Technically, this is fan-fiction, but also a theory. I just can’t think of a better way of writing it other than to structure it like a short story.
First of all, I don’t believe this is going to happen, nor do I necessarily want it to happen. Locke has been my firm favourite character since Walkabout aired back in 2004, and has been the reason I have invested as much time in the show as I have done. His death(s) hit me like a sack of hammers every time from his being left for dead in the pit by Ben, to his reveal of being in the coffin, to his last reveal of… well, still being in the coffin. But in an ideal Lost world, where anything can happen, I would love to see him return. Alas, I am a firm believer in whatever happened, happened and that dead is truly dead. Especially since watching interviews with Matthew Fox.
He has more or less given the explanation as to why Locke will remain dead in small drips of info of what he has discussed with co-creator Lindelof.
Exhibit A) He said he is really interested in seeing where the whole Locke versus Jack thing will finally end up – fate vs. science. But not that Jack is a converted Locke-follower, the new Locke aka MIB is now taking the mantle of Jack’s old position. Considering MIB does not have “faith” in the human condition at all. So this Locke vs. Jack ideological struggle can continue to a conclusion only with both men having switched sides, which in itself will be interesting.
Exhibit B) Fox also kept on stating in numerous interviews that “thanks to Locke Jack is now a man of faith." In other words, Locke has fulfilled his purpose by imbuing Jack with his own belief in destiny. Locke lives on in the spirit of the new Jack.
New Jack vs. New Locke.
It does make sense narrative wise. I think Fox is trying to subtly hint to audiences that Locke’s role is done, even if we are not satisfied that he did not become the hero we so wanted him to be. From a story standpoint Jack has been the main character and hero since the opening scene of the show, and this is really about his ultimate heroism at the end of the day. Locke was the second most important character after Jack for the writers as he would inevitably put Jack on his path to being a cohesive, complete leader figure who no longer doubts the existence of magic and destiny in the world.
From the moment I saw their scene towards the end of Exodus in Season 1 where Locke famously does his "destiny" speech, I knew Locke would eventually convince Jack that he was right by the end of the show. Convince him that he is right about pushing the button (a fact he fails to mention to Jack later on which always got my goat), right about everyone being their for a reason (Jacob's visits hint at this more than ever), right about moving the island and believing in miracles, but above all else, right about Jack being the leader and then only one who needed convincing. People say Locke didn't really get the Oceanic Six together, but he did. He set the chain of events in motion with every conversation he and Jack had ever had on and off the island starting with White Rabbit and ending in The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham. It was a long process, but he actually did it.
"I wished you had believed me..." Locke, wherever you are, Jack finally believed what you believed and more importantly, believed in YOU. "I woudln't give up on him yet..." Jack has made the transition from angry, impulsive leader to faith heeding, island believing, destiny mapping hero. He is now the composite version of the old Jack and the old Locke.
And he will carry on where John left off.
Jack is the new Locke. And while for Locke fans like myself, that is a bit of a disappointment, it gives John’s story a sense of purpose and destiny. Just not the purpose or destiny we, or even he, expected.
So in light of this, I will now deliver my own spiritual conclusion to Locke’s character in a part fan-fic, part fan-theory short story that I hope will shed light on my current assumptions better.
Just to add, I wanted to say how much I love this show and will sorely miss it when it wraps next year. It’s been emotional.
WALKABOUT II
The decaying hotel room is dark.
The body of John Locke hangs from the ceiling. Dead at the hands of Benjamin Linus.
For him there is only darkness now in his eternal sleep.
-.
John Locke awakens in a familiar place. The sound of beeping brings him around into lucidity. It is the sound of the button in the hatch. He rises from the bunk, confused as to how he got here.
He tries to move his legs off from the lower bunk but cannot feel anything below his waist. He panics, grasping at his trousers and trying to move them. He sees a wheelchair by the side of the bed.
HIS wheelchair.
Locke remembers so vividly the feel of the chair’s seat on his back as he places himself inside of it. He begins to push the wheels forward and moves towards the computer in the next room.
“Hello?” he calls out, in the hopes that somebody will answer. But the only answer he gets is his voice echoing around the empty bunker.
