John! What Were You Thinking?

Oh John, what the hell did you do that for? I knew something was up with you, but did you have to go and blow up the submarine? Jack was about to get lucky in a navy bunk with Juliette, the blonde bombshell AND get to go home. That is called leaving the island in style.

What a great episode of "Lost" we were treated to last Wednesday. I was truly on the edge of my seat for most of the episode. Just awesome. But sickening in some ways too. Can you imagine how Jack is going to look at John Locke from now on? Ten minutes from hopping on the submarine to freedom (and get lucky) and his friendly nemesis blows the thing up. Ouch. That is not going to help these two strong-willed alpha males make nice after their earlier disagreements. In fact I think it MIGHT even make things more difficult. Ya know? Where was the spirit of the late Boone to talk some sense into Locke.

Things we learned this week:

1. How John Locke became paralyzed: "I'm a con artist, not a murderer." After he speaks those words, Locke's father grabs him and throws him out an eigth story window. This scene was so brilliant. Came out of nowhere, and all of the sudden Locke is plunging down to the ground. How can one man cause so much pain, in this case to his son. Loved the conversation between Ben and John before we got to that scene in the flashback. "Did it hurt, John?" Linus asks. And later, Ben's statement that he wasn't talking about the broken back, which obviously hurt, but was talking about almost being murdered by his father.

2. Turns out that Ben Linus was born on the island. Cool, I wonder how much time he has spent off of the island in his life time. Does he know what life is like in the rest of the world and how that knowledge or lack thereof effect him? It also turns out that the "Island" is not helping him heal from his surgery as quickly as he thought. AND, how did he get such a bad tumor in the first place if the island has such healing poweres? I loved the discourse between Locke and Linus when they debated who, between them, understood the island better. The currently wheelchair bound Linus who has spent his whole life on the island, or the formerly wheelchairbound Locke, having spent only 80 days there, but immediately upon his arrival on the island could suddenly walk again? Great stuff.

3. John Locke's father is on the island. (Holy Cow) How did Ben, the ultimate manipulator, pull that one off. Maybe he manipulated Locke's father the way he manipulated Locke the son, and convinced him to come to the island.

My sister Maggie tells me that there is hot speculation on the "Lost blogs" that Locke's father, now firmly established as a con-man AND a murderer" is the original Sawyer. The con artist who drove James Ford's father over the edge and made him the "Sawyer" we know and hate now on the island. Very interesting and having heard the theory, I do see it playing out that way. It makes sense. Sure it would test plausibility, but what on this show hasn't stretched plausibility since all of our favorite characters walked away from the plane crash in the pilot episode. Exactly nothing.

But here is my question. Where are they going to from here? It seems like a lot of what has made the show great has sort of been covered? Many of the mysteries that made the others so scary and intimidating have seemingly been dispelled, a truce between the plane survivors and the others seems to be in place, and the submarine has been blown to Smithereens. Certainly there are things left to explore, but I hope the writers have thought this out.

One last thing. I really am enjoying having a new episode every week. For me it was worth it to have one long break so that we could get 16 (or however many there are) episodes back to back to back etc...I feel a really good flow going in this "second" season.

And one more last thing. I really like Alex. Cool character. Adds a lot to the show.

Peace out yo.