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Lost: The Man from Tallahasee
A little bird told me that the most recent Lost episode was a) a Locke episode, not just any Locke episode but but the one where the origin of his condition is revealed and b) the best of the third season. So, despite having intended to wait for the DVDS, I took the chance of watching it, which made me a happy fangirl. Who'd have thought in the second season of Alias that Terry O'Quinn is such a fabulous actor? (Not that he was bad there, but his role just didn't require much of a stretch.) Seriously, from Walkabout onwards Locke became a major reason to watch the show for me.
Flashback!Locke has such a different body language; even without the bit of additional hair, you'd never be in doubt when a scene with him takes place. It struck me that though Locke both in the past and present tends to make bad choices (when it comes to big decisions, not every day choices or other people's problems choices), the nature of those choices has a fundamental difference. In the past, he went for the personal loyalty every time. Hence loss of kidney, loss of Helen and now, in this episode, loss of ability to move. Faced with the news that his father might be conning a woman for her money, he tries to both not betray his father and save the woman by going to his father instead of the police. As in the last encounter with Anthony the exploiter, when he tried to have both Helen and his parent, this results in a double loss instead of a double saving. (I'm in two minds about Anthony being presented as ruthless enough to downright try and murder his son, as opposed to the earlier cold-blooded but still not lethal exploitations, because it makes him a one dimensional character, but on the other hand it creates a narrative symmetry with the whole Boone storyline. And yes, I'm with those who suspect he'll turn out to be the original Sawyer. Locke saying that the thing he can't allow his father to do to anyone else isn't the loss of money but making them believe he loves them as well as the lethal results did bring Sawyer The First and his M.O. to mind.)
Meanwhile, in the island present, Locke keeps choosing the quest over personal loyalty in the crucial cases, but the results are similarly catastrophic, though usually at first for other people. More subtly so for Locke; he gets the hatch open, but what he finds isn't a satisfying mystery, it's a crisis of faith, and here in this episode, he blows up the submarine, but gets presented with a personal nightmare soon after. Of course, we don't know yet how accurate Ben's, the former Henry Gale's analysis of Locke's motives are, i.e. that it's not just that he doesn't want to leave the island because he knows that as soon as he does, he'll lose his restored health again, but that he sees is as a refuge, the one place where his father can't possibly show up. In fact, we don't know whether what Locke sees at the end of the episode is his father as opposed to a manifestation similar to what Jack saw in s1, Hurley in s2 (his friend Dave), or Kate (the horse). (Or Walt's polar bear.) But he did just commit the one deed that's going to make him the most unpopular person on the island with both castaways and Others (except for Ben), and the island usually manages to reward and punish him at the same time if he comes up with something like that.
Since I had enjoyed the season 2 scenes with Locke and "Henry Gale", I was very happy indeed to see them reunited in this episode. It made for a great give and take (and superb acting), and I found it fascinating that as opposed to both the flashbacks and s2, this time Locke is completely conscious of being manipulated but does it anyway because it's what he wants to do. The question as to why the island healed Locke instantly but not Ben: for the first time, this made me recall that the other times when someone is wounded (or tortured by Sayid, or shot in the gut, thank you, Sawyer), there is no miracle healing, either. There was for Rose, of course. So, Rose and Locke on the one hand, and Ben (and assorted normally healing, nor not healing at all, people on the other): what's the difference? Perhaps the willingness to give themselves completely to the island. Locke isn't wrong when he describes what Ben & Co. do as cheating the island: wanting to have their cake and eat it. (That's also why the hatch leading to a computer control room could not provide him with a satisfying answer; the answer to Locke can't be with nice high tech and more creature comfort. He had that at home when he was crippled.) Rose really doesn't want to return to either civilisation or high tech enclaves of same, and nor does Locke. It's a scientist/mystic dichotymy. I'd say Ben is on the scientist side, but his fascination with and envy of Locke being healed by the island didn't seem to be faked or for the benefit of buttering Locke up (who was going to blow up the submarine anyway).
Wheelchair symbolism: Ben uses his to his advantage, as a way to connect with Locke, and for Locke, in the last flashback, it is a prison and the ultimate symbol of having lost all. Again, so very well acted, and when he started to cry it just about killed me. Of course, the physical crippling went along with an emotional one: Locke is increasingly ruthless in his determination never to leave the island again, in this particular instance sacrificing everyone else's chances to do so. (Though one might argue whether or not he believed Ben's claim that the submarine was unable to return to the island anyway, and that it couldn't be found again; if I were Locke, I wouldn't have relied on Ben's word alone, either.)
As for the other characters in that episode: though Danielle Rousseau didn't have any lines, she had a heartbreaking scene (and Mira Furlan continues to be great) when spotting her daughter for the first time, and that girl who plays Alex really does look like her, good casting. No opinion on the Jack and Kate stuff, as Jack is the least interesting part of the show to me anyway (and thankfully those scenes were short and then we returned to Locke & Ben again; talk about chemistry). In terms of Locke remaining ambiguous as opposed to becoming a villain, I'm glad he was careful to blow the submarine up before Jack could enter it (and indeed when Jack was still far enough away to be safe), but in terms of viewer selfishness, well, I wouldn't have missed the good doctor.
