Season One: Episodes 5 – 8
Welcome back LOST fans to Re-Watch Week Number Two! As always I’ll be focusing the majority of my weekly article studying the character of John Locke with a follow-up section of my personal observations. Let’s get to it!
Looking at Locke:
These four episodes take place over days 6 through 9 on the island. By the time we see John Locke, the camp is out of water due to the theft of the remaining water bottles and Jack Shepherd is chasing an image of his father through the jungle. Kate and Sayid are about to set out to find water when Locke volunteers to go. “Besides, I know where to look”, he says with a mischievous grin as he heads toward the tree line. And then, in simply the most too good to be true timing, John shows up and rescues Jack as he is dangling on the side of a cliff by a tree root. As they sit together, with Jack catching his breath and sipping some water from Locke’s back pack, John suggests to Jack that seeing his elusive “white rabbit” may not be a hallucination after all. That the image Jack is chasing really exists and that everything that’s happening is happening for a reason. And with utter seriousness, John Locke says, “I’ve looked into the eye of this island. And what I saw was beautiful.” He then leaves Jack to “finish what he has started… because a leader can’t lead till he knows where he’s going.” We do not see Locke until the next day when he, Charlie, Kate and Jack head out to collect fresh water from the cave Jack discovered the night before. Upon arriving, John is amazed at what he’s seeing and Charlie is quick to tell him that “it is totally you”. Drama later ensues when Charlie attempts to take a quick snort of heroin over a bee hive on the jungle floor. Before Jack can cover it with a suitcase from the cave, however, Charlie crashes through the hive shell and the bees are angry, agitated and looking to sting anything that they see. In the aftermath, Jack and Kate come across two skeletons in the cave that John refers to “as our own little Adam and Eve”. After refilling several bottles and packing them away, Kate and Jack leave Charlie and Locke to sort through crash debris while they return to the beach with the much needed water. When Charlie makes a second attempt at trying to satisfy his addiction, Locke tells him that he won’t let Charlie break his line of site because “it’s dangerous out there”. Locke also asks Charlie, “Is there something you want to tell me?” before telling him, “I know who you are and I know what you’re looking for.” Charlie immediately gets angry and defensive, but is quickly disarmed when Locke tells him that he knew he was the bassist for Driveshaft. Locke admits to having both of the band’s albums and asks how long it’s been since Charlie has played his guitar. Charlie recites the exact day, hour, and minute since he last touched his prize possession and mourns over never seeing it again. Locke, looking at Charlie very seriously and with utmost certainty, tells him that “You’ll see it again, because I have faith, Charlie.” When Charlie flees the cave in an attempt to once again get high, he finds himself running right into the person he is trying to avoid: John Locke. Locke tells him that he knows what is going on and that he should give it up. He also asks Charlie if he wants his guitar more than the drugs. When Charlie admits that he would, Locke tells him that “the island just might give you what you’re looking for – but that you have to give the island something.” And in the moment when Charlie questions whether John would be able to find his guitar, Locke simply points up to the sky and asks Charlie to look up. There is the guitar, perched directly over their heads, caught in the vines of a cliff face. The next day, as Charlie is going through withdrawals, John uses Charlie as bait to catch a wild boar. When Charlie asks for his drugs back, Locke tells him he will only give them back when Charlie asks for them three times. Locke tells him that Charlie “is a lot stronger than he knows and that he is going to prove it” to him. He also explains to Charlie, that “If he had gotten rid of them” then Charlie “wouldn’t have a choice. And choice is the only thing that separates you from the boar.” Later that day when Charlie asks a second time for the drugs, Locke tells him the story of the moth inside a cocoon and that “struggle is nature’s way of strengthening.” When the cave-in occurs and Jack and Charlie are trapped in the debris, Locke is nowhere to be seen. He continues to be missing throughout the remainder of the day when Sayid is knocked unconscious by a blow to the back of his head while trying to triangulate the signal of Daniel’s transmission. He is later seen that evening roasting the boar and congratulating Charlie on his choice to destroy the remaining heroin. The next day, Sayid, injured and angry over the destroyed equipment and chance to find the source of the French transmission, questions Locke as to his alibi. Locke acknowledges that he was alone on his boar hunt, but that the “person who did it must have reason for not getting off the island… maybe someone who is profiting from the current circumstances.” Locke also points out to Sayid that Sawyer does “show animosity” towards him and that “maybe Sawyer time-delayed the fuse on his rocket by using a cigarette.” Locke then offers Sayid one of his sharp hunting knives “just in case there’s a next time.”
