LOST: "The Man From Tallahassee" [SPOILERS]

Give Him The Chair

We'll start this time with the flashback, which involved John Locke, and of course, his con-man father.

We start the show with a curious scene where John is being denied further government disability benefits for his depression (I think.)  He'll be reinstated once he resumes his therapy sessions.

The next time we see him he's bellying up to a TV dinner when there's a knock at the door.  It's a guy named Peter Talbot, and he's asking about his kidney.  Turns out John's father (aka Adam Seward this time) is starting another con and planning to marry this kids mother, and he's been doing some investigating.  John claims the kidney was an anonymous donation and never met him, and he can't help.

This prompts John to search out this Adam Seward, and he finds him along with the future Mrs. Seward in a florist, where they are making arrangements for the wedding.  "Dad" sees him and they talk.

John wants him to call it off, or he will tell her all the details.  "It's not fair, that you're going to do this to someone else."

Surprisingly (or not) he agrees to call it off, and flat out says so on John's request.

Later, John arrives back at his apartment, and is met by a pair of detectives investigating the recent death of Mr. Talbot.  John tries to deny ever meeting him, but they have evidence to the contrary.

John goes to confront dear old dad, and starts to argue about why he hasn't left.  Dad grabs a bottle of MacCutcheons' whiskey (hello!) and pours a pair of glasses.  He explains that he was looking for a way out that would make him some money.  He denies having any involvment in Talbot's death, that there's "no profit in murder."  The truth is that she has called it off, she "needed to be alone."

John asks "if I call her is that what she'll say?" "Sure, there's the phone."

And as John turns to pick up the phone, Dad rushes him and sends him flying out of the eighth floor window onto the ground below. Ouch.

Now I think we all knew that dear old dad was going to have some involvement in John's predicament.  It was a pretty obvious connection, so I don't think we should be too surprised here.  I'd even be hesitant to call that a spoiler, but what do I know.

Locke wakes up in the hospital, the detectives tell him they've lost his father somewhere in Mexico.  The therapist guy comes and tells Jack its time to get out of that bed.

John doesn't want to, but it wasn't a request.  He picks him up ("I don't want to hear about what you can't do.") and sets him in the wheelchair.  John is as scared as anything we've ever seen him, and starts to cry as he looks at his now paralyzed legs.

I'll Come Back For You

It's at this point I'm unsure how to proceed with this recap.  The stories of Locke and company diverge, but then come back together at the end.  I suppose I should just get the shorter one out of the way first. (And in so doing, saving the best for last!)

Locke's merry band have arrived at "Othersville" (yes along with Danielle ) and are watching Jack "palling" it up with Juliet and the other Others.  They're all in shock at this, and they notice that Rousseau has just up and left.

They watch Jack and Juliet go to a cabin, and a wheelchair-bound Ben emerges, eliciting shocked looks all around, more so from John.

"This is going to be more complicated than we thought."

They argue about how to proceed.  Kate is loading up her rifle and is prepared to go in shooting, Sayid wants more information, and finally a usually calm Locke pipes in.

"We'll just go in there and ask him," he says.  This means they have to wait until dark and Kate will go in and talk to him.

They split up (and here we will lose Locke until the next segment of this recap) and Kate goes into Jack's cabin.  She finds him playing (rather well I might add) the piano, and stops to listen.  Jack finally turns around and notices her.

(Aside note: Pay attention to the paintings on the wall here and in Ben's cabin.  They appear to be scenes of the island, and also from the same artist.  Who I wonder?)

The usual "What are you doing here, you need to leave!" type of thing happens, and there are cameras in the cabin, "They're watching!"

And guards bust in and grab her, then two more throw a bound Sayid on the floor.  They ask if there's anyone else, and after Jack tells her to just answer the question, she says it's just the two of them.

They've thrown Kate into the "Othersville Pub", where she's trying to get free of her cuffs, and Tom walks in.  "Didn't think I'd see you again so soon. Be careful in here" And makes a "crazy" gesture by his head. (Why?)

Then Jack walks in.  "What have they done to you, did they hurt you" yadda yadda etc.  Jack claims to not be "with" anyone (doesn't that also exclude the beach bunch?)  He explains his deal with Ben, that he'll be leaving, and there's some teary eyed moments between them.

Juliet interrupts, it's "time to go."  "I wish you hadn't come back for me. I will come back for you."

(Another side note:  Check out the Star Wars pinball machine, yet another fanboy reference dropped!)

The Magic Box

Oh boy.  This I don't know if anyone saw coming (unless you spoiled it!)  Seriously, this just blew it all away...

