Last Night’s “Lost” episode

Last night’s episode was another good one, although I found it a little more confusing than the others this season.

Locke’s sweat lodge scene was excellent. It was very creatively portrayed, and tied back in to Locke’s spiritual quest on the island. It was the beginning of his new enlightenment, of sorts. Also interesting was that he built the sweat lodge within the framework of the church Eko and Charlie are building, thus merging multiple faith traditions in a sense. In doing so, he acknowledges it as holy ground, and as a place appropriate for communicating with the island.

I enjoyed Locke’s back story, although I had a hard time pinning down the timeline of when his time in this compound took place. Was this after his experience with his dad and subsequent loss of his romantic relationship, or was it a flashback. He looked pretty young and had hair, so I’m inclined to think it was earlier.  But the point was he continues/continues to seek ‘home’ and ‘family’ in any context, and also that he’s no killer, even if he fancies himself a hunter.  He’s basically good. I think that will be important down the line as the lines continue to blur between good and evil, and I think this dynamic will be especially poignant with respect to the others.

Now, about the head guy at the compound – James I think – wasn’t that Mr. Friendly from the Others?  That kind of blew my mind, although I’m not sure how it all connects together yet. One thought I had was that perhaps this ties in to the many open questions we have about the Others on the island. Could it be that, after revolting against Dharma, they set up a remote drug-growing business on the island?  This could explain a few things (stay with me, as I know it’s a stretch):
*It would explain the reason why they want to stay isolated from the world, even if they do have contact with it and can go back and forth.
*It would explain how they have the funding to create their little utopian society, without being subsidized any longer by Dharma.
*The tropical climate is perfect there for growing drugs.
*They evidently have scientists in their midst, who would know a thing or two about biology and chemistry.
*It would be an interesting connection, to have Locke eventually connect face to Face with Mr. Friendly, and realize he is trying with the Others to re-create the utopian compound community they once had before, as shown in last night’s episode.

If this is the case, I think the big revelation in this mini-season COULD be that Locke discovers the Others, and ultimately decides to join them.  He’s already decided never to leave the island. I think in the end, the Others have more noble aspirations, like capturing the healing properties of the island in some formula a la Ponce de Leon, but dealing in drugs could be seen as a means to an end.

Finally, the cave scene was pretty interesting. Lots of skeletons in there, one of which had a Dharma logo on its clothing. It looked pretty rugged, though, and that combined with the toy truck he found suggests that this was a group of the ‘Other’ Others we’ve suspected exist. Remember a while back where we’d see the feet of adults and kids wandering through the jungle, all of whom looked pretty rustic and dirty. My theory is that these Others were actually the subjects used in the research experiments conducted in the cages. I think maybe their escape has some connection to “The Incident” referred to in the training videos with Dr. Marvin Candle/Wickman. Perhaps they escaped, and many were hiding out in this cave. They could have been killed by the bear, or somehow trapped their purposely by the Others. I think there are still some of them wandering around, and at some point Locke or one of the survivors now being held by the Others will have more contact with them.  I think this is how we will really find out what the Others are up to.