Spoilers below!
This week was a Flocke & Locke episode – off the island we see Locke struggling to accept his disability at his job and with Helen. Meanwhile, Flocke is trying to recruit on the island and shares some info with Sawyer, his new recruit. Read our reactions and then leave your own – but, please, no spoilers for episodes that haven’t aired yet.
Oh boy! General reactions?
SALLY: I loved the episode for the return of the numbers, though I was annoyed that things dragged. The scene with Sawyer almost falling, the funeral for Locke, draaaaaag. But, I love the numbers so YAY!
CARA: It did drag a little bit, but overall I thought it was great! The final scenes were awesome.
LAUREN: Although the Locke episodes are usually among the best, some of the scenes with Locke and Helen contained some unusually bad writing, a shame since Katey Sagal is a criminally underused actor. That said, I fell in love with Sawyer all over again when we discovered him pantsless, drinking himself into oblivion to the sweet sounds of The Stooges (which says something about me I don’t feel like interrogating).
SALLY: Oh, that reminds me of my other general reaction which was, when the hell is Richard getting his own episode?! Can this happen already, please?
LAUREN: Word to that. I wouldn’t mind seeing Richard and Ben have it out.
CARA: A Richard episode would pretty much be the best thing in the world, because if there is one character’s backstory I actually care about at this point, it’s his.
SADY: I thought this would be the Richard episode! Did love the extended “and now I will explain the plot of a Steinbeck novel, in some detail, before shooting the crap out of you” moment with Sawyer. Does it matter, Sawyer? Does it MATTER IF HE KNOWS THE BOOK before you shoot him?
LAUREN: That was a little “on the nose” for me, as was (it pains me) the Stooges song. But “Search and Destroy” is totes Smokey’s theme song now.
Starting with the flash sideways: Locke’s getting married, his father’s around, his boss is still a jerk, he doesn’t believe in miracles… Thoughts?
CARA: I thought it was really interesting that Locke’s dad seemingly never pushed him out of a window, and Locke became disabled some other way. I mean, Locke and his dad’s relationship was always incredibly messed up, but if Anthony did try to kill him and then was still invited to John’s wedding … well, that’d be a whole new level. Also, I don’t think that Locke would have survived the fall without Jacob’s touch.
After what Flocke said last night regarding Jacob “manipulating” everyone, it’s my new theory that the flash sideways aren’t necessarily what happened if the bomb went off, but what would have happened without Jacob’s influence on their lives.
SALLY: Great theory! I love it!
SADY: Yes, precisely. And, I mean: I think looking at the parallels between Flocke and Locke (“don’t tell me what I can’t do”) are interesting, too. I think we’re meant to believe that Locke’s extensive pushing for things that are just out of reach is what got him killed, whereas if he actually starts living his life… he gets to be a substitute teacher. Which, really, is probably its own variety of Hell.
LAUREN: How much did you love Ben sans-island? Without his island, he’s just a regular variety control freak.
SADY: THE COFFEE MACHINE HAS CHOSEN YOU TO REPLACE ITS FILTER, JOHN. THERE IS A MAGIC BOX, CONTAINING COFFEE FILTERS, AND WHATEVER COFFEE FILTERS YOU NEED WILL BE FOUND THERE.
Hurley owns a temp agency and Rose works there. Are we surprised she’s the one who gets Locke to accept his disability?
SADY: Rose’s destiny is to dispense folksy wisdom at random to whoever needs it. These connections are starting to feel a little forced! I feel we really are heading toward an “Ana-Lucia likes chicken” moment! Or, like, Libby will show up at a laundromat, and Michael will be there, and then the washer will explode and kill her. Or something.
LAUREN: God, this sequence was painful. Rose and Bernard, Rose in particular, were a nice break from the self-important intensity of the other characters in early seasons, and to have her boiled down to the Wise Sage is frigging annoying.
