Hurley takes pity on Live Locke when he learns he was fired and offers to intervene with Randy the "douche." Live Locke declines the offer, but does take a card for the temp agency Hurley owns. Hurley tells Live Locke to tell them Hugo Reyes said to hook him up. Back home, the chair ramp in Live Locke's van won't go all the way down, so he decides to make his chair jump off it. He lands flat on his face, like you knew he would, and then, the lawn sprinklers pick just that time to come on. But Helen is there to shut them off, help him up, and get him into a bath. They talk about their October wedding (which Locke's father will attend), and Helen finds the card Jack gave Live Locke at LAX and tries to instill some faith in him, but it's all for naught. Locke does visit Hurley's temp agency though, and when the recruiter assigned to him asks him what kind of animal he'd describe himself as, he asks to meet with a supervisor, instead. The supervisor is our very own Rose! Live Locke asks about the open position for a construction site coordinator. When Rose suggests he be a bit more realistic, Live Locke snaps, "What do you know about 'realistic'?" Rose tells him just what she knows: "I have cancer -- terminal cancer." Oh crap. Right now, I hate you, L.A. Reality. I hate your stinky, slimy, smoggy guts. Rose tries to talk him out of the denial phase and into acceptance. It works, perhaps too well, because later in the episode, Live Locke and Helen rip up Jack's card. Later still, Live Locke takes a substitute teacher position at a local school, where he meets the fuss-ass European History teacher -- Ben Linus!
Island Reality: Faux-Locke tries to get Richard to team up with him, but despite FL's promise to treat him with respect and tell him everything, Richard declines. Faux-Locke leaves Richard behind when he sees (but Richard doesn't) a blond boy (with, I think, bloody arms) standing in the brush. Later, we're treated to what the people in the forums have dubbed "Smokey Cam" as our favorite monster makes his way to Dharmaville.
Once there, he's Faux-Locke, again. He picks up Locke's knife and tempts Sawyer out of his now loveless shack. Sawyer knows Locke is dead, and that Faux-Locke is faux, but doesn't really care. Faux-Locke tries very hard to get Sawyer on his side, whatever that is. On their jungle trek, they're startled by the appearance of that young blond boy (could he be a young Jacob? SORAS Aaron? -- his arms aren't bloody, here). When Faux-Locke leaves Sawyer behind to chase after Blondie, Blondie tells him, "You know the rules. You can't kill him." Faux-Locke may need to take a meeting with Rose, because his only comeback is: "Don't tell me what I can't do!" Meanwhile, Richard tries to get Sawyer to come back to the Temple with him, but Sawyer says he's sticking with Faux-Locke, who might just give him answers. Richard says Faux-Locke wants Sawyer and everyone else dead. When he hears Faux-Locke returning, Richard scurries off. Sawyer deflects Faux-Locke's question about who he was talking to by asking if Faux-Locke caught up with the kid. Faux-Locke's all, "What kid?" Still think you're going to get answers from him, Sawyer?
Well, maybe. Faux-Locke leads Sawyer down the face of a cliff. Sawyer almost buys the farm in the process, but eventually, they make it into a cliff-side cave. Inside there's a scale, with a white rock sitting on one side and a black rock sitting on the other. Faux-Locke picks up the white rock and casts it into the sea. Further inside, Faux-Locke shows Sawyer all the writing on the cave and says, "That, James, is why you're all here." There are a ton of names, most of them crossed out. But certain, all too recognizable ones are not. Those all too recognizable names have all too recognizable numbers to them. 4: Locke; 8: Reyes; 15: Ford; 16: Jarrah; 23: Shephard; 42: Kwon. Faux-Locke tells Sawyer that Jacob (who he says "died yesterday") wrote all the names, and "He had a thing about numbers." He tells Sawyer that at some point in his life, probably when he was young and miserable, he met Jacob, who influenced him such that choices he made were not choices at all. "He was pushing you, James. Pushing you -- to the island." Sawyer's all WHA? Faux-Locke says Jacob thought James was a candidate. "[Jacob] thought he was the protector of this place." FL then passes Sawyer the torch. "And you James, have been nominated to take over that job." He tells Sawyer he has three choices. The first is do nothing and see how everything plays out. He crosses out Locke's name as he says it's possible James' name will be crossed out. The second option is to accept the job, become the new Jacob and protect the island. Faux-Locke says the joke is there's nothing from which to protect it. The third choice: "We just go. We just get the hell off this island and we never look back." Sawyer asks how they do that. Faux-Locke says, "Together. So what do you say, James? Are you ready to go home?" Sawyer takes a moment and then: "Hell, yes."
What a great episode. At turns it is funny, suspenseful, and heart-breaking -- but not without hope. And it's a meaty one, too. I'm tempted to pull it apart here and now, but recaplets are supposed be bare-bones, and this already has some flesh on it. I'll end here so I can dive right into the full recap. Until then, join us in the forums, but please don't write on the ceiling. TWoP Mars would need a ladder to clean it off, and thanks to Sawyer and Faux-Locke, we're fresh out.
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