Archive Post: S3E13 - The Man From Tallahassee

Episode: The Man from Tallahassee

Character: John Locke

Wow… Lost is back at the top of its game, and I am LOVING it! Wednesday’s episode was phenomenal! I hope you all liked it as much as I did. There were a lot of points of discussion from this episode.

Where Did Rousseau Go? While finalizing their plans for entering the barracks, Danielle decides to leave. I figure, though, that she was probably just afraid of running into some old friends that she had back when she was an other…. Oops! Did I say that? Come on! She’s gotta have some connections with them. She’s been on the island for 16 years. You know this isn’t her first interaction with them. (other than the time they stole her daughter). Perhaps she was once living among them and was banished and forbade from seeing her daughter.

Peter Talbot: Locke was approached by a young man named Peter Talbot. He mentions that his mother is engaged to a man named Adam Seward. After investigating “adam’s” background, he finds that the man in question is Locke’s dad (Anthony Cooper). Of course, Locke lies and tells Peter that he doesn’t know him. But Peter is convinced that “Adam” is just after his mother for their money.

Locke then goes to find his dad to tell him that he knows that the wedding is all part of a con and warns him to call off the wedding. Next thing you know, Peter Talbot turns up dead.

“Play us a song, you’re the camera man?” While Jack is in his cozy little othersville apartment, Kate sneaks in and reveals that she is there to save him. He warns her that he is being watched. And before anything else can be said, two armed guards rush in the room—one tackling her to the ground and the other dragging in Sayid from outside. So was Jack the only one being watched? Or are ALL of the others being watched? If so, who watches them? Jacob, perhaps?

The Man From Tallahassee: Ben called for a man named Richard to come into his bedroom, while Locke and Alex hid in the closet. When Richard came in, Ben asked him to get the man from Tallahassee. Who is this man? You’ll find out soon enough…. I think.

Curious Ben: Ben was shooting question after question at Locke, asking about Locke’s newfound ability to walk. “Was it immediate? It started the moment you got here? And the feeling returned that day?” Locke realized that the reason Ben is asking about it is because he is not healing. Ben tries to turn the table on Locke by asking if he is afraid to leave the island because he knows he’ll end up back in the chair. But Locke is smarter than that now and won’t fall for Ben’s mind games.

Mother/daughter resemblance: When Alex goes outside to get Locke’s backpack from Sayid, he mentions to her that she looks like her mother, to which she replies “My mother is dead.” “That must’ve been what they told you,” Sayid reponds quickly before he is bashed over the knee and brought to the ground. I, for one, am glad that someone has finally planted this seed in Alex. It’ll be exciting to see if she begins a search for Danielle (who is now contained within the barracks).

My Wish in a Box: Ben tried to talk Locke out of blowing up the submarine, explaining to Locke that it is their only hope of getting off the island (and coming back). He said that although they all choose to be there, they like the idea that they have the choice to leave whenever they want. They aren’t fully committed to staying there, he says. Locke, on the other hand, is. And knowing that Locke is all about the mystery of the island, Ben offers up this thought: “Picture a box. You know something about boxes, don’t you, John. What if I told you that somewhere on this island, there is a very large box. And whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it… when you opened that box, there it would be. What would you say about that, John?” I can say with certainty that “Season Two”-Locke would’ve been all glossy-eyed over this speech. But “Season Three”-Locke is a new man! His witty response is, “I’d say I hope that box is big enough to imagine yourself up a new submarine.” For now, I’m just going to assume that the “box” in question is metaphoric. I can’t actually believe that there is a magical box on the island. I’ll get into more details of “the box” in a few minutes.

Boom Goes the Dynamite: Locke was escorted to the submarine by Alex. After leaving Jack came into Ben’s room and asked Ben to release his friends. Ben promises to let them go as soon as Jack leaves the island… knowing very well that Locke is on his way to blow up the submarine and that Jack will likely never leave. As Jack and Juliet are leaving, they come across Locke (who is dripping wet). The armed men who are escorting Jack and Juliet are “arresting” Locke, and that’s when Locke apologizes to Jack, “I’m sorry.” Jack asks, “Sorry for what?” And then, BLAMMO! The submarine explodes. Now their chance of leaving is gone. That is, of course, until they resume communication with the outside world, assuming that they do resume communication.

