Richard Alpert is Locke's father - the timeless man, maybe a time traveler, perhaps an eternal like John Amsterdam who doesn't seem to age, who knows, who helped get Juliet to the island, who helped Ben kill the Dharma people, who has a life as a "hostile" on the island that seems to transcend the Others, Dharma, and everyone - well, he's Locke's father. He impregnated a teenage girl - Emily, half his age, who dug Buddy Holly in the 1950s. She has the baby, names him John, gives him her last name (Locke), and leaves the hospital. Her mother gives John Locke up for adoption - but not before we see Richard Alpert in the hospital...
Before we go any further - if the name Emily sounds familiar to you - that might be because someone named Emily was also Ben's mother. So, are Locke and Ben at very least half-brothers (same mother), and who knows, maybe full brothers (if Richard not Roger was Ben's father) .... I've long been saying that inexplicable coincidences which are really explicable, if only we knew all the facts, are the key to understanding Lost. And Locke and Ben having the same mother, and maybe the same father, would be one wild example - which would explain a whole lot of things.*
*[Note added 12 May 2008: At very least, Richard's fatherhood would explain why Ben and Locke both developed strange powers associated with the island.]
Later in the story tonight, on the island, Ben tells Locke that the island wanted Locke to take over from Ben - that's why the island made Ben sick and cured Locke. One of the best and most instructive lines in the series. (And preceded by another great line from Ben to Locke: "Destiny is a fickle bitch.")
Back in the past and off the island, Richard comes to test Locke as a boy - who fails the test. Perhaps this shows that Locke has qualities which go beyond what Richard expected.... Or perhaps young Locke chooses the knife rather than the book, because he isn't quite willing to accept his true destiny, and the knife seems cooler than a book at his age...
Locke manages to get to the cabin on the island tonight, too. Christian (Jack and Claire's) father is there in the chair - and Claire's in the cabin, too, having been collected last week by Christian. Best guess about this is, sadly, both are dead. We already know that Locke can see the dead.
And while we're on that subject .... The hapless doctor who washed up dead on the island last week, but was still alive on the ship off shore, winds up getting his throat cut tonight on the ship .... A little more evidence that the ship off shore exists in time a little earlier than the island.
Sort of like all of us viewers of Lost ... meaning, the next three episodes already exist, but we've got to wait a few weeks to see them ... a few weeks to see the best stuff ever on television.
See also... A Theory of How the Oceanic Six Were Chosen
and
Further Questions about Lost 4.4: Jack and Aaron, Kate and Sawyer and More about Season Four: Baby Aaron and the Oceanic Six and More About Lost 4: (ii) Michael and Ben, Good and Evil, Alias Echo
1. Lost's Back Full Paradoxical Blast 4.1 ... 4.2: Five Flashbacks and Three Rational Explanations ... 4.3: Thirty Minutes and Big Ben ... 4.4: Kate and ... ... 4.5 Desmond 1 and Desmond 2 ... 4.6 The True Nature of Ben ... 4.7 Flash Both Ways ... 4.8 Michael and Alex ... 4.9 Daughters, Rules, and Some Truth about Ben ... 4.10 Almost a Dream Come True ... 4.12 Hurley's Numbers on the Dashboard
and
2. More Thoughts On Lost 4.1: Those Who Went with Hurley and Those Who Stayed with Jack and Two More Points about Lost 4.1
additional discussion of this episode of Lost in 12-minute podcast
The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
more about The Plot to Save Socrates and its time travel ...
Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!
14 comments:
This was a fantastic show. So we now know that all the people on the island were preordained to be there. You forgot to mention the conversation between Locke and the wire guy. I think he will fit in more than we think. This whole alpert thing is freaky. I'll be back to chat more later
Here is a link to a very interesting article on theory's of lost
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20198515,00.html
okay Paul, what if Horace was time jumping, his nose was bleeding. Also when lockes teacher told him about the science camp he said he wasn't about science, very telling because he told Jack awhile ago Iyou are a man of science and I am a man of faith. My last theory what if Alpert is Jacob. If christen is actually a shepard leading his flock, all the names now make sense. Okay i'll stop for awhile . We still don't know who was in the coffin any guesses?
Here is another theory I find really credible and could explain alot, enjoy
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.
