Dear media types who cover Lost,
Hi. How are you? How are your family’s doing? I hope you’re enjoying the wonderful spring weather we’re experiencing after a long, cold winter. My name is Timmy, and I’m only six years old….
Okay, so that was my attempt at dulling your senses in order to preempt your anger at my trespassing on your territory. Seriously, though, I have great respect for what you do and how you do it. I read Bob Degon’s coverage of Lost, and the comments that follow, and it amazes me that you’ve all undertaken reviewing a show whose viewers have tremendous demands for information and theorizing. I tip my hat to you.
But I do have a question that’s been gnawing at me this season. John Locke is dead, right? I mean, the one on the island is dead — I’m not talking about the Locke in the flashsideways, or whatever we’re calling it. But Terry O’Quinn only appears in the island segments when playing the body assumed by the Man in Black. Right? So why is no one talking about that?
John Locke no longer exists on the island! That’s huge! It was Locke’s philosophy that was pitted against Jack’s for many seasons, creating tension and drama wherever they each went. And the different directions that they ultimately headed in created the present that we now know on the island, with people time-traveling, and returning from the 1970s, not to mention the heavy losses of life following the arrival of the freighter. Locke was so in step with the Others that he was chosen as their leader. And he’s the reason that the island stopped hopping from era to era. His influence is huge, but his absence should be felt even stronger. So why is no one talking about that?
Why is it that it feels as if we’ve settled into some mindset where Locke is not-Locke, but he’s still really Locke as far as the answer to the following question is concerned: “Would you consider John Locke still being an inhabitant of the island?” When I put it like that, the answer is obvious. But the lack of any discussion about Locke’s absence leads me to believe that we’re all overlooking it because O’Quinn is still there.
John’s death was a topic of conversation when Ben strangled him. We talked about it when Jack and the Oceanic Six had to bring his body back with them. And when John was suddenly alive and well on the beach, as well as when he cajoled Ben into killing Jacob. And we certainly discussed it when we learned that the Man in Black had assumed his body. But we’ve never really acknowledged the fact that John Locke no longer walks the island.
He no longer exudes influence over it or its inhabitants. He no longer prattles on to people about fate, faith, or what the island wants. He’s no longer living (literally, too) proof of the island’s miraculous powers to heal. John Locke is no more.
So how come no one is talking about it?
Sincerely,
Little Timmy, age six
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 19, 2010 @ 15:45 EST5EDT
I’m confused. Whom do you expect to be talking about it? The other characters? Locke spent a long time off the island trying to talk to the Oceanic 6, and they wanted nothing to do with him. It was clear that they didn’t think much of him, which is part of the reason that he contemplated suicide. Given how confrontational Locke was, I’m not surprised that none of them really mourned his passing. The sole person who spoke at his funeral was his murderer.
Do you expect critics to be talking about it? Some have mentioned how FakeLocke uses some of the same lines as real Locke, indicating that something about Locke’s character may live on in FakeLocke.
*POST AUTHOR*
Critics. I don’t know if I’ve read anything that’s said, “Hey, Locke’s not there anymore,” and I think it’s because when we see O’Quinn we think Locke. But he’s playing another character now.
Although I did expect the show to acknowledge it. Locke’s philosophy of faith and fate is a major theme of the series. The writers/creators should have done something like, now that Locke is no longer it doesn’t rain. Or whatever, but you get my point – the island should feel his absence.
Because we talked about it about a year ago, if not longer.
*POST AUTHOR*
Helpful as always. Thanks. :)
It’s only become relevant since the beginning of this season, when we learned that it wasn’t Locke reincarnated, but rather someone else in his body. Although I don’t remember people raising the topic when he died either….
*sigh*
We started talking about who might be in the coffin at the end of Season 4. We talked about the impact of Locke being dead in detail when we were told he was dead. We speculated about the fact that Smokey might be Locke at the end of Season 5 when Ben killed Jacob. At the beginning of the Season we were told that this was indeed fact. So I don’t see what there is to talk about. We already talked about Locke not being Locke anymore enough in the past.
When we found out that Smokey is impersonating Locke, we talked about THAT. We even talked about the only aspect that was left, namely when Smokey told us how confused John Locke was when he got killed by Ben. That was the only smidgeon of Locke that was left. We then focused on more important things, namely people getting infected by Smokey, what it means to get infected, who might be infected…
There’s a clear and present danger out there, Smokey, who’s killing people, who turns our beloved protagonists into antagonists (Sayid front and center, but also maybe Sawyer, then the question if and how far gone Claire is, if Kate is now on Team Smokey) and if Smokey really represents bad and Jacob really represents good.
Your post is kind of like talking about “Aliens” right around the time Ripley is in the Exosceleton, flamethrower ready, facing the Queen and you ask about if Bishop is really dead.