He sees the timer counting down. Only instead of numbers it is the Egyptian hieroglyphics flipping down at a fast speed. He wheels himself towards the computer. A large crack is evident in the monitor.
“Of course,” he thinks to himself, he remembers smashing it into the ground. His fingers type in the code but the screen is blank.
“What is this? Why am I here?” he asks himself.
Is he dead?
Is this heaven?
Hell?
The timer suddenly stops and flips back to 108. It is at this moment a familiar voice speaks out from behind him.
Locke turns his head to see Desmond sitting on a desk by the bookshelf.
“Hi there box man,” he says.
“Desmond? Is that you?”
Desmond shakes his head.
A moment of dread overcomes Locke.
Desmond puts him at ease and says, “We thought a familiar face would be easier for you.”
Locke brings himself closer to Desmond.
“Am I… Am I dead?” Locke asks sheepishly.
Desmond leans in close to him and says, “Do you remember coming down here?”
Locke nods.
“Then the only way for you to find your way out of here is the same way you came in.”
Desmond motions with a tilt of his head towards the corridor that leads to the hatch tunnel.
Locke looks in the direction and then turns back to see Desmond has gone.
“Desmond?” he calls out. “Desmond?!”
-
Locke stares up the long tunnel towards the hatch door at the very top. He sees the ladder, unbroken, leading up from the ground. He doesn’t know if this is the past, the afterlife or a hallucination, but he knows he is not supposed to stay down here.
Locke struggles out of the chair and his hands grip the ladder’s iron bars. He uses all of his upper body strength to drag his paralysed legs upwards. He begins to climb, grimacing with each reach.
It is a painful exertion all the way to the top.
Upon reaching the still sealed hatch door, Locke looks down, barely being able to see his wheelchair at the bottom. His arm hooks around one of the ladder bars as he uses his other fist to bang on the hatch door.
“Hello!!” he cries.
He bangs on it again.
“I can’t get out!”
Suddenly, a deafening sound of the hatch door unlocking silences his cries. It begins to unlatch and open wide. As the door hinges open, a bright light begins to consume Locke from the outside, much in the same manner as the light from the time flashes.
It blinds him until all he can see is white.
-
Locke uncovers his eyes to find himself sitting in his wheelchair on the beach amongst the flaming wreckage from the plane. This is the day of the crash. But where is everyone? The plane debris is still scattered along the beach, the fires still burn, the smoke still rises up black into the sky, but there are no survivors.
No Jack racing across the sand and saving lives, no Shannon screaming in shock, no Jin calling out for Sun… there is only silence and the sound of the waves.
Locke squints his eyes to see a figure approaching from the distance, blurred by the sun and heat waves in the air.
Charlie walks towards him, dressed exactly as he was the day the plane crashed.
Locke is shocked, but he also wants to smile. “Charlie?”
“Hey John,” Charlie says to him as he gets closer.
“It can’t be. You’re… you’re dead.”
Charlie smiles and bends down to his eye level gripping Locke’s arm rests.
“So are you John. Remember?”
Locke gets a flash of Ben strangling him with the wire. He flinches.
“I am?”
“I’m afraid so mate. But all’s not lost.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you remember telling me about the moth cocoon John?”
Locke thinks for a moment and nods. “I do.”
“Struggle is nature’s way of strengthening it you said. Well, you have to struggle before you can be free John. This is your test. Your final test.”
“I don’t understand Charlie. How can we be here? On the island?”
“It’s not an island John, you know that.”
“What?”
“It’s the place where miracles happen,” says Charlie as he smiles at him. He walks around behind him and begins pushing Locke along in the wheelchair.
Locke looks around. “None of this is real is it? You’re not real?”
Charlie does not answer.
Locke begins to feel frustrated, “Why can’t I walk?”
“You can walk. You just don’t believe you can yet.”
“Stop.”
Charlie stops pushing him.
Locke turns the chair around to face him.
“I’m tired of not knowing. I have done everything the island wanted me to do. Even when it meant I had to kill for it. What do you want from me?!”
Charlie sighs. He sees a piece of wreckage beside them and sits down on it to face him.
