Daddy Issues

Poor John Locke. Damaged by Daddy, desperate for meaning, doomed to forever play the sucker. Last night, in an essential, mythology-shaking outing of Lost titled "The Man From Tallahassee," the focus was on beaten, bitter Locke, and at long last, we saw the event that put him in a wheelchair prior to being marooned on Mystery Island. Not surprising, that event involved his father, con man Anthony Cooper, the man who scammed Locke out of a kidney in season 1 and manipulated him into ripping off the mob in season 2. It seems that four years ago, Cooper was pulling an old-school swindle — marrying a rich old lady for her fortune.

Anyway, Locke got pulled into the affair via Ms. Moneybags' concerned son, who was investigating his future pop's background and discovered that Locke had given Cooper a kidney. At this time in his life, Locke was suffering from profound depression — possibly in the wake of that ill-fated commune adventure; the episode didn't explain the context — and had been denied disability because of his unwillingness to stay in therapy. Which is good, because if Locke was, like, a watt or two more introspective, Lost would be considerably short on Big Picture plot. Clearly, the character's painful process of enlightenment is the heart and soul of this show.

Like a moth to the flame, Locke succumbed to the temptation of seeking out his father, all in the name of wanting to save someone else from being victimized by him. Soon after their heated conversation, the son was found dead, and when Locke accused his dad of killing him, Cooper pushed Locke out a window! Miraculously, Locke survived the eight-story fall with just a broken back — and paralyzed legs. Hence, wheelchair.

The most interesting thing about the revelation for me was how visceral it was. There was no super-twisty caper gone wrong, no act-of-God calamity — just a long-simmering pot, finally boiling over to tragedy. No doubt there will be those among you who feel that the whole business about surviving an eight-story fall is a little hard to swallow. But this is where sensational acting comes on. Terry O'Quinn has been asked to sell the audience on many far-fetched things on this show, from his kooky communion with the Island to his baffling button-pushing digression in the Hatch. Once again, O'Quinn made me believe in the mundane-meets-heightened reality of Locke's life.

Locke's flashbacks played out against the efforts of Sayid, Kate, and Locke to bust Jack out of Othersville, a.k.a. the old Dharma barracks. Kate made contact with the good doctor and learned, much to her dismay, that he had cut a deal to join Juliet on the next submarine ride off the Island. Because their interactions were conducted under the Others' watchful eye, it was hard to know if Jack was drugged, brainwashed, or just pretending in order to get what he wanted. But he did make some interesting statements. He told Kate that the kids abducted by the Others were "safe." He also told her that he no longer thought of the Others as a demonized "them," or even as Others. And then he swore, "I will come back for you," which seemed to do little to assuage her sense of betrayal. Time will tell what exactly Jack's plan was and how genuine his conversion was.

Meanwhile, as Kate's heart was breaking, Locke was holding Ben at gunpoint, demanding to be taken to the submarine so he could blow it up. During their prolonged exchange, Ben, himself now restricted to a wheelchair in the wake of Jack's tumor-removal surgery, imparted a bunch of useful info. The lowdown: Ben knows all about John's past; Ben was one of the few Others born on the Island (most of the rest, it seems, were recruited, although they are laboring under the false impression that they could leave at any time); and Ben knows all about Locke's special "communion"' with the Island, but he wants to help him learn how to strengthen that link and better understand it. Ben's self-serving motive: to learn how to acquire a "special relationship" with the Island and reap the rewards of feel-good privileges.

Of course, all of what Ben told Locke could be completely bogus. But the two men do agree on one thing: neither of them wants anyone to leave the Island. Ben's reasons remain inscrutable at this point, while Locke's motives are a matter of record. Or are they? Locke has stated that he firmly believes that the Oceanic 815ers have been brought to the Island for a reason, and until that reason is satisfied, he isn't about to let anyone sneak off. But is there truly a holy (or demonic?) force projecting its powers over space and time to suck these souls to this land, or is the unruly spirit in question here the one that belongs to Locke, trapped inside a personal hell of father issues, and bent on sucking everyone else into it as well?

Perhaps the best evidence of a slow-moving conspiracy in "The Man From Tallahassee" was Ben's revelation to Locke that the Others were holding a most mysterious prisoner in the bowels of their facility: none other than Locke's deadly, deadbeat dad himself, Anthony Cooper. Of course, when Locke saw his father tied to a chair and gagged and he muttered, "Dad?" So...what did it all mean? Do the Others really possess some kind of magic black box, out of which your brightest hope (or darkest fear) can materialize — or was Ben merely waxing poetic with an analogy there? Either way: How the hell did Locke's dad get on the Island?

This episode got me all excited about Lost all over again. It was a great episode and had a great payoff to Locke's wheelchair mystery. One thing about the previews for next week, is Sun going to die?