Across the Sea.

Let's talk about LOST! Across the Sea.

Because I am tied up for the next couple of days I cannot write out my detailed notes as usual, but I will as soon as I'm home. This episode was so wonderful that I needed to get some thoughts down.

Profound metaphors galore!

Coming out of this episode found me with the hope that fans would relate to the metaphors of the story and find some of their answers within the magical images set before us.  The first answer I need to put before you, even though it is out of order in relation to the episode, is the confirmation of a game.  The confirmation has been given to us many times, although many fans choose to ignore it's there.
Note that viewers are led to believe (via neighboring episodes) that the Boy in Black represents the Man in Black, the "Smoke Monster"... Locke.

Game On!

Our answer came quite simply by the boys and it will not get any clearer than this.
Jacob- "What is it?"
Boy in dark- "It's a game. You play it."
Jacob- "How do you know?"
Boy in dark- "I just know." The boy in dark assigns the pieces determining who is which color.
The boy in dark-Black and Jacob-White.
Jacob wants his brother to teach him how to play and he will, but he has to promise not to tell "mother" because she'll take it away.  Jacob wants to play.  The boy in dark has insight to things being "off" with this woman who is raising them.  The Senet game is played according the rules the boy in dark instituted.  When Jacob tries to cheat/illegal on a move in the game, the boy in dark calls him out on it explaining when he/Jacob makes up his own game everyone else will have to follow "your rules."

In current time we have MIB/Locke playing by Jacob's rules.
It's interesting "Mother Island" claims she left the game there for the intuitive boy in dark to find.

Down the Rabbit Hole

I jumped out of my chair when we saw Queens of a chess board (of sorts).  The red-orange (pregnant and limping) queen, Claudia, emerges from under the water to gaze at the beautiful "Island."
Claudia delivers two sons (twins) via the assistance of a stern and forbidding looking woman with no name who lives in the caves.  This woman claims to be there solo and also arrived there by accident.  We are in the midst of the women speaking another language {Latin?-the language of the "enlightened" and Claudia w/Spanish and an Italian mix} which they apparently understand and then automatically in an instant switch to the very comfortable modern English.  Claudia has many questions but "Mother Island" feels "Every question I answer will simply lead to another question. You should rest. Just be grateful you're alive", so enough said.  Well, other than her telling Claudia that if there's other people on the "Island" she will find them.

"It" is coming

Claudia is told she delivered two boys, but she wasn't prepared with more than one name option for her "son". {She only refers to a single "him"}
"Mother Island" kills the natural mother with a rock. {Eko kills Others with a rock.}

There must be something more

The boy in dark finds the "planted" Senet game and is excited to have something to engage his brain and entice him into dreaming about life outside of the confines of the "Island".

Eyes in the Back of my Head

While “Mother Island” weaves her new fabric Jacob enters the cave; she knows without turning around that it is Jacob who entered and not the "other" boy.  She also knows he isn't telling the truth about what they/two boys were doing.  Jacob firstly mentions his brother is down at the beach staring out at the ocean. And then mentions they we just walking.

Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places

She asks Jacob if he loves her and he obviously has reservations about her, but says yes anyway.

When "Mother Island" sits with the boy in dark it is revealed Jacob told her what he found and mommy claims that's because Jacob doesn't know how to lie.   Are you fucking kidding me?! We literally just saw Jacob do it!   “Mother Island” tells the curious boy "He's not like you... You're... special."   Mama lets the boy in dark keep the game as she claims it really came from her.  The boy in dark's imagination had hoped it came from somewhere else... from across the sea.
“Mother Island”- "There is nowhere else. The island's all there is."
But the inquisitive mind of the boy in dark wants to know where "we" came from.  Mama claims the boys came from her and she from her mother; all reproducing without the mention of a man.
* A reminder from Emily Locke- “I want to tell you that you’re special. Very special. You are part of a design. You do realize that, don’t you? That our meeting, me finding you… this is a sign of things to come. Great things.”

The boy in dark inquisitively notes the word "dead" when mother mentions her mother is dead, and he wonders what that is.  Mama touches him and confidently tells him, "Something you will never have to worry about."

We then see Jacob and his brother chase a boar through the jungle. The boy in dark says "Hurry up! He's getting away!"  The boys lose the boar but in the distance hear it squeal out in pain.  Quietly they sneak a peek to find men with their kill. The boys hide.

The human doesn't see things as they are, but as he is.

The upset duo informs “Mother Island” that they saw people who looked like "us", and want to know where they came from. Mother insists "They're not like us. They don't belong here. We are here for a reason."   By the way she says that line while looking directly at the boy in dark/John Locke.  The boy in dark takes full advantage of asking questions, "What reason?"  Her only answer is "It's not time yet..."
She blindfolds the boys and leads them on a trek through the jungle while admitting she knew about the people and didn't tell them because they're dangerous and she didn't want to frighten “you.” "Mother Island" explains the thing that makes all men dangerous, "They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt and it always ends the same", yet she was every bit of that as well.  Again the boy in dark/Lock the "thinker" wants to know where they came from.  Mother only says "another part of the island. And you're never to go looking for them. If they found you they would hurt you." {Apparently that's not true because he ends up living with them for 30 years. But I understand the sentiment- as people will be people, with big egos and selfish behavior, etc.}  The boy in dark knows "We’re people. Does that mean we can hurt each other?"   Mom conveniently made it so they could never hurt each other.   But evidently that's not true either.  She feels that's just what people do.   It is apparent that this woman has no faith in "men"/people.  That's why Hurley/Hugo even feels he can trust the dead more than the living because living people can hurt you.

"Mother Island" brings them to the place, the reason they're here ... The light.  They are at a flowing stream that flows right down into a tunnel with the warmest most beautiful bright light anyone has ever seen or felt.

Trust Issues x 10

"Mother Island"  warns them not to go in there and to make sure no one ever finds it.  "A little bit of this very same light is inside of every man. But they always want more."
Jacob- "Can they take it?"
"Mother Island"- "No, but they'll try. And if they tried, they could put it out. And if the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere."
She claims to be the protector of the light, but can't protect forever.  One of the boys will have to carry on.  It sounds like "Mother Island" is keeping the light trapped in an effort to thwart people from having it, and breaking hearts. She really is protecting her own broken heart.

