Episode 411 - The Dead Get "Cabin Fever"

Whoah. I mean, full-on, Neo-from-The Matrix Whoah. The return of Richard Alpert! The return of Matthew Abbadon!! The pre-ordained death of Doctor Ray!!! And the return of...Horace Goodspeed???!!! All this and so, so much more, in "Cabin Fever."

This Week's Motif - Avoiding Being "Boxed In."
I'm sure we Lostophiles all remember Locke's enraged scream to the tour company head in Season 1's brilliantly-executed "Walkabout," in which John, as it was revealed to us that he was wheelchair-bound, demanded not to be told what he could and could not do or be. This theme, of being boxed in, but not wanting to be kept to these limiting boxes, surrounded this week's brilliant, brilliant episode.

Borrowing Heavily From the Good Doc
Since I don't believe in passing others' work off as my own, I'll be frank with you. Doc Jensen said a bunch of stuff in his recap that is far superior to anthing I could come up with. So I'll borrow heavily from his massive posting (Jensen's words appear in blue text). Much of what he had to say I am not too sure I want to agree with, but if you want to read the entirety of his column, please click on the title of this post. (And, to answer my friend, Joe's question from last week, I only link to Doc Jensen's column where, as here, I think it adds enough to my own post to warrant separate reading...). I begin with an excerpt from the Doc's initial sum-up of the episode:

Last night was for us. The cultists. The obsessives. The crazies who have committed to this long, strange trip and gotten lost in it. Like the candy bar Hurley generously shared with Ben while Locke was chatting with the spectral squatters inside Jacob's shack (a nod to the Neo-Oracle-cookie scene in The Matrix?), ''Cabin Fever'' was an episode packed with a chunky abundance of brain-fattening cryptonuggets to nourish our fevered theory making and message-board blustering. Comic-book references. Biblical allusions. Mythological connections. Double meanings to scores of lines. I loved Hurley's ''theory'' that he, Ben, and Locke were chosen for this vision quest because they were the craziest ones on the Island. ... Amid the clues, red herrings, and tomfoolery, I saw in the episode a fiendishly clever love letter to those of us who've become so locked up inside Lost that they've been somewhat deliriously messed up by it.

Flashback - John Locke
I have to admit, when I first read that this week's episode would be a Locke flashback, I truly wondered why the producers would even bother delving back into a backstory that seems to have been fully realized already. Silly, silly boy - we learned so much in Cabin Fever, it's overstuffing my brain...

We learned that John Locke was born prematurely to a rebellious 16-year-old named Emily (she would not be put into that "good girl" box), who had hidden her pregnancy (by a man - presumably, Anthony Cooper - who was twice her age) until she was hit by a car on her way to a forbidden date with, we assume, Cooper. Though prior accounts had Locke born in 1956, Emily was listening to Buddy Holly's 1957 song, "Everyday," immediately before the accident.

After John was born, and spent a few months in an incubator (another box), the nurses told Emily and her mother that John was the youngest premie ever to survive in that hospital, despite numerous maladies, a real "miracle baby." As they prepared to take him out of the incubator so Emily could hold him for the first time, she fled the room, and her mother asked who to talk to about adoption. A strange figure watched from outside the room - Richard Alpert, looking pretty much exactly the same as he did the day 48 years later when he told John that Sawyer would kill Cooper for him.

Aside Number 1 - based on a Jensen passage I'll provide below, it seems this scene also took place about 16 years before young Ben encountered Richard for the first time in the jungle. That iteration of Richard was only different in the sense of wearing hippie clothes and long hair. Query - was that just a look Richard adopted some time between his John encounters, or was it a look designed to appeal to Ben at that moment in time?

Aside Number 2 - not that I like to revel in others' misfortune, but thank goodness Cane got cancelled, freeing Nestor Carbonnel to return to the role of the ever-mystifying Richard Alpert.

Aside Number 3 - you may recall that Benjamin Linus, too, was born earlier than expected, also to a woman named Emily, though this would occur roughly five years later. Could Ben and John be brothers, (unlikely, given John's adult visit with his biological mother, played by Swoozie Kurtz, and the death of Emily Linus in childbirth), or is "premature birth to Emily" the criteria for would-be island saviors?

