Hurley: “Things are gonna work out.”

• The off-Island scene between Locke and Hurley at the box company might be my favorite of the episode. This Locke has changed in some ways – he’s engaged, he seems to have some relationship with his father – but in other ways he hasn’t changed at all. He used a business conference as an excuse to try and go on his Walkabout and lied to Helen and his company about it, echoing the way he lies to her about his father (and making me wonder yet again what that relationship between them might be). He’s still prickly and defensive and bull-headed about being told what he can do. Watching him try, unsuccessfully, to lower his wheelchair ramp into the side of Hurley’s Hummer was probably the most amusing moment of the episode for me. It’s such a human, specific choice, and it illustrates that this Locke is the same man we’ve known, with altered circumstances.

It also serves as a sly demonstration of Hurley’s new “good luck.” The Hurley of Season 1 would have somehow had his Hummer destroyed by crazed bikers or something long before Locke got there. Here, his garish yellow chariot goes without a scratch. I’m an unabashed fan of Lost’s resident slacker-Buddha, and his off-Island fate feels enormously satisfying as presented so far. There’s something very Jacob-esque about the way he spins Locke off to connect with Rose at his temp agency.

• Cutting straight from Hurley’s reassuring line to Locke’s dead body (Frank: “He’s gettin’ pretty ripe!”) is blackly hilarious.

• Ilana tells Sun that if Jin’s on the Island and alive, then he’s at the Temple. Which he’s not. He’s off probably being tortured by a Rousseau-ified Claire in the jungle somewhere. Sun and Jin’s constant separation throughout this series something of a running gag at this point, and you could argue that it’s become simplistic by this point, but I don’t know that I’d agree. I like the fact that their goal on the show is clear-cut and instantly relatable. Jack wanted to re-set reality, Sun and Jin want to finally spend five freaking minutes together.

Best Exchange of the Night:

Sawyer: “You ever catch up with the kid?”
Anti-Locke: “What kid?”
Sawyer (Pauses): “Riiight.”

• The creepy blond kid reappears, and it’s confirmed that Sawyer can see him (interestingly, Richard could not – and even more interesting, Anti-Locke doesn’t already know that Sawyer can see the boy, which you’d think he would, since Sawyer’s a “candidate”). No blood on the hands this time, but the boy’s wearing basically the same outfit (one very reminiscent of Pan’s Lost Boys) and he’s older now. As I see it, there are three potential origins for boy-ghost: (1) He’s actually the “ghost” of Jacob in a younger form, (2) Anti-Locke is somehow “summoning” the apparition from his own memories, (3) The Island itself (or whatever lies within the Island) is creating this “ghost.”

Young Jacob(?): “You know the rules. You can’t kill him.”
Anti-Locke: “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.”

• I don’t read the Jeff Jensen and AV Club Lost columns (my favorites) until I’ve finished my own musings on the week’s episode. Maybe its silly/stupid, but I like working through an episode on my own and offering my observations to you folks before I go and see what other people thought. It allows me to offer my opinion without the very smart, very entertaining people I just mentioned influencing my initial impressions. That said, I’m willing to bet that both of them took note of Anti-Locke’s very John Lockeian moment here, and I’m willing to bet that in general there’s a lot of speculation going on right now about whether or not the Man in Black is starting to take on various traits and attributes of the “real” John Locke. That’s a nifty development if it’s true, but I’d like to suggest an alternate/augmentative explanation as well: What if the MiB was “drawn” to Locke because of their already-present similarities? Locke’s frustration, bitterness and anger all serve as mirrors for the frustration, bitterness and anger we’ve seen the MiB display in both his Titus Welliver form (S5 finale) and his Anti-Locke form. In a sense, the MiB has always sounded a lot like the John Locke of old – but one whose dreams of fulfilling something “special” have gone unrealized. We still have no idea what Jacob and this man’s relationship was initially. Was the MiB potentially once a John Locke-type as well? Did his desire to “mean” something somehow trap him on the Island? And has that desire for meaning now curdled into a contempt for the very idea of “meaning”? Just spitballin’. But it certainly would fit the portrait of an existential nihilist I painted above, and the irony would be delicious.

• Richard appears to Sawyer after Anti-Locke goes running after the Pan (Bangarang!) and I have to say that as much as I love cool, calm and collected Richard, I’m loving wild-eyed, slightly-goofy Richard even more. Over the course of three episodes, Lost has stripped Richard of much of his seeming importance, and made clear just how little Richard knows about the “Great Game” between Jacob and the MiB. One thing Richard does seem scarily aware of, however, is the threat posed by the Man in Black. Can Richard’s warnings be trusted? No, they can’t. And yet, I do believe him. Whatever the Man in Black’s true end-game is (and I’m inclined to believe him when he says that he wants “freedom,” though I’m not sure what that actually means), it feels genuinely ominous. Even if Jacob himself isn’t to be entirely trusted, as this episode hints over and again, that doesn’t ipso facto mean that the MiB SHOULD be trusted. Especially if he wants “everyone” dead. That desire for total annihilation, for nullity, for the absence of life, again draws a parallel between Anti-Locke/MiB and the Anti-Grail King of legend, as well as the legend of the Fisher King/Wounded King in general.

