Season One: Episodes 9 - 12
Here we are again fans with Re-Watch Week Number Three and we’re already at the half way point with the first season! As always I’ll be focusing the majority of my weekly article studying the character of John Locke with a follow-up section of my personal observations. Let’s go!
Looking at Locke:
These four episodes take place over days 12 through 22 on the island. Locke has now found another “hunter” in Ethan who is apparently has “experience” and is able to track wild rabbits and rodents in the jungle at night. They return to camp not with a fresh kill or two but with luggage containing Hawaiian shirts and a golf bag. As they prepare to go back into the jungle to “hunt”, Walt tries to sneak away from Michael in an attempt to join the hunting party. Although Walt is enamored with the hunter image of John Locke, his father certainly is not, and Michael quickly cancels Walt’s plan. Locke says nothing during the exchange and gives Walt an “oh well” look as he turns to leave. The next day, as the Losties are enjoying their new 2-hole 3 par golf course, Walt uses the opportunity to seek out John Locke, who is alone throwing his long knife into a large tree. And John, in defiance of common sense and knowing Michael would not approve, hands Walt his long, sharp weapon. Two nights later, John Locke appears in Claire Littleton’s nightmare. He is sitting at a table that has the exact same items belonging to the psychic that she visited several times prior to her flight to Los Angeles. The same lamp, cloth on the table, cards, and crystals. In her dream, as Locke flips one of the Tarot cards, we hear the sound of a metal against metal, like a knife being unsheathed. We also notice that when Locke raises his head to answer Claire’s question about her missing baby, he has one black eye and one white. His words are: “You know what’s happening. It was your responsibility but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now.” The next day, as Sayid rushes into the caves after returning from his visit with Danielle Rousseau, we see Locke in the shadows of the caves. Sayid, passing right by Locke and ignoring his presence, heads straight for Jack and Kate. He collapses in exhaustion but declares that he “had to come back” to tell them that “we are not alone”. Locke remains in the shadows, arms crossed with a scowl on his face. As the crisis escalates with the knowledge that Ethan Rom is not only a passenger of Flight 815 but also on his way to intercept Claire and Charlie, Locke remains calm. He joins Jack in the race to the beach to thwart Ethan’s attempt to do harm to Claire. And while Jack is breathing hard, anxious, and a bit reckless in combing the jungle, John appears almost serene. He tries to get Jack to calm down, be quiet, and return to the caves to collect a search party. When Jack refuses and sets off alone into the jungle, Locke goes back to the caves. In a very methodical fashion, John takes his time to put on his vest, tie a cloth around his wrist, grab two knives, and fill a few water bottles. He anticipates Kate wanting to join his party and accepts the help of Boone, a surprising choice for Locke to make considering Boone’s achievement record. When Michael volunteers to be a part of the rescue mission, Locke dismisses his help by saying that more people would slow them down. And when Michael tells Locke he’ll put a party together of his own, Locke tells him to go south, in the opposite direction of his own group. Kate, Boone, and Locke head into the jungle and eventually find Jack wandering around in a circle and unable to find Ethan’s tracks. Locke again attempts to get Jack to go back to the caves and let him “be the hunter”. Jack refuses to stop searching, and the party of four heads out into the jungle. Locke creates more tension between himself and Jack when he insists they stop to rest, even though he appears to be hardly out of breath. Finally, they come across Charlie’s finger bands and realize their friend is leaving the dirty bits for them to follow. When the tracks they are following seem to split into two paths, Jack wants to continue to follow the white bandages, while Locke insists his path is the correct one. Despite Locke’s attempt at them sticking together and going on his trail, Jack and Kate break off from the group and continue to follow the trail left by the abandoned finger bands. Boone partners with Locke and the two of them exchange employment history as they follow John’s “gut” through the jungle. It appears that they are taking a casual stroll up the valley, lightly chatting as they make their way up the mountain terrain. They certainly don’t seem to be concerned about Claire and Charlie. Locke soon stops their progress to tell Boone that it will rain in a minute give or take a few seconds, and that Boone should turn around and head back. It is a masterfully played manipulation, for Boone refuses to leave Locke’s side. The rain falls exactly as predicted and Boone is convinced that Locke is more than just a regional collection supervisor for a box company. They continue to trek up mountainous terrain for hours until the sun sets and they are left with following the “trail” by flashlight. By this time, Boone is starting to get a bit tired of following Locke around like a puppy and suggests that they both head back to camp. When Locke asks Boone, “Don’t you feel it?”, the young man has reached the end of his patience and tells John that he’s going to follow the red strips home. Locke shows him the flashlight and tosses it to him telling him that he needs it more than he does. It, of course, lands directly with a k-thunk sound on top of the hatch. Boone is shocked and perplexed by their discovery and wants to know what this steel structure is beneath the surface of the vegetation. Locke, again, calm and unemotional, tells Boone, “That’s what we’re going to find out.” The hatch was discovered on the evening of day 16 on the island. By day 22, Boone and Locke have made very little progress in discovering what exactly they found despite leaving the camp at first light and returning as the sun sets. Shannon is getting inquisitive and Boone resorts in lying that he and John are searching for Claire instead of telling her the truth. Apparently Locke wants to keep their treasure a secret and has Boone steal the camp’s axe in order to make better progress as well as take a very long skirting path to lose any potential curiosity seekers. The two of them are now removed from the routines of the camp. John Locke has recruited another person into his solitary and separate lifestyle.