Dream within a Dream

The boy in dark can see the image of his dead birth mother, while Jacob cannot.   She wants to show the boy where he came from. "It’s across the island a place you've never seen."   He learns that 13 years ago the day before he was born their ship wrecked.   Dead Mama enlightens him to their being many things across the sea. "You come from across the sea too."  {Dead mama-manifestation of the smoke monster- "Mother Island". Hmmmm...}

“I've looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw was beautiful.” 

The boy in dark won't live a lie so he gathers his and Jacob’s things and wants to leave and never come back.  He reveals "Mother" lied about EVERYTHING including her loving them. This infuriates Jacob and he beats him up.  But the boy in dark confronts "Mother Island" sharing that he now knows the truth and he's going to go home; the boys don't belong there.   Mama tells the boy in dark that no matter what he's been told he could never leave this island, but the boy knows that's not true; one day he will prove it.   He walks away from the two.  When the boy in dark looked at the light he saw the "truth" and wanted to live his life according to the truth, not the crap "Mother Island" was feeding him.  His thoughts were to be formed on the basis of fact, science, logic, reason, "gut feeling/clarity", and freedom, and he wasn't going to be influenced by this woman, her "Island" traditions or any other dogma.
The boy in dark/MIB/Locke is an enlightened "freethinker".

“The fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side” 

"Mother Island" admits to Jacob she killed their birth mother because she would have taken them back to her "bad people" and she couldn't let that happen, as she needed him to stay good.
Jacob-"Am I mother?"
"Mother Island" says yes.  Jacob feels she loves "him/Boy in Dark" more than him. Clever mom claims to love them in different ways.  Jacob will stay with this insane murdering baby napper of a woman and this makes her happy.

Big Boys Play Games Too

Jacob and his brother have been having secret covert sessions to play the game.  Jacob says mother never asks about Man in Black, but that's a lie.  Jacob "watches" the little villagers and their behavior to see if they are really bad.  He doesn't think they're so bad.
MIB-"It may be easy for you to say... Looking down at us from above. Trust me I've lived among them for 30 years, they're greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish."  But he puts up with their ways because they're a means to an end.  He tells his brother, "I'm leaving, Jacob."  He proves the magnetic field of the island to Jacob by throwing his dagger at the well.  He explains he and the smart men discovered that metal behaves strangely.  They dig, explore and invent.  MIB begs Jacob to go with him but Jacob declines.  Jacob is loyal, I'll give him that.  But is his loyalty based in ignorance and fear?   "Island Mother" kept him close at hand seemingly because in my opinion he was the one amendable for coercion.  That is a concept we only thought pertained to Castaway John Locke.  Her sheltered mind was limited by her ignorance, pain and fear.

To everything there is a season

Everything dies! 
Jacob is the one that doesn't want to leave this island, "It's my home." (He's comfortable there- used to the way things are.)
"Mother Island" approaches the work site and appears down in the well where MIB is heating coals. He shares with her his time with the villagers learning and exploring a way to find the light that she didn't want him to have and share.  He explored the idea of "What if I can get to it from someplace else?"   He removes a small piece of stone to let in a bit of the beautiful light that shines on the wheel.  The special man knows how to do all this. They even invented a wheel that will help him on his quest to get back to where he belongs.

MIB/Locke says goodbye to his mother. She bids him goodbye; but smashes his head against the stone wall; knocking him out.
  
There is no Choice...You Must Believe in Free Will

Mom wakes sleeping Jacob, "It's time."   She's letting MIB/Locke go.
In the night she leads Jacob to the tunnel that houses the light.  When asked what's down there she replies, life, death, rebirth... it the source, the heart of the island. {Hmmm...Enlightenment!} She wants Jacob to promise her he'll never go down there because it would be worse than dying. She gives him some wine as some sort of promissory communion to accept the responsibly of protecting the light, and finding his replacement when the time comes.  Jacob doesn't want the responsibility but knows he's got the gig by default.  When he drinks the liquid she poured she claims, "Now you and I are the same."   Well, now that Mother and Jacob are the same... the evil, flawed shoe must fit.

Free will is the purported ability of agents to make choices free from constraints. 

MIB/Locke regains consciousness outside of the well in the daylight and not inside the well where he was knocked out by the "mother".   Mother has destroyed the well.  He sees black smoke rising in the distance and discovers the village is burned and his people are killed.

The Game Continues

Jacob notes that a storm is coming and will see "Mother Island" back home.  Mom sets off to the caves where she finds her stuff is destroyed and the Senet game is there.  {Locke destroyed a few things while on the "island" too. His reason was to keep the people/Jack who needed to be there, to stay until they are ready to go home.}

MIB/Locke Slays the Monster!  (He let go of the metaphoric monster that caused part of his life long suffering)

He plunged the knife into "Mother Island" before she could speak a word, all in retribution for her terrible act of killing the other "Island" residents, trying to kill him, stopping him from leaving and to stop her from continuing her bad ways.   "Mother Island" thanks him.   Jacob walks in seeing the aftermath and not understanding beats up MIB/Locke.  MIB/Locke doesn't fight back with Jacob.

Jacob brings/pulls MIB/Locke to the beautiful light and throws him face down into the stream that floats him unconscious into the light.   It is important to note that Jacob actually tells MIB/Locke "Don't worry brother, I'm not going to kill you" before he throws him down onto the rocks.  Black smoke is released.   Jacob is sad and confused.  He finds his brother dead on some rocks at a stream.  Jacob cries.

Jacob lays the dead woman and the man with the white/black stones to rest in the caves- together.   "Goodbye brother."  Jacob only bids his brother goodbye- not the woman who raised him.

They are all guilty of everything "Mother Island" told the young boys.

All aboard the Crazy Train 

Mental Health and issues with reality!
"Mother Island" was indeed insane and evil. Don't try to tell me she wasn't!  She stole two newborns and killed their birth mother so she could keep them and mold them to her own distorted beliefs. She lied, manipulated, controlled and sheltered them from the truth.  She destroyed, burned and killed the village and its residents.   She also felt that the other "Island" people would want the "Island" light so "she" kept the light hidden, claiming to be its protector and hoping it would never be found.   In this episode I saw a woman who lost faith in a man/men, people and herself.  She seems to be trapping her own "light" in an effort not to get hurt again.  But in her stealing the boys and trying to make her own little emotional safe haven, "MIB/John Locke the Curious" was going to expose her for what she really was.  Unfortunately the scars of this entire mothering experience left MIB/John Locke with pain and confusion and even more motivation to finally close that unhappy chapter of his past and finally leave this place.

