I’ve been scrambling to find a title for my weekly ramblings and musings on Lost’s final season and — as you can tell from above – I’ve settled on Lost Luggage. Not only is it reference to my favorite scene of the season (thus far), featuring rebooted Jack and Locke’s first meeting, bonding over their missing baggage, but Lost Luggage is also reference to the metaphorical suitcases that we’ve all been carrying around for five seasons, packed with countless questions and whacked-out theories. Some of the bags have disappeared into the aether over the years (probably flown off with the Hurleybird), and some bags are still turning up with each new episode watched and re-watched. Speaking of which, I’ve found a briefcase full of thoughts on last week’s episode, “The Substitute.”
The Substitute
Unlike “What Kate Does,” I had high expectations for “The Substitute,” knowing that Locke would be featured front and center. “Walkabout” and “The Life and Death Of Jeremy Bentham,” both Locke-centric episodes, are two of the best single episodes of the entire series, and if each of the Lost characters’ individual episodes were computed into batting averages, Locke would be the team’s slugger, consistently knocking most balls out of the park, probably with Desmond and Sawyer close behind. My baseball knowledge is thin, so I’ll quit while I’m possibly ahead.
Terry O’Quinn put on a clinic in the episode, playing both Smokey and Sideways Locke, but the Locke we know and love was only featured as a buried stiff. The “you can’t tell me what to do” line was an interesting (if not a little forced with the second shouting) parallel, but there seems to very little in common between Locke and – whatever it is we’re supposed to be calling the ex-MiB, who revealed (or lied) about being human once upon a time. The writers’ room still calls him Locke, as revealed on the most recent Lost podcast, Damon Lindelof approves of UnLocke, and Jeff “Doc” Jensen trademarked the Locke-ness Monster. Personally, I’m torn between UnLocke and Terry O’Quinn’s preference to calling him Smokey. (It’s also interesting to note that O’Quinn revealed in the same interview that he’s playing the mysterious character unwillingly embedded with John Locke-isms.)
But even with the “revelation” that UnLocke was once human, he also established himself as a liar, and someone who can give Ben Linus a run for his money when it comes to deceit and double-talk. How are we supposed to believe anything UnLocke says at all? So far, there’s one thing Smokey said that I believe to be 100 per cent true:
He wants to go home, wherever – or whenever – in the space-time continuum that is.
As for some of the other bombshells that he dropped, I’m not so sure. Is it Jacob’s cave? Probably. Anything else he told Sawyer? Highly suspect. Regardless of how frustrating it is trying to figure out Smokey, mysterious characters have always been a Lost staple, and it’d be out of character for the show if Smokey was Exposition Man, suddenly revealing everything to Sawyer. I don’t hate the “answering a question with even more questions” approach, even though it can be puzzling and, yes, even frustrating at times. What I’m having a harder time with is characters in the LA X-verse.
Locke’s extremely dysfunctional relationship with his father was a defining conflict, as was his pushing away Helen. And, as we learn in “The Substitute”, not only is Locke getting hitched, but he might be sending a wedding invitation to the man who pushed him out of a building in another world.
It definitely invites questions into how well we know the LA X characters, and how they sync up to the ones we’ve followed over the last five years. I’m sure the confusion is intentional – and it is still early in the season – so, I’m not too worried, but it does take a leap of faith to get grounding in the Other world. Regardless, it was powerful to see Locke accept his disability by the end of the episode and it seemed like the character had made a major development — even if he is buried six feet under the sand in the Island-verse.
For an episode still being dubbed a Locke-centric episode, the Locke we know and love wasn’t really anywhere to be found – except in the final words from Ben Linus, where he describes Locke as a man of faith, a believer, and better man than him, before confessing his guilt over murdering him. It’s a fitting (and “really damn weird”, as Lapidus says) goodbye to a character who has mostly passed on. I just hope the Substitute Lockes give us as many memorable moments as Locke Prime did.
[Side note: Locke as a substitute teacher at the same school as Benjamin Linus, the bitchy European History teacher, was pure awesome. Is it likely Locke will try to take Ben’s position? And is it possible Jacob’s Cabin in the LA X-verse is a principal’s office?]
The Numbers
Much has already been said about the cave and the numbers, especially the lack of Kate’s name being scribbled on the wall. Even though the six numbers are represented by Locke, Hurley, Sawyer, Sayid, Jack and (presumably) either Jin or Sun, I haven’t read any online discussion about the number 108 — the total of all the numbers — and the number that would consistently torment the button-pushers in the Hatch.
It would be interesting to see if 108 is revealed to be character that “balances” out the other six characters, much like the white rock and black rock balanced each other on the scale, and much like Jacob and Smokey presumably balance out each other.
Taking that theory one step further, is it possible 108 could be Kate? And if so, maybe she’s the “real” Candidate, and Smokey was feeding Saywer a bunch of bull. After all, out of the six names that weren’t crossed off, three are in the process, or have already unwillingly jumped to Team Smokey (Locke, Sawyer and Sayid). Or maybe the six “candidates” are people who can either be taken over by Smokey or Jacob, swinging the balance of their game. Or maybe I’m typing a lot of mumbo jumbo.
But, is it possible that UnLocke’s master plan is to use Sawyer as his next vessel to get off the Island – making him his next Substitute?
Stephen King’s Court
Stephen King’s The Stand and Dark Tower series have been touchstones for the series from very early on, but I’m finding vibes of both epics are coming on extra hard this last season.
Looking at the big picture, it’s easy to see shades of The Stand, following survivors of a disaster, siding with good or evil, much in the way this season seems be leading towards our castaways making a fateful decision between Team Jacob and Team Smokey. (The big question mark is, of course, which side is good and which side is evil.)
But the similarities between the Dark Tower series are what’s really interesting for me. Does the way the castaways keep running into each other in the LA X-verse remind anyone else of the concepts of Ka and ka-tets? Ka is more or less the Dark Tower mythology’s take on fate, and ka-tet’s are group of people bound together in fate.
In the first volume, before young Jake tragically plummets to his death so that Roland the Gunslinger can follow his fated path, he says to the gunslinger a mantra that is repeated often throughout the series:
“There are other worlds than this.”
I don’t think it’s out of the question to think that Juliet maybe thought – or hoped– the exact same thing after she fell down a deathly hole and smashed reality to bits with a hydrogen bomb. There are other worlds than this. Smash to white.
If any Dark Tower fans wants to follow that leap, that means Juliet = Jake, Sawyer = Roland and the Man In Black = uh, the Man In Black.
The (Un)Forgotten Boy
Before I go, I’d be remiss to acknowledge the boy with bloodied hands, who reminds Smokey that he can’t kill Sawyer. The conversation reminded me of the rules Widmore and Ben have mentioned, and I think the general consensus is that the Boy is a younger version of Jacob, which I mostly agree with. However, I definitely think there’s another wrinkle coming, and it’s part of my Master Theory that I might start breaking out — whenever the suitcase containing my notes turns up.