“There’s always a choice John. Always. The island never demanded or ordered you to do anything. It took you out of that chair and made you whole not to control you, but to give you your freedom back. And your freedom of choice. Every decision you made here was yours and yours alone to make. There have been forces that have tried and succeeded in influencing you on your path… and it led to your death. Now there’s a very powerful enemy out there using what’s left of you to change things. And John… those changes are going to be very bad for the island and for everyone on it.”
“So, this is where you tell me it’s my destiny to save the island?” says Locke in a disbelieving, sarcastic tone of voice.
“The island can save itself. It was never your destiny to save it or anyone else. It was your destiny to help others find theirs. If you hadn’t made it onto flight 815, a lot of people would have been lost here, including me. You set in motion the chain of events necessary to get everybody to the places they needed to be. Now it’s time to get you back to where YOU need to be.”
“To do what?!”
“I can’t tell you that John. All I can say is; you’ll be given a choice.”
Charlie gets up and begins to walk towards the ocean.
“Charlie wait!”
“It’s time for you to move on now John.”
“Where? I can’t move. My legs…”
Charlie cuts him off, “Don’t tell me what you can’t do.”
Locke wiggles his foot. And then the other. He looks up to Charlie and is overwhelmed. He gets up from the chair and struggles to get his balance as if he had been in the chair for 4 years all over again.
He looks back to see if Charlie is still by the ocean, but he has gone.
Locke calls out, “Charlie?!”
He turns around.
-
Only to find himself back in the jungle by the yellow beach-craft crashed in a heap beside him.
Locke stumbles toward it, still unsure on his feet. His hand caresses its surface to test how real it is. He looks up to the cliff edge where it once perched upon.
Locke shouts out, “What choice? Why not just tell me? How can I make a choice when I’m already dead?” Locke looks over to see an axe laying the grass. He puzzles over it for a moment. It seems so familiar. It is at that moment he realises it is the axe he and Eko used to open The Pearl hatch with.
He picks it up and holds it in his hands. He looks back up to the cliff edge and heads for the thicket of branches that cover the cliff wall. He begins to climb using the axe as his grip just like Eko once did. He ascends further and further, climbing upwards to a place he had never been given the chance to reach before.
Locke’s dirty fingers grip the heath of land on the cliff ledge and he pulls himself up onto it. He is breathless and sweating. He goes to push himself up only to stop and see something he had not prepared to see.
The cabin.
-
“Jacob,” Locke whispers to himself.
The door creaks open and a figure steps out in the shadows.
But it is not Jacob.
It is Mr. Eko.
“Hello John.”
Locke is not that surprised to see him after his encounter with Charlie. Breathlessly and with a small smirk, Locke replies, “Hello Eko.”
“I have been waiting for you, “says Eko.
Locke moves closer to the cabin porch where Eko stands. Locke continues, “Are you speaking on behalf of Jacob ?”
“No John. No one speaks on the behalf of Jacob. Jacob has only ever spoken for himself. The man in this cabin, the one you have been taking your orders from… he is the one who really killed you… and he is the one who killed me.”
Locke shows Eko a look of complete puzzlement. “That can’t be.”
“What was the last thing I told you John?”
“You said we were next.”
“YOU. You were next John. The man in this cabin chose you. He needed you.”
“For what?”
“So he could come back. To change the rules.”
“How do I know I can trust any of this?”
“Because you have unfinished business, and you know it.”
Locke looks through the ajar cabin door.
“What’s in there?”
“A choice.”
Eko enters and looks back to Locke. “Do not be afraid John.”
Locke cautiously approaches the cabin door. He enters.
The door closes behind him.
-
In the cabin there is the table and rocking chair. On the table are many items.
A book,
A receptacle of sand,
A comic,
A compass,
and a knife.
Eko stands on the other side of the table and looks at Locke.
“Are you ready to make your choice?” he says to him.
Locke’s eyes scan over the items. Suddenly he hears a sound at the window and turns.
He quickly runs up to investigate only to glimpse the sight of Hurley looking startled and falling backwards from the window. Locke whip turns to Eko and urgently pleads, “What’s Hurley doing here?”
“Time is beginning to catch up with you and this place. You must make your choice and make it soon.”
