Saturday "Lost" blogging: "Cabin Fever"
"Cabin Fever", this week's episode of "Lost," brought us a little closer to the rescue of the Oceanic Six, reinforced the suggestion that Claire is dead, painted a picture of John Locke as some sort of Dalai Lama over the island, and revealed that the island is capable of being moved from one location to another.
"Lost" is the only TV show I've ever seen that required me to take notes in order to keep up.
Claire Littleton stars in "The Sixth Sense"
I'm beginning to think Claire might actually be dead.
When Locke entered Jacob's cabin, we saw Claire and Christian Shepard inside, sitting there in the dark, smiling at each other. Neither of them seemed the slightest bit concerned over Aaron (whom we last saw being protected by Sawyer). As protective as Claire has always been around her baby, I can't imagine that she would ever be so blithely unconcerned for his welfare. When Locke entered the cabin, it was pitch dark inside, illuminated only by the oil lamp he carried with him. Claire and Christian were slumped casually in chairs on opposite ends of the room, facing each other; their pose was as if Locke had interrupted a comfortable, casual, and perfectly ordinary conversation between a father and his daughter, but the darkness and Claire's lack of concern for Aaron carried a vibe that suggested Claire isn't entirely connected to this world any more.
Of course, if Claire is dead, then Christian probably is, too. And if they're both dead, then we've been hoodwinked by nothing more than a cheesy reference to "The Sixth Sense" all this time. That would be an exceedingly lame turn of events.
The one question that matters
Inside the cabin, Christian said to Locke, "Why don't you ask the one question that matters?" Locke thought for a moment and said, "How do we save the island?" (If I had been asking the question, it would have been more along the lines of "How do we get off this island?", but that's just me.) After leaving the cabin, Locke said to Hurley and Ben, "He wants us to move the island." Is that portability the reason Ben told Widmore in "The Shape Of Things To Come" that Widmore would never be able to find the island again?
Benjamin Linus stars in "The Tempest"
This episode was largely about Locke, but we also saw something important happen regarding Ben and his relationship with the Losties: he acknowledged that he was no longer in charge of the island (if he ever really was). As Hurley, Locke, and Ben were approaching the cabin, Ben admitted that he had been following Hurley the whole time. By surrendering his path to Hurley, Ben was admitting to them that he was no longer in any kind of leadership role.
As another acknowledgment of his loss of power, Ben said to Locke, "Destiny, John, is a fickle bitch." When they reached the cabin, Ben followed this observation by finally handing the baton to Locke; he said, "The island wanted me to get sick, and it wanted you to get well. My time is over, John. It's yours now." I don't think Ben really believed that, since he later becomes the leader of a future war against Charles Widmore; instead, I think Ben was really just handing things over to John as a caretaker until Ben can engineer a way to regain his position of authority.
Just like Prospero in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," Ben has lost his power; like Prospero, his authority over the island seems to have evaporated. However, as we approach the final two seasons of the show, just keep the ending of "The Tempest" in mind: Prospero eventually got his power back, and he regained dominion over his island.
John Locke as Dalai Lama?
All of this is secondary to the episode's main focus on John Locke.
The mysterious, never-aging Richard Alpert showed up at least three times in Locke's childhood. He was there after John's premature birth, as the baby was removed from his incubator. He appeared again in Locke's childhood, performing a test of some kind on Locke's ability to recognize certain items as belonging to him. He was mentioned a third time during Locke's teenage years.
Alpert's second appearance to John happened when John looked to be about six years old. Alpert presented Locke with several items and asked him which of those items already belonged to him. Of the baseball glove, the Book of Laws (which looked distinctly like a leather-bound Bible), the vial of sand (or perhaps it was ash from the circle around Jacob's cabin), the old compass, the comic book (with the caption about the "Hidden Land"), and the old knife, Locke picked the sand, the compass, and the knife. Alpert asked him if he was sure of the knife, and John said yes. Alpert looked disappointed at that, gathered the items up, and told Locke's mother that John "isn't quite ready" for the "school" Alpert claimed he was considering for Locke.
That scene evoked the methodology used to identify the next Dalai Lama after the death of his predecessor. When a child is identified as a candidate, he is presented with several items and is asked to identify those which belonged to the previous Dalai Lama. His correct identification of those items is taken as strong evidence that he is the reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama.
Did Alpert think John Locke was the reincarnation of someone specific? Did he recruit Benjamin Linus the same way?
Telling Locke what he can't do
Alpert's third intervention in Locke's life happened a few years later, when Locke was a teenager. A teacher or guidance counselor suggested that Locke attend a summer camp devoted to chemistry and other new technologies; the teacher said that Locke was specifically requested by a certain Dr. Alpert from Mittelos Labs (the same company Alpert represented when he recruited Juliet to the island). Locke rejected the idea of attending summer science camp, based primarily on its sheer geekiness. He said he was interested in sports, camping, and hiking.
The teacher told Locke that he wasn't really that kind of person, and in response, Locke said, "Don't tell me what I can't do." The adult, paralyzed Locke said exactly the same words to the travel agent in Australia who told him a wheelchair-bound person couldn't go on the walkabout Locke had traveled to Australia to attend.
Speaking of the walkabout, we also learned that Matthew Abaddon himself planted the suggestion with Locke. Posing as an orderly during Locke's rehab after his fall, Abaddon said to Locke, "Do you believe in miracles?" Locke replied in the negative. Abaddon said, "You should. I had one happen to me." After suggesting John go on the walkabout, he said, "I'm a lot more than just an orderly, John."
We already knew that much.
Meanwhile, on the freighter
A couple of interesting developments happened on the freighter.
The doctor, whose dead body washed up on shore a day before this episode, was shown alive and well on the freighter. One of Keamy's men told the doctor about the Morse code message from the island that had reported his body washing up on shore; right after this, Keamy cut the doctor's throat and pushed him overboard.
This means the doctor was in two places at once: alive on the freighter and dead on the beach. Like the two rabbits in the Orchid video, he could have been subjected to the island's teleportation/time travel behavior; as his body floated away from the freighter, it could have been transported back in time a few days, so that it washed up on shore on an earlier date, while he was still alive on the freighter.
I don't know if this means anything, or if it's a continuity error, but the body that washed up on shore had stitches on the left cheek. Back on the freighter, when Keamy killed the doctor, there were no stitches on that gash.
Right before he was murdered by Keamy, Captain Gault readied a Zodiac inflatable boat so that Desmond and Sayid could escape the freighter. Desmond refused to return to the island, so Sayid took off on his own.
That boat looked just big enough to hold about six people.