"Stay out of this, Metro!"

TABULA RASA

This is the first time the show uses its conventional flashbacks; the pilot episodes had brief, multi-centric flashes. When the signal party is coming back from hearing the French woman's recorded message, Sawyer makes a decision to not stop and make camp with the rest of them. Kate tells him "If you keep walking you're not going to make it to the beach.". "Why's that?", Sawyer asks. Kate looks odd and then says; "Trust me.". I apologize early if it seems I am beating the proverbial dead horse but what did Kate know? What has happened to Sawyer in the past trips to the island? If my theory comes out to be right or partly right I wonder if we will later see a montage of different characters and how they died is past versions of their island journeys. That night at camp it is Kate who is the first survivor to begin the pattern of telling lies.

Kate tells the farmer, in her flashback, that her name is Annie. Coincidence? Nah, I'm not going there ... not yet at least, but Anne is her middle name so maybe not read too much into that.

Michael tells Walt he is going to go look for Vincent as soon as it stops raining. Then it stops raining. Did the island stop the rain? Did Walt? Check out Walt's face as it stops raining.

My favorite in-episode song Drift Away by Joe Purdy (which I still do not own!) plays as Michael brings Vincent back to Walt (with Locke's help, of course). Now, as Michale does this, look at Walt, now look behind him at the plane wreckage. Hell, you don't have to, here's a picture for you:




Do you see what I see? Is that a Dharma symbol on the plane? Looks like one to me.

In this episode we can start keeping track of several running themes in the show including; car accidents, deceptions and cons, secrets, lies, missing body parts, numbers, life and death, parental issues, irony, rain, and rebirth.

Tabula Rasa is a philosophical thesis developed by the 17Th century philosopher John Locke. Locke meant that the mind of the individual was born "blank" (a clean slate), and emphasized the individuals freedom to author his or her own soul. Philosopher David Hume also contemplated the topic in his works. In this episode Jack tells Kate that after the crash they all have a clean slate. With everything in her past; Ray Mullen ratting her out, and the Marshall hunting her, when she had the chance she could not kill either one. Instead she allowed Sawyer to give it a shot (sorry about the pun) who also fails (TPTB say Sawyer missed because of his hyperopic condition that we learned about later in the season) leading Jack to have to finish it.

As the episode ends we see a closeup of a very evil looking Locke. Add foreshadowing to the list of running themes the show uses.



WALKABOUT

During the first flashback scene we hear the noise that the monster makes when Locke uses the adding machine on his desk. Locke had told Walt that a miracle happened. In this episode we learn that, Locke has regained the use of his legs.

We see Jack's problem with coming to grips with death and the dead when Claire asks him to run the memorial service for the bodies in the fuselage. This points to two things; Jack's inability to deal with death as well as his more personal daddy issue that was foreshadowed for the next episode.

This is the first time we hear Locke say "Don't tell me what I can't do!".

We see Jack have another "Why me?" moment when Boone asks him about Rose. Rose is alive, an attribute that Jack approves of and she gets some of the good doctors attention. By the way, what a great job of both actors and directors in this scene, I could actually smell the rotting corpses in the fuselage as Jack and Boone talked and tried to ignore the smell.

Locke does a lot of destiny and being a leader talk in this episode. We also see that he has taken on the "hunter" role.

Two things I had forgotten about were just how funny Charlie and Hurley were together in the beginning and how pathetic Locke was in his flashbacks in the first season.

Jack sees Christian on the island for the first time underneath the banyan tree. That was a beautiful shot and unfortunately that tree no longer exists thanks to some vandals setting it on fire.



When Michael asks Locke about the monster, Locke lies and says he didn't see it. Did the monster actually kill the boar allowing Locke to fulfill his destiny?

In the flashbacks at the end of the episode we hear Locke say "I'm supposed to do this!" something he has said many times since. A lot of this stuff is vague at best and I know for a fact that I, myself, have said that I was supposed to do something even though I have no prior knowledge of it actually happening in a previous incarnation so all of this could be a swerve. Or it is another go round on the LOST merry go round, as my theory outlines.

When we get the wheelchair reveal we see the first signs of just what the island can do. On the DVD commentary the writers said they wanted Locke's flashbacks to be bleak and lifeless to show the contrast between Locke before coming to the island and after.

Also mentioned was that Terry O'Quinn was told that when he first sees the monster he is to look at it as if it is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.



Some of the trends that run through the show continues and we also have a couple new ones added including; fate versus free will, healing properties, frequently repeated phrases, dreams and visions, juxtapositions, and other episode referencing. There is also a connection we can make to Locke going on the walkabout in that Locke was told to go on a walkabout by Abbadon. He explained to Locke that a walkabout was a journey of self-discovery into the Australian Outback with nothing more than a knife and his wits. Abaddon once went on a walkabout himself, convinced he was one thing but coming back another. He found out what he was made of, who he was. That is what happened to Locke only after the crash.

So we still have the long running question of exactly how and why the island gives Locke the use of his legs back? Some theorize that this "version" of Locke is actually a course corrected version that never was paralyzed but still has the memories of the incident that caused it.

The other question is what did Locke see when he saw the monster. And why didn't it kill him? I'm guessing it is different that what Eko saw and what we are used to seeing. He even described it to Eko as a beautiful white light. Eko tells Locke that that is not what he saw. Two versions of the monster? Two monsters? Cerberus vents as shown on the blast door map, which can lead one to think of the mythological creature Cerberus, a three headed monster dog supposedly set to guard the underworld. The monster is later described by Rousseau as a security system. One head could be black and one white? Which, by the way, is another running theme of the show. Judge. Jury. Executioner.