If you thought things were trippy before, whoa nelly! First, let’s find out what happened to Locke.
It starts with our bald-headed friend in front of a fire, looking through a file and then burning it. Someone gagged is moaning nearby but we aren’t sure who it is. Jump to eight days before, the moment Locke sees his dad in the “magic” box. The guy isn’t in too good a mood: “Don’t you know where we are, John?,” his dad spits out, after biting Locke on the hand.
Ben is preparing to leave to set up camp somewhere else, and he welcomes Locke to join them. Apparently, Locke’s presence has some kind of healing powers for Ben, who is now walking. Ben really wants to show Locke how truly wondrous this island is but doesn’t think Locke is ready to be a participating member of the Others because he is still harboring old feelings. Locke has to prove himself by killing his father. In front of everyone else, Ben tries to goad Locke into murdering the man. But Locke simply can’t do it. These people are truly creepy.
Locke has a conversation with Richard, the guy who brought Juliet to the island. Ben was apparently trying to embarrass Locke, Richard states. When they found out there was a man who was paralyzed and suddenly healed when he came to the island, everyone got excited because Locke is truly special. Ben doesn’t like it when anyone else is more special than him. Richard also says Ben is wasting time with all the infertility nonsense, forgetting why they are really on the island. But the fact still remains that Locke’s dad has to die, no matter what—and if Locke can’t do it, they’ll have to get someone else. Richard hands Locke a file, which he quickly looks at. “Sawyer? Why him,?” Locke asks. It’s in the file.
As Ben and the Others get on the move again, Ben tells Locke he can’t come with them—not until he kills his father. “We’ll leave a trail, John, but unless you have your dead father on your back, don’t come looking for us.”
Later, back at the Losties camp, Kate and Sawyer are post-coital in Sawyer’s tent, but she can’t sleep with him all night. She has to go to her tent. He follows her out to take a leak when Locke sneaks up on him from the jungle.
Locke tells Sawyer he has been undercover with the Others for the last few days, and he kidnapped Ben just a few hours before. He wants Sawyer to kill Ben. Sawyer balks, of course. “Never mind then, guess I’ve got the wrong person.” That hooks him, Sawyer is soon following Locke into the jungle, but he isn’t just going willy nilly. As Locke starts reciting all the details of Sawyer’s life—what happened to his parents, the conning, how he killed a man in Australia—Sawyer attacks Locke and demands to know why he won’t kill Ben himself. “Because I CAN’T!,” Locke finally admits. Sawyer relents and lets Locke up. He’ll go with him, but he won’t kill Ben. They’ll just bring him back to the camp. “You’ll kill him once you hear what he has to say,” Locke states. Yikes.
Meanwhile, Desmond, Hurley, Jin and Charlie are hiding the parachuter. Apparently, she’s told them a bunch of stuff that might get them off the island. Hurley thinks maybe they should tell Jack, but Desmond doesn’t trust Jack. He spent 10 days with the Others and nothing happened to him–and now he’s even chummy with Juliet, who had some of their friends in cages. They need to find someone they do trust: Sayid.
The Iraqi goes into the tent, and we find out her name is Naomi. She tells Sayid that she and her company were hired by Penny to find Desmond. Her helicopter took off from a freighter, about 80 miles off the coast. All they were given was coordinates in the middle of the ocean and had heard nothing about an island whatsover. But when she was in the helicopter, the clouds parted and she saw land. Her instruments went all screwy, and she had to bail. Of course, the most important piece of information is apparently the Oceanic plane, Flt. 815, was found in a underwater trench somewhere else, WITH ALL THE BODIES STILL IN THERE. “Well, obviously, we aren’t dead,” Sayid puts bluntly.
Back to Locke, who has taken Sawyer to the Black Rock. Remember the old slaving ship they found in season one, with all the dynamite? Locke tells Sawyer Ben is in the brig. When Sawyer goes in, he sees someone, bound and gagged, with a bag over his head. Then, suddenly, Locke closes the door and locks Sawyer in. Sawyer takes the bag off the guy’s head and lo and behold, it’s Locke’s dad. Ah, the picture is getting clearer.
As Sawyer gets more and more agitated, Locke’s dad starts talking. The last thing he remembers was hitting a median at 70 miles per hour after being shoved by another car and being taken by an ambulance. Then the guy starts spilling the beans about being Locke’s dad, stealing his kidney, etc. Locke’s dad thinks he’s dead and in hell, actually. That they are all in hell. He even knows about the plane being found elsewhere with all the bodies in it. But the more he talks about his evil deeds, the more it starts to dawn on Sawyer he might be more connected to this guy than he thought. Yep, that’s right. Turns out Locke’s dad was the con man who was responsible for swindling Sawyer’s mother, causing his father to kill her and then himself. The same guy who Sawyer turned into later. And now they are both in the same place. How convenient. Sawyer kills him, of course, because the guy’s a real son of a bitch. Locke walks in after it’s done and simply says, “Thank you.”
Sawyer is a bit shook up by the experience, but Locke assures him he did the right thing. He also informs Sawyer Juliet is a mole and hands him the tape recorder she was leaving details for Ben on, about the pregnant women. Ben plans to raid the Lostie camp and take those women in a few days. Sawyer figures Locke is coming back with him but no. Locke is on his “own journey” now. With his dead-weight deceased father on his back, Locke takes off into the jungle to find the Others. He’s determined to see what else is on the island.
Back at the beach, Sayid doesn’t necessarily believe Naomi’s story, until she pulls out her communicator/radio. Sayid and Hurley try to get it to work but can’t get a signal. Kate happens upon them and now she’s in on the secret, too. But like an idiot, she runs off to tell Jack, who’s eating with Juliet (they do that a lot, don’t they?) Kate wants to talk to him alone, but he won’t leave. Frustrated, she blurts out all the information Naomi has told them but makes sure to tell Jack the part about how no one trusts him anymore. That doesn’t concern him as much as the radio part. Juliet then calmly turns to Jack and says they should tell her. “Tell me what?” Kate demands. Jack says it’s not time yet.
Oh, this is getting good.
