Lost - Deus Ex Machina
The cruelty of selfishness and the naïveté of selflessness
are themes that receive incredibly potent treatment in this Locke-specific
episode of Lost where John (before his paralysis while still working at a
department store) is deceived by a father he never knew and mother needing
money. That is the Locke back story as his manipulative father preys on his
good heart and anxious desire to bond with the man he never knew. Kevin Tighe
(Road House) needs a kidney and why not use ex-wife, Swoosie Kurtz (Sisters),
as the tool to do so? Locke does and after he gives to his father what he’s
left with is an empty bed and cold silence. I think anyone used by those that
are family will feel the knife’s jagged edge of the flashbacks in this episode.
It cuts deep and the wound gushes. Powerful stuff. The island seemingly
provided Locke with his legs back. One of the show’s first big supernatural
revelations was Locke’s ability to walk.
But in “Deus Ex Machina” it appears the island is “taking back” Locke’s legs as he begins to lose the ability to walk. He notices that a piece of metal shrapnel, that stabbed into his leg after an attempt to break the glass window of the impossible-to-open hatch through a trebuchet (imagine the hammer to the nail, through the use of rope and wood), doesn’t hurt him. Burning the bottom of his foot with flame at the end of some wood gives him no hurt. Then comes the stumbling and loss of balance. Boone being with Locke becomes a blessing in disguise…until a dream convinces Locke to pursue a plane crashing on the island with Boone serving as the investigator once they find it on a cliff clinging its nose-end to a wobbly tree. Locke is driven by the dream because the island gave him “the walk”. The plane just has statuettes of the Virgin Mary encased with heroine. The corpse of a drug smuggling Nigerian in a tree with a wad of cash is pulled by Locke. So Boone is frustrated with Locke over this excursion that seemed to result in finding drugs and the dead bodies of dealers who crashed on the island.
A bloodied Boone in Locke’s dream speaking about an aunt and trips up and down stairs has its reasoning soon to be foretold…Boone speaks on this when he was six years old and she fell to her death down those stairs, and his bloody body stems from when the plane crashes off the cliff to the ground, wounding him badly. So extraordinarily Locke moves back to his feet, hoists Boone on his shoulders, and carries him back to camp to be tended to by Jack. The island inexplicably, it seems, gives Locke back his walk as he once again retreats to the hatch to grieve the lack of resolution involving the vision he experienced.
That frustration on the island is juxtaposed with the similar feelings of ache and regret experienced in the past regarding Locke’s father. I was moved by this episode in a number of ways. I deeply care about John Locke and when he’s mistreated, taken advantage of, used and disregarded it is felt by me. I hurt for him and want him to get inside that fucking hatch. Maybe he will eventually…but what will he find? And, perhaps more importantly, will he want to know once that hatch is opened? Will it all be worth it? Interestingly, Locke is secretive about how Boone was injured, protecting the identity of the plane for reasons yet realized. Perhaps because drugs on the plane (heroin) could open a dark door certainly not needed when trying to co-exist and survive in one piece.
But in “Deus Ex Machina” it appears the island is “taking back” Locke’s legs as he begins to lose the ability to walk. He notices that a piece of metal shrapnel, that stabbed into his leg after an attempt to break the glass window of the impossible-to-open hatch through a trebuchet (imagine the hammer to the nail, through the use of rope and wood), doesn’t hurt him. Burning the bottom of his foot with flame at the end of some wood gives him no hurt. Then comes the stumbling and loss of balance. Boone being with Locke becomes a blessing in disguise…until a dream convinces Locke to pursue a plane crashing on the island with Boone serving as the investigator once they find it on a cliff clinging its nose-end to a wobbly tree. Locke is driven by the dream because the island gave him “the walk”. The plane just has statuettes of the Virgin Mary encased with heroine. The corpse of a drug smuggling Nigerian in a tree with a wad of cash is pulled by Locke. So Boone is frustrated with Locke over this excursion that seemed to result in finding drugs and the dead bodies of dealers who crashed on the island.
A bloodied Boone in Locke’s dream speaking about an aunt and trips up and down stairs has its reasoning soon to be foretold…Boone speaks on this when he was six years old and she fell to her death down those stairs, and his bloody body stems from when the plane crashes off the cliff to the ground, wounding him badly. So extraordinarily Locke moves back to his feet, hoists Boone on his shoulders, and carries him back to camp to be tended to by Jack. The island inexplicably, it seems, gives Locke back his walk as he once again retreats to the hatch to grieve the lack of resolution involving the vision he experienced.
That frustration on the island is juxtaposed with the similar feelings of ache and regret experienced in the past regarding Locke’s father. I was moved by this episode in a number of ways. I deeply care about John Locke and when he’s mistreated, taken advantage of, used and disregarded it is felt by me. I hurt for him and want him to get inside that fucking hatch. Maybe he will eventually…but what will he find? And, perhaps more importantly, will he want to know once that hatch is opened? Will it all be worth it? Interestingly, Locke is secretive about how Boone was injured, protecting the identity of the plane for reasons yet realized. Perhaps because drugs on the plane (heroin) could open a dark door certainly not needed when trying to co-exist and survive in one piece.
For some smiles and giggles, the subplot involving Sawyer’s
farsightedness causes him headaches and Jack gets even with him over nicknames
and mocking through a “questionnaire” on symptoms and “encounters that might
have caused something sexually transmitted”. They have to fuse two different
lenses for an uneven pair of glasses just so Sawyer could read his novels
without suffering headaches and further grouchiness. Jack does this for a
concerned Kate. This bit of subplot just takes the edge off a very emotionally
wrenching central character arc. I enjoyed the interplay between Jack, Sawyer,
and Kate. A good ribbing on Sawyer is great fun.
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