Wednesday, March 21, 2007

"The Man From Tallahassee"

So we finally got the answer to one of LOST's oldest questions tonight. I've had a feeling for a while now about who was involved in the answer. And who is "the man from Tallahassee?" After finding out about the name of the episode last week, I had a feeling who that man might be and was happy to see that my theory was correct.

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!

So after a couple of excellent episodes, I was expecting another great one especially considering that the previews promised that we would learn how Locke ended up in a wheelchair. It was good, but I wouldn't classify it as great. Maybe it's because I found some of the major plot points to be predictable but I still liked it and I really enjoyed how it continued to progress the story.

After the shock of seeing Jack playing football with Tom last week, we learned that he hasn't been brainwashed, but rather is just playing along because Ben is keeping his promise of letting Jack and Juliette leave the island the very next day. By the way, someone on the Lost Blog pointed out that Jack had a new tattoo visible while playing football and sure enough it was clearly visible in tonight's episode. I guess that means we can expect another Jack's tattoo flashback again in the future. Yippee!

Locke's destructive motives continued as he successfully tracks down the submarine and destroys it just before Jack and Juliette are about to leave the island. His reasons seem to be that he really doesn't want to leave the island, but also that he wants to level the playing field with the Others. Right now, he thinks that they are cheating because of their access to the comforts of home.

Ben has some interesting things to tell Locke before he goes on his destructive quest. He also asks a few of his own. He knows that Locke was paralyzed before the crash and that he was miraculously healed after the crash. Ben asks how it happened and wonders why he himself has not been healed. It seems, for now at least, that there are secrets of the island that even Ben does not know. Ben talks about how he was born on the island but most of the Others were not. They were recruited and although they love the island, some of them want to be able to leave. Ben knows that Locke doesn't want to leave the island for fear of a return to his wheelchair and bargains with him not to destroy the sub. He speaks of a large box on the island that can give you anything that you can imagine. Locke wins the best line of the episode with, "I hope that box is big enough to imagine yourself up a new submarine."

It came as no surprise to me that Locke's father caused the "accident" that paralyzed him. Locke confronted him to stop him from conning someone else and Locke's father pushed him out of a window eight stories up. It is amazing that Locke even survived at all let alone only ended up paralyzed. How is this important to island events? Well it turns out that Ben has Locke's father tied up on the island and reveals it to Locke at the end of the episode! So did Ben conjure up Locke's father from the mysterious magic box on the island or is this the real Anthony Cooper? Is the box some sort of transporter? Will killing Cooper make Locke less angry or better yet an Other? Is Locke's father the real Sawyer? So many new questions in addition to the old one of why Locke isn't paralyzed anymore. I look forward to how all this will be addressed.

Next Week on LOST:

2 comments:

Jillie Bean (AKA Bubba's Sis) said...

Some things I'm confused about....

Who IS the "man from Tallahassee"?

What do you mean by "is Locke's father the real Sawyer?"

I was surprised at the end of last night's show when Locke's father was tied up in the chair. Wow! I can't wait for the next episode!

Wes Raine said...

Anthony Cooper is the man from Tallahassee. At least that's how Ben referred to him when Locke was hiding in his closet. He told Richard to get the man from Tallahassee. Locke thought that was a code to alert the Others that he was in trouble but it was actually a request to summon Locke's dad. From where? The mystery box? Maybe or perhaps he was already on the island for some other reason.

As to his identity as the real Sawyer, that is something I have speculated for a while. You may recall that our beloved Sawyer's real name is James Ford. He uses the name Sawyer as a reminder of the man who conned his mother. His father subsequently killed his mother and then himself as a result of the con leaving Sawyer an orphan. Because of the seemingly random connections between our castaways, it is only logical that the man who first conned Sawyer's mother is somehow connected to another crash survivor. I think that Anthony Cooper is that man. It is only a matter of time before it is revealed.