Locke Lives!!!!!!

Well...at least he does in The Substitute. I love Locke-centric episodes (or in this case Locke/Flocke-centric). They always seem to be the episodes where we get the most questions answered, and we weren't disappointed with last night's epi. Though, we still don't know why the polar bears are on the island. I did read a spoiler recently that said Charlotte was filming again, so perhaps we will get that question answered yet!! (for Mr. M) :-}

In the flash sideways, we get to see Locke in what seems to be a happy life. He is still with Helen, who is very much alive. It seems he is still on good terms with his father as they are planning on inviting him to their wedding, and he has a pic of them together on his desk.

But he is still plagued by the fact that he seems "trapped" in his wheelchair. He gets fired, goes to Hurley's temp agency (how awesome was Hurley by the way!!) and while there, talks to Rose. Rose and Bernard still seem very important to the show, and I am still on board the Rose/Bernard = Adam/Eve train. Rose tells Locke that she finally stopped dwelling on the past and started living her life. This seems to be enough to push Locke out of his rut and he finally starts living. One of the best scenes of the night was when substitute Locke meets European History teacher Benjamin Linus. Again, it goes back to my theory that they all will interact with each other regardless of being on the island or not. It is their destiny. Another thing I was wondering is, if Locke is still on good terms with pop, then how did he wind up in the chair. Obviously dad didn't push him out of an 8 story building??

Meanwhile, back on the island, it is "game on." Flocke is recruiting...but recruiting for what? The first thing that comes to my mind is "the war" that has been talked about for so long. Black vs white, this time represented by rocks on a balance scale, once again comes into play. But Flocke takes the white rock and chucks it into the ocean. Flocke takes Sawyer to the cliffside cave, which he tells him was Jacob's cave. Hmmm...Jacob's cabin. Jacob's foot statue. Jacob's cliffside cave. No wonder Flocke is upset. Jacob gets everything . {stomps foot and kicks at rock} On their way to the cave though, they meet a cute, sweet, little boy......

Umm....make that a creepy, blood-covered young-Jacob-looking boy. What is up with this kid? I am thinking either this is, in fact, a young Jacob or it is Aaron. I like the idea that it is Aaron, but what is his significance and why is Flocke so afraid of him? Richard apparently could not see him but Sawyer could. Could it be that Sawyer could see him because Sawyer was one of the candidates? Also, why does he tell Flocke, "You know the rules. You can't kill him." Who is he talking about? Richard? Sawyer? This was an interesting twist on things.


Speaking of the candidates...we finally got a little explanation of what the numbers are!!! The people that Jacob touched are his candidates for replacements to take over as island protectors. Apparently Jacob assigned numbers to all the candidates with the specific numbers (Hurley's lottery ticket numbers, the hatch computer numbers...etc) corresponding to some familiar names. Interestingly though, Kate is not on the wall. Neither is Aaron. I wonder if this means that Kate was not supposed to leave the island with the Oceanic 6. Maybe she was supposed to jump out of the helicopter instead of Sawyer. Or maybe she has a different purpose altogether. All the people on the wall were people that Jacob touched (physically) at some point in their lives, so this was his way of choosing his candidates. Flocke tells Sawyer there is nothing that the island needs protection from, but I think he is lying. I am still Team Jacob (not in Twilight though) so I believe that inherently Jacob's team and his plan is the one that is for the best for everyone.

I heard an interesting theory about the final outcome of the show. This person said, "What if the end of the show has Jack and Sawyer sitting on the beach, just like Jacob and MIB with Jack taking the role of Jacob and Sawyer taking the role of MIB. Sawyer says that it always ends the same and Jack says, it only ends once. Everything else is just progress." Interesting theory I had to share.

*****************Now on to spoilers******************

Next week's episode is called The Lighthouse. I believe it will be a Jack-centric episode. Matthew Fox (Jack) was quoted in an interview saying this was probably the most important episode of the series for Jack as he is finally coming to terms with what he is truly meant to do on the island. Also, we will get to see more of Bindi the Jungle Girl Claire next week! Here is a Sneek Peek for next week's show!