"Lost" - Lockdown

“Lockdown” – Locke Story

Good episode, not the best ever, but good. The back story with Locke finally gaining closure with his father only to get dumped by Peggy Bundy was intriguing, but part of me thinks that I’m only interested in Locke stories because every scene I’m anxiously awaiting the moment where he gets hit by a car or a bus and paralyzed. This ep. didn’t even have any misleads to that effect. So I guess in retrospect, that back story was bull crap. One cool scene was when Locke was inspecting that woman’s house and we find out that it’s Sayid’s broad from Iraq. Oh, I love it when they do that!

My question is, why was Locke so easily swayed when his father asked him to retrieve stolen money? Wouldn’t any number of shady characters be watching the money at all times and waiting for the first person to withdraw seven hundred large from a bank? Maybe I’m just geeking out, but it seemed like it was out of his character to cave so easily to something so blatantly illogical. But I can see how it related to the main story, so I’ll buy it.

Speaking of the main story…

Locke finds himself alone in the hatch with Henry Gale. Jack should be there, but he gets caught up in a game of Texas hold-em with Sawyer to win back the medicine Sawyer took from the hatch. He ends up completely demoralizing Saywer while using his vast knowledge of the game he learned in Phuket.

Meanwhile, back at the hatch…

Some sort of unintelligible voice comes through the loudspeaker. It’s a countdown, and before you know it, 2 ton metal blast doors (the very ones Sayid had pointed out earlier) come crashing down. Luckily, Locke wedged a tool kit and attempts to climb under the doors so he can get to his precious button. Who would have thought a hollow aluminum tool kit could support the weight of the blast doors? Well, Locke did, so he goes (legs first) under the doors, when BOOM, the door impales his formerly-paralyzed leg. And to think that two months ago, Locke wouldn’t have felt the massive sprockets impaling the main arteries in his leg. How ironic.

In desperation, Locke tells Henry about the button, and the path way through the ducts to get there. No, why wouldn’t Locke use that very same path, which seems quite accessible and much safer than pulling an Indiana Jones under the blast door? Well, Locke seems to have lost all rational thought in this episode.

Locke convinces Henry to press the button, and Henry obliges, promptly knocks himself out, comes to, then navigates the ducts, enters the numbers and presses the button. Then Locke sees the black-lit map on the blast door (more on that later). After some clanking and sirens go off, the black lights turn off, the doors rise up, and Henry also comes back to save Locke. Maybe he’s not so bad after all…

Oh wait, he is bad. On their expedition to find the balloon, Sayid also finds a grave. And upon digging up that grave, he finds the real Henry Gale and his balloon. Damn, you’re screwed, (not) Henry Gale.

So let’s talk about the map. The lockdown in the hatch occured presumably to keep whoever’s inside it there so they won’t see who’s providing the supply drop. However, the map on the blast door would suggest that they either come down quite often, or that whoever drew it (Desmond, Kelvin perhaps?) was pretty quick with a black light pen.

Talk about a writer’s license. I feel like that map provides the show with hundreds of options to cover their ass for any storyline they choose for the next 20 years. Either that or it’s just nonsense to keep internet geeks busy deciphering in order to distract them from the declining quality of the show. You can see some good notations on the map here: http://www.4815162342.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13696

So, does this map actually reveal anything? A translation of the Latin yields: “Polar Bear.” “Here be Dragons.” “Save Yourself from Hell.” “The disease worsens with treatment. The remedy is worse than the disease.” “I think therefore I am depressed.” Not too insightful. The map obviously has the layout of all the various Dharma stations, but the geography seems to be off. For example, if the hatch is Dharma Swan – and the Tailies were in Dharma Arrow – then that makes sense, they’re completely across from one another. However, Claire, Kate and Rousseau took a day trip and ended up at Dharma Staff. That means that Dharma Flame is somewhere right near the “losties” (as they’ve been dubbed on the net).

But I get it, the map isn’t to scale. What it could be, however, is what people are saying is a diagram of a large scale Skinner Box (read all about it here: http://lostpedia.com/wiki/B.F._Skinner). This certainly adds to the theory that they are all part of a grand experiment, and the Dharma supply drop supports that as well. It makes you wonder why everyone isn’t all concerned about the fact that they’re all lab rats. Oh wait... that’s cause nobody talks to each other about anything (sorry, had to get that in there).

Score (out of a possible 20)
Back Story: 6
Island Story: 8
Overall: 14

Links:
- By now I’m sure everyone has seen the blown-up color version of the map in Entertainment Weekly, but in case you haven’t, check it out here.
- I found this re: the math:
“…there is a continued radical on there.. the numbers squared represent each "n" inside the square root in sequence... Continued radicals always approach a limit...
x4,y8,z15 subterranean conduit... maybe 16,23,42 is the direction magnitude? of the vector coming from this location..
there is a vector eq'n for strength of a dipole mag field
[(5)^(1/2) - 1]/2 * r is an integral number representation that leads towards assuming the number phi 1.618 the golden ratio is a part of it
There is an equation for a rate of enthalpy reaction...”
Oooh, fascinating.
- http://lostpedia.com/wiki/Main_Page : Basically a wikipedia for all things Lost. See, there ARE more obsessed people then me out there.
- Two Oceanic branded aircraft are seen landing while Locke drops off the cash.
- Anthony Cooper's safety deposit box was #1516