Lost, Ep. 19: The Brig
I originally reported that this was going to be a Jack episode. A few days later, I was corrected when TV Guide posted the “correct” list of upcoming flashbacks, where they said it was going to be a “non-traditional” flashback, unlike any they’d ever done before. Then last week I checked the usually reliable TV.com, and I posted that they were saying it was a Locke episode. Someone posted a comment saying I was wrong, it was actually a Sawyer episode. Looks like my good old reliable TV.com got it right, and every other source was wrong. This was not a non-traditional flashback: we’ve had flashbacks of Claire on the island, the Tailies on the island, Michael on the island, Desmond on the island, and Nikki and Paulo on the island. In fact, the Michael flashback was almost exactly like Locke’s, just filling in the past few days for us and bringing us right up to the present. What’s non-traditional about it? It was a Locke episode, plain and simple.

Things I am thrilled to gloat that I called long ago:
-that Anthony Cooper was in fact Sawyer
-that Locke was going to find that out, and lead him to Cooper so he could kill him
-that Sawyer would actually go through with it and kill him
-Jack is a dick. (I’m not alone on calling THAT one.)

Things I am ashamed to say I was wrong on:
-someone posted last week that Naomi was not Australian, as I’d said, but English; they were right
-that Cooper wasn’t actually Sawyer’s father (boo… I was seriously hoping a father couldn’t really do that to his son)

Highlight: This is possibly Holloway’s best performance. He is brilliant in this episode. His anger when he throws Locke down and holds a knife to his throat. The look on his face when Cooper won’t read the note the way he’d always envisioned, and rips it up instead. The blood in his eyes when he pulls the chain around Cooper’s throat. And how, the moment the monster is dead, Sawyer reels back and looks like the 8-year-old boy all over again. The realization on his face that fulfilling his lifelong goal… does nothing.

Did You Notice?:
-at the beginning of the episode (yes, I went back and checked) Locke is burning Sawyer’s file while on The Black Rock. He has a FIRE BURNING on a WOODEN SHIP with EXPLOSIVES only a few meters away.
-now we know why Locke’s hand was bandaged when he came to talk to Kate
-As much as I hate Cooper, and love Ben, I must admit I laughed when Cooper called Ben “Bug-Eye.”
-Emma, the little girl from the tail section whom Ana Lucia said she’d get home to her parents, looks about 14 standing with Cindy, but she was a little girl on the beach, hugging her teddy bear. D’oh. Guess it’s those island growin’ properties.
-I LOVE that when Danielle walks in, the next two words are, “Rousseau.” “Locke.” I’m sure this moment is all a comment on 18th-century Enlightenment theory gone awry, but you’ll have to read my book to find out more. I don’t have time for the full analysis in a blog I need to write in an hour. :)
-Cooper says to Sawyer, “Guess I didn’t raise no dummies.” Uh, dude, you didn’t RAISE Locke. And, uh, nice grammar.
-the news of Flight 815 going down and killing everyone on it has clearly been made very public, which means everyone we’ve seen in the flashbacks of these characters believes their loved ones are dead.
-Cooper says he took $38,000 from Sawyer’s mom (15 + 23)
-This is one of my favourite finds: When Locke wakes up and the Others are packing up and moving camp, Locke sits up, and suddenly you can hear that ‘ch-ch-ch-ch’ sound of the smoke monster. I backed it up three times and it makes the sound 4 times in a row. Seems very mysterious that that sound would be heard in the Others camp, and Smokey clearly isn’t around. Are the Others manipulating it in some way?
-LOVE that Ben throws, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do” back in Locke’s face
-JACK IS A DICK.
-this show is definitely taking on Alias overtones. Locke is a double agent, playing both sides in a way, but suggesting he’s on his own journey.
-Sawyer asks Locke if it’s true that he was thrown out of a window and is a cripple, and John says, “Not anymore,” which suggests that the past is no longer true and he was never actually thrown out of a window or crippled. Is there some truth to the fan speculation that the actions of the characters on the island can actually change the past?

