the good locke is in the smoke lodge...
Another eye opening opener... this time it’s Locke. He’s splayed on the ground, mirroring Jack in the pilot...
a naked Desmond runs through the jungle nearby - kind of mirroring Christian from the pilot – Locke tries to yell to him, but nothing comes out. John is bloodied and he can’t speak, but at least his legs are working. He looks like Frankenstein’s monster when he gets up – and as soon as he does, Eko’s Jesus stick falls from a tree (or the sky?) onto his head. Locke picks it up and reads it; it looks like a side of the stick we haven’t seen before.
‘Lift up your eyes and look north’ – which is from one of the many pieces of scripture etched into the stick:
‘gen 13:14’: And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
‘hab 1:3’: Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause [me] to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence [are] before me: and there are [that] raise up strife and contention.
‘john 3:5’: And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
‘acts 4:12’: Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
‘rom 6:12’: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
And scratched across the bottom? 4 8 15 16 23 42.
(I don't know about you, but ever since Pulp Fiction every time i read scripture - okay, BOTH times - it's Samuel Jackson speaking it in my head.)
Locke heads back to the camp. Once there, he begins cutting down the tarp sheltering his hammock. Claire and Charlie see him, and Claire is full of questions; “When did John get back? What’s he doing? Where’s he been, where’s everyone else? Don’t you think you should go find out?” Charlie can’t get a word in edgewise.
He follows Locke to the framework of Eko’s church. "So you’re gone for a whole day, after a massive hatch detonation. You don’t call, you don’t write..." We’ve heard this one before. Locke is putting something together using the tarp and some bamboo. He signals to Charlie that he can’t speak... but that he needs to say something. They're forced to play charades, and Charlie’s no good at it... granted, the answer isn’t obvious. Sand, the trees, Locke gets frustrated – but Charlie finally guesses correctly.
"The island...you need to speak to the island."
Later on in the camp, Charlie’s using some new kind of tarp (is it the balloon skin?) to roof a structure. Locke approaches with a sharpie and a pad of paper, writes something down and shows it to Charlie. "I need your help...I need you to stand guard."
Charlie’s not interested, he detests Locke and explains why; "You do remember repeatedly punching me in the face and accusing me of using heroin when I was not?"
Locke ignores this and shows him the pad again. "@ the sweat lodge."
"What the sodding hell is a sweat lodge?"
What Charlie, you’ve never read It?
Flashback – John’s driving a pickup (plate # 5Q49938) in the rain listening to the blues. Is the truck gonna roll? Is this when John ends up in his wheelchair? Nope. He pulls over for a hitchhiker, Eddie, who’s looking to get to Eureka and do some logging. John can get him as far as Crichville (I think)? Eddie’s just looking for a job somewhere away from his dead mom and drunken dad.
John can sympathize with the fucked up family thing. As the rain is letting up, a cop pulls in behind them, flashing his lights... Eddie asks John if he robbed a bank... he grins.
"’Fraid so."
Is there gonna be a shootout and that will be how John ended up in the wheelchair? Nope. It wasn’t a bank robbery, just a busted taillight. Officer Williams asks them to step out of the vehicle... he asks John what he’s got in the truck bed. "Guns and groceries."
He ain't lyin'... lots of guns (one of the pistols has a custom grip, looks like a sheriff’s star or something) and all the appropriate paperwork. Williams checks the paperwork. 3 handguns, 5 Winchester shotguns, a Varmint Pro rifle, 2 Nef Handi Rifles, and two H-S Precision rifles. We can see the info on the registration:
Jonathan Locke
25164 Franklin St
San Francisco CA 94099
He’s 5’10”, 175 – ss # 553-45-2651 D.O.B. 11/15/1946. He’s almost sixty on the island? Get the fuck outta here… I guess it makes sense, but he’s pretty damn hale and hearty for his age… 60 is the new 50.
The date on the registration is 10/20/97.
The cop tells him he could still bust him for picking up a hitchhiker, but Eddie tells the cop John is an uncle he just called for a ride. The cop doesn’t believe it, but lets them go anyway. The two get back in the truck. "So what is with all the guns, uncle?"
Back in the shell of a church, Charlie is admiring the completed sweat lodge. Locke’s now busy making the hallucinogenic paste that gave Boone bad dreams, and eating it himself. Charlie is aghast – "You’re not...taking drugs, are you John? I only ask because of the strict zero tolerance policy you’ve enacted. I don’t want you to start punching yourself in the face."
Locke shows him the pad. "I need u 2 stand gaurd."
Locke’s not booksmart, huh? He spelled it right the first time... Charlie agrees to wait outside the ‘magic hut’ in case Locke devolves into a monkey. Locke explicitly writes Charlie to not come in. A couple of minutes later, n the magic hut, a shirtless Locke (not exactly a shirtless Sawyer, but hey, he’s almost 60, cut him some slack – looks better than me without a shirt...) is eating the paste and making the fire smoky... he’s staring into the flames, waiting for his vision. It comes rather quickly.
