Episode 319 - Revenge in "The Brig"

Manipulation! Humiliation!! (and, best of all, sweet) Vindication!!! All this and more in "The Brig!"

First Things First - The Gushing
Let me start by saying, to me, "The Brig" was the single most tightly-plotted episode in Lost's 3-year history. It comes as no surprise that the episode was scripted by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the "captains of the ship" of Lost. Even the quasi-flashback, of John Locke's 8 days alone in Othersville, was teeming with important plot points (and, as it did not feel so much like a flashback as it did a non-linear story, this recap will do away with my usual past tense flashback/ present tense "real time" style and instead shoot for a deconstructed linear narrative...)

Othersville
Aside from a cameo appearance in "Left Behind," in which Locke, mysteriously sporting a bandage on his hand, bid farewell to Kate moments before she was gassed, we last left the most lost of our Lost souls perplexedly staring at his own personal demon, Anthony Cooper, AKA "Dad." In "The Brig," we bridged that gap.

Ben assures Locke that it wasn't the Others that brought Cooper to that boiler room, it was John, himself. Ignoring Ben's warning, John removes Cooper's gag, and is promptly bitten hard on the hand (aha! the bandage explained!) Cooper taunts his son, "don't you know John? Don't you know where we are?" as if Cooper himself has the big answers. But the exchange ends when Tom closes the door, leaving Cooper inside.

Ben invites John to join the Others on their exodus to "an old place, actually." He lets John know that Kate is a few buildings away, and suggests John go to say good-bye (the lead in to the aforementioned cameo of a few weeks back).

Random Query 1: When Locke saw Kate, he had apparently read her "file" and learned about her patricide. But when did that happen, as the file-peaks we saw this week were only after they abandoned Othersville. Also, why just say good-bye to Kate? Why not Jack or Sayid? Although, all things considered, I'm not sure any amount of handcuffing could have prevented Jack from killing Locke after the whole exploding submarine thing...

The Old Place
Over the next 5 days, the Others have left the barracks and are setting up a little Lord-of-the-Rings-style tent village near some particularly odd-looking ruins (more on this later). John helps Cindy pitch a tent. She stares in awe, and says they've been waiting for him...

Random Aside #1: the first time we saw the long-missing Cindy, when she came to gawk at Jack in a cage like she nervously expected an event to transpire, was kind of cool and a little creepy. Now Cindy seems like a cult initiate who's been told her messiah is the guy pitching her tent. What is her deal? What has happened to her in the time since the Others snatched her and the other tailies? Is it similar to whatever strange secret Jack is keeping (which we'll get to in a bit)?

Tom summons John to Ben's tent. John overhears Ben listening to the tape recording Juliet left behind last week, and then Ben tells him that the Others plan to infiltrate the beach in 3 days to take the pregnant Losties.

Random Aside #2: In light of what would transpire later, I really believe that poor shlubby John Locke just got his arse manipulated again by Ben...

Ben stands up with the help of a cane, and thanks John for somehow making that possible with his presence. He says he cannot wait to show John what the island can do, but John is still not ready, because of the hold his father still has over him. Don't worry, the "magic box" was a metaphor, but newbies only get to join the Others with a public gesture of free will, of commitment - in Locke's case, killing Cooper, who has been tied to a pillar that looks to be the remnants of same ancient temple. Could this be related to the mysterious 4-toed statue?

Random Aside #2.1: If you really want to manipulate John Locke, make him feel like his life suddenly has all-powerful meaning, i.e., put him on the path of his own personal myth. The poor guy doesn't stand a chance with Ben, does he?

At night, Ben wakes John and tells him it's time to kill Cooper. At first, the three men are alone at the pillar, but soon the entire Others camp has gathered to watch (tailies included). Whoever this group is, it's bone-chilling the way they eagerly await the spectacle of an execution (though, don't get me wrong, in the tropical jungle setting, I can't well argue that Mr. Cooper deserves anything different). Cooper taunts again - "you expect him to kill me?" He laughs at John and says, "you really haven't figured it out yet, have you?"

Ben tries more direct manipulation - "as long as he's still breathing, you'll be that same sad man who was kicked off his walkabout tour, because you couldn't walk." John looks like he might actually do it, but relents. Cooper's further taunts are silenced when Ben clocks him over the head with his cane. A disappointed-looking Ben apologizes to the crowd - John Locke is not who they thought he was (oh, snap!). He marches John through the crowd, past Richard, Cindy and the kids.