ASS U ME

See how the viewer can assume certain things and yet when the truth is revealed it really means something else.  How about that!  There's a plethora of this in our story.  You can assume who the "monster" is in this episode, who is the next Jacob, who is the next MIB, what the “Island” is, who is on what side, who is really Jacob, which baby was whom, and all those wonderful fantastical things, but we were shown under no uncertain terms not to assume anything!   With the reveal that Adam and Eve where really “Mother Island” and her stolen child was one of the greatest bits of information we've ever gotten.

Things to note...Questions to Ask...

* Mental Health issues.
* Push
* Children
* MIB/Locke owns the dagger.
* In House of the Rising Sun, "Adam and Eve" are laid to rest in two separate alcoves.
* Boy in Dark/MIB/John Locke is an enlightened free thinker, independent and wants to live in truth, while Jacob doesn't seem very bright and is fine to live under the unhealthy thumb of "Mother Island"
* Jacob does illustrate anger and vengeance. He is more of a follower than a leader.
* Jacob is a liar.
* Wine.
* Do you think that we'll find that John Locke was an alcoholic too?
* Am I the only one who finds it weird that the "boys" aged and then stopped aging at a certain point? * "Mother Island" is evil.  Mom burned the village and its people. {Fire- Smoke- we've seen this  relate to Kate. But fire is a form of cleansing.}
* Children without "fathers".
* People who look the same but are different. Where did we come from?  Do I entertain the "alien" word again or do we chalk it up to created images within the experience?
* Magic healing paste.
* Different languages.
* Ship.  Wheel.
* Are we to believe there is only a finite amount of "light"?
* Imagination. Make believe. Create. The mind creates positive and negative thoughts and beliefs.

* In addition to us already being aware that Locke's mother was crazy, John Locke tells Eko in The Cost of Living, that he saw a bright light and it was beautiful.  And in Deus Ex Machina we learn about Locke's love of playing games with his brother.

Vocabulary and Research...

* Across the Sea is the fifth song from Weezer's second album, Pinkerton. The song appears on Come On and Kick Me!: The String Quartet Tribute to Weezer and Only in Dreams: Classical Music Inspired by Weezer.  The song was written by Rivers Cuomo at the same time I was very depressed and very lonely, thoughts of becoming a monk and mommy issues.

* The Other is a 1972 psychological horror film about twin brothers who have fun with their shenanigans but the end reveal is that one of the twins has really been dead the entire time.

* Senet, a board game a from pre-dynastic and ancient Egypt. The oldest hieroglyph representing a Senet game dates to circa 3100 BC.  The full name of the game in Egyptian meaning the "game of passing."  The Senet game board is a grid of thirty squares, arranged in three rows of ten .  A Senet game has two sets of pawns (at least five of each and, in some sets, more).

* Claudia: was a Vestal Virgin, who conceived Romulus and Remus.  In Roman mythology Vesta pertains to a Roman goddess, the Sacred fire of Vesta, and the Temple of Vesta.  The College of the Vestals and its well-being was regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome. They cultivated the sacred fire that was not allowed to go out. The goddess of the hearth and home, collecting water from a sacred spring, preparation of food used in rituals and caring for sacred objects in the temple's sanctuary.  By maintaining Vesta's sacred fire, from which anyone could receive fire for household use, they functioned as "surrogate housekeepers", in a religious sense, for all of Rome. They were also put in charge of keeping safe the wills and testaments of various people such as Caesar and Mark Antony, and guarded sacred objects. The Vestals were freed of the usual social obligations to marry and bear children, and took a vow of chastity in order to devote themselves to the study and correct observance of state rituals that were off-limits to the male colleges of priests.


“Enlightenment is imagining figures of light, but making the darkness conscious.”  
You know that for me this story of struggle with deep, deep emotional pain, confusion and the need to be free of it, is happening under the guise of a game. It is about Dharma, walking your path, finding what you lost and enlightenment.  Clues to all of these things, including truth, balance and enlightenment were right in our faces.

The Wheel
The Light = the Truth. LOVE and HOPE

I find it disgusting that this woman took away every aspect of innocence and hope with the child/children.  She was not nurturing, caring and both boys knew she did not know how to love.  She was selfish (because she lived in fear)... The Fucking End!

Again we seem to get hints to the concept of two halves really being parts of the whole and then again two completely independent people.  I can see traits that seem exclusive to the Jacob we already know, yet here we get a clearer picture of him, and traits that what were thought to be exclusive to Boy in Dark/MIB {Locke} are not, but are shared by both.  The reference to there being "two" boys seems to come predominantly from "Mother Island."  If you re-watch you can see the natural mom, even though was told there are two, only refers to one- "him."  There are other times within the episode they are really referred to in a singular manor.

"A little bit of this very same light is inside of every man. But they always want more." 

Nowhere does "Mother Island" say the light is evil incarnate!  She only mentions if the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere.  When Jacob asks "mother" about what's down there, she tells him it's life, death, rebirth... it the source, the heart of the island.  That my friends, is some more enlightenment talk for ya!   Light is the good part of man and this Queen Bitch is keeping it from them. I feel like I'm leaning toward someone having to do this all over again, hence we need another plane to crash.

"Only when you are ready to open your eyes, ears, mind and heart, in the LIGHT you will find TRUTH." -Karen Mauro


 Love to all who are "LOST"™

Disclaimer: I never claim to know everything about the show and my thoughts by no means make me right! The things I share here are my views and/or opinions. I don't claim to catch every single detail either! You all know I hate spoilers! And I stand clear of reading certain sites as to not take me off my own course of research. The one thing I don't need to do here is rehash all of the obvious clues from an episode; we all know what they are. Understood? Let the fun begin! I'll only note things that I know come up as clues later, but need to be noted when they first show up and things I find that will be of importance.