While Kate and Sayid are going after Jack, Locke has other plans, as usual.  We see Ben asleep, and he wakes with a start, and turns on the light.  Jack busts into the room and points his sidearm at Ben.  "I'll tell you where Jack is." "I'm not looking for Jack, I'm looking for the submarine!"

Ben feigns ignorance about the submarine, until John explains about Mikhail and the Flame station.  Then Alex comes in, and John grabs her as a hostage.  Guards show up to tell Ben about Kate and Sayid, and John hides in the closet with Alex.

He mentions something about Juliet and Shepard, and then tells a shadowy figure, "Bring me the man from Tallahassee."

When the guards leave, John grills Ben about using "code", and it turns out there is no code for "there's a guy in the closet holding my daughter at gunpoint.  But there should be!"

John demands that Alex retrieve Sayid's pack (remember the Comp-B?) and she leaves.

(Aside notes numbers three, four, and five:  Check out the constellation "sky map" on the wall opposite Ben's bed!  This lends a lot of credence to the "constellation" theory about the station naming, doesn't it?!  Notice too the similar paintings to what was in Jack's cabin.  And, there are African(?) wood masks all over the wall, I think we saw something like them in the "Carl film?")

Ben asks John to help him into his wheelchair. "No tricks I promise. You should understand what it means to want some dignity."  "How are you going to pilot the submarine? It's not that simple." "For all you know I was a commander in the Navy." Which brings an interested look to Ben's face.  Ben fesses up to knowing all about the Flame staiton, and arrives at the conclusion that Locke's plan is to blow up the sub.

"I know you, John Locke."  "You don't know me at all."  And then Ben rattles off a line-by-line list of John's history from his file.  "I know about the wheelchair, and I know how you ended up in it."

"Did it hurt?"  "I felt my back break, what do you think."

(I gotta say this whole conversation was just excellent stuff, exactly what we've come to expect from LOST, and especially in a Locke-centric episode like this.  The nuances between Ben and Jack are just played brilliantly.  Kudos!)

It starts to get a little weirder, "It wasn't easy you know, watching you in the hatch, I couldn't ask you then."  "So ask me now."

It would seem that Ben wants to understand how the island has cured John, and how it is that he's still in this chair, and how he came to be afflicted in the first place.  "Are you afraid that it will go away? That you'll wind up back in the wheelchair?"

And Locke promptly changes the subject, "Got anything to eat?"

Alex, of course, was sent off to get Sayid's pack, and she does.  Sayid stops her, "You're Alex aren't you?" "How do you know my name?" "You look like your mother."  "My mother is dead."  "I'm sure that's what they told you."  Sayid gets nailed by the guard, but the seeds of doubt just got planted in Alex's head methinks.

So Locke is pushing Ben into the next room, asking how they get electricity.  Ben jokingly answers "There are two giant hamsters on treadmills generating it." (hahahahah! ahem.)  There are several pictures of (we can assume) Alex at various ages on the wall (along with more island scenery paintings, Alex's work?)

"If you blow up the sub I have a big problem with my people," Ben explains.  He has to balance the deal he's made with Jack and Juliet with the promise that any of "The Others" can supposedly leave any time they want.  He explains that most of them were recruited, and can leave, or at least they need to think they can leave.  Some of them aren't ready to "make the commitment."

But "John, you're ready.  I can show you the things you want to see."  He speaks of a large magic box, somewhere on the island, where if you imagine anything at all, and open the box, there it will be.  "What do you have to say to that?"

Locke retorts, "I hope its big enough to imagine a new sub."  Ben asks why he's so angry.  Locke accuses Ben of cheating, being a hypocrite, a "pharisee."   Locke tells him that he doesn't deserve to be here.  "How is it that you think you know the island better than I do?"  "You're in the wheelchair, and I'm not."

(To quote Hurley, "DUDE!" What is this talk of magic "make-a-wish" boxes?  Did we just get dropped a major hint as to the source of some of the weirdness on the island? I think so...  Is it to be taken literally?  Quite possibly.  The mind races with possibility.)

Alex returns with the pack, and agrees to show him to the submarine.  Ben explains that Jack and Juliet are due to leave on the sub within the hour, and that once it leaves it can't return, so nobody will find the island either way.  (Check out the butterflies on his desk...)

Locke and Alex depart into the jungle, where she talks to Locke about Ben, and how he manipulates everyone, "That's just what he does."

Dive!