The next morning, John's hand has healed. He is joined on his perch, a bluff overlooking the tent city, by Richard. Richard says Ben meant to embarrass him, so the whole camp would see him fail. Locke could only heal if he were "special," and that kind of specialness is a threat to Ben's hold over his people. Richard says Ben has been distracting the Others with "trivialities" like their fertility problem.

Random Aside #3: Does every Other have an insurrection brewing? There was Juliet's plot to have Jack kill Ben, and now Richard's grousing over Ben's poor leadership. On the other hand, could either or both of Juliet and Richard been in cahoots with Ben, using his image as a bogey-man to manipulate first Jack, then John?

Nonetheless, John will not become whatever it is he must become until Cooper is killed, and if he can't do it, he needs to find someone else who will. Richard hands him the Others' file on...James Ford!!!!

Random Self-Congratulation!!!! I knew it! I freakin' knew it! I believe I first made the Sawyer-Cooper connection in the first season, when we first met Mr. Cooper. Those of you who read my email recaps during Season 2 should recall I got even more sure last year. And anyone who's been reading this blog during Season 3 should know I was practically dancing cartwheels when this big reveal happened last night. The downside of being right about my only long-lasting theory of Lost is that I now have no clue where we're heading! Yikes!!! Of course, this continues to beg the question - just how did all these connected individuals end up on the same plane???

The Others pack up their camp. Ben says they're moving on, but John is being left behind with Cooper, who is his mess to clean up. The Others, he says, will leave a trail John can follow, but he should not bother to come unless he has Cooper's body on his back.

Random Aside # 4: A couple of weeks ago, "Catch-22" heavily featured the tail of Abraham and Isaac. I can't help but wonder if that was meant to prepare for us for the funhouse version of that story in this episode. Here, it is the son asked to kill the father in order to prove his worthiness for some great spiritual boon. Then, when the moment of truth comes, it is not a substitute sacrifice that prevents the unspeakable act, but rather a substitute sacrificer. Since it is still so difficult to determine what the island/ Others/ both want out of Locke, I wonder whether he passed his personal test, or failed miserably...

Thus ends the most effective "flashback" on Lost since the shocker when we learned Locke was wheelchair bound in the first season...

Realtime - John and James
Boy, you really want to root for Kate and Sawyer, but she sure makes it difficult! After they "do the deed" again, she euphemistically states she can't sleep away from her own tent. When James offers to move back with her, she clarifies she can't sleep with him. She sweetly rejects the offer for an escort and he goes out, barefoot, to pee. He passes Hurley and Jin standing guardedly at the entrance of another tent, but they poorly mask that they're hiding something (more on this later) and James moves along. He unzips, and is greated by Locke, who shines his flashlight in Sawyer's eyes.

Locke claims he didn't join the Others, he infiltrated them, and now he has snuck into Ben's tent, kidnapped Other Grand Poobah number 1, and wants James to kill him. Sawyer denies he could kill anyone, and Locke pointedly asks about the man he killed the night before he boarded the plane (which he says he read about in the Others' file). Locke asks Sawyer not to tell anyone he was there, and turns to leave. Sawyer, still barefoot, follows.

Sawyer asks about what's in his file. Locke tells him his parents' murder-suicide is covered, though not the reason for it. Also in the file is James's criminal record, which, Locke surmizes, must be why he uses the alias "Sawyer." James gets agitated, jumps John and holds him at knifepoint and demands to know, why him? John sheepishly admits he can't kill "Ben" himself. Sawyer reiterates that he won't kill anybody, but John says he'll change his mind when he hears what the captive has to say. James, exposed, explains that the Australia murder was a mistake, that he did not mean to kill that man, but when John asks who he did mean to kill, James changes the subject.

John leads James to the Black Rock, which James had not seen before. He says Ben is inside, in the brig. John muses "they" tried to have the slaves transported in the ship mine the island. James reiterates that they won’t kill him, and John opens the door to the brig. James enters, and John locks him in. James pulls the hood off, and it’s not Ben, it’s Cooper! (No surprise to us, eh?)

James tries to escape but John ignroes his screams. Rousseau enters while James is still trapped inside. She wants dynamite. She hears James’s screams, but takes the dynamite and turns to leave. End foreshadowing, eh?

Cooper tells James about his background with Locke. He says he was driving in Talahassee, and was run off the road. He blacked out, waking up in the hatch with John looking at him. Cooper corroborates Naomi's story (see below), i.e. that the plane crashed into the Pacific. He reveals his theory - they must be in hell (after all, how else do you explain waking up from an accident to see, standing before you, your crippled son, who died in a plane crash? James asks his name. Cooper lists them off, and one was Tom Sawyer! "Well, how about that? Sawyer’s my name too!"

