Wrapping up LOST – S6 E4 – “The Substitute” by NJROEN

Wrapping up LOST – S6 E4 – “The Substitute”

We open on a nice suburban neighborhood where we see Locke pull up to his house in his beat up old GMC SAFARI van (very fitting). Locke starts getting lowering the wheelchair lift, when it stops about a foot off the ground. So inspired by the winter Olympics tries to pull a Shawn White and jump his chair from a complete stand still; and like so many times before Locke lands face down in the dirt.

http://getlostpodcast.iimmgg.com/image/2f8c9854ba2fd01cf75c18a21711b8b0

To top it off the sprinklers come on, but instead of this being a kick while he’s down, I think it’s a reflection of the Island timeline Locke where he could know when it would rain minutes before it would happen, and would stand soaking it all it, and loving it. You’ll notice Locke even smiles here. Then something that made me (as a Locke fan) smile, Helen walks out the front door, turns off the sprinklers, and helps John up. Awesome, very happy for Johnny boy.

Next we see Locke soaking in the bathtub, while Helen is on the phone shooting down the idea theory that the new timeline flight happened in October, can’t be because that’s when the wedding is. Helen then sits down next to Locke while he’s picking out “chair fabric”. But if you pay attention to the fabric swatches you’ll notice that they are the two colors of t-shirts that island Locke wore almost the entire time on the island. These Easter eggs are why we love LOST. Locke first chooses the LIGHTER one, but Helen says, “Really?”, and then Locke goes with the DARKER swatch. This and another piece later tells me Helen may actually be playing for the DARK team.
Next we get a very interesting piece of info. Helen wants to do a shotgun wedding and invite Locke’s DAD??? Whaaaaa? So if we think back to Sawyer’s speech about not being able to change things, he said that 3 years BEFORE the event in 1977, the real Sawyer walked in and killed his parents. So how then is it that Anthony Cooper actually is close to Locke? Or is Locke’s Dad someone else? Either way how did Locke get in the wheelchair if his douche of a dad didn’t push him out a window? Because remember, everything has changed, but everything is or will be the same. So no matter what, Locke will always be in a wheel chair. More on that later.

Hello, my name is Helen, and I’m your DENSITY, I mean destiny.
Helen asks Locke who Dr. Jack Shepard is. Locke’s response is a bit puzzling for the man of faith we came to know and love on the island. Somehow Locke seems to be the man of science in the new timeline. Helen then says, “Maybe it’s your destiny”, another clue that Helen is playing for the DARK team. Because the MIB is all about fate/destiny and Jacob was all about free will/choice.



Sam Raimi would be proud.
For the first time we get to travel the island from the eyes of Smokey. If you have ever seen Evil Dead I or II, you know this was a giant tip of the cap to director Sam Raimi. Smokey you’re so vain! You even stopped to look at yourself in the reflection of the Dharmaville window. Smokey doesn’t want to interrupt Sawyers Iggy Pop party…YET. Goes looking for Locke’s machete. Which in light of Richard Alpert’s test on young Locke where he chose the knife and failed, it makes a lot of sense now. But why would Jacob let Locke come to the island at all and be the ‘Leader’ of the others if he knew Locke’s body would be the one that MIB would eventually use to make his ‘Loophole’ happen? I have an idea, but like DARLTON, I’m going to make you wait to get my theory why.



See what happened was…
Locke’s boss Randy Nations sniffs out what Locke didn’t do while he was in Australia. Then gets fired as a box salesmen, and flashes to Richard in the jungle which in essence is Locke getting fired as a candidate for the job Jacob had him eligible for. Flocke then explains why he took over Locke’s body, because he was a candidate and a rare event of seeing Alpert puzzled happens. Because he has no clue what a candidate even is. Flocke then says he would NEVER would have kept Richard in the dark as a pawn like Jacob did. I partly believe him, and I partly doubt it. That statement is the same thing Satan said to Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden. Sowing seeds of doubt, that Jacob is/was hiding something from Alpert and the Others this whole time. He asks Alpert to come with him, and in return Flocke will “Tell him everything”. ***cough*bullcrap*cough***. But Alpert remembers all too well who MIB really is from Alpert’s time shortly after his arrival on the ! Blackrock as a slave. Alpert is disinclined to acquiesce Flocke’s request. Then Flocke sees something that Alpert can’t see. A 12 or so year old boy, wearing Other-like clothes, with hands and arms covered in blood.

