I think tonight’s episode of Lost, Cabin Fever, was fairly busy, even by Lost’s standards. The effects of having a strike-shortened 13 episodes instead of 16 maybe?
Either way a pivotal episode because of all the new questions because of the expansion of the narrative.
Here are the talking points:
- Dharma Recruiters
- John Locke’s Journey
- The Island
- Death, Time and Alliances
- Tropes
I think we should really think about calling them Island recruiters because I believe they work for neither the Dharma/Hanso/Other/Ben faction or the Widmore faction.
Richard Alpert is both an “other” who opposed Dharma and helped Ben, but he also had a stake in Locke’s early life on at least two occassions.
Matthew Abbadon also met up with Locke later in life, encouraged his walkabout and works, I assume, for Widmore. He helped bring together the non-Keamy boat crew. See Hunter’s excellent comment on that issue.
Christian Shepherd is directly related to three family members on the island (Jack, Claire, Aaron), came to the island himself in a casket, and also tooled around Sydney with Ana Lucia. How many others has he touched and who, outside of the island, is he aligned with?
I think Ben has likely acted as a “recruiter” of sorts as well. His knowledge of the 815 survivors and some of his flashes hint at as much. His ultimate “master”, if that metaphor applies, seems to be the island, but I’m unsure about just how these folks are getting it’s messages?
Is the island sending mixed messages?
Is it as some people describe talking to (G)god?
Is the message open to interpretation is this indicative of the struggle between Ben Linus and Charles Widmore?
Well, now we know that Locke had parent issues, not solely father issues and it looks like he became orphaned.
I’m not sure whether I think his father will turn out to be the man who seduced his young mother or his adoptive father. This late at night I’m not really sure which would be better/worse or more interesting. Maybe someone out there has a stronger feeling one way or the other.
I don’t think it’s Richard Alpert, that’s for sure.
I also dig that tonight was a pretty clear flashback. It really hearkened back to those first 2 seasons and Locke is always a favorite.
I may need to rent the DVDs (I know I’m letting folks down by admitting that I don’t own them) to see if any of these recruiters I mention above appear anywhere in the cult that Locke ends up with. Maybe Alpert? Surely he would have remembered Abbadon and we would have noted Christian.
Out of time with the boat? Check.
Capable of getting stuck, “Help me Obi-wan”-style in a loop of a dead guy (Horace the Mathematician) chopping down trees to build the cabin? Check.
“Chosing” Locke over Ben? Check.
Now I don’t know who Jacob is or why Horace built his cabin or how Ben was told to kill those “D.I.” folks, but that Island is awesome.
Oh, one more!
Moving island? Check. [Old entry to that point: Lost Numbers as GPS coordinates].
And what will it take to move the island?
Where does Keamy *know* Ben is going?
What do those Dharma-imprinted secondary plans say?
How stupid is Jack for thinking the package Lapidus dropped indicates that they should follow him? (Or how dumb am I for thinking otherwise?)
Will Sayid make it back to the Island on bearing 305 before it is moved?
I don’t know anything. I’m only and expert on this blog and even then it’s shaky. But I *LOVE* the Island.
So much so, in fact, that I hope the next 2 seasons deal with it only in flashbacks. I want to learn about the island by not being there in the regular narrative. I want it’s story to unfold as if it were a person.
Maybe it *is* a person. Maybe it’s Krakoa (for all you X-Men fans)?
Cool how the Doctor met his demise so soon after being told of the time differential. Maybe Lapidus (and Keamy’s crew) and/or Sayid experience an equal and/or opposite(?) effect?
What to make of Hurley staying with Locke when he was offered the chance to leave?
The differences and similarities between Locke and Ben.
What price will Locke pay for being chosen?
How else will Ben pay?
Why is Lapidus so committed to helping the 815 crew?
What was motivating the captain?
How much did he really know about his employer (Widmore) and the Island?
