ABC’s Lost is known for a lot of things and in terms of its plot, it focuses on 2 major features- mysteries and character development. Some episodes focus a lot on the mysteries, answering questions and revealing mysteries while at the same time posing more questions and creating more mysteries. Other episodes focus a lot on character development, revealing the character’s history off the island intertwined with learning how the character is different on the island. In this week’s episode titled “The Substitute”, there was an absolute perfect mix of mystery and character development. This new and final season of Lost has introduced a new storytelling device. Instead of the classic flashback or more recently the flashforward, this season has taken on what they call a flashsideways, which consists of learning about the characters’ off island lives as if the plane they were on had never crashed. “The Substitute” focused on the off island life of John Locke after Oceanic Flight 815 landed safely in Los Angeles. John Locke is the show’s “man of faith” and has always been a strong believer in destiny and fate. I’ll talk about everything that happened in the flashsideways first, then discuss everything that happened on the island afterwards. John Locke was paralyzed before he came to the island, and when they crashed he could suddenly walk again. Since in this timeline the plane didn’t crash, sure enough John is back in his wheelchair and attempting to do things he really just can’t do. He attempts to get out of his handicapped van, but he gets stuck halfway down the wheelchair lift. He then decides to just roll off and see if he can land safely on the ground, but falls flat on his face in his front yard as the sprinklers come on. In the past, we know John Locke to be a lonely, lost, man that unfortunate things keep happening to. Therefore, we think he has no one to come to his rescue as he lies out on his front lawn but little do we know his fiancé Helen comes running out the front door to help him. In the previous timeline, Helen and John broke up because John couldn’t let go of his father after all of the bad things his father did to him (including stealing his kidney and pushing him out an 80 story building breaking his back and paralyzing him for life). In this timeline, however, Helen and John are still together and are getting married soon. Helen goes so far to suggest they elope to Vegas and invite just her parents and John’s father (say what!? More on that later). John mentions how when waiting for his lost luggage, he ran into a spinal surgeon named Jack Sheppard who gave John his card and claimed that “nothing is irreversible.” John, who used to be a strong believer in faith, just thinks Jack was pitying him but Helen suggests how maybe this is fate so John should call him. Is it possible that John has lost his fate in this new timeline? Next, John is back at his old cubicle at the box company and on the wall is a picture of John with his father, Anthony Cooper (yes, the same father who did all of those horrible things to him.) This could mean that in this alternate timeline John got paralyzed in a different way and him and his father have reconnected. John’s mean boss Randy comes over to question John about what he was doing in Australia where Locke admits to going on a walkabout instead of a conference like he was supposed to. Randy then fires John and on John’s way out, his car was blocked by a big yellow Hummer, and soon comes Hugo ‘Hurley’ Reyes to the rescue. Hurley owns the box company and before moving his car, refers John to a temp agency that Hurley is also the boss of where John will be taken care of. At the temp agency, Rose is interviewing John and can only offer one position, construction, and Rose says John is not capable of doing this job. John of course tries to guilt her into letting him do it because nobody tells John Locke what he can or cannot do, but finally somebody does. Rose pulls the cancer card and lets John try out construction just for one day but he will return to her office and get reassigned to a different job afterwards. Back at home now, John confesses to Helen about going on a walkabout and getting fired and how he refuses to call Jack and gives her the option for leaving him. She declines and tells him that all she needs is him and rips up Jacks business card in the process. In Locke’s final flashsideways scene of this episode, he is a substitute teacher at a school and is shown wheeling around a school looking for the teacher’s lounge.
When he finds it, he rolls on in while a very loud and obnoxious teacher can be heard in the background complaining about the coffee, and this man is none other than Benjamin Linus, a European history teacher instead of the evil man he was in the original timeline.
The producers said we were going to get answers, and at the end of the episode, one of Lost’s biggest mysteries was seen once again…but more on that later. The on island storyline started out with something never done before, a camera angle from the point of view of the Smoke Monster. The viewers wander all over the island with the Smoke Monster as it heads to Dharmaville and we can see its reflection in a mirror. The Smoke Monster heads back to the jungle and takes form as John Locke, then cuts Richard down to ask him questions and offer him answers. The Smoke Monster who ill refer to as Flocke (Fake Locke) makes very interesting points in his conversation with Richard. Flocke offers to tell Richard anything he wants to know and talks about how Jacob was always so secretive and therefore Richard never fully knew what was going on. It’s hard to turn Flocke’s offer down, but Richard was able to even though it didn’t matter because Flocke wasn’t even paying attention at that point as a young kid suddenly appeared with blood on his hands and Flocke couldn’t believe his eyes, and yet Richard couldn’t even see the boy (or the boy just disappeared before Richard looked at him). Flocke then goes on to Dharmaville where he finds a drunk Sawyer listening to loud music. Immediately Sawyer realizes that this man is not John Locke, because Sawyer said this Locke doesn’t have any fear. Sawyer follows Flocke because Flocke claims that he will answer the most important question in the world, why are they all on this island? In the jungle, Flock once again sees the young kids, and Sawyer sees him as well. Flocke starts chasing the kid and then Richard comes running out to find Sawyer and warning him not to trust Flocke and to go back to the Temple, but Sawyer of course ignores him. When Flocke catches up to the kid, the kid says “You know the rules. You can’t kill him.” to which Flocke responds with the John Locke catch phrase “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” It seems almost as if part of John Locke is still alive inside and trying to makes his way out but that wouldn’t make any sense because the Smoke Monster isn’t actually possessing his body. Also, this kid could either be a young Jacob or as other bloggers have speculated that it’s Aaron but that seems less plausible. There’s also a question as to which person Flocke can’t kill- is it Jacob that he can’t kill (even though he already did or is it that he can’t kill Sawyer?)