Weirdo Lady: “What kind of animal would you describe yourself as?”

• A Smoke Monster! Oh, wait, that’s not an animal…..A polar bear!

• Rose makes her second appearance off-Island, where she’s working as a supervisor at Hurley’s temp agency. I loved the way in which Rose uses her no-bullshit attitude to dismantle Locke’s prickly “don’t tell me what I can’t do” attitude, and it made me hopeful that if this IS the “actual ending” of the show per the Second Snake theory, we’ll get to see John Locke forge a good life for himself and achieve “good being.” What is good being? According to Aldous Huxley, it’s the result of discovering who you are not, and because of that, discovering who you really are. That’s exactly what Locke is experiencing here. He isn’t a construction foreman. He’s a man in a wheelchair. And that comes with limitations. Acknowledging those limitations must be agonizing. But by acknowledging them, Locke seems to arrive (literally as well as figuratively) at a place where he can be at peace, find contentment, create happiness.

Sawyer: “My favorite’s Steinbeck. ‘Of Mice and Men.’ You know that one?”
Anti-Locke: “Nope. A little after my time.”

• That’s such a great line. Such a great, sly line. If the MiB has been on the Island since the 1800s, as S5’s finale implies, then the MiB hasn’t read a new book (other than what’s been brought to the Island, maybe, but do Smoke Monsters really read?) in centuries.

Anti-Locke: “What I am is trapped. And I’ve been trapped for so long that I don’t even remember what it feels like to be free.”

• Anti-Locke’s claim that he’s trapped, that he’s been trapped for so long that he doesn’t remember what it’s like to be free, suddenly upends our expectations a little. Anti-Locke’s line of patter makes it seem as if he’s been imprisoned, as if Jacob has wronged him in some terrible way. And maybe that’s the case. We know nothing of Jacob, and Lost isn’t in the habit of turning out characters who are solely “good” or “evil.” But that also means that Jacob probably isn’t “evil,” and that the Man in Black is, like every other character on this show, probably “the cause of his own suffering.”

We know the MiB is trapped on the Island, but there’s no explanation as to why. After all, he seems to be able to turn into flying smoke (that ability calls to mind the character of Ariel in Shakespeare’s the Tempest, Prospero the Magician’s “spirit slave,” and Lost has referenced the play previously). That’s kind of the definition of freedom, in a way. So what’s keeping him on the Island? Here’s a wacky idea: Maybe he’s trapped in the Temple. Maybe he’s physically/spiritually imprisoned there, either in a cell/chamber or in a “well of souls” beneath the Temple. Maybe he’s (at least part of) the electromagnetic energy that the Island contains. He may even be partially responsible for the energy powering the spring, giving the Others a parasitic quality that I’d love. And maybe freeing that energy means destroying what contains it – the Island. That would explain why they’ve barricaded the Temple, and why the MiB would want to get inside it.

• Anti-Locke is now trapped twice-over. He’s trapped on the Island, and now he’s trapped in Locke’s shape. I’m assuming that this is why the “ghost” of Juliet hasn’t appeared to Sawyer.

• Some folks were irritated by the fact that Ilana gives us the “he’s stuck this way” info, and that Ben (of all people) doesn’t follow up by saying “Wait – stuck this way? What the hell does that mean?”

Those people have a point. It makes no sense for Ben not to want to know more, especially given his exasperation. But (and I always have a big but, to mangle a Pee Wee Herman quote) by now, after five seasons of just this kind of maddening tease, it seems pretty obvious to me that this is the way the writers want to tell their story. It’s the way that they’ve always told their story. That doesn’t mean a person shouldn’t feel irritated by it, or that I’m making excuses for the show. It’s just being realistic, as Rose would say. It is what it is. For me, the artificiality of these teases is off-set by the fact that we know we’re getting answers, as well as the fact that I like being teased like that (why am I starting to sound like a dirty old man?). I enjoy the look my wife gives me after I’ve yelled at our television for not telling me what I wanted to know. It’s part of the ritual at this point, and I’d rather roll with it and let it contribute to my enjoyment.

Long story short: I agree that it’s ridiculous. But it’s consistently ridiculous.

Great Frank Line: “This is the weirdest damn funeral I’ve ever been to.”