The Man from Tallahassee.

Let's talk about LOST! The Man from Tallahassee.



"Name."
A form is being filled out at a Government Disabilities Office.
Johnathan Locke sits speaking with his case worker.


He states his name as "John Locke", he is single, and he doesn't have a girlfriend. {The form shows-Johnathan Locke 168 San Juan St. 201 Tustin}

The case worker asks him if his parents are living, to which he replies, "I was raised in foster care. I never really knew my parents."
She asked if he ever thought about seeking out his biological parents.
John- "I don't see how that's relevant."
She tells him it's relevant "Mr. Locke, because if the government is going to continue to pay your disability insurance, I have to figure out whether or not your condition has improved." {Yeah, still, how is the question relevant?}
She asks him how his appetite is.
He says it's fine.   She notes he stopped submitting his therapy bills for reimbursement; he stopped going because it's "Waste of time."
She stamps his file with 'Benefits Suspended' in red and explains it's just a temporary suspension and that benefits will start again when he resumes his sessions; then he can re-apply.
He asks her if she thinks he's temporarily disabled.
She says-“Depression can be temporary, yes. And since you see fit to stop going to therapy I guess your all better."
John-"I guess I am."
She calls "Next."
John walks out of the office. {Note file boxes along the wall, things of red that stand out. Coffeecup, red handbag hanging on the cubby wall, pens, pencils, etc.}

Locke with his gun ready, Kate and Sayid in hiding, watching Jack play football in the yard with Tom.
Danielle walks away from the trio.

You hear a door open, and Juliet calls out to "Jack".   She is happy to see him. They toss the ball around.
Kate informs the guys, "She's the one who helped me and Sawyer escape." {Juliet whisper-It's gonna be tomorrow}
Sayid realizes that Danielle is not there with them. Kate lets John know that Danielle's gone, but he's focused on the barracks.

Juliet and Jack seem very comfy cozy with each other.
John, Kate and Sayid observe Juliet knock on a door.  John looks through binoculars
for a closer look.   Juliet wheels out convalescing Ben in a wheelchair.   They watch Jack speak with Ben and then they shake hands.
John-"This is going to be more complicated than we thought."
Kate loads her rifle; she's pissed!  She tells Sayid, "We came here to rescue Jack, and that’s what we're gonna do."
Sayid-"Obviously the circumstances have changed. He may not want to be rescued."
Kate-"That is NOT Him, that’s not Jack! They must have done something to him. When they captured us they drugged us."
Sayid remarks he didn't appear to be drugged.
Kate-"They kidnapped him, held him prisoner, he wouldn't just forget that!"
Sayid agrees, but until they know why, they're putting their lives at risk.
Kate-"I'm not leaving him!"
Sayid feels they may not have a choice
Locke-"It's Jack. The first time I saw he was risking his life pulling people out of burning air plane wreckage.   He's shaking hands with the others I'm sure he's got a good reason. We just have to go down there and find out what it is."
Locke suggests they wait till its dark and approach Jack when he's alone. "And if he wants out, we get him out."


{Flash}
John is in his room/home playing with his food. He is watching EXPOSE on TV. {The show talking about the cobra. Character, Autumn says 'I can't find him' then something about winged victory.  Locke's food tray is FILLED with symbols from the "island" coffee pot, sailboat, arrow, circle w/dot in the middle, sheriff star/badge, cowboy boot, keyhole, circle w/2 lines, kite, something that looks like 7UP}

His drinking glass has fruit design. There is two knocks at the door. John opens the door and points out that he has a sign 'No Soliciting' in red.

The young man's name is Peter Talbot and he needs to speak with him.Peter thinks his mother may be in some trouble.
John-"You've got the wrong John Locke."
Peter asks how many kidneys he has.
John makes instant coffee {YUK! 1 dark mug. 1 light mug. His room has red flashlight, map, red thermos, Picture of flags, framed patches, Chinese food containers, radio.}
Peter tells John about his mother meeting a man two months ago; Love at first sight and the man's name is Adam Seward, a retired computer entrepreneur from Ontario.   He said that Adam had something special that his mother went gaga for right out of the gate, so she agrees to marry the guy. Something in Peter's gut said "he's after something" so he had to check him out. {In the distance you hear an alarm/siren.}
Peter feels this has to do with Locke because he donated 1 of his kidneys to Seward. Only his name was different back then. It used to be Anthony Cooper.
Peter shows Locke a picture of Seward and his mother. All Peter could find were his medical records.   {Wow! Different names and this guy finds Locke via medical records! Come on!}
Peter figures if someone gave the guys their kidney how bad could he be?  "Right?"
Locke tells Peter he was an anonymous donor;  he never met him.
Locke's sorry, "I can't help you."

Locke is looking through binoculars.  He, Kate and Sayid are watching.   Juliet has walked Jack home. {Where is Danielle ALL this time?}
Locke-"Sayid you guard the front. I'll go around and cover the back. You head in through the side door."
Kate is surprised she's going in alone.   Locke feels it's better if she's the first one he sees. They put their plan into action.

Kate heads in a side door.   She hears someone playing piano. She peeks around the corner and sees it is Jack playing. {4 candles/cups on top} Jack turns around and sees her. {Picture of the island} He asks her what she's doing here. She informs him she came to get him.
Jack tells her to get out, "Go! Now! They're watching me!"
Kate's not leaving him. She notes the camera too late as the door gets broken in and the Others take over. Jack tells them not to hurt her.
Ryan-"Step back Doc."
As they have Kate on the ground.   Sayid is caught and brought in too.
Ryan- "Who else is with you?"
Jack is just standing there.
Kate-"It was just us."

Ben is sleeping.
He wakes up. His window is open and so is the closet door. He raises his hospital bed up. He thinks someone is there.
Ben-"Alex?"
He turns his light on.   Locke is there with his gun drawn.
John-"Shhhh. Keep your voice down."
{Ben's room is filled with countless books, Tribal/ancient masks and a big picture of the stars/constellations/skies and a picture of island.}
Ben says he can tell him where Jack is.
John- "I'm not looking for Jack. I'm looking for the submarine."
Ben is not sure what John means.
John-"The one you use to travel to and from the island. The one your man Mikhail told me about before I killed him."
Ben doesn't flinch!
Alex calls out "Dad? Who are you talking to?"
Ben- "Alex don't come in here."

