In the Race

Are you still Lost?

Have you found some answers?

Maybe for the first time?

Maybe not?

I think we at least found some links.

And I think, from those rocking chair pictures of Jacob, what I always thought....

That Jacob is Locke...

And funny, after my "eye theme" presentation yesterday, how Locke's eye appeared twice in this episode.

But the main thing I observed was the shift in power ...the total transformation between John Locke and Benjamin Linus.

And, as usual, Jeff Jensen, from EW.com has his version:

''Cabin Fever'' began by showing us the foundation for such a life: Locke's birth. We've previously been given reason to believe Locke was born in May of 1956. But in the opening scene, we saw his mother, a rebellious 16-year-old Emily, secretly six months pregnant with John, dancing to that Buddy Holly song and primping for a date with an older man — presumably, John's con-man biological pop, Anthony Cooper. ''Everyday'' was released on vinyl in July 1957. This sounds picky, but timing is crucial in light of future events. I got that whiff of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men when Emily ran out in the rain and got hit by a car. No Country also featured an out-of-the-blue automobile accident, one that involved Anton Chigurh, one of three debatably unhinged dudes who drive McCarthy's plot and the one who serves as the author's embodiment of terrifying inevitability, a mass-murdering monster formed in the William Gull-From Hell mold.

Struck down by...well, we never saw who was behind the wheel, did we? Maybe that's important, maybe not, or maybe not yet, but anyway, Emily was rushed to the hospital, and with that, John Locke entered the world three months ahead of time. ''He's okay,'' said the nurse. ''He's just a little early.'' As Preemie John was wheeled away in a toasty incubator that looked like a microwave oven (talk about cabin fever!), Emily cried out her wish that the boy be named John. Now, all of that should have sounded familiar to you. Flashback one year ago this week, in which Lost gave us another cheery Mother's Day edition, ''The Man Behind the Curtain.'' That episode told the origin story of Benjamin Linus, who, if you recall, was also born prematurely, and also born to a woman named Emily who cried out his name, although she did so as she died. Some points of difference: Ben was raised by his biological father (oops), while Locke was given up for adoption and raised in foster care. Also, Ben was born about five years after Locke; call it 1963. But as it so happens, Locke's fifth year was a key marker in his fate-whipped trajectory, for it brought Richard Alpert into his life. "

[...]


"There was a moment last night when Ben accused Locke of manipulating Hurley into going with them to Jacob's cabin by using Ben-patented reverse psychology. Locke denied doing so, saying, ''I'm not you.'' Ben jumped on this, saying, ''You're certainly not.''

Now, do the timeline math.

Locke is born early. At age 5, he takes a test that most likely would have taken him to the Island if he had passed. He didn't. That same year, Benjamin Linus is born. At age 16, Locke is invited to go to a science camp that again would have taken him to the Island. He refused. About that same time, Benjamin Linus and his father joined the Dharma Initiative. The implication, it seems, is that Ben has been walking the path that was originally meant for Locke. Ben was the contingency plan — the course correction — for Locke's altered destiny. But Ben is his own person, of course, and he has done things differently from what Locke would have done, and this, in turn, has created further changes in the original order of things — changes that I think a certain ticked-off, Island-deprived billionaire named Charles Widmore is trying to reverse. The scene at the rehab center between paralyzed adult Locke and his wheelchair pusher, the creepy Matthew Abbaddon — who accepted the description of ''orderly'' with knowing irony — was meant to suggest one way Widmore is scheming to restore the original order: by getting Locke on that Island and taking back the birthright that was supposed to be his.

(Unless I’m getting this reversed: What if Ben was the man of destiny, but for decades, various forces — including Alpert and Widmore-Abbaddon — have been vainly trying to change destiny by getting Locke to the Island to supplant the über-Other?)

 

A young John is playing backgammon in a living room when his foster sister Melissa knocks the pieces off the board. His foster mother scolds her before telling John that there is a man there to see him and that he should be on his best behavior. Richard Alpert walks in the house and sits down at the table across from him. He introduces himself as Richard and tells John that he runs a school for special children and has reason to believe that he is one of them. Richard asks John if he minds if he shows him a couple of neat things and John shakes his head. Richard sees a drawing on the wall of the room of a man lying on the ground while a mass of black springs from the ground and hangs over him, resembling an attack by the smoke monster.








