Lost Watch: Locke It Down

Episode Title: The Brig Air Date: 5/02/2007

Right now “Lost” is as good as it’s ever been, and last night’s Locke-centric episode, “The Brig” was one of the best in the show’s three year run.

We finally got to see what Mr. Locke was doing for the last eight days since Ben showed him that his father was on the island and recruited him to join The Others, we got a little more out of the woman who parachuted onto the island (including, finally, her name, Naomi,) more mysterious behavior from Jack and Juliet, some resolution to Sawyer’s back-story, and even a few scenes with Sayid (seriously, why is he never in the show anymore?)

And the best news of all was that there weren’t flashbacks that delivered redundant information about the back stories of the characters. Locke’s flashbacks took place on the island and filled us in about what he’s been up to for the last eight days since he’s been with The Others, a question most fans have been desperate to have answered for a few weeks now.

So what did happen during those eight days? Ben tells Locke he had to kill his father in order to “let go of his past” and truly accept the island. When Locke can’t kill him, Richard, the smarmy smooth talker who got Juliet to come to the island, tells Locke that there is somebody else who might be persuaded to finish his father off if he can’t do the job. He hands him one of the files The Others have on all the islanders (who does the filing for The Others, by the way? Do they have an on-island summer intern?) and sends him off.

It’s Sawyers bio. Turns out one of my theories from almost two years ago has finally paid off (I’m not that smart though, I’m sure a lot of people saw it coming as well,) because, drum roll please…Locke’s dad is the original Sawyer, the man who conned our beloved Sawyer’s mom, which led to his father murdering her and killing himself. So obviously, James, let’s call him Good Sawyer, kills Locke’s dad, the o.g. Sawyer, in the bowels of the slave ship where they found the dynamite to blow the doors off the hatch back in season one.

A sentence like that can really make “Lost” seem like a ridiculous show, can’t it?

Before Good Sawyer kills Locke’s dad/ Bad Sawyer, the evil old bastard presents a theory…that they are not on an island at all. He tells James/ Sawyer that he was in a car accident, and right before he blacked out he saw a paramedic smiling as he slipped IV into him, and says “it’s too hot here to be heaven.” So we’re back to the theory that everyone on the island is dead.

But not so fast, Losties. First of all, what about Ben’s claim that he just appeared in a box? Ben contradicts the claim, at least slightly, when he admits that “the box is a metaphor.” And Locke’s dad’s line about a man smiling before he put the IV in him seems more important to me than anything. One of The Others was sent to bring him to the island is the most likely scenario, and they put something in him that knocked him out until he arrived there, just like they did to Juliet. Obviously, Ben is going to great lengths to manipulate Locke. His ability to heal on the island does make him special in some way, and let’s not forget-the island itself talks to him. And the island doesn’t talk to just anybody. It’s kinda snooty that way.

So Sawyer kills the man who gave him his name and fulfills Locke’s destiny for him. The two men part ways, but not before Locke warns him that the Others are planning another attack to steal Sun and any other pregnant women away- and other pregnant women will probably include Kate now that she’s sleeping with Sawyer on a regular basis. Sawyer asks Locke if he’s coming back, and Locke says he never will, that he’s “on his own journey now.”

Meanwhile, back at camp, Hurley, Desmond, Charlie, and Jin are having their own existential crisis after Naomi the parachutist tells them that the Oceanic Flight they were all on was found off the coast of Bali and that there were no survivors. When they bring Sayid in to talk to her, she tells them that she took off from a ship just nineteen miles away from the island, and that she was hired by Penny to look for Desmond. So the big cliffhanger at the end of season 2 has finally paid off…at the end of season 3.

What plane is she talking about if it’s not the one our heroes were on (because as Sayid says “clearly, we’re not dead.) I still stubbornly refuse to believe the “all the islanders are dead” theory, mostly because it would be too simple and obvious, and also because the show’s creators have categorically denied the theory all along. Though they could be throwing us off the trail, I don’t think they’d outright lie to the fans. Which leads to the question, was there a real plane? Did somebody stage a crash to cover up the fact that the survivors are missing, and to keep anyone from looking for them? Or more simply, is Naomi lying?

The last piece of the puzzle in “The Brig” was the group’s refusal to tell Jack about Naomi. Kate gets wind of the new arrival and when Sayid tells her, she informs Jack…and Juliet, who Jack stubbornly defends and tells Kate “anything you need to say, you can say in front of her.” Kate lets Jack know that the reason they haven’t told him about Naomi is that they no longer trust him, but he doesn’t seem concerned about it at all. He seems more concerned with finding out where the helicopter took off from. Juliet looks alarmed and mysteriously says to Jack “we should tell her,” but Jack disagrees, saying “she’s not ready.” So now we know for sure that Jack knows something he’s been keeping from everyone else. Maybe the group wasn’t wrong to stop trusting him.

It was another episode packed with information, drama, emotion, and even a little comedy (loved the bit when Rouseau shows up in the ship while Locke has Sawyer locked in the brig with his father and they have an awkward moment before she leaves with some dynamite…which I’m sure will pay off before the season ends.) So much has happened in the last two weeks that it’s made up for the slow middle section of the season. “Lost” is really firing on all cylinders again, and it’s a beautiful thing.