http://getlostpodcast.iimmgg.com/image/0fad8083170fa6f80946a701eeba6075

My first instinct is that it is Jacob, and then I thought it was Aaron. Then I remembered the ideas out there that Aaron and Jacob are one in the same person. As of now I’m going to assume it’s just Jacob. But why the blood? I’m guessing that MIB once did something to Jacob at that age that began the whole idea of them being immortal and having to play by the rules. I’m sure we’ll eventually see what MIB did to Jacob to make him bloody as a child. What ever happened, this is the first time that MIB/Flocke looks terrified. He even does the big nervous swallow thing. Yikes!!!



Am I interrupting?
Ben finds Ilana crying over the loss of Brahm and Jacob’s death. She quickly putts on a tough face, and asks Ben what happened? As usual Ben lies his way out of it, and says Locke killed Jacob. Which makes Ilana instantly fill up her coin purse with Jacob’s ashes. Which begs the question, are all of the ashes we’ve seen on the Island from the many times Jacob has died on the Island in this loop they are all stuck in? Me thinks so.
Ben asks Ilana why Flocke carried Richard out into the jungle. To which Ilana replies, “He’s recruiting”. I for one am glad the recruiters at my job don’t use the same techniques. But what is he recruiting for? My guess is someone to get him off the island, because he cannot leave on his own, someone else has to do it for him. Those are the rules of the game.



I don’t care if you’re dead, time traveling, or ghost of Christmas past -
Flocke then heads to ‘recruit’ Sawyer who is having a solo Dharma whiskey party. While listening to Iggy Pop’s Seach and Destroy, very fitting for whom Flocke/MIB really is. Here are some of the lyrics,

“I'm a street walking cheetah
with a hide full of napalm
I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb
I am a world's forgotten boy
The one who searches and destroys”

Flocke starts his ‘long con’ on Sawyer, but Sawyer smells a fish knowing it’s not Locke, but takes a flyer and listens to what he has to say. Flocke tells him he has the answer to why Sawyer is on the Island, and millions of LOST fans around the world gasped and sat up a little bit. Flocke asks Sawyer to come with him, and he’ll prove it.




Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt –
LA Locke is denying that fact that he is in a wheelchair so he parks in a non-handicapped spot, only to be blocked in by ‘Mr. Reyes’. Locke tries to key Hurley’s yellow Hummer with his chair ramp, but as usual fails. Poor Locke. Despite being the ‘Luckiest man in the world’, Hurley is still chilled out Hurley, only he is confident, and in charge, which I think it bleeding over to the main Island timeline, and causing Hurley to be more confident, and take charge. Hugo feels bad for Locke who just got fired by the “Huge douche” Randy Nations, and tells Locke to call his other company the temp agency, and they’ll hook him up with a job.



Head crabs, aaaah –
I’m sure I’m not the only one who freaked out when that creepy crab scampered off of dead Locke’s head. As some of you may know, LOST and Valve software are big fans of each other, and this was just another wink from DARLTON to VALVE’s Half Life game series. But enough geek speak; let’s get back to the story. Ben and Ilana emerge from the statue only to find that the Others have all bailed and headed to the temple, leaving Sun and Lapidus to chill on the beach. Ilana says they should all head to the temple because it’s the safest place, and somehow she knows that Sun is looking for Jin, and says he’ll be there. Sun wants to bury Locke, so they head to the makeshift cemetery that echo built.