Questions:
-where are the Others eventually headed? Ben says they’re going to “a new place… actually, an old place.” What does he mean? Will this have something to do with the 4-toed statue?
-why is Cindy such a compliant Other? Has she become one of them? She certainly seems to be. How many of the rest of the people who were setting up camp were actually on Flight 815 and are now happy Others?
-when Ben says they’re going to find all the pregnant women and take them, what are they planning on doing? Just using them as guinea pigs to test Juliet’s work?
-how is Ben walking? Is it really some sort of miracle? Or is he just pulling Locke’s leg? I don’t trust this guy (love him, don’t trust him) and he has mindfrakked John SO many times I really think he’s doing it again. Cooper just “showing up”; Ben suddenly walking. I think, sadly, just as Cooper conned Locke by giving him what he always wanted – a father – now Ben is conning Locke by giving him what he really needs – a purpose.
-how did the plane have all of the bodies on it, off the coast of Bali? Did someone kill another 350 people and put them onto the plane? Yikes… this thing is more nefarious than we thought.
-anyone else weirded out by Sayid asking Desmond if he actually saw the helicopter? Has Sayid EVER gotten a gut feeling wrong?
-Cooper is tied to a pillar. How old is the pillar? Is it another remnant of an earlier civilization on the island, along with the 4-toed statue? Was it part of a temple of some kind? Was the island some holy place? Is it Atlantis?
-why does Ben want Cooper dead so badly? Why does Richard help facilitate it? What did Cooper do to the Others that makes them hate him so much? Is it just the symbol of him? They need Locke to kill him (or get someone else to kill him) to prove they have the proper leader in Locke? Or did Cooper con them out of some scientific research or something? ;)
-Did Locke NEED Sawyer to kill Cooper with his bare hands? Notice he puts him in there without the knife, and knowing the gun has no bullets. Why would he do that?
-why does Rousseau need the dynamite? Where the hell did she go once she’d seen Alex? Does one thing have anything to do with the other?
-Is Richard telling the truth? Of all of the Others, Richard is by far the most obedient to Ben. He recruited Juliet. He moves back and forth between the mainland and the island and never tries to escape. He’s the one who went to Acadia Park to broadcast Juliet’s sister playing with her son in the park, and then he beelined right back to the island. So he MUST be working in cahoots with Ben now.
-who slammed into the back of Cooper’s car? Was it the Bonneville of Death?? It would be the 4th or 5th instance of that insane vehicle.
-was Kate a complete bonehead for being the second person outside of the circle of 4 guys who knew about the pilot, and she goes and immediately tells Juliet.
-Uh… what did Juliet mean when she told Jack “We should tell her”? What is he keeping from her? Is it about their pact to get off the island, or is it something much worse? Is Jack an Other? I’ve thought Jack was a smug bastard for some time, and I LOVE that the show is just confirming it.
-How did Locke get the tape of Juliet talking to Ben?
-How the heck does Locke plan to carry his father all the way across the island? Why bother? If Ben needs proof he’s dead, why not just cut off his head and take it?
-How will Sawyer be affected by what he’s done?

Biblical references:
This week had a LOT of biblical overtones. Or maybe it’s just that Children’s Bible that I bought my daughter a couple of weeks ago that we’ve been reading every night that’s making me see them… no, they’re there.
-Locke as a Christ/Moses figure (depending on which Testament you prefer: Happy God or Angry God). Richard says that they’re looking to Locke as some sort of leader. Moses led the “chosen people” to the Promised Land, where Christ led his people and saved our souls.
-in the Moses sense, one can sort of picture Locke as Moses as he sat on the hill and looked down on his “people” in tents, just as Moses was on the Mount and looking down on his people. Moses read the Ten Commandments on the Mount; Locke read Sawyer’s file and found his way out of this situation.
-Ben asking Locke to kill Cooper was a sort of reversal of the story of God testing Abram by asking him to kill his son, and stopping him the moment he was going to do it, realizing that Abram would do anything God asked. Here Ben asks the son to kill the father, and the son is unable to do it. Locke doesn’t obey Ben the way Abram obeyed God.
-Sawyer’s mother’s name was Mary. Does that – gulp – make HIM the Christ figure??

Next week: “The Man Behind the Curtain.” TV.com says it’s a Ben episode. I hope it’s right!