Boone claps him on the shoulder. "Hi John. It’s good to see you again."
Locke mouths an apology. "That's ok... I was the sacrifice the island demanded.'
John tries, but can’t get any more words across. "Don’t worry... you’ll speak when you have something worth saying. I’m here to help you find your way again, so you can bring the family back together. Come on... I want to show you something."
Locke tries to get up and can’t... Boone points to his overturned wheelchair next to the fire and tells him he needs it. Some bad trip stuff starts happening (as in the camera gets all shaky and there are some rapid cuts – Hollywood for bad trip) and suddenly Boone is pushing Locke through the Sydney airport.
He tells John that someone there is in serious danger, and he is the only one that can save that someone.
Locke points to a dressed-up Charlie, Claire (with straight hair – nice) and Aaron, waiting in line.
"Not them, they’ll be fine... for a while."
For a while?
Sun and Jin are in line in front of the Oceanic departures wall and Sayid is standing behind them. Jin is arguing with Sun.
She walks away and Sayid pats him on the back, then points forward... the line is moving? "I think Sayid’s got it."
Hurley is behind the counter in a uniform, typing the numbers into a computer. He’s the one that knows where everyone is, and it shows in Locke’s dream.
But it’s not Hurley who needs help.
Desmond comes down the escalator. He’s wearing a pilot’s uniform and has three hot female flight attendants with him.
"Forget it; he’s helping himself."
Sawyer and Kate are in the screening line – Ana Lucia’s not waving the wand though... they should have gotten her back for that. Sawyer says something to Kate; I can’t make it out, something about stars?
Then something like, "Watch the line (watch and learn?), little lady." ...and it looks like he steals her plane ticket... it’s got a pic of the golden gate bridge on it. Sawyer has a cell phone in his hand as well.
Jack’s taking off his watch in line behind them. Ben (or Henry, as Locke knows him) is the one waving the wand over Jack.
Okay, that’s cooler than Ana, I guess. Locke flails his arms, trying to get their attention. "There’s nothing you can do for them, not yet. First you have to clean up your own mess."
Boone is suddenly at the top of a tall bank of escalators. He wants Locke to come up. Trippy again... cool cinematography and some great music... Locke lies down, riding the escalator up... he crawls across the floor when he gets to the top, and puts his hand in a puddle of blood. Eko’s stick is there too, covered in blood - but there’s no sign of Eko himself. Boone is standing above Locke. He looks like Griffin Dunne in An American Werewolf in London, all torn up and covered in blood.
"Clean it up, John. They’ve got him. You don’t have much time."
Locke snaps to in the smoke hut. As he moves to leave, a polar bear comes lunging out of the flames at him. He spills out onto the sand next to Charlie, who asks him what happened, if he’s alright. Locke doesn’t answer right away, instead he goes over and picks up a knife out of its sheath and looks at it. Charlie asks what he's doing... as in, are you gonna cut me up with that thing? It’s first-season badass hunter Locke now, and he can speak again.
"I’m going to save Mister Eko’s life."
The two of them are searching for signs of Eko in the jungle a while later. I’m loving the music in this episode. Locke finds Eko’s cross... he tells Charlie that a polar bear dragged him this way. Charlie can’t believe it. "Sawyer killed the polar bear!"
"He killed A polar bear."
How many are there? Boone said 'they've' got him. Tom never answered Sawyer when he asked. They continue on... Locke finds some blood and tells Charlie he’s going to go on alone, and that he should go back to Claire. "You don’t want to go with me, Charlie. Bad things happen to people who hang around with me."
Flashback – John drives the pickup to a gate, and a little kid named Bobby opens it for them. Locke gives him a bag of candy. Kinda odd... This place is some kind of orchard, complete with a sweat lodge. Eddie, wearing a Geronimo Jackson shirt, asks about the lodge. "Anybody who wants can go in there and light a fire, get it nice and smoky... meditate...then you’re supposed to figure out what to do with your life ...figure out if you’re a farmer or a hunter."
"Which are you, John?"
They walk over to a large group of people just sitting down to eat... John introduces Eddie to Mike (it’s Norma’s husband!), who looks like he could be Tom's brother, and Jan. Mike compliments Eddie on the Geronimo Jackson shirt and asks John to say grace. "Thank you Lord, thank you for the food and the friends...and for me, thank you for helping me stop being so angry, and helping me find a real family. ‘Cause they’re a hell of a lot better than the ones I used to have."
He sits to eat, and Eddie thanks him greatly.
Back in the jungle, Locke and Charlie (I guess he's coming anyway)come across a huge crater – it’s what’s left of the hatch. It looks like it imploded. What the hell happened there and how the hell did any of them get out alive? Did the island or the black smoke save them somehow? Is this whole quest to get Eko a test from the island to see if Locke has regained his faith? Locke finds a dead boar nearby, recently gored. "It’s an active kill; meaning that whatever was eating this is gonna be back for more."