• Ben’s eulogy is short and (semi)sweet. I’m hoping that Michael Emerson will get the opportunity to do comedy after this series is over. I love the way he plays “sinister,” but I’d love to see him work with someone of quality like Apatow, McKay, or even someone like Rian Johnson. He’s so funny, but so grounded.

• Continuing the “mirroring” of each season in a very literal fashion, off-Island Locke stares into a mirror before calling Jack Shepard’s office. Both Jack and Kate have also had a moment like this, and the ‘reflective’ quality of these scenes is a nice “meta” touch. I like and don’t like Locke’s desire to accept his situation. I admire, and am moved by, the way that his resignation leads to a kind of freedom for him. At the same time, I can’t help hoping that Jack will be able to heal John. Is Jack married in this reality? Has he healed Sarah? If not, might that mojo be in reservation for one John Locke?

If not, the sense of new life that’s granted through Locke’s decision here is a fitting Substitute.

• Locke’s honesty with Helen, and Helen’s understanding of Locke’s lie, represent another sharp departure from the past history we know. It also shows us again how the Locke we knew and the Locke we’re seeing now are still the same man, but with different circumstances. This Locke didn’t see his Walkabout as a spiritual quest – he saw it as an adventure. This Locke lies to Helen about his trip, but it’s because of his Wounded King status, not because of a longing for a higher purpose. And, more importantly, this Locke appears never to have lied to Helen about his father – because he and his father still have a relationship in this off-Island universe.

• Helen’s Peace and Karma shirt is cute. Karma is an Eastern expression that one could say largely replaces the idea of “God” acting in the world. Instead of our actions resulting from the interventions of a divine source (like, say, Jacob) our actions, and their resulting consequences, stem entirely from ourselves. It’s a very existential viewpoint, really.

Some Karmic traditions believe in a a kind of “God,” who’s role is essentially to “dispense the fruits of karma.” Others believe that this God can occasionally intervene (again, like Jacob). Buddhism, from which the show draws heavily, tends to espouse that Karmic law and the Scientific laws of causation are sort of interchangeable from a philosophical point of view. This kind of belief, interestingly, unites faith and science.

• Off-Island, John Locke is a man of science, not a man of faith. He tells Helen that there are no miracles. But Helen disagrees, a kind of yin to his yang.

Great Sawyer Line: “No offense, but you already died, so it’s great that this is not a big deal for you.”

• I love Lost’s patchwork-quilt of theology, mythology, philosophy and whathaveyou, but I also love it’s tendency toward “Indiana Jones-meets-a-super-cool-videogame” set pieces. Sawyer and Anti-Locke’s descent to the cave, and the cave itself, are perfect examples of this.

• Sawyer’s fall from the cliff mirrors Boone’s fall from the beechcraft plane back in Season One. Here, Anti-Locke saves Sawyer.

• Let’s welcome our latest Area of Mystery: The Cave. It’s been striking me lately that many of these older “ruins” and structures correspond roughly to the Dharma Stations scattered around the Island, making me think that the Island’s ancient inhabitants (Black Rock and earlier) were sort of proto-Dharma groups. Each of these groups seems to have established a series of “Stations” for different purposes.

Is it coincidence that this episode, which highlights again the MiB’s perception of the Island as “nothing but a shadow” with no higher purpose, features a cave? Probably. But it’s fun to point out the coincidence. Conspicuously displayed on a table at the mouth of the cave is a set of scales, weighted by two stones – one black, one white. For the Egyptian Mythology nuts out there (you know who you are! Yes, you! Mr. Robert Stewart of Tempe, Arizona!) the scales might remind you of the Scales of Judgement, used by the god Anubis to weigh the human heart against a feather. We’ve seen Anubis pop up on the walls here before, and we’ve heard the concept of judgment regularly invoked.

Also on the table? What looks like an ashtray. I suppose if you’re immortal and/or a Smoke Monster, smoking’s not a big deal.

• Anti-Locke tosses the white stone into the drink, telling Sawyer that it’s an “inside joke.” If the white stone represents the potential for progress in mankind, then that explains the joke as well as the fact that the MiB tosses it away. It also hints at ominous things for the castaways on the Island. Someone in the Chud Season 6 thread commented that by removing the stone, the black stone sinks, which is true, and an interesting possible metaphor for the MiB’s possible “defeat.” But it’s also representative of the human heart, full of corruption, far outweighing the feather. In fact, Anti-Locke’s act symbolically tosses the feather away altogether.

• Off-Island, Locke’s status as temp coach and substitute biology instructor makes him a different kind of person – not a leader, but a teacher. And that makes perfect sense given what we’ve seen of Locke in the past seasons. He’s always been most comfortable as an advisor and instructor, teaching people how to track, how to survive, how to throw a knife. And his particular position here ironically echoes teenage Locke’s contempt for “science camp.” Also of interest: Locke’s subject is the human reproductive system which ties in again with the themes of Island fertility and personal fertility, as well as the Fisher King myth. It’s also got to be the single hardest class to ask a Substitute to step in and teach, given the penchant for giggling.

