3.03 - Further Instructions

Title’s significance: Locke is looking for “further instructions” from the island after having his faith challenged in The Swan. (Eko did the exact same thing last season.)

Recap: While flashbacks detail Locke’s time at a commune before encountering an undercover policeman, we learn the fates of those in The Swan – Locke has lost his ability to speak, Eko is unconscious in a bear cave, and Desmond is wandering the jungle naked. Needing to speak to the island, Locke builds a sweat lodge, in which he meets Boone, in which he tells Locke “you need to clean up your own mess” – by saving Mr. Eko from a polar bear. While Charlie and Locke go looking, they find Hurley and send him back to camp, where he encounters Desmond, who accidentally suggests that he can see the future. After being saved from the polar bear, Eko briefly regains consciousness and tells Locke that he will save the people The Others kidnapped because he is “a hunter.” Locke promises the camp that he will go after the kidnapped survivors, which blows Hurley’s mind when he remembers that Desmond knew about this speech before it happened.

Thoughts: Welcome back, Carlton. I think Carlton might be the stronger half of the Damon/Carlton team I love so much, because his episode here away from Damon is stronger than Damon’s away from the C-man. Maybe it’s just because I’m a big fat Locke fan, but this is by far the best episode of Season Three, even in spite of the fairly limp flashbacks. A thrilling central plot answers questions about last season’s finale and essentially sets up the rest of the series by setting Locke and The Others on a collision course. Rewatching this episode, I know now why Nikki and Paulo never took off as characters – it’s because their introduction (as much as I love Carlton’s writing otherwise) is sloppy; they’re thrown in with the survivors without so much as an introduction. If the writers had gone with the “deleted scenes” version of their introduction – in which Claire catches Nikki & Paulo having sex in Jack’s tent – I think they might have been more popular with viewers simply because they’d have had a real introductory scene (and because it would have been hysterical).

Favorite moment: The bear cave scene is both thrilling and terrifying, but Hurley’s awkward reaction around Naked Desmond (variant action figure) is outrageous and classic Hurley.

Characters introduced (in order):

• EDDIE, an undercover policeman investigating a commune where Locke’s staying
• NIKKI & PAULO, “new” survivors of Oceanic 815, with attitudes the size of Hurley

What we learned:

• After The Swan exploded, Locke was unable to speak, Eko is only conscious some of the time, and Desmond is naked and disoriented.
• There is more than one polar bear on the island.
• All that’s left of The Swan is a big imploded hole in the ground.
• The failsafe key detonated the electromagnetic anomaly and made the hatch implode (as per Desmond).
• John Locke is a “hunter.”

Questions:

• What does Boone mean that Charlie and Claire will be all right “for a while”?
• According to Locke’s dream, who is in danger?
• Who are the Dharma skeletons in the bear cave?
• Can Desmond really see the future?

Things that are going to be important in Season Six:

• Locke says that “Bad things happen to people who hang around with me.” Yet I still maintain that Locke is ultimately going to save the island. Like the guy in the commune says: “John’s a special guy.”
• If the electromagnetic anomaly disconnected Desmond from time and allowed him to see/experience alternate timelines, it’s very possible, then, that it could distort time and change the timestream as per the Jughead plan.