Meanwhile, the people left on the beach decide that they should head to the temple but first make a pit stop to bury John Locke’s body. On the way, Ilana says that the Smoke Monster is stuck as John Locke now and can’t take the form of anyone else. That could have used a little more explaining as to how she knows that but maybe we’ll find out at a later date. At the funeral, Ben makes a speech about how Locke was a better man and how Ben is sorry that he murdered him, to which Frank Lapidus makes the hilarious remark, “This is the weirdest damn funeral I’ve ever been to.”
Flocke leads Sawyer down a cliff to which there is conveniently a very old ladder and a rope ladder leading to a cave on the side of the cliff. Of course someone has a little trouble getting down Jacob’s Ladder (get it?) which adds a little drama to the episode as Flocke helps Sawyer regain his balance and leads him into the cave. In the opening to the cave there is a scale that is perfectly balanced by a black stone and a white stone. Flocke picks up the white stone and tosses it into the ocean, saying that it was an inside joke. Probably because Flocke (the Man in Black) triumphed over Jacob (the Man in White) signifying that maybe evil has triumphed over good. On the inside of the cave is a wall and ceiling covered in writing. We have finally found the source for Jacob’s lists, this being the master list. The names of numerous people that have come and gone to the island are scratched onto the wall and most of the names are scratched off. 6 names and numbers remain not scratched off- 4-Locke, 8-Reyes, 15-Ford, 16-Jarrah, 23-Shephard, and 42-Kwon.
The numbers are back! Finally, the numbers reappear and give us a little more insight into the importance of them but still don’t tell us exactly what they are and why they are important. Flocke explains to Sawyer that Jacob at some time has figuratively pushed each person to the island and took away there free will. These 6 people were brought here as candidates to replace Jacob as the protector of the island. Flocke crosses out John’s name and tells Sawyer he has 3 choices- do nothing, become the new Jacob, or leave the island with Flocke. Sawyer chooses the third choice and decides to leave the island as the episode ends. Sawyer is a great conman and has gotten played in the past when Ben conned him into behaving by telling they put a pacemaker bomb in Sawyer. However, it seems as if Sawyer is possibly conning Flocke right now by letting Flocke think he is in control, or Sawyer is getting played and is just doing whatever he can to get off the island. It seems hard to believe that all Flocke wants is to go home because he’s been on this island for so long that it’s all he knows and there’s nothing to go back to. Only time will tell what his true intentions are, but as for now I really hope Sawyer has a plan because if he doesn’t, it seems as if he’s going to either die or leave which is kind of an unsatisfying ending to the James Saywer Ford storyline. As for the candidates, I think Jack will be the next Jacob and protect the island but as Flocke says to Sawyer “The island doesn’t need protecting.” This is very similar to what Jack said to Locke back in the season 4 finale that “It’s an island John, it doesn’t need saving.” Ironic, huh? Well this was an extremely informational episode but it wouldn’t be Lost without creating more questions in the process of answering questions. One last point is that Kate wasn’t on the wall but I don’t care because I’m not a fan of hers anyway. Also, Flocke doesn’t know which Kwon (Jin or Sun) Jacob is talking about. Until next episode, I guess all we can do is ponder like we have for the past 5 seasons.
This was devastating for her and Julian. Something that did not help the case was Brooke's new model, Alex, who had the "hots" for Julian and fell in love with him as well. Julian had no interest in Alex, and still does not. Alex is a "washed up" actress and apparently now Brooke's new model - until Brooke finds out Alex keeps hitting on Julian and fires her. Alex is a typical young, sexy, party girl who sleeps around and is always out to have a good time. Since Alex was fired, she had to find something else to do with her time so she writes a script. Julian happens to be a "wannabe" director/script writer. Alex gives Julian her script and he says it has great potential. Julian wants to work on the script, with Brooke's blessing. Even though Brooke was clearly against it, she told Julian to proceed if that's what he wants to do. Eventually, Brooke pushes Julian away for several reasons and they end up breaking up (even though they are clearly soul mates!) At this point, I think every girl is livid at Julian for not fighting harder to make Brooke stay. If you truly love someone, you do not let them go without really fighting for them. It is difficult to watch two people who are so great for each other, not in a relationship anymore. However, time goes on and Julian gives his script to his father (a director) who decides to publish the script and make it a film. Time goes on again and it turns out Julian needs a costume designer. Low and behold, he asks Brooke to help and design clothes for the movie. "Julian, we just broke up! But I guess it's better to have you in my life even though it's very difficult than to not have you in it at all," she says. Brooke agrees to do it.
This is the end of the episode, so it leads the viewer to believe they are going to get back together! (as we all hope!)
