3.3 Further Instructions

Locke awakens on the jungle floor. He is alone, covered with blood, but alive. He sees Desmond moving through through the jungle a short distance away, and finds out he has lost his voice when he cannot call out to him. Locke heads back to the beach with a purpose. He builds a sweat lodge on the site of Eko’s unfinished church, and asks Charlie (through written notes) to stand guard while he takes home-made halucenogenic drugs and has a vision quest. In his visions, Boone tells him to clean up his own mess.

Locke heads into the jungle to save Eko, with Charlie trailing behind. They find a dead boar – Locke calls it an ‘active kill’ – signifying that the bear will return to keep feeding. Sure enough, the bear does return, forcing Locke and Charlie to run away. A little later, a second rustling sound occurs, and Locke throws his knife in that direction, narrowly missing Hurley. Hurley shares his experience, then heads off toward the beach. He meets the naked Desmond, who tells of instigating the failsafe. Hurley lends Desmod a big tie-dyed shirt to wear.

Locke discovers that Eko has been dragged off by a polar bear and taken into a cave. At Locke’s behest, Charlie waits outside while Locke enters the cave, fends off the bear with a torch and hairspray, and drags Eko’s blood-covered and unconscious body out.

Locke and Charlie carry Eko back toward the beach. When they stop near a stream, Charlie moves away to get water. Eko speaks to Locke, telling him it is not too late to save Jack and the others. When Charlie returns, Eko is unconscious – or perhaps still unconscious. Perhaps Eko’s words were happening with the remains of Locke’s halucenogen-induced state.

While Desmond tosses rocks into the ocean, Hurley looks at him a muses about how he knew what Locke would say before he said it.

Locke’s backstory show how he was a member of a cult-like group who seemed, on the surface, to be good, law-abiding people, but who were actually storing guns and growing a selling marihuana. Locke picks up an innocent-looking hitchhiker and brings him back. When it turns out that the young man is a cop, sent there specifically to expose the drug ring, Locke is blamed for the problem. Locke promises to fix it, but after setting up a situation where he could kill the cop, he in unable to pull the trigger.

Comments

The dynamics of the group has now changed, with Locke taking over sole leadership now that Jack is unavailable. There’s a good possibility that Locke could be a more personable, compassionate leader.

Desmond’s exposure to the meltdown seems to have graced him with the power to foresee the future.

We now know that Sawyer is being kept in a bear cage, and that there were more than one bear, and that the bears are somehow related to either Dharma or the Others.

It appears that the Others might be a cult splinter group of the Dharma initiative.

Quotable Quotes

 "You do realize I despise you Locke? You do recall punching me in the face several times accusing me of being on drugs when I was clearly not?"
- Charlie

"You're not taking drugs are you, John? I only ask because of the strict zero tolerance policy you've enacted, and I wouldn't want you to have to start punching yourself in the face."
- Charlie