About five years later, John, living with his adopted family, received a visit from Richard as John was playing backgammon. Richard said he ran a school for "extremely special" kids, and had reason to believe John may be one of them. John had drawn a picture that looked suspiciously like a child's rendering of an attack by the smoke monster, which Richard stopped to observe.

Alpert gave Locke a test, and with that, Lost gave us a scene so dense with (potential) subtext it just might take all of the forthcoming eight-month hiatus to unravel it.

The test was to determine which of these objects that Richard laid out before him was already John's: a mitt, a book entitled Book of Laws, a compass, a knife, a mystery comic book (see below for the rather humorous cover - observations are too obvious to note here), or a vial of powder.

Locke seemed to fail the test. He slid the vial toward him and off to the side. Then he picked up the compass and set it down. Both of these actions seemed to please Alpert. But then Locke chose the knife and held on to it, and even seemed to enjoy holding on to it, like a knight getting the feel of his sword. Alpert was not only crestfallen but vaguely pissed. ''I'm afraid John isn't ready for our school,'' he said as he left in a huff, and raced out to...catch the next time machine back to the Island?

Aside number 4: I'm not ready to explain everything by way of time travel, as the good Doc does here. But I share his interpretation of the events we saw, and add this note: What if John somehow sensed what the correct answer to the test was (and I'm open to suggestions on that score), but this was the first instance of young Johnny Locke not wanting to be put in a box? He wants to be action-jungle guy, the survivalist who intrigued us in the first season, and not whatever Richard wants him to be...

Eleven years later, a teacher freed 16-year-old John from a locker that contained a Geronimo Jackson (Hurley's favorite band) poster inside. The teacher relayed to John a private inviation from a Dr. Alpert (!) to spend the summer at a science camp run by Mittleos Labs in Portland (or, as we learned last season, "not exactly in Portland.") John denied that he was a scientist, and when the teacher said he couldn't be a superhero or quarterback, John belted out his familiar refrain, "don't tell me what I can't do" (more of that not being boxed-in thing).

Years later, we revisited the more familiar, wheelchair-bound and balding adult Locke, following a frustrating round of physical therapy. The orderly that wheeled then-despondent John away told him not to give up, because anything was possible. The orderly, once his face was revealed, turned out to be none other than Matthew Abbaddon, who reasured John that his survival was enough of a miracle to allow him to believe he might one day walk again. As Abbaddon menacingly pushed John to the precipice of a staircase, he obliquely mentioned that a miracle happened to him, too (but of course did not elaborate). He then suggested that John go on a walkabout (which of course we know he eventually tried to do). John, however, resisted, saying he was a cripple. "Is that what you are, Mr. Locke?" asked Abbaddon. "I went on my walkabout convinced I was one thing, and found out I was something else. Oh, I'm not just an orderly John." Abbaddon concluded this exchange by noting that, after walkabout, John would owe him one.

Aside number 5: It's great that one episode gave us glimpses of so many of Lost's sporadically-appearing but thoroughly perplexing figures. But none fits the bill more than Matthew Abbaddon (if that is indeed his name). We've seen him three times: first (in time, not on the show), he was a conveniently-placed orderly who planted an idea in Locke's mind that would eventually lead him to the island, by way of a foiled attempt to go on walkabout and an early departure from Australia on flight 815. Then, he recruited Naomi Dorritt and the freighter science team, we presume on behalf of Charles Widmore - though note the disconnect made ever clearer in this very episode, between discrete groups of Widmore's employees. Finally, after the Oceanic 6 returned home, he claimed to be an attorney for Oceanic Airlines when he visited Hurley at Santa Rosa and asked "if they're still alive." So who the frak is this guy, really, and what was the miracle he claimed to have experienced?

Finally, I'll let Doc Jensen take a stab at recapping the flashback as a whole, because he pieced this next passage together absolutely brilliantly...

Now, do the timeline math.

