The Sustitute

I always look forward to a John Locke episode. He has always been one of my favorite characters. So when I found out that the third episode of the season was Locke-centric I was happy. Especially when it comes after a Kate episode, and sorry to all you Kate lovers out there but she is still one of the most hated characters as well as her episodes (there’s polls to back up these claims, I swear) but like I said I didn’t hate last weeks episode as much as I would have expected to. Unfortunately, I didn’t love this weeks episode as much as I would have hoped either. I think I might be dangling over that “fickle bitch” area where no matter what happens I might not like the outcome of any of this. So far I have been less than overjoyed with the “flash sideways” that we have taken into the ATL (again, ATL stands for alternate time line, for those of you late to the party). With all of that being said, this episode did have some good parts and some things that need discussing so let’s get started.



Right away we get the pathetic John Locke back in the wheelchair. As the wheelchair ramp starts to lower John out of the van it malfunctions. Did anybody else think the ramp motor sounded a little like Smokie? With his own version of a “leap of faith”, Locke tries to jump off of the ramp but fails. As he lies there on the grass the sprinklers come on and start to spray him. He didn’t look as defeated as I would have expected him to, instead he almost seemed to laugh a little about his predicament. Then it hit me, remember how happy Locke always seemed to be on the island whenever the rain would start? Locke just likes water, I guess. After Helen saves him from the water torture, John takes a bath. His coffee mug is black and white, also I believe it is the same mug that Cassidy drank out of in the “Whatever Happened Happened”episode, these prop people need to get with it. From what Helen says about Locke’s father coming to their wedding can we assume that in this time line he is not the bastard we know him to be? Did Anthony Cooper not con Locke out of his kidney? If he is a decent guy (later on we see a picture of Locke and Cooper on Locke’s desk in his cubicle, and was that the picture from when they went hunting?) then how did Locke get in the wheelchair? If we can keep going back, and Cooper isn’t a prick, then what happened to Sawyer’s parents? Will we see a different Sawyer in the ATL? Anyway, Helen says that the wedding is in October so we know that the date on the sonogram from last weeks episode was a continuity error and flight 815’s landing in the ATL wasn’t a month ahead like I had thought.


We see through the eyes of Smokie and catch a glimpse of it’s reflection in the window of Sawyer's house. We end up in the jungle as Smokie turns back into Unlocke (we have a new nickname for him from Alex, nice! thx girlie!) Unlocke cuts Richard down from a tree sort of like how Ben was trapped in a tree by Rousseau. This show has so many parallels it’s redonkulous!


ATL Locke gets to his work cubicle and Randy is on his ass about the conference that we know Locke didn’t go to. Locke is fired because of it and I agree with Hurley, Randy is a douche.


Unlocke apologizes for hitting Richard and for the first time Richard shows fear. I don’t like this frightened Richard Alpert. It takes some of the mystique away from Richard and he is starting to look a little less impressive right along with the rest of the Others. What happened to the “kid stealing, people killing, walking through the jungle bare-footed freaking people out, creepy whispering Others“? We’re now stuck with the “so afraid of Unlocke that we have to slink back to the temple under the cover of broad daylight and hide there Others”. No sir, I don’t like it. Richard asks Unlocke why he looks like Locke. Unlocke tells him that it is because Locke could get close to Jacob and he was “a candidate“. Unlocke promises to tell Richard everything if he goes with him. Alpert says no way and Unlocke has a vision of a blond haired boy. The boy seems to be dressed like an Other and he has blood on his arms. Richard says he doesn’t see the boy. Unlocke tells Richard that he will be seeing Richard sooner than he thinks.