When I first watched these four episodes back in Season One, I was totally confused by John Locke’s character. HOW could he have known where Jack was on the cliff face, HOW did he know about Charlie’s addiction, WHY he used Charlie as bait to catch the boar, and WHY did he give Sayid the knife and point the finger at Sawyer for a crime that he himself committed? Now that we have the beginning of the understanding of the forces on the island and what they control, we can look back on these episodes and see that Locke was already under their influence. I personally believe that John Locke’s encounter with the Smoke Monster in Walkabout changed him or altered his character in some way. He was MORE than just John Locke after that meeting. It is the only way to explain some of his behaviors and actions exhibited in these episodes. I believe that he knew where to find Jack on the cliff face because of the Smoke Monster. Maybe the Smoke Monster showed him a vision during their encounter. Maybe it was from a dream the night before. But for him to show up just in the nick of time to rescue Jack without any panic or concern is just too coincidental and improbable. I also believe that he wanted Jack to continue on his journey of chasing Christian Shepherd to keep him from being a focused leader. We can see that while Jack is away chasing his ‘white rabbit’, the Losties start to fight and argue. The survivors NEED Jack as the leader to keep them from sliding into chaos. What better way of continuing the process of unraveling the community than getting Jack believing that his father isn’t dead but walking around some magical island that brought him there for a reason? He wants to unhinge Jack, but it doesn’t work. When Jack discovers his father’s coffin near the caves, Jack has a decision to make. He can continue to hold onto his father and not let go of him or he can mentally bury his father and move on. He chooses the latter and returns to the camp just in time to prevent Boone from being strung up for stealing the remaining water. This is when Jack uses the famous “live together, die alone” phrase. I always wondered if he was referring to his father and his last days when he spoke these words. One thing that is for certain, Locke is not among the Losties when this speech is given. He, the hunter, is somewhere in the jungle.
I also think that the encounter John Locke had with the Smoke Monster also contributed to how he handled Charlie Pace and his addiction. I find it hard to believe that John Locke knew that Charlie Pace was part of Driveshaft prior to his meeting with Smoky. I remember a scene in Tabula Rasa while he is carving the dog whistle that Charlie tries to strike up a conversation. Charlie talks about being in a band and playing tribal flutes during a recording session. There is no reaction whatsoever from John Locke. Until this trek into the jungle to find water in the caves, it appears that Charlie and Locke have had no further conversations. And yet Locke later knows that Charlie plays bass guitar for Driveshaft and has both of their albums. Oh… and that he’s a drug addict. No one else suspects that Charlie has a problem, but John Locke, solitary man, knows exactly what’s going on. Sorry, but this chick doesn’t buy it! I think that Locke, now changed after this encounter with Smoky, used this information to get Charlie to stop taking the drugs. Not because he wanted him to be cured, but because it potentially can create chaos when someone comes off drugs! We saw how Charlie reacted as the drugs left his body. He became agitated, angry, and combative. Just what Smoky and the anti-Jacob want in the Losties camp! If John Locke truly cared about Charlie and about helping him, he would NOT have used him for boar bait. He would NOT have ignored him and left him alone.
Finally, I believe that Locke pointing Sayid in Sawyer’s direction in Confidence Man was completely deceptive and evil. He KNEW he was the one who whacked Sayid over the head and destroyed the equipment. Yet he sets up Sawyer as the bad guy and offers Sayid a knife. And just like putting a piece of prime rib in front of a hungry pit bull, Sayid took the bait. This is the best example of what I believe Smoky has done to the character of John Locke. He is working through him to create chaos and hostility. He wants the Losties to become another example of people who have come to the island fighting, destroying, and corrupting. The Locke we are looking at now is deceptive, informative, confident, and aloof. This is not John Locke’s natural character. It must be because of the run-in with the Smoke Monster. And perhaps the Losties encounter with Jacob has prevented this chaos from taking root. Just a thought.
My quick list of observations:
1. At the start of White Rabbit, Charlie screams at Jack to save the person drowning in the ocean. He tells Jack that he can’t swim. I find that interesting, since we later see him swimming down to the Looking Glass station and also when he was a young boy. Does he say that because he truly can’t swim or because he is afraid?
2. We learn fairly quickly that there is a water shortage on the island. How can that be, since Sayid put himself in charge of water collection just two days earlier? How can the man who named himself leader of water not know where the water is? He has instead spent his time working on the triangulation of the signal. In House of the Rising Sun, Sayid tells Jack that he’s going to talk to Sun and get to the bottom of the attack between Jin and Michael. Yet, he does not. Again, he is caught up in identifying the signal. Why is Sayid not doing what he says he will do?
3. Isn’t it amazing that Charlie, Kate, and Jack all received red welts by the swarming, angry bees, but not Locke? He was the last to run away when the bees took to flight, yet he has not one welt on his body that we can see. Hmmmm. Maybe Smoky is a good deterent?!!!

Jun 14th by TimeIsRelative