Coming off of last week’s episode, I was really looking forward to this week’s show. When I found out it was going to be about John Locke, I had a feeling that it would be pretty good.
We started out by seeing John’s wheelchair lift fail to work just as it’s about to touch the ground. He’s forced to roll off the lift which causes him to fall flat on his face in his front yard. We saw him back at the box company where his actions in Australia were questioned by his boss – he eventually got fired. When John reached his van, some jerk had parked his Hummer too close to John’s van for him to use the wheelchair lift. John tried to operate the wheelchair lift anyway, hoping to damage the Hummer. When the lift failed to fully operate again, I thought, “Of course, poor John”. When we learned that the Hummer belonged to Hurley, it dawned on me – Hurley owned the box company! In the first episode of this season, Hurley claimed to be the luckiest person in the world. I’m starting to think that he must be; that wheelchair lift could have done some serious damage to his Hummer.
On the island we learned a little bit more about Smoke Monster John. For instance, Ilana told Ben, “he’s stuck that way” – so the Monster can only take the form of John Locke, interesting. Later on, it the forest when talking with Sawyer, Smoke Monster John admitted that Of Mice and Men was a little after his time. Hmm. He goes on to say that he was once a man and that he’s trapped just like Sawyer. That raises a few questions – was that man the one that we’ve seen before with Jacob, or was that just another host for the Monster? And how did a human being actually become the Smoke Monster? I hope that we get to see that in an upcoming episode.
We also got to see John at home with Helen. At one point he told her not to “spend her life waiting for a miracle, there’s no such thing.” This really drives home the point that this John is not a believer. Why would he be? He never got to experience the special power that the island offers. Toward the end of the episode, John is shown working as a substitute teacher. While in the teacher’s lounge, he meets the school’s European History teacher – none other than Ben Linus. It’s fun to see how inter-connected these people’s lives are even when Oceanic 815 didn’t crash.
At the end of the episode, we saw Smoke Monster John take Sawyer to a secret cave where some questions are answered but more questions are raised. Jacob had written names on the ceiling of a cave. We’re shown the names of several survivors along with corresponding numbers. Smoke Monster John tells Sawyer that he is a candidate to be the protector of the island. Obviously, all of the names on the ceiling must be candidates. At one point in a previous episode, Smoke Monster John mentioned that John Locke was a candidate. Now we know what he was a candidate for. Actually, he was probably the best choice out of all the survivors – he was the only one who truly worked to protect the island.
There were so many things to see and think about in that cave – the scale that had one light and one dark stone on it, the fact that the first ladder broke loose from the cliff, not to mention all those names. When Smoke Monster John tossed the light colored stone out into the ocean, I couldn’t help but think that the stone must represent Jacob and that in a way he has been cast from the island. Part of me also thinks that the boy that popped up a few times may actually be Jacob. Smoke Monster John was surprised to find out that Sawyer can see him too. I also though it was interesting how Smoke Monster John crossed out John Locke’s name; now that John is dead, he’s no longer a candidate. One final thought – Where to now? One of the ladders that lead back up to the island is gone, is there another way out of that cave?
