Any of the naysayers who claimed that "What Kate Did" was filler should be more than placated by the fourth episode of LOST's sixth season, "The Substitute." The episode quite literally broke all the rules, and actually gave us more answers than questions -- perhaps the first time in LOST's long history that this could be said for an episode. We've hit a turning point, folks.
That's not to say that there weren't questions posed. But, as executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse like to say, "All answers will lead to more questions." And we got a hell of a lot of lead-ins.
Where to begin? The episode focused on both Locke and the Man in Black in the reset timeline and the Island timeline, respectively. In the reset timeline, we looked at Locke's significantly improved life in the reset timeline (which was contrasted with shots of his corpse in the Island timeline), while in the Island timeline we watched as the Man in Black loosened his tongue to Sawyer and dished a little bit on the meaning of it all. Not too much, mind you -- we still have twelve more episodes to go -- but enough to probably crank up legions of new fan theories before next week's episode rolls out.
Locke's reset timeline finally gave some good to a character with a lifetime full of bad. He's still in a wheelchair, yes -- though he appears to be maintaining a good relationship with his father, oddly enough -- but he's still with Helen Norwood, his longtime girlfriend who left him back in the flashbacks of season two's "Lockdown." While she's dead in the Island timeline (brain aneurysm), she's alive and well in Locke's reset timeline, and the two are set to be married. It's nice to see Locke, happy, even though temporary stints to his happiness (i.e. being fired) are apparent.
Locke's reset story was rife with other characters. In "Numbers," we knew that Hurley had bought a box company in Tustin, but after Locke is fired by Hurley's old boss Randy, Hurley kindly hooks Locke up with another job interview. Good ole fun time Hurley is still good ole fun time Hurley, Island or no Island.
Hurley in fact redirects Locke to a job interviewer (for those of you who didn't know, that strange woman asking Locke what kind of animal he was was Lynn Karnoff, the psychic from the season three Hurley-centric "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead." But Karnoff's superior is Rose Nadler, who is still suffering from cancer, but still has the live-for-the-moment outlook she had in "S.O.S.," when Bernard tried to take her to see Isaac of Uluru, a faith healer. Apparently, Rose and Bernard's story hasn't changed too much.
Finally, we saw an appearance by Ben Linus, who is a teacher of "European history" at the high school Locke substitutes at. After ranting about a coffee bag being left in the brewer, Ben introduces himself to Locke, and is very nice. In fact, he was nice in both timelines this episode, especially during his heartfelt apology to Locke for murdering him. I cried big fat Ilana tears.
But it wasn't the reset timeline that was important. It was the Island timeline that really made the episode the epic answerfest that it was. Not only did we get a really cool shot from the perspective of the Monster (the cameramen call this the Evil Dead shot, as shown in the commentary for "The 23rd Psalm"), but we got even more answers about who exactly this mysterious Man in Black is.
Richard's scared of him, very scared, even though the MIB is trying to get Richard to join him, which he has apparently been doing for a long time. Richard's so scared, in fact, that he's heading straight to the Temple, regardless of whether or not Sawyer's going to join him.
Sawyer blows Richard off, instead choosing to remain with MIB, who came and fetched him at the Barracks with the promise of answers. And, despite Richard's insistence that MIB is lying about the answers, MIB did lay some heavy ones on Sawyer. Some really heavy ones.
But before he could do that, he kept seeing visions of a little boy. It's a great example of the show's irony, especially considering that the Island's apparitions are generally the MIB himself. But this time, it was a little blonde boy in medieval attire, warning MIB that he couldn't break the rules by killing "him" (I'm assuming this is Sawyer). The MIB responds with the Locke-ism "Don't tell me what I can't do!"
John? Are you in there somewhere, John?
If he is, he's buried deep, because the MIB gave Sawyer a short biography, stating that he had once been a man who could feel emotions, but he'd been trapped on the Island for so long that he'd forgotten what it meant to be free.
But after nearly losing Sawyer in a ladder climb down to a cliffside cave, we (and Sawyer) got the answers that we were wanting. In the cave there was a scale holding two stones: one black, and one white. MIB threw the white one into the ocean, tipping the scale in the dark's favor.
He then proceeded to lead Sawyer into a cave that had the names of many, many people written on the wall. As soon as I can get screencaps of the wall, I'll post them and we'll investigate further. I couldn't catch most of the names, but I could see the obvious ones, which hadn't been crossed out. Those were Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, and either Sun, Jin, or both. I presume Kate's name was on there somewhere, since Jacob had touched her on the nose in that flashback. As a matter of fact, as many of you speculated, the survivor-touching that went on in the Jacob flashbacks in "The Incident," were significant, and the MIB said (from his jaded point-of-view) that these touches were part of Jacob's manipulation to get them to come to the Island. Why, because they were candidates, just like Ilana said Frank was.
