Episode 3 – OrientationBefore I start, I need to rant at the person at M-net who turned the sound down. Arghhhhhhhh! Man!! What were you thinking?? Ok. Rant over.This was a Locke centric episode, and Locke has got an incredibly moving back story. In this episode we meet a woman called Helen. Hmmm… I always thought that she was some sort of phone sex worker…but I am going to get back to this point later. He meets her at what seems to be Anger Management classes or “I’m mad at my parents” support group and they start dating.Locke, however, spends his evenings in his little red beetle parked in front of his biological father’s home. At one stage, his father and he have a conversation. “Why” he asks his father, and his father coldly replies “Because you needed a father figure and I needed a kidney” Ouch!! What a cruel, nasty thing to say.
Helen presents Locke with a key to her apartment as a six month anniversary gift – but only on the condition that his nighttime vigil in front of his father’s home stops. He agrees to this but is unable to stop himself. She follows him and this is where the sound went, but we see her taking something and flinging it over the wall and into the grounds of his father’s home. I can’t read lips so I am not sure what was said, but judging by both the body & facial expressions, she asks him to let go and leave with her. He starts crying in her arms.Oooh. I have such sympathy for this man. His Helen seems to be a great factor in his life, and I am almost positive that this Helen is not the same Helen he asked to go to Australia with him. Looking at Locke’s back story, I can understand why the man is so maniacal. I initially thought that it was his kidney op that lead to his being in a wheelchair. I can’t wait to see how his story progresses. What has happened to this man that has instilled in him blind faith??Someone I can’t dredge up any sympathy for, however, is Jack. My word. I never thought that I’d find someone to dislike as much as I dislike Kate, but my complete disdain for the man surpasses my dislike for Kate. Back at the hatch, Jack stubbornly refuses to lower the gun pointed at Desmond. Kate has stumbled onto some sort of armory and loads up a rifle. In the ensuing scuffle, the computer is shot and Desi goes ballistic. He needs to enter the code to re-initialize the countdown. Kate scurries off to fetch Sayid. Meanwhile, Jack continues his interrogation of Desmond. Desmond tells him that he’s been on the island for three years. Only three years??? How wrong was I? Desmond goes on to inform Jack and Locke that Calvin (who is now dead) told him that unless they enter the code before the 108 minutes is up, something will happen.
What, however, he has no clue. So everyday, for the past 3 years, Desmond’s been entering the code every 108 minutes. He directs them to watch a film reel he's placed behind a copy of The Turn of the Screw. This film welcomes its viewers to the underground compound, calling it Facility 3, the Swan, before going on to describe a project called "The Dharma Initiative", founded by experimental psychology researchers and funded by “The Hanso Foundation”. The film ends by explaining that, due to an incident on the island, the viewers must enter the code into the computer every 108 minutes for the next 540 days, after which replacements will arrive.
As Locke prepares himself to watch the reel again, Jack decides to go interrogate Desmond further. Desmond tries to power up the computer but it shorts. Desmond panics and hurriedly stuffs some food and what looks the stuff he’s injecting into his arms and flees. Jack goes off after him, leaving Locke alone. Desmond is racing through the jungle and stumbles and falls. Jack catches up with him and has the pistol aimed at his head. Desmond starts telling him about the numbers, but Jack cuts him off. Desmond suddenly remembers who Jack is, and enquires after the patient (Sarah). Jack breaks down. It seems to me, from the mood of the scene, from Jack’s breakdown maybe and just his general body expression, that Sarah is no longer alive. Desmond says “I’ll see you in another life time. Yeah?” and hurries off.
Locke has no idea what to do and is saved by Kate bringing Sayid and Hurley. Sayid tries to fix the computer while Hurley looks around. I had such a laugh when he found the stockroom – he looked as if he died and gone to heaven. Kate finds the finds the power switch; it seems and turns up the power. They have just a few minutes left. Locke starts entering the numbers and Hurley is a bit panicked, but relaxes as Locke types in 32 instead of 42.Just as Locke was about to hit “execute” Jack corrects him. Locke tells Jack he should be the one to hit the button, but Jack refuses. As the alarms sound, the two have another confrontation, with Locke asking Jack why it was so hard to believe, and Jack responding by asking why Locke found it so easy. An upset Locke tells him it was never easy, but Jack needs to make a leap of faith of his own. With a scant second left, Jack presses the button. Locke says that he will take the first shift at the computer.Wow, I guess some sort of confrontation had to happen between these two. It was inevitable; they are always at loggerheads with each other. Something I want to mention here is that Walt says to Shannon when he “appears” in the opening episode “Don’t touch the button. The button is bad”. Could this be the button he’s referring to??Meanwhile, the raft guys attacked and quickly knocked unconscious by a bloody huge man. The people drag the unconscious men in nets to a pit, covered with bars made of bamboo. Sawyer, Jin and Michael try to escape by boosting Sawyer so that he can get to the bamboo bars covering the pit. The huge man from earlier intervenes and a woman is thrown into the pit.
She reveals that her name is Ana-Lucia and she was a passenger on a plane that crashed. She claims to have survived all this time on her own. Sawyer reveals he has a gun and plans to use it the next time somebody opens the cover. They scuffle and she gets control of the gun. She calls out for the guard and is lifted out of the pit. It’s obvious that she’s deceived them.
*Ok, I did some research. The confrontation between Helen and Locke – Locke admits that he is afraid, afraid of the future, afraid of moving past what his father has done to him and moving forwards in his relationship with her. When he replies that he doesn't know what else to do, she responds that it is meant to be difficult, because what she is asking him for is a leap of faith.
**Something else I'd like to mention. Did anyone notice that during the video reel, the focus was, at some stage shifted to a man standing at a window. Am I the only one thinking that the guy looked a lot like Jack's father????
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