John opens the bedroom door and there's a knock on the house door so John grabs Alex!
From outside the house door we hear Tom, "Ben. Are you awake?"
John hides with Alex in the closet. {Ben always keeps his cool}
Tom comes in to tell Ben about Austen and Jarrah, "They're here. Somehow they found us... We captured them. We're holding them over at my place."{Everybody has a place!}
Tom offers to help Ben get out of bed.
Ben instructs Tom to separate them, and he wants to know how they found "us."
Tom- "What about Juliet and Shephard, tomorrow morn..."
Ben says to let him worry about that. All the while John is watching them.

Ben tells Richard, "I want you to bring me the man from Tallahassee."
Richard-"What do you need him for?"
Ben tells him to just bring him. {Him, a real person?}
Richard leaves and John comes out of the closet. "The man from Tallahassee? What is that? Is that some kind of code?"
Ben tells him unfortunately they don't have a code for '"there's a man in my closet with a gun to my daughters head. Although we obviously should." {Rock on Ben!}
John tells Ben that Sayid had a pack with him and he wants it. Alex will go and retrieve it. Ben informs John that his daughter currently hates him, so holding him hostage may not be his best option. Alex will go get John's bag.
{Flash}
A door to shop opens and we see John enters the flower shop. He tries to blend in to the shop without much notice.   Adam Seward is there with his intended; they are picking out centerpieces for the tables.
Adam/Anthony sees John. {Gee. What kind of flowers can we spot? Hmm?...I love flowers!} The sign says the name of the shop is the Tustin Ranch Florist. {I love how red always jumps out at us!}
Adam says hello.
John-"Is it gonna be a big to-do. Or just two of you and a preacher? I guess you couldn't invite me, huh? That would make for awkward introductions."
Adam/Anthony- "How did you even know?"
John explains he knows because her son came to me and asked why I gave you a kidney. He's on to you. But he doesn't have any proof. So he came to me hoping I would vouch for you."
John-"You're conning her, aren't ya? You’re gonna marry her for her money. Right?"
Anthony asks John what he wants. {NOTE: All of a sudden they are in front of the red flowers that are seen on the island!}
John wants him to end it with her, "You make people think that you're their family and then you leave their life in ruins. And I am not going to let you do it again."
John demands he call off the engagement or he will tell her the truth! John also demands that Anthony leave.
Anthony-"Okay. You got it."

John sits casually with his foot up at the end of Ben's hospital bed; he has his gun. Ben pulls himself up to adjust himself. He asks John if he would help him get into his 'chair', "No tricks. I promise. I just want some dignity."
Ben goes on to say that John of all people should understand what it means to want some dignity. John gets up and gets the wheelchair.
Ben wonders how he expects John to pilot "our" submarine. "I mean, it's a complicated piece of machinery. You don't just press submerge."   {Yes you do.}
John will figure something out, "For all you know, I was a commander in the Navy."
Ben-"What's in the pack, John? If you met Mikhail that means you were in the communications station. Which means you found the explosives."
John doesn't say anything.
Ben-"So you're not planning to pilot the submarine anywhere, are you? You're planning to destroy it."
John doesn't respond at all; no reaction.
Ben-"I know you John Locke."
John-"You don't know me at all."
Ben-"I know you were born in California. I know you were raised in foster care. I know you wasted a big part of your life in Tustin pushing papers that manufactured industrial boxes. I know you spent the four years prior to your arrival on this island in a wheelchair. And I know how you ended up in it. Tell me John. Did it hurt?"
John-"I felt my back break. What do you think?"

Kate is cuffed in the game room.
She is trying to get out of the cuffs; she attempts this while on a pool table.
Tom opens the door and nicely says, "I didn't think I'd see you again so soon, Kate."   He also speaks to someone out of view, "Be careful in here."
Tom motions to his "ears/hearing" to Jack {being bugged/watched -or to listen}. He lets Jack in to see her. {Note all the games and the black and white check table cloth} Jack pulls up a folding chair keeping distance from her. They both establish they haven’t been hurt by "them".
Kate looks around the room and asks, "What is all this?"

Jack-"This is where they live."  {In a game room?!}
Jack lets her know that the people they took, the kids, their all safe.
Kate wonders if he's with 'them' now.
Jack is quiet- "I'm not with anyone, Kate."
She walks over to him and asks, "Why are you acting like this?"
Jack- "There's no wa...Yu...There's no way I could..."
Kate tells him she came back to help him.
Jack- "I told you NOT to come back here for me!"
Kate didn't think he meant it.   They both start to get mushy and teary eyed. Kate walks over and touches his hand with her cuffed hand. Kate kneeling down in front of him, "What did they do to you, Jack?"
Jack-"I made a deal with them. They're gonna let me go.”
Kate-"Where?"
Jack-"Home...First thing in morning. I can bring back help. It's our best chance."
Kate feels he can't trust these people; they are liars. Jack trusts them because she told him to, when she asked him to save Sawyer's life.
Kate gets curious, "What did they tell you?"
The door opens, it's Juliet telling Jack they need to go. Jack tells Kate he wishes she hadn't come back there for him.
He whispers in Kate's ear, "But I will come back here for you."
Jack leaves the game room.
{Flash}
John pulls up in his red Volkswagen beetle to his apartment.   He was a bag of cleaning supplies. Two detectives meet him. Detective Mason and Detective Reed questions him about knowing Peter Talbot.   John lies and says he doesn't know him.  They remind him Peter was in his apartment two days ago.   John says he was a solicitor.
The Talbot family is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million. Locke's name and address was in his pocket.
Peter Talbot is dead.

John peeks out Ben's window. {Red curtains}
Ben tells him, "It wasn't easy being in that hatch with you all that time.  Knowing you had no business walking around.  Knowing I couldn't even ask you about it without telling you who I really was."
John-"So ask me now. Now that I know who you really are."
John closes the curtains.
Ben excitedly wheels himself over to John, "Was it immediate? It started the moment you got here?"
John says 'yes' as he's looking at items/books in the room, "You're wondering why it hasn't happened for you. You're not recovering as fast as you'd like.   How long it's been since Jack fixed you?   A week?   Now that I think about it, how’d you get sick in the first place?"
Ben asks him if he's afraid it will go away, "Is that why you want to destroy the submarine? Cause you know if you ever leave this island you'll be back in the chair?"
Locke picks up Ben's Harry Potter glasses and peeks through them and asks "You got anything to eat?"

