Episode 11 - Cabin Fever
30 March 2012
Present: Locke has a dream about Horace Goodspeed which leads him to Jacob’s cabin. He finds Christian Shepherd and Claire inside and they tell him that he must move the island in order to save it. Meanwhile Keamy returns to the freighter to gather more weapons to kill everyone on the island. He takes a “second protocol” from a safe which tells him what Ben will do next. He kills the doctor and the captain in order to get his way and force Frank to fly them back. Frank drops a phone to the survivors at the beach to help them locate him. Sayid leaves the freighter in a boat to go and start taking people off the island while Desmond stays behind.
Flashback: We see Locke’s mother Emily being run over. She gives birth to John about three months prematurely. She can’t deal with his birth and her mother puts him up for adoption while a very familiar looking Richard Alpert looks on. Alpert comes to visit John when he is young and tests him by asking him which of a series of objects was already his. He fails the test and Richard leaves. But he makes another attempt to meet Locke when he is a teenager and he is offered the chance to come to a science camp in Portland. John refuses because he doesn’t want to be a scientist. Finally the adult Locke is struggling with his rehabilitation from his eight-storey fall. Matthew Abaddon appears and gives Locke a pep talk about going on a walkabout. He tells Locke that when they meet again, he will owe him one.
The Good: The producers of Lost once more challenge our assumptions about the show by showing us Locke being born. These flashbacks add a new dimension to the story because rather than just being chosen by an unseen force it seems that certain people have had their eye on Locke as the saviour of the island for a very long time. On the island Ben (genuinely or not) seems to pass the torch to Locke as far as being the island’s disciple or prophet and these flashbacks show us that like Ben he was chosen from birth to fulfil this particular destiny. It gives Lost even more of an epic feel to imply that the island saviour has been chosen through the generations in this way.
The two younger actors who play Locke are pretty well chosen. The pre-teen one demonstrates a shy or quiet disposition while the teen one nicely portrays the mixed emotions of a gifted boy who wants to be accepted and popular. We begin to see a fuller picture of the struggles Locke has been through his whole life. The revelation that he had an aptitude for science is an interesting one; it helps explain how Locke seems to know so much about nature, history and engineering despite the varyingly less taxing jobs we have seen him carrying out in the past. The sight of teenage Locke trying to be cool and seen as one of the guys is sad; as we see the chip on his shoulder which we know will only grow. There is a real sense that he has been fighting his own destiny all his life. Right back to his mother abandoning him he has been desperate to be accepted all his life and all the while running away from where he was meant to be.
These scenes are filled with big revelations as well. Richard Alpert is finally confirmed as somehow not having aged at all in the last fifty years or so. The scene where he offers John a series of objects has strong overtones of how the next Dalai Lama is chosen, with a slight reminder of how Professor X recruits mutants for his school. But one of the objects in particular, a comic book, seems to point to how the island can move from one place to another. Later we see Matthew Abaddon again, this time suggesting to Locke that he go on a walkabout. The implication of that is that someone prophesised that the plane would crash on that exact flight and somehow Abaddon knew that by planting the thought now Locke would choose the right time to take his journey.
When Locke finally gives in to his destiny he answers Christian Shepherd’s question correctly. “I’m here because I was chosen to be.” He finally accepts that here he is chosen and not rejected. And yet naturally we can sense the reluctance in him to admit that his actions are not his own decision anymore, as any of us would be wary of admitting. It’s great acting to convey these complex emotions and all those playing Locke deserve credit here as do those who directed them. It’s a really well told story which seems to cover all the bases in Locke’s back-story bringing him to this point in time where the islands fate rests on his shoulders.
In amongst the talk of destiny the writers still manage to keep free will a part of the story. Clearly Locke had the ability to avoid his destiny all along and needed pushing and prodding from Abaddon and Alpert to reach the island. And when Locke is refusing to believe he will walk again he tells Abaddon that he is a cripple. To which Abaddon pointedly asks “Is that what you are Mr Locke?” He’s asking if that is what Locke is going to become or if he is going to fight that and become something else. Terrific writing.
Christian Shepherd’s appearance with a grinning Claire in the cabin is presumably a story which will be explored further in future seasons. For now it is enough to know that Locke must go and move the island. Seeing Mr Keamy picking up a Dharma Initiative folder indicates that we may all be headed to the station which has been hinted at since before the season began: The Orchid. Speaking of Keamy, he plays an excellent bad guy during this episode. Focussed, ruthless and heartless throughout he presents a very real threat to the survivors. The deaths of the doctor and captain definitely make it clear that the survivor’s fate is in their own hands and that no one from the freighter can help them anymore.
The tension between Ben and Locke is played up to full effect here. Ben’s comment that he used to have dreams sums up neatly his realisation that Locke is the new chosen one. His warning to Locke that there is a price to being chosen feels very real, though from what we have seen in the future, his submission to Locke is far from total. Ben sounds almost cynical when he “accepts” that Alex’ death and his tumour were part of his destiny. His claim that destiny is a “fickle bitch” sounds more like him. His actions in the past and the future indicate that unlike Locke he is not a man who sits around waiting to be told what to do next. There is a great skill here in being able to give so much definition to Ben’s character when he is not the focus of the episode. Even Hurley provides a nice counterpoint to Locke and Ben, he is still of the belief that none of this may be real. It’s interesting to see the three different attitudes to the island in the three men, disbelief, belief and cynical acceptance.
We get the answer to why the doctor washed up dead as we know that if you enter the island from the wrong angle you arrive in a different time stream. Finally Desmond refusing to go back to the island is a nice touch. After three years trapped there and with Penny on the search for him, we can forgive his selfish sounding decision.
The Bad: Ben claiming that he was following Hurley is silly. At the end of the last episode he said “follow me.”
So much happens in this episode that it feels like part one of four of the season finale. It’s understandable given the writer’s strike but this episode is in its way overwhelming and the focus is not as strongly on Locke as it could otherwise have been.
The Unknown: Has Matthew Abaddon not aged either? We have not seen him cover nearly as much time as Richard Alpert but he does seem unchanged from when he meets Hurley in the future. Could he be Charles Widmore’s agent, the way Alpert is Ben’s. Ben and Locke were both born prematurely. Is that one of the conditions for being the island’s chosen disciple?
Is Keamy afraid of Ben and what he might do to him one day? He seems very angry that his name has been given to Ben. What is strapped to his arm? Is it a bomb of some kind?
How did Charles Widmore get hold of Dharma information? Was he one of the Others leaders back in the day (that Ben refers to)? It’s interesting that nice Horace Goodspeed build the cabin Jacob resides in. That would imply Jacob has only existed there for the last twenty years or so. What did Locke’s drawing of a man being attacked by smoke signify? Is it connected to the smoke monster?
Best Moment: There are so many to choose from. This is purely a matter of personal taste. But I will plump for the scene with a teenage Locke talking to his teacher. His struggle against being labelled a scientist is pretty touching as he lists all the more manly pastimes that he likes. His teacher tries to be helpful by saying that he is a scientist and that he can’t be the prom King, the quarterback or even a superhero. To which Locke of course replies “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” I think it is a beautiful moment because it shows us that that phrase and that attitude were born in Locke a long time before he was confined to a wheelchair. He has been fighting against his destiny for a long time.
The Bottom Line: An absolutely breathless episode. The sense of tension throughout is palpable and the developments and revelations almost overwhelm you as the writers scramble to set up the finale. But in there is an incredibly sophisticated exploration of Locke’s past and how far he has come. There is also an interesting comparison with Ben and a starring role for the relentless Keamy. Lost at its intriguing best.
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