• Ben Linus makes his first appearance off-Island, and I have to say that I love the idea of the Island’s bug-eyed mastermind as a snarky but seemingly-warm European history teacher.

• Locke’s first line to Ben (“Actually, I was just hoping for some Earl Grey”), directly echoes Anti-Locke’s Season 5 line to Ben (“Actually, I was just hoping for an apology.”).

Anti-Locke: “Jacob had a thing for numbers.”

• Deeper within the cave, we get a huge “Island mythology” reveal. Names have been scrawled all over the walls and ceiling of a stony chamber – including the names of some of the castaways. Next to each name is a number, and the names of the castaways, Sawyer’s included, are accompanied by The Numbers: 4 8 15 16 23 42.

The Numbers, then, are somehow connected to each castaway, and I couldn’t help but recall the number 8 painted on the side of the rabbit that Ben Linus uses to con Sawyer back in Season 3. Have the castaways been labeled like test subjects? The direct connection between Number and name recalls the television show The Prisoner. Lost owes a great debt to The Prisoner, which explored many of the same themes of identity and redemption, of perception and “reality,” of conditioning and entrapment, and did so using an isolated locale from which there was no escape. Even Smokey can arguably be traced back to The Prisoner’s creepy security system.

• Interestingly, Kate’s name ISN’T in the cave, at least not as far as we’ve been shown. Who is? Sawyer, Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Jin and Sun, Littleton (which could mean Claire, or could mean Aaron, thus explaining his “special” status), Lewis (referring, I assume, to Charlotte Lewis, and implying that Jacob may have arranged her parents, and Dharma’s, arrival to the Island, again echoing the idea of the Fisher King arranging for the birth of the being who will heal the land), Troup (referring, I assume, to Gary Troup, a casualty in the initial Oceanic 815 flight, the fictional author of the Lost tie-in novel “Bad Twin,” and the supposed author of a book on the Valenzetti equation), Mattingly (no idea), Sullivan (no idea). Did you glimpse any others?

• We have it confirmed for us that the “candidates” are potential replacements for Jacob. In a mirror of Season 2, Anti-Locke’s questioning of the necessity for pushing The Button is echoed by Anti-Locke’s questioning of the necessity for a Jacob, for an Island. I talked about that mirroring back in the Rewatch column for the Season 5 finale, and it’s nice to see one of my kooky speculations seem to pan out. In Season 2, Locke comes to regret not pushing The Button. Will Anti-Locke experience a similar change of heart? Anti-Locke’s attitude toward the Island (which has stood in, metaphorically, for everything from the afterlife to life itself), along with his attitude toward the groups that Jacob draws to the Island, are what make him a nihilist to my eyes. Where the “real” Locke saw meaning, Anti-Locke sees meaninglessness. Where the “real” Locke sought to see the true “Form” of Kate’s figurative-horse in his communion with the Island, Anti-Locke sees only the shadow, and he just wants to get the hell out of Plato’s cave.

• Oh, irony. The Island’s “security system” has no interest in protecting the Island at all.

• Anti-Locke’s speech at the end of this episode paints Jacob in a troubling light, and it raises serious questions about the “meaning” of the off-Island reality. I’ve suggested that the off-Island reality might represent a kind of Karmic “happy ending” for some of the castaways, and that what we’re watching when we’re watching these “flash-sideways” is not an alternate universe, but is instead the end of the show’s journey, playing concurrently alongside the story of how that conclusion was accomplished. But this scene calls that theory into serious doubt. It makes me wonder whether we’re instead watching a reality in which Jacob never became involved in the lives of the castaways, and how that lack of involvement may have changed their lives for the better.

If that’s the case, it makes the Man in Black look like a kind of hero. If his escape from the Island somehow negates Jacob’s influence in the past, and that negation results in better lives for the castaways (as it seems to be, in at least a few cases), then the MiB isn’t wrong in his specific accusations. And there’s a more general heroism in the act of attempting to leave Plato’s cave.

But that just feels wrong to me somehow and with so much of the season left to be played out, I’m wondering if the show isn’t actively attempting to head-fake us all with that suggestion. After all, Locke suggests that Jacob came to Sawyer when he was most weak and vulnerable, and “pulled his strings” so that Sawyer would land on the Island. Only, that’s not what we’ve seen. All we’ve seen is Jacob handing Sawyer a pen. Sawyer wrote the letter. Sawyer conned those women out of their cash. He made the decision to fly to Australia, and he made the decision to kill another man. None of those choices were made for him. He’s the cause of his own suffering. So, methinks that Anti-Locke overstates his case. And it makes me think that I might be right about this mysterious man’s origins, insofaras I suspect he ‘damned’ himself to his circumstances through the choices he made, but would prefer to blame Jacob for offering him the pen.