Sayid is cuffed to the swing set in the playground. {The cuffs against red. The swings are fenced in.}
Alex comes to retrieve the pack from Sayid. {Convenient the Others didn't take the pack from their prisoner!  Pack- like a pack of dogs.}
Ryan is standing guard and drinking coffee tells her to "Go home kid. You know you're not supposed to be here."
Alex-"My father sent me to get his pack."
He gives her the pack {Complete with Eko's stick}
Sayid- "You're Alex, aren't you?"
He mentions "You look like your mother."
Alex says her mother is dead.
Sayid- "I'm sure that's what they told you."
Ryan hits Sayid and tells him to keep his mouth shut. {Sayid's watch says 6: something}

John wheels Ben into the living area of his house. {There are artifacts, tribal masks, statues, artwork, books and pictures. Book ‘A brief history of time’, a painting of a woman, family pictures, large vases/vessels and a Ganesha}

Ben turns on the lights and John asks where they get electricity.
Ben- "We have 2 giant hamsters running in a massive wheel in our secret underground lair/lab."
Ben lets John have leftovers to eat.   Locke checks out the eats. {Dharma onions, canned pork, beer. Fresh orange juice, milk, tomatoes, watermelon, chicken on a red plate}
Ben has a cute White and Red kitchen. {Note Red coffee pot and the butterfly encased in glass.}
Ben looks near picture of Alex. {Clock says 3:25. It's hard to see exact}
Ben tells John he already ate most of the dark meat. John now appreciates chicken.
Ben- "I know you think you need to do this John, but if you blow up my submarine I have a big problem with my people." {Big Shit}
Ben continues, "I was born on this Island. Not many of my people can say that.   Most of them were recruited and brought here.   And as much as they love this place, as much as they'd do anything to defend it, they need to know they can leave if they want to. The sub maintains that illusion."
John-"So you're lying to them."
Ben-"No! There here because they want to be here.  Some of them are just not ready to make a full commitment yet. {Commitment to what?!} But you John, you've already made that commitment.  And now you have a choice.   Because if you stop and if you think, I can show you things. Things I know you want to see very badly. Let me put it so you'll understand.   Picture a box.  You know something about boxes, don't you John?   What if I told you that somewhere on this Island, there's a very large box, and whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it, when you opened that box, there it would be. What would you say about that, John?"
John helps himself to a glass of water and tells him he hopes "That box is big enough to imagine yourself up a new submarine."
John is angry because Ben's cheating, "You and your people- communicate with the outside world whenever you want to, you come and go as you please, you use electricity and running water and guns.  You're a hypocrite. A Pharisee. You don't deserve to be on this island.   If you had any idea what this place really was, you wouldn't be putting chicken in your refrigerator!"
Ben reminds John he's only been there for 80 days; Ben's been there his entire life! "So how is it you think you know this Island better that I do?"
John-"Because you're in the wheelchair and I'm not."

John peeks out Ben's window. {On Ben's desk, more butterflies encased in glass and an old land line telephone} Alex comes in it's 12:35 a few seconds later it's 4:12 a few seconds or so. {What's that about?}
John takes his pack. He tells Ben how its gonna work; Alex is going to take him to the sub. Once they're there he'll let her go. Ben offers to take him so Alex doesn't have to.

Ben reveals that he and Jack made a deal. In less than an hour "he's leaving this island on that submarine and it's a one way ticket. The anomaly wiped out our communications, we have no way of contacting the outside world. Which means when that sub leaves it can never come back.    So whether you destroy the submarine or whether you let it go, the end result is the same. No one will find this Island."

John leaves with Alex.
Alex tells John, "You know he's manipulating you, right?"  That's what her father does. He manipulates people. He makes you think it's your idea, but it's his {Now, There's an answer!} John will keep that in mind.
Alex directs John, "The submarine is down there at the end of the dock."
He lets her go. Danielle happens to be nearby hiding in the bushes and she is crying.
John opens the hatch to the submarine. {Red lighting} He goes in.

Ben puts the leftover chicken back in the fridge.   Jack comes in as he needs to ask Ben for one last favor; Juliet is with him {Isn't it the friggin middle of the night? Yummy bananas.}
Ben- "You don't knock?"
That amuses Juliet.
Jack needs him to let his friends go, "After I'm gone."
Ben-"And if I said no would that stop you from leaving?"
Jack says of course it would.
Ben knows Jacks friends are only there to rescue him. "But you seem to be doing a good job of rescuing yourself. I suppose there's no reason to keep them here."
Jack asks him if he has his word on that. They shake hands, "You have my word. I'll let them go just as soon as you've left the Island."
Ben and Juliet share a moment of 'goodbye'.
Juliet thanks him for keeping his promise. {Time on clock? And WHAT PROMISE?}
Jack and Juliet leave. {Ben's expression here!}

John is soaking wet, walking down the dock; no pack.
Juliet and Jack get escorted by guards down by the dock.
They connect with John.  The guards pull guns on John; make him "Get down!"
John puts his hands up in surrender. {Tom and his facial expressions! He always looks so surprised at people's behavior! I crack up!}
Jack asks John what he's doing there.

John-"I'm sorry, Jack."
BOOM!! {There's Toms face again!}
{Flash}
There's banging/knocking on the door.
John is at Anthony's fancy apartment. {Not a house}
John comes in freaking out, "What did you do? Tell me you didn't do it...Tell me that you didn't kill that kid." {Picture of Apollo theater on wall} Of course Anthony plays stupid.
John implies Anthony would kill him because the kid was on to him.
Anthony- "I've been doing this a long time. I'm not sweating some rich kid." {There's a beautiful bottle of MacCutcheons}
John's pissed because he told Anthony to leave. Anthony tells him he didn't end it because he wanted to make some money before he skipped out and then all this happened, "Peter died and everything just went straight into the tank."
{He pours two shots of MacCutcheons} His intended has called off the wedding.
Anthony explains there's no profit in it, "I'm a con man, not a murderer."
She called off the wedding, "She couldn't deal with it..."
So, John suggests if he was to call her that's what she'd say.  Dad shows him the phone. John takes the phone asks what's her number.

