Lost : Further Instructions

Lost. 3.3. Locke finds his way back to Lostaway camp. Charlie isn’t impressed that he hasn’t called or written and now can’t talk. He gives no insight as to whether Eko and Desmond are “off being mute and building structures as well.” For LOTR fans, the writers seem to have purposely thrown in a comment about trees being “wonderful conversationalists.” Thanks Merry. Locke decides to take a trip to his local sweat lodge/hut where plenty of hallucinations will help the island tell him what to do. Or something like that. Charlie would rather “get high and watch nature programs on the Beeb.” I’m with him on the last part.

In flashback, we see him pick up a hitchhiker named Eddie who’s heading to Eureka. Whatever’s in Eureka isn’t a match for Locke’s commune and orchard duty or Eddie has a thing for peaches. He pays no attention to Locke’s warning that “bad things happen to people who hang around with me.” Locke should have noted his Geronimo Jackson t-shirt for future reference, but probably didn’t. Eddie suspects fertilizer carried to the greenhouse and Locke’s steering him away from the greenhouse means they’re making bombs there and he wants in. Locke laughs at his naiveté which is ironic because it’s Locke who’s naïve here. One of Eddie’s questions, or the way he asked it, made me think “guy sounds like a cop” several commercial breaks before Mike and Jan found out he was there undercover, gathering evidence to bust their little pot heads. In a very ungracious and uncharacteristic move, Locke takes Eddie out deer hunting as an excuse to shoot him, but can’t follow through, despite being offended by Eddie saying he was “amenable for coercion.” And I’m left wondering why Locke brought guns to a marijuana growing commune anyway.

This past acceptance of drug growing and his current sweat lodge tripping has Charlie (even though he only knows of the present) rightfully calling him a hypocrite for the strict zero tolerance policy on the heroin. But Locke, and the writers, may have devolved into monkeys. The hallucinations, including a weird looking Boone (well, he is dead, after all), convince Locke he must look for Mr Eko. He finds him in a polar bear den/cave and manages to zap the bear with hair spray and drag Eko back to camp. On the way, he thinks he hears the polar bear (the “Einstein of the bear community”) and throws his knife at it. Luck is still on Hurley’s side as the knife jabs his canteen. Dude! Hurley clues them in on the Others kidnapping the Lostaway Trio and that Fake Henry seems to be their leader.

Hurley happens upon Desmond whose clothes have disappeared in the hatch explosion. Or, the writers read The Time Traveller’s Wife and Desmond was sent forward and/or backwards in time. Especially evident when he makes a comment about Locke’s speech to find the Trio when Locke doesn’t make the speech until many commercial breaks later. Hurley loans Des an oversized tie dye t-shirt, giving him a messianic appearance. At the end when Des was skipping stones over the water, I was wondering if he was contemplating walking on it. Hurley, like all us fans, questions the convenience of the fail safe key. Des doesn’t have a good answer but I’ve learned not to expect any. Next up: looks like the Trio is in desperate need of Jack Bauer.