The Substitute

Hello all. Yes, a fairly early blog this sunny morning in Southern California. Sorry to my Northwest and Eastern friends but it is a gorgeous day today. Maybe it’s the weather or the fact that we got a really good episode of LOST last night. I am thinking it is a little of both. I have about 3 pages of notes so let’s get to it.

Summary

This episode was Locke 2005 and SM Locke focused. I know there is so much story to tell but was a little bit disappointed they didn’t further the Claire storyline. However they more than made up for it in what they revealed. Or what we can theorize they revealed. I love it how I have read everyone’s excitement about the numbers on the boards last night. And after talking to L.M., fine it’s important. But I won’t be fully satisfied until they tell me why the person received a specific number. I am also interested in the 3 options for being on the island. 1) Do nothing and see how it all plays out. That could mean people die or are like Rose and Bernard, living their own life. 2) Accept the position as the new Jacob and protector of the island. Is that like Richard, Ilana and the Temple folks? They protect the island from outsiders? 3) Get off the island. Is that like Desmond, Michael and Walt? Why would Jacob need to recruit more people to protect the island? Was Richard really a candidate to just protect the island or was he a candidate to replace Jacob? What determines which it is? Does Jacob need a replacement? I can see I am getting into questions so let’s skip these until later.

Connections

Randy Nations is back. He was Hurley boss at the Chicken Shack and then later at the box company Locke worked at in the original timeline. He remained the same which was a jerk to Locke in both timelines. Helen and Locke are now in a successful relationship. She is wearing a Peace and Karma shirt. Helen left Locke originally because of his obsession to have a relationship with his father. He was later being duped by Sawyer aka Anthony Cooper into giving him money and later body parts. Helen gave up on Locke, refused his proposal and died while Locke was on the island of a brain aneurysm. The temp agency worker was the fortune teller in the original timeline that Hurley went to with his father. She saw the numbers and pulled the death card from the tarot. Locke meets Rose who is now working for Hurley in his company. Sawyer is listening to Search and Destroy by Iggy Pop and The Stooges. Lyrics, “I'm a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm. I'm a runaway son of a nuclear A-bomb. I am the world's forgotten boy, the one who searches and destroys.” SM Locke and Locke 2005 both say “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”

Questions

The Numbers – Okay another piece of the puzzle. The numbers previously were the lotto numbers that Hurley used to win the lottery. There were the coordinates Rousseau’s team followed which lead them to the island. They were printed on the blast door. They had to be entered into the computer every 108 minutes or the hatch would blow. There were the case numbers for Kate’s trial. There are other instances of some or all of the numbers showing up in Lost. There are also the mathematical equation for the Valenzetti Equation which predicts the end of the world. But I am not going to go into that because most of it is found in the Lost Experience and not on the actual show. It was touched a little in one of the orientation videos, but not enough to talk about. Now we are told that those specific numbers are associated with the Losties in some way. The numbers are as follows:

4 – Locke

8 – Reyes

15 – Ford

16 – Jarrah

23 – Shephard

42 – Kwon

Others on the wall, Farraday – 70, Littleton – 313. There were many others but none that I could clearly make out of the screenshot that were of importance, mainly extras on the show. We don’t know in what way the numbers are associated with the Losties. Why is Locke 4 and Reyes 8? Why is it their last name? There are many Reyes’ in the world, why Hurley? It was hypothesized that all the names are male. Kwon could be Jin and Littleton could be Aaron and not Claire. Where was Kate? Could she be 108 or some other random number? I’m glass half full person…too many questions still about the numbers to declare this a true answer to anything.

SM Locke – What is his real motivation? I don’t believe that what he told Sawyer was exactly accurate. I think the cave belonged to SM Locke. The manic scribbling on the walls was more the work of a madman. A man struggling to get off the island. The tools were crude. Jacob’s place was much more serene. He had weavings and hieroglyphics, not scribbles on a wall. I think SM Locke was trying to break Jacob’s code as to why those people were brought to the island and ultimately how he could get off. The title of the episode was The Substitute. I think when he told Sawyer that Jacob was looking for candidates for the island, that may be true, but SM Locke is trying to find a substitute for him on the island as well. Good vs. evil, yin & yang, both of them need to be replaced. The boy said he was breaking the rules and that he could not kill Jacob. I think there must be balance. In a way, they both are recruiting. And if SM Locke gets off the island, he has been there for centuries, what time does he go back to? What does he go back to? Does he exist in a 2010 world off the island?

The Boy -

Option 1: My first guess was the boy was Jacob. It would be a very simple and straight forward explanation. But then I started thinking why would he appear as a boy? He appeared as himself to Hurley. But that could be due to Hurley always seeing dead people as they were when they were alive. So if it was Jacob, could SM Locke be seeing him as he was before he was a candidate on the island? Perhaps when they were first brought there before they became enemies?

Option 2: Could it be someone special in SM Locke’s past? He said that he knew what it was like to lose someone he once loved. Could it have been a brother or a son? There are dad issues all over the place on the island. It was obviously someone he recognized.

Option 3: The boy was SM Locke. Light hair can change darker as a child grows and the boy could be a reflection of him. Is that why he was shocked that Sawyer could see him because it was a manifestation of himself? SM Locke would represent different things to different people so could it have been his subconscious manifesting himself?

Locke 2005 – How did he become paralyzed? Helen suggested they just elope and she would invite her parents and he should bring his dad. So Locke’s dad is not the one who threw Locke out of a window? I don’t think he would be so forgiving if he had. Locke seems better adjusted in this new life. Sure things still happen to him, but he has the love of a good woman and a job as a substitute teacher in which he can use his intellectual mind and teach people. It seems his life is better off the island. Even Rose seemed to have learned to live with her cancer. Jack was drinking less. Hurley is optimistic, wealthy and happy. Life in general seems better for them.

Theory: Calling my shot – I believe that 2005 is life if they had not been touched by Jacob. Darlton has said that 2005 is significant and not merely an alternate timeline. I thought was a result of the blast, but now I am not so sure. I think that if Jacob had not touched/manipulated these people to ultimately get to the island, this is what their lives would be. If I am wrong, I’m wrong. But that’s my theory. It may be that SM Locke does win at the end and the alternate timeline becomes the real one.

Conclusion

I am loving the fact that some of you are commenting after the blog. Please share your thoughts, feelings, questions, anything! I was up late last night posting in the forums but I would much rather hear from you…my peeps! You all have some interesting theories out there and I want to hear them. Not from you J.Y.! You seem to guess right and spoil the whole damn thing! J Be safe and until next week, c-ya!