Sure enough, a short distance away, there's the submarine.  I don't recognize it at all. (I'll see what I can turn up on that.)  Locke apologizes to Alex for involving her and heads onto the dock.

There's a nice bit of visual allegory to the original Swan hatch opening as he opens the main hatch and heads down into the sub.  (Funny how he seems to know what he's doing, isn't it?)

Outside, we notice somebody watching Alex.  It's Rousseau, who appears to have reconnected her feelings for Alex at the sight of her.  I'm sure that story's not over yet, but it is for now.

Ben is putting the chicken back into the fridge when Jack and Juliet appear.  "Don't you knock?"  Jack needs to ask for one last favor, that Kate and Sayid be released once they are gone.  Ben agrees to let them go once they've left the island, and gives his word.  Of course we know that isn't going to happen.

Juliet seems genuinely sad to leave Ben, and thanks him for keeping his promise.  On the way out Jack stares down Ben one last (or not) time.

They head to the submarine, where they run into a rather non-evasive Locke coming back off the dock.  The guards get him down (and Tom looks surprised as hell.)  "Sorry, Jack."  "Sorry for what?"

And the sub explodes.  Boom.   And there are some evil looks exchanged between Jack and Locke.

Are You Ready To See?

The next time we see John he's chained to some pipes in what looks to be another station or hatch (we aren't shown any more details than that.)  Ben appears with the formerly shadowed man, who's name we learn is Richard.  He unchains Locke, who agrees to be civil.

Locke accuses Ben of wanting the submarine destroyed, and to stop acting disappointed.

"I didn't want to let him go, it would be a sign of weakness, but to kill him I would be cheating, and going against my word," Ben explains.

"Then you came out of the jungle to make my dream come true."  He tells Locke a bit more of "the box" and that he's going to show him what's come out of it.  They walk down the concrete hallway.

"When I asked you if it hurt, you misunderstood.  I wasn't asking about physical pain, I wanted to know what it felt like when your own father was going to kill you."

"You're afraid of him."  And he posits that's the reason Locke is on this destructive rampage, to disconnect the island from the outside world, so that his father can never get to him.

He goes on, "I don't know how it happened, you've got some 'communion' with the island, and that makes you important.  You have no idea what you're talking about, but in time you will have a better understanding.  I want to help you John."

"Why?"  "Because I'm in a wheelchair and you're not."

"Are you ready to see?"  He unlocks the door, and John peers in, the fear increasing on his face.

In the room is his father, bound and gagged in a chair.  With an equally scared-to-death look.

*BONK*

Conclusions, etc.

OK, so we know how Locke got in the chair.  Given.

The big one, though, is this whole talk of the "magic box."  Is Ben being literal, or is he speaking from a psychological standpoint?  This is just too crazy, man.  Although if you take it at face value it explains damn near everything that's occurred to almost everybody on the island.  Think about it.  I already am.

Of course this episode was also about promises, and the importance of keeping them.  John's dad of course can't be trusted to keep his, and ultimately John's the one who pays the price.  Ben, on the other hand, more and more seems to indeed be a man of his word, however hinged on technicalities and twisted that word may be.

We also gain a bit more insight into Locke's character.  His deep need for "belief" must be based out of his fear of his father, or something.  Or maybe the two aren't connected at all?  If they're not than this seems to be a definite "right-angle" in Locke's character, to go from the resolute "man on a mission" to "scared child" so fast doesn't seem right, unless the two can be linked.

Then there's Jack and Kate.  It's obvious that there's still something there, as we see Jack promising to come back for *her*.

The Usual Q&A

Answers?  A burden!

• Yes, there is a submarine.  Well, was anyway.
• Rousseau seems to indeed still want to connect with Alex
• Ben can be trusted? True? Still undecided?
• Locke's mission revealed, to destroy the sub and any way to connect the island to the outside.
  

And Questions a prison for one's self!

• MAGIC BOX?!
• I repeat, MAGIC @#$^!$ BOX?!
• Who is this mysterious "Richard" guy that we were introduced to, hanging around Ben, who brought him "The Man From Tallahassee," aka Locke's father.
• What does the sub's fate mean for Jack and Juliet, and Kate and Sayid...
• Does that constellation map on Ben's wall have any relevance to the names (and/or the locations!) of the DHARMA stations?
• What's up with the masks?
• Who's the landscape painter?
• If the "Box" is to be believed, did Ben make "dad" appear, or did Locke? There's a thought, no?
  

Next Time

Secrets, somebody's gonna die (oh noes!) and Sun and Sawyer getting into it? What is that all about?!


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