Lately I have been hearing some grumblings about Unlocke not being the bad guy but instead he is the good guy and that it will turn out that Jacob was/is the bad guy. All of you that think this need to have a quick history lesson. The MIB (Man In Black) took over Locke’s body. Unlocke and the smoke monster are the same being. The smoke monster killed Mr. Eko, the pilot, Montand the blond girl (I forget her name) from the French team, and countless other people. It had a hand in the deaths of some other people as well; see Nikki and Paulo. It tried to kill Hurley when it took the form of Dave and tempted Hurley to jump off of the cliff. Yes, I officially think that it was the smoke monster making Hurley think he was crazy again and it wasn’t just in Hurley’s mind. Don’t be fooled by him, he is not the good guy and that whole “I’m sorry Richard I never would have kept you in the dark like Jacob did so c’mon let’s go have lunch and bond.” pitch is just a load of crap.


Inside of Jacob’s foot statue room (what? then come up with a better name for it), Ilana (or however you spell her name) asks Ben what happened to the rest of her team. Ben tells her that Unlocke killed them. He also tells her (a lie I might add) that Unlocke also killed Jacob. Ilana fills a bag with some of Jacob’s ashes and tells Ben that Unlocke is “recruiting”.


Inside of Sawyer’s house, Unlocke finds Sawyer drinking whiskey and listening to Search and Destroy by Iggy Pop and The Stooges. Let’s listen to some of those lyrics: “Look out honey I’m using technology” (something Jacob or MIB doesn’t seem to like)/ “Forgotten Boy”/ “The one who searches, searches to destroy”/ “Somebody better save my soul”. So at first listen this is definitely about Unlocke. But there is also a reference to a nuclear/hydrogen bomb, so could it be a little bit about Sawyer as well? Or how about Faraday? We don’t know if Eloise Hawkins made it off of the island before the bomb went off and if not was Daniel ever born? Yeah, this show makes my head hurt sometime. Sawyer doesn’t care that Unlocke is dead and standing in front of him. He’s too far into his grief and self pity (loathing also?) to even care. He tells Unlocke to get out of his house, who is quick to point out that it was never Sawyer's house. Sawyer says he knows he is not John Locke because Locke was scared. Unlocke tells him that he is the person that can answer the question of why he is on the island. Sawyer runs through the list of ways he has tried to get off of the island and was turned back. Who else has had that many chances but was never able to leave the island? Maybe he is the one that is destined to never leave the island.


OK, what is the deal with those muttonchops on Hurley? Hurley meets Locke outside of the box company. Notice that Hurley’s lucky streak doesn’t allow Locke’s wheelchair ramp to come down and damage the yellow Hummer. Better question is how the hell did Hurley get out of the Hummer being that closely parked to Locke's van? Hurley tells John that he owns the box company. After Locke tells him he was just fired Hurley sends him to a temp agency that Hurley says he also owns and tells him that they will take care of him there. He tells John to “chin up” that everything is going to work out.


The next scene is John Locke’s dead body on the beach. Things haven’t worked out for this version of John Locke as Frank and Sun make plans to bury the body.



Unlocke is just as gabby as the original Locke was and Sawyer wants to continue on without talking. This scene reminded me of when these two were walking through the jungle in The Brig episode. So much so that I used a promotional photo from The Brig for this paragraph and you wouldn’t have even noticed it if I hadn’t pointed it out. This time Sawyer also sees the boy who doesn’t have blood on his hands this time. Unlocke gives chase into the jungle and falls. Was this to show that inside of Locke’s body the MIB also has some of Locke’s flaws along with Locke‘s memories? Or maybe Locke’s consciousness is still in there somewhere stopping the MIB from catching the boy? The boy tells Unlocke that he knows the rules and that he can’t kill him. Anybody keeping count of how many times we hear the same lines in this show? “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” has got to be the most repeated line of the entire show. So who isn’t Unlocke able to kill? Richard? Sawyer? I'll go with Sawyer, for now.


Richard finds Sawyer and tells him to come back to the temple with him. Sawyer tells Richard that he has been to the temple and is going to stay with Locke. Richard tells Sawyer that the man isn’t Locke and that he is lying to him just to get him to go with him (something Richard did to get Juliette onto the island). Sawyer points out that if Unlocke wanted to kill him he could have by now after Richard says that Unlocke is going to kill him. Richard takes off when he hears Unlocke coming back. Sawyer and Unlocke lie to each other as Sawyer denies talking to anybody and Unlocke asks “What kid?”. Ah, good, at least they are forming a good base for their partnership!