Since he's alive and well: I'll probably go back to waiting for the complete season. But I'm glad I caught this one!
Flashback!Locke has such a different body language; even without the bit of additional hair, you'd never be in doubt when a scene with him takes place. It struck me that though Locke both in the past and present tends to make bad choices (when it comes to big decisions, not every day choices or other people's problems choices), the nature of those choices has a fundamental difference. In the past, he went for the personal loyalty every time. Hence loss of kidney, loss of Helen and now, in this episode, loss of ability to move. Faced with the news that his father might be conning a woman for her money, he tries to both not betray his father and save the woman by going to his father instead of the police. As in the last encounter with Anthony the exploiter, when he tried to have both Helen and his parent, this results in a double loss instead of a double saving. (I'm in two minds about Anthony being presented as ruthless enough to downright try and murder his son, as opposed to the earlier cold-blooded but still not lethal exploitations, because it makes him a one dimensional character, but on the other hand it creates a narrative symmetry with the whole Boone storyline. And yes, I'm with those who suspect he'll turn out to be the original Sawyer. Locke saying that the thing he can't allow his father to do to anyone else isn't the loss of money but making them believe he loves them as well as the lethal results did bring Sawyer The First and his M.O. to mind.)
Meanwhile, in the island present, Locke keeps choosing the quest over personal loyalty in the crucial cases, but the results are similarly catastrophic, though usually at first for other people. More subtly so for Locke; he gets the hatch open, but what he finds isn't a satisfying mystery, it's a crisis of faith, and here in this episode, he blows up the submarine, but gets presented with a personal nightmare soon after. Of course, we don't know yet how accurate Ben's, the former Henry Gale's analysis of Locke's motives are, i.e. that it's not just that he doesn't want to leave the island because he knows that as soon as he does, he'll lose his restored health again, but that he sees is as a refuge, the one place where his father can't possibly show up. In fact, we don't know whether what Locke sees at the end of the episode is his father as opposed to a manifestation similar to what Jack saw in s1, Hurley in s2 (his friend Dave), or Kate (the horse). (Or Walt's polar bear.) But he did just commit the one deed that's going to make him the most unpopular person on the island with both castaways and Others (except for Ben), and the island usually manages to reward and punish him at the same time if he comes up with something like that.
Since I had enjoyed the season 2 scenes with Locke and "Henry Gale", I was very happy indeed to see them reunited in this episode. It made for a great give and take (and superb acting), and I found it fascinating that as opposed to both the flashbacks and s2, this time Locke is completely conscious of being manipulated but does it anyway because it's what he wants to do. The question as to why the island healed Locke instantly but not Ben: for the first time, this made me recall that the other times when someone is wounded (or tortured by Sayid, or shot in the gut, thank you, Sawyer), there is no miracle healing, either. There was for Rose, of course. So, Rose and Locke on the one hand, and Ben (and assorted normally healing, nor not healing at all, people on the other): what's the difference? Perhaps the willingness to give themselves completely to the island. Locke isn't wrong when he describes what Ben & Co. do as cheating the island: wanting to have their cake and eat it. (That's also why the hatch leading to a computer control room could not provide him with a satisfying answer; the answer to Locke can't be with nice high tech and more creature comfort. He had that at home when he was crippled.) Rose really doesn't want to return to either civilisation or high tech enclaves of same, and nor does Locke. It's a scientist/mystic dichotymy. I'd say Ben is on the scientist side, but his fascination with and envy of Locke being healed by the island didn't seem to be faked or for the benefit of buttering Locke up (who was going to blow up the submarine anyway).
Wheelchair symbolism: Ben uses his to his advantage, as a way to connect with Locke, and for Locke, in the last flashback, it is a prison and the ultimate symbol of having lost all. Again, so very well acted, and when he started to cry it just about killed me. Of course, the physical crippling went along with an emotional one: Locke is increasingly ruthless in his determination never to leave the island again, in this particular instance sacrificing everyone else's chances to do so. (Though one might argue whether or not he believed Ben's claim that the submarine was unable to return to the island anyway, and that it couldn't be found again; if I were Locke, I wouldn't have relied on Ben's word alone, either.)
As for the other characters in that episode: though Danielle Rousseau didn't have any lines, she had a heartbreaking scene (and Mira Furlan continues to be great) when spotting her daughter for the first time, and that girl who plays Alex really does look like her, good casting. No opinion on the Jack and Kate stuff, as Jack is the least interesting part of the show to me anyway (and thankfully those scenes were short and then we returned to Locke & Ben again; talk about chemistry). In terms of Locke remaining ambiguous as opposed to becoming a villain, I'm glad he was careful to blow the submarine up before Jack could enter it (and indeed when Jack was still far enough away to be safe), but in terms of viewer selfishness, well, I wouldn't have missed the good doctor.
Since he's alive and well: I'll probably go back to waiting for the complete season. But I'm glad I caught this one!