Dad pushes John out the window!

Badly bruised and injured John lays in a hospital bed.  The same two detectives from before tell him the news that his father's gone.  He fled to Mexico shortly after their encounter. "He could be anywhere in the world right now."
A physical therapist comes, "Mr. Locke has work to do today."
He has the detectives leave.
Therapist- "John, John, John. We have got ourselves quite a day ahead of us, my friend."
He has opened the blinds on the windows. {He wears red}  The therapist is trying to motivate him to get him out of bed.
John is very sad and depressed, broken- "I don't want to."
Therapist-"I don't remember asking."
He brings in a wheelchair and tells John that he'll get used to it.
John feels he can't do this.
The therapist explains he "fell eight stories and survived. I don't want to hear about what you can't do. Let's go."

He lifts John up and out of the bed carries him to the chair. {John expression. It tells us lots! He's in so much emotional pain.}   John cries.

John is cuffed to a pipe. He is sleeping standing up. He jolts awake.

Richard wheels Ben in, "Well John, you've really gone and done it now."
John-"You don't have to pretend you’re disappointed anymore. We both know you wanted it to happen. That's why you left the C-4 in Sayid's bag.   Because you wanted me to make it happen."
{John's catching on!}
Ben reminds him when earlier John called him a cheater, when he said Ben didn't deserve to live on this Island.
Ben tells him he was thinking of a way to stop Jack from leaving. "Because to let him go would be a sign of weakness, of failure, of defeat. People would see that. They would know it. And that, John would be the end of me.  But to kill him, that would be cheating."    If his people hear him make a promise and he breaks it that would be the end of him too.  Then John came striding out of the jungle, "To make my dream come true."
Yeah, yeah, start talking about the magic box again!  Ben's going to show him what came out of it. They lead him down a hallway.

Ben tells John he must have misunderstood him when he asked if it hurt. It's obvious when a person's back smashes into a hard surface after being thrown from a building it's gonna sting a little. {John's trying to work the kinks out of his shoulders}
Ben reveals he wasn't asking him about the physical pain. "I wanted to know what it felt like when your own father tried to kill you. He's the reason you destroyed the submarine, isn't he?  You're afraid. You're afraid of him and this is the one place he can never find you.  This is the one place he can never get to.  Ben makes like he doesn't know how it happened, "But you seem to have some communion with this Island, John, and that makes you very, very important."
Ben tells him in time you'll have a better understanding of things.  Ben wants to help him, "Because I'm in a wheelchair and you're not. Are you ready to see?"
Richard uses a key to open the door and reveal a tied and gagged Anthony Cooper to John.

 

John-"DAD?" {Jack says this line in White Rabbit and Michael sees it on the computer when he thinks he's communicating with Walt.}




The Man from Tallahassee is a Great episode! There's so much to talk about here.

Things to Note…Questions to ask…
* Biological Parentage. John Locke was raised by another. How many of them were raised by someone other than 'natural' parents? Hmm?! How many of them think they have "natural" parents?
* Something going on with DNA, conception, breeding...Creating "Life"".
* Alex. Who are her 'parents' really? I'm not buying Ben/Danielle.
* We talk about twins and things like that…But what about look alike robots? Like in the Terminator movies! Lol. Anything is possible at this point! So...Replicas.
* Mental Health. People in therapy. Depression. Santa Rosa. Mind.
* Yes. We're still keeping our eyes on their 'eyes'!
* How old are people? "Born there"
* Codes. Pirates have codes! Lol!
* Deals. Strategy. Capture.
* Time. Timer.
* John owns a lot of ugly plaid shirts!
* Ben has countless books. How long does it take to acquire that many?
* The 'Submarine' is a complicated piece of machinery. You don't just press submerge. {That's important!}
* Was the blown up "submarine" really the 'submarine' to get back and forth to the "Island"? No. I don't think so.
* Kate and Jack share something for sure. But what? When? What time? What time line? Could they have been a couple at one time? Or will they be in another time.
* There are clues to change of circumstances/season.
* John's accident: Was it real or not? Was John really paralyzed at all? Emotionally he was for sure.
* Again we have an example of someone being led to believe another person to be dead, but they are not!
* All the time difference in Ben's house. I know time must run differently on the island, but this is just friggin crazy. Why do we see a few variations of time in that situation?
* The "Island" is still getting food drops from Dharma. Why? Wouldn't Dharma realize their people have been dead for years?
* I need to make a slide show or video montage of Tom and his dumbfounded facial expressions! Can I get a Hell Yeah?!
* Has John been in a wheelchair before? Will he be again?
* Ben sure does have a lot of tribal masks! Masks represent other faces, other realities. They are also very important in other cultures for 'dance'. Could that be a hint to his interests in the Ancients and Cultures? Age? Or could it be a clue to Ben being the master of disguise. Can Ben change his appearance or identity? Who else can?
* Ben is cheating. CHEATING!
* People speaking persuasively and convincingly. That's a talent!
* Peter Talbot: (1620-1680), was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin from 1669 to his death. For fun, his name anagrams to A BETTER PLOT! LOL!