The woman asking Locke all those weird questions at the temp agency in the ATL was also the psychic that Hurley’s dad hired in the main time line. Locke asks to talk to the woman’s supervisor who it turns out is Rose! Locke wants a construction job and is pretty adamant about it. Rose reasons with him and convinces his that it’s not such a good idea. She tells John that they need to be more realistic. She goes on to tell him that she has terminal cancer. Guess the ATL can’t be all rainbows and lollipops either. She tells Locke that they will find him a job he can do.



Sawyer tells Unlocke that Of Mice and Men is his favorite book to which Unlocke says that it was written after his time. James pulls a gun on Unlocke and says he wants to find out what happens if he puts a bullet in his head. Unlocke says “Why don’t we find out.”. Sawyer asks him “What are you?”. Unlocke says that he is trapped and he used to be a man and he used to have ….. Yadda yadda freakin' yadda!!


Ilana says that the MIB is now stuck in Locke’s body. For some reason he won’t be able to change forms anymore. Theories? After putting Locke’s body into the freshly dug grave in the survivors makeshift cemetery, Ben gives a short eulogy. He says that Locke was a believer and a man of faith. He points out that Locke was a better man than he will ever be. Sun and Ilana seem surprised when Ben says he is sorry he killed Locke. Notice that on the side of the metal box that Locke’s body was in is “823”. BEST LINE OF THE NIGHT ALERT: Frank delivers it when he says “Weirdest damn funeral I’ve ever been to.” (Sawyer’s “Well, I guess I better put on some pants” was a close second).



If you need any more evidence that the “reset” has changed things, Locke gets out of the numbers loop when he gets out of bed at 6:15. You know that if this was the original time line it would have been 8:15. One thing that hasn’t changed in the ATL is alarm clocks still sound like the Swan hatch countdown timer. Locke calls Jack’s office but doesn’t schedule an appointment. John tells Helen that he is not going to see Jack and that he got fired. He explains why he was fired. After the knives are delivered he tells her about the walkabout. Locke tells Helen that there are no such things as miracles but she tells him that they do exist. I loved the “Peace and Karma” shirt that Helen was wearing. She rips up Jack’s business card so good thing the number will still be in Locke’s phone memory when he needs it. Wouldn’t it be nice to see Locke get that miracle with no strings attached and be able to walk? We know Jack is a certified miracle worker when it comes to spinal surgery so it could still happen. Fingers crossed.



So add “huge bamboo ladder off of the side of a cliff” to the list of crap we never saw before in five previous seasons. Guess you could call this Jacob’s Ladder. A quick visit to Lostpedia tells us this about Jacob’s Ladder: “A Jacob's Ladder has significance in both the Jewish and Christian religions, having many interpretations, among them that it is a bridge between heaven and earth. Saint John Climacus (also known as John of the Ladder) wrote a book called "Ladder of the Divine Ascent" which uses Jacob's Ladder as an analogy for the ascetic life. It is frequently read by Orthodox Christians during the Lent season before Easter.” Wasn’t the day after this episode aired Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of Lent? Hey now! Sawyer almost bites it as the ladder falls but Unlocke saves him. Or at least made it look like he “tried” to save him, you decide which it was. Looked like a feeble effort if you ask me. The two go into a cave that is in the side of the rock face. Inside there is a scale with one white rock and one black rock balanced on the two sides. Unlocke tips the scale towards black when he takes the white rock and throws it into the ocean. He calls it an inside joke. The scale is a reference to a Tibetan Buddhism god called Dharma - Raja who uses the scale to judge the dead after they die. Further inside, Unlocke tells Sawyer that the numbers and names that are written on the ceiling is why the survivors are on the island.