Why are the Oceanic Six the Oceanic Six?
Will we see Jacob this season?
What is the nature of Christian’s “speaking on his (Jacob’s) behalf”?
Why is Claire with Christian?
What is the ultimate plan for Aaron? Seems to me he’s being groomed to be the “next” chosen one. Orphaned, et cetera.
Locke’s eyes opening. Twice.
Geronimo Jackson album cover (inside Locke’s locker. And who was the photo of the old man? Hanso?)
Games being played, in this case Backgammon.
Comic Books.
Birth (and specifically an emergency birth).
A car accident.
Music (Buddy Holly’s “Everyday”).
I’m sure I missed a few.
Here’s the list of items Alpert showed Locke. Any guesses as to their significance?
Baseball Mitt
Book of Laws
Grain in a jar (what kind of kernels/grain?)
Comic Book (A Mystery title with something to do about an island)
A knife
Sure, even at that young age Locke was trying to redefine himself by going for the knife just as he did later repeating his “Don’t tell me what I can’t do” line.
What other parts of Locke’s past echoed his future and vice versa? What did I miss? And what does the intervention of Alpert and Abbadon tell us? Did Ben also visit Locke at some point in the past? How about Widmore? Jacob, Christian or “The Island” even?
It’s way too late and I lost steam about 30 minutes ago.
Suffice it to say I loved this episode and I haven’t been disappointed in this shortened season.
Next week: Oceanic Six!
As always, I know I’ve left huge gaps. Fill some in with comments.
UPDATE: Disregard all my silliness about Anthony Cooper and his relation to Locke. I had forgotten that this was settled previously. Late night posting sucks.
Also, please read Doc Jensen’s EW recap. He’s much smarter and more eloquent than I am.
I think the “grain” you mention was actually sand. Perhaps from a beach, maybe one on some sort of, I dunno…island?
Doc Jensen’s theory on the Chosen one Ben vs. Locke replacement, etc, is fascinating. I’m glad he wrote it as I would not have gotten there myself…not easily.
So what do we think about Claire? Is she dead? Island dead (whatever that means)?
Is Christian dead?
Has Christian told her about Jack?
Did they tell Locke?
Doc Jensen is the man. He sees the forest. Or the trees. Whichever.
I think Christian and Claire are dead and that they told Locke about Jack.
The orderly pushing the pre-walkabout Locke shows that Widmore knew or had some inkling of John’s special role. Only Alpert knew before then. I’m guessing that pre-teen John should have picked something that would show a leadership fate, so not the glove or the comic. Either the compass or the Book of Laws or that mystery tube. Someone earlier suggested Alpert’s original Others may actually be pirates from the Black Rock. If Locke owned one of the older-looking items, then Locke may have been one of the pirates, lawless pirates not inclined to carry a book full of such — so I’d pick the compass.
It was right AT the Black Rock that Rousseau said her team got infected (season1ep23). Someone asked if this illness was the same as the time-space dementia that affected the freighter crew (side note: Minkowski played “Mr. The Plague” in Hackers opposite J.L. Miller and A. Jolie, maybe it’s a studio inside joke since J.L Miller’s Eli Stone was right after Lost). Something like radiation sickness from the power source under the Hatch? The sky went purple but the energy source maybe remained, albeit now spewing out freely like a gas wellhead that blew off. Attach a propeller and that might be how Locke could move the island.