“If none of this is real what does time matter? I’ve been to the past and the future, and I’ve seen ghosts and had visions of things I never imagined possible. I was told I was special and that I had a destiny and you’re telling me now that I’m dead, and that after everything I have seen it all comes down to a choice being made here and now?”
“The real question you have to ask yourself is whether or not you still believe? Now there is only one way out of here John and that is by choosing the one thing that can save you. The items in this room are of great importance but only one of them is truly yours. And you can only take one of them back with you.”
“Back? Back where?”
A burst of flame explodes across the floor and spreads across the walls consuming the furniture and framework. Locke turns and sees out of the window a group of people walking away from the cabin carrying a large, metal crate. He goes for the door.
Eko warns, “Your path is not with them John. They have already chosen a side, a destiny. You’re path ends here, in this cabin. Right now.”
“This place is burning down, we have to get out of here! It’s real, all of this! I can feel the heat.”
Locke looks around desperately for something to put out the flames with but cannot find anything and the fire is spreading even faster. Eko stands in front of the flames that burn bright behind him. Locke looks to the table with the items placed on it. He moves closer.
The roof begins to cave in.
“Hurry John. Your time is almost up.”
A line of fire separates Locke from the table, but he already has made his choice. He made it a long time ago.
His hand reaches through the flames that burn his hand, the flesh melting and singeing in the heat. Locke grimaces but does not scream. The compass lies at his fingertips, but his hand grips instead the KNIFE.
His fingers wrap around the handle tight as he pulls it from the flames and towards his body.
He looks to Eko.
Eko says to him, “It is time.”
Locke closes his eyes as the cabin collapses around him in flame and debris consuming everything.
-
TODAY
The cabin is a burnt out shell and darkness has fallen upon it.
Illana and the others have long since gone.
The last embers are smoking into the cool night air.
But a figure appears in the doorway from another place, and another time.
The figure is John Locke. His arm burnt and his hand gripping the knife.
Only Locke no longer looks like Locke. His image is familiar of another man we know.
John Locke has returned to the island, but he has returned instead, as Jack Shephard.
A man of faith.
--
LOST
First of all, I don’t believe this is going to happen, nor do I necessarily want it to happen. Locke has been my firm favourite character since Walkabout aired back in 2004, and has been the reason I have invested as much time in the show as I have done. His death(s) hit me like a sack of hammers every time from his being left for dead in the pit by Ben, to his reveal of being in the coffin, to his last reveal of… well, still being in the coffin. But in an ideal Lost world, where anything can happen, I would love to see him return. Alas, I am a firm believer in whatever happened, happened and that dead is truly dead. Especially since watching interviews with Matthew Fox.
He has more or less given the explanation as to why Locke will remain dead in small drips of info of what he has discussed with co-creator Lindelof.
Exhibit A) He said he is really interested in seeing where the whole Locke versus Jack thing will finally end up – fate vs. science. But not that Jack is a converted Locke-follower, the new Locke aka MIB is now taking the mantle of Jack’s old position. Considering MIB does not have “faith” in the human condition at all. So this Locke vs. Jack ideological struggle can continue to a conclusion only with both men having switched sides, which in itself will be interesting.
Exhibit B) Fox also kept on stating in numerous interviews that “thanks to Locke Jack is now a man of faith." In other words, Locke has fulfilled his purpose by imbuing Jack with his own belief in destiny. Locke lives on in the spirit of the new Jack.
New Jack vs. New Locke.
It does make sense narrative wise. I think Fox is trying to subtly hint to audiences that Locke’s role is done, even if we are not satisfied that he did not become the hero we so wanted him to be. From a story standpoint Jack has been the main character and hero since the opening scene of the show, and this is really about his ultimate heroism at the end of the day. Locke was the second most important character after Jack for the writers as he would inevitably put Jack on his path to being a cohesive, complete leader figure who no longer doubts the existence of magic and destiny in the world.
