As I am in the process
of starting JJ Abram's infamous project LOST (thank you Mr.
Fortunato, Mom and friends, and the entire rest of the world) I figured it
might be best to blog about it. So let's just kick this off with one of my
favorite (as of Episode 3) blatantly obvious character and symbol.
John Locke (aptly named,
as my mother oh so constantly reassures me) is, for starters, quiet. And I’m
not talking we just crashed on a deserted
island holy crap shocked sort of quiet; no, this is full-on morally
ambiguous, potentially a massive
villain quiet. He speaks to absolutely no one for a full episode—and, by the
passage of time as we know it, a full day. His plane has crashed, there are (at
minimum) dozens dead, and he could be stranded on this island for the rest of
his life, and yet John is not fazed.
In part one of the
phenomenon’s pilot, the island is drenched in an unexpected torrential downpour
and the other survivors—still desperately hoping for rescue—seek refuge under
the wreckage. Not John—of course not, right?—no, instead, the ever silent,
eye-scarred, bald man plants himself in the middle of the beach sand and waits—rain
washing over him. Is it a cleansing? Maybe, but I sort of doubt it. Cleansings
don’t typically involve beach sand sticky with blood and fresh tears. They don’t
involve a borderline maniacal smile and calm acceptance. No, cleansings are
typically all grit and pain and fighting—a walk through the rain, yes, but one
that leaves them more worn for the wear despite rejuvenation. But if not a
cleansing, what is it? A descent into darkness? (No, that title falls to
ex-rocker Charlie. But he’s another blog on his own.) To be completely honest,
I’m not entirely sure what the rain
means, except that John Locke is not at all what we expect—and he’ll stay that
way until the end.
Moving onward to part
two of the pilot, though, we see something even more interesting in the
(undoubtedly extensive) novel that is John Locke—his first choice of companions
is a 10 year old boy named Walter. It’s safe to say that Walter has daddy
issues, complete with a lost dog and multiple spats that end in preadolescent
rage-quits, which leaves him an open, easy target for another male role model.
If we can even call John that. And it all starts with backgammon: “two players,
one is light and one is dark” (Episode 2). And in that moment, with John
providing both knowledge (starting with pointing out that backgammon is highly
superior to checkers) and a secret, we see what is the first, though
undoubtedly not the last, loss of innocence.
But of course we have
yet to find out what the secret is.
So what, though? Why did
JJ Abrams spend so much of his time putting details into this one character?
Why waste hours on deciding how the camera pans over the rainy beach and the
exact placement of John’s scar? The best and only answer I have as a newfound
viewer is this: John Locke’s roll in LOST
is far from small, direct, or easily
followed—and Abrams just wanted to give us a little heads up. How considerate
of him.
I hope I’m not giving away any major spoilers in the rest of this post, but I think John Locke is a bit more than what was glimpsed in the pilot. Now where to start…
ReplyDeleteThe rain, I suppose. I think that scene with Locke just sitting in the rain with a smile on his face while everyone around him scrambles for shelter is a type of cleansing. Or more accurately, a rebirth. You see, it’s revealed through flashbacks in later episodes that not only did Locke have major daddy issues worse (in my opinion) than what little Walt is facing, but he was also in a wheelchair. Locke tells Walt his secret that “a miracle has happened” in either episode 2 or 3. (I forget which. After almost 25 episodes in one week, they all blur together.) The viewers don’t know this yet, but the miracle that Locke is referring to is regaining feeling and mobility in his legs. After the crash, he is suddenly able to do everything he wanted to before. He can hunt and take long walks and carry things and not be dependent on others for everything. That’s why he smiles in the rain.
But that’s only one half of that miracle, the half that Locke is conscious of. After the crash, he can inexplicably walk again, and from then on he becomes a self-titled Man of Faith, claiming that the island has a plan for all of them. This is mostly where my belief that the rain is a rebirth comes from. Locke was bitter and angry before the crash; in the flashbacks, he is rarely smiling and is usually yelling at someone. I’m still not sure how he ended up in the wheelchair – haven’t gotten that far in the show yet – but the scene where he has to be carried onto the plane because his chair won’t fit shows a grumpy old man. Yet, the Locke we come to love on the island is always happy. Even in the face of danger or, in some cases, other people being beyond angry with him, he greets them with a smile and tries to help them. He is a completely different person after the crash – reborn in the rain.
Through flashbacks about Locke and his parents, we learn that he was raised in foster homes his whole life. Well into his adulthood, his mother seeks him out and manipulates him into meeting and befriending his father, who is only using him for a kidney. When Locke wakes up alone in the hospital short a kidney, he loses it a little. He resorts to stalking his father in an attempt to acquire the closure he only gets after meeting Helen – but that’s a whole other story. I think that this awful relationship with his father is what drives him to help everyone on the island, especially Walt. After he becomes a Man of Faith, Locke loses his resentment and anger; he only wants to aide those around him. While sometimes he seems a little crazy and unorthodox, he has everyone’s best interests at heart.