Locke is born early. At age 5, he takes a test that most likely would have taken him to the Island if he had passed. He didn't. That same year, Benjamin Linus is born.

At age 16, Locke is invited to go to a science camp that again would have taken him to the Island. He refused. About that same time, Benjamin Linus and his father joined the Dharma Initiative.

The implication, it seems, is that Ben has been walking the path that was originally meant for Locke. Ben was the contingency plan — the course correction — for Locke's altered destiny. But Ben is his own person, of course, and he has done things differently from what Locke would have done, and this, in turn, has created further changes in the original order of things — changes that I think a certain ticked-off, Island-deprived billionaire named Charles Widmore is trying to reverse. The scene at the rehab center between paralyzed adult Locke and his wheelchair pusher, the creepy Matthew Abbaddon — who accepted the description of ''orderly'' with knowing irony — was meant to suggest one way Widmore is scheming to restore the original order: by getting Locke on that Island and taking back the birthright that was supposed to be his.

(Unless I’m getting this reversed: What if Ben was the man of destiny, but for decades, various forces — including Alpert and Widmore-Abbaddon — have been vainly trying to change destiny by getting Locke to the Island to supplant the über-Other?)

To this I add something the producers revealed in this week's podcast - in writing this episode, they heavily researched the process undertaken by Bhuddists to seek out and find their next Dalai Lama...

Freighter Time
...which, as we confirmed again this episode, is ever-so-slightly distinct from "island time."

Sayid wakes Desmond as the helicopter returns. Dr. Ray - still alive, despite having washed up on the beach - helps unload the wounded merc. "What did this to him?" Ray asks. Keamy responds, "Black pillar of smoke threw him fifty feet in the air, and ripped his guts out." Keamy demands that Sayid tell him the locations of everyone on the island (as if!). Keamy then holds Captain Gault at gunpoint, and demands to know who gave him up to Ben. The captain leads him to Michael. Michael admits giving Ben his name. Keamy points his gun and pulls the trigger - but his gun misfires (I guess suicide isn’t the only thing the island won’t allow for its pawns). The captain, who really seemed likeable in this episode, says not to kill Michael, since, as the saboteur, he is the only one who can fix the engines. So Keamy just knocks Michael out.

Keamy's man dies, and Keamy demands that Frank gas up the chopper for a return trip. He then rips a key off the captain's neck, and uses it to open a safe, from which he retrieves his “secondary protocol,” a folder, which the captain has never seen, bearing a somewhat familiar DHARMA logo (see photo for where we’ve seen this image before).

He says that if he’s going to “torch the island,” there's only one place Ben can go (according to Widmore; and, based on the logo, I’d say that’s the Orchid station). Gault says torching the island was not what he agreed to do on this mission. Realizing Keamy can’t be reasoned with, the captain finagles some alone time with Desmond and Sayid (by sending Omar below deck), and tells them to hide as soon as Keamy leaves. (Note -as Omar left the deck, he finally received the Morse Code message we saw Daniel send two weeks ago). Sayid demands a bearing to the island and says getting his people off is the only way to save them, and Gault agrees to meet them behind a container in ten minutes to take the Zodiac boat.

Frank awakens Michael, and asks why he never told him he was an 815 survivor. Michael says Frank can't fly Keamy back, because he's going to kill everyone on the island. As Frank leaves, he sees Omar attach some kind of device to Keamy's arm (an anti-smokey thingee? If they had these, why not bring them the first time?)

The captain gives Desmond and Sayid the small Zodiac raft and a device that will provide the only safe bearing to the island. But Desmond says he can't go - he's been on the island for three years, and can never set foot on it again, since he knows Penny's coming for him. So Sayid leaves on his own, ready to start ferrying his fellow survivors back to the freighter (any guesses who will join him on the first jaunt?).

That evening, the mercs load ammo into the helicopter for battle. Omar tells Ray about the Morse code message saying he was dead. Frank refuses to fly them to the island, and, since Keamy can’t kill the only pilot, he makes his point a different way - by slitting the doctor's throat and throwing him overboard, menacingly asking, “does that change anything?” Gault appears with two men and shoots a warning shot. Keamy hands his knife to Omar, then shoots Gault with a hidden gun (so much for liking the captain). Frank has no more resistance, and says, “we're flying.” He boots up his sat phone, and conspicuously tucks it into a pack that sits on his copilot seat. Keamy retrieves his gun from the captain's body, and the mercs board the now heavily-armed chopper, as hidden Desmond looks on.

