"This Is Why You're Here" - 6x04: The Substitute

Okay, let me just get right to what you want to know:

4 = Locke
8 = Reyes
15 = Ford
16 = Jarrah
23 = Shephard
42 = Kwon (but as the Monster said, we don't know if it's Jin or Sun)

Wow. That was one of the most satisfying moments of LOST ever.

So much happened, and I feel like even more was said, in tonight's episode, "The Substitute," and I'm not sure I'm going to get to all of it, so I make no guarantees that I will touch on everything in this post. I will without a doubt need to watch it again. But here's what I got at the moment...

Great opening - Yay for Locke and Peg Bu... I mean, Helen! Now we know why Alt 2004 Locke is more at peace. This is explained much more clearly near the end of the episode, but at the start, we know they are getting married. My immediate thought was that he never met his father, who was a big reason why he lost Helen in the original timeline. But then Helen tells him to invite his father to the wedding, which struck me as so odd. Is Cooper a different man in this timeline, too? Is Helen referring to a possible step-father, and maybe his birth mother remarried?

We then move from the awesomeness of a happy John Locke to the awesomeness of a point-of-view shot of the Monster moving across the Island. He stops at several places, including outside a house in New Otherton where we could hear the sounds of breaking glass coming from within - we instantly know that it's Sawyer - and then he finally arrives at a tarp hanging from a tree. Richard Alpert is inside - a spooked Richard Alpert - and says, "Let's talk."

The Monster wants Richard to go with him, but Richard refuses. He is openly defiant, and for a moment I thought the Monster was going to end Richard right there (that scary look again - Terry O'Quinn is unbelieveable), but suddenly he sees a young boy in the jungle. He was blonde and was wearing old, Others-style clothes, and I thought he might have been bloody or had chains on, at least in this scene, but I'm not sure. This spooks the Monster, who leaves Richard there, but tells him that he'll be seeing him again "sooner than you think."
So, is the boy a young Richard? The boy definitely doesn't have his dark features, and we see more of him later that leads me to believe he's someone else, but it's worth throwing out there as a possibility.

Back in Alt. 2004, Locke returns to his office. He is still working at the box company, and unfortunately, Randy is still his boss. Randy knows that Locke went to Sydney - "Look at that tan" - but didn't go to the conference that the company paid for him to go to. (So thaaat's how he got to Sydney!) Locke tries to talk his way out of it, but Randy fires him on the spot.

On the Island, the Monster goes to New Otherton to see Sawyer. It's clear that at this point, he is trying to recruit people to his side. The house is trashed, "Search and Destroy" (I think) is playing on the record player, and Sawyer is lying on the floor in the bedroom drinking straight from a bottle of Dharma whiskey (or it might have been vodka in this scene). Sawyer looks at him nonchalantly and says, "I thought you were dead." The Monster says, "I am." Sawyer knows that this isn't Locke - "Locke was scared, even when he was pretending he wasn't. You ain't scared." The Monster is surprised by this, but regardless, tries to convince Sawyer to join him by offering him answers, over a glass of whiskey, which is the only thing Sawyer cares about at the time. He says he has the answer to the biggest question: why is he on this island? At some point in the conversation, the Monster also says that Locke was a candidate - well, before he died.

Locke is in the parking lot of his office in Alt. 2004, carrying a box of his belongings, and there is a yellow Hummer blocking the ramp of his van (Locke chose not to park in the handicapped spot, even though it was open, because he doesn't have to; don't tell me what I can't do, anyone?) And since it was a Hummer, I should've known, but when Locke hits it out of frustration and the alarm goes off, of course, Hurley walks out. He tells John he's owns the company, and Locke tells him he was fired by Randy. Hurley says, "Yeah, Randy...he's a giant douche." (Awesome! Was I the only one hoping he'd march into the office, fire Randy, and give his job to John?) He tells Locke that he also runs a temp agency (how convenient), and writes down a number (481-516-2342?) for him to call to get a new job.

The Monster is leading Sawyer through the jungle, and begins to ask him questions, which Sawyer quickly gets fed up with. We don't know where they're going, but I definitely had the sinking feeling that this was not gonna be good for Sawyer. Suddenly, the blonde boy appears again - and Sawyer can see him, too. The boy runs off, and the Monster runs after him. He trips and falls, and looks up to see the boy looking down on him. "You know the rules," he says. "You know you can't kill him." It's at this point that I think we are meant to think that this is a young Jacob, but I think that might be too easy of an explanation... It does make some sense, but not completely - can Sawyer see dead people now, too? Or maybe he can because Jacob touched him? The scene ends with a great moment: the Monster, in the form of Locke, yells at the boy, "Don't tell me what I can't do!" This will be a great counterpoint to an upcoming scene in Alt. 2004...

Sawyer is in the jungle yelling for Locke, but it's Richard that runs out of the jungle, again with a crazed, worried look on his face. He tells Sawyer not to go with "him" - though Sawyer tells Richard that "Locke" is going to give him answers, Richard assures Sawyer that all he is going to do is kill him. He tells Sawyer to come with him to the Temple instead, but Sawyer refuses, saying he's already been there. Richard hears the Monster coming and runs back to the Temple.