Kinda not the main problem right now. Might come into focus later on, but really not the problem right now.
*POST AUTHOR*
I see what you’re saying, but I guess I’m differentiating between discussing fact or plot, and discussing the significance of the event on the greater spectrum of the show. It’s an impression I’d had for the last few weeks, that everything that Locke meant to the island, and the people there, was no more. And then I was reading something, or listening to something, and the manner in which the people were referencing Locke simply ignored the fact that he was dead. I can’t remember specifically what it was, but it was as if they were saying, “This is the continuing saga of John Locke on the island.” And I just felt that something big was being overlooked, because we so come to associate actors with their iconic roles. It’s just a tough distinction to make.
At the very least, I feel as if the issue has been soft-pedaled, and I was curious to see what other people had to say about it.
The only comment I have is that the picture you used for this post is ultra-creepy to see all day long on the front page. Quick, get more posts up and push it off the front page!
I am sad that the character of John Locke died. But the good news is, in the flashsideways (which if Sebastian’s theory holds true, will end up being the “true” reality) he’s doing better than he ever was in the timeline we’ve come to know.
The death of Locke certainly seemed to affect Ben. As far as its effect on the island… well, he had a role, and now he has filled it and is no longer needed, like many others before him. But it may be that there was something special about him that disabled Smokey from taking any other form once it took his. Might be his parting gift to the island. Just a thought.
I think the reason the critics didn’t seem to notice is that it was one of the subtler character deaths in television history. They took a whole season to reveal that he was the one in the coffin, and that was still in the future at the time – so that gave us time to adjust/rationalize. Then, they teased us into thinking that he was back to life when he came to the island. THEN, when they revealed that it wasn’t really him at all, they had the flashsideways where he was alive and well. All in all, it seems like nobody noticed because the writers designed it that way.
Also die question really is: was he still John Locke after he got shot and was dumped in the huge ditch / mass grave. If he just survived because Smokey touched him (infected him) it could very well be that from then on his behavior changed (like Sayid’s now). I touched on that last week I think. Everything he then did, from turning the wheel to going off the island could’ve been “UnLocke”, meaning it could’ve been subject to the bad influence of the infection. Meaning that we haven’t seen “true” John Locke for a couple of years now, so it’s additionally hard to mourn this guy who stood up, killed a pig and wanted to become one with the island when you can’t really tell when and if this guy still existed. And like Adam said: he was dead in the flashforwards while not dead in the “present”, then the future became the present and they went back in time but at the same time Smokey took John Locke’s form and started impersonating him, with actions that weren’t that different from what he did before – maybe due to the infection, maybe not. And when we got his flash-sideways, he was a) UnLocke b) dead and then buried on the beach and c) in the alternate/new timeline paralyzed with Katey Segal as his fiancee and getting a new, better job from Hurley as a substitute teacher, representing all that was good about him when he crashed on the island.
It’s hard to mourn him when he’s kind of omnipresent…
*POST AUTHOR*
….And that’s why I usually prefer leaving this show to the experts! :)
Well said, but I still don’t buy into the idea that Locke was ever anything but Locke Classic (TM) until Ben killed him (via strangulation). Smokey, or possibly Walt, or possibly possibly Jacob encouraged him to get up out of that Pit o’ Corpses (TM), but his behavior didn’t seem to change after that up until his masquerading as Jeremy Bentham. At least from what I could tell.
I wish I could phrase my comments as eloquently as Adam :-)
I understand why you wrote this post Aryeh. When Lapidus dug the grave on the beach and they dropped Locke in I was thinking “Wow so he’s really did now, is he?”. But like Adam said, he’s just another death on a show that had many deaths before him and, like Adam pointed out, I have this theory and I stopped mentioning it not to jinx it. And, to be honest, Adam does a bang up job doing it for me ;-)
Oh and I think we need a new Timmy ;-)
*POST AUTHOR*
Timmy?
*POST AUTHOR*
I like that perspective. It was rather subtle, because O’Quinn is still around, the flashsideways are going on, etc. Interesting. Thanks!
Locke was kind of the Cassandra character of the show, saying things like “the Island wants this or that to happen” or “Maybe life on the island is better than life back home” or “have faith” and ultimately being right, but being completely ignored.
(Example: Locke shooting Nadia and otherwise trying to prevent the freighter “rescue”. Because he didn’t trust the freighter people, and because he thought life on the island was worth keeping. Jack tried to leave anyway, the freighter people tried to kill everyone, and then Jack ended up desperately trying to get back while still condemning Locke.)
When a character like that dies… He don’t get no respect.
I agree with the author, I hate the fact that everyone still calls him Locke!