but Locke’s life seems to be pretty different.

The biggest change, on the surface, is the fact that Helen Norwood (the love of Locke’s life) accepted his marriage proposal.  But I’d argue that the biggest difference in Locke’s life was summarized by what seemed to be a throw-away line by Helen.

She tells him that they should just elope.  She’d invite her parents, and he’d invite his dad.

His dad, of course, is Anthony Cooper, and as I stated earlier, the two never got along.  It all got a little rocky when Cooper literally stole Locke’s kidney – it showed John the monster that his father was, and it made Locke the angry and scared man that he became.

Let’s assume two things, first of all.  Let’s assume that Helen meant Anthony Cooper when she referred to John’s dad – as you will see, he’s too entangled with Locke’s backstory to be deleted very easily.  And let’s assume that, by inviting him to the small ceremony, John and Cooper are getting along.

I wonder how that’s reconciled in this timeline.  Because, if Cooper didn’t steal John’s kidney, he never would’ve ended up in the anger management class where he and Helen met.  And if Cooper hadn’t pushed John out of a window, Locke wouldn’t have been paralyzed.  And I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t invite the man who stole my kidney and threw me out of a window to my wedding.

So how do you explain it?  Did Locke meet Helen and get paralyzed independently from Cooper?  If so, is Cooper drastically different than he was in the original timeline?  And, if that’s the case, how does it affect Sawyer’s place in the alternate reality – remembering that Cooper is the “Sawyer” that led to the death of little James Ford’s parents.

It was just one line, but it opens up lots of possibilities in the alternate timeline.

Locke returns from Australia, and he confirms that what he told Boone (about going on the walkabout) was indeed a lie.  Like in the original timeline, he tried to go, but they wouldn’t let him.  And when he gets back to work, he’s promptly fired because he flew to Sydney on the company’s dime and ditched a conference he was supposed to go to.

Along the way, Locke runs into a couple other familiar faces (Hurley, Rose, and eventually Ben) – proving that, Island or no Island, these people were destined to run into each other.  Hurley, with a charming confidence that apparently comes with being “the luckiest guy in the world”, offers to set Locke up with a new job.  After a bit of verbal wrestling with Rose (who also works for Hurley), Locke takes a job as a substitute.  Working at the same school is Benjamin Linus, European History teacher.

First of all, Ben working as a European History teacher is absolutely perfect.  I can just see him working in such a niche, and the way he acts in the teachers’ lounge was very well done.  I don’t think they could’ve thought of a better profession for alt-Ben to choose.

But would Ben have made it off the Island?  We’re not entirely sure what happened to the Island after the bomb went off in 1977, but we all assume that everyone was killed.  We know that Ethan, Charlotte, and Miles would’ve survived because they were evacuated off the Island before anything happened.  But was Ben evacuated?  From what I can remember from last year (and based on some limited research), Ben was still with the Others when the whole nuclear bomb plan went off.  Part of the reason why Sayid was shot, I remember, was the fact that Ben was missing.

So if Ben was with the Others and ended up surviving, does that mean that other people that were on the Island (Eloise Hawking, Charles Widmore, Richard, Jacob, etc) also could have survived the detonation of the hydrogen bomb?

As far as Rose goes, did she work for the temp company in the original timeline?  If so, did Hurley own the company in the original timeline?  Because she seemed to easily recognize Hugo’s name, but the two never mentioned their connection while on the Island.  I’m going to have to consider that another alteration of the timeline.

The rest of the flash-sideways illustrates that Locke might not have the same faith that he has in the other timeline.  The “man of faith” doesn’t seem to recognize that meeting Jack might have been destiny, even when the point is knocked into him by Helen.  Of course, this Locke didn’t land on an Island that cured his paralysis – so maybe we can give him a break on that.

On the Island in the original timeline, the survivors finally did something they should’ve done a long time ago.  It’s fitting that it was a Locke-centric episode because, despite the fact that we learned about his death more than 20 episodes ago, John is finally buried in this episode.  After deciding to go to the Temple, Sun declares that John must be buried, and he’s laid to rest alongside the other survivors of Oceanic 815 that died after the crash.

I thought Michael Emerson (as usual) did a great job with Ben’s eulogy of John.  You can tell that Ben does regret killing John, realizing that it set in motion a string of events that left him as the murderer of Jacob.  You also have to love the fact that no one else in attendance (Sun, Frank, and Ilana) was really surprised to hear Ben admit to murdering John.