From the moment I saw their scene towards the end of Exodus in Season 1 where Locke famously does his "destiny" speech, I knew Locke would eventually convince Jack that he was right by the end of the show. Convince him that he is right about pushing the button (a fact he fails to mention to Jack later on which always got my goat), right about everyone being their for a reason (Jacob's visits hint at this more than ever), right about moving the island and believing in miracles, but above all else, right about Jack being the leader and then only one who needed convincing. People say Locke didn't really get the Oceanic Six together, but he did. He set the chain of events in motion with every conversation he and Jack had ever had on and off the island starting with White Rabbit and ending in The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham. It was a long process, but he actually did it.
"I wished you had believed me..." Locke, wherever you are, Jack finally believed what you believed and more importantly, believed in YOU. "I woudln't give up on him yet..." Jack has made the transition from angry, impulsive leader to faith heeding, island believing, destiny mapping hero. He is now the composite version of the old Jack and the old Locke.
And he will carry on where John left off.
Jack is the new Locke. And while for Locke fans like myself, that is a bit of a disappointment, it gives John’s story a sense of purpose and destiny. Just not the purpose or destiny we, or even he, expected.
So in light of this, I will now deliver my own spiritual conclusion to Locke’s character in a part fan-fic, part fan-theory short story that I hope will shed light on my current assumptions better.
Just to add, I wanted to say how much I love this show and will sorely miss it when it wraps next year. It’s been emotional.
WALKABOUT II
The decaying hotel room is dark.
The body of John Locke hangs from the ceiling. Dead at the hands of Benjamin Linus.
For him there is only darkness now in his eternal sleep.
-.
John Locke awakens in a familiar place. The sound of beeping brings him around into lucidity. It is the sound of the button in the hatch. He rises from the bunk, confused as to how he got here.
He tries to move his legs off from the lower bunk but cannot feel anything below his waist. He panics, grasping at his trousers and trying to move them. He sees a wheelchair by the side of the bed.
HIS wheelchair.
Locke remembers so vividly the feel of the chair’s seat on his back as he places himself inside of it. He begins to push the wheels forward and moves towards the computer in the next room.
“Hello?” he calls out, in the hopes that somebody will answer. But the only answer he gets is his voice echoing around the empty bunker.
He sees the timer counting down. Only instead of numbers it is the Egyptian hieroglyphics flipping down at a fast speed. He wheels himself towards the computer. A large crack is evident in the monitor.
“Of course,” he thinks to himself, he remembers smashing it into the ground. His fingers type in the code but the screen is blank.
“What is this? Why am I here?” he asks himself.
Is he dead?
Is this heaven?
Hell?
The timer suddenly stops and flips back to 108. It is at this moment a familiar voice speaks out from behind him.
Locke turns his head to see Desmond sitting on a desk by the bookshelf.
“Hi there box man,” he says.
“Desmond? Is that you?”
Desmond shakes his head.
A moment of dread overcomes Locke.
Desmond puts him at ease and says, “We thought a familiar face would be easier for you.”
Locke brings himself closer to Desmond.
“Am I… Am I dead?” Locke asks sheepishly.
Desmond leans in close to him and says, “Do you remember coming down here?”
Locke nods.
“Then the only way for you to find your way out of here is the same way you came in.”
Desmond motions with a tilt of his head towards the corridor that leads to the hatch tunnel.
Locke looks in the direction and then turns back to see Desmond has gone.
“Desmond?” he calls out. “Desmond?!”
-
Locke stares up the long tunnel towards the hatch door at the very top. He sees the ladder, unbroken, leading up from the ground. He doesn’t know if this is the past, the afterlife or a hallucination, but he knows he is not supposed to stay down here.
Locke struggles out of the chair and his hands grip the ladder’s iron bars. He uses all of his upper body strength to drag his paralysed legs upwards. He begins to climb, grimacing with each reach.
It is a painful exertion all the way to the top.
Upon reaching the still sealed hatch door, Locke looks down, barely being able to see his wheelchair at the bottom. His arm hooks around one of the ladder bars as he uses his other fist to bang on the hatch door.
“Hello!!” he cries.
He bangs on it again.
“I can’t get out!”
Suddenly, a deafening sound of the hatch door unlocking silences his cries. It begins to unlatch and open wide. As the door hinges open, a bright light begins to consume Locke from the outside, much in the same manner as the light from the time flashes.