Keamy's sarcastic line after dumping the doc overboard was interesting: ''Did that change anything?'' It changed more than Keamy could imagine. As we saw in ''The Shape of Things to Come,'' the doc's corpse traveled through the offshore anomaly and washed up on the beach in the past. As a result, Jack and company confronted Faraday and Charlotte and finally confirmed that the freighter folk aren't there to save them. This is all to say that, thanks to the doc's death, Jack's camp knows to either avoid that helicopter or, if they follow after it, do so cautiously, and with a battle plan in their back pocket, just in case.

Island Time - The Beach

Juliet chides Jack for leaving his tent, for fear of tearing his stitches. Suddenly, the whole camp sees and hears the helicopter's return. As it passes overhead, a pack is dropped. It's Frank's, and it contains his phone, which shows the helicopter moving further away. Jack, of course, assumes they're to follow the signal.

Aside number 6 - Seriously, Jack? Haven't you figured out that it's time to stay away from those guys? Hopefully you're not as dumb as you look (and I don't just mean when you're wearing your Racer X costume from Speed Racer). But, and I've said it before, I love me some Frank.

Island Time - The Jungle

Of the myriad aspects of this week's episode, though, it was the quest for Jacob carried out by Locke, Ben and Hurley - the Holy Trinity of Weird - that proved most interesting.

Hurley wants to know why they're cabin-hunting, and where they're going. Ben says he's been following Hurley, since he's the last one who saw the cabin. Following a bit of panicky confusion over this little Three Stooges routine, Locke insists they make camp, over Hurley's objection that the smoke monster is out there. "Dude," emphasizes Hurley, "what's going to happen when those freighter guys come back?" Locke pats him on the back and says, smiling (unconvincingly), "I don't know - yet."

Locke awakens - that eyeball closeup again - and hears what sounds like the chopping down of a tree. Ben and Hurley are still asleep, so John investigates and finds...Horace Goodspeed? Clearing some small trees? Horace says he's building a place for himself and the Missus. A place to take a break from the DHARMA Initiative. Blood trickles from his nose, and he says he's been dead for 12 years. "You gotta find me, John, you gotta find me, and when you do, you'll find him...Jacob. He's been waiting for you a real long time, man." Horace then rechops the same tree. It was a dream, and when John awakens, Ben is already up, and watching. Ben says, "I used to have dreams," and then nods.

So...who all thought they'd see Horace Goodspeed again? And that he would have been the guy who built Jacob'the s shack? Now, this was not the first time Locke had such a dream vision - remember the crashing drug plane? The pow-wow with Eko's brother, Yemi? And what did Ben mean, he used to have dreams? Is this tied to the start of Widmore's nightmares? Also, now we know when the purge took place - in 1992, 12 years before the crash.

Hurley theorizes only the craziest can see the cabin - hence he, Ben and John. They stop at the DHARMA gravesite, and John explains to Hurley how DHARMA suddenly disappeared after making all that ranch dressing he likes so much. Ben has an eerie look on his face. Hurley looks in, "whoah - what happened to them?" "He did," says John, indicating Ben.

John digs through the pit, looking for Horace. Ben muses that he should have realized shooting John wouldn't do anything, but he wasn't really thinking clearly. Ben says it wasn't his decision to kill DHARMA - it was the Others' prior leader.

The whosiwhatsit?

John finds Horace, and sees blueprints for the cabin, and a map to get there, in the dead mathematician's pocket.

John offers to send Hurley back to the beach, but being alone at night in the jungle doesn't thrill him, so he decides to stay. "He actually thinks staying was his idea," smiles Ben. "Not bad, John, not bad." "I'm not you," replies John. "You're certainly not."

