This was a very enjoyable episode of Season 2 - and not JUST because Eko made an appearence. I think it loosely sets up what is to come. I think I am quite a fan of Locke-centric episodes. As much as the character confuses me and pisses me off - his story is good. It's tragic. This episode was written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and the episodes that he writes always seem to captivate me the most.
To me, this was Orientation to the game. Locke's faith. Jack's disbelief. The button could be seen as a foreshadow to the light cave end game. The button, this hatch tested Locke so hard. Jack as a witness to what Locke went through. They both gained a little from each other in the hatch. And they both needed each other to go through these things to get where they needed to be.
I am not a fan of Helen bu tLocke's faith came straight from Helen. I never noticed how much faith he drew from her. He is even regurgitating a lot of what she says. And the reason he is so into the hatch and believing - I think is because he should have done what Helen said there in his flashback about his father. And now he has the chance to believe, in this hatch. And he will. I still absolutely hate Helen for being so vile to Locke. But she did give him a lot to hold onto on the island. And Jack needed Locke to be so blindly adamant about things for him to get where he needed to be.
Locke's story aside, I really liked Jack's stuff in this episode. He was really freaking out. I think it was because of Desmond. And remembering Sarah. In addition to an impossible button that saves the world. Everything was just making him an irrational mess - like worse than normal. Like he could not take everything that was happening. He is so reluctant to push that button when Locke asks. But he does it. And I think that shows some more Man of Faith potential in Jack.
The Dharma Initiative was something that I used to think was so amazing. Especially after this Orientation film. I really thought that they were something major. But after Season 5, I just think they are a bunch of idiots! The only thing cool about this film now was the fact that Jack is watching it and learning all about the incident when he is the one that caused it. I don't know what the bomb did, but I think that the whole scenario was the incident. And it was cool to see that. I also think it was very cool that we actually did get to find out what the incident was.
Jin, Sawyer and Michael also had a little time in this episode where they were harassed by the tail section. This part of the episode just made me angry because it made me think of how many ideas they gave us about the Others that just were not true. But when it comes down to it though, it is not about the Others. It is about what these characters are going through. And I can totally see this now and it just makes this show that much better.