It blinds him until all he can see is white.
-
Locke uncovers his eyes to find himself sitting in his wheelchair on the beach amongst the flaming wreckage from the plane. This is the day of the crash. But where is everyone? The plane debris is still scattered along the beach, the fires still burn, the smoke still rises up black into the sky, but there are no survivors.
No Jack racing across the sand and saving lives, no Shannon screaming in shock, no Jin calling out for Sun… there is only silence and the sound of the waves.
Locke squints his eyes to see a figure approaching from the distance, blurred by the sun and heat waves in the air.
Charlie walks towards him, dressed exactly as he was the day the plane crashed.
Locke is shocked, but he also wants to smile. “Charlie?”
“Hey John,” Charlie says to him as he gets closer.
“It can’t be. You’re… you’re dead.”
Charlie smiles and bends down to his eye level gripping Locke’s arm rests.
“So are you John. Remember?”
Locke gets a flash of Ben strangling him with the wire. He flinches.
“I am?”
“I’m afraid so mate. But all’s not lost.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you remember telling me about the moth cocoon John?”
Locke thinks for a moment and nods. “I do.”
“Struggle is nature’s way of strengthening it you said. Well, you have to struggle before you can be free John. This is your test. Your final test.”
“I don’t understand Charlie. How can we be here? On the island?”
“It’s not an island John, you know that.”
“What?”
“It’s the place where miracles happen,” says Charlie as he smiles at him. He walks around behind him and begins pushing Locke along in the wheelchair.
Locke looks around. “None of this is real is it? You’re not real?”
Charlie does not answer.
Locke begins to feel frustrated, “Why can’t I walk?”
“You can walk. You just don’t believe you can yet.”
“Stop.”
Charlie stops pushing him.
Locke turns the chair around to face him.
“I’m tired of not knowing. I have done everything the island wanted me to do. Even when it meant I had to kill for it. What do you want from me?!”
Charlie sighs. He sees a piece of wreckage beside them and sits down on it to face him.
“There’s always a choice John. Always. The island never demanded or ordered you to do anything. It took you out of that chair and made you whole not to control you, but to give you your freedom back. And your freedom of choice. Every decision you made here was yours and yours alone to make. There have been forces that have tried and succeeded in influencing you on your path… and it led to your death. Now there’s a very powerful enemy out there using what’s left of you to change things. And John… those changes are going to be very bad for the island and for everyone on it.”
“So, this is where you tell me it’s my destiny to save the island?” says Locke in a disbelieving, sarcastic tone of voice.
“The island can save itself. It was never your destiny to save it or anyone else. It was your destiny to help others find theirs. If you hadn’t made it onto flight 815, a lot of people would have been lost here, including me. You set in motion the chain of events necessary to get everybody to the places they needed to be. Now it’s time to get you back to where YOU need to be.”
“To do what?!”
“I can’t tell you that John. All I can say is; you’ll be given a choice.”
Charlie gets up and begins to walk towards the ocean.
“Charlie wait!”
“It’s time for you to move on now John.”
“Where? I can’t move. My legs…”
Charlie cuts him off, “Don’t tell me what you can’t do.”
Locke wiggles his foot. And then the other. He looks up to Charlie and is overwhelmed. He gets up from the chair and struggles to get his balance as if he had been in the chair for 4 years all over again.
He looks back to see if Charlie is still by the ocean, but he has gone.
Locke calls out, “Charlie?!”
He turns around.
-
Only to find himself back in the jungle by the yellow beach-craft crashed in a heap beside him.
Locke stumbles toward it, still unsure on his feet. His hand caresses its surface to test how real it is. He looks up to the cliff edge where it once perched upon.
Locke shouts out, “What choice? Why not just tell me? How can I make a choice when I’m already dead?” Locke looks over to see an axe laying the grass. He puzzles over it for a moment. It seems so familiar. It is at that moment he realises it is the axe he and Eko used to open The Pearl hatch with.
He picks it up and holds it in his hands. He looks back up to the cliff edge and heads for the thicket of branches that cover the cliff wall. He begins to climb using the axe as his grip just like Eko once did. He ascends further and further, climbing upwards to a place he had never been given the chance to reach before.