Also, I was annoyed with the depiction of Locke’s coming to accept his disability, partially because the writing was so bad. This is a huge personal and spiritual moment for Sideways Locke! But between Pouty Locke and Sage Rose and Unquestioningly Supportive Helen (Red Flag: when the guy you’re marrying heads off to another country with a suitcase full of knives while lying to everyone about his whereabouts… Creepy!), it felt like we were watching an after-school special.
CARA: I will be honest: I talked over this scene, because I was so excited when I finally figured out that the first woman at the desk with Locke was the same con-artist “psychic” that Hurley was taken to by his dad.
LAUREN: I totally missed that!
SALLY: I noticed it on second watch and did giggle a bit.
On the island, there’s a little kid running around who tells Flocke “we can’t kill him.” Does this mean Jacob’s not dead? Anybody else think kid looks like mini-Jacob?
CARA: My first thought that it was young Jacob, certainly. Other folks are suggesting that he might be older Aaron, and a lot of people have been theorizing all along that Aaron was somehow special to this story. But young Jacob makes more sense to me, personally, than older Aaron.
LAUREN: I’m in the young-Jacob camp, too, but does anyone have any ideas why Sawyer could see him but Richard could not? And why he was bloodied in one scene but clean the next?
SALLY: Some comment I read today (can’t remember where) noted that Sawyer was also able to see Kate’s horse way back when, and suggested that maybe Sawyer has always been more special than we thought. I have to say, this hadn’t ever occurred to me before and my mind was kinda blown when I thought about that. Sawyer came into his own last season, but what if he is supposed to be the new leader or at least play a more significant role in the future of the island and the Losties? Now I’m just trying to remember everything he ever did on the island trying to see what I might have missed.
SADY: Or maybe only Candidates can see the little dude?
LAUREN: It’s interesting though that there are these “rules” that are being hinted at in these scenes. Who made the rules, and who enforces them? There’s a whole other entity out there with unseen power over the seen power struggles! WTF? But the “can’t kill him” rule is reminiscent of the rule that Widmore violated when he killed Ben’s daughter.
SALLY: I had actually never considered before who made the rules… damn, now I really want to know.
Flocke takes Sawyer to a cave with numbers and last names. This scene brings up several questions. For starters, Flocke says this is Jacob’s list of candidates. What’s going on here? Has Jacob always been planning for his own death? Is Flocke lying?
CARA: I don’t trust Flocke even remotely. After all, if Jacob is dead and needs someone to take his place, and there are numerous names left on the wall, why would Sawyer be the one who automatically gets the job? I think that the people on the wall were indeed candidates for something, but candidates for what Flocke said they were for? I’m highly suspicious.
In any case, I think this is why it’s so important to keep the Losties safe, to keep Sawyer there, to keep Sayid and Jack alive, etc. It also brings us back to my question from last week, I think, concerning whether or not Jin was “one of them.” I’m guessing that this is what the Others were referring to — one of the people on Jacob’s wall. And it’s entirely likely that when Aldo said “we think he’s one of them,” he meant the fact that they weren’t sure which Kwon Jacob wanted.
LAUREN: I keep questioning whether the island needs protecting. As it turns out, the island isn’t sentient, it’s just a place of battle between two warring semi-gods. I know if it doesn’t need intervention we don’t have a show, but so far all there is to protect are some religious artifacts and the ruins of a failed colonial hippie project. I need more convincing (because I am a woman of science).
SALLY: There’s a theory that what Jacob was really protecting was the outside world from the island, namely Smokey. That he was using the island to keep Smokey at bay and prevent him from entering the real world because of the havoc he might cause.
I myself can’t really figure out what the island needs protection from either, but I do think there’s more going on here than we realize. I’m also skeptical about Flocke, so it’s hard to figure out what’s true and what’s not. But the idea that Jacob knew he would some day die and need a replacement is an interesting one. Add to that the element of actively choosing those candidates and bringing them to the island and that’s just awesome.
