Lost, Season 3, Episode 19, “The Brig” (5/2/07)

Locke: Locke’s travels with the Others arises from his desire to learn more. More about the island or more about himself has yet to be seen. But what we learn about Locke is that he’s as big a manipulator as Ben is. By getting Sawyer to kill Anthony Cooper, it shows that Locke lacks the strength to clean up his own mess. Ben, however, wanted Locke to kill him to show his commitment to the Others’ community. But Locke is not a killer, and when he couldn’t kill Cooper, the Others saw this, and lost faith in this man they had assumed was “special”. Locke continues to have “daddy” issues, and this has taken away so much of Locke’s self-worth that he seeks a purpose to justify his journey. Destiny, it seems, is Locke’s end goal and he’ll do anything to get there. The error of Locke’s ways, I think, is that he’s replacing the approval he was looking for from his father with approval from Ben. Why? I don’t know. However, there is something about Locke and the island, and the act of embarrassing him in front of the crowd was Ben’s way to show the Others that Locke isn’t special, allowing Ben more control over the group. But Locke has other plans, and his infiltration of the Others led him to give Sawyer some valuable information: the recorder with Juliet’s message to Ben about Sun’s pregnancy. We’ll have to see what happens when he returns to the Others with the body of Cooper.

Sawyer: Though this episode was a Locke-flashback, it turns out to affect Sawyer the most as he is finally able to confront the man who conned his parents, leading to their deaths. The only problem is that on Lost, once a character’s story is resolved or reaches a closing, they die. So, whether or not Sawyer makes it to the end of the season or into next season remains to be seen. If I were a betting man I’d say the odds of Sawyer making to Season 4 are 8:1. If he lives, it will be interesting to see if he can make the transformation from angry Sawyer to non-angry James. With Cooper dead, Sawyer should no longer have that desire for pay-back against Cooper. We’ll see. I did find it interesting that Cooper told Sawyer about pushing Locke out the window and his paralysis. I wonder if Sawyer will share this information with the Losties?

Anthony Cooper: Last year the prediction was made in this wrap-up that Anthony Cooper would turn out to be the man that conned Sawyer’s family. The guy is a total jerk. I loved his explanation about being run off the road in Tallahassee, being put into an ambulance, and then waking up to see “my dead son” (referring to the news that John would’ve died on the Oceanic crash, something he obviously also saw on the news). He also assumes that he’s in hell, because how else could he end up in a place with his son at this point, when the place is so remote? When Sawyer made him read the letter that he wrote as a child after his parent’s deaths, and he said “blah blah blah” and then tore it up, it was no surprise that this was enough to put Sawyer over the edge and kill him. However, at the end of the episode, when Locke was throwing the body of Cooper over his shoulder to take the body back to the Others, did anyone besides me hear someone say “Hey” or something like that? Was it Sawyer as he was walking off back to Lostie Beach? Or was it Cooper, who may have been healed by the island? Shoot…if that were to happen, it would make one think that Locke and Cooper were in on a con……

Benjamin Linus: Still playing his control games, except this time his decision to force Locke to kill Cooper in front of the crowd was only to embarrass Locke knowing that Locke wouldn’t be able to kill him. Ben can’t have someone who is considered “special” in his camp, so making Locke appear weak works to Ben’s advantage. Ben = con artist and manipulator. It is interesting that Ben has been healing faster now that Locke has been in his company. I liked how Ben said to Locke “Don’t tell me what I can’t do, John” when John said that they couldn’t leave without him. John has used that line a lot, especially when he was in the wheelchair. I wonder what Ben meant when he said he’d be taking them all to someplace old…could it be to the remains of the island civilization that created the 4-toed statue?

Kate Austin: Entrusted by Sayid to keep quiet about Naomi (Parachick), Kate runs right to Jack and tells him. Of course, Juliet was there too. Once Kate told them about Naomi, the satellite phone, the ship offshore, Juliet says “We should tell her”. Jack says: “Not yet”. Kate says: “Tell me what?” Jack says: “Not yet”. Okay…what do you think it is? I have two theories. 1) Somehow Juliet was able to get a blood sample (?) from Kate (she did say on the tape recorder last week something about getting sample from the women on Lostie Beach) and has discovered that she’s pregnant. OR 2) Juliet told Jack about the recorder and the plans for the Others to come over and take the women and/or Aaron, and she and Jack are planning an ambush of the Others when they come to try to do that. Not sure which…..take your pick.

