In flashbacks, a man named Peter Talbot goes to see John Locke, concerned about a man whom his mother is marrying. Locke’s father, Anthony Cooper, is now going by a different name, and had married Peter’s mother. Peter found him because of the record of the kidney donation. Locke pretends it was an anonymous donation and says he cannot help him. But Locke finds his father and tells him that he will not let him pretend to be someone’s family and leave their life in ruins again, and so demands that he call off the wedding. Then detectives come to find Locke, asking about Peter, since his body was found – dead.
Kate sneaks into the barrack where Jack is living. He is playing the piano. They are watching him – there is a security camera in his apartment. The Others grab her and Sayid. Locke sneaks into Ben’s home. Ben offers to tell him where Jack is, but he says he isn’t looking for Jack, he is looking for the submarine. Locke grabs Alex, then Tom Friendly comes in and tells Ben what has happened, while Locke hides in the closet, keeping a gun on Alex. Ben tells Richard to bring the man from Talahassee.
Ben realizes that Locke is planning to blow up the submarine. Ben shows Locke what he knows about him. Locke and Ben talk about why Ben is sick and is not healing faster, and Ben suggests that Locke wants to avoid leaving the island, since if he leaves, he will become paralyzed again. Ben says he was born on the island, while most of them were recruited. He says that he needs the sub because it lets the peope recruited know that they can leave if they want to. Ben asks what Locke would say if he told him that on the island there was a box which, whatever you imagine, when you open the box, what you imagined is in it. Locke tells Ben that he is a pharisee, a hypocrite, and that Ben is a cheater who doesn’t deserve to live on the island.
Jack tells Kate that he made a deal with them, to let him go home. He is leaving the first thing in the morning. He says that he can then send help, it is their best chance. He says that he wishes Kate had not come back for him – but he will come back for her. Jack goes to Ben and asks him to let his friends go after he is gone. Ben gives Jack his word that he will let Kate and Sayid go just as soon as Jack has left the island. Juliette thanks Ben for keeping his promise.
Alex tells Locke that her father is manipulating him. Locke blows up the submarine anyway, even though he knows Ben wanted it.
In a flashback, Locke confronts his father, accusing him of killing Peter. Anthony says he is a con man, not a murderer. But then he throws Locke out the window, and that is how his back gets broken. He fell 8 stories and survived.
On the island, Ben says that Locke is still afraid of his father, and that is the real reason he wants to stay on the island. He says that Locke has a real communion with the island. He offers to show him what came out of the box, and it is Anthony Cooper, tied up and gagged.
The image of the island being like “Fantasy Island” of the series in the 1970s is interesting. But Locke’s order to Richard shows that the image he offers to Locke is problematic – the island may or may not just do things, but for the most part, it turns out that people do things in the island’s name. The suggestion by John that he is more in tune with the island than Ben has some truth to it, but is also problematic, since for all his greater communion with the island, he just ended up being manipulated to a greater degree by various parties for their own ends. And so there is an important message in this: being more spiritual doesn’t make you infallible.
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