Episode 303Further InstructionsWe finally get to see what happened at the hatch. But even better than that, we got Charlie-time, naked Desmond, a visit from our dearly departed Boone, Hurley-time and a look at the two news losties.
I’m not particularly fond of Locke. I used to be a fan of his, but started liking him less and less as the first two seasons ran their course. First there was the incident with Boone, his beating up of Charlie, and what finally sealed the dislike was what he said with regards to Charlie and Eko “They are not my friends”.
But no matter how I felt
about him, I always felt
for him. His back-story is quite sad. This flashback was quite insightful, who knew that Locke was a weed-grower! I honestly thought that he was going to shoot that young cop, and I am so glad he didn’t. It would have put a whole new spin on Locke, and I’m not sure how it would impact how everyone (the viewing public) views him.
Before I go further, let me give you a really quick rundown of events in this episode. After awaking from the hatch incident, Locke cannot speak. He enlists Charlie’s help and builds a sweat lodge. Boone appears to Locke in the sweat lodge and tells him that “he to clean up his own mess”. Locke believes he needs to rescue Eko from a polar bear.
The thing about Locke and his hippy ways is that he believes whole-heartedly …. except for his not wanting to push the button thing, that is. Anyway, he believes that the island talks to him so much, that I starting doubting my own sanity and want to believe that the island wants to talk to him as well. The island is either really talking to him or this is a side effect from all that weed.
Boone appearing in the sweat-lodge was a bitter-sweet moment. He looked so good for someone who’s dead, except for the end of that encounter with all that blood and stuff. I’m still bitter that he died, and seeing him again was great. Equally great was when he told Locke “You’ll speak when you have something important to say”.
I can’t say that I was surprised that Locke enlisted Charlie’s help. Ok, so there was no-one else at the moment available… but heck, I’ll believe what I want to. What I loved however, were Charlie’s snarky remarks at the beginning. That’s right, Charlie, rub it in!!! Loved it. Locke totally deserved it, in my opinion.
Charlie may his moments when he may appear to be a total ass, but for all his faults, I can’t help but think that deep down he really wants to help and be accepted. I’m sure that part of his reason for assisting Locke at the beginning was because he just wanted to give Locke a difficult time, but I think that towards the end, he really wanted to help. I also really liked that Locke’s words from previous episodes were turned on him. Didn’t Locke always go on about how “no one should tell him what he can or cannot do”? I was really chuffed that Charlie uttered similar words to Locke.
Anyway, something I’d really like to discuss is that polar bear. Did Charlie actually see the polar bear?? What I find so interesting, is that apart from the bear that Sawyer killed, the bears we have seen so far (and it’s more than likely it’s the same bear) looks so CGI’ed, so unnatural. I think that considering the money that the makers of the show have spent on the CGI, and the fact that every other CGI moment has been impeccable, this very noticeable CGI bear appears so for a reason.
Does this bear really exist? Is it a figment of Locke’s imagination? You may argue that Michael and Walt saw the bear too, but Walt is just plain freaky and he no doubt inherited his freakiness from his dear old demented dad.
Something else that should be mentioned is that hatch. It appears that it imploded. I think that it’s a pretty small area of implosion considering how vast the hatch was?? What am I missing there??
We also got to witness a naked Desmond running through the forest, well, we didn’t see him properly, but enough to know he’s naked. Naked Desmond looks cute in Hurley’s overlarge tie-dye t-shirt. He seems to be suffering some weird side-effects of the hatch implosion. Desmond seems to know about Locke’s speech at the end of show, causing Hurley a deja-vu moment. He also seems to know that Jack and co were captured by the Others. Interesting.
Also, another interesting thing is that we got to meet the two new losties. I was expecting something a bit more than the little we got. You’d think that they just dropped out of the sky or something. However, a little investigation revealed that initially, Claire was to have caught Paulo and Nikki having sex in Jack’s tent. The scene was cut, for some reason.
We didn’t get much in the way of answers, but here are two more questions we can add to our-growing list:
• Why was Locke involved with a hippy-like commune weed operation? How did he go from there to being a supervisor in a box factory? Are we ever going to learn how he ended up in that wheelchair?
• How does Desmond know things that have happened or will happen? Has he become suddenly psychic?
And this is what we learnt:• Locke and Desmond are alive, Eko is hanging on.
• The hatch implosion has had a weird effect on Desmond. He didn’t even bother looking for a pair of pants once they got back. Not that we are complaining or anything.
• Locke intends rescuing Jack, Kate and Sawyer.
• Hurley is hysterical. “Bear, is that you?”
• Charlie! I love him… have I mentioned that before?
• Locke has assumed role of leadership on the island.
• Charlie needs to stop frequenting Claire’s House of Fine Hairstyling, and perhaps take his patronage somewhere else. That mullet she gave him is bloody awful!!
Other interesting stuffCharlie says “Talk to the trees? I heard they were good conversationalists.”
A reference to his stint as Merry in “The Lord of the Rings” I’m sure. Merry encounters an Ent – a talking tree.
Eddie makes a reference to a town called “Eureka” which could allude to a sci-fi show of the same name about a town in which weird things happen.