LOST - The epsiode without any Vikings

The spotlight shone on Locke this week in one of the more baffling episodes of the season.  Baffling to me, anyway – your mileage may vary.

On the Island, Locke, Hurley, and Ben search for Jacob’s cabin, but take a “pit stop” at the mass grave of all the DHARMA Initiative folks killed during the Purge.  Meanwhile things go from tense to tenser on the freighter as Keamy violently takes control and Sayid escapes back to the island.  In a flashback, we see Locke’s humble beginnings and learn that he has been visited by shadowy figures like Alpert and Abaddon all his life.  Things wrap up with a cheery visit to Jacob’s Cabin where Locke chats with Christian Shephard and Spooky Claire.  How did it all end?

“He says we have to move the Island.”

OK, I’ll admit it.  I have no idea what the &*%$ is going on.  I’m enjoying it, but I am er… lost.

In classic LOST style, this raised more questions than it answered, so I thought I’d just list off the stuff I want to know more about.  Here we go:

What is that doohickey on Keamy’s arm?  Here’s me guess:  it’s some kind of device that wards off the time/space weirdness of the Island.  It must affect only Keamy, otherwise why would he strap it to his inner arm?  Either that or Keamy is a fitness nut and he’s trying to monitor his resting heart rate.

What does Richard Alpert want with Locke?  There was something sort of mystical about Alpert’s appearance in the hospital and the foster home, as if Locke were a reincarnated Buddha figure or something.  During the foster home scene, I half expected Young Locke to ask Alpert, “Are you trying to recruit me… into the X-Men?”

What’s up with Claire?  Sitting in the dark in the cabin, acting all spooky and serene.  Is it really Claire, though?  Or some sort of psychic projection of Claire into cabinspace? 

Hey, look!  The doctor from the Freigher is alive?  Oh.  Wait.  No he isn’t.  More proof of time distorting wackiness around the Island, as Doctor Ray gets his throat slit a full episode after his body is found washed up on the beach by Jack’s posse.

How does one move an entire island?  A-ha!  This episode bolsters my Giant Space Turtle theory.  I knew it – the Island is really built on the shell of a huge star travelling turtle.  Or maybe not, because that would be dumb.  I think Locke’s directions are to move the Island, but is he going to move it through physical space or through time?

When are the cavemen and the Vikings going to show up?  Well, with all the time travelling craziness, it just seems like there should be cavemen and Vikings.  See, this is why I am not a writer on LOST – I would have had space turtles and Neanderthals a looong time ago.  And then it wouldn’t be called LOST anymore – they’d just call it CANCELLED.

--Dave Campbell

Comments

[Mike Tattoo]

That doohickey on Keamy’s arm? - My money is that it’s a bomb of some type that monitors his heartbeat and that will blow something up really big if he gets shot and dies, which is a great way to motivate your coworkers not to shoot you.

I’ve been thinking about how many versus there are on Lost. Oceanic 815 vs The Others, Ben vs Widmore, Destiny vs Free Will, ...maybe even The Island vs The Smoke Monster ...still brainstorming on that idea. When you get on the Destiny vs Free Will superpower stratosphere it’s on an epic level on how they use human lives like cannon fodder pawns against each other, on a much grander scale then the Ben and Whitmore’s body count that has stacked up in their feud.

But Lost is also about friendship. Even repeated failed friendships. Let’s look at Locke’s track record in the 2(?) some months that he’s been on The Island.

Locke and Boone. That didn’t last long.

Locke and Mr. Eko. That didn’t last long.

Locke and Jack. When last they spoke Jack tried to put a bullet in Locke’s head. Now that I think about it that’s one of the other versus on the island; Locke vs Jack.

Locke and his Dad. Not a happy ending.

Locke and Ben. “I’d probably be dead if I still had a kidney there.”

And now Locke and The Island. Let’s see how that works out for him.

And this flashback adds some more depth to the “Man of Science, Man of Faith” episode. Remember that conversation at the start of S2 where Locke was going off on Jack about “Your problem is that you’re a man of science and I’m a man of faith.” Ha! Who are you trying to fool old man, headhunters were trying to recruit you to science camp since high school.

...and on a completely different note, where was Horace during Locke’s birth scene? I completely missed that. Did anyone else catch it?

[Danielle]

wow. space turtle. vikings. pirates. cavemen... I'd totally watch your show! You sound suspiciously like Javi, the writer of Middleman (ABC Family).

Middleman has trout-eating zombies. Just a thought for your show... zombies are red-hot these days. (figuratively. everyone knows zombies are ambient temperature)

[Rick Jones, really]

What is that doohickey on Keamy’s arm? It's simple, really, and obvious when you think about it. That device can be nothing but a Motherboxx.

[emaans]

the thing on his arm is a remote to blow up all the explosives in the radio room. pay closer attention.

[sarmi]

That doohikey on Keamy's arm is to detonate the explosives in the freighter.