Sunday, December 27, 2009

CABIN FEVER

Or, The Tragic and Regrettable Life of John Locke, Orphan, in Four Acts.

[Orignially Aired May 8, 2008]


It's the Fifties, and girl in a poodle skirt listens to Buddy Holly and puts on lipstick. Her mother enters and asks where she thinks she's going. Out, she says, with him. You can't, he's twice your age, mother protests. The girl is in love, there is no stopping her. She storms out. Into the road. And is run over by car. Oops! In the ER, the girl mumbles to the nurse "I'm pregnant." She gives birth and the baby is put into an incubator. It's a boy. He is taken away by the nurses. The girl yells "Name him John! Please! His name is John!" Cut to the jungle, Ben and Hurley and Locke bicker about where the cabin is and who is supposed to be following who and so they decide just to make camp for the night. Locke is lost, in more ways than one. On the freighter the helicopter returns with Keamy and his team. Keamy is pissed and puts his gun to Sayid's head and demands to know how many people are on the island. Sayid shrugs him off. Keamy puts the gun to Gault's head and demands to know who gave him up to Linus. Meanwhile, Omar receives a Morse code message on his radio. Keamy heads down to Michael's room. He's chained to a pipe. Keamy asks if he told Ben who he was. Yes. Keamy puts the gun to Michael's head and pulls the trigger. Click. Again. Click. Nothing. Gault tells him not to kill Michael because he is the only one who can fix the engines. Keamy storms out. The next morning Locke wakes and hears someone cutting wood. Locke follows the sound and finds Horace (AKA Percy Wetmore) chopping down trees. Locke asks what he's doing out here. "Oh, building a place, a little getaway for me and the missus. I mean, sometimes you need a break from the D.I., ya know? The Dharma Initiative? I'm not making any sense, am I? That's probably because I've been dead for twelve years." Horace tells Locke to find him, then he'll find Jacob. Locke wakes back at camp. Ben looks at him and says "I used to have dreams." Flashback and Grandma Locke and her daughter look at John in his incubator. The nurse says "He's amazing. He's the youngest preemie to ever survive in this hospital. He's had infections, pneumonia, you name it. And every time, he knocked them out. He is a fighter, your little John. The other girls say he's a miracle baby, and today, we're gonna take him out of the incubator so you can hold him for the very first time." The girl cries and bolts from the room saying she can't do this. The nurse frowns and looks out through the window. "Is that the father?" she asks, pointing to Alpert. What the hell? Jebus, I wasn't expecting to see him. In the jungle, Hurley says he has a theory why only he and Locke can see the cabin: "I think we can see it because we're the craziest." Locke tells him they're taking a detour. To visit the Dharma Initiative. Flashback and a young Locke is playing backgammon. One of his step-siblings kicks over the table and tells him that game is for assholes. There is a knock on the door. Foster mom tells the kid to get lost, and that Locke has a visitor. It's Alpert. Okay. Alpert tells Locke he runs a school for special children and says he's going to show him some things. Alpert puts an array of objects on the table: A compass, a baseball glove, a book, a vial of sand, a comic, and a knife. "John, which of these things belong to you already?" Locke grabs the sand, and the compass. Then the knife. "Are you sure the knife belongs to you, John?" Locke nods, Alpert is annoyed. He grabs up his things and says the boy isn't ready yet for the school. Back to the jungle, and Hurley stands above the death pit while Locke scurries around below. Hurley asks Ben why he killed the Dharma Initiative. "It wasn't my decision." Whose decision was it? "Their leader's." I thought you were their leader. "Not always." Locke finds Horace and pulls a map from his pocket. On the freighter, Gault tells Keamy he thinks there is a bad case of cabin fever going around and that maybe Keamy is suffering from it too. Keamy says thanks and steals Gault's key to the safe. Keamy opens the safe and reads the secondary protocol and says they're going to torch the island. Gault says he didn't sign up for this shit. A short while later Sayid and Desmond ask Gault to let them have the zodiac so they can get everyone off the island before Keamy kills everyone on it. Gault says to meet him on the other side of the freighter in ten minutes. Back