What's a candidate? Why, who Jacob wanted to replace him as protector of the Island, of course. Jacob probably won't get a chance to finish his work on the candidate selection, but we'll probably see the selection finished anyhow, especially after we saw Ilana mysteriously scooping up his ashes (apparently she doesn't mind if essence of Jacob is mixed with essence of white tunic). MIB then revealed that Sawyer had three choices as a candidate: do nothing, accept the position, or help MIB go home. Sawyer, obviously, selected the latter. Because, you know, with Jack on the list, who else could it be?
Overall, this was by far the best episode of the season. "LA X," had reveals, but "The Substitute" had bigger ones. And better ones, don't you think? All in all, the episode gets a three thumbs up, A+.
Sam, another super significant part of the episode was that the numbers against the potential leaders' names on the wall coincide with the Dharma equation coefficient – or Hurley's winning lottery ticket – numbers!
Sorry! I knew I left out something significant.
I dont think kate is a candidate. The person you left out was Locke. Each of the people were represented by one of the numbers. Locke, Jack, Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley and Jin or Sun. That equals six. There are six numbers. So unless Kate is number 108, I dont think she is a candidate.
Brilliant! Also, I think Locke being dead is going to seriously mess up Jacob's/everybody's plans, as he appears to be the first number in the equation.
Does anyone think the little boy in the jungle is Aaron possibly?
Hm. Hadn't thought of that, but it's possible. I thought it was more of a young Jacob, but Aaron somehow seems to fit more.
I thought it was a young jacob…or something like that. Arron fits too!
the candidate numbers were: 4 8 15 16 23 42 obviously something's fishy there!
Wow, what an episode! The alternate world finally interested me with a fantastic Locke story that had the same themes with a different veneer. Fake Locke was manipulating Sawyer back on the island, and we finally learned what the numbers are for—as long as we believe Fake Locke.Review of the episode on my blog:http://th3tvobsessed.blogspot.com/2010/02/revie…..
Frank summed it up: "This is the weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to."
I'm waiting for sawyer to ask the important Question- and you know he isn't stupid…he's going with Flocke'd ( lets get the flocke outta here… and anyone with him may well be flocke'd..).. they both want to go home.. but this * isn't* Locke.. Locke is dead..so- the important question to ask.. WHERE is home.. for Flocke…? Chances are, it isn't the good ole US of A…cool on the numbers- of course, we don't know if the numbers are jacob-random.. or if they are the finalists of a much longer list ( and yes.. they are all male. probably something intentional-deliberate around whatever the initial ground-rules were)…but.. is Sawyer now the new " substitute"? if its jacob and counter-nemesis… is the substitute for flocke, who must have a replacement.. OR.. more likely.. does there have to be 2 representatives.. and Flocke is trying to find the best suited to counter/foil nemesis to flocke? In this case, he would be looking for the one he can manipulate and have the best chance of out-floxing.. but whomever must choose freely, free will and all.. I think if he is opting for Sawyer.. he may find that Sawyer.. who is listed as Ford on the wall.. has become/ transformed into James.. ( btw- who was james in the bible? what role/ character as an apostle?)…. BUT.. James is not Sawyer, anymore.. who might make a good counter pairing against Flocke?shepperd- ( interesting name, shepherd, for the man of science).. science v. faith and long standing counter to locke.Sawyer; always out for himself.. transformed.. now capable of stepping up and taking the higher cause? Hurley- the cursed yet grounded-pragmatist- every day hero.. akin to the hobbit.. nothing superior, nothing superhuman, no huge aspirations.. but the every day good guy…Jin- not sure what this role/ angle would be.. since he would be pretty similar to sawyer, the redeemed fallen-hero-angel.sayyid- ditto… although redemption through this service.. might be the whole point.. sayyid hasn't had the redeeming experience yet.. so this could be the penance…
[...] TV Overmind [...]
I think that SLU (Safe Landing Universe) Locke is the substitue for dead Island Locke. Also the candidate for Kwon isn't Jin or Sun, but in fact there child. If you remember, Jacob touched both their shoulders when he visited them. And as far as we know, Sun's was the first ever to conceive on the Island. I still don't know why Kate wasn't on the wall, that is confusing me.. And Sawyer could see the kid in the jungle cause he is a "candidate" I believe Richard was lying to Smlocke when he said he didn't see him for his own safety.
Does anybody else see a connection with Jacob and his twin brother Esau from the Bible?