The exchange that follows is one of the most powerful scenes in Lost history:

James -
You ever been to Jasper, Alabama?

Cooper-

Don’t tell me I’m your daddy.

James -

No. You killed my daddy.

James hands over the letter he’s held onto these many years, the letter to Mr. Sawyer. This was the moment he waited his whole life for, the moment that, to bring it about, he let himself become the thing he hated most - another "Sawyer." Up to this moment, the "new" James Ford, the one in love with Kate, inspired by Hurley to be a leader in the camp, may have let Cooper live, and not taken his revenge for what Cooper did to the Ford family. But then, when James orders Cooper to finish the letter, Cooper loses interest and tears it up. Yup, his final act was to make light of the pain he caused that innocent 6-year-old boy all those years ago (what fantastic acting by Josh Holloway, eh?)...

"You want to go to hell?" James screams, as he strangles Cooper with his chain.

Random Aside #5: Now, in a standard myth, this exchange would have been what Joseph

Campbell called the "belly of the beast" (think Luke Skywalker's conflict with the faux Darth Vader in the cave in Empire Strikes Back), the journet to the underworld that a hero needs before he can return and complete his quest. But in Lost, where a character is as good as dead once he or she overcomes his or her past? I suspect we can now add the name James Ford to the top of the list of next character to die...

John nods. Thank you.

James throws up. John sends him back, with the truth about Juliet and says the Others are coming for the pregnant women in 3 days. John’s not coming back – he’s on his own journey now. John gives James the tape recorder, as proof that Juliet is a mole. James asks if it was true, that John was crippled? "Not anymore." He packs up, and hauls off with Cooper’s body, to follow Ben’s trail.

The Beach
In the morning, Charlie rounds up some food. Jack asks when Charlie got back, and what he was up to. Jack says he wants to go camping next time. Charlie, clearly uncomfortable but nonetheless silent about his new secret, brings the supplies to the tent where Hurley, Jin and Desmond stand guard. He wants to tell Jack about Naomi. Desmond asks if Jack can be trusted after spending 10 days alone with the Others, and coming back with Juliet. He wonders aloud if these guys trust Jack, and nobody speaks up. They will instead find someone they do trust…

Hurley approaches Sayid, who is digging a hole. Sayid supports the decision not to tell Jack. He goes in to where Naomi is recuperating. She formally introduces herself (I told you her name is Naomi Doritt). She tells Sayid that Flight 815 crashed into a trench 4 miles deep off the coast of Bali. They sent down camera drones, which saw all the bodies!!! She took off from a freighter 80 nautical miles away, a search and rescue vessel. Her company was hired by Penny Widmore, whom she's never met, to find Desmond. She was given only coordinates, and thought she was going to open ocean. She bailed out of her chopper when her gauges faulted shortl after she spotted land. Sayid distrusts the story, but she shows him her sat phone. “remind not to rescue you, Sayid.”

Sayid works on the phone, but he’s never seen equipment this sophisticated.

Random Aside #6: Never seen equipment this sophisticated? He was a military communications expert who only disappeared 3 months ago! Perhaps the futuristic look of the satphone was not a random prop error. Mark my words, this and the dynamite run by Rousseau will turn to be far more than the minor exchanges they appeared to be at first blush.

Hurley asks about the other part, about their all having died. Sayid responds, one thing at a time. They turn on the phone, but it has nothing but eerie static, and Sayid can’t find a channel. Kate happens upon them, and Sayid wants her to keep it quiet (He of course is thinking about Jack).

Kate tells Jack she needs to talk to him, in private (i.e. vamoose Juliet). Jack insists Juliet can stay, so Kate presses on with what she had to say. She tells him the story of Naomi. Jack ignores her “they don’t trust you” part, and instead focuses on how she planned to alert her boat. While Kate can't believe Jack doesn't care that Hurley, Charlie, Sayid don't trust him, Juliet suggests to Jack, "we should tell her." Jack, aparently in on whatever this secret is, says, "no, not yet."

So what secret to Jack and Juliet have together (promos suggest they'll reveal it to the whole camp next week). What makes John so "special?" Why does it matter to Ben (and Richard) that John kill Cooper? Why do Cindy and the rest of the assembled crowd seem to want this to happen, as well? What's with those ruins? Where did the Others go?

All I can tell you, loyal Lostophiles, is that next week will be the long awaited history of the Others and their interactions with the Dharma Initiative, told through the flashback vantage point of Benjamin Linus! Be here next week for "The Man Behind the Curtain."