Did the sickness affect the Black Rock crew? Why would the pirates abandon their dead to rot inside the ship? Jack had to burn the plane to prevent rotting bodies from contaminating his survivors with plagues. Supplies were readily available in the cargo holds (the tsunami could not have washed out only the food and left just the explosives behind). The pirates could have burned their dead and made a home base out of their stranded ship. Instead, they abandoned their ship. They did not even disassemble the ship and restore it near shore. Perhaps they headed for the beach whereafter the first mate escaped the island and produced his logbook. Maybe the time-space sickness did not kill some of the pirates but put them into some sort of Purgatory like the Lord of the Ring’s ghost army holed up in the mountains until Aragorn showed up. Maybe the first mate did not get off the island via normal route but rather paranormal, Ben’s teleporter. Poof! The rest of the pirates were left knocking on the walls of the wardrobe puzzled that they can’t seem to get into Narnia too. Nonetheless, Alpert maybe learned to project himself off the island to search for and await the return of the Black Rock’s first mate with compass pointing the way out of time-space Purgatory. Hence, Alperts’ disappointment with young Locke for choosing the knife. This showed Locke had not yet had the dove come down from heaven to awaken his memory of his previous life as — the Black Rock’s first mate? So does that make Aaron another member of the Black Rock coming home? The birth of babies on the island is important, so it that how the Black Rock pirates intend to return to non-time-space-sick life?
Good to see the smoke monster back in the yard but Ben should really learn how to better whistle its commands. “Good doggie, very good doggie, eat green man, green man bad” was only the stun setting. My heart fell when the mercenaries came out of the bush basically intact.
Charles Widmore accused Ben of stealing the island from him. Does Widmore know of the existence of Alpert and the original Others of young-Ben-era? If Widmore is unaware of Cindy (the stewardess) and the original Others bunkered at their own Helm’s Deep, this could be a source of fresh troops against the mercenaries? It was Alpert’s original pre-Dharma Others who empowered older Ben into taking out the Dharma camp. I am also led to ask, was Alpert’s hand actually in that cookie jar or just Ben’s? If none of the original Others actually physically touched anything, then maybe they aren’t corporeal enough to grasp switches and pull triggers like Desmond could not write Penny’s phone number. They needed the body of Ben and the bodies of Cindy’s Oceanic passengers they captured to do their will. Were the “ten best” who attacked the beach just bodies recruited over time like Juliette? I’m trying to recall Alpert physically doing any kind of work. Any thoughts?
Also, in claiming the island as his, Widmore forgets that it existed hundreds of years before he was ever born. Who owned the island THEN, Chuck? Dharma came on board less than half a century ago. Meanwhile, during the centuries previous, hapless travellers must have landed and read the sign on the beach “this island does not belong to anyone named Charles” and become stranded unaware that escape was only possible via certain compass heading 305 or Narnia wardrobe teleporter model 37H (available only in mahogany, void where prohibited).
A side note. The rocket landed on a corner of the house beside Claire and a mattress but the fridge and other appliances were strewn about in the same section of the house. I think the fridge saved her despite “getting her bell rung” and the mattress cushioned the impact of the appliances.
Wow. Seth. You were right. Doc Jensen has deep thinkers contributing to his articles. I’ve just started looking through his archives and stumbled upon a theory about Widmore actually being Captain Hanso. It’s a thought by Bill Geoghegan in the May 6 “‘Lost’: an Indiana Jones Connection?” page 2. Egads! Bill’s details knocked me right off my chair. I really like the direction his theory takes. Very intriguing, but let us not be disheartened so as to think our own ideas are crap. No, no, my friend! NASA’s budget only allows its deep thinkers to cover 3% of the sky in tracking dangerous earth-obliterating objects. NASA points out it is we the amateurs who will stumble upon the next dinosaur-exterminating rock. So when your eyes desire sleep and the head bobbles from side to side in vain attempts to stay awake, allow your fingers to keep typing and get those ideas out of your head onto the webpage so I can read it. That goes for all of you. Thank you for all being deep thinkers yourselves. Even some of your one-sentence comments have fueled my mind for days after.
I haven’t read Doc Jensen’s post yet, but it sounds like I’m going to have to on this one! I definitely think that if young Locke had picked the Book of Laws, he would have been the one in Ben’s place. There have always been similarities between the two, but I’m guessing that Alpert tested both of them and Ben made the ‘right’ choice.