Locke’s dirty fingers grip the heath of land on the cliff ledge and he pulls himself up onto it. He is breathless and sweating. He goes to push himself up only to stop and see something he had not prepared to see.
The cabin.
-
“Jacob,” Locke whispers to himself.
The door creaks open and a figure steps out in the shadows.
But it is not Jacob.
It is Mr. Eko.
“Hello John.”
Locke is not that surprised to see him after his encounter with Charlie. Breathlessly and with a small smirk, Locke replies, “Hello Eko.”
“I have been waiting for you, “says Eko.
Locke moves closer to the cabin porch where Eko stands. Locke continues, “Are you speaking on behalf of Jacob ?”
“No John. No one speaks on the behalf of Jacob. Jacob has only ever spoken for himself. The man in this cabin, the one you have been taking your orders from… he is the one who really killed you… and he is the one who killed me.”
Locke shows Eko a look of complete puzzlement. “That can’t be.”
“What was the last thing I told you John?”
“You said we were next.”
“YOU. You were next John. The man in this cabin chose you. He needed you.”
“For what?”
“So he could come back. To change the rules.”
“How do I know I can trust any of this?”
“Because you have unfinished business, and you know it.”
Locke looks through the ajar cabin door.
“What’s in there?”
“A choice.”
Eko enters and looks back to Locke. “Do not be afraid John.”
Locke cautiously approaches the cabin door. He enters.
The door closes behind him.
-
In the cabin there is the table and rocking chair. On the table are many items.
A book,
A receptacle of sand,
A comic,
A compass,
and a knife.
Eko stands on the other side of the table and looks at Locke.
“Are you ready to make your choice?” he says to him.
Locke’s eyes scan over the items. Suddenly he hears a sound at the window and turns.
He quickly runs up to investigate only to glimpse the sight of Hurley looking startled and falling backwards from the window. Locke whip turns to Eko and urgently pleads, “What’s Hurley doing here?”
“Time is beginning to catch up with you and this place. You must make your choice and make it soon.”
“If none of this is real what does time matter? I’ve been to the past and the future, and I’ve seen ghosts and had visions of things I never imagined possible. I was told I was special and that I had a destiny and you’re telling me now that I’m dead, and that after everything I have seen it all comes down to a choice being made here and now?”
“The real question you have to ask yourself is whether or not you still believe? Now there is only one way out of here John and that is by choosing the one thing that can save you. The items in this room are of great importance but only one of them is truly yours. And you can only take one of them back with you.”
“Back? Back where?”
A burst of flame explodes across the floor and spreads across the walls consuming the furniture and framework. Locke turns and sees out of the window a group of people walking away from the cabin carrying a large, metal crate. He goes for the door.
Eko warns, “Your path is not with them John. They have already chosen a side, a destiny. You’re path ends here, in this cabin. Right now.”
“This place is burning down, we have to get out of here! It’s real, all of this! I can feel the heat.”
Locke looks around desperately for something to put out the flames with but cannot find anything and the fire is spreading even faster. Eko stands in front of the flames that burn bright behind him. Locke looks to the table with the items placed on it. He moves closer.
The roof begins to cave in.
“Hurry John. Your time is almost up.”
A line of fire separates Locke from the table, but he already has made his choice. He made it a long time ago.
His hand reaches through the flames that burn his hand, the flesh melting and singeing in the heat. Locke grimaces but does not scream. The compass lies at his fingertips, but his hand grips instead the KNIFE.
His fingers wrap around the handle tight as he pulls it from the flames and towards his body.
He looks to Eko.
Eko says to him, “It is time.”
Locke closes his eyes as the cabin collapses around him in flame and debris consuming everything.
-
TODAY
The cabin is a burnt out shell and darkness has fallen upon it.
Illana and the others have long since gone.
The last embers are smoking into the cool night air.
But a figure appears in the doorway from another place, and another time.
The figure is John Locke. His arm burnt and his hand gripping the knife.
Only Locke no longer looks like Locke. His image is familiar of another man we know.
John Locke has returned to the island, but he has returned instead, as Jack Shephard.
A man of faith.
--
LOST