If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you know that I’ve taken the position that John Locke gained “knowledge” of some sort during his encounter with the Smoke Monster in Tabula Rasa. I am not convinced that he is completely under the spell of Smoky or the Man in Black, but I do believe that some part of John Locke is being manipulated by them. I don’t know how they are doing it but I strongly believe that John is getting this information via dreams or visions. I find it interesting, therefore, that the person Ethan Rom decides to encounter upon entering into the Losties camp is John Locke. First of all, we know that Ethan was raised within the DHARMA Initiative as well as The Others, who he eventually ended up living with. As a boy he participated in the kidnapping of Danielle Rousseau’s baby, Alex, with Ben Linus. And many years before the crash of Oceanic 815, Ethan was present after the crash of the drug smugglers’ plane on the island. John Locke himself was shot by Ethan when he attempted to climb up the cliff face to investigate the plane during one of the time-travel skips that occurred while the frozen donkey wheel was off track. Therefore, it begs the question of whether Ethan Rom REMEMBERED John Locke as the time-traveler from his past and whether he chose to befriend John Locke purposefully. Because Locke is a solitary man by habit and is not part of the community, it would be less of a risk to connect with Locke since Ethan probably wouldn’t be seen as a new face to a man who doesn’t know most of the people anyway. We can also make some assumptions about Ethan, too. Something changed in his life from being just a DHARMA child to being an Other. He was involved in some ruthless schemes as a boy and he is close to Ben Linus, who knows how to call the Smoke Monster. He also knows about all the DHARMA stations and their locations on the island. Could John Locke’s run in with the Smoke Monster not only allow him to have knowledge about the island but also allow John to befriend someone like Ethan Rom and provide interference for Ethan when he attempts his abduction? I know this sounds strange, but if you look at how many times Locke tries to delay, mislead, and confuse the attempts by Jack to catch up with Ethan, Claire, and Charlie, one has to question his motives! Let’s look back at the events, shall we? First he gets Jack to stop shouting out Claire and Charlie’s names when they come upon Claire’s bag in the jungle. Then he wants to go back to the caves and organize a search party not long after. When Jack refuses and Locke goes back to the caves, does he organize search parties? No. Quite the opposite. Except for Kate, who was going to go anyway, and Boone who offers, he actually tries to get anyone who tries to help into heading in the other direction. Certainly not one who is focused on the welfare of an abducted pregnant mother-to-be. And let’s not mention the fact that he himself refused to let Charlie out of his sight during House of the Rising Sun, yet lets the “only trained physician on the island” to go wandering around the jungle alone! When is little group catches up with Jack, who has been running around in circles because he can’t track, we’re aware that time is of the essence. Yet, John Locke again attempts to get Jack to stop going after Claire and Charlie. This time he tries to intimidate Jack with Ethan’s skill as a hunter and stroke Jack’s ego by telling him he doesn’t want anything to happen to him. “Go back, be the doctor. Let me be the hunter”, Locke says to Jack with a smile. Except that Jack’s not buying it for a moment. “Can we go now?” Jack quips. And Locke sighs as another attempt to stop the rescue is thwarted. Finally, Locke makes one more valiant attempt to divert Jack from his mission to find Claire by saying that there are now two trails and that they should all stick together and follow his lead. Again, Jack refuses and continues on what we now know to be the right path. So, given all these attempts, what can we conclude by John Locke’s behavior? If he wanted to just go off with Boone and find “it”, he could have. Kate did a fine job finding Ethan all by herself. But he was obviously trying to delay or prevent Jack from stopping Claire’s abduction. WHY??? I have only one guess: That there might have been some “agreement” between Ethan and Locke and the Smoke Monster. Sort of like, you help me with Claire and I’ll help you find your purpose kind of an agreement. I know that sounds nuts but maybe it was made via a dream or vision. Maybe John Locke saw what was going to happen via a vision and just did what he could to ensure that it went the way it was shown to him. One of the reasons I feel this way is because of the rain and John knowing EXACTLY when it would rain. He set up the dialogue with Boone for quite a while before stopping on that mountainside. He looked up, saw the cloud formations, knew the time he had to get Boone to commit to his plan BY CHOICE, and Voila’ rain. And when that happened, he knew he could get Boone to go anywhere with him. Boone now sees him as some sort of island guru. Exactly the kind of guy a hungry for adventure kid like Boone is looking for. So… I think that the vision or dream showed him that Boone had to choose to come with him. Just like it told him to get in the way of Claire’s rescue. I also believe that in some way John Locke was NOT surprised when his flashlight hit the steel of the hatch. He did not have the perplexed look of someone who has just discovered a bizarre structure under the vegetation of a remote island. Watch how Boone tries to get his mind around what is going on. He attempts to rationalize that it is wreckage from part of the plane. But as Locke thwacks the steel with the handle of his knife he just can’t figure out what is going on. And when Boone asks Locke just that question, Locke has a gleam in his eyes and an almost imperceptible smile. “That’s what we’re going to find out”, he replies with confidence. Too much confidence, don’t you think?