in the jungle Locke tells Hurley to head back to the beach. Hurley seems hurt that he's no longer needed, then decides to stay. As he walks on toward the cabin Ben compliments Locke on his successful manipulation of Hurley. I'm not you, Locke says defensively. "You're certainly not," Ben retorts. Ouch. Flashback and teenaged Locke has been stuffed in his locker at school. (Note the Geronimo Jackson poster inside.) A teacher rescues him and patches up his bloody nose. Then tells the boy he has some news: His science fair exhibit has attracted the attention of Mittelos Labs, and they want him to come to their science camp in Portland. But Locke is pissed, and says being a science nerd is why he ends up stuffed in lockers at school. The teacher tells him to accept who he is: a scientist, not prom king, not a quarterback, not a superhero. Locke screams at the teacher "Don't tell me what I can't do!" On the freighter Frank asks Michael why he didn't tell him he was on 815. Michael says he didn't know if he could trust him. As Frank talks Michael down to the engine room, they see Omar strapping a bit of electronics to Keamy's arm. That can't be good. Up top, Gault tells Sayid to stay on bearing 305, it's the only safe way to reach the island. Sayid climbs into the boat and Desmond says he can't go. "I've been on that island for three years. I'm never setting foot on it again, not when Penny's coming for me." Gault tells Sayid to go. Now. In the jungle Hurley asks Locke how he knows the cabin will be where it's supposed to be. Because I was told it would be, he says. Ben interjects "I was told a lot of things, too: That I was chosen, that I was special. Ended up with a tumor on my spine and my daughter's blood all over my hands. That was my destiny. But you'll understand soon enough that there are consequences to being chosen, because destiny, John, is a fickle bitch." Hurley sees the cabin ahead. Flashback to Locke, with hair, in physical therapy. His orderly wheels him back to the elevator and tells him not to give up, that anything is possible. Lock is skeptical. The orderly turns out to be Abaddon. Abaddon tells him "You know what you need, Mr. Locke? You need to go on a walkabout. A journey of self-discovery. You go out into the Australian Outback with nothing more than a knife and your wits." Locke scoffs. He can't walk anywhere. "When you're ready, Mr. Locke, you'll listen to what I'm saying. And then when you and me run into each other again, you'll owe me one." Okay, so who the hell is Abaddon working for? It looked like Widmore originally, but now... Who knows. On the freighter Omar tells the doctor about the Morse code he received. "It said that the doctor washed up on the shore with his throat slit." Weird, they agree. Keamy and his team load up the chopper with more weapons and Frank tells them he won't fly them to the island. Keamy threatens to shoot him but Frank reminds him he's their only pilot. So Keamy grabs the doctor, slits his throat and dumps him overboard. Then Keamy says thirty seconds and someone else will get it. Christ, that guy is a douche. I hope he gets his soon. Gault shows up and tells Keamy to stand down. Keamy shows the device strapped to his arm, warning Gault he doesn't want to shoot him. He asks what that is, but Keamy pulls a gun and shoots the captain dead. Frank relents and jumps into the copter. In the chopper Frank stashes his radio in his satchel and fires up the engines. At the beach Juliet lectures Jack about being up and about while he's supposed to be recuperating. Their conversation is interrupted by the sounds of the helicopter approaching. The survivors run to the beach and wave at the helicopter. It flies over them without slowing down. As it passes, Frank tosses his satchel down to them. "I think they want us to follow them." Meanwhile, Locke finds the cabin. Ben and Hurley opt to stay outside. Locke heads in alone. There is a figure in the corner, engulfed in shadow. Are you Jacob, Locke asks. "No. But I can speak on his behalf." The figure leans out of the dark. It's Old Man Shephard, Jack and Claire's father. Huh. There's a creak and Locke turns around and sees Claire. Locke is confused. He asks about the baby. Shephard suggests Locke not mention seeing Claire, and then tells him to stop fucking around and asks what he's here to ask. "How do I save the island?" Moments later, Locke returns to Ben and Hurley. What now? "He wants us to move the island."

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