What do you believe? Is the Island “just” an Island? Is Jacob “good”? “Necessary?” Is faith something worth protecting? Is Existentialim a load of hooey? Lost asked some pretty interesting questions tonight. What are your answers?

Time will tell. Is it next Tuesday yet?

Next Week on Lost:

Looks like Jack will be continuing the “reflective” theme, taking a long look at himself in the water and staring pensively out to sea. Jacob returns, and he’s smiling. Claire makes her return to the show and seems to have taken Jin in and its not clear if he’s restrained. Someone picks up an axe (yay!). Jack goes all Jack-face on Hurley (yay!) and smashes a pane of glass/mirror in what looks like a lookout/bell tower (on top of the Temple, I guess?). Was this how the Island’s first inhabitants lit the way to the Island in some way, like a proto-Dharma beacon? Are we watching Jack smash the mirror, existentially-speaking? Having confronted the Other (Others), has he now destroyed his mirror self and achieved good being? Do I sound like I’ve been partaking of Dharma’s special brownies?

*****

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The Substitute (S6, ep. 4)

“The land is dried up, and cannot be restored until the coming of the Grail Knight, who in other texts is called ‘He Who Frees The Waters.’”  – The Grail Tradition

Anti-Locke: “You can accept the job, become the ‘new Jacob,’ and protect the Island.
Sawyer: “Protect it from what?”
Anti-Locke: “From nothing, James. That’s the joke. There’s nothing to protect it from. It’s just a damned Island.”

Number 6: “I am not a number! I am a free man!”

A Preamble and a Terrible Joke:

An existential nihilist and an existential humanist walk into a bar. They’ve both had long days, and as they’re nursing a few stiff drinks, the humanist asks the nihilist if he knows any good jokes. “LIFE is a joke,” snarls the nihilist. The humanist bursts out laughing and responds: “That’s hilarious.”

In Lost’s Season 5 finale, we’re introduced to Jacob and the Man in Black – two men of mystery who appear to hold opposing viewpoints on mankind’s ability to change. The Man in Black appears to be a kind of cynic – the nihilist in the bad joke above. Whatever Jacob’s “game” is, the MiB is tired of it. “It always ends the same,” he tells Jacob. “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt…”

Jacob’s response colors him as the potential humanist in the bar. “It only ends once,” he says. “Everything that happens before that is just…progress.”

Lost has always been a show about perspective – about how new information can change or re-color old information, about the shifting beliefs, attitudes and prejudices of differing people, and how those people view the world view the world and each other. Jacob and the MiB’s conversation reinforced that constant (no pun intended). It offered up for us two opposing philosophical viewpoints based on the same events. For the MiB, new Island arrivals seem to simply confirm what he already knows: these people have already lost the “Great Game” that Jacob seems to be playing. It’s meaningless, because it always ends the same way. But Jacob’s response suggests that, even if the Man in Black is right, that shouldn’t be the end of the conversation. Tonight’s episode, “The Substitute,” quietly revisited that conversation and asked us, the audience, what we believe.

Jean Paul Sartre is a philosopher and novelist Lost has referenced many times over the course of the show. I’ve written about him before, and you can read some of those musings here. Concepts of existentialism, of “Others” and “Othering” infuse Lost’s narrative on a number of levels, and Jacob and the MiB’s conversation can be taken, in a sense, as a literalization of existential nihilism and existential humanism. What the heck am I talking about? And why is this relevant to tonight’s episode? Bear with me:

Among other things, Sartre’s “Being and Nothingness” rejected Emanuel Kant’s belief that there are two “levels” of existence: the world that we perceive, and a “higher” reality beyond that, where the “true” meaning/being of things exists. If you know anything about Plato, this line of thinking might remind you of the idea of “Forms.” If you took Philosophy 101 in college it might remind you of Plato’s “cave” analogy. No clue what I’m talking about? No worries. Take Kate’s horse as an example. From Plato’s perspective, when Kate sees her horse in the jungle, she is seeing a kind of “shadow on a wall.” What she perceives as a horse is only one possible variation on the larger idea, or “Form,” of “Horse.” This one is black, but other horses are not. This one is X height. Other horses are Y height. That sort of thing.

For Plato, Kate’s horse is not “true” reality. It is one horse, which cannot and does not contain all the possible characteristics of every horse. It is a “shadow” of the true “Form” or idea of the Horse. Kant’s idea of reality is similar. There is the world we see and a “higher” world containing larger Forms. The greatest of these Forms might be called “God.”