The rest of the episode dealt with the other form of John Locke, controlled by the Monster.  I was really hoping that we’d finally get a name for this guy (who’s been called the Man in Black, Smokie, Jacob’s enemy, Locke Monster, and a dozen other nicknames), but even a conversation between Richard and the Monster didn’t give us much.

We do know, however, that Richard is very frightened by the Monster.  And I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m going to trust Richard on this one.

We learn, from Ilana, that the Monster is “stuck” in Locke’s form.  Since we’ve seen him transform into the smoke twice now, we have to imagine that she means he can’t take another human shape again.  Since we know he’s changed shapes before, I’m guessing it has something to do with killing Jacob.  Or just a convenient way to keep Terry O’Quinn around.

We also learn that the Monster is “recruiting” – although she doesn’t elaborate what that means.

The Monster begins by “recruiting” Richard, offering information in exchange for Richard’s loyalty.  Richard refuses, but before the Monster can do anything, a mysterious boy appears in the jungle.  It freaks out the Monster enough to let Richard go, promising that they’ll meet again in the near future.

So the Monster goes to find Sawyer, who’s drinking himself to death in his old Dharma house.  The Monster is impressed that, almost immediately, Sawyer recognizes that Locke isn’t who he says he is.  The Monster promises to explain to Sawyer why he’s on the Island, and this intrigues James enough to follow “Locke” into the jungle.

Along the way, “Locke” runs into the same little boy, and the Monster ends up chasing the boy into the jungle.  When he finally catches the boy, the Monster is told that “you know the rules, you can’t kill him.”

Who is the boy?  The simple answer is that the boy is some kind of reincarnated version of Jacob, especially considering the fact that the boy seemed to be able to appear at will.

That fact is continued by the fact that Sawyer sees the boy.  Add to the fact that Sawyer is apparently a “candidate” (way more on that in a minute), and you see a pattern.  Other candidates include Locke and Hurley, both people who have seen Jacob when no one else could.  Sawyer would be the third.

Now who is the “him” that the Monster apparently can’t kill?  Context clues would imply that it’s Sawyer, the man who the Monster was with at the time.  It could also, however, mean Jacob himself – meaning, perhaps, that the Monster’s “loophole” wasn’t as tight as he originally thought.

The boy’s appearance also provided another interesting clue – when the Monster sees the boy, he exhibits some of the characteristics of John Locke.  He displays the fear that Sawyer claims that John always had, and he even screams Locke’s catch phrase – “don’t tell me what I can’t do.”

The Monster returns to Sawyer, and when Sawyer asks about the boy, Locke says, “what kid?”  Was he asking to be sarcastic, or did he actually not remember?  As if someone else was controlling him at the time?

Which brings up the question – is John Locke still alive in there?

The Monster eventually leads Sawyer to a cave on the edge of the mountain.  After throwing away a white stone that was balancing a dark stone on a scale (an inside joke, per the Monster), Sawyer is shown a giant list written on the caves wall.

A lot of the names are scratched out, but six still remain, each accompanied by a number.  Locke (4), Reyes (8), Ford (15), Jarrah (16), Shephard (23), and Kwon (42).

Hopefully, everyone reading this gets the significance there.

After scratching out Locke’s name, the Monster explains that each of the people on the cave wall is a “candidate” to eventually replace Jacob.  That each of them was influenced by Jacob, during their lives, so that they would all end up on the Island.

Pretty big stuff.  This confirms that Jacob was human at some point, and the Monster even confirms that he was, at one point, human.  It also confirms that Jacob brought each of them to the Island for the purpose of replacing him at some point.

Now why those six names?  Why those six numbers?  These are big questions that will be answered soon but not yet.

My question is about the people left off the list.  There are only two omissions, but they’re both pretty big.  Either Sun or Jin (since the Monster can’t confirm which one is on the wall) and Kate.  If it’s Sun and Kate, it might imply that a man has to replace Jacob.  If it’s Kate and Jin being left off, you have to wonder why Kate suddenly isn’t important - after a pretty significant role for most of the series.

Sawyer, however, turns down the chance to replace Jacob, and he agrees to help the Monster get off the Island.

All in all, it was a pretty revealing episode.  The Monster and Sawyer are teamed up, and it seems like everyone else (except for Jin and Claire) is heading for the safety of the Temple.  Lines are being drawn, and it will be very interesting to see how the Monster’s plan will continue to unfold.

And with the introduction of this mysterious boy, it seems like we’re headed towards a very interesting confrontation.