Last night's episode, "Cabin Fever," took us on two parallel journeys. We see the genesis of John Locke and we see our "we're the craziest" triumvirate of Locke, Hurley and Ben seek out Jacob's cabin, and the next Island-inspired mission.
First Locke. Like Ben, his mother went MIA after childbirth. (Ben's died during, while Locke's gave him up for adoption). Locke also entered the world three months early, and hence, became Preemy Locke. Ben popped out a bit unexpectedly too, in the woods off a highway. And from day 1, Preemy Locke was on the never-aging Richard Alpert's radar. 
Who is Richard Alpert? He's the hostile from Ben's Dharma days. He's the recruiter of Juliet to Mittelos LLC. And he's now the persistent Island recruiter of John Locke.
So why doesn't Richard Albert age? After all, we’ve seen him look the same in three to four different time periods in the 20th century? A couple theories:
- The Island's powers, when harnessed properly (The Dharma Initiative’s initiative, maybe?) serve as a fountain of youth.
- The Island's powers allow special residents like Ben and Alpert to hop around the world and violate the rules of space and time.
- He's already dead.
- He's already dead, and he was on the Black Rock, which stumbled on the Island, which harbors the dead, but in TV-watchable-lifelike fashion.
I'm guessing it has something to do with a secret of the Island. And maybe he's dead. I don't know, maybe you do?
Anyway, Alpert, in of the season's most important scenes, shows up at 5-year-old Locke's foster home and whips out a bevy of items backgammon-playing Locke is supposed to claim are "already" his. What does the word "already" signify? Does Locke have some sort of connection to the Island? Could Locke be the heir to something on the Island? Regardless, Alpert is recruiting Locke for a school meant for "extremely special" children.
The items are:
- A baseball mitt
- A vial of some white-ish substance (sand? Gunpowder? Part of the Black Rock?)
- A book, the Book of Laws
- A compass
- A comic book, Mystery Tales
- A knife
Locke picks the vial and the compass, which made Alpert happy. Then Locke picked up his knife, and Alpert was a mixture of disappointment and anger.
Locke instantly became not "ready for our school." I'm guessing there is a connection here between Alpert and why all the kids were snagged up from the plane crash by the Others.
It's likely Alpert, who stealthily recruited Ben and his father to the Island (through Horace Goodspeed). It's Alpert who was recruiting Juliet to come work in their fertility department. And I'm guessing it's Alpert who wanted all those fresh, young children from the plane crash. Why? He could be the director of hostiles’ development for the Island, aA sort of talent scout. Or he could be the last vesicle of goodness on an Island that's corrupted by Ben's/Jacob's manipulative ideology and the war with Widmore. Or maybe, as we get derailed here, he was once a hand on the Black Rock, maybe one who stood up to Black Rock captain Widmore, and it's really a battle between these two ex-sailors for control of the Island.
Let's get back to the story.
After waking up (but really still dreaming) in Jack Sheppard fashion (close up of his eye), Locke meets Horace Goodspeed, the man who helped baby Ben enter the world and brought Ben and workman dad of Ben to the Island. He's felling trees in some sort Sisyphean purgatory -- he's been dead for 12 years -- while tending to frequent bloody noses and getting his tale stuck on a shoddy loop (he had to restart his message at one point). Horace tells Locke to find the Goodspeed corpse, which will lead you to Jacob's cabin. Of course, Horace was really working on Jacob's cabin.
Confused yet? Me too.
Locke finds the corpse, which has a blueprint/map of the cabin and off Hurley, Locke and Ben go to find the cabin. Why? Because as Hurley says, "we're the craziest." Damn right, you all are.
Quick tangent. This was all inspired by another Locke dream. We've had a few of these (sees Eko's plane crash, e.g.) and we learn that Ben "used to have dreams." You know who doesn't have dreams anymore? Dead people.
And remember when Ben, talking of shooting Locke, says "I should have realized at the time it was pointless, but I wasn't really thinking clearly." Why is shooting Locke pointless? Because we're on some mystical Island? You know when shooting becomes pointless? When the person you’re shooting is already dead.
Also, on the path to the Cabin, we see Locke perfect Ben's reverse psychology tricks with Hurley. Ben's impressed, but Locke reminds the uber-Other that "I'm not you." But Ben, being the king of last words, retorts, "you certainly aren't."
This exchange reeks of import. Could these two be bros? Both their mom's name were Emily. Both were sort of orphaned. Both were recruited to come to the Island. Both have a connection to the Island. And both seem to supplement one another. Ben was supposed to die from his tumor; Locke was supposed to get better from being paralyzed. Also, Ben helped with a mass execution, Locke picks off his peeps one at a time -- Boone, unwittingly arming Michael -- which may be a precursor to Locke pulling off some sort of mass murder. Could that be what Jacob/Christian/Claire told him? Could it be his destiny?
Ben has two cents on destiny: "Those things (killing the D.I.) had to happen to me, they were my destiny. But there are consequences to being chosen. Because destiny, John, is a fickle bitch." Consequences, eh? Like seeing your adopted daughter murdered?
As we continue to flashback to the evolution of Locke we find out he was picked on in school, and despite being a science whiz (like Jack), he always wanted to be the jock/superhero. And his unwillingness to embrace his path meant Mittelos (Alpert's LLC) wouldn't be recruiting 16-year-old Locke to Portland's best science camp. If he had gone, he probably would have met 11-ish-year-old Ben, who was probably landing on the Island any day back then.
We also catch Locke rehabbing, where he runs into an "orderly" who looks awfully familiar. Why it's Matthew Abaddon, who once paid Hurley a visit, and put together the team of Naomi and freighter friends.
Back on the Island, Ben says he's passing the torch to Locke, which seems to mean: I'll let you enter the mystical cabin since the Island likes you better. But really, do you think Ben is not in control of the situation? Sounds like some of that reverse psychology Locke tried out on Hurley earlier on.
In the cabin we meet Jacob. Wait, that's not Jacob, it's Jack's dad, Christian Sheppard -- and Claire. Me thinks Claire dead. And I bet it took dozens of takes to get her to perfect that smirk. Christian tells Locke to keep Claire's presence (death?) a secret and to move the Island, whatever the heck that means.
Question: Why would another Losties' pop tell Locke to do this, instead of say, tell his son? Christian used to belittle Jack, saying he wasn't a leader and various other sayings straight out of the bad-dad playbook. All that did was turn Jack into a ... leader. Locke, conversely, has never been a leader until crashing on the Island. And even as a leader, he has to rely on dreams to guide him. Where am I going with this? Don't know, but we're going to have a Jack-Locke clash pretty soon, as the man of science and action (Jack) clashes with the man of faith, but really science, Locke thanks to Christian Sheppard.
I think I’m out of steam, but if you watched last night's episode, I'm eager to hear your thoughts? If you didn't, you must think you just read the worst thing on our site.
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Klick of the Day
Per usual on Friday, for more on last night's Lost, check in on Doc Jensen. (EW.com)
Skeeball is one dangerous sport.
prison, where he could reside for the next two years.