LT344: The Substitute - First Impression

THUMBS UP

I really enjoyed this episode because it returned me to those past episodes when afterwards my brain hurts! While I like action as much as the next guy what I really like is mystery, riddles and clues.

ALTERNATE TIMELINE

For lack of a better term let's use "alternate timeline" to follow the events beginning with Jack back on the plane. So if this is how things were suppose to turn out then we discover that John Locke was meant to interact with the people from the island. Is that plausible?

Wouldn't you think that eventually down the road that some of these people are going to sit down for a cup of Earl Grey and finally compare notes? Then they will discover, "Hey, I visited Sydney once back in 2004".

"Yeah, me too. It was in the fall."

"Me too! September."

"September? That's freaky. That's when I was there."

They continue on and find out they were on the same flight. Mostly likely this would be Ben and John since they now work together. John already is aware Jack was on board with him.

So life for John would have had him interact with these people even after the flight? That seems a bit of a reach. Now we have all had those moments when we look at someone and they look familar but we can't recall from where. Maybe it WAS a guy we sat next to on a plane. But four or five of them?

The larger question amid these coincidences is WHO made the choice for the rest of the passengers? Who decided life should go on with Ben as a European History teacher and Rose as job counselor?

Or as Locke's bride-to-be said, "What are the odds of running into a spinal surgeon? Maybe it's destiny." Good stuff.


THE STORY OF LOT

In the Bible the Devil challenges God. He claims that everyone loves Him as long as life is going well, but as soon as trouble comes calling then the believers will run for cover. God says not so. The Devil says pick your more dedicated and I'll prove my point. God picks Lot.

God tells the Devil he can do whatever he wants to make Lot forsake his faith and Lot will not waiver. But there is one rule: you can't kill him.

The Devil course corrects Lots' life so he loses his wife, his family, his farm, everything. Lot becomes diseased and covered with boils. Lot is left sitting on a trash heap wearing on sackcloth and moans repeatedly, "Woe is me." But he never loses faith in his God.

Does that ring a bell?


THE CAVE

Now this was interesting. "Jacob had a thing for numbers." Nice tease. Did you notice Kate didn't have a number? Hmmm...

We have

4 - Locke, John
8 - Reyes, Hugo
15 - Ford, James
16 - Jarrah, Sayid
23 - Shephard, Jack
42 - Kwon - which one?

John Black (my name for the Man in Black) says they are all candidates to replace Jacob as the island's protector from, well, from nothing. (Now I have the serpent's logic in the Garden of Eden in my head.)

We should keep in mind that Illana describes Frank, the pilot, as a candidate.

If my Bible training has taught me anything, then when the Devil speaks it is never an out and out lie, but a half-truth. It often is mostly true, but there is one minor detail that makes it so wrong. I'll have to replay the episode and try to discover the part that is wrong!


CHOICES

This show seems to emphasize the choices people have to make. Again with the half-truth, half-lie point...John Black says Jacob has removed your free will by pushing you onto the plane for your entire life. What we may learn one day is that it wasn't Cooper that pushed John out the window, but it was Man in Black.


VAMPIRES

There is a myth that says vampires can't enter your home unless you invite them. That is the feeling I have when John gets Sawyer to agree to leave the island. John Black can't leave unless some takes him...as a substitute!


MORE TO COME

Lots to over-analyze in this show. But I give this a solid "A" for its move towards the real motives behind the Man in Black. You have to love it when he throws the white rock out of the cave. And it was classic logic that John Black points out that Jacob made his visits when people's lives were in turmoil...just like when John visited a "woe is me" and drunk Sawyer.

And we haven't even mentioned the classic line of the show which was when Ben gave his eulogy at the gravesite, "And I'm sorry I murdered him." Great stuff.


**

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Thanks for reading.

Enjoy,
KC