Vocabulary and Research...
♦ Tustin Ranch is a community located in the city of Tustin, California in Orange County, California. The Tustin Ranch was formerly a citrus ranch. The Tustin Market Place is on Jamboree Road in the heart of the Ranch. It is also home of the annual running competition in Tustin called Dinosaur Dash.
♦ The name "Tallahassee" is a Muskogean Indian word often translated as "abandoned fields," "old fields" or "old town."
♦ Ganesha: is the elephant head/human body statue on Ben's table. Ganesha overcomes obstacles and is the god of new ventures.
♦ Cobra-Snakes: Known for living in underground lair allies it with the underworld and it associated with the primal waters from which all life was created. The serpent symbol is widespread in the agricultural community where it's used to represent the fertility of the soil.
♦  RISK: is a strategic board game. It was released as La Conquête du Monde (The Conquest of the World), in France. Risk a game for 2-6 players, played on a board depicting a stylized Napoleonic-era political map of the Earth, divided into 42 territories, which are grouped into 6 continents. Players control armies, with which they attempt to capture territories from other players. The goal of the game is to control all the territories—or"conquer the world"—through the elimination of other players. Using area movement, Risk ignores realistic limitations, such as the vast size of the world, and the logistics of the game. The game comes with 6 sets of armies, each of a different color. Individual sets of armies are denoted by 3 different tokens. Infantry tokens represent a single army unit, cavalry represent 5 army units, and artillery 10 units. The 3 token types are purely a convenience measure for ease of representing a specific army size. Also included is a total of 56 Risk cards. 42 of these depict territories, in addition to a symbol of an infantry, cavalry, or artillery piece. Also included are 2 wild cards. 12 Mission cards also come with the game, but are used only in Secret Mission Risk. You use 5 die. The 2-player game differs in that the players use Risk cards to determine where armies are placed. No official alliances or truces exist in the game, although players often form unofficial treaties or "gentleman's agreements" to safeguard themselves from attacks while they concentrate their forces elsewhere, or to eliminate a player who has grown too strong.
- Risk- is a comic book character appearing in publications from DC Comics.
- Risk-is a sci-fi short story by Isaac Asimov, issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and reprinted in the collections The Rest of the Robots (1964) and The Complete Robot (1982).
♦ A retriever is a type of gun dog that retrieves game for a hunter. Labrador Retriever (Lab for short), is a type of gun dog. The most popular breed of assistance dog in the U.S., Australia, as well as being widely used by police and other official bodies for their detection and working abilities The early Labrador originated on the island of Newfoundland. The original forebears of the St. John's dog have variously been suggested to be crossbreeds of the black St. Hubert's hound from France, working water dogs from Portugal, old European pointer breeds and dogs belonging to the indigenous peoples of the area. From the St. John's Dog, two breeds emerged. Ancestral chocolate and butterscotch-yellow colors were noted in the original St. John's dogs as early as 1807, when the Canton< shipwrecked carrying a number of St. John's dogs for the Duke of Malmesbury. 2 dogs were later found, 1 black and 1 chocolate, evidence that chocolate had been a color in the original St. John's dogs. The first recognized yellow lab was Ben of Hyde, born 1899.
- Retrievers: in Dungeons and Dragons- A construct is either an animated object of some sort, or an artificially crafted creature. Most construct are mindless automatons, obeying their creator's commands absolutely. This makes them immune to bribery and absolutely trustworthy, although some take their orders literally and fail to consider their intent. A few constructs, however, such as Inevitables, are as intelligent as living creatures. As they lack a metabolism or internal organs, constructs are immune to many effects, such as poison, fatigue, exhaustion, disease, ability drain, level drain, death effects and critical hits.
♦ Submarine: is a watercraft that can operate independently underwater. There is also a submarine called a midget.
♦ Communion: 1). A joining together of minds or spirits. 2).The sacrament of Holy Communion. 3). the relationship between Christians as individuals or Churches.
- Communion: is a book by Whitley Strieber. The movie based on the story of Whitley who experiences "lost time" and terrifying flashbacks, which hypnosis undertaken by later links to an encounter with aliens. (go ahead, giggle.)
♦ Winged Victory: is a 1934 novel by English World War I fighter pilot Victor Maslin Yeates. The main character plans to leave the Royal Air Force when his service is up and live on a West Country farm with his friends.
- Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace is a 3rd century B.C. marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre.
- Winged Victory- is a play and later, a film.



I was researching sub-words of MacCutcheons, I came across ESCUTCHEONS OF SCIENCE. When I wanted to search a few names within that title, I inadvertently misspelled the name 'Christian' (Shepherd) and came across this- Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch mathematician who patented the first pendulum clock, which greatly increased the accuracy of time measurement. He laid the foundations of mechanics and also worked on astronomy and probability. Alma mater University of Leiden
College of Orange. Huygens achieved note for his arguments that light consisted of waves, which became instrumental in the understanding of wave-particle duality.



Ben is always in control of the game. He never panics or wavers.  Every action he has is a strategy for things/game to continue on.   He will con and manipulate people and events.  But, he has spoken the truth about many things, so we need to listen to him carefully.  Ben also seems to have found a way to cheat.
We're led to believe that John was imagining and wanting to see Anthony Cooper the minute he 'looked inside the box/room'?   No! That's what Ben was wanting.  We did see John sleeping standing up then Ben and Richard come in to get him.  Did John have a manipulated Flash/dream/memory about Anthony, orchestrated by Ben?  Now Ben can reveal Anthony, making it seem like John wished him there, but maybe he didn't, maybe it was Ben who wished him there.  Did Ben contribute to this reunion because he knew John needed to face something, i.e. his father and his past emotional pain.

It seems as if John is finding ways to keep Jack on the "Island" on purpose, almost as if he knows Jack has to stay there for a reason, like...until he finds what he's looking for.  Plus I have that whole "two halves of a whole" feeling going on here again with Jack and John. Sometimes I feel like the Castaways' are all aspects of Jack. Weird, I know. Call me crazy! 

If there are illusions, tricks and props literally used in making people on the "Island" believe things, then how is anyone, including us, the outside world viewer, supposed to know what is real and what is not/manipulated/fake/staged/Razzle Dazzle!    This trickery would include things we see happening with "Flashes" and life on the "Island".    We see in the "Flash", imagery that is directly tied into things and events on the "Island".   I don't know, maybe I've got it all backwards.

That brings me to the 'underground place'. Who is in this underground place? Could Christian be in there? I'm just asking!!!

The Man from Tallahassee. Who is it really? Things and People are NOT who/what we think!

Love to all who are "LOST"™

Posted at MySpace on January 31, 2008.

Disclaimer: I never claim to know everything about the show and my thoughts by no means make me right! The things I share here are my views and/or opinions. I don't claim to catch every single detail either! You all know I hate spoilers! And I stand clear of reading certain sites as to not take me off my own course of research. The one thing I don't need to do here is rehash all of the obvious clues from an episode, we all know what they are. Understood? Good! Let the fun begin!I'll only note things that I know come up as clues later, but need to be noted when they first show up and things I find that will be of importance! It will get very exciting as we progress into the story.