Sartre thought Plato and Kant were smoking something funny. To his thinking, there was no “higher” reality, and he was profoundly skeptical about the notion of “God” or mankind’s potential reunion with a “higher” plane. His ideas were revolutionary among the sort of people who like thinking about this stuff, and like many revolutionary ideas, more than a few people considered them dangerous and nihilistic.

Heading back to the bar for a moment: from the existential nihilist’s point of view, existence (or some aspect of it) is meaningless. And, if one is inclined to a ‘darker’ perspective of the world, Sartre’s philosophy offers an affirmation to the nihilist. Life IS meaningless. There is no inherent purpose to existence. There is no higher “God.” What we see is what we get.

That darker perspective lines up nicely with the espoused views of Mr. Man in Black, Island Smoke Monster. Nothing changes. People are broken. This is meaningless. Or in other words: “It’s just an Island, James.”

But Sartre (much to my personal pleasure) refuses to let the “dark side” prevail. Existentialism, as Sartre famously argued, is a humanism. Sartre argues that life may be meaningless, but that this fact should not depress us – it should liberate us. Knowing that we exist in-and-of ourselves, without a predetermined destiny or “higher purpose,” can free us from what we think we are, what we believe ourselves to be, what we believe we are destined for. It allows us to clean our slates, to effect a “Tabula Rasa” (the title of one of Lost’s episodes). In the words of Aldous Huxley, author of “Island” and “Brave New World” (the Pala Ferry derives it’s name from Huxley’s “Island”), it opens us up to the possibility of achieving “good being.” As Joss Whedon put it: “If nothing we do matters, then the only thing that matters is what we do.”

And that, more or less, has been my impression of Jacob’s philosophical position – a kind of existential humanism. Jacob doesn’t deny the Man in Black’s point during their conversation. He simply amends it. And this is not dissimilar to the way in which Sartre “amends” the concept of existentialism. Life may be meaningless, he says, but that shouldn’t stop you from creating some meaning for yourself. We’ve seen Jacob put emphasis on the importance of individual choice a number of times and, assuming that all of that wasn’t a big dog n’ pony show, that emphasis aligns him with the idea of humans as variables – ‘free radicals’ able to decide their own fates within a larger existentially-uncaring system.

Sartre believed that an embrace of existentialism would free us from the need for God, for the “dualism” (or “mirroring,” one might say) of “hidden worlds,” of unseen players pulling strings behind the scenes. That most of Lost’s story has revolved around puppetmasters pulling strings is an irony that should probably be regarded as intended, and it leads directly into the most obvious questions posed by tonight’s episode (see? Relevance!):

Is Jacob is “good”? Is Jacob “necessary”? Is Jacob “meaningful”? Is the Island “just” an Island? And because this is Lost, and Lost likes its allegories as much as it likes its pulpy adventure, that question is also larger than Jacob. What Lost is also arguably asking here: Is “God”/faith “good”? “Necessary”? “Meaningful”?

The Man in Black, aka, Anti-Locke, certainly doesn’t think so. Like the real Mikhail Bakunin suggested (namesake of Lost’s eye-patched Other), Anti-Locke destroyed “God” in order to achieve his freedom. According to Anti-Locke, there is nothing special about the Island – it’s just an Island, one that has served as a focal point of misery for the people who have been ‘drawn’ to it. It can exist on its own, without any of the people on it. Metaphorically: why choose to believe in God? To believe in anything you can’t demand answers from? Why not just accept meaninglessness? That’s a damn good question if we’re honest with one another, and it’s one that Lost has wrestled with from the beginning.

Thoughts:

• The Substitute is one of those episode names that’s clever on multiple levels. Off-Island Locke is a Substitute teacher, off-Island Locke’s life is a Substitute for the life we’ve watched him live, the “candidates” that Jacob has selected are Substitutes for his position, Sawyer is a Substitute for Richard as Anti-Locke’s first recruit, and Locke is a Substitute for the MiB’s true form.

• Like Season 1’s fourth episode, “Walkabout,” Season 6’s fourth episode focuses on the character of John Locke, Island “believer.” Locke’s off-Island storyline seems to lend more credence to the “Second Snake” theory, but the Man In Black’s comments during this episode have got me wondering about my pet theory (no pun intended). More on this below.

Helen: “What do you say we just get my parents, and your dad, and do it “shotgun-style” in Vegas.”

• Off-Island, Locke and Helen are living together, and Locke has apparently managed to propose marriage without flaking out and losing the love of his life to his obsession with a terrible father. And speaking of terrible fathers – does Locke have one anymore? Helen suggests that they bring Locke’s father to Vegas for a shotgun-style wedding, something that you don’t ordinarily do when that same man is responsible for stealing his son’s kidney and pushing him out of an 8th story window.