When asked if he drew the picture, John nods his head. The two walk to another table and sit down. Richard tells John that he wants him to look at a few objects, think about them, and tell him which of them are his. The boy thinks Richard means "to keep" but Alpert clarifies: "Which of these things belong to you already?" He lays out on the table a baseball mitt, a book entitled "Book of Laws" (the holy book of the Bahá'í Faith), a small container of granules, a compass, a comic book entitled "Mystery Tales", and a knife.







John inspects the container of the granules and the compass. John starts towards the "Book of Laws", at which point Richard looks hopeful, but finally he picks up the knife, instead. Richard seems disappointed and angry. He asks John if he is sure, and after he nods, Richard snatches the knife, and the other items on the table, away. He puts these back into his bag and stands up quickly. The foster mothers enters the room and asks how John did. Richard responds that John is not quite ready for his school and walks out of the house. The woman scolds John asking what he did and he looks down dejectedly.  

Trivia

• Not including "Ji Yeon" (in which the flashback runs alongside the flashforward), this is the first episode since "D.O.C." (16 episodes earlier) to feature conventional pre-crash flashbacks of an Oceanic 815 survivor. 
• Horace Goodspeed, in Locke's dream, mentions that he has been dead for 12 years. This places the date of the Purge on December 19, 1992 (December 19 being Ben's birthday).
• Ben and Hurley share what appears to be an Apollo Bar while they wait for Locke to come out of the cabin.
• Christian, who usually appears in a suit, wears clothes that look more like what The Others and Jacob might wear, as he wore when he first appeared to Claire in "Something Nice Back Home".
• The second protocol Keamy grabs from the safe has the same Dharma symbol that Ben's parka had in "The Shape of Things to Come".
• A solid black centered logo appears in this episode on a corpse in the pit.
• The closed captioning incorrectly stated the song playing at the beginning was "Everyday" by Don McLean, instead of Buddy Holly, which would have put the time frame circa 1974.

Teenage Locke, now a high school student, bangs on the door from the inside of a locker calling to be let out. A teacher opens the door and John finds everyone laughing when he exits. A photo of explorer Sir Richard Burton and a Geronimo Jackson poster are on the locker door.

Cultural references

• The test given to young Locke by Richard Alpert strongly resembles the Tibetan Buddhist ritual used to confirm a reincarnated tulku (the Dalai Lama being the most widely known). (Religion and ideologies)
• Young Locke is playing backgammon. (Games)
• The Bible: As the nurses wheel out Emily's premature baby, she yells out, "His name is John!", a direct quote from Luke 1:63, when Zechariah and Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist. (Religion and ideologies)
• The comic book Richard Alpert shows young Locke is "Mystery Tales" issue #40, which was published in April of 1956 by Atlas Comics. The cover contains the text "What was the Secret of the Mysterious Hidden Land?" and "Does it Pay to Ignore the Voice of Warning?"
• Buddy Holly's song "Everyday" is heard in the first flashback.  Buddy Holly was a famous victim of a plane crash.
• The Myth Of Sisyphus - Horace Goodspeed is seen cutting down a tree, only to have that tree reappear uncut, which he then cuts down again in a seemingly repetitive loop. This is an apparent reference to the myth of Sisyphus, whom the gods punish by forcing him to push a boulder up a hill, only to have the boulder roll back down for him to push again in a eternally repeating loop. (Philosophy)
• The X-Men: Richard Alpert's line "I'm Richard, John. I run a school for kids who are... extremely special, and I have reason to believe that you might be one them." is almost word for word a very common line spoken by Charles Xavier (Professor X) in the various incarnations of "X-Men" when recruiting young mutants. (Movies and TV) (Books)
• Half-Life: Richar Alpert is first shown in a suit through a window, much like the G-Man from the Half-Life video game series.
  
  

from Lostpedia