Dick in a Box

So, yeah I saw the push coming (but it was still viscerally shocking) and I
saw the end reveal coming (I think they should have saved the 'Man from
Tallahassee' line until the very end of the episode - like "Let's take him
to the Man from Tallahassee."), but still another really good episode from
the second half of the season.

The one thing that REALLY bothered me about last night's episode was the
plan for 'rescuing' Jack. How could Kate not figure on cameras? Is she
kidding? I could not believe that her plan was to just walk into Jack's new
house. And I guess I can't really be disappointed in Sayid if Kate didn't
tell him about the cameras, but he should be smarter than that. I've really
been fluctuating with Kate these past few weeks - sometimes she seems shrewd
and other times she doesn't think at all.

I hope Jack really gives her the cold shoulder after this latest incident.
Of course, he'll probably be more pissed at Locke because he didn't really
like Locke already, but ultimately it's Kate's fault. He told her not to
come.

Outside of Locke's first flashback with the fantastic wheelchair reveal, has
he ever had a flashback where he was not duped by someone? Has there ever
been anyone in the existence of mankind that has been screwed over so many
times, but still seems to inherently trust everyone he meets? I mean,
obviously, as I mentioned in past weeks, he can't read people (The only time
he was able to read someone accurately was with Charlie and the drugs. And I
think Charlie drug habit was obvious to Vincent, so that's not saying much.)
But how is it that he is not overly suspicious of everyone that he ever
encounters? If I had my kidney stolen, I don't think I'd look at anyone the
same way again, let alone the man who did the stealing. But Locke keeps
giving him chance after chance. Why? That kid comes to me, first thing I do
is call the cops. If I was shrewder, I would consider blackmailing the con
artist, but that's obviously not Locke's forte, so he should have been on
the phone with the cops right away.

Anyway, it has never been definitively established that Anthony Cooper
actually is Locke's dad, right? I don't remember exactly, but I got the
impression that he probably wasn't his father in past episodes. But with all
the con man references last night (Cooper must have called himself that at
least 3 times during the episode) I was reminded of something that was
floating around my brain the last time we saw him - could he be the original
Sawyer that James Ford got his name from?

Back to Locke's gullibility - how could he possibly believe that Cooper
would let him call that woman? Geez, faith is one thing that, in some cases,
can be admirable, but what is it gonna take for Locke to get past his blind
faith in everything and everyone? Does he now believe that he came to the
island to make peace with his father figure? And it's not that I necessarily
blame him for his paralysis, but why would he stand in front of a
ceiling-to-floor window in the home of a man who he believed to be capable
of murder?

My favorite stuff in the episode was all the interaction between Ben and
Locke. Now that is a couple worth rooting for. And my favorite line (and
delivery of said line) was given by Ben about the hamsters running in the
wheel to generate electricity. I gotta rewatch that and write the line down.
But Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn were absolutely fantastic in their
scenes together and O'Quinn was great throughout - showing great range,
making his flashbacks particularly effective and believable, quite similar
to the way I felt about Sayid's two weeks ago.

And I don't know who the king of the Others is if it's not Ben (maybe it's
that Jacob that's been referred to), but he must be quite a shrewd operator
if he ranks above the master manipulator that Ben is. That guy always knows
what to say, all the time. He is the anti-Locke - one look at you with those
crazy bug eyes and he's read you like a book. Not that it mattered if Ben
was playing Locke or not, probably the only thing that he could have told
him that would have prevented him from blowing up the sub was that he had
Cooper tied up in a box. (And was I the only one that thought that Locke
gazing into the sub before blowing it up was meant to echo him looking into
Desmond's hatch at the end of season one?)

Speaking of that crazy box, was Ben speaking literally or figuratively? And
what's that about anyway? Was he saying it knowing who he had tied up,
knowing that Locke would go ahead and believe that Cooper just appeared out
of a box because it is Locke's worst fear? Even to me, a magic box seems a
little far fetched. I'm much more comfortable with time travel than a magic
wishing box. But I'm probably getting ahead of myself, because it was Ben
that told the story and the first time he tells any story, he tends to
stretch the truth to his needs.

I do wonder how long Cooper has been there, and if he is actually a
prisoner. Maybe this whole island thing is a big long con to get Hurley to
give up his millions of dollars and Cooper is the orchestrator of it all.
(I'm kidding about this one, I think.)

So I wasn't expecting Batmanuel to show up on the Island, at least not so
soon. That actually surprised me. (What's his name Richard? Robert?) And
like I mentioned earlier, I kinda figured that Daddy Locke was the Man from
Tallahassee, but the reveal was still cool.

Matt, I don't know if you watched Alias at the end of its first season (Ang
will get my reference), but when Locke looked into the room and said "Dad?"
I immediately thought of when Sydney discovered her mother was alive and
uttered a similar desperate-sounding "Mom?" (though she was the one tied up
at that point).

So after I wrote all this, like I usually do, I read a couple of online
reviews/reactions to see if there was anything that I missed and still
wanted to comment on. What I found on one message board, I've copied and
pasted below because I found it particularly amusing and wished that I had
come up with it on my own (excuse the typos, I copied it exactly as it
appeared):

"Kate is beginning to remind me of the girl you are trying to drop, who
continues to show up on your doorstep relentlessly after you have tried all
the "It's not you, it's me" guff and moved through "don't bother coming
after me anymore" - when he saw her yet again appeared to look at him with
those drowned-puppy eyes, I could see that it was beginning to dawn on him
that in order to get her to leave him alone, is actually going to have to
kill her. That's the episode I can't wait to see. I hope he uses a hammer. I
hope we get to see it right up close and personal."