An old playmate –
Flocke is questioning Sawyer as they traipse through the jungle, when Sawyer stops because he sees something; Flocke turns and sees it too. It’s our little mystery boy again. Flocke goes chasing after him, only to fall down and find himself at the feet of this kid. The boy says, “You know the rules, you can’t kill HIM”. I’m guessing he is referring to Sawyer. To which Flocke replies, “DON’T TELL ME WHAT I CAN’T DO”. To which the boy just shakes his head in disgust, and then leisurely walks away without an ounce of fear of Flocke. For me the biggest thing here was that Flocke fell down. It reminded me of the time when his legs stopped working again all of a sudden. Based on what Ilana says Flocke is now trapped in Locke’s body and cannot take the form of any other person, just Smokey.

This is why Jacob brought Locke to the island, and let MIB take over his body. Because even though MIB is the spirit inside Flocke’s body, that vessel will still have some of the flaws and limitations it once did. I’m guessing now that Jacob is dead his healing power will leave Locke’s body crippled again at some point, and MIB will be trapped somewhere on the island unable to move, and once again Locke will just have been used for someone else’s gain this time Jacob’s, who I don’t think is as good as we all want him to be.

Alpert stumbles upon Sawyer and tells him they need to go now, but Sawyer ain’t going back to the temple, and decides to stick with Flocke even though he knows it’s not Locke. Sawyer asks if Flocke caught up with the kid, and Flocke feigns ignorance.



What kind of animal would you describe yourself as?
If you stopped and wondered if you had seen the woman at the temp agency before, that’s because you have. It’s the same lady that Cheech hired to tell Hurley that his curse was broken, but failed. Let’s just hope she’s not the one who turned Hurley’s view around to being the luckiest man in the world. Because the psychics on this show are batting about .000 right now. One thing I’m loving about the final season of LOST is all the small characters coming back in little roles. Arntz, Frogert, Hurley’s Psychic, Rose as Locke’s wake up call to be realistic about his situation. I hope it’s this reverse psychology that gets Locke to go see Jack, so he can walk down that isle just like Jack’s wife did.



Do you see that house Lenny?
Sawyer’s book club discussion with Flocke holds some interesting clues. 1. We know now that MIB is easily from before 1937 when ‘Of Mice and Men’ was published. We also see that Flocke isn’t one bit scared of bullets, infact I’m sure he would love it if Sawyer would have pulled the trigger so that he could’ve been provoked to become Smokey. I think that is the rule, Smokey and Jacob can’t kill anyone unless they are provoked. Flocke gives us a heart wrenching speech about how he is trapped, and has been for so long that he doesn’t remember what it feels like to be free. Flocke says that before he was trapped he was a man just like Sawyer, which I actually believe, but how Smokey is the next step after being a man I don’t get. But my guess is that Smokey is tied directly to someone in Egyptian mythology, based on the symbolism in the temple basement scene where Ben was ‘judged’.

Flocke says he knows what it’s like to feel joy, anger, betrayal, and to lose someone you love. All things that Sawyer has or is feeling right now, after losing Juliet. But I think that is why MIB wants to kill Jacob so badly, because he was brought to the island just like our losties, and had to leave behind or watch someone he loves very dearly die because of Jacob, just like Sayid watched Nadia get hit by a car and die.

Jacob and MIB are going to end up being much more similar than they are different in my opinion. Just like backgammon, two players with the same goal in mind, moving pieces around the board, but with different styles. MIB and Jacob are equally good/bad just use different philosophies/styles with which they play the game on the island, the game of who will take my place so I can get the heck out of here. Much like what Kelvim tried to do to Desmond, before ole Desmundo smashed his head against a rock and had to run back to the hatch, only to fail and cause the plane to crash.