"What kind of animal would you describe yourself as?" is the question that begins Locke's interview at the temp agency. My first reaction to hearing it was shock and thrill, because this was a question that participants were asked in the "Dharma Wants You" online game two summers ago, as was the other question she asked; I thought he might be interviewing with Dharma! This wink to the fans by the writers also served the purpose of frustrating Locke, who asks to see the woman's supervisor. (There was an odd lingering of the camera on the interviewer's face, too - I didn't recognize her, but I'm wondering if she is significant as a character (or actress, maybe) we have seen before, or will see again. She sends her supervisor in, and...it's Rose! They start discussing jobs for him, and he seems interested in a construction job. He has experience, but that's not what's stopping her from recommending it to him; she, in a professional way, says that he should take a job that is suitable for his condition. The topic of fairness comes up, and he asks her, "What do you know about fair?" This is the exact same thing he says to the man at the walkabout tour desk when he is told that he can't go to the outback in the Season 1 episode "Walkabout." She answers him in a very measured, composed way and resolves a question we've had since the premiere: "I have cancer. Terminal cancer." She goes on to basically say that she made peace with it so that she could go on with life and actually live it. This will have an effect on John later in the episode.

The Monster and Sawyer are continuing to their mysterious destination through the jungle. Sawyer asks him if he likes books, and the Monster says yes, but when he asks him about his favorite book, Of Mice and Men, the Monster replies that he hasn't read it: "It's a little after my time." Sawyer tells him about the two main characters and how George has Lenny, "the slow one," imagine the home he always wanted before he shoots him in the back of the head. Obviously, Sawyer is trying to get a message across to the Monster, and makes his case a little more forcefully when he pulls out his gun and aims it at the Monster's head. "What are you?" he asks him again. The Monster replies that he was once a man, a man who had feelings, and who lost someone he loved very much, too. "What I am is trapped," he says, and knows that Sawyer feels the same way. He gives Sawyer the chance to shoot him in the head, but says it would be a shame to stop here "when you're soooo close." (I, for one, was yelling "Shoot him! Shoot him!" at the screen, just so see what would happen.)
The mention of the Steinbeck novel is a very close match to the scene in Season 4 when Ben leads Sawyer from the Dharma polar bear cages to the reveal that they were on the "Alcatraz" island, not the main island. They were discussing and quoting the novel in that episode, and it ends with a scene that is even more similar to this one later on.

On the beach, earlier in the episode, there is a scene where Ben walks into the foot and finds Ilana crying. She asks him how the men she arrived with were killed, and Ben tells her that Locke - Locke who turned into a column of smoke - killed them. Then she asks if Locke killed Jacob, too, and Ben lies (naturally) and says yes. "Then where's his body?" she asks. Ben tells her that Jacob was kicked into the fire pit. Ilana immediately takes out a cloth bag and fills it with handfuls of ash from the pit.
In the next scene on the beach, Ilana begins to lead Ben, Lapidus, and Sun to the Temple, but Sun thinks they should take Locke's body (which, as Lapidus says, is "getting ripe," and has crabs crawling over his bald head - nice touch, producers. Ew.), and they do. They carry him to the Lostie graveyard, where Shannon, Boone, etc. are buried, dig his grave, and finally put him to rest. As they do so, they are discussing the Locke version of the Monster, and Ilana reveals that he can't change his appearance - he is now stuck in the form of Locke.
Even though I know he's dead, and has been so for a while, it was still very sad to see them putting the first shovelfuls of dirt on his body. Ilana looks for someone to say a few words about John, and Ben steps up to deliver the eulogy. "He was a much better man than I will ever be...and I'm very sorry I murdered him." This gets some funny looks from those assembled, and one of the many great lines from this episode as delivered by Lapidus: "Weirdest damn funeral that I ever been to." I really hope we see Lapidus much more often this season.

An alarm clock, which suspiciously sounds quite a bit like the Swan Station alarm, goes off in John's home. After he presumable gets ready for the day, he takes out his cell phone and Jack's card, and dials the number. His secretary answers, asking if she can help him, and he says, "No, you can't," and hangs up. When Helen asks him who he was talking to, he tells her that he got fired. The doorbell rings, and it's an Oceanic representative with John's lost luggage. He finally opens up to Helen about what's going on, and begins by having her open the metal case to reveal his knives. He tells her how he lied about work, how he tried to go on a walkabout but they wouldn't let him, and says that he's tired of yelling at people about telling him what he can't do. He finally accepts that they're right - he can't do those things. He tells Helen, who is wearing a "Peace and Karma" graphic t-shirt, that he doesn't want her to wait around "for a miracle to happen. There are no miracles. It's not gonna happen." In a very emotional moment, she responds by telling him that there are miracles, and that "the only thing I was ever waiting for...was you." She rips up Jack's card, and they embrace. (Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!)