Next point is, of course, that the numbers are back! We’ve got: 4-Locke, 8-Reyes, 15-Ford, 16-Jarrah, 23-Shephard, 42-Kwon. Kate’s not on the list even though we know he visited her, and we don’t know which Kwon Jacob wanted. How do we think Jacob chose these names?
SALLY: Considering all of these are men, I hope Sun is the one he wanted. But throughout the show, I feel she’s a stronger candidate than Jin for pretty much anything. As far as Kate not being there, maybe he was unimpressed by little Kate and didn’t sense any spark or something.
CARA: The fact that Kate wasn’t there really bugged me, and reading the blogs this morning, it seems that I definitely wasn’t the only one! I hope they address that. I love the fact that this is seemingly what the numbers mean, though. The fact that there were so many other names and so many other numbers, and these were the ones that were left, indicates to me that they weren’t specifically given those numbers because the numbers were magical or whatever, but that those numbers might have been referring to these characters all along. Maybe the radio transmission repeating the numbers was even supposed to summon them? Maybe they were the numbers that you pressed into the computer in the hatch to save the world, because these were the people responsible for saving the island? All of these ideas really, really excite me.
SALLY: My friend thinks Kate’s on there but we just weren’t shown, and somebody saw Claire on there with her name crossed off. And I keep switching back and forth between “what if this IS the meaning of the numbers?!” and “ok here are the numbers again, but what do they MEAN?!”
LAUREN: My first question is when and how the numbers were assigned. Some characters were “touched” — literally and figuratively — by Jacob before the crash, and some afterward. And since this is my theory for how someone was nominated for candidacy, what’s up with that? Also, does anyone else find it weird that none of the Others are candidates?
SALLY: I was wondering that too, though we have no idea who those other names are or why they were crossed off. First person I thought of was Ben. Was he ever a candidate or was he just doing Jacob’s dirty work?
LAUREN: Some are floating the idea that Kate wasn’t so much a candidate, hence her name missing from the wall, but a test for Jack and Sawyer to pass to BE candidates and this pisses off Feminist Lauren because sexism detracts from Fan Lauren’s fun. This is obviously an unconfirmed theory, but the idea that one of the central characters of the series, and arguably the female character with the most self-determination, is getting pushed off to the side because she’s a sexual agent? It’s offensive.
And Sally, I agree with you that Sun is the superior Kwon, at least as far as candidacy goes. I’ve been endlessly amused and impressed with her character arc, since Sun was one of the least empowered people on the show who has handily taken control of her circumstances on- and off-island. She’s turned into a total gangster, and it makes fun TV.
SADY: If I were to trust my magic island to one endlessly competent woman who can hand pretty much anyone their asses should the circumstance require it, it would be Sun. FACT. But does this mean that whoever isn’t the candidate is going to get, uh, “crossed off?”
After showing Sawyer the numbers, Flocke says he’s got 3 choices: do nothing, become the new Jacob, leave with Flocke and never return. He’s down to leave with Flocke, is it gonna happen? How?
CARA: I don’t think it will happen, but I think they’ll try. It’ll be really interesting to see what goes down if the “war” ends up having Flocke and Sawyer on one side, and all of our other Losties on the other.
SALLY: Hmm, I hadn’t even thought of Flocke and Sawyer teaming up against everybody else. I sort of just assumed that in another episode or two, Sawyer would not be down with Flocke anymore and join everyone else again.
LAUREN: You know, I have no idea how this is going to play out. I’d like to think Sawyer is going to tell Flocke to screw himself, but he seems awfully damaged by the trauma of time travel, being marooned on a island, and also seeing his friends get killed, killing people, and losing his beloved. Who knows? But if I were Sawyer, I’d have a serious case of the Fuck-Its. I’d be all suicide mission.
SADY: Am I the only one who is kind of thrilled to see the return of damaged reckless Libertarian Sawyer? Because I am! I am thrilled!