"If you wanna say polar bear you can just say it."
Locke finds some white fur stuck to a branch. "Alright... Polar bear."
They hear something in the jungle coming toward them... and take off running... it’s the bear, but they lose it quickly and stop in a clearing. Locke hears some more rustling and throws a knife in the direction it’s coming from... and they hear a man grunt in surprise. Locke parts the bushes to find Hurley with a knife sticking out of his canteen.
"Dude."
He tells them about Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, and the Others’ orders to stay away. "Oh, and that dude we had in the hatch, Henry? He was there... he’s like their leader."
This catches Locke off guard... or gaurd... but he has to fix his mess first. He tells Hurley to go on back and tell everyone what he just told them. Hurley wants to know what Locke and Charlie doing, so Charlie fills him in. "The island told Locke he has to save Eko. Apparently a bear's got him, and it’s just made an active kill. You may want to hustle."
He and Locke continue deeper into the jungle, leaving Hurley all by himself.
"Bear? What bear?"
Charlie tells Locke about the nature programs he watched on the Beeb when he was stoned; they told him that polar bears were the Einsteins of the bear community. Locke finds the cave... Einstein’s lair.
Flashback – Eddie and John are going to work in the orchard. Eddie’s razzing him about some girl, Lizze, saying that she’s into him... but she’s half John’s age and too granola for Eddie. He tells John she wants a daddy - like everyone else here. "You should take advantage of that."
"That’s not really funny, Eddie."
Eddie apologizes, and then asks Locke why he never talks about his dad. "Nothin’ worth talking about."
I dunno about that, it’s a pretty good story.
They pass a large opaque greenhouse next to the orchard. Eddie wants to know what they’re doing in there, but John won’t tell him, or isn’t allowed to. Eddie harps on it... he sees a lot of fertilizer going in (he’s been there for six weeks already) he wants in - he thinks they’re building a bomb and are planning on blowing something up... John laughs at him. He tells him he’ll talk to Mike and Jan about letting him in on the secret.
Back at the entrance of the cave – Locke’s going in alone... "I’m going in there because I’m supposed to go in there."
He’s putting together a torch and Charlie watches him pull a spray can out of his pack. "Hairspray? Now... I hate to be the one to point this out to you, but..."
Locke smiles... It kind of breaks the tension between them... they’re friends again. Locke lights the torch and enters the cave.
Hurley’s on his way to the camp when he hears something rustling in the jungle. "Bear... is that you?"
It’s not the bear. We hear a familiar voice. "Are you alone, brother?"
He says yeah, and a naked Desmond, looking an awful lot like Christ resurrected, emerges from the jungle. Uh oh, where’s his book? Hurley shields his eyes.
"Whoa, dude... I’m not alone!"
Des tells him he woke up in the jungle naked. "So, like, the hatch blew off your underwear?"
Hurley gives him a smelly oversized tie-dye t-shirt to wear and he and Hippy Jesus Des make for the camp.
Locke finds a toy Tonka truck as he makes his way deeper into the cave... creepy. Do the Others feed bad kids to the bears?
Flashback – John walks up to the guard at the greenhouse, who’s cradling a shotgun – Mike and Jan are looking for him. He goes in... there’s pot...lots and lots of weed. Damn! Mike and Jan are rushing around, packing everything up. "You screwed up John, you blew it big time."
They show him a file on Eddie – he’s an officer in the Humboldt county sheriff’s department.
Badge # 84023
Edward F Colburn.
"You know how much jail time we’d get for this much weed?"
"He has been in here for six weeks gathering evidence because you brought him here."
"He played you for a sucker... now it’s over."
Will John ever trust the right person? Has it happened at least once in his life?? John tells them to wait... "It’s not too late to fix this. I can fix this."
Deeper in the cave he comes across a lot of skeletons... one of them has a Dharma vest on or something.
How many people have the bears eaten?!? How long ago did they escape? He sees Eko lying behind a boulder, beaten and bloodied... Locke grabs his shoulders to carry him out, but the bear suddenly appears and pulls Eko back by his legs. Locke busts out the hairspray and gives the bear a high school flamethrower right in the face... it lets go, and he drags Eko away as the bear runs from them. Locke gets him out of the cave and Charlie helps to carry him. I bet they’re wishing the bear had chosen someone a lot lighter.
Hurley and Desmond are on their way to the camp, and Des tells Hurley what happened down in the hatch, and about the key. "That seems kinda convenient...if you had this magic key the whole time, why didn’t you, like, use it."
"I didn’t know what would happen."
"So what did happen?"
"The failsafe key must have detonated the electromagnetic anomaly, made the hatch implode."
"You didn’t implode... you’re not gonna like turn into the Hulk or somethin'?"
