Mike Flacy

The more I think about Locke’s journey on last night’s episode of Lost, the more impressed I become with the writer’s sly incorporation of themes like Buddhism. The first time the young boy version of Locke meets Richard, picking out items that belonged to him is taken from the Buddhist test of finding the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. Young John picked the vial of sand, the compass, and the rudimentary hunting knife.

Visibly upset, it’s clear that Richard wanted Locke to pick either the book of law or the ‘Mystery Island’ comic book; perhaps designed to represent rules and imagination respectively. But Locke picked the items that truly belonged to him. This fit in the theme later in the story when Locke rejected the idea of science camp (another attempt by Richard to alter John’s path) to choose his own destiny.

Later in the story, we see Abbadon manipulating John into getting on that Oceanic Six flight for his Australian walkabout. Rather than becoming upset at John’s choices, he encourages them. If Richard is supposed to represent destiny, then Abbadon clearly represents free will. Abbadon’s intentions are less clear though and he obviously remains oblivious to the island’s location after the Oceanic Six are rescued.

I believe Locke is a combination of both destiny & free will, but neither side realizes this yet. The only person that finally understands is Ben. What Ben saw as a manipulation of Hurley’s destiny under the guise of free will, Locke offered actual free will to Hurley.

Moving the Island

There are two distinct possibilities on this one. Physically moving the island is out of the question, so the island will have to be moved through time via the Orchid station or the pathway into the island will have to be moved. I’m leaning toward the time theory, although both are possible. The time theory would certainly explain the Black Rock ship sitting in the middle of the island. If the island jumped to a different time, any ship on the open seas in that area would suddenly be sitting on land rather sailing around. On the other hand, moving the entrance would fit with Widmore’s inability to find the island after the Oceanic Six get rescued. Plus it would be easier for a mass television audience to swallow than a time traveling island.

- My Favorite Moment: Hurley sharing his candy bar with Ben. It was sweet and a nice sidebar to the tension of the moment.

I’ve been distracted by Grand Theft Auto for the past week, but I did want to take a break to write about the most recent Lost episode. After reading the description in my Google reader, I knew it was going to be an episode of filler, but wondered what curve ball the creators would toss at me. Turns out to be Jack’s Dad, yet again.

I have no problem with slow, unrevealing Lost episodes. I do have a problem with anti-climactic episodes though. We knew Jack was going to be perfectly fine from the surgery, yet were forced to sit through the operation anyway. The only purpose it served was to offer yet another doppelganger moment as the situation improved on the island, the situation post rescue deteriorated for Jack.

We learned very little from this episode other than Charlotte speaks Korean, Sawyer decides to stay on the island, and lots of those crazy mercenary bastards survived the wrath of the smoke monster. But the writers decided to give us a lovely “What the Fuck?” moment when Papa Shephard shows up to lead Claire off into the jungle. For you folks that forgot, Jack’s Dad is also Claire’s father. I believe Jack’s dad is involved in the island’s fate somehow and perhaps we will find more out in the season finale. His brief appearances are becoming utterly ridiculous at this point though.

Before the previews for next week rolled, the only thing this episode really achieved was setting up possible scenarios for the finale. Jack may not be well enough to travel on the helicopter, Jin made it clear that he won’t get on the chopper before Sun and baby Aaron is on the way to his new mom, Kate.

Oddly enough, the previews were more exciting than the entire episode. For one, it’s clearly going to be a Locke episode. Does this mean we will see a Locke flashforward? One can only hope. We also saw a brief clip of Horace Goodspeed chatting it up with Locke. Seeing how Horace died 12 years ago in Ben’s purge, he’s either another ghost or been faking his death for years. Either way, I want to see Jacob for the love of Pete. I can’t go another entire year without some details about that crazy mystery man.