"Lockdown"

NOVEMBER 10, 2010

FOCUS: LOCKE
EPISODE: 2.17
AIRED: MARCH 29, 2006

While season 2 is probably the 2nd or 3rd best season of Lost overall, it's still rife with problems, and one of them is that it didn't work emotionally as well as the first season. I'd well up or at least get MOVED quite often in S1, but those moments were relatively rare here. So "Lockdown" is probably one of my favorite episodes of the season, because it contains what may be Locke's saddest flashback ever, plus a lot of good Island/character stuff to boot.

Man, I've seen the episode 3-4 times now and I STILL hope somehow things will change and Helen won't leave Locke at the end (during his proposal, of all things). A lot of his flashes basically show what a colossal bummer his life is at any given moment, but man, this one has to take the cake. His dad uses him once again, which he barely reacts to - this stung enough. But then Helen shows up and finds out he was lying to her and it's all over. Especially since their previous episode was so drama-filled throughout, it was so nice to see them happy at the top of this one - so at peace I actually forgot how the episode ended for a bit.

Plus his flashback showed that he met Nadia at some point, which is nice as Locke seemed to be the least "connected" of all the characters. I'm sure I'm wrong, but I believe this and the "Randy" connection to Hurley is pretty much it for him, as opposed to say, Jack, who worked on the woman that killed Shannon's father, is Claire's half-brother, lost his father due to a Sawyer-sponsored booze binge, and even met Desmond.

Speaking of Jack, I loved that this episode allowed him to display his street smarts for once. We know he's smart because he's a doctor and eventually banged Kate, so there's no question he's operating on a higher level. But it's rare we get to see his "Sawyer" side, essentially conning him at poker and getting all of his meds back. Plus it allows for some always welcome "bonding" between the two men, as they discuss Jack's time in Thailand (briefly - he doesn't bring up getting his ass kicked), Sawyer's previously mentioned STD, etc. Add in Kate's line about "getting a ruler", and you have the stuff Sawyer/Jack slashfic writers base their entire output on.

And then the Ben/Locke stuff! Anytime "enemies" work together, I'm happy, and knowing how oddly close the two men eventually became gave this episode, their first "team-up", a nice little trip down memory lane. It's almost a shame when Sayid and the others barge in at the end of the episode and explain what they found (i.e. that Henry Gale's a dead, black dude). The black-light map on the door is also pretty impressive, the type of thing Blu-ray owners would delight at looking at with crystal clear detail (I myself never have, but I do have the four Lost jigsaw puzzles that, when turned over and placed together, show the map in glow-in-the-dark ink - very cool). Needless to say, some of the information on there was never used in any way ("There are dragons here" was a particular missed opportunity, in my opinion) but it's interesting how much info IS on there, such as mention of an underground spring (the "urine cave"?).

Tomorrow: "Dave"! And the further development of one of the show's more baffling (and clearly Deus Ex Machina-oriented) mysteries: food deliveries that no one notices!

Where are we?