Locke gets a job as a substitute teacher. Inside the lounge another teacher is complaining about the condition of the coffee pot. It is none other than Ben Linus with a bitchin’ hairstyle as well as a nice dye job. He remarks that Earl Gray tea is drink of gentlemen and introduces himself to John. This is a nod to Patrick Stewart who, like Locke, is bald. Well, OK besides that though, when Stewart played the Captain of the Enterprise in Star Trek, his drink of choice was Earl Gray tea. Stewart also played Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies. Xavier is a bald, wheelchair bound teacher. Just like Locke, alright, moving on. Ben is a European history teacher and Locke is a substitute. I laughed inside a little when I saw the poster in the lounge that read “Live in the present, plan for the future”.



Unlocke tells Sawyer that it was Jacob who wrote the names and numbers on the ceiling. They go over the numbers and the names but there is no Kate?! Uh-oh! Either Kate is a goner or she is uber important. Only one of the Kwons. Maybe it’s not Jin nor Sun but their child? Unlocke says that Jacob used them all like puppets. He would pull their strings all the while pushing them towards the island. All of them are candidates to be the next one to protect the island like Jacob had done. They have three choices Unlocke points out. The choices are: (1) do nothing and apparently die as Unlocke crosses out John’s name. (2) "accept the job and protect the island that doesn’t need protecting because it is just an island" (something Jack said to John when the two argued at the Orchid Station). Or (3) just go and get off of the island. Sawyer chooses the third option and Unlocke says that they will go home together.



This season the episodes mirror those from season one in that the centrics follow the same pattern. If this continues, next week will be a Jack episode. Aside from the fact that Locke was a substitute teacher as the episode title infers, he was also a substitute for Christian on the Ajira flight. The title also can refer to the survivors of 815 as being Jacob’s substitutes.



Some eagle eyed viewers have reported that they can see other recognizeable names. Included on the ceiling but crossed out is 31-Littleton and 90-Troup (Gary Troup writer of the Bad Twin). Other names crossed out include Straume, Linus, Rutherford, Burke, Lewis, Pace, Jenkins (Steve or was that Scott‘s last name? We always get them confused), Mars, Fernandez, Henderson (Rose’s maiden name), Faraday, Chang, Goodspeed, Lacombe (one of the French team members, maybe Montand not sure about this one), Pickett, and possibly Rousseau but only the first three letters are visible above Jack’s name.




So what does all of this mean as we head further into the season? Well, for one Sawyer and Unlocke will make a pretty kick ass team. Wouldn’t want to be going up against them. Like I said before I don’t trust Unlocke for a second and I don’t think Sawyer is fully on board with Unlocke either. The trouble is, though, he doesn’t care. He would be the one we can start putting our money on as definitely not making it to the end of the show. He’s already dead inside and Juliette’s loss was the last straw for him. What’s with all the names on the ceiling of the cave? Something doesn’t feel right about all of this. I absolutely do believe that the names are there and Jacob put them there. I also think they are the candidates for being the islands next protector. Where all of this takes a turn for me is when Unlocke says that the island doesn’t need protecting. I think it does. The MIB is using the old adage “you make up the lie and I will make up the story to go with it”. He needs an outcome that is in his favor and his ultimate outcome would be getting off of the island. He wants to go “home” he told us; wherever that is. Will Sawyer be able to help him? Maybe. Is Unlocke better served to have Sawyer on his side instead of against him? Definitely. Especially if Sawyer is one of those that Unlocke can’t kill that the boy (Jacob? Arron? oohhh what if it's a time traveling Arron?) reminds him about.




One last thing I want to add before I go is one of the things I always look forward to after each episode of LOST is reading a fellow recappers posts about the episodes. I’m talking about Vozzek. Last weeks Vozzek and his family lost their home and nearly all of their belongings to fire. Having been through the same thing myself I can understand some of what he is going through. Everyone in his family is OK so they at least have that to be thankful for. I ask all of you to keep him and his family in your thoughts. I look forward to reading Vozz’s thoughts again soon but until then my own will have to fill in as a poor substitute.