LOCKDOWN

Or, What Goes Up Must Come Down

[Originally Aired March 29, 2006]

Locke prepares a surprise picnic lunch for his girlfriend Peg Bundy as she reads the morning's obituaries. He hides an engagement ring in the picnic basket, and Peg asks "What was your father's name?" He's dead. In the hatch, Locke and Jack glare at Henry over his what-would-I-do-if-I-were-an-Other scenario. Henry claims it was a bad joke, and Locke shrugs saying it it too late now anyway. The searchers are a day away. What's done is done. Jack, annoyed, heads down to the beach, telling Locke to throw Henry in the lockup as he leaves. Henry asks Locke why he lets Jack talk to him like that. Locke gets pissed and he shoves Henry back in his prison. At the beach Kate, Hurley, and Sawyer are playing Dharma poker. Well, regular poker, but with Dharma cards. Those folks brand everything, don't they? Jack tells Hurley to fold, telling him what he's holding. He then reveals he knows Kate's hand too. He's like Matt Damon in Rounders. Sawyer gets pissed and tells Jack to join the game. The two bicker and Kate suggests she go find a ruler and settle this once and for all. Peg and Locke are at the cemetery, it's funeral time. Peg jokes that maybe his dad left him a kidney. Locke and Peg are the only attendees. Except for those two sketchy looking thugs over behind that tree. And whoever is in that Mercedes with the tinted windows. The priest asks if Locke wants to say anything. Locke whispers to the casket "I forgive you." In the jungle Sayid and Charlie and Ana search in the rain for Henry's balloon. As they're about to give up, they stumble across a makeshift grave. As they stare at the grave, Ana asks why it isn't raining where they're standing. They look up: Tangled in the trees above is a balloon and basket. At the hatch Locke rides the stationary bike and cranks up the Geronimo Jackson. Good times. But then he hears something. Like static maybe. He turns off the hi-fi. More static. Henry asks what that is. Locke tells him to shut the hell up. He checks the dome. The computer is fine. 47 minutes to go. He wanders around and sees a loudspeaker and hears the crackly voice emanating from it. He grabs a screwdriver and starts monkey with it. It starts coming clear. "Six, five, four, three..." A countdown! Uh oh. That can't be good. Suddenly the blast doors start to drop. Locke slips a crowbar under the exit door, just as it closes. In flashback, Locke is working, now a home inspector, his client is Nadia (damn!) and as he finishes the job he sees the mysterious Mercedes parked nearby. Locke approaches, the window rolls down, and behind the wheel is Locke's father. Huh. The two have a drink at a bar and Locke asks dad what the hell is going on. Dad has conned two guys out of $700,000 and has it stashed in a safe deposit box. He wants Locke to fetch the money for him. Locke is skeptical, but takes the key anyway. On the beach, Jack and Sawyer play poker for all the mangos. Jack has all the mangos. And bananas. And papayas. Sawyer is busted. Sawyer wants another shot at winning and agrees to play for the meds he stole. Meanwhile, the other islanders watch from a distance, like that Bette Midler song. Jack calls Sawyer's bluff, goes all in. Sawyer refuses to fold, not wanting to look like a douche in front of everyone. Jack wins all the medicine. Sawyer asks him why he didn't play for the guns. Jack says when the time comes and he needs the guns, he'll get them. Locke asks Henry to help him open the hatch. Henry agrees, so long as Locke agrees to protect him from the other survivors no matter what. The two use some weightlifting equipment to pry the door up about a foot. Henry slides a toolbox under the door to keep it open. Then Locke starts to squeeze himself under the door, but as he's pushing himself through the crack, the toolbox gives and the door starts to come down, crushing Locke's legs. If it ain't one thing it's another with Locke's legs, isn't it? Henry shoves some weights under the door and stops the door from falling further. Henry tries to pull Locke free but he's speared on a bolt. He's not going anywhere. Back in California, Locke visits the bank, and finds the $700,000 in the safe deposit box. He bags it up and heads home. He runs into the kitchen and tells Peg to get dressed, they're going out for a night on the town. She tells him they have company. The two sketchy dudes from the graveyard are there. They ask if Locke has seen his dad. Locke plays dumb. They tell him dad isn't dead, and then demand to see what is in his bag. They dump it out, but it only contains work stuff. How'd he go from working in a toy store to being a home inspector? Seems a major career change. Peg asks if he was telling the truth about not seeing his dad. He lies. In the hatch Locke tells Henry he has to climb through the ducts and get to the dome to computer. Henry asks what the computer does. Locke doesn't know, just that the button has to be pushed. Locke sends Henry up through the vent in the pantry, but Henry falls and knocks himself out. When he wakes Locke sends him up through the ductwork. The alarm beeps, Henry is running out of time. Near LAX Locke meets his father at a motel with the money. Dad leaves him $200K, and says it won't make up for what he's done. Locke claims he didn't do it for the money. Dad shrugs and says if he doesn't take the money the maid sure will. As dad heads out the door, he bumps into Peg. She slaps him. Then leaves. Locke follows her to the parking lot. She's pissed he lied. Again. He drops to his knee and finally proposes. She shakes her head and leaves. Dad leaves. Locke is all alone now. So, did he go back to the room for the money? In the hatch, the alarm blares, and the lights cut out. Locke lies in the dark. A moment later, black lights come on, and for the first time Locke sees something scrawled on the door. What the fuck? It looks like someone scribbled a map on the wall. I bet a Geronimo Jackson poster would look awesome under this light. The regular lights pop back on, the doors start to raise. Locke becomes unspeared. In the jungle Kate stops Jack and tells him she liked how he won against Sawyer. He's aloof. She asks to use the shower at the hatch. He tells her the plumbing is busted. A light flickers in the distance. The two investigate and find a parachute, and flashing beacon and a crate full of Dharma groceries. What? While they're puzzling over it, Sayid and Charlie and Ana appear from the brush. What the fuck is that, Charlie asks. Dharma Mac & Cheeze, explains Kate. Jack asks what they found on the other side of the island. Henry helps Locke to his feet and Locke expresses surprise at him having stayed. Locke asks Henry how he got the doors to open, and Henry says he didn't so anything other than enter the code. Locke wonders if it is random. Then Jack and Sayid and Kate and Charlie and Ana enter and they grab Henry. Locke tells everyone to calm down, that he let Henry out. Sayid tells everyone how they found the balloon, and the grave, but that he still didn't believe Henry's story. So he dug up the grave, finding not a woman but a man. On the corpse was Henry Gale's ID. The man on the card is clearly not their prisoner.