Lost - The Brig

**½ / ****

I was thinking back to Further Instructions while watching The Brig. How far Locke has veered off course (or perhaps towards where he is destined to be as opposed to how he was proposed when Desmond speaks of a speech from him about rescuing Jack, Sawyer, and Kate and the results of him actually joining Ben on a “move” across the island) as a character. At the end of The Brig, John tells Sawyer that he will not be returning to the beach where his fellow Oceanic survivors are. He says he’s on his own journey, yet Locke plops the body of his dead father (choked to death by Sawyer inside the brig of the Black Rock slave ship found deep in the jungle with a chain) across his shoulder to meet back up with Ben. Ben told Locke not to return to him and the Others unless his father was dead.

Anyone who has followed Lost up until this point realizes that Ben cannot be trusted or listened to. If you are a rival or someone who threatens his position or status as the leader on the Main Island, Ben will try to see to it that you are diminished or proven to be insignificant. In this episode, Ben presents Locke in front of the Others with orders to kill his father before them as a sign that he will no longer be ruled by what that man represents…a weakness Locke can’t overcome. Knowing Locke wouldn’t kill his father, Ben can rub that in as the Others look on in disappointment and disapproval. Locke takes the supposed walk of shame while Ben tells his camp that this man isn’t “who they thought he was”. My question is: what if Locke had killed is father right there in cold blood? How would the island react? Would Locke have lost his ability to walk? Could that have been the whole point? Ben schemes and plots all the time, always looking to remain the chief figurehead on *his* island. If there is an angle to increase his position and surpass anyone that threatens to knock him off his perch, Ben will work his ingenuity to devalue him or her. So here is Locke, with some “communion with the island”, and while with the Others, Ben begins to develop feelings in his extremities, even gaining access to his legs and feet, walking with use of a cane. So Ben and his camp leave Locke (and his father) behind.

Locke simply cannot kill his father. It doesn’t matter how despicable or reprehensible a monster this conman is, Locke just can’t do him harm. I hearken back to when a young man found Locke in a lowly apartment, looking into Kevin Tighe’s oft-alias conman who was planning to marry his mom. Locke tells the young man he doesn’t know him, and that the kidney given to him was out of anonymity. Later this young man was found dead. There was no reason for Locke to lie to the young man and instead of telling him the truth, he conceals it. Locke’s inability to silence his father once and for all is a detriment only to be resolved through the assistance of Alpert and a file on Sawyer. This sets in motion a visit from Locke to Sawyer specifically without anyone else from the Oceanic camp noticing. Sawyer had been seemingly searching for the one responsible for his father’s going off the deep end resulting in a murder – suicide (the father killing himself after murdering the mother when the loss of money as the results of Tighe’s con and seduction of her sent him over the edge) during his life, with a letter he had written meant for that person to read once he found him. Tighe held captive in a brig on the Black Rock, Locke commissions Sawyer to kill him, making it appear that the one kidnapped is Ben! Locke orchestrated all of this so that Sawyer could substitute in his place to kill his father. Locke knew that Sawyer had been waiting for this moment, so it would spare any difficulty he might have in killing his father. Sawyer doesn’t prepare to find the man responsible for his miserable life in the Black Rock, but nonetheless Tighe (and his many aliases) is before him. Tighe goes all the way to his death an asshole with no redeeming qualities, ripping up Sawyer’s written statement to him, not giving him the satisfaction of reading the letter, instead just running his garbage mouth until that chain around his neck snaps him off into quiet. Tighe, the man who pushed Locke out of a window and conned many, would no longer victimize anybody else. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Locke and Sawyer’s torment is over. This man who left behind a lot of broken lives will no longer con another victim.

My question is will Ben just replace Tighe as Locke’s Achilles’ Heel? Will Ben dupe Locke over and over, perhaps leeching off of him benefits the island might offer just by being in his presence? As Sawyer heads back to the beach, Locke is heading onward towards Ben, looking for that purpose Alpert spoke of before giving him the file he needed to finally, officially be rid of the father. Ben’s got this demeanor, tone, and contemptible voice/speech that is so off-putting to me. He’s like that snob that thumbs his nose at everyone, speaking down to them. I can stand this character and when he suffers admittedly I take great pleasure in seeing him brought down a peg or two. Although Locke has bothered me a lot this season, his presence as a threat to Ben amuses me to no end. Locke handing off a tape recording to Sawyer, specifying Juliet as a mole and Ben’s plans to kidnap children from the Oceanic camp before returning to the Others (supposedly “infiltrating “ them) certainly sets off plenty of drama awaiting the remainder of the third season.

I was laughing at how the “secret” involving the parachute woman just spreads and spreads from one person to another. Once Kate learns of the woman’s presence on the island, the secret is definitely out! Jack asks Charlie about when they returned from their trek, offering to go with them next time. But his time spent with the Others and association with Juliet has estranged him from those on the beach. They just don’t trust him, concealing the woman from a freighter (she identifies who she is and her reasons for being in the area). She tells Charlie, Hurley, and Desmond that Desmond was the reason she was in the area, her freighter hired to search for him. The island wasn’t even expected nor was survivors of the Oceanic. Speaking of the Oceanic, the plane was supposedly found intact with no survivors! What the hell is up with that?! So this young woman establishes that there is a rescue out there if they can be contacted. Kate tells Jack, reluctantly in front of Juliet. Juliet mentions “telling them” but Jack says “it isn’t time”. Riiiiiight.

Kate and Sawyer sleeping together, leaving for her own tent as he gets it that she isn’t ready for their relationship to be recognized officially. Kate happens to find Sayid repairing the parachute woman’s radio while Hurley looks on, and the secret might as well have been noised for all to hear.

Desmond realizes Penny will do whatever it takes to find him, thanks to this visitor to the Main Island telling him she hired her team on the search party freighter. A discussion regarding Jack as Desmond asks Charlie and Hurley if they truly believe they can tell him of their visitor’s presence on the island truly speaks to how the Others (and Ben, especially…) can cause such paranoia and dissolve trust. Jack’s loyalty would never be questioned prior to the capture by the Others, yet now Charlie and Hurley are unsure if he can be included in developments of great importance. How the mighty have fallen. Ben’s ability to affect lives all over the island is never more evident than Jack losing favor with those who used to could trust him.