Ben and Locke debate how certain the location of the cabin is. John says it won't have moved because he was told this was where it would be. Ben says he was told things, too, how special he was. But then he got a tumor and had his daughter's blood on his hands. There was going to be consequences to John's being chosen, because "destiny is a fickle bitch." Hugo points it out - they found the cabin. Ben refuses to enter - the island wanted him to get sick, and John to get well. He declares his time is over, and the island is Locke's now.

It would appear Ben's attempt to shoot Locke was his last desperate attempt to hold on to his special spot as the island's go-to guy. And if he hadn't changed his priorities before, the death of Alex has certainly made him less interested in the island's well-being, and more interested in revenge on Charles Widmore. But I wonder - Is the island but a pawn in the larger Ben/Charles game, or is Charles part of Ben's gambit for the island?

Hurley also is not thrilled to go in, so Locke goes by himself. Ben wishes him luck. Locke lights the lantern, then enters. Jacob is sitting right where we last saw him...only...it's not Jacob, but the figure says he can speak on his behalf. It's Christian! John sits down. "You know why I'm here?" "Yeah, sure, do you?" "I'm here because I was chosen to be." "That's absolutely right." And in the corner, there's Claire! "Hi, John," she says, with the same knowing smile her father has been sporting. "What are you doing here?" "Don't worry, I'm fine, I'm with him." "Where's the baby?" "The baby's where he's supposed to be, and that's not here. It's probably best that you don't tell anyone that you saw her." "Why?" "We don't have time for this. The people from the boat are already on their way back, and once they get there, none of these questions will matter one bit, so why don't you ask the one question that does matter? "How do I save the island?" Christian and Claire smile.

Penultimate Aside: Does that smile mean he asked the right question? Now, to unpack this whole scene...Christian has now appeared to both of his children, a dog, Hurley (briefly) and Locke. Locke has received appearances from Christian, Yemi and Boone. I hope somewhere there's a book of rules as to how this all works, because I'm confused. But one thing I'm getting less confused about is the likelihood that Claire Littleton is dead. It would seem she died in the explosion of her New Otherton bungalow, and was reborn as whatever it is that Christian has been since Jack first saw him shortly after the crash. Only for some reason, Claire seemed to need Christian to tell her what she is. But if Claire is dead, that what of the prophecy that she and she alone must raise Aaron, or Charlie's message that Jack is not supposed to raise him? And is Claire the only dead one? My wife has theorized that a number or our characters actually died way back in the crash - among them, Locke and Rose (which explains their healing). Does this also explain the "fake" flight 815, i.e., perhaps it's not a hoax, but the "survivors" are actually nothing of the sort? Ouch. My head hurts.

Outside, Hurley and Ben sit quietly. In one of those brilliant character moments that takes place without a line of dialog, Hurley pulls out a candy bar, sees Ben eyeing it, breaks off a small piece and offers the rest to Ben. John emerges. Ben asks, "Did he tell you what we're supposed to do?" "Yes, he did," says John, a little dazed. "Well?" "He wants us to move the island."

Final Aside - move the what now? That does not seem like an easy task. And yet, it is one I believe will be successful. If I'm not mistaken, as early as next week, the following will transpire: Sayid will return to the beach with a boat that fits himself and five others (Hurley and Aaron will average out to two people). The first group to leave will be Sayid, Hurley, Aaron, Sun, Jack and Kate (as for why they're each chosen, I have no idea). Sayid will attempt to return on the same bearing, but Locke will have successfully "moved" the island, making it impossible to find anyone else. This will also make it impossible for Frank, Keamy, or the rest of the freighterites to return to Kahana. Thus, the freighter, all but empty now that the science team and the mercs are on the island and the captain and doctor have been killed, will return to port with the O6, as well as Desmond and Michael. Desmond was not on flight 815, and Michael was under two layers of assumed names, so nobody will associate him with the flight - hence "Oceanic Six." Michael's real task - returning these six people to the real world - will be complete, and he will, at last, be free to kill himself, ending up in that coffin in L.A. from last season's finale. Or not.

Next week, lostophiles, the first part of the three-hour finale. Until then, Namaste!