He tells Des what happened while he was ‘failsafing’. "...the whole island vibrated, and Kate and Jack and Sawyer saw it too, right before they got bags pulled over their heads..."
Des tells him not to worry. "Locke’s gonna go after them, he said so in his speech."
Listen: Desmond Hume has become unstuck in time. Fucking awesome. When did the hatch blow him to? What happened? Is it time travel or psychic shit? I’m hoping for time travel myself... maybe he’s already read his book and he’s dead?
"What speech? He said he was going to save Eko and kill bears."
I can’t read Des, is he confused himself, or is he angry with himself for slipping up? "Right, I'm sorry... I’m just a bit shook up."
Charlie and Locke are dragging Eko across the island. Charlie wants to know, now that they’ve survived the suicide mission, what Locke saw in the spirit tent. "I saw Boone. He told me I had to clean up my own mess."
"Well...I agree with Boone, after all if you kept pressing that button like Eko told you to..."
"We wouldn’t have had to save him in the first place – yeah, Charlie - that’s what cleaning up your own mess means."
"Spoken like someone who’s had a few too many messes to clean."
Flashback – John and Eddie are out hunting... John pretends to see something over Eddie’s shoulder, and when he turns to look for it, John points his rifle at Eddie’s back. He turns to see the rifle pointed at him, and John asks, "Did you know it would be me in the truck... did they choose me?"
(Did the island choose me?)
Eddie tells him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and starts to raise his own rifle. Is this when John ends up in the chair? John tells him he didn’t load that one. I guess not. Hey, it's like Jack and Michael...
Eddie drops it.
"So how about you just answer the question, Eddie."
"Yeah, they chose you, John. Because you hadn’t been here long, didn’t have a criminal record, and psych profile said you'd be amenable for coercion. Lower the gun... this isn’t personal."
Eddie starts to back away and John tells him to stop. "I’m sorry John, but you’re not gonna shoot me. You’re not a murderer (we heard this last week... remember how that turned out...), you’re a good man (sounds like an Other), you’re a farmer."
"Nope, I’m not a farmer. I was a hunter... I’m a hunter..."
BLAM!!!
Nah, he doesn’t shoot... he’s too busy fighting back tears; he can’t believe he’s trusted the wrong person yet again. Eddie walks off. So maybe Mike and Jan end up busting Locke’s legs over this? How does he go from being a pot farmer to working in a box factory? argh, I wanna know!
Charlie, Eko and Locke stop by a stream to get some water. Charlie takes off to fill the water bottle and Locke sits down next to the unconscious Eko. "Sorry. Sorry I ever doubted you. Sorry I gave up on my faith (he says something here - in god? again?). I messed up... now our people are captured... if I’d just listened to you, if I’d just let you keep pushing the button; I could have gone with them… I could have protected them, I could have saved them."
Eko’s eyes open. "You can still protect them. You can still save them."
"I don’t even know where they are..."
"You will find them. After all, you are a hunter, John."
Charlie comes back and Eko is unconscious still... he never actually woke up... or did he?
The two of them get him back to camp, where Hurley has arrived as well. Hey, a couple of the background people are getting their SAG cards this week! One of the extras wants to get Jack to take care of Eko. Hurley pipes up; "Jacks not coming back. They’ve got him."
Two of the background artists are getting definite roles here... the girl who wanted to get Jack snaps, "Okay, when were you planning on telling us this Hurley?!?"
She looks like Ashley Judd, but she can act, so I guess it's not her. Some guy with a beard has a few lines too, "What do you mean, they? Who’s they?"
Everyone is starting to freak out.
Locke stands and speaks. "’They’ are the Others. And yes, they’ve taken Jack and Kate and Sawyer."
Claire asks about Sun, Jin and Sayid, if they’re okay.
"I don’t know. I’m gonna find our friends. I don’t know how yet, but I will."
Hurley looks nervously down at Des, who’s standing at the shore throwing rocks into the ocean.
"We're gonna find them, all of them. And then we're gonna bring them home. But first things first, we gotta look after Mister Eko, so Paulo (beard guy) and Nikki (fake Ashley Judd) bring towels and water. Claire, we gotta clean him up, so bring all the first aid supplies."
Okay, I guess they've had some speaking roles before. Paulo is also listed as 'Neil' in The Glass Ballerina. Huh?
Locke goes into the tent where they laid Eko. Charlie, speaking to Hurley, hammers the point home, for those of you that might have missed it. "Not a bad speech."
Hurley does his best Keanu impression. "Whoa. I just got hit with... you know... deja vu."
He's watching Desmond. Charlie watches him - he thinks he’s crazy. Can he not see Desmond? Is there a Sixth Sense/Dave thing going on here? "Okay, well when that wears off can you get bandages from the kitchen?"
There’s look of confusion - and maybe a little anger - on Hurley’s face as he continues staring down at Desmond, who is still casting stones into the ocean.