• Check out the photo of Locke’s father hanging in his cubicle. Have Locke and Anthony Cooper made a genuine connection off-Island? Is Anthony Cooper even a con man in this “universe”? If not, then things haven’t simply changed for Locke. They’ve significantly changed for Sawyer as well. Locke’s shown standing in the above-phot, implying that he lost his legs at around the same time in this “universe.” Was Cooper involved somehow, even if only as a witness/involved party like, say, a car accident?

• The “Evil Dead cam” used to show Smokey’s POV is fantastic.

• I complain about Lost’s shoddy effects on a fairly regular basis, but credit where credit is due: that shot of Smokey reflected through the window is nicely done.

• In his post-Juliet depression, Sawyer’s cranking up the punk rock, yo. He’s got The Stooges’ “Search and Destroy” blaring away as he funnels whiskey straight to his (noticeably-rounder) tummy. Search and Destroy was recorded in 1973, and lines like “Im a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb” have a nice resonance, given that Sawyer’s current state is a direct result of the attempted Jughead detonation.

• After hitting Richard in the throat, knocking him out and hauling our favorite Immortal Other into the jungle, Anti-Locke apparently trussed the poor guy up and suspended him above the ground in a canvas “cocoon.” This is too elaborate and weird to go unremarked on. Either Lost’s writers just thought it’d look cool, or they’re giving us information/a hint about Richard and the MiB. On one level, Richard’s temporary cell resembles the Moth cocoon that Locke showed Charlie back in Season 1. Maybe we’re simply meant to register the visual reference. And maybe there’s more to it. Here’s where I get wonky: we’ve seen Anti-Locke carefully placing shoes on his feet before stepping back onto the main Island. We’ve seen that the Others tend to go barefoot. And we’ve seen characters like Sawyer walking around barefoot for no real discernable reason a number of times before. Does physical contact with the Island play a part in its mysteries? Did Locke suspend Richard to remove that contact?

• The Incredible Perma-Douche, Randy Nations, makes his off-Island reappearance as Locke’s manager. This is the same position that Randy held “previously” in Locke’s life. Nothing else to say here. I just wanted to write “Incredible Perma-Douche.” Mission accomplished. Twice. 

Richard: “What do you want?”
Anti-Locke: “What I’ve always wanted – for you to come with me.”

• We learn that the Man in Black took Locke’s form to get access to Jacob – something that we’d already figured out a while ago. But we also learn that the MiB did this because Locke “was a candidate.” This implies (to me at any rate) that it wasn’t John Locke who was “special” – it was all of the castaways that were identified by Jacob. Stepping back to take a look at the larger picture, then: It appears that Jacob selected some of the castaways as “candidates,” and this selection is responsible in part for drawing them to the Island, or is a result of “future knowledge” on Jacob’s part (meaning that Jacob is already aware that these people will come to the Island, thanks to the unique time-properties of the Island). It also appears that, within the context of this “drawing” (of the six, instead of the three, for those of us who’ve been noticing the show’s possible Dark Tower references/indebtedness), the Man in Black “tested” some of these candidates before settling on Locke as his Substitute. Once Locke was chosen, the Man in Black then proceeded to effect a loop in time that would make Locke stand out from the rest of the “candidates,” and that would raise the attention of Richard. Does that make sense?

Anti-Locke: “Didn’t Jacob tell you any of this?”
Richard (amusingly dazed): “Anyawhat?”
Locke: “Richard, I’m sorry. You mean you’ve been doing everything he told you all this time – and he never said why? I would never have done that to you.”

• Anti-Locke and Richard’s conversation confirms that Richard isn’t privy to what’s really going on with regard to Jacob’s plans. He has some of the puzzle, but not all of it. Anti-Locke, Dogen, Lennon and Ilana are aware to some extent of the “candidates” question. Heck, even Bram seemed to be in on that nugget. Richard doesn’t appear to have a clue.

• Again, Anti-Locke’s line of patter revolves around revelation. He claims that he’ll share everything he knows with Richard. Later, he’ll show Sawyer the “why” behind his arrival on the Island. The Man in Black appears to be a force for brutal freedom in this episode, and that appearance begins to raise serious questions about him, especially on a thematic level. Suddenly it’s Jacob who’s begun to look like the “bad guy” in this Great Island Game. Much more on this below.

• On an Island teeming with creepy apparitions the image of a young boy with blood on his hands, posed in a way that recalls Christ’s stigmata, ranks up there with the creepiest of them. The appearance of the boy (who calls to mind a young Jacob, an older Aaron, and JM Barrie’s Peter Pan, all at once) seems to spook Anti-Locke, who goes running off after the eerie kid. Let’s slow things down: (1) Anti-Locke/MiB sees “ghosts” too. We know that Anti-Locke claims to be a man in this episode – does this mean he is also ‘special’ like Hurley and (apparently now) Sawyer? (2) This “ghost” appears to confirm that not all of the apparitions on/off the Island have been MiB-related. (3) If the boy is Jacob, why is he not shown as a grown man, the way that he appeared to Hurley?

