If Dead is Dead, Then That Sucks for John Locke.

After a few weeks of the final “thud” of season 5 still ringing in my head, I feel a bit more settled now. Mostly that’s thanks to the podcasts I’ve been listening to and the inordinate amounts of time that I’ve been spending on lostpedia.com. There was one day last week where I had to have spent 3 hours in total on lostpedia.com catching up on every bit on nuance I’ve ever missed. Later, I regaled my husband about how the Black Rock couldn’t have legally been a slave-trading ship because of the year that slavery had been abolished, therefore it was most likely a prisoner-transport vessel. He endured it because he loves me. What a good man.


Another topic I spent some serious time with was John Locke. In the finale I was distracted by things like seeing Jacob for the first time and what the heck lay in the shadow of the statue and cared a surprising little about Locke. I was also driven to temporary-insanity by how much I wanted the hydrogen bomb to go off and miraculously allow everyone to live except for that whiney, insecure doctor with his ridiculous “count to five” story that I, and the rest of the viewing audience was tired of hearing about two seasons ago. (Note to producers: emotional touchstones CAN be overworked!) But, I digress…


All these things were more in my face than Locke’s body being revealed, yet again, in a season finale. As it stood when the episode ended, I wasn’t sure what I thought about the double reveal. I felt like when I was a kid and mom made dinner, and then the next night used the leftovers in a casserole. The decision felt over-worked and slightly anti-climatic during the fiery, time-traveling, actually-physical-Jacob finale.


But the more I think about Locke’s body being unceremoniously dumped onto beach by Ilana and crew, the more is implied. Though yes, I did just compare it to casserole, the plot twist is really brilliant because I’m still thinking about it four weeks later. Maybe it’s like a super-special tuna noodle casserole?


Since there was a dead Locke being dragged around by Bram and the boys, yet a seemingly alive Locke was championing Ben to commit murder, it appears as though anti-Jacob doesn’t need a body to take corporeal form. He doesn’t necessarily re-animate someone’s body, but takes on it’s form. Is there a connection to the other deceased we’ve seen on the Island that appear alive like Christian Shepherd, Yemi, and bloody-nosed Horace? And are these apparitions all anti-Jacob? It would be a logical statement then, to say that the body has to be on the Island to accomplish this because Anti-Jacob didn’t start running around as Locke (as far as we can tell) until Ajira 316 crashed with Locke’s dead body. Christian, Yemi and Horace’s bodies are all hanging out on the Island as well easily allowing anti-Jacob to take their form. When Eko finds Yemi’s body in the drug plane, he is rather disgustingly decayed however, when he talks with Eko, other than some dust on his suit, he looks alive. (And that is a point for which I am glad, because a talking mostly-skeleton Yemi would have caused me to stop watching the show)


So that means dead is dead and they’ve been telling us the truth all along? Don’t know how I feel about that. The reason I have a hard time with the idea is the lack of redemption for Locke’s character. I mean, the poor guy never came out on top in anything. He failed Richard Alpert’s creepy little Dali Lama test when he was 5, was conned out of a kidney by his father, (A kidney? Yes, a kidney, he only mentioned it 62 times before season 3 was over) and lost the only woman who ever loved him. That’s a rough life. He was used by his father, used by Ben, and now apparently and finally, used by anti-Jacob to set the “loop hole” into motion. And that’s his entire character arc? Sad.


Do I think they’ll bring him back to life yet again? Probably in some fashion. They’ve invested too much into the character to allow his arc to end there. Even if they do a few more flashbacks, but keep him dead, I’d be fine with that.


Do I hope they bring him back to life. No. How many times are they going to try to mess with our brains about this? Personally, it would damage the credibility of the writers. And with a story that forces their audience to trust them as much as Lost, they can’t break trust like that.


Do I think I can wait until January to see how this all pans out? I guess I have no choice, but I’ll probably be warring with myself to stay away from spoilers as soon as they start filming again.