Second chance

[chani]

I'm still a bit feverish but feeling less exhausted today so here's my review of Lost's latest episode.  A great episode.

First off, it was mostly about Locke and Terry O'Quinn is the best actor on the show. He is the true soul of the show.  Besides Locke is my favourite character and even though Jacob's nemesis isn't really Locke, Not!Locke seems to be somewhat "contaminated" by Locke's persona –– hence his yelling the Locke's trademark phrase "Don't tell me what I can't do!"–– so we get to see two Lockes(Not!Locke and Alt!Locke) instead of just one. It help dealing with the fact that they killed off original Locke!

I think it's interesting to see that in the altverse, things have been altered not only after the Oceanic flight, since the plane didn't crash, but also before it. We knew it already thanks to LAX. Shannon didn't follow Boone this time. In "The Substitute" John Locke's storyline seems to have been changed as well. He still couldn't do the outback adventure thing because of his being crippled, his boss still called him "Colonel" BUT he was still dating Helen and Cooper was part of his life. The fact that Helen mentioned his coming to the wedding and that John had a picture of his father in his cubicle supports the theory that Mr Conman didn't push his son through a window. How did John Locke end up being in a wheelchair this time?

Speaking of Helen, I liked how her telling Alt!Locke that meeting a spinal doctor might be his destiny echoed Lockes' former talks about destiny. And later we saw her wearing a t-shirt on which the word karma appeared!

I loved how John met both Hugo and Rose in the altverse, after being fired. Hugo taking too much place on the parking lot was sort of funny (if you aren't too into political correctness). John's life didn't suck too much this time, despite being still trapped in a wheelchair, for he met the right people at the right time and got another chance. It was a nice touch. The conversation with Rose reminded me that on the island after the crash, she was the only one who knew about his being in a wheelchair, and they had a conversation about the miracles that the island could accomplish. It was the exact opposite in the altverse. Rose was accepting her terminal cancer and advocating being realistic. Alt-John seemed to process and accept her "wisdom" and therefore his own limitations...but I can't help thinking that some part of his mind still rejected the notion of making peace with his state and situation and that angry part of his mind is somehow influencing Not!Locke on the island.

By the way when Not!Locke chased the mysterious blond kid and fell down because of a root, there's a nice echo to the opening scene when Alt!Locke crashed onto his lawn as he couldn't get his wheelchair out of the van because of a lift malfunction.

Also Not!Locke facing that apparition called to my mind another boy appearing on the island from time to time, much darker...Walt! 


Also I loved that Alt!Locke finally became a substitute teacher. It wonderfully suited the character. On the island Locke was a teacher-like figure, a sort of Sempai to Walt, Boone, Charlie. Also, as I have been saying over and over, the substitute thing is a recurring theme on the show, it has been there for five seasons, with characters always taking the place of others (to push the button for example but there are many many other instances), so the title of the episode was perfect. Even James' house in Dharma ville wasn't really his, as Not!Locke pointed out, but a mere substitute, an erzats even. 

Of course Alt!Locke wasn't the only substitute in this episode. There was Not!Locke who borrowed Locke's guise and of course James Ford/Sawyer, who has been a willing substitute for the man who caused his parents' death, borrowing his fake name and his lifestyle as a conman, and who might have been a subsitute for Jacob (according to Not!Locke, Jacob had chosen candidates to replace him as protector of the island). Once upon a time he was even a subsitute for John Locke when it came to obey Ben's command and kill the "real" Sawyer!

James' and Not!Locke's journey was quite symbolical. James was listening to an Iggy Pop's song about a lost boy wanting to have his soul saved, and Not!Locke led him through the wild...down several ladders (since they went the way down it's the anti-Jacob's ladder I assume!) to a cave where we could see scales and Not!Locke tipped the balance in favour of the black stone or rather ("inside joke" indeed!) when removing the white one.

The scale of course called to my mind the weighing of the souls in both Greek (the kerostasia on Zeus' golden scales) and Egyptian (feather of Ma'at vs the deceased's heart) mythologies. 

And there was the return of the infamous numbers!  4 8 15 16 23 42

Shepard was 23 (James assumed it was Jack but it could be Christian or even Claire!); Hugo Reyes was 8; Sayid Jarrah was 16; Jin or Sun Kwon was 42; John Locke was 4; James Ford was 15. 


Ben's eulogy was a brilliant, and a rather moving, moment. When Ben forget about playing tricks and lying (he couldn't help with Ilana though, And now Alt!Ben and Alt!Locke are supposed to work together!


Of course there are questions left.

How does Ilana know about Jin?
 
Not!Locke said that he hadn't read Of Mice and Men for it had been written after his time...I guess it was a clue about the character's background but that isn't what bothers me. So he can know all about he characters but can't access books that are from the characters' timeline?

Why doesn't Kate have a number? Do Jacob's candidates need to be males? I know that they can't change the number of numbers now since they are part of the Lost mythology since season 1, but  then why did they show Jacob visiting Kate and touching her as he did for James, Jack, Hugo, Sayid and the Kwons at the end of season 5?

Who is the blond boy who showed up and make Not!Locke so upset? Is it a younger version of Jacob? Is it an older version Aron?
 
Why couldn't Richard Alpert see him while James could?
 
What does "you can't kill him" mean? Was the boy refering to Jacob? If the boy is somehow a new avatar of Jacob himself (from his looks he could be a younger image of Jacob) he wouldn't have said "him" so there's a possibility that the boy meant...James! Perhaps the hint at Of Mice and Men meant that Not!Locke actually intended to kill James, that James was Lenny not George. After all we first got the point of view of the Smoke Monster quickly making its way across the island as if it were an allegory of the song James was listening to: "search and destroy"!

The "you can't kill him" was of course an echo to the scene in which Ben went to see Widmore and ended up threatening Penny because he wasreminded that he couldn't kill Widmore.

Again it seems like there are big players playing a game that has rules, and all the characters are pawns. 

Why did Not!Locke simply run after the kid and eventually fall down while he could have turned into the Smoke Monster and be faster and stronger just as he did at the beginning of the episode?

BTW poor Richard, he has lost all his charisma! He used to be the mysterious non-aging guy who knew better than anyone and now he's clueless and scared.