Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 985 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT You Spin Me Right Round Baby
By Cindy McLennan | Season 5 | Episode 1 | Aired on 2009.01.21
Locke hoists himself up from the ground, and grunts as he hops around on his good leg. It immediately puts me in mind of how he was when he brought Boone out to that plane, lo however many seasons ago, and I realize that's because in a weird way -- it is. Somehow, this Locke timeline affected Locke's leg in the original timeline. And maybe I sprained my brain there, but the people in the forums are thinking the same thing. He hops, hobbles and crawls to the now burnt-out wreckage of the Beechcraft. It's covered in spider webs and other detritus, now. Locke sees another statue of Our Lady of the Poppies lying on the floor and a skeleton (possibly Yemi's), as he rips some sort of strapping from the plane's ceiling, and crafts a makeshift tourniquet for his leg. Someone -- bearing a torch -- approaches the plane from the other side. Locke sits quietly, knife at the ready, but then he hoists it as if to say, "Hey Mr. Killer. I can haz knife. U can takez it?"
Thankfully, it's only Richard coming at him and thankfully, Richard recognizes him. He removes the bullet from Locke's leg, and tends to his wound. When Locke wants to know how Richard knew there was bullet in his leg, Richard claims Locke told him. I rewind the scene, and no he didn't. Meanwhile, Locke rewinds it in his mind and comes to the same conclusion, which he shares with Richard. Richard just says, "Oh well, you will." When Locke says it was Ethan who shot him, Richard tells him what goes around comes around. Locke is neither amused nor comforted. He finally grunts out, "WHEN am I?" Richard's typically cryptic answer is that it's all relative. So's your mother, Richard. Locke wants to know where Richard went after the sky lit up, but Richard only says that he didn't go anywhere -- Locke did. Locke wants explanations like how Richard knew he'd be there, but Richard says they're running out of time and wants to go over a few things with him. He tells him to clean his wound, keep weight off of it whenever possible and that the island will "take care of the rest." Oh yeah, remember when the island healed things -- like Locke's paralysis and Rose's cancer? I'd nearly forgotten. I like that island. Richard says he won't know Locke the next time he sees him, so he gives him the compass Locke failed to choose as a child, when Richard came to visit him and pronounced him "special." Locke asks what it is. When Richard says it's a compass, Locke asks what it does. "It points north, John." Ha! Still special. Richard continues: "Look, I wish I had time to be more sensitive about this, because it's a lot to swallow, but you need to know it in order to do what you gotta do, so I'm just gonna say it, okay? The only way to save the island, John, is to get your people back here -- the ones who left." Locke frets about Jack and Kate because the chopper was headed for the boat, but Richard reassures him that they're fine and already home and that Locke has to convince them to come back. When Locke wonders how he's supposed to do that, Richard says, "You're going to have to die, John." Locke looks deeply into Richard's eye-liner and thinks he could whip up some Rick-kabobs, with his knife and that torch. Suddenly, brilliant white light overwhelms Locke and Richard, and we flash...back. It's daylight, and Lock, alone, looks around the jungle and then up. Although the plane is once again atop the trees, Locke's hands are still covered in his own blood, and Richard's compass is in his palm.