Richard Alpert: Interesting that he would confide in Locke that the fertility experiments were a waste of time, and then give Locke the file on Sawyer. It was from this that Locke learned of Cooper’s connection with Sawyer. What’s Richard’s motivation? Is he trying to unseat Ben? Could Richard be the mysterious Jacob in the end?? Note: when Richard gave Locke Sawyer’s file, it was in French! French? Why in French? Was Sawyer in France at some point and got into trouble? Wait...wait….isn’t Rousseau French?? And when did Locke learn French?

Jack Sheppard: Jack learns from Kate because of his allegiance with Juliet, nobody trusts him. Jack has been acting weird, but I think it’s because he’s working with Juliet to someone get at the Others. We’ll see. Makes me wonder if one of the episodes left this year will detail a flashback of the time that Jack was with the Others after he saved Ben. Jack was with the Others for 10 days.

Sayid: Sayid is the one that Desmond and the camping group tell about Naomi. This could be important as it shows a change in trust patterns…no longer Jack, but now Sayid. Could Sayid lead this group? We’ll see soon enough, I think. In any case, more Sayid is good.

Naomi: I don’t believe her. Yes, I believe that she’s there looking for Desmond and not the 815 passengers. But, something’s not right about her. Keep an eye on this one. I’m not sure she’s a plant, though. She confirmed that she was there looking for Desmond and that Penny’s group had hired her company, and given them lots of money. She said the coordinates given to her by Penny were in the middle of the ocean, and as she was doing a grid-by-grid search, the clouds parted and that’s when she saw the island…an island that shouldn’t be there. When her instruments went wacky is when her whirleyflopter went down. My question is: if she saw the island when the clouds parted, that would have to be in the daylight, right? But she landed on the island at night. Could the island be in some sort of temporal flux? Yeah, it’s science-fiction’ish, but…HELLO…..the show does show that sort of backbone. Maybe the purple-sky issue set-off by Desmond did something to the magnetic properties of the island, and it’s able to exist between two dimensions…..? Just a thought….

Bali: Naomi said the plane was found off the coast of Bali. Bali, part of the Indonesian Island Chain, is Northwest of Australia, so definitely NOT on the way to Los Angeles from Sydney. This story of the plane crash is obviously fake. Interestingly, Bali was inhabited in prehistoric times by people from Asia. The main religion on the island is Hindu, which uses the term “Namaste” as their greeting.

Oceanic Flight 815: The information of the plane being found 4 miles down intact can’t be true. Four miles down in the ocean would crush a plane. Subs can barely go down that far. The story of the plane crash is a fake. Whether or not Naomi knows this or not remains to be seen. She may have heard it on the news and believed it, since news is so honest and trustworthy. (Please note all sarcasm) However, if it’s reported that the plane has been found, and everyone is dead, no search parties will be looking for them anymore. If Penny can’t get them off the island, who will? And if they can’t get off the island, one surmises that there would be showdown between the Others and the Losties for island dominance.

Misc:
1. Nod to LOST fans? Again the writers/producers put a little line in the show intended, I think, for the many fans who thought the “Magic Box” was really magic. Ben: “The box is a metaphor, John!” Ah, no duh!
2. Why do you think Rousseau would need dynamite? I think we’re going to find out before the season ends. Very funny when Locke says to her, “Be careful, it’s unstable”. I think he meant the dynamite and not Rousseau! Ha ha!
3. Where is Alex? Where is Carl? Will they be back before season’s end?
4. Sawyer’s mother’s name was Mary: another Biblical reference.
5. Totally funny: when Hurley and Charlie were closing up the tent that they had just brought Naomi to, and Sawyer goes by: “Where you goin’?”….”to take a leak”…”well, um, us too….” Ha ha!!
6. Desmond…he’s going to be an important key in this Lost mystery.
7. Claire’s message that she attached to the bird…could that play a role down the line?? Or, if found, would someone consider it a joke that someone sent.
8. Michael Crichton (author of Jurassic Park) has a book called Timeline. In that book, he brings up the idea of “multiverses” and a technology used to travel between them. One section of the book is called “Black Rock”. Maybe this is the idea that exists on Lost Island….the ability to travel between timelines. Remember: Hurley and Sayid picking up the Glen Miller music on the first transponder that Sayid worked on?
9. The column that Anthony Cooper was tied to looked old. Old like the 4-toed statue that Sayid, Jin and Sun saw on their sail-around-the-island trip. Could this be part of the civilization that existed pre-Dharma/pre-Others?


Comments? Ideas? I’m waiting to hear from you…….

Until next week,

Namasté…


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