Damn, he looks like Jesus here... halo and all... casting stones - is Desmond without sin now? Reborn after the implosion?
a naked Desmond runs through the jungle nearby - kind of mirroring Christian from the pilot – Locke tries to yell to him, but nothing comes out. John is bloodied and he can’t speak, but at least his legs are working. He looks like Frankenstein’s monster when he gets up – and as soon as he does, Eko’s Jesus stick falls from a tree (or the sky?) onto his head. Locke picks it up and reads it; it looks like a side of the stick we haven’t seen before.
‘Lift up your eyes and look north’ – which is from one of the many pieces of scripture etched into the stick:
‘gen 13:14’: And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
‘hab 1:3’: Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause [me] to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence [are] before me: and there are [that] raise up strife and contention.
‘john 3:5’: And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
‘acts 4:12’: Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
‘rom 6:12’: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
And scratched across the bottom? 4 8 15 16 23 42.
(I don't know about you, but ever since Pulp Fiction every time i read scripture - okay, BOTH times - it's Samuel Jackson speaking it in my head.)
Locke heads back to the camp. Once there, he begins cutting down the tarp sheltering his hammock. Claire and Charlie see him, and Claire is full of questions; “When did John get back? What’s he doing? Where’s he been, where’s everyone else? Don’t you think you should go find out?” Charlie can’t get a word in edgewise.
He follows Locke to the framework of Eko’s church. "So you’re gone for a whole day, after a massive hatch detonation. You don’t call, you don’t write..." We’ve heard this one before. Locke is putting something together using the tarp and some bamboo. He signals to Charlie that he can’t speak... but that he needs to say something. They're forced to play charades, and Charlie’s no good at it... granted, the answer isn’t obvious. Sand, the trees, Locke gets frustrated – but Charlie finally guesses correctly.
"The island...you need to speak to the island."
Later on in the camp, Charlie’s using some new kind of tarp (is it the balloon skin?) to roof a structure. Locke approaches with a sharpie and a pad of paper, writes something down and shows it to Charlie. "I need your help...I need you to stand guard."
Charlie’s not interested, he detests Locke and explains why; "You do remember repeatedly punching me in the face and accusing me of using heroin when I was not?"
Locke ignores this and shows him the pad again. "@ the sweat lodge."
"What the sodding hell is a sweat lodge?"
What Charlie, you’ve never read It?
Flashback – John’s driving a pickup (plate # 5Q49938) in the rain listening to the blues. Is the truck gonna roll? Is this when John ends up in his wheelchair? Nope. He pulls over for a hitchhiker, Eddie, who’s looking to get to Eureka and do some logging. John can get him as far as Crichville (I think)? Eddie’s just looking for a job somewhere away from his dead mom and drunken dad.
John can sympathize with the fucked up family thing. As the rain is letting up, a cop pulls in behind them, flashing his lights... Eddie asks John if he robbed a bank... he grins.
"’Fraid so."
Is there gonna be a shootout and that will be how John ended up in the wheelchair? Nope. It wasn’t a bank robbery, just a busted taillight. Officer Williams asks them to step out of the vehicle... he asks John what he’s got in the truck bed. "Guns and groceries."
He ain't lyin'... lots of guns (one of the pistols has a custom grip, looks like a sheriff’s star or something) and all the appropriate paperwork. Williams checks the paperwork. 3 handguns, 5 Winchester shotguns, a Varmint Pro rifle, 2 Nef Handi Rifles, and two H-S Precision rifles. We can see the info on the registration:
Jonathan Locke
25164 Franklin St
San Francisco CA 94099
He’s 5’10”, 175 – ss # 553-45-2651 D.O.B. 11/15/1946. He’s almost sixty on the island? Get the fuck outta here… I guess it makes sense, but he’s pretty damn hale and hearty for his age… 60 is the new 50.
The date on the registration is 10/20/97.
The cop tells him he could still bust him for picking up a hitchhiker, but Eddie tells the cop John is an uncle he just called for a ride. The cop doesn’t believe it, but lets them go anyway. The two get back in the truck. "So what is with all the guns, uncle?"
Back in the shell of a church, Charlie is admiring the completed sweat lodge. Locke’s now busy making the hallucinogenic paste that gave Boone bad dreams, and eating it himself. Charlie is aghast – "You’re not...taking drugs, are you John? I only ask because of the strict zero tolerance policy you’ve enacted. I don’t want you to start punching yourself in the face."
Locke shows him the pad. "I need u 2 stand gaurd."
Locke’s not booksmart, huh? He spelled it right the first time... Charlie agrees to wait outside the ‘magic hut’ in case Locke devolves into a monkey. Locke explicitly writes Charlie to not come in. A couple of minutes later, n the magic hut, a shirtless Locke (not exactly a shirtless Sawyer, but hey, he’s almost 60, cut him some slack – looks better than me without a shirt...) is eating the paste and making the fire smoky... he’s staring into the flames, waiting for his vision. It comes rather quickly.
