LOST – The Substitute (s6e4)
Finally, back to a good ol’ Locke episode.
In his side reality, we find him struggling through life in his wheelchair, but engaged to Helen. The problem here is that she talks to him about inviting his father to the wedding. I wonder how he got paralyzed if it wasn’t his dad? Maybe it was the 32 car accidents they faked us out with throughout the seasons.
Locke gets canned from the box company for attempting to go on the walkabout and Hurley hooks him up with a temp agency. It was nice to finally get the proof that Hurley did own the company Locke worked for after seasons of believing it.
At the temp agency Locke first meets with a woman, who in our initial reality, was a fake psychic that Hurley went to with his dad. He then meets up with Rose who basically tells him to get over himself and move ahead.
Once again, Rose gets Locke back on track and he’s ready to save the world, albeit, in his wheelchair this time.
I think the significance of this storyline is really to put us in the position to understand that Locke wants to be a believer. Despite how low he sinks, he is always willing to listen and refocus himself on his destiny.
On the island, we get to see the Smokey-cam flying around the island. Fake Locke meets up with Sawyer, who immediately knows it isn’t Locke. As they go through the jungle, they both see a boy. Locke chases him and is told by the boy that he can’t kill him and that he knows the rules. I really hope we get a LOST rulebook someday, it would make things so much easier. While Locke is getting his chase on, Richard attempts to convince Sawyer that he needs to go to the temple and that Locke will kill him. Sawyer doesn’t buy it and Richard leaves.
They journey together some caves and Sawyer is giving a glimpse into the meaning of the numbers. After six seasons they reveal that the numbers reference Jacob’s candidates for replacement, or at least this is what MiB is telling us.
He walks Sawyer through the story of how Jacob has been manipulating them since they were born to get to this place. Of course, the story he’s telling is exactly what he is doing to Sawyer, but Sawyer’s still consumed with the loss of Juliet, so he willing says he will join MiB in “going home”.
I find it interesting that a lot of concepts in LOST revolve around free will, but that the free will decisions are almost always muddle with heavy manipulation. Why is it so important for the Losties to make the choices themselves and at least believe it’s their choice.
While all this is going on, we also see that Jin is getting led around the island by a couple of Others. They argue about whether they should kill him or take him back to the temple. It doesn’t really matter because they are both shot by a very Rousseau-looking Claire, but not before Jin gets his leg caught in a bear trap. That storyline is just a tease for next week’s ep, though.
Another thing that is interesting is the debate over good and evil on LOST. Since the season one we’ve been shown light and dark references that many associate with good and evil. It’s common symbolism and an obvious response. Perhaps too obvious. Are we the viewers being manipulated by the writers into making this choice?
Jacob is assumed good and the MiB evil, but why? Because they wear different colored clothes? Not a whole lot to base this judgement from. All the characters in the show have had their good and evil moments. Jack saves peoples lives, but then pulls the trigger with a gun to Locke’s face. Kate is a strong leader, but has robbed, conned and killed. Look at any character on the show and you will see that it is impossible to designate someone as being good or evil. There’s too much gray area.
Biblically, if you look at the characters of Jacob and MiB, it would appear that MiB is more on the God-side. He appears as a column of smoke and passes judgement. Meanwhile, we have Jacob being consumed in a pit of fire. Sounds like a reference to Satan to me.
In my opinion, I don’t know if there really is one or the other or if it really is going to be black and white. I think the whole thing is a matter of perspective.