As requested by Paul, here is the article from which the paragraph came. It is on Entertainment weekly .com. From what I understand the author Jeff Jensen was a hugh twin peaks fan(me too)
enjoy
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20198844,00.html
Dawn,
That was a very interesting article. I was intrigued by the idea that Claire had actually been dead since the attack on the cabin, and it was her ghost that was taking care of Aaron until she was called away. If dead people can become so convincingly substantial, then maybe there really were no survivors, and the plane really did end up on the bottom of the ocean. Those that made it off the island are actually super ghosts?
I wonder if Locke's pre-island life was so pathetic, because he was denying his destiny. That would certainly explain why he was so utterly transformed as soon as he hit the island. I wonder how Jack fits in. Is his destiny somehow intertwined with Ben's and Locke's?
I think it has to be tied in because of the fact that claire is his half sister and christen his father. This show can drive a person crazy. I wonder if they will ever answer all the questions. I don't know if they are all dead , it's a ggod theory except that there is the oceanic 6 in the real world and the pilot went on this mission because he knew the body in the plane was not the real pilot.
Thanks for the links, Dawn.
Actually (and to TVindy), I don't think Claire was killed in the attack - if she had been, then that means Sawyer can also interact with ghosts.
I think (as I mentioned last week) that Claire was seriously wounded. Only Miles realized she was on the point of death. She died in the jungle, after placing Aaron on the tree stump (or whatever it was).
As for lots of the islanders being dead - that's the old purgatory theory, which I think the show has already disproved (unless the Oceanic Six are in some kind of purgatory, too, which makes no sense).
Wait ... I missed something. Richard Alpert is for sure Locke's father? But when the nurse asked Locke's grandmother if he was Locke's father, she said no. Doesn't that leave open the possibility that he is either Locke's father or that somehow he just knew of Locke's birth and came to investigate this special child who was destined to come to the island? I'm confused :(
I agree, Dr. Levinson, with your take on Claire. She must have been injured in the bombing and died that night in the jungle. And Miles probably knows and just isn't telling Sawyer since Sawyer has been so surly with him.
Great episode! I can't wait until next week!
Hey Jessica -
I agree that we can't be 100% sure that Richard is Locke's father.
But - Emily's mother made a point of saying (to her daughter, and to us) that Emily's guy was twice her age. That seems like a pretty big red herring to just throw out there, for no reason.
Also - Emily's mother in the hospital had a slightly unfriendly look in her eyes which she looked at Richard...
By the way - to Dawn - while we're om the subject of Locke's birth - the second EW article you quote got it wrong, I'd say, about Locke and Ben being born on the same day. That's incompatible with Emily being their mother - and, also, Ben looks a little younger than Locke (though I suppose some kind of time travel could explain that)...
Wonderful show!
You are dead wrong about Alpert being Locke's father. Locke's father has already been revealed and was killed by Sawyer in Season 3. Locke's mother is named Emily just like Ben's mother but they are not the smae person either. There are parallels in their lives but they are not related.
Really, no kidding? :)
Actually, I of course know all about Locke's father - the guy who was killed by Sawyer - hard not to know about that, if you watched Season 3 etc.
But I'm suggesting that the man Sawyer killed - who conned Locke into giving him his kidney - was not really Locke's father. Perhaps some relative - which is why he needed Locke's kidney - but not Locke's father.
As for the two Emilys not being the same person - you seem pretty sure of that, too.
I prefer to keep watching Lost for a few more seasons, and see if this pans out...
I see. You're taking a strong stand based on the evidence at hand. I can admire that :)
REALLY don't agree that Richard is Locke's father. He's certainly been interested in Locke's development for a long time, but I think Anthony Cooper really is Locke's dad. If only because the kidney - his dad needed it from a relative. And my memory is fuzzy, but didn't Locke get a paternity test to prove it?
I also really don't think the two Emilys are the same. One (Ben's Emily) had blonde hair, the other (Locke's) red. One (Ben's) died in childbirth, the other (Locke's) lived and was in the mental institution at some point.
That being said, it's definitely interesting how closely their stories parallel. I wonder if there was some sort of prophecy (think Harry Potter/Neville Longbottom) that could have been applied to both of them. Hence their similar backgrounds, hence Alpert's interest in both of them.
What remains to be seen is if their style will remain different. Locke we know (s3ep03 "Further Instructions") is not a killer/hunter. Probably why he wasn't supposed to pick the knife. And with the exception of Naomi, he doesn't kill people, even given the chance (Eddie in flashback, his Dad, Jack). He may be flawed, but he's a better guy than Ben...
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