Boone claps him on the shoulder. "Hi John. It’s good to see you again."
Locke mouths an apology. "That's ok... I was the sacrifice the island demanded.'
John tries, but can’t get any more words across. "Don’t worry... you’ll speak when you have something worth saying. I’m here to help you find your way again, so you can bring the family back together. Come on... I want to show you something."
Locke tries to get up and can’t... Boone points to his overturned wheelchair next to the fire and tells him he needs it. Some bad trip stuff starts happening (as in the camera gets all shaky and there are some rapid cuts – Hollywood for bad trip) and suddenly Boone is pushing Locke through the Sydney airport.
He tells John that someone there is in serious danger, and he is the only one that can save that someone.
Locke points to a dressed-up Charlie, Claire (with straight hair – nice) and Aaron, waiting in line.
"Not them, they’ll be fine... for a while."
For a while?
Sun and Jin are in line in front of the Oceanic departures wall and Sayid is standing behind them. Jin is arguing with Sun.
She walks away and Sayid pats him on the back, then points forward... the line is moving? "I think Sayid’s got it."
Hurley is behind the counter in a uniform, typing the numbers into a computer. He’s the one that knows where everyone is, and it shows in Locke’s dream.
But it’s not Hurley who needs help.
Desmond comes down the escalator. He’s wearing a pilot’s uniform and has three hot female flight attendants with him.
"Forget it; he’s helping himself."
Sawyer and Kate are in the screening line – Ana Lucia’s not waving the wand though... they should have gotten her back for that. Sawyer says something to Kate; I can’t make it out, something about stars?
Then something like, "Watch the line (watch and learn?), little lady." ...and it looks like he steals her plane ticket... it’s got a pic of the golden gate bridge on it. Sawyer has a cell phone in his hand as well.
Jack’s taking off his watch in line behind them. Ben (or Henry, as Locke knows him) is the one waving the wand over Jack.
Okay, that’s cooler than Ana, I guess. Locke flails his arms, trying to get their attention. "There’s nothing you can do for them, not yet. First you have to clean up your own mess."
Boone is suddenly at the top of a tall bank of escalators. He wants Locke to come up. Trippy again... cool cinematography and some great music... Locke lies down, riding the escalator up... he crawls across the floor when he gets to the top, and puts his hand in a puddle of blood. Eko’s stick is there too, covered in blood - but there’s no sign of Eko himself. Boone is standing above Locke. He looks like Griffin Dunne in An American Werewolf in London, all torn up and covered in blood.
"Clean it up, John. They’ve got him. You don’t have much time."
Locke snaps to in the smoke hut. As he moves to leave, a polar bear comes lunging out of the flames at him. He spills out onto the sand next to Charlie, who asks him what happened, if he’s alright. Locke doesn’t answer right away, instead he goes over and picks up a knife out of its sheath and looks at it. Charlie asks what he's doing... as in, are you gonna cut me up with that thing? It’s first-season badass hunter Locke now, and he can speak again.
"I’m going to save Mister Eko’s life."
The two of them are searching for signs of Eko in the jungle a while later. I’m loving the music in this episode. Locke finds Eko’s cross... he tells Charlie that a polar bear dragged him this way. Charlie can’t believe it. "Sawyer killed the polar bear!"
"He killed A polar bear."
How many are there? Boone said 'they've' got him. Tom never answered Sawyer when he asked. They continue on... Locke finds some blood and tells Charlie he’s going to go on alone, and that he should go back to Claire. "You don’t want to go with me, Charlie. Bad things happen to people who hang around with me."
Flashback – John drives the pickup to a gate, and a little kid named Bobby opens it for them. Locke gives him a bag of candy. Kinda odd... This place is some kind of orchard, complete with a sweat lodge. Eddie, wearing a Geronimo Jackson shirt, asks about the lodge. "Anybody who wants can go in there and light a fire, get it nice and smoky... meditate...then you’re supposed to figure out what to do with your life ...figure out if you’re a farmer or a hunter."
"Which are you, John?"
They walk over to a large group of people just sitting down to eat... John introduces Eddie to Mike (it’s Norma’s husband!), who looks like he could be Tom's brother, and Jan. Mike compliments Eddie on the Geronimo Jackson shirt and asks John to say grace. "Thank you Lord, thank you for the food and the friends...and for me, thank you for helping me stop being so angry, and helping me find a real family. ‘Cause they’re a hell of a lot better than the ones I used to have."
He sits to eat, and Eddie thanks him greatly.
Back in the jungle, Locke and Charlie (I guess he's coming anyway)come across a huge crater – it’s what’s left of the hatch. It looks like it imploded. What the hell happened there and how the hell did any of them get out alive? Did the island or the black smoke save them somehow? Is this whole quest to get Eko a test from the island to see if Locke has regained his faith? Locke finds a dead boar nearby, recently gored. "It’s an active kill; meaning that whatever was eating this is gonna be back for more."