Now, for the scene of the episode: Sawyer and the Monster arrive at the edge of a tall cliff that overlooks the ocean. Again, this is reminiscent of the Ben and Sawyer scene from Season 3 that I mentioned before: instead of Ben, who is a monster of sorts, leading Sawyer to the cliff, this time it's the Monster leading Sawyer. It's almost the same exact shot, in fact. But there is a difference: there is a ladder at the edge of the cliff. The Monster leads the way and climbs down the cliff face by way of a stiff, bamboo-crafted ladder, and then has to switch over to a rope-and-bamboo version. Sawyer follows him, but the ladder breaks. He catches on to the rope ladder, but that fails as well, and he is sent falling away from the face of the cliff. I literally held my breathe at this moment. The entire time that the Monster and Sawyer interacted in this episode, I had that sense of dread and impending doom, and I thought this was going to be it for Sawyer. Fortunately, he is able to grab on to the section of ladder that the Monster is holding on to by grabbing his hand, and they both make it down to a flat area, which is the opening of a cave.
The first thing we see inside the cave is a scale, and I instantly recognized that on one side was a white stone, and on the other was a black stone, and so I knew we were in for something good. But nothing nearly as great as what happens next: after Sawyer says, "This is what you wanted to show me? A scale?" the Monster takes the white stone and hurls it into the ocean. "Inside joke," he tells Sawyer, and then lights a torch. "This is what I want to show you," he says, and leads Sawyer deeper into the cave.
On the walls and ceiling of the cave, written in chalk, are names.
And with each name, a number.
"James, this is why you're here."

John is coaching a girls' volleyball team through a sprinting drill in a high school gym. Then he is in a classroom, asking students to open their textbooks to Chapter 4 (a number!), which, in the classic substitute teacher situation, is about "the human reproductive system." Locke is a substitute teacher. The Locke of the Island, who wanted to educate everyone about boar hunting, knife throwing, and the secrets of the Island, has found his calling in Alt. 2004. At lunchtime, he makes his way to the teachers' lounge, where he finds a European history teacher with an instantly recognizable nasally voice whining about people leaving coffee filters in the coffee machine - Ben! Locke says he just wanted to have a cup of tea, and Ben says, "Well, that's the drink of a gentleman," or something to that effect, and they introduce themselves.

And yes, your DharmaTeacher was thrilled!

In the final scene, the Monster and Sawyer are in the cave. The Monster reveals that Jacob wrote the names, and begins to go through those that are not crossed out. Sawyer notes the numbers next to each name, and the Monster says simply, "Jacob has a thing for numbers." Locke is 4. Jarrah is 16. Reyes is 8. Shephard is 23. Kwon is 42. And last but not least, Ford is 15. As he goes through the numbers, we are shown replays of when Jacob touched all of the characters in the past, which I thought was a little unecessary; we know it happened. Why do we need to be hit over the head with it? It's probably for people who aren't huge fans of the show, which, at this point....c'mon, you know? Anyways, Sawyer is trying to make sense of it all, and the Monster tells him that Jacob "was pushing you." He was trying to make the Losties think that they had choices about important events in their lives, but he was pushing them - to the Island. This is basically the same description of the "long con," which Sawyer would know all about. (More on that in a moment.)
Sawyer asks what Jacob was pushing him to the Island for. "Because you're a candidate." A candidate to do Jacob's job: protector of the Island. The Monster says there are three choices: he could do nothing, or he could accept the job and protect the Island. "Protect it from what?" Sawyer asks. "Nothing. That's the joke," the Monster says - it doesn't need protection. It will be just fine without any of the people that Jacob brought here, thereby destroying their lives. And the third choice?
"We just go. We get off this island."
"How?"
"Together. Are you ready to go home, James?"

"Hell yes."

LOST

So, a few quick things about this excellent episode:

Where's Kate's name in the cave? Why doesn't she have a number? Is she not a candidate? What does this mean for her role and her future?

This thought did occur to me , as well as to many on the message boards when I took a quick peek: Sawyer is going to con the Monster. I LOVE this idea. While the Monster is basically accusing Jacob of running a very long con on the chosen Losties, I think Sawyer is about to run it on him. With the Monster's lack of faith and respect for humanity, he may never see it coming.

The Monster says that he was once a man. We know that the "man in black" that we saw in the Season 5 finale is the Monster, but is this before he became the current black smoke/shape-shifting Monster? I'm going to assume it is, partly because I really want to see how he changes from man to what he is now. Who is the person he lost that he once loved, I wonder? Was Jacob responsible, and is this what drove them to become enemies?

There must be a reason behind the numbers. We've heard before, though not on the show itself, about the Valenzetti Equation, and how the numbers predict the end of the world. The theory goes that if any of the numbers were changed, doomsday would be avoided. So, is Kate another number that will take over for one of the Losties that has died (Locke), therefore changing the numbers, therefore saving the world. And if Jacob is trying to find the numbers, what does this say about him? Is he trying to bring about the end of the world? Is he really the bad guy, as many suspect, especially if you believe what the Monster says about why he brought the candidates to the Island?
"It only ends once. Everything else is just progress."

Gives it a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

Since it's past 1am, I'm going to stop right there. I hope to post more on this episode after I watch it again and after I check out screencaps, message boards, podcasts, and the like. Until then...

Good luck, and Namaste!

~ Matt