Q: How did Locke become paralyzed? A: In a smashing scene (pun intended), Locke meets up with his father, demanding answers. He is convinced that his dad is responsible for Peter’s death. Anthony begins by pouring himself a glass of MacCutcheons, the liquor that Charles Widmore poured for himself in front of Desmond, claiming that a single sip is worth more than Desmond will make in a lifetime. (Great parallel here.) Of course, Anthony denied having anything to do with Peter’s death, but Locke wanted proof. So Anthony offered up his telephone, “Go ahead and call her… the phone is right next to that giant window!” And just as he picks up the phone, Locke’s dad charges at him pushing him through the window, Locke plummeting eight stories to the ground. Congratulations, writers of Lost. Two and a half years of waiting for an answer, and I am very satisfied with the outcome. This just brings his relationship with his father to a whole new level…. Which makes the end of this episode that much more exciting.

Richard Alpert: Remember that man named “Richard” that we caught a quick glimpse of in the bedroom scene? He’s the one that Ben about getting the man from Tallahassee. Well, when Ben comes into the room where Locke is strapped to a pipe, he asks Richard to untie him. And when we actually see his face, we realize that he is Mr. Alpert, the man who “recruited” Juliet back in the “Not in Portland” episode. So was Juliet not recruited by Dharma as originally suspected?

The Kicker: Each episode of Lost tends to devote the last minute or two of the show to what I refer to as “the kicker”. It’s that one final scene where after you see it, you have cannot wait for the next episode—the cliffhangers. And this was definitely one of my favorite ones. (note: Locke episodes always have GREAT kickers). In this one, after Locke is untied from the pipe, he starts talking to John, but Locke interrupts and says “You’re not gonna talk about the magic box again, are you?” to which Ben replies, “No. I’m going to show you what came out of it.” Locke is led down a long hallway and to a door. The door opens and in the room sits a man in a chair. That man is Locke’s dad! Anthony Cooper! Adam Sweard! The real Sawyer! (oops… did I say that! I keep slipping!) Now I’ve always been a believer that Locke’s dad is the real Sawyer, but after that episode, I am 100% convinced! I even read a message on a forum that suggested the following anagram: If you take the letters in “Anthony Cooper Adam Seward” and rearrange them, you can spell “Sawyer the con man, a poor dad”. I’m not saying that that necessarily means anything, but it’s kinda neat.

Question: One of the readers (Mike U) asked an interesting question, “Ben also commented last night that no one would find the island from the outside. If this is the case, was Desmond put on the island or did he truly crash on the island like we are lead to believe?” I think that the submarine is the only way to find the island. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the only way to get to the island. I mean, Rousseau’s boat crashed there too (or so we were told). And so did Oceanic Flight 815. I still have a feeling, though, that there is something supernatural that is preventing that island from being seen. Even Ben said in a past episode that even God couldn’t see the island. Very spooky.

Another reader (Chuck) asked about Locke, “Is his kidney-conning dad REALLY his dad?” Now, from what we know, he is. Locke hired a private investigator to find his father, and that’s who he came up with. Assuming that the private eye wasn’t hired by Anthony Cooper, I would say, yes… that is his father. Plus, if they came back and said that he wasn’t really his father, that’d be kinda stupid… unless they came up with a cool way to explain it! Haha.

And finally, a question from Jennifer, which, to me, is probably the most important question of all: “Was daddy brought in before the sub went down?” If they lost communication when the sky turned purple, and their underwater beacon stopped transmitting, then the sub hasn’t been able to find the island since Jack & Co. were captured. So when did Anthony Cooper get there? It had to be before then. My thought is that perhaps they brought him to the island as a bargaining chip to try and get Locke to release Ben, from when Ben was captured last season. But maybe not. Maybe the others have more of our flashback-friends captured. I really hope we find out their whole story before this season is up. I want to know what their end-game is.

Well, my time’s up here. I do want to add really quickly that next week’s episode will be Nikki & Paolo-centric and will be titled “Exposé”. And the producers have promised that it will be a good one. So, I’m relying on them to make me interested in those characters!

Thanks again for all your feedback. I apologize for the delay in getting this out. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the episode. Otherwise, I’ll talk to you next week!

-Andrew.