Something else that’s been bothering me about John Locke. How is it that a guy who has spent the better part of four years in a wheelchair paralyzed from the waist down can be in such spectacular condition? I don’t care what kind of rehab they had at the hospital and how amazing Matthew Abaddon encouraged him to get well so he could go on his walkabout, NO ONE could be his age in that kind of physical condition after coming out of paralysis. We know that his waking up on the island and wiggling his toes was a miracle. But every time I see John Locke run like the wind, I am reminded of just how supernatural this miracle really is. When Jacob touches him below Anthony Cooper’s shattered window, he revives him but he doesn’t completely heal him. John has to deal with four years of living in a wheelchair. Yet when he lands on this island, he is not only cured of the paralysis that Jacob did not heal but also of any loss of decay and musculature in the meantime. He’s like Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man. He’s better than he was. Better. Stronger. Faster. And creepy. Just ask Hurley.
My quick list of observations:
1. Solitary. When I first watched this episode a long time ago, I immediately associated it with Sayid. Since it was a Sayid-centric episode, I believed that the title meant to show Sayid as a solitary man. But after watching it again, I have to admit that there are more ways of looking at it. Danielle Rousseau lived her life for sixteen years and chose to continue to live her live in solitary conditions. Locke continues to be a rogue solitary man, never being part of the group in any way. He LIKES being solitary. Sawyer decides NOT to be the solitary man he wanted to be after a few weeks on the island; he decides to “make an effort” and joins the community at the golf course. And Sayid chose NOT to be solitary, either. He tells Danielle, “I know what it’s like to hold on to someone… The more I hold on, the more I pull away from the people around me. The only way off this place is with their help.”
2. Raised by Another. Again, I thought it was about Claire being warned about not letting Aaron be raised by another. But it could also apply to Ethan Rom. Was he not raised by Others?
3. We know that until the golf course was designed by Hurley, the Losties were in the midst of fulfilling many of the Man In Black’s prophesies of the human condition. Hurley himself tells Jack that the “the usual” is going on, “people yelling at each other over nothing”. He talks about people being stressed out, tense, and angry. Even with the golf course, Hurley knows the importance of “laying down the law” by creating a census. He says to Jack: “Someone is punched, stabbed, or something every other day here!” Notice that all the attempts outside of survival to create calmness and a sense of order has been by Hurley. Hurley also has a good ‘creep’ radar! He had a good read on Ethan from Ontario and certainly one on John Locke. He couldn’t wait to get away from either one of them! Just more observances of Hurley’s ‘Jacobean’ personality.
4. Richard Malkin the Psychic. He mentions that he saw “a blurry thing” in Claire’s first visit and that he couldn’t continue the reading. He also admits later that “blurry is bad”. Could blurry be something like a black swirling smoke that has images of people inside it and that can smash cockpits and fell trees? Hmmmm.
5. Interesting that John Locke is in Claire’s dream sitting with Richard Malkin’s psychic things: the lamp, the cards, the crystals, etc. Is that meant to convey that John Locke has psychic abilities? He certainly does have some amazing abilities to be at the exact place at the exact time! Can you say ‘rain in a minute, give or take a few seconds’!
6. The Whispers. They first show up in Solitary with Sayid running back to the caves. These whispers have still been unexplained. By the way, Lostpedia has documented their conversation in this scene: “Just let him get out of here.” “He’s seen too much already.” “What if he tells?” “Could just speak to him.” “No.” Interesting and still confusing. Any ideas???
7. Charlie and Claire in the jungle when Claire gets her ‘stress-induced’ contractions. Could those have been induced by whatever Ethan injected into her? Also, I found it funny that Charlie starts counting “One sugar plum fairy, two sugar plum fairies…” when he has a watch on his arm. Why would you use an approximate method of counting contractions when you have a watch available?
8. For those who were tracking the little boxes we see on people’s desks and stuff off island, Claire had a little box of some sort in her room in Australia.
9. Charlie after CPR is uncommunicative at the caves. When Jack pleads with him to tell him anything that he remembers, he utters: “That’s all THEY wanted. All THEY wanted was Claire.” Who is THEY? Did someone help Ethan get Charlie in that noose and drag them away? If so, who?
10. Watches, watches, who’s got watches. The watch count is now down to six. Charlie, Rose, Sun, Sayid and Locke continue to wear watches. Jin has exchanged is lovely Rolex for the steel handcuff.
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