Lost Recap #10: Deux Ex Machina

Season 1, Episode 19

Hero of the episode: Jack, Boone      Zero of the episode: Anthony Cooper aka the real Sawyer

Quote(s) of the episode: “All I’m going to get for my trouble is a snappy one-liner. And if I’m lucky a brand-new nickname.” – Jack on refusing to help Sawyer | “Sorry doc, sounds fun but my insurance ran out.” –Sawyer to Jack | “Dude looks like someone steamrolled Harry Potter.” – Hurley when he sees Sawyer wearing glasses

Music vibes: The once joyous music at the end of Walkabout is turned into sorrow as Locke is betrayed by his biological parents.

Little things: Sun trying to help Sawyer with his headaches | Jack having a little fun while trying to treat Sawyer’s headaches

Episode notebook:

• What a bad wig on Terry O’Quinn. Doesn’t really make Locke’s character look younger in the flashbacks. Locke used to work in a superstore? Definitely forgot that.

• Boone and Locke built a device/catapult to try to open the hatch. Looks like it took a lot of work, but it fails. Breaks apart on impact, injuring Locke.

• Locke losing feeling in his legs. Is the magic fading? Is his faith in the island being tested?

• Locke meets his biological mom and dad. Mom is acting a little weird – a lot weird.

• Biological dad is wealthy. Will he think Locke wants something from him?

• Locke is convinced his weird dream holds the keys to opening the hatch. Boone is skeptical.

• Sawyer struggling with headaches and is reluctant to ask Jack for help. Jack has a little fun with Sawyer, asking about his sexual history. Dr. Jack knew it was just an eye problem but decides to give Sawyer a taste of his own medicine.

• Sayid make glasses for Sawyer.

• Locke and Boone set off to find the downed plane from his dream. Locke has to lean on Boone for help.

• Boone climbs into the canopy to search the plane. The occupants were drug smugglers. Not exactly the find of the century.

• Boone is severely injured when the plane crashes to the ground.

• Locke’s biological parents are scammers. Gee, give this man a break.

Episode recap: Yet another layer is peeled back on the enigma that is John Locke. Dressed up in a bad toupee, to make actor Terry O’Quinn appear younger, we see Locke working at a big box store. A curious customer is staring at him just a bit too much. She pretends to need Locke’s help finding something, John obliges but wonders what’s up. This curious customer is in the parking lot when Locke is leaving work. Hmmm? Locke’s curiosity gets the better of him, as he chases and catches up to the woman. The woman, Emily, claims to be Locke’s biological mother and that he was conceived by immaculate conception. Well sure, that makes sense. The first virgin birth since biblical times. Locke is, of course, skeptical and hires a private investigator to dig into Emily.

Flashbacks are the only glimpse we have into everyone’s past. But Locke (and Kate to an extent) is one of the few who refuses to even discuss his past. A fact Boone picks up on. Of the many, many times Locke and Boone head into the jungle, John never reveals anything about his past. Why? Is he hiding something or is it too painful?

Locke is forced to tap into that pain when he injures his leg. While attempting to yet again open the hatch, this time with a highly-engineered device, Locke’s leg is injured by a piece of shrapnel. A piece of shrapnel he didn’t even feel. Oh no! Why didn’t he cry out in pain? Locke fully believes the island gave him the ability to walk again. Why is the island trying to take that from him? Does the island want something from him? Locke believes destiny brought him and Boone to the hatch and they have to open it. To fulfill that destiny, Locke has to keep believing. Keep believing in the island’s powers, a sign will show him the way to open the hatch.

Those signs manifest in a bizarre dream, Locke sees a small plane crash and a bloody Boone mumbling about a woman named Theresa. Locke doesn’t quite know what to make of the dream, but it’s enough for him to set out on another mission into the jungle. A mission to find the downed plane. If Locke finds the plane, maybe the key to opening the hatch is inside. Hold onto his faith in the island, and the island will repay him.

In the past, a debt was owed to Locke. He grew up in foster care, never knowing anything about his biological parents. The private investigator filled in some of those holes. Emily has a history of mental health problems but was telling the truth about being his mom. His father, Anthony Cooper, is alive, wealthy, and thriving. Upon meeting his father, Locke is certain he’s found what he’s been missing all his life—family. A family to love and maybe love him back.

Allow me a minute to rant about this new family, specifically the casting. Actress Swoosie Kurtz, as Emily, and actor Kevin Tighe, as Anthony Cooper, is good casting IF the actor playing their child looks young enough. That is not the case here. Actor Terry O’Quinn, aka John Locke, is only EIGHT years younger than Kurtz and Tighe. Not even a bad toupee convinced me that O’Quinn was young enough to pass as their spawn. All three are fantastic actors but as a fictional family, they were not believable because the math just didn’t add up.

But I digress, back to the drama. About halfway through the episode, I remembered that this family reunion was just a long con. Cooper, aka the real Sawyer (we’ll come back to that in a few seasons), and Emily were conning Locke. Dear old dad needed a kidney and knew Locke wouldn’t just give it up—unless it was his idea. Get on the good side of your mark and get what you want out of them without them suspecting you. John’s faith in humanity was stolen from him by Cooper and Emily, the island was finally giving it back to him.

When Boone and Locke find the small plane, Boone climbs into the tree canopy to search the inside of the plane. The keys to opening the hatch are not inside, as Boone finds a plane full of drugs. Not exactly the keys to their destiny, but Boone tries to salvage this excursion by trying the radio and sending out a mayday call. I swear the voice on the radio says, “There were no survivors of Flight 815.” I know we get to see the flip side of this communication in another season and something completely different is said. Grrr! Continuity matters!

No good deed goes unpunished as Boone is severely injured when the plane plummets from the high canopy and crashes to the ground. Boone’s added weight threw the plane off balance. A hobbled Locke carries Boone back to the caves. He gives a half-assed story to Jack before disappearing, running off yet again to the mothership…I mean the hatch. The hatch! A hunk of metal that started it all and, in a way, caused Boone’s death. If Locke hadn’t put so much faith in the hatch, Boone wouldn’t have been hurt. While John is banging on the hatch, questioning his faith in humanity, a bright light beams from the hatch window. Is this the sign John was searching for? Has the hatch finally heard his pleas? Not quite, but it’s a start.

Please keep reading, my recap for episode twenty is posted.