"If you wanna say polar bear you can just say it."
Locke finds some white fur stuck to a branch. "Alright... Polar bear."
They hear something in the jungle coming toward them... and take off running... it’s the bear, but they lose it quickly and stop in a clearing. Locke hears some more rustling and throws a knife in the direction it’s coming from... and they hear a man grunt in surprise. Locke parts the bushes to find Hurley with a knife sticking out of his canteen.
"Dude."
He tells them about Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, and the Others’ orders to stay away. "Oh, and that dude we had in the hatch, Henry? He was there... he’s like their leader."
This catches Locke off guard... or gaurd... but he has to fix his mess first. He tells Hurley to go on back and tell everyone what he just told them. Hurley wants to know what Locke and Charlie doing, so Charlie fills him in. "The island told Locke he has to save Eko. Apparently a bear's got him, and it’s just made an active kill. You may want to hustle."
He and Locke continue deeper into the jungle, leaving Hurley all by himself.
"Bear? What bear?"
Charlie tells Locke about the nature programs he watched on the Beeb when he was stoned; they told him that polar bears were the Einsteins of the bear community. Locke finds the cave... Einstein’s lair.
Flashback – Eddie and John are going to work in the orchard. Eddie’s razzing him about some girl, Lizze, saying that she’s into him... but she’s half John’s age and too granola for Eddie. He tells John she wants a daddy - like everyone else here. "You should take advantage of that."
"That’s not really funny, Eddie."
Eddie apologizes, and then asks Locke why he never talks about his dad. "Nothin’ worth talking about."
I dunno about that, it’s a pretty good story.
They pass a large opaque greenhouse next to the orchard. Eddie wants to know what they’re doing in there, but John won’t tell him, or isn’t allowed to. Eddie harps on it... he sees a lot of fertilizer going in (he’s been there for six weeks already) he wants in - he thinks they’re building a bomb and are planning on blowing something up... John laughs at him. He tells him he’ll talk to Mike and Jan about letting him in on the secret.
Back at the entrance of the cave – Locke’s going in alone... "I’m going in there because I’m supposed to go in there."
He’s putting together a torch and Charlie watches him pull a spray can out of his pack. "Hairspray? Now... I hate to be the one to point this out to you, but..."
Locke smiles... It kind of breaks the tension between them... they’re friends again. Locke lights the torch and enters the cave.
Hurley’s on his way to the camp when he hears something rustling in the jungle. "Bear... is that you?"
It’s not the bear. We hear a familiar voice. "Are you alone, brother?"
He says yeah, and a naked Desmond, looking an awful lot like Christ resurrected, emerges from the jungle. Uh oh, where’s his book? Hurley shields his eyes.
"Whoa, dude... I’m not alone!"
Des tells him he woke up in the jungle naked. "So, like, the hatch blew off your underwear?"
Hurley gives him a smelly oversized tie-dye t-shirt to wear and he and Hippy Jesus Des make for the camp.
Locke finds a toy Tonka truck as he makes his way deeper into the cave... creepy. Do the Others feed bad kids to the bears?
Flashback – John walks up to the guard at the greenhouse, who’s cradling a shotgun – Mike and Jan are looking for him. He goes in... there’s pot...lots and lots of weed. Damn! Mike and Jan are rushing around, packing everything up. "You screwed up John, you blew it big time."
They show him a file on Eddie – he’s an officer in the Humboldt county sheriff’s department.
Badge # 84023
Edward F Colburn.
"You know how much jail time we’d get for this much weed?"
"He has been in here for six weeks gathering evidence because you brought him here."
"He played you for a sucker... now it’s over."
Will John ever trust the right person? Has it happened at least once in his life?? John tells them to wait... "It’s not too late to fix this. I can fix this."
Deeper in the cave he comes across a lot of skeletons... one of them has a Dharma vest on or something.
How many people have the bears eaten?!? How long ago did they escape? He sees Eko lying behind a boulder, beaten and bloodied... Locke grabs his shoulders to carry him out, but the bear suddenly appears and pulls Eko back by his legs. Locke busts out the hairspray and gives the bear a high school flamethrower right in the face... it lets go, and he drags Eko away as the bear runs from them. Locke gets him out of the cave and Charlie helps to carry him. I bet they’re wishing the bear had chosen someone a lot lighter.
Hurley and Desmond are on their way to the camp, and Des tells Hurley what happened down in the hatch, and about the key. "That seems kinda convenient...if you had this magic key the whole time, why didn’t you, like, use it."
"I didn’t know what would happen."
"So what did happen?"
"The failsafe key must have detonated the electromagnetic anomaly, made the hatch implode."
"You didn’t implode... you’re not gonna like turn into the Hulk or somethin'?"
He tells Des what happened while he was ‘failsafing’. "...the whole island vibrated, and Kate and Jack and Sawyer saw it too, right before they got bags pulled over their heads..."