All right I know him
This scene had two of the best lines LOST has ever had. Ben saying,”and I’m sorry I murdered him”, then Lapidus saying, “This is the weirdest damn funeral I’ve ever been to.” In fact Frank has had some of the best lines of any character. “We’re not going to Guam are we?” He doesn’t get enough scenes in my opinion. Was I the only person waiting for Locke to jump at the camera and say, “Razzle Dazzle?” I guess this is it old buddy, saying goodbye to my favorite character on LOST, but we’ll still get to see him in the LA timeline and parts of him in Flocke. Ah, such is LOST, no one is safe. But then again the show could end with him being just fine, and none of this ever happening due to Desmond changing the game, since the rules don’t apply to him.




Holding hands and skippin stones by Jacob’s Ladder, and a place of his own.
http://getlostpodcast.iimmgg.com/image/c61785c5811f52ec7e30a03dbab4aa66

I was certain that Sawyer would fall to his death here. But on the contrary, Flocke even goes one step further and saves Sawyer, I think it’s all part of Flocke’s ‘LONG CON’. He even gives Sawyer a look like, “are you going to trust me know or what?” Because remember what Ilana said, “He’s recruiting”. Trying to get/trick someone into doing what he wants/needs so that Flocke can be free of this stupid Island he’s been stuck on for centuries.

I’m going to guess that Jacob and MIB played many a game of backgammon in that cave overlooking the sea, while playing the guitar and singing songs about Taweret and Apollo. But the real question is when did all those names get written on the wall? How long ago? And does Jacob write them while MIB crosses them out? Flocke’s explanation of the names being the reason why Sawyer and everyone was there, is really only half the answer. Sure Jacob brought them, but why? Just to fill a role as caretaker of the island? Maybe, but I think there is more to it.





4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
http://www.getlostpodcastmedia.com/wp-content/gallery/6x04/6x0400001.jpg

So I don’t like to brag, but I have to this time. Concerning the meaning of the numbers, I called it 1 year and 2 days ago before this episode to be exact. Even got Jack’s number right. A guy gets lucky once in a while, right Hugo? Here is the theory I posted last year.
http://theoriesonlost.blogspot.com/2009/02/changing-numbers-theory-4-8-15-16-23-42.html

The big questions we’re all asking are 1. Why are some of the people still living crossed out? 2. Why is Kate not one of the numbers? The two thoughts on that are that a.) Kate is not that important in the grand scheme. OR b.) Kate is off limits and is very important, because Jacob is Aaron, and Aaron said his surrogate Mom is off limits as a pawn in the game.



The Substitute
I was waiting for Aaron or Walt to show up at Locke’s school, and who knows they probably will at some point. Next we see Ben our fearless leader saying, “fear not I’ll brew a fresh pot” of coffee. Only for Locke to say he only drinks tea, which refreshingly earns Ben’s respect because that’s a gentlemen’s drink. Ben appears to be the one most benefited from not being on the island, who knows maybe Uncle Rico (Roger Workman) will be a decent guy in this time line, and maybe his Mom is alive even though that was prior to 1977, but remember Anthony Cooper is invited to Locke’s wedding so things prior to 1977 must have changed as well, because in the pond of time, ripples flow in both directions, forward and backwards.



3 Options for Sawyer, points to 3 people playing the game.
1. Do nothing and see how it all plays out, which I think Smokey would love. To leave it between him and Jacob with no outside interference.
2. Accept the job, and become the new Jacob and protect the Island. (I’m guessing Jack will eventually do that) Flocke says there is nothing to protect it from, but we know he doesn’t really believe that, because in the S5 finale he even complains when Jacob brings outsiders to the island who will only pollute and corrupt it.
3. We just go. Flocke and James leave the Island together. Key word here was ‘together’ because just like fake Christian Shepard couldn’t turn the wheel Locke had to do it, someone else has to man the boat that gets Smokey off the Island because those are the rules he was tricked into by Jacob.



All in all ‘The Substitute’ was an awesome episode. We got two big answers in one regarding the numbers, and why people are on the Island. We’ll see what happens on next week’s episode titled, “The Lighthouse”. Thanks for reading, and I would love to hear your theories and thoughts. Until next time, NAMASTE.