• Why doesn’t Anti-Locke kill Richard? That’s what I’d expect an “evil” sentient column of Locke-resembling smoke to do, since Richard won’t join the Crusade. Is it because he can’t, thanks to “The Rules”? Is it because he isn’t really a killer? Does “young Jacob” appear at that moment in order to spook Anti-Locke out of killing him?

• Ilana’s mourning the death of Jacob in an unusually personal way. I’m left wondering whether they were lovers or friends once, or whether Ilana was simply emotionally dedicated to the mysterious cause. It’s my hope that one of these final episodes will give us an actual flashback look at the past life of Ilana – not because I’m especially fascinated by her, but because I suspect it would give us a huge chunk of the overall puzzle, and would do so by showing it to us and not through exposition.

• Ben’s character is in an odd place as of this episode. His role as potentially-evil Island puppetmaster has been usurped, and he seems at a loss. In a sense, Ben’s slate has been wiped clean. He’s now free to do anything, to be anyone. It’s interesting, then, that he tells Ilana that Anti-Locke killed Jacob. He chooses to lie and protect himself instead of owning the truth. Given that Ilana is aware of the “candidates,” it makes me wonder whether she’s also aware of the rules. If so, does she know that the MiB can’t kill Jacob? And has she just been alerted to Ben’s potential danger?

• Ilana takes some of the ash from Jacob’s fire after learning that Jacob had burned inside of it. Obviously, this brings to mind the ash that seems to hold the Smoke Monster at bay. Is that what the “ash” around the cabin and the Temple is, at least in part? Human ashes? Creepy, but a neat possibility.

Ilana: “He’s recruiting.”

• Unlike Jacob, whose recruitment program makes Rube Goldberg look like a minimalist, Anti-Locke appears to prefer the direct approach. Once again this seems like the more natural, more open point of view. It’s the point of view of some fans of the show. Stop tip-toeing around the answers and just ANSWER them already. At the same time, his openness makes me wary. The Anti-Locke-as-satan analogy has been drawn a bunch of times, and satan’s often characterized as a being who lies with the truth.

Why is Anti-Locke recruiting? And how many people does he need? Maybe just one. If Anti-Locke’s goal is to breach the Temple (and given how the Temple’s been fortified, it seems to me that it’s at least part of the goal) then he’ll need someone to sweep up all that pesky ash.

• Depressed Sawyer knows how to pour a drink.

• Is it just me, or does it look like Anti-Locke is tasting liquor for the first time?

• Josh Holloway’s got a nice Nicholson-in-the-Shining vibe during his initial conversation with the MiB. Maybe it’s just me, but I got a kind of “Dark Knights of the Round Table” vibe from Anti-Locke’s effort to recruit Richard and Sawyer tonight. Some Grail legends make reference to an “Anti-Grail King,” a dark mirror-image of the Fisher King who’s mission it is to create the “Wasteland,” and whose abilities are received thanks to an act of self-castration (yikes!). I’m reaching, but it seems to me that we may discover that the MiB initially “imprisoned” himself, which is a kind of figurative castration. Along these lines, Sawyer’s recruitment makes him a kind of Lancelot to the MiB’s Anti-Grail King. Lancelot, as you may recall, was the title of the Walker Percy novel that was discussed back in Season 2. The fact that the Temple contains a life-giving spring (a “Cauldron of Rebirth,” one might say) makes this parallel seem even stronger. If you’ll indulge me for a moment:

In some medieval Grail myths, there are two Kings – one called “the Wounded King” (guy by the name of Pellam) and one actually called “the Fisher King” (guy by the name of Pelles, because, hey, let’s make these names as confusingly similar as possible).

Want to hear about some interesting Lost parallels? Okay! We’ve seen that Jacob is a “fisher of men,” and in some versions of the legend, Pelles the Wounded King is said to have engineered the birth of the knight who will one day find the Grail and heal the land. Sound a little like the ways in which Jacob has engineered the lives of the castaways? Interestingly, Pellam the Fisher King is typically portrayed as being grievously wounded – either in the groin or in the legs. Locke’s leglessness in the off-Island universe, and in his pre-Island life, mirrors this wound. Also interesting: when Pelles is initially wounded, that act in turn affects the fertility of his land. This has a direct and obvious parallel with the fertility issues on the Island.

Will Anti-Locke’s escape from the Island make it a kind of “Wasteland”? Is that why we’ve seen it on the ocean floor? And what does this say about my Second Snake theory? It says I’m full of it, essentially, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me.

MORE AFTER THE PAGE BREAK!