Des tells him not to worry. "Locke’s gonna go after them, he said so in his speech."
Listen: Desmond Hume has become unstuck in time. Fucking awesome. When did the hatch blow him to? What happened? Is it time travel or psychic shit? I’m hoping for time travel myself... maybe he’s already read his book and he’s dead?
"What speech? He said he was going to save Eko and kill bears."
I can’t read Des, is he confused himself, or is he angry with himself for slipping up? "Right, I'm sorry... I’m just a bit shook up."
Charlie and Locke are dragging Eko across the island. Charlie wants to know, now that they’ve survived the suicide mission, what Locke saw in the spirit tent. "I saw Boone. He told me I had to clean up my own mess."
"Well...I agree with Boone, after all if you kept pressing that button like Eko told you to..."
"We wouldn’t have had to save him in the first place – yeah, Charlie - that’s what cleaning up your own mess means."
"Spoken like someone who’s had a few too many messes to clean."
Flashback – John and Eddie are out hunting... John pretends to see something over Eddie’s shoulder, and when he turns to look for it, John points his rifle at Eddie’s back. He turns to see the rifle pointed at him, and John asks, "Did you know it would be me in the truck... did they choose me?"
(Did the island choose me?)
Eddie tells him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and starts to raise his own rifle. Is this when John ends up in the chair? John tells him he didn’t load that one. I guess not. Hey, it's like Jack and Michael...
Eddie drops it.
"So how about you just answer the question, Eddie."
"Yeah, they chose you, John. Because you hadn’t been here long, didn’t have a criminal record, and psych profile said you'd be amenable for coercion. Lower the gun... this isn’t personal."
Eddie starts to back away and John tells him to stop. "I’m sorry John, but you’re not gonna shoot me. You’re not a murderer (we heard this last week... remember how that turned out...), you’re a good man (sounds like an Other), you’re a farmer."
"Nope, I’m not a farmer. I was a hunter... I’m a hunter..."
BLAM!!!
Nah, he doesn’t shoot... he’s too busy fighting back tears; he can’t believe he’s trusted the wrong person yet again. Eddie walks off. So maybe Mike and Jan end up busting Locke’s legs over this? How does he go from being a pot farmer to working in a box factory? argh, I wanna know!
Charlie, Eko and Locke stop by a stream to get some water. Charlie takes off to fill the water bottle and Locke sits down next to the unconscious Eko. "Sorry. Sorry I ever doubted you. Sorry I gave up on my faith (he says something here - in god? again?). I messed up... now our people are captured... if I’d just listened to you, if I’d just let you keep pushing the button; I could have gone with them… I could have protected them, I could have saved them."
Eko’s eyes open. "You can still protect them. You can still save them."
"I don’t even know where they are..."
"You will find them. After all, you are a hunter, John."
Charlie comes back and Eko is unconscious still... he never actually woke up... or did he?
The two of them get him back to camp, where Hurley has arrived as well. Hey, a couple of the background people are getting their SAG cards this week! One of the extras wants to get Jack to take care of Eko. Hurley pipes up; "Jacks not coming back. They’ve got him."
Two of the background artists are getting definite roles here... the girl who wanted to get Jack snaps, "Okay, when were you planning on telling us this Hurley?!?"
She looks like Ashley Judd, but she can act, so I guess it's not her. Some guy with a beard has a few lines too, "What do you mean, they? Who’s they?"
Everyone is starting to freak out.
Locke stands and speaks. "’They’ are the Others. And yes, they’ve taken Jack and Kate and Sawyer."
Claire asks about Sun, Jin and Sayid, if they’re okay.
"I don’t know. I’m gonna find our friends. I don’t know how yet, but I will."
Hurley looks nervously down at Des, who’s standing at the shore throwing rocks into the ocean.
"We're gonna find them, all of them. And then we're gonna bring them home. But first things first, we gotta look after Mister Eko, so Paulo (beard guy) and Nikki (fake Ashley Judd) bring towels and water. Claire, we gotta clean him up, so bring all the first aid supplies."
Okay, I guess they've had some speaking roles before. Paulo is also listed as 'Neil' in The Glass Ballerina. Huh?
Locke goes into the tent where they laid Eko. Charlie, speaking to Hurley, hammers the point home, for those of you that might have missed it. "Not a bad speech."
Hurley does his best Keanu impression. "Whoa. I just got hit with... you know... deja vu."
He's watching Desmond. Charlie watches him - he thinks he’s crazy. Can he not see Desmond? Is there a Sixth Sense/Dave thing going on here? "Okay, well when that wears off can you get bandages from the kitchen?"
There’s look of confusion - and maybe a little anger - on Hurley’s face as he continues staring down at Desmond, who is still casting stones into the ocean.
Damn, he looks like Jesus here... halo and all... casting stones - is Desmond without sin now? Reborn after the implosion?
posted by karmacomedian at 11:13 AM
