Welcome back folks to another TV or Not TV morning after for LOST.

Last week I opted not to say very much about the episode “WHAT KATE DOES” mainly because of the following tweet from Damon Lindelof.

Since I have no interest in watching NCIS: Los Angeles I opted to stay mum. Not a lot happened last week so there wasn’t very much to actually expand on. There weren’t many revelations or unique thoughts that popped in to my head. I can’t say the same for this week. As always I will warn you that I do not hold back on information that we were given in the episode and I’ll be taking that a step further based on the preview that we were given for next week. If you haven’t seen the episode “The Substitute” yet and you continue to read please be aware that you are volunteering to get SPOILERS thrown at you.

The Substitute had the same method of story telling that we have seen in the episodes prior. We have the on Island story and the “sideways flash” storyline. This week that story line was about our dearly departed (but now alive in the sideways flash) John Locke.

I have to admit that these sideways flash story lines have done very little to hold my interest but this week I bought in to the concept completely. I don’t know if it is because we are seeing the story of a character that is now dead in the time line/reality that we’ve come to know on the show or not but I was very eager to learn of John Locke. This particular John Locke has some differences than the other John Locke we knew. It turns out he is engaged to be married to Helen Norwood and, in a very interesting twist, it would seem that he is on speaking terms with his father (which a keen eye may notice a picture of the two together on a hunting trip displayed on his cubical wall just below a picture of he and Helen together). We also find out that this John Locke did try to go on Walkabout and was told that he couldn’t. Unlike the John Locke we are used to, however, by the end of this episode we find out that this John Locke is finally ready to accept that fact that there are some things that he just can no longer do.

The sideways flash also caused a bit of a spark in my head when we discovered that the temp agency that Hurley sent Locke to had Rose (of Rose & Bernard) working there. She reveals to Locke, during their discussion, that she has terminal cancer but decided to keep living the life that she had. This made me realize that this other Locke may not have quite such a good future going for him since, as seen in last season’s LIFE AND DEATH OF JEREMY BENTHAM, Helen may die of a brain aneurysm in 2007. I doubt we’ll see that far ahead into the sideways flashes, however, so that probably won’t happen. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Benjamin Linus works at the school where Locke goes to as a substitute teacher as the European History teacher. WHOAH!

Back on the Island, after much drama and discussion we were given a pretty big reveal. Jacob, it would seem, has been drawing people to the Island as potential replacements for him to serve as the protector of the Island. This process, it would appear, involved Jacob touching people some time in their past (even though in Hurley and Sayid’s case it was AFTER they landed on the Island). Suddenly some of the subtle differences in the sideways flash reality are starting to make a little bit of sense. Cindy, the flight attendant, only gives Jack one extra mini-bottle of alcohol instead of two because this Jack won’t need the second to sterilize the needle (and cleanse the wound) in his side right after the plane crash. Maybe this means that the sideways flash John Locke some how wound up in his wheelchair through another incident as it seemed pretty clear that Jacob revived the “my daddy pushed me out the window” John Locke.

When it comes to Jacob’s list and what it means I have to ask the same question that Sawyer does: What does the Island need protecting from? According the the Evil Locke nothing, but we know that can’t be true. We also learn that Jacob seemed to have a thing for numbers and assigned each candidate with a number. It just so happens that all of our Flight 815 candidates were assigned the same numbers used in the hatch, stamped on to the hatch, and transmitted from the Island prior to Russo changing the recording. All of this was revealed to Sawyer (also known as James Ford) and after learning all of this he appears to be willing to help Evil Locke in getting off the Island in an attempt to go home.

There were other tid-bits thrown our way during the episode.

• Ilana was crying inside of the base of the statue in the same way that someone who has lost someone important to them might. Right after this she collects some of Jacob’s ashes. I don’t know if this is because Jacob was the someone that was important to her or if it will be used some how later as a protection method against the Evil Locke/Smoke Monster. Time will tell on this one.
• Evil Locke is now stuck in the appearance of John Locke. We don’t know why, it’s just what Illana told us.
• Evil Locke is not immune to seeing things on the Island. He had a vision of a young blonde boy with blood on his hands that Richard Alpert couldn’t see.
• There still appear to be rules in place and Evil Locke is not allowed to kill any of the chosen candidates (as revealed by the same young blonde boy who’se hands this time were not bloody and who was able to be seen by Sawyer). This may mean that the candidate’s job won’t be protecting the Island so much as making sure that the Evil Locke/Smoke Monster doesn’t get to leave the Island.

So the above is everything I was able to take away from the episode. What are we in store for next week?

Next week’s episode title is “The Lighthouse.” If we can believe the previews that they showed us at the end of this week’s episode (since we’ve seen some of these same clips in a briefer form after the two prior episodes) it would appear that we are going to find out how Jin is faring with Claire Gone Wild. From the many glimpses of Jacob in the preview and from the quick shot of Jack yelling at Hurley about “What does he want from me?!?” followed by the subsequent smashing of glass I think that Jack is taken to some sort of lighthouse and Hurley is being a communication conduit for Jacob. I don’t know if the Lighthouse is a literal lighthouse or if it is instead some mystical lighthouse (it does, after all, look like it’s been carved out of stone) but whatever it’s function Jack must not like it enough to smash some glass (unless he’s just irrationally pissed). I have no idea.

This being the last season I don’t really like to dwell too much on what the end game plan is for the show. Last week’s episode aside I like that the momentum is picking up again and the direction that they are heading seems to be a good one. I just hope it doesn’t get too confusing over the next few episodes.

Comments: None