Episode 604: The Substitute

Seriously ABC, you're messing with my blog titles! So apparently the season premiere of Lost actually counted as two episodes, so last week's was the third, and this week the fourth. WOW. I'm gonna keep this entry kind of short, even though pretty much the fabric of Lost was revealed this week. I have a lot of homework that has to be done, though.

SPOILER ALERT! GO TO ABC.GO.COM TO WATCH THE EPISODE FIRST!

Okay, so where did we leave off? Right. The people of the temple tried to kill Sayid with a pill of poison because they believe his is INFECTED, and Jack is pissed. At the end of last weeks episode, Jin finds (or really she finds him) Claire in the jungle. Now forget all of that for the moment. Enter this week's episode which is centered around Locke where in his flash-sidewayses (?) we discover that Locke still has a life with Helen, a life with marriage in the future. However, because his faith has not been discovered on the island, we find the same miserable Locke we have come to pity in all other flashbacks. He is miserable especially when people tell him he can't do something. He gets fired and Hurley (yes, Hurley) gets him a job with a temp agency he owns (I want to know the deal with Hurley pretty soon). There Rose (yes, Rose) gets Locke a job as a substitute teacher but only after Rose tells Locke that he has to deal with the life he has been given, as she has done with her cancer. Ah, destiny. At the school, we learn that Ben Linus himself works as a European History teacher. WOW.

On the island is where the madness develops. First of all, I just want to say that the sequence in the first act of the episode where we see the perspective of the monster and then Locke materializing was amazing artistry, even though I sort of felt like I was on a roller coaster. Everyone at 308 agreed that there should be a Lost theme park. I just want to talk about a few things from this episode:

Richard - I thought Richard was going to pee his pants in this episode, but it was also enlightening to see him vulnerable like this. Good angle to his character.

Sawyer - Sawyer is broken at this point. In a way, he's kind of like how Juliet was before she and Sawyer fell in love. He just wants to get off the island. This comes in the form of joining the not-Locke, because that's his true goal. Or is it?

The boy - The boy in the jungle whom not-Locke sees...hmmm...I think it's Aaron. I don't know how, I don't know why (well, I suspect Aaron is REALLY the true candidate to succeed Jacob even though he's not on the candidate list, but that may have changed due to Claire failing as a mother, but you never know. We may know more once we get to know the new rogue Claire. This could explain why the boy knows about the "rules" and the epic duel or whatever it is occuring between good and evil on the island)

"The weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to..." - one of the funniest quotes in Lost history as well as an "awww" moment for me. Between Sun's caring about the placement of Locke's body, Ben's eulogy, and Illana's touching moment with Jacob's ashes, I wanted to cry.

The cave and the candidates - The whole meaning of Lost, the numbers, why they're on the island, and everything was explained in that moment with not-Locke and Sawyer. The reason why they were brought to the island was because Jacob believed them candidates to suceed him. He knew all of this was to happen, and he needed a replacement. The numbers represent the candidates because that was how Jacob had them listed. We know the mystery of the numbers!!! AHHH!!! The only thing is, not-Locke says there is no reason for the island to be protected, but he is obviously wrong (or twisting the truth to get Sawyer to join him) because we have already seen that the island has come under seige (Dharma Initiative, Widmore).

This was a crazy episode that revealed almost everything about Lost. Just wait to see what happens next!

Namaste