LOST: Episode 3-13

The Man From Tallahassee

Another great episode! I'm so happy that the show has recaptured some of its magic. When the third season started with the focus on Jack, Kate, Sawyer and the Others, I was still enjoying it, but I wasn't as excited about it as I used to be. After these past few episodes, however, the excitement has returned. Yay!

Jack

So I guess Jack was just pretending to be happy and cooperative to ease his way off of the island. I believed him when he told Kate that he was just trying to get off the island and get help for everyone else. It fits with his savior complex. That was a nice scene between them.

Otherville

They may have a sheriff, but they apparently don't have a jail cell if they had to lock Kate in the billiard room and chain poor Sayid to the swingset. (speaking of Sayid, every time I see that Grindhouse trailer - which freaks me out, by the way - I'm like, "Hey! Sayid!" I never remember that he's in that)...Anyway, I'm glad that Sayid told Alex about her mother and I liked the way he told her. Oh, and it was also interesting that Tom reminded Jack to be wary of people listeninng in. Is Tom becoming one of the disenfranchised Others?

Benry

Is it the writing, or the way a line is delivered that makes it so good? Because Benry had the best lines last night, especially the ones about the code for "there's a man in the closet pointing a gun at my daughter's head" and "we have two giant hamster running on wheels in our secret underground lair". Awesome.

John's Flashback

Finally we found out how Locke becamed paralyzed and the explanation was a doozy: His no-good con man father shoved him out of an eighth-story window. It's no wonder Locke is so desperate to find something to believe in and trust! The island gave him back everything that his father took from him. I think he feels he needs to "protect" it somehow and that's a big reason why he keeps destroying the things that would lead to contact with the outside world. The scene where his nurse puts him in the wheelchair was so heartbreaking. I liked how what the nurse said to him - something along the lines of "you fell eight stories onto your back and survived - don't tell me what you can't do" - echoed what John has said to other people in the past ("don't tell me what I can't do").

John and Benry

I think Benry was being straight with John when he told him that he was interested in John because he had a connection with the island that Benry doesn't have. What did John mean when he said that Benry was "cheating"?

I wonder what this metaphorical "magic box" is - does the island conjure up anything you want? It can't be that simple, or a rescue boat or plane would have come by this point, simply as a result of the castaways praying for one. I think that the things that come from the "magic box" have to be somehow linked to a person's emotional or psychological distress: Jack's father, Kate's horse? And now we have the Man from Tallahassee himself, Locke's father, brought to the island and wrapped in a pretty bow for John by Benry. I think. What in the world is going on?!

Hey, here's a question for you: Why was John soaking wet after placing the C4 charge on the sub? When last we saw him he was inside the sub - why did he end up in the water? Is it even significant?

Interesting Tidbits from Around the Internets:

"Anthony Cooper, Adam Seward" (Locke's father's 2 names in the flashback) is an anagram for "Sawyer, the con man, a poor dad". The prevailing theory out there is that Locke's father is the real Sawyer, the one who conned our Sawyer's parents, who then both died as a result.

In Sawyer's prison flashback, he mentions having been in Tallahassee - looking for the real Sawyer, perhaps?

Locke fell 8 stories and was paralyzed for 4 years. And speaking of the numbers, in the episode where Hurley is in the institution ("Numbers"), this is what Leonard tells him after finding out that Hurley used the numbers in the lottery: "Well, you shouldn't have done that. You've opened the box."

Finally, speaking of boxes...I'm not sure if we've had confirmation of this yet, but its seems that Hurley was definitely the owner of the box company that John worked for. In "Numbers", Hurley is told, "you are now the majority shareholder in a box company in Tustin." Locke's address in The Man From Tallahassee is 168 San Juan St, Tustin, California.

Next week: back to the beach!